2010 Trip to Walt Disney World

I have been going to Walt Disney World on vacation annually for the last 20 years or so (it all began on my 5th birthday). Over the years, things have definitely changed from many expansions of the parks to new attractions being added.

For my recent trip, I went from January 27th to February 6th. We usually stay at either one of the All-Star resorts or Pop Century, but this time, we decided to try a moderate resort. Since I got to choose, it was between Caribbean Beach and Port Orleans French Quarter. I chose Caribbean Beach for a few different reasons (perhaps next time it will be FQ).

Overall, the stay was pretty enjoyable which a few downsides. Coming from a Canadian, the weather wasn't the greatest. We had a few days of sunshine, but it was cold for the most part. It also rained three or so days of our trip, which put a damper on things. Since there were 19 in our group, a few of us became sick, including myself.

Caribbean Beach resort was a pretty nice one. The rooms were spacious (included two sinks unlike the usual one in most resorts) but the bathroom was much smaller. The rooms were themed to Finding Nemo (the other choice being Pirates). With the weather being gloomy and cold, I didn't get a chance to go swimming, like I wanted to, but the whole resort was themed around the Caribbean (hence the name).

The food court provided a wide assortment of options for people, from pork and salmon (which was very good) to pizza, with sides like plantains and mashed potatoes (with red skins). Considering the resort is the biggest on Disney property, the food court isn't overly big but was spacious and was very packed. There was always plenty of room for guests.

The resort itself contains villas based around Caribbean islands. My party stayed in Martinique (which was a pretty blue colouring). Each villa has its own mini pool and laundry room. Traveling with a visually impaired person might not be the best for this resort, as my mother got lost a couple of times trying to find her way from the bus stop to our room. She also said it wasn't very well lit for her at night, which was somewhat true.

Another plus with the resort is that each villa has its own bus stop (for the park buses as well as the internal resort shuttle). A downside was that the buses seemed to take longer to reach our stop and people had to wait (sometimes over 30 minutes), although I never really experienced this problem.

As for Walt Disney World itself... Crystal Palace and Splash Mountain were both closed for renovations. I was disappointed about SM since I love that ride but oh well. Crystal Palace has some good food (love their shrimp and really love the Adobo Pulled Pork). Some of the rides experienced technical problems while riding them (we waited in the pre-ride queue of Test Track for the video to load for 5-10 minutes, which it never did; a cast member then let us go into the line for Test Track; also the audio and video screens on the ride weren't working). A lot of smaller things, such as restrooms and some outside eateries, we closed for renovations as well which put a bit of a damper on things, but didn't make the trip any less fun.

Downtown Disney was a letdown this time around. Normally, I love shopping there and really only got to go check it out one night. Some of the shops had changed since last year. One of my favourite stores had been replaced by one now called Trend which just wasn't the same. The selection this time around was definitely lacking. One highlight was a restaurant called Cookes of Dublin. Since we opted for the Quick Service Dining plan this trip, Cookes of Dublin was one of the many QS eateries we could dine at. My cousin got the fish and chips and loved it; I chose the beef and lamb pie, which was very good. Being someone who doesn't like onions, I was surprised to learn none were present in the pie (instead there were leeks). The meals are reasonably priced (mine and my mother's cost around $22 and that included both our main meals, beverages, and desserts). Another thing to check out (which I missed this time around) are the delicious shakes from Haagan-Daaz. The Dulce de Leche is yummy and I was so full from dinner, I didn't get a chance to have one this time around.

If you decide to go for the Quick Service Dining plan, you have a plethora of options. Each day, you are allowed two quick service meals and two snacks (we had plenty of snacks left over). The positive of this plan is that you can eat virtually anywhere on Disney property. It gave us a chance to eat at various resorts, such as the Polynesian (Captain Cook's which has an interactive way to pick your meal and serves Dole Whips for desert), and The Animal Kingdom Lodge (The Mara which was a bit difficult to find but the shrimp basket was well worth it), as well as different restaurants in the parks (Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe has the amazing hot cheese sauce for your fries). As for the snacks, almost anything can be counted as a snack option (most items worth less than $3.99 such as the Dole Whip Pineapple Floats, popcorn, or different candy treats).

Anyways, this trip did have a few quirks but was a fun time nonetheless.

Avoid Delta Airlines

Alright, so I went on a recent vacation to Orlando, Florida. I have been traveling there ever since I was a child and have always enjoyed flying. Due to recent events, air travel has changed quite a bit.

Being Canadian, I rarely fly out of Canada. I actually prefer flying out of the United States as for one, it is much cheaper, and two, you can find direct flights. Another bonus being that the customs is completely different and much swifter to go through.

Anyways, since I don't have a license and my mother is visually impaired, we had no choice but to fly out of Canada this time around which was a huge mistake. Mistake number two was choosing to fly with Delta...

As I mentioned before with the new regulations put into place for air travel, when you fly out of Canada, you need to be at the airport three hours prior to your flight. Since our flight was at around 6 AM, we got to the airport around 3 AM. We waited over an hour (standing) for the Delta check in to even open... There wasn't even any places to sit for those needing it. The woman checking us in was sort of impolite. My mother had requested airport assistance (due to her handicap) and the woman didn't seem all that interested. She even gave me a few weird looks. Aside from that, we did receive assistance from a lovely and friendly woman who helped us through customs (which was very swift) and gave us detailed instructions how to find our gate. Later on, after we were settled, she even came to check on us. She was one of the highlights of the whole airport/Delta experience and she didn't even work for Delta.

When we finally boarded the aircraft, we were on the tarmac for close to 45 minutes before the plane departed for Detroit. This put us way behind and made us miss our connecting flight to Orlando. When we got there, the airline didn't even seem to care they had made us miss our flight. They were able to find another flight for us which didn't depart for another 4 hours. The flight from Detroit to Orlando went smoothly. We arrived at the Orlando International Airport around 3 PM, instead of around 11:30 AM, which caused our plans to completely change for the day (basically, a day wasted).

Now, 10 days later, after a wonderful vacation, it was time to head back to MCO. Our first flight, to Atlanta, was pretty good, but unfortunately, the flight from Atlanta back to Toronto was not. First off, the woman sitting in front of me placed a cup of coffee on the floor and forgot about it. It wasn't until I went to get something from my bag I discovered it was soaked with coffee. Let's just say, I was angry... Then she had the nerve to place her seat back, causing me to have hardly any room to move around (she was sitting in 1A so she had plenty of room already). I pushed her seat letting her know I didn't appreciate it. My mother let her know what happened and she didn't even care she had ruined my bag (one I had bought only a few months prior to our trip; luckily it was a dark brown so when the coffee dried, it blended right in). Secondly, we had to stay on the aircraft when it landed for a wheelchair to meet us for my mother. Thirdly, we had to take stairs off the plane. This isn't exactly good for someone with barely any sight. My mother could have fallen and broke her neck or worse... Me, being someone with very good vision, was having a hard time with the stairs (I forgot to mention, but it was nighttime and dark when we landed). When we finally got our carry-on luggage (since it was a small plane, all carry-ons had to be placed below the plane), the airline had broken my mother's luggage. Since we were tired and wanted to head home, we didn't go the claims department. My mother phoned the next day to report what had happened to us, but Delta claimed they couldn't do anything for us and that we needed to head back to Pearson International to file a report on the damaged luggage (which isn't going to happen since it is a 3+ hour drive to Toronto for us). She also let them know about our other experiences (especially having to use the stairs). The woman on the line told my mother that Delta is supposed to let their passengers know if the flight uses stairs, which they didn't. When we booked, we let them know plenty of time in advance about my mother's disability (over 3 months).

When we actually booked, we each paid $411 (with taxes) for our flights, which got cancelled and changed numerous times which is just ridiculous. My aunt flew out of Rochester, NY and paid around $150 roundtrip and didn't experience any problems. My cousin, who also flew out of Rochester with her family (and chose Jet Blue), paid $60 roundtrip and had an amazing flight. They all had non-stop flights and were treated amazingly well. As for us, we got shafted.... Our previous trip, we flew from Syracuse with Jet Blue and received outstanding service. Our luggage was free (on our trip back from Orlando this time, we had to pay $20 for our one bag), we received a nice selection of snacks and beverages (loved the blue chips) (with Delta, we got one cup for our beverage and a tiny bag of peanuts or pretzels), and the entertainment was plentiful (each seat had its own television with a wide selection of channels) (with Delta, we had to share bad quality TVs that played the same movie, although one of the flights did show an episode of The Office, which I do watch).

Overall, I would recommend a) flying from America if possible and b) choosing an airline like Jet Blue because their service was fair superior to that of Delta.