Our Disney Trip : Travel Day

If you were to ask someone how they read a book, I guess most people would say "From the beginning. Duh." Or maybe their response would be "From page one" or maybe "From Chapter One". A few years ago that might have been my answer too. But now I would answer "At the dedications and acknowledgement page." Or maybe even "The Table of Contents". Surely many people skip those and jump right to the heart of the story. Still, I think that any good story has a story behind the story. An author will often set the tone for the pages that follow the opening pages. I figure if they take the time to include it in their book, shouldn't we take the time to read it.

Such is the case with our trip to Disney. Isn't there always a story behind the story?  For those who know me and Tony well, it comes no surprise that we are planners. We booked our trip months ago, with our park restaurant reservations, condo/hotel booking and flights firmly in place. It's always the last minute details I find to be the most stressful.  Honestly, for me I felt the stress begin to creep in about a month before our trip when Elise started to present with upper respiratory symptoms. Sadly, she rarely goes two months between illnesses and with her compromised immunity, it is almost always turns into a bacterial infection needing antibiotics. The good news is that she was getting this illness out of the way in enough time to get really sick and to be on (and off) the prescribed drugs before our trip. Or so you would think. Three trips to the doctor in three weeks and three separate prescriptions for antibiotics later, she finally recovered. (Running 104 degree fever five days before our trip after two solid weeks on prescription drugs had me stressed to say the least). True enough, the pink stuff was going to go to Disney with us, but alas, her coughing was minimum and she was mostly healthy. During that medical fiasco I found myself visiting my beloved eye doctor not once but twice fighting not one, but two , separate eye infections. Packed alongside Elise's pink antibiotics would be my eye drops. Swell.  But, alas, we're off and running and pumped for a GREAT vacation.

With the crazy week of cleaning, shopping, errand running, bill paying and packing behind us, my dad drives us to the airport without a hitch. Plane was on time and we're all pleased with how stress-free our trip is so far. The kids are equally enthusiastic about their first ever plane ride. Well, actually, it was Adam's second. We flew to Arizona to visit Bil and Thel Keane of the Family Circus cartoon when he was 14 months old. But that really doesn't count, right?  The flight attendant catches wind of it being their first flight and even welcomes them aboard by name over the loud speaker.  It truly was a great start. The flight itself was a little bumpy--literally. As we left St. Louis we approached some inclement weather the closer we get to Georgia, which was from where we were catching our connecting flight. Turbulence rocked the plane pretty steadily the entire flight. The good news is the kids were none the wiser. As far as they knew, it was par for the course. For me and Tony... well, we hoped it wasn't Oceanic Flight 815 all over again. 

Fortunately, we had plenty of time to walk to another concourse to catch our second flight.  The bad news is that our second flight was delayed. At first it was only by about 45 minutes. But over the course of time, the delays mounted to 3 1/2 hours. Ugh! The torrential rains in Orlando was not helping matters. Frustrations mounted for me and the kids. Our proposed time-line was perfect. Reach Orlando around 3 p.m. and drive to our condo,  do a little grocery shopping as a family to stock our kitchen for breakfasts and snacks in the park and in the evenings, and a nice first dinner to kick off the trip. Ahh, perfection. But it was what it was and now our flight was arriving around 6:30 in the evening. So much for our plans. Still, we plod forward and reach our destination albeit tired and hungry. Enter condo check in.  Picking up a bucket of chicken for dinner, we drive to the resort. The first mistake is that we wait in the car while Tony picked up the keys. With three very hungry peeps waiting on him, Tony is taking FOREVER! The aroma of KFC is wafting through the car. The kids beg to eat while we're waiting but its a rental car and eating greasy fast food chicken in the car may not be wise. I don't want to own the car when we're done paying the fine for grease stains. I tell the kids that it should only be another minute. After all, he's already been gone 20 minutes. After 30 minutes and a whole lot of impatient glances in the rear view mirror looking for him, I finally call him. It is 8 p.m. and did I mention we are tired and hungry?? Ten more minutes and Tony's back in the car. They were trying to sell him a time share. What?? We're using a time share that we own....well,  more to the point, Tony's parents own, which I guess is the fact that they were blissfully aware. SALE...DOLLAR SIGNS....STUPID.  All kind of things they must have seen when we stepped foot on their property. Sadly, Tony is kind and wasn't forceful enough to put an end to their sales pitch. Apparently a family in the car didn't matter to them. Back at you, stupid salespeople. Thanks. I feel better getting that off my chest.

The night ends pleasantly enough. We ate and unpacked, marveling at the beautiful condo we have for the week. Sweet. Tony takes pity on me and Elise and leaves us to get some sleep while he and Adam venture out to get our food from Wal Mart. Weather was peaceful for now, forecast was great for the week. Despite a few bumps in the road, we're off to a good start.