Florida 2019 - it‘s here at last - Travel day

[Jake71]

2.45am the alarm has gone off and it's time to go to America! 🇺🇸

Airport photo ops

The girls

Just hanging about waiting for flight No1

A bit out of sync, oooops.

Up, showered and final bits into the cases. The minibus picked up the family of 4 at 4.00 and is 3 just after. The trip should only take about 30-35 mins, however we encountered road closures on 2 different routes. Still we got to the airport for 4.50. Checked our bags and headed for security. As usual I got an extra scan, as did DS1. Bags all safely retrieved we headed to gate 21. I spoke with a BA staff member regarding preboarding because of Tyler's visual impairment and she said it would not be a problem.

Boarding started promptly and we got on and settled. Took off on time and landed early.

Keeping busy!

Tyler's window seat photo on his phone... I love it

We had a 5 hour wait at Gatwick, not a great option but the earlier flight was considerably more money. Before heading back through security we all had $$$ to collect from Money Corp. pre-ordered, they had the best rate. We also picked up a sunflower lanyard for Tyler.

We got straight through security, with of course me having the extra scan again and I knew from my boarding pass that I was getting the extra swab test again before boarding ... this is the third or fourth time in recent visits that I've been randomly chosen! The boarding staff were great and advised us to board during pre-boarding again. So we got on a settled early.

The flight was ok. I watched Aladdin, tried to watch Rocketghman but put it off as it just wasn't very good. Then I watched Beauty and the Beast. I had a little nap but not for any great length of time.

Food was served and I was glad to see BA had changed the World Traveller choice from curry/pasta to chicken/mascarpone pasta. However, when did the stop giving you wine with your meal?

We landed a wee bit late, and this is where the day started to unravel a wee bit. The BA flight had not left the stance when we landed and we sat on the tarmac for around 45 minutes! By the time we got off and into immigration there was a substantial queue from 2 flights ahead of us. DS and DIL went through the first time ESTA queue with Lilly, with hindsight we should've changed it as being together even though we're at different home addresses! So and hour later we were through, we had a lovely officer, which made a change.

Steven and Brenda had gotten through really quickly and had our luggage waiting. We headed out and onto the monorail towards the Magical Express, keeping our luggage with us.

We were all exhausted by now. So we waited for our Magical Express and I was so disappointed to get an ordinary Mears painted one and not a Disney one. It seemed to take an age before we heventually left the airport at 8.20. I knew by now that we were definitely not making those 2 fastpasses I'd booked tonight.

I'd also ordered groceries with When You Wish Gifts and had hoped to meet up with Debbie at around 8.00, obviously this didn't happen, but she emailed to say she'd left our order with Bell Services and that we shouldn't be charged for them holding it, but just to let her know if we did. Fab service with fab communication throughout.

Eventually we were at our beautiful destination ... the Beach Club. Checkin was quick, we got a lovely room with a decent balcony. The kids are on the same floor but around the corner with a Juliet type balcony. We all decided it was too late to do anything other than unpack and go to bed. I didn't even have the energy to take room photos before we unpacked.

Monorail selfie - how tired is this little lamb!

Both kids were absolutely fantastic for the whole day, I'm a very proud gran.

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New Photo Added by Jake71 - 13 Oct 19 9:29 AM.

[DUNXandWILL]

Awesome start to your Trippie, excited to read along... especially when the rain is at biblical levels here in Glasgow!

Dunx x

[missdopey]

Brilliant start! Can’t wait to read along. Have a great time!

[Bootrip2]

Following along ...

[Melbatb]

That was a long day! Glad you got there in the end!