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Old 21 Oct 20, 10:09 PM  
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NewtoOrlando
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October 2019 - The Unexpected one! Travel Day!

Travel Day!

I finished off on pre travel day saying that we were all asleep by 10pm... that was until about 4am when I was woken by what sounded like a jet engine, but no, it was just Craig snoring. Cheers for that, struggled to go back to sleep after! I looked at my phone for a bit, and the drifted in and out of sleep for a few hours, before my alarm went off at 7.30! The kids were not impressed with being woken up to my shouting ‘the skies awake so I’m awake’ really loudly, but it was travel day and they need to get their butts moving!



We all got ourselves washed & dressed, checked the room for anything left over, and made our way down to drop the key at reception. Our flight to Tampa with BA was at 11.20, we made our way to the terminal, checked in and had a mooch around the departure lounge. I love looking at the BA app on travel day!



None of us are massive fans of early breakfasts, so we grabbed some bits from Boots & Smiths, got a meal deal each for later on and got ourselves comfy. Time went really really quickly! My friend who was coming out was texting me about her pre travel day plans, and we were both so excited, we’ve been friends since we were 4 and never been away together, plus the kids get on so well, we couldn’t wait! We were originally due to fly with them on the Tuesday but I changed my working hours so get an extra day off work so changed the flights, plus we were supposed to fly into Fort Lauderdale but when BA scrapped those flights we managed to change to Tampa FOC and it was actually cheaper. Result!

I sat in the departure lounge and put on my sexy flight socks



I HATE wearing these, I get so hot but with a previous DVT scare and a poor circulation due to a cardiac problem, needs must! At 10.30 our gate was called and we made our way down, and by 10.47 we were on the plane. I get special assistance due to said cardiac problem, so queuing for boarding wasn’t an issue, although, that walk down to the gate made me shattered, I looked wrecked by the time we had our boarding cards checked, the check in agent told me off for not accepting the wheelchair to the gate, sometimes I am so proud for my own good, it was nice of her to show some compassion though. We settled on the plane for 9 hours of uninterrupted peace, no phone calls, no emails from work, no texts! Total bliss! We had row 31 in front of the toilets, which doesn’t bother us, but the beauty is that they recline nicely with no one behind you! Craigs 6’2 so this helps him out a bit! Annual plane selfie!



The flight went by with no dramas. The food was standard plane food, ok on the way out, horrific on the way back! We all just picked at it, luckily we had loads of snacks and the meal deal!

The flight attendant tapped me on the shoulder to see if I was ok, I was fine, but sobbing my heart out watching A Star Is Born, again, always makes me cry when Gaga sings the song at the end! She must have thought I was nuts, but did give me an extra magnum to cheer me up!



I watched the Greatest Showman with Katie, we were in sync, and struggling not to sing out loud! Also watched some bits I had downloaded from Netflix. Craig and the kids watched IT 2. I hate clowns so avoided that one!

We landed in Tampa to beautiful sunshine, at around 4pm, so pretty much ontime, I declined special assistance again and would have moved through immigration much quicker had I taken it, but, I only like to use it if I really need it. The immigration officer asked us where we were heading, my reply was ‘Disneyland’ and his response was ‘you’re in the wrong state mam’ The lack of sleep was really starting to show! When he asked if we had any food with us, young Joseph (the nearly 12 year old) decided to tell him that he had chickens in his bag. Do not ask me why he said that, Craig gave him a dig in the ribs and the IO laughed…..luckily! The queue was fine though, and Tampa Airport is a breeze to get though! Baggage reclaim is right behind the IO desks, and all our cases were there, so we made our way out to the monorail and the car hire garage. It’s all very easy and well signposted. We felt at home instantly! We had a car with Avis, and as we are Avis preferred we went straight to the garage and then straight to the car. Nice new Virginia plated black Tahoe with working sat nav and apple play. Craig was delighted!

Although Joey wanted this one!



We loaded up the boot, and left the garage at 5.20pm, so had got through the airport in just over an hour! I text my mum & my friend to say we had arrived, and had a chat about the flight, the traffic to Orlando was minimal, everything felt so familiar! We’ve not flown into Tampa before, but would 100% do it again, it was so easy! We were heading to All Star Sports for the first 2 nights, and whilst on the way I got an email from Disney with our room number, we were in the touchdown area (we had a preferred room) in building 10, room 139! We already had our Magic Bands that my friend in Arkansas sent us, so didn’t need to go to the desk! Excitement was building, as was hunger! The plane food was ok, but we were all peckish and so thirsty! We saw our first Mickey pylon at 6.30, and drove under the WDW arch at 6.35pm, arriving in the ASM parking lot at 6.47! It took us just over an our to get from Tampa airport to Disney!



We were in our room by 6.56pm, is there any better sight when you get into a Disney room? The TV has to go straight on!



By 7.10 we were on our way to the pool for a quick cool down dip before grabbing some food!



We loved the look of the resort and the main pool, there was a beautiful sunset, and by 7.40 I was hanging, and cold, it wasn’t cold, but when I’m tired I get chilly!



We chucked our clothes on, walked to the car and headed over to McDonalds, we didn’t realise how close it was and that we could have walked to it haha. We ordered our food, scoffed it down and made our way back, we had a very grumpy tired Katie, and it was easier to just give in than battle with her, the kids walked back to the room, and Craig & I had a look round the shop and bought 2 refillable mugs for us to share.



We didn’t have the dining plan on this trip so I didn’t want to buy 4, 2 would be fine! We both really liked the feel of ASM, and looked forward to seeing more in the daylight! I think we all caved in at about 9.30, absolutely shattered, but content and looking forward to Animal Kingdom in the morning!
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Old 21 Oct 20, 10:41 PM  
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disneypars
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Looks like a great travel day.
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Old 21 Oct 20, 11:57 PM  
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Great alarm call for the kids 😀
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Old 22 Oct 20, 03:50 PM  
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Great travel day

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Old 22 Oct 20, 07:07 PM  
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Very smooth travel day and you did well to stay up until 9.30
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Old 22 Oct 20, 07:16 PM  
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A great travel day, we love Tampa airport too 😁
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Old 24 Oct 20, 10:46 PM  
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Good travel day. Always a relief when it all goes smoothly.
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Old 2 Nov 20, 03:37 PM  
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NewtoOrlando
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Originally Posted by disneypars View Post
Looks like a great travel day.
It went really smoothly, so glad we flew into Tampa! Thanks for reading!
Originally Posted by flo-tinka View Post
Great alarm call for the kids 😀
Haha, they werent best pleased with me, mind you, are they ever when they're a teen and a pre teen?!

Originally Posted by mick View Post
Great travel day

Joan
Thanks Joan, oh what we would do right now for a travel day!

Originally Posted by Taffy1959 View Post
Very smooth travel day and you did well to stay up until 9.30
I know, I never sleep on the flight either, I was hanging but tried my best to keep going, I think it was the latest we have stayed up on travel day!

Originally Posted by Sparksy72 View Post
A great travel day, we love Tampa airport too 😁
We really liked Tampa airport! Small enough to navigate but big enough that there are plenty of shops/food options!

Originally Posted by Loobylou_82 View Post
Good travel day. Always a relief when it all goes smoothly.
We've always been very lucky and never had any issues on travel day! It's always the way home we have some bother of some sort lol
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Edited at 03:38 PM.
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Old 5 Dec 20, 10:11 PM  
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Great travel day. We haven’t ever stayed at any of the All Stars. Nice to hear you say you liked the feel of it.
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