Family Reunion Trip Redoux - Arrival
Me and DH
DD – 15 and 14
DS – 12
And 24 more grandparents, siblings, aunts and uncles, nephews and nieces, and cousins galore!
Our plane got in around 9 pm. Our flight with Southwest was great. The flight attendants were super nice to our kids, giving them extra snacks and drinks, and the flight had free samples of an Oktoberfest beer.
We did not tag our checked bags for ME, since we did not want to wait up for our luggage to be delivered. So we collected our bags and got on the bus! We did not do online check in, because I forgot about it. We traveled with my sister, who did tag her bags for ME and did do online check in. The bus trip to POR took about 40 minutes. Our waits at the front desk (on-line check in, and not) were very similar. Both were long – the CM said that the computer system had been down for 6 hours earlier that day, and each person’s time at the counter was slow. Only one of our 5 magic bands worked to open our room, but they said to come back the next day to get everything sorted out. We did get our packages from Amazon (we shipped breakfast foods and snacks) and bought some milk at the store.
Our room was a tighter fit than 6 years ago, but we had a good system. Each of the two chairs served as a luggage rack, and since two of our suitcases were shared, that meant four of us had our clothing readily available. The table was for purses, charging electronics, and paperwork only. We stored our snacks on the shelf and the top of the Murphy bed, used the drawers for medications, shoes, etc. We hung a few clothes, and used a hanging clothing organizer to place each of our outfits for the next day, to make our morning routine simpler. The bathroom vanity around the two sinks had plenty of space for our toiletries, along with our two hanging toiletry bags.
We were finally in bed around midnight. My sister waited on her luggage until around 1 am, so I would recommend grabbing your own luggage on a late flight unless you already have plans to be up late.
