The Cast:
Me: 30 y/o Male, compulsive planner
DW: 31 y/o Female, likes to sleep in
Joe: My best buddy from high school. A theme park commando whose motto is "It's not a vacation, it's a competition!"
Lisa: Joe's wife and Queen of the Timeshares. She owns or co-owns 5 weeks at various Central Florida resorts.
Day 1: Arrival
From the day we started planning this two couples adventure we knew it would be unlike any vacation we had ever taken. For starters, both couples live in completely different places. DW and I are in Cleveland, Joe & Lisa live in New Jersey. We had to coordinate our flight schedules so we could all arrive at MCO around the same time. It was hard enough getting cheap fares for the same dates much less trying to coordinate arrivals! In addition we decided to save money by sharing a rental car. And did I mention that the couples had not seen each other since Christmas? We did all the planning by phone and e-mail. The only easy part was the lodging, since we would all be staying at Joe & Lisa's timeshare villa at Sheraton's Vistana Resort.
The plan got off to a fairly good start. DW and I left the house at 8am and drove 50 minutes south to Akron-Canton airport CAK. At the time we booked our flights, AirTran had the best fare, but it required a drive to Akron and a connection in Atlanta. We thought the savings would be worth it. CAK is truly a rink-dink airport. The first sign of that was the main entrance. How many airports can you name whose main entrance is a 4-way Stop sign? Well, now I know at least one. Another sign of a small airport is the so-called "skycap" service. At every airport I had ever been to, the curbside skycap takes your luggage and you don't see it again until you land. Not at CAK! The skycap puts your bags on a cart and wheels it 50 feet to the check-in line for you. Then you have to wait like everyone else. They expect to get tipped for this? Anyway, we checked our bags and were off to the security checkpoint. There was a problem with DW's handbag, so they searched it manually. OOPS! She forgot about the handy pair of scissors she carries around in her purse. Needless to say she no longer owns a handy pair of pocket scissors. Thankfully that was it and they didn't make us go into the dreaded "other room" for a more detailed search. From there it was a very short walk to the gate. The first leg of our journey was uneventful.
We had a 60-minute scheduled layover in Atlanta so we decided to grab lunch there. We were not impressed with Hartsfield Airport at all. For such a major hub we expected that there would be plenty of room for us to sit and have lunch. This was not the case. We had to take our food back to the gate because of the lack of tables. We like the mall/food court in Pittsburgh's airport way better than Hartsfield. ATL needs some work to keep up with the newer hub terminals. Our connecting flight was 30 minutes late, but I've had much worse delays so no complaints. As it turns out, Joe & Lisa's flight from LaGuardia to MCO was also 30 minutes late (what a shock
) so the timing worked out.
Joe & Lisa waited on the Budget Rent-a-car line while DW and I got our bags. After all the paperwork was filled out the lady at the Budget counter told us to have a seat "on the big blue chairs" and that she would call us when the car was ready. We waited...and waited...and waited. 20 minutes went by and I was getting annoyed. Then the Budget lady comes over and says "I was calling your name for a long time but you didn't hear me!" DUH!!! If your voice isn't loud enough to carry all the way across a crowded airport terminal than why did you make us wait there? How about springing for a PA system? A megaphone at least! Anyway, we finally made it to our Ford Explorer and off we went. I'm not much of an SUV guy. Actually, I hate SUVs but it was the logical choice for our group of four grown ups with lots of luggage.
We checked in to the villa around 4pm. What a nice place! A two-bedroom, two-bath suite with full kitchen. One could easily get spoiled that way. It almost makes me want to buy a timeshare. We decided not to do anything big that night. We would hit Publix for a grocery run, eat at TGI Friday's and get a good night's sleep so we could be rested up for our week of theme park activities.
Next up: Day 2 - Sad news at the "happiest place on earth."
Me: 30 y/o Male, compulsive planner
DW: 31 y/o Female, likes to sleep in
Joe: My best buddy from high school. A theme park commando whose motto is "It's not a vacation, it's a competition!"
Lisa: Joe's wife and Queen of the Timeshares. She owns or co-owns 5 weeks at various Central Florida resorts.
Day 1: Arrival
From the day we started planning this two couples adventure we knew it would be unlike any vacation we had ever taken. For starters, both couples live in completely different places. DW and I are in Cleveland, Joe & Lisa live in New Jersey. We had to coordinate our flight schedules so we could all arrive at MCO around the same time. It was hard enough getting cheap fares for the same dates much less trying to coordinate arrivals! In addition we decided to save money by sharing a rental car. And did I mention that the couples had not seen each other since Christmas? We did all the planning by phone and e-mail. The only easy part was the lodging, since we would all be staying at Joe & Lisa's timeshare villa at Sheraton's Vistana Resort.
The plan got off to a fairly good start. DW and I left the house at 8am and drove 50 minutes south to Akron-Canton airport CAK. At the time we booked our flights, AirTran had the best fare, but it required a drive to Akron and a connection in Atlanta. We thought the savings would be worth it. CAK is truly a rink-dink airport. The first sign of that was the main entrance. How many airports can you name whose main entrance is a 4-way Stop sign? Well, now I know at least one. Another sign of a small airport is the so-called "skycap" service. At every airport I had ever been to, the curbside skycap takes your luggage and you don't see it again until you land. Not at CAK! The skycap puts your bags on a cart and wheels it 50 feet to the check-in line for you. Then you have to wait like everyone else. They expect to get tipped for this? Anyway, we checked our bags and were off to the security checkpoint. There was a problem with DW's handbag, so they searched it manually. OOPS! She forgot about the handy pair of scissors she carries around in her purse. Needless to say she no longer owns a handy pair of pocket scissors. Thankfully that was it and they didn't make us go into the dreaded "other room" for a more detailed search. From there it was a very short walk to the gate. The first leg of our journey was uneventful.
We had a 60-minute scheduled layover in Atlanta so we decided to grab lunch there. We were not impressed with Hartsfield Airport at all. For such a major hub we expected that there would be plenty of room for us to sit and have lunch. This was not the case. We had to take our food back to the gate because of the lack of tables. We like the mall/food court in Pittsburgh's airport way better than Hartsfield. ATL needs some work to keep up with the newer hub terminals. Our connecting flight was 30 minutes late, but I've had much worse delays so no complaints. As it turns out, Joe & Lisa's flight from LaGuardia to MCO was also 30 minutes late (what a shock
) so the timing worked out. Joe & Lisa waited on the Budget Rent-a-car line while DW and I got our bags. After all the paperwork was filled out the lady at the Budget counter told us to have a seat "on the big blue chairs" and that she would call us when the car was ready. We waited...and waited...and waited. 20 minutes went by and I was getting annoyed. Then the Budget lady comes over and says "I was calling your name for a long time but you didn't hear me!" DUH!!! If your voice isn't loud enough to carry all the way across a crowded airport terminal than why did you make us wait there? How about springing for a PA system? A megaphone at least! Anyway, we finally made it to our Ford Explorer and off we went. I'm not much of an SUV guy. Actually, I hate SUVs but it was the logical choice for our group of four grown ups with lots of luggage.
We checked in to the villa around 4pm. What a nice place! A two-bedroom, two-bath suite with full kitchen. One could easily get spoiled that way. It almost makes me want to buy a timeshare. We decided not to do anything big that night. We would hit Publix for a grocery run, eat at TGI Friday's and get a good night's sleep so we could be rested up for our week of theme park activities.
Next up: Day 2 - Sad news at the "happiest place on earth."
