I'm Back!!
Got back last night and had a fast & wonderful trip. Here is a run down on what happened.
Dec 16th, 845am - Met w/Disney personnel at Alaska Tkt counter to get boarding passes.
945am - We are transferred to Alaska Airlines Hanger for the unveiling ceremony.
1000am - Arrive at hanger and met other guests, Erik Lindbergh arrives. They start the ceremony with numerous speakers...then they annouce Goofy, Donald, Minnie & Mickey. 3 of the 4 arrive. A cute skit on finding Mickey. The alarm in the hanger goes off to annouce the HUGE doors opening. As they open THERE is Mickey with the light rods that guide airplanes in. In the distance you see a huge turqouise plane, as it gets closer you recognize it. Two SEA TAC Airport firetrucks facing each other shoot water thru their water cannons as an arch for the plane to go thru just before it enters the hanger. The plane comes to a stop inside the hanger and the crew disembark as Mickey cuts the captains necktie. After all confetti cannons and other celebritory (spelling??) happenings stop we got to walk around the plane and take photos.
1130am - We are transferred back to the airport and to the Alaska Airlines Terminal for departure at Gate D-12. Since this flight also has regular paying passengers it was so fun to see the kids faces as they realized they were flying on a Disneyland plane and that THE characters were also at the gate.
1200noon - The ribbon cutting ceremony with Alaska personnel and Disney plus the characters, lots of photos & balloons.
1220pm - we board the plane and in each airline seat are MM Ears to wear as the photographers come on board.
115pm - We take off about 10 minutes late due to festivities. The menu was a sandwich w/a MM Rice Krispy Treat as dessert. The take off was a little rough due to Seattle weather but.......the landing was the worst ever.
350pm - We arrived at the John Wayne Airport in Orange County just a the height of the storm that went thru the area on Dec 16th. It is safe to say that we didn't land...we arrived. Once we got luggage we were put on buses to be transferred to the DLH and a reception. This part of the trip was for travel personnel invited by Walt Disney Travel and the Parks & Resort. There were about 15 of us and Disney treated us like royalty. Once we arrived at the hotel we were given our room keys then escorted to the reception. A wonderful little dinner awaited us with cute gift bags of the tables. We were given our welcome packet and were free to go to our rooms and hit the parks.
630pm - I head to my room to discover I AM NOT ALONE !!!! I shut the door quickly and head to the front desk to request another room. The lady at the desk was so funny...she asked me why I didn't want to share my room with strangers? I told her if it had been Kurt Russell in the room we wouldn't be having this conversation. Anyway, got new room, called family, got changed into comfy clothes, and headed for Disneyland and The Haunted Mansion.
Dec 17th, 845am - Character breakfast at Goofy's Kitchen with Disney personnel and a quick farewell. We all separated to head in different directions. Since my flight left at 250pm I didn't have alot of time to get done what I wanted to do.
As I said it was a very quick trip but I had a wonderful time thanks to Alaska and WD Parks & Resorts.
To DCA Fan....you asked how I got invited on this wonderful journey. I am a travel agent and a BIG Disney fan and supporter. I sell alot, I mean ALOT of packages with WD Travel. But mainly they wanted people in the travel industry who enjoy Disney and love to sell it. I am one of those people. My office area is covered in Disney. Walt Disney Travel is a wonderful company to work with and it is nice they notice individuals in the travel business. I will try to down load some photos once they get developed. Hope my report wasn't too long and boring.
Have a Disney Day!!
:animwink:
