Wilderness Lodge Explorers - October / November 2017: Day 16: The day it all went wrong

[bambikate]

Day Sixteen - Crystal Palace, DS and the scariest and most tiring day ever - Friday 10 November 2017

Index

Today could kind of be split into two halves. The first half starts off like any other Disney TR day and has lots of pics and smiling faces and the second half of the day is where it all went wrong after a security scare and resulting chaos at the airport. There's a lot of writing! Get a cup of tea...

Today was the last day! We wanted to make the most of it as much possible because our flight wasn’t until the evening and we had an early alarm set to help us do that.

We sorted our last things to pack away and called bell services to look after all our hold luggage and cabin luggage for the day. No breakfast at Roarin’ Fork for a change, today we had a reservation at Crystal Palace to go to! YAY!

We checked out and said goodbye to our beautiful view. Down at concierge I asked if they had a computer I could print my boarding passes. Instead of the separate room that Saratoga has to do it yourself, they just offered to do it for me! ≈

Boarding passes printed and tucked into our passports in our park bags, we were ready for a final trip to MK!
We walked down to the boat dock









We were a bit early for our reservation so took our time browsing in the shops on Main Street.

One day you will all be mine, beautiful Thomas Kinkade canvases≈



We didn’t realise they had glass blowing and a kiln here!

Some interesting vases…







We had filled enough time and were now able to check in for our Crystal Palace reservation. We were shown to our seats after waiting on the verandah for about five minutes and we had been given a lovely window seat overlooking the castle!

We had a fab server who told us to take our time and explained which way the characters would be coming and how the buffet worked and told us there was even ice cream for breakfast

He took our drinks orders - Imogen ordered a chocolate milkshake and Izzy an orange juice. Andy and I went for coffee.



The characters were a safe enough distance away for us to nip up in pairs and load up our first plates. Here’s my plate numero uno.≈



It was blooming lovely - ohhhh I'm so hungry now!

Izzy starting with fruit loops!



Imogen’s plate one≈



Izzy



Our first visitor was Piglet! The girls still love meeting characters ≈









Next up, Eeyore!





Plate two…



Third was Tigger, who crept up and surprised me and Izzy…



He was so funny the girls were laughing their heads off!



Andy loved this big bear hug - just look at his face! ≈



Playing with his beard…



Izzy really wanted to get a selfie with Tigger and had asked to borrow my phone and then asked Tigger if she could have aa selfie



CUTE!



Lastly was the tubby little cubby all stuffed with fluff it’s Winnie the Pooh!



Pooh also obliged for a selfie with the girls!



Do you know what would round this balanced breakfast off nicely? Ice cream and sprinkles! (Why not)



Absolutely stuffed we got the bill and rolled out of the door and back down Main Street USA for the last time this trip.



Sitting with Walt





Goodbye MK, we will miss you!≈

[bambikate]

We still had lots of time to enjoy Disney and wanted to explore Disney Springs properly. Buses didn’t run to DS from MK this early so we got a boat back to WL then a bus to DS





Now we could take our time and have a good old browse around all the shops DS had to offer!







Pretty Christmas deer decorations



We found a cute shop called SugarBoo & Co and had a browse





I liked this plate



We saw a “Christmas Pickle” here which was a little Christmas ornament for the tree and had a cute idea about hiding the pickle and the first person who found it got an extra gift but we decided against it in the end as we thought it might cause more arguments than it was worth!

We browsed some more shops and eventually arrived at Candy Cauldron. Since we had about 6/7 snack credits left we put these to good use here, purchasing some fudge, chocolate covered strawberries, a giant Mickey cookie, an Olaf marshmallow pop and a snowflake sugar cookie.

Watching them make yummy treats!





Checking out the progress on the Edison





The next shop we stopped in for a browse was The Ganachery!





We had seen a lot about this online and were definitely planning on buying something to take home. When we went in we were offered a sample of some chipotle chilli chocolate ganache. The girls tried some too. It was very nice if not a little unusual.





We decided to get a box of six chocolates and selected the ones that sounded the yummiest. Our selection included salted caramel, raspberry, passionfruit, praline, peanut butter and mint.



The lady here told us about Stitch’s Present Hunt and gave us a booklet and explained the rules. Basically, we had to find the little cardboard cut outs of stitch in various shops around DS and at the end once you correctly identified all of them, you could collect a little prize. Izzy had already spotted the Stitch in The Ganachery when she walked in so that was one ticked off!

We warned the girls that because we had to leave for our flight later we might not have time to find them all but we would try!



So pretty



Next we went to the lego store for some building and lego races





And of course, they had to get spit on by Stitch





We went to Ghirraldeli for a browse (who am I kidding we went in to get a free sample!)





Mmmmmmmm these were lush!

The next shop was Marketplace Co-op, we love this shop, if we had loads of money I could seriously do some damage here!

I loved all the Cherry Tree Lane dresses - super adorable.



Orange Bird dress



It’s a Small World dress



Minnie dress



Tiki room dress



Teacups skirts and cardigans



HTH dress



They also had lots of cute house and luggage stuff here.

[bambikate]

The next shop we went to was the Star Wars shop. Look at the Christmas tees





Cheese!



We had a bit more of a browse in some more shops, spotting Stitches and filling out our treasure hunts and then we thought we’d have look at the Christmas Tree Trail! I bet this is lovely at night with the fake snow blowing and Christmas music on















After the trail we walked over to Basin, another treasure hunt location and also where we wanted to pick up some nice bath bombs to take home!





This soap smelled incredible! It reminded me of the Poly, I wish I’d bought it





Filling up that gift hunt book!



Next was Amorettes - incredible little cakes here, we must try them one day, really beautiful! I saw they did private cake classes where you get to decorate your own Mickey cake to take home but it was aimed at adults and only older children could join in







Somehow, we managed to visit all the shops and find all the Stitches and the location to collect your prize that was closest to us was D-Luxe Burger, randomly! We went in and the staff looked puzzled.

One of them got her manager who realised that it was the badges that had arrived that morning that were the prizes. She brought us four despite us only having two completed books because we were the first ones to complete it! She never actually checked our book to see if we did complete it or not (we did)



We were hoping to give D-Luxe Burger another try for lunch but as well as the queue being quite big, time was getting on and we didn’t want to be running late for our Magical Express later on so we decided to have lunch back at the hotel instead.

We walked to the bus stop and waited….and waited…. ugh! 45 minutes later a bus finally showed up. We probably would have had time for D-Luxe after all! :angry:



We arrived back at the hotel and went straight to Roarin’ Fork. We had eaten here lots of times for breakfast but never for lunch!

We were hankering for a burger and were yet to try what Roarin’ Fork had to offer in the way of burgers…

No credits left! That’s all folks!



We had a Brisket Burger - Tillamook Cheddar Cheese, Cranberry Barbecue Sauce, Cast Iron Onions, and Apple Frisée on a Sweet Brioche Bun, it was served with potato barrels.

Cute hidden Mickey



The girls had nuggets and potato barrels



The food was really tasty and fresh. Roarin’ Fork had been fantastic all holiday.

[bambikate]

After lunch we didn’t have long before the Magical Express would be picking us up so we found some comfy chairs in the lobby and asked for our bags back from Bell Services so we could re-pack some of our purchases from today then we snacked on our strawberries we’d bought from Candy Cauldron earlier



It was nearly time for the ME to pick us up so we went outside to wait at the bus stop



It arrived a few minutes late and we were the only family getting on from WL and the last family to be collected so we would be going straight to the airport from here.



It was a good journey, nice and quick, no traffic and there was a good varied amount on the TV on the way.

*Now this is where it all went wrong, unfortunately. What happened next was really horrible and I will try and recollect exactly what happened but as it all happened so suddenly and was so scary I might not recall everything exactly or I might ramble but will do my best There are also minimal pictures for the rest of this day so y'all picture junkies might find this boring*

We pulled up at the airport and we exited the bus. We were stood at the side of the bus while our driver unloaded the bags, ours were almost the last ones to come off. We were waiting for the last of our bags when all of a sudden a huge sea of people started screaming and running in one direction, right past us. My heart started pounding, people started shouting “Get Down!” “Run!” “There’s a shooter!” “Oh my God!” I had prickles all over my body.

At the same time, our driver was lifting out our last case and said “What’s happening” I said “someone said there’s a shooter!” He said “Oh my God!” gave me the bag and ran into the bus and drove off!

My immediate thought was that I was going to start hearing gunshots or seeing people being shot to the ground right in front of us.

We had 8 bags - 4 hold bags and 4 cabin bags. We dropped everything and I grabbed Izzy and Andy grabbed Imogen as that’s who we were physically closest to.

I remember running with Izzy huddling over her thinking I was going to hear a gunshot any moment as we joined the people running away from the terminal and we left all of our belongings on the pavement, being knocked by other people running past. I just wanted to keep the girls safe, I felt so helpless and petrified.

Izzy was crying and kept saying “Mummy what’s happening? I’m frightened!” “Mummy, why have we left all our stuff? What’s happening?” She had red blotches all over her face.

We managed to find somewhere to hide with other people. I was trying to reassure Izzy but at the same time I was terrified and kept looking around for somewhere else to run or hide if the shooter found us.

People were jumping in taxis and driving off and lots of police cars and ambulances turned up.

Imogen’s reaction was completely different to Izzy’s. She just kept saying “Is this a test?” “Is this a practice? Like a fire drill?” I just said yes and was trying to comfort them both but in different ways.

A boy next to me was hysterical and his mum was trying to comfort him. I was desperately trying to connect to the wifi to see if there was anything on Twitter that would tell me what was happening.

I saw that Orando Police had tweeted that it was a false alarm and there was no shooter. Thank God! I told the girls and Andy that it looked like it was a false alarm and I showed the Mum of the boy my phone to reassure them it was a false alarm. She thanked me but he was still really upset, they’d only just arrived for their holiday and he had been terrified of the thought of terror attacks before going. Not a great start to their holiday

Then, a TSA agent from across the road shouted “Who’s bags are these?” “Somebody needs to move these bags NOW!” It was our bags she was talking about.

Somehow, ours were the only bags left behind after the bus, I didn’t even think about getting them in that moment we thought our life was in danger.


Andy volunteered to get them all, I couldn’t leave the girls but I didn’t want him to leave, I was still worried we were in danger. He went and got two bags at a time and the TSA agent said “You need to move these bags NOW!” whilst he was moving them! He shouted “What do you think I’m doing? I can’t carry all 8 at once! ”

Luckily one of the other agents heard them and grabbed the other bags and helped Andy bring them over to us.

As he was getting the bags, a police officer came up to speak to some of the crowd, I couldn’t hear him as I was too far back so I asked him what happened and he said “Somebody’s battery exploded and everyone got spooked. There is no shooter. We are in the process of allowing people back in to the airport”

I felt better after hearing the official confirmation but still felt very on edge and shaken up and I had a very upset little girl on my hands. Imogen is totally different to Izzy and was trying to be super brave but instead started taking the Mickey out of Izzy for crying. This really isn’t the time, Imogen!

I must have accidentally taken this while searching for news of what happened



I can honestly say we’ve never been so scared in all our lives. I know it ended up being a false alarm and it could have been much much worse but in that moment it was real to us and it honestly took a number of weeks before we felt normal again. It was very traumatising and I had some horrible dreams and worries in the weeks afterwards.

We were given the all clear to go back in. Obviously as people kept arriving as normal there were now thousands of people needing to go into the airport at once. I said to Andy “we need to get these bags checked in as soon as possible, the queues are going to be awful if the airport was evacuated!" Andy agreed and we walked as fast as we could to the check in desk.

There was no line at the check in desk, I think we were one of the first Virgin passengers to get through after the airport was evacuated. We dropped our bags off. One of the bags was actually 0.4kg over the limit but luckily the man serving us was feeling kind and I think they must have a small contingency. I realised my hands were still shaking when I handed over our passports for checking.

We grabbed our hand luggage and started fast walking to security, trying to get the girls to keep up as they didn’t quite get the urgency. Our hearts sank when we walked through. I have never seen such a huge queue for security in my whole life. There were thousands of people in front of us already.

Of course everyone who didn’t have checked luggage or had already done bag drop had gone straight to security. You could tell immediately the queue would take HOURS. We kept walking and walking until we found the end of the line. It was by Body Shop by the time we joined.

The queue was not moving and as more people arrived it got longer and longer. Every time people came in they kept saying “Oh my God! “This isn’t normal” they obviously hadn’t heard the news and were just arriving for their flight as normal. The queue went so far back I couldn't see the end of the line. It was just crazy and we still hadn’t moved. We were talking to the other people behind us and in front of us in the queue, recalling our events of what happened and discussing where we were trying to get to.

At this point we found out the reason why we weren’t moving is that they still hadn’t opened security up again. So they let everyone back in but we later found out all flights were grounded and the security remained closed for another two hours.

One pic I took of the queue - it really didn’t show how big the queue really was!



A video courtesy of someone else stuck in the chaos on youtube



And some news story pics showing some more of the queues



EDIT: Just realised we are in this picture from the news! 10 points to whoever can spot us



None of the boards were updating, everything said on time, the MCO app and the Virgin website both said our flight would be leaving ON TIME despite the fact that it was now past the time we were supposed to already be in the air!

No one was telling anyone what was happening, there was no communication, no tannoys, no texts or announcements. It was chaotic and confusing.

An American lady walked past me to try and find the end of the queue she asked me if something had happened and I told her. She said “Oh my God, there’s no way all these flights are leaving tonight, I’m getting a hotel!” and left! I wish I had done the same…

Some MCO staff handed out some colouring to the kids in the queues (no crayons though!)

People were tweeting angry tweets to the airport and the airlines asking for updates.

As the evening went on we heard pieces of the story from various sources - passengers, staff, crew that ended up being ratified when the news came out later.

Basically what had happened is that a lithium battery exploded in someones bag when going through security and started smoking. People started panicking thinking it was a bomb and then panic and chaos ensued and stanchions were knocked over, sounding like gunshots, bags abandoned and people ran through security airside to “safety”. People further away heard the panic and the noises and assumed it was a shooter and then started telling other people that hence the mass panic and confusion.

Here’s a News Story that explains it better than I could

wftv/news/local/explo...-say/645230506

I messaged Stace as I knew her flight had been earlier than mine to see if she had been affected by it all as I was hoping she might have escaped it being airside already but then she told me that they were being sent back to go through security again!

We hadn’t moved for two whole hours, security was still closed and now they were going to rescreen all the passengers who were already airside? How? Were they going to be sent to the back of the non-moving queue? Were they going to be allowed to cut in? Would fights start breaking out? People were losing patience and some people were riling up the crowd, one saying “The TSA just told me there is no queue, it’s basically a free for all!”

No one had come round with water, the food courts all had 20 minute+ lines. The family in front of us gave us a tip to try Cinnabon to get water as everyone was going to McDonalds and Chick-Fil-A no one had thought to go to Cinnabon. Andy left to get drinks and returned about ten minutes later with a cinnamon roll and some water. I really didn’t feel like eating, my heart was still pounding, I was hot and sweaty and I kept thinking how dangerous it was with tens of thousands of people stood around an airport before security. I felt like we were sitting ducks and felt really on edge.

We knew it was bad when we saw news crews with big cameras and reporters interviewing the crowd. There was literally thousands and thousands of people stuck there not moving.

Suddenly we heard a cheer, they had opened security! It moved so slowly but at least it was moving. We saw some Virgin reps holding cards with flight numbers on it, we tried to see which flight they were calling through but it was for Glasgow.

After about ten minutes we saw another Virgin rep with a card. We wanted to go over to ask her but didn’t want to lose our place, a nice Amercian lady said “you guys go, I’ll hold your spot” Andy went up to her and asked her which flight she was calling through, she said VS16 (our flight!) but told us to keep it quiet, I guess she didn’t want chaos but I didn’t really get the logic as surely they wanted to get as many people through as possible.

The lady holding our spot was really pleased for us and wished us a safe journey. We felt very grateful that Virgin had fast tracked us through.

Before we followed the Virgin rep we told a couple who were a few ahead of us in the queue otherwise they wouldn't have known! They were very grateful.

We went through a separate security check point, they were rushing us through, “Shoes on, electronic devices can stay in bags!” we complied and were through security, it was a huge sense of relief, maybe we would be going home tonight after all!

We walked down to our gate, we were starving hungry and exhausted. We got there and waited and waited…

Here we met a lovely family from Yorkshire (I think!) I hope they are Dibbers! Please say Hi if it was you! We sat with them and talked about what had happened earlier.

As time went on and I’d heard that Stace had safely got on her flight, I started to doubt we would be leaving this evening.

A woman with a baby was ‘effing and blinding like mad she was completely losing it, we were all tired and fed up but she was acting like she was the only one affected by it. Her husband told her to calm down and to stop swearing because there were kids around. This just made her worse and she started shouting even more.

We were told they were hoping to board in 20 minutes. A few minutes later another virgin rep came round with refreshment vouchers for everyone. The only trouble was, Burger King was now closed and the only place we could spend them was a sit down restaurant (we were meant to be leaving shortly) or the newsagent and guess how many people were queuing up for the one place that accepted these vouchers? There was no point queuing so we just left the vouchers.

I let the girls eat their treats from Candy Cauldron as they were starving and they had a play with some Snapchat filters.





The lovely Yorkshire family had joined the queue for the newsagent as soon as the vouchers were given out and had bought the girls some Limonita which was so nice of them.

A little while later after the 20 minutes promised had been and gone, a number of Virgin reps all in red started huddling together having a meeting, I just knew they were figuring out how to tell us bad news.

Before they got a chance to a woman shouted "they lied to us! Our flight has been cancelled, I just got a text! They haven't got the balls to tell us!"

With that, a text came through on my phone too and the poor Virgin rep selected to deliver the news to us over the tannoy told us our flight had had in fact been cancelled. People were shouting and the angry mother from earlier was screaming “You B*%$ds!”

The virgin rep then told the hundreds of people waiting to please go back to the ticketing desk to arrange a new flight and overnight accommodation.

I felt like crying. All of that emotion from the scare earlier, waiting hours and hours, a glimmer of hope that we might actually go home and then it snatched away at the final hour. I was so angry at the shambolic way it was all handled.

This was reminiscent of when they lost our bags in 2013 and they told everyone to file a lost bag claim at the same time. Anyone with tired kids and bags who couldn't move as fast as the others stood no chance and by the time we walked all the way over we were one of the last ones to join the queue, which was now hundreds of people long.

Izzy and Imogen were so tired and understandably grumpy. My Mum had sent lots of funny whatsapps to try and cheer us up but we really weren't in the mood bless her.

Izzy said she really wanted to go home and missed Grandma and was getting very upset.

I gave her my phone and let her face time with my headphones in and let her leave the queue where I could see her so she could chat to Grandma.

She came back feeling a bit better and then one of the Virgin reps handed out a piece of paper without explanation and then said that only one member of each party need wait in line in an attempt to shorten the queue. Andy volunteered and kept one bag and I took the girls and the other three bags and sat down on the floor.

Other people were buying McDonalds with their refreshment vouchers but I couldn’t manage the bags and the kids and bringing food back so we left it. I read the info she handed out and where it said that Orlando hotels were very busy I thought we had to arrange our own accommodation so I phoned Disney to arrange it then I see Andy waving at me so I hang up. I go over and ask him what’s up. He said that Virgin were arranging hotels for everyone as the virgin rep had later explained to ignore that part of the letter!



Another nice family saw I was stranded with the kids and bags and brought back some water for us. Awww - thank you if that was you!

Over another hour had passed and Andy still hadn’t got the front of the line. We were all so so hungry I volunteerd to go McDonalds with the kids. I dropped a bag off with Andy and took the girls and two bags to McDonalds. The queue was still really big.

By the time I got to the front I went to pay with the vouchers and realised I would be going just over the price of one voucher so would have to use two and waste nearly $20 as he couldn't give chnage. I didn’t really care at this point so I just said that’s fine. I could barely carry everything keep an eye on girls and our bags but we just about made it back to the queue.

Then I saw Andy walking towards me with an urgent look on his face after spending the last two hours in the queue.

“Come on!” he said “They’ve got us a hotel, the bus is waiting for us right now we’ve got to go!”

We started jogging, Andy took some of the food off me. We got outside and checked in to the virgin rep waiting at the bus and we got on and sat down and the bus started driving away.

I didn’t even know where we were going! I opened the food and gave it to the girls to eat on the bus and I chatted to Andy to hear where we were staying and when we would be flying home. He said that they were dropping off some people at Gaylord Palms and then we were going to be staying at Caribe Royale and that our flight would be leaving tomorrow and a coach would pick us up at a set time.

It took a while to get back, I managed to eat my burger en route, the chips had got soggy so I left them. Andy managed his coffee even though I forgot milk so he had to have it black. He didn’t feel like his burger.

We pulled up at our resort after dropping the other guests at Gaylord Palms. The girls were fast asleep and it took a while to wake them, by which time we were the last ones off the bus and therefore right at the back of another long line

Andy joined the queue and told me and the girls to go and rest. The girls sat on chairs in the lobby and were asleep again within minutes, it was now about 2:30am.





I tried to get on the Wifi to text my Mum but you had to be a guest, which we weren’t yet.

The queue took forever, at one point someone in the line said they'd ran out of rooms and I was about to lose my s%$£ but luckily they were wrong.

Loads of young guests started turning up really late in 90s kind of rave clothes, leg warmers and neon gloves etc, they looked like they’d had a blast! There were scores of them!

We saw the lovely Yorkshire family again, they had been given a Villa at Caribe Royale and we said goodbye and see them tomorrow.

Andy finally got served and we were given a Villa too. I didn’t know what they meant by that but it was basically one of the two bedroom villas with a kitchen, lounge, dining room and balcony and the only way to get there was to wait for the golf cart to give us a lift as we didn’t have a car.

I woke Imogen and Izzy up and Imogen was so exhausted she could hardly stand up straight and kept falling over, I offered to carry her but she got really angry as she just wanted sleep, I felt awful but the guy was waiting for us to give us a lift. I persuaded her to come with us and we got in the cart. I thought we were going to fall out, he was driving like crazy!

We eventually got to our room at 3am - a whole 9 HOURS after we first arrived at MCO and about 21 hours after we got up.

The room looked beautiful and huge but I had no time to look around, we just chucked the kids into bed, they could hardly stand. Andy finally had his burger, he basically inhaled it then we had to get some sleep too. I still felt really shaken up from earlier and I didn’t want to be apart from the girls (I know seems silly as it’s only a room away) but we decided to all stay in the same room. It was a Superking size bed so I just slept in between the girls in the middle of the bed and Andy offered to sleep across the bottom of the bed - like a dog! (bless him)

It took a while for us to get to sleep as our minds were so awake but we finally got to sleep at around 4am after being awake for about 22 hours.

If you've made it this far - congratulations and thanks for staying with me! It's a bit of an emotional rollercoaster and it wasn't very nice writing about this horrible day. It was all a bit of a blur so sorry if I have rambled on. I would have much rather been writing about the perfect travel day home but thought I'd better document it exactly how it happened!

Tomorrow: Finally going home (I promise, it's not such a turbulent read!)

[Minnie Mum]

Oh my goodness kate. What a awful end to your holiday 😞
That must if been so scary and then compounded by how badly the security and flight being cancelled was handled.
You poor things. My heart goes out to you having to deal with that with your girls.

[Mamie Baldwin]

Oh my word, my heart goes out to you all, how traumatic. I can’t begin to imagine how you must have been feeling.

[clochette]

What an awful experience! I think you have written about it really well - it must have been hard to write it down.
I'm glad you made it home eventually.

[Twin mummy]

Oh my goodness, my heart was in my mouth reading that so goodness knows how you must have felt living through it.

[kat90]

We were in Orlando when this happened, I remember seeing it on the news. It must of be awful to have been caught up in it but I’m glad everything turned out ok in the end.

I hope it didn’t ruin the Disney magic for you and your girls!

[Excited83]

Oh my goodness, I feel sick just reading this. I can't believe you had to go through all that - and didn't even manage to get home at the end! You poor things. I hope it didn't ruin your holiday memories too much. Xx