The family and I are off to Southern California for Spring Break over the next two weeks. Our boys go to a school that is all year round, so the break is a bit earlier than public school. I hope we beat most of the Spring Break rush at the major attractions. We'll see. Although I am excited to spend some quality family time, I'm also excited about getting some quality customer service and stories for my blog. I wonder it the travel industry is taking their game to new levels with the economy in the toilet. Especially repeat destinations like SOCAL. I expect Disney to be incredible as usual (I'll keep my eye out to see if there is any garbage on the ground :-) )
Right off the bat, when we landed at LAX, we picked up our rental car from Budget. I had pre-booked a midsize vehicle online and was given a "FastPass" membership. At the time I had no idea what the FastPass was. Well, I need to give high marks to Budget - when they mean fast... they mean it!
We were directed over to a group of about 50 cars and SUV's, and told to just pick any one in area "6" and drive away, the keys are inside. We had such a choice of vehicles that we were the only ones not being too fast. We actually picked a vehicle and then when all our luggage didn't fit (double stroller too) we unloaded and picked a larger SUV. After loading up, we drove to the end of the parking lot - to a gate where a Budget staff member took a card off our rear view mirror, proceeded to scan it with a bar code reader and said "Have a safe trip, do you need directions?". That was it, we were driving off, without filling out any paperwork or any line ups.
I quickly jotted down my experience and observations about Budget in my handy notebook. (Sandy rolled her eyes with a smirk)
Next we hit Burger King a block away... back to reality... ahhhh, fast food service.
Cheers,
Calvin
