Another Birthday Trip, Oct 2019 - Day 1, Travel Day, From Gatwick to Orlando

[Lisa29]

The previous day is HERE.

Thursday 3 October 2019

Another rubbish nights sleep for me and I was awake at 4am. I tried but could not get back to sleep. Phil woke around 5am and also couldn't get back to sleep. I was on my phone, playing Disney emoji blitz and checking emails, catching up on social media, etc. Madison and Kaley woke just after 6am

Phil and I got up, showered, dressed, etc. and I headed down to the Costa in the hotel at 6.55am. I didn't realise until I got down there that they were open 24 hours. If I'd known that, I'd have gone down ages ago. No photos but I got two portions of toast (£2.40 for the two), two cups of water, a tea (£2.10) and a medium Americano (£2.40). Total cost £6.90. Annoyingly, I had loads of points on my Costa card but their system was down so I couldn't use them.

Just as I had all my stuff, I saw Ryan, Bethany, Piper and Cody. They had paid for the meal deal and were on the earlier BA flight so were having an early breakfast. I went into the restaurant with them and talked for a bit with them and Mum and Dad, who were already sat down. We wished each other good, safe flights then I headed back up to our room.

Phil, Madison and Kaley shared the toast and Phil and I had our drinks. Madison and Kaley got dressed and I did their hair

Kaley decided to relax a bit more

We packed up the last few bits and made sure we had everything we needed to get out of the hand luggage cases in the same place and easy to get to. We checked we hadn't left anything and Phil took some photos of the room

We wanted to have a wander round the shops in the airport before we went in the My Lounge so left the room at 8.20am. This hotel is so convenient, just across the road and up the travelator thing and you're there. We went up the escalator to the second floor

We had complimentary premium security with our lounge booking so went straight there. This was so quick, we were through in less than 5 minutes. We had a slow wander through the duty free shop. I was very tempted by the GHD Glide but decided I didn’t really need it so moved on. We did get some Dior Sauvage aftershave for Phil, £60.45 for 100ml.

We had a wander around the shops we wanted to look in and I got a Lime, Basil and Mandarin cologne from Jo Malone. £37.60 for 30ml. Madison and Kaley had some airport money to spend so of course wanted everything they saw. They finally settled on some bits they wanted so we said we would come back before we went to the lounge, rather than carrying it around with us. We headed towards where the lounges were so we could watch some planes for a bit.

I was feeling a bit funny so went upstairs to Pret to get a ham, bacon, tomato and cheese croissant, £2.35.

We watched the planes for a bit longer then went back to WH Smith so the girls could buy what they wanted. Madison got two M&M chocolate bars and a magazine and Kaley got a mint Oreo chocolate bar and a magazine. I don't have their receipts so not sure how much these cost.

I wasn't convinced Kaley was going to eat the food on the plane so we got a meal deal for her; ham and cheese sandwich, cheese and onion crisps and a large water (£3.99 meal deal). We also got a pack of cheese Doritios (£1.29), a 4-pack of Mentos (£2.00, so annoyed I hadn't thought to get these from Poundland before we came ), Good Food magazine for me (£4.60) and a space magazine (£9.99) for Phil, total cost £21.87.

It was just after 10am by now so went to My Lounge.

There was no staff member there when we arrived so waited around then started to walk further in when someone came round the corner. He checked our paperwork, then we had a look to see where we wanted to sit. There were two sofas and a table by the entrance so we sat there.

It wasn't the biggest of lounges and was quite busy. There was one area at the back left of the room that looked nice and cosy but had a reserved sign in - the entire time we were in there no one came to use it so no idea when the people it was reserved for were flying.

The PlayStation was also broken so the girls couldn't play on that.

Some photos of the lounge

Photos of the food and drinks areas

Where we were sat

We got settled and looked at the menu

We had a bit of food, I had an apple juice and tea, some porridge with sugar and some of the frittata and pulled pork with beans.

This was ok, not amazing but not bad either. Phil had similar to what I had and Madison and Kaley had some pancakes and doughnuts.

They didn't have enough staff in here - the pancake mix ran out and it took ages for it to be replenished. I had the last of the apple juice and the whole time we were there it wasn't replaced. The person on the welcome desk/entrance constantly kept going out the back so people either stood waiting to come in, or is some cases, just walked in and sat down anyway. Quite soon after we were in there, they were turning people away as it was full, unless they had a paid reservation. Some people argued with him over this and there was one particularly horrible 60 ish aged woman who had come in when the staff member wasn't there, sat down and then kicked up such a fuss when she was asked to leave. She argued with him, demanded to see the manager, didn't like what he had to say so argued some more then stood outside the door for almost 15 minutes to make sure the staff weren't letting anyone in without a reservation. She really was an unpleasant lady and was quite obviously used to getting her own way.

There was also a man, also 60 ish, who had tried to come in and been told he couldn't. He asked the guy if he could just get himself a beer and then go! He was told no but he must have came back to try and get in four or five times. In all honesty, it wasn't a nice experience being sat where we were and we wouldn't use this lounge again.

At around 11.30am, the lunch-type food came out - wedges, nachos, accompaniments, etc.

I got some wedges, nachos and hummus

This tasted good, I wasn't hungry but felt I needed to have something as we had paid to go in.

We sat talking, trying to ignore the people complaining at not being able to come in, and sorted through the hand luggage again. We had Phil's camera bag in one of the cabin cases and didn't want to have to open this on the flight so made sure what we didn't need was in this case and what we wanted out was in the other.

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