Disney World. No Kids. Day 1. L'chaim, l'chaim, to luggage!
“Here you leave today and enter the world of yesterday, tomorrow, and fantasy.”
This is how I felt waking up Thursday morning.
As with any story, we start at the very beginning. Back in September, Tzvi surprised me by telling me we were going away for a weekend for my birthday. Then in October, when we all had COVID, Tzvi told me that we were going to Disney World, alone! We spent two months very excited about this trip, and let me tell you, it did not disappoint.
Wednesday night we all slept at my parents’ so we would be ready for our early departure Thursday morning. Tzvi’s mom had flown in Wednesday, my parents were on duty, and Inbar was going to be around. Four adults for two kids seemed like more than enough to keep them alive until Sunday. So, we got up Thursday morning around 6. Hallie was up early as well. By 7:00am, I had my first lightning lane booked! Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure.
We woke Madeleine up to say goodbye and we headed out around 7:30 am. Our kids knew we were going to Florida, but we never explicitly said we were going to Disney. We didn’t NOT tell them. Hallie asked if I was going on Splash Mountain. I asked if I should go on it and she said yes, but I still don’t think she understood that meant Disney World.
Anyway, we Ubered to the airport and went to the Mosaic check in area. There was this family checking in ahead of us, parents and two boys probably 6 and 10. It’s always interesting to see people who act like they’ve never flown before in their lives. ‘Oh, you need my precheck number? Let me spend five minutes looking that up while the line builds behind me.’ Anyway, once it was our turn we checked in in two seconds and made our way to the gate. Once again I mobile ordered Starbucks and bypassed the entire line. I will never understand how people don’t do that. At 9am I was able to book our Guardians of the Galaxy Lightning Lane, and then at 11am I booked Frozen. While the flight was good, it was VERY bumpy. In the middle of the flight I saw that Disney World had put out a Tornado watch. That was promising.
It was quite a bumpy landing, but we made it. We stepped off the plane into the beautiful new JetBlue Terminal at the Orlando airport. The walk to baggage claim took forever, and you don’t take a tram to get there. I kind of miss the tram, but the terminal is really gorgeous. At some point Tzvi got an email that his bag didn’t make it on the plane. He immediately went to the baggage people while I waited for my bag. Thankfully mine came out right way. At the JetBlue baggage office they basically told him that his bag didn’t make the flight (no explanation as to how this happens, especially when you check in at a Mosaic desk) and that it would be on the next flight which was due to arrive at 430 but was currently delayed for weather, and that it was likely that it would be delivered by the end of the day. So with that we called an uber, went to the wrong spot for pickup, figured out where to go, and made our way to the hotel. This was actually not the worst time to lose a bag given our schedule. Tzvi didn’t need most of the stuff in his bag until tomorrow, so not having the bag basically meant he couldn’t put in his contacts and needed to wear his airplane sweatpants to the park.
I booked another Lightning Lane at 1, but I don’t even remember what. We made our way to the hotel in pouring rain.
Our hotel for this trip is the Four Seasons Orlando! Hooray! We arrived at the hotel around 130 and checked in. The hotel is gorgeous and all decked out for Christmas. There is a big Christmas tree when you walk in and then there is this whole display of chocolate Christmas trees. They smelled delightful.
We grabbed a tuna sandwich from the lobby café, and then made our way to our room, which thankfully was ready early. I changed, but unfortunately Tzvi could not. Oh well.
We Ubered to Epcot. It was still raining, but not as hard. We entered the park and were on our way!
The first ride we did was Guardians of the Galaxy, the newest ride at Epcot. It was phenomenal. I can’t even explain it. It’s like you feel weightless while being tossed around on a coaster. I would say it’s like Space Mountain but way better, but that wouldn’t even come close to doing it justice. Let’s just say it was the perfect way to start the day. Tzvi mostly complained that he had to hold his glasses the whole time and was afraid he was going to drop them so he didn’t get to fully enjoy the ride, so thanks JetBlue for that. After that we did Test Track, Soarin’, and Ratatouille.
EPCOT currently has the Festival of the Holidays, which sort of tries to highlight how the holidays are celebrated around the world, but it's really just a way to extend the International Food Festival with a different name and theme. Basically it’s a whole bunch of booths around the World Showcase with different holiday foods from different countries. This year there was a Jewish one called L’Chaim! We got the black and white cookie, latkes, jelly donuts, and a Manischewitz cocktail. The latkes were delicious, the donuts tasted like Entenmann’s pop'ems, the black and white cookie was very interesting and pretty tasty, and the Manischewitz cocktail was surprising delicious (it was a New York sour with frozen lemonade in it). [Tzvi: just to be clear, it was delicious by theme park standards, not by objective cocktail criteria.]. After eating our latkes we watched the Hanukah show where a guy named Zachary came out and told the Hanukah story. It was cute, and nice of Disney to be inclusive.
From there we made our way through each of the countries. We got a Linzer Tart in Germany and a Chocolate crinkle cookie at American Adventure. There was a cookie stroll where if you got five cookies you got a prize, but after 3 we were starting to feel ill, and we were pretty sure that the prize for eating five cookies was a sixth cookie, which we just couldn’t do.
We did Frozen at Norway, the boat ride at Mexico, and then made our way back to Future World to ride the Land and Figment. At this point it was dark out and the Land was all lit up. Tzvi thinks he doesn’t like the Land, but it really is the best. [Tzvi: It’s a fifteen minute boatride through a greenhouse…] One day I’m going to do the “Behind the Seeds” tour there. Then we ran back and walked around England before heading to our dinner at Canada.
Before I go on with dinner, I should mention that around 5:30 Tzvi checked the “Find My” app on his phone and saw that the Apple Air Tag in his luggage was at Orlando Airport. This was good news, as it meant that his bag had actually made it on the next plane and had arrived in Orlando. However, by 8:00 he was getting worried that he hadn’t gotten any update from JetBlue and the Air Tag was showing that the bag hadn’t moved from its spot at the airport, so he decided to call. After waiting a half hour on hold, he reached Central Baggage, only to be told that they had no way to call the airport baggage office, but that they would send an email to the baggage office requesting they call Tzvi. He never received that call and spent the entire dinner obsessively refreshing his phone to see that the bag still hadn’t moved from its spot at the Airport. More on this after dinner.
Tonight we were eating at Le Cellier, the restaurant in Canada. We’ve never been there and have always heard it’s one of the best EPCOT restaurants (which is why a reservation is always hard to get). It was a great meal. The servers were so nice (what else would you expect from Canadians?) and the food was delicious. They started off with a bread basket and we ordered cocktails. For appetizers we got impossible meatballs and Tzvi had a wedge salad. For the main we both got impossible dumplings in a veggie brother. For dessert we shared crème brulee and a chocolate caramel thing. Everything was delicious.
By the time we finished the fireworks were starting! The show at EPCOT now is Harmonious, which isn’t great, but they are getting rid of it over the next year I think and will be introducing something new.
On our way out of the park we went to Creations to shop. Tzvi bought a t-shirt so that he’d at least have a clean shirt to wear tomorrow.
We found the Chanukah section.
At that point he still hadn’t heard from JetBlue so he called again. This time he got right through the Central Baggage, but they were so unhelpful.
They started by telling him that they didn’t have any way to directly contact the baggage office, but that they had an email from the baggage office saying they didn’t have the bag.
“What do you mean they don’t have the bag? Where is the bag?”
“I’m sorry sir but I can’t answer that. The bag hasn’t been scanned in at Orlando airport.”
“What does that mean?”
“I’m sorry sir, I’m not at the airport so I can’t tell you what it means.”
“Okay. I have an Air Tag in my bag and it’s showing me that the bag is at Orlando Airport, so it’s definitely there in the airport. So what does it usually mean when a bag is not ‘scanned in?’”
“It could mean a number of things. It’s possible that your bag didn’t make it on the plane at JFK.”
“But I just told you that I have an Air Tag in the bag and it’s definitely in Orlando.”
“I’m sorry sir, I’m not at the airport…”
They went around and around and basically said he’d need to wait until tomorrow for an update but that they had no idea where the bag was. Finally I got the idea to call the Four Seasons and see if they can help. By now it was about 10:30. Tzvi explained the situation to the concierge who said of course they could help. “Give me 10 minutes and I’ll call you back.” Well, less than 10 minutes later, Kathryn at the Four Seasons called right back and said, “I just spoke to Lou at the baggage office. He said he’s looking right at your bag, it’s there in the office.” Okay, can someone please explain to me why the concierge at the Four Seasons could get in touch with the baggage office in less than 10 minutes but JetBlue customer service couldn’t? Anyway, given the time, the baggage office said they were scheduled to have the bag picked up tonight and delivered to our hotel, but that there was no 100% guarantee. In order to ensure Tzvi wouldn’t be rewearing underwear tomorrow, we decided he would go to the airport and pick up the bag.
But before heading to the airport, we decided that our Disney night wasn’t over and took a monorail over to the Grand Floridian to see the famous Gingerbread House. The lobby is really gorgeous, but apparently they will be redoing it soon. They sell actual cookies out of the Gingerbread house during the day, so maybe we’ll come back tomorrow if there’s time.
We then split up, Tzvi to the airport and me to the Four Seasons.
Tzvi retuned around 1240, luggage in hand - $90 in Uber charges and a measly $50 dollar travel credit from JetBlue.
Good Day.
