Oh, has it Been Raining? No, this is Just Sweat. Sept/Oct 2022 Trip Report! (Updated 9/16!!)

[erinch]

Oh yes, this has been a lot of fun to deal with. Essentially there is procedure to go through to make complaints, and I've found that it seems the purpose of the procedure is to just frustrate people so they give up. All the higher-ups in my department are aware of the problems, most refuse to do anything even though they admit my boss should not be in management, and one even told me that it's my problem and I need to find a way to deal with it. (Yes, I'm aware I work in a very hostile environment)

 

[Wood Nymph]

I hope you can find the wolf spider soon. I've used hair spray to kill spiders, caught them and put them outside, or just smashed them.

 

[VAtink]

Day 10, Part 1: Until Next Time Disney!​

October 2, 2022

It was sadly here, our going home day.

We were up around 6 to finish getting our stuff pulled together before heading out. While I’d much rather take a late afternoon flight, mom insists on taking morning flights since they have a lesser chance of being cancelled (we had one flight cancelled from MCO when I was in high school and it turned into this two day ordeal for us that mom doesn’t want to repeat). So we usually get flights that are around 10 in the morning.

This unfortunately means we need to get up nice and early to get to the airport early! Now, my mom is the person who likes to get to the airport hours before her flight, like 4 hours, I’m more of the person who likes to get there like 30 minutes ahead of time, but since MCO is a giant cluster I agree to head over there early.

We ended up calling for an uber around 6:45, and one came pretty quickly. We arrived at the airport around 7:30 and went in to check our bags.

Per usual, MCO was a madhouse this morning so it was a pretty decent wait for the machine to print our bag tag, and then another wait to hand off our checked bags. I think overall we waited about an hour. We then made our way over to security.

Fortunately, since we were both flying Jetblue, we would be in the same gate area so got to go through security together. Since we both have precheck, security was pretty quick, maybe a 10 minute wait.

It was then time for our last Orlando ride of the trip, the fake monorail.

Mom’s flight was before mine, so we went to her gate area to wait. It was actually pretty good timing since we only had about 30 minutes to wait after arriving before they boarded. This makes me so glad we have precheck, we got to the airport 3 hours early and still only had a 30 minute wait before boarding, no wonder I keep seeing all these stories about people missing their flights there!

Once mom was off on the plane, I made my wait to my gate area. Unlike previous years, my flight home was uneventful. I got myself the even more space seat, and this time I was correctly put in boarding group A (the last few trips they’ve assigned me like D or E even though I’ve had the even more space seats), and I didn’t have people in my seats when I boarded (which yes has happened before and the flight attendant told me to “just find an empty seat” ). Seriously, flying out of MCO seems to always be a mess. So having an uneventful experience out of MCO is always welcome!

We landed in DC around 12:30, not a bad flight, just under 2 hours. Once off I made my way to baggage claim where there was a fairly long wait for my bag to come out. I really don’t understand why bags take so long here, the airport is TINY, where on earth are these bags going that takes so long???

Anyways, bag in hand I made my way outside to call for an Uber. I got one immediately and soon was on my way home. I know I say this every trip, but I love how close to the airport I live. It is an 8 minute drive from the airport to my front door. It is amazing.

Being Sunday, the place I board my dog, Dug, wasn’t open for pickups, but that was ok since I knew my cat, Ham, would be desperate for some quality time with me. That is once he got over being mad at me for leaving him for 10 days.

This is Ham btw, he’s a total ham



After a quick cuddle, it was time for the coming home chores, mainly, laundry time!

I also spent some time downloading pictures and putting away souvenirs.

So once again it was a great trip, even though it was a bit hampered by the hurricane!

We had not planned on doing a F&W trip this coming year, but since we have two unused park tickets now because of the hurricane that expire on September 30th 2023, we figured we might as well book a short weekend trip! We really hoped that the special events come back so we can finally do some again, but sadly still nothing this year. I’m worried since they’re not back this year, they’re never coming back. Especially the special lunches that were held at the various countries, it’s not like they need to wait for the construction to be done to have those!

Alright, that’s a wrap on this TR, hope you all enjoyed! Keep an eye out for the next one, should be coming out in about two weeks! ​

 

[Wood Nymph]

While I’d much rather take a late afternoon flight, mom insists on taking morning flights since they have a lesser chance of being cancelled (we had one flight cancelled from MCO when I was in high school and it turned into this two day ordeal for us that mom doesn’t want to repeat). So we usually get flights that are around 10 in the morning.

We usually take a 4pm - ish flight home because it is enough time to sleep in and still run into Epcot if staying at YC/BC. But other times we have taken a 1pm-ish flight home and MCO tends to be almost empty at that time. Right now I wished I had booked the 1pm flight for our Oct trip since MCO was a madhouse when we flew out on a 4pm flight this last Thursday.

I hope you have a hurricane free trip this time.

 

[VAtink]

Oh my goodness, it's almost here, our F&W trip!!!!

Packing has been a total nightmare this time around. I figured it would be easy since this trip is about the same length of my FARTS trip and I have lighter clothes, but boy was I wrong! For FARTS I only had my carry-on bag and my smaller bag and it was fine, even with heavy sweaters packed. Well, for some reason even though I'm not bringing any sweaters this trip, I can't seem to fit everything in my bags! And yes, same bags that I used in January. Did I just somehow forget how to pack??? Anyways, I finally got things to fit, but there is zero room for any souvenirs, and I know I'm going to buy some stuff, so I decided to do something different this trip and put my backpack that I usually use as my carry-on bag into a rolling carry-on bag, so then on the flight down I don't have to pay to check a bag (or wait for it at MCO), but on the way home I have an extra bag so I can buy whatever I want and not worry, and only have to pay the checked bag fee on one of the flights! I feel like I may have slightly lost my mind here, but whatever, packing for Disney is stressful!

Talking about stressful, my job is creating tons of stress right now. I'm not going to get into details because then this would turn into a 20 page rant, but I just work with some not great people and between dealing with their drama and having to do their work, I've been buried the last few weeks trying to get stuff done in time for this trip. I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed this year with everything I'm trying to get done before the trip, which I hate since I tend to get negative when I'm overwhelmed. I'm trying my best to stay positive, but every email that comes in asking for something ASAP definitely is raising my blood pressure! Oh, and my air conditioning broke last night Like seriously? Can I catch a break this summer? Fortunately my AC people are fantastic and squeezed me in today and got it fixed. Apparently I was low on Freon and needed to get it recharged, so it was a relatively quick fix, although that ate into my Disney spending money quite a bit!

I am still so excited for this trip though! There are so many F&W items I want to try this year, I hope I can fit them all! I am wondering about the crowds for this one, now that we have the new food booths and the old Soarin' opening while we're there. We tried to book for a bit earlier than normal this year since the last week of the month has become pretty hopping, but I suspect the new additions will bring people in while we're there. Oh well, at least we'll be in Disney, and hopefully we can avoid any bears delaying opening of the parks for the few days we have!

Oh, and if anyone is wondering, the spider is still in hiding and I'm still terrified it's going to fall on me from the ceiling one of these days. ​

 

[VAtink]

We usually take a 4pm - ish flight home because it is enough time to sleep in and still run into Epcot if staying at YC/BC. But other times we have taken a 1pm-ish flight home and MCO tends to be almost empty at that time. Right now I wished I had booked the 1pm flight for our Oct trip since MCO was a madhouse when we flew out on a 4pm flight this last Thursday.

I wish I could convince my mom to take an early afternoon flight. Even if we don't have time to go to a park, having a more relaxed morning and sleeping in a bit would be welcome! It's crazy how the crowds at MCO ebb and flow. One year I arrived hours before my mom so got to spend the day wandering around the airport waiting for her (we were staying at the hotel there that night), and it was wild to see how the crowds moved through.

I hope you have a hurricane free trip this time.

Thank you! Me too!

 

[2xcited2sleep]

Sorry for the packing and job stress. And UGH on AC issues. Freon is ridiculously expensive. Hopefully it's all a distant memory and very much worth it once you arrive. I have a feeling it will be. And the original Soarin? I'm so excited to see it that I can barely stand it!!

 

[Wood Nymph]

Oh well, at least we'll be in Disney, and hopefully we can avoid any bears delaying opening of the parks for the few days we have!

Alligators in Disney are normal. Bears are a whole new thing. I hope you are free of all crazy things.

 

[froggibabey]

So, good news! The odds of him falling onto your from the ceiling are pretty low, they really like to try and stay low to the ground.

Bad news is, they really like to hide under stuff so just.. keep an eye out.

AND.. after all that, I'll tell you a story. I volunteer at a REALLY tiny little library, it's only open Thursdays and Saturdays. So I go in Thursday, REALLY have to pee, but there's a spider with a web OVER the toilet paper holder. So I wait.. because unlike you, I am more of a cryer over them.

So I'm sitting, and waiting, and crossing my legs.. and a construction worker who was working on the roof comes in to use the bathroom. Here I am like "YES! THANK YOU YES". Well, he walks in.. immediately walks back out. This guy was probably 6'5 300lbs. Well, he comes back with his boss. Boss goes in, presumably forcefully removes the spider.. then the other guy spends a good 25 minutes in there.

He finally leaves, I get to the bathroom door.. and a little old lady comes in and asks a million questions. FINALLY, I get to pee.. I open teh door, turn on the light.. and there's a giant wolf spider on the floor, probably 3 inches across. Like.. he was a BIG guy.

So here I am at the end of the day locking the door and walking to my car with my legs crossed and my knees locked together, AND THEY CAUGHT ME ON CAMERA.

I can't work under these conditions

 

[VAtink]

Hello everyone! We're back from out F&W trip, and of course I started a new trip report! You can find the latest here. https://www.disboards.com/threads/s...-2023-food-and-wine-fest-trip-report.3931071/


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