epcotfan
http://youtube.com/wdwchannel1
- Joined
- Jun 6, 2001
- Messages
- 4,878
Epcotfan's January Trip Report
Cast: Me aka Epcotfan (32 From Toronto, ON, Canada. Small business owner)
Mom...(Older than I
From Toronto. Nurse) lets call her June shall we?(...Ever since I was a little kid I would come in for lunch and say, June I'm home, where's the Beav?...just like on Leave It To Beaver) That is not her name but I've always affectionately called her that. Makes her laugh.
Jan 26th, 2005 Arrival Day. Headed to the Airport at 5:30 a.m. to avoid the oncoming snowstorm. Airport Limo service arrived on time and we began our snowy journey to the airport.
Now, normally the drive is only about 20 minutes, but this time it took about 40 due to traffic and the snow. We collected our giant sized luggage. (I always joke about how big the
bags are) They remind me of small refrigerators on wheels.
LOL. I guess they seem large to me because I've almost always used a smaller suitcase for travel. They are made by Air Canada and I dislike that mine is black. It looks like EVERYONE else's luggage. I tied a lime green ribbon to the handle and put small neon dot stickers on the corners of my bag. Clearly it looked like my bag had the chicken pox. He he.
We go to use the express check in kiosk and are denied. Tells us to go to some "green triangle" counter. It is really intimidating looking.It looks like a Yield sign, but is a vomit green. Now we are worried there is a problem with our tickets.
So we roll the bags to the queue and wait, nervously. Imagining our lovely vacation going down the toilet. Another business guy is having trouble checking in. The Air Canada agent is on the phone sorting out his ticket. Finally we are called to the counter. We hand over our passports and the same problem arises. She gets on the phone and
tells the person she is talking to that this is the second time in a row there is a problem with tickets. She asks for my aeroplan card and does some stuff on the computer. All the while
not telling us what is going on and looking very serious. She never told us what was wrong and then hands us our boarding passes. Very weird. Must have been a computer glitch with
a batch of tickets or something. We will never know.
Relieved to get our tickets we head to Customs. Thankfully there is no line. We are immediately directed to an agent and hand over our passports again. For some reason whenever we get in front of a customs agent we tend to answer in unison. It is very weird and often makes the agents laugh. The agent asks the standard questions and scans our passports. He doesn't event look at mine. Glad that we are not interrogated we roll our bags to security.
I am pathetic at getting my suitcase onto the conveyor belt. It looks like I am wrestling it when I try to lob it onto the belt. I throw my mother's on there and hope they make it to our plane. We head to security. Of course I have all the electronic equipment in my bag (video camera, digital camera, cell phone, chargers, batteries, etc...) I am stopped and my video camera batteries are analyzed.I am okayed and finally set free.
We decide to head to the news stand and get some magazines and snacks since we have a 2.5 hour wait ahead. So far the flight is on time. They've finally installed plasma screens which broadcast the CBC news in the gate area. We position ourselves to view it and watch for a while. As it gets busier we can no longer hear the news so we turn to our magazines. I've been a bundle of nerves so the magazine calms me for a bit. I eat a few Munchos and drink my water. Close to boarding time it is announced the gate is changed to board a different plane. We walk what feels like a mile from gate ?C? to gate ?U? We were supposed to leave at 9:45am and it is now 10:00am when we start boarding the plane. Apparently our plane has been left out during the snowstorm overnight and there is ice all over the wings. Also food services are late in loading the plane. We sit on the runway for one HOUR and wait for Cara Foods to service the plane. THEN we taxi to a de-icing station to rid the wings of the thick layer of ice that has accumulated on them overnight. We have been sitting in our seats on the plane for almost two HOURS. We could have almost been to Orlando by now! The flight from Toronto to Orlando is normally two hours and 20 minutes. Finally we take off and the flight is uneventful and smooth. We disembark the plane and go to retrieve our luggage....(More coming soon)
Cast: Me aka Epcotfan (32 From Toronto, ON, Canada. Small business owner)
Mom...(Older than I
From Toronto. Nurse) lets call her June shall we?(...Ever since I was a little kid I would come in for lunch and say, June I'm home, where's the Beav?...just like on Leave It To Beaver) That is not her name but I've always affectionately called her that. Makes her laugh.Jan 26th, 2005 Arrival Day. Headed to the Airport at 5:30 a.m. to avoid the oncoming snowstorm. Airport Limo service arrived on time and we began our snowy journey to the airport.
Now, normally the drive is only about 20 minutes, but this time it took about 40 due to traffic and the snow. We collected our giant sized luggage. (I always joke about how big the
bags are) They remind me of small refrigerators on wheels.
LOL. I guess they seem large to me because I've almost always used a smaller suitcase for travel. They are made by Air Canada and I dislike that mine is black. It looks like EVERYONE else's luggage. I tied a lime green ribbon to the handle and put small neon dot stickers on the corners of my bag. Clearly it looked like my bag had the chicken pox. He he.
We go to use the express check in kiosk and are denied. Tells us to go to some "green triangle" counter. It is really intimidating looking.It looks like a Yield sign, but is a vomit green. Now we are worried there is a problem with our tickets.
So we roll the bags to the queue and wait, nervously. Imagining our lovely vacation going down the toilet. Another business guy is having trouble checking in. The Air Canada agent is on the phone sorting out his ticket. Finally we are called to the counter. We hand over our passports and the same problem arises. She gets on the phone and
tells the person she is talking to that this is the second time in a row there is a problem with tickets. She asks for my aeroplan card and does some stuff on the computer. All the while
not telling us what is going on and looking very serious. She never told us what was wrong and then hands us our boarding passes. Very weird. Must have been a computer glitch with
a batch of tickets or something. We will never know.
Relieved to get our tickets we head to Customs. Thankfully there is no line. We are immediately directed to an agent and hand over our passports again. For some reason whenever we get in front of a customs agent we tend to answer in unison. It is very weird and often makes the agents laugh. The agent asks the standard questions and scans our passports. He doesn't event look at mine. Glad that we are not interrogated we roll our bags to security.
I am pathetic at getting my suitcase onto the conveyor belt. It looks like I am wrestling it when I try to lob it onto the belt. I throw my mother's on there and hope they make it to our plane. We head to security. Of course I have all the electronic equipment in my bag (video camera, digital camera, cell phone, chargers, batteries, etc...) I am stopped and my video camera batteries are analyzed.I am okayed and finally set free.
We decide to head to the news stand and get some magazines and snacks since we have a 2.5 hour wait ahead. So far the flight is on time. They've finally installed plasma screens which broadcast the CBC news in the gate area. We position ourselves to view it and watch for a while. As it gets busier we can no longer hear the news so we turn to our magazines. I've been a bundle of nerves so the magazine calms me for a bit. I eat a few Munchos and drink my water. Close to boarding time it is announced the gate is changed to board a different plane. We walk what feels like a mile from gate ?C? to gate ?U? We were supposed to leave at 9:45am and it is now 10:00am when we start boarding the plane. Apparently our plane has been left out during the snowstorm overnight and there is ice all over the wings. Also food services are late in loading the plane. We sit on the runway for one HOUR and wait for Cara Foods to service the plane. THEN we taxi to a de-icing station to rid the wings of the thick layer of ice that has accumulated on them overnight. We have been sitting in our seats on the plane for almost two HOURS. We could have almost been to Orlando by now! The flight from Toronto to Orlando is normally two hours and 20 minutes. Finally we take off and the flight is uneventful and smooth. We disembark the plane and go to retrieve our luggage....(More coming soon)
