The Journey
Participants:
Chris, 29 years old
Michelle, 27 years old
Ben, 22 months old
Chris, Michelle and Ben's Wild Ride
Our trip began with quite an adventure. At the Kansas City airport, we boarded the plane on time, but soon we began to realize that our flight would not be taking off on time. Ten, fifteen, twenty minutes passed with not a word from the crew. Out the windows we could see various trucks driving up to the plane, but we couldn't see what the people getting out of the trucks were doing to the plane. Thirty, thirty five, forty minutes passed, still no announcement about what was going on. The longer our plane stayed at the gate, the more irate our fellow passengers were becoming. We were delighted that we had purchased a seat for Ben, because in his car seat, he became only mildly fidgety and cranky. If he had not had his own space, and had been crawling back and forth on our laps, struggling to free himself, it would have been awful.
Finally, after 50 minutes, the plane began to move. The movement seemed to cause a collective sigh from all of the passengers, and Ben seemed to relax right along with them. After we took off, the captain announced, vaguely, that he apologized for the delay, but they had to take care of a security threat. I worked hard not to let my mind wander about what that could have been. Ben fell asleep shortly after take-off and it seemed that all would be well.
Just as I began to relax and peruse the in-flight magazine's article about Steve Martin, we began to run into a little bit of turbulence. Then, the turbulence became a little bit stronger. One jolt was big enough to wake Ben, who let out a quiet, frightened "Mama," so I held him as best I could while we were both seat belted into our respective seats. Suddenly, we hit turbulence like I have never experienced before. This was the kind of turbulence that lifts you up out of your seat and makes you grateful to be wearing a seatbelt. I could tell that Chris was panicking, but I tried my best to say calming phrases to Ben. After about 20 minutes of being jolted about, things settled down. Then the captain, who truly had a way with words, came on the speaker and said, with a laugh, "Believe it or not, folks, that was the best altitude for us to get through that storm." We landed shortly after, and I overheard more than one passenger making rental car arrangements for the remainder of their journey, vowing never to fly again.
Of course, by the time we got off the plane, we were over an hour late, and we had exactly 14 minutes to make it from a gate at one extreme end of a terminal to a gate at the opposite extreme end of a terminal, at the opposite extreme end of the airport. The only way we could have had farther to go is if we had come in on an international flight.
Thank goodness for the magical train which sped our journey and entertained Ben. When we got off the train at our terminal, Chris ran ahead to the gate to tell them we were on our way, while I jogged pushing the stroller, and Ben said "Whee!" Although everyone had already boarded the plane when we arrived, the plane was still at the gate and we were able to board. We did receive the angry looks of both "Why are you late and holding up the rest of us?" and "What kind of idiot takes a toddler on a plane?" I am happy to report though, that Ben did exceptionally well on all of our flights, and at least one passenger on each flight complimented Ben on traveling well. It was rather entertaining that on the way down to Orlando, before Ben's first haircut, everyone told us "She did so well" "You should be so proud of her" and on the way back, after the haircut, everyone complimented us on "him."
As we landed in Orlando, I was delighted to see an enormous Christmas tree of lights. I knew it had to be enormous, because I could clearly see the star atop the tree while we were still in the air. It was such a festive welcome to our favorite place that I only felt a tiny bit like a traitor when driving by it we realized it was at Universal.
Boy, am I glad this is only one night
We arrived in Orlando, picked up our rental car from National, and headed to our hotel for the first night. I had not spent time on 192 since I was a child, and the little bit of time I was there only confirmed my belief that staying on site is the only way to enjoy WDW. To me, the Disney magic was entirely lacking in a strip that reminded me much more of Branson than of any of my fond memories of Disney vacations. We made a quick stop at Walgreen's for diapers and other toddler supplies, then checked into our $28 room. The room was a huge two story, two bedroom villa, but the service at the hotel was definitely $28 service. We were happy to wake up early in the morning, and depart from that hotel in order to begin our "real" vacation.