In 2019, I sold one of my apartments in Florida and looked at the cheapest way to send money back to invest in my pension fund. Flying to America turned out to be cheaper than wiring the money.
Due to the American banking system and telephone networks, it worked out cheaper to fly out to Florida for a two-week holiday and to go into my bank in person to make the transfer. This is the story of my trip to Orlando, Florida, in 2019.
When looking for flights, I decided to fly from Alicante to Copenhagen in Denmark and from Copenhagen to Orlando. This was done mainly because if I had gone via London, it would have involved a substantial nine-hour delay at Gatwick on the return trip to get my connection to Alicante. The Copenhagen option, though a more extended flight, meant a shorter wait for a connection and got me back to Alicante earlier, which would make getting a lift to and from the airport easier.
I left Los Alcázares very early in the morning, and my friend Mike gave me a lift to Alicante airport. I checked in with Norwegian Airlines, and everything was quick. I was soon through airport security, looking for something to eat.
The first thing that struck me on walking through the airport restaurants in the departure lounge was the number of drunken, messy Brits there were in the airport. It was almost impossible for people wanting to get something to eat to get a seat in the restaurants because of the number of Brits fast asleep either across a table or because they were moving furniture around so the whole stag/hen party could sit together. It also seemed that the drunken state that most of them still appeared to be in was affecting their eyesight. None of them could pick up their rubbish and put it in a bin. This caused a backup of people waiting to get a seat to eat their meal.
The second thing was how terrible the burger was. It was dry and tasteless. The burger in the picture looked fantastic, but it bore no resemblance to the one that I had waited nearly 30 minutes for them to produce. Thirdly, the aforesaid cardboard burger and soft drink were expensive. I paid over thirteen euros for a burger and a Sprite. I can get a fantastic three, or four-course meal for the same amount of money in Los Alcázares.
The Norwegian Airlines plane was on time, and I enjoyed my flight to Copenhagen.
The airport was much larger than I had expected, so I decided to look for my gate for the connecting flight to Orlando. After what seemed a long walk through various bars, restaurants and shopping areas, I found my gate. Now happy that I knew where to go, I had an hour to kill, so I went for a pint. It was at this point that I realised my mistake in assuming that Denmark was part of the Euro Zone. Whilst looking at the price for a pint, I thought I was reading prices wrong. A pint of Carlsberg lager was marked at 69. I couldn't believe a pint was 69 euros and when I asked the barman he explained that it was 69 Danish Kroner. He told me that he could take Euros but could only give change in Kroner. When I checked my change, I discovered that my pint had cost me just under 10 euros, probably the most expensive pint I have ever purchased in a Danish airport.
Once again, the plane was on time, and I enjoyed my Norwegian Airlines flight to Orlando. Norwegian Airlines uses the Dream Liner aircraft, and they are very nice and comfortable with good food. It was worth the upgrade to get extra legroom.
We arrived in Orlando on time, but because of the late hour, the wait to get through immigration was short, and I was through very quickly. Unfortunately, the wait for the shuttle I booked to take me to my apartment on International Drive wasn't straightforward. The lady at the other end of the phone sent me to the wrong area to be picked up, and I had to call again when I found the correct airport pick-up spot. The driver seemed to get lost as we went on a very circuitous route to the place I was staying. This was very strange as it was pre-paid, so it didn't matter how long the journey was or took. He wasn't going to get any more money. All it did was make me forget his tip.
I booked into these apartments for 4 days whilst I waited for my friend Martin to arrive in Orlando, where I would then switch to the hotel he had already booked. The apartment was just off International Drive on Carrier Drive. The apartments are pretty old, and the general areas inside are quite worn and are in need of renewal. The apartment I was in had work done on it by the owner, and that was very substandard.
Badly fitted air conditioning unit.The air conditioning unit had broken down at some point, and instead of being repaired, a new portable air conditioning unit was fitted. As there was no suitable outside wall for it to be fitted to, the owner of the apartment had jammed a plank of wood in the opening of the patio door and fitted the air conditioning unit to the plank in the door frame. This meant that the patio door could not be closed properly, and to keep it closed, a piece of wood had to be jammed behind the sliding door to stop it from opening.
The bed in the apartment was old, and the mattress was very uncomfortable; a new bed really needed to be put in. I was only here for four days, so I put up with it, but I wouldn't stay here again or recommend it to anyone else.
The reason for my visit was to go to my bank to transfer some money to my Spanish account and my sister in England. I made an appointment online and walked to the bank one morning to make the transfer. The lady I saw in the branch was perfect, very helpful, and good enough to make me change my mind about moving my account to another bank. In around 15 minutes, she made both transfers that I wanted to make and confirmed that the money had gone. She was also able to help me with questions about my debit and credit cards.
By flying to America and going into the bank to make the transfers, I saved myself $2230 enough to pay for my trip to America. Why can't banking institutes be more reasonable with the charges they make to wire money?
After leaving the apartment I had booked, I joined my friend Martin at his hotel on International Drive. This was a nice hotel, and the room was next to the pool, which I loved as I could get up in the morning, go for a swim and then relax reading my Kindle.
The location of the hotel was great for getting to nearby shops, restaurants and bars and for $12, I purchased a week's bus pass, which allowed me to travel around without having to hire a car.
I have seen Tom Jones about half a dozen times now, and when I saw he was in Orlando whilst I was there, I booked up to see him. The show was in downtown Orlando at the Dr Phillips Center. The Walt Disney Theater in the Dr Phillips Center, where the show was held, was very nice, and I had a great seat in the front row of the balcony. Tom's voice is still excellent, and I like the way he puts a new twist to some of his old hits by rearranging the music depending on where he is playing. The show was excellent, and I enjoyed his stories and jokes with his audience. All in all, it was a great evening.
My friend Roger, who was my realtor on a couple of property purchases and sales, rang me and asked if I wanted to meet up for a chat and a beer. I agreed, and he picked me up from the hotel. We first went for breakfast and coffee. It turned out that he had started working for Sea World at the new Aquatica water park as a lifeguard, and because of this he could get me into Sea World for nothing.
We spent a few hours walking around looking at some of the exhibits and just catching up. We arranged to go out again the following day but he sent me a message that evening telling me that he had to take some clients to view some more houses. He was sorry he couldn't meet up with me but he did, however, attach another free pass to Sea World so that I could spend a whole day there for free.
The next morning, I used my bus pass to get to the park at opening time and spent the day wandering around looking at the exhibits and watching the shows. Unfortunately, leaving my camera in a locker on a roller coaster ride was $10 a time, and as I had been on them all before, I wasn't willing to pay around $60 for a locker. I am lucky that I have been to SeaWorld lots of times and have been on all of the rides, and I feel that $10 for a two-hour locker rental is excessive, especially as the ride queue was around 90 minutes.
I always love watching the dolphins and am always in awe of the killer whale's speed and agility. I think the funniest thing at all the shows is people filling up the seats that are all marked as the splash zone. There are notices up telling you that you will get wet, possibly soaked, as well as announcements from staff warning that the water is salty and cold. Then as soon as the whales, dolphins, seals or Walrus start splashing the people in the 'Splash Zones' many of them get up and move.
When I arrived at the airport I discovered my flight had been cancelled due to an engine failure. The staff at the airport were overwhelmed by angry passengers, and I usually would have felt sorry for them, but they were absolutely hopeless. They could give us no information other than to tell us to go away and to come back tomorrow. After a few hours, they started to hand out sheets of paper with the name of a hotel for us to stay in and a document telling us to phone a number to arrange to rebook another flight. It also informed us what we could claim back for the cancelled flight and how to do it.
I paid for a shuttle to the hotel they had written on the piece of paper they had shoved in my hand, keeping the receipt. I was quite pleased to find the hotel was one of the best in Orlando and that they were expecting people from the airline. Unfortunately, the restaurant had closed by the time I arrived so I walked to Pizza Hut for something to eat.
When I got back to the hotel I rang the number I had been given to rearrange a new flight. I was on hold for over an hour, and by 1:30 am I gave up and went to sleep. At 3:00 am the room phone rang, and it was Norwegian with details of two flights I could switch to or I could cancel my flight and make my own way home. The first flight meant travelling under my own steam to New York to catch a flight to London then to Alicante the following day. This would have meant an expensive flight to get to New York or a two-day journey to get there by road, and I refused. She then told me the next flight meant me getting to Fort Lauderdale by 6:00 am to fly to Paris then return to Madrid from Paris. There is no way I could have gotten to Fort Lauderdale in time, and I would have had to make my own way back from Madrid as well. I refused this flight and refused to cancel my return flight, telling them I would call back when I'd had some sleep.
The following morning I had breakfast and rang Norwegian airlines again. This time I accepted a flight but it would mean me travelling by coach to Tampa, staying there overnight, flying to Gatwick, London, waiting there for 9.5 hours and then finally getting my return to Alicante.
I got a taxi from the Hotel to the Greyhound coach station in Orlando. There I got a two-hour coach down to Tampa. From the coach station in Tampa, I got another taxi to a Tampa hotel where I checked in for the night. Up to this point, I had to pay out for 3 taxi journeys, 1 coach journey, 1 nights hotel, 2 meals. After a good nights sleep and breakfast, the next morning I got a shuttle to Tampa airport where I had to wait until around 9:00 pm for my flight to London. I added two more meals to the expenses I would have to claim back.
On the flight back to London I was sat in the worse possible seat on the plane. Whilst I was sitting there a man and a lady came down to the back of the plane and discovered their seats were not together. I offered to switch with one of them so they could sit together, and they were very happy. Just after I had moved forward one seat, the air hostess asked if I would mind swapping again as two girls travelling together had been split up as well, the air hostess told me the girls seat I would swap with would give me more legroom so I swapped again. When I got to this seat, a man was sitting in it. He had jumped in it as it had more legroom than his seat and was refusing to move. The air hostess called the head purser over, he took one look at me and informed me there was a spare seat in First Class I could have. At last a bit of a result.
The flight back was more comfortable than I was expecting but It was to London the place I had wanted to avoid the most. I now had a 9½ hour wait for my flight to Alicante, this added another meal to my list of expenses to claim back.
The flight from Gatwick to Alicante was smooth, and I landed on time. I waited for my luggage, and after a long wait, whilst nearly everyone else had collected their luggage, the carousel came to a standstill. My luggage was nowhere to be seen. I realised the other lady still standing there had got on my flight in Tampa so I told her, and we wondered if our luggage had got lost. We found someone to ask about our baggage. After we explained we had come from London but had begun our flight in Tampa he told us that our baggage was in the other baggage hall as we had to go through customs as we had started in the USA. Why we hadn't been told this at any other stage I don't know. Sure enough, when we followed him through to another room there was our luggage. I grabbed my case and walked through customs, but no one was there. I wondered why they had bothered to separate our luggage to go through customs if there were no customs officers anyway. Luckily, my mate, Mike was waiting there to take me home and after just over an hour I was home all be it 4 days late.
I got to bed around 3:00 am for a night of sleep before having to get up to go back to the airport to collect my friend Del who was arriving for a long weekend.
The day after I got home I made my claim for expenses, this was for transport to and from hotels and airports, travel to get from Orlando to Tampa and meals whilst stuck in Florida and at Gatwick. I also claimed compensation for my flight as it was over 3,500 miles. The claim was relatively straightforward, and within a week Norwegian Airlines gave me €960 in compensation, and I was happy to accept it.