faline
05-21-2010, 08:48 PM
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Plan for the Day:
Fly to Orlando
Check-in at Port Orleans French Quarter
Dinner at House of Blues
How It Really Went:
We both needed to work yesterday. I knew I had much to accomplish so went in very early in the morning. Even though we paid for Early Bird Checkin, I print our boarding passes promptly at the 24 hour window. We have A19 and A20. Surprisingly, the day went very smoothly and I left office around 3. I had an errand to run before heading home. Along the way, I picked up a couple of sandwiches and an order of onion rings.
After dinner, I had one final load of laundry to complete and still had a small list of items that I had not yet packed. Everything was completed by about 8. Since we needed to be up before 4 in the morning, it was lights out around 9:30.
Unfortunately, I did not sleep very well but, then, I had not really expected I would. The alarm sound promptly at 3:45 a.m. Up out of bed – Woo hoo – WE’RE ON VACATION!!!
My goal was to be on the road to the airport between 4:45 and 5 a.m. After our usual early morning administrations, I still needed to squeeze a few more items into our bags. Once again, Gene has placed a liquid in a place where it can’t go. It’s under 3 ounces – good! I get that item into one of our two quart bags and we are ready to go. We pull away from the house at 5:10 a.m. – a little later than I wanted.
It’s a frosty morning in Massachusetts – below freezing, actually. Still, I’ve decided to wear shorts to the airport though I do don a sweatshirt. The traffic to Manchester airport is very light and there are no delays along the way. Three cars pull into the park and fly registration area all at the same time - our car is the middle of the three. After completing the paperwork, we follow the shuttle bus which leads us to our designated parking lot. Three sleepy couples climb aboard and are promptly dropped off just outside the Southwest curbside check-in spot.
Wow! It’s rather chilly outside! We need to wait a few minutes to check our two bags and are told we will be departing from gate 12. Entering the terminal, we notice the lines for security are moderately long. Even so, they don’t appear to be dauntingly long and security usually moves along quite quickly at this airport so I suggest we do as we usually do and grab a bite to eat before making our way through security. Gene suggests we go through security first. This turns out to be a very good suggestion.
We find ourselves in line behind a woman who tells us she flies only when she absolutely must as the security processes are offensive to her dignity. She puts her bag into one of the bins and pulls out a couple of liquid items (not contained within a quart size bag) and continues to root around inside her carry on bag – not sure what she was looking for. I was not surprised when she was pulled aside for additional screening as she walked through the security gate though she certainly did not set off the alarm. I walked through the screening gate and then our line shut down. Apparently, they were waiting for another TSA agent to view the screen – they were examining the bag the woman had been routing around in. It was probably a good five minutes that we all stood there – me in my stocking feet while I was waiting for our bags to come through and Gene still on the other side of security as he had not yet pushed our last bag into the screening area. In addition to giving the woman extra screening, they also searched her bag and confiscated at least one of the liquid bottles she had placed in the bin as the liquid bottle was larger than the allowed 3 ounces.
Security also opened the bag of another couple ahead of us in line. Apparently they did have their liquids in the required quart size bag but did not understand they needed to take the quart bags out of their luggage while they went through security with the woman saying “But they need to be in the bag” and TSA explaining that was true but… Our luggage finally starts coming through and one of our bags is pulled as well. The TSA agent asks if I have one of the GPS beanie bags inside. I say I do and that’s is probably in the bottom of the bag. She says that okay, they just want to take that item out and run in through again separately. They also take out my cosmetics bag to run through separately as well and run the bag itself through. It certainly seemed security was heightened this day!
While we are gathering our things and putting our shoes on, the man behind Gene finally got through security with his laptop. However, they pulled that aside and indicated they were going to run in through again. He asked if he could run to the gate to explain he had been help up at security and was told he could not. As we were walking away from the security area, he came running by us, dropping a computer cord, and needing to stop to pick it up. It looked like his flight had already boarded and he barely made it aboard.
We pass by our gate (12) in search of a cup of coffee and some food. We stop in a little shop that appears to serve primarily as a bar later in the day but they are serving coffee, muffins, bagels and other breakfast fare. I have a cuppa along with a bagel and cream cheese. Gene has a muffin with his coffee. While I finish sipping my coffee, Gene walks next door to the newspaper shop and picks up a magazine to read on the plane.
We make our way back to our gate and find a couple of open seats while the person at the gate is announcing it will be 85 degrees in Orlando today. Sounds god to me! I head to the rest room. As I am walking back to our gate area, I hear the request for those with A boarding passes to line up so I never even get to sit down in the waiting area! There are only a few folks boarding ahead of us. We choose seats in row 5. The plane is not full and we are able to have the row to ourselves.
Takeoff is just about on time but the pilot announces we will likely arrive 15-20 early at our gate in Orlando. That’s just fine by me! It’s mostly clear during our flight but we run into some occasional bumpiness. At least once, the flight attendants are asked to be seated as well. I guess I’m too excited as I don’t even attempt to sleep during this flight. Instead, I read, spend time looking out the window, and type my notes on my netbook.
To be continued:
Plan for the Day:
Fly to Orlando
Check-in at Port Orleans French Quarter
Dinner at House of Blues
How It Really Went:
We both needed to work yesterday. I knew I had much to accomplish so went in very early in the morning. Even though we paid for Early Bird Checkin, I print our boarding passes promptly at the 24 hour window. We have A19 and A20. Surprisingly, the day went very smoothly and I left office around 3. I had an errand to run before heading home. Along the way, I picked up a couple of sandwiches and an order of onion rings.
After dinner, I had one final load of laundry to complete and still had a small list of items that I had not yet packed. Everything was completed by about 8. Since we needed to be up before 4 in the morning, it was lights out around 9:30.
Unfortunately, I did not sleep very well but, then, I had not really expected I would. The alarm sound promptly at 3:45 a.m. Up out of bed – Woo hoo – WE’RE ON VACATION!!!
My goal was to be on the road to the airport between 4:45 and 5 a.m. After our usual early morning administrations, I still needed to squeeze a few more items into our bags. Once again, Gene has placed a liquid in a place where it can’t go. It’s under 3 ounces – good! I get that item into one of our two quart bags and we are ready to go. We pull away from the house at 5:10 a.m. – a little later than I wanted.
It’s a frosty morning in Massachusetts – below freezing, actually. Still, I’ve decided to wear shorts to the airport though I do don a sweatshirt. The traffic to Manchester airport is very light and there are no delays along the way. Three cars pull into the park and fly registration area all at the same time - our car is the middle of the three. After completing the paperwork, we follow the shuttle bus which leads us to our designated parking lot. Three sleepy couples climb aboard and are promptly dropped off just outside the Southwest curbside check-in spot.
Wow! It’s rather chilly outside! We need to wait a few minutes to check our two bags and are told we will be departing from gate 12. Entering the terminal, we notice the lines for security are moderately long. Even so, they don’t appear to be dauntingly long and security usually moves along quite quickly at this airport so I suggest we do as we usually do and grab a bite to eat before making our way through security. Gene suggests we go through security first. This turns out to be a very good suggestion.
We find ourselves in line behind a woman who tells us she flies only when she absolutely must as the security processes are offensive to her dignity. She puts her bag into one of the bins and pulls out a couple of liquid items (not contained within a quart size bag) and continues to root around inside her carry on bag – not sure what she was looking for. I was not surprised when she was pulled aside for additional screening as she walked through the security gate though she certainly did not set off the alarm. I walked through the screening gate and then our line shut down. Apparently, they were waiting for another TSA agent to view the screen – they were examining the bag the woman had been routing around in. It was probably a good five minutes that we all stood there – me in my stocking feet while I was waiting for our bags to come through and Gene still on the other side of security as he had not yet pushed our last bag into the screening area. In addition to giving the woman extra screening, they also searched her bag and confiscated at least one of the liquid bottles she had placed in the bin as the liquid bottle was larger than the allowed 3 ounces.
Security also opened the bag of another couple ahead of us in line. Apparently they did have their liquids in the required quart size bag but did not understand they needed to take the quart bags out of their luggage while they went through security with the woman saying “But they need to be in the bag” and TSA explaining that was true but… Our luggage finally starts coming through and one of our bags is pulled as well. The TSA agent asks if I have one of the GPS beanie bags inside. I say I do and that’s is probably in the bottom of the bag. She says that okay, they just want to take that item out and run in through again separately. They also take out my cosmetics bag to run through separately as well and run the bag itself through. It certainly seemed security was heightened this day!
While we are gathering our things and putting our shoes on, the man behind Gene finally got through security with his laptop. However, they pulled that aside and indicated they were going to run in through again. He asked if he could run to the gate to explain he had been help up at security and was told he could not. As we were walking away from the security area, he came running by us, dropping a computer cord, and needing to stop to pick it up. It looked like his flight had already boarded and he barely made it aboard.
We pass by our gate (12) in search of a cup of coffee and some food. We stop in a little shop that appears to serve primarily as a bar later in the day but they are serving coffee, muffins, bagels and other breakfast fare. I have a cuppa along with a bagel and cream cheese. Gene has a muffin with his coffee. While I finish sipping my coffee, Gene walks next door to the newspaper shop and picks up a magazine to read on the plane.
We make our way back to our gate and find a couple of open seats while the person at the gate is announcing it will be 85 degrees in Orlando today. Sounds god to me! I head to the rest room. As I am walking back to our gate area, I hear the request for those with A boarding passes to line up so I never even get to sit down in the waiting area! There are only a few folks boarding ahead of us. We choose seats in row 5. The plane is not full and we are able to have the row to ourselves.
Takeoff is just about on time but the pilot announces we will likely arrive 15-20 early at our gate in Orlando. That’s just fine by me! It’s mostly clear during our flight but we run into some occasional bumpiness. At least once, the flight attendants are asked to be seated as well. I guess I’m too excited as I don’t even attempt to sleep during this flight. Instead, I read, spend time looking out the window, and type my notes on my netbook.
To be continued: