Ahhhhh.... Nothing like waking up
at 5am to start a vacation! :-) The girls were a
little slow starting this early, but a couple mentions of 'Disney' and
'Cruise' and they were more than ready to get ready. Final
loading up of the van, and off to the airport with our 4000 pounds of
luggage! OK - it was only 3599 pounds, but MAN do you have to
pack a lot for a cruise AND a WDW vacation! When *I* need 4 pairs
of shoes, it CAN'T be good. But everything fit in the van
(well, it did with the back seat folded down) and we were
off. The airport is only about a 25 minute drive and we
made it there right on schedule. Unloaded, checked the bags (I'd
printed the boarding passes the night before with no problem) and off
to wait for the plane. Remembered to have them hand inspect the
disposable camera, and they did it no problem. I've been reading
about too many people returning from vacation with cloud or completely
ruined pictures, so I just have to remember to do this at all the xray
stations. :-)
 The girls played in the waiting area as they readied the
plane for our departure. Its just a small puddle jumper out of
Binghamton airport, but it turned out to have GREAT comfortable seats
and was a non-eventful flight (my favorite kind!). Arrived in
Pittsburgh right on schedule, and then off to Orlando as planned.
Another great flight, and on time arrival. THAT is when the good
luck took a slight dip. Off to baggage claim to gather the
bags. OK, they aren't out yet, and I still have to head down to
get the rental car. Using Budget this time since they have one
way rentals to Port Canaveral. Kristen stayed to gather up the
bags when they came out, and I headed downstairs. The line was
about 15 people long, with 3 (and occasionally 4 agents) working at the
15 stations. Arrrgggghhhh. Waited and waited and didn't
move at all. So I jumped out of line and headed back up to get
Kristen and the girls with the luggage. Found them waiting
and headed downstairs. Kristen had everything loaded on a carrier
so off we went. Parked them in some chairs and returned to the
dreaded line. Since I had SO much time to think, I started to
wonder about the bags... hmmm.... HOW did Kristen fit them all on
that one carrier. There were too many bags to fit on one carrier
in Binghamton... Uh - oh. Looked over and counted....
MISSING the biggest bag of all! Yikes. Start waving down
Kristen and she finally saw me and came over. I pointed out the
missing bag to her increasingly growing eyes. UH-OH. She
heads upstairs to look and I remain in the never moving
line. OK - not really true. At least 4 parties LEFT
the budget line to go over to Dollar next door! I'm SOOOO missing
National's Emerald Aisle right now! Kristen was back and
checking bags for numbers. Turns out they missed one of our bags,
but - joy - its on the next plane from Pittsburgh and should arrive
soon. She heads back up and waits. Still I wait in
the never ending line. At only 2 more people Kristen returns with
our missing bag!!! Yeah!!!! (And Whew!!!!) Finally, I
get to the counter. Yeah again!!! It only takes a short
time (not sure WHY it took everyone else so long??) and we head out to
find our bright red Blazer (which is big enough to hold all this
luggage!) VERY nice. Not really worth an hour wait, but
nice. :-)
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