The best laid plans…
I planned this vacation to the hilt and today really threw a wrench in all my plans. Originally we were due to arrive in Orlando at 330pm. By my calculations we should arrive and check in to our hotel by 5pm and then be on our merry way to Downtown Disney for a meal at Wolfgang Puck Express. But, as I said, the best laid plans…
We left home at 3:15am, 15 minutes before our “scheduled” departure time. The kids were so excited! Brian sang “Hi ho, hi ho” and the kids replied “It’s off to Disneyworld we go”. Tristan kept saying, “This is great!” on the ride over. We made great time to the airport (there’s not much traffic in Portland at 4am. LOL) and got all our luggage out of the van. The kids and I took it into the terminal and Brian drove around the airport waiting for my Mom to arrive. She arrived in good time and she and Jim took off, saving us the hassle and expense of parking at the airport.
When Brian joined me it was not quite 4am and we were waiting in line at the Southwest ticket counter. We waited… and waited. Apparently they don’t open at 4am so we stood there until they finally graced us with their presence at 440am. We got the bags checked and then headed to the gate. Security, as necessary as it is, can be frustrating at times. Lines of people, even before 5am, taking off shoes and coats, scanning their carry-ons, etc. It was just a lot of hassle and a bit stressful, especially with having to worry about the kids while also taking care of ourselves. At one point all 3 kids were through inspection and I was on the other side, waiting again since I forgot to take off my watch. Thankfully they are old enough that I don’t have to worry about them, but I still don’t like them to be that far away while in a place with so many people.
We made it to the gate and bought some over-priced drinks to go with the donuts we’d brought. It wasn’t too long of a wait before our flight started boarding. We got some decent seats together, with Brian and Carissa in one seat and me and the boys in front of them. The flight was full so we knew someone was going to have to sit next to Brian. However we didn’t know we’d be lucky enough to have the one person traveling with a cat sit next to him - and a noisy cat at that. A cat that she thought would fit well right under Brian’s feet! She was a nice enough girl and I know a cat can’t be happy to travel like that, but it meowed and growled the whole way to Denver! Besides that the first leg of the flight was unremarkable.
Once most passengers disembarked in Denver we were able to move seats and get right up in the front of the plane. Those seats were great. No trays but extra leg room and easy to get in and out of, even from the window seat. This would turn out to be a lifesaver!
Pretty quickly the plane filled up yet again with all the travelers joining us from Denver. They boarded and we sat. And sat. And sat. The plane went nowhere. I knew we were already running a little late but didn’t know what was going on. From my seat I could see the Captain on the phone, talking with someone and not very happy from the look on his face. Then he’d wander away and come back to talk on the phone more, still with that unhappy look on his face. Eventually, an hour later, he came on the loudspeaker and explained the problem. There were storms in Florida that we had to be routed around. When someone put in the routing information they put down an incorrect number and our plane had inadvertently been filled with too much fuel. And we couldn’t fly with too much fuel. So now we waited for another truck to come remove the extra fuel – only to find out that this would take at least 30minutes, maybe closer to an hour. Oh yes, and the bathrooms on the plane won’t work while on the ground either. Fun!
They did eventually let us get off to use the restrooms in the airport and get food items if needed, though told us to hurry back. Why we hurried I have no idea, as we sat at the terminal a total of 2 ½ hours before finally pulling away. A quick de-icing and then we were on our way. It was a long 3 ½ hour flight with no food served. We ate some of the snacks we had brought but that doesn’t really make up for the lack of a “real” meal. But we made do. The kids were really patient but this would have been a nightmare if they were young. Here's a cell-phone pic I took to send the grandparents and friends back home (we sent 1 to 2 per day our entire trip).
We arrived in Orlando at 6pm, a full 2 ½ hours later than anticipated. We were lucky enough to get right on a Magical Express bus which took off about 2 minutes after we boarded. The first stop on the route was at our resort, Port Orleans Riverside. Despite the hectic day I could see that things were turning up.
I checked in online so I used the express check-in line at the resort. We got the merchandise credit card that we’d ordered, room keys and directions and were quickly on our way. But what we found was not what we anticipated. We got to our building and looked on the water side of the building for our room. That’s where it should be since I paid for a waterview room. Yet it wasn’t along the front facing the lake. We kept following the building only to find the room in the deepest, darkest inner corner of the building. A quick look out of the tiny window confirmed what I knew – there was no water to be seen. I called the front desk, who informed me that I was NOT booked for a waterview room but that if I had “proof” of it I should bring it to the front desk. So we picked up all the bags again, the ones we had been lugging around all day and were sooooo tired of carrying, and made our way back to the main building. I showed them my confirmation for a waterview room and they did some typing on the computer. They came back and said that they were out of waterview rooms and were full so couldn’t move me but that eventually I would receive a credit for the $225 cost of the waterview. I was not happy. Not happy at all. I remained calm and nicely inquired about what else could be done because I did not want to be stuck in a dark corner of the resort for 8 days. The cast member who helped me said that he really couldn’t do anything about it. I said that it really wasn’t acceptable to me and he suggested I talk to his manager.
I talked to Debbie, the manager, who listened to my story. I told her how I expressly booked a waterview room and wanted the view so the room didn’t feel so dark and small. I asked whether we might be able to change rooms, even if it were tomorrow, thinking that maybe she could fit us in a room when another guest checked out. She told me to wait a few minutes while she investigated. After a while she came back saying that she was able to get us a room at the Coronado Springs Resort with a water view. Oh, and because of our party size they would have to put us in 2 adjoining rooms. Hmmmm… 2 adjoining rooms means 2 bathrooms, 4 beds and over twice the space of our room at the Port Orleans. Absolutely! I won’t say we are thrilled at this point because it’s been a long, difficult day. We’re all tired from getting up early, hungry from lack of a real meal and frustrated because we just want to have a room already. But we hung on for a bit longer in anticipation of finally feeling like we’ve arrived at Disneyworld.
A nice man arrives and drives us by van to the Coronado Springs resort. We check in, change room keys and are given directions to our new rooms. We’re in 4461 & 4462, adjoining 2-queen rooms with a beautiful view of the water. You can also see the Tower of Terror and the tops of the Swan and Dolphin hotels. Just as we walked into our rooms we head “boom, boom, boom” and looked up to see the tops of fireworks exploding over what must be Epcot. That was the moment that I felt the magic and finally felt that we had arrived! We walked into our room and loved it from the first moment. They are slightly bigger than POR and much more plush. We’re just so lucky that Debbie thought to send us here instead of trying to re-room us later in our stay. So a huge THANKS goes to Debbie for that and to my family for being so patient through the entire ordeal.
Well, now we FINALLY have a room but it’s 9pm Eastern time and we haven’t yet had a meal. So we scurry down to the restaurant area and pick one. Now, I will say that switching resorts has thrown me for a loop a bit. I haven’t looked into Coronado Springs so I didn’t know what the restaurants were like and what they had to offer. We ended up at the Pepper Grill for dinner. The boys had freshly made pizza’s, Carissa had a kids meals with a pizza slice, orange, chips and a cookie. Brian and I both had burgers and fries. While the kids food was good mine was just plain icky. Burger was bland and re-warmed (I watched him take an already cooked burger and put it on the grill for a few minutes before serving it to me). The French fries were ancient, although plentiful. Oh, and the worst part of all is that this “counter service” restaurant has waiters who bring you your drinks and require a 10% tip, which they are sure to point out is NOT included on the dining plan. Our server was just plain absent, walking right by our table, never stopping to see if we needed drink refills (which we always did and never got unless we managed to get his attention). I honestly wouldn’t have tipped this guy a thing, but felt like I had to because of how it was written on the menu. Oh, and that’s 10% of the SEVENTY SIX DOLLAR BILL. Seventy six dollars? Are you kidding me? For 2 pizzas, 2 cheeseburgers, a kids meal and 4 desserts? Thank goodness I wasn’t paying this out of my own pocket because I’d be very unhappy. But in the end we just decided to leave a tip, forget about the food, be glad we had a hot meal.
The last piece to this puzzle is the luggage, which finally arrived at 11:15pm, long after everyone else had already gone to sleep. Thank goodness this day is almost over. Tomorrow has got to be better! We’re headed to the Magic Kingdom after all…
I planned this vacation to the hilt and today really threw a wrench in all my plans. Originally we were due to arrive in Orlando at 330pm. By my calculations we should arrive and check in to our hotel by 5pm and then be on our merry way to Downtown Disney for a meal at Wolfgang Puck Express. But, as I said, the best laid plans…
We left home at 3:15am, 15 minutes before our “scheduled” departure time. The kids were so excited! Brian sang “Hi ho, hi ho” and the kids replied “It’s off to Disneyworld we go”. Tristan kept saying, “This is great!” on the ride over. We made great time to the airport (there’s not much traffic in Portland at 4am. LOL) and got all our luggage out of the van. The kids and I took it into the terminal and Brian drove around the airport waiting for my Mom to arrive. She arrived in good time and she and Jim took off, saving us the hassle and expense of parking at the airport.
When Brian joined me it was not quite 4am and we were waiting in line at the Southwest ticket counter. We waited… and waited. Apparently they don’t open at 4am so we stood there until they finally graced us with their presence at 440am. We got the bags checked and then headed to the gate. Security, as necessary as it is, can be frustrating at times. Lines of people, even before 5am, taking off shoes and coats, scanning their carry-ons, etc. It was just a lot of hassle and a bit stressful, especially with having to worry about the kids while also taking care of ourselves. At one point all 3 kids were through inspection and I was on the other side, waiting again since I forgot to take off my watch. Thankfully they are old enough that I don’t have to worry about them, but I still don’t like them to be that far away while in a place with so many people.
We made it to the gate and bought some over-priced drinks to go with the donuts we’d brought. It wasn’t too long of a wait before our flight started boarding. We got some decent seats together, with Brian and Carissa in one seat and me and the boys in front of them. The flight was full so we knew someone was going to have to sit next to Brian. However we didn’t know we’d be lucky enough to have the one person traveling with a cat sit next to him - and a noisy cat at that. A cat that she thought would fit well right under Brian’s feet! She was a nice enough girl and I know a cat can’t be happy to travel like that, but it meowed and growled the whole way to Denver! Besides that the first leg of the flight was unremarkable.
Once most passengers disembarked in Denver we were able to move seats and get right up in the front of the plane. Those seats were great. No trays but extra leg room and easy to get in and out of, even from the window seat. This would turn out to be a lifesaver!
Pretty quickly the plane filled up yet again with all the travelers joining us from Denver. They boarded and we sat. And sat. And sat. The plane went nowhere. I knew we were already running a little late but didn’t know what was going on. From my seat I could see the Captain on the phone, talking with someone and not very happy from the look on his face. Then he’d wander away and come back to talk on the phone more, still with that unhappy look on his face. Eventually, an hour later, he came on the loudspeaker and explained the problem. There were storms in Florida that we had to be routed around. When someone put in the routing information they put down an incorrect number and our plane had inadvertently been filled with too much fuel. And we couldn’t fly with too much fuel. So now we waited for another truck to come remove the extra fuel – only to find out that this would take at least 30minutes, maybe closer to an hour. Oh yes, and the bathrooms on the plane won’t work while on the ground either. Fun!
They did eventually let us get off to use the restrooms in the airport and get food items if needed, though told us to hurry back. Why we hurried I have no idea, as we sat at the terminal a total of 2 ½ hours before finally pulling away. A quick de-icing and then we were on our way. It was a long 3 ½ hour flight with no food served. We ate some of the snacks we had brought but that doesn’t really make up for the lack of a “real” meal. But we made do. The kids were really patient but this would have been a nightmare if they were young. Here's a cell-phone pic I took to send the grandparents and friends back home (we sent 1 to 2 per day our entire trip).
We arrived in Orlando at 6pm, a full 2 ½ hours later than anticipated. We were lucky enough to get right on a Magical Express bus which took off about 2 minutes after we boarded. The first stop on the route was at our resort, Port Orleans Riverside. Despite the hectic day I could see that things were turning up.
I checked in online so I used the express check-in line at the resort. We got the merchandise credit card that we’d ordered, room keys and directions and were quickly on our way. But what we found was not what we anticipated. We got to our building and looked on the water side of the building for our room. That’s where it should be since I paid for a waterview room. Yet it wasn’t along the front facing the lake. We kept following the building only to find the room in the deepest, darkest inner corner of the building. A quick look out of the tiny window confirmed what I knew – there was no water to be seen. I called the front desk, who informed me that I was NOT booked for a waterview room but that if I had “proof” of it I should bring it to the front desk. So we picked up all the bags again, the ones we had been lugging around all day and were sooooo tired of carrying, and made our way back to the main building. I showed them my confirmation for a waterview room and they did some typing on the computer. They came back and said that they were out of waterview rooms and were full so couldn’t move me but that eventually I would receive a credit for the $225 cost of the waterview. I was not happy. Not happy at all. I remained calm and nicely inquired about what else could be done because I did not want to be stuck in a dark corner of the resort for 8 days. The cast member who helped me said that he really couldn’t do anything about it. I said that it really wasn’t acceptable to me and he suggested I talk to his manager.
I talked to Debbie, the manager, who listened to my story. I told her how I expressly booked a waterview room and wanted the view so the room didn’t feel so dark and small. I asked whether we might be able to change rooms, even if it were tomorrow, thinking that maybe she could fit us in a room when another guest checked out. She told me to wait a few minutes while she investigated. After a while she came back saying that she was able to get us a room at the Coronado Springs Resort with a water view. Oh, and because of our party size they would have to put us in 2 adjoining rooms. Hmmmm… 2 adjoining rooms means 2 bathrooms, 4 beds and over twice the space of our room at the Port Orleans. Absolutely! I won’t say we are thrilled at this point because it’s been a long, difficult day. We’re all tired from getting up early, hungry from lack of a real meal and frustrated because we just want to have a room already. But we hung on for a bit longer in anticipation of finally feeling like we’ve arrived at Disneyworld.
A nice man arrives and drives us by van to the Coronado Springs resort. We check in, change room keys and are given directions to our new rooms. We’re in 4461 & 4462, adjoining 2-queen rooms with a beautiful view of the water. You can also see the Tower of Terror and the tops of the Swan and Dolphin hotels. Just as we walked into our rooms we head “boom, boom, boom” and looked up to see the tops of fireworks exploding over what must be Epcot. That was the moment that I felt the magic and finally felt that we had arrived! We walked into our room and loved it from the first moment. They are slightly bigger than POR and much more plush. We’re just so lucky that Debbie thought to send us here instead of trying to re-room us later in our stay. So a huge THANKS goes to Debbie for that and to my family for being so patient through the entire ordeal.
Well, now we FINALLY have a room but it’s 9pm Eastern time and we haven’t yet had a meal. So we scurry down to the restaurant area and pick one. Now, I will say that switching resorts has thrown me for a loop a bit. I haven’t looked into Coronado Springs so I didn’t know what the restaurants were like and what they had to offer. We ended up at the Pepper Grill for dinner. The boys had freshly made pizza’s, Carissa had a kids meals with a pizza slice, orange, chips and a cookie. Brian and I both had burgers and fries. While the kids food was good mine was just plain icky. Burger was bland and re-warmed (I watched him take an already cooked burger and put it on the grill for a few minutes before serving it to me). The French fries were ancient, although plentiful. Oh, and the worst part of all is that this “counter service” restaurant has waiters who bring you your drinks and require a 10% tip, which they are sure to point out is NOT included on the dining plan. Our server was just plain absent, walking right by our table, never stopping to see if we needed drink refills (which we always did and never got unless we managed to get his attention). I honestly wouldn’t have tipped this guy a thing, but felt like I had to because of how it was written on the menu. Oh, and that’s 10% of the SEVENTY SIX DOLLAR BILL. Seventy six dollars? Are you kidding me? For 2 pizzas, 2 cheeseburgers, a kids meal and 4 desserts? Thank goodness I wasn’t paying this out of my own pocket because I’d be very unhappy. But in the end we just decided to leave a tip, forget about the food, be glad we had a hot meal.
The last piece to this puzzle is the luggage, which finally arrived at 11:15pm, long after everyone else had already gone to sleep. Thank goodness this day is almost over. Tomorrow has got to be better! We’re headed to the Magic Kingdom after all…
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