The Surprise Budget Trip - Pre Travel Day - May 2019

[caitlinsmummy]

Welcome to our trip report! I'll start off by introducing the family and a little about the name of the report in case you haven't read the pre-trippie.

We are a family of five and we returned from Orlando in November 2018. In September 2018 Virgin had a MASSIVE sale and I found a bargain for just over £300pp for direct flights, accommodation at Rosen Inn International and transfers for 9 nights! It was too good a deal to pass up so I booked it. I intended to tell everyone at Christmas but needed to tell Mr Grump earlier. We told the kids on Christmas morning and they were over the moon.

Find the Index HERE

So this trip consisted of:

Myself (Kelly) - Chief planner and organiser ... none of the trip would have happened without me

Husband (Chris) - The laid back photographer one ... I guess it wouldn't have happened without him paying for it so I have to give him some recognition there

Caitlin (12) - total drama llama and pre teen one.

Thomas (10) - the cheeky brain box one.

Noah (6) - the cute one. Noah is autistic and struggles with change so holidays are quite often a challenge for him

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Pre Travel Day - 18th May 2019
Today started off with me waking around 7am. I got up showered and dressed and finished the last little bits of packing. Today Mr Grump had a full day wedding and the kids were going to Grandma and Granda's as they wouldn't see them for 2 weeks now.

I took our cat Belle (short for Tinkerbelle) to the cattery at 10am then dropped the kids off at Grandmas. On the way back I called into Argos and picked up a cheap £6 kettle for Caitlin and I to have tea in the room

Once home I emptied and cleaned the fridge and a friend popped in for a cuppa before she went to work for 12. After I've finished clearing the fridge out I hoovered and another friend arrived as we'd arranged to go out for lunch.

At 12.20pm we headed to a local pub and both decided to go all out and have 3 courses each

We both had a Pepsi Max to drink. I did contemplate an alcoholic drink as she drove but I did offer to drive to Manchester this evening as Mr Grump had been working all day

We both had potato skins, which I forgot to photograph We both wanted the cornedbeef pie for mains but there was only one slice left

So I changed to the steak and ale pie as she doesn't like steak and ale. I'm really glad I did actually as it was lovely

We were both rather stuffed after this and couldn't manage to squeeze a pudding in ... I know definitely not prepared for Florida! I thought I'd try my luck and ask if there was any chance we could takeaway and we could

I got the cornflake tart and custard and I think she got the treacle sponge and custard. Again I have no photos, but these were delicious. The cornflake tart is exactly like you used to get on school lunches!

We were back to mine for around 2pm and the weather was so miserable, it just rained all day! Once back to mine we had a cuppa and I went round rechecking that we had everything. I finalised the packing and moved everything in to the hallway ready to load the case up when Mr Grump got back.

I sat and sorted through the itinerary and made sure everything was printed off and stapled to the correct days

My friend left around 4.30pm and I made sure I'd scheduled all my Scentsy posts for when I was away then chilled with a cuppa before the kids came back.

The inlaws had been away the week before us so had some little presents for the kids. I got this sent from MIL and Noah coloured it in himself

They arrived back around 6/6.30pm and we put a film on (can't for the life of me remember what it was). We knew Mr Grump would be back between 8pm and 9.30pm so after the film we watched a couple of Wallace and Gromit episodes then I told the older 2 to check and make sure their hand luggage back packs were sorted ... remember this for tomorrow

Noah had been up early as usual and was flagging by 8.30pm. As I expected would happen because it's just our luck the wedding was running late

Mr Grump eventually got back just after 9pm, after loading the car up and one last sweep around we declared we were ready to leave. We set off at just gone 9.30pm for the 2 hour 20 minute to Manchester

Just 5 minutes into the journey I realised we'd left Noah's travel sickness tablets on the top. I'd got them out to give him one before the journey but forgot to repack them so off we went back home.

We finally set off again and everyone was pleased to finally be on their way. I was texting a friend griping about having to go back and how it was my fault according to Chris she kept me from murdering him

We were about 30 minutes into the journey when it suddenly dawned on me I didn't remember putting Noah's Buzz Lightyear backpack in the car. This is the little life one that has a wrist strap as Noah's prone to running off ... plus it had his ear defenders in the back

Mr Grump said he didn't think he'd seen it and that we weren't going back I had myself a little cry and stress in the car and posted on an Orlando group I'm in on Facebook to see if anyone could help (bearing in mind it was almost 10pm by now!)

Lots of very helpful suggestions and a few offers to collect, but many of them were out of Manchester and we wouldn't be arriving till late and wouldn't have time to collect in the morning. Typically it was a Saturday night so that also meant that nowhere would be open in the morning before the flight to go get some

In the end we had a couple of offers from several lovely people. One was from Leeds which we would be bypassing in about 30 minutes so I took her up on the offer. We called and picked them up and said we'd post once we were back. Such a lovely girl, only problem was when I picked them up I thought they looked quite small. I did state Noah's age on the group so thought they'd be ok. The did fit him but were rather snug! Turns out they're baby ones!

As long as he could use them in the airport it would be fine as this is what he struggles with the most.

The kids were all asleep by around 10.30pm. We arrived at the Premier Inn Heald Green at 11.50pm

As we'd only booked one room we tried to sneak in as 3 and 2 Caitlin, Thomas and I went first and picked up the room key. I took Caitlin and Thomas to the room and ended up having to leave them in darkness as I needed the key to get back in

I went out to get Chris and Noah and the receptionist gave us a funny look when we came back in I gave the card to Chris and asked to book for breakfast the next day and sorted that. The receptionist let me through the door and I found Chris and Noah wandering around the corridors looking for the room I took them to the room, we got everyone sorted and into bed. Kid's were back to sleep by 12.15am and Chris and I weren't much longer. Noah took his Minnie Mouse Scentsy which was really helping him settle. They're great for anxiety as it has a familiar scent that he knows. Normally he'd be bouncing round the room and wouldn't settle so this was fab!

What started as a chilled day ended up quite hectic and stressful but we made it and we were going to Florida tomorrow!

Tomorrow is Travel Day x

[mouselover22]

Very pleased to see this trippie make an appearance

Sounds like a day of two halves, with a kid free yummy lunch and then the stress on the way to the airport 🙈 Good thinking about posting a help message on Facebook

Even though it was a late one it’s still a no brainier to go the night before so you can wake up fresh and at the airport

Looking forward to reading all about your magical adventures

[caitlinsmummy]

Originally Posted by mouselover22

Very pleased to see this trippie make an appearance

Sounds like a day of two halves, with a kid free yummy lunch and then the stress on the way to the airport 🙈 Good thinking about posting a help message on Facebook

Even though it was a late one it’s still a no brainier to go the night before so you can wake up fresh and at the airport

Looking forward to reading all about your magical adventures

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Aww thanks Hayley hope you enjoy it.

To be honest I didn't expect anything less

We always go the night before, I just couldn't deal with the stress leaving on the morning, not for me xx

[Goldia]

What a stressful car journey. After having a nice relaxing lunch and sorting everything out to then forgetting the ear defenders! Oh no! A cute photo at the end I bet everyone was shattered by the time you got to bed.

[Milpston]

Looking forward to following along and I'm already envious of you quick return!

[Michyloulou]

A lovely day with friends & dinner followed by a helping of stress! Oh dear! Glad you got the backpack/wrist strap sorted. Look forward to following!

[collybird]

How lovely so many people offering to help out, I'd have been so stressed about leaving the backpack behind too.

[caitlinsmummy]

Originally Posted by Goldia

What a stressful car journey. After having a nice relaxing lunch and sorting everything out to then forgetting the ear defenders! Oh no! A cute photo at the end I bet everyone was shattered by the time you got to bed.

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I knew the day was going to well but at least we got there ok. We were xx

Originally Posted by Milpston

Looking forward to following along and I'm already envious of you quick return!

See more...

Thanks for reading again, just think you have an earlier countdown that me now though x

Originally Posted by Michyloulou

A lovely day with friends & dinner followed by a helping of stress! Oh dear! Glad you got the backpack/wrist strap sorted. Look forward to following!

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Thank you for reading I was so relieved to be sorted x

Originally Posted by collybird

How lovely so many people offering to help out, I'd have been so stressed about leaving the backpack behind too.

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It was, I was crying in the car at the generosity of people it was so lovely xx

[EmmaH]

Enjoying reading the thread. Have a quick question if you don’t mind... I cannot start the day without a cup of tea so want to get a travel kettle. Do the cheap ones work fine in the US or do you need dual voltage?

[caitlinsmummy]

Originally Posted by EmmaH

Enjoying reading the thread. Have a quick question if you don’t mind... I cannot start the day without a cup of tea so want to get a travel kettle. Do the cheap ones work fine in the US or do you need dual voltage?

See more...

Glad your enjoying it Emma

It worked perfectly fine, only thing was it took an age to boil ... probably 5-10 minutes but it worked so that was the main thing. I definitely recommend it for the sake of £7 xx