Princesses of the Caribbean P&O Arvia February 2024. Day 1 Travel day

[vampiress88]

Pre travel day.
We didn’t do much today. I took some things to the post office, I’d already had my hair done a few days back, the kids were in school and apart from pack we didn’t do much at all.

Friday Day 1.
We were up at 5.30 this morning to get showered and ready, it still took us until 6.50 to set off. Scott drove to Manchester and we did the meet and greet as usual. We find this the easiest ones, better than when we did the Disneyland Paris one.

We got there for around 8.30am so we made good time. Dropped our bags off at the check in, went through security and we hadn’t even passed an hour.

Everywhere looked busy so we took a guess at where we would depart from and went and sat there. We found a plane called Alfie and sent a photo to sister in law who had just had Freddie the day before so Alfie was a big brother now.

We got bored so went for a walk back to where all the coffee shops are and as soon as we did our gate got called. We went back down to the gate, put my flight socks on while the others queued and boarded around 11.10. The plane however was delayed till around 12 take off that should have been 11.35.

I’ve decided that I really don’t like flying, hate all the waiting around to get there for the day. It’s not exactly relaxing.
I managed to break my tv screen and it couldn’t be reset without resetting the whole plane so I didn’t have anything to do for 9 hours. I’m not sure how I managed to break it,Scott says I just have that kind of touch but this was a really inconvenient time for this to happen. I was sat next to random people and Scott sat with the girls. They seemed perfectly happy as they were watching tv most of the time.

Me and Scott sort of napped, although I’m always worried about snoring. We had a drink, which we thought was chargeable but wasn’t so we got a few drinks, Scott had beer. Food came around about 3 hours into the flight. Some kind of chicken with rice, bread and butter with cheese and crackers and a chocolate pot. They had forgotten about the kids so they used an adults one plus kids ones so they ended up with loads of snap. They had the kids meal which was chicken with broccoli and potatoes, but they said they were too hard. Then they had everything else we had plus a bag of mini cheddars and a chocolate bar! Wish I’d had the kids meal instead.

Few more drinks then about 7pm we got afternoon tea. We didnt get a photo as Scott had the phones. This was sandwiches egg,cheese and pickle, then cheese spread. They were horrid. Then a caramel tiffin which was nice. We also polished off two bottles of water and the fruit pastels we fetched. We took the mini cheddars and the other two water bottles off with us.

We landed at 8.50 U.K. time. So around 4.50pm. It was strange getting off the plane with the little steps then lining up for the bus but It took 50 minutes sat on the tarmac before we got off the plane and onto the bus. The bus was 35mins drive. When we got there we somehow got let to bypass some of the queue for check in as we were the only one with kids left which was great.

By the time we had gone through all the security and boarded, dropped our bag off at the cabin and went to the buffet for dinner as we weren’t dressed for the main dining room it was 7pm as we were still in our travel clothes and the bags hadn’t come.

So the plan to go to savvy’s went out the door as we were all too tired
I had chilli and rice with sweet potato fries, kids and Scott had hunters chicken with sweet potato fries and salad. We really do not like the buffet at all. But that was all we could have.

We were shattered so Scott got two beers and headed back to the room. Me and kids had the water.

We were in bed for 8.30 which was 12.30am uk time. It had been a very long day. Our baggage wasn’t even here yet. I’d only packed the toothbrushs in hand luggage. So everyone slept nude.