The Honeymoon: Getting There
It occurs to me that I never put anything up here about the honeymoon in Disney World. Well, it was quite an adventure to be sure.
To begin, we arrived at the Inianapolis International Airport feeling like we had done a very good job of planning. We had printed out our parking pass ahead of time, knew where to park, and where to catch the shuttle. We had everything covered, and we at the ticket desk an hour and fifteen minutes before our flight. We had taken a lot of extra time planning since neither of us had ever used the Indianapolis airport before. However, there was one thing we hadn't taken into account--Indianapolis does not observe daylight savings time.
The agents worked very hard to get us onto another flight. In fact, we got booked on the next flight, of course, it cost us roughly what we had already paid extra, although they did waive the $50 per person fee for changing the tickets. And it was a good thing too, we were actually sold tickets 201 and 202 for a plane that only seats 200 people. In fact, all planes to Orlando for that week were overbooked and this next flight was the only one they would even sell us tickets for. Sure enough, just before boarding started for our flight, they were trying to get two people to give up their seats for free ticket vouchers.
The flight itself was uneventful and when we landed I was assigned to arrange for transportation to the resort hotel. We had heard endless commercials on the radio for the last month about how Disney was starting free transport to their resorts from the airport. Of course, that wouldn't start that until June. *sigh* Anyway, I proceeded down to the lower level to find a bus line or cab company. There were large signs posted listing what the companies could charge for these services, I assume the government must have regulated it. As far as I could tell, there were really only two bus lines, I'll just call them 'B' and 'M'. The two companies had equal counter space, but B had a much shorter (read: no) line at it's counter, and so I went up to them.
I set up a round trip for two with them, but the girl at the counter was curiously lacking in details. When I asked when the next shuttle bus would be, she had no idea. This seemed quite odd, I mean, how could she not know the schedule? It took Tamara and I quite awhile to finally get what was going on. The busline I had chosen, B, was very small, much smaller than the M, which is the one everyone else was going on. In short, she didn't know the schedule because there was no schedule. The shuttle would come whenever she called to tell it that there were customers waiting. And they would drive us personally to our hotel and we would need to call them to set up our trip back the day before we wanted to leave. The flexibility was nice, but it was somewhat unnerving just how small this operation was. To make things just a little more confusing, a busload of Japanese tourists pulled into company B's spot as we walked out of the airport. Luckily, they didn't let us on, who knows where they were going.
As soon as we got onto the actual bus, helped with our luggage by the pleasant-and large-driver, the young woman already aboard with her daughter looked at us and said, "She doesn't know we're here to see," and then she stuck her hands on her head to indicate mouse ears, "so please don't mention it."
The daughter was about 6 years old and extremely cute. She recited times tables for us, excitedly told us about the hotel that they were going to (it had a pool!), all while we were driving by giant signs for Disney World. Her mom referred to her as 'Princess Gullible', we could believe it. We also learned all about her family (they were in Florida to see Grandpa in addition to you-know-who) and she even tried to give us her telephone number just to prove that she knew it.
And even after all of that, we still arrived at the hotel too early to check in.
Ok, getting there is supposed to be half the fun, so I think I'll leave off here. I'll post about our actual time in the park soon.
-Tim
To begin, we arrived at the Inianapolis International Airport feeling like we had done a very good job of planning. We had printed out our parking pass ahead of time, knew where to park, and where to catch the shuttle. We had everything covered, and we at the ticket desk an hour and fifteen minutes before our flight. We had taken a lot of extra time planning since neither of us had ever used the Indianapolis airport before. However, there was one thing we hadn't taken into account--Indianapolis does not observe daylight savings time.
"We're here for the ATA flight to Orlando."We were an hour late and our flight had already boarded.
"Oh, flight number XXXX?"
"No, flight number XXXY."
"I'm sorry, I can't board that flight, it leaves in 15 minutes!"
The agents worked very hard to get us onto another flight. In fact, we got booked on the next flight, of course, it cost us roughly what we had already paid extra, although they did waive the $50 per person fee for changing the tickets. And it was a good thing too, we were actually sold tickets 201 and 202 for a plane that only seats 200 people. In fact, all planes to Orlando for that week were overbooked and this next flight was the only one they would even sell us tickets for. Sure enough, just before boarding started for our flight, they were trying to get two people to give up their seats for free ticket vouchers.
The flight itself was uneventful and when we landed I was assigned to arrange for transportation to the resort hotel. We had heard endless commercials on the radio for the last month about how Disney was starting free transport to their resorts from the airport. Of course, that wouldn't start that until June. *sigh* Anyway, I proceeded down to the lower level to find a bus line or cab company. There were large signs posted listing what the companies could charge for these services, I assume the government must have regulated it. As far as I could tell, there were really only two bus lines, I'll just call them 'B' and 'M'. The two companies had equal counter space, but B had a much shorter (read: no) line at it's counter, and so I went up to them.
I set up a round trip for two with them, but the girl at the counter was curiously lacking in details. When I asked when the next shuttle bus would be, she had no idea. This seemed quite odd, I mean, how could she not know the schedule? It took Tamara and I quite awhile to finally get what was going on. The busline I had chosen, B, was very small, much smaller than the M, which is the one everyone else was going on. In short, she didn't know the schedule because there was no schedule. The shuttle would come whenever she called to tell it that there were customers waiting. And they would drive us personally to our hotel and we would need to call them to set up our trip back the day before we wanted to leave. The flexibility was nice, but it was somewhat unnerving just how small this operation was. To make things just a little more confusing, a busload of Japanese tourists pulled into company B's spot as we walked out of the airport. Luckily, they didn't let us on, who knows where they were going.
As soon as we got onto the actual bus, helped with our luggage by the pleasant-and large-driver, the young woman already aboard with her daughter looked at us and said, "She doesn't know we're here to see," and then she stuck her hands on her head to indicate mouse ears, "so please don't mention it."
The daughter was about 6 years old and extremely cute. She recited times tables for us, excitedly told us about the hotel that they were going to (it had a pool!), all while we were driving by giant signs for Disney World. Her mom referred to her as 'Princess Gullible', we could believe it. We also learned all about her family (they were in Florida to see Grandpa in addition to you-know-who) and she even tried to give us her telephone number just to prove that she knew it.
And even after all of that, we still arrived at the hotel too early to check in.
Ok, getting there is supposed to be half the fun, so I think I'll leave off here. I'll post about our actual time in the park soon.
-Tim
posted by tjmcardl | 10:22 PM
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