bengunn
Pirate Member
- Joined
- Aug 9, 2001
- Messages
- 375
Day 1 The Trip to Orlando
Previous episodes:
Prequel
The Cast:
Richard (bengunn): Chief planner
Kathy : DW, just wants to go on holiday
Josie : DD 20, at Reading University, Assistant Planner, not very good at getting up
Sam : DS 17, just done AS exams, can get up very quickly when he wants to
Friday 16th August
Got up at about 07:30 if I remember correctly , amazed to find that DD and DS (who were in a separate room) were also getting up
. Full English breakfast was included in the room price and this was a good selection of fruit juice, cereals, eggs, bacon, sausages, tomatoes, toast and tea or coffee; it was all good and they cook excellent fried eggs.
The taxi arrived as we were finishing breakfast (about 08:45) so Josie went and told them that we would be a few minutes. Ten minutes later, Kathy and I went down to the taxi, the driver said he could not wait any longer so I ran upstairs to grab the children who were ready, thank goodness. We got in the taxi; arrived at Gatwick in about 5 minutes and I pacified the taxi driver with £10 for a £6 fare (he was very happy then)
.
We looked at the long Virgin check-in queue and gloated
; then went through security very quickly even though Sam set of the alarm and had to be hand searched (he hoped it was the metal plates in his arm but from later checks it was his belt buckle). No gate was shown for our flight yet, so we found some seats in the departure lounge and took it in turns to look after our bags while the others looked round the shops. The only purchase was Josie buying a copy of Are you Dave Gorman which sound funny from laughs through out the holiday and various extracts read in the car but I have not had a chance to read it yet. We also passed the time filling in the Visa Waver and Customs forms; Sam and I managed to make mistakes on ours
In due course our gate was displayed and we caught the tram to the satellite terminal. They were randomly checking bags at the entrance to the satellite but ignored us. A short wait until boarding the plane and all bags were checked before boarding. The plane took off a little late at 11:38 instead of 11:15 (partly due I would think to the fact that we had to taxi to the far end of the runway and take-off towards the terminal).
Our seats were 62A, C, D, E; the children had the one near the window and Kathy and I sat in the centre block.
There was a fair bit of turbulence during the flight the seatbelt signs were on for quite a while but it was mild buffeting rather than anything frightening. We all watched Spiderman and then I read as none of the other films inspired me. The lunch was very good for airline food (I think I had salmon but did not write it down) and ice-creams were served later on in the afternoon. We had no problems with people reclining seats in front of us or with children kicking from behind, I am pleased to say. Managed to get some replacement Visa Waver forms and filled them in. All in all an uneventful flight which landed at 15:00, a little early.
Being at the back of the plane, we were among the last off and when we joined the Immigration queues they were all very long. We joined what looked like the shortest one only to find that it was definitely the slowest one. Eventually someone called us over to join another queue which had completely emptied (it had been out of sight from us originally). Through Immigration with no problem (we had got the forms right second time amazingly). We reclaimed our suitcases, gave in our Customs form (they used to ask lots of questions here but dont now) and then joined another (short) queue to have all our bags X-rayed by the US Department of Agriculture (looking for meat and fruit allegedly). We then gave our bags in again for their trip to the main terminal and then traipsed around to join yet another long queue to get up an escalator; they only let about 10 people up at a time. When we eventually got up the escalator we found out why, as we then had to join another long queue to have our hand luggage X-rayed again and walk through a metal detector. None of us set off the alarm which seemed to both please and surprise the man with it (I think we were the first that day). Finally we were able to queue for the tram to the main terminal.
We then reclaimed our bags again and went downstairs to find the Dollar desk. Guess what? Yes, youre right another queue! Eventually we got seen, we had taken the platinum package (I think) and had booked a premium car (we had a very good deal on this from Something Special) so we had no upgrade hassles just the car will be a Chrysler Concorde like this one (points to picture) are you happy with that or would you like to look at something else (like a lorry perhaps?).
We left the Dollar desk at 17:00, 2 hours after landing, and walked out into the incredibly hot and humid outside. Struggled across to the car pick-up point with all our luggage and found our car. The car was impressive, very sleek looking with electric everything (including seats with memories) and a huge boot/trunk. The boot was so big that I could not reach the back of it with both feet on the ground; it easily took four large hard cases and our hand luggage and I later found out how to fit them better so that it could have taken another 2 medium case as well.
It was very hot in the garage and the car so we put the air conditioning on and looked at the maps and directions to work out where we were going while the car cooled down. It took us about 30 minutes to drive to the villa management company which was on a filling station forecourt and we found it easily (or so we thought) but the door was locked. We had instructions on how to open the out of hours lock box but there was nothing in there for us! Panic was starting to set in now so I went to a payphone on the other side of the garage and rang the number for the management company, not really expecting to get an answer. Surprisingly someone did answer, so I explained who we were and said that their office was closed. They replied that their office was not closed and that we had gone to their real-estate and ticket office which was next door. Looking across at the offices, I immediately saw the correct office did I feel stupid or what? (mind you it was 22:30 to me). We went into the office to find that out villa had been changed but nobody had bothered to tell us; the person who had made the change apparently no longer worked for them and so they did not know whether they had not told Something Special or whether Something Special had not told us. In the end, it did not matter as we had 116 Country Creek Lane instead of 100 Country Creek Lane and they were apparently identical (we later found out that the 2 villas had been our first and second choices and we had picked one at random).
We then drove to our villa about 15 minutes away. Josie and Sam were impressed with all of the advertising boards and gimmicks on the 192, such as 3D adverts with horns, a giant orange, viking helmets etc. we also passed Xanadu, house of the future, which looks a bit run down (although someone was cleaning or repainting it later in our holiday). Our villa was off Bass Road which is south off the 192 between the Walmart and Pirates Island mini-golf.
We found the villa and were very happy with it apart from all of the warning notices about blocking toilets and that if you leave excess trash it will be hauled away (visions of a huge truck towing old car wrecks down the road). These notices appeared to imply that the average visitor had no common sense and an IQ of about 10 and we were a bit annoyed by them. Otherwise the villa was nice with a pool at the back and a nice view of a lake at the bottom of the garden. We unpacked, swam in the pool, as I was about to melt, showered and changed, and then drove to the Golden Corral down towards Kissimmee. We had the steak buffet which is all you can eat and includes sirloin steak, chicken, fish and much, much more. The food was good although we were totally shattered by now; with free refill drinks, and minus 10% from a coupon, this came to $45 plus tip for four of us.
We then drove back to Walmarts bought a few essentials for breakfast (cereals, milk, orange juice, butter, bread, jam, etc.) and two excellent water bottles that were lifesavers for the rest of out trip. The water bottles had shoulder straps, insulating covers, and inserts that you put in the freezer overnight to help keep them cool; they cost $4.88 plus 35c tax each. You can find them in the fishing and camping section of Walmart. Total expenditure on Walmart tonight was $28.11 can I claim this as a record low? By the way, we were amazed how cheap the orange juice was (yes I know that they grow them here) - $1.88 for a large carton of Tropicana fresh juice.
Finally we went back to the villa and pretty much straight to bed at 22:00.
By the way, I have updated the previous episode to include MORE detail as requested.
Tomorrow: Animal Kingdom
Previous episodes:
Prequel
The Cast:
Richard (bengunn): Chief planner
Kathy : DW, just wants to go on holiday
Josie : DD 20, at Reading University, Assistant Planner, not very good at getting up
Sam : DS 17, just done AS exams, can get up very quickly when he wants to
Friday 16th August
Got up at about 07:30 if I remember correctly , amazed to find that DD and DS (who were in a separate room) were also getting up
. Full English breakfast was included in the room price and this was a good selection of fruit juice, cereals, eggs, bacon, sausages, tomatoes, toast and tea or coffee; it was all good and they cook excellent fried eggs.The taxi arrived as we were finishing breakfast (about 08:45) so Josie went and told them that we would be a few minutes. Ten minutes later, Kathy and I went down to the taxi, the driver said he could not wait any longer so I ran upstairs to grab the children who were ready, thank goodness. We got in the taxi; arrived at Gatwick in about 5 minutes and I pacified the taxi driver with £10 for a £6 fare (he was very happy then)
.We looked at the long Virgin check-in queue and gloated
; then went through security very quickly even though Sam set of the alarm and had to be hand searched (he hoped it was the metal plates in his arm but from later checks it was his belt buckle). No gate was shown for our flight yet, so we found some seats in the departure lounge and took it in turns to look after our bags while the others looked round the shops. The only purchase was Josie buying a copy of Are you Dave Gorman which sound funny from laughs through out the holiday and various extracts read in the car but I have not had a chance to read it yet. We also passed the time filling in the Visa Waver and Customs forms; Sam and I managed to make mistakes on ours In due course our gate was displayed and we caught the tram to the satellite terminal. They were randomly checking bags at the entrance to the satellite but ignored us. A short wait until boarding the plane and all bags were checked before boarding. The plane took off a little late at 11:38 instead of 11:15 (partly due I would think to the fact that we had to taxi to the far end of the runway and take-off towards the terminal).
Our seats were 62A, C, D, E; the children had the one near the window and Kathy and I sat in the centre block.
There was a fair bit of turbulence during the flight the seatbelt signs were on for quite a while but it was mild buffeting rather than anything frightening. We all watched Spiderman and then I read as none of the other films inspired me. The lunch was very good for airline food (I think I had salmon but did not write it down) and ice-creams were served later on in the afternoon. We had no problems with people reclining seats in front of us or with children kicking from behind, I am pleased to say. Managed to get some replacement Visa Waver forms and filled them in. All in all an uneventful flight which landed at 15:00, a little early.
Being at the back of the plane, we were among the last off and when we joined the Immigration queues they were all very long. We joined what looked like the shortest one only to find that it was definitely the slowest one. Eventually someone called us over to join another queue which had completely emptied (it had been out of sight from us originally). Through Immigration with no problem (we had got the forms right second time amazingly). We reclaimed our suitcases, gave in our Customs form (they used to ask lots of questions here but dont now) and then joined another (short) queue to have all our bags X-rayed by the US Department of Agriculture (looking for meat and fruit allegedly). We then gave our bags in again for their trip to the main terminal and then traipsed around to join yet another long queue to get up an escalator; they only let about 10 people up at a time. When we eventually got up the escalator we found out why, as we then had to join another long queue to have our hand luggage X-rayed again and walk through a metal detector. None of us set off the alarm which seemed to both please and surprise the man with it (I think we were the first that day). Finally we were able to queue for the tram to the main terminal.
We then reclaimed our bags again and went downstairs to find the Dollar desk. Guess what? Yes, youre right another queue! Eventually we got seen, we had taken the platinum package (I think) and had booked a premium car (we had a very good deal on this from Something Special) so we had no upgrade hassles just the car will be a Chrysler Concorde like this one (points to picture) are you happy with that or would you like to look at something else (like a lorry perhaps?).
We left the Dollar desk at 17:00, 2 hours after landing, and walked out into the incredibly hot and humid outside. Struggled across to the car pick-up point with all our luggage and found our car. The car was impressive, very sleek looking with electric everything (including seats with memories) and a huge boot/trunk. The boot was so big that I could not reach the back of it with both feet on the ground; it easily took four large hard cases and our hand luggage and I later found out how to fit them better so that it could have taken another 2 medium case as well.
It was very hot in the garage and the car so we put the air conditioning on and looked at the maps and directions to work out where we were going while the car cooled down. It took us about 30 minutes to drive to the villa management company which was on a filling station forecourt and we found it easily (or so we thought) but the door was locked. We had instructions on how to open the out of hours lock box but there was nothing in there for us! Panic was starting to set in now so I went to a payphone on the other side of the garage and rang the number for the management company, not really expecting to get an answer. Surprisingly someone did answer, so I explained who we were and said that their office was closed. They replied that their office was not closed and that we had gone to their real-estate and ticket office which was next door. Looking across at the offices, I immediately saw the correct office did I feel stupid or what? (mind you it was 22:30 to me). We went into the office to find that out villa had been changed but nobody had bothered to tell us; the person who had made the change apparently no longer worked for them and so they did not know whether they had not told Something Special or whether Something Special had not told us. In the end, it did not matter as we had 116 Country Creek Lane instead of 100 Country Creek Lane and they were apparently identical (we later found out that the 2 villas had been our first and second choices and we had picked one at random).
We then drove to our villa about 15 minutes away. Josie and Sam were impressed with all of the advertising boards and gimmicks on the 192, such as 3D adverts with horns, a giant orange, viking helmets etc. we also passed Xanadu, house of the future, which looks a bit run down (although someone was cleaning or repainting it later in our holiday). Our villa was off Bass Road which is south off the 192 between the Walmart and Pirates Island mini-golf.
We found the villa and were very happy with it apart from all of the warning notices about blocking toilets and that if you leave excess trash it will be hauled away (visions of a huge truck towing old car wrecks down the road). These notices appeared to imply that the average visitor had no common sense and an IQ of about 10 and we were a bit annoyed by them. Otherwise the villa was nice with a pool at the back and a nice view of a lake at the bottom of the garden. We unpacked, swam in the pool, as I was about to melt, showered and changed, and then drove to the Golden Corral down towards Kissimmee. We had the steak buffet which is all you can eat and includes sirloin steak, chicken, fish and much, much more. The food was good although we were totally shattered by now; with free refill drinks, and minus 10% from a coupon, this came to $45 plus tip for four of us.
We then drove back to Walmarts bought a few essentials for breakfast (cereals, milk, orange juice, butter, bread, jam, etc.) and two excellent water bottles that were lifesavers for the rest of out trip. The water bottles had shoulder straps, insulating covers, and inserts that you put in the freezer overnight to help keep them cool; they cost $4.88 plus 35c tax each. You can find them in the fishing and camping section of Walmart. Total expenditure on Walmart tonight was $28.11 can I claim this as a record low? By the way, we were amazed how cheap the orange juice was (yes I know that they grow them here) - $1.88 for a large carton of Tropicana fresh juice.
Finally we went back to the villa and pretty much straight to bed at 22:00.
By the way, I have updated the previous episode to include MORE detail as requested.
Tomorrow: Animal Kingdom
Had to smile to myself about the real estate mix up though, thats like something I would do
