#girlstrip - Pre-Travel Day (Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen)

[wilma-bride]

Sorry for the delay, but I am FINALLY getting around to posting my trip reports. I was terrible about taking notes on this trip, mainly due to illness, laziness and hangovers

Anyway, without further ado, on with the show...

If you haven't yet read the pre-trip ramblings and would like to know who was going, why we were going and where we were going, click HERE

Friday 23rd November

Today is my son’s 16th Birthday.
Today I am also leaving to go to Walt Disney World for a week with my daughter AND LEAVING MY SON AND HUSBAND AT HOME

Guess I’m not getting Mother of the Year award for the 25th year running then. Or Wife of the Year. Hey ho

We were up about 7.30, with none of us having to go to work today – in an attempt to get back into my son’s good books, after abandoning him on his Birthday to go on holiday, I’d let him have the day off school and we were taking him to the pub for lunch so he could enjoy his first (legal) drink . My parenting skills just get better and better

I can't believe he has grown up so quickly

Daniel opened his cards and presents, and pronounced his sister's card the best and my brother's present his favourite!

Gary announced that he had to pop into work for a "quick" meeting I didn't mind too much, as Rea and I had an appointment at the beautician for the usual pre-holiday primping and preening. Unfortunately, the journey that should have taken us just 10 minutes took almost an hour due to a burst water main. This threw everything off and, instead of being finished by 10, as planned, it was almost 10.45 by the time we were on our way home. I knew I wouldn’t have time to get home, finish packing and get ready to go out in that time, so quickly phoned my step-Mum to ask her to change the lunch booking to 12.30. It was a good job we did as we got home to find Gary had not yet got back from his meeting – surprise, surprise.

Rea and I showered and changed, threw the last few bits into the cases and reorganised hand luggage for the trillionth time. At the last minute, I made a snap decision to throw in the (dodgy – given to me by a friend, not prescribed) Tramadol I’d been taking for my frozen shoulder. I knew it meant I might be in trouble if I got stopped at immigration, but it was worth it as I knew I couldn’t cope without it for the next week. I did have codeine, prescribed by the doctor, but not enough to last me the week and I hadn’t got a new prescription in time. Spoiler alert – it was fine, I didn’t get stopped and I’m glad I took it as I most definitely needed it.

Finally, Gary arrived home and quickly changed and got warm clothing ready as he and Daniel (plus Daniel’s friend, Sam) were heading up to Coventry this afternoon to watch to the football. Eventually, we were ready and loaded the bags into the car before making our way over to the pub, where we were greeted with the biggest balloons I’d ever seen.

We had a delicious lunch and after we’d finished, Gary dropped Rea and I at the train station to catch our train to Gatwick. I was a little bit sad saying goodbye to him, but I was excited to be setting off on an adventure with my girl.

We arrived at the train station and set about printing the tickets, when Rea suddenly remembered she'd forgotten her railcard. Having been caught out before, and knowing we would be penalised massively if our tickets were checked, we decided the best thing to do would be to buy a new one. We joined the HUGE queue and explained our plight to the guy behind the counter. He took our tickets, checked a few prices and confirmed that yes, buying a new railcard would be the cheapest option. He handed us a form, told us to fill it in, then set about serving the next customer. We filled the form in, waited for him to finish and then handed it back to him, at which point he promptly sent us to the back of the queue and told us to wait our turn. WTH? It WAS our turn, you served somebody else while we were filling the form in. Luckily, we still had a little bit of time before our train but a very nice man had overheard me stressing and told us we could go in front of him. Finally, Rea paid the money for the railcard and we were on our way.

The train journey was uneventful and, for the first time ever, our train wasn’t delayed or cancelled. We arrived at Gatwick just before 6 and caught the monorail over to the North Terminal to check in at the Premier Inn. I’m sure most of you know by now what the rooms look like but, in case you don’t, here you go.

After a quick reorganisation of the cases (Rea packed her jacket in the case and took a couple of things out) we headed straight back out and over to the Terminal to do Twilight Check-in.

There was literally nobody at the Virgin desks and we were soon checked in and free of our cases. I loved how Christmassy the terminal was already and this made me even more excited to see the Holiday decorations at Walt Disney World.

After a couple of photos in front of the massive Christmas tree, we were more than ready for a little holiday drinkie so went over to The Nicholas Culpeper, where we encroached on some poor unsuspecting man sat at one of the long, high tables by the bar and ‘stole’ the other end of his table. For me, there was only one drink of choice. Behold, cocktail number 1 – the Cosmopolitan. It is a thing of sheer beauty.

Rea had a glass of rose. We chinked glasses, toasted our holiday and settled in for the evening.

We amused ourselves playing our favourite people-watching game, where we make up stories about the people we see. It was highly amusing (to us anyway) and we had some very convoluted tales about a guy wearing a lumberjack shirt who was ‘on his way to the world lumberjack championships’, a lady with a sulky face who was ‘a vegetarian whose boyfriend was forcing her to eat a burger’ and the man driving the floor polisher up and down who ‘had about 23 kids and needed the job to support them all’. At some point, we ordered more drinks (another glass of wine and another Cosmopolitan) and a bowl of chips, which were delicious and hot and just what the doctor ordered. Rhiannon paid for these - I love having a daughter who is self-sufficient

Round number 3 and Rhiannon decided she fancied something different so we got the barman to make a Woo Woo. He wasn’t 100% sure how but he did a great job and it tasted pretty good.

I had my third Cosmopolitan and then we called it a night and wandered (swayed) back across the road to the hotel. After a brief detour into Costa at the hotel to pick up some snacks, we went back up to the room.

We had bought a couple of the Disney face packs from Primark during a shopping trip to Reading a few weeks prior, so this seemed like the ideal time to try them out. For some reason, I have absolutely no pictures of this – and I know we took some, even though they were horrific. I did NOT look like Aurora (either during or after).

After removing the face masks, we settled down in bed to watch TV and eat our Costa snacks, the Nutella Croissant Muffin (which probably tasted delicious about 20 hours earlier, when it was fresh) and some caramel marshmallow teacakes, which were pretty rank actually.

After channel hopping for a while, we chatted for a bit about our upcoming trip and all our plans, then realised we were pretty tired now so decided to settle down for the night.

[margyloveswdw]

Great start! Looking forward to reading more

[wilma-bride]

Originally Posted by margyloveswdw

Great start! Looking forward to reading more

See more...

Thanks for reading. I see your countdown is practically identical to mine

[caitlinsmummy]

What a fab pre travel day. Well apart from the railcard issue! You've just reminded me I need to check hubby has ours for this weekend in York so thank you 🤣

Love all the cocktails and even better when someone else pays 😉

Looking forward to the rest of the trip x

[Dogwalker]

Yay you've started!
Can't believe you didn't drink the fabulous gin at Nicholas Culpepper
I still haven't used those Disney face packs and this has just reminded me that I should.

[Kat11]

Fab start, looking forward to following along.

I love a cosmopolitan, that one(3) looks particularly nice. They are considered a bit retro now, in a sex and the city 1990's kinda way! 😂 I remember it well! 😜

Kat

[wilma-bride]

Originally Posted by caitlinsmummy

What a fab pre travel day. Well apart from the railcard issue! You've just reminded me I need to check hubby has ours for this weekend in York so thank you 🤣

Love all the cocktails and even better when someone else pays 😉

Looking forward to the rest of the trip x

See more...

Just posted travel day, thanks for reading

Originally Posted by Dogwalker

Yay you've started!
Can't believe you didn't drink the fabulous gin at Nicholas Culpepper
I still haven't used those Disney face packs and this has just reminded me that I should.

See more...

You know I don't 'do' gin - it's an old lady's drink

Originally Posted by Kat11

Fab start, looking forward to following along.

I love a cosmopolitan, that one(3) looks particularly nice. They are considered a bit retro now, in a sex and the city 1990's kinda way! 😂 I remember it well! 😜

Kat

See more...

Retro or not, it's absolutely my favourite cocktail - Nicholas Culpepper male a fabulous one (3) lol

Thanks for reading

[mick]

Great pre travel day looking forward to reading along

Joan

[PJB71]

Yeah Joh I’ve been waiting for your TR 👍🏻👍🏻

Looks like you & Rea had a fun evening 🍸

Cait wait to read more 👍🏻

[dixonsontour]

Good start. Can't believe Daniel is 16.