11/16/2014
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| Last breakfast in Europe ;( But tasty! |
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| Scotch Egg with Tesco Cheese & Chive dip (a mix of Red Leicester and Mature White Cheddar cheese) |
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| Egg yolk cooked to soft, delicious perfection! |
We didn’t sleep well last night because the cheap hotel we stayed
in on our last night here (we moved hotels to be closer to the train
station…it’s right across the street!) doesn’t offer wake-up call. That’s two
hotels this trip that don’t offer wake-up call, and both happen to be in the
UK. >.<
What we ended up doing was taking turns sleeping so we
wouldn’t oversleep. Our flight's a 9:05am flight, which meant we’d have to
get up at 5am to do some last-minute packing and get on the tram (newly opened
this year, btw. I hear Edinburgh residents aren't happy with the new tram because
the budget ballooned to twice the original amount, took twice as long to
build—shutting down many city streets along the way—and the tram was originally
supposed to go all the way to Leith, but now just travels within Edinburgh
because they ran out of money).
Angel: Jen fell asleep during her turn to stay awake –
falling asleep during the Night’s Watch! Off with her head!
The tram was relatively easy to figure out. You buy a ticket
from the machine, there’s electronic signs telling you when the next tram will
arrive…but as it was 6am in the morning, the tram doesn’t come along that often. The Lothian
Airport Express Service 100 Bus comes along with more frequency (and it’s
cheaper by 1 pound each) than the tram, but Angel didn’t want to lug the carriage onto the bus
steps. The tram doesn’t have steps to get on--it's pretty flush with the ground. :T
The tram drives really, reaaaaalllly slowly. The travel time for the tram
is 29 minutes to airport—the Lothian bus travel time is 25 minutes. Just saying (Angel doesn't want to hear me whine anymore about why we didn't take the bus instead)!
When we went to check-in, the United Airlines rep told us they
were oversold on our flight and would we be agreeable to changing our flight to
tomorrow in exchange for a free hotel night’s stay, all meals included, and
$300 each in compensation (in the form of a travel voucher).
Angel and I looked at each other. It sounded very tempting,
but our Orlando trip's already planned pretty well and it’d cut into our time
in the theme parks. Plus, the $300 is issued in travel vouchers, not cash. As I
learned with British Airways, vouchers are a bitch to use off cuz they have so
many stupid terms and conditions. So we declined his offer and went thru security.
After security, we went to “in between Gates 4 and 5.” Remember when I said the
Customs Office in Edinburgh closed down?
There’s a mailbox—mailbox!—between Gates 4 and 5 where you
insert your unsealed VAT refund form. If your envelope is sealed, you might not
get a refund. Overall the process isn’t too much of a hassle, especially given
the amount of refund you get, but it was stressful nonetheless since we thought
we had to show all our purchased goods at the point of departure to the Customs official (as it
instructs on the refund forms). The whole trip, we were stressing out about whether we should pack all our newly purchased items in our check-in luggage or not--it's more convenient to pack in our check-in luggage, but if the official wants to see the goods you've purchased, then you have no choice but to pack it in your carry-on.
At least in Edinburgh, it seems that having
the VAT mailbox is enough proof that you’re leaving the
country with the goods. No customs official necessary to check your suitcases. Hurray!
When we got to the gate, we heard another announcement about
our oversold flight. At this point, they started offering $400/person! Alas, we
still didn’t take it…although it was awfully tempting. Fastpasses were already planned out for our first day in Disney, so didn't want to risk losing those.
The flight from Edinburgh to New Jersey was a bit rocky, but
the worst part was the food. I don’t think I’ve ever had airplane food this bad
before—I mean, don’t they employ a taste tester?! Or a tasting panel? It was some
chicken breast with bland tomato sauce, waaaaay overcooked beans and undercooked
carrots.
When we arrived in New Jersey, we had to get all our
check-in luggage out again. Stupid airport requires everyone making a transfer
to take their luggage out, go thru security, and re-check it back in. Why??? To create jobs?! So
retarded.
Customs was a breeze; there are self-serve machines for Customs.
Never seen that before!
We then went to United’s Customer Service desk. Our
connecting flight wasn’t going to leave until 7:30pm (we arrived in New Jersey
at 11:30am. Yeah. That bad a connection.) and it wouldn’t get in until 10:30pm,
so we were hoping to switch to an earlier flight.
I had called United before I left the States to see if they
would allow the change. The rep said it’d cost $75/person, so I'd declined to
change at the time.
The rep at New Jersey went ahead and changed our flights to an earlier connection. I was secretly hurray-ing! myself...and then she said--after she changed our flights--that it’d
cost money. Say waaaat? WTF. Shouldn’t she have told me this before she changed my flight??? I started to panic because I was now on the hook for $150…all to save a measly 2 hours. She'd changed our flight to the 5:35pm flight; I thought she’d at least change it to the 2:45pm flight (I’d written down the available flights leaving for Orlando today).
I told her that our flight had been changed twice by United, and a
United phone rep in the US office had told me (this is true) that if United
changed a passenger’s flight twice, the passenger was entitled to change
flights for no extra charge.
She said no can do. I was still on the hook for $150. I then told her I’d like to change back to my original
flight. The rep went back into the system (hey, at least she didn’t roll her
eyes at me!) to change our flights back to the 7:30pm flight…only to find out
that our seats had already been snapped up. Say waaaat??? Now I’m really
panicking! Our original seats are gone!
The rep then peers into the screen and confers with her
colleague. The 7:30pm flight, apparently, has been oversold. Notice a trend with United?
The Edinburgh flight was oversold too! So now
they’re glad to change our flights to the earliest flight possible for no
charge. Cuz otherwise they’d have to offer a sweet package to passengers
checking in tonight, to entice them to switch flights. Thank God!
Not only that, she changed ours to the 2:45pm flight.
Boo-yah! Although why she wouldn’t give us the 2:45 earlier…
This flight was almost completely booked so we couldn't get seats next to each other. The rep managed to procure two seats for us, one in the very last row of the plane...and the other one in their Economy Premier section (usually have to pay $70 extra to get seats in this section). Angel sat in that seat, and she loved, loved, LOVED the extra legroom. She has shorter legs than me, and she's complaining about legroom? Sheesh. :T
The flight was pretty smooth. We touched down in Orlando and
immediately felt the hot, humid air blasting thru the airport. We went to pick
up our rental car, and the rep there tried to sell us everything up the wazoo.
He said our luggage wouldn’t fit the economy model, so we should probably
upgrade to the next size up car. Because I’m a reward member, he’d double
upgrade me for the same low price of $10/day + tax. Angel and I looked at each
other, and said, “Nah, we’ll make it fit.”
After the paperwork was all processed, we went outside to
pick up the car. Baby was getting a little cranky at this point because it was
so hot and humid. We showed the pick-up agent our paperwork, and he pointed
toward the row that said “Compact” and told us to choose any car in that row; the keys are in the ignition. Just pick up and go. There’s a LOT of people renting
cars, so I guess they've done this to make the rental process smoother and
faster.
When we got to the Compact row, we saw minivans, sedans and
SUVs. This must be the wrong row, we thought. So I go back to ask the agent,
and he said anything in the Compact row is charged as Compact, so everything’s
fair game. Wow! I immediately headed toward a minivan, but Angel wanted a sedan for
easier maneuvering. Drat. Ok. Fine. We pull out our handy GPS and we're good to go.
The hotel I reserved is a HUGE complex, complete with 12 different pools, movie theater, restaurants, game hall and fitness center. It’s also a timeshare place and the Welcome Desk managed to lasso us into a Welcome Breakfast which, I’m sure, will be a timeshare spiel. Let’s just say we were really tired and our brains weren’t working well. :T
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