And boy, did it end in a bad way! We checked out of our hotel and said good bye to Disneyland. It was an incredible experience and we're hoping we can come back to visit this magical place again really soon. Our flight wasn't until later that afternoon, so we decided to head to Downtown Disney.
We ate at Rain Forest Cafe. Lexie loved all of the animals, especially the daddy and baby elephant that came to life every 15 minutes. I thought the food wasn't very good and it was a bit pricey, but I guess you pay for the atmosphere.
After some last minute shopping, we headed back to catch our shuttle. The shuttle picked us up at 2:00pm and we had to wait for another family who was nowhere to be seen. Finally after about 15 minutes, the mom comes running to the shuttle and says the rest of their group is coming. We waited for another 15 minutes and another woman and a toddler came. We had to wait even longer because they had to get their luggage from the hotel. Then, while we're driving to the airport, she tells me that they were late because they were at Disneyland. I wanted to tell her, "Are you crazy?" I just have a thing about being on time and then having to wait for people who aren't on time and your excuse is that you were at Disneyland. I wanted to yell at her, "Do you know how big the park is and it's not like it's a short walk away. And if you knew the shuttle was coming at 2:00, why didn't you leave the park early knowing you had a toddler and still had to get your luggage.", but I held my tongue and just ignored her. Well, I guess the driver wasn't too happy about being late either because he broke every speed limit and got us to the airport in record time.
The nightmare doesn't end there. That was only the beginning. As we were waiting for our flight, we hear an announcement that our flight has been delayed for 4 hours, then within a few minutes, it's 5 hours, so we weren't leaving until 11:00pm that night. This was not going well especially since Lexie slept for 20 minutes on the shuttle and she was already getting fussy waiting for the plane.
We got dinner vouchers and went to eat and decided that we'll just let Lexie run around at the airport to tire her out. When we got back to the gate, we found they had moved us to another gate. And as we sat there waiting, Eric noticed the monitor change. Our flight was now leaving at 7:00am the next morning. No announcement was made and suspiciously, there was no one to talk to at the gate. Eric went to the customer service office and got us vouchers for a hotel and breakfast. We were told that there was no crew for our flight.
So, we packed up Lexie and headed for the shuttle. It was cold outside and the people waiting for the shuttle were very rude. There was no organization on how to get on to the shuttle. As soon as our hotels' shuttle stopped, people just ran, pushing and shoving with their luggage to the doors and by the time we folded up Lexie's stroller and grabbed our bags, it was full. Of course after that, every shuttle that stopped was for another hotel. Finally our shuttle came and we made sure this time we were ready.
Luckily, Lexie had a change of clothes and Eric bought a toothbrush and toothpaste from the gift shop. One funny moment on the shuttle was when I told Eric that we didn't have any toiletries. Lexie said, "Mommy, I see toilet trees!" as she pointed to the trees on the street. Lexie was a total trooper through all of this. Instead of being fussy, she was very loopy. She was running around the room and bouncing on the bed, but as soon as we turned off the light, she was fast asleep.
It was nice to take a shower and have a bed to sleep in for a few hours. I felt bad waking Lexie up at 4:00am, but she just opened her eyes and asked, "Where are we going?" I think she was relieved when I said we were going home. After that she stayed up until we boarded our plane. So, 13 hours later we were headed back home!!
Even though it was a horrible end, we won't let it ruin the beautiful memories that we made at Disneyland. After this ordeal, we know that when we do fly back to Taiwan, Lexie is going to be great on that long flight!! She never ceases to amaze us!
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