Pizza, Wings and Stranger Things 2019 Day 1

[wizzo]

Day One – 11th August 2019

THE INDEX IS HERE

Hello, welcome aboard and indeed to some of you, welcome back. I had a break from report writing in 2018 largely because last years’ holiday was predominantly a beach holiday and I didn’t think there would be enough to write about……and I was right. I did take notes and still have them but unless the dribble I write gains the popularity of JK Rowling at some point in the future, I won’t be writing that trip report up! It was a great holiday in 2018 and some of the things that worked so well last year you will read about in this years’ report.

In time honoured tradition the name of this trip report is nothing like the name of the pre-trip report. Our titles always become evident to us during the holiday without fail based on the things that happen. This years’ title therefore needs very little explanation. Welcome to Pizza, Wings and Stranger Things (Yes, it is the TV series). Lots of things happened on this holiday but the things that happened repeatedly were Pizza, Wings and Stranger things. Get it?

For you old timers, the wings were hot but not ‘Johnny Cash’ hot 😊 Let’s move on.

The morning of travel had arrived. I say ‘morning’ when in fact it was still night time. 4am to be precise and regular reads will already be thinking “Was he rudely awoken by the light of a Kindle?” in short, yes, he sodding was! I groaned that groan you groan when you could have another hour but that’s gone to rat poop now. Lynn simply whispered succinctly “One up, All Up” The Dibb won’t let me type what I was thinking. Now awake I put the telly on and watched American Choppers, that’s a Discovery Channel show about motorbikes not one of those special ‘Dad’ films with a title similar to a Hollywood Blockbuster e.g. Shaving Ryan’s Privates. Around about 4:30am we also had a house alarm go off too. We just weren’t meant to get a full night’s sleep, or so I thought when shortly before 5am Lynn started snoring! The alarm finally went off at 5am (usual time for me and Lauren) and I got everyone up.

We all washed, dressed and closed suitcases before heading out of the door having dropped the dogs off at Grandma’s last night.

Almost forgot! I ceremonially put the fridge in vacation mode and my last remaining proper child ticked off the last day of her countdown. Lauren’s way too cool for countdowns now, or at least she thinks she is.






Leeds Bradford was our destination and a totally new route for us. Leeds is only an hour away from our house and after this trip will definitely be a departure airport I look closer at in the future. Meet and Greet parking was a breeze and if anything, we were too early. Our route to Miami today was via Dublin. As I’m sure a lot of you know, other than the Guinness the big advantage of going to America via Dublin is that you clear Immigration in Dublin before you even set off. More on that later.

So we’re booked right through with Aer Lingus and we had to wait about half an hour for check-in to open. While we sit near the check-in desks waiting we’re treated/subjected to a number of Maddy’s interesting facts. The most memorable of these was “Did you know you can bite your own finger off pretty easily but your brain won’t let you?”. That sweet little some of you have watch grow from a toddler is a Billy Eilish fan now.

After a while waiting me and Maddy have a walk up to a makeshift barrier to have a squint to see if the Aer Lingus logos were on any screens showing our check in desks yet, they weren’t so we stood chatting. Or at least I thought we were chatting. She’d wandered off and was back sitting on the seats with Lynn and Lauren and I had been quite happily talking to myself. I realised this when I turned around to find the three of them ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ themselves laughing. Indignant, I turn back to the check-in desks only to see a ServisAir bloke also ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ himself too. Eventually check-in opened and we were first in the queue and through into security. It was at this point that I got my own back on Lynn and laughed heartily as she was selected for the full body scan/frisk/hand metal detector treatment.

Once we’d waited for Lynn to be swabbed, bent over and interrogated we breakfasted in Starbucks.



I’d lost a stone and a half in the weeks leading up to this holiday and was wearing a pair of shorts I hadn’t worn in a few years. I’d selected these shorts because I presumed I’d stopped wearing them because they had shrunk (I’d got too fat for them really). During this time in Leeds Bradford airport it became apparent that the reason I’d stopped wearing these shorts was because the zip was broken and gradually worked its way down as you walked! I now had 4000 miles to travel through another couple of airports (with plenty of walking) with the very real possibility of exposing myself!

When I tried to do online check-in the day before, I couldn’t check Lauren in and suspected it was because of extra security checks (hopefully random). When I looked at her boarding card for the Miami flight she had the dreaded 4 S’s on it! We decided not to tell her that we now knew she’d get pulled out of the line for special attention. Either that or she’s on the FBI’s no fly list!



Being a little hop across the Irish Sea on a plane with propellers, the time from check-in to boarding was pretty short and we were soon called as we were in rows 5 and 6. We were entering the plane’s rear entrance given that it didn’t have a front door. This was back to basics air travel. It reminded me of Dan Air flights out of Newcastle in the 70s/80s. No ‘Sky Tunnel’, No bus to the plane, we were ushered out onto the tarmac to wait next to a zebra crossing to reach a plane in the dim distance. To add insult to injury, they got us to stand outside long before the plane was ready and it started to bloody rain. !0 minutes I was stood there, in the rain, with my flies down!



Eventually we got on the plane after watching them load the cases into the tiniest ‘boot’ you’ve ever seen. This was our view.



Soon we were up in the air and the sun came out.



We were soon in Dublin and perhaps foolishly, decide to go straight through US Pre-Clearance just in case Lauren gets locked up. I say foolishly because amenities are a bit limited once you’ve cleared US immigration and are segregated at the US Gates.

As predicted, as soon as we first hand over our passports and boarding cards, Lauren is asked to join another line for special treatment. Lynn had to go with her because she’s a minor. Maddy and I breezed through security and waited for them at the other end. We probably had about a 15 minute wait and apparently Lauren was frisked and we laughed our heads off as Lauren described the female security lady saying “Are you okay with me touching your intimate areas lightly?” She was also body scanned, drug swabbed and asked numerous questions. Ultimately, they let her through so we had to take her with us

As I alluded to earlier, we were through to the gates/holding area too early and with one expensive café, one bar and the worlds smallest unmanned WH Smith, facilities were both limited and bloody expensive. We sat for a bit, some of us avoiding having our photo taken. Come on ladies, it’s a trip report!







We were all hungry so I gave my life savings to the café in exchange for two paninis, two toasties and some soft drinks that I can only presume were infused with liquid platinum. What I’m saying is, this is a great route for traveling to America but make sure you not hungry and well hydrated before you set foot anywhere near ‘US Pre-Clearance’. We wouldn’t hesitate to fly via Dublin again though (full) it was excellent.

Time went quickly (it always does when you’re heading out) and Lynn and I had a pint.


Hitchcockesque

Before long we were called to board and as Lauren had her boarding card scanned the lady turned to a colleague and said “22H is here”. I followed that with “Oh America’s most wanted is here!” and luckily she laughed and didn’t turf us off the flight. That ‘SSSS’ on your boarding card really does mean they’re checking every step of the way even if you are a 15-year-old girl.

We were soon airborne and one of the drawbacks of Aer Lingus is there’s no free alcohol! Shocking but for what we paid for these flights it was a sacrifice worth making and would be again in the future.








My notes are none existent on flights these days as it is what it is in terms of watching a film or two, eating airline food and eventually landing. I think I’m done with taking pictures of airline food in my trip reports but what I would say is that the Beef Stroganoff was lovely.

The flight was 8:40 in duration and it felt like quite a long one. Eventually thought we were on our final approach into Miami.









Once landed, we were virtually an internal flight, so it was straight to the baggage carousel for us which was within walking distance. The bags were quickly with us and we were heading to the Airport Hotel situated within the main terminal. Again, this was a short walk and by 8:30pm we were checked in and in our room. We were all pretty tired and although I’ve done it plenty of times in years gone by, I was glad that I didn’t have to pick up a hire car and find a villa/hotel. Booking this first night in here meant we saved a days’ car hire, a day parking costs at Miami Beach and removed the stress and hassle. It worked well.

We were hungry so Lauren and I went back down to the terminal and secured pizza for everyone from Pizza Hut. I have absolutely no photos of the room or the pizza but I’m sure you can guess what they looked like.

The pizza was devoured in seconds and you know we were all hungry because we foolishly declared it the best pizza we’d ever had!

I sat and watched the World Cornhole Championships (that’s not a special Dad movie either), a ‘sport’ that fascinates me and really like to play in a beach scenario too.

We’re almost ready for bed and I will leave you with the actual extract from my notes because a) it’s difficult to dress up and b) you all know what I’m like!

The note reads “Everyone laid cable and went to bed, sound asleep by 10pm”

You’re welcome!

Tomorrow – Miami Beach

[mick]

Good travel day the idea of the airport hotel is great


Joan

[jacqui]

Great start, another Aer Lingus fan.

[princess allie]

A stress free travel day. The girls look so grown up since the last trip report.

[ziggyzag]

You still get to sit with Maddy on the plane then
Glad your trip report is here !

[Deano]

Lol @ Cornhole I always have a childish smirk when I hear people saying shall we play corn hole...

[JanetteP]

Yay - it's started - following along - love the Dad movies Not sure I could have got on that plane though

[walt4it]

Looking forward to reading about all of your travels this year - never flown with Aer Lingus but a pint of the dark stuff in Dublin is an added bonus.
As for cornhole - I think I watched more of that this year than ever before Cheap TV - just wait for the World Series!
It does drag you in though - the lingo and the whole thing about chucking beanbags from one board to the other made for some 'interesting' viewing

[Floridafour]

Great start 👍
Looking forward to more 🙂

[flo-tinka]

Poor Lauren with the SSSS 😳 I didn’t know about that so thanks for info