Disney and beyond

From my unprepared state, I very quickly drifted to the 'too-much prepared' state once I started this book B had taken from library. It is called Unofficial Guide to the Walt Disney World. Here is a link in Amazon to the latest edition of this book. It acted as a bible to me on all days of the trip.
We had a connection flight from Charlotte. This was the first time we ever booked a connection flight. Just as I was thinking 'hey, it is not too bad' - when the flight from Philly landed Charlotte smoothly and earlier than scheduled time, little did I know that trouble was on its way. We were ready to board the connection flight and they announced technical issues with the aircraft and said it won't fly! We waited for couple of hours in the aiport - there were no seats on any other flight to Orlando because of the holiday rush. Everyone was going to the counter and saying the same 'dukh bhari kahani' of theirs or yelling at the poor man who was in charge of dealing with angry customers. We were stranded , felt helpless. If we don't reach that night, we would have issues with rental car, hotel and losing a valuable day of Disney fun. Thank God - finally, they found a substitute aircraft which was ready to fly in an hour or so. It was relief - at that point, I did not mind even if it reached Orlando in the middle of the night, we just wanted to be there before the next day.
I should say I was proud of us four - having gone through all the airport waiting etc and reaching at midnight at the hotel in Florida - the kids were up at 7 and we were ready to roll.

Every day, I would read the chapter related to the park we will visit the next day. Since I am super scared of 'rides', I wanted to know about every ride in detail. I also was referring to Suman's spreadsheet as a quick reference on what to see. A print out of the spreadsheet was in my purse always. Nikhil and B focussed on the roller coaster kind of rides. Nithin did not qualify for those height wise, so i had a nice excuse of going on baby rides with him. We loved those cute rides in Fantasyland. I personally enjoyed all 3D movies. Nithin got scared in a 3D movie when spiders jumped down from roof. He refused to enter any movie hall and absolutely refused to wear 3 D glasses from then on. This meant that I go for them by myself while B watches him.

In short, we had a blast. It was over so quickly. Here are my tips on Disney:

• Inside the parks, the cell phones do not work very well. So if you and your wife split up and do different things at the park, be prepared that when you try to reach him/her, it won't be until you have tried a few times. I was alone with Nithin, trying to reach B and Nikhil over phone and once it gets dark, it is a nightmare. Even if they are somewhere near, you could be looking for them all night if the phones do not cooperate.
• Do not try to coordinate with a bunch of friends. Everybody has different interests and once inside the park, it is so hard to find someone/some place even with the maps. You will be wasting time doing coordination.
• FASTPASS is a life saver. Many people still do not know about it. In fact, I advised a family who were standing in a 1 hour wait line to go get a fast pass. They thanked me and went. Some parks have a restriction of not issuing fast pass for 2 hours if you already have one. Some parks do not. So don't assume anything and just hit a fast pass counter - it prints out the ticket if you cannot take one because you are holding one already.
• Start early. You cannot sleep late if you want to get a head start on the park events/rides. The goal is to reach the park as early as you can.
• Be prepared to stay longer through the night in Ecpot and Magic Kingdom to see the fireworks. Both were truly impressive. Magic Kingdom on Christmas and home theme almost made me cry.
• Going in November during Thanksgiving is a better bet - but Christmas decorations won't be there. It was really cold during Xmas and it is too crowded.

Chalo, bye for now!