Day 5 (departure day) - February 17th, 2023
Even though no alarms were set, my body is used to being up at 6:00am CST so naturally I woke up around 7am EST. S was awake too, and both of us just laid silently scrolling through our phones for the next hour or so until I finally decided to get out of bed and start getting ready for the journey home. Around 8:30 I had showered and was eating a healthy breakfast of a bag of potato chips and a Coke (both leftover from one of the conference days box lunch) as well as a few slightly stale handfuls of leftover popcorn from F's bucket. S and I slowly started packing up our stuff, and around 10:45 we received the notification that our 2:40pm flight had been delayed-boo! Only an hour though, so not too terrible. At 11 we said goodbye to the room and made the trek to the lobby - to drop off our luggage with Bell Services & so S could meet the ECV rental company for pick up of her
scooter. As we were making the walk to Gran Destino Tower, I noticed about 50 yards ahead of us a woman vomiting into one of those bright blue sick bags that the hospital gives you. Automatically my stomach dropped. I can't remember if I've mentioned this in any of my TRs before but I have a
severe vomit phobia. Just thinking about vomit & I begin to feel sick. As I'm typing this I'm already starting to feel nauseous. Being around it? Out of the question. I've found too that my anxiety manifests in the form of nausea, and I quickly am able to go from fine to sick in a matter of no time just by working myself up. For example, the night prior when I had those sharp stomach pains and slight nausea? I had to work HARD at distracting myself so I didn't let my mind go into a frenzy imagining the worst, i.e. food poisoning. I tried quietly pointing out the woman to S, suggesting we take another route but either she didn't hear me or didn't care (I'm not entirely sure she knows about my phobia, though) and she continued to drive her scooter closer and closer to the vomiting woman. By the time we turned to pass her, she was on all fours, retching with spit dribbling out of her mouth, the poor thing looked miserable but all I could think about was the highly contagious norovirus (AKA my absolute worst nightmare, I swear I am not exaggerating when I say I have PTSD from our family's bout in spring of '22) so I'm ashamed to say I almost ran past her, not offering to help (though in all reality I'm not sure what I could do other than call 911? But I don't think vomiting = an emergency.... but still, I felt bad).
By this point I was starting to feel sick, my mouth filling with saliva ("the mouth sweats" as I call it) and I feared the worst was coming. I quickly struck up some random conversation with S to distract me & popped a piece of gum in my mouth (you will NEVER catch me without gum, as it's been my go-to for years when I start feeling sick) and hoped for the best. Suffice it to say after dropping off our luggage & S' scooter, when S requested we stop at the Barcelona Lounge for a bite to eat I did not order anything.
Around 12 we decided if it's either "sit in the lobby and wait" or "sit at the airport and wait" we figured we may as well just start for the airport in case MCO was nuts (as it so often is). 2 days prior I had made a reservation for 12:45 with Reserve powered by CLEAR so I at least knew we wouldn't be in the regular security line, but still you never know. Our Uber came shortly after and whisked us away, me of course feeling sad to be leaving the Disney bubble but ultimately ready to be going home to my family. S I think was just feeling ready to be home
She said several times throughout the trip how she is an introvert and so I think her "social batteries" were running on E.
As we arrived to the airport around 12:45, it was clear that our suspicions about MCO being a mad house were correct. It was INSANE. Looked like a swarm of bees, people everywhere! Screaming children, frustrated adults, luggage everywhere- just a nightmare. We quickly went to the "self service" luggage tag area (which is a total joke by the way. It saves you no time and you end up in the same line as the non "self tagged" bag people. Maybe it saves the Delta employees .000004 seconds by not having them print and fasten the baggage tag but seriously, it was not a time-saver for us in the least). It was such a zoo that there was even a Delta worker standing at the entrance of the long line waiting to get to the counter that was checking peoples boarding pass- you could only get in the line if your flight was <2hrs from now. Since our "self serve" luggage tag had the original (non-delayed) flight time of 2:40, we were in the clear so she let us through. S had a bit of a dilemma since her suitcase ended up weighing 54# and she needed to shuffle things around from her checked bag to her carry on bag to avoid hefty fees. After a few rounds of taking items out, re-weighing, taking items out, re-weighing she finally was in the clear and we made our way to the Reserve Lane, me ready with the barcode pulled up on my phone waiting to scan it for proof of our appointment.
...But that never happened. No one ever asked for my barcode. Instead we waited our turn in line until we got to the TSA agent who wanted our boarding pass/ID. It was weird... anyone could have decided "eh I think I'll skip this horrendously long line in security and head to that shorter one instead" which really negates the need for making an appointment in the first place........ but I digress. This line, despite being short, ended up taking quite a while - I think perhaps because we had a lot of elderly folks & wheelchair users in front of us that needed extra time to get through security. It didn't matter to us though, we were in no real hurry. We just stood around chatting, trying to figure out what on earth could have made S' suitcase 2# heavier on the trip home than the trip there. She said "I mean really, I can't imagine that empty, rinsed-out Star Wars Coke bottle would have made much of a weight difference..." Until finally it hit me- doh! "It's the art you bought at Epcot!" so we had a good laugh about that, how could we have forgotten a heavy canvas wrapped in bubble wrap & placed inside a thick cardboard box?! Eventually we made it through security with no problems (no pat down for me this time!) and were on the fake-o-rail heading toward our gate by 1:30. Nausea fully subsided by that point, I was ready to get a snack so I found my place at the end of a long line for Annie's Pretzels and grabbed a regular (non-Mickey shaped, boo!) pretzel with a cup o' plastic cheese and re-joined S as we waited for our flight. We kept checking the "where's my flight?" tracker to see where the plane was (on its way from NY), with it finally arriving & it's passengers debarking around 2:30, 10 minutes before our original departure time.
Around 3 we boarded, and took off at 3:30. The flight was uneventful, me watching Ticket to Paradise with George Clooney & Julia Roberts (cute but probably don't need to watch it again
) and a couple episodes of Friends.
I was texting Matt updates throughout the flight since he & the kids were picking me up, and we landed around 5:45 CST. My welcoming committee was waiting for me outside baggage claim, all of us thrilled to see each other!!!!!!!! We got home and had a frozen pizza for dinner (I was ravenous) and the kids told me all about the week they had without me. It was great to be home!
Now, with DS2's procedure scheduled for this upcoming Friday (eek) I kept waiting and waiting for some sort of symptom or illness to crop up in the immediate days upon my return from Disney World but.. thankfully, nothing did! I was very diligent about sanitizing/washing my hands (way more diligent than previous trips) and also wore an N-95 once I got inside anywhere that had more than a handful of people so maybe that was what saved me. Any pre-show ("fill in all available space"), any show (Muppets + Mickey's Philharmagic), the airport + airplane, etc. Thankfully no repeat of our last trip where we all came down with COVID the day after our return, so DS2's surgery is still a go. It's an epigastric hernia repair so not a dire emergency but still, I didn't want to have to push it back so I was relieved to come home without germs!
If you made it this far, thanks for sticking around. I haven't started a Pre-Trip Report for our September '23 trip but I'm sure I'll get around to it this summer. I know for a hot fact that this trip will be a billion times less stressful than last September's trip (no in-laws), and I am not making a single ADR - just doing QS meals the entire time. Way less stressful (not to mention cheaper!) and just a better fit overall for our crazy family.
I think that's all I have for now, but I'll be sure to check back in case anyone has any comments/questions.
See ya real soon!
for now I will live vicariously through you!!
), no one else’s wants to take into consideration, I had a blast! I missed the company but still had a great time!
). Thanks for taking the time to share.
