Veater
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Apr 17, 2000
- Messages
- 66
Dates: February 28 â March 11, 2001
Cast Of Characters:
Gary My patient wonderful husband
Bethany 13 yr old daughter
Miles 9 yr old son â the only official child
Me The planner
Our family has gone to DW â in June 1999, March 1996,
Charlene My sister and co-planner
Crystal Her 17 yr old daughter
Chad Her 13 yr old son
Her familyâÂÂs first time ever to go to DW
The big day came, February 28, 2001 and so did the earthquake in Seattle. Yes, we were not landing in Seattle but rather in Portland but still it got us very nervous. A lot of prayers went up that day regarding all the travelers that were getting their plans changed plus all the people in Seattle that were involved in it. We watched the news that showed several flights cancelled but no mention of ours. My parents took us to the airport that night and my nephew, Josh, took Charlene and her family out to the airport. We got there plenty early for the 12:45 am flight. We were excited and ready to go! Finally, we got on the plane and settled in for the night. We were flying on the same plane all the way to Florida. We stopped twice, once in Portland and once in St. Louis. Some of us got off the plane both times but in St. Louis they didnâÂÂt want to let us back on very quickly. Apparently back in Anchorage, they had taken our flight coupon all the way to Orlando but in St. Louis they wanted them there. So they looked in the computer and at our baggage stickers and let us on but it sure made me nervous!
We each slept some on the flight but not as much as we wanted to have slept. But we finally got there. We landed about 4:30 on Thursday afternoon. I love that little monorail in the airport at Orlando. It is like we are there and ready to ride! Anyway, all our bags arrived safe and sound. We piled them on two carts and took off to the rental car counter. There was two sides labeled Dollar Rental â one with tons of people in line and one with no one in line. So we went to the empty one and got service right away. We got a wonderful lady at the Dollar counter and she looked for quite a while to try to get us a bigger minivan. We didnâÂÂt want to upgrade to an 8 passenger as it would have cost twice as much but she managed to find a Grand Voyager available so we were thrilled. We went outside and found our vehicle and proceeded to stuff it full of luggage. It did have a dent in the front bumper where whoever parked it wrapped it around a pipe or something so we took some pictures of that and had them initial that it was already in the vehicle before we got it. But by the time, we turned it in the dent was gone so those rubber type bumper things are pretty nice.
Anyway we were on our way by about 5:45. YIPPEE! The weather was fabulous; the palm trees were delightful. It was so cool going with my sister and her kids that had never been there before. We stopped at the customhouse for the CBR and checked in. We did not get exactly what we requested so nicely but it was okay. We got rooms side by side instead of connecting and we were in Martinique 23, which was not all that close to the food court. But it was closer than a lot of rooms so we went to check it out. Our rooms were in wonderful condition and very nice. We ended up using the quiet pool way more than the main pool because it was so much closer and had fewer people at it. The quiet pools at CBR are larger than I thought that they would be. They were great. We were on the second floor so it took us a while to pack everything up the stairs but we got it done.
Then off we went to Chef MickeyâÂÂs for dinner. We had a PS for 8 oâÂÂclock and we got there about 7:45 so it worked out great. We enjoyed the meal, the food was great but we really didnâÂÂt get a lot of interaction with the characters. At this point we went back to the hotel and went swimming. Being from Alaska, the swimming portion of the trip was very important to the kids! It really wasnâÂÂt that hard to get to sleep that evening as we hadnâÂÂt slept well on the plane so we adjusted fairly quickly to the 4-hour time change.
Cast Of Characters:
Gary My patient wonderful husband
Bethany 13 yr old daughter
Miles 9 yr old son â the only official child
Me The planner
Our family has gone to DW â in June 1999, March 1996,
Charlene My sister and co-planner
Crystal Her 17 yr old daughter
Chad Her 13 yr old son
Her familyâÂÂs first time ever to go to DW
The big day came, February 28, 2001 and so did the earthquake in Seattle. Yes, we were not landing in Seattle but rather in Portland but still it got us very nervous. A lot of prayers went up that day regarding all the travelers that were getting their plans changed plus all the people in Seattle that were involved in it. We watched the news that showed several flights cancelled but no mention of ours. My parents took us to the airport that night and my nephew, Josh, took Charlene and her family out to the airport. We got there plenty early for the 12:45 am flight. We were excited and ready to go! Finally, we got on the plane and settled in for the night. We were flying on the same plane all the way to Florida. We stopped twice, once in Portland and once in St. Louis. Some of us got off the plane both times but in St. Louis they didnâÂÂt want to let us back on very quickly. Apparently back in Anchorage, they had taken our flight coupon all the way to Orlando but in St. Louis they wanted them there. So they looked in the computer and at our baggage stickers and let us on but it sure made me nervous!
We each slept some on the flight but not as much as we wanted to have slept. But we finally got there. We landed about 4:30 on Thursday afternoon. I love that little monorail in the airport at Orlando. It is like we are there and ready to ride! Anyway, all our bags arrived safe and sound. We piled them on two carts and took off to the rental car counter. There was two sides labeled Dollar Rental â one with tons of people in line and one with no one in line. So we went to the empty one and got service right away. We got a wonderful lady at the Dollar counter and she looked for quite a while to try to get us a bigger minivan. We didnâÂÂt want to upgrade to an 8 passenger as it would have cost twice as much but she managed to find a Grand Voyager available so we were thrilled. We went outside and found our vehicle and proceeded to stuff it full of luggage. It did have a dent in the front bumper where whoever parked it wrapped it around a pipe or something so we took some pictures of that and had them initial that it was already in the vehicle before we got it. But by the time, we turned it in the dent was gone so those rubber type bumper things are pretty nice.
Anyway we were on our way by about 5:45. YIPPEE! The weather was fabulous; the palm trees were delightful. It was so cool going with my sister and her kids that had never been there before. We stopped at the customhouse for the CBR and checked in. We did not get exactly what we requested so nicely but it was okay. We got rooms side by side instead of connecting and we were in Martinique 23, which was not all that close to the food court. But it was closer than a lot of rooms so we went to check it out. Our rooms were in wonderful condition and very nice. We ended up using the quiet pool way more than the main pool because it was so much closer and had fewer people at it. The quiet pools at CBR are larger than I thought that they would be. They were great. We were on the second floor so it took us a while to pack everything up the stairs but we got it done.
Then off we went to Chef MickeyâÂÂs for dinner. We had a PS for 8 oâÂÂclock and we got there about 7:45 so it worked out great. We enjoyed the meal, the food was great but we really didnâÂÂt get a lot of interaction with the characters. At this point we went back to the hotel and went swimming. Being from Alaska, the swimming portion of the trip was very important to the kids! It really wasnâÂÂt that hard to get to sleep that evening as we hadnâÂÂt slept well on the plane so we adjusted fairly quickly to the 4-hour time change.
never thought of having a picture of the dent in a car......good thinking
