According to the information in the envelope left in our room (which also included our boarding passes,) the DME (aka The Sad Bus) would be here to pick us up at 9:30 am. As soon as I got up, I did some more packing and ran to the food court to get more hot chocolate. I set the kids up with more pop tarts. There were more grapes and apples left in the fridge, so that was my breakfast. It was then that Julie said she had thought we would have breakfast at the food court. WHAT????? I thought we were all sick of the food court! Well, not for the first or last time, I blew it. I continued getting our things together, and when the kids got dressed and teeth brushed, I could finally finish packing. But there was still a good bit of time until the Sad Bus would arrive. I found the game card and remembered that Cary had said there were still points left on it. So after taking our suitcases to Airline Check-in, we all went to the Medicine Show Arcade and took turns spending the card to nearly nothing. Then we took the kids to the playground.
At about 5 minutes till 9, I told Julie to take the kids and meet me at the main lobby. I went and got all our carry-on bags and checked the room thoroughly to make sure we didn’t leave anything. When I regrouped with the family, I checked out at the front while Jordan used the bathroom. Then we went out front, where there were hula hoops and some kind of bean bag toss game for the kids to play with. A few minutes after watching a DME bus drop off some happy people just arriving, we saw another bus drive up – the Sad Bus. Well, I keep calling it that, but the kids were not visibly upset about going home.
The DME stopped at Saratoga Springs before heading on to the airport. It was a pretty nice looking resort. When we finally got to MCO, we gathered up our carry-ons and headed to the nearest monitor to find our gate. When we found our flight number and gate, we saw something we really didn’t want to see: DELAYED.
We hoped someone at the gate could tell us what the delay was, so we rode the mon-faux-rail to the correct airside terminal. It was lunch time, and we saw a McDonald’s. We now knew we would have plenty of time to eat, so we did, except Julie chose Au Bon Pain next door then joined us at our table.
The person at the gate told us the delay was due to weather. Our 12:30 flight was now scheduled to leave at 3:30. We did NOT want to hang around the airport for 3 hours, but what else could we do? We just found some seats and got comfortable. One of us would occasionally get up to stretch our legs and then come back. The kids and I even tried a nearby yogurt shop, which was good. Jacqueline found another baby to play with. Our flight got delayed a few more times until it said 4:45. It seems the flight en route to our gate was stuck in some really bad weather in Baltimore. We were given $100 vouchers for the inconvenience. As sad as we were to leave Disney and the nice Florida weather, I for one was really glad to get home and return to normal.
So, will we go back? Maybe. I had thought this would be a once-in-a-lifetime thing, but we are already talking about returning. Maybe not within the next two years, but it could happen. June 2018, if all goes well. A few definites, if we do go back to the World:
We will stay longer. Our current plans do involve a longer stay.
We will make time for Universal and Islands of Adventure. Definitely. And maybe even Legoland.
We will spend more time at Epcot and Animal Kingdom. We WILL see more of the World Showcase, even if we have to run the whiny kids back to the condo. If mom is nervous, we can call KNO again.
And, we WILL get a dining plan. This, not so much. Disney dining plans are only for guests staying on property, and we found an offsite condo renting for $80 a night. As much as we loved staying at a Disney resort, the low price of this rental will allow us to do so much more, like fly again instead of drive, and stay long enough to visit some non-Disney attractions. Plus, with a full kitchen, we will be able to eat a lot cheaper anyway.