From Tennessee To Texas to Saudi Arabia

The trip to France would be a busy one. We had Disney, the Loire Valley, Normandy and Paris on the agenda. And we had someone from the States joining us, my Mom!

We decided to fly out of Jeddah thanks to a great airfare from Qatar Airways. This meant a 3 hour drive tacked on to each end of our trip. Luckily, Arabian Homes manages compounds throughout Saudi, so we have the option of visiting the Jeddah compound while there. One benefit of this arrangement is the ability to leave our vehicle parked there and taking their shuttle to the airport.

We left as soon as I got home, with the intent to get to Jeddah with time to spare. The Red Sea Mall was the primary destination to kill a few hours. It did not disappoint. The girls did some shopping while Cade and I walked around looking for new KDs, with no success. We also hit the grocery store and picked up a few essentials (Cadbury Creme Eggs, etc). We left the mall around midnight and headed to Arabian Homes. The shuttle was scheduled to meet us there at 1 a.m. We were directed to the location we would leave our Fortuner and waited for a call from the driver.

The driver was a few minutes early and helped us load up. He was a short Bangladeshi who has been living in Saudi for 30 years. His English was fairly good and we talked about changes he’s seen in Jeddah over that time. We’d been told he has the flight information all but memorized, and when I told him our arrival time and date, he correctly told me the flight number and said he would be there to pick us up.

The Jeddah airport is a mess. The amount of traffic though that airport has increased much faster than the expansion efforts to keep up. There is currently construction on an Umrah/Hajj terminal. Much of the traffic is composed of pilgrims. Many have never flown before and this causes slow progress through ticketing, security and boarding. This has taught us the purest form of patience. There is no stressed out hustle and bustle. The worst crowding is only a result of the Hajjis making sure they don’t get separated from their group. They are at peace, on the most important trips of their lives, and it has a calming effect on an otherwise calamitous departure.

We hit Doha for a long layover and tried to make an earlier flight. It was boarding as we made our way to the gate agent. She said it’s a full flight, so our slim hope of an earlier arrival is snuffed and we headed to the lounge. We all ate, drank, showered and slept until our next flight leaves.

We arrived in Paris and began the long trek to the Disney Shuttle. We got there only to find that the last shuttle ran at 7:45. I screwed the pooch on that bit of planning, so we grabbed a taxi. Mom had arrived earlier that day. She visited the park, got some sleep and then anxiously awaited the arrival of the grandkids.

She was waiting as we pulled up to the Cheyenne. The taxi driver had to wait a bit until our hugs were all in. We collected our bags and went to check in. After getting settled in, we took care of immediate needs (chocolate covered cruellers, whatchamacallits, Disney shirts, etc) and visited for a bit. We were all very travel weary and looking at a busy week, so sleep came quickly.

• French bathroom story #1: I expected Disneyland to be the most Americanized place in France. One thing that trumps all others is the open bathroom situation. Current bathroom debates in America notwithstanding, the bathroom culture in France is very open. I made my way into the public restroom at the hotel, following the dual male/female signs. I entered a door and saw a lady at the sink washing up. Thinking I missed a turn, I backpedaled and looked for the gents sign. Nope, right room. I walked back in and noticed batwing doors to the right with the gents sign, while on the left were stalls with the ladies/family sign. I pushed through the batwings into the small men’s urinal area and tried to avoid eye contact with everyone passing by outside.

We had the Magic Hours at the Magic Kingdom that morning. We ate breakfast at the Cheyenne with our luggage. The left luggage desk didn’t open until 7:30. Luckily the dining room was fairly empty at 7:00. We picked out a table in the corner and crammed our bags together. We finished breakfast, dropped our luggage off, and headed for the shuttle to the park.

The early hour, cooler temperatures and slight drizzle meant we had the park to ourselves for the first 2 hours. We headed for Space Mountain: Mission 2 first thing. There was no line. It didn’t take long to realize this wasn’t your momma’s Disneyland Space Mountain. We were shot uphill and soon went into our first inversion. Mom’s water bottle was lost soon after launch, but it was safely held in place by Greene’s feet. The kids had a blast and had to ride again. Greene and Mom had to go find a bathroom.

We went to the Buzz Lightyear ride, again with no line. We climbed on and as soon as the bar had come down, the ride stopped. We spent 15 minutes waiting to be let off and were given FastPasses for anytime later that day.

We made our way towards Fantasyland and waited for the other sections of the park to open. Our goal was to hit the popular rides first to beat the crowds. As it turned out, crowds were light the entire morning and we rode every ride that was open without waiting more than 15 minutes. We hit Pirates of the Caribbean, Indiana Jones and the Haunted Mansion right away.

We headed for It’s a Small World and then stopped for pizza. We used our Buzz FastPasses and caught Greene looking down the end of a loaded gun in our ride picture. She claims she was checking to see if it was working. We all agreed to disagree.

We planned on spending the afternoon in the Studios park, so we grabbed some Nutella brioches on the way out and made the short walk from park to park. On the way out, I somehow missed a wet floor sign as I walked by it, but the bag I was carrying did not. I felt the bag give a tug. As I was trying to figure out what was causing it, a sharp rapport rang out and everyone tensed. The sign had fallen over with a loud crack and everyone stopped and stared. I sheepishly picked it up and walked on.

The Studios park was a bit more crowded. We went from ride to ride and had a little longer wait times. The Tower of Terror and Crush’s Coaster were the highlights.

I left to pick up the car rental at the train station just outside the park gates. Greene, Mom and the kids hung around to enjoy the park for a while longer. Greene and the kids stopped to shop for some souvenirs while Mom made a pit stop. She texted that she was outside the park up the hill…I know we’ve been in Saudi for awhile, but Greene didn’t see any hills around. At least nothing a Tennessean would consider a hill. They had a good laugh after finding each other.

I picked up the car and made the short drive back to the luggage pick-up. I immediately regretted not renting a 15 passenger van. We had a Renault Grand Scenic, a smallish 7-passenger vehicle. Only trouble was, we had 6 passengers and about 3 passengers worth of luggage. After 30 minutes of Tetris, I got the biggest bags packed in the back. I spent another hour filling in nooks until I was fairly confident we could get the humans in the car. The others had enjoyed a parade and slowly made their way back to the hotel parking lot.

We packed both rear floorboards with suitcases, gave Macy the back, packed in around her, put Greene in the middle so she would have somewhere to put her feet, the kids folded themselves up into the other seats, Mom put her knees into the glovebox, and everyone grabbed a backpack to hold on their laps. I was the lucky one getting to drive.

We made the 3 hour drive to Chemery to begin our 2-night stay in the Loire Valley. We made one unscheduled stop in a small town close to Chemery to let Greene get some fresh air. Her and Drew are prone to motion sickness, so I was glad she had made it that far with no issues. I watered someone’s flowers, hoping I wouldn’t get shot. While I’m busy, Mom is switching with Greene, who promptly cracks knees and head due to the tight fit, while Mom is laughing under 3 backpacks. We arrived late and our AirBNB host showed up right behind us. He showed us around the house and left his contact information. It was the most beautiful place we had rented through AirBNB and we had fun with the host, whose English was good enough to cause some misunderstandings (danger sounding like dungeons). We crashed.