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Travel Day - Saturday 14th September 2019
My sleeping pattern is no different today, but I never sleep that great when staying the night before, the combination of excitement and fear of the alarm not going off has me awake at 430. I try to sleep again but it’s not happening, so what else to do apart from start to write my trip report!
The alarm goes off at 6 am and we proceed to get our bits together, the view is great again this morning and I take a moment to watch the planes land before we check out. From the hotel we head to Terminal 3 which is a 5-10 min walk via Terminal 2 and fairly straight forward.
I wouldn’t hesitate to stay here again, the location is amazing for flights out of T2&3, and even out of T4&5 you can head to the transport hub and get the free train. I used to always stay along Bath Road like the Premier Inn, but this hotel is a game changer, you get to spend a bit more time in the room and don’t have to worry about getting buses in the morning.
Bag drop with Delta is straight forward, there is loads of Virgin and Delta staff to help out and we are waving bye to our bags. Security is nice and quiet, me and my bags go through fine, just my wife this time has set the metal detectors off, so gets a frisk by the staff.
Terminal 3 is full of some lovely shops, lovely but very expensive, we do our usual of avoiding the onslaught of different scents on duty free, have a wander around and look at the stuff we can’t afford. Breakfast consists of croissants and a toasties from Pret, and we also get a meal deal from boots should the plane food not suffice.
On the way to the airport yesterday my wife remembers she forgot to pack her kindle so a quick trip to WH Smith for a book or 2 at a ridiculous price, that I know we can get on Amazon for a quarter of the price.
Our ride for the next 8hours or so
Our gate is soon called so we head off to find our flight to Detroit, we are an a A330-200, and looking at my app she is 14 years old, but looks nice and modern inside, and the seats are comfortable. It’s a 2-4-2 configuration and we have a row of 2 so no one to annoy when getting up and down. We push back on time and spend about 20 minutes in a queue to take off.
The crew are nice and friendly, and are soon handing out hot towels and bottles of water. As soon as the seat belt sign is off the guys in front pop their chairs back, lovely!
About half an hour in the crew ask everyone to close their window blinds, find this odd being a day flight, and given that it’s about half 10 in the morning we are sat in near darkness. The rebel that I am I keep mine open, but I am soon told off by a crew member.
Climbing out of Heathrow
A little furry friend paying me a visit!
Half 10 in the morning or half 10 at night?
Meal and drink service starts around 1130 and we are given a choice of chicken or eggs. I detest eggs (unless baked into a cake!) so honey glazed chicken and mash it is. It is lovely and tasty although the lemon and caramel cheesecake was a weird combination. We watch some films, Aladdin, Rocketman and Fantastic Beasts for me and Aladdin and Mary Poppins for my wife. Delta have a huge huge huge choice of films, so if you find yourself on one of their planes in near darkness you won’t be stuck for choice.
Menu
Lunch
A light snack is given about an hour and a half before landing, consisting of a pizza twist or a croissant and an ice cream. We land into Detroit on time, and it is just our plane at immigration, Detroit have the self service screens so the lines move pretty fast. We still had in our bags our sandwiches we brought as a meal deal so to be on the safe side we declare this and the officers questioned what was in them, as it was chicken they were confiscated.
Snack before landing
Our Route
Landing into Detroit
Our bags were ready and waiting for us, as we had been able to check in all the way to Orlando, it was a simple process of heading through customs, popping them onto the transfer belt and heading through security again. From landing to being back in the terminal took us around 45 mins, not bad!
Detroit’s terminal is long and thin so can take a while to walk anywhere, they have a cool monorail that will take you from one end to the other. We have a mooch around the shops, and have our first American meal of the holiday, Popeyes chicken, 20 boneless wings and a drink for $15 fills a nice hole while we wait for the flight to board.
Chicken Goodness
Our flight to Orlando boards on time, and I was surprised to see the full in-flight entertainment on the screens again. So I watch Lego Movie 2 and my wife watches Rocketman. Not sure what Delta has against you looking out the window, or maybe the US government doesn't want us looking down from 30,000ft but again the crew ask everyone to close their blinds after take off, I am once again the rebel in the skies and leave mine open, it is only 5 in the afternoon not an overnight flight to China.
Complimentary drinks are served along with some snacks, and before long we are descending to Orlando. The flight was really good, again comfortable seats and impressed by the service on board.
Internal Snacks
Always love the sky coming into Orlando
In the airport we head to the monorail, there is no better feeling is there? And head to bag claim, I see a couple of virgin aircraft on the ground and wonder if their passengers are still in immigration. Bags are again ready and waiting for us, so we are out and heading to the Avis preferred desk.
We are given a Silver Toyota something with 20 odd thousand miles. I set the sat nav up but of course it has no signal so head out the garage in the hope signal will come shortly, as luck would have it as we are pulling out a magical express bus had just passed us so we stick behind it until we are on more familiar ground.
Our new Sat Nav
Isn't this view the best!
Considering we landed at half 6, we were in the car by 7 and now pulling into the Port Orleans resort at 730 not bad going at all.
We were checked in by a lovely cast member, opt out of mousekeeping for a $40 card and handed our magic bands. Our room allocated in block 3, which felt just like home as we stayed in this block last time. The room overlooks the parking lot, which doesn’t bother us and is just how I remembered. I did put in a fax request but this wasn’t acknowledged at check in nor had we been given what I requested, so not sure if these actually go anywhere, has anyone had any luck with it before?
We got into our room at 8, and to say we were both tired was an understatement, I had been going on for 24h and my wife was not far behind. As I’m sure most couples will know when you are tired and hungry you become irritable and we were snapping at each other for the rest of the evening.
Our room before we destroy it!
I had originally booked us some fast pass at Epcot, but to save our marriage and a full blown argument it was best for us to go get something to eat and drink. We head down to the food court and grab some iced water, we still have some snacks from the journey so we headed back to the room shower, drink and eat. The end of Moana is on tv so we watch this whilst trying not to fall asleep, but by half 9 we are done and drift off into our Disney dreams.
Total spend $15
Day 1 in Magic Kingdom coming soon!