8caliace
United States Air Force
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2000
- Messages
- 324
This was our 4th trip to WDW and by far the most stressful in planning, but the most rewarding and relaxing trip yet.
The Crew:
Ace(me): 30, Active duty Air Force currently stationed in TX
Nancy: DW, 29. Civil service job on the base
Nick: 6, DS. First grader on fall break
Cameron: 8 months, DD. Spoiled lil girl.
JoAnn: 57, my mom. Lives in Vegas, always ready to spoil the grandchildren
Rob: 23, my brother. Works for an airline, and training as EMT/firefighter in Las Vegas
Ali: 27, brother's girlfriend. Also works for airline.
Tom: 27, Active duty Air Force stationed in California
When we left off, we had all managed to squeeze on the Wednesday night/Thursday morning flight from Vegas to Orlando. My mom would be flying out the next night as she had to work on Thrusday. All the rescheduling left us without any transportation from Orlando. I had Pricelined us 2 rooms at the Clarion Maingate on 192. After landing, we tried contacting the hotel to see if there was an airport shuttle, but no luck. Tom ran off to hit all the rental counters in search of a mini-van. We inquired at Mears and left that as our last resort. After about an hour Tom returned, having found what we were told was the last mini-van available at the airport. He did not grab it yet, so we dashed back to L&M to snatch it. $99 for the day which we all split so it worked out fine. It actually was great because we had the van to return tomorrow while picking up my mom, and then get the mini-van for the week. We loaded up our mountain of bags and baby gear and were off.
By this time is still only about 9:30, but we decide to find the hotel anyway. We arrive on 192 and find the Clarion. Thinking that we would be able to at least store our gear and head out, we head to the counter. What a blessing to be actually given our rooms at about 10am! We unload and take our bags up. By this time we are starving. Denny's is next door, but it is packed, so we head to Shoney's, which was a mess as well but we got some food into our bodies. Then off to Universal to purchase our passes. With myself and Tom, we are able to buy the military deal passes for our entire group. We decide to try IOA first and head in. I had an Express pass book from the Kodak camera we bought so I head to Guest Services to redeem. I misread the fine print, as I thought the passes were good for up to 5 people, but they are just for 1. Well we were able to get that taken care of thanks to some cool employees in the office who gave us extra passes for us all. Crowds were very light, so Nancy took the kids into Dr Seuss, while the rest of us headed to the Hulk. I was really looking forward to this since this was our first time at Universal. Great ride! It was already hot so we dashed to Dudley Do-Right to get wet and then met back up with the others. By now, we are feeling a bit worn from our night flight. We wander for a bit then decide to get an early dinner at Margaritaville. Great place and very relaxing, especially the Margaritas. We wander out through the shops and end up jumping into the Studios to take a peek around. We hit Shrek 4-D, Twister, and the see the Ghostbusters show before closing time. Head out back to the hotel and crash for a little bit. We made a call to a friend in Orlando we comes out to see us and we head to a mini-golf place down to road for the first of the week's "Skins Games" Rob ends up winning this round, taking a few bucks from Tom and I. Back to the hotel for some real sleep, as we have to get up early to pick up my Mom, return this van, and pick up the other.
Up next, Day 2 & 3
The Crew:
Ace(me): 30, Active duty Air Force currently stationed in TX
Nancy: DW, 29. Civil service job on the base
Nick: 6, DS. First grader on fall break
Cameron: 8 months, DD. Spoiled lil girl.
JoAnn: 57, my mom. Lives in Vegas, always ready to spoil the grandchildren
Rob: 23, my brother. Works for an airline, and training as EMT/firefighter in Las Vegas
Ali: 27, brother's girlfriend. Also works for airline.
Tom: 27, Active duty Air Force stationed in California
When we left off, we had all managed to squeeze on the Wednesday night/Thursday morning flight from Vegas to Orlando. My mom would be flying out the next night as she had to work on Thrusday. All the rescheduling left us without any transportation from Orlando. I had Pricelined us 2 rooms at the Clarion Maingate on 192. After landing, we tried contacting the hotel to see if there was an airport shuttle, but no luck. Tom ran off to hit all the rental counters in search of a mini-van. We inquired at Mears and left that as our last resort. After about an hour Tom returned, having found what we were told was the last mini-van available at the airport. He did not grab it yet, so we dashed back to L&M to snatch it. $99 for the day which we all split so it worked out fine. It actually was great because we had the van to return tomorrow while picking up my mom, and then get the mini-van for the week. We loaded up our mountain of bags and baby gear and were off.
By this time is still only about 9:30, but we decide to find the hotel anyway. We arrive on 192 and find the Clarion. Thinking that we would be able to at least store our gear and head out, we head to the counter. What a blessing to be actually given our rooms at about 10am! We unload and take our bags up. By this time we are starving. Denny's is next door, but it is packed, so we head to Shoney's, which was a mess as well but we got some food into our bodies. Then off to Universal to purchase our passes. With myself and Tom, we are able to buy the military deal passes for our entire group. We decide to try IOA first and head in. I had an Express pass book from the Kodak camera we bought so I head to Guest Services to redeem. I misread the fine print, as I thought the passes were good for up to 5 people, but they are just for 1. Well we were able to get that taken care of thanks to some cool employees in the office who gave us extra passes for us all. Crowds were very light, so Nancy took the kids into Dr Seuss, while the rest of us headed to the Hulk. I was really looking forward to this since this was our first time at Universal. Great ride! It was already hot so we dashed to Dudley Do-Right to get wet and then met back up with the others. By now, we are feeling a bit worn from our night flight. We wander for a bit then decide to get an early dinner at Margaritaville. Great place and very relaxing, especially the Margaritas. We wander out through the shops and end up jumping into the Studios to take a peek around. We hit Shrek 4-D, Twister, and the see the Ghostbusters show before closing time. Head out back to the hotel and crash for a little bit. We made a call to a friend in Orlando we comes out to see us and we head to a mini-golf place down to road for the first of the week's "Skins Games" Rob ends up winning this round, taking a few bucks from Tom and I. Back to the hotel for some real sleep, as we have to get up early to pick up my Mom, return this van, and pick up the other.
Up next, Day 2 & 3
