The day started out like any other day of travel... last minute packing, kids running crazy-excited around the house, reading and rereading to-do and to-pack lists. This morning was crazy! On top of the crazy-excitedness, we got about ten inches of new snow! I hadn't planned on spending an hour outside shoveling, but we had to be able to get the cars out of the driveway and I needed to get the snow off of the sidewalks (city policy). Even with the shoveling, my mom got off on time with Skogen and Klaasen, and Maida, Torsten and I headed to the airport one minute before I had planned on leaving. Perfect! We quick grabbed lunch in the drive through of McDonalds and then gassed up the car. We made it to the airport right on time.
We left the car in long term parking and the plan was for Erik to pick up the car when he flew into airport the next morning. The only difficult part of this plan was the unexpected ten inches of snow that filled the unplowed parking lot and walkways, making it fairly difficult to get into the airport pushing a stroller! However, we made it and our plane took off right on time. When we landied in Minneapolis, we had 25 minutes to make it to our next plane. Luckily for us, the next plane was only a couple gates away. I celebrated by sending texts to family that we had made our next plane and five minutes later found out that our plane was delayed because we were waiting on the flight crew, who were on a flight that was delayed because of some mechanical problems.
We took off an hour and half after our scheduled time. When we landed in New York City, we had ten minutes to make it to our next flight. However, we were sitting in the very back row of the plane and had no chance on getting out of the plane anytime soon. It was 8pm and we were exhausted. The last thing I wanted to do is be stuck in New York City overnight with a baby and five-year-old who was anxious about getting to Disney World. They tried to get us on another flight with a different airlines that night, but couldn't do it. They promised me a flight out right away in the morning. I was glad that we were going to eventually make it (and the rest of our family wasn't coming in until the next day, anyway), but I wanted to cry. What was I going to do?!
Luckily, the lady helping me was very nice and understood my concerns about getting around the city, finding a place to stay, and getting enough diapers to last me all night (we didn't have any luggage because our luggage continued on without us). She made a few phone calls and after a couple sweet smiles from baby T, Delta decided to pay for our hotel, transportation, food, and diapers! The Delta lady made reservations for us at the Double Tree Hotel and gave me vouchers to pay for our food and taxi to the hotel. They also brought me out a mini-pack of diapers and wipes! I found our way out of the hotel and got a taxi. As we approached the taxi to get in, I remembered I didn't have any car seats! The taxi driver assured me that they were not required in a taxi in the state of New York. I was a little hesitant to get in, but the Delta lady told me that the hotel was only minutes from the airport, so I assured myself that it would only be a few minutes and we got in. Maida sat in the middle and I held Torsten on my lap. We flew around the back of the taxi (Maida screaming in complete joy and me screaming in complete terror!). With only a few horn honks, about ten minutes later, we arrived at our hotel. After checking into our room, we went downstairs to the cafe and ordered dinner. We had a great time playing Bible Trivia while we shared a house salad and chicken wrap. Then we went right to bed since we had to be up at about 3:30am to make it to the shuttle by four.
We actually missed the 4am shuttle, but it ran every 15 minutes, so we caught the next one. We took it to terminal two and then had to go through checking in and security all over again. Finally we were in the air again and on our way to Disney World! We landed ten minutes early and had time to go locate our luggage that was there waiting for us and also find the place where we received our bus vouchers to ride the Disney's Magical Express to the Disney's Pop Century Hotel. My cousins and their girls arrived about a half hour later, so we waited for them and all rode the shuttle to the Pop Century together.
After lunch in the resort hotel, we let the girls go swimming. They had a blast swimming all over the pool! Then we ventured to Disney for dinner. My cousin Melody had made cute little shirts for the girls to wear and it was fun to see them all dressed alike! We ate at Planet Hollywood and then went home to get some sleep before a big day the next day!
Wow, that is great that they took care of you. I would have been scared to venture out like that without the help (and diapers!).
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