Saturday, April 27th
Our flight was scheduled to leave Saturday morning at 11:06AM. I asked our pet sitter to arrive at 8AM so that we could go over some last minute details over caring for our dog, Pippy, and two cats, Littles and Misha. I was happy to find her after our previous sitter moved out of the area and my friend had to cancel for work reasons. She was able to stay with them a lot during the day because of her class schedule.
Here is my furbaby, Pippy, age 12.5 years. I came close to losing him 4 years ago after he had a bad reaction to a vaccine that caused a brain issue called meningoencephelitis. So I've been very over protective of this little fluffball, who is totally my doggie soulmate! Love him to pieces!!! The older he gets, the more guilt I feel over leaving him for extended periods of time. Especially since stress can aggravate his brain issue and makes mobility more difficult.
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This is Mom's cat, Littles, who is now close to 16. Mom rescued him as a kitten and bottle fed him. I didn't think he would last long after Mom died but he's still going strong. He was angry at me in this picture because I wouldn't let him get on my lap.
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This chunky monkey is Misha, age 14. I rescued her from the shelter for my Mom after her other cat died. She's a total sweetheart but still a pain in my butt. She's on a diet but you wouldn't think it to look at her. She lives for naps and food.
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The pet sitter arrived on time and we were out the door by 8:30AM, even though I was running a little bit late. We only live 40 minutes from the Richmond airport so it was an easy drive there. I don't know why anyone would assume I'm on my way to a Disney vacation....
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His car had a message that he had low tire pressure. Being way out in the country, we aren't near a gas station so we had to drive 30 minutes to the nearest station and fill the tire. Luckily, it's on the way to the airport! While waiting for that, I remembered that I left my muscle relaxers back home. I've been having issues with my neck and wanted to bring them with me in case I had any issues. Oops, fingers crossed for no issues but I know now that I'll be avoiding certain rides.
We lucked out at the airport when we chose the North parking garage because it turned out to be right at the JetBlue luggage claim that would make our arrival back home much easier. We were able to park on the ground floor so we were able to walk right in. Richmond is a smaller airport, with a great layout, so check in was a breeze, TSA pre check was easy peasy, and soon we were at our gate with over an hour to spare. My husband and I prefer to be early and wait instead of leaving later and risking something going wrong - like low tire pressure LOL.
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I tried to not take my anxiety pills this trip for the flight but right before boarding the husband made me take a pill. Glad he did too!! R was unhappy there wasn't a McDonalds in the airport for his breakfast and he refused to pay $5 for a non-Disney muffin. So he had to wait until we checked into our resort to eat. I remembered to take a Sudafed to help prevent the ear pain I experienced during my first flight. So that and EarPlanes really do help me.
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Our plane arrived and soon we were boarding. I like being towards the back of the plane to be closer to the bathroom (nervous bladder here!!!) and JetBlue used to load from the back to front which was a very smooth process. But they changed it from back of plane window, to middle, to aisle, etc as you go up the plane. We were in Group C and it was just a cluster. People in the middle of the plane trying to put their carry on in overhead compartment, preventing others from getting to the back of the plane. I'm not a fan of the change. But we still managed to leave 10 minutes ahead of schedule. Because we had high winds from the storms the day before, take off was horrible. R said it was the worst he's ever experienced. I was listening to Marconi Union's song Weightless to try to relax. It works wonders for me! About an hour into the flight, the kid behind me started kicking and hitting the back of the seat. The family did nothing. So I said something loudly to my husband so that the family could hear me and then the grandmother told him to stop. Really? You have to be told that him hitting the seat is obnoxious before you tell him to stop? I don't know anyone who wants to experience that so it's just a common sense no brainer to me. The flight attendant arrived with snacks and drinks and I discovered this delicious little snack.
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I was happy to discover these in our grocery store when we got back. And this is a good reminder to me to share one of the changes in this trip. I've been having health issues, which the doctors couldn't diagnose. Turns out I'm gluten sensitive - I'm not celiac but gluten causes severe bone and joint pain in my legs and horrible bloating. My glucose level is high, which was causing the nerve pain in my feet, and my gallbladder isn't functioning properly so I have to avoid fatty foods. And all of this happened soon before our trip. So going into Disney, I'm having to be gluten free, no dairy, low fat, low sugar, low carbs. I was having a difficult time adjusting to this new, forced upon me diet, and I wasn't sure how I well I would do sticking to this diet with all the temptations of Disney. Stick around to find out how I did
We approached MCO and had another bad experience landing because of the wind and the pilot turning sharply to line up with the runway. If this was my first ever flight, I don't think I would've ever flown again. It was that bad. R was extremely nauseous so I made him take a Bonine was we landed and I could get to it. He thought having the middle seat is what made it worse. He usually gets the window and I get the aisle but because JetBlue was stupid and went from 2 seats to 3 someone had to have the middle and I need the aisle to help with my claustrophobia. We were supposed to land at 1:11PM but made it at 12:55PM. Yay for arriving early!
It took forever to get off the plane and I had to use the bathroom so bad. Because the flight was horrible with turbulence, I could never get up and use the restroom on the plane. Eventually, we made our way to Magical Express. There weren't long lines at all. We had just missed a bus and had to wait for another bus to Caribbean Beach Resort.
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It was in this line that I got hit in the head with a man with a backpack for the first time
It never fails to happen. And also the first experience this trip with people having absolutely no self awareness. It's one of the things that affected my trip this time despite my best efforts to think positive. This was the offending backpack.
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While waiting for another DME bus, we got a text that our room was ready. After about 30 minutes a bus came and soon we were off. We stopped at AoA where only 2 families got off. Then it was off to our resort where we would be spending the next 2 nights.....