All right, here we go with more of the report.
Wednesday July 25th, our last day at home and we still have ton of stuff to do, even though we have been preparing for our trip for quite sometime. My DW took the day off from work and thank God! I had set the suitcases in the corner of the living room and had started packing since Monday the 23rd. I didn't realise my two wonderful children decided to add what they thought we needed for the trip. When my wife decided to double check what was packed so far, she found the boys had added over 30 more shirts to the suitcase! We waited until Sunday the 22nd to tell them and I wished we had waited until the 25th, to tell the truth. DS 1 was beginning to make us crazy with his way of helping and deciding what he thought should be done. DS2 was right behind him and a willing partner in crime. It was a long 3 days leading up to our departure.
Drove dog to the vet for boarding and took my sons along just so my wife could get things finished in peace. Still didn't matter though, because we were still making changes all the way up to an half hour before our limo arrived. I can't completely describe how crazy our day was because it's almost impossible to put into words. I went to work at 5pm and left what little there was to do, in my wife's hands. My good friend Rich who helped take care of my business while I was gone, was beyond helpful that day and because of his extra help, I was able to get home by 10 pm. Which, BTW, is 3hours earlier than I normally do. In retrospect, I would have been better off working my regular later hours, because when I got home my 2 sons were in the death grip of the dreaded "night before vacation syndrome". When I walked in the door, you would have thought my kids had drank a 12 pack of Mountain Dew or something. Now mind you our limo was scheduled to arrive by 4:30 am and it was almost 11 pm and no one in the house was ready for sleep. Yeah, this adventure was going to be fun, with just 2 hours of sleep under our belts.
We were all finally were in bed by midnight, but you could hear my kids whispering to themselves and giggling. If I had a dollar for every time I went into their room to get them to settle down, I could book another trip at the Portofino.
The funny thing was my wife and I are laying in bed and we're just as excited as the kids. My wife looked at the clock and said, it's 12:30 and if we go to sleep right now, will get 3 hours if we're lucky. I think we both tossed and turned until about 1:30 and I remember seeing the alarm clock tell the time. I woke up around 3 am before the alarm went off and started getting ready. My kids had heard me walk downstairs and were like, Dad, is it time? Only if they could get up like this when it's a school day.
Coffee was brewing, showers were going and before you knew it our limo was in the driveway at 4:30 am sharp. Man, those suitcases were heavy! It was so weird driving to the airport in the complete dark and getting to ORD so early.
Once at the airport we used skycap for checking our luggage. (Yeah we don't have to lug the heavy bags to the counter, since we already had our boarding passes. It was worth the 5 buck tip and I said a silent prayer that our luggage would find it's way back to us. Onto security, as some you might remember my new artificial hip might cause a problem, well it did. Thinking I was prepared I had a card and letter from the doctor stating the date and information about the surgery. Well let me just say that was not needed and was completely useless, I might add. They made me stand there with arms in the air like a scarecrow and with my wallet in my hand, while they proceeded to pat me down and run the wand all over me, again and again.. Of course, it still was going off when it went over my left hip though. The security guy would give me the look like maybe I was the first 6ft, 310 pound terrorist he had ever came across. I twice offered all the paper work and the card from my doctor, but decided that it would make better use as toilet paper, if our flight ever got lost and was low on supplies
The wife and kids were already through and just waiting until I got the all clear. Then we made it to our departing gate with a lot of time to wait. This was the part I was starting to dread. We all got a little breakfast at McDonald's, yet ate very little and waited until it was time to board the plane.
They did let us board early because of DS2 and that seemed to keep his autistic tendencies in neutral for the time being.. The flight was good to Atlanta, we were very lucky that our departing gate to MCO was just across from the gate we landed at. Too bad the returning flight back to Atlanta a week later wasn't as easy and I was fooled into thinking the Atlanta airport wasn't that bad. More on that later.
We boarded our flight from Atlanta to MCO, all went smooth, when we arrived at MCO and the excitement was building! We proceeded to the baggage claim area where we seen 2 drivers on opposite sides of a column at the end of the escalator, with our name on their boards. (Sun Ray &
FL tours). We had cancelled our reservation with FL tours months ago. Talk about FL Tours dropping the ball. I told that driver that I canceled the reservation months ago. He didn't speak, but more of less grumbled something and got on his cell phone. I called FL Tours when I later checked into the Portofino but never heard back from them.
Hurray! We're finally in FL and the whole family was beyond excited. Roger was our driver from Sun Ray, what a really nice guy. The Suburban he had was clean and comfortable. While we're driving he gave us an update on what was new in Orlando. I can't fully describe how professional he was and as long as Bob and Roger own Sun Ray, they will always have my business. A+++ Fantastic service!
When we arrived on Universal property I was absorbed in taking it all in. The property just leading up to the Portofino was a lot bigger than I imagined and was very pretty and well landscaped, IMO. As we pulled up to the entrance of the Portofino, Roger gave us some parting words. "
The Portofino is nice, but you might want to get a GPS unit and a guide map after you check in". I found out later how correct he was. This place was enormous, but more on that later!
Next up: Checking in, getting lost in the hallways of the PBH, and finally finding our way.
I finally figured out I was lost and had to collect myself before I got angry over something stupid and ruined the first part of the trip. I looked at a map of the hotel and within moments I had found my hallway and room. I have forgotten my room number but it was at the very end of the West wing on the first floor and three doors down from the exit that leads you to a side path to the boat dock. I turned on the air and opened up the curtains and saw my window looked out over the pool near the kids area and the cabanas. I rested for a minute and took it all in. I have to say the room was nice, but nothing said wow to me, until I opened the bathroom. It was big and I laughed to myself that it was 3/4 the size of a Disney Value resort room and this was a standard room! I went and retrieved my tired family and hiked the back to the room. We all walked into our room and we all looked like death warmed over. I called Bell services to get our luggage and also called the front desk about the stand up lamp in the corner that was broken.
