August 14, 2019

 

 

 


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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