Steve (DOS) and I stayed at the Hyatt Regency Hotel at the Orlando Airport on Saturday night, in anticipation of our early morning flight to San Francisco, which connected to Vancouver, BC. As a bonus, we met our friends Jane and her (grown) daughter for lunch at the airport, who had just arrived to Orlando from New York City. Jane and Jess live in the Melbourne, Australia area, and had flown first to New York for a few days for the start of their trip, and now were staying a few days in Orlando before visiting New Orleans and a few other cities and an Alaskan cruise before heading back to Australia.
I first met Jane on a cruise in Australia, way back in 1998, and we’ve stayed in touch over the years. Jane is very well traveled, and she has been over our way several times since I’ve known her. We met her grown daughter Jess some years back, who has also been over to Orlando two or three times as well, most recently a year ago (September 2022) right before DOS and I went on our ill-fated Alaska cruise.
We were hoping to spend more time together, as on previous visits we had been to Disney World with them, but on this visit we had both planned our trips months out, and couldn’t alter our dates, Still we had a nice lunch with them, and will actually get to see Jane again, in a couple more weeks in Vancouver, on Sept 15th, at the conclusion of our Alaska cruise this year. We are both going on Alaska cruises sailing out of Vancouver, but on different cruises and different dates; Jane leaves (solo for the Alaska cruise as Jess is going different places at that point) on her cruise the day after we get back to Vancouver from our cruise. We will be staying one night in Vancouver as well, post-cruise, while Jane will be in Vancouver a day pre-cruise for hers. Anyway it was great catching up for lunch, even briefly, before they headed down to Disney World.
I had forgotten it was a holiday weekend in the US (Labor Day), and the airport seemed quite busy on Saturday late morning and early afternoon, although by evening the airport was very quiet. After saying bye to Jane and Jess, we checked into the Hyatt (we had stored our luggage with the bell stand), and later walked around the airport a bit for fun and exercise.
We had a nice runway-facing view with balcony on the 8th floor at the Hyatt (per our request), and as always DOS and I enjoyed watching the planes take off and land. Especially starting around 4pm, we could see the international jumbo jets starting to arrive, some like Virgin Atlantic to the older B Delta Airlines terminal, while others such as Lufthansa and British Airways off (and out of our terminal view) to the new International Terminal C.
and new International Terminal.
As we had the rest of the day free, we did a bit of walking around the hotel, pool area on the 6th floor, the airport main terminals A and B, and ultimately over to the new Terminal C Terminal.
Terminal C is reached from Terminal B-side (by Delta Airlines security) via a walkway and shuttle train that takes you to the Brightline Train and C parking garage, but still requires a walkway from the C parking garage to the actual Terminal C. It’s not an insignificant walk both to the shuttle train, and then from the C garage to terminal C, and I didn’t notice any handicap assist carts along the walk-way.
The Brightline Train was supposed to start running yesterday (Sept 1st) to West Palm Beach, Ft. Lauderdale, and Miami, but there was a last minute delay due to certification, and delays due to Hurricane Idalia. The Brightline Train will be a huge travel plus for the region, especially for business people and those wishing to cruise out of Ft. Lauderdale or Miami (such as ourselves), as the 3 1/2 to 4 hour drive can be quite hectic, feeling more like the Autobahn the closer one gets to South Florida! 😀. Hopefully this latest delay for Brightline will only be for a couple more weeks before it’s fully operational. There was no sign indicating Brightline was not operational or delayed, although the main entrance to the Brightline ticketing area was closed shut, although the massive public areas of the Brightline station were open to walk thru (and virtually empty). We did see a couple airline or airport employees walking around the huge Brightline station, presumably like us for exercise.
I’ve written about the new Orlando Terminal C before, but I’ll say it again; I just don’t understand the planning process logistically in its design. The C Terminal, C Garage, and adjacent Brightline Station are all enormous in size, but with very little seating areas, (at least pre-security), and depending where you are coming from; i.e. connecting flight, originating flight, Hyatt Hotel, C parking garage, shuttle bus, Uber etc, there are multiple (non-moving) corridor walkways, escalators (or elevators) to reach the correct level for your check-in, security screening, arrivals, and flight gate itself. With luggage, and even just carry-ons, or sheer walking, the distances are huge (and confusing) getting from Terminal B to C.
Even coming from the tram, parking lot, or a sky bridge across to Terminal C, there is at least one escalator you must take up or down to get to the terminal, and then a considerable walk to get to the checkin area (another down escalator or elevator) or up to the arrivals area via another escalator (for domestic Jet Blue flights), and a different area for the international flights.
It really is quite confusing even for us, and we know the main airport layout very well. We saw lots of people with luggage going between the terminal, garage, and shuttle tram area, and no moving sidewalks or shuttle carts to assist the handicap, elderly etc. It seems like the new C Terminal was designed for people departing or arriving on international flights only, with no need to go between the other terminals for a connecting flight, meeting others, getting a rental car from one of the agencies not located in Terminal C, or simply unaware that their flight departed from Terminal C when they went to check-in etc.
(IMPORTANT: Passengers especially need to beware of code-share flights such as an American Airlines or United flight, that codeshare with British Airways or Lufthansa respectively, and are actually operated by the foreign carrier, even though it has an American or United Airlines flight number for ticketing purposes. In that case you would be checking into the wrong terminal thinking it was Terminal B for American and United, when it is actually Terminal C for British Airways or Lufthansa. Please check your airline ‘metal’; i.e. the actual carrier; “operated by British Airways (or Lufthansa etc) prior to heading to the airport so you get dropped off at the correct terminal and don’t have to do the long commute with luggage between terminals. This giant terminal monitor layout with all flights is in Terminal C, but in A and B, the monitors are not as extensive, showing only flights departing within a couple hours.
The biggest issue I have however, is the shuttle tram between the Main Terminal B does not run all the way to Terminal C. I do not understand this at all; what were the designers thinking when they built this? The shuttle tram only goes to the Train Station/C parking garage, and not the actual Terminal C. After arriving at the Train Station/garage C stop, one must then walk a considerable distance still to Terminal C, and go thru the maze of long corridors and multiple escalators to reach the desired destination. And finally, (I know this sounds picky but . . .) the signage in the C garage that’s painted on the ground has travelers walking to the left instead of the right. I know in the UK people walk and drive on the left, however there are many other international airlines in C Terminal where people (like in the US) drive or stay to the right. Not a huge deal, but people do tend to walk whichever way they are accustomed to, and we did see some people with luggage walking on the “wrong side” depending on their perspective, meeting head-on with others walking on the “wrong side” as well. A better and much easier solution would have been to extend the shuttle tram all the way to Terminal C.
Anyway, we got lots of exercise walking around and between the terminals, and stopped by the Hyatt’s nice pool area on floor 6 for a bit of photos and people and plane watching. The weather now is very nice, with no hint of Hurricane Idalia passing by just a couple days ago.
DOS and I had dinner once again at McCoy’s restaurant at the Hyatt, located on the 4th floor lobby level. We weren’t terribly hungry after our lunch earlier in the day with Jane and Jess, so we each order what we thought was a personal-sized pizza. It turns out each pizza could easily be shared for two if not three people, but we managed to eat at least the center portion, without all of the crust. 😀
Our flight to San Francisco was at 8:45am on United, although we had a 6:30am Bellman pickup of our luggage in our room. Although super early for us these days, it was nice that the Bellman took our luggage all the way across the Orlando Airport Terminal to the United Check-in area on the B gates, about as far away from the hotel as you could go (except for the new Terminal C).
After checking our luggage, we went back to the Hyatt where we had the breakfast buffet, once again at McCoy’s, the hotel restaurant on the 4th floor lobby. It was now 7:30am, and I took one last selfie of the rising sun overlooking the runway from our 8th floor balcony.
We then checked out, and wheeled our 3 carry-ons (total between us), back to the United side of the airport to clear TSA security. We have “Clear” which is an expedited Trusted Traveler program, and especially in Orlando, it’s well worth the $189 a year for frequent travelers. We haven’t used Clear even once this year though as we haven’t been flying at all; in fact this was our first flight since we came home from Seattle in November. Fortunately our Clear membership is good thru the end of November, as we will use it again mid-November for our Athens trip.
We then took the shuttle-tram to Terminal B Airside, and had only a short wait before boarded commenced at gate 44.
Our flight from Orlando to San Francisco was a little over 5 hours, and was quite smooth the whole way. DOS and I were in seats 3A and 3C, on the 737 Max jet. The First Class service was adequate (I don’t think the Purser smiled even once and was too busy checking her iPhone to welcome us aboard), but the breakfast we had pre-ordered was actually pretty good. I had a Belgian Waffle with berries, croissant, Greek yogurt, and orange juice and water, while DOS had an omelette trio and fruit and croissant as well.
While the seats (not lay flat unfortunately) did have an individual TV screen on the seat-back in front of you, we did not use this as we had downloaded our own movies on our iPads for viewing. We also brought our own noise-canceling headsets, which helped pass the time away quickly.
I had downloaded “God’s Not Dead” from Amazon Prime, and I was really blown away by this movie. It was from 2014, and I remember my Mom mentioning this to me years ago, but I had never seen it. It’s really quite an emotional story about an Atheist Philosophy Professor, who requires his students to write “God is Dead” on a piece of paper, sign it and give it back to him in order to pass the class.
The one male student “Josh”, who stars in the movie refuses to do that, and it sets ups a challenge between the Professor and the Student, like a courtroom drama. The movie was made as the result of more than a dozen lawsuits that were brought against universities for their divisive and discriminatory actions taken against religious groups. It’s quite a thought provoking movie, with relatable (good and bad) characters, that’s definitely worth a look. There are also several sequels which I haven’t seen but plan on watching in the future.
In San Francisco (SFO) we had a scheduled two hour layover, so we had plenty of time to walk around a bit and have lunch. We walked from Concourse E where we arrived, all the way over to the International Concourse G, where we had lunch. Even at 11:30am, the international concourse was quite busy, but we got a table and had a relaxing lunch.
After lunch, we walked over to the outdoor terrace, which is adjacent to the 1500 restaurant, at the end of Concourse G. Here we (and lots of other people) stepped outside to take in some fresh air (no smoking allowed here) sunshine, and take photos of the jumbo jets coming and going. The terrace area is nicely landscaped with plants and statues, and offers a peaceful way to spend a few moments before one’s flight.
We love watching planes, and especially the jumbo and foreign carriers such as Air New Zealand, Turkish Air, Lufthansa, and many others, as well as lots of United jumbo jets, as SFO is one of their major international hubs.
We were happy and surprised to see a Lufthansa Boeings 747-800 jumbo jet that had just landed, and we took several photos of it. One thing that we noticed was on the 747 “hump”; i.e. upper level, there are 2 additional windows added to the back of the hump, which must be exclusive to the 800 model. As the Boeing 747 has been mostly discontinued by the airlines, it was so good to see a Lufthansa 747 still in use.
To date, this is my favorite aircraft of all time. While the Airbus 380 is bigger, the 747 started the age of the jumbo jet, and it has such a beautiful and symmetrical look to it that clearly earned it the “Queen of the Skies”. One of my favorite flights was on a British Airways 747-400 on our trip from London to Capetown, South Africa, in seats 1A and 1K in the very front of the plane, just behind the cone. You are literally forward of the pilots, who are a up a deck over you, and back a bit. Really cool!
After spending a while at the terrace overlook, we walked over to Concourse F, where we waited (and waited) on our connecting flight to Vancouver. It ended up being delayed over 2 hours, but we were starting to get tired from the long day of travel, so we patiently sat near the boarding gate, while we waited for the incoming crew to arrive for our flight.
The flight from SFO to Vancouver, was about two hours one we got underway. This was an Embraer 175 aircraft, with 1 x 2 seating in First Class. I had seat 2a, while DOS was behind me in 3A, both of which were single seats offering a window and aisle seating arrangement.
As we took off from SFO, I took a few photos of Downtown San Francisco, and the iconic Golden Gate Bridge below. The flight itself was a bit bumpy, and I napped on and off for the two hour flight duration.
I again took a couple photos as we approached Vancouver.
Once we landed, immigration and customs was quite quick and organized. DOS had downloaded the Canada Arrive app, which greatly expedited immigration by using an interactive TV screen instead of a live officer. Our luggage took a while to reach the number 20 carousel, but once it arrived, we used two of the complimentary carts to wheel our bags thru Customs, which was also very quick.
The cab ride we took to the Hyatt Regency Vancouver, took around 35 minutes, and the cost was only $38 (fixed rate), but with tip we left the driver $55 as we had quite a bit of luggage. The driver was quite friendly, although he scared the heck out of us with his zig-zagging and high speed driving, which with his windows down made it seem even faster. DOS said he would be the driver you would want if you were on The Amazing Race TV show! 😱 I think I only have a mild case of whip-lash after that trip to our hotel from a couple quick slam of the brakes! 🤣
We finally arrived at the Hyatt Regency Vancouver, which is near the cruise port. it was after 7pm local time (10pm back home) when we arrived, so it’s been a long day of travel.
I remember the “smart elevators” from when we stayed here last year, and commented to the Bellman how cool and practical they are, and I wish more hotels and especially cruise ships had those. He said that’s great when they work, but when you have a convention of 600 people getting out at once, it can be a bit chaotic with everyone trying to push their floor. Basically you select your floor or room number from one of several iPad-like kiosks, and it assigns you an elevator to take: A thru E. Then once you get on the elevator it’s usually nonstop, or maybe a floor or two if it’s busy, but very efficient and quick. Of particular note, there are no floor buttons in the elevator, so if you get on the wrong elevator you’re going to whatever floor was preassigned!
We are on the 26th floor, which offers a fantastic view of downtown Vancouver. This is the view out our window, overlooking the opulent Fairmont Hotel with the blue/green roof. The hotel opened in 1939, but was started in 1928 amidst the depression and was eventually a joint effort by two competing Canadian railroads to finish it. You can read about the history here, on the Historic Hotel Worldwide website.
After checking in and settling into our room at the Hyatt Regency Vancouver, and we headed down to the hotel pub for a light dinner and drinks. As we were both getting tired from the trip and the 3 hour time change we didn’t want a fancy or even filling meal. I had the appetizer beef sliders, while DOS had the Asian salad. Both items were the perfect amount of food for us at 8:30pm (11:30pm back home).
The beer sampler of micro-brews also helped relax me a bit of the long day.😀
Now it’s nearly 10pm in Vancouver, and I’m going to shower and head to bed. Tomorrow is another fun day!
Welcome to Vancouver!