Sunday 26th October
We're almost all packed now. The plan is to be out of the apartment before 9:30. Head back to Orlando to use the early check-in that Virgin offers. Then we should be free from 12 noon. The idea is to head over to Universal City Walk for a couple of hours, maybe catch a movie, then be back by 6pm to drop the car off. We then fly out at 9pm tonight...
Well, that was the plan anyway... More on that later!
So we drove back into Orlando, a fairly straight forward drive.
We were heading into Downtown Orlando to do the early check-in that Virgin run there. However, we were unaware of the new building work that was going on around Downtown Disney. The place is a complete building site at the moment whilst they build in extra parking capacity. We were directed to satellite parking areas by the Disney staff and it was only when we mentioned that we were trying to get to the check-in area that they let us near the place we needed to be. It's all handicapped parking now.
Once checked in, our original plan was to have a look around Downtown Disney - but the state of the place meant that we just drove out and onto International Drive to go over to the Universal area instead. But before we'd even left the Downtown Disney car park, I got a text from Virgin.
That's a 2h 50min delay on a flight that was supposed to leave at 9pm.
I-Drive have an observation wheel too now.
We parked in Universal - it's now $17 to park each day - we skipped the preferred parking at $25 a day! Once parked, we bought ourselves a coffee and sat in Starbucks for a while to cool off then went for a walk around the City Walk area. We were not in time to see anything at the cinema in the end.
After our lap of City Walk we returned to the car and did a quick stop off at the nearby Mall where Linda got herself a couple of last minute presents to herself!
Then is was off to the airport. We dropped the car off and was confronted with this on the board.
I've looked elsewhere and we are actually the last flight out of Orlando tonight, by some margin too.
The incoming flight that makes up our flight back doesn't actually land at Orlando for another two hours (it's expected at 10:45). goodness knows what those passengers are going to do for their cars and travel as most of this airport actually shuts down after 9pm. I'm very doubtful that we'll be back in the air by 23:55. I can see them getting us boarded sometime after midnight only to de-board us all again and put us up in the hotel. I don't want this to happen but it's looking more inevitable as the time drags on.
I'm sitting in the food court area at the moment, as we were given a $10 comp meal voucher each for the delay. I'm getting numb, so it's time for a walk to the coffee shop before it closes for the night!
We've gone through security now - fastest ever! As there was no one in the queue! The airport is starting to shut down now as most of the shops are closing up for the night. Only Starbucks and McDonalds seem to stay open past 9pm.
I can see the aircraft English Rose at the gate.
The announcements say that they will begin boarding at 11pm for take off at 11:50pm. So the fact that the plane is here is a good thing. Just 40 minutes to go before we (hopefully) start to board.
It's 22:55 and assisted boarding has started. Looks like this is going to happen!
23:18. We're on board. Hopefully not much longer.