The formal conclusion of my travelogue to the Disneyverse.
Up way too early. Frantic scrambling to do the final packing, and take care of Cranky Lass, and still get that horrific “Leaving on a Jet Plane” thing below posted. (Attempts the previous night had been cancelled by the Girl not wanting to sleep until we did.)
Bell cap was there right on time, manhandled our TARDIS luggage (courtesy of Margie’s Magic) onto a dolly, and then drove us all off to the main hotel lobby, where our TranStar van was already waiting.
(Gratuitous aside: if you are going to be staying at WDW, the Port Orleans Riverside complex is one of the nicest I saw on the trip. The ambience is great, the pricing is reasonable, and the food facilities are fine. And there’s a shuttle boat down the river to Downtown Disney. The only drawback is that it always seems to be the furthest bus pickup at each of the parks. But that’s trivial.)
Off to the airport, where we arrived about 6 a.m. for our 8:20 flight. Huge line out front where skycaps were checking luggage (but not providing boarding passes). Huger line inside. We go for outside, get checked (showing our photo ID), and head off for the gate.
Initial checkpoint confirms we have tickets for the plane.
After that is the real security checkpoint. Very short lines here. We duck to the side, since we have the stroller with us this time (much more convenient way of doing things). Margie beeps as she walks through with Katherine. Between wheelchairs and wanding the stroller and my endless carry-on (since I had to run my laptop, Palm, and cell phone through the X-ray separately), Margie managed to walk through without being re-wanded.
We’re at the gate around 7 a.m.
Around 7:30, the gate attendants arrive, and a huge line magically appears. Margie gets up there to get our seats assigned, and to see if there’s any “unused” middle seats. Dagnabbit, not. Plane is full. As will be the plane from Atlanta to Denver. Mercifully, this first leg is short (about an hour), and the second leg Kitten slept through most of the way. Still, having that extra seat is really handy.
At both Orlando and Atlanta, Delta makes heavy use of the huge “landscape” flat panel displays (like the Phillips $15K TVs). Works really nicely, and provides lots of nice info at the gate, including when different rows should be boarding, who on stand-by has gotten a seat assigned, etc.
Atlanta was non-descript, except that we were off in Concourse T and had to get to A. Grumpiness ensued.
The only other noteworthy thing about the trip was that we saw, for the third time, the same episode of Frazier. We are not watchers of that particular show, but by the third go-through, we were so curious, we had to listen. We took turns, since Squiggy was still awake at that point.
On the security front in Denver, it appears they are walling off the gaps to the left and right of the security checkpoints, so that you have to come through the narrow gap where the ATMs and payphones are. We’re in this for the duration, folks.
Aside from that — it’s grand to be home.