August 2018 Wishing on a Star: Pre Travel Day & Travel Day (Radisson Blu Manchester / 51st & Green)

[Niki T]

It was a busier than usual pre-travel as we had a wedding to go to as I result I didn't sleep very well. So 3am came and I lay awake thinking about the reading I was doing, last minute things we had yet to pack, worrying about the cats. Luckily, after lots of cat cuddles, I managed to grab an extra hour before the alarm.

After said alarm had screamed at us to wake up, we had a quick coffee and John headed off to get his hair cut, send some shorts back and pick up a maccies breakfast - no dishes required. While he was doing that I got ready Niki-style. For those who are new to our reports, or those who have forgotten, I am a champion faffer, so doing anything slowly with lots of faffing shall hence-forth be known as "Niki-style". Faffing included sobbing watching Animal Park as they had to put down a zebra, curling my hair reeeaaalllyyy slowly and taking an age doing my make up. John arrived home as I was almost done and we had breakfast. As I'd set the alarm with plenty of time to faff, we were ready in time.

The wedding was about an hour in the wrong direction to the airport, but we passed the time chatting about our holiday and I read my poem for the happy couple a thousand times to John.

As expected the wedding was beautiful; we had a lovely time and my friend looked gorgeous. As her new husband is a huge Star Wars fan, there were touches of Star Wars throughout the day - the poem I wrote for them had lots of references to the film. For anyone interested here's the first stanza (most of it is a bit too personal to them as it is their story so I won't share it on here).

You must unlearn what you have learnt,
As each marriage is unique,
To find the path to happiness,
Your own path you must seek.

I think I was really nervous about the reading, but once it was over I could feel myself relaxing. After the wedding breakfast John got a traffic alert on his phone as there has been an accident on the Motorway close to our house. This meant we had to leave earlier than planned, and even more frustrating, it has cleared by the time we got that section. More fortunately, we had an issue with our printer and we needed the extra time in order to print our boarding passes so it worked out ok. The accident was not a fatality and 2 drivers were taken to hospital with "minor injuries" it was reported (when I read that back I didn't want anyone to think I was being callous).

So as I've mentioned, we arrived home 75 mins to pick up and we spent a stressful hour of that screaming, begging and pleading with the printer. Thankfully, passes in hand we met our driver and spent a pleasant journey chatting away to him en route to the Radisson.

Once there, he gave us the rundown on coming home - I'll probably regret not listening to him when we are actually on our way home, but right now, writing this from 51st and Green at Dublin airport I'm not thinking about coming home.

At the hotel we checked in and was given a business class room - lovely. Shame we were in it less than 12 hours (more like 8). We ate our picnic, a much more reserved affair than last year, and watched Forgetting Sarah Marshall - what a dreadful film...I thought I enjoyed it last time I watched it. But never mind, it passed the time until sleep took over.

Again, I slept fitfully. Strange noises were freaking me out, or perhaps it was being paranoid about oversleeping? I managed to get some sleep though, whereas at home I'd have gotten none at all.

The alarm was set for 4am (wanted to leave time to get ready Niki-style) and we left the room at 5:45.

So what about the Radisson?

It was, as always, lovely and the £40 we paid after using our clubcard vouchers was worth the few hours sleep which I managed to get. The hair dryer was still a pain as you have to hold the button down, but it did the job. They have Nespresso machines in the rooms now, we have a Nespresso machine at home, but without the frothy milk the coffee was a little bitter.

Also, the bathroom door is weird. It's frosted glass so you have to be close to the person you share a room with! We would recommend it though as it made the morning stress free.

We wandered down the walkway to T1 feeling like we were on our holidays and waited in line to drop our cases. John's was a little over 23.9kg, but she didn't say anything as it was sent on it's way closely followed by my case at 12.2kg - plenty of room for souvenirs.

As we waited in line I saw my friend from work on her way to Vegas, we waved across the barriers and managed a quick catch up after a long wait in security - first time we hadn't got fast track - where she shared the lovely news of her engagement. With lots of congratulations and well wishes and "see you in Septembers" we said our goodbyes.

John bought me a lovely Mac lippy £13.50 and a Victoria Secret perfume £51; they secured my perfume in a special bag because we were connecting. I then bought John a new tri-pod £90. I say we bought it for each other, but it all comes from the same account so we equally treated ourselves.

After our purchases, we headed to the gate. We sat to one side and were one of the last on; I'm not sure where anxious Niki is...she'd have made John queue for ages only to be sat on the plane.

The flight itself was uneventful; we left a little late, but arrived on time. We played a game of Disney Top Trumps and I won. In order to remain the champion, we will never play this again. Again, we sat on the plane to avoid the crush and waited for the majority to get off.

We had quite a wait in DUB, but had booked 51st and Green lounge. So, after we had our passport checked and discovered John had not signed his passport - we had to hunt for a black pen as they would not allow him to travel into the US without it signed!

Paying over the odds for a pen we've now lost, John signed his passport and we headed into the queue for immigration. We've never experienced a queue here before but we waited 20 mins. Because John had a new passport we had to go to a person, so couldn't use the kiosk. Again, there was a wait for this of about 5 mins.

After the usual questions we were on our way to 51st and Green. If you are considering this in your holiday plans, we'd recommend it. It was quite busy, busier than usual I think as we heard a staff member comment on it, but we found a seat easily enough with a good view of the runway. We each had some breakfast and drinks while we watched the planes.

Soon after breakfast the lunch offerings started, so we had some of that too. We'd booked the lounge in place of upgrading our meals on the plane, so we probably wouldn't eat until we hit the US. In addition to our breakfast and lunch we each had a cocktail. The time passed easily in the lounge and it was great start to the holiday. It would have been nicer if it was quieter, but it was far from packed so it's not really a complaint.

The plane boarded on time and we settled down to watch some films. John watched: Avengers, Ready Player One and Game Night. We'd seen these before, but they were all films he enjoyed. I watched: 15:17 to Paris and a couple of rom coms which were obviously forgettable as I can't remember what they were and I've not written a note about them. We ate beef stroganoff which was quite nice for plane food, the dessert was delicious, later we were offered a vile chicken hit wrap which we did not eat! We also had a little pot of ice cream, John ate both of ours as my teeth don't cope well with ice cream.

We landed a little early but it took a while to get a gate, I think we'd just missed a storm and there was a small back log. The only issue we faced was getting our bags; we must have waited a good 40 mins for this. Some employee at the airport kept giving me dirty looks as if I were a bad mother because this group of children near me were running riot - their parents had ALL (there were 2 families, each with 2 parents) gone and left them to get the bags and they were messing and fighting. I moved away to avoid more dirty stares. Our driver from Quicksilver wasn't too impressed by the long wait, but there was nothing we could do about it.

Eventually, with our bags in tact and in tow, we headed to Royal Pacific Resort. Our holiday had really begun now.

Check in was smooth; I chose a Harry Potter card and John had a Simpsons one. We were welcomed Hawaiian style and we headed for our room in Tower 1. The hotel was as beautiful as we remember, but I think I preferred the previous decor in the rooms; the new decor feels a bit funky in comparison to the rest of the hotel. I do love the amount of plus sockets - especially USB ports - that's a big plus.

Although it was getting late, we were hungry so we headed to Jake's for a snacky meal. The food looked great as it was delivered to the table next to us. We had: buffalo chicken flatbread, meatlovers flatbread, parm fries and pretzel with dips. Why have we never eaten here before? It was utterly delicious. We wholeheartedly recommend this place, even if you are not staying in the hotel. It was quiet, quick and tasty. Our meal cost $60 with tip, as a counter service often costs $35-45, I think it's pretty reasonable.

Rolling out of the restaurant and up to bed we went to sleep off travel day.

[Inky]

We are at Jakes and Islands dining, both lovely. Was Quicksilver good and how much was it? Did you book online?

[Inky]

Oops ate at jakes I meant

[GALE88]

Sounds like a busy pre-travel day followed by a good travel day. Your cats look very cute

[i love jack]

Great travel day, picnic is still looking good
The room at RPR looks lovely.

[mick]

Well done on fitting a wedding in on pre travel day

Your travel day was quite good and your evening meal looked lovely

Joan

[Floridaagogo]

Great travel day .lovely pics x

[Em4owen]

I loved reading your trippie last year. I'm looking forward to this one. Going via Dublin seems like an easy, stress-free option, one we're considering doing.

[yellowrose78]

Great travel day, looking forward to more

[Niki T]

Originally Posted by Inky

We are at Jakes and Islands dining, both lovely. Was Quicksilver good and how much was it? Did you book online?

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Quicksilver were great, we only used them one way and booked online. It was $84 including tip, so not the cheapest way to get the resort...i think uber would have been cheaper, but having someone there to meet us after a long flight was worth it.

Jake's has definitely become a must do, might give Islands a go next time if that's as good?

Originally Posted by GALE88

Sounds like a busy pre-travel day followed by a good travel day. Your cats look very cute

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Thanks. We think our boys are cute too pests, but cute. They love their new mickey bowls #spoiled

Originally Posted by i love jack

Great travel day, picnic is still looking good
The room at RPR looks lovely.

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Thanks, I wish we'd ate more. RPR is lovely - I think we'd forgotten how lovely.

Originally Posted by mick

Well done on fitting a wedding in on pre travel day

Your travel day was quite good and your evening meal looked lovely

Joan

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Thanks Joan

Originally Posted by Floridaagogo

Great travel day .lovely pics x

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Thanks for reading

Originally Posted by Em4owen

I loved reading your trippie last year. I'm looking forward to this one. Going via Dublin seems like an easy, stress-free option, one we're considering doing.

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Defo consider DUB, it's our preferred route now. 51st and Green is fab.

Originally Posted by yellowrose78

Great travel day, looking forward to more

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Thanks, hopefully another day coming soon