Aug 3rd, Part 1
I slept well but it felt very short.
The beds were comfy, there wasn't a lot of noise, it was nice. We woke up just after 4am, got ready for the day and then headed over to the USA terminal, which was the closest one to us, yay!
We both really enjoyed the short journey from our beds to the check-in area.
Love the emoji in the "Montréal".
I let Kira check us in on the kiosk again and then tag our bags and then drop them, all by herself. Montréal has a cool baggage drop belt. It literally drops down into the abyss, it was hilarious! I have video of it so stay tuned for the vacation videos once I am done this report. We were very entertained by it and the agent who was supervising was enjoying watching our reactions to it.
Since Kira is 17 and technically a minor, I was ready with a form that was signed by Rob for when we got through US Custom's pre-clear that is required when you cross the border without the other parent. First up was security though and thankfully, Montréal has a dedicated Nexus security line going to the USA, unlike Calgary, which only lets you bypass the outside queue if it's long. You still have to remove all of your liquids and laptops. This was so much nicer! It was very quick and very efficient!
Next up was Customs, which is so quick to get through now, you just stand in front of the machine and it takes your photo and then you walk past the agent, they confirm your name and if you have an all-clear, which we always do, then you just keep walking! No line, no one even asked about a form or anything! Usually if you don't have the other parent with you, they grill you about where you are going, how long you are going for, why the other parent isn't with you, etc. I guess they figured that, at 17, she's old enough to not be dragged anywhere she doesn't want to go.
I think it was less than 5 minutes for the entire process after showing our boarding pass! Love it!!
Passing through Duty Free, as always.
We were keeping a close eye on a storm that was developing. At the time we left, it was a tropical depression but it eventually turned into Hurricane Debby. This was a weird storm. It didn't do as much damage as first predicted but it did end up all the way up to Québec, the province which we were currently in and it ended up being the costliest natural disaster in the history of Québec!
Not something we could have predicted as we were leaving Québec that morning. I was slightly concerned that we were heading into the brunt of what could have been a really bad storm but I was also slightly excited. If you have read my reports before, you probably know about my love of rain and storms. Kira has this same love and I knew that Orlando, being in the middle of the state, is one of the safer places to be if you are stuck in Florida during a hurricane.
There's not many options for food in the USA terminal so we opted for Starbucks again, or shall I say, Café Starbucks.
Voulez-vous un petit déjeuner, ce matin?
I was born in Montréal and growing up with 4 much-older siblings, my parents ended up putting me in French school so that I wouldn't get bored, so I am the only person in my immediate family who speaks French. When I graduated High School, I was bilingual but since I don't speak it very often, I have lost a lot of it over the years but I still know enough to get by comfortably in a French environment. Although most people here in the service industry speak both French and English and you don't absolutely need to speak French here, it does help and I enjoy getting to speak it when I can. I still have a good accent but sometimes I forget words but the good thing about the French language is that there's always a dozen ways to say anything, so I can fake it pretty well.
We had some breakfast sammies and then settled in at our gate until it was time to board our plane.
We were tired but excited!
I absolutely love it when we hit Florida on a clear day and you can see the beaches on the Atlantic coast.
The clouds were tall and magnificent that morning, I was in cloud-Heaven watching it all.
We flew in from the south, I could see Exit 17A, a very familiar exit as we always take the southern, more local way to and from the airport.
We landed around 10:30am, which was really weird for us as we normally don't land until 5pm when taking the direct flight and not until 8 or 9 pm when connecting through YYZ or YUL.
There is nothing better than landing at MCO, heading for the faux monorail at the very beginning of your trip. Am I right?
There was slim pickings for cars in our category at Alamo but there was one sole Nissan Rogue and I quickly nabbed it. I enjoy driving Nissans while on vacation, I am familiar and comfortable with them and 9 times out of 10, that is what we end up in.
I had started the engine right away, in order to get the car cooled off as the hot Florida air was already ripe with humidity, and then I started my usual walk-around to check for damage. Once I was satisfied that I couldn't see anything significant, I loaded the luggage in and had headed back into the car to notice that the car was not very cold. Kira tried to convince me that it probably just needed more time to cool down but as someone who overheats easily, I have had to become a connoisseur of AC and I knew that this was not the optimal car for us! By now, it should be feeling like a lovely arctic blast but as I sat there, directly in front of the vents that were fully open and blowing, I felt only a slight coolness.
I was not keen on leaving this lone Nissan but we were about to spend a whole week in temperatures that Hades himself would envy so I knew we needed to find another car.
With no Nissans left, I opted for a Hyundai Tucson, which was similar in size to the Rogue. Before moving, however, I got into the driver's seat, started the car, blasted the AC and decided that this would do.
Within two minutes, the entire car had cooled down and, sitting directly in front of the vents, it was absolutely, positively and delightfully chilly.
I unloaded, moved and reloaded our luggage into the Tucson and within seconds of Kira being in the front passenger seat, she agreed that this was a MUCH better choice.
Happy with our new frosty environment, we headed to Universal, this time using the north exit from the airport, something we haven't done in years. We tried to get Apple CarPlay to work but no matter what we tried, it just didn't work. Not to worry, I know my way around Orlando quite well and I am very comfortable driving without anyone to guide me, which is a very good thing because Kira has her dad's sense of direction and couldn't guide me anywhere if her life depended on it.
About thirty minutes later, we were pulling into Universal's Aventura Hotel. I have stayed here many times, with and without my family and I just love it! I remember when it first opened and after I had already had three wonderful stays at Cabana Bay Beach Resort behind me, I had thought to myself "Why would anyone stay there?" It was priced the same and CBBR was just so much better, in my naïve opinion.
Then we had a couple of horrible experiences at Cabana Bay that totally turned me off of that resort and I started staying at Aventura. While it doesn't have some of the amazing amenities that CBBR has, (hello, lazy river and great food court, I'm talking about you!) it also doesn't have many of the horrible things that come with a stay there either. There's no massive teen groups that take over the entire resort, it doesn't have loud, thumping music from 8am until 10pm in and around it's pool areas and it is not filled with screaming kids.
With it's wonderfully quiet spaces, it's mostly-adult clientele and the ability to walk through Sapphire Falls to take the Water Taxi to City Walk, I will continue to choose Aventura over and over again.
We checked in, Kira got a "I'm celebrating" button for her graduation and then we headed up to our room.
One of the other things that I absolutely love about staying here, if I can get it, is the option of booking a Deluxe Room, which isn't much more than a Standard Room. I have stayed in this type of room a few times now and have loved it every single time. Since we would be spending a decent amount of time in our room this trip, I splurged and treated ourselves to this lovely room.
This was Kira's first time experiencing a Deluxe Room and I was excited for her to see it. I knew she would love it as much as I do.
My prediction was correct, she did love it!
These rooms are located in the outside rounded parts of the building, with floor-to-ceiling windows that wrap around the rounded space, which makes it feel incredibly spacious.
We had a lovely view of Cabana Bay, Volcano Bay as well as a little part of the parks. She was a happy camper.
I will have more pictures of our views in the next chapter.
We unpacked, got settled in and then chilled for a bit in our lovely room.
Stay tuned for the next chapter where we visit Disney Springs.
2005 Live WDW & DCL
2024 Hawaii
My daughters (both in college) just took the train from Windsor to Toronto to see Taylor Swift, and before they drove back across the border - they had to make a pit stop at Wal-Mart in Canada to pick up some All Dressed chips, Nestle chocolates and gummy candies (apparently the gummy candies in Canada are superior …IDK).
