The 'This Trip Keeps Getting Longer' Trip: PTR - Page 17 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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well, i'm sitting in my room at AKL waiting for my husband to finish getting ready before heading out to the airport. it was a GREAT trip, but i'm not sad to be leaving. which is why todays' table of contents is:
Table of Contents: The Final Day
-three reasons why i'm not sad to be leaving
That is interesting as I'm usually a bit sad to leave!
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
ok. i'm home. i'm sort of caught up at work (for now) and i'm on the road this week (so alone in a hotel room a lot). i have a meeting in 52 minutes, so i'm going to use all of those free 52 minutes to begin this trip report!
Day 1 Table of Contents
1. a short summary of the boring stuff--flight and drive.
so...we drove to the airport and then flew to orlando. the end.
ok kind of kidding.
the good part about the flight was that we chose to fly a budget carrier--allegiant--so that we could fly out of our super local airport directly to orlando. except not MCO orlando. sanford orlando. doing this saved us around $300 and saved us the drive to PHL, which is about an hour and a half from where we live (ABE is 15 minutes but is super small and has, like, five flights per day all on budget airlines.) the other good part about the flight was that nothing bad happened--in fact, we were scheduled to take off at 10:07 and the wheels literally went up at 10:07.
i've never flown into sanford before, and i did like it with only a few caveats which i will get to on the return trip. it's small, so it's easy. and the car rental place is right there.
except the car rental place was awful. we rented through budget, and they had one desk and one person sitting at the desk and a line of maybe three people. we were there for over a half hour waiting, because some people paid for 'express service' so they got to skip to the front of the line, thus causing our line to NEVER MOVE. it waas awful, and a terribly not-magical start to our trip. for those of you who don't know me--i'm SUPER impatient. and when i travel for work, i rent with national, which doesn't even make you go to a desk. with national, you go right out onto the lot, pick a car, show your ID at the exit, and be on your merry way. it's THE BEST. and around twice the price. and i've decided TOTALLY WORTH IT. i know i was super proud of my cheap car rental find, but never again. national forever.
it was an hour drive from sanford to WDW, and we stopped at a publix on the way to stock up on snacks and wine. and then we arrived at the dolphin, where the theme of 'things being not great related to cars' continued.
2. off to a not-great start at the dolphin.
when we arrived at the dolphin, there was a VERY long line to get into the parking area. we found out why: the lot was full, and there was a man standing there redirecting everyone to the swan one at a time. it took forever and resulted in a then very long walk back from the swan. at this point i hadn't eaten all day and it was approaching 3pm and i almost started to cry. so we pulled over into the PACKED valet area, my husband unloaded our stuff and then took the keys and parked the car for me while i checked in. in the VERY LONG LINE. apparently there was a conference that weekend and the entire place was booked solid--with people who drove there. it was a madhouse. on the plus side, parking was free (as it should have been) and they gave us a free drink voucher (as they should have). on the minus side, i really feel they could have dealt with the situation better. i'd have appreciated a big blinking sign reading 'lot full please park at swan' over the insane process of sitting in a line of cars waiting to be told you leave--ya know?
anyway.
we checked into our upgraded room, which was lovely and modern and super clean. the bed was SO COMFORTABLE. if you judge a hotel on quality of bed alone, the dolphin is the best resort on property. if you judge a hotel on ease of parking, well...
as soon as we dropped our stuff off we headed out in search of food because i was STARVING. one thing to note about the dolphin--they don't have, like, signs. you know, like that say 'hey you, the pool is over here!' and it's kind of a sprawling resort. at one point i was like 'i am an educated adult who travels for a living and i cannot find the pool--how does ANYONE find it?'
but eventually we found it and had a very expensive very meh very tiny meal at the pool bar. but it was food and i needed food so that was good. though seriously, i had the tiniest $16 tacos ever. if someone who recently had half of her digestive system removed found the dish to be too small, the dish was too small.
i realize it sounds like i'm complaining a lot about the dolphin, but i'm really not. i'd stay there again. for the bed. and the location. and the multiple pools WERE really nice, and rather empty. there's a 100% chance i will return. using marriott points of course.
3. all things star wars at DHS.
we chose to take the boat to DHS to save my feet, and it was a very short wait and then a very short ride to the park. we were meeting heather there, but she was stuck in traffic so we arrived ahead of her.
as soon as we arrived we went to the ticket counter to trade our 6-day park hopper passes in for...TWO ANNUAL PASSES. yep. we splurged on one for my husband as well. so, like, now he can go back again sometime in the next 13 months (note: this is foreshadowing.) they were having issues with the computer system, so it took a really long time to make the upgrade. the CM made up for this by giving us a paper fastpass to use for the attraction of our choice, which was great since we didn't HAVE fastpasses for this day since it was added on at the last minute. so as soon as we got the whole AP thing settled and entered the park, we made a beeline for my husband's favorite thing ever: star tours.
my husband is a bigger star wars fan than chewbacca himself (though oddly we didn't do the chewbacca meet at any point. huh.)
after our escape from jakku, we met up with heather and kind of wandered around a bit before getting in place for the star wars nighttime spectacular...thing. i'm going to call them star wars fireworks for short, because that's easier. anyway. before said fireworks we had some time, so doug wanted to check out the launch bay, which we did. we saw the film there which i've never seen. and then we positioned ourselves for the fireworks, right at the back of the first 'clump' of standing area, with our backs facing the area taped off for the walkway between hollywood blvd and the area in front of the theater.
Yay!! I am so happy to be reading this and !! I'm glad to hear that your flight was smooth. Bummer about the car rental wait and even bigger bummer about the parking lot issue!. It sounds like a great start at DHS and I am concerned that it will not stay that way! I can't wait to hear about your meal!!
Glad you arrived with a nice start for the most part with a few minor problems! I may have been close to you where you were for the fireworks as the walkway area was just in front of me I think. Mine was for the dessert party so we had a special area to stand for the show.
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
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I'll be interested to see why you were ready.
<------This is me, fortified and ready for all those fascinating details.
(note: this is foreshadowing.) they were having issues with the computer system, so it took a really long time to make the upgrade. the CM made up for this by giving us a paper fastpass to use for the attraction of our choice, which was great since we didn't HAVE fastpasses for this day since it was added on at the last minute. so as soon as we got the whole AP thing settled and entered the park, we made a beeline for my husband's favorite thing ever: star tours. 
I am so happy to be reading this and 
!! I'm glad to hear that your flight was smooth. Bummer about the car rental wait and even bigger bummer about the parking lot issue!
. It sounds like a great start at DHS and I am concerned that it will not stay that way!
I can't wait to hear about your meal!!
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