Planning | Travel | Animal Kingdom | Epcot | Magic Kingdom | Hollywood Studios | Summary

Since we were planning a last minute trip that only lasted four days, we wanted to pack in as many activities as possible.  We got early morning flights, which was a plus from both a cost and time perspective.

We woke up at 3:30 AM so we could arrive in time for our 6:05 AM flights.  Everyone was up and moving so we could leave the house at 4:00 AM.  There was very little traffic at that time, so we managed to arrive at Reagan National at 4:40 AM.  We parked in the daily parking lot so we would have a quick entry into the terminal (and a fast exit coming home). 

This was our first time in the old A Terminal at Reagan airport.  I found it really confusing, mainly because we didn’t enter the terminal near the check in counters.  We wandered around until we found the Southwest Airlines check in area.  Once we got there, it was pretty easy to check in for our flight, drop off our bags, and head to security.  Since we have TSA PreCheck, we were through the line pretty quick and then we headed down to the gate area.  We were scheduled to fly out of Gate 2.

Our plane was already at the gate waiting for us.  We grabbed a quick breakfast nearby and waited for boarding to start.  Even though we got the tickets almost free (using Chase Ultimate Reward points transferred to Southwest), I decided to purchase EarlyBird Check-In for everyone for both flights.  It was $15 per person, per flight, for a total of $120.  This would give us priority boarding near the front of the line so we could all sit together.  I didn’t want to take the chance of the girls not sitting with us.  We ended up boarding in the first group, which gave us a wide choice of seats.  We grabbed some seats a few rows back and settled in.

What I liked the most about the Southwest flight was the great legroom.  The two free bags per person didn’t hurt either, although we have credit cards for most of the major airlines that get us free bags. 

The flight passed relatively quickly without out any issues.

We landed in Orlando around 8:15 AM and taxied to our gate in Terminal A.  After getting off the plane, we headed to the little monorail that connects Terminal A to the main terminal. 

Once we got off the monorail, we headed down to the baggage claim area.  I left Nancy and the girls to collect the luggage while I went to get the rental car.

I have a picture of the Budget Rental Car counter here.  You know why?  Because I spent 45 minutes waiting to get my rental car.  I don’t know what was taking so long, but it seemed to be related to them not having enough clean cars.  We paid to rent a small car but ended up with a luxury car because that was the only thing they had available.  We were fine with it, because it got us moving instead of standing around in the airport.  We had notions of making rope drop at Animal Kingdom, but that was definitely not going to happen.

Since we didn’t have annual passes yet, we spent a minute explaining to the parking attendant at Animal Kingdom that we were going to activate our annual passes.  We showed them the certificates that we had and they let us through.  Once we arrived at the front of the park, a cast member explained that we needed to wait in the ticket line, with everyone else.  I was hoping we could go to Guest Services, but we were out of luck.

I then spent the next hour waiting in the ticket line.  Once we got to the front, the cast member said she had never seen the ticket line that long.  We seemed to be on quite a lucky streak.  The cast member was friendly and professional and got our annual passes setup and linked to our existing magic bands.  So, at this point, it was well past 11 AM and we were not hopeful about getting to ride either of the new rides in Pandora (Flights of Passage or Nav’i River Journey).  The wait times were well over 280 minutes for Flights of Passage and 120 minutes for Nav’i River Journey.  Looking back at the security line showed that it was going to be a crowded day.

Despite getting a slow start, we were still really excited and happy.  We were back at Walt Disney World, one of our favorite places.  We planned to enjoy strolling around Pandora and taking in some of our favorite rides in Animal Kingdom.

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