Me - Tim - 40 ish
DW - Lena - Wife - 40 ish
DS1 - Matt - Son 17
DS2 - Ricky - Son 13
DD - Hannah - Daughter 7
DN - Andy - Nephew 17
DF - Cyril - Father in law - mature
DM - Joyce - Mother in law - mature
First trip to U.S. - (DF & DM have been 10 years ago) - first long haul flight - Me & DW & DM are all petrified of flying -GOOD START!
DAY 1 - The journey - flight departs Gatwick at 10.45 a.m. so naturally we have to be there at least 6 hours prior to departure so that we can queue up for no apparent reason (DM !!!). Meet at DM's house at 4.00 a.m. and arrive at Gatwick at approx. 5.30a.m. - park car and join (or should I say Start) queue at 6.00.a.m. - we paid to pre-book seats so I have to say thet this is not the start that I expected - however - DM was correct in her assumption that something always goes wrong at the airport because somehow Thomas Cook never got round to telling Style holidays that we had paid extra to pre-book seats and therefore the lady at the check-in desk had no booking!! Apparently we originally booked with Style on a JMC flight but this was changed to MY Travel which is why the pre-booked seats were not registerd with MY Travel airlines ! DM is furious and tells as many people as she possibly can about our mis-fortune in the next two weeks ! That said - because we arrived "fairly early" we managed to get 8 seats reasonably together. 1 nil to DM. The whole world and his wife had turned up at Gatwick this morning - or so it seemed - chaos rules!! So - through we went to departure lounge and into McD's for breakfast. Plane delayed approx 45 mins due to slow boarding of a couple of passengers but othe than that - no complaints - un-eventful flight - all seats had T.V.screen in headrests showing films & T.V.programmes which help to pass the time and also have two built in camera's to watch (good if you dont have a window seat) one facing forward & one downward - now this actually helped me on take-off but if you have ever used a flight sim on a computer then when it comes to landing I can assure you that there were about 150 people trying desperately hard to pull the nose up a touch and decrease the in-run speed!! DD had trouble with her ears on landing - very painful. Sanford Airport - Collected bags quickly & easily - straight thru immigration & passport control and into Dollar to collect Happy bus (Dodge van) - again very quick & easy. Very optomistic at this point - Temp. = 90.c on arrival - sun shining - quick brouse of the manual for this 4.3 litre monster truck to assertain cruise control and air con. - set off with directions and 50 mins later standing inside a beautiful luxury executive villa - gazing over private pool onto 10th fairway of championship golf course - pinch me somebody - this must be too good to be true! DS1,DS2,DN & DD are in the pool within 10 mins while ME, DW & DM nip off to local Publix supermarket (5 min drive) for milk etc. leaving DF to search in vain for Teapot !!! Pick up two pizza's, crate of lager's, milk and some essentials(Oreo's,Twinky's,Caramel M&M's etc.) and after an early evening lunch!! decide that we shoul make the best of this great start to the holiday and go to the essential Disney park tomorrow - (Sunday) Magic Kingdom. Early night for all - in bed by 10.00 p.m.(actually 3.00 a.m. U.K.time) except for DS1 & DN who stay up to consume some of the beverages! - well - it's their holiday too !
Next installment tomorrow.
Milly
DW - Lena - Wife - 40 ish
DS1 - Matt - Son 17
DS2 - Ricky - Son 13
DD - Hannah - Daughter 7
DN - Andy - Nephew 17
DF - Cyril - Father in law - mature
DM - Joyce - Mother in law - mature
First trip to U.S. - (DF & DM have been 10 years ago) - first long haul flight - Me & DW & DM are all petrified of flying -GOOD START!
DAY 1 - The journey - flight departs Gatwick at 10.45 a.m. so naturally we have to be there at least 6 hours prior to departure so that we can queue up for no apparent reason (DM !!!). Meet at DM's house at 4.00 a.m. and arrive at Gatwick at approx. 5.30a.m. - park car and join (or should I say Start) queue at 6.00.a.m. - we paid to pre-book seats so I have to say thet this is not the start that I expected - however - DM was correct in her assumption that something always goes wrong at the airport because somehow Thomas Cook never got round to telling Style holidays that we had paid extra to pre-book seats and therefore the lady at the check-in desk had no booking!! Apparently we originally booked with Style on a JMC flight but this was changed to MY Travel which is why the pre-booked seats were not registerd with MY Travel airlines ! DM is furious and tells as many people as she possibly can about our mis-fortune in the next two weeks ! That said - because we arrived "fairly early" we managed to get 8 seats reasonably together. 1 nil to DM. The whole world and his wife had turned up at Gatwick this morning - or so it seemed - chaos rules!! So - through we went to departure lounge and into McD's for breakfast. Plane delayed approx 45 mins due to slow boarding of a couple of passengers but othe than that - no complaints - un-eventful flight - all seats had T.V.screen in headrests showing films & T.V.programmes which help to pass the time and also have two built in camera's to watch (good if you dont have a window seat) one facing forward & one downward - now this actually helped me on take-off but if you have ever used a flight sim on a computer then when it comes to landing I can assure you that there were about 150 people trying desperately hard to pull the nose up a touch and decrease the in-run speed!! DD had trouble with her ears on landing - very painful. Sanford Airport - Collected bags quickly & easily - straight thru immigration & passport control and into Dollar to collect Happy bus (Dodge van) - again very quick & easy. Very optomistic at this point - Temp. = 90.c on arrival - sun shining - quick brouse of the manual for this 4.3 litre monster truck to assertain cruise control and air con. - set off with directions and 50 mins later standing inside a beautiful luxury executive villa - gazing over private pool onto 10th fairway of championship golf course - pinch me somebody - this must be too good to be true! DS1,DS2,DN & DD are in the pool within 10 mins while ME, DW & DM nip off to local Publix supermarket (5 min drive) for milk etc. leaving DF to search in vain for Teapot !!! Pick up two pizza's, crate of lager's, milk and some essentials(Oreo's,Twinky's,Caramel M&M's etc.) and after an early evening lunch!! decide that we shoul make the best of this great start to the holiday and go to the essential Disney park tomorrow - (Sunday) Magic Kingdom. Early night for all - in bed by 10.00 p.m.(actually 3.00 a.m. U.K.time) except for DS1 & DN who stay up to consume some of the beverages! - well - it's their holiday too !
Next installment tomorrow.
Milly
). Make sure that your daughter puts them in at least 1 1/4 hours before touchdown (to be safe): if you don't put them in before the plane starts to descend, then they don't work properly (that was my problem on honeymoon...). Poor little thing - she must have been in real pain :-(. Also try sucking sweets (or sipping a drink), that helps equalise the pressure too.
!)
