Em's Wedding Trip: Traveling To Orlando

It's been almost 2 weeks since the wedding so I know this post is long overdue. I just haven't had time to sit down and properly write down all my memories, but now I do so here goes.

I started the wedding trip with no sleep. Typical of me, huh. Well, it was Ryan's last week of class so of course we were going to go out on Friday (I think he went out on Saturday, too) since it'd been ages since we've gone out. R and Julius came out with us, too! Exciting. We finished close to 2 am, transferred my suitcase and dress from R's car to Georgia's, picked up Dem and went to Denny's for breakfast. Afterwards, they dropped us off at the airport. 4 am and I was still wired.

Our flight was due to fly out at 6 am. We didn't actually leave SeaTac until close to 8:45 am. A (almost) 3-hour delay! This is what happened (to the best of my recollection - it was 4 am and I'd just partied the night away): our plane was coming in from Alaska, supposed to stop in Las Vegas, but due to weather-related problems, it got diverted to Houston. Didn't make sense to me either. We checked in and found out our connection's been delayed as well so we'd make our connection with no problem, thank goodness, and we were told our flight would be taking off at 8 am instead. So what the hell are we going to do for 4 hours? Starbucks came to the rescue with a bottle of chocolate milk, a mocha, a caramel latte and two very comfortable, overstuffed armless-armchairs. Yeah, I totally clonked out one of their chairs as Dem watched me with much amusement and made sure to wake me if we were going to get kicked out. We weren't kicked out - and we weren't the only ones sleeping there either! - so bless the staff at the Starbucks at Gate B42! (At least, that's what Dem thinks was our gate number.)

We finally made it onto the plane, at 8:45 am, and were finally on our way to Houston. I read a magazine, a third of my book and slept. (Safe Harbor by Christine Feehan - yet another kick ass book by her! Side note: the only problem with reading these books is that it builds up high expectations of men and then reality hits you hard when you realize men aren't like those in the books. *Sigh*)

Houston airport. AKA George Bush Intercontinental Airport. Ugh. By the way, he was in town last week to campaign on behalf of Congressman Dave Reichert, who annoys the hell out of me because he spams my email AND anti-Reicherts spam my phone. I don't support the lot of you! Stop sending me crap!! I told my boss that I was going to go join the protesters. He just laughed hilariously and said, 'Yeah!' We see eye to eye.

Despite all the delays, we made it into Orlando at 8:30 pm, only 3 hours after our scheduled landing time (it could've been so much worse so 3 hours isn't too bad). Then we checked in at Magical Express, a service that transports you directly from the airport to your resort (and back) and also delivers your luggage directly to your hotel room. Nice, eh? I told the lady we had 2 suitcases, our resort name and our return flight details. Us two tired, bedraggled bridesmaids with bums that were SO tired of sitting finally arrived at the hotel and met up with Pic, our roomie, and crashed on the couches in our room. Em had booked us in at the All-Star Music Resort, the same one we stayed in when Dem and I visited her while she was doing the Walt Disney College Program.

Apparently our room can sleep 6 people. I remember Em telling me that and I'm thinking to myself, 'How big is this room??' Well, it's a rather normal sized hotel room actually but there's a love seat couch that pulls out into a 2-sleeper bed, a giant ottoman that pulls out into a one-sleeper, an armchair that pulls out into a one-sleeper and a 2-sleeper bed in the bedroom. So that's how you get 6 sardines in a room. There was also a small kitchen and 2 separate bathrooms, curtained off, with their own shower/tub, sink and mirror, and clothing rail (and wooden hangers!). It was quite comfortable with 3 in the room but I think 4 would be my limit. Venus was supposed to be staying with us but she ended having her own room.

Anyway, we were very glad to finally get there and we even had presents waiting for us! Em gave each of us bridesmaids a gift and they were really lovely presents. She even included Sephora gift cards for us! Woo, makeup!! Just in time, too, since I'm running out of foundation. This was the first time we saw the headbands that we'd be wearing and they were really pretty. Lavender with a hint of iridescence. Very pretty indeed and a much easier way to tie in the accent color than by changing the ribbons on our dresses. After exclaiming over our gifts and catching up a bit, we trooped down to the cafeteria for some food. I figured that by the time we finish eating, Magical Express will have delivered our luggage since it takes them about 2 hours.

So we're back in our room relaxing and chilling out, looking at Pic's travel pictures (he went to Barcelona and Italy and we totally exchanged notes about the sights, food and men) and trying to find High School Musical 2 on TV. 11 pm and our luggage hasn't been delivered. I'm starting to get annoyed because I wanted to change into fresh clothes and wash my face - I knew I should've packed my usual extra change of clothes in my carry-on but I didn't want to carry another bag in addition to my handbag and suitcase. That'll teach me!

Another hour goes by and I call the front desk. The girl who answered the phone sounded half-dead and when she transferred me to Magical Express Luggage Services, her 'have a magical day!' was terrible and sounded as dead as she did. That's not magical. The girl from ME that I spoke to gave me a bit of an attitude when I told her our luggage hadn't showed up yet. Her reply, 'When did you land?' had a snarky edge to it, as if I had just landed 10 minutes ago. Actually, it was 3 and a half hours ago, you heifer. I can't stand attitude especially when my flights have been delayed by hours, I'm tired and all I want is my fucking luggage so I can go to sleep. Imagine my snobbishness coming through. Oh yeah, I'm good at the whole I'm-a-fucking-princess-and-I-demand-top-notch-customer-service; that's only because I've worked in retail for over 8 years and know when to demand it, and this is Disney World after all, where the service should be magical. Humans aren't perfect, of course, but 3, almost 4, hours is ridiculous.

When I told her our flight landed at 8:30 pm, I could hear her count '8:30, 9:30, 10:30...' then 'Oh, okay! Let me just check backstage.' Yeah, that's right: 3 and a half hours! Not magical at all! She comes back on the line and says we've got 3 pieces of luggage. "No, we've only got 2 suitcases." "Ma'am, I've got you down for 3." More snarkiness, as if I didn't know how many pieces of luggage we checked in. Upon after thought, that also meant that she didn't actually check to see if our luggage had come in because if she had, she would've seen that we'd only had 2 suitcases. "Fine, fine, whatever." "Our delivery guys will be back soon and we'll have them up to you soon." "Okay, how soon is soon?" "15, 20 minutes." "Great, thanks."

Soon came and went. So did later. 1 am and still no luggage, so I called again. This time, a different girl answered and she was much nicer and quite apologetic when I explained that I'd called 40 minutes ago to check on our luggage that should've been delivered 3 hours ago and that we were very tired and want to sleep. I didn't pull the princess attitude on her since she gave me no attitude. I even offered to come pick them up myself if it was faster! She promised they'd deliver it within the next 15 minutes but they can't give it to me directly. Rubbish! Fine. *Insert me mentally twiddling my thumbs, silently fuming and watching the Disney Channel* Dem was quite amused at my princess attitude and half-asleep on the couch; Pic had already pulled out his armchair-bed and was passed out in it. Lucky him. About 20 minutes go by (I gave them 5 extra minutes) and I decided to head down to the front desk and demand my luggage in person. Dem came with me.

The guy who we spoke to at the front desk was nice, friendly and polite; no princess attitude for him, too. I explained that I'd called twice and been disappointed twice. He was also quite apologetic about the delay and about not being able to give us our luggage directly, but he had a cheery attitude and promised that they'll be sent up soon. Dem and I went back to our room, I called up R and bitched to him over the phone, then our luggage finally arrived. Finally, a promise kept! It was 2 am, 6 hours after our flight had landed. And this little princess finally went to sleep.