At first they didn't want me to come, now they don't want me to leave! April 2021 F&G TR (Updated 9/6!)

[VAtink]

Enjoy your trip

Thank you!!

 

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Much different experience at Oga's than when we were packed in there two weeks ago. I did enjoy it though, it was a totally fun atmosphere!

Yeah, I feel like the practically empty Oga's is a thing of the past, I don't expect to ever see it so empty again! It would have been more fun with a few more people there to liven the place up, but it was nice actually having a spot for myself. Last time we were there in 2019 we were squished at a table and couldn't even squeeze in enough to put our drinks on the table. That was a tad too crowded!

Yikes! Hope you are healing well.

Thank you! Definitely a lot better, yippy! Still a bit sore, but not nearly as bad as the first week.

Your costumes sound adorable!

Thanks! Can't wait to get all the photopass pictures in them!

I love Geyser Point so much!!! It really was the highlight of our recent trip. Some of the the things we tried and loved were the bison burger, the teriyaki chicken wings, the cheesy brisket dip, the goat cheese and portobello salad, the salmon, the charcuterie board and the campfire chocolate mousse. Can you tell we loved it??? Jack's favourite beverage was the northwest iced tea and my fave was the cascade sangria. If you are there, look for Rob and Crystal. They are two of the best CMs ever!

Ohhh, good to know! I can't wait to try it out, the menu looks great! Did you find it to get pretty crowded? We're trying to figure out what time to get there and if we should expect a bit of a wait to get a table.

 

[VAtink]

We love Wilderness Lodge and Geyser Point. We usually go there for lunch during every trip, even when we are staying at a different resort. Make sure you check out Boulder Ridge. There are some interesting displays in BR, and my favorite fireplace.

Awesome to hear! We'll definitely check out Boulder Ridge, thanks for the recommendation!

 

[Chief Powhatan]

Great trip report - thanks for sharing! It's great that your next trip is about to start.

 

[VAtink]

Great trip report - thanks for sharing! It's great that your next trip is about to start.

Thank you! I can't believe the trip is almost here, definitely great for me it's about to start, but not so great for finishing this TR

 

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Day 5, Part 1: At First They Didn’t Want Me to Come, Now They Don’t Want Me to Leave!

Well this day came up too fast this trip, the day to head home.

I was up nice and early this morning to finish packing and make my way downstairs to wait for DME.

My bus was scheduled for I believe 8:45, so I made my way out of the room and down to the lobby to wait at 7:30.

You may be wondering why I headed down to the lobby over an hour before my bus was scheduled. Yeah, well, I am too. Apparently when I’m exhausted I struggle with understanding how time works.

I ended up waiting downstairs for about 15 minutes, during which time a large family came and decided to share the bench with me, even though there was an open bench just a few feet over. Super strange, they also immediately took their masks off the second they sat down, and this was back when masks were required everywhere, so I was a bit annoyed.

Anyways, after about 15 minutes of waiting, my brain finally started working and I realized my bus wasn’t at 7:45, but 8:45! HA! So I made my way back up to my room to enjoy some AC for a bit longer and have more coffee.

Finally, I made my way downstairs again to catch the bus at the correct time.

This time, as I’m waiting, I get an alert on my phone that my flight home has been delayed. Seriously, this again?

My original flight was at like 11 something, and the new time wasn’t until almost 4 in the afternoon!

I debated what I should do, perhaps try to get a later DME so I could enjoy the day at the resort, or maybe try to switch to a different, earlier flight, when I got to the airport? I decided to try the latter, so when the DME bus arrived I got on.

While on the bus I started looking for other flight options on my phone, and I saw there was a Jetblue flight that was at like 10:20, which was much better than the now 4ish American flight I was booked on. I wasn’t sure what to do though, I didn’t want to lose money from the American flight, but I also didn’t want to wait in the airport all day, and with my luck the later flight would probably be cancelled. Also, with the earlier flight I wasn’t sure if DME would even get me to the airport earlier enough to catch it.

So I debated for a few minutes, and finally decided that I’d rather get home earlier and it did look like we’d arrive at the airport with enough time to catch the earlier flight, so went to book the Jetblue flight.

In those few minutes I was debating with myself, the Jetblue flight sold out! WHAT! There were like 20+ available seats when I first looked, but I guess a bunch of people on my AA flight had the same idea.

Ugh.

So I decided to keep refreshing and hope that maybe someone would cancel, and amazingly, after a few refreshes a seat opened up! By this point we were pulling into the airport so I rushed to get my credit card info in and book the ticket before we had to get off the bus.

I made it within seconds of the bus arriving, phew!

Since it was less than an hour before my new flight when we arrived at MCO, I booked it through the airport and to security. Thankfully I have precheck, so didn’t have to wait in the monster security line, although precheck wasn’t as smooth as normal.

When I got in the precheck line there was only about 3 people ahead of me, but unfortunately there was an older gentleman at the counter who apparently didn’t realize he still had to show his ID at precheck, and of course couldn’t find it. It took him a solid 10 minutes to find it, and I was getting a bit panicked since my flight was getting close!

Finally, he found his ID and made it through and the rest of us made it through much faster, until my turn that is. Apparently if you are booked on two different flights out of the same airport on the same day it raises some red flags. Oops, didn’t think about that! Fortunately after I explained it they let me though, but I got a bit worried there!

By the time I arrived at my gate they were already through a good chunk of the boarding process, so I walked right into line and on the plane.

I couldn’t believe I made it!

I ended up in the first row, where I typically sit, so I came prepared with a small bag that is about the size of a big cell phone, that I always put in the little pouch on the wall in front of me so I have easy access to stuff I need since there is no seat in front of me to put it under. I’ve been doing this for years and it hasn’t been a problem, until this flight. Right before we took off, the flight attendant came over and told me that I couldn’t have a bag with me. So I of course asked since it was securely in the pouch, how was it any different than the woman’s book in the pouch sitting next to me which was much larger than my bag. The flight attendant wouldn’t budge though and said that books and phones and really anything else is allowed to be stored in the pouch, but absolutely no bags were regardless of size.

Ok….

I didn’t want to argue, so let the flight attendant take the bag and put it in the overhead. So odd.

Anyways. Soon it was time to take off, and it shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone, we were delayed!

Seriously, I cannot catch a break.

Fortunately, it was not nearly as delayed as my original flight, and we took off about 45 minutes after the scheduled time.

It was a pretty uneventful flight, but landing in DC was just weird. I don’t know if there was just a ton of traffic or weather, but we did 4 or 5 circles around NoVA and MD that added about 20 minutes to the flight time before finally landing.

Finally we landing and I was home. Since I didn’t check a bag for this trip, it was a quick escape from the airport and into an Uber, and about 10 minutes later I was home! I love how close I live to the airport, I could actually walk there if I really wanted to, I used to run by it almost daily back when I used to actually run!

While it was a bit of a stressful travel day (per usual), it was so nice to finally be home! After a few minutes of unpacking I headed out again to pick up my dog from boarding. Always so great to come back to the furry ones, love how overjoyed they are to see me again!

So while a short trip, it was a lot of fun, and it was just so nice to finally travel again. Big bonus of this trip is it gave me some ideas of how to handle our upcoming trip with the lack of FP+ and things still being closed. One of my favorite suggestions for this next trip is our “slow” park mornings, where we don’t bother with rides but instead take in the atmosphere, get some photopass pics, shop a bit, and really just slow down. I’m more excited about those mornings than our rush to rides mornings!​

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

Thanks for sharing your trip!

 

[Wood Nymph]

So I decided to keep refreshing and hope that maybe someone would cancel, and amazingly, after a few refreshes a seat opened up! By this point we were pulling into the airport so I rushed to get my credit card info in and book the ticket before we had to get off the bus.

I made it within seconds of the bus arriving, phew!

That's lucky that you were able to get the JetBlue flight. I can understand wanting to get home at the end of a trip, no matter how nice the trip was. Were you able to get a refund from AA?

 

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I can't believe it, todays the day! The day I will likely be stuck sitting in the airport for hours on end due to flight delays!

Seriously though, the weather looks kinda bad today for getting into FL, fingers crossed it moves out quickly! If not, well, at least I'm used to being delayed.

I just can't wait to get down there, I am so ready for this trip! ​

 

[Chief Powhatan]

Have a great trip!

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

I can't believe it, todays the day! The day I will likely be stuck sitting in the airport for hours on end due to flight delays!

Good Luck!!! And have a great time!

 

[kclark9830]

Hope your trip is great!

 

[2xcited2sleep]

Yikes - you and your travel drama. Hope this trip had none of that. Looking forward to hearing all about it!

 

[VAtink]

Have a great trip!

Thank you! It was such a great trip, can't wait to get around to writing about it!

Good Luck!!! And have a great time!

Thank you, all the good luck worked, my flight actually took off on time AND landed on time!

Hope your trip is great!

Thank you! It was so awesome, we had such a great time!

Yikes - you and your travel drama. Hope this trip had none of that. Looking forward to hearing all about it!

Haha, seriously, good news is the flight down was at least drama free!

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

Thank you, all the good luck worked, my flight actually took off on time AND landed on time!

Maybe the start of a new trend for you!

 

[Wood Nymph]

So we were at the Portland, Maine airport last Thursday, waiting for our flight back to Chicago - Midway on Southwest. It was the last flight out of the airport. There was a United flight to Chicago - O'Hare that was scheduled for an hour before our flight but had been delayed. The United jet hadn't even left New Jersey and they weren't sure when it would arrive in Portland. Needless to say, I thought about you when our Southwest flight filled up with former United passengers.

 

[valerie160]

Finally we landing and I was home. Since I didn’t check a bag for this trip, it was a quick escape from the airport and into an Uber, and about 10 minutes later I was home! I love how close I live to the airport, I could actually walk there if I really wanted to, I used to run by it almost daily back when I used to actually run!

DCA or IAD? We're about 10 min from IAD. Hello from Ashburn

 

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Maybe the start of a new trend for you!

Hopefully, that would be amazing! (although my flight back from Orlando was delayed again so maybe short lived!)

 

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So we were at the Portland, Maine airport last Thursday, waiting for our flight back to Chicago - Midway on Southwest. It was the last flight out of the airport. There was a United flight to Chicago - O'Hare that was scheduled for an hour before our flight but had been delayed. The United jet hadn't even left New Jersey and they weren't sure when it would arrive in Portland. Needless to say, I thought about you when our Southwest flight filled up with former United passengers.

Haha, yup, that sounds like something that would happen to me, and I would 100% be one of those people getting on the Southwest flight instead!

 

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DCA or IAD? We're about 10 min from IAD. Hello from Ashburn

DCA, I'm in Alexandria now, but I used to live in Loudoun County and loved how easy it was to get to IAD!