We are the Millers - Our first trip with Martha. Pre Travel & Travel Day

[abiknox]

Pre travel day

So, after 11 months of will we or wont we, pre travel day arrived! I spent the morning finishing up the packing before Aaron finished work at 1 and made his way home. We checked the traffic & it all looked clear so not long after 2.30pm we set off on the journey to our LHR hotel. We pulled up at Laura's house on the way (that's Aaron mom for any one who hasn;t read the pre trippy), she wanted to leave the same time as us just in case we had any issues on the journey. With 2 car seats and all the luggage there was no way we were getting us all on one car this time.

The motorway journey was smooth all the way to High Wycome where it was a bit busy coming off the junction we wanted for TGI Fridays. We were 15 minutes late for our reservation but it wasn't a problem & we were soon being seated.

We ordered drinks & starters first. Chicken strips for me & hot wings for Aaron. Laure declined a starter & I ordered the girls the chicken wrap from the kids meal to come out with the starters for them to share.

For mains, I ahd the brisket topped burger with rosti fries, Aaron had the mozarella dipper topped burger with garlic fries and Laura had the Californian chicken burger with rosti fries. All meals were really good.

We finished off with a S'mores sundae and a kids sundae for Edith.

After we paid up we hopped back in the car & headed to the Premier Inn Bath Road. I drove this leg of the journey as Aaron had enjoyed a few beers and Laura followed. It was pretty stressfull, there was a roundabout with a road straight through the middle of it, and we got completely lost! An extra 10 minutes was added to the sat nav time but we made it in the end.

Check in was ok, rooms were lovely. Edith went to play in lauras room while I got Martha to sleep and then she came back in & we were all in bed by 9.

Travel day

Martha started today off for us at 7.10am which was only 10 minutes before the alarm went off. I got up with the girls and met Laura for breakfast while Aaron stayed in bed. It was a typical PI breakfast offering everything you could want. We all enjoyed the hot food + various pastires, fruit & cereal. It was very quiet when we got down at 7.45am but when we left at 8.15 it was mega busy! We definitely timed it right.

We packed the car & paid the parking before driving the short distance to our Meet & greet parking. This was another confusing journey when I was reading off the directions for Aaron, if I was in the car on my own there would have been no chance of me finding it. After we'd handed over the keys we got the lift to departures & found the BA check in line. We were able to join the Verifly queue which was short but because I had been unable to fill in our API properly due to glitches on the BA website, it took forever to get checked in. The staff member also wasn't particularly polite. Finally sorted & we head to security. It took a fair while to get through but no issues, then we popped into the Harry Potter shop. Just after we came out I realsied I hadn;t got all my liquids back from the security area. Panicked we walked back over & it was only just comeing through for checking. It was all Martha's formula for the flight so a good job I remembered to go back. With all our belonings now accounted for we went through to find our gate stopping for some sandwiches and treats in Boots on the way. We got the shuttle to the B gates and started out wait for boarding. After about 20 minutes there were mutterings of a delay, and sure enough, an announcement soom came over confirming a 2 hour delay. Annoying but nothing much we could do.

Without going into too much detail, we kept being delayed & then delayed again & by the time we took off it was well over 4 hours. The delay was due to an aircraft change & because of that no one got the seats they had booked / paid for. There were a LOT of unhappy flyers and we were in that catagory having secured the bulkhead seats for Martha back in January & now being seated a good few rows behind while guests without children had the seats we had booked. The flight attendant did manage to get someone to swap with Laura so she took up a bulkhead seat while Aaron, Edith & I had a middle row of 3.

It worked ok during the flight as we passed Martha between us a few times & Edith also popped to see Nanny a few times which kept her busy. I haven't really got much else to say about the plane journey. With both kids to amuse I didn't manage to watch anything, didn't manage to eat & didn't manage to take any photos. Except this one... I think we all needed a drink!

We had some turbulence & about 90 minutes with our seatbelts on & then after what seemed liek a lifetime, we lasted at MCO. Of course it then took forever to disembark the plane & get through security but at least the bags were waiting for us when we did get to them.

We had Avis prefered booked so were able to head straight to the garrage but we wern't on the board so still had to queue & fill in forms. We were give and enormous Ford, it was fabulous! We popped the back seats down and loaded the luggage. We had bought one car seat from home & hired another through Avis for Edith so I fitted them and then we were off!

We had a lovely drive to our hotel, I commented to Aaron that we hadn't hit any toll roads and then I realised that my Maps were set to avoid tolls, oops. Only took us another 10 minutes I think. We popped into Publix, Martha was asleep so Aaron stayed in the car with her while the rest of us went in. We spent $140 on the basics, milk, eggs, bread, bagels, yoghurt, butter, detergent, jam, cream cheese, cereal, coke, juice ect and then head to our hotel.

It was 11.19pm when we arrived and the main doors to the check in area were locked telling me to call the night porter. My phone whouldn't work so I had to get Aaron & luckily his did work & within a few minutes the guy was with us handing us a key. We had a lovely room on the 14th floor. It was exactly how we remembered it.

I got Martha and Edith into bed & we unpacked the shopping before all heading to sleep soon after, we were all absolutely shattered.

In case it didn't come across enough in my aboive writing, I can confirm that travel day witth a 4 hour delay + a 9 hour flight with a 4 year old and a 1 year old in tow is hard work! :d It felt good to be back though!

[margyloveswdw]

Rubbish that you were delayed so long. Great start though!

[2point]

We remember meeting you while boarding and on the jetway, your Daughters were a joy. That huge lolly made us laugh.

[abiknox]

Originally Posted by margyloveswdw

Rubbish that you were delayed so long. Great start though!

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It really was rubbish! I'd do it all again tomorrow though

Originally Posted by 2point

We remember meeting you while boarding and on the jetway, your Daughters were a joy. That huge lolly made us laugh.

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Oh that lolly got lots of attention, I think everyone thought we were mad . My MIL bought her it, she tried one lolly on the plane, declared she didn't like them and that was that

Have you put in for compensation for the flight?

[2point]

Originally Posted by abiknox

It really was rubbish! I'd do it all again tomorrow though



Oh that lolly got lots of attention, I think everyone thought we were mad . My MIL bought her it, she tried one lolly on the plane, declared she didn't like them and that was that

Have you put in for compensation for the flight?

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The flight going out - offered €300 each cash or €450 each voucher. Took the voucher option and have already used it to book next November. Flight coming home on the 11th had the same delay in hours but no word yet on compensation.

[mrsdjh]

Shame about the long delay for you. I bet you were relieved to get there. I did laugh when I saw the big lolly on IG - how funny that that she didn’t like them!

[SquishTheWhale]

That sounds like such a hard travel day! You are super brave taking a 1 year old haha! My son is 22 months and I would absolutely love to go back to Florida but I just don't have the balls to do it with a toddler hahaha. Looking forward to hearing how you get on!

[P&S]

So glad you have started this but what a horrendous travel day You did so well travelling with your girls though

[mick]

The delay made for a very long day but as you say you are there now

I’m looking forward to reading along


Joan

[Goldia]

Oh no what a pain in the backside. Such a long delay and a very late night check in, you all must have been shattered. I hope you had a wonderful rest of the trip and that made the travel day worth it.