Parks, Pins, Puke, Pennies...Not Enough Planning - April / May 2017: Day 0 Pre-travel Day

[moosha]

Day 0 - Friday 21st April 2017 - Pre-travel Day

I was out for dinner with girlfriends until 11ish last night and came home after a nice meal feeling a bit stressed about how much I still had to do. As well as getting everything ready for the holiday, we needed to dismantle the lounge in advance of it being painted by my Dad while we were away (he's such a star). When I got in, I pottered about for a bit doing little things I could get on with at that point, and then went to sleep just after midnight.

Alarm was set for 5.30 this morning as I wanted to exercise knowing I wouldn't be able to for a couple of weeks and also wanted to make my usual breakfast smoothie, on top of all the holiday related things I still needed to do.

When the alarm went off at 5.30, I decided to snooze until 5.45 because I was still so tired. Then I couldn't get back to sleep, firstly because I knew I had so much I needed to do, and secondly because I had that 'I'm going on holiday tomorrow!' excited feeling .

I still lay there until 5.45 which I would soon come to regret when the whole day became one stressful rush after another...not the best way to start a holiday . When I did get out of bed, I did my workout (Jillian Michaels' 'No More Trouble Zones'). I'd been religiously sticking to doing a Jillian workout every morning for a good few weeks leading up to the trip...amazing how much will-power a Florida holiday can give you . Also, love her and would definitely recommend her workouts for anyone who wants to get fit / toned from the comfort of their own home. I started with '30 Day Shred' having not worked out in months and was quickly hooked.

Mat didn't emerge from bed until I was pretty much done with my 45 minute workout as apparently his alarm didn't go off . He's a notoriously light sleeper so I was a bit cross that he somehow had missed me getting up, but also I was in an 'I've got loads of time' stupor at this point so didn't stress too much.

The girls ate their last countdown jelly bean:



Workout done, shower done, green smoothie made and consumed, my stress levels were rising as I was trying to clean the kitchen and floors before I had to go out to my beauty lady Sophie's house for my pre-holiday treatments. We were all rushing around and getting stressed out, and Mat and I ended up having a big row which was not exactly how I had hoped pre-travel day would go .

When it was time to leave for Sophie's at 9.55, the suitcases were closed which filled me with relief, but I knew I still had a few bits to do when I got back before the taxi arrived. I apologised to everyone when I left for being so grumpy, and then told myself to chill out. I got to Sophie's for 10.15 as planned and filled her in on the rushing around and argument but told her I was ready to relax now. She asked what time our taxi was coming, and when I told her 3 pm she responded '3 o'clock?' in such a way that suggested there was no way I'd be home and ready at that time . Not exactly helping with the relaxing.

Waxing, lash lift and gel (Disney of course) nails took place and I left her house just before 2pm. Here are my nails, very pleased with them:



It was a bit of a stressful drive home as I knew I still had to eat, get changed and finish off sorting out my hand luggage before we left at 3. When I got home Mat was clearly v stressed because I was so late. While I'd been out he'd dragged the girls along to his haircut, taken Stitch and Sebastian to the cattery, finished getting some of the furniture out of the lounge ready for the decorating, and made a nice lunch for them all of poached eggs (to use up the eggs in the fridge, not exactly a quick travel day meal.)

Somehow I managed to be completely ready when the taxi driver arrived at 2.45 pm (including giving the kitchen another once over...has to be nice and clean for the burglars ). Mat kindly made me my avocado and houmous on rye sandwich when I got in which I scoffed down as it was way past lunch time.

On the drive down to Heathrow, the girls wrote in the holiday journals I made them (this only lasted a couple of days unfortunately ) and played hangman in the little games activity book I got them from Tiger:



They also played the Disney and Disney Tsum Tsum Top Trumps I had bought them and Mat chatted to the driver while I did some admin jobs on my phone that I and run out of time to do before we left (paying bills, emails). We arrived at the Sofitel 50 minutes after we'd set off and the Friday afternoon traffic hadn't been too bad. We were only five minutes over the time it would take us to get to Heathrow on a good run, so I'm glad we didn't leave it any later to set off. If we'd hit rush hour it could have been a lot slower.

On the way down, I had a strong feeling that I really wasn't ready for the holiday; a combination I think of feeling all along like I hadn't done enough planning which itself came from not feeling like the holiday would ever actually happen after we cancelled the last one, and also the effects of rushing around so much since I had woken up. It all felt very surreal and at this point I was struggling to relax into it all.

When we pulled up outside the Sofitel at Terminal 5, a member of front of house staff greeted us; opening the taxi doors and loading all of our luggage onto a luggage trolley. The girls and I waited inside as it was pretty chilly while Mat tried to pay the taxi driver which took longer than it should as the guy didn't have a wifi connection to the card machine. In the end Mat had to phone the taxi office to settle up once we were in the room.

The lovely lobby area:



I'm going to apologise now for the number of wonky photos you will see in this report . I took pretty much all of the photos for the trippie on my iphone and took most of them very quickly without even stopping walking. Sorry if the wonky-ness of the photos induces any sort of dizziness or sickness.



It took a few minutes to check in and then we were off up to the 4th floor and room 4402 which turned out to be a lovely big suite, much bigger than the family room we'd had in 2014. We'd booked the hotel with Mat's Avios points, so the fact that this massive lovely room was 'free' made it even better.

Walking to the room (there's a very similar photo in my 2014 report, only with smaller children ):



Once we were upstairs and 'oohing' and 'aahing' over the room, the luggage arrived quickly and the guy was very friendly, and brilliant at bringing it all in. When Mat had checked in, he had mentioned the fact that the sofa bed needed making up, and the front desk lady said someone would come up to do it. It was a shame that it hadn't been set up in advance since I had written it on the booking notes, but the guy arrived very soon after the luggage, was very friendly and made the sofa bed up in double quick time so all good in the 'hood.

I just want to add in what a fab hotel the Sofitel at Heathrow is. I really wouldn't stay anywhere else at Heathrow and would recommend it to anyone (especially if you can get a good deal / use Avios points.) It really feels like a 'luxury' hotel and the staff are brilliant.

Room photos:

It's a pleasing sight when you open your hotel room door and find two separate doors inside :



Lounge:







After the sofa bed was speedily made up (and photographic proof that Seren did spend at least a few minutes doing the journal I spent ages putting together for her ) :



Bedroom:



The view :



Bathroom / Freya (she happened to be in there washing her hands when I was taking the photos so decided to pose) :



Treats (completely unexpected, especially since we hadn't paid anything for the room) :



We spent a few minutes faffing, getting freshened up and eating the little box of biscuits they had left for us...



(Not quite sure why she's got the neck pillow on) :



...and in that time we received two calls from the front desk to ask if everything was ok with our room. Bless them, see, the staff are really friendly and efficient at the Sofitel Heathrow. Mat asked the second caller whether we could take the girls into the club lounge (for drinks) which was included with our booking as last time they had been a bit funny about it, and she said it was no problem. So we decided to head down for a little drinky to kick the holiday off as 'drinks and nibbles' were available from 5pm and it was now about ten past.

In the lovely glass elevator on the way down to the lounge:



Freya got distracted by the very pretty cakes and meringues on display at the little coffee shop we passed on the ground floor :



...continued below:

[moosha]

...continued:

The girls took their Top Trumps down and played a few games of that..





...while enjoying a mini pastry each (raspberry Danish for Seren, pain au chocolat for Freya), mineral water (Freya) and two cups of tea (Seren). Mat and I devoured a little bowl of peanuts along with a double Havana Club rum and Diet Coke (me) and Beefeater gin and tonic (Mat) as well as some much needed mineral water. It was at that point that we started to unwind and the holiday felt like it was beginning.

Aaah:



Pastries:



Peanuts:





The impressive complimentary bar selection:



Mummy's girl:



At 6, canapes and hors d'evre were served and people seemed to appear from nowhere to snap them all up very quickly. Mat got us some salmon and avocado sushi to share, plus he had some vegetarian sushi. The sushi was good .

We also had some tomatoes and mozzarella with pesto and what looked like delicious spiced potatoes but turned out to be seasoned paneer cheese (bleurgh.) The girls had a couple of crackers and cheese, and some creme brulee, and I got another pot of peanuts as I was getting pretty peckish and the canapés were not really being re-stocked.







Once we'd finished, we decided to have another small drink for the road, so I poured myself half a glass of merlot, and Mat had a shot of whisky. We then left the club lounge around 7pm.

Wonky chair photo outside the lounge:





We were on a mission to get some food from M&S as we like a nice M&S picnic, plus we had the dining table in the room and there's not exactly a massive range of restaurants land-side at T5. We took the escalator in the lobby...





...and walked over to the terminal. This is the walkway between the Sofitel and the terminal:



I decided we should have a little walk as my Fitbit told me I was only on about 6,500 steps for the day. So we walked the length of Arrivals, up four flights of stairs at the other end...



...walked back through Departures and then back down the stairs to M&S.

The girls quickly chose their sandwiches (egg for Seren, prawn for Freya) plus a pot of carrot sticks and houmous each, and Mat and I got some sushi that was reduced as the date on it was that day, plus some olives to share, and prawns for the girls and I. We got some more water and a big pot of pineapple and one of mango for dessert. Got to get the healthy food in when you can on a Florida holiday . We usually go a bit mad with the M&S picnic but I was quite pleased with the restraint we had shown. I guess the free little pre-dinner in the club lounge meant we weren't as greedy once we got to M&S. Only £26.25 today, in 2014 I think our M&S bill was nearly double that.





We took everything back to the room and scoffed it, then the girls got ready for bed and I finally painted my toenails and then wrote my notes while we enjoyed the little bottles of Rioja I had brought with us (along with classy black plastic wine glasses I found in the cupboard at home ).



The girls messed around when it was time for sleep (out of excitement I think) and finally fell asleep just after 10. Our bed was massive and very comfy, and we were asleep by 11ish ourselves.

[Disneycraft]

Lovely pre travel day .i always make journals for the kids too ,they do them for about 3 days then stop

[Guest]

great start, looking forward to the rest

[Guest]

Great start 😊
What a beautiful view, you just can't pay enough for a view like that 😂
I'm actually sick of the sight of those Tsum tsum top trumps , we bought some for DD for her birthday last month and she makes us play it EVERY NIGHT! I'm still debating whether we should give her the Shopkins ones we bought as one of the surprises for her flight bag 😆

[Sparksy72]

What a great start, the hotel looks lovely and it's even nicer when you can access the club level snacks! We love an M &S picnic, you were very restrained 😊

[Excited6910]

Great hotel room! DH priced up the sofitel but we chose another instead. I love your nails too

[The Fatadder]

Its been a while since I last took an early flight out of Heathrow, and I'd forgotten just how much nicer it is than the one at Gatwick! That said, with the exception of the BA lounge everything at Terminal 5 is nicer than Gatwick!

Looking forward to the trip getting to Florida, Even though I think it will be a few more years until we manage to have a Florida trip which escapes from the Disney / Universal bubble. So its great to see more of Florida at least in trip report form!

[mick]

Great pre travel day your room looks lovely

Joan

[Twinklestar1]

Long and busy day - alcohol required!

Sofitel looks fab!