Loriville Gazette
2001 Oct 11 the trip

I'm back. The trip was fun and way too short. I wish I could be on vacation every day of the year.

Short version:

Bad things: Magic Kingdom, Delta airlines, our moldy hotel room.

Good things: two days at Epcot filled with lots of shopping (French Guerlain makeup, wool English scarf, Mexican bracelets, Celtic pendant, English coffee drops) and excellent, although expensive, food and drink.

Long version:

On Friday morning, I awoke at 2:50 am with less than three hours of sleep under my belt. I expected Super Shuttle to pick me up at 3:20 and I was budgeting my time down to the minute. My tight schedule was shot to hell when Super Shuttle rang my bell at 3:15! I said to the driver standing on my dark porch, "Well, I need about 5 minutes; you're 5 minutes early" and he said in an obviously irritated voice, "No, now! There are people waiting, people we need to pick up." Great. So I told him I'd be right back with my luggage. I stuffed what I could into my suitcase haphazardly and threw the rest of the stuff into my carry-on.

And off to the airport we went.

I arrived at the Delta counter in the airport around 4 am. There was a long line and no one was working at the counter. I thought someone must have just taken a break, but no. A Delta employee didn't arrive to open the counters until 4:45 am and, by that time, there was a long serpentine line of people winding around the lobby. I was angry. There was no "sorry about the wait" at the counter when I finally got up there, either. What was the use of getting to the airport 2 hours early if I had to wait around for 1 hour?! I could have slept another 45 minutes!!! I considered writing a nasty letter to Delta, then decided against it when I read in the USA Today a few minutes later that everyone should be patient with the airlines because they're understaffed and economically unstable. So I kept my anger to myself.

I met up with Zaugi, Turnip, Wiggly, Gina, and Sydney in Salt Lake City and the remainder of the flight to Orlando went smoothly.

Stepping out of the airport in Orlando, our bodies went into shock. It was terribly hot and humid.

After arriving at our hotel, we found that colonies of mold had taken over the bathroom. As a result, the entire hotel room reeked of mildew. I had an allergy attack in the middle of the night our first night, probably a result of the mold. We vowed to keep the air conditioner on full blast during the remainder of our stay to "dry out" the humid air. It seemed to do the trick because I wasn't bothered by allergies for the remainder of the trip.

We decided to go to Magic Kingdom our first day in Disneyworld. What a mistake. In three words, Magic Kingdom sucks. Maybe I'm a snobby Disneylander, but in no way does Magic Kingdom compare to Disneyland. Zaugi summed it up perfectly by saying, "Magic Kingdom is a cheap, dirty version of Disneyland." The rides were supposed to be duplicates, but they were poorly done and about half as long. One example: the Pirates of the Caribbean, a favorite of ours in Disneyland, was actually laughable at Magic Kingdom. We usually ride that ride several times, but not one of us wanted to ride it a second time. And they didn't have a Blue Bayou! What's up with that?! We had to make lunch reservations elsewhere. Sadly, Magic Kingdom doesn't even have a New Orleans Square.

There was trash everywhere. Disneyland, on the other hand, is so clean you can eat off the pavement. We even saw a trash can that was so full it was overflowing. You'd be hard-pressed to see that at Disneyland.

The woman taking our Fast Pass tickets on the Winnie the Pooh ride yelled at us.

Worst of all, we filed a complaint regarding Alien Encounters. Everyone we talked to said this was, by far, the scariest attraction at Magic Kingdom. So we stood in a 30 minute long line to get into Alien Encounters (which they don't have at Disneyland, by the way). In line, we were warned about Alien Encounters and were advised that young children are not allowed on, nor is anyone who has a problem with pitch darkness. When the doors finally opened, there was no one to lead us in or to tell us where to sit. People were already sitting in the seats nearest the door. So, since there was this gigantic orb in the middle of the room blocking our view to the other side, we figured there may be seating on the other side of the room. So we walked in narrow aisles in front of people already seated over to the other side. Alas, there were no seats on the other side! And then, lo and behold, the shoulder restraints on the seats started automatically lowering and the lights started to dim and we were like, "Hello, we don't have seats! What is going on?" and no one came to our rescue.

So we scurried to find floor space to sit down on before it got completely dark. I was petrified and was thinking to myself, "There is going to be a huge lawsuit if we get hurt. I'll see to it."

We were in total darkness a majority of the time and everyone was screaming. I was simply saying to myself, 'please let this be over already, please let this be over.' Then the lights came on and the door opened and we walked out saying, "I don't get it" and looked quizically at each other. Then we realized how unacceptable the entire situation was and decided to march directly over to City Hall to complain. I was still shaking because I was so frightened by what could have happened. I was traumatized. What else are you supposed to think when everyone is in seats with safety restraints and you're sitting on the floor, unprotected?

Well, complaining got us nowhere. The representative said she'd give us a pass to go to the front of the line "in one hour" and be escorted on but we found that unacceptable. Now I'm going to write a letter to Disney as soon as I get a spare minute. I'll keep you posted on what happens.

So anyway, the entire Magic Kindgom experience left much to be desired. We were disappointed we wasted one of our three vacation days there.

We spent the next two days at Epcot. Epcot is great! It was the epitome of Disney: clean and friendly. I loved the World Market area with all the represented countries: Mexico, Norway, China, Germany, central Africa, Italy, Morocco, the United States, France, England, and Canada. What's especially nice about the World Market is that it's like traveling to all the countries but without spending a fortune getting there. Disney actually employees people from each country to work in the World Market countries and buys actual merchandise directly from the country. I bought French makeup in France, a wool scarf, a Celtic pendant, and coffee drops in England, and bead bracelets in Mexico. On top of that, we drank beer in Germany, margaritas in Mexico, and wine in Italy and France.

The food was excellent, too. We ate lunches in England and Mexico and dinners in Italy and France. Our waitress in France was so cute with her thick French accent. She kept ensuring that everything (the food, the wine, the dessert) was okay and, later, asked for San Francisco travel advice because when her visa expires, she is touring California for two weeks before going home to France.

Turnip exchanged addresses and phone numbers with the Italian boy who worked at a restaurant in Italy.

The three days were over too quickly and, before we knew it, we were on our way back to the Orlando airport. Originally, my flight was the last to leave Orlando... meaning I'd have to wait in the airport 6 hours. Luckily, I was able to fly stand-by and returned home two hours earlier than I was supposed to.

Although it's good to be home, I wasn't pleased to find that my refrigerator is broken. A 2-gallon jug of water sitting in my refrigerator had frozen completely solid, while the ice cream maker bowl in my freezer won't freeze. Maybe I should switcheroo the things in my freezer with the things in my refrigerator? Well, whatever, I'm calling my landlord.

*sigh*

I wish I were still on vacation.

back & forth
recently...

quick recap - 2007 July 13
Happy August! - 2006 Aug 01
I dream of Albuquerque - 2006 Jul 08
mindstorm - 2006 Jun 30
Pomegranate scale - 2006 Jun 24