theDIBB - Scottishnellies 5th Element 2019. travel Day. TC Flight, Alamo Car, Rosen Inn Pointe Orlando, Miller

I woke bolt upright at 2:40am as there was a really loud knocking noise only to find Kieran up on his knees in bed knocking the wall, sound asleep. When I told him to stop he said ^somethings jumping at my feet^. Managed to get him to stop and lie down - eventually.

Back to sleep and did manage to sleep on and off til alarms went off at 5:15. Kevin messaged the girls to make sure they were awake which they were. Showers, repacking etc and the girls were at our door with their bags at 5:55 as instructed.

Out of the hotel and walked the 2min walk over to the station. The station office wasn't open yet so we bought Caitlins ticket using the machine on the platform. Easy peasy with any card for payment. This was £2.50. Our staff passed still cover our train today.

Train arrived at 6:14 and did the 4min journey to the airport. Up the ramp, in the lift and along the big long walkways to terminal 1.

Checked in at the Thomas Cook desk. One of our 3 cases came in at just over 24kg but she said she would accept it if we got it below 24 so we whipped out a wee packing case from near the top that had a couple of pairs of water shoes in and out that in Hannah's hand luggage. Sorted.

Then onto security which looked mobbed but lots of lanes open and moving pretty fast. All through with no issues by 7:05. Not bad eh?

As soon as you exit security there is a water fountain now and they were encouraging people to fill up bottles etc.

We were supposed to go for breakfast but nobody was anywhere near hungry. So we bought some meal deals from boots incase we need them at any point.

I went to Clarins to buy the spf for face and lip balm that I love.

Picked up a couple of coffees from Starbucks and had a hobnob from Kevin's stash.

Kieran bought himself a boomerang with some of the money his granny n grampa gave him. can probably get them cheap as chips elsewhere but it's his money!

Found a wee table near the window to wait for the gate to come up

Gate appeared and we went through. There was a bottle of water on each seat so we added these to all the drinks we had bought in Boots.

We were due to leave at 9:40 but left at 10:14

Hannah did her usual and fell asleep before we had even taken off

There were 6 movies available on economy

and 6 TV shows

At 10:40 they came round selling movie upgrades £6 per person which I bought. This gave us 79 movies to choose from. They just print you a receipt with the code at the bottom which you type into the screen.

I watched a Star is Born first. It does drive me nuts when the film keeps pausing every time they want to announce what they are trying to sell you next. Feels like it's constant now.

At 11:15 they sold the drinks service and I got a couple of rekorderligs. Nobody else wanted anything because of the amount of water we now had!

At 11:40 the kids meals came out Which was Mac n cheese with peas.

At 12:00 they served the adult meals which were chicken cacciatore sauce & pasta

or Beef stroganoff

both were pretty nice

At 12:20 they served the complimentary drinks tea/coffee/Pepsi max/ orange etc

At 14:00 we got wee mini cones

Dozed a bit on and off, listened to Kane Brown for a while

Watched instant family

Then Ralph Breaks The Internet

At 17:15 they served afternoon tea.

Landed at 19:15 uk time so switching to US time that was 14:15. We were row 16 so fairly near the front, off the plane and reached immigration hall at 14:35. A virgin flight had landed just in front of us so it was pretty busy. We waited just over an hour to get to the security guard. He was really nice and no issues about having Caitlin with us other than questioning what the relationship is, and whether we all live in the same house.

The 4 McNicols didn't have to do finger prints but Caitlin did, being her first visit.

When we got to the carousel our cases were waiting for us so pulled them off and took turns for loo breaks. While doing this another security officer came over looking for Caitlin to go back to the desk. I nearly had a heart attack but it turned out the system had frozen when she did her finger prints so hadn't recorded properly and she needed to do them again. Phew!

We exited from the luggage area and out towards car hire. Kevin and the kids headed down to the Alamo garage (as we had done skip the counter) and I went to the visitor toll pass stand in the centre of the ground floor to collect the toll pass we signed up for.

This is posted elsewhere on the dibb for anyone interested, but in short it is a pilot scheme being run for a couple of months that lets you drive straight through all the tolls but pay less than you usually would. We were just lucky it covered our dates and given we have a few long drives planned should save us a few dollars.

Here's where I hit my first hiccup of the day. I had signed up using my Halifax clarity card and when he asked for it I couldn't find it anywhere. I realised I'd left it at home. Thankfully I had my Santander zero card which I always have as my backup card as it also has no charges abroad. So he simply changed it to that one for me and off I went.

Kevin still has his Halifax clarity so just means he will need to pay all the restaurants and if we shop separately I will need to use my zero card. Not a massive problem but annoying all the same. Anyway, he handed me the toll pass to hang on the rear view mirror, explained It would activate as we left the garage and I would get an email confirming it had linked.

By the time I reached the garage Kevin had chosen his car which is this huge thing. I'm actually glad I'm not a named driver this year! It's a tank...

It's a Chevy Tahoe LT with 600 miles on the clock. So he is a happy bunny. We easily fitted the 4 big cases, all the hand luggage etc. It has Apple Car Play which is perfect for us as we plugged in my phone, set waze for the Rosen Inn and off we went. We drove out of the garage at 16:05 and the Toll pass email arrived shortly after followed by another later confirming it had linked to the car registration plate.

We arrived at the Rosen Inn at 16:45 so in total 2.5 hrs after we landed.

Checked in and they confirmed they had honoured my email requesting to have both rooms together. Got the keys and map and drove round to block G. Here's where we had our second hiccup of the day. Anyone spot why?

yup - there are no rooms 1404/1406 in block G. Which we only realised after we had parked, took all the cases and hand luggage out, lugged them all up to the 4th floor and walked round and round the floor 😡.

So we then had to take them all back down, reload the car and drive back round to reception. Went back in to find she had the room numbers correct but had sent us to the wrong building. So we traipsed round to building A at the complete opposite end of the resort from block G. Decent rooms as usual and overlooking one of the pools which is nice.

We were all very hot n sweaty after all that messing about in 32 degree heat, so we dumped the cases and all apart from Hannah headed for the pool. Hannah had a wee power nap in the air conditioned room instead.

Kevin did a quick detour to Walgreens for beer and some sort of alcoholic fruity things for me

Showered and out at 7:15 for dinner at Millers Ale House which was a stones throw from block A.

I had French onion soup

while the others shared 2 zinger mountain melts (one with sweet chilli sauce and one with garlic sauce) and chicken nachos

I had a strawberry margarita (which was quite tart) followed by a rum punch (much better - nice n sweet).

Kevin had a beer and the kids were on coke/water. Paid the cheque

It was now 8:45 so 1:45 UK time and we were hitting that wall. Stopped at Walgreens for water for the rooms then off to bed.

Tomorrow we head to Anna Maria island