MIL has decided she is flying with me...she said she didn't want to do a layover, but when she finally understood that the TOTAL TRAVEL TIME will be just over 4 hours including the layover, she was ok...she thought each leg of the flight was going to be 4 1/2 hours. No. We are flying from Northwest Arkansas, not the Pacific Northwest, and even then that's a stretch for flight times! She's an educated woman, and she has flown to see SIL in California on a number of occasions, but she cannot grasp the concept of time with things like this.
I'm working on planning our park days and I'm stressing out a little. I think I'm going to bring a little packet of brown paper bags to breathe into to remain zen on this trip, LOL!!
If we book the flight I have my eye on, we'll arrive at 11:30ish EST, giving us plenty of time to get settled in the room, grab some food, and then head out for a little adventure. We're staying at AKL, so I figured a quick bus ride to Animal Kingdom would be a nice way to ease into things. I'll make afternoon FPs for the safari, and we can watch Festival of the Lion King and do the trails in Africa, and then I'll assess the situation from there.
Our first full day will be Epcot, since the Flower and Garden Festival is priority on this trip, and MK will be our Tuesday park. I'm thinking an AK/DHS split on Wednesday...but this is where I'm nervous. I know she'll want to go to DHS for a lot of things: Star Wars stuff, Beauty and the Beast show, Great Movie Ride, Muppets, Indy...
Right now I feel *ok* with an AK morning and a DHS early evening. She doesn't want to stay out past 8pm. (I want to mention here that she's an active, outdoorsy 60 year old, not an infirm 95 year old...I have no idea where this is coming from - it's out of character. Being difficult is notoriously IN character though, so maybe that's all it is??)
We'll then probably do Thursday at MK with our BOG dinner, and Friday at Epcot with a (hopefully) pre-park opening breakfast at Akershus. She wants to meet Belle here, but the meal will have to be early because she's already going to be upset it's later than 7am, so the reservation goal is 8am even if there's an EMH. I don't think she'd eat the lunch or dinner here, but it might have to become an option if I can't get an ADR between 8 and 8:30am.
ADR day is Nov. 1, exactly three weeks from today. I've never had so few to make! I'm only booking BOG and Akershus and leaving Garden Grill off the table at this point...she only wants to eat there for the salad from the Land, and I know once she's in the World Showcase she's not going to want to leave.
As much frustration as I'm experiencing, it's also kind of fun to plan something so far off from how I'd normally do things, and rewarding when I can make it work. Maybe that's weird, I don't know...it's like the Disney planning Olympics, LOL! Gold medal in ADRs vs. gold medal in like, sportsy stuff. Haha
