Momof2Disneyboys
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 5, 2007
Saturday, August 17:
We had an 11:30am flight out of Pittsburgh down to Tampa. Everything went very smooth and uneventful. Best kind of flight!
The kids had some pizza and cinnamon pretzels at 10:30am!
We arrived in Tampa a bit earlier than we were supposed to. We made our way to get our one checked bag. We waited less than 5 minutes before it came and we were outside and across the street to the car rental center. There were about 8-10 rental car companies there and of course ours was the only one with a line, Alamo. Each and every person seemed to have a problem. And by the time we got to the counter I could see it wasn't the customers fault, it was the employees. They were trying to hard sell you everything under the sun and when we declined it all they still tried to charge us $30 more than what we were booked at.
In the end we were charged the quoted price, but what a hassle. I bet we spent 30+ minutes there.
So we headed out to the parking garage and found the Alamo lady and she had to have them search for a standard SUV, like we had booked. Finally someone brought us a Volvo something or other and said it was an upgrade at no extra charge because they didn't have any standard SUV's left. We asked the lady how to get to the road we needed and she said to follow the parking garage to the third floor exit and it would take us right to that road. Our GSP of course could not get a signal in the parking garage and was thinking we were at our house in PA.
Have I mentioned that I hate GPS's??? 
Luckily the Alamo lady knew what she was talking about and that exit lead right to many major roadways. Ours being one of them, so we were off!!
It was a nice, beautiful, scenic drive to Clearwater Beach.
We arrived at our resort, the Sandpearl Resort, in about 30 minutes. We pulled up and the valet took the car and we wouldn't see it again until Monday when we headed to Disney. The bellman took our luggage. We went inside to check in. The resort was very big, beautiful, and elegant. Everyone was very friendly and welcoming. Our room was not ready. I wanted to just wait around and relax in the air conditioned lobby, but everyone else wanted to hit the streets, so we went out the front exit/entrance and I noticed that the scent of either the BC or the GF was being blown out there. Do they have the same scent?? I'm not sure which one it was, but I knew I definitely had smelled it before.
Lobby pics
We walked down the street and in some of the stores on the strip. It was HOT out. Extremely hot. Pretty soon my phone rang and the room was ready! So we headed back up the street and to the resort. We made our way to our room, 340. We had booked a Gulf Front room. Which was supposed to be on an upper floor with a direct view of the ocean. We were obviously on the third floor, and it was a real stretch to see the ocean. You could see it, but it was through a palm tree and the resort pool. I wanted to go down and complain, but decided to just live with it, because the room was nice and clean and READY! It's not like the view was terrible, it was quite beautiful. I just thought we would have a better view of the gulf.
Up Next: Off to the Pool and the Beach
We had an 11:30am flight out of Pittsburgh down to Tampa. Everything went very smooth and uneventful. Best kind of flight!
The kids had some pizza and cinnamon pretzels at 10:30am!
We arrived in Tampa a bit earlier than we were supposed to. We made our way to get our one checked bag. We waited less than 5 minutes before it came and we were outside and across the street to the car rental center. There were about 8-10 rental car companies there and of course ours was the only one with a line, Alamo. Each and every person seemed to have a problem. And by the time we got to the counter I could see it wasn't the customers fault, it was the employees. They were trying to hard sell you everything under the sun and when we declined it all they still tried to charge us $30 more than what we were booked at.
In the end we were charged the quoted price, but what a hassle. I bet we spent 30+ minutes there. So we headed out to the parking garage and found the Alamo lady and she had to have them search for a standard SUV, like we had booked. Finally someone brought us a Volvo something or other and said it was an upgrade at no extra charge because they didn't have any standard SUV's left. We asked the lady how to get to the road we needed and she said to follow the parking garage to the third floor exit and it would take us right to that road. Our GSP of course could not get a signal in the parking garage and was thinking we were at our house in PA.
Have I mentioned that I hate GPS's??? Luckily the Alamo lady knew what she was talking about and that exit lead right to many major roadways. Ours being one of them, so we were off!! It was a nice, beautiful, scenic drive to Clearwater Beach.
We arrived at our resort, the Sandpearl Resort, in about 30 minutes. We pulled up and the valet took the car and we wouldn't see it again until Monday when we headed to Disney. The bellman took our luggage. We went inside to check in. The resort was very big, beautiful, and elegant. Everyone was very friendly and welcoming. Our room was not ready. I wanted to just wait around and relax in the air conditioned lobby, but everyone else wanted to hit the streets, so we went out the front exit/entrance and I noticed that the scent of either the BC or the GF was being blown out there. Do they have the same scent?? I'm not sure which one it was, but I knew I definitely had smelled it before.
Lobby pics
We walked down the street and in some of the stores on the strip. It was HOT out. Extremely hot. Pretty soon my phone rang and the room was ready! So we headed back up the street and to the resort. We made our way to our room, 340. We had booked a Gulf Front room. Which was supposed to be on an upper floor with a direct view of the ocean. We were obviously on the third floor, and it was a real stretch to see the ocean. You could see it, but it was through a palm tree and the resort pool. I wanted to go down and complain, but decided to just live with it, because the room was nice and clean and READY! It's not like the view was terrible, it was quite beautiful. I just thought we would have a better view of the gulf.
Up Next: Off to the Pool and the Beach
The resort and room look so pretty!
I'd love to be there right now!
The thing was that a 'Gulf Front' was more expensive than a 'Gulf View'. So I thought I was getting the better of the two. And I think most of their Gulf Front rooms probably have super views, we just didn't get one of them. 
I seem to remember you having a tree messing with your view at the Poly one time! 
Boring interstate, and then you finally see what you came for - water and beaches!
I can't wait to read another trip report from you. 
