Julie Ortega - September 2005

Cast of Characters: Me: Julie (32) Maritza (23 Dear Cousin) Jasmine (4 My Dear Goddaughter, Maritza's daughter) and Stephanie (6 My Dear Niece)
Day 4 & 5 - September 20th and 21st, 2005

Since we were so tired from the day before, we didn't want to wake up early, so our plan would start as soon as everyone woke up. However, my cell phone rang around 8:30 a.m. and it was my aunt (Maritza's mom) who lives in Freeport TX like 40 minutes from Houston and very near to Galveston, asking us what we were going to do because Hurricane Rita was coming over TX. Hurricane? What Hurricane I asked! Well Maritza woke up, turned on the Weather Channel and there it was a big Hurricane headed towards their home and everyone in their area had mandatory evacuation at Wednesday afternoon.

Well, we had a late flight from MCO to Houston for Wednesday night so we called Continental and see if they had any news about changing flights. Nop, no news so far, we should be calling on the night or very early tomorrow to find out. Meanwhile the girls were happy playing on the room with their Bell dolls we purchased the night before. Can you imagine? They were on Disney and were happy just to be playing on the room! But Maritza was really worried. Her husband was working in LA so she was in charge of their house and their belongings. I was also worried because Stephanie's parents wanted to know what we were going to do! They were already packing their stuff back in Freeport to evacuate the following day.

So I told Maritza "there is nothing we can do here, let's go to the parks and later tonight we will find out if Continental will change our tickets". So we did and went to Epcot because the girls wanted to do Soarin again and also because we haven't seen Jasmine and Aladdin and it was a big deal considering that my little goddaughter is named Jasmine. So we went to Test Track 2 times in a row, got FS for Soarin, did Figment and headed to the countries to get autographs. Well we didn't find anyone in France, not in Morocco but did see Snow White at Germany and took some pictures. But let me tell you that by that time, my aunt had called Martiza like 3 times asking us to return as soon as possible, Maritza's husband called another 2 times just to see how we were doing, her mother in law and sister in law called several times too and I could see that Maritza was really worried. So our plans were to have a quick lunch in China, use our FS and go back to the hotel to find out about our tickets.

In China we saw Mushu and Mulan and the girls talked to them a lot! We were near Norway and I remembered that we had ADR for breakfast for the next morning, so I asked my cousin if she wanted to stop and try to switch our breakfast for lunch right now because everything looked liked that we were going to have to return home earlier. She agreed and we changed it without problem! So more princess time for my princesses! We saw Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Ariel (MK Ariel's is much prettier), Cinderella and Jasmine! When my Jasmine saw that Princess Jasmine was headed our way, she literally stared to eat her nails! And when the princess asked my niece her name she proudly answered "Jasmine, just like you"… that was a great moment! Great food and great experience! By the way, my mom also called us to ask about coming back! By this time both Maritza and I were joking "forget about the Hurricane, who's coming next Ariel or Jasmine!" LOL.

We did Soarin and headed back to the hotel back to the reality. We were under a lot of pressure and decided to change the tickets ourselves in spite that we would have to pay for them. I called my travel agency and the last plane available that night was at 6:30 p.m. It was 5:00 p.m. so there was no way we would be able to make it! Well the next best option was to take the 7:00 a.m. flight next day. But wait 3 of our tickets were purchased with my OnePass mileage program so I couldn't change them! Continental did tell us to go to the airport as standby. We couldn't go standby with 2 kids! Soooo I had to purchase 3 one way tickets, I had to pay $236 for each one way ticket! (I invited the girls everything paid by me, there was no way their parents could afford it). My cousin also paid a difference which was like $200 and something for her.

By the time we finished making all these arrangements and packing it was too late to go to a park so instead we hit the store at All Star Movies, the food court and the Arcade. By the way, we had paid in advance for the double stroller so we had one day left and we gave it to a couple with 2 boys. So we didn't have a chance to be at Animal Kingdom and the girls never got to see Whishes. I guess will have to go back to do that!

Final day: We were supposed to be picked by M.Express at 4:15 a.m.!! And guess what? We didn't wake up at 3:30 a.m. as we were supposed to but at 3:50 a.m.!!! I started to yell Maritza wake up it's so late! We quickly changed into the clothes we put out the night before, changed the girls while they were still at slept and run to the bus stop. The bus was already there, and we made it on time to the airport, had breakfast there and fall at sleep on the plane. Maritza's mother in law was there to pick us up and she drove us back to Freeport. It was so sad watching all the people getting out of Houston with their belongings…When we arrived to Freeport Maritza went to her home to get her car and and clothes for her and Jasmine and I helped my aunt videotaping their home for insurance purposes. By 2:00 p.m. all of us were headed out of Freeport: my aunt and her husband in her truck with some of her belongings, I drove another car my aunt has as to help her carrying more of their clothes, Maritza and Jasmine in their car, and Stephanie's family in another truck. There was lot of traffic but we were able to make it without complications all the way to the border in Rio Grande Texas. My mom was already there waiting for us so we continued driving to Monterrey in Mexico where I live and were all sound and safe. Both Maritza and I were so tired but happy to make it without problems. Fortunately, this Hurricane didn't damage their home town so after 4 days of staying with us their returned to Freeport.

I had a great time with my loving nieces and cousin and Stephanie was such a good girl. She never complained of the sun, the walking, and the early wake ups. I will definitely take them back to WDW with me, but next time I want to go back in December! I have been there in December, August, October and now September and won't go back on the spring or summer months ever again. I couldn't stand the heat this time.

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