He Has No Idea What He's Letting Himself In For! Day 1 - Travel Day 2 LGW - MCO

[Guest]

Well I've told myself I can't get up to date with any of the trippies I've been following if I don't post one more day so here goes!

Day 1 – Second travel day LGW - MCO - 29th November 2014

Our flight was at 11:45 so I had set my alarm early to try and get to the airport for 8:45, as we had been unable to check in. I woke up however at 6.35 as Joe was having a sneezing fit. He stopped and rolled over and went back to sleep but that was me for the day. I spent some time online then had a shower and got ready which didn't take long as I had packed everything we needed for our overnight stay at the top of our various pieces of luggage.

It was really really hard work getting Joe out of bed- it's something he really struggles with as he's a night owl and has trouble sleeping. Also hating airports as he does, he wasn't exactly leaping out of bed delighted at the thought of three hours in a departure lounge! So I ended up looking out of the window watching the flights take off and land and the monorail go back and forth! Geek alert, I also had my Flight radar app out so I could see all the planes and know where they had come from that morning or where they were off to!



Eventually we were ready to go and I handed our keycards in while Joe went down for a smoke. When I arrived at the ground floor in the lift I couldn't see him outside and must have been looking a bit quizzical as a hotel staff member piped up, “if you're looking for who I think you are he's out there waiting for you!” Nice that we look like we belong to each other!

We went across to the airport (I had been excited to take the huge traveletor we could see from our room and the bar up to departures! ) and arrived at the self service machines. Horror of horrors, I scanned my passport and... there were hardly any seats left on the plane! We had both been given separate middle seats a couple of rows apart. I was a bit peeved as I like a window and we would have been checked in almost 24 hours previous if the BA website had been working. However we have both flown enough that we could live without a window and we didn't mind not sitting next to each other so we cracked on. Not much else we could do! The twilight check in had shut 20 minutes before we had landed the night before- although it dawned on us later that we could still maybe have gone and used the self service machines to get our boarding passes!

We went to bag drop where there was no queue and met a lovely agent called Tracey. As we dropped our bags off she exclaimed that we were not sat together and we explained that online check in hadn't been working and we hadn't been able to check in any earlier. She tapped away on her computer and said that she could see some exit row seats going begging and she would call and get us moved into them! However when she came off the phone she said that the person responsible in the back office had been on their tea break and someone had left them a note to move us when they got back, so we'd have to check at the gate that it had been done and to collect new boarding passes. My heart sank a bit at this as I knew that the chances of it actually happening had just got slimmer.

We hung around briefly for a bathroom stop and one last smoke for Joe and then headed though security. It was so quiet, we always have good luck with security at Gatwick! No extra screening required and I was just putting my bag back on when I heard a bit of a commotion, glanced up and saw a woman charging towards me with blood streaming from her nose! I was a bit startled but it turned out she was just having a nosebleed and had run over to grab some some tissues. A lovely Gatwick employee came and started to look after her, so she was in good hands as we moved on!

We headed straight into duty free as we had 40 minutes to go until the gate was announced and we both wanted to get some perfume as both of our bottles had run out at the same time. This was handy as we said that it would be a Christmas present to each other! Joe got his usual Spicebomb and was pleased to see the gift set with the moisturiser and body lotion was the same price as the bottle on its own. I was in the market for something new though and poor Joe was very patient as I trailed round looking for something reasonably priced and nice smelling. At one point I thought I was sorted but then I remembered to spray it on my skin and it did not agree with my chemistry at all and turned really naff. The difference was amazing! After far far too long, I idly picked up Bon Bon, the new female version of Joe's scent, and discovered that I really liked it and settled on that. If I had just smelled it when Joe was looking for his earlier there wouldn't have been nearly so much faff! We had been in there so long we both noted that we were being followed by staff members- maybe it looked suss that we had split up at one point!

I used a coupon for a fiver off and also had a deal saved on to my Amex card whereby I got another Ł15 off for shopping in Duty Free so we felt like we'd got a bit of a bargain, and by the time we left the gate was just 2 minutes away from being announced! Joe was eyeing up the food places but I wanted to get to the gate pronto to ask about the new boarding passes so we forewent breakfast and trotted off to the gate when it popped up.

We had very nearly the furthest away gate and were the first there. The first chap checked our passports and asked how long we were going to be in the US for. I then explained the situation and he showed us over to the desk, saying “oh no, well we'll get that sorted for you, it's not unreasonable to want to be sat together now is it?”. I stepped up to the desk and my heart sank further as the agent looked up and I know this sounds bad, but I knew then we weren't going to snag those exit row seats! What followed was so frustrating. You know when you need to talk to someone about an issue, and you can see in the first 2 seconds they have decided they already know what you're asking and turn their ears off and won't listen to what you're ACTUALLY saying? This woman was like that, with a heavy dollop of really crappy attitude to work to boot. She decided that we were just asking to be moved, and I simply could not get her to listen to the fact that we should have already been moved and I had just been told to check at the gate that it had been done. She flatly told me the flight hadn't been closed yet and this meant noone could move seats, and I needed to sit down for 20 minutes until the flight closed at 11am but there was probably nothing she could do for me. This didn't tie in at all with what the bag drop agent had told us, but like a good passenger I sat down and didn't go back up again until 11.02am.

We went back up then, which earned me another filthy look and the advice that I had come back to her far too early and needed to wait another 10 minutes (! ), but no matter because all seats were taken and we would just have to take what we had on our boarding passes. Again I tried to explain that I wasn't asking her to move us, just to check to see if someone else had done an hour previous, but I just couldn't get her to listen and she kept barking at me that there was nothing she could do. Sat back down at this point pretty annoyed! We were A-OK with not sitting together and wouldn't have minded if that had been the end of it at check in, but it did grate to be told that we'd get exit-row seats only to be denied by a member of staff as unpleasant as the bag drop agent was pleasant! So BA, don't make promises you can't or won't deliver on!

Moving on, boarding seemed to go really well and we were among the last rows to be called on. No magic beep so as expected Mr/Ms Tea Break hadn't moved us and we were in the middle seats. Joe was in between two ladies that were travelling together! I thought this would have been a nightmare but he said they barely spoke over his head and it seemed they just both wanted an aisle seat so he had no problems.

I was first to arrive in my row which was handy, and soon a older English guy travelling solo sat down on my left. As I was rummaging about trying to get comfy, there was a quiet “'allo, this plane is so small, no?” to my right and lo, there was a very attractive French doctor sitting down on my right. The seat debacle instantly faded out of mind! He was a little bit chatty so I found out he was going to Orlando for a conference, and seemed very jealous that we were going on our holidays for two weeks!

The flight was pretty uneventful. My notes here say that I must have been in a good mood as my row companions and I had recliners in front who wouldn't put their seat up to eat and instead leaned forward for a good bit of the flight, but it didn't bother me! I selected the pasta which my notes say “looked as if a squirrel had been sick on some pasta” as it was with roasted pumpkin complete with tonnes of seeds. It was nice to start with but the more of it I ate the less I enjoyed it! I heard later that the “chicken” was actually chicken tikka masala which I like, serves me right for panicking and blurting out the first word that came to mind! The pudding was awesome though, a sweet creamy chocolatey thing. No photos in case stranger flight companions thought I had a screw loose!

I watched an episode of CSI and then Lucy which I enjoyed (you really need to turn your brain off and not pick holes in it to enjoy it though I thought). I then watched Maleficent, which was OK and appropriate for where we were going, but the plot just made NO SENSE at all. Spoilers here--- so the King goes, “I need to keep this girl away from danger and Maleficent”, so he hands her to three of Maleficent's known associates who will take her to live in the same forest that Maleficent does, in fact the same forest that he then spends the movie trying to attack and burn down? And Maleficent goes from hating Aurora to actually being quite fond of her in the space of about 5 minutes? Pah!

After that I stuck on X-Men: Days of Future Past. I had seen it at the cinema but it was a nice mindless thing to watch again. I stuck on the skymap in between and got depressed at how far there was to go!





Not much leg room here!



I didn't take the afternoon tea as I was feeling a bit squiffy, which I put down to maybe not being able to see out. Joe advised me that he slept except for when there was food! We both found that being sat in the middle meant we almost got ignored, as each side of attendants seemed to think the other side was responsible for us. The lady sat next to Joe had to speak up on his behalf to get him a tray as the attendant was steadfastly ignoring him!

We landed after what seemed like FOREVER and I was excited to see the palm trees! We got off pretty quickly- being near the front of economy and by not dawdling we ended up at immigration with the Club World people. Everyone walks so slowly to immigration! There was only our flight in the queue so things went very quickly- I forgot to time it but it couldn't have been longer than 10 minutes. We also got a friendly immigration officer- I was steeled for the worst but he was a coaster fan and seemed tickled that we said we were there for coasters. He also surmised that we were newly weds as Joe has long hair in his passport and he thought I forced him to get it cut for the wedding! This isn't true at all but Joe was in “immigration officer pleasing” mode so was solemnly agreeing with him! I put them right though- never thought we'd be having a laugh with the US border officials!

Off to the carousel next and within 30 seconds Joe's case appeared, with mine the next one after- ideal! Or so we thought... I glanced at my case and saw the luggage tag was missing so thought I'd best check to see if it was mine... one peek later and the mens green Converse sitting on the top convinced me it wasn't my case! What a co-incidence that it came out one after Joe's though. We lugged it back on and another case the same as mine came into view- again it wasn't mine! I got a little worried at this point that one of the other owners had already picked mine up and gone off with it but luckily enough mine came along not long after.

A minutes wait to go through the second Customs check and we were free and into the spangly monorail (with luggage!) and courtyard I had seen so many photos of! It really made it sink in that we were finally there. Notes say it had only taken about 15-20 minutes from getting off the plane too! We had a quick bathroom break and I broke a note by getting two bottles of Vitamin Water from the airport shop. Next we were off to find the rental cars.



After a minor “healthy discussion” about which way to go, we finally went along the walkway under the road and found the Avis Preferred desk. My name wasn't on the board so I had to queue. This was by far the longest queue of the day and I was getting slightly anxious, having read horror stories about the rental agencies sharp practices. No issues at all though, a friendly trainee agent took my paperwork, disappeared round the back, then came back and asked how a Ford Fusion sounded? This was my first experience of US customer service, he was so chipper! Sounded OK to me so he handed over the keys and a worrying lack of paperwork! I also wasn't asked to sign anything. He promised me faithfully that I would have zero to pay when we took the car back and the small card he had given me confirmed it so I was happy. He also advised me of the agreements they had with the toll people, so if there was no box in the car I was good to just drive though and would be charged appropriately. We had decided to do this as we thought for under Ł20 it would be nice to not have the hassle.

Reconvened with Joe and he said that just as I had reached the head of the queue my name had popped up but all it said was “visit desk” so I didn't feel so bad for queueing. We pulled our luggage down to the space and OMG, what a boat of a vehicle awaited us! We found out when we got back that it was actually two levels up from the one we had booked. It had 19,000 miles on the clock and wasn't mint but it was black which pleased us! I drive a Swift here and so this car was a proper beast to me. We went round it and took photos of all the little scratches and nicks. The car had light up numbers all down the outside drivers door which caused much confusion until I gave up and googled it one morning a few days later- turns out it was a touch keypad so you could dash out to get something from your car without your keys- just type in the number and all the doors popped open! Weird.

After a brief but embarrassing incident where we both tried to get in the wrong sides we got in, set my phone up to act as sat nav and set off. I hadn't found how to move my seat forward yet as the damn car was so fancy, but it was fine for the initial drive. We got outside and since landing it had got pitch dark. Now here is a low that I'm not going to sugar coat- I hated that first drive. I was really confused by the magnifying mirrors so I felt that I couldn't see what was in the lanes behind me, I didn't know the speed limit (I had looked it up but had forgotten), and the darkness, tiredness and stress did not add up to a fun journey. Joe did a really good job of keeping me calm though, and we made it to the Rosen Plaza without any accidents, horns being sounded by other drivers or wrong turns being made!

We arrived at reception after a long trek from the car park and there was clearly a very posh event being held by the local Knights of the Round Table or similar, so there were lots of elderly Floridians in their fanciest get up milling about in the reception. The Christmas decorations were up and the place looked amazing. We felt very unwashed though! Got checked in smoothly and were offered a high or low room- we went for high and got a room on the 13th floor. This surprised us as Canadian hotels don't have a 13th floor! Silly superstitious Canadians.





We were really impressed with the room- it was huge and had the sink separate from the bathroom which was handy. Joe also liked all the marble and heavy wooden furniture. We freshened up, grabbed some cash and pushed straight back out and across to Pointe Orlando. There were a few empty units but overall we liked it and the weather helped too! We had a wander round and found ourselves in Johnny Rockets. I had chicken tenders and fries with ranch dressing and an Oreo milkshake and Joe had some kind of chicken burger with chipotle sauce and cheese, with chilli cheese fries. I got a lovely butterfly drawn with the ketchup but Joe just got three dots in a triangle, which we laughed at. Apologies but we were too sleep deprived to remember to take any pictures!

We weren't too enamoured with the food to be honest, but their Oreo milkshakes are to die for and I got what I didn't finish to go so I was pleased. The cost was $40 including tip.

Afterwards we had a wander down I-Drive for a bit and got as far as Millers before turning back and heading back to the room. My notes say that Millers amazed us as it didn't have walls! Us being Scots in November couldn't process it. On the way back we saw a guy sat on a bench collecting for a parrot rescue, he wasn't getting much trade as it seemed a bit late for people out for dinner but a bit early for people out clubbing! We noted that we were glad it was Christmas and there were lights everywhere as otherwise the pavements would seem very poorly lit- as it was the hotel car park was really dark in our opinion.

We got back to the room and made a voice note of our day- took the best part of half an hour as we put a fair bit of detail into it (as you can probably tell )! We were asleep not long after, looking forward to our first day at Disney!

Day 2- Magic Kingdom, Beaches 'n' Cream & Epcot is here!

[gtyrel10]

Yay! So pleased to see your next day up and what a travel day. You are clearly both very good travellers, i think i would have lost it with the check in people. That us just so unhelpful of them.

Your hotel looks lovely and what ashame Johnny Rockets wasnt great food wise, but the milkshakes always look amazing!

Glad to see you have both arrived safe and sound but can't wait for your first disney day!

xx

[Yorkie Girl]

What a shame that the BA woman at the gate was so unhelpful - so much better if they'd not told you that it was possible you could sit together to then dismiss it

Still a good travel day though overall and I'm looking forward to reading the next day

[Guest]

Originally Posted by gtyrel10

Yay! So pleased to see your next day up and what a travel day. You are clearly both very good travellers, i think i would have lost it with the check in people. That us just so unhelpful of them.

Your hotel looks lovely and what ashame Johnny Rockets wasnt great food wise, but the milkshakes always look amazing!

Glad to see you have both arrived safe and sound but can't wait for your first disney day!

xx

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Thanks! I'll tell Joe what you said as he needs anxiety meds but only when there's going to be an airport or a dentist involved in his day (no joke!) so if I tell him he's a calm traveller he'll be pleased

Originally Posted by Yorkie Girl

What a shame that the BA woman at the gate was so unhelpful - so much better if they'd not told you that it was possible you could sit together to then dismiss it

Still a good travel day though overall and I'm looking forward to reading the next day

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Thank you! I know, writing it up made me re-annoyed, I hate folk that don't listen! :angry: Ended up fine though, they got us there!

[KittyBlackDog]

A mixed travel day, made a bit better by the smooth french doctor no doubt 😉

I hate that feeling when you've watched a bit, listened a it, read a it, played games a bit, had some food and it's still many hours until you land! Hate that last bit as it feels soooo long doesn't it?!?! 😔

Looking forward to reading about your first day at disney! Just remembered a poor joke my DH used to tell me... Bing sings and Walt Disney...def sounds better in a Scottish accent 😉

[collybird]

We're in Scotland too and flying down to Gatwick the night before the 'big' flight, much less stressful than doing two flights in the same day.

Quite fancy getting separate seats for the 9 hour flight so I don't have to listen to my boyfriend whinging about how bored/uncomfortable/hungry etc he is!

Looks like a few days of our trips this year will overlap!

[Guest]

Originally Posted by KittyBlackDog

A mixed travel day, made a bit better by the smooth french doctor no doubt 😉

I hate that feeling when you've watched a bit, listened a it, read a it, played games a bit, had some food and it's still many hours until you land! Hate that last bit as it feels soooo long doesn't it?!?! 😔

Looking forward to reading about your first day at disney! Just remembered a poor joke my DH used to tell me... Bing sings and Walt Disney...def sounds better in a Scottish accent 😉

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Yes the flight was a bit of a drag, wasn't too much fun being in the middle either!

Originally Posted by collybird

We're in Scotland too and flying down to Gatwick the night before the 'big' flight, much less stressful than doing two flights in the same day.

Quite fancy getting separate seats for the 9 hour flight so I don't have to listen to my boyfriend whinging about how bored/uncomfortable/hungry etc he is!

Looks like a few days of our trips this year will overlap!

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Argh don't say that as we're flying from Edinburgh and connecting in Gatwick on the same day this year!

It wasn't bad at all being sat apart, I'm usually all excited and want to chatter but OH wants to sleep, never a winning combination

Ooh so it will, have you been at that time before?

[WifeyB]

Ahh I would have been stressing big time with split seats and would probably have lost it with the lady at the gate! (I'm a terrible flyer...) so well done

Sounds like a long day but glad you got to explore a bit before bed, love that "I've arrived" feeling!

[Guest]

Originally Posted by WifeyB

Ahh I would have been stressing big time with split seats and would probably have lost it with the lady at the gate! (I'm a terrible flyer...) so well done

Sounds like a long day but glad you got to explore a bit before bed, love that "I've arrived" feeling!

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I actually wish I'd been a bit more stroppy! She really wasn't listening to us at all, maybe if I'd been a bit louder she might have got the message!

Thanks for reading!

[Disney Den]

What a shame you didn't get to sit together after all. Off to the next day