Cast: Julee, 27 (AKA Happy) 1st trip to WDW. John, 29 (AKA Grumpy) 1st trip to WDW
(Noteâ¦some of this may not make sense if you havenâÂÂt read my Prologue post)
Saturday, Nov. 11
The day before our trip I was excited but all the last minute details seemed like such a chore. I began questioning if we should really be going. What was I thinking? We shouldnâÂÂt go. I never finished finalizing all the plans. I shouldnâÂÂt be spending the money. WhatâÂÂs John going to do about a job? What if something happens to my grandmother while IâÂÂm gone? Will John and I get along on the trip? Despite all the things against us, I decided I have waiting too long to go and that it would be worse if I stayed home and sulked.
To take a step back for a minute, it wasnâÂÂt until about a week before our trip that I remembered that our flight was leaving out of ChicagoâÂÂs OâÂÂHare airport at 6:45am. John and I are definitely NOT morning people. I guess I wanted to get in every minute of Disney time I could. We would have to be up at 3:30am and out of the apartment by 5:00am to give us enough time. And on top of that because this was so early we couldnâÂÂt ask any of our friends to drive us. Since I was short on funds I wasnâÂÂt thrilled to have to pay for a cab, but we didnâÂÂt have much choice. I donâÂÂt know what I was thinking.
Remarkably enough John started to ask some questions about the vacation he silently prayed would go away for so long. I think he started to feel bad that I was so stressed. I spent all day Saturday doing laundry and packing. I tend to REALLY over-pack and this trip was no exception. By the time I was done with it, my suitcase must have weighed 65lbs. I wanted to make sure I had plenty of clothing options since I really didnâÂÂt know what to expect as far as weather. I knew it is usually in the 70âÂÂs in November, but with the way my luck was going I figured Florida would end up having a heat wave or an arctic blizzard would blow into town just as we arrived. My over-packing ended up paying off because the weather was kind of wacky when we were there.
Luckily our friend Rick agreed to stop by daily and feed our 2 cats while we were gone. They both knew something was up and I started to feel guilty when they both kept trying to climb into my suitcase while I packed.
Sunday Nov. 12 (Day 1)
I was in bed by 11:00pm only to be awoken quite easily 4 ý hours later by my alarm clock. My worst fear was sleeping through my 2 alarms (which IâÂÂve been known to do) and missing our flight. Luckily this didnâÂÂt happen and we were off to the airport by 5:15am.
We checked in at the gate and I was surprised by the lack of children on our flight. I had been used to flying ATA and Southwest, but I got a great deal on American Airlines. I canâÂÂt believe the difference in comfort between these airlines! I flew ATA about a month prior to this trip and it was the most uncomfortable flight IâÂÂd ever been on due to lack of leg room. On America I could cross my legs! I didnâÂÂt want to leave the plane! However that feeling quickly passed as we landed in Orlando.
We picked up my suitcase from baggage claim. JohnâÂÂs was small enough to carry on, but IâÂÂm lucky they didnâÂÂt have to charter a separate flight to get mine there. John is such a gentleman. He carriedâ¦ok rolledâ¦my bag all the way to the car rental counter only complaining 350 times. What more could I ask for? We picked up our nifty little âÂÂ$149 for 9 days economy rentalâ from National. I expected a Geo or something very compact but we ended up with a silver Mitsubishi Mirage with a CD player. We were able to pick the economy car of our choice off the lot. I thought this was something that was only for Emerald Isle customers, but I guess not.
We made the journey to WDW and I squealed with glee when I saw the gates adorned with Mickey and Donald. At that moment John knew it was going to be a very long 9 days. After all the months of planning and waiting and stress (we are going, we arenâÂÂt going, we are going) I couldnâÂÂt believe we were actually at WALT DISNEY WORLD!
(Noteâ¦some of this may not make sense if you havenâÂÂt read my Prologue post)
Saturday, Nov. 11
The day before our trip I was excited but all the last minute details seemed like such a chore. I began questioning if we should really be going. What was I thinking? We shouldnâÂÂt go. I never finished finalizing all the plans. I shouldnâÂÂt be spending the money. WhatâÂÂs John going to do about a job? What if something happens to my grandmother while IâÂÂm gone? Will John and I get along on the trip? Despite all the things against us, I decided I have waiting too long to go and that it would be worse if I stayed home and sulked.
To take a step back for a minute, it wasnâÂÂt until about a week before our trip that I remembered that our flight was leaving out of ChicagoâÂÂs OâÂÂHare airport at 6:45am. John and I are definitely NOT morning people. I guess I wanted to get in every minute of Disney time I could. We would have to be up at 3:30am and out of the apartment by 5:00am to give us enough time. And on top of that because this was so early we couldnâÂÂt ask any of our friends to drive us. Since I was short on funds I wasnâÂÂt thrilled to have to pay for a cab, but we didnâÂÂt have much choice. I donâÂÂt know what I was thinking.
Remarkably enough John started to ask some questions about the vacation he silently prayed would go away for so long. I think he started to feel bad that I was so stressed. I spent all day Saturday doing laundry and packing. I tend to REALLY over-pack and this trip was no exception. By the time I was done with it, my suitcase must have weighed 65lbs. I wanted to make sure I had plenty of clothing options since I really didnâÂÂt know what to expect as far as weather. I knew it is usually in the 70âÂÂs in November, but with the way my luck was going I figured Florida would end up having a heat wave or an arctic blizzard would blow into town just as we arrived. My over-packing ended up paying off because the weather was kind of wacky when we were there.
Luckily our friend Rick agreed to stop by daily and feed our 2 cats while we were gone. They both knew something was up and I started to feel guilty when they both kept trying to climb into my suitcase while I packed.
Sunday Nov. 12 (Day 1)
I was in bed by 11:00pm only to be awoken quite easily 4 ý hours later by my alarm clock. My worst fear was sleeping through my 2 alarms (which IâÂÂve been known to do) and missing our flight. Luckily this didnâÂÂt happen and we were off to the airport by 5:15am.
We checked in at the gate and I was surprised by the lack of children on our flight. I had been used to flying ATA and Southwest, but I got a great deal on American Airlines. I canâÂÂt believe the difference in comfort between these airlines! I flew ATA about a month prior to this trip and it was the most uncomfortable flight IâÂÂd ever been on due to lack of leg room. On America I could cross my legs! I didnâÂÂt want to leave the plane! However that feeling quickly passed as we landed in Orlando.
We picked up my suitcase from baggage claim. JohnâÂÂs was small enough to carry on, but IâÂÂm lucky they didnâÂÂt have to charter a separate flight to get mine there. John is such a gentleman. He carriedâ¦ok rolledâ¦my bag all the way to the car rental counter only complaining 350 times. What more could I ask for? We picked up our nifty little âÂÂ$149 for 9 days economy rentalâ from National. I expected a Geo or something very compact but we ended up with a silver Mitsubishi Mirage with a CD player. We were able to pick the economy car of our choice off the lot. I thought this was something that was only for Emerald Isle customers, but I guess not.
We made the journey to WDW and I squealed with glee when I saw the gates adorned with Mickey and Donald. At that moment John knew it was going to be a very long 9 days. After all the months of planning and waiting and stress (we are going, we arenâÂÂt going, we are going) I couldnâÂÂt believe we were actually at WALT DISNEY WORLD!
