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Friday, February 9 Our flight was scheduled to leave PHL at 8 pm on USAirways. Now, with Philly being a hub, we fly USAir almost exclusively and rarely have problems. Unfortunately, when we arrived at our gate, we found that our flight crew had not yet arrived as they were on a flight coming in that was late. Amusingly, the gate person was giving us a minute by minute description of where they were. "They're lowering their landing gear", "they're on the tarmac", they're waiting for a jet way", etc. It sounds annoying, but it was pretty funny, especially as she was announcing "they're running here now" and we could see flight attendants booking down the hall to get to the gate. Of course, once you leave late all the standard delays apply - holding pattern, etc. Our flight was scheduled to land at 10:30 and we were about an hour late getting into Orlando. The worst part of this was that the Fastbreak window at Budget was closed and we had to wait in line for our car. Since it was just 2 of us driving to the Radisson I had booked the cheapest available (44.99! thru the Budget site) and since it was now after midnight all they had left were SUVs and mini-vans. No problem here - we'll take an upgrade! Driving from MCO to the Radisson at the Port ($159.99) was a piece of cake. Be sure to have quarters for the tolls. And examine your rental car before you pull out of the lot. We got to the first toll plaza and could not find the window button on our Jeep Liberty anywhere. I had to open the door to give her the toll, and she was nice enough to show me that the window controls were in the center console. Umm, why they weren't near the window, I don't know. Speed limit is 70mph! We made it to the Radisson in about 40 minutes. It was a little after 1 am and there was no one in line in front of us to check in. We had pre-reserved the 11:30 am shuttle, which I confirmed. Since it was so late, we were assigned a room on the first floor, and we were fine with that. We were exhausted. Not too exhausted, however, to play with the SLeep Number beds Very cool, felt like a ride at Disney! February 10, Embarkation Day

Slept like the dead. Woke up around 8:30 and ordered breakfast from room service. Food was good (but pricey as room service always is unless you're on a ship!). I should have primped more since I knew I would be forced to have my picture taken, but I was on vacation, damn it! Skipped the make-up and took the car back to Budget while my man took his time in the shower. It was only a minute or two drive, and I opted to walk back rather than get a ride. Here will be my first Public Service Announcement: When you reserve something, please (A)print out the confirmation, and (B)bring it with you. Since none of us are perfect, if you forget to do either (A) or (B), please be conscientious of the fact that the other people in line behind you DID do (A) and (B) and you are delaying their vacation. The woman at the counter in front of me didn't bring it, didn't print it, couldn't remember whose name it was under, and then when they finally got her a car, argued the price. THIS is why we should all be allowed Gong SHow moments. If I could have, I would have bopped her on the head, and stepped right over her to get on with my vacation. Unfortunately, I could not. I am not ashamed to admit that I made loud comments behind her like "Are you kidding me?" and "C'mon lady, you're lucky you got a car" until she finally finished up. WHen it was finally my turn, I dropped off the keys and paperwork, confirmed I had a return reservation and took the 5 minute walk back to the Radisson. We checked out at about 11:20 and the 11:30 shuttle was waiting. What a difference from our 2001 visit. It was a disaster then but I had heard there were improvements so we tried again. Boy, am I glad! This time the shuttle was a nice bus towing a large luggage carrier. Got in and took our seat waiting for the shuttle to fill. Now I know you've been waiting for the HOLY CR@P and here it comes... So we're all climbing on the bus. EVeryone on the bus is going to the GLory. We can see the top of her. Everyone is happy (umm, some really happy getting on with BEER in cozies). When all of a sudden...why did the bus just bounce? HOLY CR@P! Did that old lady just HIT THE BUS??????? Yes, she did, she drove her Caddy right into the bus. And then she backed up...and did it again. And then she backed up...and did it again. I think she would have kept doing it if the guy loading the luggage hadn't ran in front of the car. You never want to envision the Titanic when you're going on a cruise, but I had visions of the large fuzzy guy in the movie doing the "bam, bam, bam, punching holes in the side" bit. We were sitting on the left side of the bus and she had NO FREAKING CLUE what she was doing. So she went from poor little old lady to obstinate teenager. She wouldn't get out of the car. She was staring straight ahead with her arms crossed. The driver came on to check to make sure were were all alright (we were except for some beer lost in the collision) and to tell us she was refusing to provide her information so we couldn't go anywhere. He said she had just put three holes (bam, bam, bam) in the side of HIS bus. The manager came out and they told her they were calling the cops if she didn't hand over the info. I guess the fear of getting grounded made her hand over the info and we were finally on our way to the glorious Glory! The ride to the port/pier was a brief one, and we were all deeply engrossed in a heated political debate of age restrictions for driving licenses. Well, none of us were, we could see the ship! The drop off seemed slightly unorganized to me. We got off the bus and they told we could go check in, but no one wanted to walk away. Imagine a busload of people afraid of getting "fruited" (thanks, Mrs Doubtfire) on formal night in their shorts because their luggage didn't make it on the ship. We were all kind of milling around with tips in our hand until we saw it on carts. Some of the guys were checking out the cool new "luggage aeration system" recently added to the bus, but then everyone finally left our driver to head back to the Radisson for the next round of cruisers. Read more