Day 1, August 14
A perfect start to an unexpected trip! - Part 2
They had
handed out menus beforehand, so we knew what to expect and we both
had chosen the same meal.

We started
out with a

Mixed
Salad with Cherry Tomato accompanied by Italian Dressing, which was
actually quite fresh and tasty. It was followed by

Lemon
Flavoured Chicken with Peas and Jasmine Rice. And while the chicken
was still moist, tasted on its own it tasted a bit like it had been
cooked in liquid cough candy.
But
together with the rice it was quite nice.
For
dessert we had White Mousse au Chocolat with a Cassis Fig, which was
good, but a bit on the sweet side, so we were quite happy to enjoy
some very young Camembert Cheese, butter and a fresh roll.
Once we
had finished our meal, that was accompanied by some drinks

we watched
some movies and tried to doze off a bit, but it was not easy as the
family in front of us had now decided that they were NOW ready for
lunch. The guy in front of Tom did not pull his chair forward
instead just leaned forward and his wife was now tending to the
child underneath the blanket.
It turned
out that he was special needs and they had a hard time keeping him
relaxed and quiet, but feeding him sugary snacks all the time did
not help in any way.
Well, if
nothing else, they were a distraction for most of the Premium
Economy cabin.
We kept on
watching movies and after some time they handed out some more soft
drinks we were handed some

Milk
Chocolate bars, which got eaten right away.
It’s about
a 10 hour flight, so we tried to doze off a bit and it helped for
the time to go by faster. Around two hours before we were supposed
to land we got another meal.

This time
it was


Beef
Strips in Curry Sauce with Roasted Sesame Seeds accompanied by
Jasmine Rice. And while the taste of the curry was nice, the meat
had a really funny texture and we both just had the rice and sauce
and left the meat. Dessert was a Curd-cream cheese slice on a bed of
Orange coulis, which was not bad but nothing to write home about. By
the time we were done eating we were both getting antsy

after
being confined to our seats for 10 hours.

Thankfully
our pilot had made good on some of the delay and we arrived around
20 minutes early, just to be parked in front of the terminal as we
had to wait for another plane to push back and free the gate for
us.
Finally we
rolled to the gate about five minutes after our arrival time and
once Business Class had left the plane we were able to get off too.
Usually
several planes from Europe arrive around the same time, so we
hotfooted it to immigration to be as far forward in the line as
possible, just to find the immigrations hall empty.
We got in
line and within three minutes found ourselves in front of an officer,
who was super nice, stamped our passports and wished us a wonderful
vacation. Tom went to get a cart for the luggage and then we waited
for our luggage to arrive.
We needed
to be patient as our luggage only appeared after quite some time.
But then
it got quickly loaded onto the cart and we were looking for customs.
There wasn’t any customs stop and once we were outside the hall we
opened one of our bags, which only had some shoes in it, put Tom’s
carry-on in it and we finally only had four pieces of luggage for
four hands.
We took
the elevator up to the fake monorail and then headed out into the
airport and over to the rental cars.
We got
into the elevator down and walked towards the rental car counters
and were happy to have chosen Hertz as there was only one other
costumer, while all the other agencies had much longer lines.
And again,
within a few minutes we had our paperwork in hand and found
ourselves on our way over to where the cars are parked.
When we
left the building the hot air hit us, even though it was already
7pm. Having to haul the luggage up to the cars didn’t help to cool
down, but soon we had arrived and Tom picked out a Chevy as our ride
of choice.
We loaded
everything into the huge trunk and Tom installed the GPS and we
waited for a while as the GPS had trouble connecting but after a
while we gave up and decided to just start driving. Tom had put the
address in and it was a bit different from what I remembered, but
since the GPS displayed the correct hotel name we both thought that
we were on the right track. The GPS still had not connected
correctly when we left the airport and drove toward Disney World,
but after a few minutes it started talking and leading us.
We were
not driving the same route that we usually took, but with all the
construction we thought that this might be a new route.
Little did
we know that the address the GPS had shown and that had sounded
different, WAS indeed different and we ended up somewhere unknown.
We reprogrammed the GPS and off we went again, this time in another
direction.
And while
we were driving along we saw a Publix Supermarket and decided to
make a pit stop for some drinks and snacks. About 20 minutes later
we added a few shopping bags to our luggage and off we went again.
It was now
past 8pm and completely dark and we were both tired, but very happy
once we saw the familiar arch that told us we were home. A few
minutes later we stopped at the Pop Century security booth, showed
our reservation paperwork and drove to check in parking. Since it
was already way past 8pm we thought that there wouldn’t be a line at
check in, but we were wrong.
There was
a HUGE line.
Okay,
let’s join them all.
Turns out
there was another CastMember who was checking why people were in
line and he “distributed” guests to several desks, so the line moved
rather quickly. Within a few minutes it was our turn to walk up to
the desk.
The
CastMember who checked us in was super friendly and check in was
fast, as I had done online check-in, then he handed me a birthday
button, as this was kind of part of my birthday trip and everything
went super perfect until we heard the room number.
First
floor!
The
CastMember must have seen my disappointment as he asked if that was
not okay. We let him know that all we really wanted was a quiet room
on a higher floor. They were pretty full so he tried and after about
10 minutes and several phone calls we had a new room on the highest
floor. Yeah! We needed to return the magicbands that he had just
given us, so they could be reprogrammed and soon we were on our way
to our home for the next 11 nights. We had been given clear
directions, but still we had a bit of trouble finding the shortest
way to our room.
Having
been burned before with non working magicbands we had only brought
our carry-ons and were now in search of the elevator and finally we
had found our room.
Magicbands
working we inspected the room.
It was
nice and clean and we had a short restroom break, before heading
back to the car. When we got off the elevator we noticed a parked
luggage cart and borrowed it to transport our luggage from the car
to the room in just one trip.
Needless
to say that we returned the luggage cart to where we had found it.
Tom filled up the little fridge with some of the drinks


we had
bought and I unpacked just what we really needed at the moment and
then we were off to dinner.
We weren’t
quite sure which way to turn for the shortest way to the food court,
but while we were still debating another guest saw us struggling and
pointed us in the right direction. First we needed to pick up our
drinks mugs and it was quickly done in the shop outside of the food
court. And new mug in hand we marched in in search of food. There
were a lot of people still having dinner a little after 9pm and we
went to the counters, read what was on offer and in the end decided
on the


Chicken
Parmesan Pasta, Penne Pasta with Alfredo sauce finished with a
Breaded Chicken Breast topped with Provolone and a Breadstick and
served with 2 sides, for which I chose a

Caesar
Salad and Green Beans. Tom had decided on the

Meatball
Sub, hearty meatballs in a toasted bun, topped with Marinara sauce
and cheese, which also came with two sides and he also chose a

Caesar
Salad and Green Beans. Only when we saw the size of the portions we
knew that we could have easily shared one portion.
Live and
learn.
I also
picked up one of my all time Disney desserts, a

Carrot
Cake and since the food comes with a drink as well and we had our
mugs anyway, we picked two aluminum bottles of

Budweiser
for Tom, before we made it to the cash register, scanned our bands
and just paid with our free dining credits. We quickly found a table,
took pictures of the food and started tucking in.
Since we
had had to wait for a while for Tom’s Sub to be done the green beans
had become luke warm, but they were still tasty.
We sat
there for quite some time enjoying our food, but my portion was just
too big and I had to give up after about two thirds.
We both
could not finish the green beans and the Caesar Salads, but it had
been nice to have some veggies and salad with our meals.
Once we
were done we explored the stores a little more, but soon enough we
knew that we were too tired to do much more and walked back to our
room, where we found one of the drawers open.
I didn’t
remember opening it and neither did Tom, but we didn’t give it much
thought.
We got
ready for bed and when we opened the second bed for Tom we realized
the drawer was open again.
Closed it,
just to see that it opened up again all by magic it seemed.
Well, it
was nothing a piece of tissue shoved into the side of the drawer
could not fix and soon we were able to lie down and watch a little
TV.
And it was
only a little TV, as we soon fell asleep.
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