Unca’ Donald
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Nov 15, 2018
Hello there! My name is Jonathan and this is my 2nd Trip Report. You can check out my previous one, and learn a little more about me, with a click of the link below:
*The Fourth Time's the Charm! Nov 24 - Dec 1 2018 WDW Trip*
As you can probably make out from the title of my last report, this was the 5th trip to WDW for my girlfriend (Michelle) and I. It was also my first time being there on my birthday!
We also lucked into another trip we'll be leaving for in just 6 days, so I may not have any updates to this one over the next few weeks.
But let's get to it...
Friday, May 03, 2019: The day before arrival day
When we went back in November I worked the day before we were to fly out in the morning, thinking I'd be just fine packing that night. Of course I was wrong, and ended up getting to bed much later than I had planned to. So this time around I took the day off so that I would have plenty of time to pack. But of course I put off packing all day, and didn't get around to it until 5:00 that night. Lucky for me our cat, Keiko, was more than willing to assist.
We ended up getting to bed around 10:45. Usually the night before we leave I have trouble falling asleep, but I actually slept pretty well this time. Perhaps because we had just been to WDW less than 6 months ago, whereas we had only been going, on average, about every 2.6 years prior to that last trip. Whatever the reason, it was nice to actually get some sleep this time. Which brings us to...
Saturday, May 04, 2019: Part 1- Rise and Shine, It's Travel Time!
Michelle's alarm went off at 4:00 that morning. I had mine set for 4:45, but I wasn't able to fall back to sleep, so I got out of bed at 4:15 and started to get ready. My dad would be driving us to Concord Coach Lines in Portland, ME, where we would catch a bus to Boston Logan International Airport, and then a JetBlue direct flight to Orlando. The only direct flight from Portland to Orlando is provided by Frontier Airlines, which Michelle refuses to fly.
My dad showed up at our condo around 6:00, and after final preparations we were in the car and headed to the bus station at 6:35. About halfway there Michelle realized she had forgotten to pack the rain jacket she had purchased specifically for this trip, which left her in a bad mood for the next 20 minutes or so.
We arrived at the bus station at 6:50 and sat down to wait after getting our tickets. The wait wasn't long and we lined up to get on the bus just before 7:15. There was another group of people lining up for a different bus going to South Station in Boston. My mention of the other bus probably seems like an insignificant thing to add to my trip report, but you will see why I did so shortly.
We took a seat on our bus to the airport at 7:15, and 15 minutes later we were on our way, as it began to rain. I was in my phone for much of the next 30 minutes, playing Disney Magic Kingdoms and Disney Emoji Blitz. At one point I looked up and noticed the bus driver waving his right hand around like he was having a conversation with someone, but none of the passengers seated at the front of the bus appeared to be talking to him. It seemed a little odd to me, but I went back to what I was doing.
Shortly after that I noticed we were passing another bus on the right side, and our driver waved at him. I was back to looking at my phone, but then it felt like the bus was slowing down. I looked out the window and saw that we were pulling over on the side of the highway. This did not seem like a good thing. Our driver got out of the bus and walked over to talk to the driver of the other bus, which had pulled over in front of ours. He then returned and announced that one of the windshield wipers on our bus wasn't working. Instead on continuing on to the airport he decided to contact the driver of the other bus heading to Boston to see if he'd be able to take us. So we got onto the other bus at 8:10 and we were back on the road 10 minutes later. At first I was concerned about possibly missing our flight, but we were only about an hour away from the airport, and our flight wasn't scheduled to depart until 11:36, so all was good.
We stepped off the bus at the airport at 9:35 and went through the whole check in process before taking a seat at our gate. We took turns going to grab something to eat. I went to Dunkin' and decided to order the Sweet Sriracha Bacon Breakfast Sandwich. It was pretty good.
Shortly after 11:00 they began having passengers board our plane. We were going to be seated near the middle of the plane so we had to wait a bit before we could get in line. Not long after we did, the woman at the station where you hand them your ticket before boarding made an announcement that the captain requested they stop having passengers board for the moment. Someone in line asked her what the reason was, and she said she didn't know. She said it was possible there was a backup in passengers getting on the plane and they wanted it to clear up before letting more passengers in. This did not seem likely to me.
We waited for 5-10 minutes before the same woman grabbed the microphone to make another announcement. I could tell by the look on her face, right before she started to speak, that it wasn't going to be good news. She told us that the captain suggested those of us still waiting to have our ticket scanned sit back down. So it seemed we would not be boarding the plane anytime soon, and we still had no idea what the hold up was.
I don't fly very often, and I'd been fortunate to never have a flight with a major delay. I had a ticket to attend DAH at Hollywood Studios that evening, and I was beginning to worry that I might end up getting to the park late. As I sat there wondering about such things, Michelle went to the restroom. A few minutes later the captain came out to make an announcement. He said there was some sort of technical issue, and he made a reference to a movie, but I don't recall what the movie was. Whichever movie it was, I had never seen it, so I had no idea how dire our situation was. Apparently the guy sitting across from me had seen the movie because he let out a bit of a chuckle and said "That's not good." I was sitting there hoping he was just messing with his wife.
I told Michelle what little I knew of the situation when she returned, and we were both thinking we were going to be sitting there for a while, but thankfully whatever it was was taken care of and they started letting passengers on the plane again a little before 12:00.
Our flight had been scheduled to depart Boston at 11:36 AM and arrive in Orlando at 2:49 PM. We sat down on the plane at 12:00 and it took off 23 minutes later, so we were delayed by about 47 minutes. I spent most of my time in the air playing the games on my phone and watching episodes of My Cat From Hell, without any sound, on the TV in front of me.
The plane touched down at 3:01, only 12 minutes later than our initial scheduled arrival. Things were starting to look up, and then a passenger, who had already been told to take their seat, got up again. The captain stopped the plane on the runway and made an announcement that he wasn't going to start it up again until everyone was seated. Because of the delay on the runway, we ended up not getting off the plane until 3:25. Unfortunately that would not be our only delay. We had landed just as a thunderstorm arrived in the area. We were lucky enough to be able to land in time, but they wouldn't be able to unload any luggage from the plane until the storm had passed.
We arrived at baggage claim and waited. And waited. And waited some more. Until we both finally had our suitcases at 4:30, just over an hour after we got off the plane.
We then made our way to the DME check in. We were staying at POFQ and we were directed to proceed through lane 4. And the picture below was taken at 4:44. Spooky.
Our DME bus left the airport at 5:06 and we were on property at 5:34:
When we were here back in November our DME ride was a straight shot to POFQ, but this time we had to make stops at both Saratoga Springs and Old Key West before finally arriving at our home away from home at 6:00. We went to the front desk to check in, and I got my birthday button before we made our way to our room on the 3rd floor of Building 5.
I was getting ready to go to DAH at Hollywood Studios. Michelle didn't like the park on our last trip and didn't want to go there on this one, so she was going to go to Disney Springs. Since it was May the 4th, and I've been a Star Wars fan nearly my entire life (ANH was released 3 years after I was born) I had packed some other clothes that I had planned on wearing to the event. I wanted to be at the park in time to enter at 7:00, but I was already running a little late because of the delays. I knew if I took the time to change I wasn't going to be in the park until after 7:00. I thought about just leaving with what I was already wearing, but I had brought the clothes, and taken the time to pack them, so I decided I might as well wear them.
After I changed I was emptying out my backpack so that I'd be able to fill it up with some of the free bottles of water they give out at DAH. In my backpack I had Tiny Big Feet plushes of Gus and Jaq that I was planning on having us hold during a meet and greet with Cinderella later in the week, but our walk to our hotel room gave me an idea of what to do with them until then. We had passed a room that had some Toy Story plushes in the window, so I decided to put Gus and Jaq in ours before heading out the door to the bus stop.
That's all for now. In part 2 I will share the adventures of my first ever Disney After Hours event.
*The Fourth Time's the Charm! Nov 24 - Dec 1 2018 WDW Trip*
As you can probably make out from the title of my last report, this was the 5th trip to WDW for my girlfriend (Michelle) and I. It was also my first time being there on my birthday!
We also lucked into another trip we'll be leaving for in just 6 days, so I may not have any updates to this one over the next few weeks.
But let's get to it...
Friday, May 03, 2019: The day before arrival day
When we went back in November I worked the day before we were to fly out in the morning, thinking I'd be just fine packing that night. Of course I was wrong, and ended up getting to bed much later than I had planned to. So this time around I took the day off so that I would have plenty of time to pack. But of course I put off packing all day, and didn't get around to it until 5:00 that night. Lucky for me our cat, Keiko, was more than willing to assist.
We ended up getting to bed around 10:45. Usually the night before we leave I have trouble falling asleep, but I actually slept pretty well this time. Perhaps because we had just been to WDW less than 6 months ago, whereas we had only been going, on average, about every 2.6 years prior to that last trip. Whatever the reason, it was nice to actually get some sleep this time. Which brings us to...
Saturday, May 04, 2019: Part 1- Rise and Shine, It's Travel Time!
Michelle's alarm went off at 4:00 that morning. I had mine set for 4:45, but I wasn't able to fall back to sleep, so I got out of bed at 4:15 and started to get ready. My dad would be driving us to Concord Coach Lines in Portland, ME, where we would catch a bus to Boston Logan International Airport, and then a JetBlue direct flight to Orlando. The only direct flight from Portland to Orlando is provided by Frontier Airlines, which Michelle refuses to fly.
My dad showed up at our condo around 6:00, and after final preparations we were in the car and headed to the bus station at 6:35. About halfway there Michelle realized she had forgotten to pack the rain jacket she had purchased specifically for this trip, which left her in a bad mood for the next 20 minutes or so.
We arrived at the bus station at 6:50 and sat down to wait after getting our tickets. The wait wasn't long and we lined up to get on the bus just before 7:15. There was another group of people lining up for a different bus going to South Station in Boston. My mention of the other bus probably seems like an insignificant thing to add to my trip report, but you will see why I did so shortly.
We took a seat on our bus to the airport at 7:15, and 15 minutes later we were on our way, as it began to rain. I was in my phone for much of the next 30 minutes, playing Disney Magic Kingdoms and Disney Emoji Blitz. At one point I looked up and noticed the bus driver waving his right hand around like he was having a conversation with someone, but none of the passengers seated at the front of the bus appeared to be talking to him. It seemed a little odd to me, but I went back to what I was doing.
Shortly after that I noticed we were passing another bus on the right side, and our driver waved at him. I was back to looking at my phone, but then it felt like the bus was slowing down. I looked out the window and saw that we were pulling over on the side of the highway. This did not seem like a good thing. Our driver got out of the bus and walked over to talk to the driver of the other bus, which had pulled over in front of ours. He then returned and announced that one of the windshield wipers on our bus wasn't working. Instead on continuing on to the airport he decided to contact the driver of the other bus heading to Boston to see if he'd be able to take us. So we got onto the other bus at 8:10 and we were back on the road 10 minutes later. At first I was concerned about possibly missing our flight, but we were only about an hour away from the airport, and our flight wasn't scheduled to depart until 11:36, so all was good.
We stepped off the bus at the airport at 9:35 and went through the whole check in process before taking a seat at our gate. We took turns going to grab something to eat. I went to Dunkin' and decided to order the Sweet Sriracha Bacon Breakfast Sandwich. It was pretty good.
Shortly after 11:00 they began having passengers board our plane. We were going to be seated near the middle of the plane so we had to wait a bit before we could get in line. Not long after we did, the woman at the station where you hand them your ticket before boarding made an announcement that the captain requested they stop having passengers board for the moment. Someone in line asked her what the reason was, and she said she didn't know. She said it was possible there was a backup in passengers getting on the plane and they wanted it to clear up before letting more passengers in. This did not seem likely to me.
We waited for 5-10 minutes before the same woman grabbed the microphone to make another announcement. I could tell by the look on her face, right before she started to speak, that it wasn't going to be good news. She told us that the captain suggested those of us still waiting to have our ticket scanned sit back down. So it seemed we would not be boarding the plane anytime soon, and we still had no idea what the hold up was.
I don't fly very often, and I'd been fortunate to never have a flight with a major delay. I had a ticket to attend DAH at Hollywood Studios that evening, and I was beginning to worry that I might end up getting to the park late. As I sat there wondering about such things, Michelle went to the restroom. A few minutes later the captain came out to make an announcement. He said there was some sort of technical issue, and he made a reference to a movie, but I don't recall what the movie was. Whichever movie it was, I had never seen it, so I had no idea how dire our situation was. Apparently the guy sitting across from me had seen the movie because he let out a bit of a chuckle and said "That's not good." I was sitting there hoping he was just messing with his wife.
I told Michelle what little I knew of the situation when she returned, and we were both thinking we were going to be sitting there for a while, but thankfully whatever it was was taken care of and they started letting passengers on the plane again a little before 12:00.
Our flight had been scheduled to depart Boston at 11:36 AM and arrive in Orlando at 2:49 PM. We sat down on the plane at 12:00 and it took off 23 minutes later, so we were delayed by about 47 minutes. I spent most of my time in the air playing the games on my phone and watching episodes of My Cat From Hell, without any sound, on the TV in front of me.
The plane touched down at 3:01, only 12 minutes later than our initial scheduled arrival. Things were starting to look up, and then a passenger, who had already been told to take their seat, got up again. The captain stopped the plane on the runway and made an announcement that he wasn't going to start it up again until everyone was seated. Because of the delay on the runway, we ended up not getting off the plane until 3:25. Unfortunately that would not be our only delay. We had landed just as a thunderstorm arrived in the area. We were lucky enough to be able to land in time, but they wouldn't be able to unload any luggage from the plane until the storm had passed.
We arrived at baggage claim and waited. And waited. And waited some more. Until we both finally had our suitcases at 4:30, just over an hour after we got off the plane.
We then made our way to the DME check in. We were staying at POFQ and we were directed to proceed through lane 4. And the picture below was taken at 4:44. Spooky.
Our DME bus left the airport at 5:06 and we were on property at 5:34:
When we were here back in November our DME ride was a straight shot to POFQ, but this time we had to make stops at both Saratoga Springs and Old Key West before finally arriving at our home away from home at 6:00. We went to the front desk to check in, and I got my birthday button before we made our way to our room on the 3rd floor of Building 5.
I was getting ready to go to DAH at Hollywood Studios. Michelle didn't like the park on our last trip and didn't want to go there on this one, so she was going to go to Disney Springs. Since it was May the 4th, and I've been a Star Wars fan nearly my entire life (ANH was released 3 years after I was born) I had packed some other clothes that I had planned on wearing to the event. I wanted to be at the park in time to enter at 7:00, but I was already running a little late because of the delays. I knew if I took the time to change I wasn't going to be in the park until after 7:00. I thought about just leaving with what I was already wearing, but I had brought the clothes, and taken the time to pack them, so I decided I might as well wear them.
After I changed I was emptying out my backpack so that I'd be able to fill it up with some of the free bottles of water they give out at DAH. In my backpack I had Tiny Big Feet plushes of Gus and Jaq that I was planning on having us hold during a meet and greet with Cinderella later in the week, but our walk to our hotel room gave me an idea of what to do with them until then. We had passed a room that had some Toy Story plushes in the window, so I decided to put Gus and Jaq in ours before heading out the door to the bus stop.
That's all for now. In part 2 I will share the adventures of my first ever Disney After Hours event.
Last edited:
