Friday, May 1st, 2015
Not surprisingly, we didn’t require the wake-up call nor the bedside alarm. About 4:15 am, I decided that I’d had enough of tossing and turning and opted to get up and indulge in a long, hot shower. We had sat out our clothing and other personal items the night before, so getting ready to go required minimal effort. Drying my hair took more time than anything.
We headed down to the lobby to grab a quick breakfast before our 5:45 am shuttle. Breakfast opened at 5:30 am, but we didn’t expect any of the hot items to be out just yet.
Imagine our surprise when we found the last of the breakfast items being laid out as we arrived, hot and fresh and ready to enjoy. We had planned on just grabbing a bagel and a banana, but there was far more than that from which to choose. For a complimentary….and painfully early….. breakfast, it was really rather impressive.
There was something for every taste: eggs, sausages, gravy, fruit, pancakes, warm cinnamon buns, bagels, yogurt, oatmeal, cold cereals…..you name it. Steve, in particular, was very grateful for the ample spread. He wasted no time in digging in, as we only had 15 minutes to dine before being whisked off to the airport.
With full tummies and an ample supply of departure day enthusiasm, we boarded the shuttle as the sun started making a very slow and tentative appearance in the morning sky. Our shuttle driver was less than talkative, and as such, our attempts at polite conversation fell flat despite our best efforts to engage him in a little chit chat. Thankfully, the awkward ride was mercifully brief (the hotel is very, very close to the airport) and we were dumped at the airport doors in short order.
Combining the fact that it was an ungodly early hour of the morning and Syracuse is a tiny airport, lines for bag check and security were virtually non-existent. We were settled comfortably at our gate within 30 minutes of initially walking through the doors.
Not long after we found seats and pulled out our laptop and tablet, the early morning hush was promptly shattered as a wave of high school seniors descended on our waiting area. All the uninhibited exuberance and enthusiasm of this particular group of bubbly, giggly, fist-pumping young people was enough to power the plane all the way from New York to Florida if there was some physical way to harness it. Their frenzied conversations (which…..and I even cringe as I write this…..were punctuated with them actually using the word “hashtag” repeatedly in their verbal dialogue
) soon confirmed our suspicions: they were on their way to Disney as part of a school trip, and the early hour was doing nothing to squash their excitement. After being Sleepless in Syracuse, and travelling for the first time WITHOUT our teenager ("
#secondhoneymoon" 
) we couldn’t help but laugh at the irony. God love the teacher chaperones….they were special folks, indeed.
With our plane on the tarmac from the night before, all clean and ready to go, the gate crew initially announced that we would be departing early and advised all passengers to be ready to board in advance of the scheduled 7:20 boarding call.
Unfortunately, someone forgot to tell the pilots (who came strolling in, quite obviously in no particular hurry, after 7 am) and we ended up getting on the plane only about 10 minutes before the original designated time. It was a full flight (with all 40 or so teenagers taking up residence in the back), so we were grateful for the priority boarding provided with our Even More Space seating as room in the overhead bins ran out quite quickly.
It was a delightfully smooth an uneventful flight.
Steve enjoyed demonstrating how he could stretch out his long legs quite comfortable in our extra legroom row:
We landed in Orlando almost a half hour ahead of the scheduled arrival time under gorgeous, sunny skies. Our luggage appeared literally within the first 10 bags on the carousel, so we were off to snag the rental vehicle in no time flat
.
Having signed up for Dollar Express after we booked and paid for our rental some weeks earlier, we headed straight to the garage to find our name listed on the pick-up board and the message “see agent” noted beside it. A quick stop at the agent’s office yielded a small package of paperwork, and instructions to pick any vehicle we wanted on the full size aisle (a nice surprise, as we had originally been told that Dollar assigns a vehicle, and we were going to miss that aspect of our usual Alamo rental). Steve chose the only car that didn’t appear to have been used and abused…..a silver Impala…..and we were on our way. Tourists are obviously quite hard on their rental cars if the marks on the exterior of Dollar’s fleet are any indication.
As we were driving out of the garage, was only 11:05 am. I could hardly believe it. Absolutely the fastest we have EVER been through the post-flight stages of travel at Orlando airport. At this point in the report, I also feel the need to mention how WONDERFUL it was to walk out of the terminal (en route to our rental car pick-up) into the warm, breezy air and feel NO humidity at all. After 3 trips at the end of August, it was noteworthy to say the least. I think I could get used to spending spring in the sunny south
.
Our GPS, surprisingly, picked up a clear signal while still inside the garage (normally we’re a mile down the road before she’s able to access the satellites) so we plugged in our lunch destination and made our way down the toll road. Considering has a customary check-in time of 4 pm, we figured we might as well grab our noon meal before seeing if our room might possibly be ready a little early.
Continued in the next post, the first of many new-to-us restaurants on this vacation: Sweet Tomatoes!
I had their strawberry lemonade in that wonderful frozen mug....you can see it a bit in the corner of this pic:
. You have to almost see them to believe them. They take crazy US portions to a whole new level!
) to celebrate his special day?
. And the blackberry lemonade sounds divine......I think I'll be looking their menu up 
Subscribing! We leave in 2 weeks, so I'll be anxiously awaiting your updates!!! 
