So the plane finally took off, after two cancelled flights and a major delay. The boys loved the exerience of flying. I will admit the two little Ms have always been great travelers. They sleep on long car rides; they give plenty of notice when a pit stop is needed; and they only ask a dozen times how much longer the trip will take.
This experience was a test even for them. Once we landed in Miami at 1:00am, our connecting flight had already taken off. Since the airline frowns on boarding passengers mid-flight, they booked us on a flight later that day at 4:30 in the afternoon! It was only a 3 hour drive, so why wait 14 hours for a flight that might be full. Due to the weather in the north and flights being rerouted, cancelled and delayed, all the hotels were full and because it was the middle of the night, most of the restaurants were closed. So while my wonderful, and extremely tired husband went to get our luggage, I sprinted to the car rental desks to find transportation to get us to the Magic Kingdom, our desired destination, before our passes began in a few short hours.
I was able to claim a minivan and have it waiting at the curb outside the baggabe claim, while my man tried to rescue our two checked suitcases from a closed baggage claim. No luck. So we drove away with the hope our clothes would be at the Orlando airport in the much later hours of the morning.
So while the boys slept in the car (and I got in a short nap), Mike drove us north. We arrived at our hotel outside the original airport at 5:30 in the morning. Our room was waiting for us, but we had to check out by 11:00. No problem. We all collapsed into the beds and awoke four hours later. Thanks to packing two changes of clothes for each of us into our carry-on bag, we all dressed in clean clothes and headed out to experience day 2 of our vacation.
We went to the Orlando airport to return the rental and cancel our flight that the airline booked us on for later that afternoon, since we were already at the destination. While I returned our pumpkin turned coach, my man went to claim our bags. Well, one of them had arrived. The suitcase with the boys clothes and all of our toiletries had missed the flight. We were promised it would be found and delivered to our resort the next morning (it did finally arrive Tuesday evening). Then we ate lunch and caught the Magic Express bus to Disney. Now for the relaxation and fun of a week filled with great food and experiences.
As furstrating as getting there was, the rest of the week was amazing. But that's the next post.
