I’ve met some great bears and already made contact with several already checked in to the hotel. Guess I’ll meet them tomorrow.

There are still general admission tickets available and very few rooms at the hotel. So if you want to attend, time is running out. Do it before you miss a great weekend party.

I am the official photographer for the event, so look me up and let me take your picture for the 2012 Gallery.

See you at www.tidalwaveparty.com

Larry

I have setup a gallery under “Photos” where I hope to post a few pictures from this year’s event. Since I will be working for Tidal Wave Party, I must get their permission to post the pictures I take for them.

What is Tidal Wave? The Exclusive Theme Park Party Weekend for Bears, Cubs, Chubs and Admirers only at Wet ‘n Wild – Orlando! This year’s Tidal Wave Party will be held Friday, June 1, from 6pm to midnight.

And don’t miss the rest of the weekend’s activities at our host hotel, The Royal Plaza, at 1905 Hotel Plaza Blvd., in the Downtown Disney area of Lake Buena Vista.

This year’s weekend of events will include not only our Vendor Fair and Pool Parties, but a Country Line Dancing and Round-Up Party, as well as a night of Karaoke, Singles Speed Dating, and more!

As of this posting, the VIP passes are sold out, but there are still some of the regular ones left. Also there were only about thirty rooms left at the hotel. You don’t have to registered for Tidal Wave Party to stay at the hotel and rates are very reasonable. Book yours before they are gone. I will be moving to the hotel on Wednesday May 30th. This is a very affordable party and well worth the registration fee.

Last year I fell on the “Disco” ride (I knew disco would come back to haunt me) and hit my head on the concrete wall. And I wasn’t even drinking. t ended up scratched and bruised and pretty lame when I got up Saturday morning and didn’t feel like going to the Magic Kingdom with the bears for Gay Day.

I’ve heard about Gay Day at Disney, and always wanted to go. It would make me so proud to see all the red shirts and so many gay people standing up together making a statement to the world. So this year, even though I’m working at Wet ‘n Wild taking photos Friday night for Tidal Wave Party, I’m going to make it to Gay Day.

My friend David needed a photographer for the Tidal Wave Party and I offered to help out. I’m proud to announce that I will be the official photographer for Tidal Wave Party 2012. Look me up and get your photo up on the 2012 Tidal Wave Party Gallery. Hope to see you there.

On my trip home from seventeen glorious days in Florida, I decided to spend the extra $314 and upgrade to business class. I was tired, didn’t want to be cramped, didn’t want screaming kids near me and it was a long day of flying to get home. So when I checked in at the counter at 6am, I bought the upgrade.

The flight left pretty much on time and we were served a nice breakfast very quickly. I didn’t speak to the man sitting beside me but smiled and made eye contact. I wanted to get some rest and planned to sleep for most of the three hour flight to Toronto. After breakfast, I took out my iPad and Logitech keyboard and set it up, plugged in my ear buds, and prepared for a nap.

I think I may have slept for an hour when I felt a tap on my right hand. I awoke to see the flight attendant leaning over me. I thought maybe I had missed the “please turn off all electronic devices in preparation for landing” announcement. But no, he asked me about my iPad, specifically, the keyboard. Apparently he had never seen one and was fascinated with it. He wanted to know the brand, where I bought it and how much I paid for it. I didn’t have a problem giving him the information, but did he really need to wake me from a sound sleep to ask? Why couldn’t he have waited until I woke up, or before I got off the plane? I had to walk past him to leave. Then of course, the guy next to me started asking questions and that continued, even after the flight attendant finished and left. So I couldn’t escape and never did get back to sleep thanks to these two guys.

I called Air Canada and complained after I got home and gave them the date and flight number. I didn’t feel I was treated fairly. The flight attendant had no business waking me for such a dumb reason. I was told a report would be filled out and I would hear back from them within 24-48 hours. well, a week or more later, this email arrived:

Dear Mr. Dickinson,

Your file has been transferred from Air Canada Reservations to Customer Relations for handling.

We were sorry to hear that our in-flight crew member on Flight AC 923 March 5, 2012 disturbed you while you were trying to sleep. We expect our employees to serve our customers with kindness and respect their privacy and it is cause for concern when this does not happen. Your comments have been forwarded to the Manager of In-flight Services for an internal review with the crew member of concern. We wish to assure you that we treat these matters very seriously and are intent on preventing recurrences. 

As a measure of goodwill we are pleased to offer you a one time saving of 10% off of the base fare on your next booking at aircanada.com. Simply make your booking between March 30, 2012 and March 29, 2013. Please note all travel must be completed by March 29, 2013. 

To receive your discount, enter the one time use Promotion Code ” 4Q62P1 ” in the Promo Code box at www.aircanada.com when you make your booking. This offer is available on a new booking only and applies to one (1) passenger. 

The discount applies exclusively on published fares for Air Canada and Air Canada Express designated flights. Multi-city bookings and flight pass purchases are not eligible for the discount and promo codes cannot be combined with other discount codes. 

Please note the fare displayed on the Select Flights screen will reflect the discount rounded to the nearest dollar. 

We look forward to welcoming you on board again soon. 

Sincerely,
Eric Smith
Air Canada Customer Relations

My response to Air Canada:

Thank you for getting back to me, Mr. Smith. 

Since I book all my travel through Airmiles, I won’t be able to use the 10% discount you’ve offered. To be honest, the 10% discount does not make up for the fact that my experience in first class was ruined on this flight. I specifically upgraded to first class because I was tired and I wanted more room and comfort to get some much-needed sleep. That didn’t happen when I was awoken by the flight attendant. Since it ruined my experience and, really, negated the reason I upgraded to first class, I would appreciate a complementary upgrade to first class for a future flight. I do plan on flying with Air Canada a few more times this year, so I could certainly take advantage of the offer.

I do want to stress that the flight attendant, other than his error in judgement in waking me for something that could have waited, was perfectly fine otherwise. 

Thank you again.

Sincerely,
Larry Dickinson

My response from AC was that I got what I paid for. Gourmet breakfast, a comfortable roomy seat in business class, etc and the 10% was their best offer.

So I tweeted them:

After paying over $300 to upgrade, @aircanada flight attendant wakes me to ask about my iPad! AC offers 10% off next flight. I use AirMiles!

by Larry Dickinson at 2012-04-09 3:56 PM

And got this response:

@LarryDDickinson Hello Larry, we’re sorry to hear you feel that way. We welcome you to reply to the email if you disagree with the 10% offer

by Air Canada at 2012-04-09 6:03 PM

I tweeted back that I HAD written and told AC I didn’t accept their offer but was told that was the best they would do. I was hoping they might give me a free upgrade on one of my next three flights coming up this year, but no luck. Their response was sorry to hear you’re not happy with the offer, but that you will continue to fly with us.

What a great company! I told Air Canada that I’m only seventy or ninety minutes from airports with West Jet service. Alternately I could drive three hours to Bangor, Maine, where there are a bunch of different carriers offering much cheaper fares like Allegiant Air. For my friend in Wisconsin to fly Air Canada to visit me it would cost him $1,200, but he can do it into Maine much much cheaper. There ARE alternatives. Air Canada has lots of labour troubles with their staff and pilots, but a lot of customers are very pissed off at their lack of service. And we, as taxpayers, are paying to keep it afloat. Maybe it’s time to unload this corporation and let competition give us some options.