I will over the next few days get into what we actually did on our first three week stay in Florida but hopefully the following will be of interest.
We flew US Airways Manchester to Philadelphia to Orlando on 9th August and returned same route on 30th August-the two journeys could not have been more different!
9th August-having checked in on line the day before we dropped our bags at Manchester ,strolled through security and into the departure lounge and a 30 minute delay-we had nearly 1 3/4 hours in Philly to change-so no panic...the 30 minutes came with us to Philly but then meant that we landed at the same time as the Rome flight and the Madrid flight and the longest US immigration queue I have ever seen! The delay was compounded by the officers having to signal to most of the other passengers which fingers to use etc --by the time we reached our very good natured and friendly officer with our 2 grandchildren-our changeover time was looking more like 50 minutes-Officer to my granddaughters-"are these your grandpop and grandmom?"-Hailie-"No" Me -"Hailie this is no time for jokes"-Hailie-"They're my Grandad and Grandma!" --ho ho ho--Officer-"Why do they have a different name?" --Holy Mackerel!! Inside I was screaming--just stamp the so/so thing-outside I was a model of good humour and produced the court order that we had--Ha Ha !!--Until the guy starts to quiz me about most of the document but I finally had to admit i didn't know the colour of the judges underwear...we finally got through grabbed our baggage , dropped it and legged it through to our connecting flight -we ran slap bang into the Rome/Madrid connectors! By this time we had about 10 minutes to go but we still ran like billy-o to the gate, or at least half of us did-the other half asked a customer service agent who directed them to the wrong gate......when we finally arrived 15 minutes late the flight was delayed for mysterious technical reasons-probably because half the passengers including ourselves were held up in the system....anyway it took off 1 1/2 hours late with us all safely on board....nothing else,surely!!
We arrived in Orlando-I left the 9 others to pick up the bags Whilst I went to the Alamo Fast track terminal--ha ha look at all these people in the queue-I scanned my Fast Track Confirmation and it said-see an agent-What!! I joined the queue and inwardly had a number of different views about the fast track system-outwardly I was the picture of good grace and asked what was the purpose of a fast track if all it did was refer me to an agent? Getting no sense I put it down to experience smiled sweetly and went out to pick up our 15 seater Chevrolet Express-the size of a small country!!--We loaded up and set off for our villa using my sat nav--we arrived at the wrong address as I had programmed the wrong house number into it.....we only found this out after we had unloaded so while the rest of the party walked the 100 yards to the correct house I drove the bus there-I should have known something was up when my dear, tired,hot wife said "where's my suitcase?"-At that point I should have carried on off the nearest cliff!
I rang Alamo lost luggage-closed-I left a message! Then we bit the bullet and myself and a friend drove all the way back to the airport , walked to the Alamo kiosk and there was the missing suitcase--Glory, Hallelujah!! We couldn't figure out the seatbelts in the bus so the agent changed it for a newer one--Double result......until....when we went to the exit gate I reached in my wallet for my driving licence---NOT THERE!! I was stressed,tired,hot, driving a small country I really didn't need this.....eventually I ran back to the "old" bus and found the licence in the door! Uneventful drive back to the villa--went to bed --slept like a log .....now to start the holiday--What a journey!!
Woke up the next day discovered that my youngest had lost her toy pet carrier containing her ipod,a pony and most worryingly-Bendy Bunny!!==I walked the resort,I went to the offices, I even knocked at doors!! I know she had it when we arrived at the wrong house....anyway more of that later.
30th August-Going home we arrived at Orlando, our flight left early, it arrived early in Philly, the flight to Manchester took off 10 minutes early and we arrived in Manchester Early after a dream of a flight!! Unbelievable
I feel i should tell you at this point that we had the best holiday ever---it doesn't sound it from the start we had but trust me we did!
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