Kevin and I stayed up very late Saturday night finishing up last minute stuff to get ready to leave the next day. Sunday morning came very quickly but we weren't upset about having to get up early to go to Disney World. :) My dad dropped my mom off at 10:30 and we loaded up all our luggage into my car and were on the road to the airport. At this point, I started getting nervous. I had never flown before because flying and spiders are my greatest fears. Kevin flies on just about a weekly basis and he has always insisted that it is no big deal and it's just like riding a bus. If I had a penny for every time someone found out that I had never flown and then said, "Oh, but it's just like riding a bus" or another favorite, "You have a much greater chance of being in a car accident!" then I could have financed this trip to Disney World! I know that my fear is not rational but really, how many fears are?! We drove to the parking garage where we were leaving my car for the week and they shuttled us over to the terminal. As soon as we walked in the airport, Kevin noticed that our fight had been delayed by a half hour. Great, now I had longer to sit and stew. We checked our bags and went through security and it was actually kind of neat to see what Kevin has to do every time he goes out of town. Then, the waiting began. It was getting close to lunchtime so we found the airport Lenny's and mom, Kevin, and Ava got some lunch. I was too nervous to eat which was good because I probably would have seen that lunch in reverse later.
After lunch, we checked out some of the stores and then went over to the gate. Our travel planner, Becky, had given Ava some Disney coloring books and things to do on the plane so Ava set to work coloring while we waited.
Finally, it was time to board. Ava, Katie the Koala, and Kevin sat in the two seats directly in front of me and my mom.
We were some of the first to board so it took a minute to get everyone loaded up and carry-ons stowed away. Then, the engines started and we started moving in reverse. I did not do well. At this point, I was already crying and getting strange looks from the flight attendants. When we starting speeding up and then took off, I really lost it and went into full blown panic attack. Kevin said later that he had no idea that I would react that badly (even though he has known about my fear for years) and he was legitimately worried for a moment that I was going to jump up and cause a scene. Fortunately, we had a direct flight and were only in the air for about an hour and a half. That was plenty of time for me to give my mom bruises all over her arm and leg from gripping them so hard. When I felt that we were descending, I was able to open the window and watch the landing process and that was pretty cool. I think I figured that if I was close enough to the ground to make out trees and cars then we might have a decent shot of surviving if we crashed. :) Ava thought the flight was fun and she watched Tom and Jerry cartoons on my laptop until she feel asleep for the last ten minutes. I was trying hard not to let her see how scared I was because I didn't want her to be afraid as well. I must have hid it well because she didn't seem to notice. When we landed and got off the plane, I was immediately impressed by how much nicer the Orlando airport is than ours here in Memphis. We found our way to the Disney Magical Express shuttle and the fun and excitement really kicked into high gear. We arrived at our resort, Pop Century, about 5 pm. The Magical Express pulled up to a red carpet and cast members greeted us by blowing bubbles all around us as we walked into the lobby. It kind of reminded me of when Kevin and I walked out of Carahills to get to the Porsche as we were leaving our wedding. :) When working with Becky to choose our accommodations, she sent me information on deluxe, moderate, and value resorts. My first thought was to go for a deluxe resort because who doesn't love deluxe stuff?! Then I started looking at price differences between the different resorts and considering the fact that we would probably only be at the resort long enough to sleep. We ended up choosing Pop Century, a value resort, and we are so glad we did! It was such a cool place to stay, especially if you have young children. The theme is pop culture throughout the decades and everything is big, bright, and colorful. The walls in the lobby are covered in memorabilia dating back to the 60's, there is a great food court and huge gift store, an arcade, three different pools (shaped like a flower, a bowling pin, and a computer), etc. I will post some pictures of the resort later. We checked in and were given a birthday button for Ava and 1st Trip buttons for Ava, mom, and myself. We found our room which was in a great location looking right over the computer pool. The room was a little on the small side but my way of thinking was correct--we were up and out of the room by 8 a.m. each day and didn't get back until about 10 or 11 p.m. each night, so just long enough to sleep. I would definitely recommend staying there and saving your money to use on something else. We got settled in quickly and walked over to board the shuttle to Epcot. Since we knew we would be getting in late that afternoon, we made our dinner reservation for 8 that night. We got to the park and made our way over to the restaurant, Coral Reef. We ate some great mahi mahi with shrimp and enjoyed their yummy Chocolate Wave dessert as we watched sharks and fish swim all around us.
The park was closing down as we left but we did find the Nemo area at The Seas.
It was late when we got back to our room at the resort so we just relaxed and made our plans for the following day at the Magic Kingdom! After our busy and exhausting day, we had no trouble going to sleep and dreaming of Cinderella's castle! Day 2 at MK to follow.
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