Disney, day 1: travel day

So, yesterday we packed our stuff and set out for Disney World. It was snowing.
We got to the airport about an hour earlier than I would have if traveling alone—a wise precaution given that we had all three boys. Checkin was uneventful, but then we hit the first of several travel snags: our inbound aircraft from Cincinnati was delayed due to weather. It arrived about 20 minutes late, and we hustled aboard. Then we had two rounds of de-icing, which the boys liked pretty well (we told Matt that they were spraying the plane with orange juice to make it sticky). Bobby Brown, the flight attendant working our flight for ACA, was bar none the friendliest, most cheerful FA I’ve ever had, anywhere. His boss is getting a glowing letter.
Our flight to CVG was bumpy, and we got there just in time to board our connecting flight to Orlando. Borrrrring, smooth flight. The real fun began when we got to Orlando: our luggage wasn’t there. The DL ramp folks in TOL hadn’t loaded it because our aircraft was overweight. I guess they figured bumping luggage for a party of six was better than bumping three sets of two, or something. Anyway, I didn’t find that out because Thomas and I had gone to the Budget car rental counter. Imagine this scene: a 50-foot-long counter with about 15 computer terminals and 17 people in line… manned by two rental agents. When we finally got to the head of the line, the very helpful agent fixed up our reservation and arranged to have an Explorer for us, so I went back to baggage claim to check on our bags. DL promised to have them delivered to the hotel. (They eventually arrived around 11:45pm, festooned with big red “VIP” tags. Evidently “VIP” in Delta’s lexicon means “leave off airplane”). We trooped out to the parking area and boarded the Explorer, which turned out to have a defective airbag. Oops. Back to the rental island, where they instead gave us the minivan that I should have reserved in the first place. (All this way to take an exotic vacation, and what am I driving? A minivan. Sheesh).
We found the hotel easily, unloaded our carry-ons, and walked across the street to Downtown Disney. I have some good pictures of Matt with Buzz Lightyear and the older boys at the Lego store, but they’ll have to wait until everyone else wakes up and I can find the camera. Everybody remained really cheerful and flexible throughout our travails yesterday, which I appreciated greatly.
This morning, our plan is to hit Animal Kingdom early to ride the safari ride, then see Legend of the Lion King and some of the other live shows (because I’m in a hurry now I’m not linking to any of the Disney pages for these; you can find more links here