April 10, 2011

• The Trip to Disney: Day One

  A few weeks ago, I was on a walk. I do some of my best thinking on walks. And what I was thinking was this: “Hey, it’s my mom’s 60th birthday in April. We should take another mother/daughter trip–someplace NOT involving a ship!” Since her favorite place is Disney World and I have not been there since I was 16, I thought this might be the perfect trip! I pulled out my cell phone.

  “Hey, Mom. Do you want to go to Disney for your birthday?”

  She laughed. “Yeah, that would be great.”

  I went on, “I was thinking we could go the week after your birthday, and we could…”

  She interrupted, “Wait, are you serious?”

  When she realized I was serious and when both husbands agreed, we booked our hotel, a reservation at her favorite Disney restaurant, and our flights. (This was all done less than four hours after the idea was first proposed!)  We began the countdown to TODAY! The day we leave for Disney!

  Our flight was to leave State College at 7:00 with a connection in Philadelphia. Mom arrived at my house at 5:00, and we headed out. We stopped at Subway, planning to enjoy a leisurely meal at the airport. And we did!

  (That’s Lindt dark chocolate with Sea Salt, a wonderful dessert for a Chicken Teriaki sub!)

  

   

  Mom brought some cookies from home. I really, really wanted to eat the raisin-filled cookie, but instead, I decided to pack it, joking all the while that it would be smashed when we got to Disney! (See me holding it?)

  

   

  Then we noticed that our plane wasn’t in the terminal. Hmmm. It was supposed to leave at 7:00, and it WAS 7:00, and no plane. I spoke to a security guard who checked with the ticket agents who assured us that we would make our connecting flight. Not to worry! (Take note, kids. This is foreshadowing!)  So, we passed the time reading celebrity magazines.

   

  

   

  We waited. And waited. And waited. And we found out Catherine Zeta-Jones is younger than Jennifer Aniston. And Janelle the Teen Mom star never got into a fight before where she beat someone up–except with her family!

  Our flight FINALLY left, only 45 minutes late! Considering we only had 40 minutes to make our connecting flight, we were not hopeful. But the stewardess (who had the oddest accent I have ever heard, never could place it. African? Asian? She was a blue-eyed blonde.) assured us that we could PROBABLY make our flight! If we hurried, of course. Even though we’d be landing in Terminal F, and our gate was B11. Just run for the shuttle bus!

  We landed, and all of the passengers stampeded from the propeller plane. We looked like the Luggage Special Olympics. (I could take the gold in rolling suitcase, laptop in bag banging against my front, camera case banging against my back 2000 yard dash!) We finally got to the shuttle bus with a bunch of other breathless passengers and watched as we drove by our gate.

  “There’s our plane!” I said!

  “There’s the loading tube being unhooked from our plane,” said my mom.

  We were sad. 

  When we finally got off the shuttle, we asked the first ticket lady we saw about our flight. “You might be able to make it still if you hurry!”  Now, why we believed this woman when we SAW the loading thingie no longer attached to the plane, I will never know. But we RAN!  And RAN! AND RAN! Finally, we arrived at a very deserted Gate B11. And then we arrived at US Air Customer Service.  They got us the next flight out–Monday at 6:52 am. Sigh. Mom was NOT happy. We still have to pay for our night of hotel at Disney so we don’t lose our reservation, and WHERE is our luggage? 

  She looks bemused in this picture because she had amused herself by making a rude hand gesture just before I snapped the picture.

  

  But the airline put us up in a Ramada Inn with shuttle service. No food, no free flight, but at least we have beds!

  We are now in our hotel room with free internet and decaf tea. And I have that raisin-filled cookie!  But, we won’t get to Disney until at least noon. Pout.

  

  • 10:19 pm
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