A Holly Jolly Poly Christmas - Pre-Trip Report

[moosha]

Update:

Posting this from the taxi on the way to Gatwick. What a few weeks it’s been. I’ve been writing this note over the last week as I felt I needed to get my thoughts down when It was all a bit stressful. Apologies that It’s very long-winded but it definitely helped me to think I would be able to post this at this point. Feel free to give it a miss if you’re not interested in the ups and downs of the build up to the trip.

I posted my pre-trip report above just before the borders opened when everything was reasonably calm. Over the next few weeks we ticked some more things off the list; Estas were done, this taxi to Gatwick booked and finally bought our Universal tickets from Attraction Tickets who we also used for the Disney tickets and have used several times before. We also booked our pre travel LFTs at Boots for the Sunday before we were due to travel to Gatwick (on Tuesday), thinking it would be nice to have a couple of days post test to relax and get excited.

I spent a lot of time watching Disney vlogs in the background when I was doing other things in the run up and it really started to feel like it could possibly happen. We had a family meeting about our must-dos and I filled in my daily plans notebook for the trip. Seren and I especially were getting excited about some of the Christmas extras like the cavalcades, the decorations, the Grand Floridian gingerbread house and the Merry Menagerie puppets at Animal Kingdom.

We had booked Sofitel Gatwick for our pre-travel night but a few weeks ago we got a message from Expedia saying they had to cancel our booking as the hotel was going back to being a quarantine hotel. I booked two rooms at Bloc as a replacement. Bloc is not our favourite as it’s a bit of a pain trying to repack the cases with the stuff used while we’re there when we’re in two separate rooms and there isn’t space to lay the cases out properly. Plus I don’t like the wetroom shower as it soaks everything including the toilet. But needs must and we knew there would be niggles with this holiday taking place during the pandemic. As I’ve said before, we’re just happy to be going and I’m not going to complain about the little things.

So as we all know, a couple of weeks ago we all got news of the new highly transmissible variant. I try to be a positive person but I also have anxiety so I tried not to read too much about it and just ‘keep calm and carry on.’ To be honest I wasn’t carrying on with holiday prep, I just felt like I didn’t want to jinx it so was kind of only doing the things that really needed to be done. No suitcases out weeks in advance or packing.

After four cancelled trips and the stressful wait over whether we could actually go with unvaxed teens which went on for several weeks, I was hoping the new variant wouldn’t affect travel plans. Quite quickly there was speculation on The Dibb that this could affect the US / UK borders. Luckily after a day or two, the announcement was made by the White House that pre-flight testing for entry to the US was to be changed to within one day of travel rather than three. I booked Breathe Assured video supervised LFTs for our pre-travel day and cancelled the Boots ones. At the time, it felt like a stressful few days but compared to this last couple of weeks, it really wasn’t too bad.

So…early December, required testing now booked, time to just get on with getting excited and getting ready? I wish. As we all know, the last couple of weeks have been challenging shall we say in terms of the media and government spelling out in no uncertain terms that we are all
doomed with Omicron heading our way. Trying to cover my ears to all the noise was difficult, and it was comforting to have Dibbers in the December ‘21 thread going through the same thing and seeing people travelling before us pass their tests and head off to the States.

Initially I had thought trying to run the COVID gauntlet (as I heard another Dibber describe it, credits to them) for the last ten days or so would be mildly anxiety inducing but ok. About a month before the trip, we decided not to change our behaviours too much in the run up as the girls would both be at school until a few days before plus they’re busy with dance classes and had school and dance class performances. I also didn’t want to ban them from seeing friends because they’ve missed so much socialising during the pandemic so we decided to take it on a case by case basis. Plus we’d still need to do a bit of shopping and Mat had a few work trips and trips into London (he was back in the office part time). We were also having a family Christmas gathering the weekend before at my sister’s and taking Seren’s boyfriend who was also staying for the weekend.

About ten days before we were due to fly, with the increasingly negative messages from the media and government surrounding omicron and the message to work from home, all Mat’s work trips and visits to the office were cancelled. One of Freya’s closest friends caught covid so her daily testing began a bit sooner than the rest of us.

I had my own big covid scare a week last Friday. Back in the summer, a friend had booked for us to go to a local nightclub to see DJ Trevor Nelson’s R&B Classics. At the time I was excited, it was back when it felt like we were out of the woods a bit with covid and we weren’t booked to go to Florida for Christmas at the time. As it got closer I started to feel a bit apprehensive about it because of the impact it would have on the holiday if I were to catch covid there, especially when Plan B came into effect and with all the reporting surrounding how highly contagious the new variant was. I went back and forth on whether I should go but decided I would go along as I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve been out dancing in the last five years. I love dancing and I knew I would love the music at this event. A few people had dropped out from the original group of people planning to go, so in the end it was three of us; my closest friend, a friend of hers who I kind of know and me. We all took LFTs the day we went. My plan was to wear a mask and I felt relatively ok with it all. In the end I didn’t wear a mask as not a single person in the club was wearing one so it seemed pretty pointless as I believe it’s correct that we predominantly wear our mask to protect others. Also it was so loud that trying to talk without being able to lip read would have been impossible so I would have been pulling it down to say ‘do you want another drink?’ etc when getting close to the others anyway. It was honestly like covid didn’t exist in there which was weird but also quite nice to see after a few gin and tonics when I had ‘relaxed.’ I’m generally ‘in the middle’ about covid, I follow restrictions and understand how serious it is, but equally I’m fed up after two years and have tried to find a bit of normality where I can (UK breaks, theatre trips etc.) It was in the back of my mind the whole night that I was taking a risk so I don’t think I fully enjoyed it but by the end of the night I had reasoned with myself that the two people I was close to had tested negative and hopefully I wasn’t close enough to anyone else to catch it.

That was the start of the daily testing for myself, Mat and Seren. On Sunday evening my friend (who I’d been close to all night on Friday) texted to say she had just taken two positive LFTs. You can imagine the anxiety levels at that point. The idea that I could be the one to stop us all going to Florida just for a couple of hours of dancing was pretty gutting. I don’t go out to work so I felt pretty rubbish that my one night out socialising in months and one episode of close contact outside the family in a few weeks could be the thing that undid all our plans. I didn’t touch the roast dinner on Sunday that I’d spent a couple of hours making. I couldn’t do anything, I was a bit of a deer in headlights.

My daily testing was increased to twice a day having come into close contact with someone who had covid. It’s fair to say my anxiety was through the roof Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. My friend had tested positive four days after coming into contact with someone unknowingly positive so in my head if I could get through Wednesday I reasoned my chances were good of staying covid free. Mat and I had our boosters on Monday and part of me was irrationally thinking the jab would kill off any covid traces in my body (I was desperate!) and the other part of me was even more anxious because of the side effects from the jab making me think I had covid symptoms.

I basically faffed around the house for those three days trying to stay busy and keep positive but not really able to get on with much. The Dibb helped. I didn’t want to get carried away with packing so I made a few lists and did some minor holiday business like booking our fit to fly return tests (Qured with BA discount) and day 2 PCR (Randox again with BA discount.)

By Wednesday night I was feeling confident that Covid had somehow missed me, and decided that the following day I would actually start on the packing. I feel so lucky that I managed to dodge it as when I got that text about my friend’s positive test, I really thought it was all over.

I’m sure I don’t need to spell out how, especially for the last week, the media has been very much doom and gloom and the messaging from the government has been much the same. Not ideal when you’re trying to ensure four of you stay covid free and mentally stable (ish.) Thursday (my so called packing day) was difficult when talk on the Dibb turned to ‘will the borders close again?’ (again.) So Thursday came and went and the girls and I had chosen our clothes but no actual packing had happened. Pre-pandemic me would be shocked that I was so unprepared and unpacked so close to the holiday.

Thursday I did order some dollars though so I must have been feeling fairly confident it would be ok.

Mid-week I heard from my sister that her partner had caught covid so our family Christmas gathering was off until the new year. In a way I was relieved as it was removing another possible source of picking it up but every day last week it seemed we heard about people coming down with it. It was definitely getting a bit too close to home. We cracked on with the daily LFTs.

I heard on The Dibb that the Hilton at Gatwick had been refurbished so I decided to switch our Bloc bookings to a family room at the Hilton where I would have space to sort out the cases if need be and we wouldn’t have to worry about moving things between two rooms. Price wise, it was between the Bloc and the Sofitel but hopefully it will prove to be the best option.

The girls finished school Thursday (Seren) and Friday (Freya) and that was a relief as the LFTs stayed negative and the contact we had with other people became less and less. Apart from taxiing the girls around and dropping off Christmas presents on doorsteps I haven’t been out anywhere since Wednesday. The girls had hair and nail appointments (masked) once they broke up from school and went by themselves. Mat met a friend for coffee on Friday and has been to the supermarket a couple of times. Freya went out with friends on Friday but was outside. Seren’s boyfriend came over Saturday after testing negative. She also went to the cinema with friends on Sunday but stayed masked. Still testing daily.

Packing was largely done on Friday, Saturday and Sunday and then we had a home ‘Christmas Day’ yesterday so we could have a few presents I don’t want to take to Florida and have a proper Christmas dinner. We also played some games. It was weird because it felt like it was actually Christmas despite us being the only ones celebrating it.

So we made it to the taxi all good to go and I couldn’t be more relieved and I’m finally properly excited although it still doesn’t feel real. The last ten days have been the slowest ever, trying to dodge covid and worrying about whether we will actually be able to go.

We were originally planning to get a train into London from Gatwick to go for dinner tonight since there’s barely anything open at Gatwick right now but we cancelled that a couple of days ago as it didn’t seem worth it (time, cost, energy and risk-wise.) We’re hoping the Hilton will be able to accommodate us in their restaurant or if not it’s M&S. And I’m fine with whatever since we’re actually going 😊.

[margyloveswdw]

Wow, what a stressful last few days!

Hope you have a fab time

[lovemickey]

I’ve read all your previous trip reports and have been following all your ups and downs for this one, so happy for you that you’re on your way! Have the most amazing time and I can’t wait to read all about about it!

[WIGGYSMUM]

Originally Posted by moosha

Update:

Posting this from the taxi on the way to Gatwick. What a few weeks it’s been. I’ve been writing this note over the last week as I felt I needed to get my thoughts down when It was all a bit stressful. Apologies that It’s very long-winded but it definitely helped me to think I would be able to post this at this point. Feel free to give it a miss if you’re not interested in the ups and downs of the build up to the trip.

I posted my pre-trip report above just before the borders opened when everything was reasonably calm. Over the next few weeks we ticked some more things off the list; Estas were done, this taxi to Gatwick booked and finally bought our Universal tickets from Attraction Tickets who we also used for the Disney tickets and have used several times before. We also booked our pre travel LFTs at Boots for the Sunday before we were due to travel to Gatwick (on Tuesday), thinking it would be nice to have a couple of days post test to relax and get excited.

I spent a lot of time watching Disney vlogs in the background when I was doing other things in the run up and it really started to feel like it could possibly happen. We had a family meeting about our must-dos and I filled in my daily plans notebook for the trip. Seren and I especially were getting excited about some of the Christmas extras like the cavalcades, the decorations, the Grand Floridian gingerbread house and the Merry Menagerie puppets at Animal Kingdom.

We had booked Sofitel Gatwick for our pre-travel night but a few weeks ago we got a message from Expedia saying they had to cancel our booking as the hotel was going back to being a quarantine hotel. I booked two rooms at Bloc as a replacement. Bloc is not our favourite as it’s a bit of a pain trying to repack the cases with the stuff used while we’re there when we’re in two separate rooms and there isn’t space to lay the cases out properly. Plus I don’t like the wetroom shower as it soaks everything including the toilet. But needs must and we knew there would be niggles with this holiday taking place during the pandemic. As I’ve said before, we’re just happy to be going and I’m not going to complain about the little things.

So as we all know, a couple of weeks ago we all got news of the new highly transmissible variant. I try to be a positive person but I also have anxiety so I tried not to read too much about it and just ‘keep calm and carry on.’ To be honest I wasn’t carrying on with holiday prep, I just felt like I didn’t want to jinx it so was kind of only doing the things that really needed to be done. No suitcases out weeks in advance or packing.

After four cancelled trips and the stressful wait over whether we could actually go with unvaxed teens which went on for several weeks, I was hoping the new variant wouldn’t affect travel plans. Quite quickly there was speculation on The Dibb that this could affect the US / UK borders. Luckily after a day or two, the announcement was made by the White House that pre-flight testing for entry to the US was to be changed to within one day of travel rather than three. I booked Breathe Assured video supervised LFTs for our pre-travel day and cancelled the Boots ones. At the time, it felt like a stressful few days but compared to this last couple of weeks, it really wasn’t too bad.

So…early December, required testing now booked, time to just get on with getting excited and getting ready? I wish. As we all know, the last couple of weeks have been challenging shall we say in terms of the media and government spelling out in no uncertain terms that we are all
doomed with Omicron heading our way. Trying to cover my ears to all the noise was difficult, and it was comforting to have Dibbers in the December ‘21 thread going through the same thing and seeing people travelling before us pass their tests and head off to the States.

Initially I had thought trying to run the COVID gauntlet (as I heard another Dibber describe it, credits to them) for the last ten days or so would be mildly anxiety inducing but ok. About a month before the trip, we decided not to change our behaviours too much in the run up as the girls would both be at school until a few days before plus they’re busy with dance classes and had school and dance class performances. I also didn’t want to ban them from seeing friends because they’ve missed so much socialising during the pandemic so we decided to take it on a case by case basis. Plus we’d still need to do a bit of shopping and Mat had a few work trips and trips into London (he was back in the office part time). We were also having a family Christmas gathering the weekend before at my sister’s and taking Seren’s boyfriend who was also staying for the weekend.

About ten days before we were due to fly, with the increasingly negative messages from the media and government surrounding omicron and the message to work from home, all Mat’s work trips and visits to the office were cancelled. One of Freya’s closest friends caught covid so her daily testing began a bit sooner than the rest of us.

I had my own big covid scare a week last Friday. Back in the summer, a friend had booked for us to go to a local nightclub to see DJ Trevor Nelson’s R&B Classics. At the time I was excited, it was back when it felt like we were out of the woods a bit with covid and we weren’t booked to go to Florida for Christmas at the time. As it got closer I started to feel a bit apprehensive about it because of the impact it would have on the holiday if I were to catch covid there, especially when Plan B came into effect and with all the reporting surrounding how highly contagious the new variant was. I went back and forth on whether I should go but decided I would go along as I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve been out dancing in the last five years. I love dancing and I knew I would love the music at this event. A few people had dropped out from the original group of people planning to go, so in the end it was three of us; my closest friend, a friend of hers who I kind of know and me. We all took LFTs the day we went. My plan was to wear a mask and I felt relatively ok with it all. In the end I didn’t wear a mask as not a single person in the club was wearing one so it seemed pretty pointless as I believe it’s correct that we predominantly wear our mask to protect others. Also it was so loud that trying to talk without being able to lip read would have been impossible so I would have been pulling it down to say ‘do you want another drink?’ etc when getting close to the others anyway. It was honestly like covid didn’t exist in there which was weird but also quite nice to see after a few gin and tonics when I had ‘relaxed.’ I’m generally ‘in the middle’ about covid, I follow restrictions and understand how serious it is, but equally I’m fed up after two years and have tried to find a bit of normality where I can (UK breaks, theatre trips etc.) It was in the back of my mind the whole night that I was taking a risk so I don’t think I fully enjoyed it but by the end of the night I had reasoned with myself that the two people I was close to had tested negative and hopefully I wasn’t close enough to anyone else to catch it.

That was the start of the daily testing for myself, Mat and Seren. On Sunday evening my friend (who I’d been close to all night on Friday) texted to say she had just taken two positive LFTs. You can imagine the anxiety levels at that point. The idea that I could be the one to stop us all going to Florida just for a couple of hours of dancing was pretty gutting. I don’t go out to work so I felt pretty rubbish that my one night out socialising in months and one episode of close contact outside the family in a few weeks could be the thing that undid all our plans. I didn’t touch the roast dinner on Sunday that I’d spent a couple of hours making. I couldn’t do anything, I was a bit of a deer in headlights.

My daily testing was increased to twice a day having come into close contact with someone who had covid. It’s fair to say my anxiety was through the roof Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. My friend had tested positive four days after coming into contact with someone unknowingly positive so in my head if I could get through Wednesday I reasoned my chances were good of staying covid free. Mat and I had our boosters on Monday and part of me was irrationally thinking the jab would kill off any covid traces in my body (I was desperate!) and the other part of me was even more anxious because of the side effects from the jab making me think I had covid symptoms.

I basically faffed around the house for those three days trying to stay busy and keep positive but not really able to get on with much. The Dibb helped. I didn’t want to get carried away with packing so I made a few lists and did some minor holiday business like booking our fit to fly return tests (Qured with BA discount) and day 2 PCR (Randox again with BA discount.)

By Wednesday night I was feeling confident that Covid had somehow missed me, and decided that the following day I would actually start on the packing. I feel so lucky that I managed to dodge it as when I got that text about my friend’s positive test, I really thought it was all over.

I’m sure I don’t need to spell out how, especially for the last week, the media has been very much doom and gloom and the messaging from the government has been much the same. Not ideal when you’re trying to ensure four of you stay covid free and mentally stable (ish.) Thursday (my so called packing day) was difficult when talk on the Dibb turned to ‘will the borders close again?’ (again.) So Thursday came and went and the girls and I had chosen our clothes but no actual packing had happened. Pre-pandemic me would be shocked that I was so unprepared and unpacked so close to the holiday.

Thursday I did order some dollars though so I must have been feeling fairly confident it would be ok.

Mid-week I heard from my sister that her partner had caught covid so our family Christmas gathering was off until the new year. In a way I was relieved as it was removing another possible source of picking it up but every day last week it seemed we heard about people coming down with it. It was definitely getting a bit too close to home. We cracked on with the daily LFTs.

I heard on The Dibb that the Hilton at Gatwick had been refurbished so I decided to switch our Bloc bookings to a family room at the Hilton where I would have space to sort out the cases if need be and we wouldn’t have to worry about moving things between two rooms. Price wise, it was between the Bloc and the Sofitel but hopefully it will prove to be the best option.

The girls finished school Thursday (Seren) and Friday (Freya) and that was a relief as the LFTs stayed negative and the contact we had with other people became less and less. Apart from taxiing the girls around and dropping off Christmas presents on doorsteps I haven’t been out anywhere since Wednesday. The girls had hair and nail appointments (masked) once they broke up from school and went by themselves. Mat met a friend for coffee on Friday and has been to the supermarket a couple of times. Freya went out with friends on Friday but was outside. Seren’s boyfriend came over Saturday after testing negative. She also went to the cinema with friends on Sunday but stayed masked. Still testing daily.

Packing was largely done on Friday, Saturday and Sunday and then we had a home ‘Christmas Day’ yesterday so we could have a few presents I don’t want to take to Florida and have a proper Christmas dinner. We also played some games. It was weird because it felt like it was actually Christmas despite us being the only ones celebrating it.

So we made it to the taxi all good to go and I couldn’t be more relieved and I’m finally properly excited although it still doesn’t feel real. The last ten days have been the slowest ever, trying to dodge covid and worrying about whether we will actually be able to go.

We were originally planning to get a train into London from Gatwick to go for dinner tonight since there’s barely anything open at Gatwick right now but we cancelled that a couple of days ago as it didn’t seem worth it (time, cost, energy and risk-wise.) We’re hoping the Hilton will be able to accommodate us in their restaurant or if not it’s M&S. And I’m fine with whatever since we’re actually going 😊.

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Have an amazing trip , stay safe , enjoy every moment and can’t wait for your Instagram spam 🙏🏻😂

[Goldia]

Aah Michelle it sounds like a stressful few weeks. Not long now and you can relax and enjoy it all. I hope you have a lovely time.

[Guest]

Yay! I’m so glad to see trip reports coming back.

I can’t believe how big your girls are now.

Sounds like an amazing trip planned, can’t wait to read along ☺️

[Lizzim]

So much stress but you are going! Have a fantastic time, I’m not jealous honest

[Inky]

Have a fabulous holiday, can’t wait to read your trip reports x

[pho3nix]

Wow! What an update but so glad you are on your way!

Fingers crossed it will be us one week today but right now it really feels strange - swinging between daring to get a little excited and then being so anxious about what will happen in the next week!

Enjoy your trip!

[smithlane]

Oh Michelle I’ve been following and loving all of your photos on IG, I can’t even imagine what the stress on the lead up to the holiday was like. I reckon I’d be a basket case by now!
So so pleased you all managed to get away