A Universal Adventure February 2020 - Day 1: Flight to Tampa, Sapphire Falls and Aventura

[moosha]

Day 1 Saturday 15th February 2020

I had set my alarm for 6 am and somehow I slept until it went off. Usually on travel day I don’t sleep very well as I’m like a little kid on Christmas Eve. I reset the alarm for 6.30 as I didn’t think I really needed to get up yet, but I but didn’t really go back to sleep.

So yesterday I didn’t talk about the bathrooms at Bloc. They’re basically a wet room. The shower was really good (rubbish hotel showers really get on my nerves) but because it’s a wet room it goes everywhere. So I went in first and everyone else had to use the soaking wet bathroom after me. Mat got up once I’d drenched the bathroom for him.

Freya woke up at 7ish and got ready. Seren woke up just before 8 am. I couldn’t re-pack the cases until everyone was ready so I was hurrying everyone along (especially Seren who does everything at the speed of a sloth.) It was a bit stressful us all trying to move around the tiny room and especially trying to get everything back into the cases because there was nowhere to really put them while I did it. I think it probably took a bit longer than it would have done if we’d had more space but we got there in the end. Ready to go:



We left the room about 8.30 am and dropped the key in the box by the lift. We then went to BA check-in. We couldn’t immediately find the BA desks as they’re tucked away at the end but we had a vague idea of where we were going having only been there the previous year. The whole area was pretty busy and like last year there were lots of people going skiing. We joined the Silver and Gold (Avíos) check-in which is part of the First class check-in. This was the line when we joined it:



A guy came over to check we were in the right place and I was a little bit offended as I didn’t see him ask anyone else so I guess he didn’t think we looked like we should be checking in at First 😐😂.



Despite being busy, check-in was efficient and only took about 10 minutes. Say what you like about BA (and I say PLENTY) but the check-in staff are always really nice. We were all done by 8.45 / 8.50 am.

On the way to security we decided to get a vegan sausage roll from Caffe Nero after seeing it advertised the night before. Freya got a pain au chocolat and moaned it wasn’t hot. The three vegans shared the sausage roll which was actually more of a vegetable pie / pasty. It was really good and had quite a peppery taste. I had one bite, Seren had about three and would have eaten more but Mat had the rest.





We couldn’t go through Premium security now that Mat has been downgraded from Gold Avios to Silver (due to doing less travelling) because he’s only allowed one guest. So we went through the family lane. It wasn’t too crowded but it took ages because people are so bad at following instructions. There were so many bags being pulled out containing liquids and stuff which was slowing down the conveyer belt being able to give us our trays back at the other end. I also get annoyed at how many people just grab their stuff and leave their trays because it slows everyone down. We always collect up all the ones that people leave and put them back. There were barely any free spaces to get our stuff out of our trays and regroup so we were kind of all on top of each other trying to put our bags back together. Fun.

It was busy in the departure area.



We decided to head upstairs and went to Pret. It was busy. I got the smashed avocado on gluten free bread for breakfast and also a chickpea, avocado and vegetable sandwich for the plane because I’m always starving on the plane. Seren got the Berry Blast smoothie and a vegan berry croissant plus some dried mango and dark chocolate. Mat also got the vegan croissant and a double espresso, Freya got dried mango. Total £19.77. We found some seats in the middle of the massive seating area outside which turned out to be a bit of a walkway. Mat kindly went to get me a grande Americano from Starbucks as I’ve gone off Pret coffee and only want Starbucks. Seren and I tucked into our Pret breakfasts:





When he got back the girls and I went to Boots to get more food for the plane. I got the green Invigorate Innocent smoothie (for breakfast not for the plane) barbecue Proper Chips (seriously how good are these, love the sriracha ones too) and water for the girls and I to take on the plane. Freya got a tuna mayo sandwich for the plane and two packets of crisps (one for now). She also got a Dairy Milk for the plane. Seren got sweet and salty popcorn, apple crisps, carrots and houmous, and the Energise Innocent smoothie (she’s addicted to those) all for the plane. I also got barbecue Proper Chips and a Trek flapjack for Mat for the plane because I’m nice like that, but Freya ended up stealing the flapjack because she ate all her food and was still hungry. She never stops eating. We spent £16.37.

Once all the food shopping was done it was about 9.45 am and we had so much time because our flight wasn’t until 12.30 pm. Usually we barely have any time before boarding and just about manage to dash to Boots and get a coffee so it was nice to be able to relax for a bit. I wrote my notes, did some Instagram posts and the girls played Choices on their phones together and texted friends and their boyfriends. Seren’s boyfriend was in India and Freya’s boyfriend was in Cyprus so rather than have them say to us over and over again ‘What time is it in India / Cyprus?’ throughout the holiday we got them to set the locations up in World Clocks on their phones so they could sort it out themselves.

Even though it was quite busy and people were constantly walking past because we were sitting in the walkway, we were able to relax. Mat and Freya went to one of the high seating areas to charge their phones for a while. The gate was due to be announced at 11.20 am but I lost track of time and at 11.18 am I needed to sort out everyone’s food into separate bags for the plane so I didn’t have to keep handing it out to everyone, and the girls and I needed the toilet. I’d chilled for all that time and then it was a big rush at the end which is typical for me, I do like to leave things until the last minute. There was a bit of a queue at the toilets so it took a few minutes. When we got back Mat said we were going to gate 19. He likes to be the first one there but he stayed calm about the fact we were a few minutes ‘late’ heading for the gate. I don’t know why he gets stressed anyway as we are boarding group two with Silver. For the last few years when he had Gold we were boarding group one and he would still stress.

To get to the gate we went back downstairs and had a five minute or so walk. It was one of those gates on the side of the walkways, behind glass windows. There were two queues to get into the gate: one standard and one Priority boarding. We were Priority and the couple in front had gone into the priority queue and the woman said ‘You’re group four so you’re in the wrong line’. They apologised and she said it was ok this time and let them through.

Waited a few minutes inside the seating area, it was very busy. Seren had a bit of a meltdown about the fact that when we landed she would be 9,000 miles away from her boyfriend rather than the 4,500 she was now:



Mat made us join the back of the group one line because it was a quite slow moving line and so when they called group two like 30 seconds later we were the front of the group two people. Boarding:



We boarded the plane and we were row 21 which is the first row behind Premium and the bulkhead row.



This is our usual row (we get free seat booking when we book so usually try and bag these seats to get off the plane quickly.) We also like sitting four across the middle and I always sit on the right, it’s just a habit we’ve got into. We were due to take off at 12.30 pm and everyone boarded quickly. The First Officer made an announcement that there was ‘one more piece of paper to sign and we’ll be off’.



12.40 pm came and went and eventually they announced that we were one fire extinguisher short so the engineers were trying to steal one from another plane. The seatbelt signs were on so everyone was sitting still but by the time we got moving about 1.10 pm it felt like we had been sat there for ages (which we had, like over an hour.)

We were flying during Storm Dennis and it was turbulent for the first 30 minutes or so and so the seatbelt signs were still switched on. People were actually getting up though; I guess because we had been sat for quite a long time with the seatbelt signs on and some people were desperate for the toilet or to grab something out of their bags. Still, rules are rules and an announcement was made that ‘The seatbelt signs are still fastened’. Eventually they were switched off and drinks were brought round. I got a gin (Gordon’s) and tonic (Schweppes...bleurgh). The lady was a bit rude and didn’t ask if I wanted wine with my meal even though she was asking everyone else. She was gone before I could say anything. I had a private mini strop and the guy on Mat’s side was nearby so he explained to him that I hadn’t been asked and got me another gin and tonic instead of wine which was my preference.

The film choices were pretty pants which I’ve come to expect on BA flights. In fact there was a lot of stuff that had been on there for our last flights to New York back in August, so of those I’d watched everything I wanted to watch. There were a few new films and they had a Romance section for Valentine’s Day. I spent a few minutes trying to pick out six or so films to keep me occupied for both flights and then watched Blinded by the Light. It was really good and I hadn’t realised it was set in Luton which is right next to where I grew up so it was fun seeing all the familiar sights.

Not long after the drinks our lunch arrived. Our vegan meal was chestnut ragout which is the same outbound meal we’ve had on what seems like our last five trips. It’s ok but not as good as some curries we had before that. It doesn’t have much flavour and who gets excited about chestnuts?This was Seren’s first vegan aeroplane meal and she didn’t really eat it, she picked at the salad, roll and fruit and had the box of raisins. I ate her ragout. Freya had a vegetarian meal and she got a passion fruit dessert which was vegan as far as we could see (coconut milk) but we always get fruit and raisins rather than a ‘proper’ dessert.

After the meal I went to the toilet which was stinky and dirty, and then cracked open that second gin and tonic and watched Judy which was fairly good. I can see why Renée Zellweger got the oscar at least. Both girls had started watching about five things each but couldn’t stick to anything (they only do this on the plane and I don’t know why, they actually were better at focusing on whole films on the plane when they were small.) They played some Angry Birds, Who Wants to be a Millionaire and hangman and then Freya watched Peppa Pig for some reason and some Disney channel programmes, and Seren watched some Seven Worlds One Planet and got all ranty about the environment. After Judy I had a break from films to listen to some music on my phone and catch up on notes.

Once I was all up to date I watched Booksmart which was really good. I ate my Pret sandwich and Proper Chips and asked Mat to go and get me another gin and tonic. He asked for light tonic and got Fever Tree Indian Light rather than the crappy Schweppes I had before. I tried this on the way home and got Diet Schweppes but I guess that’s because the drinks are loaded on in the US on return journeys.

When I finished Booksmart I told Seren it was really good so she watched the whole thing and then I decided to watch the Whitney Houston documentary Can I Be Me? I had watched half of it on the way back from New York last year but just watched it from the beginning again. It wasn’t like I had anywhere else to be. It was a good film but I feel like I’ve watched another Whitney documentary which was a bit more satisfying; this one could have gone a bit deeper I think.

During that film they brought round Magnums so Freya had one but the rest of us can’t have those.

The tea was the same bleurgh houmous, lettuce and tomato sandwich they always serve which I never eat because the one time I did it was soggy. Seren and Freya didn’t eat their sandwiches either. Vegans got a mini box of raisins and Freya had a biscuit. Seren and I ate our raisins and felt a bit sorry for ourselves as we had no other food left.

In my opinion BAs service has gone downhill even more. This year they didn’t even bring round cups of water or juice on a tray, it was just take your own cup from the pile the staff member was holding and they would fill it from a bottle of water. Mat and I were talking about how, in a way we wish they would just charge for food (not drinks) as what you get included is bad and we always waste a lot of the ‘stuff’ on the main meal tray and the tea even though we’ve ordered it. But if I could choose and pay for what I want, less would get wasted and I’d enjoy it more. Also we can’t have the pretzels (wish they just had plain pretzels rather than sour cream and chive that we could eat), ice-cream or any interesting desserts so maybe if they charged for snacks they would offer something better for vegans that might want to eat to motivate us pay for it. I remember a few years ago seeing a basket of biscuits (Kit-Kats and a few other options) and crisps (at least two varieties) out in the galley and the girls and other passengers had a couple of snacks from there. This year Freya got hungry before the tea and Mat went to see if there was anything available and they said it was only the pretzels (which she doesn’t like.) I’m sure it was only a year or so ago that they announced they were improving their food and beverage offerings with upgraded drinks and more snacks and they seem to have taken all of that away already. Maybe they will start charging for food instead soon. I know I moan about BA all the time in my reports but we will always fly with them because they’re cheaper than Virgin and we get the Avios benefits and points which we use on hotel stays. So it’s kind of a love / hate relationship I have with them. I just wish the service (especially food) was better.

After my third film I was running out of options and I wanted to save some movies for the way home, plus there wasn’t quite time to watch another film. Instead I watched an episode of Not Going Out and then the Graham Norton highlights show (Kevin Hart is so funny) which finished five minutes before we landed so pretty good timing.

We were due to land at 5.30 pm but with the delay taking off and what we think was a slight detour due to the bad weather we landed at 5.45 ish. Flight time was something like 9 hours 20 minutes and it felt loooooong.

We were off the plane quite quickly and we had less than a ten minute wait for a machine in the immigration hall (everyone starts at the machines and hopes for the best.) The immigration hall was empty as there were no other flights landing. Gotta love Tampa, it’s so quiet and chilled out compared to Orlando. We used the machine and us girls were all were fine but Mat got an X so we had to go and queue for an officer at the desks and had another five minute wait for that. We think he got the X because he had been in the US a week or so before with work.

We had about a 15 minute wait for the luggage which was annoying but I can’t remember the last time we haven’t waited for what seems like an age for our luggage. Mat and I even waited ages at Edinburgh Airport last year when there was barely any checked luggage on our flight and our bags were tagged Priority Baggage as they always are. (We always get that ‘benefit’ but the bags never come out Priority for some reason. I think with luggage, ‘Priority’ means ‘Please put on carousel last.’)

The girls and I went to use the restroom (I’m in America now) while Mat waited. Once we had all the cases Mat went to restroom and then we were off. We had a bit of a walk and then had to go in an elevator and a shuttle train to the terminal. Then it was another walk to another shuttle train to the Rental Car area. The car hire area was really quiet and there were so many manned desks compared to what had gone down in Orlando the previous year. This was the line:



Mat was seen within two minutes but it took a while at the desk as the woman had to wait behind a few other staff members to book out the car as there is only one terminal shared by other car hire companies too.

After about 10 / 15 minutes of arriving at the desk we were ready to go. We had to take one more elevator down to the pick up area in the car park and this part was familiar from 2018 when we had flown home from Tampa. We got to our assigned car which was a massive Ford Flex which Seren hated because it’s like a big square van. She was all ‘No! No! No!’ which was amusing.



Flex:



Not amused with the car:



As usual Mat couldn’t work out how to lower the back row of seats to use the boot (it was a 7 seater)...



...so he had to grab a passing staff member to help. Once that was sorted, we loaded up and set off about 7.15 pm. We had in-built sat nav this time like last year which was good as we’d had to pay to upgrade to a car with an in-built system in 2018. Our back up plan this year had been to use Google Maps on my phone as I have US data included with my contract (so does Seren.) Funny story; we didn’t realise Seren and I have data in the US until just before we went to New York last year. So I came to Florida in February 2019 relying solely on WiFi and had the usual fun and games with Disney WiFi in the parks when trying to sort out FastPasses and mobile food orders. I could have just used my data lol. Seren and I do like to flex having data when we’re on holiday to annoy Mat and Freya who are desperately seeking WiFi all the time. We’ll be in the car and we’ll say obnoxiously ‘Oh I’ll just check that on the internet’.

So we plugged Super Target Millennia into the sat nav and did the even more important job of connecting my phone so we could play the holiday playlist on Spotify. Juice WRLD came on (I’m obsessed with him right now) and we were good to go.



It was very busy on the roads straight away. There was some bike show on at the Raymond James Stadium nearby (where we had seen Taylor Swift in 2018) and of course there was lots of holiday weekend traffic anyway with it being Presidents’ Day weekend . The sat nav initially gave us an arrival time of 8.45 pm but that quite quickly went up to 9 pm. So we knew the traffic was going to be bad. The girls fell asleep pretty much straight away. You know you're in the US when two of the three cars in front of you are monster trucks (bad picture, the left and right vehicles are monster trucks) :



This one was a beast but I couldn't get a good photo with us moving and it being dark:





The plan had been to go to Target tonight to get water, cereal and milk for tomorrow’s breakfast and contact lens solution for me but with the arrival time creeping up a few minutes at a time I said to Mat that we wouldn’t have time to do that and get dinner with both Aventura / Cabana Bay food courts and Target closing at 10 pm. So I suggested we just go check-in at Sapphire Falls and stroll across to Aventura for food. We later found out that Target was open until midnight rather than 10 pm like we thought but I don’t think any of us would have fancied going out to Target that late after such a long day.



Continued below...

[moosha]

...continued

We got to Sapphire Falls about 9.10 pm in the end. So the traffic from Tampa to Orlando and the flight delay and long flight time meant we arrived probably an hour or so after I would have expected. We probably would have arrived a bit earlier if we'd flown into Orlando but the previous year it had taken three and a half hours from landing in Orlando to arriving at Super Target (including one and a half hours at immigration and over 30 minutes waiting to collect our rental car.) So I think I would still choose to fly into Tampa because the airport is so much nicer and more relaxed. The things that slowed us down were just bad luck whereas long waits at Orlando are pretty standard.

It was such a good feeling walking back in to the beautiful lobby area, although the air conditioning was a bit of a shock as it was freezing in there and only about 19 degrees outside. I checked in with Freya while Mat and Seren sorted out the luggage and parked the car. The lady at check-in said it was kind of a cold snap weather wise right now. I had checked the weather for the week and it looked pretty hot (mid to high twenties) until the end of the week so I wasn’t sure what she meant. It wasn’t the best check-in as we both struggled to understand each other’s accents which doesn’t happen to me very often in America. I think maybe part of it was my tiredness. After all, I struggled to spell Freya’s name for her room key and had to ask her how old she was. Eventually we were all sorted and the others came in from the car park. The girls and I went to the room. We were in Guest House 1 at the front of the hotel rather than 2 at the back by the pool where we’ve stayed twice so it was a bit unfamiliar.

We were on the 5th floor which is one level up from the lobby (level 4 for some reason. The pool is on the ground floor which is floor two. Yeah I know.) Our room had a view of Aventura, Cabana Bay and the road which was fine with us as we love the whole area. Mat arrived with the luggage guy who was super nice (Universal luggage guys always are) and we tipped him $10. He put a case on the luggage rack for us and asked if we wanted him to go and get a second rack bless him.

Beautful room:





I had asked at check-in if we could have a room with a walk-in shower rather than an over-bath shower and she didn't have to move us as the room we had already been allocated had a walk-in shower. It was a good shower:



We literally ran straight out to Aventura. The temperature was lovely as we walked across (Aventura is pretty much in Sapphire Falls’ front garden so it’s a two minute walk from the lobby to their food court ‘Urban Pantry’.) The lobby and Urban Pantry were much busier than when we visited the year before. Freya wanted pizza so Mat went with her to the pizza station to order a cheese pizza. Seren, Mat and I all wanted Beyond Burgers (this was to become a habit) with waffle fries so Seren and I went to the burger counter to do that and we got an extra waffle fries for Freya. The burgers came with roasted peppers and smashed avocado on the eggless brioche. Seren had hers without the avo. The lady didn't give me a receipt so I'm not sure how much they were. The food took ages to come. Waiting patiently(ish) :



While we waited Seren's boyfriend had woken up the following morning in India:



I wish I had taken some more photos in Urban Pantry as it's lovely, I think I was just too tired to think about it and unfortunately we didn't go there again this trip. You can see a little bit more of the seating area here:



Oh wait I have this one:



Freya’s food arrived first, she ate just over half and took the rest home in a box. Our burgers were delicious and came with so many fries. I couldn’t finish them and nor could Seren. The girls went back and got a bottle of Fiji water each.





Once we were all done, we popped into the shop in the lobby and they had some contact lens solution so I didn’t have to sleep in my lenses. I wear monthly lenses that you can sleep in but my optician doesn’t like me sleeping in them so this was lucky.

We went back to the room and I was pretty grouchy because I was so tired. By this point it was after 10 pm so we’d been up 21 hours ish. I had planned to leave the unpacking for the morning but in order to get out the bits we needed and lay stuff out for the next day, I had to basically mess everything up so in the end Mat and I just did it. All our shorts / T-shirts / underwear etc are in packing cubes so that was easy, we just transferred the cubes to drawers. Sapphire Falls doesn’t have a lot of those, just four fairly small ones and a cubby hole in the beside table so we had to be a bit creative with where everything went.

The girls were asleep at 11 pm and we weren’t far behind.

[Tinkermom]

Lovely travel day, thank you for sharing 😊

[mick]

A good but long travel day

Joan

[sheluk]

Wow that felt like a mammoth travel day for you! Glad it all went pretty smoothly.

I was laughing at your tonic dilemmas & that is excellent news that you got some fever tree. I would have been the same.

All those snacks sound great. I know nothing about being a vegan (sorry about that) but I truly enjoy reading about all your food & what you guys like to eat.

Can’t wait to read the rest xx

[Palm trees]

Sounds like a great day overall, shame about the poor movie selection though.

[Em4owen]

I'm picking up some great tips about food. We're flying BA too and as I'm a vegan and the rest of the family are vegetarians, I'll definitely be bringing some snacks along for the flight! I'm looking forward to the next installment - I love reading your trip reports🙂

[lottiesmum0]

We were on the same plane and overheard a whispered conversation between the flight attendants what to do about the fire extinguishers!
We found the flight attendants quite rude on this flight!

[Rescuer]

Great travel day. I think we just left universal as you arrived. We were staying at Aventura, not sure how I missed those lovely looking waffle fries.

[Fuellady]

That felt like a really long travel day, but at least it all went smoothly. I really like BA, and have had some nice meals but I do feel that vegan's and vegetarians get a bit short-changed on the meal front. They don't seem to put much effort into them which is a shame.

It's a shame the traffic was slow from Tampa to Orlando, making you a bit later than expected. You did well to eat a meal when you were so tired after the long day.