Lesley Wake
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 16, 2017
Hello everyone, and welcome to the party! I think I’ll start every day with my original plans and hopefully remember at the end of the day to note where I had to make changes!
Day 0, November 29
(I usually label my initial travel day as Day 0, unless I have more significant Disney time, which unfortunately, due to traveling from the west coast and changes to flight times, I’ve never arrived with enough time to actually go to the parks on arrival day.)
Day 0, November 29
(I usually label my initial travel day as Day 0, unless I have more significant Disney time, which unfortunately, due to traveling from the west coast and changes to flight times, I’ve never arrived with enough time to actually go to the parks on arrival day.)
Pre-trip plans:
Fly from LAX-MCO: Leave 11:20am, Arrive 7:08pm
ADR at Boma, 9:05pm
Fly from LAX-MCO: Leave 11:20am, Arrive 7:08pm
ADR at Boma, 9:05pm
Part 1: Travel!
I woke up this morning to the lovely sight of a SoCal rainstorm. Of course no one knows how to drive in LA in the rain, so that made a bit of a delay! But we made pretty good time to LAX (my brother agreed to drive me in exchange for using my car while I was gone.)
We did made a quick detour to one of the LAX airport hotels. One of my disfriends had been to WDW the week before and picked up some merchandise for me and our other friend, Zach (you guys know him as @AMusicLifeForMe). We realized he would be arriving at LAX on Wednesday evening, staying in one of the hotels overnight, and I would be leaving Thursday morning, so we just coordinated to meet up and for me to pick-up all the items!
The important things I needed…pins! I sort of went pin-crazy this trip…
After that detour, we quickly made it to LAX and my brother dropped me off. I really liked the Christmas overlay on the safety bollards!
Getting thru check-in and security was pretty quick – gotta love precheck!
I made a breakfast/lunch stop at Homeboy Bakery (it’s actually a nonprofit organization which employs high-risk youth, former gang members, and recently released inmates to help them get work experience, as well as rehab and education programs). Ended up with a chocolate croissant for breakfast and I grabbed a caprese panini for the plane flight. Both were a bit meh, but at least put food in my belly!
I also loved the Christmas decorations in the American Airlines terminal with a train that drove around the ledge in the rotunda (though the attendant working the airline counter wasn’t too amused by hearing it all day long).
Because I needed extra space, I ended up having a larger checked bag. Plus a smaller carry-on roller bag. But once American asked for people willing to gate check, I volunteered. Before the trip I had called Disney and gotten an extra luggage tag, so I attached that, which meant that when I landed at MCO I wouldn’t have to pick it up, instead it would get sent with DME!
I quickly boarded the flight and had an awesome seat – seat 11A. It’s an exit row, but that aircraft has a huge walkway area, so it basically creates more legroom than I could possibly use! The center seat and most of the aisle seat have their underseat storage blocked, but the window seat has enough of a gap for me to use it! Another perk – the guy originally set for the middle seat ended up getting upgraded to first class, so the aisle seat guy and I got to spread out our stuff onto that seat and tray table! Lovely!
American has a pretty good entertainment system. I ended up watching Deadpool 2, and rather than start another movie I wouldn’t be able to finish I re-watched an episode of Westworld. (One thing about the seat I picked, is the entertainment system folds down under the armrest, so you can’t have it up during takeoff/landing. That meant I wasn’t able to start watching anything until it was allowed. I realized though, you can connect to the American website and get access to the same movies/tv shows on my phone! So I did that on the way home!
We landed on-time in Orlando and of course I immediately pulled up my email to see my room assignment. I had booked an Animal Kingdom Villas, Jambo House, Standard view studio. And I was really hoping for a partial savanna view. If any of you read my March trip report, you’d recall I had standard (hotel) room booked and initially was assigned a partial view, which I had received before boarding my flight, but by the time I landed I got switched to a room with a lovely view of the parking lot…
I got my room number and immediately went to Touring Plans to see, and luckily it was one of the partial views! Yeah!
The terminal Christmas tree
I’ve always had good luck with a fast DME experience – it helps arriving in the evening – and this was no exception, quickly getting checked-in, boarding, and leaving. We also had a Disney Cruise Line bus, first time on one of those!
On my way! First time using a MB slider – technically I had one for my previous trips, but my cat had knocked it under some furniture and I didn’t find it until the fall. I now have 2, so I may let my mom use one in February. I did like having the slider, because I didn’t worry about my MB falling off!
I’m back!
I love collecting pins too and I love that they don't take up a lot of space.
