Trip Report Hurricanes, Foot Pains and “What The Crocs Just Happened?” Anniversary Tale – A Sept/Irma 2017 TR (COMPLETED)

So here we are again… Another amazing trip is over.

My original title for the is report was:

The Best-Laid Plans Of The Mouse & Men… because so many of our carefully thought out schedules & plans were completely turned upside down by Irma and other “forces” along the way.

However, Ross and Julia who do not share my love for Robert Burns or John Steinbeck vetoed that and came up with their own title.

Before I begin our tale, I want to express and offer our thoughts and prayers to all who suffered in Hurricane Irma as well as Harvey & Maria. There are times when I joke about the fact that we were in Florida during the hurricane, but in no way do I not realize the devastation that was caused to so many.

That being said... Let the Trip Report begin! Who’s in?

 

[Figment Forever]

I'm in!

Thanks for following!!

 

[Figment Forever]

Yay! I was waiting for a report from y'all!!

Thanks for following - I hope I don't disappoint!

 

[Figment Forever]

Yay!!!! I've been looking forward to this trip report. Following along

Thanks!!! Good to have you aboard!!

 

[Figment Forever]

I'm looking forward to reading another one of your reports!

Thanks for following!! Good to have you here!

 

[Figment Forever]

I'm in!

Thanks for following along!!!

 

[Figment Forever]

If you missed my pre-trip report, you can find it here:

https://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/to-pandora-and-beyond.929932/

Our cast of characters… (in case you forgot)

Me: Mary aka mom - The original Disney fanatic among us.

Ross – Dad. My crazy and sometimes really annoying husband who I officially diagnosed with Autism during this trip because I decided he has more issues than Hope sometimes.

We were celebrating our 25th anniversary this trip. Well… I was celebrating – Ross didn’t want to have anything to do with wearing a button.

Julia – my highly stressed teenager who still doesn’t mind hanging around her parents who must embarrass her a lot. She also wants to be called Kindo - a nickname she likes.

Hope – My little, Disney obsessed, princess diagnosed with severe Autism and Sensory Integration Disorder who has decided she is moving to Florida in 10 years.

But before I begin the actual TR, I have to go back to the week leading up to our journey. (Warning this is text heavy!)

August was such a busy month with State Fair, I had really not been paying attention to weather situations. I know we always travel during hurricane season, but we were really never affected by any, so I suppose I was complacent and just didn’t pay much attention to the talk of Irma.

Of course, that would all change the week we were leaving. Suddenly, it was as though something hit me in the face to wake me up and listen to what was being forecasted. On Tuesday, September 5th, while listening to the news, I suddenly got nervous. I called Jet Blue and then Disney and while they would not say anything was certain, when Jet Blue says they are waving all fees to change your flight - that speaks volumes.

I have to add something weird. For the past couple of weeks, Julia had been acting strange about the flight out. She kept saying she felt something wasn’t right. She has never been scared of flying, so like I said – it was strange. She would talk about being hijacked or the plane crashing. She said she just had a feeling that we shouldn’t fly on that day and asked if we could change the day. I kept telling her we would be fine but she never really felt better about it.

So as I sat there listening to the meteorologists talking, I began to think maybe my kid’s feeling was right. She may have been wrong about what would be wrong, but I think she was right that we should not fly that day.

When Ross woke up to leave for work – it was almost midnight - I told him I was getting scared and I thought we should fly out early. He told me to stay calm – that everything would be fine and left for work. He also thought my plan for leaving early was crazy. He thought we should changed our tickets and leave with him on the 13th. I was nervous that if we went with his plan, so many flights would get canceled and re-booked, we may not get a flight out on Wednesday.

Apparently, he asked some of his coworkers that night who all told him I was indeed crazy. But when he got home in the morning, he asked for my phone and called Disney to book an extra night.

At first. I told him to book us at POP because it was the cheapest option. But Ross said it made more sense for us to just stay at Riverside so that we wouldn’t have to move our luggage so far. So he booked a standard view room, which was the cheapest.

After we had our room taken care of, his next call was to Jet Blue. The only flight we could get 3 seats together on was Friday, September 8th at 10:30. I prefer the early flight, but at least there was a Friday flight available. We could have the earlier flight if we upgraded to the “Even More Seats” but they weren’t upgrading those without a fee and with the added cost of our extra night, I didn’t want to add any more extra costs.

The next day, in the midst of preparing to leave a day early, Ross and I went to have lunch and we talked about our updated plans. He felt that we should just change our room to the same room as we had for our package so we wouldn’t have to move rooms at all. I agreed and when we got home from lunch, he got back on the phone with Riverside.

Since we had a pool view for our package he asked for the same so we didn’t have to change rooms. Of course, as he was scrolling on the Disney website, I saw the Royal Guest Rooms and looked at Hope. I asked Ross to price one with a standard view. It was pricey, but he got the idea. Plus as he started looking at the pictures, and thought it was very cool. So he asked if one was available for our extra night and the answer was yes. I wanted to surprise Hope but that idea lasted all of 5 minutes before she wandered over to the computer and saw what we were looking at.

She started jumping up and down and screaming, “You’re going to the Royal Guest Room!!” FYI, pronouns are an ongoing work in progress with us – so when Hope says “you” she usually means “me” or “I”.

She jumped on her computer logged onto YouTube and brought up a video of the Royal Guest rooms at Riverside! She was still yelling with joy, “You’re going to the Royal Guest Room!”

Ross and I were almost brought to tears by her show of excitement and soon that price tag blurred away. He was nervous though that she would not understand we would only be staying 1 night and then moving to a different room. I explained it to her and I was confident that she would be okay with it. Even our Julia, who was never a princess fan, thought it was really cool.

Of course, as soon as he hung up with Disney, Ross would change my mind and convince me we should just pay the extra money and get out there on the early flight. The reason I like the early flight so much is because its always less crowded at 5:00AM and even though Hope does really well with the airport, I always feel more relaxed when we don’t have to worry about a ton of people rushing all around us.

Ross called Jet Blue yet again and switched us to the 5:30AM flight on Friday September 8th. The good news was by now, everyone was canceling their flights to Florida so the same flight which a day ago was completely booked, was now half empty. We were able to switch our seats without any upgrade.

One last call to our park/sleep/fly hotel in Newark and we were set with our new plans.

Up Next: Wait… did I just decide to fly into a hurricane?

 

[Figaro Family]

She started jumping up and down and screaming, “You’re going to the Royal Guest Room!!” FYI, pronouns are an ongoing work in progress with us – so when Hope says “you” she usually means “me” or “I”.

Xander hates it when our dog Hattie goes out to the backyard and wants her back inside as soon as possible. His go to phrase is "Do you want some Hattie?!" meaning "I want Hattie to come in now!"

 

[Figment Forever]

Xander hates it when our dog Hattie goes out to the backyard and wants her back inside as soon as possible. His go to phrase is "Do you want some Hattie?!" meaning "I want Hattie to come in now!"

I love it! I've been reading your TR and I find it amazing how I relate to everything you write about! I'm sure Xander and Hope could have quite a playdate together!

 

[Figment Forever]

Thursday September 7th – Getting Ready

Thursday morning was crazy. Julia raced to get as much work done since she was losing a school day (Friday). I let Hope work on her own with math and reading while I finished getting our carry-on set to go. All of us were completely scattered brained with the change in plans and the loom of Irma. I told NO ONE except my parents that we were still flying out. I knew everyone would think I was crazy.

Finally, it was time to leave.

At about 1PM, we headed out and drove to Rockland to have dinner with my folks. I wanted to see them before we left. We had a great visit. They were of course worried about us but I managed to calm them down – more than I could calm myself down. They gave the girls some extra spending money and by 5PM, we were on our way to our Park/Sleep/Fly hotel near Newark N.J.

We hit some traffic on the Garden State Parkway, but we pulled into the hotel around 7:00. I checked in and then got the girls into the room while I hauled all our luggage in. The room was nice, clean and very spacious.

It took me about 5 trips to get all our luggage to the room. As I was walking up and down the halls, I realized that the walls in this hotel must be very thin. As I walked past 1 room, there was obviously some newlyweds – or perhaps just a very affectionate couple inside and then as I past another room, I heard singing in another language. I guessed it was a Jewish man singing in Hebrew. Since it was a Friday night, I figured I was right. He was really belting it out and I must say it was pretty, just odd for inside a hotel.

I liked the hotel, but the hallways reminded me of "The Shining".

I went back to the desk to ask about the shuttle. They told me it leaves every hour on the hour. So that meant I could leave at 3AM or 2AM. Our flight was scheduled to board at 5:10AM so ideally I would have liked to arrive at around 4:00. But I was afraid if we got the 3:00 AM shuttle and something was delayed, I’d miss the flight so I opted for the insane 2:00AM shuttle. Yeah, I know I’m crazy.

Hope was bouncing off the walls – literally! She was so excited! Julia and I remained nervous – so our excitement did not show as it usually would. I got everyone into bed by 8PM and set my alarm for 1AM.

I fell asleep, but at around 11:00 my phone woke me up. It was my sister calling me. She was so mad that we were going. I guess she thought we had canceled and rebooked. I tried to go back to sleep but her call just made me start to second guess if we should be going and it kept me up restless for a while.

 

[Figment Forever]

Friday September 8th - Day 1

I woke up around 12:30 and showered before waking up Julia who then did the same. Lastly, I woke up Hope who didn’t need more than a nudge to bound out the bed.

We packed up the few things we used from our luggage and I took a small bag with our clothes from the day before and left them in my car. Then we rolled all of the luggage to the front desk where the shuttle would pick us up. We had sooooo much luggage this trip. In addition to the 3 huge suitcases we would be checking we had 5 carry-ons plus (as @Figaro Family would say) our special needs travel stroller. I had tried to stuff as much water and snacks as I could in our bags and I was hoping that the 3 checked bags would not weigh over 50 pounds each.

Once everything was in the lobby, the shuttle driver took care of everything. The ride was no more than 15 minutes and by 2:30 we would be at the Jet Blue terminal. Unfortunately, Jet Blue counter would not open until 4:00AM! I didn’t know that – the hotel told me they were open 24/7.

Oh – well better early than late, so we settled at the front of the line and relaxed until they opened.

While we were waiting I weighed or bags. Sure enough one weighed in the low 40’s but the other 2 were 53 & 51 pounds. The extra time allowed me to shuffle a few things around and got all 3 bags to under 50. I was also able to print out our luggage tags from a kiosk too.

Last year Pikchu journeyed with us… this year Eevee came along!

Jet Blue ended up opening 10 minutes early and off we were to security.

So I had our route through security well thought out. Like I said, Hope is usually good walking through and waiting with Julia, but I find getting all the bags and the stroller and the shoe thing can make me anxious, so I had everything planned out so we could get through smoothly. Of course Julia once again was given a pre-board – I don’t know why, so they offered for her to just walk though and go to different line, but I had to explain, no – she cant leave me!

So everything was going great. All our stuff was through, Hope and Julia grabbed their bags and were waiting at the bench and then I notice that they are calling me over to check one of my bags. Really??? The woman basically took everything out of my suitcase and was obviously looking for something. I was baffled. Then she called over someone else who starred at the screen and then went diving in. I asked if they could tell me what they were looking for – and I offered that I had a bag of pins – Disney pins. Maybe that’s what giving them a red flag? Suddenly the guy reached into a hidden pocket and pulls out a pair of scissors! I was so embarrassed! I remembered that I used this bag a lot of times for transferring supplies for 4-H projects back and forth and I apparently had a pair of scissors that I forgot about! They tossed them out, I stuffed everything back in the suitcase and we were on our way!

Once we reached the gate, we all used the bathroom and I purchased some apple juice and coffee for the flight. Julia and I put in our earplanes since both of us have ear trouble on the plane. Then we just hung out until it was time to board.

Our flight boarded at 5:10, but the plane was less than half filled, so we were off the ground by 5:30 – 15 minutes early!

Hope does NOT like the sound on the plane so she buried her head in her pillow and actually snoozed most of the flight out.

 

[Figaro Family]

Last year Pikchu journeyed with us… this year Eevee came along!

OK, I am now convinced that all four of our kids should meet someday. Maddie is crazy about Pokemon and collects the plush characters. Her Eevee went with her to sleep away camp this summer along with Litten. The only reason she didn't bring one with her to Florida was that she decided she should bring Buckbeak the Hippogriff because we were going to Harry Potter World!

 

[Figment Forever]

OK, I am now convinced that all four of our kids should meet someday. Maddie is crazy about Pokemon and collects the plush characters. Her Eevee went with her to sleep away camp this summer along with Litten. The only reason she didn't bring one with her to Florida was that she decided she should bring Buckbeak the Hippogriff because we were going to Harry Potter World!

That is too funny! Well you never know, maybe we'll get to meet up one day! (Hopefully in Disney!)

 

[Figment Forever]

September 8th Continued...

The fight was good. It was so empty that a few people changed their seats to empty rows so they could lie down and sleep the whole flight! Soon we were on the ground in Orlando. I texted Ross and sister to tell them we were on the ground. My parents don’t text, so my sis calls them when we land.

We waited to be the last ones off the plane. It didn’t take too long because like I said, the plane was half full. Even though we had 150 pounds of checked luggage, we still had a lot of carry-on too, so I tried to strategically figure out how to get it all off. Each of us wore a backpack and took one rolling suitcase. I also had my one shoulder bag and would stop to pick up the stroller along the way. I told Julia to stop at the first empty seat and wait there with Hope – just in case it took a little extra time for the stroller to come off the plane.

At first, my plan was working. We were the last people off the plane with only the pilot following behind me. The stroller was waiting right as I got off. I told Hope to keep following Julia while I quickly popped it up and kept going. It was working great until we got halfway down the ramp and suddenly Hope let go of her suitcase and announced, “momma’s turn”, and then ran ahead to catch up with Julia! I stopped to avoid tripping over the suitcase, which meant the poor pilot crashed into me. I stood there calling after Hope – who was already out of sight, I had no extra hands to grab her suitcase but before I could figure out what to do, the pilot asked me if I needed a hand. Yes I do! I was a little embarrassed but he took Hope’s abandoned suitcase and rolled it off for me to where Julia and Hope were waiting. I appreciated his kindness and I know he found the situation to be a little humorous.

We used the restrooms and right there I could tell there was something different about the airport today. Usually the ladies room has a line after a flight comes in – but there were completely empty. We found our way to the tram and boarded. Again there were 5 people on it – including us!!

When we got over to the other side of the terminal, I realized where all the people were – they were leaving the state! The airport was PACKED. There were lines and congestion everywhere leading up to the TSA screening. Everywhere you turned, there were people. The lines kept going and going, wrapping around every which way.

It was then that I started to wonder if I had made a bad decision. Julia & I looked at each other and agreed, we were the only ones coming into the state – everyone else was leaving!!

We began to make our way to Magical Express - but not before Julia had me take a pic of this.

The same quiet, sobering feeling was there. When we reached ME – there was no one there! I have never seen it like this ever before!

 

[Figment Forever]

We walked onto a bus that had maybe a dozen people on it and off we went to Riverside – since no one on our bus was going to FQ.

Julia and Hope settled in and watched the movie.

I had heard that the tolls were suspended.

I have never been able to sit in the front seats, but that would change today. Making this possible.

I called Ross and my folks and texted my sister to let them know we arrived and were okay. I didn’t post anything to FaceBook. I didn’t want anyone to know that I was crazy enough to go to Disney in the mist of the worst storm in recorded history.

Soon we were “home”. We got our luggage and I found a place for the girls to sit in the lobby. Since we booked our extra night so late, I couldn’t do Online check in so I got in a line of about 30 people. It was busy! The line stretched out to the back of the lobby.

There were of lot of CM’s working to get to everyone as quickly as they could. I could tell many of the people were leaving early and were checking about their refund. I hopped on line and it probably took about a half hour to get to someone. But finally I checked in. Our room was not ready so we left our stuff with Bell Services and went to the food court to eat.

 

[Figment Forever]

It was around 10:00AM so they were still serving breakfast. Hope got pancakes. Julia got a bounty platter. I got waffles. I have to say if it were not for Julia, I probably would have forgotten to take a lot of food pictures – I don’t know what was wrong with me that I kept forgetting. Our dining plan would not start until tomorrow so I got a sticker shook when breakfast was $30.00!

 

[littleroo]

Following and enjoying!!!

 

[12in12]

Following along.

 

[SMJS]

Really enjoying your report!

 

[Courtney6682]

You know I'm lady!! I've been waiting soooo very patiently for this!!!!!

#number1fan

 

[Ayden]

Yesss! I have been looking forward to your trip report!
Love the pics of Julia and Hope together. Very sweet!
Glad to hear your flight went smooth and you arrived safe and sound.