The trek home

Flying standby has its positives - OK, only one positive, it is free (for us, at least).  The negative.. you have to be patient and flexible.

We took the Magical Express back to the airport and arrived in plenty of time to get ourselves on the standby list.  Unfortunately, the already tight flights were now more than over booked.  There had been some cancelled or delayed flights in some other state (I think it was NY) which caused some passengers, who were booked on earlier flights, to be put on the standby list for our flight.  As there were many passengers needing a ride home and few seats to give them, our chances of getting out of Orlando were looking slim.  The rule is that paying customers get on before us freebies.

My husband looked at all of the possible flights and declared that we would be lucky to get home by Tuesday.  Since he had to work Monday and I had to work Tuesday, things were looking grim.

My husband found us flights out the next morning... from Tampa.  we rented a car ($50) and drove to Tampa.  We got a hotel room ($70) and spent the night.  We got to the airport early Sunday morning and  easily caught a flight home from there.   Funny thing, we ran into a couple of other passenger (paying customers) who had the same idea.  We saw them in Orlando and then on our flight from Tampa.

So for all of my money saving, penny pinching habits, this trip actually saw us go over budget by quite a bit.  But, in the big picture, it doesn't really matter, we will make it up on other trips and the kids had their usual great time.

Now, don't hold me to this but I think we are done with Disney for a little while.  It is too hot, crowded and expensive for me in the summer.  We don't plan on heading back until Fall.