BCV to the left of the main Beach Club entrance
We got up early and drove in to Boston without a problem, but I generally don't mind hanging out at an airport for a bit. Things were pretty uneventful - check in at the self-service kiosk, bring the bags to the bag check (the line for that was as long as the regular check-in desk, but moved quickly), went through security which is always a pain and chaotic, and waited at the gate. There was a Dunkin Donuts at the other end of the terminal, which oddly enough couldn't serve coffee - because apparently their water supply was broken. They still served other things, and we don't drink coffee so no big deal for us, but I could see a lot of bleary-eyed travellers wondering what to do...
I didn't realize it but JetBlue names each of their planes with some form of "Blue" in them (with a couple of exceptions). "Absolute Blue" and "Forever Blue" were at other gates. Ours arrived, called "Bright Lights, Blue City", an Airbus 320. Their plans offer decent legroom, and the best feature I think is the DirecTV feed at each seat, which you listen to via provided free (but low quality) headphones or better ones for $1, or use your own (which I recommend). You get national feeds for the 4 major networks, major cable networks, and some in-flight FOX movies for a fee. And if you are curious about where you are, there is a GPS-driven locator channel that shows where your plane is, direction, altitude and speed over a simplified Google map. Having the TV provides enough distraction to make the trip go faster.
Arrival at Orlando was pretty typical - picked up our bags, and found a courtesy phone to call Payless, who we had a rental reservation. Waited no more than a few minutes outside before the van arrived and took us over to the rental place. The driver pointed out the Hooters location to use as a landmark for returning the car.
Payless was pretty old-style for a car rental company. Offsite location, wait in line, they try and upsell you to a more expensive car, etc. We ended up with a Dodge Calibur, which is a 4-door small wagon-style hatchback - plenty big enough for the two of us, even though he tried to upsell us to Camry.
While I was waiting in line, there was a man in front of me on crutches. Then a couple he knew came in, and they decided that they didn't need to wait and butted in to get helped while the guy on crutches went to sit down. I ended up next to them at the counter, and heard what was going on. Apparently they were involved in an accident (not their fault), and the car was wrecked, and they were there to get another car - but the original car was somewhere else, and it was unclear where it was. Payless didn't want to release another car to them until they had posession of the first. It later came to light that the woman was driving at the time of the accident, but she wasn't the person on the contract and thus wasn't permitted to drive the car, at which point Payless said they would not give them another car at all, and would bring them to some other rental place. They would also still be charged the full amount of the rental at least until they received the original car on property, at which point the woman was yelling that she would cancel her credit card right away so they couldn't charge it, yada yada...I simply got my keys and found my car, and we were on our way.
A short time and $1.50 later in tolls down the Beachline (it used to be called the Bee Line, but I just learned that they changed it a couple years ago) and we were in the area. We drive down I-Drive just to do it as we haven't been down it in a while. We could see the build up of Sea World (haven't been there since our first trip in 1997 - it's totally different), the new Aquatica water park, and more and more developments. We stopped at a Walgreens to get some bottles of water, and then we found our way to the Beach Club Villas around 1:30pm.BCV to the left of the main Beach Club entrance
BCV is a separate building of the same design as the standard Beach Club Resort, although the building is a light green instead of light blue. As such, it shares the front desk, which is located in the BCR building, so we walked past the BCV pool, over to the BCR building, and found our way to the lobby and checked in. They gave us our Welcome Home package, and we trundled back to the BCV to find our room, 425 (studio). We went up to the 4th floor and found our room quickly - it was the first room on the right, next to what I believe was a maintenance closet and the elevators. I've heard people have had issues with rooms next to elevators, but I think there was enough separation that I heard no elevator noise (and I notice these things) and noise down the hallways was never really an issue.View from our balcony. Spaceship Earth would be behind the building.
Our view was from the inside corner overlooking a path with a bench and some jungle-looking trees. We didn't realize it at the time, but following the line of the building looks towards the World Showcase lagoon. Otherwise we couldn't see much, but we aren't sticklers for a view.The beach-side courtyard
For those that care, we had a CRT television and a DVD player. And yes, you can still watch the 24-hour Stacey channel.
Then it was off for our first day of activities...
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