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Old 29 Oct 19, 02:57 PM  
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Goldia
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Washington DC - Memorials, museums and more Intros and Travel Day 22/10/19

Welcome to the Washington DC – Memorials, museums and more trip report!



We had 5 nights in Washington DC. During our stay we saw some memorials and we visited a fair few museums.











Plus, we made some magical memories.











Oh and we did a lot of walking.







Introductions and a bit of back story

If you're not interested in this part then skip down to when the trip starts.

I’m Abby, my DH is Dave and we have 2 children Max (15) and Kate (12). Here we are at the Lincoln memorial.



We love a city break in October half term, last year we went to Berlin and we’ve had a few other city breaks in Europe. We’ve also been to NYC and Boston, NYC in the summer and Boston over Christmas so they were polar extremes in the weather we experienced. This year though Washington DC was on the cards. We like walking and each day I designed a tour so that we could take in the sights of the city.

But this trip was as much about the journey as it was the destination. Because we are flying Business Baby woo hoo!

I have been saving up avios points for a few years now. I’ve read all the advice on how to build up points on BA Amex cards and managed to spend enough money to earn a 2 for 1 BA voucher back in May 2018 (I paid my WDW hotel booking for that year's trip ). I saved my voucher, quickly nominated Dave for a BA Amex card and we were able to spend enough money to earn another 2 for 1 voucher in November 2018 (more holidays were booked and paid for).

As soon as his voucher triggered I was looking at flights, I was really keen to do either Washington DC or San Francisco with the 2 for 1. San Francisco seemed a long way to go for just a week, as we’d pretty much lose travel day and this would give us just 6 days out there. We were really lucky though and there were reward seats available for all of us for BA Club World on a flight into BWI (Baltimore) which I found out was just an hour from WDC on the train, in the end we used Lyft as this was cheaper than the train for the four of us, quicker and less hassle.

Both Dave and myself to login and use our own vouchers so we’ve got 2 separate bookings for the flights. Kate is travelling for ‘free’ with me and Max is ‘free’ with Dave. All we had to pay was the tax. The kids were over the moon when we told them we were doing business class. They are very excited about this.

After booking the flights nothing happened for a fair few months, other than me reading a whole bunch of trip reports and ‘things to do in WDC’ threads on the Dibb. For the hotel I ended up booking one night at the Red Roof Airport Hotel in Baltimore as our flight in lands at around 7pm and I didn’t want to have to navigate through the immigration in Baltimore, catch a train to DC and then find our hotel. Plus the Red Roof was a mere £48 for a deluxe room for the night for all four of us bargain. All the hotels in WDC were coming out pretty pricey.

Our hotel for the next four nights is the Hyatt Place near Union Station. This is going to be handy as it’s easily walkable to lots of the sights. It includes breakfast and was £160 per night for the four of us

My brother in law works for BA and so we picked his brains by asking questions like ‘How early can we turn up to the lounge before we fly?’ Because of course we want to make the most of the free food and drink. It turns out it wouldn’t be ridiculous for us to get there 4 hours before the flight so that quickly turned into a plan and I booked up a meet and greet car parking service for LHR so that we can make the most of the travel day.

About a month before we flew out I was once again looking at the seat map in the app to see if we would likely be sitting together and I was reading all the information on the BA website about the benefits of flying Business. It turns out you can book your meal up to a month in advance of the flight. Yippee. Kate went for chicken tikka masala as she loves curry. She was hoping the smell from the galley isn’t as bad as it is back in economy as she spent most of the 9 hour flight to Florida this summer with her nose in a Pringles can as the smell makes her gag. Of course, I couldn’t resist booking the steak. I told Dave about it, but he didn’t seem that fussed about booking his airplane meal…only me that likes the planning in this house then! The weekend before we flew Dave decided he would book up the meal for him and Max, so they both went for steak too.

Pre travel day – Monday 21st October 2019

I woke up at about 1am and read for a bit, went back to sleep and then woke again at 3.51am and couldn’t go back to sleep so I got up, pootled around on the Dibb and drank lots of tea before the others finally got up.

Dave had already done his packing on the Sunday as he had to work today. Me and the kids still had to sort our packing out, but I decided pre travel day should start with how we meant to go on…lots of food Me and the kids went to the local Premier Inn for breakfast, because we love it and it’s a bargain as 2 kids eat free with 1 adult so it only cost me £9.50.



The kids did not want me taking photos at breakfast, as we’re not on holiday yet. But I still managed to sneak some.









After the breakfast we popped to Sainsbury’s to pick up last minute bits and bobs, toothbrushes and deodorant for the kids.

We managed to get all our stuff packed into 4 carry on bags.







Dave and me also have our personal bags but the kids didn’t need the extra space and fitted everything into the carry on case.



At exactly 3.54pm, 1 minute prior to online check in opening up, Dave phoned me. He has not had to worry about sorting this out before as I always do it, but as we had to do 2 separate bookings to use both the 2 for 1 Amex vouchers he needed to check in for him and Max. I talked him through it over the phone tutorial style. He was not stressed at all .

We were hoping to be able to sit near each other. Dave and Max had been allocated a pair of seats together in row C, me and Kate were in row J. There were no spare seats near Dave and Max, so Dave moved their seats over to us in row J. Eventually Phew! All done.

Except, Dave could not print out his boarding pass as he got a message that said he had to go to the main check in at the airport. I said that this probably meant he had the SSSS on his boarding pass and he would have to do the enhanced security (I was right, but it didn’t stop me worrying about it).

That was pretty much it for pre travel day, hence including the write up in this post. I’m going to include the step count for each day as it was huge most days.

Steps 10,335

Travel Day – Tuesday 22nd October 2019

I actually slept a bit better than the previous night, although it would have been hard to sleep worse than the measly 4 and half hours I had the night before.

We did our final run around the house, emptying bins and clearing out perishables from the fridge and left home around 9.30am, which was on schedule . We had a few little bits of traffic jams but not too bad, it was about a 2 hour journey to Heathrow.

I’d booked up a meet and greet parking for the car and this was really easy and I’d definitely do this again. We had to phone half an hour before we got to the airport. There was a little bit of confusion here as we followed the instructions on the booking to park up in the short stay parking garage. Except it turns out the man on the phone had said to go to passenger drop off to meet up with the driver. We phoned them when we arrived and he was over in a few minutes and we walked over to Terminal 5.

Of course we went in the business class check in desks. The lady was really helpful and explained that she didn’t know what gate it was yet, as we were nearly 4 hours early. She recommended the south lounge as this was better than the other one, I can’t compare as we’ve not been in the other lounge. She also confirmed that Dave did have the SSSS extra security.



We made our way straight through security through the fast track I love these Business class benefits. We did not stop to look in any of the shops and went to the south lounge.



It was pretty crowded in here, I’d thought it would be a tranquil quiet place, but it’s a huge room. Even so we found a few chairs by the windows and settled pretty quickly.





I had a gin and tonic, Dave had a glass of wine.



The kids helped themselves to pork pie and cans of drinks.







We were keen to try out as many of the different food and drinks as we could, obviously this was in the interests of writing an interesting travel day as opposed to gluttony .

There were lots of different areas in the lounge, for drinks there were multiple coffee, tea and hot chocolate stations set up, with biscuits and cookies.





There was a kids play area with playstations and other games. Max didn't really play anything in here he was just helping out with posing for the camera









There was white and red wine, beer, spirits and soft drinks. There were olives, crisps and other little snacks.













There were loads of different magazines and newspapers, which we didn't read as we had itchy feet and couldn't sit still .



Max and me found a popcorn making machine in a cinema room.







There was a salad bar as well as a sandwiches and hot food.















Kate had some of the curry, because she loves curry



More cans of drinks.



And for the grown ups too.



I decided I really should eat some lunch before another drink so I also had some of the curry, this was really tasty.



The kids had now moved onto dessert.





I found some Prosecco



Oh and the bottles on the table were filled with water, honestly!





Max made himself a hot chocolate while I had a cappuccino, plus some cookies.





Then a final round of port, Baileys and a scotch (not all mine Dave had some too).





We had around 2 and a half hours in the lounge and it was fab the kids filled up on packets of crisps and all sorts of snacky food. We enjoyed helping ourselves to the drinks and food and even though it was busier than I thought it would be it was still much less busy than the terminal.



The gate (B42) showed up on the screens around 2.30pm and we made our way over to the gate. We filled our water bottles up and as we were doing this an announcement went off for Dave to go to the gate, for his extra security. He went down the escalator and we followed shortly after, we waited at the end of the corridor for him to finish with the questions.



We were very excited waiting for him to put his shoes back on so that we could get on the plane. I'd been keeping family at home updated via what's app (some would say gloating!) my brother in law said the flight looked to be a quiet one as there were 9 undersold seats and it turned out there were no other passengers on our side of the plane.

There were a handful of passengers in the other section of business class but it was great and we felt really special here.







The kids said they wanted to travel business every flight, we all would love to , but I need to save up a few more avios yet!

When we settled in we were offered drinks, in real glasses!



Of course we said yes.



We had a good look through the White Stuff package which included a lovely duvet and toiletries.











There was moisturiser, lip balm, socks, ear plugs, an eye mask, toothbrush and tooth paste and a pen.



Max liked shutting the blind between him and Dave and being in his own cocoon.



The kids both had the rear facing seats and Dave and me the forward facing aisle seats.







Kate took some photos of take off for me.



















She was very impressed with the leg room.





Proving she can lie down fully stretched out.









I had a Johnnie Ginger cocktail, whisky orange juice and ginger ale, this was delicious and the little bowl of nuts were tasty.



Dave had red wine while the kids had coke with their nuts.





I attempted to watch Toy Story 4 but couldn't really focus on it.







The others settled in to watch a movie.





Dave had another glass of wine.



For starters 3 of us had smoked salmon and Max had goats cheese.





Kate really enjoyed her curry.



The steak and potatoe was lovely.



For pudding there was a chocolate and salted caramel dessert, fresh fruit or a tart with custard.







After dinner I tried valiantly to watch the movie but I was so comfy that I fell asleep .

Dave had a really long sleep .

The kids both watched lots of movies and made the most of the snacks on offer going and getting a few chocolates and cookies.





Before travelling I had come across a thread on the Dibb by goodevans about a photo album she wanted to put together for her daughter as a wedding present. The album will include lots of photos from around the world wishing the happy couple well. I thought this was a lovely idea and so planned to take a photo over the Atlantic. There was quite a bit of cloud, but I promise the Atlantic is down there.



Here is a link to her thread if you are off on some travels and are able to help her out with a photo or two.

Photos from around the world

I also planned to take a couple of photos in Washington DC too.

Kate took lots of photos for me.







For afternoon tea Dave was still asleep and I was too stuffed to have anything other than a cup of tea.



Max went for the tapas though.



Kate took more photos of the landing.







We landed at Baltimore airport at 11.55pm our time, so 6.55pm US time. There were lots of self service security stations which meant getting through security should have been speedy, but unfortunately mine was not accepted and I had to go through the extra checks area. The others had to wait about 25 minutes for me.

We had no luggage to collect so we went over to the taxi stand and got a cab to the hotel, this was just $10 so all good. We checked in and were in our room by 8.13pm. We were all shattered and given that we didn’t have to unpack we just fell into bed, apart from Dave who had slept most of the flight. He said he read for a bit, but not too long and ended up going to sleep by around 9.30pm.

It was a great travel day, business class really is the way to go . We had fun in the lounge, stuffing ourselves and then enjoyed our experience on the plane. The kids are desperate for us to fly business again and so am I!

If you've got this far through the waffle of intro's pre trip stuff in the back story and then the pre travel and travel day then well done. I promise tomorrow there will actually be some holidaying!

Steps 8,432 not bad for a travel day

Coming soon

Next up, our first day in Washington DC. Before we set off for DC we have a Bob Evans breakfast. In DC we check in and dump the cases at the hotel and then we walk from the Capitol Building on the east side of The Mall to the Lincoln Memorial on the west side of The Mall, seeing all the sights in between. It was a glorious day and we really enjoyed our walk around Washington DC
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2017: NYC and Orlando. Salzburg. Boston.
2018: Orlando. Berlin.
2019: DLP. Orlando. Washington DC.
2020: DLP.
2021: Jamaica. Rome.
2022: Orlando.
2023: Orlando. Niagara and Toronto.
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Old 29 Oct 19, 11:45 PM  
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Wow Abby, you know how to travel. It all looks fab.

I did giggle at you not being able to focus on Toy Story 4. I felt the same after spending a few hours in a lounge before we flew to Vancouver last year.

Looking forward to the rest and recognising the places you’ve visited, as well as reading about the ones we haven’t.
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Old 30 Oct 19, 12:51 PM  
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Goldia
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Originally Posted by jocat View Post
Wow Abby, you know how to travel. It all looks fab.

I did giggle at you not being able to focus on Toy Story 4. I felt the same after spending a few hours in a lounge before we flew to Vancouver last year.

Looking forward to the rest and recognising the places you’ve visited, as well as reading about the ones we haven’t.
We had such a fun day

I love reading trip reports for places I've been to as well, I hope you enjoy reminiscing about your holiday.
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New pre trip report - Summer 2024

Link to all my completed trip reports
2017: NYC and Orlando. Salzburg. Boston.
2018: Orlando. Berlin.
2019: DLP. Orlando. Washington DC.
2020: DLP.
2021: Jamaica. Rome.
2022: Orlando.
2023: Orlando. Niagara and Toronto.
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Old 30 Oct 19, 05:14 PM  
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The lounge and business class flight looks amazing. I would love to travel that way some day. I lost count of how many wonderful drinks and food you drank and ate 😂 You are such a dedicated Dibber to try so much to inform us of all the choices, thank you so much 😂😂
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Old 30 Oct 19, 07:53 PM  
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Goldia
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Originally Posted by DisneyDaffodil View Post
The lounge and business class flight looks amazing. I would love to travel that way some day. I lost count of how many wonderful drinks and food you drank and ate 😂 You are such a dedicated Dibber to try so much to inform us of all the choices, thank you so much 😂😂
It really was amazing. I hope it won't be a once in a lifetime thing, I'm saving all my Amex points up in the hopes of repeating it.

When the kids grabbed a pork pie at the start for their food I sort of thought we wouldn't get our monies worth, but I did manage a fair few drinks of course it was all for you guys I'm such a trooper!
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New pre trip report - Summer 2024

Link to all my completed trip reports
2017: NYC and Orlando. Salzburg. Boston.
2018: Orlando. Berlin.
2019: DLP. Orlando. Washington DC.
2020: DLP.
2021: Jamaica. Rome.
2022: Orlando.
2023: Orlando. Niagara and Toronto.
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Old 2 Nov 19, 01:24 AM  
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Yay you're back and have started!
Well where to start?
I wish I'd known when you were going, you could have parked for free at my house and I would have taken and picked you up from the airport, I'm only down the road
Wow, Business Class looks amazing! Jim and I are desperately saving our Avios to be able to get Club Class one year, fingers crossed we'll have enough for when we go to DC next year.
The Lounge looks fab, and all that free food and drink is such a bonus. Those cookies and biscuits look delish! Just as well neither you or Dave were driving at the other end
I would be beside myself with excitement at having a bed that fully lays down, I'd be like a kid on Christmas Day . BTW what's the difference between Club and First, do you know? Club looks like it has everything!
Oh and Kate is looking more and more like you in every photo I see!
What a great idea to take a photo for Goodevans over the Atlantic, it's such a great idea that she's doing for her daughter. We got one in Vegas but failed miserably in California and I only remembered to get one in San Fran for her.
I'm glad immigration wasn't too horrific for you, I bet you were all exhausted by the time you got to the hotel, good call to book one near the airport for the night!
Can't wait to read more
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Old 2 Nov 19, 10:37 AM  
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Goldia
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Originally Posted by smithlane View Post
Yay you're back and have started!
Well where to start?
I wish I'd known when you were going, you could have parked for free at my house and I would have taken and picked you up from the airport, I'm only down the road
Wow, Business Class looks amazing! Jim and I are desperately saving our Avios to be able to get Club Class one year, fingers crossed we'll have enough for when we go to DC next year.
The Lounge looks fab, and all that free food and drink is such a bonus. Those cookies and biscuits look delish! Just as well neither you or Dave were driving at the other end
I would be beside myself with excitement at having a bed that fully lays down, I'd be like a kid on Christmas Day . BTW what's the difference between Club and First, do you know? Club looks like it has everything!
Oh and Kate is looking more and more like you in every photo I see!
What a great idea to take a photo for Goodevans over the Atlantic, it's such a great idea that she's doing for her daughter. We got one in Vegas but failed miserably in California and I only remembered to get one in San Fran for her.
I'm glad immigration wasn't too horrific for you, I bet you were all exhausted by the time you got to the hotel, good call to book one near the airport for the night!
Can't wait to read more
Ah Alicia, that's a really kind offer I'd have loved for you to be my chauffeur ! I have no idea what the difference between business and first is as it felt top notch for us. The others kept saying we're flying first class and I had to remind them it wasn't. Keep saving the points they build up pretty quickly, it was definitely worth it. I'm saving again for the next trip.

It was handy we ddidnt have to drive the other end as we couldn't have enjoyed the lounge and plane benefits quite as much.

My photography wasn't great for goodevans in DC I found it really difficult to get the message and the building in focus, usually I only managed to get either the message or the building in focus! Still hopefully there's some usable ones in the bunch.
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Abby
New pre trip report - Summer 2024

Link to all my completed trip reports
2017: NYC and Orlando. Salzburg. Boston.
2018: Orlando. Berlin.
2019: DLP. Orlando. Washington DC.
2020: DLP.
2021: Jamaica. Rome.
2022: Orlando.
2023: Orlando. Niagara and Toronto.
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Old 3 Nov 19, 09:45 PM  
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What a great travel day, I would love to do business class. The beds look fab, I'd have been like smithlane

Looking forward to the rest of the report xx
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Old 4 Nov 19, 08:18 PM  
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Goldia
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Originally Posted by caitlinsmummy View Post
What a great travel day, I would love to do business class. The beds look fab, I'd have been like smithlane

Looking forward to the rest of the report xx
It was so much fun I was like the cat that got the cream, I couldn't quite believe it. It gave us such a fab start to the trip.
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Abby
New pre trip report - Summer 2024

Link to all my completed trip reports
2017: NYC and Orlando. Salzburg. Boston.
2018: Orlando. Berlin.
2019: DLP. Orlando. Washington DC.
2020: DLP.
2021: Jamaica. Rome.
2022: Orlando.
2023: Orlando. Niagara and Toronto.
Goldia is offline Girl Mouse Click to view Members Trip Plans Add Member to Ignore List
Old 5 Nov 19, 09:23 PM  
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I’m so excited to see you have a photograph of the lemon melt biscuits, I absolutely love them and have been wondering if I would ever find out who makes them...this is the absolute highlight of your report for me the rest sounds a bit boring!
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