It's Going To Be A BIG One - Pre Travel Day - August 2017

[miss_mouse]

Trip Report Index

4 Nights Royal Pacific Resort – 6 Nights Beach Club – 16 nights Bahama Bay
9th August - 5th September 2017



Pre Travel Day – Wednesday 9th August 2017

‘’The ‘PRE Day’

Just to start, I'm Lisa - the planner and reporter. Ade is my hubby and he's our driver and there's Hollie who is 18 and Louis is 15.

I am so late with writing this.

I have a ‘Pre Trip Report’ here if you would like a read.

Our day started on Wednesday at 6am.

I work for myself from home which is so so stressful when going away as there’s always so much to do and I’m rubbish at closing my door on work at the best of times. Despite leaving today for the trip, I was still working.

Part way through the morning I had coffee with Ade and Adam the Woo (our fave YouTuber )

We finished our packing which had started about 4 weeks ago and then did something really exciting…..we booked flights to Atlanta for our Summer 2018 trip! We are doing a road trip starting in Tennessee, heading down to Savannah and then on to Orlando. The flights were released that morning and we snapped 4 seats up in Premium using our miles and free Upgrades. Thank you Virgin Amex!

I got shot of my final bag of work post and we came back and had a picnic lunch with the kids and watched Modern Family. This was a first. Usually the kids were at school when we were doing all this. We have never gone away in the Summer holidays before.
Final tidies and cleans….and we were ready to leave at 3pm as we’d planned.

Exciting!

All ready, cases in the car …..waiting for a Ade……then Ade comes and Louis says he needs a drink!

We drive off…yay holidays….and Ade needs to check something in the boot of the car, so we pull over…..what is it with boys? !



The drive to Gatwick was horrid.

The usual 45mins took 1hr45mins. The rain and wind was terrible. Just what you’d expect in the middle of August!
Traffic was awful too.
We heard on a radio that a tree had just come down on the country road that joins us to the M3. We must have just missed that. Then joining the M25 a lorry went past us and then hit a car a few cars up from us.

We finally got to Gatwick. First time in the North Terminal for us and first time using Premium parking. This may be our 5th Orlando trip but this was a trip of many firsts.
In Premium parking, you put in your ticket and it welcomes you by name!



The spaces were HUGE and the cars around us POSH. Hollie reassured us that at least with us being surrounded by all these lovely cars, no one would want to break in to our old crappy Honda CRV. That girl sees the positive in everything!



First Lift Selfie!



Checkin was just a couple of minutes walk away. So easy. And when we walked in we were they only passengers there.
To add to our firsts, we were flying Premium. Checkin was easy and friendly.

We grabbed our over night bags from the car and walked over the road to the Premier Inn.
We were already checked in so we just needed a key. Nice and easy again.



We had booked a family room. We dropped our bags, quick freshen up and wandered downstairs for dinner. Tablw was booked for 7pm and we were seated at 6.50pm.



We’d booked the meal deal for £26.50 each. Under 16’s eat free at breakfast. Louis was fine and we always pretend Hollie is still under 16. She’s 4ft10 and had the appetite of a sparrow.
The kids food and our drinks came to £48.
We always enjoy our meals here.
















We laughed how Hollie had just turned 18 and was enjoying having a drink, but would have to stop now for a month as she couldn’t drink in the US.

After dinner we left the kids in the room and Ade and I went to get the satnav that we’d forgotten in the car.

We got back, kids showered. I did work emails in bed. We had chocolate oranges and tea.
It was so cozy!

The evening was so much fun and there had been so many giggles.



I love hanging out with this lot!



Roll on tomorrow!
It had been almost 3 years since we were last in Orlando. We were so ready to go back.

And if you would like to watch this day, I have a video here

Thanks so much for reading. I’ll be back with the travel day very soon xx

[smithlane]

Ooh really looking forward to this Lisa. Sounds like a very smooth pre travel day, I can feel your excitement for the holiday just reading about it

[mouselover22]

Hi Lisa :waves: so excited to see another trippie from you!

Your plans sound fab! So looking forward to reading all about your epic adventure

Wow, Louis looks so grown up

[piglet100]

I've watched the vlogs but I'm reading this anyway!

[Firstxmastrip]

Yay really looking forward to this!

[collybird]

Your road trip for this year sounds amazing, you are going to see (and more importantly eat at) some amazing places.

Can't believe it's been three years since your last trip, it doesn't seem that long!

[JanetteP]

Great start, looking forward to more.

[KittyBlackDog]

I spy the folder of happiness 😂👍🏻

Looking forward to reading more

😘😘

[i love jack]

Looking forward to reading

[LostPrincess]

What an exciting start Looking forward to reading along!