If anyone missed me, I just got back from a week in Florida, I had planned to get online while I was down there but simply didn't have any real time to do so and/or the Internet connection was less than stellar...
Swung by Clearwater for the first day and a half to walk the beaches and collect shells, than headed to The Disney Yacht Club for several days and than back to Clearwater for the last day... Not a 'real' Disney vacation though, the girlfriend was there for a work conference so we (me and the kids) were there basically to just enjoy the free hotel and do a little bit of stuff at night... A few hours one night at Epcot was about the only real Disney stuff we did, besides an after hours diner/dance thing at Hollywood Studios for a few hours...
Not a huge deal because at 2 1/2 and 7 months the kids are too young to really grasp Disney anyway... My 2 year old was plenty content in Disney's sand bottom pools and or walking the ocean beaches in Clearwater... To prove this point after we left the nice but clearly an older family run ma-pa motel in Clearwater and arrived at Disney my 2 year old kept saying "Go back!" She settled down once we showed her the pool but still wanted to go back to the ma-pa motel and chase the lizards (small anoles) around the courtyard and play in the waves...
Airlines are my only gripe, just a small one with the TSA nonsense... Apparently the package of black garbage bags in my carry on sent the TSA in a tissy until they actually handled them and discovered they were just plastic bags, God knows what they "thought" they were... Another one, baby formula and/or infant drinks are exempt from the 3oz carry on rule, but God forbid you actually exercise that exemption! You automatically get wiped down for explosive residue, as they double and triple look at the sealed baby formula containers...
American Airlines was horrible, from their delays (first plane 35 minutes late) that caused us to miss our connecting flight, only to be told/blamed by the ticketing agent that it was my fault that I didn't leave enough time since I was traveling with children... All the while EVERYONE else on my plane (children or not) also missed the connection, we all got to see it taxi away 5 minute before it was scheduled to depart... So they book us on a flight a few hours later, after we board the plane taxis to the back of the airport and informs us there is an issue with weights and balances, apparently they misidentified the plane and loaded it wrong... That took them 45 minutes to sort out, with the pilot having to power down the plane or risk needing a refuel that would further delay things... Finally get to our destination, only to find out ALL our luggage is unaccounted for, LUCKILY most of it did actually show up in baggage claim... Except for one of our car seats and our stroller... Apparently they were on the plane at one point but they were removed during that weights and balance fiasco and lost (same reason they originally said all our luggage was unaccounted for)... Two days later the car seat shows up, four days later the stroller showed up (after we had already purchased another)... BTW for those 4 days, 2 or 3 times a day an automated (lying)
call from the airlines insisting they found our luggage and it would be in our hands in the next 6-12 hours was on my voice mail...
Delta Airlines on the way home, no problems there just as expected... They even allowed early boarding for families with small children, trust me that is a big welcome perk...
All in all I don't see myself flying American Airlines again anytime in the future unless necessary...
Swung by Clearwater for the first day and a half to walk the beaches and collect shells, than headed to The Disney Yacht Club for several days and than back to Clearwater for the last day... Not a 'real' Disney vacation though, the girlfriend was there for a work conference so we (me and the kids) were there basically to just enjoy the free hotel and do a little bit of stuff at night... A few hours one night at Epcot was about the only real Disney stuff we did, besides an after hours diner/dance thing at Hollywood Studios for a few hours...
Not a huge deal because at 2 1/2 and 7 months the kids are too young to really grasp Disney anyway... My 2 year old was plenty content in Disney's sand bottom pools and or walking the ocean beaches in Clearwater... To prove this point after we left the nice but clearly an older family run ma-pa motel in Clearwater and arrived at Disney my 2 year old kept saying "Go back!" She settled down once we showed her the pool but still wanted to go back to the ma-pa motel and chase the lizards (small anoles) around the courtyard and play in the waves...
Airlines are my only gripe, just a small one with the TSA nonsense... Apparently the package of black garbage bags in my carry on sent the TSA in a tissy until they actually handled them and discovered they were just plastic bags, God knows what they "thought" they were... Another one, baby formula and/or infant drinks are exempt from the 3oz carry on rule, but God forbid you actually exercise that exemption! You automatically get wiped down for explosive residue, as they double and triple look at the sealed baby formula containers...
American Airlines was horrible, from their delays (first plane 35 minutes late) that caused us to miss our connecting flight, only to be told/blamed by the ticketing agent that it was my fault that I didn't leave enough time since I was traveling with children... All the while EVERYONE else on my plane (children or not) also missed the connection, we all got to see it taxi away 5 minute before it was scheduled to depart... So they book us on a flight a few hours later, after we board the plane taxis to the back of the airport and informs us there is an issue with weights and balances, apparently they misidentified the plane and loaded it wrong... That took them 45 minutes to sort out, with the pilot having to power down the plane or risk needing a refuel that would further delay things... Finally get to our destination, only to find out ALL our luggage is unaccounted for, LUCKILY most of it did actually show up in baggage claim... Except for one of our car seats and our stroller... Apparently they were on the plane at one point but they were removed during that weights and balance fiasco and lost (same reason they originally said all our luggage was unaccounted for)... Two days later the car seat shows up, four days later the stroller showed up (after we had already purchased another)... BTW for those 4 days, 2 or 3 times a day an automated (lying)
call from the airlines insisting they found our luggage and it would be in our hands in the next 6-12 hours was on my voice mail...
Delta Airlines on the way home, no problems there just as expected... They even allowed early boarding for families with small children, trust me that is a big welcome perk...
All in all I don't see myself flying American Airlines again anytime in the future unless necessary...
