Brought To You by The Letters A, J and R and the Number 3 - Day 1 Travel Day

[Jessika]

Day 1 Travel Day

My alarm was set for 04.15 as the flight was due to originally leave at 08.35 from terminal 2 Heathrow. We were flying with United Airlines connecting in Chicago. Alex has set his alarm a little later. I woke him when I was done in the bathroom. On waking he checked his phone and had received a text message to notify that our flight had an hour delay. We live a 15 minute drive from Heathrow and could’ve stayed in bed longer! Ramona did benefit and I was able to slow my rush. I now had time to make tea and coffee!

We left at 06.00 in an Uber. Printed our bag tags, the United attendant asked if we knew of the delay and said we only needed 40 minutes to connect in Chicago. I didn’t believe him. We went through security. We were beginning to get hungry and also flagging from the short sleep. Ramona saw something she’d like in Eat, so we sat with her then went looking for the Weatherspoons place which we couldn’t find!

We stopped by Boots to grab lunch for the plane then Alex and I grabbed something in Eat with another sit down, this was nice! Yes Ramona we should’ve just eaten with you here earlier!

We browsed duty free making a couple of purchases 2 perfumes for me and 1 Mac lipstick for Mone before heading to our gate and we were boarded in no time!

Our plane being prepped!

The flight was good United served a breakfast and then a roll before landing. I had chocolate crepes these were really good and a hot cheese sandwich, not so good.

United’s non meat breakfast offering.

There was water being offered throughout. I passed the time watching a couple of films and then Bob’s Burgers, there were 4 episodes on board.

We landed at terminal 4 and those connecting were given express boarding passes on exiting the plane and were sent through a quicker (I think) route to go through passport control. The border control officer was friendly and asked whether we preferred Disney or Universal and asked if we’d ridden Hulk. He then let us into Chicago. We then had to grab our 2 checked cases. Time was running out and so of course we headed to the wrong luggage carrousel initially and then had to recheck luggage, travel by bus to terminal 1. Alex’s bag was pulled and had to go through again. It had felt like we were racing with time and had gone into slow motion!

Alex instructed us that our gate was B2 and so we ran all the way down to the far end of the terminal which was boarding passengers to Los Angeles. We then began a jog (we could run no more)to find the board which instructed we needed to be at C23 which seemed to be miles away.

We made it sweaty, thirsty but glad! The flight was not yet boarding, passengers from the previous flight were still disembarking but it was a quick turn around and before we knew it we were on board. The flight was apparently full so we had to check our hand luggage cases. I really don’t like doing this but we didn’t have a choice. I had already packed some of my bits into my backpack but quickly grabbed my emergency clothes (my bags have gone missing previously) Alex and Mone just sent theirs through. Not as worried as me of the prospect of no clothes or toiletries!

Relieved to be on board our second flight.

Leaving Chicago for Orlando.

The flight to Orlando went quite smoothly, we were exhausted at this point. Mone wasn’t feeling great and my head hurt.

We landed at 17.53. We were through quickly as domestic passengers and our luggage was on the carousel as we arrived in the baggage hall.

Our car hire was with Dollar, they were also pretty speedy despite there not being a car in our category initially. We have a Kia Sportage a good size for the 3 of us.

Our driver for the next 2 weeks prepping the car!

We headed out to The Hard Rock Hotel via Publix for some drinks, snacks and tide pods to wash our clothes, they did arrive safely!

I lined up to check us in while Alex self parked. It was slow and he’d joined me just as I got to the front! We were allocated our room on the 5th floor, unpacked, we’re here four nights and then down stairs to the little shop and grabbed a pizza.

The Hard Rock Hotel.

My head hurts I suffer from migraines but despite plenty of water and medication I’ve not been able to shake this off. Ive now been awake for 23 hours so am hoping for a decent sleep and pain free day tomorrow. Thank you for reading.

[hardly]

Sounds like a stressful journey.
We plan on a similar route next year.
Have a good holiday

[Jessika]

It’s the early starts and tiredness. The flights were such a good price and it’s so handy landing as domestic passengers. Please don’t be put off. Thanks for reading and commenting.