Texangeles - Day One

[roonlou]

Day One, Wednesday 26th September 2012

Delays, Hoorays and Holidays

Well after planning a rested pre-holiday morning, (we had packed a couple of days before and were more planned than usual at this point in time), our relaxing morning turned out to be a little more rushed than necessary. But we did finally arrive to Terminal 5 in plenty of time to soak up the atmosphere and vodka in the lovely peaceful lounge in the A building in plenty of time.



A large vodka later, and some snacks to tide us over we began to relax into the holiday feeling. Today we were flying to Houston, a mere 10 hour flight, and spending one night at the on site airport Marriott Hotel.



Whilst enjoying some coffee and cake, our gate room was finally revealed, B46 - so we'd be enjoying a short train ride soon. We finished up our coffee's, gathered our belongings, headed off out of the lounge and down onto the train to get us to the satellite building.

We arrived at the B terminal just as they announced the gate open, so feeling chuffed with our timing climbed aboard the plane joking how we were due a non delayed flight for a change, and this was a very good omen.



We were greeted at the door and headed off to our home for the long journey, seats 14J and K, window and aisle. We're opted for a glass of water when offered and unpacked our essentials for the 10 hour flight. However, our good omen had been read incorrectly, basically we had a 90 minute delay on our flight due to cargo problems and finally the jetty being stuck on the plane. The crew even took our dining options whilst still on the tarmac, which was nice to think about food as we were both all of a sudden starving.



Roo also spent the extra time discovering that this plane had been recently refurbished - which explained the super clean seats, the brand new entertainment system, and the rather snazzy looking new design World Traveller and World Traveller plus seating. But finally after lots more apologising from the captain, the plane finally pushed back and we were soon soaring high at 38000 feet in the newly refurbished 777.

Shortly after takeoff we had one of those other announcements I hate to hear, the main one behind why I don't enjoy flying too much "Please keep your seat belts on until after the turbulence!". What turbulence? Oh, here it comes. Thanks to the storms raging up and down the country, we were "enjoying" a rocky ride for around 15 long dreadful white knuckle minutes.

Eventually the seat belt signs binged off, the lovely stewardess with the drinks trolley arrived, I was very much in need of a drink, so to celebrate surviving the turbulence - Kir Royals for both of us.



That was much better as the slightly sweet refreshing drink calmed my nerves and helped us settle down. The new moving map system was much better than the older style, bit 3d in places and kept us fully updated on our travels.

Finally time for dinner, we both went veggie on our meal choices, so to start golden beetroot and goats curd salad - which was really pretty and tasty. This was followed by the obligatory side salad, which normally I have a little taste of to seem healthy and then leave, however the apple balsamic dressing and the liberal use of pumpkin seeds on top of this green dish made it really delicious and I polished the lot off!



Next up, Portobello mushroom ravioli with a cheese and spinach sauce, now this looked terrible, but I assure you it was really very good, even if mine was a bit saucier than Roo's more oven baked version.



Next another little hiccup of the trip, as we'd enjoyed cheese in the lounge and had our cheese fix for the day, we opted for the lemon cheese cake for dessert, we both really enjoyed this, until Roo got to his final mouthful and found a sharp piece of hard plastic inside his!



He was quite shocked, but fortunately not harmed, and soon the offending item had been taken away and his complaints recorded by the CSD on her iPad.

We then enjoyed a nice peppermint tea and relaxed for the rest of the flight. The few hours were passed by a little TV, a lot of gaming and a 30 minute nap. The time was lovely and relaxing and passed too quickly, soon we were only 90 minutes from landing and the sunset we had been chasing on the horizon for a few hours had finally passed and the outside was enclosed into darkness.

Afternoon tea was greatly appreciated, a selection of sandwiches - shrimp cocktail, chicken and basil and cheese and pickle.



Served with a trio of dainty cakes and, of course the signature warm scone and clotted cream.



We requested hot water to make up a couple of very strong Starbucks Via coffees, and wondered if that amount of caffeine this late in the day would effect us later. We also enjoyed a chat with the crew at this point, which left us with a warm feeling but cold scones.

Then the end of the flight seemed really close as the 20 minutes to landing was announced and people were hustled back into an upright position from those super comfortable sleeper seats. The dark skies revealed the streets and buildings lit below which were getting larger and more identifiable as we came into landing, a rough and brief touchdown announced our arrival to Houston, local time 7:55pm.

We then had to wait a while to cross a live runway before reaching the gate room, the next message to be heard across the PA was not to get out of your seats until told too, but those impatient business travellers knew better and virtually all the passengers in our cabin stood up to get bags from overhead lockers long before the plane came to an actual holt.

Their rushing was futile as you can't go anyway without the doors open, but soon they were, and we were thanking the crew for looking after us as we stepped out of the air-conditioned plane onto the musty smelling and warm jetty.

The journey to Immigration wasn't too far and it was nice to stretch our legs, especially with Roo's busted knee, and fortunately the queue was brief and we were soon heading downstairs to the baggage hall.



One of our bags appeared really quickly, Roo grabbed in and hauled it off the carousel and then noticed the locks were missing - someone had been in there, or so we thought. Roo opened the bag to find it actually wasn't ours, but an identical one! Phew, but what if the owner of this bag had left with ours? Panic. Finally after a long wait, and perhaps due to the cargo problems mentioned by the pilot so many hours ago our three bags gratefully arrived!

We hustled out of the baggage hall via the customs form drop off and took our great step for mankind as we placed our feet officially on Houston ground! Now we'd been here only last April, but could we remember how to get to the on-site Marriott hotel? Well not straight away, but eventually we were aboard the tweaky little train that runs underneath the five Terminal buildings and unloading at the stop for the hotel.



Roo had booked us Concierge as we only like a little snack as a first meal after a long hall flight, and so we wouldn't have to rush about if we arrived late, as we had. But due to all the delays, the lounge was only till 10pm, and it was past 9pm already and there would be only desserts on offer. We checked in at the front desk and headed of to our room 2128 for our one night stay, quickly dropped our belongings in the fair sized, clean and nice cool airy room before heading straight off to the lounge.

There we no other guests there, only the three staff members themselves relaxing in front of the TV watching junk programs - they joked with us it had been a long day with only CNN to watch and needed to unwind with a drossy program or two.



But even though they were relaxed and a bit playful, we soon had some cold beers and nuts to snack on offered to us while we chatted with them. The coffee had indeed been a little strong for us caffeine intolerant folks and we felt super awake when we left the lounge just after 10:30pm (those Texans sure can chat) and returned to the room for a much needed shower.

Needing a little junk TV ourselves we propped up in the King size bed, congratulating ourselves on surviving 6 hours jet lag, and eventually turned the TV off just after 11:30pm. Good night Houston!

[JoJo88]

Travelling in style! Always when reading your travel days I tell DH that's how I would like to fly in future. A girl can dream

Great write up

[Alyson]

Shame about the delays but when you travel in style it doesn't seem so bad.

I really like your dress

[Pussycat Doll]

I always love your trip reports, great day, Pussycat

[Guest]

Agh, I love your trippies, you're forever giving me ideas though - I love the pic of Lou in T5 under the... whatever the black thing on the ceiling is!

[orlandosgr8]

Other than the delay a lovely start to your holiday

[Guest]

I'm so happy to see a new trip report We are flying into Houston so I am particularly keen to know what it is like.

[mick]

Good travel day

[welshwiz]

Love your trip reports your travel day is even special with a gorgeous lounge and yummy food apart from the piece of plastic in the cheesecake!

[Twiga6]

I love your trip reports! I hadn't realised there was an upcoming one, I shall keep my eyes peeled!