Since Mrs. Goldfishhh is “aware” of Flyertalk and decided to write a report, I added the first 3 paragraphs to her report. I should add, this report does not mention sleeper suites, Kurg champagne, the Concorde, Admirals Club, Kris Club, Singapore, trans-con, electronic upgrades, questions about priority, bonus miles, cents per mile or anything else you might find in the typical mileage run (or trip report). It does however contain “potty mouth” words that may be offensive to some.

After more than 9 months of mileage runs across the country and around the world, My wife and I decided to spend a few of my miles on a trip to Florida to see the big floppy eared mouse named Mickey. You see, one of the largest problems of being an active member of “The World’s Most Popular Frequent Flyer Community” on the Internet, Flyertalk.com, I have grown accustomed to a certain level of service. So I started to surf my second favorite website, AA.com for a pair of First Class tickets. Now I can hear the screams in the background criticizing me of using miles to purchase First Class domestic tickets. I know, I know. Use miles for those expensive first class international trips, not domestic. Well, here is my rationalization. I wanted to give my wife and myself a “first class vacation” at Wallmart prices.

When boarding was called, I noticed that the flight was nearly 100% full (front and back) and the flight was about 30% children. This was completely expected because WDW is one of the most popular spots in MCO. Just as we took our seats, I heard a small commotion in the bulkhead of Y then a smell filled the air. An unmistakable smell. Throw-up. Puke. Upchuck. Whatever name you give it, doesn’t make the scent go away an faster. You see, this 3yr old kid got so gosh darn excited (coupled with the parents jamming tons of junk food inside his mouth) the moment he got on the plane he let loose a big whopper all over the wall of the bulkhead. I overheard the flight attendant asking another one for a “few cans of club soda” and “a lot of napkins”. Other than throw-up kid, our flight from ORD-MCO was quite uneventful. Dinner started with a beverage of your choice and warm nuts followed by southwestern salad and bread course. The entrée was either a beef filet or spinach ravioli. Desert was cheesecake. The food was typical and the execution by the staff was predictable.

We landed at 9:30pm and took a very expensive cab to our crappy cheep hotel, The La Quinta Lakeside. It was old and yucky and thank God it was only for one night. The next morning we woke up early at took another cab to our real hotel, The Dolphin. It is a funky looking, sort of fantasyesque property. The only problem we ran into was that they didn't have any King size rooms available. We were given the option of coming back later or taking one of the two double bed rooms right then. Since our plan had been to spend the day at Disney anyway we decided to wait until later to get our room. The next problem was that the woman at the desk wanted our AA voucher. We didn’t have it. All we had was the confirmation email. She wasn’t sure if that would work, but made a copy of it anyway and told us to come back later. So we headed off to the park to “Make our Dreams Come True”. (I can hear the snickering in the background…)

(Mrs. Goldfishhh wrote from here to the end)
Our hotel was in the EPCOT area so we took a cute little ferry ride to that park. The weather was sunny and in the mid 80's much better than the snow and frozen wasteland we had left at home. We strolled through the backend of the World Showcase, which was not open yet except to EPCOT Resort guest to walk through. We thought that it was going to be crowded, but there was hardly anyone there at all. The main reason we were there was to ride Test Track (presented by GM). The last time we were there they were just finishing it, so that was the first thing Goldfishhh wanted to do on this trip. It was fun. I think Goldfishhh enjoyed it more than I did. I don't like to drive fast so it really wasn't my favorite thing. It was a simulation of what GM does to test their cars. The riders are sorta like crash test dummies, but of course you never really crash, so all is fine in the end. They are opening a new pavilion this year called Mission to Space. The outside of the pavilion looks very cool, like the solar system. I have no idea what the inside will be like. We rode a couple more of the rides (Spaceship earth, and The Land) and then we got hungry. We walked over England and had lunch at a pub. I had Fish and Chips and Goldfishhh had Beef stew. Nice lite fare… NOT! After lunch we wondered around the more of the World Showcase. We got as far as Japan and decided to go back to see if we had a room and take a nap.

When we got back to the room check in was a breeze. It turned out we didn’t need the voucher after all and she had found us a King size room. We dragged our tired feet and bodies to the room and took a nap!

At about 6:00 pm we walked over to EPCOT for dinner in France. Our server was so cute. She is from the Strasburg and very nicely put up with my broken French. She recommended an Alsatian dish of flat bread with crème fresh, sautéed onions and pancetta. YUMMY! Goldfishhh had braised lamb shank and I had the filet.

We didn't stay for Illuminations (the fireworks part). Instead we walked over to the Boardwalk Hotel and Villas which is a replica of and Atlantic boardwalk. There were lots of strolling entertainers there. Very romantic and fun! We went back to the hotel and had a brownie sundae a 50’s style soda fountain.

On Friday morning we went to EPCOT and finished all of the places we had missed the day before. We had lunch in Italy. Very nice and good service too. That afternoon we went to the hotel pool. Actually they have two pool areas, one is a beach and the other is a grotto with a waterfall and slide. Playing in the pool was so exhausting we had to go take a nap. (do you see a pattern?)

That night we ate in Mexico. I love the way that pavilion is set up. The restaurant is supposed to be the outdoor part of an Inn set on the river. The whole room is panted the color of twilight with stars just starting to twinkle and in the distance you see a Mayan temple and a volcano. Very romantic. After dinner we strolled around the World Showcase some more and had funnel cake for dessert YUM!!!! We were going to stay for Illuminations that night, but the sky started to get very threatening so we hightailed it back to the ferry dock. Just as we got there the sky opened up! It had all stopped by the time we got back to our room, so we probably could have waited it our and stayed for the fireworks, but oh well.

The next morning (Sat.) we decided to go to Magic Kingdom. Again the place was dead. We got there right as it opened and had made our way around and were finished by 1:00 pm. There were no lines at all. We did go the hall of presidents because it is nice and cool and a good place to take a little nap. They show is a watered down history lesson and at the end the introduce all of the Presidents (animatronics of course) They have added GW (aka. Dubb-e-yah). It was very funny because his double looks very goofy compared to all of the others who look statesman like. It almost looked more like Will Farrell doing the President.

We had lunch at Tony's (which is the Restaurant in Lady and the Tramp) Not as good of food or service that we had had in EPCOT, but it was cheaper. We spent the afternoon wandering around dowtown Disney. We had dinner in the Hotel at Shulas Steak house. I had a lobster cocktail, Goldfishhh had shrimp cocktail and of course we both had steak. I didn't finish it. Too big!

The next morning (Sun) We checked out early, left our bags with the bellmen and went to MGM. We waited at the rope line so that we could get to the Tower of Terror before all of the lines formed. We ended up on the first car. That is my favorite ride. The Cast members seem to have the most fun being scary hotel workers. Then we went to an exhibit about Walt Disney. They had all of these models there from the different parks and attractions. Very cool. Then we went over to play "who wants to be a Millionaire" We didn't get in the hot seat though. OH well! Then we went on the back stage tour. The Movie Ride was closed for renovations so we didn't get to ride it. We didn't do any of the other rides for two reasons, one they haven't really changed since we were there last and two we needed to eat lunch and then leave to catch our plane. We ate at the Brown Derby and had fancy Cobb salad variations.

We took the ferry back to our hotel and waited for our shuttle to the airport. This is where things started to turn bad. We had made a reservation on the 2:40 shuttle, but the guy didn't make us pay or give us any sort of receipt. He just wrote our name down. Not only that, he was a little rude and condescending. So anyway we waited and waited. At 3:00pm rolls around and no shuttle. We go over to the dispatcher and he told us that he didn't have our names on his list. Did we have a receipt? No. Hmmmmm very odd. Anyway after futzing around for another 20 minutes he nicely arranges for one of his waiting limos to take us for the same price the shuttle would have been. We got to the airport at 4:15. Our plane was supposed to leave at 5:08 and go to Miami where we were supposed have 1 hour and 17 mins to transfer planes and come home.

Anyway we get on the Orlando flight and as we are taxing out we see a storm in the distance and all these planes in front of us just parked on the taxiway. At about 5:30pm the pilot comes on and says that the other planes can't leave because they would have to fly into the storm, but if we leave now we can get ahead of it. So he gets onto the runway ahead of all of the other planes. It is now 5:35pm, half and hour late. He revs his engines and starts to go, but then stops. He does it a second time and stops. He comes on the radio and says he just doesn't want to chance it and we are going to wait it out. Meanwhile here comes the storm. It pours for 30 minutes. It is now 6:05pm. Now because we didn't go before we have to get back in line with the other waiting planes!!!! It is 6:20 before we leave. The pilot is now trailing behind the storm so the turbulence was horrendous. I cried for the entire 37 minute plane ride. It was awful. The flight attendants were not allowed to get up at all. The plane kept plunging and bucking. I was petrified!! So anyway we land at 6:57pm. We have 13 minutes to catch our next flight. Everyone on our flight was transferring to some other flight so we were all very worried, angry and extremely shaken from the plane ride. They tell us they have no info about our connecting flights except the gate numbers. Ours was of course in terminal D and we were docking in terminal B!!!! We were told a passenger service person would meet us to tell us more. By the time we got off of the plane we had seven minutes to catch the next one. The PS person was not to be found so every starts yelling at the ticket agents who know nothing. The PS person finally shows up and tells us that all of our planes are on time, but that they know we are coming and we should make a run for it. You have got to be kidding me.

So Goldfishhh and I take off. Running through the worst laid out 3 terminals I have ever been in with the worst directional signage ever, dragging our luggage. I am crying, I am hot, I am tired and I am running. We get to our gate at 7:11 just in time to see the plane backing away!!

We ran up the desk and Goldfishhh says, "didn't they tell you that we were coming?"

"Oh yeah, but we don't hold planes for just a few people."

"Then why did they tell us to run here?" I ask my blood pressure is through the roof at this point.

"I don't know" reply the ticket agent Juan Alvarez.

I say, with tears streaming down my face, "My husband is an Platinum member on this Airline. He has shown you enormous loyalty by flying your airline exclusively and you cannot hold the plane for five minutes? Especially when you know we are RUNNING through the airport.

"Well", he says glaring at me. "Since your husband is Platinum, he should know that it doesn't matter. We don't hold planes for anyone!

"WHAT!!!" I scream. "How are we supposed to get home now?"

"I don't know.” says Juan.

I am totally at my breaking point now. "What are you going to do for us"

"Well ma'am...What do you want me to do for you."

"Get me on the next plane"

"That was the last plane"

"WHAT!!!!!!! When is the first plane tomorrow?"

"I don't know"

I was over the edge of insanity now. "Well find out! While you are at it where do we sleep tonight?"

"I don't know ma'am. We won't be putting you up"

I lost it." What the FU.CK good are you then!!!!"

He then proceeded to rip up the new ticket he was creating for us. "I will not help you now. You cannot use profanity and expect me to help you"

"Well you ****ING weren't FU.CKING helping me to FU.CKING begin with you FU.CKER!!!!!!!! I am never flying this GOD.**** FU.CKING airline again!!!!"

I turned and stormed off. Goldfishhh was stunned and not quite sure what to do with his apparently possessed wife, so he just walked behind me until we were out of sight of JUAN.

Once were free from his glare I broke down crying. I was ashamed of the way I had acted. I just don't do that, but Juan was so snotty and unhelpful and I was at the end of my emotional rope. Goldfishhh went to the Platinum desk in the check in area and they apologized up and down for everything that had transpired. They told us that the moment we got off of the plane we should have been sent to the Platinum desk. There was no way we should have been forced to run and then be treated so poorly at the gate. They got us on the first flight in the morning (6:44 am) and got us a discounted room for the night.

The next morning everyone was so nice and so helpful that I had to stop a supervisor and tell her the difference between the lack of customer service the night before and over abundance that morning. She was shocked at what had happened to us. She said that Juan should have diffused the situation, not made it worse and she was embarrassed that it ever took place.

Anyway. It was a great vacation up until the end, but at least it all turned out OK.
The weather was wonderful, the service was great and ambiance was fabulous. I got to spend some real quality time with Goldfishhh.