We're back
We landed in Buffalo around 2:15 PM on Wednesday and were back to Mississauga close to 5:00 PM (after a stop a Burger King for last "junk food" in a while.
I will create a new topic jere at DIS with my overall impression of the trip including the hotel I stayed there (very recommended), some of the restaurants we went to, weather and crowds but wanted to say a special Thank you to everyone who helped me to plan the trip here and provide a quick review with the options I was recommended and/or chose:
* Flying from Buffalo
Best experience ever. Good bye Pearson, except for very long flights such as when we go to Brazil every year (I wouldn't want to drive 2 hours after a 10 hour flight). For internal USA flights, it's Buffalo all the way from now on. Crossing the border took 15 minutes, hotel there was amazing and shuttle service was excellent (more below). Southwest is indeed a no frills airline, but for a short flight to Orlando, it's the way to go. Free pop/non alcoholic drinks and snacks. Service was great and you can't beat the price of 650.00 for 4 people to travel, including all taxes.
In Buffalo, we drove to
Walmart SuperCenter on Transit road. WOW, WOW, WOW. Lots of Halloween costumes at 75% off (brand new, not the ones you find after October 31st in Canada, missing masks, gloves, etc). My wife bought our kids a Super-Man costume for 4.00 and a Power Rangers one for 3.00 for next year. We got a nice sposts summer T-shirt for 1.00, down from 12.00. We need to schedule more shopping trips to Buffalo, that's for sure.
* Marriott Niagara Buffalo hotel
What an amazing deal at 77.00 after taxes to include the night stay, parking and shuttle both ways. The hotel was great, too bad we only really slept there and had breakfast the other day. We did take a look at the indoor pool and looked nice, so did the gym. We didn't actually use them.
Important tip: make sure you sign up to their rewards program (free on the website). As a rewards member, you get free internet (otherwise it costs 13.00 per day). There is a business center that you can use the Internet for free as well if you don't have a laptop.
Full buffet breakfast the next morning costed us 13.00 per adult. Differently from what we were told over the phone (that kids any age would pay 7.00), our kids were free (ages 2 and 4). Total bill including taxes and tip was 31.00 which made perfect sense to us as it was pretty cold to dress up the kids, hop in the car and head somewhere else to come back to the hotel and take the shuttle.
Make sure to say HI to Jeannie when you go there. She's the lady in charge of the omelet station and she was so much fun. She works at the hotel for 18years and only called in sick once
.
The shuttle was great both ways. On our way to the airport, although it was scheduled to 9:45 AM, as soon as we got to the lobby, the driver asked if we wanted to leave right away. That was around 9:25 AM. On our way back, I called the hotel and was told the driver was near-by which was true. He arrived at the airport in 7 minutes. Hotel is around a 12 minute drive from the airport. You keep the key of your car, there are MANY available parking spaces there in front of the main entrance.
* Car rental
I was scared by some reviews of Enterprise, but had zero issues with them. I had read they used old cars, with a lot of kilometers on them, etc. Contrary to what I also read online, their cars are IN the MCO airport lot, a 3 minute walk from the rental counter. The coupon I used made the rental at Enterprise at least 70.00 cheaper than any other konwn company (Alamo,
Avis, Dollar, etc). The car I chose had 18000 miles which was not a problem for me being a car I was going to drive for 8 days only. A/C worked perfectly, car had an automatic transmission and it was clean. That's all I really cared.
I was also given an option to upgrade to a minivan for 5.00 per day but I declined as we didn't need the space.
Let me know if anyone has any questions I can help with.
Again, thank you all for all tips and advices. It was a GREAT trip.
Camilo
