Newsies
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- Joined
- Oct 25, 2013
- Messages
- 5,248
Let’s LIGHT This (Black Flame) Candle!
Had a very easygoing and unremarkable Saturday before my journey – woke up normal time, did my little morning walk, went to the bank, got my nails done. The family ended up heading out on some errands together in the afternoon, then I had to keep an eye on my company’s social media account for a few hours to interact with people on the heels of an event we were participating in. We got Popeye’s for dinner and I ended up going to sleep around 10 PM, all packed up and ready to embark on my journey in the early hours of the morning.
My alarm woke me up at 3 AM. Despite it being a Disney day, this was a bit of a tough wake up call and I ended up hitting snooze. Blasphemous, I know!
I was able to get dressed & ready quickly and dad woke up around 3:30. I was all ready to go, so I chugged a protein shake then went upstairs to quickly say goodbye to mom, who ended up waking up and deciding to embark on a ride to the airport with us.
4:00 rolled around and we were out the door. With zero traffic on the road, we got to Newark Airport shortly before 4:30! I gave a quick hug and kiss to mom, thanked dad for the ride, and wheeled into the check-in desk for JetBlue. The check-in process and security process at Newark was a breeze this morning. Checking my bag took no more than 10 minutes and security took no more than 10 as well, leaving me with about 45 minutes to explore the new Terminal A at Newark airport.
If you visited Terminal A before it’s multi-billion dollar makeover last year, you know that it was, um... maybe not the best place on earth
The new and improved Terminal A is very impressive and almost makes you forget you’re in Newark, NJ! There were a lot of places to eat, and I was very pleasantly surprised with how many of them were open at 5 AM. I didn’t get the chance to eat anywhere today, but I did have to run to an odds-and-ends shop to get a bottle of water, some gum for the flight, and some sunscreen for my Epcot morning, since all of mine was packed in my checked bag. I found a tiny face stick and tiny bottle of Sun Bum and they ended up being perfect for my little hip pouch all week long!
The plane boarded at 5:30, and I was in Group A with an exit row seat, so I was part of the first group of passengers to board. Definitely geeked out a little bit when I sat down and saw this!
Now, some of you know this and some of you don’t, but I’ve been on a weight loss journey since March and have lost a considerable amount of weight since then with changes in my lifestyle, diet, and medication. But I am still a bigger girl and I carry a lot of weight in my stomach, so flying is not always the best experience for me. I will always sit in exit row seats, or in select airlines, seats that are marked “wider” or “more leg room”. I will do anything to avoid sitting in general economy seating. I had a terrible experience with United last year flying back from Vegas where a flight changed and they took my exit row seat from me, putting me in a basic economy seat where I candidly just didn’t fit.
JetBlue is the only airline where I’ve never needed a seatbelt extender, even at my highest weight. Plus, “the most leg room in economy” is not a joke – sitting in an exit row really was a pleasant experience. JetBlue is big girl approved and you will not regret spending $80 extra a flight for an exit row seat. In fact, I will probably always fly JetBlue for many reasons, even if I end up losing enough weight where I feel comfortable sitting in regular economy seats – free in-flight wifi, free drinks & snacks (seriously, why is this disappearing from other airlines?), just all-around pleasant flight attendants and I’ve never had an issue with bags, checking in, or flights in general with them.
We were wheels up in Newark at 6:00 sharp!
Remember that HHN screen I just showed you all? Well, my TV ended up not actually working for the entire flight
But it was fine! It was a very easy flight at about 2.5 hours and I listened to music, texted my family, watched a few YouTube videos. Also had these everything bagel pretzels.We were wheels down in Orlando at 8:35!
After I got off the plane, I made a quick pit stop to put in my contacts, then it was off to grab my suitcase. Nothing was more exciting than seeing these stores in the terminal!
We flew into Terminal C today, so no fauxnorail ride for me. Just went up the escalator, followed the signs to baggage claim, and took a photo with my favorite airport carpet:
After I grabbed my suitcase, I quite literally just took an elevator down to the ground level and the Mears check-in desk was right there. I checked in and had a seat so I could wait for my bus to arrive. I checked in at 9:20 and my bus arrived at 9:40!
I was the only person getting on this bus at Terminal C, but it was quite full from people picked up at Terminal B. Still, I sat back, relaxed, and watched Beauty and the Beast while we drove “home!”
We stopped at All-Star Sports and All-Star Movies first, then Jambo House was the third stop. We got there at 10:35, so all in all, it took just under an hour of travel time once I was on the bus & about 1 hr 15 minutes from the time I arrived at the Mears check-in desk until I was at my resort. This was my first time using Mears since Disney discontinued Magical Express and it was definitely the cheapest way to go, but not necessarily the fastest. It wasn’t an egregious amount of time spent traveling/waiting, just not as quick or direct as a rideshare service would be. Personally, I was happy with Mears. It got the job done for a great price and I’ll probably use it again on future solo trips.
Okay… enough of this travel talk! We’ve arrived at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge!!!
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Thank you very much my friend!
It was $17.50 to go from MCO to DAKL and $16.00 to go from DAKL back to MCO, so round trip it was less than $35. From the research I've done, the average rideshare is about $50 1-way from MCO to DAKL, so I saved a lot of money as a solo traveler, but if you're a group of, say, 3-4 people who can fit all of their luggage in an average size car, you might feel like a Lyft or Uber from the airport is the better deal.
D'oh! So my first stop was to the stroller & 
