To New York & Beyond - Intro & Pre Travel Day

[thepricefamily]

This is my first attempt at a trip report & I hope to do it 'live' wherever possible! I'm currently sat in bed at the Premier Inn Heald Green eagerly looking forward to our flight tomorrow.
So first the introductions, myself, Sarah-Jane aged 42, DH Mark, aged 45, DD Charlotte, 16 & DS Mackenzie 11.

Our plans are to fly from Manchester to New York tomorrow morning, 2 nights at The New York Palace hotel, followed by flight down to Orlando on Monday. There we will have 2 nights at Royal Pacific Resort, following on with 12 nights at Old Key West. To say I'm excited is an understatement!
Today was our pre travel day, & I had booked the Premier Inn at Heald Green for the night before our flight for £35. Mark was in work as normal, but his assistant picked him up this morning so that the children & I could pick them up later on. Stacey had kindly volunteered to take us to do sundown check in & drop us at the hotel - she's a fellow Dibber & really just wanted to jump in our suitcases at the airport!
Anyway, after meeting my mum & dad & Nanna for a coffee this morning, my dad took our dog Woody to their house where he'll be staying whilst we're away. We went into town & Mackenzie had a holiday haircut! Charlotte had had hers last night. Picked Mark & Stacey up about 4pm & we were soon on the congested M6! As Thomas Cook don't do online check in we'd decided to do sundown check in which was really good. We'd not pre booked seats but were ok about being split up if necessary, but this wasn't needed. It costs £5 per bag & was very quick & easy - would definitely recommend, but make sure you get in the correct queue. There were no signs so we just got in the normal queue, but when we got to the front we were told we needed to be at another desk - even so from parking up, checking in, dropping bags & arriving at the hotel all took less than an hour! Bags were tagged to show sundown check in.

When we arrived at Premier Inn we said our goodbyes & thanks to Stacey & were soon checked in. I'd prebooked the meal deal at £23.99 each for me & Mark which included a 2 course meal & drink each tonght, then breakfast tomorrow morning. The kids eat free for breakfast & we just paid for their meals tonight. Unfortunately when we went in to the restaurant they had no record of our reservation that I'd made on Wednesday so we had to wait quite a bit for our table, but no worries - we're on holiday. This is where I made a schoolboy error & forgot to take food photos, so here is our empty plates:

It was very nice, usual Beefeater fayre! We then shared 2 ice cream sundaes between us - remembered to take photo when we were part way through so I am improving!

Pre holiday drinks

The children were given Mr Men activity books, which were really too young for them, especially Charlotte, but they were in good spirits & did the spot the difference & word searches! It was lovely & I felt I had my little children back rather than them being glued to their phones!

Mackenzie's favourite thing from the books were a couple of jokes which he says I need to share with you:
Q. How many tickles does it take to make an octopus laugh?
A. Ten-tickles!
Q. What do frogs like to drink on a hot sunny day?
A. Croak o cola!

Thanks for reading & I'll post again tomorrow! I'll leave you with a photo of the children from when we went to Disneyworld in 2010 for Mackenzie's 6th birthday. Bye for now, Sarah-Jane x

[app]

New Photo Added by thepricefamily - 31 Jul 15 10:53 PM.

[feelingnuts]

Have a brilliant time we have the heald green booked for our night before in 3 weeks the empty plates must mean the food is worth a go.

[AmandaC]

Hi Sarah Jane! Have a fantastic time and maybe we'll see you at OKW! We arrive on 13th!

Amanda

[Megandllsmum]

Morning Sarah -Jane x
Thanks for sharing your preflight night, really enjoyed reading it and looking forward to reading more too, have a wonderful holiday you sound like you have great things planned.
We fly with Thomas Cook next trip so a bit of feedback in your flight trippie will be really appreciated, we are doing bag drop the night before so that was really helpful to read
Anyway happy holidays and a safe and pleasant trip
Sam

[nattyk]

Great start have a good flight and enjoy nyc.. We need this 2 yrs ago with the kids and loved it 😄👍

[ally1966]

What time was you flight from Manchester? Did you have time to use the breakfast part of the meal deal?

We are also flying with Thomas Cook from Man-JFK and staying at the Premier Inn the night before but I haven't booked the meal deal beacause I thought that we might need to be at the airport before the hotel started serving breakfast. Would be very interested to know if it's doable!

[mick]

Great start

Joan

[pinky]

Your're going to have a ball.

Have a fantastic holiday

[k l is excited]

Hope you all have a great time, look forward to reading more. We are on the same flight next Saturday and can't wait. Just looked at your plans and we also plan to go up the Rockerfella on our first night, we are also staying two nights at RPR. Have fun