The Reunion Tour- A Pre Trip Report *New-6/7* About This Page:

[chezp]

What great plans - you did have me worried there for a moment when you didn't originally mention December!

[Minnie Lor]

Originally Posted by chezp

What great plans - you did have me worried there for a moment when you didn't originally mention December!

Me too! Glad December is still on the list. Looking forward to reading about this trip and then your future trips.

[ilovedisney247]

I know I know . . . I said I would update Thursday . . . well I started to and I was trying to figure out the logistics of writing this thing backwards . . . well it turns out that it REALLY doesn't make sense at all . . . although it probably would have been funny for y'all to watch me struggle through it. So I'm going to start at the beginning. I'm also sorry to say that there won't be very many photos. There are some here and there . . . there are probably some floating around on other people's cameras that would make lovely additions to this TR. I just don't stop to photograph every little thing any more . . . just the things that seem important . . . you'll get the idea when you see what I actually have pictures of . . .

So on with the story . . .

It began on a dark and stormy night in the mist shrouded city that care forgot . . .
no no no . . .
wrong vacation . . .
wrong century . . .

In fact, it began on a couch at 5am. I couldn't tell you what the weather was, because it was still middle of the night dark, and something was beeping. That something was a cell phone, telling me I had a text message. What was so important at 5am? No, it wasn't my wake up call; my flight wasn't scheduled to leave until 10:50 and the airport is only 20 minutes away. Captain Morgan was so important. That's right my dearest best friend messaged me that he was at the airport duty free shop picking up rum. It took 6 messages to finish the conversation. Then I went back to sleep and Brandon got on an 8am flight from St. Thomas to Miami, which is about a 3 hour flight.

AHH the cat just stepped on my breakfast. Does anyone know if low-fat strawberry pop tart filling will come out of my sheets?

Several hours later I got up, threw my suitcase in the car and grabbed my carry on and drove myself to the airport. I parked at the Upark.net lot and hopped on the shuttle to the airport, where I said my goodbyes to all of my PP board buddies, with a promise--that I wouldn't keep -- to update soon.

My Southwest flight made good time to Orlando and was relatively pleasant, until we actually got above the Orlando airport, where things got a little bumpy and we started flying in circles . . . oh no! Now we're late and hopefully Brandon isn't wandering aimlessly around the airport. After about 30 minutes of loop-de-loops around the airport the pilot finally came on the loudspeaker to let us know that the Orlando airport was having some nasty weather and was Closed and then Open and the Closed and was now Open again, so he was going to try and land the plane before they Closed again! Thanks for the update boss!

We finally got on the ground and turns out Brandon had been flying around in circles too and we had both just landed. I made my way to the DME area and waited . . . and waited . . . and waited some more. Some one else was getting coffee and not paying attention to which side of the terminal he was on and getting lost!

A few minutes later my bestest bud showed up on the right side of the terminal, in front of the DME area, carrying one messanger bag stuffed with clothing and a duty free box. It was hugs and kisses for a few minutes and then we made our way through the DME gauntlet, by-passing the desk because we had our travel documents and had properly secured our yellow tags identifying our resort to my one checked bag. We got scolded because I had removed the back page of the DME documents. Its where the map of the airport is. I had mailed it to Brandon. He had it in his back pocket . . . yes, when he was busy earlier getting lost, he had a map of the airport in his back pocket, although in his defense I'm not sure he realized that it was in the envelope.

Then it was through the scan and identify, into the correct corral and wait for the bus. We didn't wait too long! We settled in to our freezing cold motor coach and watched the movie! Our first stop was Old Key West and then we were dropped off at Saratoga Springs, with the bus continuing on to Port Orleans and Fort Wilderness--wow lots of stops!

We arrived at the Carriage House and proceeded directly to the online check in desk. Our room was ready and we headed over to the Paddock to the first building and our studio for the evening. Bell Services (LOVE those guys) brought up my Owner's Locker and we headed over to Downtown Disney for lunch.

Up next . . . our traditional first meal, new shoes, and dinner at the longest continually running show in the US of A . . . about 38,000 since 1974!

[David's Mom]

Great start, Heather!!! I hope to get to meet you in December. Why is it that we need to go to another state to meet someone who lives across the city from you?

[chezp]

What a wonderful start Heather - too funny about doing the report backwards, it would have been fun, but I do think that would've really messed with your head!

[LLaffinPlace]

Great start, Heather! Glad you finally got to land! When Bob & I flew out from Huntsville in December, we got over Atlanta, circled for a while, and they ended up sending us BACK to Huntsville. Then they took the plane out of service (the radar unit had failed). Then they rebooked us through Reagan National Airport to Orlando.

So maybe your experience wasn't too bad.

Glad you and Brandon managed to hook up without too much trouble. And now you're there!

[KMB733]

Great Start Heather! Can't wait to read more!

[Minnie Lor]

Yeah! You've started and from the beginning too. More, please.

[Starla4436]

Great start...besides the circling!

[mousestruck]

Terrific start, Heather! Sorry about the landing delay, but you can't get too upset when you land safely and are about to enter the happiest place on Earth. Come back with more soon!

[ArielsMomto2]

Hooray you've started. Hurry back.

[Wolfy6688]

Great start! At least you were both circling and landed near the same time with each other. Can't wait to read more

[Colexis Mom]

Great start Heather!! More please!!

[POOH]

Great start, except for the circling of course. It would have been interesting doing the report backwards. Can't wait to read more.

[MMMD]

Frontwards or backwards, we don't care! Just glad for the update. Can't wait for more.