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Old 15 Aug 19, 05:29 PM  
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#31
Pumba75
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Day 0 - Pre travel day

Day 0 - Pre travel day


Hello and welcome along to our drool fest of calories!

We returned home yesterday so thought I would get cracking on with this to help with the holiday blues.

We had an amazing time, made brilliant memories and ate lots of delicious food. The 7 of us kept saying "we should share" but never did and I wonder why my jeans are feeling a tad tight today!

I normally do food reports live but as our friends were joining us my plan was to write notes and update when home. But unfortunately didn't write any notes so hoping my photos will jog my memory!

Anyway, let's get started...



Premier Inn - Gatwick North Terminal

After a day at work, we were picked up by Paul (airport transfer who we have used for the last few years and is great) and with no problems on the M25, met our friends at the Premier Inn in good time. Excitement levels were at an all time high for everyone!



We normally fly from Heathrow and have never had to book a table at a Premier Inn before, but as we were a larger group our friend R phoned up the day before but they didn't have any availability until late. Ooops. Great start. We decided to walk across to the terminal and eat there instead.

This worked out really well. A short walk, up the escalator and we turned right and opted for The Nicholas Culpeper.



We were sat upstairs at a round table which I always like as it feels more sociable. Simple pleasures hey!

We had dreamed, saved and counted down to this moment.

Cheers!




The food and service was brilliant.

A selection of sharing platters, sides & mains.












I was meant to take a note of the cost but forgot. Sorry!

We headed back to the bar at the Premier Inn but it was noisy and busy. We ordered drinks and managed to find a quiet corner.







Everyone then came back to our room before we said our goodbyes and goodnights and agreed to meet up early for our Premier Inn breakfast.

I struggled to get to sleep as was so excited. I love this moment when everything is ahead of you.


Thanks for reading.

M x

Edited at 08:47 AM.
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Old 15 Aug 19, 05:49 PM  
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Inky
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Can’t wait!
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Old 15 Aug 19, 06:32 PM  
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#33
Pumba75
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Originally Posted by Inky View Post
Can’t wait!
Thanks. Hoping to add 2nd instalment shortly.

Edited at 06:36 PM.
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Old 15 Aug 19, 06:55 PM  
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Pumba75
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Day 1 - Travel day

Day 1 - Travel day

We were all up, showered, talking and tucking into our Premier Inn breakfast before we knew it. The best photo I have is this! Apologies. I get better as the holiday goes on. I promise.




G had checked us all in the day before and the rest of the time until we boarded went smoothly and quickly.



Just to add - we decided not to pay for our seats with BA and all 7 of us were allocated seats together on both flights (3 window seats & 4 in the middle). We also didn't change our Esta's to add our middle names. No problems at all.




We took off on time. Crew were great.

Compulsory photo taken!



Drinks and pretzels handed out.



Meal was a choice of pasta or spicy chicken. Both were actually fairly good. Enjoyed my pasta more than I was expecting. Liked the quinoa salad & summer berry pot too.







The chicken Caesar sandwich was ok. Could've been double the size! The banana loaf was a big hit with everyone.



I thought we had previously had an ice cream, but no such joy this time.

The BA flydrive worked well for us again. This was the first time we had flown into Tampa and would happily fly this route again. Immigration was much quicker and the airport smaller to navigate.

Our first destination was The Grand Plaza at St Pete beach. This took us approx 30 minutes to get there. We were very happy to be back in our happy place.







We opted for take out from Bongo's. We ordered from our sun loungers around the pool. The men had beers.





The time difference was starting to catch up with us so didn't take photos of everyone's meals. None of us were able to finish. In hindsight, we should've shared. A common theme! Maybe that should’ve been the name of this report.

The photos don't do the food justice at all. We opted for fish tacos, beachside burgers & the cypress chicken sandwich under a mountain of fries.









We rolled into the mahoosive beds and promptly fell asleep, content, happy and full. Until the fire alarm went off during the middle of the night and we had to walk down 7 flights of stairs in our PJ’s! The hotel staff handed out water. It wasn’t long until we were allowed back in. We looked and felt like zombies! Didn't matter though as we quickly fell asleep again, dreaming of our Skidders breakfast which awaited us.

Thanks for reading.

M x

Edited at 06:02 PM.
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Old 15 Aug 19, 08:41 PM  
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slow.jo
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Great start Melissa! I'm excited to read the rest!
(Stew and I are reading together )

Jo xx
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Old 15 Aug 19, 10:35 PM  
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Oh Heck, just what you need on the first night, a fire alarm! Hope you were'nt to tired the next day. Food looking good so far. Not been to St. Pete's yet, so looking forward to where you eat and any scenic photo's you may have taken.Bet you wish you were back there.
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Old 16 Aug 19, 11:39 AM  
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Ooh you have started Glad you had a good trip and I am looking forward to following along. Shame about the fire alarm on the first night though!
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Old 16 Aug 19, 07:13 PM  
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Pumba75
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Originally Posted by slow.jo View Post
Great start Melissa! I'm excited to read the rest!
(Stew and I are reading together )

Jo xx
Thank you!

Originally Posted by Loobylou_82 View Post
Oh Heck, just what you need on the first night, a fire alarm! Hope you were'nt to tired the next day. Food looking good so far. Not been to St. Pete's yet, so looking forward to where you eat and any scenic photo's you may have taken.Bet you wish you were back there.
Thanks. It was a first!

Oh yes...

Originally Posted by Wismgari View Post
Ooh you have started Glad you had a good trip and I am looking forward to following along. Shame about the fire alarm on the first night though!
Thanks. Shame I was wearing my short/smaller Pj's that I never expected anyone else to ever see!

M x
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Old 16 Aug 19, 07:28 PM  
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Goldia
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We did pretty well with the BA plane food too. Sad that there was no ice cream though.

The dinner does look tasty and the room looks lovely. Shame you were woken in the middle of the night by the fire alarm. At least you got back to sleep without too much trouble.
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Old 16 Aug 19, 07:45 PM  
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Yay what a great start, minus the fire alarm!

Really looking forward to reading along, I'm interested to see Teak and Keke's which we're hoping to try this year.

Thanks for sharing with us!
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