Satellite
  • Day 17

    Hurry up and wait

    October 7, 2018 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    Today started rudely early, about 3am when I woke up. Timezones are not my friend. It did however give me time to check my phone and notice that our Norwegian Air flight had been delayed by a couple of hours. This was slightly annoying as it would delay our arrival into Orlando, but it would give us a bit more time in our hotel, so glass half full me thought sweet, less rush.

    Just before 10am we ambled down to the terminal, reveled in using the priority lane to check in and moved seamlessly through security. So far so good, but then things went a little off script.

    First when I changed a significant amount of pounds and euros for US dollars at the airport currency exchange and got molested by their thieving rates. They would make pickpockets blush.

    Dragging my bleeding wallet away we checked into the Norwegian Air business lounge and blobbed out. Luckily I checked the departures page on my computer and it suddenly said our flight was boarding, so we legged it for our gate only to see exactly no boarding taking place.It didn't actually begin boarding for another 50 minutes.

    These two calamities have left a sour taste in my mouth, it's the grubby, gritty taste of London, the most overpriced city yet. Yesterday it cost us $200 to get into the city and onwards to Wembley and return. Give me Berlin or Rome any day!

    Anyway I digress. We were finally on board our flight and kicking back in premium economy at the front of the plane. This was almost as good as some airlines' business class offerings. Heaps of leg room, passable food and good entertainment options. The only unusual aspect was the almost exclusively male stewards in premium economy. Perhaps vikings don't trust their women with VIPs.

    Settling back we enjoyed several movies, two meals and even a little shut eye, so apart from the check-in shenanigans Norwegian Air gets a big tick from us. Orlando International Airport though does not.

    The border security queue at Orlando would make a snail feel like Usain Bolt! It took us two hours to get from landing to actually sitting down on Disney's Magical Express rolling to our Disney hotel.

    Arriving at our hotel we collected our magic bands and used them to magically open our room door. You can also use them to buy food and souvenirs at the park, store fastpasses for rides and various other convenient uses.

    Tomorrow we check out Orlando, especially the malls, before storming the parks on Tuesday.
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