We had been to Disney during the Flower And Garden Festival once before, in 1999. We remembered how nice everything looked and were eager to see it again, although it wasn't totally a focus of this trip, like with Food & Wine. We planned to just do everything we wanted, especially now that DD#2 was tall enough to ride everything but Rock'n'Roller Coaster. Unfortunately, Space Mountain would be closed for rehab - starting the day we arrived. And since this is our last full trip for a while, she will have to wait.
Once again we booked with JetBlue for our flights. However, it was much more expensive this time around - about $400 per person, round trip - and they weren't even direct flights. We had to connect via Richmond on the way down, and JFK on the way back. After booking, they kept changing the flight times on our downward leg as well, to the point that we had a four hour layover in Richmond - and looking at the map of the Richmond airport, was going to be exceedingly boring and troublesome as we'd have to leave the secure area to get some food. Fortunately, JetBlue gives you some leeway if they change the times enough. I called, and managed to get a direct flight in its place, at no extra cost. Except now my new flight leaves at 6:10am from Logan - another really early morning! But we get to Orlando around 9am, so we have a full day to enjoy!
This trip we are also doing a first - a split stay. To conserve some DVC points, we are staying the first 6 nights in a DVC 1 Bedroom, and the final 2 at a regular Disney resort. I originally booked Saratoga Springs for the DVC stay, but when the 7-month mark rolled around I gave DD#1 the choice of other locations. Originally we were thinking of Wilderness Lodge, but Animal Kingdom Savanna View was available, and she jumped on that. So we would be staying at the Animal Kingdom Lodge (now called Jambo House) for the first part of our trip. Closer to trip time, I put in a request for an Arusha Savanna view. I was concerned over lingering effects of the Kidani Village construction and that the animals would only be reintroduced to the Sunset Savanna the week before we arrived. You'll hear more about this later - this did not work out at all...
For the second part, I originally booked Caribbean Beach, but for a small savings later on I switched to Port Orleans Riverside with a water view. I made a request for Oak Manor, the Manor building closest to the central building with a river view. I had some hopes of maybe switching back to Caribbean Beach or up to a deluxe with discount code or AP rate, but apparently this weekend was blacked out and pretty busy.
So to make the 6am flight and our experience with the early flight in December 2007, we were up and out by 3:25am. We get in to the terminal, and there is a big line - for the "all services" side. I did online check-in, so we don't need to stand in line there, just check our bags. And there is NO ONE in that line. Of course, its early - and there is no one at the counter either. But we only had to wait a short time and we were first up.
Unfortunately, Logan Airport's security checkpoints remain annoying. For whatever reason the checkpoints still weren't open when we went down there, although they seemed to be fully manned just standing around. When they did finally open, we still seemed to be incredibly rushed through - people barking orders, telling you to remember this, take off that, put this there,hold on to your boarding pass and ID, take off your cell phone, blah blah blah...in the process, I dropped my boarding pass in one of the containers, and when I went through the metal detector to the other side, they asked for my boarding pass, which I realized was now in the machine. They start barking about "boarding pass check" repeatedly, while I wait for the stuff to come out. The boarding pass had fallen out of the container and was lying on the belt - and in danger of falling through the rollers. I just barely managed to catch it and pull it out and show it to the guard - who seemed annoyed with ME! We were among the first through, and they were in horrible moods already as if we were disrupting their morning. Orlando is 1000 times easier. Please, JetBlue - add some Manchester-Orlando flights!
After that, our flight down was uneventful...our plane name was "Parlez Bleu". The only "problem" was that for some reason Nickelodeon didn't work on the TVs, but DD#2 was satisfied with some of the other choices.
On arriving in Orlando on time, our bags were among the first off the plane, so we were able to grab them and head for the rental car van. I used the courtesy phone to call Payless and make sure they were running (it is probably not necessary, but I don't know if they take breaks when they are not expecting people), but found the van right outside, just pulling out - I was able to flag the driver and he stopped for us - the van was empty anyways. So we were quick to Payless, and second in line as well (which was a first for us - its always been a long line). At this point the first "problem" shows up - somehow when making the reservation online, I ended up confirming a Sebring Coupe. Not exactly a family car with space for luggage. I don't know how it happened as I certainly wouldn't have chosen it - it should have been an Intermediate level sedan, but sure enough my reservation said Sebring. So I had to switch to a Nissan Altima at $100 more than planned.
The Altima was a real nice car. Push button ignition with a proximity key. I almost had to turn around though, because as I was driving off the transmission appeared to be some form of manual - but after pulling over and checking a few things, I found that it is an automatic transmission with a "bump shift" manual mode - I had slid the shift over into the manual position. I played with the manual mode a bit, but for the most part just used the automatic mode.
Now it was off to Disney!