Day 1: February 27
The night before we were supposed to leave was crazy and chaotic. Melinda and I got barely any sleep since we were up trying to get everything done. Needless to say when we woke up on the 27th we were super tired.
The weather was awful and we had a 2 hour drive to Detroit. Chris was supposed to pick us all up at 7:30 am, but didn’t get there until after 8:00 am. The roads were really bad. On the way to Detroit a Jeep ahead of us hit some ice and spun out and went into the field. Luckily they didn’t hit us and seemed to be ok. It was a slow drive, but as we got closer to Detroit it wasn’t as bad.
We got to the airport a bit later than we would have liked. We checked our bags and got through security. We then had to get to our gate. By the time we got to our gate they were already boarding. Since my mom was taking a wheelchair with her we got to pre-board. This meant we had no time to take our Dramamine. The first part of our flight was from Detroit to Indianapolis, which wasn’t too long and I thought we would be OK going that short distance without the Dramamine. The flight was fine, but towards the end Melinda was getting a bit sick. Thankfully we landed and she was fine.
We were supposed to have a 3 hour layover in Indianapolis. Our gate was right by the TGI Fridays so we decided to get some lunch and kill some time. It isn’t one of my favorite restaurants, but it was good. Then we went to the gate and waited. Melinda and I watched part of the Walt Disney World planning DVD while we waited. The time seemed to pass pretty quickly.
The plane was going to be late due to weather so we were delayed by about 20 minutes. Once the plane arrived we got to pre-board. After everyone was boarded the Captain announced that we would be waiting at the gate for another flight coming in from Minnesota since ours was the last flight to Orlando for the day. We were delayed by another 20 minutes or so. Before this flight Melinda and I both took some Dramamine, which was a good thing. Once the passengers from the Minnesota flight had boarded we were finally able to leave. YAY!
The first part of the flight wasn’t bad, but then we hit a HUGE storm that covered the lower portion of the US. The turbulence was horrible. Melinda and I tried to sleep through it, but it was awful. By far the most turbulent flight I have been on. Thank goodness for Dramamine and Earplanes. There were quite a few little kids on the plane that my mom said were just screaming, but we didn’t really hear them. Once we got to Florida the weather cleared up some and it wasn’t so rough.
As we were descending to land we could see “Wishes” from the Magic Kingdom in the distance. It was awesome!!! I think everyone on the plane was happy to be the ground. As we got off the plane there was a TV with the weather channel on and we could see the huge storm we had just flown through. Melinda was paranoid that her bags wouldn’t have made it to Orlando with us, but they made it.
Since our original plans were to fly down on the 28th but didn’t most of the flights on the 28th would have gotten into Orlando really late we decided to go down on the 27th and get a hotel near the airport that had a free shuttle service. The one we choose was the Quality Inn Airport. We had to call for the shuttle and wait, but it only took about 15 minutes. When I booked it online it said that there were restaurants nearby. When we got to the hotel there weren’t any restaurants nearby that I could see. It was after 9:00 pm by that point and I didn’t want to go walking around in the dark. Since we were hungry we decided to order a pizza from Dominos since it was advertised on the room key. Dominos is never my favorite, but we were all really hungry. It took about 40 minutes for the pizza to arrive and it surprisingly was quite good. The room we were given had two queen beds, plus a loveseat. My mom had surgery on her shoulder almost a year ago and prefers to sleep in her straight back chair at home since sleeping in beds sometimes makes her shoulder hurt so she slept on the loveseat, while Melinda and I each had our own beds. We all seemed to fall asleep pretty easily.
A few photos:
Melinda and I watching the Disney Planning DVD at the airport in Indianapolis
The plane
Melinda and I on the plane to Orlando
The sunset from the plane
The beginning of the storm
Day 2: February 28
We got up early the next morning to grab breakfast at the hotel. Then Melinda and I took the shuttle back to the airport to pick up the rental car. I had gotten a decent rate from Alamo for a week, but if we had picked it up the day before it would have been nearly a $100 more. It was ridiculous. Another reason we stayed at a hotel with an airport shuttle. We had no problems getting the car, but picking it out took a while. We walked up and down the entire length of mid-sized cars before deciding on a dark red Pontiac G6.
After we decided on which car we wanted we headed back to the hotel to load up the car, check out, and drive to Walt Disney World! It didn’t take long to pack the car. Luckily everything managed to fit. We were on our way to Disney!!! YAY!!!
There wasn’t a lot of traffic and we managed to get to Pop Century without getting lost! There weren’t too many other people checking in at that point so we didn’t have to wait too long. We asked for a room in the 80’s section and were given a room on the first floor of the 80’s section facing the 80’s/70’s parking lot.
Before we went to our room we stopped by Everything Pop. Melinda managed to spent almost here entire portion of the gift card within 15 minutes!!! It was insane!!! After finally getting her out of the store, we went to find our room. It was a great room. It wasn’t too far from the pool or parking lot. And it was quiet. Last time we had a room facing the pool, which was kind of loud. This one was really quiet. There were two towel animals in the window when we arrived. We unloaded the car and rested a bit before heading back to Everything Pop to get some lunch.
For this trip we decided to do the Disney Dining Plan. Since Melinda and I were paying for Mom to go we liked that the dining plan was paid for ahead of time and meant that we wouldn’t have to worry about who paid for which meal, etc. It was all taken care of before we left. We have never had the dining plan before so it was sort of confusing at first. That first time at Everything Pop I had a dining plan brochure with me to make sure I was getting the right items. For lunch Mom and I each had a cheeseburger, carrot cake, and chocolate milk. Melinda got a hamburger, chocolate cake, and chocolate milk. My food was all very good. Melinda’s cake was pretty nasty. We all took a bite an agreed it wasn’t very good.
After lunch we went back to the room to unpack a bit and take a rest. We needed to go get a few things for our room so we stopped by the concierge desk to ask for directions for Wal-mart. I knew there was one not far, but last time we got quite lost so we thought it would be best to ask at the concierge desk. They gave us directions and we were on our way. We found it without problem. We quickly found what we had come for, but then Mom decided she wanted to look for a few other things. We ended up buying more than we had went there for. Once we were done shopping we went back to the hotel and decided to go swimming.
When we got to Orlando it was beautiful and 80 degrees. There were quite a few people in the pool. The only thing I don’t like about Disney is that pools are too shallow. I love pools with a deep end. Plus the pools at Disney are heated, which I really don’t like. I grew up with a non-heated pool and am used to cooler water. Despite those two issues, it felt great to go swimming. We swam for probably 45 minutes.
After we got out of the pool we went back to hotel where we took a short break before deciding to head to Downtown Disney. We started with dinner at the Rainforest Café. The only time I had been to the Rainforest Café before was in Chicago and I wasn’t impressed with it, but Melinda wanted to go there so Mom and I agreed. When we got there we were told it would be a 30 minute wait for an inside table or get a table immediately on the patio. Since it was warm and the sun was starting to set we opted for the patio table. It was beautiful! It was a bit breezy, but the sun on the water was gorgeous. I ordered the Pot Roast, which was so good! Melinda had steak and shrimp, which she said was excellent and just right. Mom had the chicken fried chicken and seemed to enjoy it.
When we were done with dinner we headed for a few of the shops like the 12 Days of Christmas which is one of Melinda’s favorite stores at Downtown Disney. We also stopped by the new T-shirt store where you can design your own t-shirt. I was disappointed they didn’t have any Mulan options. Bummer. There were some cute designs, but you really don’t have much control with the options and placement of things. After that we started working our way back towards the car. We stopped by the Pooh store. And no visit to Downtown Disney would be complete without a visit to the Pin Trading store. So many cute pins!!! Though NO Mulan pins! NONE! Not one!!! I was so bummed. The last time we went to WDW there were several different Mulan pins. Melinda and I each got several. We both got one that had Chip and Dale on it that said “Completely nuts and proud of it!” I can’t remember now which other ones we bought there.
Our last stop at Downtown Disney was World of Disney. In the past I have lost Melinda in that store. She is often distracted by shiny things and wonders off. This time I made sure we each had our cell phones so that if we were separated we could call each other so we could find each other. Luckily she didn’t really wonder off this time. That store is always so crowded and confusing. Lots of merchandise that begs to be brought home with me! I think we where there for an hour or more.
By this time we were getting tired and wanted to get to bed early since we had an earlier dining reservation at Chef Mickey’s the next day.
Day 2 Photos:
Welcome to Disney World!!! - I love this sign!!!
Pop Century
Everything Pop sign
Rainforest Cafe sign at Downtown Disney
Melinda and I at Rainforest Cafe
The pretty sunset during dinner
My pot roast
Mom's chicken fried chicken
Melinda's steak and shrimp
Disney Christmas Store - Melinda's favorite store
World of Disney - Beware Stitch spits! :)
2 comments:
I couldn't sleep, so I decided to get on the computer for a few minutes. I popped on your blog hoping there'd be some trip report, yay!
That plane ride sounds awful. :( Awesome that you saw the fireworks on the plane, though! I've never seen anything Disney on the plane ride over!
Funny thing is we drove to Disney on the same day (though from a different direction), and we were caught in a *huge* traffic jam. Our drive was over an hour longer than it should have been. Once we past a certain point, though, it was fine. So annoying, though we ended up not doing anything that day anyway (I won't bore you with the, ahem, discussion we had about not doing anything, lol.) That day was the last day of nice weather until our last day. I'm sure you'll be mentioning that in your report. :) I was bad and didn't write anything about our Disney trip. I got up to the last full day of our spring training portion. And I didn't take notes, bad me. Hopefully I'll write up something.
Can't wait to read the rest. :) There are a couple of things I wanted to ask if you saw so I could borrow a few pics, lol. I can only remember one of them, now, though!
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