Thursday, January 24
I woke up earlier than my alarm which was set for 3:00 am
I woke up at exactly 2:37 in the morning. I decided to be nice and shut off all of the alarm clocks, phone clocks, wake up calls and whatever else I had set to make sure I didn't miss my flight. DH and both dogs slept soundly as I scurried around trying not to make any noise. After a shower, changing, doing my hair and makeup and gathering the last few items for my carry on bag, I was off. When I started up the car it was a warm 4 degrees outside, with the windchill it was -4. I left the house around 4:15, stopped at the bank ATM to get out some "just in case" dollars, and was on my way. I arrived at TF Green Airport in Providence at around 5:00. I parked in the garage closest to the terminal. It was more than I wanted to spend, but I was already thinking of when I would return. I had a night flight home, and I could only imagine how cold it would be at 10:30 at night and the last thing I was going to want to do is walk a mile to my car and then have to shovel it off from the snowstorm we were getting on Friday. So covered and semi-warm parking it was!
Checking the luggage and getting through security took all of 15 minutes total. I headed to my gate and waited. I was at my gate by 5:15 and my flight didn't leave until 7:00. Angry Birds and Peggle on the iPad would have to keep me busy, and they did.
My flight took off from Providence at 7:00 am on the dot. The flight was uneventful, aside from a few bumps when we passed over a winter weather system in Virginia. I was on a wifi enabled flight, so I used the time to answer emails, update my Facebook with horrible iPad pictures of the sky and enjoy the flight tracker. I have way too much fun with that! We were set to land at 10:20 am in Orlando, but in true Southwest fashion, we arrived early at 9:45 am. We had to sit on the taxiway for a bit. Because we were early our gate still had a plane parked there.
Waiting to pull up to the gate (phone picture):
Here's a shot from the air! Every picture I take out my windows on my flights look the same. I always sit in row 5 on the right hand side of the plane. I don't know why, I just do.
After we finally pulled up to the gate, I made my "I landed safely" calls and hopped the tram to the main terminal. I headed to DME, waited a few minutes before being escorted to my bus and within 20 minutes I was on my way to Pop Century! It was freezing on the bus. The a/c was blasting and I was cold. Thankfully we were the second stop and our bus was quick at unloading and I was able to get back into the warmth soon enough. I had done online check-in, so my packet was ready when I got there. When I did my online check-in I had requested a room in the 60's on the ground level, but also checked off that having my room ready was more of a priority. I was happy to find out I was in building 4 (60's), ground level and my room was ready. Score! Normally requesting a room close to the front isn't something I do, but being a solo traveler I felt better being in a busier area. My room was #4161, the last room of building 4, facing inward. I was located right near the Generation Gap Bridge which was great because I planned on heading to AoA one night. After check in I went to my room and dropped my stuff off and headed to the food court for some lunch. I got chicken nuggets and fries. Nothing fancy. I went to the front desk to see if they could call Alamo for me to call the shuttle. My phone wasn't on its best behavior and the service was spotty. It was about 12:30 now and the earliest Alamo could come would be 2:20. I was a bit eager to get in the parks so I was anxious to get the car, but I sat outside and soaked up some sunshine for a bit. I looked at my phone and saw it was only 1:15 and I still had over an hour to wait. I figured I could go back to the room and see if my luggage had made it yet and I would change and freshen up for the remainder of the day. I was so happy to see my bag back in my room. I changed, straightened my hair, freshened up the makeup and headed back to Classic Hall to wait for my shuttle. At 2:20 on the dot it was there. I checked in at Alamo and quickly had my keys to this adorable 2013 Volkswagen Golf. Loved, loved, loved this car! (Another phone picture)
Normally when we go to WDW DH does all the driving, or we use the bus system. I was going to be doing a lot of jumping around with just a few short days, so I opted for the car (and got a great deal, too). And I am proud to say not once did I get lost or need to use navigation on my phone. Though it's not saying much, it's nearly impossible to get lost in WDW. So many signs.
I headed straight from the Car Care Center to MK. I had been waiting for what seemed like forever to see New Fantasyland. And the best part was, I had a Be Our Guest reservation for 6:00 pm! I made the ADR before I even booked the trip (which I would have cancelled had this trip not happened). But I knew it was happening
Tammy (@DisneyFalcon) was possibly going to join me on this trip, so I had booked the ADR for two people. Sadly Tammy couldn't join me, so Shalon agreed to join me for dinner! I arrived at MK at about 3:00, so I had some time to kill. Celebrate a Dream Come True was just making it's way down Main Street and I saw Mickey only had a 5 minute wait time, so I went for it. One of my fellow Konsultants and friend, Heather, celebrated her birthday the day before, so I had a little surprise for her. Mickey helped send out some birthday wishes! (Phone picture)
I figured I'd head straight to Adventureland and grab that Dole Whip I had been so badly craving. Well, I turned left after the bridge by the Crystal Palace and there was someone losing their lunch all over the place. Yep, talk about an appetite killer. So I decided to just walk as far away as possible and told myself that a ride through the Haunted Mansion would be a better idea. Until I saw there was a 40 minute wait. MK was quite busy that day. There were many, many, many tour groups. Everywhere. But I am happy to say they were all well behaved and while I encountered many of them on this trip, not once did I hear chanting or see any bad behavior. Had they not been wearing matching shirts and following a leader with a flag, I wouldn't have known they were in groups! I decided to make my way up to New Fantasyland (without walking into Be Our Guest, Shalon made me promise I wouldn't go inside until she got there, she wanted a genuine reaction I suppose). I had no plans to ride anything. Frankly, I was exhausted from being up since 2:30 and working on 2 hours of sleep. It was a busy day at MK, so I decided to walk and snap, walk and snap. I grabbed a frozen raspberry lemonade and made my way through Tomorrowland. Another guest (he was probably about 16 or 17) came over and sat by me and asked me about my camera, my lenses, what I thought of them. He was interested in getting a DSLR, so we chatted for a bit. I'm by no means a pro, but hopefully I gave him some good advice. Shalon texted me and said she was making her way through the gates, so I said goodbye to my new camera friend and met Shalon near Uptown Jewelers. We did some browsing and realized it was 5:30 so we headed to BoG to check in. And really, what did I do for 2 hours besides walk around and drink my drink? Nothing. Absolutely nothing apparently.
