What? Another WDW trip? Yeah this is my 4th on 4 years (including a Disney Cruise).
Now.. The Participants on the adventure:
My mother dearest. For companion purposes.
My niece and goddaughter (and the reason of why this trip)
My nephew (he had to tag along with his sister)
Anyway, It was the 15th Birthday of my Niece (I am her godfather). The 15th is the equivalent of the sweet 16th on the USA. Very important and sort of a "passing age" rite. She gets a huge party and stuff.
And I offered her a trip to UNI's Harry Potter lands (she's a big fan, infact she looks a lot like Hermione IRL). And also added a "side" trip to WDW on the offer.
Total of 9 days at WDW (5 days at WDW, 3 at Uni, with 1 day of rest and 2 of "sleepovers" for the airline movement.
After planning this trip for a year or so.
2 weeks before the trip.. Surprise!
We started with the WRONG FOOT (thank you American Airlines for f*.. things up so many times).
First.. they "canceled" my reservation. Which I didn't. No reason, no Explanation, no phone call, no email, nothing.
Had to call my reservation company so they could fix it. And they claimed American Airlines canceled it for "protection" because my flight was changed (aka numbers changed, hours changed.. minimally).
I had to make a huge bunch of calls, emails, and a lot of anger to finally fix it up.. Except for one thing.
The Flight was almost booked solid and had barely space left (scattered). Not to mention I had
purchased "premium" seats. And they told me I had to do a separate complain and wait until they return the money. (they claim it might take months.. not fun.. I'm still waiting).
So, Our trip starts on the 30th of December. Departing from PVR (Puerto Vallarta International Airport to Dallas Forth Worth).
We got ready and all.. and.. another stone...
Plane was delayed by a "programming error". The dispatched plane that was going to serve the route.. was 1 hour late.
This was critical, because we would be missing our connection flight.
American Airlines again sets my second flight into "canceled" mode for "protections so I could rebook". (wthell is wrong with them?)..
In the end, the flight was only 40 minutes late.. and the plane had zero delays inflight, so the total delay when we arrived to Forth Worth, was mere 20minutes.
So we passed immigration (fast.. it was empty! how different from Houston which is always packed), picked our bags and headed to get some information.
They recommended us to NOT try to get to the plane.. I insisted we could made it (it was just a block away). The woman politely tried but the computer refused to print new passes.
I was beyond furious at this point... We would miss our POR reservation.
And they only gave us skimpy vouchers and a cheap suite hotel for the night...As we got booked for tomorrow's earliest flight of 7:00 am.
Also got us premium seats in the next flight. We will still be separated due to the mess up.
Then they gave us instructions to wait for the "shuttle".
So we walked and walked and walked until we found the exit area where the Shuttles were.
It was very cold for us (PVR is always above 20C) and It was a mere 6C that day (with thermal feeling of 3C thanks to wind).
We waited.. and waited.. and waited.. 45 minutes later.. finally arrived. We got to the hotel, made preparations, we got separated suites.. the kids in one and my mother and I in another.
We took a shower.. and then we proceeded to order some food. Found out that only Domino's supports the vouchers at the moment. So we had to settle with default pizzas.
It was funny, because they called us via phone that the pizza was ready (30 mins later). We got down to pick it up.. we didn't find him, we got back up.. and the gentleman was waiting by our door.
We paid.. ate and prepared to sleep. It was going to be a very short sleep ( as we had to wake up at 4:30 to get the 5:00 shuttle, so it arrives at 5:20-5:30 to the airport).
So we did.. There was a mess up because my nephew ALWAYS takes way too much time making baggage( no seriously, we told him to be ready BEFORE going to sleep). Then he forgot his wallet somewhere and had to return when the shuttle was about to depart.
Thankfully the shuttle waited for him and turns out he had the wallet.. in his sister's bag. :|
I facepalmed and we got in our way.
The airport line wasnt troublesome as we had TSA-PRE. My nephew still was randomly selected for a search and that slowed down us a bit.
We then headed to our Gate and had time to buy some food.
My mother and I settled for "mexican food" (that was nothing like mexican food at all). A Giant burrito mixed with eggs and who knows what else (lol). It was good, but too big.
The kids got fried shrimp and chicken from Popeye's.
So.. we finally departed Dallas for Orlando (phew!).
The flight was pretty uneventful... We arrived at around 10 am... We ran to pick our bags and we headed to the Disney Magical Express. During this moment of moving bags.. I had a "bad moment" and damaged one of my nails (with blood and all).
Quickly patched it up and to the bus we went!
Its always amazing to see how much improvements they are doing to the roads.
Also a joy to finally reach the Walt Disney World archways and enter the Disney World area!.
Sadly, we missed our POR reservation, but we had 5 days of DVC at Old Key West.
They gave us a chance to check in a bit early and gave us our magicbands.. (which strangely were all grey instead of the colors we asked... the clerk happily got colored bands for each of us and when we had one of the bellboys drive us with their golf like kart to our room).
We were pretty far away.. ( Turtle Pond area). but the place was beautiful!. The room was AMAZING and with tons of space!.
We quickly made decisions of where each one will sleep.
And since it was her 15th birthday gift..
My Niece got the big main room. My nephew wanted to sleep on the kitchen area.
and my mom and I settled on the Doubles room.
We settled up, left our bags, changed our stuff.. and We went Straight for Epcot.
We had reservations for Coral Reef. So..
We took the Disney bus at Turtle Pond's Station.. and To Epcot We go!
Now.. The Participants on the adventure:
My mother dearest. For companion purposes.
My niece and goddaughter (and the reason of why this trip)
My nephew (he had to tag along with his sister)
Anyway, It was the 15th Birthday of my Niece (I am her godfather). The 15th is the equivalent of the sweet 16th on the USA. Very important and sort of a "passing age" rite. She gets a huge party and stuff.
And I offered her a trip to UNI's Harry Potter lands (she's a big fan, infact she looks a lot like Hermione IRL). And also added a "side" trip to WDW on the offer.
Total of 9 days at WDW (5 days at WDW, 3 at Uni, with 1 day of rest and 2 of "sleepovers" for the airline movement.
After planning this trip for a year or so.
2 weeks before the trip.. Surprise!
We started with the WRONG FOOT (thank you American Airlines for f*.. things up so many times).
First.. they "canceled" my reservation. Which I didn't. No reason, no Explanation, no phone call, no email, nothing.
Had to call my reservation company so they could fix it. And they claimed American Airlines canceled it for "protection" because my flight was changed (aka numbers changed, hours changed.. minimally).
I had to make a huge bunch of calls, emails, and a lot of anger to finally fix it up.. Except for one thing.
The Flight was almost booked solid and had barely space left (scattered). Not to mention I had
purchased "premium" seats. And they told me I had to do a separate complain and wait until they return the money. (they claim it might take months.. not fun.. I'm still waiting).
So, Our trip starts on the 30th of December. Departing from PVR (Puerto Vallarta International Airport to Dallas Forth Worth).
We got ready and all.. and.. another stone...
Plane was delayed by a "programming error". The dispatched plane that was going to serve the route.. was 1 hour late.
This was critical, because we would be missing our connection flight.
American Airlines again sets my second flight into "canceled" mode for "protections so I could rebook". (wthell is wrong with them?)..
In the end, the flight was only 40 minutes late.. and the plane had zero delays inflight, so the total delay when we arrived to Forth Worth, was mere 20minutes.
So we passed immigration (fast.. it was empty! how different from Houston which is always packed), picked our bags and headed to get some information.
They recommended us to NOT try to get to the plane.. I insisted we could made it (it was just a block away). The woman politely tried but the computer refused to print new passes.
I was beyond furious at this point... We would miss our POR reservation.
And they only gave us skimpy vouchers and a cheap suite hotel for the night...As we got booked for tomorrow's earliest flight of 7:00 am.
Also got us premium seats in the next flight. We will still be separated due to the mess up.
Then they gave us instructions to wait for the "shuttle".
So we walked and walked and walked until we found the exit area where the Shuttles were.
It was very cold for us (PVR is always above 20C) and It was a mere 6C that day (with thermal feeling of 3C thanks to wind).
We waited.. and waited.. and waited.. 45 minutes later.. finally arrived. We got to the hotel, made preparations, we got separated suites.. the kids in one and my mother and I in another.
We took a shower.. and then we proceeded to order some food. Found out that only Domino's supports the vouchers at the moment. So we had to settle with default pizzas.
It was funny, because they called us via phone that the pizza was ready (30 mins later). We got down to pick it up.. we didn't find him, we got back up.. and the gentleman was waiting by our door.
We paid.. ate and prepared to sleep. It was going to be a very short sleep ( as we had to wake up at 4:30 to get the 5:00 shuttle, so it arrives at 5:20-5:30 to the airport).
So we did.. There was a mess up because my nephew ALWAYS takes way too much time making baggage( no seriously, we told him to be ready BEFORE going to sleep). Then he forgot his wallet somewhere and had to return when the shuttle was about to depart.
Thankfully the shuttle waited for him and turns out he had the wallet.. in his sister's bag. :|
I facepalmed and we got in our way.
The airport line wasnt troublesome as we had TSA-PRE. My nephew still was randomly selected for a search and that slowed down us a bit.
We then headed to our Gate and had time to buy some food.
My mother and I settled for "mexican food" (that was nothing like mexican food at all). A Giant burrito mixed with eggs and who knows what else (lol). It was good, but too big.
The kids got fried shrimp and chicken from Popeye's.
So.. we finally departed Dallas for Orlando (phew!).
The flight was pretty uneventful... We arrived at around 10 am... We ran to pick our bags and we headed to the Disney Magical Express. During this moment of moving bags.. I had a "bad moment" and damaged one of my nails (with blood and all).
Quickly patched it up and to the bus we went!
Its always amazing to see how much improvements they are doing to the roads.
Also a joy to finally reach the Walt Disney World archways and enter the Disney World area!.
Sadly, we missed our POR reservation, but we had 5 days of DVC at Old Key West.
They gave us a chance to check in a bit early and gave us our magicbands.. (which strangely were all grey instead of the colors we asked... the clerk happily got colored bands for each of us and when we had one of the bellboys drive us with their golf like kart to our room).
We were pretty far away.. ( Turtle Pond area). but the place was beautiful!. The room was AMAZING and with tons of space!.
We quickly made decisions of where each one will sleep.
And since it was her 15th birthday gift..
My Niece got the big main room. My nephew wanted to sleep on the kitchen area.
and my mom and I settled on the Doubles room.
We settled up, left our bags, changed our stuff.. and We went Straight for Epcot.
We had reservations for Coral Reef. So..
We took the Disney bus at Turtle Pond's Station.. and To Epcot We go!
