As mentioned previously we travelled with United Airlines as they were the cheapest. We departed at 3.45pm on a Saturday. The aircraft was a somewhat aged Boeing 747. It didn't have the entertainment screens in the head rests, just the big screens on the bulk heads and small drop down screens in the isle.
To keep the kids occupied I downloaded a movie from Itunes onto the Iphone as well as all the free games I could get. The kids took both there Nintendos and Ipod's
As we boarded the aircraft we found some numpty from several rows down had put his in flight bags in our overhead locker. So we had to spend the whole trip with a bags under the seat in front of us. It appears Americans like to take all there luggage in flight with them. There are suppose to be restrictions but on all of our flights United didn't enforce them. If this happens I would just suggest you take the bags out of your overhead locker, leave them in the isle and put your bags in your locker.
We found the flight attendants nice although, at times, a bit short. On one occasion whilst getting a cup of coffee with dinner I asked for some sugar and milk then got told in an assertive tone, "Will sir in future you ask for a white coffee with sugar okay." which was said with a sarcastic smile.
On another occasion I tried to take my son to the toilet while the seat belt sign was on and thought I was going to be dropped and handcuffed if I didn't return to my seat.
After just over 13 hours we arrived at San Francisco. As this was our first port of call in America we had to collect our bags and go through customs. The boarder security staff were very Polite and helpful. We checked our bags back in then rang Floriday's resort to book our spots on the parks shuttle bus. We then caught the connecting flight to Orlando.
We arrived just over five hours later which made the total travel time around 22 hours with connections. We went outside to the Taxi rank and waited in a 50 metre line for our taxi. Unfortunately you don't get to choose your taxi you just come up to the table and they point at your taxi. Our taxi was a clagged out looking unit that had about 2,000,000 on the clock. I jumped into the front seat and noticed my legs were amongst several wires hanging down from the dash along with a litre oil container. I am assuming the oil was for the big cloud of smoke we were leaving behind us.
Eventually we made it to the hotel. The fare was $50.00. It was at this point we realised we had to tip. Going off a tip from my father, I rolled $2 up in tight tube and slipped it into his hand in a hand shake type move. By the time he manages to un roll it and check how much he got, you are long gone.
