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9 Nov 19, 06:01 PM |
#1
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I am not a shopaholic
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Bayous to Beaches. Travel Day. LGW-MCO. Its Norwegian Jim,but not as we know it
Yesterday is HERE
Monday 30 September At 2.30 I was wide awake and wondering where the passports where I remembered seeing them on the back seat of the taxi in a plastic wallet but for the life of me I couldn’t remember seeing them in our room. I lay there for a while telling myself it was fine but after while I knew I had to get up and find them, I just couldn’t settle. Using my iphone as a light and trying to be as quiet as possible, I checked Andy’s hand luggage first as that is where they are usually stored Nope not there Then I checked the table Nope Feeling that rising panic I checked my bag which meant taking everything out. Easier said than done in the circumstances. Andy still hadn’t woken up and after taking everything out, I still couldn’t find them The logical side of my brain was telling me they were bound to be somewhere. I mean everything is somewhere, that's a cosmic law I was sure I would have checked the car and as we know the taxi driver I felt sure he would have called us when he got back home if they were still in the car. But by now, the irrational side of my brain had already worked out that if one of us got in a cab right this instant we could get back home, get to the taxi and just about be back in time to still make check in . Of course when I say we, I meant Andy who was still snoring his head off and blissfully unaware of his impending travel plans All this assumed the taxi driver would be home, doesn’t mind being woken early and the Monday morning M25 traffic all goes swimmingly I was getting into a complete tizzy. I was convinced they were here but couldn’t think where, I knew they weren’t in the cases because we hadn’t opened them. Still using the iphone light and making a teeny bit more noise, I scrabbled about through it all again, why I don’t know as I knew deep down that I hadn’t missed them. I checked under the bed and the bathroom. Then in a moment of genius, I moved the clothes that were hanging and lo and behold there was the wallet. I must have put it down and then hung the clothes up over the top of them. It was those blessed joggers again! What a relief No chance now of getting any sleep, I was completely wired and it was only 3.30. I tried really hard and was just about drifting off when Andy got up, put the light on and went to the bathroom to fill the kettle. What the heckinbob ? He had misread the clock as 6. 30 when in fact it as only 4.30. What a nightmare. After a bit of a laugh, he sat and messed about on his ipad while I did drift off until just after 6. We are going to be a bit tired later After finally making that coffee and using he hairdryer to finish drying off the joggers … we locked up the cases and after almost forgetting the stuff in the bathroom (we are really off to a flying start here), we headed down to breakfast at 7.20. It was a lot quieter than I expected. All looked fine and a pretty decent choice. I cant face a full cooked affair though so had a fairly feeble offer. Andy had the full english and toast which he said was fine but I didn’t get a pic. I couldn't face anything cooked - so just had some crunchy nut cornflakes. The most unexciting food pic for a trippie I thought the orange juice was a bit rubbish - sharp and watery and the coffee machine dispenses only half a cup of frothy stuff that really wasn't a proper cappuccino so it was a mixed view from us. I am not sure it was really worth $10.50 each and we probably should have made better use of the Club Lounge We were all done, checked out and on our way over to the terminal by 7.45 This was all pretty smooth and we were on the shuttle and at the other terminal by 8. We bypassed the kiosks and joined the line for check in - based solely on the fact that the kiosks rarely work and the line would only be longer by the time the kiosk eventually rejected us We got into the line at 8.12 and were all dealt with by 8.42. They were super diligent on the weights. The cases were 14.5, 16.5 and 17.9 and the hand luggage came in at 8.6 and 9.9 so under the limits and definitely shopping room. Its always a massive relief to get the cases dealt with and a quick check of the boarding cards confirmed that we still had our exit row seats As a reminder, and taken from the pre trip, - this had happened the week before ...….. Oh Deary me as these two would say ... Yes, never mind Going in a Boeing with Air Scotia, It’s the Norwegian Hokey Cokey. Yep. After all the smugness of booking so early to get a seat with good leg room we had the Hi Fly email that basically says bring your own tv, snacks, drinks and maybe a pilot too. Ok I exaggerate But when I saw we had gone from the front row to row 50 Not happy but it was confirmed this was an exit row and now we know we have kept them as we can see from our boarding cards. I had spent the rest of the week downloading loads of stuff onto iPads and filling the hand luggage with emergency snackage, hence its weight I was a bit apprehensive about how the flight was going to be - we shall see We headed straight for premium security and whizzed through. I had a panic as I couldn’t see my hand luggage anywhere - to discover it had not passed through ok because of a mini deodorant that was still in the bag and not the clear plastic bag. When I had thrown the toiletries in this morning, I must have missed this one, Doh. Anyway, the nice chap just re scanned it all and away we went. By 0900 we were walking into the No1 Lounge - we hadn’t stopped to pick anything up in duty free and would have got there quicker but it seemed to take us ages to find it. It was much busier in there than I expected and we did a couple of circuits looking for a suitable seat. I had booked this for $51 which in hindsight feels like a lot given we barely had an hour in here. Actually so far not feeling we made best use of what we had pre paid for ! It didn’t look as if we were going to find somewhere to sit but some people were leaving a “reserved” couch just as we got there so we decided to chance our luck. It was nice to chill out , we read the paper and did a bit of plane spotting. I still didn’t feel like anything cooked and now I realise I didn’t take a menu pic but I think the choices were a sausage or bacon bap, poached eggs with avocado and something else. There was porridge and cereals out along with pastries so plenty of choice. Working on the premis that its always 5 o clock somewhere in the world Andy had a G&T and I had a pink Prosecco. Very nice. I also had cheese and biscuits so definitely feeling a supper time vibe and it wasnt even 10 am yet . Our gate went up really quickly - we had only been there an hour and having paid for priority boarding I didn’t want to miss the early call so we trotted off having had a nice time but definitely not having made as much use as on previous visits . I suddenly realised we didn’t have any drinks so coughed up £8 to get 2 bottles of Oasis and 2 kit kats from the vending machine - daylight robbery but at least we had something We reached the gate at 1020 - it wasn’t boarding yet but did so within 15 minutes. We had priority boarding so were on quickly We had our exit row seats - it did feel quite an old and basic plane. Definitely seen better days As always when you board early the plane is hot as hell and it turned out there were no air vents so we couldn’t cool down. Of course the rest of the flight it was really cold. There's always a space invader somewhere - extra legroom or no It took a while to get onto the runway just before 12 and whilst it was mildly amusing to see two cabin stewards quite literally running up the cabin to get to their seats in time before take off ( I mean, surely they know the drill), I did wonder whether the exterior bits of the aircraft were in better nick than our seats as Andy pointed to the bit of his seat being held together with gaffer tape. Happily the wings seemed to function The seatbelt sign was on for an absolute age after take off. I discovered that my IFE didn’t work and the tray table was completely knackered Ah, this was set to be a long flight - what’s that Air Scotia say, its better than a bus… hmmmm. I settled into watch the Wu Assassins which I had downloaded from Netflix. Lunch came out at 1.45. It’s quite hard to eat you lunch when your tray table is so knackered that its on a 90 degree tilt and requires use of iPad and notepad to prop it up. The meal itself was quite tasty just pitiful in presentation and portion size. Truly a feeble effort. Mixed salad that I added into my main of mash, chicken in tomato sauce and some unidentifiable but colourful beans. Washed down with white wine and some water. No bread and no crackers. We did miss them I do find macaroons as a rule to be a disappointment but there were nice : Caramel and Chocolate. We kept back one box and had them a couple of hours later just after 4pm. I had balanced the 2cm x 2cm small carboard box of macaroons on the edge of the exit door while I bent down to get the Oasis and Kit Kats out and the steward got very agitated explaining to me that the teeny weeny box might knock open the door release handle. Well, if that’s the case we really are knackered mate, lets hope no one has a funny turn and falls over near it then. What with dodgy door releases, being trapped in your seat at the slightest puff of wind and Andy handing me some of his seat that had come apart part way through the flight, I really was getting quite desperate to get off and praying nothing would fall off prior to landing ! I didn’t look out of the window much as it was incredibly bright and the shades were down most of the time . When I did look , it was like this I couldn’t track the flight either without the IFE so this could be anywhere I apparently spent some of the flight like this Afternoon tea came round about 90 minutes before landing ( 6.45 UK time). There was no drinks service between lunch and afternoon tea. No tea or coffee, no bottles of water. A nice chicken Caesar roll and a small brownie - that was nice but rich and leaves that tacky feeling in your mouth so could have done with a hot drink to wash it down. We had a glass of Pepsi. At last we were touching down and in one piece so I guess that’s the only measure you need for a successful flight. It was 8.30 pm UK time . Hi Fly - you were an outer space experience for sure. Norwegian you are most definitely not ! As we were half way down the plane, there was a bit of a wait to get off and I thought the immigration hall would be horrendous but it was almost completely empty. We got into the line at 3.44 ( 8.44 UK time) and were out at 3.51 ( 8.51). That’s a complete result. When we got to the baggage reclaim the flight wasn’t listed yet and Andy suggested I go over to the car hire place (I am not sure why as I am not the driver, I am sure it made sense at the time). We agreed to meet at side A and I set off with the hand luggage so he would be free to manage the cases It was a bit of a trek and I came up some escalators to find I was right next to the monorail , which I had almost to myself I had a Tron moment on arriving I emerged right next to Side B and prayed Andy would remember we had agreed on A Schlepped over to Dollar which was also empty and realised I couldn’t do anything else but wait. I did message Andy to make sure he came over to A and messaged home to say we had landed. Andy arrived about 20 minutes later. No problem getting the car and we weren’t that bothered with the choices as we only needed it for the next day. There was a minor panic as we went to exit the car park as we couldn’t find Andys driving licence - we knew we had it to get the car but it had somehow got separated from the other paperwork. A few minutes scrabbling about and it getting a bit tetchy, it was discovered in the footwell where it had fallen. Phew We exited the airport at 4.30 US time (9.30 UK) so roughly 60 minutes from landing and 45 minutes from entering the immigration hall. The satnav was being really badly behaved - it didn’t matter too much as we broadly know where we are going but it was a bit of a bad sign for the upcoming road trip. We did get a bit snappy as we encountered all the new road layouts and road works and were a bit confused so we switched to google maps for a bit. It took us 45 minutes to get to the Point Hotel after a couple of detours and we were checked in by 5.15. The room is great and this is a nice place. I did a bit of unpacking - mainly things we needed for that night and tomorrow and we set off for the I Drive outlets - we found a parking space quite quickly even though it was about 6pm Feeling peckish and still undecided whether we are eating out later or not , a lady was handing out samples of teriyaki chicken as walked through the food court which tasted delicious so we shared one portion with some fried rice. It was yummy and cost $8. Food court looked like it had some new places since our last visit and was quiet and empty at 6.30 It was lovely to be in the warmth and to be in the empty stores. The Disney store looked like it had been cleared out . Here's a few things that I didn't buy - too jetlagged to think straight. but we picked up a few bits in some of the other shops and dodged a short downpour. We had started to flag now, it was around 7.30 US time so gone midnight at home and neither of us had slept much the previous 24 hours. Back at the hotel for 9pm and we sat at the outside bar for a bit - there was another torrential downpour while we were outside but the bar had enough shelter for us to stay there I had a Tropical Mule which was zingy and refreshing, Andy had two Angry Orchard ciders. We were still a bit hungry and ordered something before the bar was due to close at 1030. I had the chicken egg rolls from the appetiser menu - spicy chicken and cheese in crispy tortilla with a ranch dip. Super Yummy Andy had wings but I didnt get a pic - It was all good tho. And a big pile of them. It was a nice way to end a long travel day - we finally got to bed just before 10 pm and were hoping this would really knock us out for a decent sleep.
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2022 Dom Republic /2019 New Orleans, Jekyll, Hilton Head, Charleston, Savannah, Palm Coast, Clearwater/2019 DLP /2018 Dubai /Miami,New Orleans, Orlando, Largo/2017 Dallas,New Orleans,Little Rock,Eureka Springs,Memphis,Nashville,Orlando/Mar 2017 Orlando, Clearwater, Largo /2016 NYC,Washington, Orlando /2015 Windsor Palms / 2014 Our Wedding Trip - Portofino Bay & Yacht Club / 2013 FantasyWorld Resort/ 2012 East & West Coast. Double Disney. Edited at 10:42 PM. |
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9 Nov 19, 08:16 PM |
#2
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Imagineer
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Not a good day on potentially losing essential documents - thank goodness you found both the passports and the driving licence!
Very re the plane! And the grumpy cabin crew. I am impressed you managed to go shopping that evening - and actually find things to buy!
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Index of my trip reports 2016 Quebec - Kuala Lumpar - New York City 2017 Dubai - Eurocamps France - Ontario and Quebec - So-Cal 2018 Montreal - Bangkok - New England 2019 Argentina - Quebec City - Hong Kong - 2020 Switzerland 2022 Arizona - Costa Med Cruise - Oslo 2023 Hong Kong - Gothenburg |
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9 Nov 19, 11:13 PM |
#3
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Imagineer
Join Date: Oct 11
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What a long day but such a relief to find the passports. Sorry the plane was disappointing
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West Coast July - August 2014, Howdy Texas! August 2015, Rocking in the Rockies July - August 2016, Bier, Bratwurst und Bahnsteige: Berlin 2017, Touring Tennessee 2017, Expedition East Coast 2018, Hola! Madrid 2019, Great Lakes Grooving 2019, It's Czech, Mate, Prague 2022, Veni, Vidi, Edi, Bibi Italy 2022 |
10 Nov 19, 10:43 AM |
#4
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VIP Dibber
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Oh Amanda I’m sorry for laughing at your misfortune in losing the passports and the really crappy plane. I half expected to see a photo of some electrical tape around the wing 😂. Worst. Flight. Ever!
Glad you got there in one piece though and what a bonus the immigration hall was empty, that almost always never happens! Ah outlet shopping on travel day, you are the master 😬 That teriyaki chicken looked so good, will have to remember that the next time I’m in a food court. Now you can relax |
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10 Nov 19, 11:24 AM |
#5
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Deck 4, Disney Wonder
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OMG can you imagine if the passports were in the taxi?!
TBH I’ve sat in PE on Virgin with the seat falling apart and with a broken tray on Thomas Cook (RIP) that was held in place by a spoon so it’s not exclusive to Norwegian or Hi Fly! Can’t believe you outlet shopped on the first evening, that’s impressive.
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WDW:'03,'04,'06,'07x2,'08,'09x2,'10x2,'11x2,'12x2, '15x'2,'16,'17,'19. DLP:'02,'05.DLR:'05,'14. DCL:'10,'12,'13,'15x2,'16 Various hotels & villas onsite & offsite! Another Trip Home Pre Trip - October 2012 Our 1st DVC Stay - LIVE - March 2011 'But I don't want to go again... yet' Pre trip November 2010 'You're going to Disney AGAIN?!' Pre Trip March 2010 'And the old folks are coming again' Trip Report October 2009 Index 'It started out as a weekend in Spain! ' Trip Report May 2009 Index |
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10 Nov 19, 08:35 PM |
#6
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Thread Starter
I am not a shopaholic
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Yes we are usually so on the ball with the documents but it all went off plan today
Not our best flight but I did say it had Dibb comedy value so always a silver lining We did well with shopping. Although I was flagging at the end Hello, thank you. It was very poor. But we got there in one piece so that’s I know , I was getting into such a sweat over the passports That plane 🙈. I darent look too closely at the wing We were amazed at immigration. Loads of lanes open and they weren’t using the stupid kiosks that always give you the x of doom. We whizzed through. Andy suggested shopping to keep us going and it meant we didn’t go back to those outlets on I Drive the next day. We did really well.. I realised you can’t see that Ralph receipt so I need to take another pic . We got some great stuff this trip. Lots of stripes Yes. Can you imagine Why were they even on the seat and not in the bag ! That why they got put down separately when we got into the room They should have been in that bag Oh that’s poor then for PE. We’ve never had such an old plane .. even with EasyJet ! We had that second wind you get when you first arrive so went straight out but tiredness did sneak up on us pretty quick. It was good we had that hour at the bar. The zingy mule revived me
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2022 Dom Republic /2019 New Orleans, Jekyll, Hilton Head, Charleston, Savannah, Palm Coast, Clearwater/2019 DLP /2018 Dubai /Miami,New Orleans, Orlando, Largo/2017 Dallas,New Orleans,Little Rock,Eureka Springs,Memphis,Nashville,Orlando/Mar 2017 Orlando, Clearwater, Largo /2016 NYC,Washington, Orlando /2015 Windsor Palms / 2014 Our Wedding Trip - Portofino Bay & Yacht Club / 2013 FantasyWorld Resort/ 2012 East & West Coast. Double Disney. |
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11 Nov 19, 08:26 AM |
#7
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VIP Dibber
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Oh my word. Travel Days are tiring enough without being up half of the night because of the missing passport situation!
That plane certainly sounds like it’s seen better days! That’s just wrong that they don’t do a drink service for that amount of hours though. Good news on the lack of immigration queues. Always a bonus when that happens.
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NYC and Boston - Sept 2014 Toronto and Niagara Falls - May 2015 Road Trip to California - July/August 2017 Vancouver and the Rockies - July/August 2018 Five Days in Washington DC - October 2019 Norwegian Fjords Cruise - August 2023 Universal Orlando - October 2023 Cruising the Caribbean - March 2024 - complete |
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11 Nov 19, 12:44 PM |
#8
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Imagineer
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I'd have been exactly the same, why do our minds do this to us? I did it a few weeks ago with an assignment, I thought I hadn't uploaded it woke up at 2am panicking that I was now going to be capped at a pass as it was late but I had infact uploaded it the night before
Norweign certainly doesn't look too good at all what a shame as I've heard good things about them and the prices too. at the stewardess with the macroons haha. The flight sounds awful but as you say it got you to your destination. I'm glad that everything Orlando side went much better than the morning and plane journey. Shopping always cheers me up xx
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Kelly x
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11 Nov 19, 01:33 PM |
#9
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Excited about Disney
Join Date: Jun 16
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Love reading your reports - always make me chuckle.
I would have been freaking out with the passports. I know plane food is not that great but that chicken looks vile haha! Glad you got there without the plane falling apart. xx
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Pre Trip Report:- https://www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/sho... php?t=1111233 Trip Report October/November 2019:- https://www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/sho... php?t=1150263 |
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13 Nov 19, 09:02 PM |
#10
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VIP Dibber
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You know I'm kind of reassured it's not just me that wakes up in a panic in the small hours and turns the room upside down. I always have to check that the passports are still in my handbag before we leave the house (it's like the 500th check) then I check again in the car. I don't know where I think they could have gone in the 10 foot from the front door across the driveway and into the car but still I check. Then I check in the pre travel day hotel, my theory is the same as yours...at this point if the passports have magically disaparated from my bag back to the house there's enough time for one of us to go home and get them. Phew you found them in the end, I'd have been cursing Andy sleeping through it all and then it's his fault his joggers are having to hang up drying and blocking the passports from view so I'd have been cursing again. Then he decides to make a coffee at 4.30! It's not a great start to the day! No wonder you had your cheese and biscuits in the lounge it must have felt like dinner time.
At least your plane from yesteryear got you there in one piece even if it was a bit rickety. And to top it off you had a tropical mule. That sounds lovely.
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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. Edited at 09:03 PM. |
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