I Really DIDN'T Want to Go to Disneyland

Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Paris, Île-de-France, France
When we got to the airport in Casablanca, I was a little concerned about getting home, since I knew that there was a general strike in France and that some air traffic controllers were part5icipating. But, Air France's website said that although they were cancelling some domestic and short hop European flights, that they were commited to flying the international ones. When we checked in, everything seemed to be on schedule, but after we were inthe gate area, suddenly the departure time for our flight to Paris had been pushed back an hour. That still gave us enough time to make the connection. Then, it was pushed back another hour, and I knew that we would be cutting in close. Finally in the airl, and everything seemed to be going smoothly. Just before we landed in Paris, there was an announcement that passengers on the Washington and New York flights should check with a gate agent after deplaning.   Locating the gate agent and waiting to talk to him wasted more than 5 minutes, and the advice "Run for it" didn't make me feel better. First we had to travel the entire length of the terminal, go down an escalator, wait almost minutes for the next shuttle bus, travel by bus for about 5 long minutes, enter the terminal, go through security, go up the escalator, and travel the entire length of the terminal. The plane was still at the gate--but they had just closed the doors, leaving 6 very unhappy passengers behind.

We were all led to the customer service desk where we joined a number of other people who had missed their flights . It took almost an hour to get us rebooked on a flight the next morning, and issued vouchers for a hotel room, dinner and breakfast.  All of the hotel rooms near the airport were full, so we were given seats on a 6 pm bus going to Disneyworld where we would be staying at The Sequoia Lodge. The instructions for leaving the airport to board the bus were a little confusing and after several wrong turns we finally reached the immigration sttation and started our search for the bus. Fortunately we found the bus with only 10 minutes to spare and joined a large crowd of very cheerful people who seemed to enjoying their holiday.  

For most of the hour long ride I sat silently steaming and scowling at the other passengers. Finally, I began talking to the man across the aisle and learned that they were a troupe of performers from Berlin, on their way to a festival in Mexico, and that they had also missed their connection. I'm not sure whether they were naturally cheerful or the fact that they had just begun their journey contributed to their good spirits, but it helped improve my mood, and by the time we arrived at the hotel, I was feeling better . The hotel looked like it should be in Northern California, and all of the employees were wearing California Park Ranger uniforms.  Checkin was easy and we were soon had dinner reservations and were settled into our room. I'd like to say that we had a wonderful time at Disneyland Paris, but all we saw was our hotel. We did have a wonderful dinner and a good night's sleep before catching an 8am bus back to the airport.

Finding our way back to the proper terminal and going through security seemed much easier after a good night's sleep and a hot shower. The morning flight departed on time, and we were happy to discover that our new seats were in the Economy Plus area, which meant a few extra inches of leg room. The remainder of our trip home was without incident and although I would have preferred not detouring to Disneyland, I can add one final "adventure" to this trip.

 
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