Porkers on Tour - Easter 2017 - Travel day

[floridasarah]

Travel day ( very long)

After a restless night sleep (Premier Inn guarantee a good nights sleep, the bed was comfy enough just excitement) I woke up at around 7 am. The alarm was set for 7.30 and on the correct day this time but I decided to get up. I went and had a shower as quietly as I could, and when I came out Tom was doing this…..

We made a cuppa and the alarm went off at 7.30 so I made a cuppa for Adrian to get him up…

We packed our bags again and put any dirty items that we wanted to keep in plastic bags. And threw away disposable toiletries and old undies we had on. In hindsight I think I would do what we have done previously and keep the car with us until departure day so we can have an overnight bag.

All our electrical items were in one place in each bag so easy to get out at security. And any liquids we had were put in the plastic bags I got last night.

We left Premier Inn at 8.10 am and got the free shuttle over to South Terminal departures.

We decided to go straight through security as we had done bag drop last night.

Into the duty free area.

I got 2 bottles of perfume. A touch of Pink and Davidoff Cool Water for women both with and extra 40% off - £63.10 for both.

Tom got himself a large Toblerone for munching on the flight and Adrian got his usual tobacco.

We had breakfast at Wonder Tree, there was a little queue for this when we arrived but we got seated quickly. Our flight was at 10.45 and the board said the gate would be announced at 9.30am. We could see a board in the restaurant while we had breakfast and we had a bet to pick the nearest gate number. I won!

Breakfast was –
1 croissant with a side of bacon
1 eggs on toast with a side of bacon
1 round of toast and a side of ……………..bacon - can you see where the porkers on tour title comes from.
2 teas and 1 coffee.

£25.15

Gate 35 came up on the board whilst we were eating.

We finished up around 10am and wondered over to the gate and arrived just as they called our rows. We had rows 16 A and C (no B) and Adrian was behind us by the window in 17A.

There seemed plenty of legroom.

my snazzy warm socks

We pushed back at 10.40 with a flight time of 9 hours 10 mins arriving at 3.05pm but the pilot said we might make up a bit of time. We didn’t.

Whilst we were waiting for this there was a bit of a caffuffle with the person in the seat next to Adrian. I think there was a large group of people and they had not booked seats so had been split up around the plane. Now I agree it is an added cost but if you have paid thousands for the holiday in the first place what is an extra £20 to sit together. Ok there may have been too many of them but at least do it so your children can sit with an adult. This man next to Adrian had a child across the aisle ( which airlines consider next to each other) The ‘wife’ came up and asked Adrian if he was given his seat or booked it, I think she was going to ask him if he would swap. We had booked and were not budging. She got it sorted in the end and she sat next to him and the man went somewhere else…

After take off the crew came round with head phones and offering the upgrade to premium movie channels for £5 each, we brought 3 upgrades as we wanted to watch Dr Strange and some other movies that were on.

Tom and I watched Dr Strange and a drink and snack trolley came round. We hat 2 pepsis 2 waters and a mojito for me ;-) and a packet of peanuts. This came to £12.

A while after the kids meal came round which I had booked for him and again it was pasta and meatballs, so I ended up eating it and said he could choose from the adults meal when they come round but he didn’t want either of those choices either. There was a choice of Sausage and Mash and can’t remember what the other one was, Adrian said the sausage and mash was good and he normally hates plane food. There was a bread roll and some crackers and cheese and a chocolate salted caramel mousse.

After the meal and Dr Strange the map said 6 hours left . I played on my Kindle a bit and Tom made his lego that we had got him in his surprise reveal, he also got another kit before we left. Then we watched Fantastic Beasts (Tom) and I watched Arrival but gave up as I found it boring. So swapped to Girl on a Train for about 20 mins and gave up with that too.

Tom went to the loo and a lady stopped near our seats and asked if I was Sarah. Turned out to be Briony (beanie1) from the Dibb. She had got some posh seats in PE but we had a lovely chat, and I said I would pop and see her later as I knew Jo (flojo224) was in row 1. They brought mini ice creams round whilst we were talking.

I listened to some of the music available- A bit of country to get myself in the mood for the radio station we have on when in America.

About an hour later I went into the PE cabin to find Jo as I had an extra eat ‘n’ play card I had promised her. She was very kind and had got Tom some sweets from Duty free to say thank you for the cards. They were a god send Jo as we had not got any sucky sweets for him for the decent and the sour cats were great.

We had a lovely chat too.

And I spoke to Briony again on the way out of the cabin, she was in row 7 near the window so I got a good look at the middle row which we would have on the way back.

I think she has had a few of them

We landed at around 3.05pm and I think a plane had landed in front of us as we arrived to a well over ½ full immigration hall. Adrian puts his timer on for things like this and it took us 40 mins to get past this bit. There were just as many people waiting for cases and there were piles of them of the conveyer belt. And there was only one working. Adrians and Toms came round but no sign of mine. I went on a hunt around the back and there it was with a load of others just standing there. We were out of the airport in an hour.

Next was customs and no queue here , we stopped at the ‘wait here’ line and the customs lady was amazed. She said ‘ wow someone that can actually read and follow instructions’ this was a quick process and we went up the escalator to the monorail and out to the car park as we had done Alamo save time.

In our row we were directed to there were 4 jeeps, a Hyundai Sante Fe, a Buick something all greys and blacks and a blue Ford Escape so we chose the Ford as we thought it might show up a bit more in the car park. Which it did when we weren’t parked between larger cars…

Cases fitted in nicely and off we set for the exit……..

‘Can I see the licence and credit card the car was booked with please’

‘Yes of course’

Rummage rummage

‘Oh S@@@. I forgot my licence. He is the named driver will his not do?’

‘No maam the licence has to match the card used for booking’ ‘ Do you have another card to match the licence’

Thank goodness Hubby still has a credit card and had it with him…….

Crisis averted (this was nearly a hotdogs and hiccups report again) We left the garage. Plenty of quarters in the centre console we went through 3 tolls. And each was at least a dollar if I remember.

We hit rush hour traffic on the I4 and didn’t get to the villa until 5.56pm precisely.

Keypad door entry, the villa is enormous!

A little quirkily decorated but very clean and well equipped and look at the size of this bed!

We investigated the villa and popped up the US27 to Walmart. $130 later with such things as Pizza, wine, beer, coke, bread, butter, brownies you know the usual stuff and they had Dasani bottles of water $4.98 for 24 bottles! $3 each in the parks. I am glad we got these as the last bottled water we had Tom complained didn’t taste right so I hoped these would keep him happy and hydrated.

We went home to the villa via the Publix on the way back to get me some coleslaw and potato salad. I am not keen on Walmarts.

We cooked the pizza when we got back, I put it on the correct temperature this time so it didn’t burn but it did curl up…..

Tom and Adrian weren’t really keen so didn’t eat much. Adrian kept going on about getting a Papa Johns and went inside for ages.. Tom and I were in the pool when he came back out with a right grump on. He had been trying to log onto my papa johns account on his laptop instead of mine where the password is stored so couldn’t get on.

So that was him in a mood, he moaned about getting wet socks and stomped off inside again so Tom and I left him to it and went to bed around 10.45pm. Not sure what time he came to bed I was spark out.



Ps when we were trying to get to the pool we discovered that 2 sets of patio doors including the ones from our bedroom were all bolted/screwed shut. The only access was the one in the family room and the door in the bathroom next to Toms (but to start with we thought that was not in use as it had a sign on ‘ keep door shut at all times’ and looked like it had an extra alarm on it.

This was a bit of a downer but we got used to it after a while and it wasn’t an issue although I was concerned after seeing the fire escape plan on the wall that most of the exits were not in use anymore.

At least we were not worried about security .

[mick]

A good travel day

Joan

[Megandllsmum]

I've been looking forward to this Sarah... great travel day apart from the mardy so and so wanting Adrian to move ... i'm with you £20 a seat is nothing in the grand scheme of things when you look how much a Florida holiday costs , I've paid so it's mine lol.
Looks like you did lots of socialising on the flight too 😀
Looking forward to more.
Sam x

[mrsdjh]

How cheeky of them trying to get Adrian to move!

Great to see some of the Easter Dibbers managed to meet up on the flight. I looked for you in immigration but as we thought you'd all long gone by the time we landed!

Weird about all the doors not being available

[EJSakaAnna]

Great start, phew that you averted the car hire forgotten licence crisis!

[Loopylooloo]

Loving the socks sarah! Great photo of you and flojo too, I feel gutted we couldnt all meet up. That bed in your villa looks soooo comfortable!

[archibald]

Lol, love that you chose the blue car - we did the same last year with 'goldilocks' but sadly back to boring black for this easter' strip.

[collybird]

Great tip about choosing a car that stands out! The amount of times I have tried to get in someone else's car is unreal!

[floridasarah]

Originally Posted by Megandllsmum

I've been looking forward to this Sarah... great travel day apart from the mardy so and so wanting Adrian to move ... i'm with you £20 a seat is nothing in the grand scheme of things when you look how much a Florida holiday costs , I've paid so it's mine lol.
Looks like you did lots of socialising on the flight too 😀
Looking forward to more.
Sam x

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Glad I am not the only one. Yes it was nice to meet some Dibbers.

Originally Posted by mrsdjh

How cheeky of them trying to get Adrian to move!

Great to see some of the Easter Dibbers managed to meet up on the flight. I looked for you in immigration but as we thought you'd all long gone by the time we landed!

Weird about all the doors not being available

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It was a very packed room especially the luggage area. Yes very weird about the doors. I think they are very security conscious. Not sure if it was a risky area as we saw a sherrif car parked around the estate nearly every day in various places.

Originally Posted by EJSakaAnna

Great start, phew that you averted the car hire forgotten licence crisis!

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Yes thank goodness don't know what we would have done if Adrian had not got his card.

Originally Posted by Loopylooloo

Loving the socks sarah! Great photo of you and flojo too, I feel gutted we couldnt all meet up. That bed in your villa looks soooo comfortable!

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They were nice and warm. Yes I am sad we couldn't meet up, the licence problem made us change our plans.

Originally Posted by archibald

Lol, love that you chose the blue car - we did the same last year with 'goldilocks' but sadly back to boring black for this easter' strip.

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Ooh we didn't name ours must do that in future. We usually end up with a black or grey car.

Originally Posted by collybird

Great tip about choosing a car that stands out! The amount of times I have tried to get in someone else's car is unreal!

See more...

[WileyCoyote]

Not a bad travel day .. And a Dibb meet on board too, fab.
Lol, we watched the same films , I gave up on Arrival as well.
Nice to get settled in at the villa .
What a shame about the card/licence thing. Hope that as the only hiccup with it !