Nice Digs in Orlando. Too Bad a Hurricane's Coming.

 Florida Trip Travelog #14
Breakfast at the hotel - Mon, 26 Sep 2022, 8am

I've decided to take it easy this morning. Yes, today's a work day, but I can at least eat breakfast in peace. That means I'm not opening my work computer 'til I get back to my room around 8:30am.



It's a pretty nice room, here at the Marriott Orlando World Center. The photo above I made yesterday evening when I arrived. The room's on the 10th floor overlooking the pool area. Here's a view of that pool area:



...Wow, that's more than I expected! Notice toward the left there's a huge water slide— much taller than the slides at the Hyatt Coconut Point I enjoyed so much the past few days! I doubt I'll have time to enjoy them as I really am here for work. ...Okay, maaybe after 5pm today? 😅

BTW this is a resort hotel because it's right next to Disney World. Most people here are here for the theme parks. But boring old me, I'm here for work. Except that water slide I'm going to try when I'm done for the day.

Breakfast at the hotel this morning has been amazing. And no, it's not just because I left my work computer in the room— though that helps! The buffet is huge. In addition to the usual bread, cereal, and yogurt choices there is a charcuterie board with actually-good salami, mortadella, and prosciutto. Oh, and there's chimichurri steak on the buffet. Those basics are free to me because of my Marriott elite status. And for an extra $7 I could upgrade to the "full" buffet with omelets and french toast. I didn't know there was chimichurri steak on the basic buffet when I chose to upgrade. Well, I enjoyed my french toast. It was freshly made in front of me. It has been... years... since I've had actual made-from-scratch (as in, dip bread in an egg/milk batter then fry on the griddle) french toast. Damn, it was good! And so was the chimichurri I made sure to save room for. 😂😋😌

Keep reading: ...AND THEN I CHECKED MY EMAIL! 😱

Trade Show: Canceled. All Travel Plans: Changed.

Florida Trip Travelog #15
About to leave Orlando - Mon, 26 Sep 2022, 11am

It's ironic that I decided not to check my work email or messages until after breakfast this morning. It's ironic, because if I had I probably wouldn't have enjoyed such a delicious and leisurely repast. Instead I only saw the updates when I got back to my room around 8:15am and settled down to work for the day.

*sound of record scratch* 

CANCELED. EVERYTHING IS CANCELED.

That's basically it in 4 words.

The conference organizers at my company made the decision late last night to cancel the conference. We employees were directed to either cancel our trips if we hadn't left yet, or rebook to return home ASAP.

And to think I was enjoying the view out my balcony just moments earlier....



I checked with my airline right away. The earliest they could accommodate me was Wednesday. I changed my flight from Friday to Wednesday morning and hoped that would be soon enough. While the hurricane won't make landfall until Thursday, winds and rain in the area could be severe enough by then that flights will be canceled.

My department VP reached out to me on Slack and asked if I needed help. "Just rebooked to Wednesday," I told him. Long story short: "Get out sooner if you can," he responded. "Do whatever it takes."

"Do whatever it takes" is a risky phrase. I'm very resourceful about travel. I can find things that are fast... and also expensive. Flights from Orlando to San Francisco were nearly sold out today and tomorrow. I could have left in 3 hours on a first class ticket for $1500. That didn't seem like the right use of company money, though. It's not in my nature to spend like that when more reasonable alternatives exist.

The reasonable-r alternative in this case was to fly home Tuesday from another airport a few hours away. I found a flight out of Jacksonville for the same money I already paid. Yes, I'd have to pay to rent a car one-way, refuel it, and stay in a hotel overnight, but those added costs were still several hundred less than the premium for a flying out of Orlando.

After getting busy with various travel engines I have now changed all my travel plans. I have a flight out of JAX on a different airline, tomorrow. I've canceled my Wednesday flight out of MCO (that was already changed from Friday). I've rented a car to drive from MCO to JAX. I have a hotel next to JAX tonight. And my bags are packed and I'm about to go downstairs to check out of this hotel 4 days early.

Keep reading: 170 Miles to Jacksonville.

Update: Some of my European colleagues chose to stay at the hotel and ride out the storm. I understand their thinking; it's a long trip for them both ways. Many of them weren't planning to leave until Saturday or Sunday anyway. Plus, those water slides look like so much fun. 😅 Orlando being 85 miles from the Gulf Coast it's not going to see storm surges... though it might experience localized flooding due to heavy rains and power outages due to power lines downed by trees blown over in the wind. I advised them of this and suggested they make sure they have stashes of food and bottled water in their rooms just in case.

170 Miles to Jacksonville

I checked out of my hotel in Orlando, Florida late this morning, getting out ahead of Hurricane Ian after my company canceled our big annual conference this week. As I described previously, I was unable to find a reasonably priced flight out of Orlando until Wednesday but I was able to find a good one out of Jacksonville Tuesday morning. So... after taking a Lyft to MCO airport I rented a car and drove to JAX airport.

As drives go it was a fairly easy one. 170 miles, pretty much all highway. The driving time was about 2:40. I added a lunch stop making it about 3:30 door-to-door.

Some of my colleagues who heard about the planes-trains-and-automobiles thing I was doing expressed sympathy for the craziness I had to endure. Enh. I know for some people such a drive is not easy, though for me it's close to trivial. And the planning and re-planning with reservations is kind of "All in a day's work". I've been a road warrior for a lot of years. This isn't my first rodeo. (How's that for mixed metaphor?)

Well, the hotel I'm at this evening is nowhere near as nice as the one I left. I'm at the airport Doubletree. It's pretty meh. Instead of a balcony overlooking a massive pool deck I have a small window— that doesn't open— overlooking a dull pool. The resort in Orlando was unusual for a business trip. This is par for the course.

Tomorrow morning my flight out of JAX leaves at 8:36am. If it's on time. I was watching local news over dinner downstairs in the hotel restaurant. Hurricane Ian is strengthening in the Gulf of Mexico. I'm definitely glad I'm further north now. Still, even if the center is a few hundred miles away tomorrow morning, the hurricane could produce enough winds and rains that flights are delayed or canceled.

Keep reading: Jacksonville was far enough north that I got out safely Tuesday morning.