Tucson to Orlando, the Director’s Cut

Question–how do you manage sharing pictures if you don’t want to do it on Facebook? What I want, apparently, is a way to share some pictures with anyone who wants to see, keep some more private to just family and friends, make it so you don’t have to sign up for anything invasive (like Facebook) to see them, and of course it all needs to be free.

Suggestions?

So, the trip to Disney World… I know I already mentioned the trip here, with a few pictures. But I wanted to put it all in (sort of) order before I forget the details, so here’s a more in-depth account of our journey to Disney World.

We were supposed to leave at ten in the morning on June 5. The bus broke down, and we ended up crammed onto another bus four hours later. Due to that, we missed our connection in Dallas by about five minutes and got stuck there waiting seven hours until the next bus that could get us where we wanted to go. At that point we were due in Orlando at midnight Friday night, instead of noon. So much for our plans of Magic Kingdom on Friday!

Various whines, fits, and demands to speak to a supervisor got me nowhere on changing that†, but the lovely customer service guy was kind enough to change our return tickets once our delightful travel agents (the roomie’s parents, who had purchased the trip for us) got our reservation moved back a day. I won’t print his name because I think he wasn’t supposed to change our tickets for free–I think he was supposed to charge me $20 a ticket (for three of us!) if we wanted to change our return date to keep THEIR SCREW-UP from cutting short our vacation.

On a related note, I called heading into Dallas and then on the way out, hoping to sort stuff out. I was told that if I wanted to apply for a refund I’d have to do that after our trip was completed. I’ve since attempted it, and had no response. Not even an automated “we got your email, we’ll get back to you.”

Never go Greyhound.

Anyway. In Midland, Texas, (before Dallas) our rest stop was a Whataburger. The cashier was adorable and we loved his accent, so we decided to take him with us. Unfortunately we were unsuccessful in stuffing him into my purse.

In Abilene we picked up a young man who was headed to…Baton Rouge? I think…to spend the summer with his mom. He and Hope hit it off, so she left off pestering ME every time she was bored.

Left Dallas about nine at night on June 6th. Oh, and somewhere in Texas, either before or after Dallas (can’t remember) we were stopped by Border Patrol. For over an hour and a half. Two people were removed from the bus. One of them caught up later (this is what makes me think it was before Dallas, because I think that’s where I saw her again, but it might be that’s where she got ON the bus.)

In Houston we almost got left behind because for some stupid reason the “restaurant” was OUTSIDE SECURITY (the only bus station to really HAVE a security area, so it confused us) and the bus announcements did not go that far for some OTHER stupid reason, or possibly the same stupid reason, that being they wanted us to get left. Though we had troubles on the whole trip both ways, Houston was the one where the employees themselves were unfriendly and even hostile.

But we escaped Houston, and made it into Louisiana. In Baton Rouge we said goodbye to Hope’s friend. We went through New Orleans in daylight, and still saw far too little of it. Then on to Mississippi! Gulfport, Biloxi, and into Mobile, Alabama. We again saw far too little–it just reinforced my desire to go back, and this time to drive it. Also we will do it in winter–holy cats, the humidity plus the heat!

Hope was sitting in a different section of the bus, so she kept texting me every time it rained, or she saw a body of water. Eventually she did stop that. 🙂

Finally, Florida! In Tallahassee, we hit another hitch. We had to change buses, and the bus was there, but they didn’t have a driver. So we waited two more hours. I think those were the worst. We were SO…CLOSE… But we’d been seeing Spanish moss hanging from the trees for hours and in Tallahassee we finally got the chance to get a look at it and take some pictures, so that was nice.

So yeah. Orlando, Florida, at two in the morning on Saturday, June 8th. We took a cab to a nearby hotel and fell over for about five hours, until we had to check out. Then we took another cab ($62!!) to Disney’s Port Orleans Resort.

And our lives changed forever. Or at least, our vacation experience did.

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† I’m kidding on the whines and fit-throwing. I’ve worked customer service far too long to do that to persons who are merely cannon fodder in the eyes of the company– if I’m going to get mean, I’m going to do it at someone who has some responsibility for the problem, or authority AND unwillingness to fix it.