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Saturday 2 April 2016

Vacation Blog VI: a rental car nightmare that has ended the "perfection" of the trip

5:19 AM - OK I know I took a sleeping pill and got to bed early but I wasn't planning on being up and alert before the sun came up and before we even got into the Port of Miami. What an asshole.

6:00 AM - I can see land, as the Port of Miami is in sight. Disappointing to end this wonderful week on the cruise, but as long as it's over, we might as well get the hell to Orlando and start the next two weeks which we also know will be fabulous.

7:30 AM - Our last breakfast buffet. Oh, the memories. Oh, the bacon. Oh, the heartburn.

8:00 AM - Off the ship and through US customs in a breeze and we're in a cab and on the way to the Intercontinental Hotel where we are picking up our rental car from the Alamo desk in the hotel. The hotel is gorgeous, and right by the Port; it's somewhere we might consider staying the next time we are down here for a cruise.

What we WON'T be doing again is renting a car from Alamo. There is a reason we try to rent from Hertz, they always take excellent care of us. This time, booking through Priceline, Hertz didn't have any convertibles available and we really got a good price on our convertible through Alamo. Only problem? No fucking convertibles.


Alamo knows how to take the reservation, they just don't know how to HOLD the reservation, which is really the most important part of the reservation.

Assclowns.

As if that wasn't enough, the Manager was a total prick and couldn't care less. He offered us an upgrade to a "Premium" car we didn't want but pretty much had to take. His only other offer was to cancel the reservation, in which case we'd have to pay last minute prices with someone else or sprout wings and fly to Orlando. We took the Premium car (at the last minute he did offer to pay for the gas) and started off for Orlando.

3:00 PM - After a fairly pleasant drive, we arrive at Target to do our shopping for provisions we'll need for the next couple weeks. As much as we didn't want this Chevy Impala, it actually is a pretty good car. The only problem with it is the gas mileage but that shouldn't be too big an issue as we should only have to put a few bucks in, hopefully. The car has just about every feature imaginable and drives pretty well for an American car. But I still want my damn convertible. I'm in Florida dammit!

3:45 PM - We arrive at our resort, the Holiday Inn Orange Lake Resort. This is our third time here and we obviously like it to keep coming back. There is a huge lineup at the check in desk but they are so efficient we are checked in and given our keys in just minutes. We arrive at our townhouse which backs right onto the golf course. It's the exact same floor plan that we've had in the past here, which is fantastic. We really are comfortable here.

I get some decent wi-fi finally and upload yesterday's blog. Finally get to check up on the last week of hockey and read some Emails that I had been ignoring.  I see that it is now mathematically assured that no Canadian teams will make the NHL playoffs. That thud you just heard was all the executives at Rogers hurling themselves off the top of a tall building. I bet they are excited as heck thinking about the ratings they will get from a Florida/St. Louis Stanley Cup Final. Dozens of hockey fans will tune in.

My next order of internet business is to tweet Alamo and Priceline and see if either of them is interested in helping me out. To be clear, I'm not blaming Priceline at all, there isn't anything they could have done. Actually I probably should have phoned them from the rental counter, I know that they are big on making sure their clients get what they want but it didn't occur to me at the time.

Alamo did respond to my tweet and ask for more details, which I have provided. We will see what they are willing to do.

7:00 PM - After a nice dinner of chicken and bacon-wrapped asparagus (no we did NOT have enough bacon on the cruise!!!), we are unwinding before beginning the Disney portion of our trip. Tomorrow morning, we are off to the Magic Kingdom! Very exciting.

8:00 PM - If Tracey ever gets out of the jet-tub that she's been in for about 2 hours, I'm going to recommend we go and explore the resort a bit to see what we might have forgotten or what might be new in the 3 years since we've been here, and then get to bed at a reasonable hour. Disney fun begins early tomorrow!!

Tomorrow, the Magic Kingdom and Wrestlemania. Quite a combination.












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