Finally stopped being lazy and decided to update with a summary of the Florida trip. Despite there being thunderstorms for a variable amount of time each day, the trip was pretty amazing. It started off somewhat eventful - our trip with Air Transat (or rather, delegated to Canjet for Florida flights) was supposed to depart at 6:20am on Sunday May 30. This ultimately turned into a flight with Miami Air International departing at 8:45pm on the same day.
There weren't any major initial problems with the check-in and security. After spending lots of time waiting, either for customs to open up or in front of the gate, we boarded the plane and I was surprised at the plentiful room available. The plane was barely filled with passengers, and our seats were all along one of the emergency exit rows, which meant extra leg-room. The seats themselves were surprisingly comfy too. The plane then began taxiing down to the runway. After 5 minutes of movement, we found ourselves looping back to the airport gate, and due to "a malfunction with the steering equipment" we were forced to disembark the plane. The flight was delayed for another hour...then two hours...then... Yes, it was cancelled.
There weren't any major initial problems with the check-in and security. After spending lots of time waiting, either for customs to open up or in front of the gate, we boarded the plane and I was surprised at the plentiful room available. The plane was barely filled with passengers, and our seats were all along one of the emergency exit rows, which meant extra leg-room. The seats themselves were surprisingly comfy too. The plane then began taxiing down to the runway. After 5 minutes of movement, we found ourselves looping back to the airport gate, and due to "a malfunction with the steering equipment" we were forced to disembark the plane. The flight was delayed for another hour...then two hours...then... Yes, it was cancelled.
The flight that almost happened...
So close... Tempers flared among some other passengers when we were further forced to wait in confusion to reclaim our luggage. We were given the option to either have a taxi take us home, or if our residence was far enough away, get to stay at the hotel in Pearson. Luckily we managed to get the hotel option, and were given vouchers for lunch and dinner. Ended up being a pretty sweet deal. We mostly fell asleep in the hotel room between the meals at "Mahogany Grill". In the end, Miami Air International was recruited to save us from being stranded in Pearson, and we boarded a much less-impressive and significantly dustier plane to Orlando.
View from the Sheraton Gateway hotel room in Pearson.
After procuring a Chevy Impala from National, we drove to Summer Bay Resorts and settled in. Was quite late, so grocery shopping had to wait until the next day.
Chevy Impala, which probably has a higher top speed than an actual impala.
Now for a photo dump~
On the first day, after breakfast at Denny's (you could feed two Canadians a hearty breakfast in under $6 there) and grocery shopping at one of those ubiquitous Walmart superstores, we embarked to Animal Kingdom as the first theme park destination.
Animal Kingdom - because this was the only day of that week it opened until 8pm.
Stone structure in the middle of the lake may contain primates.
Statues spotted while moving ahead in the queue for Kali River Rapids.
The monk whose office we thoroughly trampled through in the queue for Expedition Everest will brb.
Flamingos really just don't care about the humans gawking at them on the Kilimanjaro Safari ride.
Mirrors, such as the one in the line for Primeval Whirl, are somewhat useful for self-taken group shots in lieu of a tripod.
Disney seemed to have changed the FastPass system so that now there is even a delay between getting FastPasses for different rides, greatly limiting their use. I'm not sure if it was like that the previous time I went. Later on that day, it was further reinforced how absolutely dirt cheap fast food is in the US after take-out from Chick-fil-a. Speaking of which, these two flow charts could possibly have been useful had I found them before the trip.
Throughout the trip when we didn't immediately collapse from exhaustion upon returning to the resort, we often indulged in some Dokapon Kingdom, a multiplayer game featuring a Mario Party-style game board with RPG elements. If you can properly recruit a bunch of friends to play this regularly, it quickly gets intensely addictive.
Dokapon Kingdom: the so-called "friendship-destroying game." Ironic, because it really requires a bunch of friends to play it regularly due to lack of online multiplayer and an unbalanced AI system.
EDIT: At this point I left the rest of the post for another day, which eventually became never. (natch) Instead I'll just post up the photos I had previously cropped here and you can visually guide yourself through the vacation without more of my dry narration!
Entrance to Epcot. Don't ever be fooled by the beautiful Florida skies and think that the weather will be nice for the next few hours. It lies.
Look it's that obligatory shot of Spaceship Earth when visiting Epcot!
A taste of Canada, as part of the International Showcase. Surely the tourists all recognize our iconic landmark, the
Got to see a lot of those performances around the International Showcase, such as taiko drumming, belly dancing, and even a bar entertainer. (She was a real hit with some students from Iowa.)
It's Universal Studios! I don't remember why I took all these back shots.
The new roller coaster with a vertical drop. Unfortunately we didn't get to try it due to the risk of being electrocuted.
Visited Upham Beach, left with mild sunburn.
This infamous sign from Upham Beach. We dutifully abstained from clambering onto any groins of any kind while at the beach.
The new ride in MGM based on Toy Story. Line wait time was still over an hour, even though it was less than 30min to closing time. Disney attractions are serious business.
This picture is entitled "The Pole".
And of course, we rounded off the trip with Magic Kingdom to see the fireworks show. The fact that it was isolated from the rest of the attractions and accessed via a monorail ride led to insane lineups after the fireworks show.
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