Jared
06-01-2009, 09:19 AM
The first day of our trip consisted of nothing but flying and sleeping, so this post would probably serve best as an introduction to the rest of the report. This quick excursion down to Disney was a surprise we booked about a month ago for some brother-to-brother bonding time. I was there with my entire family in December, but my 16-year-old brother, Justin, and I pushed to spend a weekend in our favorite place alone. It is something we have longingly discussed for years, and we finally were able to make it happen, after a fair amount of parental prodding and begging. When the day to leave finally rolled around last Thursday, my dad was having considerable doubts about Justin missing school for a day and at least entertained the notion of not letting him go. That would have been quite the punishment.
No matter. Those thoughts were soon quashed, and our Disney adventure began. We were on JetBlue flight No. 597, which departed White Plains, N.Y., at 8:55 p.m. for Orlando, Fla. We discovered the tiny and convenient Westchester County Airport about two years ago after spending our lives battling insane traffic at delays at LaGuardia and Kennedy. The Westchester airport is about 10 minutes from our house and is so easy it’s hard to believe. There is one security line and no real gates -- just a big room with a bunch of doors and people sitting in the middle waiting for their flights. It literally took 20 minutes from the time we left home until we were waiting airside. And the flight was nonstop. Now that’s how you fly. For anyone from Westchester or Fairfield counties who have not yet discovered this hidden gem, considering the White Plains airport next time you need to fly.
Anyway, advertisement over. Our plane left on-time and the flight was thankfully incident-free. We landed in Orlando sometime after 11. Fortunately, we did not check any luggage so we did not have to deal with baggage claim so late at night. I was unaware Disney no longer delievers bags to rooms for flights that land after 10 p.m. My family regularly arrives at night and have utilized this service multiple times. This new policy will definitely affect the way we schedule our vacations.
Our DME bus was surprisingly crowded. The problem was arriving so late is there are not too many buses operating, so you often have to wait up to 20 or 30 minutes before actually leaving the airport, and the buses often make more stops than they would during the day. But since we were staying at Pop Century, that didn’t matter much. We were the first stop. By now, it was after midnight and we were tired and fully aware we needed to wake up early the next morning for the fun to begin. We were in room 0416 in the 1970s building. It was relatively close to the pool and Classic Hall, which was what I wanted. Finding anything at Pop Century late at night is virtually impossible. The place is absolutely sprawling and the signage is just decent.
We finally stumbled into our room at about 1 a.m. and fell asleep almost immediately. We had to leave for Disney’s Hollywood Studios in about six hours, so morning would come all too soon.
Thanks for reading, everybody. Back with our first real day soon.
No matter. Those thoughts were soon quashed, and our Disney adventure began. We were on JetBlue flight No. 597, which departed White Plains, N.Y., at 8:55 p.m. for Orlando, Fla. We discovered the tiny and convenient Westchester County Airport about two years ago after spending our lives battling insane traffic at delays at LaGuardia and Kennedy. The Westchester airport is about 10 minutes from our house and is so easy it’s hard to believe. There is one security line and no real gates -- just a big room with a bunch of doors and people sitting in the middle waiting for their flights. It literally took 20 minutes from the time we left home until we were waiting airside. And the flight was nonstop. Now that’s how you fly. For anyone from Westchester or Fairfield counties who have not yet discovered this hidden gem, considering the White Plains airport next time you need to fly.
Anyway, advertisement over. Our plane left on-time and the flight was thankfully incident-free. We landed in Orlando sometime after 11. Fortunately, we did not check any luggage so we did not have to deal with baggage claim so late at night. I was unaware Disney no longer delievers bags to rooms for flights that land after 10 p.m. My family regularly arrives at night and have utilized this service multiple times. This new policy will definitely affect the way we schedule our vacations.
Our DME bus was surprisingly crowded. The problem was arriving so late is there are not too many buses operating, so you often have to wait up to 20 or 30 minutes before actually leaving the airport, and the buses often make more stops than they would during the day. But since we were staying at Pop Century, that didn’t matter much. We were the first stop. By now, it was after midnight and we were tired and fully aware we needed to wake up early the next morning for the fun to begin. We were in room 0416 in the 1970s building. It was relatively close to the pool and Classic Hall, which was what I wanted. Finding anything at Pop Century late at night is virtually impossible. The place is absolutely sprawling and the signage is just decent.
We finally stumbled into our room at about 1 a.m. and fell asleep almost immediately. We had to leave for Disney’s Hollywood Studios in about six hours, so morning would come all too soon.
Thanks for reading, everybody. Back with our first real day soon.