The Stone Family's Magical Adventure including food photos About This Page:

[Mom of three 1971]

Well, we are back! We reluctantly returned on December 9th, having had to shave one day off our visit due to the scheduling of our 8yo Daughter Remy's holiday violin recital. We returned to find the computer hard drive fried ! The plan is to replace it with a new laptop after Xmas but it will have to wait a few weeks! That's an expense we hadn't planned on after 2 weeks away and Christmas shopping still to do. Fortunately I can still begin this report from my computer at work, though the pictures will have to go up later... sorry!

So for those of you who don't know me...I am Tara, lover of all things Disney! I planned this trip for a year for my beloved family: Husband Jeff, Daughters Remy, 8 and Gelsey, 4. Our Son Mike who is 17 opted out of this vacation since he did not want to miss school during his senior year. He was afraid he would it would affect his getting into college. Turns out he's been accepted several placed with 4 different colleges offering him scolarships so he could have gone after all oh well, we have learned it's just best to let him make a lot of these kind of decisions himself.
You can read about the planning process here if you choose:
http://www.passporterboards.com/foru...2009-trip.html

Saturday November 28th

The day fianlly arrives that we are heading to the airport!
My MIL who was joining us on this trip arrived the night before from State College, about three hours away from us..we are just outside of Pittsburgh, and spent the night. I don't know how but Jeff and I actually got into bed at a decent time the night before. For once I had been all packed and ready and had the house all clean with nothing to do...there had to be some divine intervention there ! In the past we have flown out early in the morning and I am about through with that!!!! This time I booked us a 1:20 flight that would arrive in Orlando about 3pm. This allowed us to leisurly get on the road for the 45 minute trip to the airport. My Parents were kind enough to see us to the airport. I did not want to leave a vehicle at the airport. Parking charges at Pittsburgh International are outrageous! So, Jeff drove his Mom and the Girls in our van and I rode with my Mom & Dad in their car. With no traffic that time of the day we made great time and soon were at curbside for Southwest. Since there were 5 of us we were alloted 10 free bags to check. Hmmm, we had 12. I grabbed a small empty suitcase to wheel on and MIL grabbed her smallest case too...you just know this is going to be a thing..right?
Off through security we go. There was no line so we hotfooted up to the x rays and popped all our crap in the baskets. I'm putting the girls shoes back on and Jeff is rebelting his pants when I look back and do not see my MIL. ok where is MIL? That's right. She's been stopped by security. Seems the bag she decided to carry on was her makeup/toiletry case. MIL uses every known cosmetic and beauty product known to man and was bringing them all with her....IN THAT BAG! Sure enough, security is opening up her bag and just looks at her like ! Fortunatly for us he was very kind and went through each and every item to make sure she could carry it on. It took him awhile since everthing was in little pockets and such, oh no, not in plastic bags or 3oz containers. Thank goodness we had arrived with plenty of time. I was really hoping this didn't set the tone for the rest of the trip.
That done we headed to the gate. We purchased the preboarding since we had a Southwest credit that nearly covered it and that worked like a charm. There were no handicapped guests so we were the first ones on. We took the bulkheads..no tray tables but there's no meal so who needs 'em! Jeff and Remy sat together and I sat with Gelsey and MIL. MIL sat by the window, me on the aisle. Beside Jeff and Remy was a woman who would do well to consider the size of a plane the next time she flies in regard to the amount of perfume she wears. In addition to this I heard her ask the flight attendant for some ice in a bag to keep a dip cold. This she put up in the luggage compartment. This is a good time to tell about "The Schedule" The Schedule is two page poster sized printouts that I worked on diligenty throughout the year. Every idea I got...put it on the schedule. Something special we did not want to forget to see..put it on the schedule. Each time I talked to the Platinum planner and made a change...put it on the schedule. ADR times, limo confirmation#, etc ....all on the schedule. Weekly Jeff took this to work to update and print. It had to be printed at his office on the printer designed for very large engineering schematics. It was my masterpiece and I would put it up in the hotel room so we would all know what was planned for each day. Yeah, you know it's coming! I statr to have a little and wake up halfway throught the flight to see the scented one asking for towels. She has her dip thing back out and it's wet. I don't get it yet....I close my eyes again. Once we land she nearly knocks me over to get off the plane. Jeff and reach up to get our lone carryone and The Schedule and it's soaked and dripping! Her ice leaked all over it, and our bag! The ink was run so there was no salvaging my schedule . In a general sense I get no sympathy from "normal" people but Passport Planning freaks will understand that I'm probably going to need some therapy to get past this...worst of all was how she bolted out without so much as a ! I had to make a decision. I had to move past it in order to not hang a black cloud over my vacation. Okay, I thought, everything that was on "the Schedule" was also in my Passporter so it's not as though I didn't have the info available. Deep breath Tara, it's gonna be okay. Jeff had some sympathy and kind words and.....I let it go. Because, Hey! we're here in Orlando.
Because I wanted to not have an early am flight or try to figure out what to do on an arrival day that was half over we flew in the day before our WDW stay. I booked a room at the Hyatt at the airport that we enjoyed last trip. Got a pretty good rate of $185.00 I left MIL, Jeff and the girls in the main rotunda of the airport right in front of the hotel and went up to check us in. There was no line so in 10 minutes I was back in the elevator with key in hand. I retrieved my personals, ie: family and got a bell hop for luggage. After stowing the luggage the girls wanted to take a dip in the pool, so we headed to the 7th floor where the pool was Jeff took a swim with them. It was only in the low 70's so it was a bit brisk. The girl's of course did not care but Jeff looked a little cool! MIL set up in a chaise for what I had no idea would become constant throughout the trip... reading her book. I sat watching the girls jump in the pool until it looked like Jeff was going to freeze and called them out. We headed back to the room and got them dressed. We went down into the airport proper to have some dinner in the Chilis. Bellies full we wandered around the airport checking out stores. Jeff and I needed a new camera card and went in the camera store there where the 12 year old working there helped us. We were clueless and she tols us not to feel bad...most old people don't know anything about technology! OLD! I'm 38 and I JUST TURNED 38! Jeff will be 41 in January. But then again I have no idea about the camera so I couldn't argue! We went to the Croc store and I got a new pair of Mary Janes and got each of the girls a new pair. MIL liked the new furry crocs that have the fur that can come out, and the shoe has no holes...so she bought them each a pair. The girls looked around a little in the Disney store and we headed up to the room. We were all tired from the busy day so Jeff got the girs ready for bed and I got everyone's clothes out for the next day so we'd be all ready to go. I had scheduled the limo pickup for 9:30.
Thanks for reading and stay tuned!

Tara