A Tale of two Families (with apologies to Charles Dickens) Chapter 2 Arrival
If you missed them, you can read the Prologue to this tale as well as Chapter 1 by clicking on the purple links.
The Miller’s plane touched down at Orlando international Airport at 9:15 am and, ironically, the Talbot’s plane had already pulled up at the gate and they were making their way out of the plane. Tom and Susan Miller had discussed whether to use Disney’s Magical Express and decided they’d rather have a rental car for flexibility.
The Talbot’s had signed up for Disney’s free ride to the resorts but were in a quandary. They were so late checking in that they had no idea whether their luggage even made it on the plane. And, they needed to do a major Target run to stock up on the items they’d need for the trip and replace a lot of the things like swim goggles that they couldn’t find in their rush to pack. So they would need a rental car as well.
It was the best of times…
There’s nothing like seeing the palm trees and smelling the smell of Florida. The Millers—and especially their daughters—had huge smiles on their faces as they strolled off their flight from Chicago. The Orlando airport just says “welcome” when you walk into it. They strolled right past Baggage Claim B since all they had were their carry-on bags and walked across the road to one of the rental agencies that had cars right at the airport. Tom could be frugal and he knew he could get save some money on a cheaper rental car but vacation time was precious and he really didn’t want to deal with shuttles or long lines to get a car. So he had a rental car where all he had to do was show his license as they pulled out of the parking garage. The twins flipped a coin to see who would choose the color of their rental car.
In 10 minutes they were heading out of the airport and 40 minutes later they pulled up at Disney’s Beach Club Villas. It was so nice not to have to stop and buy all of the things they would need for their stay. Being able to go straight to the resort was heaven. There were lots of good aspects about having an Owner’s Locker and not having to spend an hour in a K-Mart as soon as they arrived was one of them. Their room wasn’t ready but that didn’t matter. The front desk staff mentioned that a package had arrived for them (the gifts for the twins Susan had shipped to the resort) as had their purple Locker. They got a card with a number to phone to see when their room would be available and left their carry-ons with bell services. Even though they knew it would be crowded, the twins wanted to go to the Magic Kingdom so off they went. They woke up in Chicago and were in a park before noon. Not bad at all. They got fast passes for Space Mountain and headed over to see the enhancements made to the Haunted Mansion.
It was the worst of times…
Janice Talbot was in a major panic worrying about their luggage. She and Chris had argued about whether they should leave the special yellow Disney luggage tags on since they were now going to be renting a car. Would Disney transport their luggage if they didn’t ride on the Magical Express bus? Chris assured her that they would. But they still had wait in Baggage Claim A, though. Jet Blue had refused to allow them more than one carry on so there were two pieces of luggage that needed to be collected before they could leave. It could have been worse, Janice mused. United and U.S. Air were now charging for extra checked bags. But since they would need to rent a car, it didn’t really matter that they had to wait for some luggage. Chris headed down one level to rent a car.
Not much else had gone right, so Chris Talbot wasn’t surprised at the long lines at the rental car counters. Of course, if he had known he needed to rent a car, he could have reserved one in advance. And if they didn’t have so darned much luggage, they wouldn’t have needed the extra taxi to the airport. And if they didn’t try to carry too many items on the plane, they wouldn’t have had to check extra pieces at the gate. And if they were able to find all of the things they only use while in Orlando, they would need to make a special trip to replace them once they arrived. Which meant they probably wouldn’t have needed a rental car in the first place. Which I guess is what makes this tale interesting. It certainly seemed like the worst of times for the Talbots.
The Talbots woke up that morning on Long Island and were just about to leave the Orlando airport at noon. I guess it was better than driving all the way from New York. Chris finally got a car rented, they hauled all of their luggage down to the rental car shuttle bus, loaded it on the bus, then off the bus and crammed it into the minivan they rented and headed for Walt Disney World. The kids were anxious to get to a park and were arguing over whether they would go to Animal Kingdom first or EPCOT. Chris and Janice just wanted to get to their resort….but unfortunately they needed to make a couple of stops first.
It crossed Janice’s mind to mention to Chris that none of this mess would have happened if he had been more receptive to the idea of using Owner’s Locker. But she thought better of it. Chris was not in a very good mood anyway and it was better to let him come to that conclusion on his own. Maybe one day he would.
JDVM
www.ownerslocker.com
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