Our travel day started at 4:00 am
an hour when the only people up should be shift workers, alcoholics, and angry loners
The alarm goes off and after a few mumbled blasphemies were up and getting ready to head to the airport. We get the car loaded up and after saying goodbye to three very confused dogs were off.
First we make a quick pit stop at Tim Hortons to grab our coffee & bagels to munch on during the drive. Each year were amazed that we still have to wait in line at that early hour of the morning on the Saturday of a long weekend. This year was the first time we didnt have to wait, though there was a line-up behind us shortly after we get there. Those of you who read our last trip report may recall we promised to bring Timbits to one of the CMs at the Canadian Pavilion at Epcot. We had discussed how to do this and keep them fresh since our first trip to Epcot wouldnt be until Monday. We had been batting ideas around for quite a while then the day before we left we decided it wasnt likely theyd be in very good shape by Monday so we reluctantly decided we couldnt keep our promise.
As we got to the airport, we quickly discovered that the first-class check-in counter was being used for a tour group of teenage girls. After having to listen to them for about 20 minutes before the NWA counters opened up we felt quite relieved we werent flying in coach where wed have had to listen to them for the next 3 hours.
We usually fly coach but we splurged for our October trip and flew first class. As we mentioned in our trip report, its not about being snooty or enjoying the extra perks as much as its about the extra room for me since Lee is not a small man by any means!!
We get through customs quickly and head through security. The first several times we flew to the US after 9/11 Lee was always selected at random for extra screening. This was a rather constant source of amusement for Bonny. This year it was her turn and she got selected for additional screening including a pat down. They were really nice about it and it only delayed us a couple minutes (and we were quite early to begin with).
After about a 40 minute wait we were on our way to Minneapolis. The breakfast served on the plane wasnt too bad at all and after several more cups of black coffee we started to wake up and the excitement set in.
We got to the airport at MSP, which by the way is one of our favourites. We were about to go for a stroll to see which new shops had opened up in the mall section of the airport but we remembered we had to call Emerils to confirm our lunch reservation for the following day. We stopped to do that and when Bonny turned on her cell phone (Lee always leaves his at home when we go on vacation) we discovered there was a message waiting.
It turned out to be a call from our hotel earlier in the morning telling us that our reservation would be cancelled unless we called them by noon Orlando time.
By the time we received the message that deadline had passed but Bonny called right away and discovered that they cancelled our reservation because there was a problem with our Visa card. We had booked these reservations back in February then in July we had switched to a new reward program which required Visa to issue new cards. As youve probably guessed by now, we forgot to change the card on the reservation. Weve stayed at this hotel a number of times before, and to be honest we really didnt appreciate how they handled the situation. Yes it was our mistake but we didnt really see why they couldnt have just told us there was a problem with the card and to call them asap while holding the reservation for an extra couple hours, especially since its off-season and they were far from full. After quite a bit of hassle from the hotel we finally got our reservations reinstated. We were both pretty ticked off at how rude they were when we called them to try and get it straightened out and were debating calling Disney to try to get into POP then cancelling the Comfort Suites reservation. We finally decided to just keep the reservation we had because we got a really good rate but agreed we would just not stay there again.
Once we got our hotel mishap straightened out, it was almost time to hop on our plane to MCO so we headed to the gate and shortly after we got there we were boarded. We took off and a few hours later had arrived at Orlando. Along the way we snapped a few pictures from the plane.
To try and save a bit of time, we decided that Bonny would go down to the Alamo kiosk while Lee waited at the baggage claim carousel. Every time we had gone to Orlando in the past, it took a long time to get our bags and we werent expecting this time to be any different. That Alamo kiosk is fantastic
weve used it twice and both times had our rental car paperwork in hand very quickly. Every time theres a thread on the Dis about the Alamo self-serve kiosks someone mentions that they cant use them because they dont have a US drivers license. Well neither do we and weve never had any problems whatsoever. This time Bonny had our rental car paperwork in hand and made her way back up to the baggage claim carousel before it had even started up. We were both very pleasantly surprised when our bags were amongst the first ones out of the chute. Before we left, we snapped this pic of the ad for
MNSSHP that was right across from the carousel.
We headed out to the parkade and were about to load our bags into a Kia when one of the Alamo staffers pulled up in a Saturn Aura and told us to take it since the a/c was already running and it was cooled off. We thanked her and hopped in and were on our way. In case we dont get to mention it later, we have to tell anyone who may think about buying one of these cars to be prepared to spend a fortune in gas. At home we drive a 2004 Toyota Rav4 SUV and a 2006 Mustang GT. Both of these are considered to be guzzlers but neither of them is anywhere near as thirsty as this Saturn we had. Our hotel was less than 10 mins from Disney and less than 15 from Universal. We only took one day trip to St. Augustine but otherwise stayed close to the hotel and we still ended up going through 6 tanks of gas in the 2 weeks we were there.
We got to the hotel and were curious to see if our reservations had actually been restored. Sure enough they were and we got checked in with no problems. To be perfectly honest we were both a bit disappointed as we had gotten a bit excited about going back to POP instead. We had booked these reservations before our first stay at POP so we really didnt know any better. Plus over the 2 weeks we thought wed get a lot more use out of the fridge, microwave, and extra room we had at Comfort Suites. Anyhoooo we got up to our room and promptly discovered our room keys didnt work. So Lee had to run back downstairs to the lobby to get the keys reprogrammed. Finally we get into our room and snap a few pics before we unpacked.
After a short rest, we get changed into fresh clothes and headed off to Downtown Disney. We take the stairs instead of waiting for the elevator which results in us exiting out the side of the hotel instead of through the lobby which is usually closer to where the car is parked. When we popped out the side next to the garbage dumpster we saw these glowing eyes peeking at us. Just for fun we snapped a quick pic of the racoon.
We got to DTD around 8:00 pm and of course its almost impossible to find a parking spot (duh what did we expect on a Saturday night). After driving around for about 20 minutes we finally found a spot and headed to Earl of Sandwich for a bite. After we ate, we did a bit of browsing and were amazed at how much busier it was than on our last trip in May. After an hour or so of browsing we start feeling the long day and headed back to the hotel. We set the alarm for the next morning and quickly dozed off.
It looks like a nice hotel, hopefully everything keeps going well for you!
