Just back - my report on Delta from MSP, National, driving at WDW

[zulaya]

Hi all --- Just got back from a weekend so here's my report.

Air - We were on Delta this time because I got a great rate and was willing to connect to save a lot of money. Had an early early flight out of MSP. I must say I like that Delta starts boarding 30 min. before departure - really makes leaving on time possible. Our captain told us we were #1 for departure. Let me tell you, hearing that makes you feel so good. Smooth ride to Atlanta. So smooth we arrived so early we had to wait a few minutes. Had a connection to make with 1 hr and 15 minutes to spare. Didn't find Atlanta hard to navigate at all - heard a lot of people complaining aobut it, but found their train system awesome. Is it big? Well, yeah. Was it busy? Well, yeah. But hard to navigate? NO. Found the connection and had some time to get some food. Boarded a 777, again we were #1 for departure. Nice Fast Break service for this 1 hr fight. I have to say though that what I like about Delta too is that they give you complimentary head sets to watch TV on the flight. Makes it great to make the flight pass a little faster. Would definitely fly them again as our flights home were uneventful except for a weather delay of 10 minutes in Orlando while waiting for a storm to blow thru.

Car - I'm Emerald Club member so I made a ressie for an Intermediate on the Emerald Aisle. Walked to the cars and strolled the aisle. Saw a couple Buick Century's, lots of Aleros, 2 pickuip trucks, a couple Mitsubishi smaller SUV types. We took a red Jeep Liberty. Good size for the 4 of us and a nice drive. Exiting was a breeze and returning the car was a breeze too.

Driving to and on WDW - please listen to Tyler! The cops are everywhere! Saw them on 417 and near Epcot and MK that looked to me like speed traps. Did see one car pulled over so they are out and enforcing the speed limits. Be careful.

 

[jacksonsmom]

Thank you for your review.

We will be flying out on Delta this Saturday from MSP with a connection in Atlanta.
I was pretty nervous about Atlanta but it sounds pretty easy.

Glad you had a nice trip

 

[zulaya]

jacksonsmom--- Atlanta is easy. Very well laid out. It just is big. Find Atlanta's website and you can see the layout. We arrived at the B Terminal and our connection was in the T terminal. It took maybe 10-15 minutes to walk from our arrival gate, take the train and get to our connecting gate.

The other nice thing is that on approaching Atlanta, the flight attendants announced where your gate was for your connecting flight, in case it had changed since you checked in. Ours had changed since I printed my boarding passes at home so it was nice that they did that.

And even if you miss that announcement, Delta has these huge monitors outside the gate and in the terminals showing where connections/departures are. I found it to be no problem. So don't sweat it.

 

[jacksonsmom]

Originally posted by zulaya
[B
The other nice thing is that on approaching Atlanta, the flight attendants announced where your gate was for your connecting flight, in case it had changed since you checked in. Ours had changed since I printed my boarding passes at home so it was nice that they did that.
[/B]

That's nice.
I will look up Atlanta's airport website.
Are they alot of places to choose from to eat? We have a 1.5 hour lay over right during lunch hour. We were thinking of grabbing something quick between flights. Maybe some pizza????

 

[zulaya]

Every terminal has some sort of food court right as you come up from the train. it's right in the center of the terminal. We flew thru the B terminal so I can really tell you much other than I know things are there. E terminal the food court had a Burger King, Mandarin Express, Pizz Hut, Hot Dogs, Popeye's Chicken and a Bistro place that looks like it did deli sandwiches. You can probably find something to satisfy everyone in your party at those food courts.

If you are in Terminal A, stop by Pasqual's and have breakfast. So many people have talked about it being good southern food, I am sorry we missed it.

 

[jacksonsmom]

Thank you for your insight

Sounds like a lot of food choices.


Glad you had a problem free flight

 

[alexturner74]

www.atlanta-airport.com

 

[hercamore]

Hi,

Sounds like travel went well for you. Didn't miss much here with rainy weather.

How was Star Wars Weekend?

So, you like ATL better than MSP, LOL.

But, does the Atlanta airport have a Lands End outlet?


herc.

 

[zulaya]

Didn't say I liked Atlanta better than MSP. Atlanta is big and with all the bigness, you'd think they'd have some play areas for kids, well they don't. MSP has play areas and with extended layovers, that could be a nice thing to have.

I just meant that I have read a lot on this board that people hate Atlanta, that it's too hard to navigate, and I wanted to clear the air that it

And I am pretty sure that they didnt have a Lands End Outlet

 

[fumipappa]

Car - I'm Emerald Club member so I made a ressie for an Intermediate on the Emerald Aisle. Walked to the cars and strolled the aisle. Saw a couple Buick Century's, lots of Aleros, 2 pickuip trucks, a couple Mitsubishi smaller SUV types. We took a red Jeep Liberty. Good size for the 4 of us and a nice drive. Exiting was a breeze and returning the car was a breeze too.

zulaya- Quick question,

You made ressie for an intermediate. But you can pick up SUV type cars?? I am not familier with Emerald Club, but I though the Aisle also has different type of cars??

 

[erikthewise]

It's not all fast food at Atlanta. Last time I went through I ate at a mini-TGIF (Friday's), right there in one of the terminals. There may be a Chili's Too also. Check out the web site mentioned above.

 

[zulaya]

When you make a ressie for an Intermediate, you have option of walking to the Intermediate Aisle and picking from there, or going to the Emerald Aisle and choosing from what's there. If you make a ressie for a different car class - like Full Size - you can only pick from the Full Size Aisle.

You never know what will be on the Emerald Aisle - it's totally luck whatever is there. Most of what I saw were Intermediate size vehicles. Like I mentioned, there was one or two Buick Century cars (which are Full Size), one or two pick up trucks, the Jeep Liberty I got, Subaru Outback, and whatever the small Mitsubishi SUV thing is. I didn't exactly count how many of each car type there was, but suffice it to say that the Emerald Aisle was fairly full.

There are no guarantees what will be there when you arrive. With the 4 of us for the weekend, we could deal with anything since we only had carry-on baggage.

 

[FredS]

Zulaya:

If you recall, how long did it take to get to the gate (through security, etc.) on your return flight? And did you check-in online in advance or via kiosk or ticket counter or ??

I am presently debating how much time to allow for our return flight in October. Thanks!

 

[zulaya]

We had a 1:10pm flight. We arrived at MCO to return the car around 11:15am. I went to Delta's kiosk's and printed our boarding passes in around 5 minutes. If you are checking bags, you then have to get tags from a Delta person and take them to the federal screeners and then check them in. Dont know how long that process woudl be as we didn't check bags, but it looked like it was fairly fast to get them screened.

We then went to eat lunch before going thru security. When we did go to security, we first had to show our boarding passes adn ID to one person, then walk a few feet and show another person the same info and then walk to where another set of secutiry guards were directing people to about 10 different security stations. We waited not even a minute before we were directed to Station 10 where we divested ourselves of all metal and fed our stuff thru. It took, maybe 10minutes for the whole process. They really kept people moving.

They do ask that if you are wearing shoes that you remove them. I asked about the sandals the kids and I were wearing and they didn't want us to take those off.

Hope that helps.

 

[FredS]

That is the recent, first-hand sort of info I really need!