Start of a Disney Adventure

This morning my older daughter and I left for Disney. My new building is one block from a light rail station, but alas the light rail does not begin running until June 14. So I booked the Super Shuttle.

I found a lot of reviews online very negative of Super Shuttle, but I have no complaints about this trip. Within three minutes of the pick-up time I got a phone call from driver. His GPS had taken him to the 11th Street side of the building while I was at the main entrance on the 10th Street side. I asked him to come around to the 10th Street side and shortly we were on our way.

At the MSP Airport I found the G concourse very changed from my last trip through there coming home from Poland. All the restaurants there now have IPad menus, including the ability to send the receipt to one's e-mail address. But I found there is hardly any sit down space left on the G concourse that is not associated with restaurant seating. Very little space to sit down and wait to board a plane.

Our trip to Orlando was uneventful, but a long three hours in some ways and a bit bumpy for the last 10 minutes. Finally we were to the tram area that moves passengers from the gates to the main terminal.

I think this has been remodeled since I was here last year. But boy! was I confused. I couldn't figure out where we to stand to board the tram. Across the area where it seemed the doors would be a belt preventing entry. Now for some reason, a person must remove all these belts before entry. I wasn't the only passenger grumbling about this new feature.

We took a long walk to Disney's Magic Express and were directed to Bus 48. I was surprised to see the video one watches on the bus while traveling to the resorts has been totally changed to one for adult passengers. All the info is primarily about how to use the new Disney app, which I wasn't successful using before my trip. Everytime I went to use it on either my smart phone or computer I got a message saying that servers were too busy to help me. So I arrived without any advance plans being made. And I can't believe that much in advance anyone will know exactly what hour of the day he/she/family wishes to ride a ride! Connecting Fast Pass to 60 days advance planning  doesn't seem logical to me. I think it will lead to all the Fast Passes being gone and yet the people holding them won't be showing up. We'll see what our experience is when we arrive in a park.

We each got a Magic Band. This serves as the key to open the hotel door, to charge for purchases and as our park ticket. I had a problem opening the hotel door. Couldn't make it work attached to my wrist, but it worked just fine when I took it off and pressed it against the door locking mechanism.

After checking in we went to Olivia's restaurant and had a sandwich. After that we went to the General Store and got some orange juice for breakfast. Then we went to the Bell Station and asked for a ride to our room. I do not like wandering around a resort in the dark trying to find a room. Life will be much clearer tomorrow morning in the daylight!

Our luggage arrived about three hours after our arrival at the airport. I do like this luggage service very much. I put on the Magic Express tags at home, take the luggage to the airport and check it in like usual, and then it magically appears later in the hotel room.

So we are off to an adventure and definitely out of winter for a few days.