disneybella
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Jul 1, 2004
- Messages
- 14
We arrived at our hotel near the Philadelphia Airport on Saturday evening while there was still a strong possibility that the remnants of Hurricane Charley would dump heavy rain in the area, possibly causing flight delays.
DH, dd13, dd11 and I were like a bunch of kids. We couldn't sleep because we were excited about being in Disney World the next day.
As it turned out, we all got about 3 or 4 hours of sleep because of our excitement and we awoke at 3:45 a.m. to prepare for our 6:30 a.m. flight. Things were looking good since it barely rained during the night. I thought we would have no problems taking off on time and arriving in Disney at our scheduled 8:55 a.m. arrival.
We got to the airport at 5 a.m. and check in lines were kind of long for that time of day but I thought nothing of it.
When I handed them our paperwork outside to check our luggage, the airline representative said our flight was cancelled.
Don't panic I told everyone, they'll just move us to another flight. We will just get to Disney a little later. (Boy was I in for a surprise)
We went inside where the line seemed endless and began our wait. An airline representative was coming through the line asking if anyone was flying to Orlando. We said yes and she told us the airport there was closed and there would be no flights out until Tuesday. "Go home and call the airline Tuesday," she said.
It took a few minutes to get over the initial shock which was BC (Before Coffee). Then, I realized that the MCO Airport had been closed briefly on Friday but I work in news media and I knew it had reopened. I went back to the lady and asked her to clarify that the airport was closed. She then changed her story and said the airport was open but that all flights in were booked till Tuesday ON ALL AIRLINES! My daughters were heartbroken and my husband and I just looked at each other in total shock!
Then I told everybody to get in the car...we're driving to Disney World! The girls were not initially happy about this since they thought they'd be there in a 2 hour flight and now had to endure 18 hours of driving....but they turned it around and made the best of it pretty quickly. We shuttled back to our hotel, loaded our luggage in the car and left Philadephia for Orlando at 5:32 a.m. Sunday morning. Before I knew we couldn't get a flight out, I promised the girls we'd get to Disney sometime Sunday. With little traffic problems and short stops for food and rest stops, we arrived at Wilderness Lodge at 11:28 Sunday night.
I had called the hotel earlier and explained what happened and told them we'd be there...just late.
We had a woods view room 5001, but it overlooked Bay Lake and the boardwalk that leads to the boat dock. It was an awesome view. We had a great view of Wishes from our balcony, looking left.
Despite our troubled beginning...the Disney magic began as soon as we arrived.
Crowds in the parks were minimal and the longest ride wait we saw in a standby line was 35 minutes. The lodge is my new favorite hotel and dh said we will definitely be going back there. The heat and humidity were bad but we worked in a pool break every day which seemed to refresh everyone. DH and I refreshed ourselves at the pool bar with a drink called Lumber Jack...mmmmm.
Dinner at WC at the Lodge was very good. The only complaint my DD had was that they have you doing so much interaction, your food gets cold. I would have to agree.
We didn't see the electric light parade because apparently, the equipment got damaged by Charley. The geyser didn't go off during our stay either, for the same reason.
Overall, we all had a great week and got to see and do everything we set out to.
Knowing the trip home would be long and boring, we booked the Auto Train for a different experience. I took the auto train many years ago and wasn't fond of it, but they've made improvements and I thought it was fine this time around. The food was even better than expected. It was nice getting off the auto train and only having a little over 3 hours to drive home.
I'm still bothered by the lack of customer service from U.S. Airways since we never got any warning that they were going to be bumping all the people who couldn't fly out days before, onto our flights and cancelling ours. When I spoke to someone at 3 p.m. Saturday afternoon, they said the flight was still scheduled on time. I'm sure at that time they knew we wouldn't be on that airplane. On the bus in Disney I spoke with a woman from Charlotte who said her flight was cancelled and they got a phone call the night before telling them. Apparently, the U.S. Airways terminal at MCO was severely damaged from Charley. While I can understand the predicament they were in, honesty would have been appreciated. Fortunately, everything worked out and we had a wonderful trip despite it's difficult beginning.
DH, dd13, dd11 and I were like a bunch of kids. We couldn't sleep because we were excited about being in Disney World the next day.
As it turned out, we all got about 3 or 4 hours of sleep because of our excitement and we awoke at 3:45 a.m. to prepare for our 6:30 a.m. flight. Things were looking good since it barely rained during the night. I thought we would have no problems taking off on time and arriving in Disney at our scheduled 8:55 a.m. arrival.
We got to the airport at 5 a.m. and check in lines were kind of long for that time of day but I thought nothing of it.
When I handed them our paperwork outside to check our luggage, the airline representative said our flight was cancelled.
Don't panic I told everyone, they'll just move us to another flight. We will just get to Disney a little later. (Boy was I in for a surprise)
We went inside where the line seemed endless and began our wait. An airline representative was coming through the line asking if anyone was flying to Orlando. We said yes and she told us the airport there was closed and there would be no flights out until Tuesday. "Go home and call the airline Tuesday," she said.
It took a few minutes to get over the initial shock which was BC (Before Coffee). Then, I realized that the MCO Airport had been closed briefly on Friday but I work in news media and I knew it had reopened. I went back to the lady and asked her to clarify that the airport was closed. She then changed her story and said the airport was open but that all flights in were booked till Tuesday ON ALL AIRLINES! My daughters were heartbroken and my husband and I just looked at each other in total shock!
Then I told everybody to get in the car...we're driving to Disney World! The girls were not initially happy about this since they thought they'd be there in a 2 hour flight and now had to endure 18 hours of driving....but they turned it around and made the best of it pretty quickly. We shuttled back to our hotel, loaded our luggage in the car and left Philadephia for Orlando at 5:32 a.m. Sunday morning. Before I knew we couldn't get a flight out, I promised the girls we'd get to Disney sometime Sunday. With little traffic problems and short stops for food and rest stops, we arrived at Wilderness Lodge at 11:28 Sunday night.
I had called the hotel earlier and explained what happened and told them we'd be there...just late.
We had a woods view room 5001, but it overlooked Bay Lake and the boardwalk that leads to the boat dock. It was an awesome view. We had a great view of Wishes from our balcony, looking left.
Despite our troubled beginning...the Disney magic began as soon as we arrived.
Crowds in the parks were minimal and the longest ride wait we saw in a standby line was 35 minutes. The lodge is my new favorite hotel and dh said we will definitely be going back there. The heat and humidity were bad but we worked in a pool break every day which seemed to refresh everyone. DH and I refreshed ourselves at the pool bar with a drink called Lumber Jack...mmmmm.
Dinner at WC at the Lodge was very good. The only complaint my DD had was that they have you doing so much interaction, your food gets cold. I would have to agree.
We didn't see the electric light parade because apparently, the equipment got damaged by Charley. The geyser didn't go off during our stay either, for the same reason.
Overall, we all had a great week and got to see and do everything we set out to.
Knowing the trip home would be long and boring, we booked the Auto Train for a different experience. I took the auto train many years ago and wasn't fond of it, but they've made improvements and I thought it was fine this time around. The food was even better than expected. It was nice getting off the auto train and only having a little over 3 hours to drive home.
I'm still bothered by the lack of customer service from U.S. Airways since we never got any warning that they were going to be bumping all the people who couldn't fly out days before, onto our flights and cancelling ours. When I spoke to someone at 3 p.m. Saturday afternoon, they said the flight was still scheduled on time. I'm sure at that time they knew we wouldn't be on that airplane. On the bus in Disney I spoke with a woman from Charlotte who said her flight was cancelled and they got a phone call the night before telling them. Apparently, the U.S. Airways terminal at MCO was severely damaged from Charley. While I can understand the predicament they were in, honesty would have been appreciated. Fortunately, everything worked out and we had a wonderful trip despite it's difficult beginning.
We left Orlando on the 13th and my niece was flying out on US Airway to Philadelphia.. She was concerned about the weather, but luckily enough we got out on very early flights and missed Hurricane Charley, although she later informed us that it had been a bumpy one for her.
I think if she had thought of it she would have rented a car and driven back rather than fly. 
