Vacation Day 1

Today was a long day but we made it to Florida! The day started at 2:30am to get ready for a 3:15am limo pick up and a 6:25am flight. The limo was right on time which was great. Too bad he was a horrible driver with a crappy mini-van. I think his tires were bald because he had no traction on the slippery roads. It was a tense drive to the airport! However we did make it without incident. The check-in line was LONG! Luckily Air Transat as a members/kids check-in. That line was only a few families long. We got through in about 20 minutes. By the time we got to the gate it was 5am. Julia was great so far. We boarded the plane at around 6am. There was a lot of freezing rain in the morning so we now had to go for de-icing before taking off. This delayed us. We finally got off the ground at 7:15. We were worried about Julia’s ears but the cabin pressure didn’t seem to bother her at all. They were popping on the way down because she kept touching them. About 30 minutes into the flight Julia was ready to get off. We had to show her that we were still flying so getting off was not going to happen. Generally she was a good girl and enjoyed the flight. The plane touched down at around 9:35am.


The ordeal at the Orlando airport was tiring to say the least. First we had to go through customs (no big deal). Then we had to collect our luggage, stroller and car seat (no big deal). Then we had to put our bags back on a luggage system to be taken to the main terminal! We had our bags for about 3 minutes! We then proceed to security! Shoes off, metal detector, the whole works. The security check was more thorough than before we got on the plane. Odd. Then we get on a tram to the main terminal then walk a million miles to the baggage claim. Then we claim our stuff for a second time. By now it is past 11am! We landed at 9:35am for Pete’s sake! Now off we go to the car rental. Big line again! We get through that line and to the car by 11:45am. The car is nice. A brand new Toyota Highlander. Now finally off to the Disney hotel!
I hook up my new GPS gadget (we call her Gertie) and Gertie promptly sends us around the airport 2 times! We realize that the roads are too close together and overlap too much at the airport which confuses the gps system. We abandon it in favour of road signs until we get out of the airport area. Now Julia is screaming “I need to go pee pee! Pee pee is coming out!”. She is serious. I can tell by the decibel level of her screams. Now I’m nervous. I’m not exactly confident in Gertie’s directions, we are on toll roads which means stopping to pay tolls and Julia is really screaming. Very stressful. We found a McDonalds just in time. We stayed for lunch and then headed for the hotel. We got to the hotel at 1pm. Yeah! And our room is NOT ready! We are tired and cranky with no place to go. We took a stroll around the hotel and ended up going for a swim (Julia was very convincing) until our room was ready. Julia loved the pool. She was having fun now.
After settling into our room we took a short drive to a Walgreens for some drinks and snacks for the room (Gertie performed flawlessly!). Julia was really cranky at this point! “I want Goldfish! I want Goldfish! I’ll stop screaming if you give me some Goldfish!”. She finally dozed off in the car at 4:30pm. Not bad; up for 14 hours on 5 hours of sleep. We get back to the hotel and Julia has awoken and is screaming again. This was a major freak out! It lasted for a couple of hours (“Take me out of here! I want to go home now!”). Finally, after several Max and Ruby videos, she went to bed at 7pm. The day was a bit crazy but Julia did better than I expected so I was pleased about that. Aside from the odd hours and lack of sleep, Julia is a very good traveler.

Tomorrow we are going to Magic Kingdom.

What a day. And just imagine, our original plan was to go Disney today.