Trip Report Welcome to Beautiful Billings! Wait...What?! A (Late) September 2014 Trip Report

First off, I know that I am starting this trip report a month late but since returning from the World but work has been crazy up until this past weekend and I am finally finding the time to start re-living our trip and sharing the experience with you all!

Our trip took place September 12-21 and included stays at Port Orleans French Quarter and, for the most part, the Villas at Wilderness Lodge. The cast of characters included me, my wife Kelly, daughters Ella and Lennon, my mom Allyson, mother in law Deb and our in-laws Mindy, Jason (Guber) and their two daughters Hayden and Kendall. oh, and I should mention at the time of this trip all four kids were under the age of 4! Get the Advil ready!

For those who want a refresher, our pre-tip report can be read here!

http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/the-wait-is-over-were-finally-coming-back.887278/

Ok...here we go!

Travel Day
After nearly 9 months of waiting, counting down the days on this site and reading all about all the new and exciting things happening at WDW, the day finally arrived. Traveling from Edmonton to Orlando is no easy task which usually involves a very early wake up call and an extremely long travel day just to check into your hotel for a decent night's rest.

That exactly what we had planned on September 12. Up and at 'em at 3 am to get the car packed, the girls up and off to the airport in time for our 7 am flight. Nothing direct from here to Orlando so our first flight was into Dallas, then after a brief layover, over to Orlando. Plan was to arrive at MCO around 5 pm or so.

The SUV was packed as tight as can be with three big suitcases, our double stroller, diaper bag and a carry on full of diabetes supplies for Ella, food for the kids, and a number of devices, books and toys to occupy them throughout this crazy day.

We made it to the airport by about 430 or 5 am. Everything went beyond smoothly once we arrived at the airport which lead me to believe we were in for a very good day! Usually security with kids, especially with a diabetic and all the stuff we had to bring onto the plane, can be a tedious task. Not today, this was the perfect start to the vacation!

Quick bite to eat and we hunkered in to wait for the plane. The girls were surprisingly upbeat for being up so early!

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Me and Ella

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and Lennon ready to roll!

We boarded, took off on time and everything was as it was supposed to be! The kids didn't fall asleep but were pretty well behaved for the first hour and a bit. That's when things started to get interesting! The captain came across the address system..."Folks, nothing to panic over, but we have a bit of a situation that is going to require us to land at the nearest airport as quickly as possible. Again, no need to panic".

So, now that everyone is panicking, this announcement had become a major concern for everyone. No specifics were provided but you could sense the urgency that was portrayed in his voice. Main concern of my wife "Great, now we miss our connecting flight!"

We end up descending very shortly after the announcement and find out that we are headed to Billings, Montana. As we are about to land the captain returns "Ok folks we will be on the ground shortly. You will see some fire trucks on the runway but again, no need to panic, this is standard procedure." Now we realize this is something pretty serious if first responders are lined up just in case! We touch down, zip by the fire engines and taxi to a gate. The captain finally informs us the we were leaking fuel and were nearly bone dry by the time we landed. Fun stuff!

Before we debaord we are told that mechanics are on their way to look at the plane but it is possible another plane would have to be sent to pick us up. Since Billings is not a hub for anyone, let alone American Airlines, we were told we just had to tough it out in the terminal. Everyone immediately got their phones out to call family, travel agents, whomever, to let them know the news. No different for us. I called the family, Kelly called the travel agent to get us on a new flight in Dallas as it was obvious we wouldn't make the connecting flight.

Three hours passed and we were informed the plane was fixed and we could finally get going. Everyone loaded back up, on the same plane mind you, and after a few minutes to get the flight plan/manifest, we were back in the air. By this time the kids were getting very antsy and iPads were no longer doing the trick to keep them occupied. We finally land in Dallas about three hours late but are informed when we land that we are booked on the next flight out. After a brief layover, we board our next plane and take off.

By the time we take off on this flight, we should have been in Orlando at that point. The kids are an absolute wreck, and I'm sure our neighbouring passengers were not too pleased to be seated around us! Oh well, for a couple of toddlers who have been up well over 12 hours at that point, they did pretty well. Lennon was on the brink of losing it all flight and finally did for the final 20 minutes. Longest 20 minutes of my life but again, can't really blame her!

By the time we finally arrive in Orlando and pick up our bags, it's about 930pm. We did have DME booked to take us to the resort but we opted for a cab instead. Having run out of food/drink we needed to get to Port Orleans as fast as possible to we could get Ella something to raised her blood sugar levels. Thankfully the girls seemed to catch a second wind once they knew we were in Disney World so the cab ride was awesome! They sang together and laughed which made the drive go by pretty quickly.

We arrived close to 1030, checked in and piked up our Magic Bands. We hustled to our room, dropped of the bags and ran quickly to the food court for some chocolate milk. At this point I didnt get any pics of the magic bands or the room...we were so exhausted we just went to sleep. After all this hassle we almost regretted flying down a day earlier than the rest of the group.

So much for having time for dinner and roaming around the grounds of the hotel for a bit. It was get to sleep as soon as possible! At least I did get some good news before falling asleep, my home town Edmonton Eskimos beat the Montreal Alouettes (CFL) so I was able to good to bed in a better frame of mind!

Hopefully you are still with me through that very long winded travel experience! I'll detail day one next but now I am off to the hospital to learn how to use the brand new insulin pump Ella has just received. Much more pictures to come...I promise!
 

Matt and Kelly

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Ok time to finish up our last day at the parks.

After getting back to the Lodge and meeting up with my mom who was hanging out while Lennon was sleeping, we had to make a quick correction to our DME pick up time in the morning to ensure we all took the same bus back to the airport. Quick phone call tot he Express line and a few minutes later everything was cleared up.

We were content with just hanging out until Lennon woke up but Ella wanted to head to the pool for a quick swim before dinner so her and I put our suits on and off we went. Weather was quite nice by this point but thankfully the pool wasn't overly busy. Ella strapped into a life vest and went ripping around the pool for a while. We took breaks now and then in the hot tub before heading back to our room around 445pm to ready ourselves for the rest of the evening.

Lennon still wasn't up from her nap so we woke her and started to prep for the evening. We had no dinner plans at this point so we just decided to grab something back at the park. Kelly had been craving a corn dog and she was pretty dead set on making that happen. At this point Mindy, Gub and the kids weren't yet willing to head back so it was us and the grandmas boarding the boat and heading back to MK one last time. Not sure why but someone took this picture on the way back for whatever reason!

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We entered the park and took a few other random pics. Maybe just trying to take in whatever we could knowing we likely won't be back for a while.
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We made our way around Main Street, stopping to pick up the girls and uncrustable PB and J sandwich for dinner. Handy little sandwich for kids, especially ours who weren't to big on eating as it was but they did enjoy being able to roll around in the stroller and snack on their sandwich. Kelly and I both hit up the corn dog cart just outside Pecos Bill's and checked off another one of the items on her food wish list.

We didn't really have much of a plan other than to walk around and jump on the odd ride here or there. Not surprisingly we ended up back in Fantasyland and met up with Mindy, Guber and the girls. We did all the usual's one last time, Pooh, Dumbo, Ariel and the Mad Tea Party.

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I didn't ride the teacups, instead took pics of the others and made my way to the Speedway to secure a time for us to ride using Ella's guest assistance.

When the crew got off the tea cups we were ready to head to the Speedway but the grandma's stayed out while everyone else hit the road.

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As you can see I left my life in the hands of my not even two-year old on the speedway which left me with a very stiff neck by the time we finally did make it around the track and stumbled off to safety!

At this point Kendall was getting cranky and Hayden wanted to head back to the 7 Dwarf Mine Coaster so we decided to split up and go our separate ways. The grandmas stayed with us as we strolled through Tomorrowland and made our way towards the PeopleMover. The castle was looking very beautiful in the moonlight

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We took the escalator up to the loading dock for the PeopleMover and jumped into a cart within seconds. Off we went ripping through Tomorrowland and having a blast!

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We got stuck in Space Mountain for a few minutes but Ella really seemed to enjoy seeing all the spaceships roll by as they took off into space.

It was getting rather late for the kids by the time we finished up with the PeopleMover. I still wanted to make my way to Splash Mountain for one last farewell ride but the rest of the group decided to head home and start prepping for the flight home the next day. I walked with them to the exit and made my way back down towards my favourite ride while the rest of them took one last parting shot before heading back to the Lodge.

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I certainly wasn't speed walking my way to Splash, instead enjoyed a leisurely stroll around the park taking in the sights and sounds one last time. The trip was already coming to a close and it seemed like only yesterday we were stranded in Billings! The Park was open late, until 100am, but the crowd had really started to thin out at this point. It was somewhere in the neighbourhood of 1000pm and while I would have loved to have closed down the park I figured it would have been smarter to go and get some sleep in order to survive a long travel day with four toddlers who could easily make it the longest day of our lives.

I arrived at Splash and was ready for one more ride. The posted wait time was 15 minutes which I was happy to stand in.

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Didn't take long before I was nearing the point of no return...

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I loaded up and was on my way. I took a bunch of pictures on my phone throughout the ride that I still look at all the time just for a quick pick me up sometimes.

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And like that the ride was back to the loading dock and my WDW experience was pretty much over. I slowly made my way towards the exit and sadly skulked onto the boat on final time to head home towards the Lodge. I returned around 11 to find everyone still up and running wild so we did a little packing, got the girls settled and called it a night. In checking our Photopass we saw that Gub and Hayden had one last rip as well!

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A very busy but amazingly fun and productive day was the perfect cap to what was really a great trip. Sure there were some up's and down's throughout and maybe we didn't get to do as much as we hoped for but, as you can see by the many pictures, we made some memories that will not soon forget.

I will make one last post before finalizing this report with an update on our travel day and some closing thoughts (the good, the bad...that sorta stuff) from the trip!

Once again thank you for following along, sorry it's take so long to make updates, but I appreciate all the views, likes and feedback that have been left so far!
 

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