brivers222
12-21-2011, 04:08 PM
Cast of Characters:
Adrianne - DW (referred to as YO!)
Brandon - Me, myself and I (referred to as such)
LEG: 1 of 2
LOCATION: Polynesian Theme Park View
DATES: 12/9/11 - 12/14/11
DINING: Deluxe Dining Plan (3 meals / 2 snacks per person per night) = 30 dining Credits and 20 Snack credits
DAY #1 Agenda (12/9/2011): Flight, Alamo rental, Wal-Mart (you know the pre-arrival at Disney portion)
I spent most of Thursday night 12/8/2011 doing laundry and packing my suitcases. I decided that undershirts, boxers and socks would be toss away (I usually bought new stuff and took it with me) but this trip I bought new stuff and put it in my dresser at home... Little did my undergarments know, but this was their last trip.... their final resting place will be in a trash bag "off stage" at Disney. My parents bought me a 3 piece luggage set and YO!'S Dad and step mom bought her some new luggage. We also decided that all toiletries and none essential medicines would be bought at Wal-Mart enroute to the Poly once arriving at MCO. This worked out nicely as we could focus more on clothing (as the weather reports for kind of up in the air about temperature and such).... So we packed long sleeves, short sleeves, sweaters, pants, and shorts and can't forget some light weight jackets. After all it was 20-degrees currently outside as I was packing. I bought a new pair of New Balance shoes the day before (yeah I know horrible Idea not breaking them in...But I planned for that and had my trusty old pair of shoes waiting in wings)... They waited in Wings the entire trip as I forget them lol. We managed to pack all of our clothes in two checked in bags (we were both allowed 3 free 70lb checked bags via First class ticket) So I wasn't really worried about weight of them. What I was nervous about was the restrictions for Carry-on luggage. Liquids were not a problem because we were buying all that stuff once we landed. But my concern was carry-on luggage bag and my camera backpack... since both were rather large. None the less if I had to check it in at the gate sobeit. We set out all of our bags and stuff about midnight and wanted to get to bed as our pickup was at 6am. I was too excited to sleep, well excited and nervous... am I really flying down? Is the 2-1/2 hour flight really worth it against the 19hour car ride? Only time will tell!
So I had to get Octavius "GusGus" (our 3 year old Kitty names after Cinderella’s famed fatty mouse) all set up with food and litter cleaned... He knew something was up with us moving around luggage and whatnot, you could tell it in his eyes. I felt bad for the little guy. However, YO!'s aunt was more than willing to stop by every day to feed, water and play with him so that was another worry gone. The time flew by way to quick, before I knew it the 5am alarm went off. Checked my delta app to see that the plane was still on-time and got ready to jump in the shower. That is when I noticed Mother Nature decided to really give us a good send off to Florida....2 inches of snow and still falling... OH GREAT?!?!? I was having all sorts of visions popping in my head with our flight... delays being the biggest of them considering we had that stupid Cancellation policy dinner at Chef Mickey's and non-refundable MVMCP set for later that night.
Our Limo (did I mention it was our Disneymoon?? I am doing this up right!) Was picking us up at 6am at our house for an 8:40am flight out of Detroit Metro (DTW) on Delta Flight 1923. Now I haven't been on an airplane in 18 years and never since 9/11... So I was quite nervous about everything and anything about the flight. At first in my pre-report you would remember that I was concerned that my Pooh-sized frame would not be crammed into their restrictive 17" seats in Economy. Well disaster avoided, I upgraded to First Class (it’s our Disneymoon, remember? Doing it up right!). So that was one less worry.... However the snow caused the limo driver to be insanely late, mind you in my mind he was like 3 hours late, but in reality I think it was 10mins at most. We loaded up all the suitcases and stuff in the trunk of the limo and checked over the house for any last minute forgets... my eyes went directly over my trusty shoes and didn't even raise a warning flag... We found gusgus hiding under the dining room table... he knew something was amiss. Gosh I am going to miss that furball!!!!
The traffic wasn't that bad but it was a lot slower with the fresh white stuff falling and collecting. Items of note, that the driver had an insane amount of cologne on and it was suffocating both YO! and myself (or was that our nerves...no... I am sure it was his cologne) and to make matters worse our seatbelts were constantly locked so we couldn’t reach the rear controls on the center console to turn down the oven we were in. I ended up placing my hat over the vent to block the hot air. Sure we could have just asked him to turn it down but it was early and our voice boxes didn't work yet.
A little sidebar with important and much need information about that hat above... How many of you saw our wedding slideshow I posted in the other forum? Those that did will notice that I had the famed Mickey Eared top hat for my reception grand entrance. Well that is the same hat I am talking about. I wore that through DTW proudly! Now many will know that they no longer offer that top hat, instead that UGLY beany tuxedo shirt/hat for the guys... That was unacceptable for my DISNEYmoon!!! Earlier in the year I had my parents buy a cheap set of Mickey ears while down there. I bought a cheap top hat on Amazon for $6 (including shipping!!) and we created it Frankenstein style. It looks amazing and got SEVERAL complements from guests, CMs and others during my stay... when I say several, I am talking about maybe 25-35 people asking in my short 11 day stay... Disney sure lost out on sales with this decision!
So back to my story, we arrived at DTW with about an hour to spare. Which was fine by me because I have no idea how to go through DTW or even TSA for that matter... I was really getting nervous. The limo driver let us out and unloaded our baggage. With a quick non-descript money exchange we were set loose inside DTW enroute to the Delta Terminal. Yo holmes, smell you later! The night before I checked in using the Delta App, but I wasn't feeling very confident in the correctness of it being strictly on my phone.. I want to kill trees, I NEED paper in my hands! So we went to the desk. I started getting a bit nervous about the weight of our bags as they seem way heavier today than then did last night. Ugh, its go time... bag one on the scale..........43lbs........... even less than the 50lbs allowed for coach.... Embarrassment set in thinking about how that felt so heavy before. Next bag on the scale........47lbs....... No way? really? Both are less than 50lbs?! Wow okay we are good. Got our boarding passes and made our way to the security.
This was the moment of truth, I have been preparing for this encounter for about a year now.... will I make it through or will I get detained never to be seen again?! I didn't have a belt on so all I had to do was take the hat, shoes, wallet, and phone and place it in the bins. Did I mention I was wearing my custom made Tuxedo Hockey Jersey for my arrival to Disney? Well if not, I WAS!!!! It was a white hockey jersey designed like a tux (you will see it in pictures) and it was letter with 11's on the sleeves and GROOM #12 on the back. Our wedding date was 11.12.11. TSA got a kick out of it and actually calmed my nerves by talking and commenting about it. Went through the total body scan without incident. Now the reclaiming all your stuff is quite the experience... shoes, hat, wallet, camera bag, carry-on, check! Whoops wait I forgot my phone; phew there it is waiting for me. We ate a quick breakfast at some deli right past security gate. It was yummy and much needed to help ease our nerves about the flight portion of our trip. In the grand scheme of things, it wasn't needed for our waist line as we were going to be eating on the Deluxe Dining plan... but it was good at the time. Hindsight 20/20. Now I had one thing I really wanted to do... that was buy Cotton Candy because when I was younger my mom would buy cotton candy and give it to us when we were flying through the clouds.... we were eating the clouds. Well times have changed because nobody sold any form of cotton candy... cotton everything else, just not candy. Oh well, you win some you lose some.
Please see 1st comment below for continuation of part 1
PLEASE SEE MY PREVIOUS REPORTS FOR THIS TRIP:
PRE-TRIP: http://www.intercot.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=183080
Adrianne - DW (referred to as YO!)
Brandon - Me, myself and I (referred to as such)
LEG: 1 of 2
LOCATION: Polynesian Theme Park View
DATES: 12/9/11 - 12/14/11
DINING: Deluxe Dining Plan (3 meals / 2 snacks per person per night) = 30 dining Credits and 20 Snack credits
DAY #1 Agenda (12/9/2011): Flight, Alamo rental, Wal-Mart (you know the pre-arrival at Disney portion)
I spent most of Thursday night 12/8/2011 doing laundry and packing my suitcases. I decided that undershirts, boxers and socks would be toss away (I usually bought new stuff and took it with me) but this trip I bought new stuff and put it in my dresser at home... Little did my undergarments know, but this was their last trip.... their final resting place will be in a trash bag "off stage" at Disney. My parents bought me a 3 piece luggage set and YO!'S Dad and step mom bought her some new luggage. We also decided that all toiletries and none essential medicines would be bought at Wal-Mart enroute to the Poly once arriving at MCO. This worked out nicely as we could focus more on clothing (as the weather reports for kind of up in the air about temperature and such).... So we packed long sleeves, short sleeves, sweaters, pants, and shorts and can't forget some light weight jackets. After all it was 20-degrees currently outside as I was packing. I bought a new pair of New Balance shoes the day before (yeah I know horrible Idea not breaking them in...But I planned for that and had my trusty old pair of shoes waiting in wings)... They waited in Wings the entire trip as I forget them lol. We managed to pack all of our clothes in two checked in bags (we were both allowed 3 free 70lb checked bags via First class ticket) So I wasn't really worried about weight of them. What I was nervous about was the restrictions for Carry-on luggage. Liquids were not a problem because we were buying all that stuff once we landed. But my concern was carry-on luggage bag and my camera backpack... since both were rather large. None the less if I had to check it in at the gate sobeit. We set out all of our bags and stuff about midnight and wanted to get to bed as our pickup was at 6am. I was too excited to sleep, well excited and nervous... am I really flying down? Is the 2-1/2 hour flight really worth it against the 19hour car ride? Only time will tell!
So I had to get Octavius "GusGus" (our 3 year old Kitty names after Cinderella’s famed fatty mouse) all set up with food and litter cleaned... He knew something was up with us moving around luggage and whatnot, you could tell it in his eyes. I felt bad for the little guy. However, YO!'s aunt was more than willing to stop by every day to feed, water and play with him so that was another worry gone. The time flew by way to quick, before I knew it the 5am alarm went off. Checked my delta app to see that the plane was still on-time and got ready to jump in the shower. That is when I noticed Mother Nature decided to really give us a good send off to Florida....2 inches of snow and still falling... OH GREAT?!?!? I was having all sorts of visions popping in my head with our flight... delays being the biggest of them considering we had that stupid Cancellation policy dinner at Chef Mickey's and non-refundable MVMCP set for later that night.
Our Limo (did I mention it was our Disneymoon?? I am doing this up right!) Was picking us up at 6am at our house for an 8:40am flight out of Detroit Metro (DTW) on Delta Flight 1923. Now I haven't been on an airplane in 18 years and never since 9/11... So I was quite nervous about everything and anything about the flight. At first in my pre-report you would remember that I was concerned that my Pooh-sized frame would not be crammed into their restrictive 17" seats in Economy. Well disaster avoided, I upgraded to First Class (it’s our Disneymoon, remember? Doing it up right!). So that was one less worry.... However the snow caused the limo driver to be insanely late, mind you in my mind he was like 3 hours late, but in reality I think it was 10mins at most. We loaded up all the suitcases and stuff in the trunk of the limo and checked over the house for any last minute forgets... my eyes went directly over my trusty shoes and didn't even raise a warning flag... We found gusgus hiding under the dining room table... he knew something was amiss. Gosh I am going to miss that furball!!!!
The traffic wasn't that bad but it was a lot slower with the fresh white stuff falling and collecting. Items of note, that the driver had an insane amount of cologne on and it was suffocating both YO! and myself (or was that our nerves...no... I am sure it was his cologne) and to make matters worse our seatbelts were constantly locked so we couldn’t reach the rear controls on the center console to turn down the oven we were in. I ended up placing my hat over the vent to block the hot air. Sure we could have just asked him to turn it down but it was early and our voice boxes didn't work yet.
A little sidebar with important and much need information about that hat above... How many of you saw our wedding slideshow I posted in the other forum? Those that did will notice that I had the famed Mickey Eared top hat for my reception grand entrance. Well that is the same hat I am talking about. I wore that through DTW proudly! Now many will know that they no longer offer that top hat, instead that UGLY beany tuxedo shirt/hat for the guys... That was unacceptable for my DISNEYmoon!!! Earlier in the year I had my parents buy a cheap set of Mickey ears while down there. I bought a cheap top hat on Amazon for $6 (including shipping!!) and we created it Frankenstein style. It looks amazing and got SEVERAL complements from guests, CMs and others during my stay... when I say several, I am talking about maybe 25-35 people asking in my short 11 day stay... Disney sure lost out on sales with this decision!
So back to my story, we arrived at DTW with about an hour to spare. Which was fine by me because I have no idea how to go through DTW or even TSA for that matter... I was really getting nervous. The limo driver let us out and unloaded our baggage. With a quick non-descript money exchange we were set loose inside DTW enroute to the Delta Terminal. Yo holmes, smell you later! The night before I checked in using the Delta App, but I wasn't feeling very confident in the correctness of it being strictly on my phone.. I want to kill trees, I NEED paper in my hands! So we went to the desk. I started getting a bit nervous about the weight of our bags as they seem way heavier today than then did last night. Ugh, its go time... bag one on the scale..........43lbs........... even less than the 50lbs allowed for coach.... Embarrassment set in thinking about how that felt so heavy before. Next bag on the scale........47lbs....... No way? really? Both are less than 50lbs?! Wow okay we are good. Got our boarding passes and made our way to the security.
This was the moment of truth, I have been preparing for this encounter for about a year now.... will I make it through or will I get detained never to be seen again?! I didn't have a belt on so all I had to do was take the hat, shoes, wallet, and phone and place it in the bins. Did I mention I was wearing my custom made Tuxedo Hockey Jersey for my arrival to Disney? Well if not, I WAS!!!! It was a white hockey jersey designed like a tux (you will see it in pictures) and it was letter with 11's on the sleeves and GROOM #12 on the back. Our wedding date was 11.12.11. TSA got a kick out of it and actually calmed my nerves by talking and commenting about it. Went through the total body scan without incident. Now the reclaiming all your stuff is quite the experience... shoes, hat, wallet, camera bag, carry-on, check! Whoops wait I forgot my phone; phew there it is waiting for me. We ate a quick breakfast at some deli right past security gate. It was yummy and much needed to help ease our nerves about the flight portion of our trip. In the grand scheme of things, it wasn't needed for our waist line as we were going to be eating on the Deluxe Dining plan... but it was good at the time. Hindsight 20/20. Now I had one thing I really wanted to do... that was buy Cotton Candy because when I was younger my mom would buy cotton candy and give it to us when we were flying through the clouds.... we were eating the clouds. Well times have changed because nobody sold any form of cotton candy... cotton everything else, just not candy. Oh well, you win some you lose some.
Please see 1st comment below for continuation of part 1
PLEASE SEE MY PREVIOUS REPORTS FOR THIS TRIP:
PRE-TRIP: http://www.intercot.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=183080