The One With the Most Unprofessional Business Ever

  Orlando, Florida, United States
Saturday, August 4, 2007

001 - Baymont Inn and Suites

After a relatively late night, I woke up early this morning... really early.  4:30 AM to be exact.  I was exhausted and my allergies were killing me!  Mom was already up since she hardly ever sleeps at hotels, and she was just lying in bed contemplating whether or not to get up.  Usually when we stop overnight on our way down to Florida we get up really, really early the next morning since we want to get to Orlando as early as possible and the hotel's we stay in are usually horrendously gross so we just want to get out as fast as we can.  This time, though, the hotel was nice, we were in a city I had wanted to visit for years, and check-in at the house wasn't until 3:00.  We were planning on taking our time.
 

002 - Baymont Inn and Suites

Well, as I've learned year after year on these trips, things usually don't go as planned and mom was up five minutes after I had noticed she was awake.  She got some of our stuff together, tidied up the room, and went to take a shower all before 5:00 in the morning.  I saw that Oreo was up so I went and got her and put her in our bed, but she jumped down after a few minutes so I put her back in bed with dad.

003 - Baymont Inn and Suites

My allergies were really driving me crazy by that point.  I knew it was a pet-friendly hotel but I was hoping that the room would have been thoroughly cleaned after the last dog left.  I hate thinking about the room not being thoroughly cleaned, but I couldn't think of any other reason why my allergies would be so bad, besides there being dog hair in the room.  I've had horrible, horrible allergies ever since I was born.  I used to have an inhaler, I would go for shots twice a week, and more than once I had to be rushed to the doctor's office unable to breathe and had to be put on a nebulizer.  Fun stuff.  The great thing about Oreo (and Shih-tzu's in general) is that they're non-allergenic dogs.  They have actual hair instead of pet dander so I'm not allergic to her at all.  Whatever was in the room before us, though, I was obviously very, very allergic to.
 

004 - Baymont Inn and Suites

I tried to just close my eyes and relax, and I actually wound up falling back asleep.  By the time I woke up it was 7:00 and mom and dad were both ready.  Dad had gotten up at 5:30 and gotten ready right away.  Mike woke up soon after me, and he ran into the bathroom to change before I took a shower at 7:00.  My allergies were feeling a lot better but still weren't great.  Anyway, I hate, and I mean HATE, getting ready in the morning at hotels.  It usually takes me long enough when I'm in the air-conditioned comfort on my own room, but when all four of us are trying to get ready and I'm blowing my hair in a steaming hot bathroom, it just isn't any fun.
 

005 - Baymont Inn and Suites

This time was no exception.  It took me FOREVER to get ready and it was such a pain in the you know what.  It was so damn hot in the bathroom and my stuff was all over the place and I couldn't find anything and everyone else was screaming at me to hurry up and it sucked!  While I was getting ready mom, dad and Mike went to get some stuff from the free continental breakfast in the lobby.  It was still early and they were some of the first one's there.  Mom and dad both got coffee and all three of them got bagels.  Yes, Mike finally ate!  He figured that we only had a few more hours to drive so he might as well.  I was finally done getting ready by 8:15, and I wasn't hungry so I didn't get anything for breakfast.  We spent some time just hanging out in the room, getting our bags together and basically just lounging around.  My mom had a voicemail on her cell phone from my Uncle Marc who had gone to see Beyonce with my Aunt Tanya the night before at Madison Square Garden.  Beyonce, you ask?  Yes, Beyonce.  I don't know why either.

006 - Baymont Inn and Suites

We were finally ready to go by 9:00.  Mom and dad took the short walk to the lobby to check out before we packed the bags back into the car and were on our way.  My allergies were getting considerably better and I couldn't have been more excited... we were on our way into Historic Savannah!  We followed Maggie's directions through the streets of... regular Savannah... until we got to the Historic District.

011 - Savannah

I was kind of surprised by what we saw.  A lot of "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" talked about the racial segregation that was still occurring in Savannah which amazed me considering it was the eighties, and I was very surprised to see that it was still going on even twenty-years after the book was written.  Of course New York City has its ethnic neighborhoods - Chinatown, Little Italy, Bensonhurst (Italian), Williamsburg (Chasidic Jews... and Hipsters), Gerritson Beach (Irish), etc. - especially here in Brooklyn, but most of the city is full of people from all different cultures and backgrounds all living together.  The distinct separation between the whites and the blacks was very noticeable here.  That's not to say that the two races don't mix, but there was definitely a visible separation in some areas.  There was also a big distinction between the middle/upper class and the poor.  On one block were men sitting outside of run-down shacks and begging for quarters, and on the next block were some of the most gorgeous mansions I've ever seen.  It was eye-opening and I just wasn't expecting it.
 

014 - Savannah

We drove through the streets of Historic Savannah and tried to take in as much as possible before finding a spot right across the street from Forsyth Park.

016 - Savannah

We walked across the street and I instantly felt like I was in Savannah.  Forsyth Park was gorgeous!  Spanish moss covering the tall trees lining the streets of the city is what reminds me of Savannah the most, and that's exactly what I found here.  It was really, really pretty but a lot smaller than I had imagined it to be.  I had wanted to walk all throughout the park and take in all the sites but I was worried about not having enough time to do so.  I soon found that the park was no more than four-blocks long, and we walked from one side to the other in about five minutes.  It was small, but beautiful.

017 - Savannah

It was also incredibly humid and FULL of mosquitoes!  I can honestly say that it was hotter and more humid in Savannah at 9:30 in the morning than it was the entire time we were in Orlando... except for maybe our Animal Kingdom day but more on that later!  We had also all forgotten about bringing bug spray and were covered in mosquito bites by the time we walked to the end of the park and back.  I hadn't had any all summer and now I had around fifteen of them covering my legs.  I was ITCHY!
 

023 - Savannah

After our walk to the end of the park and back we took some pictures by the famous fountain, which was even prettier in person than it is in pictures but again, a lot smaller.  I loved the flowers and bricks inscribed with names that surrounded the fountain, and the sculptures themselves were gorgeous.  We spent some time just admiring it, and then of course we took a bunch of pictures.

030 - Savannah

When we were done admiring the fountain we looked at the map I had gotten at the hotel and tried to find the Mercer House, the house from "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil."  We had no idea where it was!  We were going to ask a local jogging in the park but we eventually figured it out and headed out of Forsyth Park.  Forsyth Park was exactly what I had imagined, just on a much smaller scale.  It was absolutely gorgeous... definitely the second prettiest park I've ever seen, right behind Central Park.  It was great to get to just walk around and take it all in, especially so early in the morning when it was still relatively empty.
 

031 - Savannah

We walked through the streets of Savannah and took in all of the sights.  The thing about Savannah is that it isn't a city, at least not to me.  To me a city is New York City, full of people, hustle-and-bustle, lots of bright lights and buildings that extend to the sky for what seems like forever.  Savannah didn't have any of that.  Instead, Savannah was like stepping into a different world, or back in time.  The cobblestone streets and 19th century mansions were right out of "Gone with the Wind."  I expected Scarlet to come whining down the street at any minute!  It really was an amazing experience.  I hadn't been in such a genuinely 19th-century atmosphere since we went to Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts and that's just an attraction.  The fact that such an old-fashioned place actually existed out in the real world was nothing short of enchanting.  I was in awe.

032 - Savannah

We walked down a few absolutely gorgeous streets before we finally came to the one place I just HAD to visit in Savannah - the Mercer House.  The Mercer House was the home of Jim Williams, the man who was at the forefront of "Midnight."  He was a prominent (and very rich) art and antiques dealer who held high status in Savannah even after he got involved in a gay love affair with the troubled 18-year old Danny Hansford, shot and killed him during one of Danny's violent tirades, and was then tried four times before dying of heart failure in 1990 at the age of 59.
 

034 - Savannah

The entire book is based on the true events involving the different "characters" of Savannah, and the murder mystery surrounding Jim and Danny.  It's a truly fascinating book, and I was enraptured as I stood in front of the Mercer House and realized that I was standing in almost the exact place where most of the story (and true events) had taken place.  I could have stood there all day and just examined the house, imagining everything that had happened and what it would have been like to be there when it happened, but mom, dad and Mike were getting bored.  I wish we would have been able to spend a full day in Savannah so that I could have gone into the house later in the day when the museum opened, but that would have to wait.  It was still great to see as much of it as I did.  As you can probably tell by now, I'm a huge fan of the book!  I'm also a huge fan of historical sites, or just places that hold some sort of meaning in history, so it was a very fun experience.

035 - Savannah

After checking out the Mercer House we walked back to the car.  By now it was 10:00 and hotter than ever!  I had really wanted to walk along River Street to do some shopping, but by now we were sweating ridiculously, covered in mosquito bites and just not in the mood for being outside so we decided to continue on our way.

037 - Savannah

All in all, Savannah was a great experience.  For the past two years we had nothing but horror stories when it came to our overnight stops on the drive to and from Orlando.  We stopped at gross, dumpy hotels in run-down, middle-of-nowhere towns.  I was so glad that we had finally found a nice place to stop on our trips down to Florida.  The hotel was great!  I didn't have any complaints except for the whole allergy issue, but that really could have been from anything so I can't complain.  The hotel was clean and bright, as were the rooms.  The room was also huge and the queen beds, fridge and flat-screen TV were all HUGE plusses.  Two thumbs up for the Baymont Inn and Suites in Savannah!
 

038 - Savannah

Savannah itself was also great.  It's such a mysterious city, rich in history and plenty of drama.  The next time we're there I'd definitely like to stay for more than a night so we can see the inside of the Mercer House and get to walk around and do some shopping on River Street.  People say that they instantly fell in love with Savannah and I can see why; it's a beautiful city.  The entire experience was a great one and it'll make our future overnight stops on our way to Orlando a whole lot easier.
 

039 - Georgia

We left by 9:30 and were soon flying down I-95, again to no traffic.  We got lucky when it came to traffic this year, we hardly hit any.  At 10:00 came one of our traditional sights of every trip - the giant Confederate flag that waves high and proud over a stretch of I95 in the middle of Georgia.  Oy.  It cracks us up every time we see it.  This Northerner just doesn't get it.

044 - Georgia

At 10:45 we stopped at a rest stop to run into the bathroom, and then stopped again at 11:00 at a gas station for dad to fill up the tank.  Mom and I ran into the convenience store to see if they were selling keychains.  All of the stores in Savannah had been closed while we were there and I really wanted to get a Savannah keychain to add to my collection!  All they had were "Proud to Be a Rebel!" and Jesus keychains, though, so this Jew from Brooklyn decided to pass.  I also ran back into the bathroom.  Yes, fifteen minutes after our last stop.  Hey, you can never be too safe!
 

045 - Florida

We kept driving and at 11:15 we finally (FINALLY!) reached Florida!  We all couldn't have been more excited.  While yesterday had been a ridiculously long drive, it had gone by fast and was completely worth it to have a shorter drive this morning.  Of course we still had a long way to go before we reached Orlando, but just knowing that we were in Florida felt great!

051 - Florida

By 11:30 we were passing through Jacksonville.  We've never actually stopped in Jacksonville but I always love driving through it.  It's a small city, but it's so bright and airy that it always puts me in a good mood.  We spent the time taking pictures and just laughing about stupid things, and all had a pretty good time.  We were finally in Florida!

058 - Florida

We kept driving and were soon passing Daytona Beach.  That meant that we were finally finished with I-95 and could get onto I4!  That's always one of my favorite parts of the drive.  Knowing that we're on the final stretch of the drive, on the road that will finally take us across Florida and into Orlando, is amazing!

062 - Florida

At 1:15 we stopped for lunch in Deltona.  We drove around the area for a few minutes before finding a Wendy's.  My Aunt Stacy always has lunch at the Wendy's in the South Street Seaport and says it's really good, and believe it or not we hadn't had Wendy's in years.  We all picked out what we wanted and dad drove through the drive-thru and ordered.  When we got up to the window to pay, mom and I jumped out and ran into the bathroom.  We then met dad and Mike across the parking lot where they had parked in a spot near the exit.
 

064 - Florida

We had ordered from the dollar menu and our quick lunch came to only $5.  Dad and I each had a plain chicken sandwich, mom got chicken nuggets, and we all shared a large order of fries.  Mike didn't get anything and we all drank the bottled water that we had in the cooler in the car.  The food was pretty good!  I would have liked to have something on my chicken sandwich; it was literally just a piece of chicken on a bun with a piece of lettuce.  It was pretty good, though, and the fries were really salty which I love!  When dad was halfway done with his sandwich we got back onto I4 and finished eating as we were on our way to Orlando!

068 - Orlando

We drove and drove and drove as we listened to the radio.  As we got closer to Orlando I listened to the Disney songs on my MP3 player.  I always have to do that once we get into Orlando, it just helps to build the excitement.  Then finally, at 1:50, we reached Orlando!  I couldn't have possibly been more excited!  I actually had tears in my eyes.  I LOVE Orlando!  Of course we were only in the Orlando suburbs, though, so we still had around a half-hour to go.  Before we knew it, though, we were driving through Downtown Orlando.

070 - Orlando

A few minutes later we were passing Universal Studios!  I love seeing all of the rides from I4.  It's such a fun sight to see, especially when you're driving into Orlando for the first time of each trip.  Fifteen minutes later we got off of I4 and onto 192, and we were soon passing all of the Disney exits.  I was psyched!

075 - Orlando

We were using Maggie to get us to the house since the directions the owner of the home had given us were completely wrong.  We should have known that it was a sign of things to come, but more on that soon.  The exit that we needed had been repaved as part of the construction that had been going on for the past two years.  We had to take a different exit and make a loop back around Disney property to get where we needed to go, but we found it in no time.  We were staying at the Indian Ridge complex and we knew it was the turn right before Emerald Island (where we stayed, and loved, in 2005) and we found it in no time.
 

076 - Orlando

By now it was only 2:30 and check-in was supposed to be at 3:00, but we figured we might as well check out the house and see if it was ready.  We quickly found the complex but again the directions the owner had given us were completely wrong so we got a little lost once inside, but we drove around and eventually found it.  The house looked nice but there was a cleaning truck in the driveway so we figured it wasn't ready yet.  Mom and dad used the key code to get in (each new visitor gets a key code to punch into a little box near the door instead of using keys), and were met by a maid who said that the house would be ready by 3:30.  I knew we should have stayed in Savannah longer!
 

078 - Flea Market

We weren't sure what to do at that point.  We were all hot and tired, and we had all of our bags shoved in the car.  Plus we had Oreo.  Our options for what to do for the next hour were pretty slim.  We contemplated walked around Old Town or Celebration, but Mike and I hate Old Town and we weren't really sure what there was to do in Celebration so we decided to go to a flea market.  We always love the flea markets in Orlando; they have so many fun things and really good deals.  When we got there, though, my allergies were killing me and I wasn't in the best of moods, but I sucked it up and dealt with it.

079 - Flea Market

We went inside and were right by a huge stand that was selling bags and pocketbooks.  I had gotten a really nice one at a flea market the year before but there really weren't any that I liked here.  Mom found a nice one for $30, though.  As she was buying her bag my allergies really started killing me and I had the worst tickle in my throat.  Dad ran back to the car with me and I got the Robitussin from the medicine bag in the trunk and took some.  It helped my cough but my eyes were itchy and tearing and I just felt horrible.  I was determined not to let it ruin my time, though!
 

080 - Flea Market

We walked around and really just looked around.  We stopped at a Florida souvenir stand and got some cute T-shirts as part of a 3 for $10 deal.  We got my little cousins Alison and Zach little Florida t-shirts, and I got one that says "The Sunshine State... Beach Bum... Florida."  I don't have a picture of it right now but I wore it on our Epcot day so you can see it there.  I also stopped at two other Florida/Disney souvenir stands.  At one of them I got three cute pens - an Ariel one, a Pirates one, and a Mickey one - all for $4.50.  I love using Disney pens at school throughout the year.  I get to bring some of the magic into my daily life!  I never got a picture of the Ariel one but I have pictures of the other two.  I also got two t-shirts - both of which feature all of the Disney Characters and say "Disney Dreams - Florida."  Again, I don't have pictures of them right now but I wore them throughout the trip so you'll eventually get some pictures!  The shirts were $11.99 each.
 

081 - Flea Market

The best deal, though, was found at another Disney souvenir stand.  They had a bunch of cute sweatshirts, all with the Disney tag on them, on sale for $20!  Last Christmas I had gotten three sweatshirts from Disney all for around $40 each so $20 was a great deal.  I love Pirates of the Caribbean so I had to get the Pirates one, and dad was nice enough to buy it for me. It's black with little Pirate designs and it's pretty cute.  I can't wait to wear it this winter, while I'm lounging around the house on those freezing days!  My allergies were getting significantly better by this point and I was in a really good mood.  Shopping always seems to do that!  It was only our first day and we were already spending a lot of money so we decided to call is a day at around 3:30.  We walked around the other half of the flea market on our way to the car but we didn't buy anything.

083 - Indian Ridge Vacation Home

We drove back to the house and were back at Indian Ridge by 4:00.  The complex itself wasn't as nice as we had hoped it would be.  It was just kind of... run down.  It wasn't too bad, though, so we didn't make a big deal out of it.

084 - Indian Ridge Vacation Home

The cleaning truck from before wasn't in the driveway anymore so we pulled into the driveway and took Oreo to go check out the inside of the house.  It was pretty nice!  The house was big but had a weird layout... everything was kind of off on its own and you had to walk through a series of twisting corridors to get from room to room.  It was kind of confusing and the house was really, really hot!  We checked the thermostat and it was one of those really old, manual ones.  On it was a note that said, "Do not set the thermostat to under 68-degrees or the unit will freeze."  Um... what?  We're in the middle of Florida in the summer.  We weren't going to set the thermostat to under 68-degrees, but exactly how old was the system that it would freeze if we did?!  Whatever.  We lowered it down to 75-degrees and went on our way.
 

088 - Indian Ridge Vacation Home

We brought our bags in and saw that there was a note from the people who had checked out that morning.  I guess the maid had forgotten to take it.  The note said that there were a lot of snakes in the pool area and they should fix the gate to prevent this.  Oh no.  Dad and I went outside to see what they were talking about and there was a large gap between the bottom of the fence and the sidewalk.  Perfect.  Dad put a broom there to block the gap and we hoped we wouldn't have any unwanted visitors.  I also took a quick look at the pool and there were lots and lots of dead bugs floating around.  Oy.
 

089 - Indian Ridge Vacation Home

We went back inside and dad turned on the computer in the living room.  When we booked the house the owner had sent us an e-mail with more information and it said that there was a computer with free high-speed internet.  Perfect!  This would definitely come in handy since dad would need to check his e-mail a few times a week to get some work-related information.  When we turned the computer on, though, the internet wasn't working.  That's when we saw the huge sign that said that the internet was down.  What?!  It would have been nice to have been told in advance but whatever.
 

090 - Indian Ridge Vacation Home

Dad played around with the computer for a while to see if he could fix it since he works with computers as part of his job, and I went into my room to unpack.  It was ridiculously and excruciatingly hot in there!  The sun was beating in through the window and there was absolutely no air coming through the air-conditioning vent.  Perfect.  That's when I noticed the tiny little fan sitting on my end table.  If the home was air-conditioned, why was there a fan in my room?!  It was definitely weird.
 

092 - Indian Ridge Vacation Home

It was then that mom decided to call the number posted in the dining room to check in.  We called the management company of the home, Loyalty Homes, and mom said that we had arrived.  She then said that we have a small dog and she wanted to make sure that no one would come into the home while we were gone.  She's asked this of the owner/management company every year and every year they've replied with, "Of course not.  There's nothing to worry about, no one will come into the home and your dog will be perfectly fine."  This year, though, the woman we spoke to, Yvonne, screamed into the phone, "What?!  You have a DOG?!  Do we know about this?!"  My mom was very taken aback by this.  Um, hello... we paid extra to bring the dog and it's noted right on the booking form which we sent to YOU, Loyalty Homes.  She was a very nasty person but we just told her about the booking form and she hung up.  That's right, she didn't even say goodbye and offer an apology for being so rude.  She just hung up.
 

095 - Indian Ridge Vacation Home

By now the air hadn't gotten any better and I couldn't even unpack my stuff.  It was ridiculously hot throughout the entire house, but especially in my room.  I even turned on the teeny, tiny fan!  Since I couldn't unpack until the home cooled off, I went around the house taking some pictures.

096 - Indian Ridge Vacation Home

It was while I was taking pictures around the house that I noticed a few things.  First of all, when I went to put a garbage bag in the garbage I noticed that the garbage can was full of crumbs and other gross things.  It was really disgusting.  I also noticed that the washing machine was full of dust and crumbs, there were crumbs stuck to the backs of all the couch cushions, and someone had left a fake, plastic spider in the fridge.  What exactly had the maid been doing?  I wasn't happy, and the fact that the house was still 85-degrees didn't help.  We had been in the house for a good two hours by now and it still wasn't cool.  It was now that we decided that we needed to call the management company.  It was 6:00, and the company closed at 5:00, so we called Yvonne on her cell phone, the emergency number that was left on the contact sheet.  She said that she was going to get a maintenance man to come check out the air-conditioning system soon and I went about trying to keep cool while we waited for him.

097 - Indian Ridge Vacation Home

I tried to unpack but it was still too hot, so I just hung out and watched "Funniest Home Videos" on TBS.  No more than ten minutes later the maintenance man arrived.  He went around to all of the vents to see that they were open, and then he went out back with my dad to check the actual air-conditioning unit.  When he was done the exact words out of his mouth were, "The air-conditioner unit is too old and too small to adequately cool off the home."  What?!  I was furious!  Not at the maintenance man.  He was a really nice guy who was only trying to help.  He wrote up a little report and left, calling Yvonne at Loyalty Homes on the way.
 

100 - Indian Ridge Vacation Home

We were all pissed.  Really, really pissed.  When people paid you cash and in full for a home, don't you think it would be beneficial to tell them that the air-conditioner wasn't adequate?!  I called Yvonne at the emergency number and told her what had happened, and how it was 87-degrees in the house and completely unacceptable.   She said there was nothing she could do about it.  NOTHING YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT?!  We paid her company money for a home that didn't have an air-conditioner that worked and there was nothing she could do about it?!  I remained calm and asked her if she could find us another home through her company, but she said that we were being ridiculous and she couldn't.  Yes, she called us ridiculous.  At that point I wanted to speak to Sue, the owner of the home.  The only problem was that she lived in England and there was no way to reach her, so Yvonne said she would call Sue and have her call us.
 
Five minutes later Yvonne called us back and the conversation went like this...
 
Me:  Hello?

Yvonne:  I just want you to know that it's 85-degrees in my house and I'm fine.
 
WHAT?!  At this point I was fuming.  With each minute that passed I could actually feel my blood pressure rising.  All I had to say to her was, "Excuse me, we're trying to talk to you professionally about getting help here, and you're completely disrespecting my family and I!  I could care less how hot it is in your house, we paid for this home for the next three weeks and it's unacceptable for it to be so hot in here!  We should be able to make it as cool as we want."
 
Her response?
 
"Nowhere in your contract does it say that the air-conditioner has to be cooler than 85-degrees."
 
WHAT?!  Right then and there I knew that we had made a big mistake by renting from Loyalty Homes.  We had gotten lucky for the past two years and stayed in really nice homes (through different companies) with really nice owners and management companies.  Even though we had run into some problems the year before they had been taken care of quickly and everyone was nice and helpful, but now we were dealing with incompetent, unprofessional people.  I told Yvonne that I wanted to speak to Sue and she told me Sue would be calling shortly.
 

101 - Indian Ridge Vacation Home

Ten minutes later Sue called, and as soon as I picked up the phone she started screaming at me that my family was causing trouble.  That's right, we were causing trouble... by calling her out on her insufficient and unacceptable services!  We told Sue that it was 85-degrees in the home and she kept insisting that it wasn't.  Not only was she not in the home, but she wasn't even in the country so how she could say what temperature it was in the house was truly insane to me.  I told her what the maintenance man had said about the air-conditioning unit being too old and too small to cool off the home, and she screamed at me that I was lying before she hung up.  That's right; she screamed at me and hung up.  Not only did we not get any answers, but we were treated COMPLETELY disrespectfully and Sue knew that we couldn't make international calls from the home so we wouldn't be able to get back in touch with her.  UNREAL.
 

102 - Indian Ridge Vacation Home

By now I was a mess.  I didn't know what to do or who to turn to.  So I did the only thing that didn't require me to know what to do... I started crying.  That's right... I sat on the couch and cried.  Now let me tell you, I'm not a crier, especially in situations like this.  I usually just get pissed off and hold my own.  But I was just so extremely frustrated and upset and HOT that I was very overwhelmed with it all.  We were stuck across the country from home in a house without an air-conditioner, and dealing with a company full of unprofessional, childish and completely RUDE people.
 

104 - Indian Ridge Vacation Home

I tried calling Yvonne back to say that what was going on was extremely unacceptable but she didn't answer.  I called back a few more times before she finally answered, and told her how unacceptable the home, and their service, was.  She told me that the maintenance man said that the air-conditioner wasn't broken and it was working fine.  This became an ongoing debate up until even a few days ago, when we got the Better Business Bureau involved.  What both Yvonne and Sue couldn't seem to comprehend was that yes, the air-conditioner was working fine, but ONLY TO THE BEST OF ITS ABILITY.  It wasn't broken but it was too old and too small to cool down the home.  THEIR maintenance man had been the one who said so yet they refused to acknowledge or accept this.
 

107 - Indian Ridge Vacation Home

I told Yvonne that we needed to be moved or we needed our money back to find a different home on our own, and she refused.  I then told her to come down to the home to see for herself how hot it was in the house but she said she was too busy.  She was too busy to help her own customers or deal with her own business matters.  We told her that we would come down to her office to talk but she said that she was home and not at her office.  The next day we found out that her office was located in her home.  It was UNBELIEVABLE, but more on that later.  Halfway through the conservation Yvonne hung up on me.  That's right, I was once again hung up on while looking for help.  Again, UNREAL.  I tried calling her back all night but she simply shut her phone off and was done for the night.  Perfect.
 

112 - Indian Ridge Vacation Home

I calmed myself down and called my Aunt Stacy.  She turned on her computer and got me a few numbers of different rental agencies in the area and I called them all, but none of them were able to find us a home for that night and the next three weeks.  Considering the ridiculously short notice, I couldn't blame them.  But now I just felt completely stuck and depressed.  I could picture us having to pack up and leave, and make that long drive all the way back up I95 the next day.  We would just save our Disney tickets for the summer of 2008.  After all the planning and countdowns and packing and driving, this was the most depressing thought ever.

My dad then remembered that his friend Ernie has a sister-in-law with a home she rents down in Orlando.  Jackpot!  Dad called Ernie and Ernie said that his sister-in-law had just gone with his wife and daughter to see Mary Poppins on Broadway and he would try to call her cell phone.  They're the nicest people ever and a huge Disney family, so we really appreciated his help.  A few minutes later Ernie got back to us and said that his sister-in-law was renting out the home but he had gotten us the number of her management company and told us to call them and tell them that we were friends of Marianne's, his sister-in-law.  We couldn't thank him enough!
 

113 - Indian Ridge Vacation Home

We weren't expecting the company Ernie told us about, Villa4UFlorida, to have any homes available on such short notice, but we held our breath and gave them a call.  My dad told them our situation and that we were friends of Marianne, and they said that they only had a four-bedroom home available and it wasn't one of the fancy ones.  THANK GOD!  That was perfectly fine and they gave mom and dad the address and the key code to go in and check it out.  It was kind of weird for them to just give us the key code without knowing us, but I guess they trusted us since we were friends of Marianne's and I know Marianne's gorgeous 7-bedroom home gives them a lot of business.

So at 7:30 mom and dad left to go check out the home they had available, which was located in the Lake Davenport Estates development at the beginning of Davenport.  It was about five-minutes farther from Disney than the home we were in now but we didn't care.  Twenty-minutes later mom and dad called us to say that the house was really nice and that they had spoken to the women at Villa4UFlorida and it was OK for us to move in now.  Yay!  Mike and I started packing and getting our stuff together.  Mike had finished unpacking, but mom and dad had only begun and I hadn't even started so it just took a few minutes.  I then went around the house taking pictures of everything that was wrong with it.

114 - Indian Ridge Vacation Home

Ugh, I was so pissed off at Yvonne and Susan and Loyalty homes, but at least we had found a place to stay.  Mom and dad were home by 8:30, after stopping at a Duane Reade on the way.  They had picked up a clock with a built-in thermometer.  We wanted proof that the air-conditioner and the thermostat weren't at all working.  I found it funny that the thermostats in the other homes we've stayed in down in Orlando, and even our thermostat at home, are all digital ones.  This one was an ancient manual one that didn't even work.  We set the new clock down in the room for a good twenty minutes and then taped the results.  The thermostat was set at 68-degrees (since that was the lowest we could set it without the unit freezing), it said it was 77-degrees in the home, and the thermometer we bought said it was 81-degrees.  Not only did the two numbers on the thermostat not match, but neither of them were even right.

117 - Indian Ridge Vacation Home

I was so, so, so mad.  We finished packing up our stuff and headed out.  While we were packing up the last few things, though, no one was really paying attention to Oreo until we looked over and saw that she was just sitting on the couch with all of our suitcases, ready to go. It was the cutest thing ever!  We left, making sure to take the sheet of contact numbers with us.  When we got in the car I left a message on Yvonne's machine and said that we were going to a different house since the conditions of her home were completely unacceptable and that it was impossible to stay there with it being so hot.  I also told her that she was the rudest "business" woman any of us had ever dealt with and that she would be hearing from us the next morning about getting our money back.  Then I just tried not to think about it.
 

123 - Lake Davenport Estates Vacation Home

We got to Lake Davenport Estates in no time and were in the house by 9:00.  As soon as we walked in we were immediately hit by the cold air in the home and it felt great!  THAT'S how a house should be in Florida in the middle of the summer!  The house may not have been one of the fancy ones with a game room or hot tub but it was really nice.  It was like a combination of the homes we had stayed in during our 2005 and 2006 vacations.  I liked it.  It was cozy, and the extra fourth bedroom was nice even though we didn't need it.
 

124 - Lake Davenport Estates Vacation Home

We all unpacked and got ourselves settled.  By the time we were done doing so it was 10:00, and mom and dad still had to go food shopping.  We didn't have any food or drinks in the house, as well as any cups, plates, napkins, a vacuum, laundry detergent and fabric softener, etc.  We had nothing.  Mom and dad left for Wal-Mart at 10:15 and I went online to see if there was a closer one than the one they were going to, or any other grocery store that stayed open for 24-hours.  Yep, this home had high-speed internet that actually worked.  I couldn't find a closer Wal-Mart, though, so I called mom and dad to tell them and they wound up going to the one all the way down I-95 near Universal Studios.  It was a good half-hour trek, which was a pain so late at night after such a long day.
 

129 - Lake Davenport Estates Vacation Home

While mom and dad were out shopping I finally unpacked my stuff, and watched the Disney Channel on the TV in my room while I did so.  I think I watched "Hannah Montana" and "The Suite Life of Zach and Cody."  Hey, when in Rome... then I took some pictures of the house.

152 - Dinner

Mom and dad were back by 12:45 and we all put everything away.  Dad had also bought a little vacuum and he vacuumed all of our rooms.  The carpets weren't dirty but we just always feel better cleaning up a bit ourselves.  We were done by 1:30, when we FINALLY ate dinner.  Yes, we ate dinner at 1:30 in the morning after hardly having eaten all day.  Mom and dad had stopped at Wendy's on the way home.  Mom and I had chicken nuggets with honey mustard dressing and fries, and dad and Mike both got chicken sandwiches with Swiss cheese, bacon and fries.  The food was delicious, especially after not having eaten in over twelve hours!

154 - Dinner

By the time we were done eating I was EXHAUSTED.  I took a shower at 2:15 and braided my hair in my room so it would be crimped the next day and I wouldn't have to deal with it in the humidity.  I watched the Fresh Prince marathon on Nick and Nite for a while and I heard Mike take a shower at 2:45, and that's also around when mom and dad went to bed.  I watched The Fresh Prince until 3:30, when I finally fell asleep.  It hadn't been the best first day in Orlando.  I was so frustrated and annoyed with the house situation.  Of course problems arrive and things happen.  If the air-conditioner would have been taken care of or Loyalty Homes had been able to find us another home, then it would have been fine.  But not only were we given no explanation or apology, but the owners of the home and management company were COMPLETELY rude, unprofessional and childish, and had refused to give us any help or even acknowledge the problems we were dealing with.  And I HATED that we still had to deal with these people the next day, the day that we were supposed to spend having a great time at MGM.  Hopefully things would get better.