Day #1: Let me start out with leaving the house to head to the hotel in the cities. Three people met us at our house to ride share with us in our 7 passenger vehicle. We stopped to eat subway and back on our way to get there and sleep before the flight at 6 am. We left around 1.5 hours after the other vehicle with the other 5 people in it due to our groups work schedules. We made it to the hotel around 9:30 PM and were about 15-30 minutes ahead of the other vehicle. We all checked in and were to meet at 4:10 am in the lobby to head out to the park and ride. We were running a little late from the hotel leaving around 4:25 am instead but still reasonable time so no worries.
We finally pull into the park and ride, they were over booked and had to have had reservations and we did not. Okay so over to the park and fly we go, same thing. Okay, to the parking ramp at the air port it is! Thankfully that will never leave you stranded.
We get there and the first car uses the card to get in and brings it back to us to use. It won't work. Why is it saying take ticket if it won't accept the card? The car before us didn't take their ticket so I push the button and get the ticket. The arm went up again and we had to drive through... WE had no ticket yet. CRAP. So let's walk back and just pay that way. Seems like a good plan right? WRONG! Oh so wrong. We hear and WHAP that echos through the vehicle and several gasps, first thing through everyone's mind is that the arm hit my vehicle. We look back and one guy is on the ground, my car is fine. At this point we are wishing it HAD hit the car. With a line of cars backed up behind us now, we got him in the car and we just went and parked. Thankfully it hit the bridge of his nose and not his head with the speed it hit him at.
After parking, things go smoother while we make sure everything is okay after the hit of the traffic arm. We board the first plane and two of the people are missing, they were right there in line with us when we were boarding how could this be? Finally they get on the plane! One of them had misplaced their boarding pass and needed to find it. After landing in Chicago, we had time to eat and then relax before the next flight. That one went much smoother aside from the REALLY bumpy landing and the women all feeling very nauseous for a while after but none the less we were in Florida and on the ground all together.
The ride to the resort was not the best on our stomachs but it was a heck of a lot better than that flight!
At the resort we got changed and freshened up and headed across the street to the mall which had a Publix in it, somewhere many of us had never been. We got dinner between Subway, Chinese and Publix and headed back to the resort for some R&R before hitting the hot tub that night and then bed.