Rajah
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Aug 17, 1999
Usually, the night before a trip is a night of little sleep. That's because usually we're up packing later than we should be and taking care of last minute details. Then sometimes the excitement builds enough that we can't sleep. But this time, we were up later than usual... not because we were packing or excited, but because Michael got hold of a bad pre-packaged sandwich from the grocery store for dinner and was up sick all night. And when he's up sick all night, I'm up sick all night. I think we finally got to sleep around 4am with an 8am wake-up time.
When the alarm went off, it was way too early for me. But I had to go in to work for three hours today, and had to make sure Michael was up in time to run out and get our new digital camera memory cards that had arrived the day before but were still sitting in the FedEx building. Since Michael ordered them and his name was on the packaging, *he* had to be the specific one to go pick up the memory cards. I couldn't do it, or so they had informed Michael when he called to get their hours the night before.
I went on in to work expecting it to be my usual pre-trip workday. That is: the three hours would crawl by and I'd get absolutely nothing done, but at the same time before I knew it time would be up. But this time, it wasn't quite the case. This time, I was kept more busy than usual so that the time disappeared and I was back out the door before I knew it. As always, I stopped at the store to pick up our last minute items and our cash for the trip, then it was back to the apartment to pack.
Now most trips, I have at least half of my stuff packed the night before. But this trip, I just wasn't in the mood to pack anything. I hadn't had enough time between planning and the trip dates to really get excited about this trip as I usually do, I guess, because I was so disorganized. I didn't even have the packing *list* complete before I left the night before. So this time, packing was a bit more of a chore than usual. And because of the lack of sleep the night before, I was quite a bit more scatterbrained than I usually am. It was a very, very good thing that I had my packing list this time because I would have forgotten almost half the items on the list this time if I hadn't had it.
I also was packing in a different way this time. Usually, I try to fit everything into one bag and one carryon with one extra carryon bag ready to use on the way back. But due to new security measures at the airports, we were no longer allowed an extra carryon bag. I knew we'd end up getting enough things that it would be tight fitting them all in the existing suitcases, so I decided I'd pack both our medium and small suitcase while Michael had the largest one. This also allowed us to move things around when it was time to come home so that I had the largest suitcase and the small one, complete with our purchases and Michael's stuff he wouldn't need for the conference, and he could move all of the stuff he'd need for the next week into the medium bag.
I also tried a new trick this time. In the past few trips, I've always had a problem with Michael getting home on time. If I wanted to leave for the airport at 4pm, I'd be lucky if he was home by 3:30, and 30 minutes wasn't long enough for him to get all of his stuff done before we were to leave. So this time, my parents and I counted back to see that we wanted to leave around 4:15-4:30, and I told Michael we would be leaving around 3:45.
Sure enough, as always he was running late getting out of the office, and then when he finally did get out he hit horrible traffic on the way home. He didn't roll in until about 3:30...which if our real departure time had been 3:45 would have been too late. He caught on that I'd "adjusted" our pick-up time when he was almost ready to go at 3:50 and I was still moving at a leisurely pace and my parents hadn't even called to say they were on the way yet. I admitted what I'd done when he confronted me on it, and he said good...do that again next time
It worked 
Finally, around 4:15 -- the *real* pick-up time -- my parents arrived. I was still running a little behind so we rushed around getting every last minute thing taken care of until about 4:40... ten minutes after we had hoped to actually leave. I showed my mom where all the plants were since she would be watering them while we were gone, and then one last run around the apartment and glance at the packing list, and we were ready to go.
The ride to the airport was very quick. Much faster than usual, which wasn't surprising since we were traveling out of Hobby airport this time instead of Intercontinental. That's a difference of between 30 and 45 minutes driving time for us. But normally we fly Continental, and this time due to schedules and prices we had opted to fly Southwest instead. Continental is the only airline we've found that flies from Houston to Orlando non-stop both ways, and Southwest is the only other airline we've found that only has one stop on one way.
Our plane wasn't scheduled to leave until 7:40, but we arrived shortly after 5pm...about an hour earlier than we would have arrived in previous times. But again, I'd heard horror stories of delays at the airports, so we decided better safe than sorry. When we arrived, we discovered that Southwest even had their curb-side checking working again. They were the only airline we noticed doing curb-side once more, and there was more of a line than usual, but that's okay. Whenever possible, we like curb-side check-in because it is so much faster and more convenient.
My dad dropped us off and Michael and I got in line at the curb-side while my mom went in to check the line inside. Sure enough, inside the line looked like it would be about 40-50 minutes wait -- it stretched all the way through the queue and past to the restrooms something like 20 feet away. Outside, it was only about a 20-30 minute wait.
Everyone was more patient than usual (though as usual I had my run-ins with the idiotic smokers who can't read the "no smoking area" signs 5 feet away from them -- they're only idiots because of insisting on smoking in a no-smoking area, which *does* cause problems for non-smokers and especially non-smokers with asthma like me and my dad...off that soapbox). The lady behind us started up a conversation and so the time passed pretty quickly. It did take a little longer than usual to go through the curb-side check-in procedure, but I didn't mind at all. It was only about 1 or 2 minutes longer per guest than it had been before, and you could tell that they were doing a little more to check the identity of the passengers vs. the passenger list. A new stamp was also applied to the confirmation to confirm that we had passed the security check. That one, anyway.
After checking our three bags, we went inside to the security checkpoint. This was where I was most concerned and had most expected to see a line. But where I had expected to see a really long line was only a backup of about 5 people. They weren't even letting non-passengers into the lobby area right next to the x-ray machines, so this was where we said goodbye to my parents.
Something a little disconcerting did happen as we were being allowed into the lobby. The lady checking IDs and tickets to allow us into the lobby was approached by another lady telling her that she could go on break. As lady#2 came up behind lady#1, she whispered into #1's ear about something going on at baggage claim 2. She didn't have any details other than that they were evacuating the baggage claim, though. And it was said at such a whisper that I was the only one able to hear what was said between the two -- that's because I was the next person to go inside.
I didn't say anything about it at the time to either my parents -- who I knew would worry themselves to death if they heard about it and might even ask us to not fly -- or Michael, who I wasn't sure was comfortable flying in these circumstances anyway. He never said anything about being uncomfortable or not, but he has a good way of hiding if he's uncomfortable or unhappy about something. And it didn't really bother me too much -- if there was a problem, I was sure we'd be evacuated. But most likely, it was a false alarm, and panicking about it would do no good.
Anyway, we made it past the first ID check fairly quickly, and then we had to pause for Michael to take his laptop out of the case since now they require laptops and cases to be x-rayed separately (they may have required that before, but this was the first time we've flown with a laptop). I seriously expected to be stopped and hand-checked because of some of the items in my bag. I figured the boxes of mini-video tapes for our video camera would require checking since they were kinda bulky. I also expected them to stop Michael and require he turn on his laptop, and I'd probably have to turn on my phone and both cameras. But as it turned out, nothing in any of our stuff raised any flags and we made it through with no delay.
As we were stopped at a table on the other side of the x-ray machines to put Michael's laptop back in its case, the armed military person (and she was armed to the hilt, complete with a machine gun of some sort...I'm not too familiar with artillery) was called out of the checking area for something. I assumed it was to go check on whatever was happening downstairs at the baggage claim, but again I said nothing.
We waved goodbye to my parents (who had hung around on the other side of the glass to make sure we didn't have anything we had to send back with them) and moved on down to our gate. This entire process couldn't have taken more than about 40 minutes because when we were through security, we still had an hour to kill until we could check in at the gate. Michael of course teased me about my apprehensions from earlier, because we encountered no rude people, the line wasn't much longer than usual, and the security people were all either friendly or at worst business-like. And, we'd had none of the slow-downs I'd feared.
Since it was dinner time, we decided to stop in the little cafe and grab something to eat. There was a bit of a hold-up because one man was on the ground going through every single pre-packaged meal in the refrigerator and putting it back. Not opening it, just pulling it out, looking at it, shaking his head, and putting it back then digging for another. Apparently, he wanted *specifically* a chicken salad sandwich and there wasn't one. He was rather disappointed. By a comment he made, I took it to be that he didn't eat red meat and wasn't in the mood for turkey. Apparently, he finally decided on a turkey wrap, but he was disappointed.
Michael ended up with a turkey wrap and I got a club sandwich, we picked up our respective drinks and checked out, then headed to the gate to eat and await time to check in. After eating, I pulled out a "how to draw Pooh and friends" book from a previous trip and the autograph book I had been using for sketching, and proceeded to try my hand at drawing Tigger. I was almost done when people started lining up to check in, so I put that away and we got in line. (I never did finish that sketch...)
Check in went just as smoothly as everything else. They had added another security measure in that random seats were selected to have their bags checked. This had caused me a great, great deal of concern when I'd heard it before because what I understood was that not only were the bags hand-examined, which I wouldn't mind at all, but some people were randomly having their carry-on taken away from them and checked (stowed) with the rest of the cargo/luggage. And I was NOT willing to let them have my carry-on bag with the rest of the luggage.
As it turns out, though, at least at this airport they only had a pat-down with a wand and a thorough examination of the bag and its contents. And furthermore, at this airport (but not in Orlando) they even had a little privacy fence up so that the guests wouldn't be embarrassed by having their private items flashed in front of everyone else waiting to board the plane. Or the wall might have been there for other reasons as well, but I interpreted it as a consideration to the guests being checked.
In any case, neither Michael nor I was randomly selected and we were even in the first set of cattle, er, people to board. So back it was to our seats while we awaited boarding time. I took a quick run to the shop to get a bottle of water -- I usually bring one but had heard they weren't being friendly about allowing drinks through -- and to see if I could find a magazine for Michael. Other than that, we pretty much just sat back and alternated between watching TV (Simpsons was on) and people-watching.
One thing someone had asked before we left was whether they were still allowing strollers to be gate-checked. I don't know about at every airport, but at this one we did indeed see two strollers for our gate. Both being completely ignored by the kids they belonged to. It was much more fun to go running across the concourse and have mommy run after you telling you to get back here!
Our flight itself went very smoothly. Very little turbulence, and we got Michael's preferred area right around the wing. He got the window seat, I took the middle, and we had no one sit next to us on the aisle. On the flight over I had a coke and Michael had an Irish Cream (I guess the alcoholic beverage is his equivalent of my Dramamine because he always gets one and always grumbles about the quality/amount/flavor/etc). I started out reading, but by the time we were about 20 minutes into the flight, Michael pulled out the laptop and we started playing old atari 2600 games on the emulator program he'd installed on the laptop. That was a fun trip down memory lane
The only parts about flying that I don't like are takeoff and landing. As long as the wheels are well above the pavement and the flight is smooth, I typically really enjoy flying, but I really hated landing this time. It was a little rougher than usual, and I had visions of the plane touching down wrong and going tumbling end over end. I know, that has (almost?) never happened with a passenger plane, but I have a very over-active imagination, especially when it comes to freak accidents
But despite my fears, the plane landed safe and sound and we pulled up to the gate.
Getting to our baggage was an adventure of sorts. We kept getting a little lost because, as I indicated earlier, we usually fly Continental to Disneyworld. When we fly Southwest, it's usually to Disneyland. So we weren't familiar with this part of the airport and furthermore it was really disorienting to fly Southwest to Disneyworld. But we got our bags with no problem and even found the Emerald Aisle, where we'd get our rental car, with no problem.
But once we got to EA, we had a problem. The theory behind Emerald Aisle is you walk up and have your pick of the cars on those lots designated "Emerald Aisle". Only.... there WERE no cars on Emerald Aisle. None! Not even a toy car! There was already one family sitting down apparently waiting, so we stood there for a moment and looked around wondering what to do now. I was about to head inside to the counter to check in there and see what I could get when a couple of workers started pulling up cars. Not our preference: we'd indicated a full size car and all that came up were intermediates or compact, but at least they were cars. We had a choice of one van (which the other family picked, no surprise considering there were about 6 of them), two Pontiac (?) Sunfires, or two Chevy Cavaliers. All of which were too small for our bags. Just as I was about to go down to the counter anyway to see if we could get anything larger, the guy pulled up in a silver Toyota Corolla. Still smaller than we wanted, definitely not what we preferred, but at least big enough to fit our largest bag.
I asked the guy if they had any Buick Regals or Centuries since that's really what I wanted, and he shook his head. It took two or three times before I got an answer out of him, I don't think he spoke much English because he didn't seem to understand my questions and I know I was speaking English. We debated...grab the Corolla, which would do though we weren't happy about it, or go inside to the counter to see if we could get anything better. Since it didn't really look like there was much better on the regular lot, we decided to go ahead and take the Corolla. Now, I kinda wish I had gone back in to the counter to at least *ask* about something larger. The rate was the same on Emerald Aisle whether we got a compact or a full size, or I *would* have insisted on either a rate change or a full size car.
So in we piled into the Corolla, me complaining all the way. Everything was backwards on that car practically. The window down button was backwards to my Ford Taurus at home or the Buick Regal I wanted. The door lock was backwards. The cruise was on the opposite side from where I expected to find it. The windshield wiper control was on the opposite side of where I expected to find it. Etc etc. The car didn't handle as well as I'd hoped either. And don't forget the mirrors were tiny and practically provided no view of the sides and behind the car. I was not a happy camper.
We went through the checkout procedure and I asked once more about anything larger and she just shook her head and said they were running low on inventory tonight. Uh. Obviously. I've never seen the lot that empty, or even heard of it being that empty before!
After checking out, we continued around to the exit, me trying to adjust the tiny mirrors so I could at least see *something* of the road behind me. I was so unhappy about the car that I forgot to double-check our directions since we wanted to take the Beeline tollway, which is not the way indicated by the signs. But, being the avid planner that I am, I had re-read our trip report from the first time we rented a car in March so was able to remember enough of those details to get us to the Beeline and on our way.
Other than getting a car we didn't like (which I'll try to stop complaining about now), the drive to Disneyworld went smoothly. Michael was ready with the toll ($.75 the first booth, $.50 the second) whenever I pulled up to each booth. I'm glad I had him as a copilot because both times I missed how much the toll was at each booth, even though I knew the total between the two should be $1.25 if they hadn't raised prices since our visit in March (which they hadn't). He also did a very good job of helping me watch for exits.
We followed the signs to the Swan and Dolphin and pulled up with no problem. As usual, we were met by a very friendly CM (and I checked -- they *are* called CMs still at the Swan and Dolphin, as evidenced by all the "Cast Members Only" signs on doors) who helped us get our luggage and offered to park our car. We weren't interested in valet parking, but left him our key anyway so he could move the car if necessary.
Check in was very smooth and we were given room 6118, which was a balcony room on the west side. We had to take the elevators, but not too high up, which I appreciated since I hate elevators. Three floors of elevators I could handle, though.
Back we went to bell services and another friendly CM brought our bags along and led us up to our room. We tipped the CM, unloaded our bags from his cart and looked around, admiring the view from our balcony of the Dolphin fountain all lit up for the night, then went back downstairs to move our car. On the way to the door, though, I almost came home with what must be the most unusual souvenir ever... I was leaning up against the wall and bar on the elevator, you know one of the handrails, and as I moved forward ever so slightly, the handrail came off in my hand!!
I didn't even pull it very hard, more like bumped it. We got it put back on before the doors opened, but then Michael started teasing me about wanting unusual souvenirs!
We made it back out to the car with no further mishap and the first CM (I forgot to note his name, again) made sure we had gotten checked in and everything all right before handing over the keys and directing us to the self parking lot. This had slightly changed from where we were told to park in March: the entire lot on the right-hand side was closed off as they were setting up tents for something. I never did find out what, and later in the trip they had construction equipment doing something out there. So we were in a lot just below the valet parking lot.
After parking and as we walked back up to the doors, we commented on how empty the parking lot was. The Swan and Dolphin seem to have very big parking lots so that when we've seen them they've been at least slightly empty anyway, but this time it was almost as though the parking lot were deserted. A sign of current events, I guess. I felt bad for Disney and the Swan and Dolphin if this was any indication of the types of non-crowds we'd encounter.
On our way back to our room, we stopped off at Tubbi's. Though it was just after midnight and we'd both eaten at the airport, we were both hungry. Michael got a sandwich of some sort -- club, I think -- and I got a tuna salad sandwich. After going back up to the room (the long way through the lobby -- we could have taken the west elevators from right there but didn't realize it), we ate our sandwiches. Unfortunately, mine had very little flavor: a facet of this vacation that would stay with me for the majority of my meals. I think my taster was a little off because even still a few days after returning from the trip food had very little flavor. So I didn't eat all of my food. I had to take it out to a trashcan outside by the elevators after eating less than half. Michael ate all of his though.
After dinner, we got ready for bed. While Michael was going through his routine, I started getting things ready for the next morning as tomorrow morning, the first of the trip, we had to be up bright and early (or more accurately dark and early) to make it to our breakfast PS.
When the alarm went off, it was way too early for me. But I had to go in to work for three hours today, and had to make sure Michael was up in time to run out and get our new digital camera memory cards that had arrived the day before but were still sitting in the FedEx building. Since Michael ordered them and his name was on the packaging, *he* had to be the specific one to go pick up the memory cards. I couldn't do it, or so they had informed Michael when he called to get their hours the night before.
I went on in to work expecting it to be my usual pre-trip workday. That is: the three hours would crawl by and I'd get absolutely nothing done, but at the same time before I knew it time would be up. But this time, it wasn't quite the case. This time, I was kept more busy than usual so that the time disappeared and I was back out the door before I knew it. As always, I stopped at the store to pick up our last minute items and our cash for the trip, then it was back to the apartment to pack.
Now most trips, I have at least half of my stuff packed the night before. But this trip, I just wasn't in the mood to pack anything. I hadn't had enough time between planning and the trip dates to really get excited about this trip as I usually do, I guess, because I was so disorganized. I didn't even have the packing *list* complete before I left the night before. So this time, packing was a bit more of a chore than usual. And because of the lack of sleep the night before, I was quite a bit more scatterbrained than I usually am. It was a very, very good thing that I had my packing list this time because I would have forgotten almost half the items on the list this time if I hadn't had it.
I also was packing in a different way this time. Usually, I try to fit everything into one bag and one carryon with one extra carryon bag ready to use on the way back. But due to new security measures at the airports, we were no longer allowed an extra carryon bag. I knew we'd end up getting enough things that it would be tight fitting them all in the existing suitcases, so I decided I'd pack both our medium and small suitcase while Michael had the largest one. This also allowed us to move things around when it was time to come home so that I had the largest suitcase and the small one, complete with our purchases and Michael's stuff he wouldn't need for the conference, and he could move all of the stuff he'd need for the next week into the medium bag.
I also tried a new trick this time. In the past few trips, I've always had a problem with Michael getting home on time. If I wanted to leave for the airport at 4pm, I'd be lucky if he was home by 3:30, and 30 minutes wasn't long enough for him to get all of his stuff done before we were to leave. So this time, my parents and I counted back to see that we wanted to leave around 4:15-4:30, and I told Michael we would be leaving around 3:45.
Sure enough, as always he was running late getting out of the office, and then when he finally did get out he hit horrible traffic on the way home. He didn't roll in until about 3:30...which if our real departure time had been 3:45 would have been too late. He caught on that I'd "adjusted" our pick-up time when he was almost ready to go at 3:50 and I was still moving at a leisurely pace and my parents hadn't even called to say they were on the way yet. I admitted what I'd done when he confronted me on it, and he said good...do that again next time
It worked Finally, around 4:15 -- the *real* pick-up time -- my parents arrived. I was still running a little behind so we rushed around getting every last minute thing taken care of until about 4:40... ten minutes after we had hoped to actually leave. I showed my mom where all the plants were since she would be watering them while we were gone, and then one last run around the apartment and glance at the packing list, and we were ready to go.
The ride to the airport was very quick. Much faster than usual, which wasn't surprising since we were traveling out of Hobby airport this time instead of Intercontinental. That's a difference of between 30 and 45 minutes driving time for us. But normally we fly Continental, and this time due to schedules and prices we had opted to fly Southwest instead. Continental is the only airline we've found that flies from Houston to Orlando non-stop both ways, and Southwest is the only other airline we've found that only has one stop on one way.
Our plane wasn't scheduled to leave until 7:40, but we arrived shortly after 5pm...about an hour earlier than we would have arrived in previous times. But again, I'd heard horror stories of delays at the airports, so we decided better safe than sorry. When we arrived, we discovered that Southwest even had their curb-side checking working again. They were the only airline we noticed doing curb-side once more, and there was more of a line than usual, but that's okay. Whenever possible, we like curb-side check-in because it is so much faster and more convenient.
My dad dropped us off and Michael and I got in line at the curb-side while my mom went in to check the line inside. Sure enough, inside the line looked like it would be about 40-50 minutes wait -- it stretched all the way through the queue and past to the restrooms something like 20 feet away. Outside, it was only about a 20-30 minute wait.
Everyone was more patient than usual (though as usual I had my run-ins with the idiotic smokers who can't read the "no smoking area" signs 5 feet away from them -- they're only idiots because of insisting on smoking in a no-smoking area, which *does* cause problems for non-smokers and especially non-smokers with asthma like me and my dad...off that soapbox). The lady behind us started up a conversation and so the time passed pretty quickly. It did take a little longer than usual to go through the curb-side check-in procedure, but I didn't mind at all. It was only about 1 or 2 minutes longer per guest than it had been before, and you could tell that they were doing a little more to check the identity of the passengers vs. the passenger list. A new stamp was also applied to the confirmation to confirm that we had passed the security check. That one, anyway.
After checking our three bags, we went inside to the security checkpoint. This was where I was most concerned and had most expected to see a line. But where I had expected to see a really long line was only a backup of about 5 people. They weren't even letting non-passengers into the lobby area right next to the x-ray machines, so this was where we said goodbye to my parents.
Something a little disconcerting did happen as we were being allowed into the lobby. The lady checking IDs and tickets to allow us into the lobby was approached by another lady telling her that she could go on break. As lady#2 came up behind lady#1, she whispered into #1's ear about something going on at baggage claim 2. She didn't have any details other than that they were evacuating the baggage claim, though. And it was said at such a whisper that I was the only one able to hear what was said between the two -- that's because I was the next person to go inside.
I didn't say anything about it at the time to either my parents -- who I knew would worry themselves to death if they heard about it and might even ask us to not fly -- or Michael, who I wasn't sure was comfortable flying in these circumstances anyway. He never said anything about being uncomfortable or not, but he has a good way of hiding if he's uncomfortable or unhappy about something. And it didn't really bother me too much -- if there was a problem, I was sure we'd be evacuated. But most likely, it was a false alarm, and panicking about it would do no good.
Anyway, we made it past the first ID check fairly quickly, and then we had to pause for Michael to take his laptop out of the case since now they require laptops and cases to be x-rayed separately (they may have required that before, but this was the first time we've flown with a laptop). I seriously expected to be stopped and hand-checked because of some of the items in my bag. I figured the boxes of mini-video tapes for our video camera would require checking since they were kinda bulky. I also expected them to stop Michael and require he turn on his laptop, and I'd probably have to turn on my phone and both cameras. But as it turned out, nothing in any of our stuff raised any flags and we made it through with no delay.
As we were stopped at a table on the other side of the x-ray machines to put Michael's laptop back in its case, the armed military person (and she was armed to the hilt, complete with a machine gun of some sort...I'm not too familiar with artillery) was called out of the checking area for something. I assumed it was to go check on whatever was happening downstairs at the baggage claim, but again I said nothing.
We waved goodbye to my parents (who had hung around on the other side of the glass to make sure we didn't have anything we had to send back with them) and moved on down to our gate. This entire process couldn't have taken more than about 40 minutes because when we were through security, we still had an hour to kill until we could check in at the gate. Michael of course teased me about my apprehensions from earlier, because we encountered no rude people, the line wasn't much longer than usual, and the security people were all either friendly or at worst business-like. And, we'd had none of the slow-downs I'd feared.
Since it was dinner time, we decided to stop in the little cafe and grab something to eat. There was a bit of a hold-up because one man was on the ground going through every single pre-packaged meal in the refrigerator and putting it back. Not opening it, just pulling it out, looking at it, shaking his head, and putting it back then digging for another. Apparently, he wanted *specifically* a chicken salad sandwich and there wasn't one. He was rather disappointed. By a comment he made, I took it to be that he didn't eat red meat and wasn't in the mood for turkey. Apparently, he finally decided on a turkey wrap, but he was disappointed.
Michael ended up with a turkey wrap and I got a club sandwich, we picked up our respective drinks and checked out, then headed to the gate to eat and await time to check in. After eating, I pulled out a "how to draw Pooh and friends" book from a previous trip and the autograph book I had been using for sketching, and proceeded to try my hand at drawing Tigger. I was almost done when people started lining up to check in, so I put that away and we got in line. (I never did finish that sketch...)
Check in went just as smoothly as everything else. They had added another security measure in that random seats were selected to have their bags checked. This had caused me a great, great deal of concern when I'd heard it before because what I understood was that not only were the bags hand-examined, which I wouldn't mind at all, but some people were randomly having their carry-on taken away from them and checked (stowed) with the rest of the cargo/luggage. And I was NOT willing to let them have my carry-on bag with the rest of the luggage.
As it turns out, though, at least at this airport they only had a pat-down with a wand and a thorough examination of the bag and its contents. And furthermore, at this airport (but not in Orlando) they even had a little privacy fence up so that the guests wouldn't be embarrassed by having their private items flashed in front of everyone else waiting to board the plane. Or the wall might have been there for other reasons as well, but I interpreted it as a consideration to the guests being checked.
In any case, neither Michael nor I was randomly selected and we were even in the first set of cattle, er, people to board. So back it was to our seats while we awaited boarding time. I took a quick run to the shop to get a bottle of water -- I usually bring one but had heard they weren't being friendly about allowing drinks through -- and to see if I could find a magazine for Michael. Other than that, we pretty much just sat back and alternated between watching TV (Simpsons was on) and people-watching.
One thing someone had asked before we left was whether they were still allowing strollers to be gate-checked. I don't know about at every airport, but at this one we did indeed see two strollers for our gate. Both being completely ignored by the kids they belonged to. It was much more fun to go running across the concourse and have mommy run after you telling you to get back here!
Our flight itself went very smoothly. Very little turbulence, and we got Michael's preferred area right around the wing. He got the window seat, I took the middle, and we had no one sit next to us on the aisle. On the flight over I had a coke and Michael had an Irish Cream (I guess the alcoholic beverage is his equivalent of my Dramamine because he always gets one and always grumbles about the quality/amount/flavor/etc). I started out reading, but by the time we were about 20 minutes into the flight, Michael pulled out the laptop and we started playing old atari 2600 games on the emulator program he'd installed on the laptop. That was a fun trip down memory lane
The only parts about flying that I don't like are takeoff and landing. As long as the wheels are well above the pavement and the flight is smooth, I typically really enjoy flying, but I really hated landing this time. It was a little rougher than usual, and I had visions of the plane touching down wrong and going tumbling end over end. I know, that has (almost?) never happened with a passenger plane, but I have a very over-active imagination, especially when it comes to freak accidents
But despite my fears, the plane landed safe and sound and we pulled up to the gate.Getting to our baggage was an adventure of sorts. We kept getting a little lost because, as I indicated earlier, we usually fly Continental to Disneyworld. When we fly Southwest, it's usually to Disneyland. So we weren't familiar with this part of the airport and furthermore it was really disorienting to fly Southwest to Disneyworld. But we got our bags with no problem and even found the Emerald Aisle, where we'd get our rental car, with no problem.
But once we got to EA, we had a problem. The theory behind Emerald Aisle is you walk up and have your pick of the cars on those lots designated "Emerald Aisle". Only.... there WERE no cars on Emerald Aisle. None! Not even a toy car! There was already one family sitting down apparently waiting, so we stood there for a moment and looked around wondering what to do now. I was about to head inside to the counter to check in there and see what I could get when a couple of workers started pulling up cars. Not our preference: we'd indicated a full size car and all that came up were intermediates or compact, but at least they were cars. We had a choice of one van (which the other family picked, no surprise considering there were about 6 of them), two Pontiac (?) Sunfires, or two Chevy Cavaliers. All of which were too small for our bags. Just as I was about to go down to the counter anyway to see if we could get anything larger, the guy pulled up in a silver Toyota Corolla. Still smaller than we wanted, definitely not what we preferred, but at least big enough to fit our largest bag.
I asked the guy if they had any Buick Regals or Centuries since that's really what I wanted, and he shook his head. It took two or three times before I got an answer out of him, I don't think he spoke much English because he didn't seem to understand my questions and I know I was speaking English. We debated...grab the Corolla, which would do though we weren't happy about it, or go inside to the counter to see if we could get anything better. Since it didn't really look like there was much better on the regular lot, we decided to go ahead and take the Corolla. Now, I kinda wish I had gone back in to the counter to at least *ask* about something larger. The rate was the same on Emerald Aisle whether we got a compact or a full size, or I *would* have insisted on either a rate change or a full size car.
So in we piled into the Corolla, me complaining all the way. Everything was backwards on that car practically. The window down button was backwards to my Ford Taurus at home or the Buick Regal I wanted. The door lock was backwards. The cruise was on the opposite side from where I expected to find it. The windshield wiper control was on the opposite side of where I expected to find it. Etc etc. The car didn't handle as well as I'd hoped either. And don't forget the mirrors were tiny and practically provided no view of the sides and behind the car. I was not a happy camper.
We went through the checkout procedure and I asked once more about anything larger and she just shook her head and said they were running low on inventory tonight. Uh. Obviously. I've never seen the lot that empty, or even heard of it being that empty before!
After checking out, we continued around to the exit, me trying to adjust the tiny mirrors so I could at least see *something* of the road behind me. I was so unhappy about the car that I forgot to double-check our directions since we wanted to take the Beeline tollway, which is not the way indicated by the signs. But, being the avid planner that I am, I had re-read our trip report from the first time we rented a car in March so was able to remember enough of those details to get us to the Beeline and on our way.
Other than getting a car we didn't like (which I'll try to stop complaining about now), the drive to Disneyworld went smoothly. Michael was ready with the toll ($.75 the first booth, $.50 the second) whenever I pulled up to each booth. I'm glad I had him as a copilot because both times I missed how much the toll was at each booth, even though I knew the total between the two should be $1.25 if they hadn't raised prices since our visit in March (which they hadn't). He also did a very good job of helping me watch for exits.
We followed the signs to the Swan and Dolphin and pulled up with no problem. As usual, we were met by a very friendly CM (and I checked -- they *are* called CMs still at the Swan and Dolphin, as evidenced by all the "Cast Members Only" signs on doors) who helped us get our luggage and offered to park our car. We weren't interested in valet parking, but left him our key anyway so he could move the car if necessary.
Check in was very smooth and we were given room 6118, which was a balcony room on the west side. We had to take the elevators, but not too high up, which I appreciated since I hate elevators. Three floors of elevators I could handle, though.
Back we went to bell services and another friendly CM brought our bags along and led us up to our room. We tipped the CM, unloaded our bags from his cart and looked around, admiring the view from our balcony of the Dolphin fountain all lit up for the night, then went back downstairs to move our car. On the way to the door, though, I almost came home with what must be the most unusual souvenir ever... I was leaning up against the wall and bar on the elevator, you know one of the handrails, and as I moved forward ever so slightly, the handrail came off in my hand!!
I didn't even pull it very hard, more like bumped it. We got it put back on before the doors opened, but then Michael started teasing me about wanting unusual souvenirs! We made it back out to the car with no further mishap and the first CM (I forgot to note his name, again) made sure we had gotten checked in and everything all right before handing over the keys and directing us to the self parking lot. This had slightly changed from where we were told to park in March: the entire lot on the right-hand side was closed off as they were setting up tents for something. I never did find out what, and later in the trip they had construction equipment doing something out there. So we were in a lot just below the valet parking lot.
After parking and as we walked back up to the doors, we commented on how empty the parking lot was. The Swan and Dolphin seem to have very big parking lots so that when we've seen them they've been at least slightly empty anyway, but this time it was almost as though the parking lot were deserted. A sign of current events, I guess. I felt bad for Disney and the Swan and Dolphin if this was any indication of the types of non-crowds we'd encounter.
On our way back to our room, we stopped off at Tubbi's. Though it was just after midnight and we'd both eaten at the airport, we were both hungry. Michael got a sandwich of some sort -- club, I think -- and I got a tuna salad sandwich. After going back up to the room (the long way through the lobby -- we could have taken the west elevators from right there but didn't realize it), we ate our sandwiches. Unfortunately, mine had very little flavor: a facet of this vacation that would stay with me for the majority of my meals. I think my taster was a little off because even still a few days after returning from the trip food had very little flavor. So I didn't eat all of my food. I had to take it out to a trashcan outside by the elevators after eating less than half. Michael ate all of his though.
After dinner, we got ready for bed. While Michael was going through his routine, I started getting things ready for the next morning as tomorrow morning, the first of the trip, we had to be up bright and early (or more accurately dark and early) to make it to our breakfast PS.
