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My dad and I decided to take a quick trip during winter break, so we chose to go to Washington DC. We actually booked this trip about 5 months before, so I was really looking foward to it. We had also booked a room at the Sheraton Gateway Suites Chicago O'Hare the night before the trip, and a room at the Marriot Dulles Airport in Virginia.
About a week before the trip, we got an e-mail from the Marriott asking if we wanted any extra things such as extra pillows,blankets etc. in our room and we could order food to be there, so we ordered two water bottles. We actually got a reply that was not computer generated asking if we had any questions or requests, and we asked if we could check in at 9:00am, and she said that they would have a room ready at 9:00am! This was pretty great customer service.
Thursday, December 29, 2005 (I'll use 24hr time)
I drove from my house out in the Western Suburbs of Chicago to the Sheraton O'Hare. Since we had a really early departure, we decided to stay here. We got a good rate of UDS $89 per night. We requested a room on the west side of the buiding, and we got room 603 on the 6th floor. Planes were taking off from right in front of the window. It was cool. Even a Southwest plane took off (from ORD!) (Because of the bird strike earlier) My dad and I ate at Harry Caray's, a great stakehouse next to the Holiday Inn. We mostly just swam in the pool and chilled out. We scheduled a wake up call for Friday morning at 03:00. As advertised, the Sheraton Sweet Sleeper bed was really comfortable! The hotel was very nice too, very large 11-floor atrium style hotel, with 3 glass elevators.
The phone rang at 03:00am and we were checked out by 03:45 and on the 04:00 shuttle bus to ORD where we were dropped off curbside at Terminal One, for United Airlines and Lufthansa departures.
Friday, December 30th, 2005
04:17 in the morning, there are already lines forming. Oh well, no probelms. There is a new (at least for me) sign hanging, with the time, a directory to Terminal One, and walking times to the gates. We checked in at an Easy-Check In Kiosk after waiting about 25 minutes in line. We were in Seating 2, with my Dad in seat 20A and myself in 20F. Line for security took about 40 minutes, because they only had one scanner open at this time. We went to our gate, and I went and got a bagel and a bottle of water and about 5 minutes later, at 05:15 we boarded UA 922 to Washington Dulles.
United Airlines - UA 922
Chicago O'Hare (ORD) to Washington Dulles (IAD)
Scheduled Departure: 06:00
Push-Back: 05:44
Wheels-Up: 06:15
Scheduled Arrival: 08:46
Wheels-Down: 07:58
Departure Gate: B9
Arrival Gate: C11
Boeing 757-200, N540UA
Seat 2F
We boarded the 757 from Door 2L. In my row, there was a college girl going home on the aisle seat, and the middle seat was empty. The flight attendants played the safety video on the TV's over the aisle, and our pilot tried to tell some jokes, but he just dragged them on so much it was hard to tell what he was saying! Oh well. We pushed back and about 20 minutes later we took off. It was still dark out over Chicago, so we had some cool views until we went into the clouds over Lake Michigan. NBC In-Flight came on the TV's, playing "Three Wishes" and "Access Hollywood". Channel 9 was on this flight. I listened to that and "Radio United" where they were playing a lot of Sheryl Crow. I got a coffee, the cup was only filled up about half-way, and it tasted pretty bad. There was a pretty nice sunrise during flight. We started our decent and landed early at IAD, at gate C11. We took the shuttle to the main terminal and got our bags off the baggage claim and took the shuttle to the Marriott.
We got to the hotel, and as promised, our room was ready! We went to room 2122 on the 2nd floor, where both bottles of water were waiting. We dropped off our bags and took the shuttle back to IAD, where we got on the Metrobus and took that into Washington DC. It costs 3 dollars and takes about 50 minutes from Dulles to L'Enfant Plaza in Dulles. Once in DC, we went to the Air and Space Museam. It was very cool. Lots of great stuff to see. We also saw the capitol, the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial (but they had scaffolding around his face!), the White House, the Vietnam Memorials and the World War II memorial. It was a great trip, we were downtown from about 11:00am until 17:30. We boarded the 17:33 bus from L'Enfant Plaza back to Dulles. We arrived at Dulles at about 18:15 and took the shuttle back to the Marriott and ate dinner in the nice restaurant/bar area.
Saturday, December 31, 2005
We got up at 09:00 and ate breakfast at the restaurant. We asked if we could store our bags somewhere while we go out, but they just extended out check out until 15:00 incase we wanted to come back or came back early, and would have somewhere to stay. Great service! Anyway, the Marriott took us to the Udvar-Hazy Center. It was awesome! We saw a lot of great stuff, but my favorites was the SR-71, the Enola Gay, and the Concorde! Take a free guided tour when you go, I really recommend it. We missed the last showing of the observation deck, oh well. We got on a shuttle back to the Marriott at 14:30 and got our stuff together and watched a little tv and then checked out and took the 15:30 shuttle to IAD.
We got dropped off outside the United area. We checked in very quickly, and got seats in Economy Plus, actually in the exit row. We cleared security quickly...but!
My bag got opened and searched and I got it back and noticed my camera was gone. I was so angry. They kept saying that it was United's fault. Well, we had a flight to catch, so we headed towards the shuttle to the D-Gates.
We got to our gate, and there were people from a local college asking people to take surveys about drinking and air travel. My dad did, and got a 3 dollar gift card to Starbucks.
United Airlines - UA 937
Washington Dulles (IAD) - Chicago O'Hare (ORD)
Scheduled Departure: 17:45
Push-Back: 17:35
Wheels-Up: 17:44
Scheduled Arrival: 18:40
Wheels-Down: 18:10
Departure Gate: D3
Arrival Gate: C19
Boeing 767-300 (Worldwide Version), N655UA
Seat 15E, Exit Row
We took off right on time, and I watched our progress on my PTV. Flight attendants served full can drinks and gave out pretzels again. The load on the flight was full in First and Business, and about 1/4 full in Economy. The 767 is very comfortable. During the flight, I went to use the lavatory and asked if the flight attendant had another package of pretzels, and she just gave me some of her crew meal. Nice. She said "I'm not a salad person". It was actually pretty good. I thanked her again on the way out. We landed at ORD early, and bags were on Claim 14. They came out quickly and we went to the Bus/Shuttle center. It's weird going there. You take an elevator down, walk around, and take an elevator back up. We found the shuttle to the Sheraton again, got on it and got our car back at the hotel.
About a week before the trip, we got an e-mail from the Marriott asking if we wanted any extra things such as extra pillows,blankets etc. in our room and we could order food to be there, so we ordered two water bottles. We actually got a reply that was not computer generated asking if we had any questions or requests, and we asked if we could check in at 9:00am, and she said that they would have a room ready at 9:00am! This was pretty great customer service.
Thursday, December 29, 2005 (I'll use 24hr time)
I drove from my house out in the Western Suburbs of Chicago to the Sheraton O'Hare. Since we had a really early departure, we decided to stay here. We got a good rate of UDS $89 per night. We requested a room on the west side of the buiding, and we got room 603 on the 6th floor. Planes were taking off from right in front of the window. It was cool. Even a Southwest plane took off (from ORD!) (Because of the bird strike earlier) My dad and I ate at Harry Caray's, a great stakehouse next to the Holiday Inn. We mostly just swam in the pool and chilled out. We scheduled a wake up call for Friday morning at 03:00. As advertised, the Sheraton Sweet Sleeper bed was really comfortable! The hotel was very nice too, very large 11-floor atrium style hotel, with 3 glass elevators.
The phone rang at 03:00am and we were checked out by 03:45 and on the 04:00 shuttle bus to ORD where we were dropped off curbside at Terminal One, for United Airlines and Lufthansa departures.
Friday, December 30th, 2005
04:17 in the morning, there are already lines forming. Oh well, no probelms. There is a new (at least for me) sign hanging, with the time, a directory to Terminal One, and walking times to the gates. We checked in at an Easy-Check In Kiosk after waiting about 25 minutes in line. We were in Seating 2, with my Dad in seat 20A and myself in 20F. Line for security took about 40 minutes, because they only had one scanner open at this time. We went to our gate, and I went and got a bagel and a bottle of water and about 5 minutes later, at 05:15 we boarded UA 922 to Washington Dulles.
United Airlines - UA 922
Chicago O'Hare (ORD) to Washington Dulles (IAD)
Scheduled Departure: 06:00
Push-Back: 05:44
Wheels-Up: 06:15
Scheduled Arrival: 08:46
Wheels-Down: 07:58
Departure Gate: B9
Arrival Gate: C11
Boeing 757-200, N540UA
Seat 2F
We boarded the 757 from Door 2L. In my row, there was a college girl going home on the aisle seat, and the middle seat was empty. The flight attendants played the safety video on the TV's over the aisle, and our pilot tried to tell some jokes, but he just dragged them on so much it was hard to tell what he was saying! Oh well. We pushed back and about 20 minutes later we took off. It was still dark out over Chicago, so we had some cool views until we went into the clouds over Lake Michigan. NBC In-Flight came on the TV's, playing "Three Wishes" and "Access Hollywood". Channel 9 was on this flight. I listened to that and "Radio United" where they were playing a lot of Sheryl Crow. I got a coffee, the cup was only filled up about half-way, and it tasted pretty bad. There was a pretty nice sunrise during flight. We started our decent and landed early at IAD, at gate C11. We took the shuttle to the main terminal and got our bags off the baggage claim and took the shuttle to the Marriott.
We got to the hotel, and as promised, our room was ready! We went to room 2122 on the 2nd floor, where both bottles of water were waiting. We dropped off our bags and took the shuttle back to IAD, where we got on the Metrobus and took that into Washington DC. It costs 3 dollars and takes about 50 minutes from Dulles to L'Enfant Plaza in Dulles. Once in DC, we went to the Air and Space Museam. It was very cool. Lots of great stuff to see. We also saw the capitol, the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial (but they had scaffolding around his face!), the White House, the Vietnam Memorials and the World War II memorial. It was a great trip, we were downtown from about 11:00am until 17:30. We boarded the 17:33 bus from L'Enfant Plaza back to Dulles. We arrived at Dulles at about 18:15 and took the shuttle back to the Marriott and ate dinner in the nice restaurant/bar area.
Saturday, December 31, 2005
We got up at 09:00 and ate breakfast at the restaurant. We asked if we could store our bags somewhere while we go out, but they just extended out check out until 15:00 incase we wanted to come back or came back early, and would have somewhere to stay. Great service! Anyway, the Marriott took us to the Udvar-Hazy Center. It was awesome! We saw a lot of great stuff, but my favorites was the SR-71, the Enola Gay, and the Concorde! Take a free guided tour when you go, I really recommend it. We missed the last showing of the observation deck, oh well. We got on a shuttle back to the Marriott at 14:30 and got our stuff together and watched a little tv and then checked out and took the 15:30 shuttle to IAD.
We got dropped off outside the United area. We checked in very quickly, and got seats in Economy Plus, actually in the exit row. We cleared security quickly...but!
My bag got opened and searched and I got it back and noticed my camera was gone. I was so angry. They kept saying that it was United's fault. Well, we had a flight to catch, so we headed towards the shuttle to the D-Gates.
We got to our gate, and there were people from a local college asking people to take surveys about drinking and air travel. My dad did, and got a 3 dollar gift card to Starbucks.
United Airlines - UA 937
Washington Dulles (IAD) - Chicago O'Hare (ORD)
Scheduled Departure: 17:45
Push-Back: 17:35
Wheels-Up: 17:44
Scheduled Arrival: 18:40
Wheels-Down: 18:10
Departure Gate: D3
Arrival Gate: C19
Boeing 767-300 (Worldwide Version), N655UA
Seat 15E, Exit Row
We took off right on time, and I watched our progress on my PTV. Flight attendants served full can drinks and gave out pretzels again. The load on the flight was full in First and Business, and about 1/4 full in Economy. The 767 is very comfortable. During the flight, I went to use the lavatory and asked if the flight attendant had another package of pretzels, and she just gave me some of her crew meal. Nice. She said "I'm not a salad person". It was actually pretty good. I thanked her again on the way out. We landed at ORD early, and bags were on Claim 14. They came out quickly and we went to the Bus/Shuttle center. It's weird going there. You take an elevator down, walk around, and take an elevator back up. We found the shuttle to the Sheraton again, got on it and got our car back at the hotel.
Stop Searching. Start Traveling. southwest.com 
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