Okay. I've been back for a month, and I've been putting this off for long enough. Just for a refresher the players are myself and S (Steve) for an adults only splurge trip to the Polynesian.
The lovely lady in the middle is my Grandma, and she is the reason why we were able to take such a luxurious Disney adventure. S and Grandma actually shared a birthday, and this was her 92nd birthday bash...I won't reveal S's age, but I'll just revel in the fact that he is older than me.
DAY 1 = May 5th (departure day)
We started our adventure on Cinco de Mayo flying out of Portland in the morning. We have TSA+ which makes going through security a breeze after we checked our luggage in. Upon walking to our gate we find that our flight has been delayed an hour. Not usually a big deal, but we had a connecting flight in LAX to take into consideration. When I booked the flight I made sure that we had at least 90 minutes as a layover for a buffer. So glad I did that!! That would only give us about 30 minutes (or less) to get off the plane, dash to our next gate, and hope our luggage is able to make the transfer as well. I got reassurance from the flight staff that there wouldn't be any problem with making our connection, so S and I took our usual lap around the whole airport terminal which is about 2 miles total while we wait. Did I mention S does not do so well when having to wait for anything?
Our flight leaves on time (for the delay time), and we made great time to LAX. There was another group of passengers that were needing to make a quick connection to Texas, so we were allowed to disembark the plane before the others to ensure we all got to our gates on time. We walked off of one plane, walked to the other side of the terminal, and walked straight onto our next flight. I again got reassurance that our bags would be on the plane with us. We were on the purple party plane to Orlando!!
It's technically an Alaska flight, but they had just bought out Virgin Airlines and this was one of their planes. I really liked the seatback screens that you could order your food and drinks at any time. No drink cart to go up or down the aisle which was refreshing. I did a superhero double feature with Thor : Ragnarok and Justice League for the flight. We didn't land in Orlando until after 8:00, so we decided beforehand that we were picking up our luggage at the carousel instead of DME delivering our stuff after we were already in bed. We waited for a LONG time...the reassurance from the flight staff was false. No bags, but I did get notification that our room in Tuvalu was ready for us. After spending way too much time talking to the Alaska baggage people we found out that S's bag had actually never left Portland, and they had no idea where my bag was because the last scan was in Portland. Frustrated and tired we made our way to an empty DME area to board our bus. I didn't take any pics because it was rainy and my mood was a bit on the gloomy side which was not the way I wanted to start the trip, but it's an adventure, right? What is an adventure without a few hiccups and bumps along the way?
Finally we were home sweet home, and we only wandered aimlessly to find Tuvalu (the building, not @Tuvalu Shirley herself) for a couple of minutes. We quietly crashed in bed, and were awakened around 4 am by Alaska Airlines stating we should have one of the bags by 2:00 pm. Still no clue where my bag is, but at least S will have his stuff, right?
Sorry so being so text heavy...I'm not the biggest picture taker, but I tried.
Stay tuned for day 2!!
The lovely lady in the middle is my Grandma, and she is the reason why we were able to take such a luxurious Disney adventure. S and Grandma actually shared a birthday, and this was her 92nd birthday bash...I won't reveal S's age, but I'll just revel in the fact that he is older than me.
DAY 1 = May 5th (departure day)
We started our adventure on Cinco de Mayo flying out of Portland in the morning. We have TSA+ which makes going through security a breeze after we checked our luggage in. Upon walking to our gate we find that our flight has been delayed an hour. Not usually a big deal, but we had a connecting flight in LAX to take into consideration. When I booked the flight I made sure that we had at least 90 minutes as a layover for a buffer. So glad I did that!! That would only give us about 30 minutes (or less) to get off the plane, dash to our next gate, and hope our luggage is able to make the transfer as well. I got reassurance from the flight staff that there wouldn't be any problem with making our connection, so S and I took our usual lap around the whole airport terminal which is about 2 miles total while we wait. Did I mention S does not do so well when having to wait for anything?
Our flight leaves on time (for the delay time), and we made great time to LAX. There was another group of passengers that were needing to make a quick connection to Texas, so we were allowed to disembark the plane before the others to ensure we all got to our gates on time. We walked off of one plane, walked to the other side of the terminal, and walked straight onto our next flight. I again got reassurance that our bags would be on the plane with us. We were on the purple party plane to Orlando!!
It's technically an Alaska flight, but they had just bought out Virgin Airlines and this was one of their planes. I really liked the seatback screens that you could order your food and drinks at any time. No drink cart to go up or down the aisle which was refreshing. I did a superhero double feature with Thor : Ragnarok and Justice League for the flight. We didn't land in Orlando until after 8:00, so we decided beforehand that we were picking up our luggage at the carousel instead of DME delivering our stuff after we were already in bed. We waited for a LONG time...the reassurance from the flight staff was false. No bags, but I did get notification that our room in Tuvalu was ready for us. After spending way too much time talking to the Alaska baggage people we found out that S's bag had actually never left Portland, and they had no idea where my bag was because the last scan was in Portland. Frustrated and tired we made our way to an empty DME area to board our bus. I didn't take any pics because it was rainy and my mood was a bit on the gloomy side which was not the way I wanted to start the trip, but it's an adventure, right? What is an adventure without a few hiccups and bumps along the way?
Finally we were home sweet home, and we only wandered aimlessly to find Tuvalu (the building, not @Tuvalu Shirley herself) for a couple of minutes. We quietly crashed in bed, and were awakened around 4 am by Alaska Airlines stating we should have one of the bags by 2:00 pm. Still no clue where my bag is, but at least S will have his stuff, right?
Sorry so being so text heavy...I'm not the biggest picture taker, but I tried.
Stay tuned for day 2!!
