The Surprise Budget Trip - Travel Day - 19th 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

Previous day is 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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Travel Day - 19th May 2019

Not a very good nights sleep for me as usual when I'm not in my own bed. My alarm was set for 6.30am but I was awake from 6am. I woke Chris and told him to get sorted, Caitlin was next to wake followed by Noah then I woke Thomas at 7am. We were in the restaurant for 7.30am eating breakfast.

Breakfast was at the Premier Inn at Heald Green. If I remember correctly it was £9.50 per adult and kids eat free (up to 2 kids per adult)

This is your standard breakfast buffet. You could help yourself to all continental foods such as cereals, toast, fruit, yoghurt etc. You then order your cooked breakfast with the server. Chris and Thomas had more or less a full english, Noah had hash browns and sausage, Caitlin had sausage and bacon and I had bacon and soft boiled eggs. The food was lovely and plentiful. I was a bad reporter and forgot photos but I did manage to get a photo of Noah with his Minnie Mouse so I'll pop that in instead

Mr Grump had an app on his phone to show planes coming in to land. We watched a few through the window as we were eating breakfast which the kids loved. We were finished by 7.55am and headed back to the room to get the case for the car. In the room Chris seen a Virgin flight coming in from Orlando which I said would probably be ours so we rushed outside to see it come in, it was called Pretty Woman and turned out to be the plane we did in fact travel on!

We got the airport for 8.15am and headed to bag drop as we checked in online the day before (No SSSS for Mr Grump this time!) Noah was getting really antsy in the queue but luckily we were seen to quite quickly.

We then headed to security with Noah on his Trunki. This time security asked Noah to take his ear defenders off to put them through the scanner. I wasn't allowed to go straight through with him this time and had to go through the scanner. Every one of us apart from Chris (who was at the back) needed extra searches. I could see Noah's eyes darting everywhere and could see he was becoming distressed, I kept talking to him, but as you know it becomes really loud in there. Luckily it didn't take too long and as soon as I was done I got to his eye level and managed to calm him down by talking and asking him if we should go and see if his ear defenders were through the scanner.

My case got pulled to the side for extra security which I knew would happen as I had my embroidery scissors in. I took them out and showed the officer and he said they were fine. We then noticed Thomas's bag had been pulled aside for extra checks too. We asked him if there was anything in there there shouldn't be and he said no. The officer brought it to me and we opened it up ... well lets just say he won't be packing his own bag again! He had his switch charging station, his amazon tablet, headphones, a power bank and his Nintendo Switch even the customs officer had himself a chuckle.

Next we headed to WH Smiths where we got a sandwich meal deal and a drink. Mr Grump offered to buy the kids a book each in (being 3 for 2 and all) well his chin almost hit the floor when he realised at the till the book Caitlin had picked up was £12.99! He was even more peeved off when he googled after and found out he could get it everywhere else cheaper 😂 so we had to listen to him whinge and moan for a while.

We had about an hour to wait so headed to one of the bars and got a drink.

Last time we boarded first and Noah got very nervous with the long wait. We asked him whether he wanted to be first or last and he wanted to go first again so we joined the queue to board. We boarded around 10am and the flight was 11.10am.

We set off about 10 minutes late. Noah was an absolute super star on the flight, he coped so well even taking his ear defenders off. I asked school to send him some work home to do on the flight so he got straight down to it

At 11.36am they brought the food menu round and this was the choices

They brought a drink and the obligatory pack of pretzels just after this. I had a white wine and diet coke with mine (not together may I add ) Mr Grump had vodka and coke

Lunch was brought for the kid's at 12.36pm. This was

Tomato and cheese pasta, pot wit cucumber, cheese and carrot sticks, mini cheddars, breadsticks, laughing cow cheese and a caramel and chocolate cake pot thing

Caitlin left the pasta but ate most of the other stuff, Thomas ate 1/2 the pasta and everything else and I think Noah was pretty much the same (he was sat with Mr Grump)

Our food arrived around 20 minutes later. I got the chilli and Mr Grump got the chicken in mushroom sauce. I didn't like anything on the menu but thought I could at least eat the rice on the chili The adult meals consisted of

Chili with rice and sweetcorn or chicken in a mushroom sauce and mash, side salad, 2 mini crackers with cheese and a GU chocolate pot

Mr Grump tried the chilli and said it was nice, he also enjoyed his chicken in mushroom sauce but he's not a fussy eater really.

During the flight I watched 4 episodes of Friends. I started watching the new Mary Poppins but I really couldn't get into it so I turned it off. I can't remember what else I watched and I didn't take note Noah did some more work then some sticker books and played on his tablet.

I got my crocheting out and did a couple of squares of my blanket then came over quite sleepy so I put it away (could have been the wine or lack of sleep )

Around an hour later they came round with teas and coffees. I had tea and Caitlin had a coffee

Those who read the report last year will know I was devastated to find out that Virgin had swapped their mini fab lolly's for mini twister lolly's!

So imagine my delight when I'd seen a few weeks before we flew they'd brought the mini fabs back ... I may or may not have done a dance similar to this!



Imagine how I felt when I'd slipped into a little nap, woke and found the kids munching on the mini fab lolly's!

Thomas said you were asleep mam and we didn't want to wake you ... bless him. He then went and got me one from cabin crew

Noah swapped seats with Thomas and sat with me and fed Minnie some of his lolly

At 6.01pm they brought the kid's sandwiches round. Now I know my kids are fussy but surely they should offer the kids a more child friendly sandwich. The kid's were given the exact same sandwiches we were and obviously didn't eat them, such a waste really. To be honest I didn't eat mine either as I don't like pesto! Ours were brought out about 30 minutes later.

Mozzerella with green pesto, slow roasted tomato and rocket in a seeded roll. Scone with clotted cream and jam

It wasn't long till landed so we all got settled for landing. For some reason I began to feel unwell the landing wasn't bad but it just didn't agree with my stomach and I was sick. Once we'd landed I went to the toilet to freshen up and when I came back Chris had gotten all the bags down so we waited to disembark. We landed 15 minutes early.

Off the plane and into the Immigration hall when ...

'Chris where's my bag?'

'Your pulling it'

'No my handbag, with all the passports and everything in.'

'I don't know did you get out the overhead storage'

'No I thought you got everything'

'Well I didn't know it was there'



So I ran back to the plane but obviously they won't let you back on. I headed back to the Immigration hall and for some reason Chris had taken himself and the kids off into the Immigration queue! I spoke to an officer who send somebody onto the plan to retrieve my bag and managed to get Chris and the kids to come and wait where I was. A few words were muttered between us about the bag.

The officer took about 10 minutes then they took us straight to the front of the queue with Noahs sunflower lanyard which was a great help as he was already starting to kick up a fuss.

Just about to go to the customs officer and Thomas declares he's 'DYING' for the toilet 🙄 so he rushes to the toilet and arrives back just as we're called over.

Due to us being at the back of the plane and the carry on of leaving my bag our cases were all there when we got through ... finally something was going right

We headed to Virgin Holidays and collected our pack and they directed us to Alamo for our car hire. We had hired a Mid-Size SUV and were directed to the area. Thomas and I collected the car seats and we choose a car. A white Nissan Rogue. It was around 4pm now and we were finally on our way. We headed to the exit and there were 2 lanes open, Chris choose the left lane ... obviously there had to be something wrong. We ended up being sat for 20 minutes in the queue as the car at the front was having problems, 15 minutes later we seen 2 workers arrive with 2 car seats and finally off they went We couldn't move into the other lane as there was a queue in that one too but at least that one was moving!

4.20pm and we were finally on our way to Rosen Inn International ... obviously we had to go the wrong way at least once so ended up paying an extra $2.50 in tolls

We eventually arrived at the RII around 5pm. We got checked in and headed to our room (after they tried to get us to sign up to a timeshare talk for $100 )

Once in the room we started unpacking. The kids were tired after all it was almost 11pm at home but I wanted to hold out as long as possible. We got half the unpacking done then headed to McDonalds right next to the hotel.

We were at McDonalds for around 6.15pm (11.15pm UK time). They had a little play in the play area then we sat and ate food. We only got a photo of Caitlin's meal ... no idea why she got

Pepperoni Pizza

Chris and I had a double cheeseburger and shared some fries, the boys had a box of 20 nuggets and fries to share. We all got a small drink each too. We thought this was quite expensive at $41.20. Now I know Caitlin had a full pizza but normally in McDonalds at home we only pay just over £20. Anyway never mind. We all enjoyed it but at the end of the day it's McDonalds isn't it Caitlin really enjoyed her pizza and managed about 3/4s of it.

Noah started complaining of his tummy hurting and was completely wiped out bless him. We headed back to the room to finish unpacking and wait for our order from Fairytale Personal Shopper. Well the once tired Noah had now gone over the tired threshold and was a complete nightmare, rough playing with Thomas and hurting him, being silly and hyper running around the room

I went to collect our order with Caitlin where we met Beth and her lovely niece who helped us to the room with our shopping and parcels. When we got back to the room Noah was fast asleep with his eye mask on from his kids pack on the plane it was so cute. All 3 of them were fast asleep by 8.30pm which I think's great for the travel day.

We had a few meltdowns but definitely not as many as there could have been as Noah coped really well x

[Cinderella]

Great start 👍

[clochette]

Good start. Looking forward to reading along.

[mouselover22]

Great flight, I’m equally thrilled Virgin have brought back the mini Fab lollies

There’s always a small blip at the airport, I think it’s the law 🙄

Pizza and pasta at MaccyD’s just doesn’t seem right, does it?

[Buggles94]

Love your trip reports! Noah coped brilliantly and very impressed how calm you sound re the handbag... Glad it all worked out and you got there safely

[caitlinsmummy]

Originally Posted by Cinderella

Great start 👍

See more...

Thanks for reading x

Originally Posted by clochette

Good start. Looking forward to reading along.

See more...

Thanks for reading x

Originally Posted by mouselover22

Great flight, I’m equally thrilled Virgin have brought back the mini Fab lollies

There’s always a small blip at the airport, I think it’s the law 🙄

Pizza and pasta at MaccyD’s just doesn’t seem right, does it?

See more...

I'm so glad it's not just me. You can't beat a fab lolly!

There is. In a way we were really lucky as this was the day Manchester airport couldn't fill planes with fuel. When we landed we had lots of messages from people checking we'd got away ok. I think because out flight was before 12pm we got away ok. I had 2 friends who had their flights either cancelled or delayed to the following day!

It doesn't but it helped us with Caitlin as she's so picky, but pizza and pasta and she's happy as Larry. I did have a bite of it and it was quite nice xx

Originally Posted by Buggles94

Love your trip reports! Noah coped brilliantly and very impressed how calm you sound re the handbag... Glad it all worked out and you got there safely

See more...

[Goldia]

Oh my goodness I can't believe you left your bag with the passports on the plane. It all got sorted pretty quickly but I bet you were panicking big time waiting. Phew, you've arrived!

[caitlinsmummy]

Originally Posted by Goldia

Oh my goodness I can't believe you left your bag with the passports on the plane. It all got sorted pretty quickly but I bet you were panicking big time waiting. Phew, you've arrived!

See more...

Not going to lie I had tears when rushing back to the plane as it had our spending money in too. There was only about $600 including the kids spending money but still would have been awful to lose ... I seemed to have a habit of leaving things on this holiday I can laugh now but definitely not at the time x

[Michyloulou]

A great travel day - I’m glad you managed to get your Fab lolly & handbag! 😲

[collybird]

I was so stressed reading about your bag, not a good start to the trip.

On the road by 4pm isn’t bad at all.

Nothing beats the feeling of checking into the hotel and knowing that you are actually there.