The first "Travel Leg"!!! Well... With winter weather always possible, increased security and traffic at HIIA, and a Saturday noon flight we decided to get a jump and roll up the highway Friday evening for a relaxing stay at the Delta Halifax after tying off as many loose ends from school as we could. The Delta card had some points gathered up which needed to be used or lost... So hunkering down there made sense. All were asleep early after watching as much as we could of a Star Wars episode.

Showered and shined up, we picked up Eileen and made our way to the Airport. For a different twist we parked in the covered parking area next to the airport. We figured it costs a tad more, but worth the convenience leaving the airport on a Christmas Eve return date (this turned about to be an excellent decision as there was 4-5 inches on the ground in Halifax when we arrived seven days later). Glad we arrived early, 'cause we struggled with line ups and the usually helpful kiosks trying to print Boarding Passes. After several attempts we landed a very nice (and capable) Air Canada agent who got us on the way... Gobbled up at least an hour though!

We soon found out why we couldn't print the Boarding Passes as well. Monica's ticket had been randomly selected for secondary screening and she got asked a couple of questions and went through the body scanner. No troubles though, they were good with her and the American Customs agent had her cheered up by the time we made our way to the gate. The flight departed about 10 minutes late and went very smoothly with an interesting route into Orlando. It was almost like the plane stayed out to sea as long as possible... then ran a quick 90 degrees into Orlando International. No problems there either (although I missed reading/being aware of the shuttle that took us to Baggage Claim A). The reservation with Mears worked great, as we were met at the baggage area and taken to our pickup area by our rep Dave!

I guess it was about 5:00 pm Eastern when we checked in to our accommodations for the week at Buena Vista Suites (BVS). The BVS is ideally located between our Disney locations, SeaWorld and Universal with free shuttles and a comp breakfast. Pretty good deal in this town! All hands were ready for grub so we ordered up a couple of pizzas while Janie and Eileen scoped out the neighborhood for necessities. The day's travel was beginning to sting our group... And by early evening Monica was out with Peter and Din looking totally relaxed.

At 8:00, Janie and I caught the complimentary shuttle to Downtown Disney, about a 10 minute trek. Robert Zilliner, our driver, did a great job getting us there. Downtown Disney is free to enter... free ends there though. We did have a relaxing evening, with lots of sights, sounds, and smells, Lego galore around the Imagination Centre, a couple of fancy Frozen Margaritas in the House of the Blues, and a great fish & chip dinner at Cooke's. We walked the length of the lakeside street and back. Lots going on with a busy pre-Christmas crowd in town. At about 11:00 we made our back for a short sit until the shuttle gathered us up and brought us home. We fell quickly with the time change finally settling in!!!