Feb 8th '05
Well its finally here. Weve been counting down so long to this moment that I cant really believe its finally arrived. Wed travelled up to Manchester and stayed in the SAS Radisson on the Monday evening. Wed got two adjoining rooms overlooking the airport itself so we could watch the aircraft coming and going much better than TV! It had been a stressful night though. There are five in our party and in one room there were two single beds, in the other, a humongous monstrosity of a bed. Hmm, how to sleep five? Emily and Howard took the single beds and Ruth, Daniel and I had the large one.
Not a good idea. Danny is a shuffle-bum. Just as you get comfy hed move around, most annoying. In the end, none of us were getting any sleep so I grabbed a couple of pillows and a spare duvet and crashed out on the floor leaving Ruth and Danny to share the football pitch sized bed. Luckily, I dont mind sleeping on the floor and it didnt take me long to be in the land of nod.
We had ordered continental breakfasts to be delivered to our room(s) at 08:30, plenty of time to get down to the Virgin Atlantic desks for an early check in. The alarm went off at 06:45 and for once, it wasnt difficult to get the kids up and motivated. We packed up the suitcases and headed off to check in. Last time, we were virtually the first people to be checked in. This time, we had to join a large queue it appeared that many others wanted to be early! As is usual with VA, there were no problems and all our cases disappeared onto the conveyor belts and we headed back to our rooms for breakfast.
The breakfasts were huge consisting of pastries, cereals, toast, fruit and drinks and we were well fed before leaving for the airport again at 09:30. Straight through the security checks to the (already big) queue for VS075 to Orlando. It was slightly annoying to have to queue next to a designated smoking section. We took off at 10:40 all excited about the trip ahead. The film choice was pretty naff, the kids werent bothered about "Spongebob Squarepants" and I ended up watching "Team America" twice and "The Machinist" part way through. It was frustrating to find that the Skymap wasnt working (again) as I think its nice to have some idea of where you are in relation to the world even if it is in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean!
We landed at 14:20 Orlando time and the weather was beautiful. I love that feeling of warmth that greets you as you leave the plane on the walk to immigration. Despite my worries and fears, the new security checks are very quick and painless. A couple of extra questions, index finger prints and a photograph later and were off to pick up our luggage and promptly give it away again so it can be screened by the TSA. We then had to pass through the (very stringent) personal security checks. Metal detectors and big security guards checking bags and people to make sure we werent bring anything nasty into the country.
As we knew what to expect from our last visit, we all travelled on the monorail to the main terminal and I left Ruth and 2 of the kids to collect the luggage whilst I went with Howard to sort out the car details. A Virgin rep met us downstairs and pointed me towards the Virgin/Dollar desk I queued up to sort the car out but was told (quite sharply) that I was at the wrong desk. You have a Virgin Travelstore voucher, we dont accept those. Be off to the main Dollar desk over there. Next! Well excuse me for breathing! Totally different experience at the main Dollar desk where their representative was fantastic. So much so that we ended up with a brand new 7 seat Chrysler Town & Country minivan with only 9 miles on the clock! Result!
However, its not all good news. Dollar have a nice little scam going on that I will be complaining about. They charged me for a full tank of fuel and told me to bring the car back empty with a warning that I wouldnt be credited for any fuel left in the tank. There was no choice in this and I was charged $55.17 for fuel they had placed in the tank at a rate of $2.59 a gallon. Its very annoying to drive around Orlando and find fuel prices ranging from $1.80 - $2.00 a gallon. Its very difficult to take the car back empty, no one wants to run the risk of running out of petrol so when Dollar get the cars back, theyre laughing as they just top up the tanks (I bet rather cheaply) then charge the next customer $2.59 a gallon!
Ah well, rant over. We had managed to land, get through immigration & security, pick up our luggage, get the car and be driving within 1hour and 20 minutes. Pretty good I reckon! We headed off to pick the keys up for the villa from the offices of Florida Royale, westbound on the 192. We arrived there just after 4pm to find the offices CLOSED that shouldve been open until 6pm!! Fear not dear readers, there was a contingency plan as wed been given a code to a lock-box (outside the offices) for just such an occasion. But that code didnt work!!! Oh dear. A long day of travelling, all we wanted were the keys and to crash out but if we couldnt get into the villa
Luckily, Ruths calming influence took over. She went into a hotel, explained the situation and they let her use the phone to try and contact someone. She did get in touch with someone from Florida Royale who gave her a code to the box that worked. We found the key inside, drove to the Publix Supermarket on Highway 27 to stock up on food (Couldnt believe that Marmite was $6.29 for a jar!) before heading to the villa. The kids hit the pool, we made them beans on toast for tea and then crashed out, exhausted but exhilarated that we were back in the Sunshine State.
Well its finally here. Weve been counting down so long to this moment that I cant really believe its finally arrived. Wed travelled up to Manchester and stayed in the SAS Radisson on the Monday evening. Wed got two adjoining rooms overlooking the airport itself so we could watch the aircraft coming and going much better than TV! It had been a stressful night though. There are five in our party and in one room there were two single beds, in the other, a humongous monstrosity of a bed. Hmm, how to sleep five? Emily and Howard took the single beds and Ruth, Daniel and I had the large one.
Not a good idea. Danny is a shuffle-bum. Just as you get comfy hed move around, most annoying. In the end, none of us were getting any sleep so I grabbed a couple of pillows and a spare duvet and crashed out on the floor leaving Ruth and Danny to share the football pitch sized bed. Luckily, I dont mind sleeping on the floor and it didnt take me long to be in the land of nod.
We had ordered continental breakfasts to be delivered to our room(s) at 08:30, plenty of time to get down to the Virgin Atlantic desks for an early check in. The alarm went off at 06:45 and for once, it wasnt difficult to get the kids up and motivated. We packed up the suitcases and headed off to check in. Last time, we were virtually the first people to be checked in. This time, we had to join a large queue it appeared that many others wanted to be early! As is usual with VA, there were no problems and all our cases disappeared onto the conveyor belts and we headed back to our rooms for breakfast.
The breakfasts were huge consisting of pastries, cereals, toast, fruit and drinks and we were well fed before leaving for the airport again at 09:30. Straight through the security checks to the (already big) queue for VS075 to Orlando. It was slightly annoying to have to queue next to a designated smoking section. We took off at 10:40 all excited about the trip ahead. The film choice was pretty naff, the kids werent bothered about "Spongebob Squarepants" and I ended up watching "Team America" twice and "The Machinist" part way through. It was frustrating to find that the Skymap wasnt working (again) as I think its nice to have some idea of where you are in relation to the world even if it is in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean!
We landed at 14:20 Orlando time and the weather was beautiful. I love that feeling of warmth that greets you as you leave the plane on the walk to immigration. Despite my worries and fears, the new security checks are very quick and painless. A couple of extra questions, index finger prints and a photograph later and were off to pick up our luggage and promptly give it away again so it can be screened by the TSA. We then had to pass through the (very stringent) personal security checks. Metal detectors and big security guards checking bags and people to make sure we werent bring anything nasty into the country.
As we knew what to expect from our last visit, we all travelled on the monorail to the main terminal and I left Ruth and 2 of the kids to collect the luggage whilst I went with Howard to sort out the car details. A Virgin rep met us downstairs and pointed me towards the Virgin/Dollar desk I queued up to sort the car out but was told (quite sharply) that I was at the wrong desk. You have a Virgin Travelstore voucher, we dont accept those. Be off to the main Dollar desk over there. Next! Well excuse me for breathing! Totally different experience at the main Dollar desk where their representative was fantastic. So much so that we ended up with a brand new 7 seat Chrysler Town & Country minivan with only 9 miles on the clock! Result!
However, its not all good news. Dollar have a nice little scam going on that I will be complaining about. They charged me for a full tank of fuel and told me to bring the car back empty with a warning that I wouldnt be credited for any fuel left in the tank. There was no choice in this and I was charged $55.17 for fuel they had placed in the tank at a rate of $2.59 a gallon. Its very annoying to drive around Orlando and find fuel prices ranging from $1.80 - $2.00 a gallon. Its very difficult to take the car back empty, no one wants to run the risk of running out of petrol so when Dollar get the cars back, theyre laughing as they just top up the tanks (I bet rather cheaply) then charge the next customer $2.59 a gallon!
Ah well, rant over. We had managed to land, get through immigration & security, pick up our luggage, get the car and be driving within 1hour and 20 minutes. Pretty good I reckon! We headed off to pick the keys up for the villa from the offices of Florida Royale, westbound on the 192. We arrived there just after 4pm to find the offices CLOSED that shouldve been open until 6pm!! Fear not dear readers, there was a contingency plan as wed been given a code to a lock-box (outside the offices) for just such an occasion. But that code didnt work!!! Oh dear. A long day of travelling, all we wanted were the keys and to crash out but if we couldnt get into the villa
Luckily, Ruths calming influence took over. She went into a hotel, explained the situation and they let her use the phone to try and contact someone. She did get in touch with someone from Florida Royale who gave her a code to the box that worked. We found the key inside, drove to the Publix Supermarket on Highway 27 to stock up on food (Couldnt believe that Marmite was $6.29 for a jar!) before heading to the villa. The kids hit the pool, we made them beans on toast for tea and then crashed out, exhausted but exhilarated that we were back in the Sunshine State.
A good journey - wow Marmite $6.29 a jar 
I guess it's just for us tourists then! Looking forward to reading more.
