steve_rob
Mine? Mine? Mine? Mine?
- Joined
- May 23, 2002
- Messages
- 1,461
Now this is my first stab at doing one of these trip report thingys, so please be patient with me! I know Ive had plenty of fun from reading all of yours over the years (plus picked up numerous handy hints) so this is my way of saying thank you!
Anyway, some introductions first I feel are in order. Going on this trip are : Me (Steve), 26 (although turning 27 during the holiday), and my fiancée Erika, 30. This is only my second trip to Florida, and as the first one was just six weeks after 9/11, this will be the first time that Ive seen a park crowded! However, my inexperience is countered by the fact that it is Erikas FIFTEENETH trip the first being in 1980 when all there was was Magic Kingdom and SeaWorld and Ive learnt a lot from her over the years.
And if youre puzzling over the title of this trip report, well all will be explained in good time
# Day One - 3rd October (Come Fly With Me, or alternatively Delta) #
With a wedding on the horizon, this trip had to be done on quite a strict budget. Or rather, the pre-booked bits did (flight, hotel, car etc.) so that we could then have a much looser rein on the spending money. In an ideal world we'd have left the Gatwick Hilton to fly Virgin direct to Orlando, but by instead staying at the Travel Inn near Gatwick the night before and getting a Delta flight via Atlanta, we saved almost £500 so I can't complain.
First flight was fairly uneventful, Atlanta airport was okay (found the International arrivals terminal to be a bit poor, the rest was quite nice though) and the second flight was incredibly quick, getting us into MCO a good 20 minutes ahead of scheudle.
Having cleared customs already, I headed straight down to baggage claim, but had to wait almost forty minutes for our suitcases to turn up. Meanwhile Erika got the car - I thought she'd be gone ages as there's normally quite a queue, but it turned out that Avis (who we'd got through a good deal on Expedia) was the only desk that wasn't busy and she got served right away. One problem though - they had no economy cars. First they tried to give her an SUV, which lead to possibly the first case ever of a customer trying to negotiate a DOWNGRADE with a car hire clerk! The fact is she drives a Toyota Yaris at home and wouldn't feel comfortable with anything that large. Eventually they got the hint and gave her what they said was the smallest car they had left - a Pontiac Grand Am (essentially two classes higher than we'd paid for). When the bags arrived, I met her down at the hire desk.
When we got to the car..... "They've given me a tank!", was the comment heard! Erika is normally a very confident driver, but this was new territory for her (i.e. not being able to see the rear of the car - meaning reversing was a challenge, plus the sheer power of the engine and the suddenness of the brakes) and for the whole of the drive to the hotel it was a case of driving very gingerly and as slow as you could without attracting anyone's attention. Fortunately, we didn't have to touch I-4 and its traffic (that's not really something you want to do when you're tired and in a car that you're not familiar with) as we left the Bee-Line straight onto the new junction they've built with Universal Boulevard (which they've extended past the back of the new Convention Centre) and followed that all the way up to Wet & Wild, from where it's only 200 yards to our hotel, the Best Western Movieland. On a side note, I'm still surprised that more people don't use Universal Boulevard - it's always empty when we're on it, even when I-Drive is nose to tail traffic.
Check into the hotel, find that they've run out of in room refrigerators (but they know some people with them are checking out on Saturday so we'll get one then) and head to Publix to get the shopping in. By this time, the tiredness / jet-lag was starting to catch up with both of us and we were getting a bit ratty (almost had an argument over what sort of milk to buy for the mornings breakfast!) so we decided to head on back to the hotel, sleep it off and start fresh the next day.
Anyway, some introductions first I feel are in order. Going on this trip are : Me (Steve), 26 (although turning 27 during the holiday), and my fiancée Erika, 30. This is only my second trip to Florida, and as the first one was just six weeks after 9/11, this will be the first time that Ive seen a park crowded! However, my inexperience is countered by the fact that it is Erikas FIFTEENETH trip the first being in 1980 when all there was was Magic Kingdom and SeaWorld and Ive learnt a lot from her over the years.
And if youre puzzling over the title of this trip report, well all will be explained in good time
# Day One - 3rd October (Come Fly With Me, or alternatively Delta) #
With a wedding on the horizon, this trip had to be done on quite a strict budget. Or rather, the pre-booked bits did (flight, hotel, car etc.) so that we could then have a much looser rein on the spending money. In an ideal world we'd have left the Gatwick Hilton to fly Virgin direct to Orlando, but by instead staying at the Travel Inn near Gatwick the night before and getting a Delta flight via Atlanta, we saved almost £500 so I can't complain.
First flight was fairly uneventful, Atlanta airport was okay (found the International arrivals terminal to be a bit poor, the rest was quite nice though) and the second flight was incredibly quick, getting us into MCO a good 20 minutes ahead of scheudle.
Having cleared customs already, I headed straight down to baggage claim, but had to wait almost forty minutes for our suitcases to turn up. Meanwhile Erika got the car - I thought she'd be gone ages as there's normally quite a queue, but it turned out that Avis (who we'd got through a good deal on Expedia) was the only desk that wasn't busy and she got served right away. One problem though - they had no economy cars. First they tried to give her an SUV, which lead to possibly the first case ever of a customer trying to negotiate a DOWNGRADE with a car hire clerk! The fact is she drives a Toyota Yaris at home and wouldn't feel comfortable with anything that large. Eventually they got the hint and gave her what they said was the smallest car they had left - a Pontiac Grand Am (essentially two classes higher than we'd paid for). When the bags arrived, I met her down at the hire desk.
When we got to the car..... "They've given me a tank!", was the comment heard! Erika is normally a very confident driver, but this was new territory for her (i.e. not being able to see the rear of the car - meaning reversing was a challenge, plus the sheer power of the engine and the suddenness of the brakes) and for the whole of the drive to the hotel it was a case of driving very gingerly and as slow as you could without attracting anyone's attention. Fortunately, we didn't have to touch I-4 and its traffic (that's not really something you want to do when you're tired and in a car that you're not familiar with) as we left the Bee-Line straight onto the new junction they've built with Universal Boulevard (which they've extended past the back of the new Convention Centre) and followed that all the way up to Wet & Wild, from where it's only 200 yards to our hotel, the Best Western Movieland. On a side note, I'm still surprised that more people don't use Universal Boulevard - it's always empty when we're on it, even when I-Drive is nose to tail traffic.
Check into the hotel, find that they've run out of in room refrigerators (but they know some people with them are checking out on Saturday so we'll get one then) and head to Publix to get the shopping in. By this time, the tiredness / jet-lag was starting to catch up with both of us and we were getting a bit ratty (almost had an argument over what sort of milk to buy for the mornings breakfast!) so we decided to head on back to the hotel, sleep it off and start fresh the next day.
