So....
I ACTUALLY slept in!
I set the alarm for 5 a.m. and it didn't go off. The first thing I heard was Emily saying "aren't you getting up?" 5:15!!!
No time for fancy make-up and stuff. But we were out of the house by 5:45 and on our way to the airport. Fortunately we're only 15 minutes from the airport, so we were there in no time. Neil dropped us ("us" being Emily, Jeremy and myself - he would join us the next day) off. The morning was cold, still and clear. Thankfully we didn't have any snow to contend with. Check through was easy and we were soon on our way to Chicago. We arrived early, for once and found our gate (which they immediately changed to ANOTHER gate) and discovered that there would be a 1/2 hour delay - no biggie. This was the first time that Jeremy (Em's fiance) had ever had a vacation! His first plane ride, his first time out of the country. It made me realize what spoiled brats my kids were.
So, it was fun to see his reactions. Mostly - he couldn't believe the noise of the airport! But he was a little disappointed to discover that Americans looked just like us. (I don't know what he was expecting - Elvis Impersonators, maybe). So we settled in for a bit of a wait. Finally they announced boarding and we all dutifully got up. Well, we waited, and waited, and waited. Then they announced that because the plane wasn't full, they'd decided to wait for a flight from Pittsburgh, so they could stuff 24 Super Bowl headed Pittsburghians? Pittsburghites? Pittsburghers? on the plane. Lovely.
No one was too happy about that and we had to wait another 45 minutes for yellow helmut-wearing, towel-bearing fans to arrived. We expected the worst, but they were very well-behaved (albeit very YELLOW) - and so we were on our way. The pilot outdid himself and got us to Orlando in just over 2 hours. Kudos Captain.
This was the first time I'd ever used ME when arriving. We got our luggage (I like to have it with me) and found the ME with no problems. A nice ME lady waved us on and we were once more in the arms of the Mouse!
Jeremy got his first look at palm trees. Then remarked that other than the palm trees "it looked just like home". Which is the truth - maybe that's why I feel at home in Central Florida. Take away the palms and the landscape is almost identical to home (albeit the 3 feet of snow in the winter). SSR was the first stop. Easy check-in with a lovely CM from Manchester, England (so naturally she wanted to know what was happening on Coronation Street), a stop at the concierge to buy Em & Jer's parkhoppers, a ride with bell services to our suite and we were "home". I had requested either The Grandstand or Congress Park and we got CP- the closest villa to the Marketplace AND on the first floor - Perfect! I think Jer had visions of a hotel room with roll-away cots - so when we opened the door to the 2 bedroom suite he was absolutely blown away! I had ordered some groceries from WDW and they were all put away for us. The fruit making smiley faces with oranges and bananas.
By this time it was about 6 p.m. We headed over to the Marketplace to get some dinner. Rainforest Cafe is not my favourite place, but Emily wanted Jeremy to "experience" it. Thanks to our membership card (a special offer from years ago), we were seated right away. The food, as always, was ok - not great - but ok. I just had a cheeseburger, Jeremy had a pizza and Emily had a shrimp platter. The noise, as always, was deafening - but it was fun to watch Jer's face at the apes screaming, the elephants trumpeting, etc. After dinner we looked around the shop and the kids bought sweatshirts (RF is still the best place for bargains at WDW.) It's a good thing they bought them - because it was COLD!! We kinda hit the wall then and decided to head back. Emily put in a wake-up call, making sure Jer answered. (come to think of it, I never did ask him who woke him up), and we went to bed.
End of first day. I have pictures - they will come.