Sunday, February 2, 2014

I Don't Even Know What A Ghost Flight Is..

So I figure the easiest way to get back into blogging is to finally recap what could have been called the most Bi-Polar Disney vacation of my entire life. 


This will be the last time I speak of this trip.


I will begin by using Pooh Bear to show you how I felt at 3am on January 6th, the morning of my flight....

10pm the night before I was to leave, my flight was scheduled and on time. Sometimes I get so excited that I can't sleep the night before I fly, well that and I can't sleep fully through the night. So I went to check my flight at 3am when I couldn't fall back asleep...just in case...

I saw the words CANCELED in red, bold and with no explanation.

Rather than vomit on Miguel and Ace I grabbed the phone and ran to the bathroom. I called Southwest and tried to figure out what I was going to do.

I was scheduled for the Magical Express and thought in my panic of cancellation that the M.E. stopped running at 10pm...yeah. I know. I'm a genius. So when the lady told me I could do a 6pm-11pm flight I nixed that real quick. I told her I'd just take the 7.10am flight out Tuesday, so I'd essentially be wasting a day.

In true MegMeg form I decided I would outsmart the airline and go and do standby, knowing I had the Tuesday flight in my back pocket. I made Miguel get up and drive me to the airport in some of the worse fog we have had here. I got to Bradley by 7pm and thought the outside bag check line seemed less life-sucking. 45 minutes later I got to the man taking bags. He informed me that because I was not leaving the airport THAT DAY I was unable to have my bag sent to Orlando.  (I know, again, I probably should have assumed this.) I said a couple un-ladylike words, actually some pretty bad ones and went inside to stand in the line that looked like the one I assume is outside Hell's Welcome Gates. 70 minutes later I was told I'd be on a 'ghost flight' to Baltimore at 1.40pm with a connection to MCO at 4.45pm where I would arrive roughly 7pm and be whisked off to the Happiest Place On Earth. I almost kissed the woman for getting me on a flight.


Lines. I love lines.



By now it was 9.05am. I couldn't check my bags till 9.40am so I went to call Disney and change our Teppan Edo reservations to a later time. As I was standing there I saw the man who I was unnecessarily rude to outside and apologized to him. We had a great chat and he told me he has been a 50 year employee of Bradley International. I am so happy I did the right thing by saying I was sorry, he absolutely made my morning. AND to my surprise decided to override the system so I didn't have to wait until 9.40am to check my bag. My mood was definitely improving.


I was very excited to be picking up the pace on my vacation. After going through security I found a spot where I could charge my phone and relax. I didn't think it would be too bad to wait 3+ hours for my flight and truthfully in hind sight it wasn't. I was somewhat enjoying my time in the airport realizing it could have been much worse. It wasn't until the ghost plane was late of course that I started to lose it. I knew my connection from Baltimore to Orlando would be easy to make as long as I got on a plane before 3.15pm. At 2.30pm our plane pulled into Bradley and I boarded. I had rented The Internship from iTunes or the App Store or wherever you get movies to rent and relaxed.

Before I knew it, we landed in Baltimore. I had never been to this airport before so although I wanted to get to Orlando ASAP I was kind of excited to explore somewhere new. As I made my way to my gate I looked for somewhere to eat.


Name that movie: "Crabcakes and football, that's what Maryland does!" 


We landed in Baltimore about 4pm. I was so hungry and pumped to be early for my next flight (4.45pm) that I found a Chipotle and grabbed a spot in front of my gate. I relaxed and digested that delicious bowl of spice and goodness and waited for them to call my flight. 4.30 came.....4.45came......5 came.....5.30 came.... I started to panic big time. We didn't actually board the plan until 6.30pm. 

At 9.15am while waiting to check my bags at Bradley I called Disney Dining and changed Samantha's and my reservations from 7.50pm to 8.50pm thinking there was NO WAY I would be arriving after 8pm and miss that reservation. Welp. When we took off at 6.50pm I couldn't help but feel a little like Nana....


I even paid for iMessaging on my Southwest flight so I could text Samantha...yeah. That didn't work either, I should have had that $2 go towards a cup of wine. So on my delayed and now late arrival flight I sat with a baby next to me trying to play with my hair, she was actually kinda cute but....still I don't want anyone touching my hair, and low battery on my phone. I knew I still had to get to the Magical Express and by now I was hungry again. 

My flight landed at MCO around 8.45pm and I called my father who was sweet enough to put up with my mood swings the entire day. From crying on the phone, to swearing about flights he kept me sane and actually helped me smile.


Side Note: O is for Ojciec, Ojciec is Polish for Father and Matka is Polish for Mother, eventhough my father is the only Polish one I still have my mother in my phone as Matka because it makes me smile.

Anyways even though one of my nicknames is MegMeg because similar to the TomTom GPS system available for purchase I am able to find my way places. I was so exhausted that I went in the complete opposite direction to the Magical Express. I could not wait to get on that damn bus. Apparently my internal compass was was a little off...


Once I got on the Magical Express I was so beat that all I wanted to do was sleep. After about 45 minutes I arrived at All Star Sports. I caught a little tiny baby second wind and was snapping photos while waiting for Samantha who was sweet enough to stay up and wait for me to arrive. <3 That's what a best friend is.





After the most delicious salad, fettuccine alfredo and bread stick that the EndZone could muster up we went back to the room and I laid down to put myself in a mini coma. 15 + hours of travel and all this girl wanted to do was close her eyes...


3 comments:

  1. Sheesh! At least you got there :)

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  2. Oh my gosh; what a long day! Glad you made it there all in one piece!

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  3. Wowza, that is quite a story. Glad you got there, and that you did safely as well!

    ReplyDelete