And Then There We’re Three - the big (double) surprise

Dixiechic · 30 Apr 22, 09:27 PM

And Then There Were Three - the big (double) surprise
Pre trip report
January 2020

Stick with it - this was originally a trip to NYC and has changed multiple times!

Who we are - I am Ann, 40 something, have blogged a few Disney trips but never anywhere else. I’ll be traveling with my 2 daughters Phoebe 21 and Jasmine 18.

Phoe works for a power company and used to work for Thomas Cook. Jas has some anxiety issues after getting glandular fever a couple of years ago, she also has an auditory processing disorder which leaves her struggling in noisy situations. I work for the USVF so get my little fix of America on a daily basis.

How this trip came about - it was Christmas Day 2019 and we were staying at my mum and dad’s. The girls had finished opening their presents and it was my turn. They handed me a bag of presents from them and said I needed to open this first. I said that’s unusual as you normally want me to open your present last.

They handed me the first parcel which had a box of goodies - prosecco, Cadbury’s dairy milk etc. inside the second parcel was a printed boarding card with my name, the date of 19 March and the destination New York. I kept looking at it and then at them. They gave me the next parcel which was a booklet with all the documents in - I just kept saying ‘I don’t understand, I don’t understand, it’s too much’ I was completely overwhelmed.

I couldn’t believe it. The girls had booked and paid for a trip for the 3 of us to go to New York for 4 nights staying at the Roosevelt on 19th March (just after my birthday), flying back premium economy too!

I had to open their present first as one of the presents to each of us from my mum and dad was some dollars for a meal at the Olive Garden, I then had some spending money dollars from my mum and dad and a pocket map and dollars from my sister.

Later in the day my tree present was then attraction passes for the 3 of us.

This will be my 6th trip to New York and my 3rd with the girls.

We now have to decide which 5 attractions we’ll do - we know the first 3 will be the Empire State Building, Top of the Rock and Woodbury Common

7th Jan 2020 booked the parking at Heathrow - decided to drive rather than use Trevor our usual driver so we have more spendies while we’re there

Made the mistake of reading reviews about the hotel but have been reassured on a Facebook page by people currently staying there that all is good.

We’ve also discovered a different outlet that’s closer than Woodbury Common - the Mills at Jersey Gardens. Only 35 mins instead of just over an hour. Has all the usual shops but also Lego and uniqulo which Jas will like. No Ted Baker for Phoe but there is a Pink and Sephora. Plus it’s all indoors unlike Woodbury where we got soaked one time

11 March 2020- so with a week to go until pre travel day, covid 19 is in full swing. There are lots of comments on the NYC FB pages to say that everything is business as usual with the exception of a half marathon being cancelled but there are also comments about potential attraction shutdowns. I’m not concerned about the virus and the mass panic but I don’t want to arrive and then not be able to go anywhere! I am concerned however that I may not be able to buy my usual collection of Bath and body works hand sanitizers!

We’ve not been very organized for this trip - we don’t have any kind of itinerary yet and I don’t even have the cases down from the loft. The weather is currently showing dry and 14° degrees so no snow to deal with

12 March 2020 2.30am - picked up my phone as I don’t sleep very well and saw that the POTUS has suspended travel from Europe to the US. UK is exempt but can’t have been in mainland Europe 14 days before travel. Luckily I got back from a work trip to Germany on 27 Feb. as the day goes on there’s fake news, scaremongering and all sorts. I have absolutely no idea whether this trip will be going ahead or not. I won’t be cancelling/postponing but have no idea if that decision will be taken out of my hands

Saturday 14th March 2020
We just picked up our currency when we hear the news that the travel ban has been extended to the UK so our trip is cancelled. I know it’s for the best but feel really sad at the same time. The girls were going to buy my birthday present and Mother’s Day present while we we were away so now they’re stumped.

16th March 2020 - my birthday. Feel sad again today, presents consisted mainly of dollars! We have started the process of changing our dates and thought about November but in the end went for 22 January 2021 and an additional cost of £200 and a change of hotel to the Riu plaza

7 July 2020- we had an email today to say that Funway are ceasing to trade on 30 September and any holidays after 1 September are cancelled. We have opted for a refund as this covid mess is still ongoing and will re book when we are more certain that we can travel

11 August 2020 - well, we didn’t wait too long. We have booked another trip! We saw an offer on an Orlando Facebook page, made some enquiries, did some tweaking and took the plunge: 3 nights NYC, followed by 7nights Orlando international drive 9th May 2021. An extra £400 each but we have premium flights throughout. And breakfast included for the 7 nights in Orlando. We can’t currently purchase park tickets so have decided it will be a leisurely trip with shopping, eating, Disney springs and maybe weeki wachi. If ticketed events open up, we may purchase one or 2 of those. We will be away for the girls birthdays - Phoebe will celebrate in NYC and Jas in Orlando

Car booked - intermediate suv £235
Seats booked - no middle row of three on the way home so have a one and a 2 but on the way out we have the back middle three so guilt free reclining!

February 2021 - we made the decision to cancel our trip. There are rumours that the borders may open but people will need negative covid tests before each flight. We don’t want to spend our 3 days in New York trying to get tests ready to drop down to Orlando. We lose £99 deposit each but the company will hold that for a future trip.

22 May 2021. We have taken the plunge and booked for next year! 1st - 16th May so we will be there for both girls birthdays again - Phoe will turn 24 and Jas 21. There is currently still no border open between uk and us but the vaccination programme is ramping up both sides of the pond. 15 nights at Staybridge suites, Seaworld in a 2 bedroom suite - no bed arguments! Car hire booked and Disney park tickets booked and paid for ready to make our park bookings just in case that is still in place when we go

29 May 2021 - my mum and dad have booked for 7 nights! G-dog returns! Same hotel and returning the same day as us but the earlier flight. I think mum is already regretting not having a villa as she doesn’t want the inconvenience of walking to a laundry room!

October 2021 - the announcement that borders will open in November 8th for double vaccinated is music to our ears - will proceed with the esta on my next pay day!

19th March 2022 - so 3 days ago I turned 50, today we had a big family gathering at my Mum and Dad’s to celebrate. Once everyone arrived I was ushered in to the lounge and in front of me was a giant box. I pulled off the lid and loads of balloons popped out and inside was a gorgeous steamboat willie loungefly backpack and purse, 2 sets of ears, a door magnet, fake boarding passes and a Pandora Disney cruise line charm - we are going on a Disney Cruise!

I’m still in shock - when we booked the Orlando trip back in May last year, Phoebe was in charge as she had made the original NYC booking, unbeknown to me, it was always the plan to add the cruise as part of my 50th birthday. The levels of deception have been unreal - phoebe sent any documents to my Dad, who then removed everything to do with the cruise and even changed the booking reference so that I couldn’t log in and look at anything! Pre pandemic I would have been sitting in the office saying send me this, send me that, printing and looking stuff up but I’ve been so busy and stressed at work that it hadn’t even entered my head. The border bring closed fir so long didn’t help either. Now we just have the stress of getting a negative test to board the cruise as well as entering the country.

With only 6 weeks to go l feel like I’m in the back burner with cruise organisation - it turns out that you need a DCL degree to navigate everything you need - with 2 weeks to go it was announced that Fish extenders are back so the cruise Facebook page has organised a group and allocated staterooms to take part. It has been suggested that due to the lack of time we just do postcards with recipes but if people want to do more they can. This is totally optional but of course I’ve signed up. Also found out about hiding rubber ducks so have procured several of those. There is a lady who will be turning 95 during the cruise so have got her a card. Felt like I wasn’t bringing my A game so took a quick trip to Primark to get some Disney bits for pixie dusting.

3 weeks to go - booked our supervised COVID tests for when Jas finishes work on the Saturday.

7 days until test day - I’m having a joint 50th party with a friend. Booked yonks ago before omicron and travel opening up. Dreading it. If it was someone else’s party I would be politely declining saying I need to test in a week but I can’t really do that when it’s my own party! The 3 of us attend fully masked and have a great evening

The last week at work is ridiculous with a huge deadline for next financial year’s execution plan plus finally receiving this year’s funds on top of my boss being off sick for 8 weeks. I don’t know which way is up and cannot wait for this holiday. The out of office is now on and just the tests to get through!

Saturday 30th April 2022
Woke up at 4 and didn’t go back to sleep so got up and went for a run at 5.45 as I wasn’t doing park run today to try and avoid people.

Once I was back and showered we all took a lateral flow test for peace of mind before our supervised tests and we were all negative. Jas went to work and Phoe and I went to see her friend Anita at Co-op travel to collect our currency. Once we were back phoebe wanted to double check all of her outfits and finalise her packing. I was ironing and cleaning and pulling out the winter bedding plants

We were pretty much complete by 1 o’clock which is when jas finishes work. I knew she was going to be a bit late and she needed to catch up on some drama that she had missed. I was starting to get anxious that she would be too late and miss our test slot

1.35 and we hit the button and 4 minutes later our ‘professional’ arrived on screen. Hmm. Last month I used Breathe Assured for a travel test and they were very thorough making me tilt the laptop screen so she could see e and the table with all the test paraphernalia. This time I used DocHQ - purchased our tests from boots and paid for one consultation and 3 certificates. We all had to confirm our name date of birth and passport number but didn’t have to show the passport picture. We then all had to open the tests at the same time, swab the nose and out the stick in the pot - he couldn’t see the pots or anything below chest level - we could have been doing anything. He then paused the call and put a timer on for 14 minutes. 16 minutes later he was back. We each held our test up to the camera and then he sent the certificates. He didn’t want the test number or anything. As soon as we said we’d got the certificates he was off!

Phoebe’s boyfriend turned up at this point - she hadn’t seen him all week as she was isolating ready for the test

Now to check in online. I found this a bit faffy with the ‘fly ready’ section as it takes you to another page and then just whirs once you have uploaded the test certificate and vaccine confirmation. Printed the boarding passes and then started to load up the car.

Set off at 2.59 which was half an hour later than planned. Relatively easy drive down to Heathrow - only one hairy moment when a car changed lanes and nearly wiped us out. Pulled up at purple parking at 4.59. We didn’t realise it was one where you hand in your keys. Got the cases out and walked next door to the premier inn. Checked in to 2 rooms - no bed arguments and then headed down to the restaurant which we had already booked for 5.30. Girls were both starving as phoe hadn’t eaten anything all day and Jas had only had a sandwich.

Dinner was very nice and the restaurant was fairly empty which meant that it wasn’t too noisy for Jas.

On the way out I picked up a piece of tiffin from Costa and enjoyed that with a glass of Prosecco in the girls’ room. We watched a bit of pitch perfect 3 and Britain’s got talent before turning in around 9.30. Hope I get a reasonable sleep (I’m not renowned for sleeping well so we shall see).

Phoebe’s point of view:

Pre Travel Day

2:01am - I’m awake for the first time, do I need a wee do I not need a wee? I do not need a wee. I try to get back to sleep but decide to make up 500 different scenarios of how when we’re going to check in later today, Virgin have moved our seats and have separated us all and now we’re going to have to argue with the check in desk lady and explain we need to have a minimum of two seats next to each other otherwise Jas isn’t boarding that flight! After coming up with several points of how we shouldn’t have to re check our seats everyday, especially after Virgin Atlantic Holidays’ website says, “ if you’ve already confirm your seats then there is no need to log on to check this”, I settle for an offer of an upgrade for two to first class, I let mum and Jas take this as it’s this holiday is for their 21st and 50th birthdays and turning 24 is nothing special. The one lady then also upgrades myself and we all leave happy.

3:30am - I do now actually need a wee. I return and get into bed and think to myself “ oh Christ, 2 and a bit weeks of writing this blog, am I still funny? Will people still be interested? Especially as the titanic isn’t coming with us this time? (If you know, you know!) We are bringing Gdog with us though! Why are we writing this to share with a bunch of strangers? Am I still funny?”. I must have fallen asleep and accepted that if I’m not funny, then that’s okay because I still find myself hilarious so all is good, because mum woke me up at 7:40am. Although I did hear her go for a run at 5:50am.

I’m up and ready to party, stripped my bed and started to unpack my packed clothes to make sure I had everything. All three of yes tested negative this morning, Jas came flying through the door at 8:25am from a paper round and left 5 mins later on her bike to get to her shop to start her shift.

Mum and I set off to Morrisons to collect our $$$$$. Collected from Anita and went over the worries of the tests and said see ya real soon to her!

Back home and I needed to finish packing the last bits of my stuff. Somehow it was then 1pm and we were waiting for Jas to text to say she was on her way home from work. Sometimes on a Saturday when she does the handover she’s a bit delayed and then she always buys a scratch card and a snack! She text at 1:20 to say she was leaving and she was coming on her bike today, mum then sat there fake pedalling the journey home Jas would take to see where she’d be! She was spot on to be fair and Jas walked through the gate right on time!

Logged onto the test thing ready and at this point I was a hot sweaty mess, we did the test all at the same time and we were all neggy! FLORIDA HERE WE COME! Connor then came round to drop some bits off I’d left at his and needed after I’d been isolating from him and the world for a week, just in case. I’ve been trying to convince him to come on the trip too and when we said bye I kept saying see you in Florida hunny! Jas and mum completed the online check in and we were ready to set off.

Left for LHR at 2:59pm and pulled into the car park at 4:59pm. I’ve decided I HATE the M25 and I’m traumatised from cars swerving left right and centre and two near misses with us and another car - due to them just deciding to come into my lane - and mum being a passenger seat driver.

Dropped the car off and checked into the Premier Inn. Jas and I are in one room and mum in another. We headed down for dinner at half 5 and I had a pizza and chips, mum a chillis jacket potato and Jas a mixed grill, she also had a brownie.

Back up to the room to re jig the cases and sort everything out, a few games of cards and my trying to still convince Connor to join us! Had a bath and made the mistake of looking at my arm from where I had bloods taken yesterday and freaked myself out! In bed by 9pm and struggling to keep my eyes open. Alarms set for 6am ready to go home!

See you in the AM kids x

**Loopylooloo** · 1 May 22, 06:58 AM

So happy you are on your way! Yay! I will be following. Love that Phoebe is still doing her version too. Have a lovely time all of you cannot wait to see the cruise bit. Xxx