Are we going in May... or not? Travel day, 15th May

[Pussycat Doll]

Soooo, a decent nights sleep? Not a chance! Bed was comfy, just couldn’t sleep, lying next to a snoring starfish didn’t help either!

I’m awake for the final time thinking it must be nearly 6.30 and time for the alarm, it was 4.50😳
I did take a lovely sunrise photo.

By 5.30 I’m totally done and the kettle is on.
We have a cuppa, check the flight is on time and have showers etc. I think we left the room about 7.30. Easy drive to Jet Parks 1 where we play ‘hunt the space’ we do eventually find one not far from a bus stop. A bus has just gone past but he does come back to get us!

We get told to put our hand luggage bags on our laps because it will be busy, it’s not! We are the last terminal to be dropped off, it’s pretty busy now we are actually at the airport.

Check in is nice and easy, just as it should be for Upper Class, priority security labels and a lounge invite are given to us. One case is 20kg the other is 19.2kg.

Onwards to Security, this takes us about 20 mins, it’s chaos! I have the most thorough pat down I’ve ever had in my life! Both our bags are pulled for swabbing and we are both made to remove our watches which were not happy about.

Anyway it’s all good and we wander through Duty Free and buy nothing for a change, I did look at the Gin and have a squirt of Chanel as we pass the stand!

We have the use of the Escape Plus lounge so we take the lift, it’s rickety, we go up, the doors don’t open, we go down, we wait 2 mins and the doors eventually open. I run out and take the stairs!

Small lounge but quiet and nice food options.

We both have a full English and some pastries, with a Cappuccino and a Latte.

We leave the lounge about 10am so we can have a walk and stretch our legs before the flight. About 15 mins later we hear Virgin calling Upper Class customers to board so we head to gate 208. Our transport today is Barberella.

It’s Champagne time!

Flight time is 8 hrs and 19 minutes, nice and quick!

We take off on time for once. I have a feeling Immigration will be busy, as we are taxiing to the gate we see the virgin 9.55 taking off late!

After take off I have an Elderflower Collins cocktail, basically Gin and elderflower! It’s gorgeous!

I’ll be back later guys, it’s 3.30 am and I need to try and go back to sleep!😴😴

[markpwa8]

Great start!

[Magnolia dream]

What a lovely start to your holiday. I love the sunrise photo.

Enjoy the sunshine, I look forward to hearing more about your trip.

[margyloveswdw]

Apart from the super early wake up, a good day!

[MarionG]

Hope you managed to get back to sleep, look forward to hearing about the rest of the day..

[OB1LukeLucas]

Great start.

[Gryff]

Good start to the trip

[Pussycat Doll]

Sooo, where was I? Ah yes a cocktail, has to be done I’m afraid!

I read my mag and it’s time for lunch, we both choose the Tomato and Basil Soup, Fillet Steak and the Chocolate tart, we decline cheese and biscuits. All are amazing!

After lunch it’s a bit more reading, I may have napped for half an hour too. I forgot to get a puzzle book at the airport, that’s a broken tradition!

I woke up in time for a mini Fab!

I watch Home Alone, Nice easy watching and it passes nearly 2 hrs. Richard watches Predator and Space Cowboys. My system crashes half way through Donald’s meals in Minutes.

Time is going pretty fast to be honest and it’s really smooth, the seatbelt sign hasn’t been on once.

Time for tea! I had traditional afternoon tea but I couldn’t manage my scone😢 Richard had a burger which he said was fantastic.

Time to prepare for landing, the usual scramble for the washrooms etc. We land half an hour early and it’s looks like there is only one virgin plane on stand and no BA!
Obviously everyone gets up and starts to gather their stuff together but there is a problem, it’s a power failure so in order to open the door we need to keep and engine running but they can’t open the door with an engine running!
They hook up to the airport power supply and turn the engine off so we can get off.

Hall isn’t too busy but there are literally 5 officers for all the desks, including the US arrivals desks! Thankfully we’re quite near the front but it took us an hour to get through. A woman in front of us passed out and the paramedics were called, it was really hot in there.

I should think there were at least 500 people in line behind us because the BA plane landed while we waited.

There was that much luggage on our carousel it was hardly moving, there was also about 200 cases stood to the side, thankfully ours were among them! No luggage issues this time!

Straight to Alamo, we’ve checked in online and done skip the counter so we can go straight to the garage. We’re told to choose anything in the Midsize line. Toyota Tacoma truck it is then! We give my details to the guy at the exit so I am insured too.

1.5 hours from landing to exiting, not too bad considering the immigration hall but I have no idea how busy the car hire line was in the airport.

We head off to our hotel for the night, congestion on the I4 so we jump off at I Drive and drive down to the Vineland Outlets. We’re staying at the Springhill Suites which is off Vineland road, nice and easy to find and it’s a gated area with a chap checking us in.

Lovely room overlooking the pool and a $15 parking charge for the night.

We dump our stuff and have showers before we head off down the road to Publix. We buy filled rolls, crisps and coke, can’t be bothered to go out, we’re starting to flag now!

Early night for us, about 8pm I think it was. Excited to be heading to our home in the morning!

TTFN XX

[disneypars]

Great travel day.

[Rob & Jan]

Sounds like a lovely travel day. Happy hols !