December 23, 2009

Orlando is the New Gilligan’s Island

On December 11th, my family and I left for a trip to Disney World. We spent a night at the Philly airport Embassy Suites with my parents and laughed about how we were so happy we had our own rooms at the Caribbean Beach resort in Orlando. Six people sharing one bathroom is do-able for one day. On the 12th, we went to the airport and sat for over an hour waiting for them to finish repairing some kind of generator on the airplane. When you're a nervous air passenger anyway, repairs that are happening in front of your eyes, don't comfort you. Not a bit.

Lil C survived her first flight as if she was going for a car ride. We kept the girls entertained while in the air and landed filled with excitement. What waited for us was a very long line.

It would end up being the theme for the week.

It took us several bus loads full of people until it was our turn. Once on the Magical Express, we were just plain excited. We had the whole day to spend at the park and our luggage would arrive in our room when we returned from the park.

Lil C enjoyed meeting Ariel and Big I enjoyed having her memory restored of the magical place that is the Magic Kingdom. Mr. BBM and I quickly remembered that weekends in the park are no picnic and tried to avoid becoming too frustrated with line-cutters and rude people in the parks. Also, since it was the first day, we bit our tongues when we realized that Disney was routing us through not one, but two gift shops just to exit the Snow White ride. Gift shops with Disney princess and clubhouse fans are no fun for a parent trying to keep the budget in check.

Monday was a better day. We started off at the resort pool where the girls were having a blast. The adults were having a nice time too, right up until Big I told Mr. BBM she was going on the water slide and then didn't come out at the bottom. A full on search began and when we didn't find her in the bathroom, I started to really panic. A good 15 minutes went by without being able to find her and I started running towards the manager with the walkie-talkie, right as Mr. BBM turned up with her. She had been in the "companion bathroom." It had been an emergency. Needless to say, our fun at the pool was over. It took a good hour for the adrenalin and all the bad images to leave my head. My Dad couldn't get the book "The Shack" out of his head during our frantic search; I couldn't get the research paper and speech about Human Trafficking out of mine.

In the afternoon, the girls met characters and made their way through the World Showcase in EPCOT. But Lil C kept yelling out that her mouth hurt. As much as I wanted to believe she was simply in need of a drink, deep down I knew something was up.

Tuesday morning she woke up with a fever over 100 and my heart sank. My hopes for an event free vacation were dashed once again. With our car parked in Philadelphia, I began searching for other options to get her seen by a doctor. Within an hour, a shuttle picked us up and took us to Urgent Care where Lil C was diagnosed with an ear infection. Fortunately, the place was attached to a pharmacy and I was giddy loading up on water bottles that were only $.89 after paying $2.75 the day before.

Lil C started feeling better almost instantly and we spent every day in a park, including our departure date on Saturday, the 19th.

After watching the weather reports for back home that included the words "worst snowfall ever" and "blizzard like conditions," we knew we were in trouble. Flying into Philly in 50 mph winds and horizonal snowfall wasn't going to happen. Being an experienced traveler, Mr. BBM got on the phone with USAir on Friday night. Actually, I should say that he "got on hold" with USAir, because he spent about three hours on hold, just waiting to talk to an agent.

When a terse and snot-tastic agent finally answered the phone, Mr. BBM and I were both sleeping. However, I soon realized that "Hello, USAir. . . Hello USAir" wasn't part of my dreams and yelled for Mr. BBM to pick up the phone. In a daze, he asked about our flight and we were told it was listed as affected. We were able to switch our flight to Sunday afternoon for no charge. We did it, and Mr. BBM used hotel points to book a night at the Embassy Suites. So much for only sharing a room once on vacation.

On Saturday morning, my Mom woke up sick as a dog, but there was nothing for us to do about it. We had park tickets, but no place for her to rest. We had to check out. She spent the day as a trooper, making her way through hoards of people that made me claustrophobic and annoyed. We were definitely "disney'ed out," and when I say that I mean that we were "peopled out." People can really suck. In fact, at one point, if I hadn't spent six days treking through miles and miles of park and hadn't been suffering from both knee, back and hip pain, I think I would have physically removed the huge family who cut us in the bus line and made us miss the bus back to our resort. And when I say "removed," I mean from this Earth.

On Saturday night we made our way to the airport and then caught the shuttle to Embassy Suites. Our room was really nice and we had a few drinks and decided to make the best of it. At least we didn't have to deal with another public restroom in the Disney Parks. Good God, when you have two little girls, I swear it's all you do.

The next morning, we got all packed up (again) and went to the airport. It listed our flight as "on time" and we were thrilled. We boarded the plane at 1:30 p.m. for the 1:55 flight. At around 2, the pilot came on the radio and said we would be delayed about 45 minutes because of conditions in Philly. Because our first flight had been cancelled, I was sitting with Lil C, a row ahead of Mr. BBM and Big I. My parents were 20 rows ahead of us. After another 30 minute delay, we backed away from the gate and went out to await our take-off. After 45 minutes on the runway, we were told we were going back to the gate. It continued like this all afternoon. Once back at the gate, they gave us drinks and we sat and waited and waited and waited. At 4 p.m. the pilot said he would let us off the plane to get food since there was no food on board. He told us to be back no later than 4:45 because we were probably going to get the go-ahead at 5 p.m. Everyone got off the plane, minus me and the kids and some other families. Mr. BBM went to get us food.

We ate, and were ready to go at 4:45. The eternal optimist, I still believed it was going to happen. At 5 p.m. there was still nothing. We were delayed again. Finally, at 6 p.m., the pilot told us he had some bad news. Philly was gridlock. They had only taken in 16 flights the last hour and the runway lights were covered with drifting snow. Our flight was cancelled. I may or may not have screamed "NOOOOOOO!!!!" I know I at least did in my head. I knew this already though, because the man sitting behind me got a call from his son, who had looked it up on the internet. We were listed as cancelled before our pilot even knew. I asked the flight attendants if they could just drive the plane up the highways and get us home but unfortunately, the answer was no.

We got off the plane and made our way to the ticketing agents once again. The line was insanely long. Every flight to Philadelphia had been cancelled. The problem was that some of the flights were cancelled before the people got on the planes so we were at the back of the line. My Mom and I took the girls (a sleeping Lil C who had fallen asleep on the parked plane, woken up and assumed we were home) to retrieve our bags. When Mr. BBM approached, I knew it was bad news. We weren't flying home until Tuesday afternoon. All Monday flights were booked.

Back to Embassy Suites we went for two more nights. On Monday, I spent about $25 doing laundry in the hotel and my dad and Mr. BBM went out on a 3.5 hour trek to get my Mom a called in antibiotic.

Finally, yesterday, we were able to make it onto a non-delayed or cancelled flight and return back home. Don't get me wrong; I had a great time while in Disney, but the drama that always happens on my vacations has got to stop. This is the third vacation in a row where Urgent Care has been required for Lil C. I just thank God for Embassy Suites' Manager's reception each night (free drinks and snacks). It's seriously the only bright spot during those last few days in Orlando, and what each one of the adults in our party lived for during those last few days.

The next time I go to Orlando in the winter, I am driving. And to Mr. BBM, "I told ya so."