Putts, Balls and Snow Falls - Day Minus 1 - The trouble with testing and travel

[Wobbles]

Day Minus 1 - Pre-Travel Day (Friday 10th December)

So here we are, just over 2 years since we last prepared to go to an airport, we are again, well we will be if we pass our COVID tests (or whatever getting a negative is).

Both Mr W and I had been making those weird agreements with ourselves, IF we don't pack we will get a negative, IF I don't sort out all the tickets out we will get a negative...

I had been working from home, Mr W had given up his sports club meetings to reduce contact but we had been shopping and doing some other stuff so we were a little worried... And I had had a serious asthmatic cough for two months - and even though I tested I was worried.

First off we dropped the Wobble Cats off at the Cattery, they were not happy, it was wet and cold and we were not hanging around. We did say to the woman who owns the cattery that we could be back before Midday. We were flying at 10am, our tests were at 11am...

Pre Flight Testing

We choose Express Test in Cabot Circus in Bristol for LFT, they give you a time to arrive and we arrived about 30 minutes ahead of time, to find a queue, which was fed by another queue, which was itself feed by a another queue. Luckily it wasn't raining as we were queuing outside for about 45 minutes.

The test itself took about 7 minutes from checking the passports to them confirming that they had worked and them letting us go.

On the whole everyone had a mask on and kept their distance, the man who was looking after the queue was doing a great job and kept us amused and moving and we could look at the local decorations.

They were very well organised inside and talked you through what they were doing at every stage and on the whole it felt safe and we would use them again.

Safety - I would give them 5 out of 5 for a well organised outside queue and quick efficacy inside

The next steps

By time I had got to Marks, bought some picnic food (for either the airport or home) and Mr W had filled the car up, we had got the result - I was so stressed by this time I couldn't really take in the results.

It is safe to say that sorting our Verifly and online check-in and packing was probably the most stressful moment of the year. I did wonder for a tiny moment if it was worth it...

But by 3pm-4pm we were finally leaving, we thought we had everything, the house was clean and the fridge empty (including all cans out - we came back to an exploded can last time) and off to Gatwick longstay and the Premier Inn

Parking
We arrived at Gatwick longstay in good time (it was about 7-7.30pm by then) and had not needed a break, we were directed to X carpark area and took The Dibb Obligatory photo of the car and the bus stop. The bus journey is only a couple of minutes to the terminal

We were the only ones on the bus but you could see there had lots of safety measures in place including gel and wipes

Safety - I would give them 5 out of 5 for what we could see was in place

Premier Inn

The North Terminal Premier Inn is very close to the terminal and it took us about 5 minutes from getting off the bus to checking in.

It was a bit chaotic there and very busy, it was a couple of days after the change in Mask guidance and lots of staff were repeating regularly to people to put their masks on in reception and lifts.

We decided to grab a couple of drinks from Costa and the bar before heading up to the room (where we had a wonderful view of the monorail passing underneath the window) and eat our picnic, so we didn't mix much the many people mixing in the reception and bar area. The Resturant was heaving with a very long queue.

Safety - I would give them 3 out of 5. There was no social distancing, lots of people didn't care ("we're on holiday" was a regular response to being asked to wear masks as well as swearing at staff when they tried to reinforce the guidance) and in the 10 minutes or so we were in reception and buying drinks we saw two people kicked out for getting aggressive with staff.

The beds were comfortable and there was a small TV. We watched TV until 10pm and went to sleep and in my case I was still very stressed.

We would however stop there again, great location and price and I think it was busy partly due to the lack of food options that were open at 8pm at night.

Spends
Drinks at the Premier Inn - £18
Food at M&S - £10

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On to Day 2

[Sparksy72]

A great start! DH and DS were the same, we didn’t really believe they were going to Orlando until they got on the plane (the testing process was super stressful until they received their negative results) - so different from any of our other trips. I’m looking forward to following along. 😁

[Goldia]

I'm looking forward to reading about your trip. Phew the testing is out the way now, I hope you had a good travel day.

[mick]

Good start but yes waiting for the results is nerve racking


Joan

[Twinkle-Dolphin]

Briliant start, looking forward to reading more

[Wobbles]

Day 1 is now live :-)

[P&S]

Great pre-travel day although tense at times! Good idea with the room picnic

[lfc_sarah]

I can feel the nerves through your post! Phew!