Going to Disney (Our flight from Hell)

After being back all week, procrastinating about typing up a long post about our Disney trip, I'm finally getting to it. This tells about our CRAZY flight to Orlando on the 21st. Oh yeah crazy it was!! We planned on an evening flight the night before, getting some rest & hitting the parks in the morning. Sounds good right?

Our flight there was scheduled for take off about 6:30-ish. As it gets closer to boarding time they announce that due to the weather we're waiting for pilots to come in from another flight. So we get bumped to 7:30-ish. Ok we can handle that. Sometime later it got changed to 9:30.

We FINALLY get onboard & get all settled in. The ride looked promising because it was a newer plane with each seat having it's own TV in the headrest in front of you. Cool. {I'm easily impressed.} We push away from the gate & since I had promised Marissa I'd play endless rounds of "Go Fish, & Crazy 8's" with her we get started. Once they turn the TV's on we all start playing with them. They're touch screen & also have TV shows & games. We give up on the card games. They have about 20+ movies to choose from & I haven't seen 1/2 of them! Joe & I pick "Iron Man" (he's sitting behind me with Gianna, I've got Marissa.) Marissa picks a game, while Gianna picks "Nightmare before Christmas"--go figure.

During this time we're still waiting to take off. They had mentioned something about electrical problems with something or other & were waiting to get it fixed. Finally they announce that they can't fix it & we need to be towed back to the gate to change planes. Fantastic.

All of a sudden we hear this loud BOOM, (it felt like we hit something). The captain comes on after a minute & says "The Tow broke as it was taking us back to the gate & we're waiting for another Tow." Lovely.

This all happened in about 30 mins. or so believe it or not. We were glad to get off the defective plane, better to be safe than sorry. As we get off the plane, we're told the other plane is on the other side of the terminal, so we all hoof it over there.

We were some of the 1st ones there & there were no reps from the airline at the new gate. Meanwhile there was a big family at the desk & this one woman was on the phone with the airlines yelling at them telling them the whole situation. She was loud & we all heard how her family was headed to some anniv. dinner & had reservations & now they were out $300, what would the airline do for them, yada yada yada. Come one!! If you KNOW it's a big celebration & such, WHY would you cut it THAT close with the traveling???? I felt bad in one way but......

Now after a good LONG while a rep comes over & tells us the plane will be in soon so they'll give everyone $8 coupons for the food court so we could eat. Unfortunately, the only places left open were McDonald's or Dunkin Donuts! The girls were happy about McDonald's of course.

We go back to the gate & wait....& wait....the whole time the airline people would NOT look ANYONE in the eye. They talked to themselves or kept there heads down. Finally around 11pm (we should have been at WDW by now!!!) they tell us we'd be boarding soon. YEAH!!

Now they announce that due to this plane being configured differently they'd have to assign us ALL.NEW. seat assignments. WHAT THE HELL???? WHY didn't they do this while we were WAITING???? They KNEW which plane they were getting in they should have done it THEN!! Oh & the rep that announced this was also fired up for no reason & said in a snotty, bitchy tone

"The sooner we all cooperated the sooner we'd all board otherwise it'll just take that much longer."

Boy did that sound like a threat & EVERYONE started buzzing at that. Up until then no one had said anything.

Finally they call up the 1st class & business class passengers to board. Normally after them is when they board the families with young kids (which we still fall under) so all the families start to hover around the door. As predicted they call us next. We work our way up, waiting pretty patiently. Our turn comes, & this guy takes our boarding passes & goes over to the computer, trying to re seat us. We don't say anything as we wait. However the other reps are letting other families go re-seating them without any hitch! GRRRRRR!!!! Still we wait, obviously we have Capt. Stupid! Another rep sees us waiting & tells us we have to wait (which we are), this catches the attention of Ms. Bitchy&Snotty & SHE puts her 2 cents in & says

"Well you're gonna have to wait like everyone else!"

WTF!!! We hadn't said a WORD, but at that our "Jersey" came out!! I was LIVID but at the same time I didn't want to start anything which would get us thrown off the plane but Joe gave her some (he can blow his top without all out losing it like I would!)

Finally Capt. Stupid comes back & tells us our seating arrangements. Meanwhile this whole time we were standing there detained like we had done something wrong......other than fly Continental. Capt. Stupid lives up to his name & as he shows us our new boarding passes Gianna's name is MISSING & he had some OTHER person in with our family! I caught it quick & he went off to re seat us AGAIN!!! This time he comes back quick & tells us we're grouped 2 & 2 but we're a few rows away from each other. Whatever! We board the plane. We find our seats & Capt. Stupid was wrong AGAIN!!!! It was me in a 2 seater row with Marissa across from me & Joe a row behind & Gianna was I'm not sure where. But it was NOT how Capt. Stupid had said. I get the attention of a flight attendant & let her have it. At this point my attitude was ON but I didn't care. She told us we could see if anyone would be wiling to switch with us once they board, but it still didn't appease me so finally she told me to just sit 2 & 2.

We switched the girls & had Gianna with me since I knew Joe was tired due to only having 2 hours sleep the night before, Marissa might let him sleep. At this point we were all tired since it was after MIDNIGHT!! My original plan was "No sleeping on the plane" otherwise the girls would be wired & re-energized once we landed, but at this point I wanted them to nap...us included!! Of course I was wound up, so it took me awhile before I fell asleep.

Of course as luck would have it, as we're starting to descend for landing, Gianna wakes up crying which usually means 1 thing...she has to pee...now. I grab her & rush to the tiny little bathroom only to see a flight attendant locking it for landing or whatever. She sees me & asks "Is this an emergency?" DUH!!! I let her have & said "Of course she's about to pee her pants!!! This entire time I'm holding Gianna while she's screaming & crying! Could she BE any STUPIDER????

We luckily make it with no incident, get back to our seats & land. Hallelujah!! We find our driver (who we kept in touch with letting them know we'd be late) get our bags, miraculously out in a decent time & take off to WDW.

We get to our hotel sometime around 3am & check in. The girls are a little wired, I'm tired, cranky & alittle queasy from lack of sleep & Joe is just plain TIRED! However in an effort to keep me from tossing my cookies he goes down to the 24 cafe & get me something to settle my stomach while I unpack. Luckily the girls fell asleep after he left & I threaten them with an immediate return trip home if they didn't go to sleep!! By the time we're all settled it was 4am. We had breakfast reservations for 8am which means I had to get up at 6:30 to get ready! Grrrrrr!

Damn you Continental!!!