$30k later - 16/12/16 - Day -1 - Travel Day

[Leyfy]

Day 1 - Gatwick Airport/Amy's Restaurant

Index here

A little bit of info before we start...

So, here we go with ... well, this will be my FIFTH trip report!

Not bad for someone who dragged her now-fiancee on a 'once in a lifetime/never to be repeated/blah blah etc etc' trip in December 2013!

So, who are we? This is us:

Kim and Phil - I love to take photos, Phil loves to point at pints! Admittedly, he then likes to drink said pints!

We can usually be found in a theme park in the morning and then relaxing somewhere in the afternoon like the Boardwalk or Disney Springs ... IF the holiday is going to plan!

Those that have read either my pre-trip reports or my actual trip reports know that things don't tend to always go our way. Take for example our previous trips:

August 2012 - Didn't happen as bought a house (Okay, we can live with that)
August 2013 - Didn't happen due to serious family illness - was cancelled seven days before departure. ( Awful circumstance, awful time )
December 2013 - We finally got there and had a wonderful time hurrah!
August 2015 - Was supposed to be our wedding trip but didn't happen for a couple of reasons which I wont go into on here. We had a great time in the end but it was a little ... strange.
August 2016 - YAY we're off to Florida and on a Cruise ... For Phil to get bitten by a poisonous spider and spend 5 days in Celebration Hospital and causing a $30,000k hospital bill and cancelling our cruise! Hurr... ah?



So, as you can see, our holidays can be ummm... a little 'eventful'?!

On the theme of 'eventful', I also managed to leave my fantastically looked after (as in- not a scratch on it!) 12 month old iPhone 6 on the flight home :angry::angry:

Mega annoyed with myself and luckily Aer Lingus have found it (hurrah!) but they haven't yet sent it back to me and a few of my photos were on it. Mainly of food as I felt a bit stupid pointing a great big Panasonic Lumix at food whereas I could get away with it with my phone!

So I apologise in advance for the lack of food pictures - I did take more, I promise! If my phone turns up at some point I'll update with the pictures. Anyway, for now I invite you to... :

It's on with:

Travel Day

Due to my job (I'm a teacher) I was working today and somehow I managed to ease myself through to 3pm relatively unscathed. I also managed to check us in online (a relatively easy process using Aer Lingus). Finishing work at three I was literally racing the kids out of the door that day!

I got a new job in September which I really enjoy and one of the huge perks is that I've swapped a 35/40 minute commute for a one that is roughly 6 minutes on a good day and 10 minutes if the traffic is bad! So I was home by 3.15 and found Phil waiting for me and ready to go. I got changed out of my work clothes and into something more suitable for travelling in and he loaded up the car. After an emotional goodbye to our indifferent cat ("Where's the food? Seriously, where's the food at?") we set off for Gatwick airport in my tiny Yaris, filled to the brim with suitcases and expectations of a wonderful two weeks in Orlando!

Now, our journey to Gatwick takes us over this:

(Isn't Essex beautiful! I'm joking - I'm allowed to take the proverbial as I live here. In all seriousness, if you want beautiful look up Manningtree, where I used to live.)

So what is that concrete monstrosity? The Queen Elizabeth II Bridge at Dartford.

Otherwise known as:

"You wanted to spend an hour of your life in a traffic jam, didn't you?!"

Knowing that we were travelling on what the newspapers were all predicting to be an apocalyptic weekend of travel, I was keen to get going as soon as possible so we set off at 3.30pm on the dot.

It then took us a good 30 minutes just to get out of our town - travelling down the road I had gone the opposite way on just 15 minutes before to get back from work :angry:

Finally making it to the A12, the satnav was not intoning those words of dread quite yet. You know the ones: "Traffic Jam Ahead"

So, we headed down the A12 and smoothly onto the M25. The sun was setting as we reached the bridge and we glided across, not jinxing it with the famous words of 'this is going smoothly, isn't it?!'.

About 4.30pm and still with miraculously light traffic, I stopped at services for a quick restroom and to fill the car. It's a good job I didn't see the prices before I stopped because the JOKERS at the BP garage wanted £1.32 a litre!

It's a good job I only have a little car!



Fuming slightly that I hadn't bothered to fill up at Tesco on the way out or during the week, we found ourselves at Gatwick and trying to find the purple parking garage at about 5.15pm.

Now, we'd found this reasonably easily during the Easter break when we'd used it for a short break to New York. The paperwork clearly states to NOT use the postcode and follow the instructions. I casually informed Phil of this as we approached Gatwick. He used a few choice words as 1) He is not known for his navigation skills from a bit of paper 2) I am well known for losing my rag when I don't have a clue where I am supposed to be driving!

It was now dark and traffic was building. We drove round in circles for about 20 minutes, getting more and more annoyed. The increasingly cryptic instructions ("Turn left when the moon is in it's seventh cycle of Venus..." etc, etc) getting us more and more lost. In the end I got annoyed and pulled over (after threatening to turn round and drive back home! ) and pulled up the post code on my phone. We followed the sat nav directions and ... BINGO... Purple Parking!

So, next time we are going to use the post code, despite what the stupid bit of paper of paper says!

Phil unloaded the car and I went to check in. The bloke told me to leave my keys in the car and gave me that little tiny bit of paper which I was told DO NOT LOSE (Who is he kidding?! I *always* lose it!) or they'd send my car for scrap metal or something. So I plonked the keys in the ignition and walked off to get the bus ... Thinking to myself that I'd only paid off a year of the HPI and was I insured to just waltz away from the car, unlocked and with the keys in the ignition!

A bus was waiting for us so we headed to the South Terminal and then used the air bridge to check into the Hilton. Great hotel for location. Bit dated though really. Luckily we got there just before the rush so we went straight up to check in. The check in lady sold me some dining package thing for Amy's restaurant which was a fixed menu plan for a certain price. I'd already booked us a table for 7.30pm, so that was sorted.

With all the driving round in circles faff and then getting the bus, it was now 6.30pm and by the time we'd sorted stuff out in our room it was approaching 7pm. We went downstairs to the sports bar for a quick drink before going up for our dining reservation at 7.30pm.

We were seated straight away. This was to be the only quick part of the meal!

Although I'd pre-paid for the vouchers, everything we wanted to order seemed to come with a supplemental charge! Phil had the seafood consommé and rib eye steak with Bearnaise sauce. I had scallops to start and sirloin steak with blue cheese sauce. The blue cheese sauce was amazing! (Sorry I did have photos but they are trapped in Dublin airport on my iPhone! ) Our meals were great and we really enjoyed it but it took ages to get bill (45 mins - and Phil had to go up and ask for it) so they knocked off service charge. We had a chat with others around us as we waited, lots of people excited to be off on their holidays!

After finally getting the bill (in total with the voucher, it was about £110) we then sat in bar downstairs for one more drink. It was now time for the traditional 'Phil Points at a Pint':

I left him in the bar about 10 and headed upstairs to bed, absolutely shattered.

17/12/16 Travel Day is here

[Floridaagogo]

Ahh..our first Phil pointing at a pint photo.its gonna be a good report 😀

[katnav]

Great start, hope this trip all goes to plan! Quite funny reading a travel day and knowing the route you are driving. I'm just off the a127 so also know only too well the delights of the dartford crossing.

[Leyfy]

Originally Posted by Floridaagogo

Ahh..our first Phil pointing at a pint photo.its gonna be a good report 😀

See more...

Phil Points at a Pint - and all is right with the world!

[Leyfy]

Originally Posted by katnav

Great start, hope this trip all goes to plan! Quite funny reading a travel day and knowing the route you are driving. I'm just off the a127 so also know only too well the delights of the dartford crossing.

See more...

It's such a gamble, isn't it?! Can be clear as a bell or a total nightmare...

[christybell]

Yay... here we go! Looking forward to this one Kim (when you finally get there)

[Loopylooloo]

Loving it already, will be following along!

[Leyfy]

Originally Posted by christybell

Yay... here we go! Looking forward to this one Kim (when you finally get there)

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It was a bit of a mammoth journey! Thanks for reading

Originally Posted by Loopylooloo

Loving it already, will be following along!

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Thank you! Thanks for reading


Day 01 - Travel day is now up!

https://www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/sho...0#post12190800

[DISNEYLIZ]

Great start - I am sure that airport carparks hide when you try to find them - or they move the entrance to them.

[Leyfy]

Originally Posted by DISNEYLIZ

Great start - I am sure that airport carparks hide when you try to find them - or they move the entrance to them.

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Totally!

I wouldn't mind, but we'd found it with absolutely no problem when we went to New York!

Thanks for reading