IODC August -- Rioja and Tapas!

The last meeting of the IODC was a record-setter!  We had twenty people join us at Brugges Braserie in Broad Ripple this month!  We had so many people that we were not all able to sit together.  Somewhat with that in mind – and always letting the members make the final suggestions on the country to celebrate next – August’s meeting of the Indy Offshore Dining Club will celebrate Spain at BARcelona Tapas in downtown Indianapolis on August 9^th at 7:00pm.  

For those unfamiliar, a BARcelona is a tapas-style restaurant serving small plates of food.  There are maybe somewhere near 100 items on the menu, all very Spanish and the majority of which seem to have a focus on ‘jamon’ (ham).  Ham is celebrated in a big, big way in Spain.  

My wife and I just returned from a trip to Spain last month and we can attest that the tapas bars are popular and everywhere.  It genuinely did seem how the majority of food was ordered and served where we visited.

This should be one of the most affordable IODC meetings yet.  Don’t care to spend a lot of money?  Get a glass of water and a single tapa.  You’re going to get a small plate of food with three or four bites worth of food for only three or four bucks.  There’s certainly a strong sense of casualness at a tapas bar that lends to only eating a small amount of food if that’s all you care to do.  This is not a place where you wait for everyone to get their food to eat.  You can’t.  With so many items on the menu being prepared in small quantities, some items come out of the kitchen right away and others take longer.  But that’s part of what makes it so much fun and lends to the sense of a casual gathering of friends.   And while I’ve been using the phrase “tapas bar” it is definitely a place where being 21 is not necessary.  “Tapas bar” is just the term coined for small-plates-style dining.

I hope you can join us for a glass of rioja and a tapa or two.  If you do plan on joining please RSVP on the Facebook event page of send a note to DrakeTotallyTravels [at] Gmail.com.  There is a small room at BARcelona Tapas that  I hope we can use for our group.  Parking right next to the restaurant is sometimes difficult to find, but if you drive on Delaware north or New York Street (Past Mass Ave) you should find street parking.  See you all there!

Why We Hate The French

Truthfully, I know nothing of the French.  I’ve visited Paris four times in my life, but I’ve never been further from that city’s center than Disneland Parc, which is only about 45 minutes outside of the city by train.  (Plus, Disneyland Parc basically feels like I’m back inside the United States.)  But, there was at least one French dude on this past visit that had me boiling and feeling in tune with mulleted, Skoal-dipping Americans who ‘hate the French’ but have likely never visited France, met a French person or even left the country (or may be county) in their life.  

My wife and I recently celebrated our first anniversary on a European vacation.  We started in Paris, the city of lights and love.  Paris is – even after the awful experience I’m about to unfold for you – one of my favorite cities on the planet.  Joining them in that league, by the way, are Barcelona (new to the list), DC, Indy and New York – not in any particular order.  I’m fortunate in that I’ve learned enough words in French that I’m able to begin conversations in French that end in English out of a kindness shown to me from my dialoguing partner.  I think that helps and has kept me from having the cliché experience of dealing with the snobby, French jerk caricatured by so many Americans.  Not so the case on Saturday morning, though.

It began when Delta changed our Friday afternoon flight into Europe on Wednesday.  Katie and I were flying on awards tickets.  We were scheduled to connect in Montreal where we would switch to an Air France flight to Paris.  Scheduled landing was 5:55am.  Yuck!  I never wanted to land that early, but it was an awards ticket during the height of travel season.  I had few options with the miles we had.  However, as mentioned earlier, our flight was changed to land approximately 7:35am instead of 5:55am.  I learned of the flight change from Delta while at Disney World on a vacation immediately proceeding this one.  Actually, I was in the airport when I got the E-mail.  So, I went to a Delta customer care desk and asked if I could possibly change my flight since a change had been made to our flight.  I let the not-so-happy woman behind the counter know that with the flight change it was unlikely my wife and I were going to make our reservations for the lift at the Eiffel Tower.  Since it was unlikely I was curious if she could route me from IND instead of flying out of Cincy (which was the only city where we could originate to Europe with the miles I had accumulated).   She obliged and we landed at Charles de Gaulle Airport a little before 8:00am – definitely missing our reservations for the lift at the Eiffel Tower.  

When my wife and I finally did make it to the Eiffel Tower, we tried using our pre-paid tickets to get to the top.  A woman told us in fairly well put together English, “It is too late.”  I kindly informed her of the flight change and that I had no power over the occurrence of the day.  She turned to someone else, a dude, who went into full snobby, French douche-mode.  His hands went up and he said, “There’s nothing we can do.  You missed it.”  I shared, what I thought was a smart argument, that the Eiffel Tower had my money, and me, just at a different time than expected.  Were they to really keep my money right there in front of me?  

Le Douche.  They would.

That dude was the prototypical French dick.  The kind of guy we Americans stereotype as ‘French’ incorrectly.  But his attitude lived up to every bit of the characterization.  I instantly hated all people and things French. 

We tried at the Eiffel Tower office to explain our claim, but a woman basically explained that there was nothing they could do.  I could maybe write for a refund, but no promises.  I did write for the refund and a prompt, froggy reply came the next day telling me that refunds would not be permitted.

My wife and I had just spent four days in Disney World, were home for about 12 hours, and then left for ten days in Europe.  We were exhausted.  There was no way we were waiting in a several-hours-long line to pay to go to the top after we had already paid to go to the top.

I get it, I honestly do.  If everyone missed their reserved time and tried to use the lift whenever they desired, it would defeat the purpose of paying to skip the line.  That said, the message could be delivered in a nicer manner.  Something I’m confident that jerk at the reservations line will never learn. 

A Warning For Disney World Car Rentals

Yeah, the whole car rental experience actually ended quite sour.  My wife and I awoke between 3:00am and 3:30am for our flight back home from Disney World.  I was on approximately 90 minutes worth of sleep due to my love of Disney theme parks.  I thought about fueling up near the hotel and then just topping off when I got close to the airport.  The airport is about 20 miles away from the Kissimmee ‘Maingate’ area, so I was going to burn approximately a gallon of fuel; an amount that was likely to be noticeable upon return.  I didn’t want to make two stops so I decided even though it was likely more expensive to fuel up near the airport, it was worth the money to save on time and be certain we were checked-in and ready for our flight.

I could not have been more wrong. 

Fuel near our hotel was $3.45 a gallon.  At the two Suncoast Energy, price-fixing gas stations near the airport: $5.79.  That was for the cheap stuff.  It was a nearly 68% increase over market rate.  And both gas stations were priced at the same number.  At best, the pricing of fuel there could be described as silly and immoral.  In truth, it’s just flat out gouging of the tourists that provide the area jobs.  

This may seem whiny, but I feel someone from Thrifty should have warned us about the gas prices near the airport.  There’s no way they couldn’t know.  It wouldn’t be that difficult to pass along that the two closest gas stations near the airport are known to price-gouge their customers and Thirfty suggests that you fill up away from the airport and only top-off at the gas stations closest to the airport.  (With the reminder that the tank must be retuned full.)  This should be mentioned only after (of course) the client refuses the Thrifty-tank option where Thrifty charges their customers for a full tank of fuel no matter how full the tank is at a price approximately 15% more than market rate.  In hindsight, that would have been a much better option.  

I was also disappointed in the podcasts to which I am a giddy subscriber.  I’ve never heard Lou Mongello, the boys over at WDW Today or Ricky Brigante speak about price gouging near the airport, but a quick Google search this morning revealed that I’m definitely not the only person who has experienced price gouging from this company.  Posts on RipoffReport.com are the first entries to popup on Google when searching the company.  Brigante’s operation has a ‘Tip of the Week’ segment and I’ll definitely be writing in concerning this ordeal.

This much I can assure you: I’ll never experience that problem again with a car rental.  I will give myself enough time to fuel up at a reasonable rate and top-off as I approach the airport.  If I would like to seek some revenge against Suncoast Energy, I might top-off in this manner.)  

ToSuncoast Energy, You have taught me well.  I’ll only get burned once, though.

An Expedia Car Rental Review

Even though I have traveled a lot, I have had few experiences with car rentals.  Typically when I travel it seems that I am using public transportation.  For a recent trip to Walt Disney World with my wife, we were committed to using the public transportation provided by the City of Kissimmee and Walt Disney World itself.  (Disney World’s public transportation system is the third-largest in all of Florida, by the way.)  The hotel we booked had a LYNX stop directly in front of the property.  It seemed affordable and easy to navigate.   We decided to spend the little bit extra money, though, on a car rental for a couple of reasons.  First, the LYNX only runs until around 11:00pm.  We knew we would be having fun in the Disney theme parks after that and would be forced to take cabs back to the hotel.  A cab each time would be about $28 - $30.  Second, our return flight to Indianapolis was scheduled for a 5:30-ish takeoff.  The LYNX system was not going to get us to the airport at the appropriate time.  A return taxi to MCO from the ‘Maingate’ Kissimmee area costs slight above $60.  That’s a big chunk of money.  Doing the math, it seemed to me that by renting a car we would spend between $35 and $40 more for the car in total than we would trying to use the LYNX system and cabs.  Forty bucks equals convenience, comfort and autonomy.  Worth it.  

A quick aside, when you are pricing a car rental versus public transportation, keep in mind all the costs associated with renting a car.  How many miles are you going to drive?  What is the MPG of the car you’ll be renting?  What’s the market price of fuel?  Are you going to be parking anywhere where a cost to park will be involved?  The cost of the rental per day is only the beginning.  Parking at Disney World is $14 per day.  It can add up.

I began searching for cars in the usual places.  I decided my ‘ceiling’ was going to be about $15 per day plus taxes and fees.  Most of the rates I had noticed on the internet were around $19, so I assumed I could score a car at $15 somewhere.  I learned I was wrong.  I spent about a week searching and bidding to no avail.  I even increased my ceiling to $17, but again, I was unsuccessful.  I finally conceded that I wasn’t going to get the deal I wanted.  I visited Expedia and lo and behold they had a ‘Special’ car rate at $15.01 per day.  That was a penny above my original ceiling, but I still felt comfortable with it.  

The Special Expedia rate was a promotional offer with which I was not familiar.  Like I said, I don’t rent cars that often.  The downside of the Special rate (but not a surprise), is that the provider and car itself are a mystery until you agree to the deal.  It was only my wife and I, with a rollaboard each, so we could have rented a British MG and there would have been more than enough room for all we had.  The Special was promised as a car that would seat 4-5 adults and hold four pieces of luggage.  We bit.

Thrifty was the provider.  I assume that Expedia is basically charging a smaller rate than Priceline to run a $15 car rental on their site in what is essentially the same style of product offering as Priceline/Hotwire (hidden prodcut; low price).  

When my wife and I arrived at MCO we still were not sure vehicle we would be driving.  I was hoping for something small because my financial calculations accounted for a vehicle with a high MPG.  I asked at the car rental counter what type of vehicle we would be receiving.  The counter worker wasn’t sure what was available in the Special area.  We walked to the parking garage and were directed down a long line of cars where at the end the Special cars were parked.  When we got there we saw a whole bunch of Crown Vics.  Which is a fun car for those under Medicare Part D, but the ages of my wife and I collectively wouldn’t qualify us for being of a mind to want to drive a boat around Disney World.  Alas, though, hidden between several cars too long for a typical parking space was one Chevy Cobalt!  It was black which is always fun in the Florida sun.  Still, better than driving around a grandkids-mobile.  

The car didn’t seem to score all the high on the MPG mark to me.  We used more fuel than I calculated without driving any more miles than I calculated.  This also was a bummer because the car wasn’t prepped with a  full tank of gas (something noticed after we drove the car away).  And I had to air up one of the tires as it was going flat.  The car was also a little stinky, but I think that was just from roasting in the sun. 

Overall, the car rental experience from Thrifty via Expedia’s Special rate was positive.  And I learned that if Priceline and Hotwire are not showing you what you need for a car rental, keep in mind the Expedia might.