From Europe to Africa in America - A Sisters' Expedition

[swwake]

Hooray! An update! That food doesn't look half bad! I"m excited that you're in Orlando in the TR now!

 

[kid-at-heart]

The only thing I can think of is "buffalo gals, won't you come out tonight, won't you come out tonight,...." that they sang in It's a Wonderful Life. Is that what you're thinking of?

Are you thinking of the song from "It's a Wonderful Life"? That one is "Buffalo girl can't you come out tonight, can't you come out tonight, can't you come out tonight?" That one is called Dance with a Dolly. I don't know if it has a come out and play verse.

Yep, that's it. Thank you both very much!

 

[kid-at-heart]

The pasta looks great. What is the fruit in the photo that looks like olives? Grapes?

 

[IBelieveInTheMagic]

Hi Magdalene! Great update and pictures!! I actually saw the show over here on the Lufthansa food and the research behind it. I saw it on the Discovery Channel or the Science Channel - very interesting and I'm not one bit surprised!

I smiled when I saw Nodnol's Salz and Pfeffer on her tray!

You've almost arrived now.... YAHOO!

Heather

 

[If U Had Wings]

Yep, that's it. Thank you both very much!

Glad I could help. My niece used to love that song when she was just a baby. I'd have to sing her that and bouncer her over and over again.

 

[All7OfUs]

That makes total sense about the food tasting bland. HA! and yes, very German to actually research it!! So glad they did though, because, I actually look forward to my pasta meals coming and going from here! yeah, I'm weird like that!



So then it makes sense to say, it's an "Luft flight". We are constantly combining Blankistani and English or Russian and English. Some words are just easier to abbreviate or substitute!!

 

[Flossbolna]

This cracked me up. My husband's last name (well, mine too) is Geissel- and there are all boys and barely a girl in any generation! Must be from the opposite side of Germany from the Grummes!

Flossbolna, I am SO HAPPY you're back!! And thanks for the Germany museum tip- we had planned to go to Washington DC this summer, but our plans changed, and now we're going to Hilton Head- although I am going to work on WDC in this next year. We live only 4 hours away, so it's a very doable trip.

I would really love to see Washington DC one day. I think it must be a fascinating place with all the museums and such.

Howe funny about the Geissels and the Grummes and their offspring! BTW, do you know that if you take one "s" out of the name, you have the German word for hostage: Geisel!

Awesome update! Luftansa looks like it has decent food!

The food was really nice!

Yay, airplane food porn!

Wow, two meals, drinks and cordials. Not bad. Love all the details.

It is actually really nice to be taken care of. And btw, there is a whole website dedicated to airplane food porn: http://www.airlinemeals.net/

I can't even remember the last time I've had a meal on a flight. It's been ages since I've been on a flight longer than about 3 1/2 hours, and they stopped serving meals on those ages ago. Those look pretty good though. Now I'm just happy when I get a snack.

Well on any inter-European flight there are snacks only as well!

 

[Flossbolna]

Hooray! An update! That food doesn't look half bad! I"m excited that you're in Orlando in the TR now!

Well, we haven't landed yet... But don't worry nothing very much happened between our last meal and landing!

Yep, that's it. Thank you both very much!

I am happy that the other TR readers could help you out!!

The pasta looks great. What is the fruit in the photo that looks like olives? Grapes?

Yes, it were grapes, I think the flash made them look so dark.

Hi Magdalene! Great update and pictures!! I actually saw the show over here on the Lufthansa food and the research behind it. I saw it on the Discovery Channel or the Science Channel - very interesting and I'm not one bit surprised!

I smiled when I saw Nodnol's Salz and Pfeffer on her tray!

You've almost arrived now.... YAHOO!

Heather

That's intersting that you saw a documentary about it. I would have loved to have seen it, but I guess it won't be on TV here...

That makes total sense about the food tasting bland. HA! and yes, very German to actually research it!! So glad they did though, because, I actually look forward to my pasta meals coming and going from here! yeah, I'm weird like that!



So then it makes sense to say, it's an "Luft flight". We are constantly combining Blankistani and English or Russian and English. Some words are just easier to abbreviate or substitute!!

I know what you mean, Katharina did this sometimes with English words mixed into our German during the trip - for example with the expression of "throwing a tantrum" which translated literally - makes no sense in German, but was fun!

 

[Flossbolna]

Finally it was time to land!!! We were quickly off the plane (another advantage of being towards the front) and headed to immigration. We waited in line only very shortly and ended up talking to the nicest immigration officer I ever met. To be fair, especially the immigration officers in Orlando have all been very friendly to me, I never met one that was giving me a hard time. But this guy could have been a Disney CM, he was that friendly! Before he even looked at our passports he asked “You aren't sisters, are you?” He must have had some Latin American background since he pronounced my first name the Spanish way which is the same as we pronounce it in German. And he was rather impressed by the number of US immigration stamps I have collected in that passport so far!

We were so quickly through immigration that we then had to wait for our suitcases to come out. This is the moment I always hate, I am always a bit nervous that my suitcase might not have made it. But no problem, soon enough we had our suitcases, quickly went through customs and then were on our way to the main terminal building and on to ME. We had to check in at the counter since we had not gotten a ME booklet (international customers don't get one). That wasn't a problem, no line at the counter. But then when we moved on to the lines for the different buses, they were checking vouchers there and there was actually a bit of a line that wasn't moving very fast, because everyone else got checked in there. And there it wasn't one line where you new once it was your turn you would be next, you could end up in the slow line... I did not really like that, but in the end it just added only a few minutes to our wait. We were just too tired of waiting that day to be very patient. We were soon on to our bus and then waited a bit more until we finally departed. The bus driver came on and told us that we would go to Pop Century then Caribbean Beach then to the Beach Club then to AKL Kidani Village. Wow, we did not expect that! Three other hotels before going to ours and then no mention of Jambo House! So once we got to Pop I went to ask the bus driver and it turned out that we were going to AKL (meaning Jambo House) and then to Kidani Village! So those poor people for Kidani were the fifth resort! It turned out that nobody wanted to get off at the Beach Club so this stop was absolutely unnecessary. But I thought it was quite nice to see a little bit of Beach Club, and I liked what I saw. It took us one hour on the bus to reach AKL. I still think ME is a wonderful service for the price (i.e. free), but after travelling for such a long time it wasn't wonderful to be on the bus that long. Still I would do it again without hesitation. The money for a town car would not be worth it for me, I would rather spend that money on something else.


Next: Chapter 4: Arriving at AKL

 

[klacey1]

I wonder why they don't give ME booklets to overseas customers?? We didn't have to check in at the desk and were on our bus in 15 minutes-- we were then the first stop (POR) and it only took about a half hour to get there. I personally thought ME was the greatest thing ever! What you described sounds nightmarish!! However, you're right-- it's just not worth it to shell out cash for a town car.

 

[LuccaDrake]

I'm loving the updates. I'm always most interested to read TR's from people who don't live in the USA and the airline food porn helps too!

~Beka~

 

[glennbo123]

Now why in the world would they take you to Beach Club if nobody had to get off there? That seems crazy to me.

 

[swwake]

Darned bus time eating up your AKL and WDW time! So glad you made it to the hotel. Can't wait for more!

We stayed at the BC last trip and absolutely loved it. Nothing like the convenience of a 5-minute walk to World Showcase!

 

[All7OfUs]

Immigration used to say, "Welcome Home" to us in Chicago or Washington Dulles or National. Not anymore. It's very sad to have been gone for 3 years, and then just be made to feel like you're an unwanted visitor.

Anyway, this ME process has me just a little, little bit nervous. Will I find it without wasting precious time? Will I have to go to 5 resorts to "get home"? Will I have all the right documents?? It is just all so confusing to me!

Glad you are on your way!!! Now we get to see some Disney!

 

[eandesmom]

oh that sounds like a long bus ride after such a long journey...BUT honestly for the 30 minutes you'd have saved...just flat out easier I think to do ME unless you have a pressing reason to do the towncar thing.

 

[If U Had Wings]

That's too bad that you got stuck at the end of the route for drop offs on the ME bus. I've always been lucky - both POFQ and AsSp were either first or second to be dropped off. One would think though that they would know that no one was getting off at Beach Club and could just skip it.

I've had to make multiple stops on the way home, but at that point I'm usually so tired I don't even care. I just want to take a nap.

 

[manntra]

Your airplane food looked quite tasty
Loved all the pictures of the monitor on the plane! I read each one as I scrolled down!!
I am always nervous about my luggage too I had several bad experiences with UsAir and do not fly with them anymore.
It must depend on how many people they have to fill a bus as to the amount of stops....usually when I go to Kidani or Jambo there is just a stop at CBR and Pop....when I go in a few weeks I have my first night at Pop due to weekend
DVC points being so high...it will be hard for me to get off then and not my usual stop at AKV

Tracy

 

[nodnol]

You were so nice to let nodnol have the window. It's awfully nice to have the wall as a headrest! But, ok, terribly inconvenient to get out.

Sometimes it is really nice to be the (spoiled) little sister, I think I got quite a lot of that in the trip

I'm just wondering what your fellow travelers thought of you taking pictures of the Orlando terminal video.

When Flossbolna started taking pictures of the video I was a little nervous - it is quite odd, isn't it? And with a terrorist attempt just one month earlier I was afraid how poeple would react. But then I remembered that we had taken pictures of our food before that and by doing so exposed ourselves already as crazy tourist

Immigration used to say, "Welcome Home" to us in Chicago or Washington Dulles or National. Not anymore. It's very sad to have been gone for 3 years, and then just be made to feel like you're an unwanted visitor.

I was really very impressed by the friendliness of the immigration officer and when we waited in line, I got the impression that the others were quite friendly as well. I was never greeted with a smile by a German police officer when entering the country!

 

[Señor DonDuck]

It is actually really nice to be taken care of. And btw, there is a whole website dedicated to airplane food porn: http://www.airlinemeals.net/

 

[TyRy]

I'm finally caught up - looks like I was able to jump in at the right time. I'm glad your travels did not seem too bad. I think I with you Floss - I just also have the "Reisefieber – traveling fever. " as I check everything a million times. Then again add that to my absolute panic of flying and I should probably be in the hospital!