More Splitsville than Nashville - April 2017 - Travel Day

[Redrach1903]

Quick recap; I am Rachael (32) and my husband is Chris (31). We went to St Augustine to visit our friend Hanne for 3 nights and then spent 13 nights in a villa in Orlando (Sunset Lakes).

Travel Day – Wednesday 12th April

Before I get started with the travel day, let me give you a brief lowdown on the day before. Unfortunately I was working and it was a pretty hectic day, but that was ok as it meant it was passing quickly. I did manage to squeeze in a lunch time appointment to get my fingernails and toenails painted. A nice bright pink with “mermaid dust” over the top. Loved them.



Around early afternoon I got a text from Chris to say that Hanne had collapsed outside Publix and was in hospital. Turns out her heart had actually stopped a couple of times and she was going to need a pacemaker fitted ASAP. Super scary and we were all quite worried. Hanne told Chris’s mum to let us know to still come to the house even if she wasn’t yet home from hospital. She had given us the code to the garage door so that we could get in that way. Her daughter (Ingrid) would be flying down from Alaska too, so she might be there when we arrive. Anyway, more on that later!

When I got home from work I got a quick eyebrow wax at my local salon and then met Chris at his folks for tea. We had a lovely roast beef dinner. Delish! Chris's Mum updated us on Hanne and she was due to go in for her surgery at 2pm her time (so 7pm ours). She promised to text me and let me know as soon as she heard anything.

Chris & I went home about 7 and settled in front of the TV to watch a few episodes of Nashville. Chris was behind me, but I didn’t mind watching them again as I heart it so much! At about 11pm we decided to try and get some sleep.

On to the actual travel day now! It started at 2.15am. I was excited and couldn’t wait to get going despite the lack of sleep! I never sleep well before going on holiday. I panic that we'll sleep in and miss our flight. Not likely given the 6 alarms set between the two of us, but you know how it is….

I had woken up to a text from Chris's mum to let us know that Hanne's surgery had gone well and she was doing great. Phew. Chris got up at 2.30 and we got ourselves showered and ready for the exciting day ahead! We had a cup of tea before leaving and as we went out to load the car I jumped out my skin as I saw something crossing our driveway. It was a fox! A huge fox! Now, neither of us have ever seen one out here. I have seen many in the city, but not any in the sticks for some reason. Very bizarre! Anyway, I was itching to get out the door, but Chris insisted on triple checking everything was turned off (except the fridge, we trust the fridge! Michael McIntyre joke that I use every year… soz). Grrrr! I just wanted to go go go! I didn’t care at that moment if the house wasn’t standing when we got back I did make time for a bleary eyed "we're going on holiday" selfie though!



We left the house at 3.36am (only precise details here folks!) and we pulled into Aberdeen Airparks at 4.10am. I had pre-booked this, so was all very straightforward. We bumped into Chris’s dad (Allan) who was flying off to Russia that morning for business, so we chatted to him and then we all got on the courtesy bus to the airport. It only took 5 minutes, so we were at the BA desk by 4.20. Faaaarrrr too early, but I am one of those people who would rather be at the airport for hours waiting around than be stressing out that we might be late. The BA desk wasn’t open yet, so we had to hang around until it eventually did at 4.50am. Chris had to pay £65 for checking his golf clubs as yet again he hadn’t pre-booked them despite my constant reminding (nagging). We then had to drop them at the excess baggage hatch and we were on our way to security. This was quick and painless and before long we were sat in The Globe with Allan waiting for our breakfast. I had a croissant with butter and jam with a cup of tea and Chris had a bacon roll and his first pint of the holiday. I still don’t get how anyone can drink at that time in the morning. I could only do that if I was still out from the night before and that doesn’t happen much these days let me tell you! Old. Total for our breakfast was £14.50. Not too bad for an airport I guess. We sat and chatted to Allan for a bit before he had to scoot off for his flight to Paris.





After breakfast I text my friend Nicola as I knew she would be at the airport that morning. I haven’t seen her in forever as she lives down south now, but she was up visiting her parents. It was lovely to have a good catch up with her

At 6.30am we boarded our first flight to LHR.



Look at that lovely blue sky! It was bloody freezing though!

We took off 20 minutes late at 7.15. Byeeeeeee Aberdeen!



I pretty much fell straight asleep. When I woke up they were doing the rounds with the snack trolley. BA have done away with free drinks and snacks on domestic flights, so it’s all M&S branded stuff that you can buy. RIP white chocolate dipped lemon shortbread I ordered an Appletiser and a bag of crisps. Chris got a diet coke and a bag of crisps also. Let the healthy eating begin! Haha!



I passed the rest of the time by playing Disney Emoji Blitz. Something I spend far too much time on if I’m honest, but its addictive!



Chris read a golf magazine. It had a feature on one of the courses he wanted to play last year (Tranquilo), but decided against due to the cost. However, he informed me he simply must play it this year as it would soon be going private. He also read out a section on “how to play golf with a hangover” and one of the suggestions was Irn Bru. Haha, it does do wonders for a fuzzy head!

The rest of the journey looked a lot like this. Pretty isn’t it? I was rather proud of that photo. Did anyone else think clouds were candy floss when they were little? Just me? Okaaaaaaaaay.



We landed at Heathrow Terminal 5 at 8.30am and had to get on a bus to Terminal 3. We then went through security which was horrible. It seemed to be in a temporary space and was just really badly organised. We then went to the American Airlines desk to sort out our seats. The previous day I had paid to select “preferred” seats which basically means you get 2 seats in a row so no chance of anyone else sitting next to you (people haters that we are). Even though the money came straight out of my account, the seats were not showing as updated. I tried calling AA, but they said I’d need to fix it at the airport. Super. Anyway, the incredibly miserable lady at the AA desk did eventually manage to fix it and we were issued with new boarding passes. Hurrah.

After that we wondered around Terminal 3 which, by the way, we found to be awful. It felt really chaotic and cramped. Not fans. Anyway, we went to WH Smith to secure plane snacks and then went to the gate to wait for boarding. We popped to Café Nero and got a cappuccino for Chris and a bottle of water and a blueberry muffin for me.



Boarding started at 10.15 and we were on by 10.25. I got the first of many compliments on my nail colour by the women on the desk here!

First impressions of the plane were positive. Decent sized leather seats, USB port for charging (yay for endless Disney Emoji Blitz) and decent looking TV screens. All good.





I got settled in and got my fluffy socks on



And broke into my blanket and pillow.



I fell asleep waiting for us to taxi and woke up just as we took off at 11.20am (so 20 minutes late). I put on Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone and Chris chose Arrival which he enjoyed. The screens were of decent quality and good sound, but we did have our own headphones. There was a huge library of movies to choose from too!



Lunch was served at 12 and we both went for Cottage Pie. The second option for Thai green curry. It came with salad, bread, crackers and a cherry crumble. It was all pretty tasty! The cherry crumble was a tad on the sour side, but all in all a nice wee meal. I liked that they served proper cans of juice instead of the one gulp wonders that you normally get on planes!



I dozed off for a bit after lunch, but not for long so I watched the rest of HP and then decided to see what all the fuss was about with La La Land. Chris watched some of Rogue One and then fell asleep.



At about 3pm we were served some ice cream



Chris was awake now and back to Rogue One. One thing about the screens is that they weren’t very responsive to touch, so it could be a bit frustrating at times. Chris got in a right strop over it at one point and I massively LOL’d at him. Haha! I tried to sleep after my ice cream, but failed, so watched the rest of La La Land. My verdict? It was an enjoyable watch, but 100% not worth all the Oscar hype.

I then watched Moana. I loved that they had a Disney section to choose from! Good to get us in the mood for the coming weeks! Chris also watched Moana. I could see him chuckling away at it. So proud Moana is so good by the way. If you haven't already seen, please do! The soundtrack is fab too!



Disney Disney Disney!



At 6.30pm the arrival service came and it was pizza and red velvet cake. Yum!





The cake could have been done with a bit of frosting, but it was still good and the pizza thing was tasty too. Not too cheesy. If you've read any of my previous TRs you'll know i'm weird with cheese. I like mozzarella and can cope with mild cheddar (melted, not rubbery raw and gross), but that's it.

It didn’t feel like a long flight and before we knew it we were nearly there. Notice the marker for the Titanic on the map? I have never seen that before!



We landed in Charlotte at 2.47pm local time. We were directed to the automated machines and were through border control by 3.20pm, so it was pretty painless! I always feel a massive wave of relief once this part is over. I am a natural born worrier and so I always panic that something will happen and they won’t let us into the country! Haha! IMAGINE! By the time we got to baggage reclaim our luggage was there waiting for us except Chris's golf clubs which resulted in a slight panic from him, but they soon showed up. Phew.

We handed our luggage over to the nice chaps to send off to our last flight (this part always seems too easy and I worry that they are actually going on the right plane!) and we headed to security. It was pretty quiet and we were through quickly. We really liked Charlotte, it was an easy airport to navigate. No trams/buses malarkey either. Thumbs up from us! The following is the only picture I managed though, sorry!



We were hungry by now, so we went to the Rum Bar for a feed.



The server complimented my nails here too! We managed to log on to the airport wifi here and both caught up on the news back home. Hanne was doing well, but wouldn’t be getting home until the next day which was a shame. She kept saying how bad she felt for US! Honestly! What a woman! I had a good chat with my Dibber friends (Lisa and Helen) in our group chat. Bless them, they were so excited for me

Anyway, I ordered chicken tacos (no cheese ) and Chris went for chicken wings. I had a diet coke to drink and I think Chris had a beer. The food was really tasty! Chris loved his wings, he was a happy boy! Total was $35.25 + tip. We probably left $45. We are serial over tippers!





Chris went for a look in the PGA shop so I went to the bathroom and then plonked myself down at the gate (D7) to wait for him. Man those were comfy seats. When Chris came back he sat down and said "oh these are so comfy". I burst out laughing as I told him I had just written the exact same thing in my notes. You know you're getting old when comfy seats are noteworthy….

Boarding happened at 5.30pm and it was a full flight, so people were panicking a bit about getting their hand luggage stowed. I watched as a man tried to be sly on his way down the aisle and stow his bag in an empty compartment that wasn’t anywhere near his row. Kudos to the stewardess who marched straight up to him and told him to remove it. Ha!

So we got settled in our seats and waited for take off. Then something terrible happened. The woman in front of us produced from her bag the SMELLIEST cheese bagel EVER. I mean like, ever. In the history of the world. Chris likes cheese and it was making him gag. I have no idea what kind of cheese it was, but my god it was rank. Who does that? Who takes the smelliest food possible onto such a short flight? I mean could she not handle the 55 minute flight without it? And that's not even the worst part. She took at least 20 minutes to eat it. Don’t get me wrong, it was a big beast of thing, but she was literally tearing off a tiny shred every few minutes! Every time she took another bit out of the bag the waft of cheese whacked us bang in the nostrils. Just awful. I was so disgusted I felt the need to photograph it and shame her to the Dibb world. If you are a Dibber I'm not even sorry, you should be ashamed of yourself! Haha!



So, we took off at 6.05pm which was 15 minutes late. I fell asleep after a while and stayed that way until we were landing at 7pm in Jacksonville. Nice short flight! It was now midnight in the UK and we had been up for 22 hours. We were sleepy.

As we made our way through the airport we were both quite impressed, it looked really nice, bright and clean! Easy to navigate also. We would definitely fly into both Charlotte and Jacksonville again.



Thankfully the baggage came off quickly and we were soon on our way to collect the car. We were second in line at the Alamo desk. That never happens at MCO! We were chuffed. A lovely chap called Harry helped us with our booking. He gave us the keys and we were soon crossing the road to the garage to pick up our wheels. Don’t you think this looks pretty much identical to the garage at MCO? We really felt like that's where we were!



We went for a Nissan Rogue. It was very nice.



We (Chris) packed the car and sussed out the controls etc and we were on our way by 7.52pm (told you, precise details only) which was less than an hour after landing. Not too shabby! It was 24 degrees and the sun was just setting as we drove off. Everything looked wonderful. So happy to be back in Florida!





It was a straight forward drive to St Augustine. We didn’t pass a single toll or hit any traffic worth mentioning. Easy peasy. We got excited when we started to recognise stuff from our last visit to St Augustine! We arrived at Hanne's at 9.10pm and found that nobody was there! We knew Hanne was still in hospital, but we expected Ingrid to be there. Luckily we had the code for the garage door, so we let ourselves in. Just as we were getting inside we heard Ingrid pull up. She was SO excited to see Chris. She hadn’t seen him since he was a wee boy. It was super sweet.

We chatted to Ingrid for a while and when she finally said she needed her bed I felt so relieved as I just wanted to pass out! We hit the sack at 10.30pm which meant it had been over 26 hours since we got up. Unsurprisingly I think we were sleeping before our heads even sunk into the pillows!

Steps today – 6,417 (2.79 miles).

Day 1 is here

[HelenJNT]

So happy to see this up so fast! Hurrah!

Pretty smooth day then considering the amount of changes (and the cheese bagel lady - no wonder you were giving her the side eye). I'm sad about no free snacks on the BA flight, thanks for the tip! And the name check 😀

So lovely that Ingrid arrived just as you did. What a stressful day for you all.

Ahh that sky though. Can't wait to read more. Hurry up and finish that bangers & mash and crack on. Thanx.

😹😘

[jengibbo]

Love your reports. What an epic travel day. You must have been exhausted

[disneytrio]

I am so going to love reading along,you must have been so shattered after all that traveling,but so worth it when you get on Florida soil. Sorry to hear about Hanne, hope she's on a full road to recovery.
Can't believe the woman with the smelly cheese bagel, I can't stomach bad smells I would have been gagging,not pleasant.
Looking forward to next instalment.

[Rob & Jan]

That was a long day but a great start, looking forward to the rest of your trippie.

[florida girl]

What a long travel day but all worth it when you arrive at your happy place.

Love the nails ❤️❤️.

[Loopylooloo]

Yay! Have been waiting for your report rachael! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 Love your bambi socks. We love Moana too, we sing it all the time. You had a long journey but sounds fairly smooth apart from the stinky cheese lady! Im with you on that point!
I hope your friend Hanne was ok, what a worry, lovely that she didnt mind you still coming straight after surgery!

Am looking forward to more.

[mick]

A long day but you got there ok hope your friend is soon back home

Joan

[katnav]

So excited to see this trip report started!
Now I love cheese but hate the smell of stinky cheese, I'd be gagging as well if sat behind her.

Poor Hanne, hope she has made a full recovery.

Looking forward to the rest of the report.

[Twinklestar1]

Hi

Long travel day - well done for not hurling at the cheese smell! YUK!

For some reason the picture of, the nails did not load - so I was asking for a picture - then it loaded. Absolutely lovely - very pixie dust!

Thanks for sharing x