Toddling Back to Florida April/May 16: Pre Travel Day

[The Fatadder]

Welcome to my second attempt at a trip report, I promise I will try and ensure that it is finished slightly quicker than the last one was! For a recap, a link to the pre-trip report is HERE

This year’s trip started a little different to our original plan. We had intended to spend the morning of our travel day having a gender confirmation scan to find out the baby’s gender, before driving up to Gatwick in the afternoon. However unfortunately my work had other thoughts, and instead I needed to be in Sevilla the Tuesday before we travelled so the scan had to be rearranged.

A quick trip to Sevilla later and I am sat in the airport reading The Dibb and looking at the weather forecast for the week ahead, it's going to be a hot one! For once the BA flight home was on time and I was soon checking into the Sofitel a night earlier than originally planned.
sevilla_zpsrfifwkev by Rich Pedder, on Flickr
The view of the office from Sevilla Airport with the office in the background

Arriving at the Sofitel was very seamless as they had conveniently matches up my corporate booking and my personal one to the same room. I checked in at 10pm and headed straight to the urban cafe for the first burger of the holiday, before turning in for the night.
the sofitel_zpsl3ov8ojz by Rich Pedder, on Flickr

the sofitel 2_zpsau17h0ld by Rich Pedder, on Flickr
Standard room at the Gatwick Sofitel

The breakfast buffet was a massive improvement over last year, with Helen not arriving for another 8 hours I took the opportunity to have a Full English with a lot of mushrooms (given that she is allergic). As usual they took forever to bring over the coffee.
breakfast sofitel_zpst3nvu62y by Rich Pedder, on Flickr
Tasty, but at something like £14 glad I wasn’t paying.

Back at home Evie was dropped off at nursery, giving Helen enough time to do the final jobs around the house along with taking the dog and cats to Helens parents who would look after them while we were away. My parents met up with Helen, loaded the 3 large cases, car seat and pushchair into the car and then headed towards London (picking Evie up from nursery along the way.) They arrived at the Sofitel at around 4pm, which was handy given the amount of work I needed to get done prior to the holiday.
evie in car_zpsglxatgvi by Rich Pedder, on Flickr
Evie getting into the holiday spirit

I met up with everyone else at reception and headed out to the car to help bring in the cases, with the doorman helping to get the cases up to the room. After pausing in the room to show Evie the planes out of the window, we then headed down to dinner (only the Urban Café was open making it an easy decision.)
looking at planes_zpsxupapx3l by Rich Pedder, on Flickr
Very pleased with herself that she could climb up and see the planes

Helen had the calamari (taking advantage of the fact that the NHS has now changed the rules to say that cooked seafood if fine while pregnant.) Evie had melon followed by ham and tomato pasta, while I had a meat pizza. The food was nice, Evie loved her melon, however my pizza base was a bit over cooked and I preferred the burger from the night before. The total for the three of us (excluding the drinks) was £36.
e pudding_zpsj7xgqodn by Rich Pedder, on Flickr

e dinner 2_zpsw16yoagd by Rich Pedder, on Flickr

e dinner 1_zpshkwvks8e by Rich Pedder, on Flickr

h dinner_zpsrs3oqfv9 by Rich Pedder, on Flickr
Evie's child’s meal along with Helen’s calamari, unfortunately I had already started before thinking of photos.


waiting for dinner_zpsetxzkykg by Rich Pedder, on Flickr Once she had finished eating Evie got a little restless, eventually Granddad took her over to the fountain.

After dinner it was time for nanny and granddad to head home to Devon, leaving us with a somewhat upset Evie. We headed back up to the room to show her the aeroplanes out the window, and generally try and tire her out. Needless to say we failed and she went to bed far too late (finally settling down in our bed at 20:45.) Once she was asleep I headed down to the bar to pick up our welcome drinks and took them back up to the room. Evie was now fast asleep and I was finally able to transfer her onto the fold up bed, before getting some sleep.
asleep at last_zpsfv7z31oy by Rich Pedder, on Flickr Not quite asleep…

[kansaskitty]

Yayyyyyy I have been looking forward to this! A smooth pre travel day except for poor Evie getting upset, bless her. You even managed some drinks in the room, a great start!

[collybird]

Congratulations on the new baby! Evie must be so excited.

Looking forward to reading about your trip it must have been a completely different experiences from last time now that Evie's old enough to enjoy it.

[lady emz]

Great start!

[The Fatadder]

Thanks for reading (and the congratulations)
It was a very smooth day, part of why I always like to minimise the stress of traveling by staying over the night before.

[sophiepop]

Originally Posted by The Fatadder

Thanks for reading (and the congratulations)
It was a very smooth day, part of why I always like to minimise the stress of traveling by staying over the night before.

See more...

We think its worth every penny to stay over the night before

[Ariel princess]

Great travel day, we always stop the night before too, so smooth

[jellybean]

Ah great start! We're taking a 2.5 year old in November, she was only 6 months last time so this will be a whole new experience!

[sarahewoods]

Great start, looking forward to more. Xx