Let The Adventure Begin... Travel day

[Mouse mess]

Pre Trip Report...

July 11th 2012

Travel Day

Alarm went off at 7am. I didn’t sleep too badly, which make a nice change! I usually have the Christmas Eve sleep syndrome the night before we go on holiday.

Everything was packed and ready to go the night before, whole house cleaned for the burglars (I bet you have never heard that before) the day before too so not much to sort out.

Noah’s pull along was all ready with updated photo….



Said good bye to the cats, my Mum as always does a grand job of looking after them for us. And we were off…

Stopped at the usual spot round the corner to double check we have the passports. I can’t help it, I do it every time. Funnily enough, they were in the same place they were last time I checked them! And off we went, again.

As usual I felt sick with nerves, poor David kept trying to have a chat with me and the kids but I found it hard to join in, anyone would think I was going to the gas chamber, not Florida!

Check in was at 8.50, we had already checked in online yesterday, ON THE DOT to try to change the seats we had been given. Epic fail as they wouldn’t let me. But hey ho, at least I tried.

Emmie had a little sleep on route…



We had only been travelling 20 minutes when Noah announced that he needs a wee! So we stopped at some services.



Whilst the gang had gone in, I heard Chris Moyles announced he was leaving Radio 1, shame, I used to love listening to his show in my glory days before Cbeebies and Playhouse Disney/Disney Junior took over my morning rituals!.

Onwards to Stoke, I do like looking at all the steel work as we drive through.



Then I plug in the iphone into the car radio and we listen to the Dibbcast.




Pretty uneventful from then on until Mel reads out our Bon voyage as we approach the airport turn off, we get very excited, the kids are gob smacked and David VERY nearly misses the turn.

Car drop off was the same as last time, very quick and easy, not to mention FREE! Thanks to a Dibber spotting the lowest price guarantee.

Me and the kids wait while David takes the keys to the office, looking at the luggage knowing it is going to double in size for our return!



Once in the airport, my nerves are at high alert, toilet stops done, into the lift and off to Virgin check in. The queue was really long but Noah and Emmie managed to amuse themselves by finding the control panel to the escalator disguised in the pillar next to it…JOY!



We did the usual scanning the queue, trying to figure out who could be Dibbers. I reckon we spotted a few but I guess we’ll never know. It takes my mind off trying to figure out how aeroplanes stay in the sky and how we are certainly going to crash.

It is fast approaching our turn and I feel sick with worry. I am NEVER being in charge of ESTA’s again, I can’t stand it. As usual, panic over nothing and we were good to go. Security was a breeze this time, lovely staff, no body scanning; kids were allowed to leave their fleeces and cardigans on.

The mood was improving! Straight on to Frankie and Benny’s. Seated straight away by a very friendly waitress who kept trying to talk to the children but they could not understand her accent. It did get a bit embarrassing after a while!



Thankfully there were no awkward questions about blunt cutlery this time!



Food was ok, nothing brilliant and probably one of the most expensive meals of the whole holiday!

Emmie had pasta and she loved it, I don’t think I have ever seen her tuck into anything with such enjoyment when we have taken her out before! Strange girl!




We did have a long wait for the food, which meant that as soon as we had finished it was pretty much time to board.



Emmie’s eczema was getting quite bad at this point and all of her cream was packed, I have a quick run down to Boots to see if I could find anything suitable but I couldn’t. On the way back to F&B I spotted a Pandora stand, typical, no time to look! (My bracelet is full so probably best anyway)

As we left F&B people were queuing quite a way back to get in, we had timed it well.

There was a long line of people waiting to board, I’ll never understand that…you are going to be on the plane for 9 hours, why the rush to get on it? Only to sit in the same seat you will be spending hours in, wishing you weren’t, so quickly?!?

So we let the children have a quick blast in the soft play area before joining in the line.




The children were handed the wonderfully useless free bags. I swear if we go again we are going to have the will power to say ‘Thanks but no thanks’ they really are useless but it is hard to turn down a freebie isn’t it?!

Spending the next 9 hours with them under your feet on the flight getting in way while the children ask you to set the time on the crappy watches should be reminder that if it’s free, there’s probably a good reason for it!

We hadn’t been allocated the seats that Dial a Flight as reserved for us, but we were pleased, we had the 3 window seats with one in the isle in front. I sat with the children on the end to start with, David had a mother and teenage daughter next to him, he was on the end too. We discovered very soon in that they would be a pain in the backside!



As soon as we taxied onto the runway I suddenly came over really tired, I could hardly keep my eyes open. I think it was all the stress, it wore me out! But with our two darling children, there is no fear of closing your eyes, not a chance.

The in-flight entertainment was terrible, (the plane wasn’t a refurb) Quite a few people’s TV’s weren’t working to they kept stopping it and re setting it just as you had started watching a film, then you would have to start again, from the beginning.



The kids watched The Lorax, they seemed to enjoy it, I watched the Hunger Games, it took me about 6 hours from all the messing about! I was disappointed, I haven’t read the book but I was expecting more.

[Mouse mess]

A man in front of us in the bulk head seats was not a happy bunny; his TV just would not work. The cabin crew were really apologetic and were basically slagging Virgin off to him and told him to write a letter complaint, they gave him pen and paper to do it there and then, I would love to know what response he got.

As usual, the children didn’t really do anything for any length of time, Usbourne sticker books, DS’s, Ipods, pencils and paper, aliens in goo with small toys, Wikki Stikks, you name, they were not really into it!



Noah was a pain at times but that’s to be expected, it is REALLY boring for children. No one wanted food as we had already eaten but I wanted the chocolate Gu pots so I took the food just for that, imagine my horror when I discovered they replaced the chocolate pots with some sort of mango and passion fruit cheesecake thing. How very dare they!



The children’s meals were the same, what child would rather that than chocolate I ask you? I joked with the male cabin crew, and he said sarcastically “Another one of Virgins great ideas” You got the feeling the staff weren’t that impressed with the big wigs.



Though all of this, the Mother as daughter next to David were up and down like (insert your own joke) It seemed like every 20 mins David had to get out of his seat to let them by.

After I had reached my limit with our two, me and David swapped. I was hoping I would be able to have a little snooze, how stupid was I? Some people have no shame….looking back, I shouldn’t have been so hot on making sure the kids weren’t kicking the back of the seats!

Finally it was time to land. We ran off the plane, literally (I told you some people have no shame) Immigration was really quite, I could have cried with happiness, the immigration officer soon put stop to that though…..I don’t actually think he said one word to us, he just pointed at the sign telling us what to do and shoved our passports back at us. He was SOOOOOOO rude! In fact, in my notes I wrote a word beginning with T that rhymes with Cat in the Hat.



The bags came fairly quickly, no panic like last time, car seats and pushchairs in tact, and we were off….well to second bag drop anyway. On the monorail I looked at the poor souls that were on their way home, trying to suppress any thoughts that that will be us in a couple of weeks!

Second bag collection took ages, the kids were really good, I found wifi and whatsapped the family. David took just as long at Hertz, no luxury of Dollar Express like last time.



We crossed the road to the garage and collected our Rav 4. Nice car, not as nice as last time but mustn’t grumble, we had joined Hertz Gold before we left in the hope that we may get an upgrade but it was not to be.

On the way to the Villa we had just enough change left from last year to get through all the tolls, we followed the villa owner’s directions, we don’t usually go that way.

The villa was very nice, obviously Noah and Emmie were desperate to go in the pool, so we opened the doors, and set the alarm off!





We have never had a villa with a pool alarm and not a fence/guard thing before. I much prefer the fence; the alarms are a right pain! But obviously there for a reason!







At this point I am beyond tired and have a headache, we round up the kids and pack them off to bed, this year they want to share a room because it has bunk beds. I think David must have dealt with them because I have no recollection of doing it!

(I must have been there, I took a photo)



I passed out in the giant bed. Leave the bags for tomorrow…..



Again, I hate travel day!

But love the feeling of being ‘home’

Day 1 here...

[MFras23]

So glad you've made a start Sophie, I've been super busy with starting my PGCE but have been checking the TR thread for your first day for ages!

We were on the old plane inbound and it was just horrible, we had the same problem with the IFE- I had a picture though, just no sound! What's with the mango GU pots ... the chocolate ones were beautiful. I hope this is a permanent idea Virgin have. Sorry to hear about those people who were up and down all the time, if you know you're that type of person you should give up the priviledge of a window seat.

I love that Noah and Emmie jumped straight in the pool Looking forward to your first full day!

[sarahewoods]

Hiya Sophie, I was thinking about you this morning wondering when your report was going to start. i was all smiles when I saw it!

Great travel day, sorry about the annoying people in front of you.

Lovely photos, how did you get on with your new camera?

Looking forward to the next part, take care xx

[orlandosgr8]

It's always worth the stress once you are there. Love the photos of the kids jumping in the pool, my son is just like that, I wish I had the energy to do it after such a long day.

[Guest]

Great travel day, sorry about the annoying people in front of you.

[letty]

As I am the organiser of everything, I understand your stress levels on travel day... looking forward to reading more!

[vanlou]

yay - been looking out for your trip report. travel day seemed to go well. looking forward to the rest

[joanna23]

Thank-you so much for giving in to my nagging! I enjoyed reading about your travel day and glad that it was all over for you without too much hassle. You know I share your journey experiences with Lucas & Izzy but yet we still put ourselves through it. I watched the Hunger Games too! Can't wait for the next day, I suppose I'd better try to update mine now you've kept your side of the bargain xx

[Disney junky]

Great start if any travel day can be great. I'm also chief planner and feel totally responsible for getting us there!