We left the house a few minutes after 6 and drove in a light fog to the Salisbury airport. Check-in was easy and I asked questions about how to handle baggage when we go to Alaska, next summer. After the security check, which is very easy in little-old-Salisbury, we met a young man in the waiting area from Kosovo. Tim spent the summer working at the Dunes in Ocean City. Today, he is flying to Detroit to visit his uncle before returning home, October 1, where he is a dentistry student.
We departed Salisbury on time, but sent about 10 minutes in a holding pattern before the Philadelphia airport weather rose above minimums and we were able to land. We helped Tim to the shuttle bus and, arriving at Terminal C, told him to run to catch his flight.
Sal, Kate, Dominic, and Leo (SKDL) were waiting at gate C24. We asked the gate attendant for assistance with our less-than-satisfactory seat assignments, but she was less than cooperative. Upon boarding the flight, we found another family with a similar seat assignment problem and a win-win solution was quickly achieved.
We pulled away from the gate at 1003, and, following several other flights, we were "wheels up" at 1025. At our cruising altitude of 36,000, Lyd enjoyed a Scotch and Soda, and I had Bourbon and Ginger, all brought by Mel, our friendly flight attendant.
Taxiing out, I encountered a voicemail from Mears reporting they didn't have our correct flight number. Upon landing, I called and Larry met us in baggage claim and transported us to Bay Lake Tower. We arrived at 1345 and were told that housekeeping was in our room and it would be ready soon. At 1645, I suggested they send a supervisor from housekeeping as the room still wasn’t ready. When we finally got into the room, the promised Pack-N-Play was not to be found. Two hours and multiple phone calls finally found me back at the front desk to secure the “Pack and Play.” At 1930, it was finally delivered. At 2030, we discovered the carpet in front of the door to the 2nd bedroom was wet. An investigation found wet carpet in the bottom of the front closet as well. Back to the front desk! They decided it was probably an air conditioner problem and promised not to send any one tonight, but thanked us for reporting the problem as the carpet is likely to suffer from the water. To finish the day, the fruit bouquet we had ordered (to be present when we arrived) was finally delivered at 2050.
The fireworks started at 2100.