We need a little “Magic”, right this very moment! – Completed

[nunzia]

Love this thread so far! Only up to page 4

Sorry to hijack but have a Palo brunch question. Have heard they are pretty strict about dress code at Palo but see they allowed your jeans. I want to wear dress capris to Palo brunch and on another thread I got my head chopped off. Would they be ok?

Was this for me? Don't want to off topic on this wonderful TR, but we felt very out of place and would never have gone as we were if time allowed a change. I don't think Disney CMs will ever refuse to seat you for not following the dress code, but really, Disney puts it out there for a reason so if possible I always follow it. As I said, our presentation ran WAY over and brunch was almost over so we just took a chance, explained to folks what had happened and had a nice meal. If the dress code doesn't allow capris, then as nice as they are I still would choose to follow code.

Back to Allison!

 

[PrincessInOz]

When we checked into the Admiral’s Club the hostess told us that we were traveling out of the “remote gate” from gate 44. What? Remote Gate? I’ve been flying out of LAX for 30 years and I have never heard of such a thing.

We drove farther and farther, I realized that we traveled east of Sepulveda Blvd. (for those of you who know LAX) That’s really a long way! Finally we arrived at the “remote terminal”.



Unbeknownst to me, there was this whole other terminal out there.





They had a little food service area.

I remember that remote terminal reasonably well. Until the 2000's, the late flight out of LAX to Melbourne used to use that terminal all the time.

But I don't remember there being a food service area. It used to just be the vending machines.

 

[dgbg100106]

That seems like a long way to travel for a small plane. Glad you made it there safely.

 

[jedijill]

Bon Voyage!

Jill in CO

 

[franandaj]

Hi everyone!

Just thought I'd check in! We're on Day 3 of the cruise and having a blast! Fran is having a much better time than she would have let on when we were on our way. I'll let you know what a character she has been at the tastings and about her "tee many martonis" in due time. Today we bought the 500 minute internet package as we have been dying for real news and stuff.

I have an update ready to go but anything from the ship requiring pictures will have to wait until we are back on land. The internet here is just too slow.

Came by to see if you're on that ship yet? Have a magical time!

Yes we were when you posted this. We were in the room and I was getting ready for our DISmeet in the Promenade lounge.

Grasshopper?

I have flown LAX a bazillion times and had no clue that weird far out terminal was there. Wonder if they use that for celebrities etc too?

The cheesecake looks good. Stacy's pita chips are good too. Trader Joe's sells this amazing chunky olive hummus. I love it with pita chips. If I can't have TJ's pita chips then I like Stacy's. Glad the food was good.

You're on the ship by now cruising away. Enjoy!

I doubt it for the celebrities. They all fly out of Van Nuys airport, except for John C. Reilly. He flies American first class, I've been on a plane with him before. Also Tony Baxter too, or was that Delta

Was this for me? Don't want to off topic on this wonderful TR, but we felt very out of place and would never have gone as we were if time allowed a change. I don't think Disney CMs will ever refuse to seat you for not following the dress code, but really, Disney puts it out there for a reason so if possible I always follow it. As I said, our presentation ran WAY over and brunch was almost over so we just took a chance, explained to folks what had happened and had a nice meal. If the dress code doesn't allow capris, then as nice as they are I still would choose to follow code.

Back to Allison!

If this was in response to your "late to Palo seating", we were there yesterday. A guy in a T-shirt and shorts walked into the restaurant walked in, I guess to check out what was on the buffet. The Maitre D' chased him out of there saying, "Sir, I'm sorry but we have a dress code in here." I was very happy because Fran said as he walked in, "Geez, I can't believe they let scumbags like that in here." They don't!

I remember that remote terminal reasonably well. Until the 2000's, the late flight out of LAX to Melbourne used to use that terminal all the time.

But I don't remember there being a food service area. It used to just be the vending machines.

Hmmmm, they are always upgrading.

That seems like a long way to travel for a small plane. Glad you made it there safely.

Yeah, but I don't think the smaller planes could make in the larger bays, so it makes sense. I've just never caught such a small plane out of LA.

Bon Voyage!

Jill in CO

Thank you!

 

[franandaj]

We arrived at Houston on time at 1:15AM. The airport was pretty much closed, there were a few people sleeping in corners and I thought, “That could have been us!” Luckily I worked out some transportation issues so we didn’t have to do that. We headed to the luggage carousel and were surprised to see that the luggage hadn’t even started to come out. Usually we get there are our bags are sitting aside waiting for them to call homeland security because they think the owners have abandoned them!

The carousel started up and our bags were the first five to come out! WOW! Fran had been off snagging us some carts for our luggage, and I had all the bags by the time she came back. I knew there was a problem instantly. The suitcase that I had packed with my bags of wine was soaked! and upon further olfactory observation it became obvious that the source of the saturation was none other than wine!

I took my suitcase into the restroom, opened it up and found the contents drenched. Luckily, the two library books in there had plastic on their covers and the pages weren’t damaged. However, the nylons for me, Fran’s wife beater undershirt and her jacket were absolutely wet and stinky with wine. Luckily only one of the bags was punctured. I threw that away, wiped out the contents of the suitcase and repacked it as well as I could.

After that we called Super Shuttle from their courtesy phone and within moments our driver was there to pick us up. Turns out that he just happened to have a Handicapped Accessible van, so all Fran had to do was ride the scooter onto the lift and he loaded her into the van. She transferred to a regular seat, and we were on our way. The ride took about an hour, and soon we were at our hotel. The driver was incredibly helpful unloading our bags and transferring them to the luggage dolly. We gave him a nice tip.

After a simple check in, and ensuring that we were scheduled on the shuttle bus to the cruise terminal, we made our way to our room. I was really surprised at the size of the room for only costing an average of $100 per night including tax.











It was almost 4AM Texas time by the time that I got our luggage off the rack and our necessaries for the night out of the suitcase and ready for bed. I had anticipated our hunger and lack of available dining establishments conveniently located with this arrival and situation. Fran ate another chunk of our leftover sandwiches, and we climbed into bed. This was my midnight (morning) snack.



Tomorrow what all DID we buy at Walmart?

 

[jedijill]

A moment of silence for the broken bottle of wine.

Ok, back to our regularly scheduled programming. Glad your transportation went smoothly and your room looks really nice! Good value for $100. And I love the midnight aka 4AM snack.

Jill in CO

 

[rentayenta]

That stinks that your wine broke and ruined your bag! Was the bag punctured?

Great room and even better that it was only $100. It's really nice.

I can't wait to hear about Fran all tipsy and I'm glad you're having a good time.

 

[rentayenta]

A moment of silence for the broken bottle of wine.



Jill in CO

 

[Leshaface]

Oh no sorry about your wine! I'm guessing you didn't wrap it in Wine Skin?

I think I know what you bought!

 

[ACDSNY]

Oh no, that was my biggest fear when I packed wine for the Panama cruise, I'm so sorry it happened to you.

I can't wait to hear how the cruise is going.

 

[PrincessInOz]

So sorry about the wine. I hope you got the clothes washed. I think you may have bought at least nylons at Walmart....and wine.

Nice looking room.

 

[franandaj]

A moment of silence for the broken bottle of wine.

Ok, back to our regularly scheduled programming. Glad your transportation went smoothly and your room looks really nice! Good value for $100. And I love the midnight aka 4AM snack.

Jill in CO

Thanks for the moment of silence. It was actually a bag not a bottle, thank goodness, that would have been a HUGE mess, but if it had been a bottle it probably wouldn't have broke.

That stinks that your wine broke and ruined your bag! Was the bag punctured?

Great room and even better that it was only $100. It's really nice.

I can't wait to hear about Fran all tipsy and I'm glad you're having a good time.

Yes the bag had a small puncture in it.

Oh no sorry about your wine! I'm guessing you didn't wrap it in Wine Skin?

I think I know what you bought!

I've never had a problem in all the years that I've been putting wine in my suitcase, but it's only recently that I started taking non bottles. This was the first time I took this packaging, before that I brought boxes to WDW.

Oh no, that was my biggest fear when I packed wine for the Panama cruise, I'm so sorry it happened to you.

I can't wait to hear how the cruise is going.

I've been doing it for so long that I never even considered the possibility. Until I smelled the bag, I was sure that it was soda and not wine.

So sorry about the wine. I hope you got the clothes washed. I think you may have bought at least nylons at Walmart....and wine.

Nice looking room.

That's all coming in the next update!

 

[franandaj]

Before going to sleep Fran had put in a wake up call for 8:00. With only four hours of sleep we both awakened reluctantly. I think I took a bath (knowing that I would be without a tub for sometime), and then we both got dressed and headed down for our complimentary breakfast.

If you haven’t stayed at a Hampton Inn before, I find them to be quite a nice choice for usually a reasonable sum of money. They have always been clean, with comfortable beds and of course a very tasty breakfast! This was the breakfast area. Notice the “make’em yourself” waffle machines. .









Comes out nearly perfect everytime!



Fran got us a plate of bacon, and for her what they called a “bagel topper”



We also had some orange juice, coffee and milk with our breakfast. Once we finished we headed back up to the room. As much as I wanted to get on with things and do our shopping and see some of the town, I could tell that wasn’t happening today. The late arrival was too much for Fran and as soon as she laid back down on the bed, she was out like a light.

I realized that her health and resting was more important than sightseeing and let her sleep. I uploaded all my pictures thus far to photobucket and just sort of worked on the TR while she slept. It was also very cold, windy and overcast outside, so it wasn’t very inviting to go for a walk anywhere.

Around 1PM though, I decided that our whole mission for coming in a day early was to pick up provisions at WalMart and that we needed to at least accomplish that. I was also starting to second guess my wardrobe choices for the trip. If it was this cold today, I didn’t have any clothes that weren’t T-shirts, tank tops or sundresses, so maybe I better see if they have any winter clothes left in stock.

I rustled her out of bed and we trudged over to WalMart.



Here is a look back at our hotel.



What was a list of about a dozen things, quickly became an entire cart full of goodies. We needed, soda, replacement wine, water, trash bags, AAA batteries, snacks for the room, a contour pillow, possibly warmer clothes, scotch tape and a couple other things. In addition to what we needed, we ended up with two pairs of shoes for Fran, Vitamin C, Lotion, Shampoo and Conditioner for me (I thought I forgot it then found it on the ship), a refillable mug, several long sleeved shirts, a filter for the new camera, a lens cap leash, and I don’t even remember what else, but we had two dozen sodas now, a twelve pack of water and enough candy for a small army! We were in there so long, I ended up going to the frozen dinners section and we each chose something to microwave for lunch. I didn’t want to eat from the McDonald’s there. So we loaded up her scooter bag, floorboards and I carried the rest of the bags back to our hotel. Now the sun was shining, it was less windy and finally the temperature had warmed up.



I took a few shots of the view from our window out the back. Not a great view, but not the worst. I found out the next day that if we had been on the 4th or 5th floor instead of the 3rd we would have been able to see a little bit of the ocean. No big deal.







After we ate our frozen entrees, Fran went back to sleep again. She mentioned seafood for dinner, so inbetween writing TR updates I was researching menus for various restaurants on the island. It was also the day that Boston was on lockdown, so we had the news going to hear what was happening with the manhunt for the suspect.

There was one restaurant that I wanted to go to called Gaido’s. I had seen this menu online before we left and it looked like a wonderful elegant place to eat. Their website said that men were required to wear jackets and that they had them on loan for those who did not have one. Unfortunately we were not up for that kind of a dinner. While the menu looked lovely we didn’t want to have to get that dressed up. A polo shirt for Fran and a smart pants suit for me, but I didn’t want to get out my Palo or formal dresses, so we passed.

There was another place which turned out to be the casual restaurant for Gaido’s called Casey’s, so we decided on that. We debated between Casey’s and another place, but that was owned by Landry’s restaurants, so of course the Mom and Pop place won out over the chain. So after some coercion, I got her up and going and we called a cab to take us to dinner.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Look at that make-your-own waffle!! YUM! I like the Hampton Inn chain of hotels too.

Groceries, extra clothes and half of Walmart!! Well.done.you.two.

 

[jedijill]

Did you have to buy an extra suitcase for all your Walmart goodies?

When I was a kid, we went to an absolutely awesome seafood place in Galveston...the boats pulled right up to the dock and unloaded directly into the restaurant...but sadly when we went back it had burned down.

Hope Casey's turned out to be good!

Jill in CO

 

[rentayenta]

I really like the Hampton Inn line too. In fact I've got it booked while I check out other Miami options but wanted to have it just in case. I've seen less expensive options but always know what I'm going to get with the Hampton/Hilton family. I also really like Marriotts.

That's nice that you were so close to a Walmart. When I read you had 5 bags I was wondering if one was maybe empty so you could pack all of the stuff you were planning to purchase at Walmart. I had no idea that Walmart sells wine.

Hope Casey's was yum. Glad you decided to take it easy and recoup from the late night/early morning flight. There's nothing worse than being exhausted on vacation due to never catching up from the travel.

 

[jetskigrl]

It is! It's been literally 30 years since I started flying in and out of LAX, from my initial college auditions during my Senior year through the rest of my adult life and I never even knew it existed!

I only found out about it a few years ago when my sister and I were flying in from somewhere and she had to go to that terminal for her connecting flight to San Jose.

OK...back to catching up on the thread....

 

[Pinkocto]

Bummer about the wine snafu.

I was thinking the same thing, how did you pack all the Walmart stuff to get on the ship?

Your room looks really nice.

I'm so glad Fran is having fun

 

[dgbg100106]

Sorry about the wine, I have never thought of packing the bags of wine... Have you done it before with success?

I like Hampton's but again I am a Hilton family person, so I try to stay at family branded hotels...

That was a small purchase at Walmart, but I am curious if you got it all in your suitcase?