Ok, after asking everyone for the cheapest way to get to the hotel, I was going to take a shuttle, but then decided to look into getting a town car. I went to the Happy Limo site, to look up rates. My kids came in and saw the pictures of the limos on the computer, and begged me to take them in a limo. A stretch limo. They have always been crazy about limos, and never have been in one. So I dropped the idea of trying to save money, and instead, booked a stretch limo for the three of us.
My confirmation said to call Happy Limo on their toll free number once we got into the airport, even though they know exactly what flight I'm on and what time it gets in. So when I get in the airport, I call them - except I keep getting a recording that the toll free number is temporarily out of service. Well it's not a toll free call for me, because every time I call on my cell phone out of my home area, I'm on roam, and it's like $1.50 to call each time and get this message that their number is temporarily out of service.
Well I thought maybe the driver would be waiting in the baggage claim area since we could not reach them by phone - but no such luck - even though all the other car services had drivers there with nice little signs, waiting for their people right by the ground transportation area - no sign of ours. I had specifically told Happy Limo that we would not have any bags to claim, since we had carry ons - so they certainly knew we would be ready to go as soon as we got off the plane. But no sign of anyone around.
After trying to call them a total of 9 times on the toll free number, I went and looked up the direct number. Finally got through, and was told to meet our driver in space number A-35, a huge long walk with our suitcases to the very end of the building. We got there, and there was no car or driver. We waited about ten minutes, then went back upstairs to see if he was waiting for us in baggage claim. No sign, so we called again - now the 11th time I tried to call them. Well apparently they had just sent the driver out - and said it would be about ten minutes. I was furious. It was now more than 45 minutes since our plane had landed, and still no limo. The dispatcher curtly told me that if I didn't want to wait I could take a cab - and I would have, except my kids were so pumped about the limo, I couldn't take it away from them. Finally they limo arrived - now almost an hour since I had gotten off the plane. They spelled my kids names wrong on the sign too, even though I gave the the spelling in writing.
The driver was just ok, rather quiet and reserved. He loaded a Pinnochio video on the DVD, but my kids are 10 and 12 so they weren't very interested. Apparently the driver had no other age appropriate videos, so we just turned it off and put on the radio. Of course once we pulled up to our hotel, he was Mr. Personality, and offered to take photos of all of us in the limo. But overall, the experience with Happy Limo was very frustrating and I would not recommend them. Their dispatcher was very rude, and we spent almost an hour waiting for our Limo, while all the other limo drivers were waiting inside for their parties we had to go traipsing around looking for ours, and wasting my cell phone calls on them. A definite thumbs down for Happy Limo.
Of course when we pulled up to the Hard Rock in a stretch limo, everyone was looking because they thought it might be some famous rock star in the limo. What a disappointment it must have been when everyone saw a bedraggled mother and her two kids get out!