Travel Day and Arrival

Early on the morning of Wednesday 12/7/11 we got up and had a continental breakfast at our hotel.  It was freezing out and the idea of heading out to warm, sunny Florida made me giddy!  We loaded into the car and headed to the airport.  We had 8 carry-on bags and 1 bag to check.  You ask why so many. I say I don't know!  Really it was 4 carry on suitcases, and 1 small bag for each of us. It was a lot though. The checked bag held a weeks worth of diapers for Maile.  You can't just buy her diapers at Wal-Mart so it is best to bring them along.  We get to the airport, get checked in, and I sit down with the girls and all 8 carry-on bags and Keith heads out to put the car in long term parking.  After he has been gone about 5 minutes Nadia decides she needs to go to the bathroom.  Remember, I have 8 carry-on bags, a 6 year old and a child in a wheel chair. We managed to make it but man oh man! 

We get to our boarding area and about this time Maile's diaper leaks and soaks all of her clothes.  Thankfully we have 8 carry-on bags because there are clothes in at least one of them. I find an out of the way area and ask an employee if I can use it to change her (those little pull down changing tables don't cut it for a 9 year old!) and get her changed.  Head back over to our boarding area and get ready to board.  As we are in line, the employee I spoke to earlier came up and asked if I would like to check a bunch of our bags.  You betcha! So we got rid of half of our bags-Ahhh! 

Finally on the airplane and all settled but not going anywhere! Turns out there is something wrong with the bathroom and we can't leave until it is fixed. We finally took off about the time we were to be landing in Florida.  The flight was fine until that last three minutes when Nadia's motion sickness kicked in.  She has been trained well to use bags! (DISCLAIMER: I know some of you don't like to hear the stories about all my kids puking, pooping, and peeing, but it you want to imagine riding along with us on a family vacation you have to get the WHOLE picture!)

We finally arrive in Orlando, pick up our rental car and head out.  I was so excited I could not help myself!  I just wanted to get there!  We stopped at Wal-Mart and picked up snacks and all of Maile's food for the week as well as many other odds and ends. (If you go to WDW there is a Wal-Mart about 5 miles away with a huge Disney section.  It would probably be worth paying a taxi to get there to buy all of your t-shirts etc.)  We stopped at McDonalds and finally headed to WDW. As we drove into the World, I had a little tear in my eye!

(New camera and I had not figured out how to take pictures in the dark. Oops!)

(This is not my picture but this is what I was trying to take a picture of.)

After getting lost and driving around The World (that place is huge!) we finally found the hotel, thanks to my "boyfriend" Mr Garmin!  We chose to stay at Pop Century for several reasons.  Price and the fact that it does not share its buses with any other hotels were two big factors in our decision. We actually had two reservations.  One for our first night and one for the rest of our trip.  We got checked in and we were assured that we would be in the same room the whole time but that we needed to come and check in again in the morning and they would give us our park passes at that time.  We get to our room and spend the next hour or so unpacking.  I figured if we are going to be there for a week we may as well get all settled in and I am glad we did.  I had read blogs about how small the rooms were and ideas on how to organize all of our stuff to maximize the space.  It worked!  We got everything in and settled. Then Nadia and I took a little walk. Again it is dark out so no great pictures.  (Don't worry though.  When it was all said and done, there are more than 700 pictures for me to share so you will probably see more than you want to!)

After our walk, it was finally bed time.  After a long day of travel we were ready for it! It did take a bit to get Maile to go to sleep but not too bad considering.