Jon Crunch: “The Stressful Trip Home” - Disney Trip: Part 8 (The Lost Blog)

I was set to publish this blog post last year.

I had the photos and notes (which I keep on my iPhone) ready to go.

The issue is that I had so much fun on my first trip to Walt Disney World that I didn’t want to ruin the vibe of my seven-part “Disney Trip” blog series. So my written account of our trip to Orlando ended during the 11 p.m. hour on April 15, 2019.

Until now.

After an action-packed day at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, Epcot Theme Park, and Magic Kingdom, we arrived back at our hotel room at Disney’s Art of Animation Resort at 1:07 a.m.

The resort is REALLY quiet at 1 a.m.:

Our return flight to Omaha was scheduled for 9:15 a.m.

I took a shower and downed a couple Benadryl, hoping to get some rest before an early drive to Orlando International Airport. I also got my suitcase packed up for the next morning.

Neil, Theresa, and the kids went to Walmart for supplies (diapers, formula) after we closed down the Magic Kingdom.

Our room at the Art of Animation Resort had a drippy tub faucet during the duration of our stay. I had to use a lot of force to get the valve to fully shut. I figured the washers inside needed to be replaced.

To that point, we got a knock on our door a few minutes before we left for the airport. It was a member of the maintenance staff coming to check the faucet.

Bridget and I departed the resort parking lot in the black Chevy Impala we had rented at a decent time. We wanted to leave plenty of time to get our bags checked and wind our way through security.

But we needed to fuel up the rental before we turned the vehicle back in at the airport. That mission delayed our arrival at Orlando International Airport due to the fact that we missed the exit for our gas station (causing us to have to wind around the airport and circle back).

I’ve gotta say, I’m getting stressed as I write this. Readers of this blog might remember the stressful airport experience we had during our INBOUND 2019 trip (chronicled in the post “Where’s My Shoe?” - INBOUND Trip: Part 5).

Anyhow, we finally did get our rental car turned in and bags checked at the Frontier counter. A few minutes later, Neil dropped off Theresa, the kids, and all their luggage while he returned the rental car (at an offsite rental office). We helped them get checked in at the Frontier counter too.

Then we all made our way to the security checkpoint.

This is a random picture of my foot and bag at Orlando International Airport:

A year has passed and I still don’t know *exactly* why it took so long to get through security. Everything seemed to be moving in slow motion (even though we selected the line that the agent suggested was moving “faster”).

I was the first member of our travel party to make it through security. So I put my shoes back on, put my iPad back in my Osprey messenger bag, and waited for the others.

Bridget, Theresa, and the kids were behind me (Neil was still in the process of returning their rental at that point). As you can imagine, they had a lot of items to be scanned and checked. So Bridget told me to go ahead and make my way to our gate.

A few minutes later, anxiety set in.

The terminals at Orlando International Airport are connected by “People Movers” — railcars on elevated tracks that run outside the terminals.

I got on what I thought was the correct People Mover for our terminal. I was the only person in the car, and my solitude caused a moment of doubt as the bright morning sun shone through.

I felt like I should have waited to go with everyone else. I certainly didn’t want to end up off the beaten track. I even texted Bridget my concern as I waited for the People Mover to stop at its next destination.

Thankfully, I ended up at the right place, but I still hadn’t heard from Bridget. A large throng of travelers were gathered around our gate, and it was getting close the point where they were going to start boarding.

We typically fly on Southwest — and enjoy the experience. The reason we chose Frontier in this particular instance was because it was supposed to be a direct flight back to Omaha.

Unfortunately, that direct flight was cancelled, and we ended up on a plane that had started the morning in New York City, stopped in Orlando, went to Las Vegas, and then headed to Omaha.

It was a packed flight.

Bridget, Theresa, and the kids eventually made it to the terminal. Bridget’s backpack had been selected for extra screening because she had a can of cashews in it — and that caused a considerable delay. They also did a thorough screening of Anson’s stroller, including taking off the removable beverage holder. We didn’t even know they had done that until they handed it back to Theresa just before she left the security area. It was a mess.

By the time Bridget and Theresa arrived at the gate with the kids, people had already started boarding. To make matters worse, Neil was nowhere to be seen. He texted that he was still stuck in security, but he wasn’t going to mention he had a flight to catch, because a guy in front of him who had done that experienced “extra slow” screening.

The five of us were going to go ahead and board the plane (hoping Neil would make it in time). However, Theresa couldn’t board with Anson (who wasn’t quite 2 years old at that time) because he was slated to go on via Neil’s ticket.

So, Theresa had to stay in the terminal with Anson while Bridget and I boarded with Blaise and Scotland (who were both confused by everything that was going on).

Bridget waited with Scotland and Blaise at their seats while I made our way to the row we were sitting in.

There was a middle-aged woman sitting in our row of three seats. She was in the aisle seat, had her tray down with a drink sitting atop it, and seemed completely “put off” when I politely asked to get through to my window seat.

I think she thought she was going to get the row to herself. I’m not sure why she thought that. The flight attendants kept announcing it was a full flight. But whatever.

Neil eventually made it to the gate, and he, Theresa, and Anson were able to board. Bridget made her way to her seat between me and the grumpy woman. Bridget tried to explain the situation to the lady, but she didn’t seem to care.

I must admit, I wasn’t excited about a lengthy flight to Las Vegas (approximately five hours). My stomach was a mess because of the morning’s festivities, and the seats on the Frontier plane were as hard as a rock.

My “travel book” to read was “Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future” by Ashlee Vance (and it is excellent). I opened up my book hoping to be able to gear down and settle in for the flight.

It just wasn’t destined to be a relaxing experience.

My nephew Anson (who was recently diagnosed with autism) has an uncanny ability to pick up on stressful situations, and the morning’s stress — combined with the change in air pressure — caused the little guy to cry and fuss when we reached cruising altitude.

The woman sitting next to Bridget said, “People really need to control their children.”

Bridget replied, “That happens to be my nephew and it was a stressful morning for him. I don’t know what your problem is, but it needs to stop.”

I was just sitting there wishing I could disappear into the background. I opened up the breathing app on my Apple Watch, practiced deep breathing, and tried to relax.

(Why can’t people just show a little grace?)

Bridget and I spent the next hour discussing our business, taking notes on revenue streams we were working to develop (I had just rebuilt her website for BeAResumeWriter.com before we left, and we were talking about some other things that needed to be updated.)

A short time after our discussion, the woman pressed the button for the flight attendant, and asked if there were any other open seats she could go sit in.

The attendant told her there weren’t any available. (What part of “this is a full flight” did she not understand?)

It was at this point when “nature called,” and I really needed to use the restroom. But I figured if I asked to leave the row it would cause an issue with the woman. I’m a person who tries to avoid conflict as a general rule.

So, I decided I’d hold it until we arrived at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas.

I was really uncomfortable the last two hours of the flight. I tried to concentrate on my book, reading about the formative years of Elon Musk’s SpaceX. I avoided looking at my watch. I also tried not to jostle around too much (which was hard in the plane’s uncomfortable seats).

I took this picture of the Hoover Dam (I didn’t know what it was at the time) as I was trying to distract myself from my bladder discomfort:

Bridget told us later she'd considered going up to Anson’s row, getting him from Neil, and putting him on her lap for the duration of the flight to annoy the lady.

When we finally landed in Las Vegas, the woman pushed her way forward — past people patiently waiting in front of her — and worked her way off the plane in a huff.

I was just happy to visit a restroom.

We grabbed lunch from Ruby’s Diner in the airport and ate it by our gate. I had the Bacon Cheeseburger with fries. I was super hungry at that point (we really didn’t have much to eat in the morning). Sadly, I didn’t get any pictures of lunch (only the sign).

None of us took many pictures that day. I wish I had more to share.

Thankfully, the flight to Omaha was uneventful (and a lot shorter).

The reason I decided to publish this blog post now is that we’re in the midst of the global COVID-19 pandemic crisis. Walt Disney World is closed and analysts are speculating whether it’ll be fall before the attraction reopens. Trips are being canceled and there is a lot of uncertainty about what will happen to tourism the next 12 months.

Neil and Theresa just had to cancel a trip they had planned to Disney World (their third) at the end of this month. They are hoping to be able to go in December.

It’s disheartening thinking joyous places like Disney World could be closed another year until a vaccine for COVID-19 is available to the public.

As a result, I’m truly thankful Bridget decided to surprise me with a trip to Walt Disney World in 2019 — something we’d considered doing a number of times the past 20 years.

(It would have sucked if she’d tried to surprise me with a Disney World trip this year.)

On that particular day, the stressful trip home dialed down the glow of an otherwise perfect trip, but just for a moment.

That’s pretty much how life goes anyway, right?

I think this quote from Flynn Rider (in the Disney movie “Tangled”) sums our trip up well: “And for that one moment, everything was perfect… and then that moment ended.”

I can’t wait until the day we can enjoy more of these moments in the future!