A Mi11ion Dreams = 2018 - Travel Day (at last!)

[walt4it]

Welcome back

If you missed our stressless trip to the airport -yesterday can be found by clicking here

The full =2018 index is here


Travel Day = Wednesday 25th July 2018


This ought to read like an episode of 24, just because there were 24hours that follow!

It is a long one and I have to admit does not quite have the drama of last year( which is rather a good thing!)


All I know is, The Alarm went at 3 am and I was awake ahead of it. I knew I was first asleep last night , that was intentional. I was shattered and now knew all those weeks/ months planning were now out of my hands, every single thing we needed was now required to be with us in the here and now.

I simply needed to absorb this was all actually going to happen! As the person usually last to bed every night this possibly came as a shock to everyone else!

There was just one thing on our mind – no not more sleep – A holiday !

First , Our Lufhansa check in for our flight to Frankfurt

Then a Flight … from Frankfurt to Miami.




3.30 am – Wednesday 25th July


– Taxi arrives on time, bundled along to Terminal 1 at Manchester International .
3.40 in a queue for bag drop.

4pm still in that queue and the check in staff now appear to have started their shift.

We were highly aware of many others who were Disney bound in the queue with us - a family of 10 in particular and another family of 4 who had luggage that immediately pointed out their next port of call.

If any of you were Dibbers - A big hello and I just wish you had asked the question – I have to admit I am not at my best to speak to anyone at that time of any day!

Now, we were all on the flight out of Manchester, in order to connect in Frankfurt, with a flight to Miami.

I had a reassuring strength in depth, as with a least 20 or more on this flight to Frankfurt, definitely heading next to Miami, I was thinking we could be assured that the next flight would be awaiting, despite the hour we wasted after the allotted take off time in Manchester.

We were guided through the airport to a particular wing of the building specifically for US flights, we were screened about ESTA and as will become obvious in a few hours this had nothing to do with immigration into the US.

We arrived at the gate as they boarded first class- which wasn’t us, so time for a toilet stop.

Ok, too much information there, yet as I exited the toilet I was drawn towards the aircraft and had to take a picture – the A380 is visually stunning from the outside, even to the fact it has two air bridges!

We waited until the end before boarding as we knew we would be sat down for a whole lot more once on board.

The whole A380 travel experience was a wonderful one, the cabin is much bigger than I even expected, despite there being an upstairs and the legroom in economy was plentiful.

Lufthansa, really did take care of you with a lot of drink stops and offers of water.

The food was ok, and to be honest, the boys rarely eat anything on a plane, so we have low expectation on that front anyway.

The route to Miami was a strange one and headed out over France and over the Atlantic a lot further south than expected.

It did take 10 hours though – the camera on the seat back TV of the tail view, wheel view and underneath view was possibly the most amazing viewing – how can they do that? Photos here don't quite show the full detail but you might just get the idea - it was most scary whilst coming into land

Now this is like one of those strange vision tricks - if you squint and stare at the screen long enough you might just make out what I am talking about - otherwise all you will see is the reflection of me taking the photo!

My own mindset during the flight was to find some of the films that have escaped viewing amidst months of work takeover- as much as I would have loved to enjoy the German hospitality with beers and wine flowing to many around us, I had a car to pick up when we arrived.

The Greatest Showman it was then, having only days earlier made the connection with A Million Dreams – I was on catch up big time. As a usual non musical loving film fan it really blew me away. The music the storyline and the overall positivity in the face of adversity.

On so many different levels it impressed but most amazingly as to how much it resonated with what I try to instill in my own work. I now see how I was hooked on hearing it as Joe left Primary school for the last time.

In an adrenaline filled cabin environment and with no feeling of having a snooze (which can often be the case when a film comes on) I then thudded the screen in front to watch Peter Rabbit - that may appear a little unfair , but throughout the flight Alison had the undue ‘pleasure’ of the person in front choosing to shove their seat into the space that would have allowed her a chance to actually enjoy the flight. I salute the flight crew , who ensured seats were upright for food service and to Joe who found a spare seat and allowed her to move away from a seat back in her face (Canadian family , just in case you are wondering, and that particular person was 100% deliberate, the other two in the family never moved the seat at all, they were very aware of what was going on as they made absolutely no eye contact for 10 hours)

Peter Rabbit though – what an unexpected pleasure of a film that was!
Coming soon to a Christmas Day TV blockbuster I hope. It was such a superb film and did justice to a story that I never thought possible to take to the big screen ( well tiny screen as we were on a plane, but you catch what I mean!)

Anyway, we remained resilient to the end – and the run through of films on the screen now vacated was still thudded with regularity, just in case she thought it was acceptable.

I would reiterate that the Lufthansa crew were great, and I am sure they did not deliberately miss them out of a drinks service – twice!
There was no need for conversation and with Mrs Walt4it being the worlds greatest subliminal user of the raised eyebrow, she found equal support from the aircraft team who had a very similar way to communicate their support.

We landed on time and made it to the immigration hall in good time, that time then seemed to drag and eventually we got through having first scanned and having done the automated entry then the queue for the desk and the usual scanning of fingers again. The use of the technology did nothing to reduce the need to wait for the same thing to happen when you get to the desk, we simply queued twice to do the same thing! How inefficient is that!

Lack of trust in the technology and a system that is creaking. The face to face immigration was a good one and it also showed that the whole interaction , especially when you have children with you( so the automated booth we always have a big X)
There needs to be a leap of faith in America – do you trust the IT or do you need both?


We did both and reassured we were cleared for entry into the Country.

We entered the luggage hall to the news that weather had closed the luggage ramps and we needed to wait for that to pass over before anything else happened.

Wifi was impossible to get onto, probably due to so many people wanting to get access to it, with the same impatient thought of seeing how long the weather was in for. In our position we did not have any connecting flight to catch and waited as patiently as you possibly can in a luggage collection hall.

After nearly an hour, the sun appeared outside and we stood waiting for the luggage to arrive, always with the nagging doubt in the back of my mind, since our last visit to Miami airport resulted in me going without my clothes for 12 days!
A reason why we now split the suitcase contents to avoid having holiday photos taken in clothes that you had bought in an emergency.(2010)

Thankfully all the cases were in front of us and we headed to Hertz for our next nerve tingling moment. A fantastic discount code meant we paid around £150 per week for our rental and with drop off at MCO, we never found anything cheaper.

As with many discount codes, you never know if you will get asked for proof that you actually are an American Express card holder.
Having used Hertz before, we had Gold canopy awaiting and with our name on the board and a text received, together with an email ( which I only picked up once we found some internet later) we packed up the car, tried to get our Sat Nav into operation and just took our time, the rain and thunderstorm had surrounded us again and having got the monorail to the new car hire building at MIA, you could sense it would be here for a while.

The new car hire place had a greater sense of calm and order than the previous one, it also put you out onto the main roads a little more readily than before.

Our car was a Nissan Rogue, mid size SUV and only had 8000 miles on the clock, although I did photograph the couple of dents that were visible on the passenger car door.

There were a few more so we ended up photographing the whole car!

We turned on the radio and found holiday bliss in an instant- the car had a working Sirius XM subscription and that means only one thing – E Street Radio!

For previous readers, have a look back to 2013 where we had a similar car radio! BRUCE was with us too!

As we exited the car hire center, the signal for the radio and the Sat Nav kicked in and the song that was the title to 2014 trip report was the first song of the whole 2018 trip - volume to the max -
“Meet me in the Land of Hope and Dreams” it was just like returning home with a welcome song to greet you.




A fitting starting tune and one which took our mind off the weather that surrounded us, lightning was close and as we got onto the Interstate there was a huge fork of lightning that illuminated the inside of the car, it was that close.

The tops of the tall hotels and building cranes seemed to be struck with regularity as the rain, thunder and lightning held the attention of everyone except me – I was more concerned about keeping the car on the road!

In all my years of driving I can honestly say this whole driving experience was as close to lightning in a car as I have ever been, it surrounded us and the sounds in the car of everyone would have been priceless to have a video, nobody was even thinking of that , we all just held tight and I think the word marvelled is possibly the wrong one – we were in awe/ or absolutely cacking ourselves of nature and the electrical storm above.

As we passed the city of Miami and were heading past the port area, the rain stopped and the sun came out.

We were just 10 minutes away from South Beach and our hotel. All of a sudden it got incredibly busy, people, cars of varying high quality and prestige and motorbikes too. We had found the place, now to find the hotel!

We managed it on the second drive around, parking on the street at the blue umbrella ( Blue Moon Hotel!) and car keys handed to the valet parking guy.

The hotel was a step into the past, it was in the Art Deco area of South Beach and was beautiful. Even the lift was a step into the past with an old style barred door.

Our room was good, exactly as expected and overlooked the main road and we felt totally part of it.

A quick wash and change and we were off to explore the area and to see what South Beach Miami has to offer.
We headed to the beach – simply enjoying being out in the heat and late sunshine, it was at that point we saw our A380 heading back to Frankfurt.

We were all losing track of time and as the boys played in the sea it was difficult to drag ourselves away, yet we knew we must.
With sand in our shoes and 24 hours about to complete, we sought a bit of food to end the night. We walked for a bit and never saw anything we fancied until we caught sight of this place.

We had spotted it earlier in the car, but the sheer wonderment of it was a joy, a place that had character amidst so much else at South Beach and whilst we ate, we became aware that the events of the past 24 hours were catching up on us.

The food was amazing but way too much. In many ways possibly 3 dishes to share would still have resulted in some left over.
It was delicious though.

Bed beckoned and was needed, 24 hours + after waking up in the Premier Inn in Manchester our holiday had begun. A travel day to remember for the right reasons and so good to be on the beach to start it all off.

Sleep was impossible to resist. Even at 10 pm – what a start!

Thanks for reading and hope you follow along with us for the next 4 weeks.


Proper DAY 1 in Miami Beach is a click here away

[yellowrose78]

Great travel day, Miami looks lovely, as does your meal. Looking forward to the next installment

[mick]

A long but great travel day

Joan

[summersun]

great travel day x

[ILoveDaveLamb]

Good to get travel day over with.
We had breakfast in that diner when we stayed at the Loews Miami at end of our 2015? Trip. I researched options, so you did well to just ‘sniff it out’. Dibber’s nose?

Weather can be so scary driving.

Reading along.

[Palm trees]

What a fab travel day, nice to finish with a swim and some good food.

[Goldia]

Ouch a 3am wake up is early.

It's a good job you likes the greatest showman, it would have been a pain of you didn't! You'd have had to change the name of the trip report.

Wow I didn't know Lufthansa had cameras showing those views! Not sure I could have watched during landing though.

Poor Alison a recliner during a day flight is a real pain. It sounds like the flight attendants did their best though.

Nice to be able to hot the beach when you got to your hotel. And what a great Americana diner, it helped you to feel like you'd truly arrived!

[Floridaagogo]

The food in the diner looks fab x

[DizzyDisneyMum]

Yay, I've been looking forward to this.
You have a wonderful writing style and your love for your family and appreciation of your holidays really shine through. X

[walt4it]

Originally Posted by yellowrose78

Great travel day, Miami looks lovely, as does your meal. Looking forward to the next installment

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Miami is lovely - keep reading for the next day we do have a good explore of South Beach and the photos are a bit better!

Originally Posted by mick

A long but great travel day

Joan

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Was good to get there though

Originally Posted by summersun

great travel day x

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Thank you and good to have you reading along again too - always appreciated