A Holly Jolly Poly Christmas December 2021: Day 1 - Travel Day and Disney Springs

[moosha]

Day 1: Wednesday 22nd December 2021

The alarm was set for 5.45 am but I woke up at 5.30 and couldn’t get back to sleep. I think I was excited and also running over everything we needed to do this morning in my head to check that we had enough time. The plan was for Mat and the girls to go downstairs to The Garden restaurant again for breakfast at 6.15 while I showered and repacked everything I could. They would finish getting ready when they came back up. Breakfast was included with our rate. We absolutely wouldn’t have paid extra for it as we never do with a breakfast buffet because with three of us being vegan we can never get enough value out of it. But if it’s included, the other three will pop along and anything they eat is a bonus. I can’t eat that early in the morning so my plan was to get something once in Departures after we’d got through security.

Mat had toast, boiled mushrooms and tomatoes, Freya had 2 mini pain au chocolat and a mini croissant with Nutella. Seren had toast with raspberry and redcurrant jam. They also had juice and Mat had a coffee which he said was bad. Seren brought me a banana and apple for later which was very sweet of her.

We were ready to leave the room at 7.10 am after a minor drama over how bad the hotel lightning was for doing make-up (this was the teens, not me.) Mat and Seren once again got a head start on us with the luggage. Freya and I got in the lift on our floor (floor two) having pressed ‘down’ (to lobby) but were sent up to floor three to collect a couple who I guess had pressed the button before us. So we were a bit confused about this slight detour. We then in true travel day style saw this same couple at the departure gate and in immigration later in Tampa as always seems to happen. Hello if this was you.



We walked back to the South Terminal and then took the shuttle over to North Terminal. We stopped before we entered the building to take these amazing sunrise pictures.



I also wondered why we were the only people getting off the pretty full shuttle who had luggage big enough to require us to take an elevator up to Departures. Everyone else hopped on the escalator (which has barriers stopping you from taking large luggage on.) Does everyone else go on holiday with just hand luggage and if so what am I doing wrong? We had two large and one smaller case just for a week, but then we did have several boxes of LFTs, a few Christmas presents and let’s be honest, two teenage girls, plus at this time of year we needed warmer clothes and space in the suitcases to pack our coats at Departures. I also thought I was being sensible because none of the cases were full to bursting, so therefore we had more room for souvenirs. But in the end we didn’t bring much back. This was mainly because none of the four Disney World parks had a single 50th Starbucks Been There mug, either the 50th ones or the previous design that came out before those (between our last visit in 2019 and the 50th ones, the ones I have are two designs ago). So from potentially eight new mugs, I came home with zero. I use the Starbucks You Are Here / Been There mugs every day and have over fifty from various places around the world, so they’re kind of my thing and I was planning to use my Christmas money to bring some new ones home. The only ones I saw on the whole trip were the Universal parks one and the Florida one, both of which I have. Can you tell that I was disappointed? I should have made this the first low on the Highs and Lows. Although the bright side of this is that I didn’t have to queue up in Starbucks in each park for 30 minutes to pay for them. Anyway rant over and fingers crossed I don’t come away empty-handed again in August.

As we approached BA check-in, there was a guy in a Santa hat greeting passengers and separating us into the haves and have-nots (in this case VeriFly and non-VeriFly.)



As we had completed VeriFly we went to the next staff member who checked the VeriFly (bit fed up with saying VeriFly at this point) status on our app and looked at our passports. We then joined the VeriFly line for bag drop.



The non-VerFly line:



The VeriFly line was about half the length of the non but there were only two desks open as the staff member at the third had had to go and get assistance for a man on crutches. So it was moving slowly but overall we waited less than 10 minutes. Between the two sets of desks were machines for Bag Drop and when we got to second in line a staff member came down the queue as he’d noticed it was getting a bit backed up and was not moving quickly. The first family in line needed assistance so had to wait for a desk but he took us to the bag drop machine and checked in our cases for us.



Next up security. I’m actually glad we’d flown to Edinburgh in August so the whole airport process didn’t feel as unfamiliar as it would have done if we hadn’t been on a plane for a few years. But all four of us get a bit stressed with Security. We were able to go through Premium Security as Mat is a silver Avios card holder. Two ladies in front of us were told they couldn’t use Premium with their status but they moaned and said some lady had told them they could so the guy let them through. Premium was quiet and not too stressful and thankfully none of us beeped. The only issue was those two ladies slowing things down as they took ages to get their things into the trays and then their trays didn’t appear at the other end so they were holding things up a bit.



With the most stressful part done, we took a breath and headed through Duty Free. None of us could remember the last time we went from the North Terminal but it was most likely before it was re-done so this was all new. We’re not Duty Free people though so we just strolled on through. The main Departures area was not too bad (we were expecting the worst because Gatwick) and there were lots of useful shops like WHSmith, Boots, Starbucks, Pret A Manger and Accessorize. With all the fun and games of travelling right before Christmas and when deliveries were slowed down by staff shortages because of the pandemic, Freya’s new bikini hadn’t arrived as it was supposed to on Monday (it was now Wednesday.) Good old Hermes always delivering my Next parcels a day later than they’re supposed to, although our neighbour had texted to say he’d taken delivery of the parcel on Tuesday afternoon. Avoiding temptation to ask him to drive it down to the airport for us, I put it down to just one of those things as right now trying to buy anything last minute was tricky. Although both of my children announcing about three days before the holiday that not a single one of their bikinis or swimsuits ‘worked’ was perhaps the problem rather than delivery issues.



Anyway, Freya went into SuperDry with Seren to have a look at bikinis while Mat went up to Pret to get a coffee for himself and said he’d bring one back from Starbucks for me. I meanwhile stood outside SuperDry as the bag holder. Freya found a bikini she liked so I went in to have a look and a staff member came over to tell us they had fitting rooms if she wanted to try it on. That sounded like the best plan so off she went to try it on. This for some reason took ages. Once she was done and said it fit, I paid for the bikini and we moved on. The girls went down to Boots to pick out the bits of make up and stuff they’d forgotten. I caught up with them while Mat stayed outside with the bags and my coffee which I had yet to get anywhere near. It was very busy and squashed in Boots (why are airport Boots’ so small with tiny narrow aisles?) Usually we all get some snacks and water for the plane from Boots so I sent the girls to choose what they wanted and I texted Mat to ask if he wanted anything as I couldn’t face coming back in for a second trip and wouldn’t suggest he did either. I got some barbecue Proper Chips for me and water for everyone. I sent Seren outside as it was a bit of a kerfuffle in there and having three of us crowded around one of the tiny self service machines wasn’t going to work. Freya helped me pay as we had inch of space to put everything while we put it through the check-out. It was self service machines in there only, no proper tills and it was not ideal since we were buying quite a few bits and it was so busy.

Once we finally emerged I felt like I needed a lie-down but a few slurps of my rapidly cooling black Americano did the trick. We went upstairs to Pret as everyone wanted more food for now, and I usually take a sandwich on the plane as the gap between the hot meal at the beginning of the flight and the sandwich towards the end always feels like about a month. Unfortunately there weren’t many vegan sandwiches and you know what it’s like in Pret when you can’t even see what they have because it’s three people deep in front of the sandwiches. I think they had three vegan sandwiches in total so I chose the Christmas flatbread (I don’t know why it was called a flatbread as it was a wrap.) Seren got some dried mango and a second smoothie. We decided at this point to go to the Lounge. As a silver Avios member, Mat gets BA lounge entry for himself plus one guest with staff discretion to let the whole family in if it’s quiet. Over the years we’ve sometimes got in as a family and sometimes have not even bothered to try when it’s been busy. In August at Heathrow Terminal 5 when we were flying to Edinburgh, we made the decision to leave the grumpy teens by Starbucks in departures with something to eat and drink and quickly pop into the lounge on our own for a drink which worked out great. We’d had half an hour to relax with a free drink and brought free waters and crisps out for us all for later. So today we planned to do the same again.

Departures selfie:



It was about 8.50 am at this point, and our boarding gate was being announced at 9.20 am. Flying at 10.25 was great in terms of (hopefully) getting to Florida nice and early but it certainly made it an early start and a short departure airport experience (although with that being Gatwick I wasn’t complaining too much. I should probably stop with the Gatwick-bashing. But I can’t until after this next thing.)

We followed the signs for ‘lounges’ but when we got down there we couldn’t find a BA lounge. We assumed it must be in a different place so we walked back to the middle of Departures. We couldn’t see anything signposted and Googling didn’t help so Mat queued at the information desk for 10 minutes to ask while I ate my banana and the girls quizzed me about what we were doing for the next couple of days. There were a good few people at the Information desk with issues and complaints so it seemed to take ages. When Mat was able to speak to a staff member he was told there were no BA staff around but they believed BA customers had use of the No. 1 Lounge. We walked back down there (the same place as our first attempt to find it) and before we could even get to the No. 1 Lounge desk we saw a sign that they weren’t accepting reward card holders and only paid bookings could enter as the lounge was full. BA are only temporarily at North Terminal while the South is closed so they don’t have a lounge. As the airport was so busy now that it was Christmas holidays, I’d expect it’s the busiest they’ve been for a while so it probably wouldn’t usually be an issue but it was a bit disappointing.

Abandoning the lounge plan, we found some seats and I went to use the toilets. When I got back I had a few bites of the Pret vegan chocolate cookie I’d bought at the same time as my sandwich but I could tell it was a day old as it was stale. I didn’t really fancy it anyway as I generally don’t eat sweet things. I had only bought it because I couldn’t find anything else I fancied for breakfast but in the end, the banana Seren had got me had done the job. Mat went to the toilet and then our gate was called at 9.20 as promised. I had sent the girls over to the board to check when it was announced to give them something productive to do. Our gate was 573 which was about a five minute walk. The girls went to the toilet on the way and I picked up a free copy of the New York Times for the plane which I didn’t bother to even look at. I think I couldn’t be doing with opening up a broadsheet in the confines of my little seat in the cabin.



Handy sign:







By about 9.45 it was quite crowded at the gate and they started boarding special assistance. They then called groups one and two together.



We are group two and as there weren’t that many people boarding in groups one and two it only took about five minutes. There was a nice man checking our passports who told us to have a good day and a good Christmas which was lovely.



We were row 29 so just a few rows back in economy which is where we usually book to sit for a quick exit. We always choose the four middle seats. We had all forgotten about Seren’s travel sickness pill which she is supposed to take an hour before flying so we sorted that. There was an announcement once everyone had boarded that there was a technical issue and we would be delayed 10-15 minutes.



After 15 minutes, they announced that we were ready to go but just had to wait for a take-off slot. The safety demonstration was done manually rather than the amusing videos they had before the pandemic. I believe it’s because they have to talk about masks now.



We pushed back at 10.45 am which was 20 minutes after our scheduled departure time so not too bad. The flight time on the entertainment system said 9 hours 30 minutes which was a bit grim and the pilot confirmed this and said it was because of a strong tail wind. As soon as I had sat down, I caught up with notes from the morning and told myself I wouldn’t watch anything until I was all caught up, especially knowing there was more time to fill with it being such a long flight.

We took off at 11 am. When I was done with my notes I scrolled the entertainment system. I had ordered adaptors for Freya and I for our Apple earphones to connect them to the entertainment system a few days before the trip since we couldn't find our old ones. However I had amusingly ordered them with the wrong 'ends' so when we went to plug them in once on the plane, they wouldn't attach to the system. So it was BA free headphones for us. The entertainment selection was pretty bad which wasn’t ideal for a long flight as I tend to just keep watching things to pass the time and don’t stop to do anything else. There were definitely less films than usual which I get to a degree because of there being less films made in the last couple of years, but when we flew in February 2020 or 2019 they’d had a dedicated Valentines’ section with extra classic rom-coms making the selection better. I was expecting them to do the same with Christmas films which would have been great as we’d barely watched any Christmas films so far this year with all the stress and busyness of the build up to the trip. So that was a shame. I picked out about three films I was interested in and a couple of documentaries but knew my picks had to last me the flight home too so I needed to be sparing with them. There also wasn’t even such a good selection of TV comedy box sets as the before times; no Friends or Modern Family for example.

I decided to start with The Broken Hearts Gallery which was pretty good. Drinks were served once I’d got settled into it. I had a gin (Gordon’s) and tonic (Schweppes ) and a water and Freya had a Diet Coke.



Pretty much as soon as we’d finished our drinks they brought our special meals. The vegan meal was sweet potato curry with brown rice. There was a lot more rice than curry which was disappointing as the curry was pretty good. We’d ordered the girls vegan meals even though we knew they wouldn’t eat them as they never eat the meals on the plane and Freya isn’t even vegan. But we thought it would be a good idea so we could have extra since we don’t get any snacks or anything on the plane as there’s nothing vegan, including the pretzels they bring round with the drinks.





The girls could also pick anything off their meal trays they wanted then too. I ate both mine and Freya’s curry and some of the rice. Seren ate everyone’s cucumber. The dessert was fruit and it was a bit sad but I had a couple of grapes and pieces of pineapple but left the melon and apple. We had finished our meals before everyone else got theirs. They were three crew down because of covid so everything was a bit slower. I didn’t get offered wine as the crew passed by us giving out the regular meals, and nor did Mat. However he grabbed someone as they went past to get me a Merlot.



Because of the staff shortages the tea and coffee also took a while to come round but I never have tea or coffee anyway. It took ages until all the food and drinks were cleared away. When I’d finished the movie I watched Reclaiming Amy about Amy Winehouse which I didn’t like as much as the original Amy documentary and then The History of MTV which was better. I shall repeat that the movie and TV selection was not great.

I had my Proper Chips as I was feeling a bit peckish. By now it must have been about four hours into the flight based on what I’d watched. The cabin crew brought round juice and water on a tray and Freya and I both had water. They did this about four times before the end of the flight and each time I had a water. Flying makes me extra thirsty. A message came up on the screens to say to call if we needed anything, keep masks on if sleeping and that the next meal would be 5.30 pm (UK time.)

There was a tall older teenage boy in front of me who reclined right back so I couldn’t cross my legs without his seat pressing into my leg which was annoying. I’m very much a non-recliner but always seem to get sat behind people who do.

The girls watched a few films and played some of the games on the system like Angry Birds and Tetris. Seren won £1m on Who Wants to be a Millionaire with Mat’s help. Unfortunately she didn’t get the prize money.



I caught up on some more notes and then ate my Pret sandwich which was not good. It was basically a wrap with big chunks of butternut squash with small amounts of falafel and lots of spinach.

Next I watched Unpregnant which was good and then In The Heights which I’d seen before and loved. I knew it would be a safe bet for when I was getting fed up of being on the plane. It really felt like a long flight, partly because it was and partly because we were out of practise I guess.

Around an hour and a half before we landed they brought out brown paper bags of tea. Ours was a chickpea and quinoa salad with a citrus dressing which was nice. I’m never very impressed with the tea when it’s a soggy sandwich and often I’ll leave it even if I’m hungry so this was a nice surprise. I ate both mine and Freya’s. I think we kept the snack bars for later in the trip.



When the cabin crew brought round the general bags after our special meals had been delivered, a nice member of crew offered Freya another bag and said ‘Take a bag, it’s got a chocolate in it’ which was sweet of him. She got a treat-sized Crunchie so she was happy with that.

So with the strong headwind we didn’t land until 3.30 pm. Have I said that the flight felt really long? I know we were out of practise but by the end Freya and I were saying it felt like we’d been on the plane forever. Obviously I’m grateful we were even on the plane but my word it felt like an age from getting on to touching down. I know it’s a means to an end but with the recliner in front of me meaning I couldn’t move my legs and with my screen basically in my face, I was very ready to get off and started thinking that we might need to sell kidneys and pay for premium in future (we did go through a brief phase of paying for premium at least on the return journey but lately the upgrade prices have been prohibitive when I’ve booked.)

Anyway, amazingly my film finished just as we were about to land. We had been told to stay seated and get off as we were called which I liked the idea of because I don’t like the bunfight of jumping up to retrieve baggage and get out into the aisle. But equally having been on the plane for over ten hours at this point, everyone was of course very eager to get off. By the time the premium cabin were called to get up, people in our section at the front of economy clearly couldn’t wait any longer and got out of their seats. My recliner friend kindly offered to let Freya and I go ahead of him in the aisle while he and I were both reclaiming our bags from the overhead locker, so maybe recliners are sometimes generous when they’re not being inconsiderate in their seats .

As we disembarked, a nice cabin crew lady said ‘Merry Christmas’ which reminded me again that it was actually Christmas time. Making the walk from the plane up to the immigration hall it seemed a bit surreal seeing the familiar signs and carpets, and looking out of the window at palm trees and what was clearly a Florida sky. As we passed our first airport worker and heard his American voice, it started to sink in that we had finally made it back to the US after 22 months and four cancelled trips.

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