So with a wake up call for 3 am set I was wide awake even though I had tossed and turned like a tossed salad in a salad spinner until 1am on the couch and was raring to go...will I survive the day and through the plan of the night at WDW we will have to wait and see.
I got up and got ready no need to wake everyone else up this early, I was ready by 3:30 and so I woke mom up next she takes the 2nd longest to get ready compared to me so she needed extra time. As soon as she was done in the 1 tiny bathroom we woke up my G'ma and had her get ready. By then my aunt had woken up because she was afraid we missed our wake up call and wanted to make sure we made our flight. (Ok so it was to make sure G'ma was really going, she needs the vacation away from Half Blind, Half Deaf Stubborn Floor Foot Frannie, and she was eager to start that!
she loves my G'ma as we all do but living full time with an 80 something parent who is very difficult at times gets hard) So with everyone ready to go by about 4:15 we headed out to the car with the last of the bags we needed.
We had packed the car the night before but our purses and carryons were in the house. We got those settled got about 1/3 of a mile from the house when I realized I either was so half asleep or so excited I forgot to brush my teeth
so we pulled over and with my finger and a bottle of Seltzer and some Mint Toothpaste I was brushing away behind our car on the side of the road!
I hate dirty teeth I never would have made it to the airport without stopping.
what was I thinking! Oh Yeah We are going to Disney TODAY!!!!!!
We pulled out our Prepaid tickets for the Car Valet while we were pulled over and we made it to the Car Valet by 4:30pm. We parked the car and they took our bags, while I checked us in Mom and G'ma got onto the van and saved me a seat. It was pretty easy since we were prepaid I just had to give our name and then I was sitting in the back of the bus with 4 guys going to Fort Lauderdale to golf. G'ma was trying to fix me up with them and that was the theme of this trip see how many guys G'ma tries to get interested in me
most of the time they were either toooo old, toooo young, or taken but some were good eye candy
I think she is trying to tell me something!
They dropped us off at the Southwest counter and we got our bags checked, got mom set up with a wheelchair assist and headed to security. There was a long line but because mom was in the wheelchair they took us to a seperate area since we would take a lot longer so we didn't wait in that line. Instead we were brought over to the side, we put our things through the security gate and then it happened....
Not only were we Poked, Prodded, Poofed and wanded Mom's bag was chosen for "extra" security checks and had to be swabbed for explosives...never mind the fact that I never took out my cell phone, or my camera, or my extra batteries but her Jewlery looked suspicious and needed to be swabbed.
I understand security needs to be in place but sometimes the things that set off extra checks is a little odd
We are so used to the extra checks though since Mom has to be wanded and padded down every time but I'd hate to not know what to expect and have this happen!
Once through our now intimate experience with TSA we were brought to the gate and mom sat in the preboard lane while G'ma and I went to the McDonald's in the terminal and got us all breakfast and drinks. Mom and I had sausage mcmuffin's with Egg and G'ma had a Bacon Egg and Cheese McMuffin . 2 coffees 1 orange juice and 3 hashbrowns later breakfast was done. We ate it at the gate and sat for the flight to start boarding.
We boarded right on time and we sat in the 2nd row back all 3 of us together in the same row, I got the Window, G'ma in the Middle and Mom on the Aisle. It was cramped but we survived as the flight went fast. We got in 25 minutes early
extra Trip Time! We stopped on the way to the tram in the terminal for a potty stop and thats when we realized the bottle of Spray Nail Polish Remover mom put in her quart size bag had exploded and the bag wasn't zipped up. It spilled all over the carry on that had my planning binder and it smeared all the decorations on the cover, and it stunk to all get out! Blech!!! Mom got a plastic bag and stowed the bottle and luckily I had put plastic protective sleeves on the important information and nothing was lost but I was not Happy at all!
We got down to luggage claim and I was bouncing off the walls we were in Florida, We were going to WDW, and Did I mention we were in FLORIDA!!!!!!!!!!!! The original plan was for us to gather the luggage, Mom and G'ma would take the biggest bags up to 4 of them and take Magical Express to AKL. I would take the rest of the bags and drive there with a stop at DTD to pick up my AP.
Well since Mom needed to be an Additional Driver we all headed down to Alamo where they were able to upgrade us to a Mini Van for not much more then we were paying and we decided it was worth the extra cost to be all together and not doing all this running around in the airport and on the trip home we wouldn't have to split up either!
So with a Mini Van rented we ALL headed out to the garage where first we had to take a "welcome" to Florida Picture in front of the fountain in the Garage.
With the photo taken we headed upstairs chose the van we wanted which had the stow and go seats so we stowed the back seats and loaded all 18 pieces of luggage/bags into the car got into the seat and realized the key didn't work
why you ask? Well seems that the Dodge company decided that instead of making 1 whole key you would have to put 2 halfs together to make one key! We found the 2nd half and put the puzzle together and then spent 20 minutes trying to figure out how to adjust the mirrors. Yeah this fancy car with all the bells and whistles had MANUAL mirrors
that was frustrating but we laughed about it later!
With the car, started and the mirrors fixed and everything and everyone loaded we drove out of the garage about 1 hour after we landed because of the spill, the mirrors and the key but Hey we were in FLORIDA who cares
We headed down the SR 417 South to the International Drive exit, we stopped at Publix, got seltzer and snacks and soda and then headed over to DTD.
We went to Guest Relations upgraded our 1 day passes to AP's and I also got my Disney Visa Dream Rewards loaded onto a card and applied that to the cost as well. So it saved me a pretty penny!!!
Once we were all set with our Ap's we drove to AKL to check in and took photos along the way. Here is some to hold you over until our next update!
Up Next....Our Arrival at AKL and ummm that isn't the view we paid for is it?