Well, today has certainly been a long day, but an enjoyable one too.
As I type, iphoto is desperately trying to catch up with all of the photos that I have taken today, and it looks like it might take a while, so not sure if I will be posting photos today, we'll have to see how it gets on!
Early start this morning - I was up just after five, and showered, packed and checked out of the Miami Airport hotel before six. The domestic check in area for AA was fairly busy, and it was a case of using the machines to check in before queueing for the bag drop. I had a minor panic when the machine didn't want to recognise either my credit card or my passport, but thankfully I noticed that there was an option to type in the booking reference, and once I'd done that it was all plain sailing. I dropped off my bag, and didn't have to wait too long to get through security, and so was airside and ready to go before half past six for my eight o'clock flight!
Had a sausage and egg muffin and a coffee from Nathan's (not up to the same standard as the one at MCO), and made them last a fair while whilst I read my book (which I finished on the flight - the fifth of the Morse books - The Dead of Jericho - top quality. Now read three books on this trip so far and only have one left!).
The flight was less than half full (like the one back from Costa Rica yesterday), and we were only in the air for about 40 mins to get from Miami to Orlando, and we landed just after nine. No need to deal with customs, and my bag was on the conveyor pretty soon after I arrived there, and to finish off an easy airport transit, the line at the Hertz rental desk was short. I am now driving around Orlando in a Mazda 3.
Arrived at the Pop Century, and continuing my good fortune, my room was ready - I am in the 80s section. I have already taken quite a few pictures around the resort - it's good fun.
Once I'd unpacked and got my bearings around the resort, I was ready to face a park. The plan was to go to the Magic Kingdom, and so I set the Mazda in that direction. But, passing the Boardwalk, I thought that I cunning plan might be to park there, have a little look around Epcot and then get on the monorail to MK. So, I diverted to the Boardwalk, told the gate fellow that I was coming for lunch, and parked up.
By now the muffin at MIA was starting to feel like rather a long time ago, and so I stopped off at the Boardwalk Bakery for a cheese danish and a drink, before heading into Epcot through the International Gateway. Then, rather than heading left for the monorail, I decided to head right towards France, and for the next couple of hours enjoyed pottering about the World Showcase, taking a huge number of photos, and taking in a few shows.
By the time I'd finished the anticlockwise circuit at Mexico, the clouds had not only gathered, they'd started to deposit a fairly large amount of rain, so I missed out completing the full set of country photos by walking straight through Canada (Off Kilter were playing Dirty Old Town!) and the UK, and back to the car. Obviously by the time I got to the car, it had pretty much stopped raining, but I was happy to come back to the hotel for a while. Apart from anything else, my camera battery was in need of putting on charge and swapping for the spare, due to overuse!
I relaxed at the hotel for a while, and whilst watching TV I realised I could hear a slightly strange noise outside the room. When I looked out, I realised that it had really started raining - the kind that soaks you to the skin in a second - so I felt rather smug about my decision to return to my room when I did!
Once the weather had eased, the next task was a trip to the supermarket (Publix on Vineland) to stock up on drinks and snacks, and to start working my way through the shopping list that I was sent with! So far so good. Mind you, just after heading out from my room, I realised that I hadn't spotted a coffee machine in my room. I popped back to check, and sure enough there wasn't one. When I phoned the front desk they explained that this was indeed the case at this resort. Seems a bit stingy to me. Still, good job I checked, otherwise I would have been rather annoyed if I came back with coffee, milk, sugar and so on. (Makes me a bit more annoyed that I forgot to bring my resort cup with me on the trip!)
Back from the supermarket, and I was still not ready to call it a day, and decided that I should stick with the original plan of getting to the Magic Kingdom on day 1, and so I headed for the bus stop - and by jogging the last 50 yards or so, I was able to get straight on a bus without any wait at all.
Got to MK at about 8.30 and it was pretty busy. Didn't do any rides at all, but enjoyed watching the Main Street Electrical Parade, the Wishes fireworks, and a new little show they've put in between, which I've already forgotten the name of, but which involved projecting all sorts of images onto the Castle, including photos that had been taken of people who'd visited MK today.
Leaving just before 11, the line for the Pop Century bus was enormous, but thankfully not very many people had noticed the fact that the Art of Animation line (two stops away) was really short, so I went over to that line, got straight on a bus, and walked across the bridge between the two resorts and back to my room.
So, as I said some time ago, a long but enjoyable day!
Photos are still transferring into iPhoto so can't upload any yet. Plan for tomorrow is to go to a park in the morning but have a break in the afternoon, so will probably upload some and do an extra post then.
Night night all.