Orlando, Florida

After breakfast disembarking from the ship went smoothly and quickly. Things went downhill from there unfortunately. We took a free shuttle to the Sixt rental car site, only to discover that there were 2 Sixt locations near the port and we were at the wrong one. Our rental location didn’t offer a shuttle so we had to pay $10 for a taxi. We arrived there around 10:30 but I had reserved the car for noon, allowing ample time for disembarkation and getting to the rental office. Well this plan backfired on me as they refused to release the car to us until noon even though it was sitting on the lot waiting to be washed. The clerk offered to put our luggage in the back room so that we could wait at a nearby restaurant. We agreed but then she came back with our luggage to inform us that the manager wouldn’t allow this. So we sat on hard stools in the main reception area for 1 1/2 hours knowing that they were playing this stupid game with us. When we finally got our car the clerk had the nerve to inform us that they strive for customer satisfaction and she would like us to rate them 5 out of 5. What a joke!

We drove 3 hours north to Orlando where we had reservations for the next 11 nights. Our first reservation was at the Holiday Inn Vacations Orange Lake Resort. We had stayed there once before and we both thought we remembered how to get there. Wrong! We eventually had to stop at a Holiday Inn for help with directions. We made a short stop at Sam’s Club for food and wine but didn’t get to the resort until 7 pm. After taking our luggage to our condo we went to a nearby Publix then got lost trying to find our way back to our condo! The resort, at over 14,000 acres, is the largest in North America with over 2,500 condos. We had to drive back to the reception building to embarrassingly ask for directions to our condo.

We have a very large 2 bedroom condo that I luckily found for $100 a night. The next few days will be a time to relax and do laundry. Since the property is so huge, we have no excuse for not continuing our daily walks. The temperature is considerably cooler than we have been experiencing. Today it was 24 but the next few days will be sunny but with temperatures only in the mid-teens. I won’t complain as I see that Environment Canada has issued an extreme weather advisory for Winnipeg!Read more