After waiting for two years (thanks covid!), my parents and I finally got to restart our favorite tradition: taking my nieces and nephews (their grandchildren) for their first Disney trip. We had planned to take all three of each of my sisters kids in April and August 2020, respectively, but.... Covid. When the April trip was cancelled, I was bummed - my flight and park tickets were already paid for and they were moving to Sweden, so this would be a last opportunity for a while. But I still held out hope for the August trip....which was dashed into smithereens of course.
So, finally, I got to take the youngest of my NY sisters kids for her first time, but unlike the kids on other two trips, she would be alone with us old fogeys. I flew back from Dubai while my parents slowly made their way down the east coast with their trailer. I spent two nights with my sisters family before my niece L and I would take a flight to Orlando to meet my parents. At this time, however, I was still recovering from a very intense chest cold caught on my last day in Nepal for
my EBC trip - about half of us got sick. I was working from home the whole week before, but I still had a lingering cough for the next three weeks!
My sister dropped us off at Rochester Intl airport, which is one of my top airports ever. Super easy. My thought we were leaving too early because the airport is so easy - he was right! We got our boarding passes and through security in about 10 minutes total. This was her first flight, and she loved seeing take off, but our Delta flights had individual screens and she found Encanto playing on the kids selection. So she borrowed my noise cancelling headphones and was zoned in on the movie all the way to Atlanta. When we got to Atlanta, we took the train to the next terminal and the escalators up and down. She wanted to just keep riding the escalators - this was foreshadowing for the trip, I think. Kids are entertained by the simplest, cheapest things sometimes.
We landed in the evening during the start of a thunderstorm which rapidly intensified. We picked up our luggage in the busy baggage claim, and since
the Disneys Magical Express no longer operated, I had decided to get a taxi, which should only be a bit more than a shared ride (*note - it was actually a bit more). But the driver was a nice older Haitian man who drove slowly during the torrential downpour. However, he did get us lost. I think he did not believe me or understand when I told him Fort Wilderness Campground as opposed to the Wilderness Lodge. I told him to turn right, his GPS maps told him to turn right.... and yet he kept trying to go left, so we wound up going straight... through the Magic Kingdom parking lot at 10pm. He was saying he knew where he was going, so we did a giant and what do you know - you turn right! Until then, I had really liked him, but he was taking his frustration out on me.
We arrived and waited in the reception lodge because it was still pouring - rather than have my get us in the dark during the rain, we just waited on a shuttle to take us to the campsite. We arrived, caught up with my
parents, and I snuggled with their dog Nikki, who loves me of course. But we made it a fairly early night as we had a long day and a long week ahead of us!
In the morning, we went to Pioneer Hall for breakfast, which was great! They had stopped the buffet due to Covid, but it was still all you can eat, just brought out a bit at a time, family style, so you could order more if desired. Then we got ready to go to the Magic Kingdom via boat across Bay Lake. We quickly got through the security line, as we had waited to go until Then we made our way to the first ride: Pirates of the Caribbean. Disney had done away with the fast pass line, which was a shame. Now you got the Lightning line, which you have to pay for. With the trip expensive enough, we did not do this. But ugh, the lines were just horrendous at every park due to this new thing.
