DC2CERUMA - Day 1

Today 4/21 is the official end of Day 1 of the Disney Coast to Coast-er Universally Magic Adventure.

Took the shuttle to LAX from the Holiday Inn. I froze! According to the news, it was 48 degrees and me with shorts and flimsy shirt over a tank top. Brrrr.

When checking in I had some hassles because of the luggage transfer. The check-in screen said to see the rep. The rep said put in ZERO for bags. Didn’t sound right, but I did and proceeded to the gate. Passed the United Customer Service and I asked Dee for help. She was pleasant, but wasn’t willing to go the extra mile to locate the bag. United said they didn’t have it and Delta now says they didn’t either. At the gate I asked P Melnyk for help and she said she couldn’t. So I got on the plane without knowing where my luggage was located.

Upon arrival in Orlando I took the shuttle to the main building. After exiting the train and while trying to get my bearing I see a familiar face. I call out “Tom” and this person lifts up his head. It was my manager when I worked at Sprint. Tom had moved a number of years ago from Hawaii up to Seattle. He was in Orlando for a conference. How weird is that! Two old co-workers on two different flights.

In the main building, I went to the United counter and the lady there was great.

She took ownership of the problem and tried a couple different options. She was the first person I awarded my customer service card to during the trip. Although she didn’t have a resolution she wanted to help. I really appreciated that! Something that I did learn is that if you use DME and your bag is lost, it does add a layer of complexity when trying to resolve the issue. I took her picture but didn’t want to give her name although I spied the name on her name tag.

Over at the Delta office, different story. The person there could have cared less and said there was nothing that she could do. It’s now 4:30, spent an hour trying to locate luggage with no luck. Responses on twitter and face book are things like bummer, crap, sucks, and that sucks. My feelings exactly! Get on Disney’s Magical Express and head over to Pop. I’m sorry, I miss the place and got misty eyed heading over to property.

Between the lines at DME and Pop, I finally have everything including the blank video tapes that I ordered and had delivered to the resort. The shipping is cheaper and I didn’t have to worry about that weight in my bag! It’s almost 6pm which at the Pop Century Resorts means it’s time to HUSTLE! Only 3 people came out and danced. Towards the end of the session a fourth person joined in. FUN!

This is my third trip to WDW since moving to Hawaii. Each time I have stayed at Pop AND I got assigned to the 50’s building again. I’m on the back side facing the water. It’s a nice view. The red light was flashing on the phone when I entered the room. The first message was letting me know the UPS package was at the front desk. The second was from United. The winner of my first customer service card gave a follow up call. Apparently Delta changed the tag on the bag so no one could find it under the tag that I had.

It did make it on the plane and DME will be dropping it off later tonight. YEAH!!!!

With the late arrival, I decided that I’ll head over to Riverside at Port Orleans and see good ol’ Yehaa Bob Jackson. Since there is no direct bus from Pop, I took the bus to Downtown Disney and then took the boat over. Unfortunately I discovered I was in the wrong line. SO, lesson to pass on, the boat to Riverside and French Quarter is by Captain Jacks in the Marketplace and not by Pleasure Island.

I happened to get a seat near the front on the side of the short dividing wall closer to Bob. After he did his intro he was going around and finding out where people are from. He pointed at me and gave a funny look and asked me. When I said Honolulu, I could see the light bulb go off and he said my name. He remembers me hosting him for the DPN Westfest event back in 2008. I also received a twitter from Sean and Pam saying there were in the place. I stood up and called out their name. They moved from the back up to my table in the front. AND Trace, yes, I told Bob hi from you and Lisa and he told me about your connection. AWESOMENESS to be ensured on that deal! My waitress Hollie was very good and kept my diet coke refilled throughout the night!

Sean and Pam gave me a ride back to Pop Century. I was lucky because I’m not sure how I would have gotten back. When I entered my room, my bag was there! Yeah, now I have the power strip so I can recharge all the batteries. This is my first time here with a data phone that can do texting. I charged the battery in full this morning. I haven’t done a whole lot and when I got back to the room, the phone was dead. There have been some errors on messages so I’m thinking the signal for this phone isn’t the best. It’s something that I need to keep an eye on as I don’t have a spare phone battery.

So, was the day perfect? By no means, BUT, I am at Walt Disney World and very grateful that I’m back. Day two will include going to Animal Kingdom on the anniversary of the opening of the park. I’m excited!

DC2CERUMA - Day 0.5

Today started the Disney Coast to Coast-er Universally Magic Adventure (DC2CerUMA). This trip will take me to Walt Disney World in Orlando and Universal Studios Florida. I'll then be heading over to Anaheim to visit Disneyland for the DPN Westfest event with a day for Universal Studios Hollywood and Magic Mountain.

I'm writing this earlier than I expected and hence the 0.5 day. I was hoping to be writing this after my first full day at Disney World. But I got hit with the bug a boo! Got Delta's flight to Los Angeles from Honolulu. In a weird plus to the event I ended up sitting across the aisle from the guy who invented LOL cats at the Icanhascheeseburger web site. How do I know that it's him? I used to work with Eric. We hadn't taken off when the crew came on and let us know that we were heading back to the terminal for a sick passenger to get off. OK, at least we weren't airborne!

We're sitting at the gate and I see the ramp moved to the plane, see a person leave the plane and then the ramp pulled away from the plane. Then we sat. I was already a bit worried for a tight connection since when I originally made the reservation I had like an hour for the connection. The week before departure I received a notice that flight had moved and had 40 minutes for the connection. So we're sitting for a little bit when the pilot comes on and says that they were receiving additional fuel and that they would be leaving in a few minutes. But we sat. When we finally moved it was almost an hour later. According to the official information on the Delta web site, departure was 1:59pm. Maybe the pilot can put the petal to the metal or put the muster in the thruster and get us to LA on time, 9:30pm LA time.

The airlines have their rules, when the plane pulls away that is departure time and when the wheels hit the ground is the arrival time. That arrival time doesn't include the time to taxi to the arrival city's gate. When we arrive in LA, we approach the gate and then stop. The pilot comes in and tells us that he's got to power down the plane and wait for the tractor to be towed into the gate. UGH! When I checked-in in Honolulu, I talked to the agent about the tight connection and she moved me to the second row in the cattle car section so I was closer to the front of the plane. When the door opened and people started to deplane, as I passed the flight attendants they were making announcements about connections and said the the flight to Orlando had already departed.

Long story short, they couldn't get me out that night. When told about the time of departure and arrival into Orlando for the next day, I told the agent, Azali that I'd be loosing a day at the Disney parks and that ticket was $131 (Single day park hopper). He offered me a $100 travel credit good for one year on Delta. Well, to the best that I can remember, this is only the second time EVER that I've flown Delta. He said I could give it to someone. Asked him why would I give money to someone for me loosing money and told him it wasn't good enough. He had no answer. They are putting me up at the Holiday Inn with a meal voucher for all of $6.00. Heck I can't even buy a combo meal at McDonald's for that amount. Ashley at the front desk of the Holiday Inn LAX said she didn't know what they had that would be covered by the voucher cost. While Azali and Ashley, oh, how funny, both their names begin with A, were pleasant, neither have gone above and beyond to get one of the AWESOME JOB cards that I plan on using during the trip.

I'm gonna cut it here. It's after midnight in LA and I'm going to need to be at the airport for 6am for a 7:55am United flight. When I check in tomorrow, I'll see what else they can do for me and let you know.

Aloha for now!