A relaxed military style trip. May 2022. Travel (and test) Day. Part 1

[roxie2001]

Monday 9th May

Index

Quick intro in case you haven’t read the pre trip.
We are oh Matt, and Me, Julie.

The last time we visited was January 2020. We got back home and booked again for December. Well, we all know that wasn’t meant to be. This was our 3rd rebooking.
This was going to be a more relaxed holiday as only brought discovery cove/seaworld tickets.
Then Matt added a night in New York in the middle of our stay so had to start planning, it actually turned into one of our busiest holidays.
The worry of tests did ruin the build up and don’t think we will book again until they are no longer needed.
We woke up early and did our pre departure tests, negative so we both went to work for the morning.
Got home, failed at uploading documents to verifly and the BA app, snapped at each other, checked I had all the print outs and important travel stuff then called a taxi to take us to town.
Our coach was booked for 2.15, the stop is next door to spoons so made sense for us to have a meal and drink there before we left.
Matt managed to check us in on the app, even without all the paperwork complete so at least we had our seat numbers.
Didn’t pay extra for allocation but next to each other.
Chilled out a little.

We had a meal and couple of drinks and walked to the coach stop.
We nabbed the front seat with plenty of legroom and napped.
We had to drive into London, loved seeing all the cyclists in the city.
Got to Victoria on time and had 45 minutes before the Heathrow bus so had an expensive drink at the pub opposite.
Drive to the airport was about 45 minutes. We had booked an ibis, Matt had an email to say this was closed so we were moved to the Ibis central budget instead.
I looked at how to get there, the local bus was well recommended.
We arrived at the central bus terminal. We really wanted to drop our cases so headed to the terminal. This is a fair walk which took about 15/20 minutes.
We queued to check in, it was short and we were at a desk within 5 minutes.
The person wasn’t the friendliest. We’re asked if we had used verifly, explained we couldn't upload the results. She checked everything, test results (printed) attestation form (email on phone) covid passport (mine was printed, Matt from phone) and gave us our boarding passes, same seats as online check in. Cases now gone we walked back to the bus station.
Our bus was there, you can take the number 105 or 111, we used contactless, £2.65 each.
Luckily a lovely man told us how many stops.
If you stay at the budget, don’t get off at the first ibis hotel sign on your left. Stay on another 7/8 stops and it’s on your right.
It was really easy and would use again.
We checked in, some confusion about the change of hotel but Matt had the email and it was fine.
We had a drink in the bar

This was under £10, brilliant for an airport hotel.
Back to the room, we ate the food we brought with us in bed (tradition)

Jaws 2 was on tv, was very weird watching it in HD though.

[Melbatb]

That was quite a trip to get to the hotel! Always a good thing to get rid of the bags and checked in the evening before- one less stress in the morning!

[roxie2001]

Originally Posted by Melbatb

That was quite a trip to get to the hotel! Always a good thing to get rid of the bags and checked in the evening before- one less stress in the morning!

See more...

It’s a long journey but still better than driving for us.
So much easier without the big cases.

[Goldia]

Room picnic! Lovely start to your trip. I hope the rest went smoothly.

[mick]

Good pre travel day

Joan

[roxie2001]

Originally Posted by Goldia

Room picnic! Lovely start to your trip. I hope the rest went smoothly.

See more...

We never eat in bed at home so it’s a little treat and tradition now.

[Palm trees]

That sounds like a smooth start overall

[roxie2001]

Originally Posted by Palm trees

That sounds like a smooth start overall

See more...

Yes, after the build up stress, it was nice to have a good start.