Just returned late Sat night from 5 day/4 night(spontaneously planned 24 hours after the return from the last trip) trip. We used ME express again as we had for the May/June trip. Because I was in TX playing Army for the intervening time and Mom and sis were spending over half the time on LI, we called and had the ME tags shipped to my mom's work address here rather than our home address. Worked out well, the trip was booked June 6th, she called ME with the address change around June 13th and the tags were postmarked June 24th for a July 26th arrival day.
It took a little longer to get through the line at the airport than it had in May and we arrived both times about 11 in the morning. On that note, we had just made landfall again(why we were over open ocean between Pittsburgh and Orlando, I'm not sure) at about Daytona Beach when Discovery launched Tuesday morning. We were above the clouds at about 10-15,000 ft and could see the SRB burn, then shutoff, the tanks pop off and then the ignition of the main tank. I'm a space geek from even before the Challenger experience in 1986 as I've always been an unusual math/science/adrenaline junkie for a girl even though I ended up in medicine rather than engineering. It was likely a once in lifetime experience to see shuttle launch in that way.
Back to the ME, we hadn't checked luggage even though we had the little yellow taggies to attach as it was just a short trip and we both had plenty of space with carryons. After checking in, went to the line for PO and were sent directly to the bus. Bus left the airport about 5 minutes later and we were the third stop after OKW, POFQ, and then it was POR. Seemed to be the same route as when we went to OKW in May. Bus was maybe 1/4-1/3 full is all. It was actually a ME bus rather than the yellow Mears we had in May.
Found the pickup information when leaving for the park the day before checkout. Said 3:25 pickup for 6:30 flight. Bus(Disney Cruise Line) was there right at 3:25, loaded about 5 parties and off to the airport we went. There is a 'new' video for the ride back enticing you to return by talking about special events and the upcoming Everest attraction. Preaching to the choir here, just because there are only 2 trip counters doesn't mean only 2 trips are in the works.
This 3 hour window that ME builds in ended up being a fortuitous Godsend as we arrived at the airport and I tried using the no checked bags/ boarding pass only self-check in terminal(flew US Air so couldn't check in at the resort as we had done in June with Delta) and it refused to work with the info I had as apparently our last name is too common. That's odd, I thought, normally it just makes you chose the right one. So we go to the human line and the guy says "you don't have any luggage to check?, let's see if we can get you on an earlier flight." There was a problem with the 6:30 flight that they knew it was going to be delayed even at that point(4:07 or so) and we would miss our connection in Charlotte. So reticketed, new boarding passes printed(suprisingly without the STSS special security commonly found on tickets changed within 24 hours of the flight and off we go.) The flight we were put on was marked as boarding at 4:10 with a 4:40 takeoff. It was about 4:15 when we hit the B Terminal TSA line and I explained our situation and we bypassed most of the line. It was still 4:30 when we hit the actual terminal and had to hike it to the opposite end to gate 58. Still boarding, bonus, time to use the restroom first. The flight probably actually pushed back about 5 pm and then we didn't take off until 5:20 as the thunderstorm north of the airport made it so ATC was only allowing planes up every 3 minutes. We hit Charlotte 20 minutes before our connector was supposed to depart and discovered it was delayed almost an hour due to the presence or lack thereof of an airplane. It finally showed up and we arrived back at SYR 1.5 hours before our originally scheduled time. So out of curiousity, I checked our original flights and there real times on the computer. We would have landed in Charlotte at 9:39 and the connector departed at 9:34. The only reason it was even that close was that the connector was delayed too. Oh and t-storms, Charlotte had them too. The plane was hit by lightening on right wing when descending through the clouds. We saw it and heard the pop. No apparent damage done but still an odd experience.
So the morale of the story is that ME policy of getting you to the airport early is the only thing that kept us from being stranded in Charlotte Sat night. Of course it didn't hurt that US Air was on top of things too and owned up to what they knew were developing problems. We will use the ME service again in Oct, Dec, Jan, Mar, May and until whenever they stop offering it. If they start charging and its comparable to what Mears used to charge, we would probably continue although the town car grocery stop vs wegoshop may make the decision a little more challenging for longer trips.
It took a little longer to get through the line at the airport than it had in May and we arrived both times about 11 in the morning. On that note, we had just made landfall again(why we were over open ocean between Pittsburgh and Orlando, I'm not sure) at about Daytona Beach when Discovery launched Tuesday morning. We were above the clouds at about 10-15,000 ft and could see the SRB burn, then shutoff, the tanks pop off and then the ignition of the main tank. I'm a space geek from even before the Challenger experience in 1986 as I've always been an unusual math/science/adrenaline junkie for a girl even though I ended up in medicine rather than engineering. It was likely a once in lifetime experience to see shuttle launch in that way.
Back to the ME, we hadn't checked luggage even though we had the little yellow taggies to attach as it was just a short trip and we both had plenty of space with carryons. After checking in, went to the line for PO and were sent directly to the bus. Bus left the airport about 5 minutes later and we were the third stop after OKW, POFQ, and then it was POR. Seemed to be the same route as when we went to OKW in May. Bus was maybe 1/4-1/3 full is all. It was actually a ME bus rather than the yellow Mears we had in May.
Found the pickup information when leaving for the park the day before checkout. Said 3:25 pickup for 6:30 flight. Bus(Disney Cruise Line) was there right at 3:25, loaded about 5 parties and off to the airport we went. There is a 'new' video for the ride back enticing you to return by talking about special events and the upcoming Everest attraction. Preaching to the choir here, just because there are only 2 trip counters doesn't mean only 2 trips are in the works.
This 3 hour window that ME builds in ended up being a fortuitous Godsend as we arrived at the airport and I tried using the no checked bags/ boarding pass only self-check in terminal(flew US Air so couldn't check in at the resort as we had done in June with Delta) and it refused to work with the info I had as apparently our last name is too common. That's odd, I thought, normally it just makes you chose the right one. So we go to the human line and the guy says "you don't have any luggage to check?, let's see if we can get you on an earlier flight." There was a problem with the 6:30 flight that they knew it was going to be delayed even at that point(4:07 or so) and we would miss our connection in Charlotte. So reticketed, new boarding passes printed(suprisingly without the STSS special security commonly found on tickets changed within 24 hours of the flight and off we go.) The flight we were put on was marked as boarding at 4:10 with a 4:40 takeoff. It was about 4:15 when we hit the B Terminal TSA line and I explained our situation and we bypassed most of the line. It was still 4:30 when we hit the actual terminal and had to hike it to the opposite end to gate 58. Still boarding, bonus, time to use the restroom first. The flight probably actually pushed back about 5 pm and then we didn't take off until 5:20 as the thunderstorm north of the airport made it so ATC was only allowing planes up every 3 minutes. We hit Charlotte 20 minutes before our connector was supposed to depart and discovered it was delayed almost an hour due to the presence or lack thereof of an airplane. It finally showed up and we arrived back at SYR 1.5 hours before our originally scheduled time. So out of curiousity, I checked our original flights and there real times on the computer. We would have landed in Charlotte at 9:39 and the connector departed at 9:34. The only reason it was even that close was that the connector was delayed too. Oh and t-storms, Charlotte had them too. The plane was hit by lightening on right wing when descending through the clouds. We saw it and heard the pop. No apparent damage done but still an odd experience.
So the morale of the story is that ME policy of getting you to the airport early is the only thing that kept us from being stranded in Charlotte Sat night. Of course it didn't hurt that US Air was on top of things too and owned up to what they knew were developing problems. We will use the ME service again in Oct, Dec, Jan, Mar, May and until whenever they stop offering it. If they start charging and its comparable to what Mears used to charge, we would probably continue although the town car grocery stop vs wegoshop may make the decision a little more challenging for longer trips.
