Delete Please

[DizneyDreams]

I am no longer going to be able to update this trip report due to me not having enough time. Sorry Please delete or let go to the last page.

 

[DizneyDreams]

Nevermind.

 

[Wniny]

Oh sounds lovely! I hope you will have a great time!
Just wondering, are you going tomorrow/today or is the planned to be 2012?

 

[DizneyDreams]

We're actually going today, but we do have a trip planned for 2012!

Welcome!!!!

 

[PixieMama]

Hey! I was checking out the TR board and stumbled across your thread!

Hope you're having a great start to your trip. Can't wait to read all about it!

 

[DizneyDreams]

Reserved for Bonus Updates

Could there possibly be another trip in the making? We shall see!!!

 

[DizneyDreams]

Delete.

 

[PixieMama]

Can't wait to read more about what happened during your trip! And I'm interested in hearing what you have to say about Les Chefs de France... I just booked this for our lunch, though none of us have been there before.

 

[hurleysweety]

Can't wait to read more...and hear about the surprises!

 

[DizneyDreams]

Can't wait to read more about what happened during your trip! And I'm interested in hearing what you have to say about Les Chefs de France... I just booked this for our lunch, though none of us have been there before.

Hi again!!!! We really enjoy Les Chefs de France, but i'll get more into that later on. It was our second time there and the only reason why we would book a restaurant again (after a previous trip) would be because the food there is quite nice. Good choice!!

Can't wait to read more...and hear about the surprises!

Welcome!!!!!!! Thank you for joining me!!!

 

[DizneyDreams]

Delete.

 

[DizneyDreams]

The Adventures of Choosing a Rental Car

So in my last update I almost eluded to the idea that we could possibly be landing in Orlando earlier than expected. But the question is if you arrive early, are you really going to be early at all? The unfortunate answer to that question is no. The plane landed at 12:35pm when it was scheduled to arrive at 12:56pm. So we essentially arrived early, correct? No. We would have arrived early if the airport traffic control didn’t allow another plane to take off at the gate that we were supposed to land at. Granted, we were early but the plane that was at our gate was late departing. So we had to turn around and wait for the plane to take off and then pull into the gate. We did end up getting off the plane 5 to 10 minutes early, but any time saved was spent waiting at the luggage carousel.

I have to take the time to mention here that I love the smell of places like Splash Mountain or Living with the Land. There is something in the water that makes it smells so nice, and once we stepped off the plane and entered into the airport I could smell that water smell. It was at that particular moment that I realized I was home. Stepping onto the monorail that takes you to the main area of the airport and seeing the shops. It felt like we had never even left, and I immediately began to get the feeling of happiness once I realized that we were only 30 minutes away from Disney.

While my dad waited for the luggage to appear my mom and I went downstairs to level 1 to obtain the receipt for the rental car. Since we had already entered all the information needed for the rental car online we were able to make use of Alamo’s Self Serve Kiosk. This only took like 5 minutes and by the time we got upstairs none of the luggage had appeared so we all stood by the carousel waiting. By the time we got our luggage and made our way to the rental car-parking garage it was like 1:30pm. We originally had a lunch planned for 1:50pm but we cancelled it before we actually left for our trip simply because we knew that we would probably not have enough time to get to the reservation in time.

Choosing the rental car is always a “fun” experience. Or maybe “fun” is not the correct word to use. So once we got our luggage we made our way to the rental car garage (as I mentioned before) and located the Fullsize car lot. Of course the choices for cars are limited so basically you are stuck with what they have regardless if you like it or not. We originally had found a Impala that we liked, but the license plate was from Ohio and we (for some reason that I cannot remember) had decided to choose a car that had a Florida license plate. So what car did we end up choosing? Well it was a GMC Terrain. I didn’t really understand how this could be a fullsize car considering years before the fullsize car only involved Impalas and the like. Regardless, it was a nice car…kind of?

Now nobody wants to spend their time looking for a rental car, but there is something that I should mention. If you are using a rental car company be sure to check out the car and report any damages. I’ve heard horror stories of people getting charged for items that were not noted at the time of the rental car check out. This is exactly what we did and the man made a note on our rental car file and before we knew it we were off!

Google maps gave me false directions (yes I’ll blame it on Google…) and we ended up taking a different way to Walt Disney World. I’m pretty sure it’s the same way that the Magical Express takes because we saw many of those buses, but it definitely was not the normal way that we usually go to get to WDW. Regardless it was a nice change, although we only saw one billboard advertisement for Walt Disney World, and it was for the American Idol Experience. But that didn’t matter because in just a mere 30 minutes we saw the ever so joyful Walt Disney World sign.

Up Next: Arriving at the Hotel…But What Will We Think?

 

[emma212010]

I'm in! Sounds fun!! Glad you had a safe trip! I hope you had a great time!

 

[DizneyDreams]

I'm in! Sounds fun!! Glad you had a safe trip! I hope you had a great time!

Welcome!!!!! i'm so happy to have you along. We did have a great time thank you, but it feels like it went by too fast

 

[DizneyDreams]

The Ever So Anticipated Check-In​

We couldn’t really get to the Grand Floridian without driving past the Polynesian. We began to tell ourselves to not look at the Polynesian and wish we were there, but as we drove past the sign I couldn’t help but to remember the past trips and our wonderful stays at the Polynesian. Anyways, we drove past the Polynesian and turned right onto Floridian Way.

Soon enough we were at the front gates of the Grand Floridian. We told the guard that we were checking in and she gave us our parking pass for the week. We decided for the first night that we would use the valet parking services, just because the self-serve parking is across the street and we didn’t want to lug our suitcases that far. We pulled up to the front of the main building and the valet parking cast members greeted us. This is a funny story, but it seems as though (as my mom called it) the cast members all around Walt Disney World got a memo telling them to be nice to the guests. I mean over the entire trip we couldn’t walk 5 feet without someone greeting us or asking us if we needed help finding something. It was a nice change to see, because before it felt like there was a slight disconnect between cast members and the guests but now there is not.

Once we got our luggage out of the car a man who worked at the Grand Floridian approached us and asked us if we needed help with our luggage. We weren’t quite sure how to respond because we hadn’t discussed this prior to our arrival like we did for the valet. We decided to leave our luggage with bell services while we went inside to check in. However after we left our luggage with bell services we were approached by another lady who worked at the Grand Floridian and she asked us if we were checking in. We said “yes” and then she proceeded to ask us if she could walk us into the building to show us around, and once again we said “sure!”. She ended up just telling us what was inside the Grand Floridian main lobby while she walked us to the check-in counter and after she was done giving us a quick overview of the main lobby she directed us to a cast member who checked us into our room.

After the man checked us in he buzzed the bell services and a man greeted us and asked us to meet him outside the main lobby so he could give us a tour of the resort and bring our bags to our room.

He was quite nice and the tour was very helpful. So after he brought us to the main doors of the building in which our room was located, he told us to make our way to our room and he would bring the luggage up.

This is where things started to go into a sour direction. Our room was located in Conch Key which overlooked the marina and had a nice view of the monorail. We know our way around the Polynesian because it is not confusing. The Grand Floridian room buildings on the other hand are confusing. We couldn’t find a way to get up to the second floor. There were no stairs that we could see and we could not find the elevator. We were surrounded by floral décor and no direction at all. We eventually did find our room, but at that point our opinions on the Grand Floridian declined. The room was a little smaller than what we were used to, but we could deal with that. The air conditioning in the room did not work. Apparently it had a sensor problem where the air conditioning could not decline in temperature, and for the majority of the arrival day the temperature in the room was at 75F.

I would like to say at this point that we were not making this stuff up. We were not looking to find things wrong with the room. We honestly thought that the Grand Floridian would be a cleaner hotel in comparison to the Polynesian. But it was worse than the Polynesian.

Now when you are paying the amount of money that you are for the Grand Floridian you would expect the room to be clean, right? I mean that is a fair expectation considering the image that the Grand Floridian exerts. But for some reason our room was not clean. The pillows on the bed (and there were 3 on each bed) all had stains on them that were quite obvious. We turned on the fan in the room, but the fan began to blow chunks of dust all over the place. One step into that hotel room and we were all beginning to regret our decision to stay at the Grand Floridian.

We like the theme of the Polynesian more. I mean I know that each hotel has their own unique theme, but when we booked the Grand Floridian I kind of knew that the room would be stuffy with floral décor everywhere. The entire room layout was different than what we were used to. The Grand Floridian rooms have the shower and toilet in one room and the sinks in another portion of the room. The sink portion of the washroom has carpet flooring and the other part of the washroom has tile flooring.

Maybe deciding to stay at a different hotel was not such a good idea after all. I mean, we were happy to be at Disney World…but we were missing the Polynesian. With where we are going to eat for dinner, the feeling of missing the Polynesian will be deepened.

Up Next: The Delicious Dinner…But Where Will We Eat?

 

[pas130]

Waiting for more......

 

[AlisaMom]

What an interesting report. Waiting for the next events

 

[DizneyDreams]

Waiting for more......

What an interesting report. Waiting for the next events

Welcome!!!!!
I'll try to get another update later on. I know that it is taking a while but I want to leave you all in suspense.

 

[emma212010]

That's too bad about your room! I hope it gets better!!

 

[DizneyDreams]

That's too bad about your room! I hope it gets better!!

Sometimes a bad room leads to a good ending It gets ALOT better