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Trip Report - Day One
January 11, 2003
Chris-38, Todd-35, Sydney-5, Melanie-2.5
We left Binghamton at 9 am and it was 12 degrees with about 20 inches of snow. We couldn’t wait to get in the warmer weather!
This was the first time we bought a seat for Mellie and boy, it was worth every penny. No fighting with her to sit still and the carseat wasn’t as big a
pain in the butt to lug around as I thought it would be. We had a layover in Pittsburgh and the little sweetie slept all the way to Orlando.
We picked up our luggage and I called the courtesy phone to have EZ Rent A Car send their shuttle to pick us up. We found them very easily and it wasn’t a
long drive to their office.
Our biggest mistake happened here. They asked me for proof of insurance and I didn’t bring it. He said there was no way they could waive it and it would
cost me $9 per day. Ugh. Big bite out of our vacation budget. We were given a 2-door Dae Woo which we referred to as the "Matchbox Car" the rest
of the week.
We drove to Star Island Resort and was told our villa wasn’t ready. It was 3:45 and we hadn’t eaten anything except those measly pretzels USAirways throws
at you so our first stop was to Chili’s where Todd and I ordered steak dinners.
We went back to Star Island, our villa was ready and the clerk told us someone would be by shortly to welcome us. We drove to our villa and were blown away
by the size of it! Three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a full kitchen, dining room. There were 4 TV sets! It was very nice but much more than we needed. My
girlfriend had given us this condo as a gift and there was no way I was looking this gift horse in the mouth!
Babett from the Public Relations Dept. stopped by to invite us to the welcome party that night. We still had to go to Wal Mart to buy supplies so we weren’t
sure if we’d make it. She told us we needed to get resort ID’s and they would pick us up in the golf cart on Tuesday and treat us to breakfast. I
smelled a fish as I knew we’d be roped into listening to their time share spiel. This sort of deceptive sales pitch really annoyed me. As thankful as
we were to have this place to stay for free, Todd and I both vowed we would never stay off-site again.
We hit Wal Mart and stocked up on all the necessary things. We got back way too late for the welcome party and I wasn’t feeling well so we just got the
kids to bed and I filled the jacuzzi for a relaxing bath. Not long after, I was feeling really horrible and sick to my stomach. I had been such a germ
freak the week before we left and I couldn’t believe I was getting sick on our first day. I threw up once, got a cold washcloth for my forehead and went to
bed.
I laid in bed that night praying that I would feel better in the morning. We had a 9 am PS for CRT and I was NOT going to disappoint my little girls.
Day: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
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