Tampa 2021 – Diary – Day 1

This was going to be a hectic day. We weren’t even flying but would be driving to Newark and staying in an airport hotel for our first night, allowing us to more easily catch our outbound flight first thing Monday morning.

Soccer!

The day started with Tomatico playing a morning soccer game. We got up early and gathered all his soccer equipment while also making sure we were packed for the trip. The plan was to pack up the car while he was showering after his game so we could leave right away.

The plan seemed to work and his team even pulled off an impressive 2-0 victory in the process. By the time he was showered, the car was packed and we were ready to head out.

Driving to New Jersey

We had a long drive ahead of us and we decided to grab a quick lunch at one of the service areas on the way. Traffic was pretty light except for one backup that added about 20 minutes to the drive. That’s pretty normal. The drive did seem to take forever, though.

We had originally planned to stop in NYC to pick up my brother in law, but he was going to meet us in New Jersey at his brother’s house, which did cut down on a lot of driving, fortunately.

We all met for dinner outside at a restaurant near their house and got to see them for the first time since the pandemic. It was nice and felt safe being outside (they were also vaccinated).

New Hotel

After dinner the five of us packed into the car and headed to our hotel… though it wasn’t the hotel we had originally booked. The previous day I had looked at the reservation for the Newark airport hotel to make sure things were set and noticed it had been canceled on us!! There was no reason given why it was canceled and I was unable to make a new reservation at that hotel. Maybe it had closed suddenly but that put is un a bit of a bind.

I was in a mad scramble to find an alternative and wasn’t having much luck. I had hoped to find another Marriott hotel to book using the free night certificate but no Marriott hotels in the area had any award nights available. That was supremely disappointing as last minute bookings like this are often great uses for certificates and points.

I looked further out for Marriott hotels that would hold 5 of us or that had 2 rooms available, but couldn’t find any that were bookable on points.

I then looked for Hyatt properties but there weren’t any properties near the airport. I thought about booking a Hyatt near where my brother in law lives and trying to park our car at his house, but the Lyft rides would cost more than the parking at the terminal.

I then remembered that I had some IHG free night certificates. While there weren’t any rooms around Newark that held 5 people, I did have 2 certificates so I could book 2 rooms. That wasn’t ideal but would definitely work if I could find a hotel that would take them.

In the end, I found a Crowne Plaza just a few miles from the airport that also had a free shuttle. I could use the free night certificates which saved about $150 per room and had a free airport shuttle available 24 hours. Not bad for the $49 annual fee on the IHG credit card.

Checking in and Parking the Car

We arrived at the hotel around 8:30 at night. The hotel was easy to see, but harder to figure out how to get to. We missed an unexpected turn and had to circle back to get to the hotel, but we eventually made it. We checked into the hotel before I went to park the car in the terminal.

The previous night I had reserved a space in the terminal A parking lot online. The website had a decent discount if you reserved your place so I ended up parking in the terminal rather than in the long term parking as I had originally planned. It was only a few dollars more and was a LOT more convenient.

I had to specify the checkin/checkout time which I did as 8:15PM Sunday until 8:15PM Friday. This gave me a barcode I could use instead of taking a ticket. On checkout if I left late I would have to pay an overage which would be at the standard rate. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

As I found my way to the airport, I kept an eye out for the correct terminal parking area. There fortunately wasn’t much traffic which made it easier to find what I was looking for. At the gate I pulled out my phone and scanned the barcode and the gate opened so at least that part worked.

I drove around and eventually found a parking spot near the terminal we would return to. I remembered to take a picture of the location so we could find it when we returned!

From there, I made my way to the terminal and got an Uber back to the hotel. Lyft didn’t have manny drivers in the area and it was extremely expensive with a long wait for the 1.8 mile trip. Uber prices and waits were better so I went with that.

It was only a few minutes to get back to the hotel, though it was definitely a roundabout journey due to the roads (not because the driver took me for a tour).

Back in the rooms, my brother in law had his own room a couple doors down. We agreed to meet just before 6:00am the next morning to catch the shuttle to the airport which left every 30 minutes.

I set two alarms just to be sure and double checked our devices were properly charging overnight. It was a long first day and the real fun would start tomorrow!