Monday, October 3, 2011

Harry Potter Vacation - Day One

Well this day started at 3:30am.. Got up and took a shower and was out the door. Stopped by the ATM to grab some fun money and then headed off to LAX. Got to the parking structure that my friends Teal and Ali told me about. You can park your car there for $9 a day.. Which is a pretty good deal. So I left my car and then took a shuttle to the airport. Once there I checked in and I have to say Virgin America is a pretty good airliner. Only thing I didn't know about was the $25 per checked bag. I had planned to only take a carry on but wanted to bring something bigger because I know me and I'm going to a Harry Potter theme park and I'm bound to buy things that will need to come back home with me.

So I checked in and then headed to security. This is the first time I have been flying since all the extra security. So had to remove everything from my pockets and my shoes. Then had to do a full body scan before grabbing your stuff and moving forward. By this time it was 5:30am and my flight wasn't until 8am...so I waited. Boarding was delayed by 30 minutes as our plane had a hard time reaching us. But eventually it arrived and we boarded. I was towards the front of the plane which meant I was one of the last to board. Security was actually testing people's hands for explosives as we were boarding, luckily I wasn't selected.

The flight it's self was uneventful.. Again Virin America has some very nice planes and the crew was great. Got to Orlando, Florida only 10 minutes late. Once there I made my way to the badge claim and picked up my one checked bag.

Now to find Quick Transportation, I pre-ordered this with my vacation package but when I got out to all the shuttles I couldn't find them. I tried calling the only number I had, which was for the vacation package place, but figured they could help me. After 20 minutes on hold I finally got a hold a woman who said she would direct me to the proper person and the next thing I know I'm back at the beginning. Frustration takes hold and I hang up and do another walk pass looking for Quick Transportation. I ask a few of the other shuttle people but no one heard of the service I was using. Now my phone is dying and I had no choice but to call again and again after 20 minutes of waiting I finally get a hold of a guy who, once I explained everything and what had happen to my last attempt, actully kept me online and helped me out. Come to find out that when I booked this package I was suppose to get an email and contact them seven days prior to set up a time for a driver to come pick me up. Well it took another 20 minutes but a van finally came for me an hour and a half after I had arrived I was on my way to my hotel.

Got to the hotel around 6pm and checked in. I have a huge room.. It's pretty nice. I hadn't eaten all day so I went next door to TGI Friday and grabbed some food. After dinner I came back to the hotel room and am now checking my email and blogging.

Got my shuttle ticket for 8:20am to take me to Universal Studio tomorrow morning... I'm so excited.

Can't add pictures with this blog via my iPad :( but will upload pics tomorrow to my Facebook.

1 comment:

  1. "Security was actually testing people's hands for explosives as we were boarding, luckily I wasn't selected."

    Why was that lucky? WHAT are you hiding Kenny?!

    Have fun at the Harry potter place :)

    ReplyDelete