Disney's Magical Express to Port Orleans Riverside

Disney's Magical Express, for those who don't know, is the free transportation that Disney provides from the airport to your resort. What a great feature, as last time we had to rent a minivan transport that cost about $100 round trip.

We got on the bus and had to wait for about 15 minutes before we were finally off. The bus stopped first at Saratoga Springs, then to Port Orleans Riverside (which was our stop), and then went on to the Polynesian. They kids loved watching the DME intro on the video.



Brookie was a bit tired but still watched the video also. She sat with Rob.



And since no one would take my picture, I had to take one of myself. Aren’t I lovely after midnight?



We finally got to Riverside at 1 am. Rob took the kids to the kids’ area TV while I checked in. The CM gave me my info with resort map. Here is our little conversation:

CM ever so happily said, “You are in the most coveted building 18.”
Me: “Oh no! Wasn’t that a smoking building?”
CM: “Oh ma’am. All of our resorts are now nonsmoking as of June 1st so there is no problem with that.”
Me: “I know they are nonsmoking now but can you assure me that the mattresses have all been changed out and the rooms thoroughly cleaned of smoke?”
CM: “Yes ma’am. They have been changed and cleaned. I assure you.”

I had faxed some requests to the resort a few days beforehand and here's the scoop:

Trundle bed -- Yes!
First floor room -- Yes!
Building 27 -- Nope.
Former nonsmoking room -- Nope.

So, I was took him at his word and we proceeded to schlep all our baggage to our room. No Bell Services at that hour I guess. Saved me a tip though.

Our room did not smell at all. I even did the deep nose sniff in the mattresses and pillows to assure myself, and we never ever detected a hint of smoke in our room the entire time. We all finally fell asleep at 2 am and planned on sleeping in to whenever we felt like.

So it seems like our day of arrival pretty much went as well as I expected with only a few catches. On Saturday was our first day of Epcot and my first online friend meet. I was totally excited for both!

The Flight Down * Friday

The morning starts out just like any normal morning. Rob is up at 4 am and off to work. My alarm goes off at 7:25 am, I turned on the TV to check out the local weather and news, and then I jump in the shower at 7:35 am. The boys alarm goes off at 7:50 am, and they get ready for their last day of school. They were so excited it was their last day and that we were going to Disney World that night. When it's time to send them off to school, I run outside to take their last day of school picture and send them on the bus at 8:50 am.



Brooke woke up after the boys got on their bus, and I got her all ready and plopped her in front of the TV while I ran upstairs to do all the rest of the packing. The boys returned from school at 10:50 am and I took their picture, again, but this time I told them to give me their best, “School’s Out!” shout ...



Rob got home early around 2:30 pm and got all his stuff ready to leave. We had only a couple of moments rest on the couch before it was time to get it all packed up in the minivan and head to the airport at 4:30 pm. My mom wanted to ride with us, so she did. We were dropped off at USAir gates area and headed in to get our bags checked. Since we had 7 pieces of baggage to check, the kids had to roll their own pieces to the baggage security area.



Notice how empty it looks. I thought that was great. I thought it would probably be a breeze with nobody there ... until we went upstairs to the security check point. The line was not that long but it still surprised me. When Rob went through the metal detector it started beeping. They asked him if he had any cell phones or keys on him. He said no and started checking his pockets and rechecking his pockets. Then he pulled out his cell phone. Doh! How can you miss that? It is a Razr phone, but it’s still not that small. So we had plenty of time until our flight, and we had a seat in the loading area. The kids went around looking out the windows waiting for our plane to come to the gate.



Our flight was on time to Charlotte. We even arrived a few minutes early. But we had over a 1½ hour layover, so we decided to grab a bite to eat. None of us had dinner prior, as we were just too excited and nervous beforehand. But our tummies wanted a bite now. We found a sandwich place and I got a plain bagel, while Rob got a sandwich, and the kids got cookies. Yup. I started the trip out by feeding my kids cookies for dinner. I couldn’t help it. There really was nothing that they liked to eat there, and I knew the cookies would do the trick for the hunger. So here’s Alec all happy after eating his cookie.



Knowing that the kids would be bored at some points during our trip, I brought along lots of play stuff. I had saved some toys from either Happy Meals or Wendy’s kids meals and brought them. The boys had fun with a balancing toy set. That lasted for almost half the time we had to wait for our next flight. Doesn't Rob look ever so happy?



Brookie, on the other hand, just wanted to run around everywhere. I let Rob run after her. I did manage a quick photo while she was still for about a second eating a candy Princess necklace.



Then we found out our next leg of the trip was delayed by 30 minutes or so. When we finally got on board, we were very happy. I snapped some pics of the kids on that flight.




Our flight finally arrived in Orlando at 11:45 pm -- ½ hour late. We went down to get our luggage and headed over to Disney’s Magical Express ...