Florida flowers and Caribbean cruising - the trip report! THIS SECTION COMPLETED 4/12 About This Page:

[chezp]

Originally Posted by Lumieregirl

I had to laugh about your hand luggage wanting to topple. I had a few choice words for mine in oct when I tried it out At home and it pretended it was going to work. As soon as it saw the airport it threw a tantrum and refused to ride on the other case.

Classic!

Hope you get some rest alongside Mr Snore. At least at home we can get to another room. In a hotel you're a captive audience ...

Very true!

[chezp]

Friday 20 February – part one: a new way of doing things in security

I woke up at 5:30am, found the time on our groovy touchscreen clock, and decided it was time to …. attempt to go back to sleep. I managed it, although I did drift in and out of sleep for the next hour. Eventually, around 6:30am, I got up, although Mark cheerfully told me that, with his back, he’d been awake since 1:00am. Oh boy, he’s going to have a good day… not!

He decided to brave the wet room, whereas I decided not to bother, having had a shower last night before we left the house. It was a very entertaining experience… for me …. as I kept hearing him shriek, first because the water was too cold, then he found the temperature control. He came out, saying that it was one of the most powerful and, therefore, in his view, very good. What wasn’t quite so good was the state of our wet room once he was done. Let’s just say that some of the towels, which were actually a very good size, were used to try and dry up the floor, a bit of a flaw in the design, me thinks.

Having said that, I really could not fault the BLOC hotel. Considering the size of the room, they certainly packed a lot in, and I loved how they used technology, and had everything you’d need. It was certainly excellent value given what we paid for it – I think it was about £60 ($90) for the night, which given the location and convenience of it, I thought was amazing. I think the Hilton, which is located across a walkway from the terminal, and costs a lot more, may have some serious worrying to do, because I’m guessing that BLOC is probably chipping away at their clientele. I certainly would think about staying here again in the future, especially given how much cheaper it is than the Hilton.

We started to get ready to head through security, although as we were downloading a couple of TV programmes from last night, we weren’t in any rush. We wouldn’t be able to do that after today, as the systems know whether you’re in the country or not, and if you’re not, it simply won’t let you do it. We used to have a neat, free piece of software that disguised your location, allowing downloads around the world, but they’ve never done a version of it for the new version of Windows, so sadly that’s no longer an option.

I was very taken by the soap bar they had here – everything just seemed so inventive.



Mark must’ve read my mind at one point, as I was about to say “why don’t we pull the blinds up?” when I heard him doing just that. Of course, I had to get a few photos of the view outside…



We headed out about 8:00am, giving up on our downloads of our TV programmes, as after an hour, they’d still only reached 60%. In hindsight, we could’ve stayed longer, but they say hindsight is a great thing.

We checked out using the touchscreen facilities…



….. and they certainly want you out, as immediately I completed that, the lights went out and the air conditioning went off.

Mark pointed out that there was a plane being towed around, so we did stop a couple of minutes to admire that and, at least with the lights off, it was easy enough to get photos of it:



We headed down to reception to hand back our key card, and I got some more photos of the reception area.



Now we could see why it was situated where it was, because if you turned to your right, this was the view:



That’s right, the security area was right next door. We walked straight up, scanned our boarding passes with no problems, and went straight through. The cynical side of me couldn’t help but think how nice that is for the airport now they have those facilities, as they’ve been able to do away with the people who used to do those checks.

It was only after we passed through the barriers that we realised there was a set for Premium Economy, so when the guy tried to send us down to the other end to go through security, I quickly said to Mark, “where did you say Premium Economy could go?” and showed him our boarding passes, and we were put into that line.

My goodness, things have changed here, and for the better. I really wish it wasn’t a secure area, and I could’ve taken photos to show you what I mean. Now you approach the area to put your bags through, and there are six spots you stand to do this. The people behind are then guided into spots behind them, a bit like boarding a Disney really so that the second the person in front of you moves away, the next person goes up, and deposits their stuff.

Neither of us got subjected to any special searches of our person but one of my two trays did get selected for special attention. Here, it got a bit stupid, as everyone who had had theirs selected (from what we could see, it was totally at random, with it taking every third or fourth one) was standing where the hand luggage was coming down, yelling at the staff to tell them which tray was theirs. I didn’t bother, as I knew they’d go in the order they came to them, so instead went to stand in the area where they’d do the more detailed searches. In the end, I too had to go round to where everyone was yelling, as the woman got to mine, and was expecting me to be there. I had a bit more common sense, and was trying to keep out of everyone’s way.

The tray literally had my liquids in (all well below 100ml, so I knew that was no issue), the laptop, my passport and boarding pass, and my handbag, so it barely took any time to search. That’s how we knew it was random, as if you were going to pick one of my two trays, you’d have picked the one with my hand luggage in, as that had much more to investigate. The guy next to us wasn’t doing as well though. He was told in no uncertain terms that he wouldn’t be taking some of his liquids through, quite rightly, as he had 150ml. Honestly! How many years have those regulations been in place now? Surely everyone knows that? He seemed so surprised by the news as well…

Safely through security, we made our obligatory way through the duty free shop. There is now no way around it, which is a cunning way of ensuring you see what’s on offer in there. We weren’t interested in anything, so we didn’t stop, and were soon into the terminal proper. I must admit that now all the work in there is finally finished, I really don’t like the new layout. I took a photo of the area you now arrive in as we went up the escalator, and what I object to is how much wasted space there now is. You could easily put some seating in this area, but there’s nothing. Not good planning to me!



Next: there are how many of us on board?

[lauriep]

I know they're the norm in many parts of the world, but I'm not a fan of wet rooms! Still, that hotel looks like a very sensible solution for a one-night stay before a flight.

[purplegal]

The airport sure looks busy for that early in the morning.

[NanaTink]

I'm with Laurie, no fan of wet rooms, but that aside, I think that hotel is quite functional and great for the overnight before a flight!
I know what you mean about the people trying to take more liquid than allowed! How long have we been doing this, people? How many signs do you pass while in line to go through outlining ONCE AGAIN how much you can have? :roll eyes:

You are on a tear getting this TR done! Ready to read!

[MayraLR]

Funny how the room kicked you out after you checked out. Good thing it didn't set off some kind of alarm when you didn't leave right away. That would've been hilarious!

[shazza]

Enjoyed reading about the Bloc Hotel. Glad Mark doesn't suffer terribly from his back on the upcoming flight (at least I think you said it got better).

[cubfancolleen]

That was easy getting from the hotel to the terminal! And I'd agree that Hilton may start losing business. Why pay so much more for the bigger space when you're just there to sleep before a flight? Now I wouldn't want a room like that at WDW, but for preflight it seemed perfect!

[clio]

Your room looks very nice but small. It's interesting that it basically kicked you out after you checked out.
Some people just to pay attention to the rules or think that they don't apply to them.
You'd think that by now people would know what size liquid containers can be taken on the plane or that they have to stay with their trays.
Liz

[chezp]

Originally Posted by purplegal

The airport sure looks busy for that early in the morning.

There are a lot of early morning flights out of there, predominantly to destinations in Europe and it was a Friday and the end of the school holidays, so I guess a lot of people may have been going away for a long weekend.

[chezp]

Originally Posted by NanaTink

I'm with Laurie, no fan of wet rooms, but that aside, I think that hotel is quite functional and great for the overnight before a flight!
I know what you mean about the people trying to take more liquid than allowed! How long have we been doing this, people? How many signs do you pass while in line to go through outlining ONCE AGAIN how much you can have? :roll eyes:

You are on a tear getting this TR done! Ready to read!

I've surprised myself at how many instalments I actually did while we were gone - way more than I thought.

[chezp]

Originally Posted by MayraLR

Funny how the room kicked you out after you checked out. Good thing it didn't set off some kind of alarm when you didn't leave right away. That would've been hilarious!

Oh gosh, can you imagine?

[chezp]

Originally Posted by shazza

Enjoyed reading about the Bloc Hotel. Glad Mark doesn't suffer terribly from his back on the upcoming flight (at least I think you said it got better).

It did.

[chezp]

Just an update on me - I'm posting now when I should be at work, as I had another terrible night's sleep. For those following my live trip report, you'll know I was ill over the last few days of this vacation. When we got back yesterday, I felt so much better, but I had a terrible night last night and barely slept for coughing. When I got up this morning, I could barely move and just felt knocked for six, so I had no option but to call in sick, as I knew there was no way I could drive and I also knew I'd be no good if I did get in.

It was the right call, as I've been catching up on sleep (can you believe I slept better on the plane than I did last night? ) and I was exhausted doing the short drive to the doctor's. I've got a chest infection and now have antibiotics, which she hopes will do the trick and she thinks I should see some improvement over the next 48 hours. I certainly hope so, as trying to sleep sitting up to stop coughing is just miserable and my nose is doing a good impression of Rudolph right now... welcome to my own personal pity party!

[disney_duke]

Oh the wet room. Yeah, I made that room quite wet in Paris! Not a fan either.
Wow kind of scary how tech-y that room was - turning off everything after you check out on TV! Super convenient to get through security though!
Sounds like the airport took notes from Disney - put them through a gift shop at the end!