After getting through customs, we decided to go to our old faithful in the US terminal of the Edmonton airport, and hit up Quiznos. First food report fail of the trip – I didn’t take any pictures (don’t worry, overall I was really good about remembering). I had a turkey, ranch and Swiss on rosemary Parmesan bread, and I have no idea what Luke ate. It was probably on whole wheat bread though. I took some time to run over to the convenience store in the terminal and stocked up on snacks for the plane – ketchup chips for dayzz! Seriously though, USA – you are missing out by not selling ketchup chips – I’m fairly certain my body composition is ~40% ketchup chips due to how often I eat them…

We headed over to our gate as it approached boarding time, only to hear an announcement that our flight would be delayed due to one flight attendant not being there. Remember how cold I mentioned it was that morning? Apparently her car wouldn’t start, so she was going to catch a taxi to the airport. Ok, fine. My car is brand new and we own a garage, and it wasn’t happy about starting that day, so it’s something out of that flight attendants hands. Another half an hour goes by when we hear another announcement that for whatever reason, that flight attendant is now not going to make it, but a different flight attendant has stepped up and volunteered to be on our flight to help out. The only problem – he’s currently in the air and won’t land at the Edmonton airport for another 35 minutes. Luke and I were now patting ourselves on the backs for spending the extra money to fly direct – if this had happened any other time we’ve flown to Orlando we would have missed our connection.

Since we still had a bit of a wait, Luke went to get us a Starbucks – Very Berry Hibiscus refresher for me and a normal coffee for him. Sorry no pictures, but I’m sure everyone can picture a Starbucks cup haha. While we were waiting, we started chatting with a very friendly couple sitting beside us. They had been to Disney many times, but were very interested in hearing about our upcoming wedding and Marathon Weekend – they didn’t even realize runDisney was something that existed.

Eventually, our final flight attendant arrived and received a round of applause. Boarding began shortly afterwards. We were in row 12, an emergency exit row so we were able to be among the first group to board the plane, which was nice since we had so many things and it allowed us time to get situated for a long flight.

We had pre-ordered food, even though I was very sad when I received the email. WestJet changed their onboard menu, and my beloved ham and Swiss on a croissant was gone! Their menu is now Chopped Leaf, and filled with really healthy stuff, who wants that on vacation?!

There were two things on the menu that we thought we might like, so we decided to order one of each. I went for the California Chicken salad – spinach, oranges, green apples, sunflower seeds and sun dried cranberries topped with grilled chicken breast and creamy feta. Raspberry vinaigrette served on the side.

Luke ordered the Chopped Leaf Baja Bowl – brown basmati rice, grilled chicken breast, heritage blend lettuce, cheddar cheese, red and yellow peppers, Chopped Leaf signature black bean and corn salsa finished with a dash of cilantro. Sour cream and salsa served on the side.

I’m not sure what we were expecting, but cold rice is gross. Luke wasn’t super impressed by his choice at all, I tried it and wouldn’t order it myself. I was apprehensive of my selection, I don’t love spinach… or seeds of any kind… or feta… or cranberries – but I figured at least I could eat the chicken. I’m not sure if I was really hungry, but I ended up quite enjoying this salad. I just wish there was a bit more of the raspberry vinaigrette.

To kick off our vacation right, we both ordered alcohol on the flight (something we rarely do).

Luke went for a classic, and had rum and Coke. I decided to really celebrate the right way, and ordered sparkling wine. I’m not a huge wine drinker, but it just seemed so fitting to toast the next two weeks.

Our flight was ~5 hours, we passed the time by playing games on our phones, and watching Frozen through the WestJet app. Finally, we started making our descent into Orlando. Since we had been delayed leaving by about 90 minutes, we were much later than anticipated arriving at MCO, but it still wasn’t even 5pm. We got off the plane, stopped for a bathroom break and then hopped on the fake-o-rail! Am I the only one who considers this to be the first ride of the trip?

I stopped to snap some pictures of the signs in the airport for the Magical Express – none of our friends and family arriving the next week had been to WDW before (those who had been had never stayed on site), before we arrived to check in for our bus ride. They always ask to scan magicbands, but since Disney only mails out Magicbands within the US, I just hand over the letter we receive from DME and it’s never been an issue.

We were directed into our row, and almost immediately shown to our bus. It was already about half full, so we weren’t able to get seats in the front to try for a picture of the Walt Disney World sign. Oh well. We didn’t have to sit on the bus for long before pulling away from the airport – our vacation was truly starting! The welcome video on the bus had been updated from the year before, it now included Pandora so that was nice to see!

About 25 minutes later, we arrived at Pop Century. I know for sure we were sharing a Magical Express bus with Art of Animation, and possibly another resort, but we were the first stop so I’m not 100% sure. We gathered up our carry-on items, and headed inside to check in. Americans who receive their Magicbands ahead of time can opt in to a text message telling them their room number which allows them to bypass the main lobby, but as Canadians we can’t do this. No big deal, we only waited a few minutes before being called up. I had requested a room in the 80’s or 90’s section since I knew those were the newly renovated rooms, and our request was granted, we were in the 90’s building on the 4th floor. The walk from the main building was not bad at all, and we walked right past the bus stops for all of Pop Century.

Next: December 30, 2017 – Part Three!