Taxi arrived three minutes late oh, how to try my patience! We are lucky to live only 15 minutes away from Manchester Airport. I have read of other peoples treks to Gatwick etc and even with the advantage of twilight check-in I dont fancy an extra day travelling.
I hate this part of the holiday Getting to the airport and checking in. The queues, the dragging of luggage around. I always feel happier once I am through security.
Arrived at Terminal 2 just before 7am. It was heaving! I havent seen queues like this at checkin for a long time. Joined the Virgin line and waited and waited and waited. It was chaos. All the airports computers had failed. After an hour of standing still, I was going demented. I eyed up the premium economy queue much shorter I trotted over to the Virgin Information desk and inquired about upgrade options. Yes, they had 4 seats remaining. £319 each way per person. Quick calculation - £1276, ouch. Returned to GF and told her thats 270+ pins! she exclaimed. Well, I couldnt argue with that level of financial logic, so we continued to queue!
It was 9.15 before we made it through to the departure lounge. So much for my leisurely stroll around the shops, duty free and a full English breakfast
Food choice at T2 is appalling. Seeing as we were heading to the USA we opted for Burger King, we needed the practice. Not my first choice for breakfast, but a short queue.
The usual stop at WHSmiths for a magazine, and the travel adaptor. I have a growing collection of these at home and I always forget to pack them. Along with sunglasses. Every year I leave them in my car and end up buying another pair!
Boarded the plane and took our seats. We sat there for 40 minutes whilst the cabin crew repeatedly did headcounts. Somehow they seemed to have an extra passenger. Either they figured out the miscount, found a missing boarding card or simply chose a random passenger and threw them off the plane whatever, we left about 25 minutes late.
8+ hours on a steel tube is not pleasurable. Admittedly, Virgins in flight entertainment is good, but the food is awful and the seats are unbelievably uncomfortable. Its not so much the lack of legroom as the poor padding on the seats. Unfortunately, my bum didnt go numb. I was able to recline my seat our seats backed onto a bulkhead. This is something I do not usually do as I get consumed by guilt. Stupid eh? Sat/squirmed my way through Matrix Reloaded, LA Italian Job, Anger Management and Finding Nemo.
Virgin VS75 (Honey Pie?) landed a few minutes early and we deplaned. I am not normally one of the last to leave and I have never noticed the state of an aircraft after 300+ people have inhabited it for most of the day
Customs and immigration. True to my Tescos form I chose the shortest queue which was the slowest moving. Well, it would have been if it werent for the 3 groups of people in front of me that were sent to the back of the queue!!! How can anyone fill the form in incorrectly? I felt smug. This confidence was short lived, to be replaced by anxiety. Had I filled it in properly? Immigration officer was friendly and quick 60 seconds and we were on our way. Collected bags, lost bags, collected bags usual MCO routine. Only interrupted by a further Xray scan of our luggage. Random check, or so we were informed.
Head to Dollar desk and queued again. Ah, how quickly I settle into the old queue routine. Got to the front only to be redirected to a special Virgin Dollar desk. Oops.
Second time lucky I was quickly persuaded to upgrade. I had a fullsize booked, but using my charm (and a credit card) I upgraded to a Cadilllac. Silver with SatNav. Headed out to the lot to be given the keys to an old, white and basically knackered Sedan DeVille. No thanks. Trotted to the key desk and explained that they had given me the wrong car. They checked the inventory but did not have a Silver Cadillac with SatNav in stock. More accurately, they never had a car of that description!
Switched to a Chrysler 300M. Much better. Having rented several cars over the years I do think the Chryslers are the best of the bunch. So easy to drive, comfortable etc. Set the air-con to Manchester, October setting and hit the road.
Arrived at Downtown Disney thirty minutes later. I stayed at the Wyndham last year and was expecting to get it again, but Priceline placed me in the Hilton. Checkin was a breeze and I immediately preferred this hotel to the Wyndham. Felt more welcoming and open. Even though the Wyndham is much bigger, it felt too, erm, corporate.
The first thing I do on arriving at a Disney area hotel is to switch the tv on to the Disney Resort channel. Is it only me that does this? I know I have arrived when I hear that jingle between segments. Quickly unpacked(ish) and freshened up.
It takes longer to get out of the hotel than it does to walk to the Marketplace! I liked the countdown at the pedestrian crossing in keeping with my daredevil attitude to life I tried to time my crossing to precisely coincide with the timer. Oooh such an adrenalin rush!
As we wondered from shop to shop, carefully destroying my savings, I was grateful that we had opted for Virgin. As much as it has declined in recent years the fact that my holiday really started earlier was a huge bonus. Recent trips have involved a switch at Atlanta, Chicago or somewhere else and you tend to lose a whole evening to tired to do anything. Arriving early afternoon makes a big difference to me.
Our attention soon turned to food. Opted for Wolfgang Puck Café. 15 minute wait for a table.
Waiter was brilliant. Service quick and food good. Unusual bread - melba toast (garlic), could be used as body armour. Plus, sponge cake type bread? I had the fillet mignon, mushroom sauce, garlic mash, wonton. Steak was perfectly cooked. This should be the definition of a civilised country, that they can cook a steak to medium-rare The GF ordered Chicken Salad. The server did state that it is prepared in an irregular way. No kidding. They throw all the ingredients into a food mixer and serve as a tower. It was vertical coleslaw! Tasted okay though. We shared a dessert Rich, sweet, sickly chocolate cake mmm, lovely. This was washed down with the obligatory iced water and a couple of MudSlide cocktails. Initially the waiter had delivered the wrong check which caused a moment of panic Another diner had run up a $400 tab! Ours was a much more reasonable (including tip) $75. Not bad.
Staggered out and headed back to the hotel a quick(ish) stop to acquire yet more pins and fell into the hotel room at 9.00pm. I am unsure if I fell asleep at 9.30 or simply blacked out...
Animal Kingdom tomorrow...
I hate this part of the holiday Getting to the airport and checking in. The queues, the dragging of luggage around. I always feel happier once I am through security.
Arrived at Terminal 2 just before 7am. It was heaving! I havent seen queues like this at checkin for a long time. Joined the Virgin line and waited and waited and waited. It was chaos. All the airports computers had failed. After an hour of standing still, I was going demented. I eyed up the premium economy queue much shorter I trotted over to the Virgin Information desk and inquired about upgrade options. Yes, they had 4 seats remaining. £319 each way per person. Quick calculation - £1276, ouch. Returned to GF and told her thats 270+ pins! she exclaimed. Well, I couldnt argue with that level of financial logic, so we continued to queue!
It was 9.15 before we made it through to the departure lounge. So much for my leisurely stroll around the shops, duty free and a full English breakfast
Food choice at T2 is appalling. Seeing as we were heading to the USA we opted for Burger King, we needed the practice. Not my first choice for breakfast, but a short queue.
The usual stop at WHSmiths for a magazine, and the travel adaptor. I have a growing collection of these at home and I always forget to pack them. Along with sunglasses. Every year I leave them in my car and end up buying another pair!
Boarded the plane and took our seats. We sat there for 40 minutes whilst the cabin crew repeatedly did headcounts. Somehow they seemed to have an extra passenger. Either they figured out the miscount, found a missing boarding card or simply chose a random passenger and threw them off the plane whatever, we left about 25 minutes late.
8+ hours on a steel tube is not pleasurable. Admittedly, Virgins in flight entertainment is good, but the food is awful and the seats are unbelievably uncomfortable. Its not so much the lack of legroom as the poor padding on the seats. Unfortunately, my bum didnt go numb. I was able to recline my seat our seats backed onto a bulkhead. This is something I do not usually do as I get consumed by guilt. Stupid eh? Sat/squirmed my way through Matrix Reloaded, LA Italian Job, Anger Management and Finding Nemo.
Virgin VS75 (Honey Pie?) landed a few minutes early and we deplaned. I am not normally one of the last to leave and I have never noticed the state of an aircraft after 300+ people have inhabited it for most of the day
Customs and immigration. True to my Tescos form I chose the shortest queue which was the slowest moving. Well, it would have been if it werent for the 3 groups of people in front of me that were sent to the back of the queue!!! How can anyone fill the form in incorrectly? I felt smug. This confidence was short lived, to be replaced by anxiety. Had I filled it in properly? Immigration officer was friendly and quick 60 seconds and we were on our way. Collected bags, lost bags, collected bags usual MCO routine. Only interrupted by a further Xray scan of our luggage. Random check, or so we were informed.
Head to Dollar desk and queued again. Ah, how quickly I settle into the old queue routine. Got to the front only to be redirected to a special Virgin Dollar desk. Oops.
Second time lucky I was quickly persuaded to upgrade. I had a fullsize booked, but using my charm (and a credit card) I upgraded to a Cadilllac. Silver with SatNav. Headed out to the lot to be given the keys to an old, white and basically knackered Sedan DeVille. No thanks. Trotted to the key desk and explained that they had given me the wrong car. They checked the inventory but did not have a Silver Cadillac with SatNav in stock. More accurately, they never had a car of that description!
Switched to a Chrysler 300M. Much better. Having rented several cars over the years I do think the Chryslers are the best of the bunch. So easy to drive, comfortable etc. Set the air-con to Manchester, October setting and hit the road.
Arrived at Downtown Disney thirty minutes later. I stayed at the Wyndham last year and was expecting to get it again, but Priceline placed me in the Hilton. Checkin was a breeze and I immediately preferred this hotel to the Wyndham. Felt more welcoming and open. Even though the Wyndham is much bigger, it felt too, erm, corporate.
The first thing I do on arriving at a Disney area hotel is to switch the tv on to the Disney Resort channel. Is it only me that does this? I know I have arrived when I hear that jingle between segments. Quickly unpacked(ish) and freshened up.
It takes longer to get out of the hotel than it does to walk to the Marketplace! I liked the countdown at the pedestrian crossing in keeping with my daredevil attitude to life I tried to time my crossing to precisely coincide with the timer. Oooh such an adrenalin rush!
As we wondered from shop to shop, carefully destroying my savings, I was grateful that we had opted for Virgin. As much as it has declined in recent years the fact that my holiday really started earlier was a huge bonus. Recent trips have involved a switch at Atlanta, Chicago or somewhere else and you tend to lose a whole evening to tired to do anything. Arriving early afternoon makes a big difference to me.
Our attention soon turned to food. Opted for Wolfgang Puck Café. 15 minute wait for a table.
Waiter was brilliant. Service quick and food good. Unusual bread - melba toast (garlic), could be used as body armour. Plus, sponge cake type bread? I had the fillet mignon, mushroom sauce, garlic mash, wonton. Steak was perfectly cooked. This should be the definition of a civilised country, that they can cook a steak to medium-rare The GF ordered Chicken Salad. The server did state that it is prepared in an irregular way. No kidding. They throw all the ingredients into a food mixer and serve as a tower. It was vertical coleslaw! Tasted okay though. We shared a dessert Rich, sweet, sickly chocolate cake mmm, lovely. This was washed down with the obligatory iced water and a couple of MudSlide cocktails. Initially the waiter had delivered the wrong check which caused a moment of panic Another diner had run up a $400 tab! Ours was a much more reasonable (including tip) $75. Not bad.
Staggered out and headed back to the hotel a quick(ish) stop to acquire yet more pins and fell into the hotel room at 9.00pm. I am unsure if I fell asleep at 9.30 or simply blacked out...
Animal Kingdom tomorrow...
