Linda Mac's Orlando Adventures

Howdy Everyone!!!

Finally, the day has arrived to the begin our Magical Southwest Adventure. After reading Deb's blog about the airline losing her luggage, I am glad that I decided to arrive a day early. My whole luggage thing finally came together at 12:30 am early Monday morning and I was back up at 5:00 am to get to the airport on time.

I flew in on my United "non-stop" flight to Phoenix which I booked several months ago. On Friday night when I checked the United Airlines website to get a seat assignment, I discovered a little problem with my "non-stop" ticket. I live in Orlando and the "non-stop" flight started in Denver, Colorado! LOL Apparently, United changed the flight to connect in Denver at some point but failed to let the Disney people know. Lucky me! Everything worked out OK.

I arrived at the Arizona Biltmore Hotel via a limo from the airport. The only reason I picked the limo over a taxi was the driver gave me a fixed rate and the taxi drivers who were also lined up outside the airport would not. I knew the hotel was just about 20 minutes away and did not want to end up with a $100 fare for being driven all over Phoenix. Before you think, oh fancy smancy in a limo, let me tell you that the fare was only $35 and the limo looked liked it was 25 years old.

The hotel was historic, beautifully landscaped and had a friendly, professional staff. But most of the prices were crazy. I stopped in the The Cafe which is a deli/ grab and go type of place, it cost me $4.87 for a small bottle of Diet Coke. By the way, Disney sells the same thing for only $2. Deb, Linda and I decided to have lunch at The CheeseCake Factory at the Biltmore Fashion Mall. It was my first time at a CheeseCake Factory and I loved the food. The company was pretty special too. After lunch we headed over to the Safeway supermarket to stock out on water. The same bottle of Pellagino water that cost $8 at the hotel was 3 for $3.99 at Safeway. While worth the short drive.

Since we had a late lunch, we just decided to take it easy for the night and get a good nights sleep.

Here's a few photos of the hotel.