Barkers Go Westside April 2018 : Travel Day

[ribena]

The holiday was finally here after a year of planning. Travel day is always a hard one for me having a fear of flying. I am always excited to be going away but anxious as to the flying aspect. We got up at 8am ate breakfast and done some last minute packing. We aimed to leave at 10am but didn't end up leaving until 10.45am. I had to say goodbye to our dog Dacie. She is like our baby and I always get really sad leaving her.

The drive to the airport was quick and no traffic just a 45 minute journey on the m25. We arrived at Heathrow terminal 3. I had paid extra for valet parking. It makes it so much easier than having to catch a bus with all your cases and I would always pay that little bit extra. Having dropped the car off we went through to check in. When I checked in online I noticed quite a lot of empty seats including extra leg room. When we checked in I asked if we could be upgraded. Luckily we were and got row 51 which meant we had no one behind us. Also due to the quiet flight we had no one inbetween us. Anyway back to checkin, all done and went through to departures. As I am gluten and dairy free I really struggled to find somewhere to eat. In the end cafe nero had one gluten free roll left. Darren had a healthy salad in preparation for the bad food he will eat over the next two weeks!

We looked round some of the shops as I hate to sit and wait for a flight. It makes me more anxious and I also think why would you want to be sitting any longer than necessary before being stuck on a plane.

Boarding started an hour before take off which meant we actually pushed away on time.

Darren not impressed by how much stuff I got out for the flight!

I really like the Dreamliner, the mood lights and dimmable windows are great.

Also comfortable seats and so so many films. My gluten free meal as a Chinese style chicken with butternut squash, which was actually really nice.

I watched the greatest showman which was so good I had heard loads of people liking it so wanted to know what the fuss was about. I then watched the re make of Jumangi. After than I started to get fidgety so thought I would make a start on my trip report. After this I watched Juno and some tv series. The flight was really good only one short time the seat belt sign came on and it was just a wobble. I also managed to nap due to the spare seat in-between us so I could lie down.

We landed in time but it took about 20 minutes to taxi to our gate. Immigration was fairly quick compared to Orlando. I think we done it is in about half an hour and bags came soon after. I was surprised about how small the LAX terminal was. We hopped on the car hire shuttle outside the airport. We picked up our Mustang from Dollar rentals. The drive to our hotel was quick only 40 minutes to the El Royale and got stuck in no traffic. It was now about 8pm. We popped to the local supermarket Ralphs to pick up some bottled water and some snacks. The El Royale hotel was really nice. Our room was nice and spacious with a very comfy bed. There was also a full sized fridge, bathroom with double shower.

The rooms are located in little mini-villas around the outdoor court yard. This was a bonus that they were detached so you couldn't hear any noisy neighbours!
We got into bed local time 11pm (7am UK time nearly 24 hours since we had last slept.)

[summersun]

great start x