Latte Lover
<font color=green> in charge of the credit cards a
- Joined
- Sep 2, 2003
- Messages
- 1,335
Pre-trip report here: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2800110
Friday 14th October 2011
Yippee! The day had finally arrived. Tony and I were up before the alarm went off and were away by 7am. Tony’s friend Matt very kindly offered to drive us to Heathrow airport. Traffic was good and we arrived with heaps of time to spare.
We did bag-drop then headed to Bridge restaurant for breakfast. A traditional “Grande” for Tony, and a “Hash Brunch” for me. Mine was diced herby potatoes, red peppers, onions, and 2 eggs with salsa and avocado. Delicious. A cappuccino each finished it off nicely.
We had a little play with an Ipad 2 in Dixons and were completely wowed by it. Very tempted to buy it, but didn’t, as it would seriously eat into our holiday spending money.
Our flight was with Virgin Atlantic, Heathrow to Miami at 11.50 and was on time. Our seat had been changed and we now had ones with a bit more leg room. The plane had the new entertainment system which was excellent. I watched “Bridesmaids ,“ then “Paul” which were both quite funny.
Our plane:
Lunch was ok. I had chosen the asian veggie option which was vegetable curry with nutty rice, and fruit salad. Tony had chicken, bacon and potatoes, then Gu banoffee dessert. I also had 2 glasses of white wine. It’s the first time I have had alcohol when flying, and I can recommend it, especially if you’re a nervous flyer like me!
We had a Skinny Cow ice-cream mid-afternoon, then tea of sandwiches and cookie. Tony said his chicken and stuffing sandwich was excellent, but my salad wrap was completely uninspiring.
We landed on time and had a bit of luck in immigration when a new queue was formed and we were shepherded to the front of it. The immigration guy (who incidentally had a fabulously sexy Texan accent) said they were expecting 4000 people in the next hour as all the planes were scheduled to come in at the same time. There was no lengthy eye scans/finger printing/questioning here at Miami however. He just quickly looked at our passports then waved us through. Our luggage came through quickly and we boarded the new monorail to the car hire center.
Unfortunately, the Dollar express desk had computer problems and it took them 45 minutes to print our paperwork. It was very frustrating as we had a long drive up to Orlando ahead of us. They gave us an upgrade to compensate for the delay however, and we were given a Ford Fusion.
We bought Pass24 so we could drive straight through the toll booths. That was the theory, however the first booth took us by surprise and we were in the wrong lane and had to pay!
We made good time though. Traffic was flowing well and we stopped at Fort Pierce for sandwiches. We shared a BBQ chicken sandwich from Earl of Sandwich which was delicious and we wished we’d got one each, but the queue was too long to get another. We also bought a massive coffee each to keep us awake on the journey (which it did – in fact it kept us awake all night it was so strong!)
We arrived at The Sheriton Vistana around 10 pm. We were promptly checked in and went straight to bed. It had been a very long day.
Our bedroom at The Sheriton:
MEANWHILE, while Tony and I were whizzing across the Atlantic, Joh, Gary, Daniel, Nat, Matthew and Ellie were making their way down to Gatwick for their overnight stay at The Hilton before catching their flight to Orlando the next day.
Tomorrow: Lots of travelling for Joh and co, and a vast amount of shopping for me and Tony!
Friday 14th October 2011
Yippee! The day had finally arrived. Tony and I were up before the alarm went off and were away by 7am. Tony’s friend Matt very kindly offered to drive us to Heathrow airport. Traffic was good and we arrived with heaps of time to spare.
We did bag-drop then headed to Bridge restaurant for breakfast. A traditional “Grande” for Tony, and a “Hash Brunch” for me. Mine was diced herby potatoes, red peppers, onions, and 2 eggs with salsa and avocado. Delicious. A cappuccino each finished it off nicely.
We had a little play with an Ipad 2 in Dixons and were completely wowed by it. Very tempted to buy it, but didn’t, as it would seriously eat into our holiday spending money.
Our flight was with Virgin Atlantic, Heathrow to Miami at 11.50 and was on time. Our seat had been changed and we now had ones with a bit more leg room. The plane had the new entertainment system which was excellent. I watched “Bridesmaids ,“ then “Paul” which were both quite funny.
Our plane:
Lunch was ok. I had chosen the asian veggie option which was vegetable curry with nutty rice, and fruit salad. Tony had chicken, bacon and potatoes, then Gu banoffee dessert. I also had 2 glasses of white wine. It’s the first time I have had alcohol when flying, and I can recommend it, especially if you’re a nervous flyer like me!
We had a Skinny Cow ice-cream mid-afternoon, then tea of sandwiches and cookie. Tony said his chicken and stuffing sandwich was excellent, but my salad wrap was completely uninspiring.
We landed on time and had a bit of luck in immigration when a new queue was formed and we were shepherded to the front of it. The immigration guy (who incidentally had a fabulously sexy Texan accent) said they were expecting 4000 people in the next hour as all the planes were scheduled to come in at the same time. There was no lengthy eye scans/finger printing/questioning here at Miami however. He just quickly looked at our passports then waved us through. Our luggage came through quickly and we boarded the new monorail to the car hire center.
Unfortunately, the Dollar express desk had computer problems and it took them 45 minutes to print our paperwork. It was very frustrating as we had a long drive up to Orlando ahead of us. They gave us an upgrade to compensate for the delay however, and we were given a Ford Fusion.
We bought Pass24 so we could drive straight through the toll booths. That was the theory, however the first booth took us by surprise and we were in the wrong lane and had to pay!
We made good time though. Traffic was flowing well and we stopped at Fort Pierce for sandwiches. We shared a BBQ chicken sandwich from Earl of Sandwich which was delicious and we wished we’d got one each, but the queue was too long to get another. We also bought a massive coffee each to keep us awake on the journey (which it did – in fact it kept us awake all night it was so strong!)
We arrived at The Sheriton Vistana around 10 pm. We were promptly checked in and went straight to bed. It had been a very long day.
Our bedroom at The Sheriton:
MEANWHILE, while Tony and I were whizzing across the Atlantic, Joh, Gary, Daniel, Nat, Matthew and Ellie were making their way down to Gatwick for their overnight stay at The Hilton before catching their flight to Orlando the next day.
Tomorrow: Lots of travelling for Joh and co, and a vast amount of shopping for me and Tony!
off to a good but very tiring start
