“And so, our journey comes to an end. But yours continues on. Grab ahold of your dreams and make them come true. For you are the key to unlocking your own magic. Now go. Let your dreams guide you. Reach out and find your Happily Ever After.”
So we totally overslept this morning. Whoops! We woke up at 7:23AM as we completely forgot to set an alarm. Typically the hotel calls you when they call the taxi to make sure you’re ready for the taxi, but of all days they did not call, it was today. Our taxi was supposed to be here at 7:30AM and we had 7 minutes to pack and get ready. We’re not really worried about missing our flight as it isn’t till 10:00AM so we have ample time even if we miss our taxi, but would prefer not to miss our taxi.
We wake Lucy up, quickly pack and get downstairs by 7:38AM but our taxi has already left so we end up calling an Uber. While we could wait till the next hotel shuttle, Uber would be faster and we will be reimbursed by insurance at this point due to our travel delay.
At about 8:00AM we get to the airport and head through security. We use the TSA precheck line which is notably shorter this time than the regular line. We get to the TSA agent and for some reason Lucy’s boarding pass won’t scan. It’s likely having something to do with them reissuing the boarding pass after our flight was delayed till today. Mine and Kendall’s passes are linked to our ID so we have no issues, but Lucy has no ID to scan and she has to rely on her boarding pass.
Despite everything that has happened this vacation, I have no anxiety regarding this as I just find it hard to believe they would deny a child with a valid boarding pass the ability to travel with her parents within the United States. They just need to get their act together and figure out how to get it to scan or just allow her through security.
The TSA agents have a quick discussion amongst themselves about letting Lucy through. Eventually, they talk about her needing a physical ticket, but one of the other agents states that likely won’t scan either. They reference a list of delayed flights from yesterday and ours is on it, they then look closely at her digital boarding pass and then they just let her through.
We go through security right near Terminal A, which is right by The Club at CLT, which is a lounge we have access to via our Capital One Venture X or Amex Business Platinum. It’s one of the nicer lounges from The Club.
It’s not as nice as The Club in San Francisco but it’s definitely better than the Atlanta or Cincinatti ones that we frequent.
There isn’t a huge variety of food but it is enough to keep us from having to buy breakfast and drinks at the airport. Along with the continental breakfast options of fruit and cereal, they do have a warm food station where you can order some eggs and grits.
About 30 min till boarding we head to the gate as we are at the opposite end of the airport at Terminal E and it’s about a 20 minute walk. We get to the gate early and wait for our boarding number to be called. Today we don’t really have any benefits on the flight except we get a slightly earlier boarding number as I am an American Airline business card holder.
Today for our 11th and final flight of the trip we are flying on an Embraer 145, which is a smaller regional jet. We have seats 7A,7B, and 7C.
For the AV geeks out there, we have been on a total of 8 different aircraft this trip which has included an A319, A320, A321-neo, A330-900neo, A350-900, 787-8, Embraer 175, and an Embraer 145. Interesting fact is the A350-900 was our most flown plane this vacation with 3 flights. Two more fun facts. One is that we only flew on a Boeing plane just once the whole vacation, a 787-8. The second, almost just as shocking is that we didn’t board a 777 at any point as those are traditionally the backbone of any international long haul fleet.
Take off was 30 minutes late, but it’s a short 40 minute flight so we will still be on time. As we approach our area we see it covered in snow.
This was our biggest snow in several years with 12 inches over the last 48 hours. We touchdown on time despite the delay.
It definitely looks a little different than when we left on Day 1.
We then wait in the freezing cold for them to unload our gate checked bags as on these smaller regional jets there just isn’t space in the overhead bin for a full size carryon so every single carryon must be gate checked.
Thankfully, today the taxi’s are running as the roads have cleared some. I called while we waited in the lounge in Charlotte to arrange for a taxi pick up. Unfortunately, it was not here yet, and we wait, and we wait some more. While waiting we see a friend that lives in our neighborhood and she offers us a ride as we had been waiting 40 minutes at this point. Ironically, right as her brother arrives to pick her up our cab arrives. There is only one taxi company in the area, so you don’t want to burn that bridge in the rare event you need a taxi, so we go ahead and take it rather than take the free ride home.
The main roads are in decent condition, and we arrive at our home blanketed in snow a short 25 minutes later and our around the world journey comes to an end right where we started, 337,543 steps later. Home sweet home.
Thanks for following along on this once in a lifetime adventure. It’s hard to believe after all that we are right back where we started, albeit with a whole lot more memories. I can only hope that this can help others to plan their dream Disney trip, and help them avoid some of the pitfalls that we fell into. Please don’t hesitate to contact us with any questions.
It’s not goodbye. It’s see ya real soon!
“The end of a journey means the start of another one.”
Day 21, January 7th, 2025 Step Count – 9,364 Steps
Total Step Count – 337,543
Continue on to the final stats and FAQ here.
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The Small World Family 
thank you, thank you for sharing your trip! I enjoyed it very much Held my breath when you had “challenges”
what a wonderful trip and glad you are home safely
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