Disney Trip: Day One

The trip started with us hitching a ride with one of our friends from church to the airport. Traveling with a preschooler and an infant in a car has it’s own set of challenges, but I think it’s much more difficult to fly with them. We had five check-in bags… not including two car seats, we had four carry on bags, we had a double stroller, and we had Aaron’s car seat. Needless to say, once we got through security, it was a big relief. Both times, they made Melissa dump out the nursery water that we had in bottles. Pardon my language, but terrorists suck.

We left St. Louis in 65 degree weather… we arrived in Orlando to 90 degree weather. It was a little hotter than I expected it to be. It wasn’t terrible… but it was pretty warm. Southwest passed out a new snack this time: ‘Plane’ Crackers. Basically, they were Ritz crackers in the shape of a plane. They were good. I was also able to have TWO glasses of Sprite.

When I was a boy, my Grandma Sands used to pack us a box of candy and other cool things… and we weren’t supposed to open it until we got on the road. She would double duct tape those boxes. In the same spirit, we packed one of Emily’s book bags full of different things. She wasn’t allowed to open it until she got to the airport. It was full of candy, coloring books, and various other things. I think she liked it. While we were on the plane, Melissa sat with Aaron in his car seat and Emily sat with me in the row in front of them. We met Melissa’s parents at the airport. There is a certain point when it becomes real that I am back in Orlando for another Disney vacation… hitching a ride from the terminal to the main airport building. Few airports utilize such a transport… and whenever I ride it in Orlando, that’s when it becomes ‘real’ to me.

In my trip planning, I found a website (mousesavers.com) that allowed me to sign up for the National Car Rental membership for free. (usually it costs 50 bucks) They allowed us to book at an intermediate size price range… but we could choose any car in a certain aisle called the ‘Emerald Club Aisle’ or something like that. So we looked and found two very cool looking Sorento (kind of an SUV type of vehicle) in the aisle. We were able to take those for the week… even though we only paid for an intermediate sized car. It was great!


After stopping for some groceries, we made our way to Disney World. We stayed at All Star Movies Resort… which is a value (lowest priced) resort at Disney World. I had made a few requests… (To stay in the 101 Dalmatians themed buildings; to have first floor rooms, to have connecting rooms...) Disney met every single request. I was impressed.


We finished the night by using some coupons that came with our package through Disney at Planet Hollywood in Downtown Disney. I had never been there before and I probably wouldn’t choose to go back without some similar incentive. It was very loud… though the décor was very interesting… as it was all a bunch of movie props and such. During our dinner there… they played a video of U2’s Mysterious Ways on the TV’s and Big Screen… and we sat next to a couple of Indiana Jones props. The service wasn’t great, but my burger was pretty good. Good times.