Day 0 - Wednesday 18th April (Pre Travel Day)
We were both working all day and as is always the case, both had insanely busy days. We both do 8 til 4 and promised each other we’d leave at 4 on the dot and each be home between 4.30/4.40, for a speedy change and 5.00pm ETD. This did not happen. I had one of the most crazy busy days at work everrrrrrr despite getting all my cooking done earlier in the week and writing a nice to-do list to tick off on the day. I eventually left at 4.15. It was a fabulous feeling though, walking out of work for a whole week and a half, and I left my stresses in the carpark and drove away from them!
I called Benj once I was in my car to apologise and see how he was getting on and although he’d left on time, traffic was horrific and his sat nav said he’d be home at 5.10
Not ideal but what can you do! I got home about 4.50 ready to change, clean up and get my case zipped up, but I realised I’d given our cat sitter my key so couldn’t get in without Ben haha! At this point I just gave up, it was a gorgeous day so I sat down outside our flat and just enjoyed the sunshine for a bit. Benj got back all frazzled bless him and we went inside and did asll the last minute bits we needed to. We decided not to change and just get on the road ASAP. We eventually left the flat about 5.20 which wasn’t awful!
Traffic was actually really good so we pulled up to the hotel at 6.40 (I did take notes for the first few days by the way hence the precise timings! This absolutely will not last.)
Our hotel was the Sandman Signature at Gatwick. It was really nice, super posh! Our friends booked it for us as a birthday prezzie for Ben which was so cute! We felt very lucky to be staying there as we weren’t planning to book a night before hotel for this trip
Check in was smooth and we booked a table in the hotel restaurant for 8.15. We finally got up to the room about 7pm and FINALLY we could relax!
The room was so lovely!
I was feeling so gross still wearing my work stuff so wanted to shower ASAP but also wanted champagne haha! Ben went to source some ice from somewhere, then came back triumphant!
We then cracked open the bottle of champagne we’d bought (I had grabbed some champagne flutes from the bar on our way up to the room) and we cheers’ed!
I then hopped in the bathroom and had a loooooveellllly long hot shower
I laid on the bed in my towel painting my nails and drinking my champagne and I finally felt so so relaxed and excited for the holiday
We watched some TV, Ben showered then we both got ready for dinner and headed down about 8.25, running a bit late but we didn't think it'd matter (and it didn't!)
(These are from my Instagram stories, we both took loads this trip and then saved the stories at the end of each day so we have mini vlogs to look back on! I’ll add them in to the dining report
)
The restaurant was dead haha there were like 5 other groups in there, but it seemed nice and we got given a cute booth table so I was happy
We ordered drinks first, it was £4 margaritas so Ben got a Classic and I got a Raspberry one. The waitress also asked if we’d like a jug of water so we said yes. And then...we waited. She came back minus drinks and we ordered our starter and main, but still no drinks.
Our starter then came out! We had no drinks, not even the jug of water that she’d suggested! I wasn’t impressed because we then asked two different waitresses for our drinks. Mouth. Dry.
Our nachos were yummy though, they weren’t as amazing as the description promised but they were good:
DOUBLE CHEESE NACHOS
A half pound of melted cheese atop tortilla chips, finished with diced tomatoes, spring onions and jalapeños. Served with salsa and sour cream (v)
ADD GUACAMOLE 1.50
(Obvs we added guac!)
Our drinks eventually came and they weren’t great, not strong and tasted just like flavoured water really. Speaking of, still no jug of water!
Then, as we were still eating our nachos, they bought our pizza out! I was so annoyed, honestly the service in this restaurant was appalling. I’d go so far as to say it’s up there with the worst dinner service we’ve ever had!
Thankfully, the pizza was amazing which made me care less about the awful service. We just shared a margarita but it was wood fired with a chewy crust and tasted incredible.
I asked for water a second time and they bought us some out.
Pizza dexcriptiuon: MARGHERITA
Rustic tomato sauce, mozzarella, fresh basil, extra virgin olive oil
ADD SPICY BEEF £3
£10.95
We were slightly put out by the lack of topping options, add spicy beef!? Nothing else!? So random! We just got the bog standard and it really was delish.
We were super over this meal by this point though, so I asked for the bill as we were still enjoying our pizza as I had a feeling it wouldn’t be a speedy task and I was right hahaha.
When I got the bill though, I was like ooh that’s more than I’d expected, £46! I looked at it properly then HIT THE ROOF, they’d charged us for TWO nachos and ADDED a £6 gratuity on! I don’t think so sonny jim! Feeling highly fed up about the whole situation I flagged down another waitress and asked her to take off the nachos we didn’t order and the gratuity we wouldn’t be paying. Absolutely ridiculous! Ben was like cringing into his watery margarita hahah but stuff like this really bothers me. She changed the receipt and came back with a much more palatable £30 bill, which we paid then immediately left.
I took some photos of the very grand staircase!
Once back up in the room we were full but not stuffed which was nice. We got our PJs on and got into bed, then watched TV for a bit before turning it off at 10.30 with our alarms set for a 6.30am wake up. We were going to Florida tomorrow!