wickesy
<font color=royalblue>Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love y
- Joined
- Apr 2, 2006
- Messages
- 3,797
After a good nights sleep we were up just after 6:30 and after the usual morning ablutions we left the Hilton at around 7:30. I would definitely stay there again but we did notice more aircraft noise there than we ever did at the Sofitel.
It took us about 15 minutes to make our way over to the North Terminal, where we found security to be very quiet and we were airside very quickly. We had a quick look around the Dixons duty free shop, bought a bottle of water each and then went down to the Aspire Lounge where they let us in half an hour earlier than we had booked for.
We had a coffee each, Dad had a bacon roll and orange juice, I had a croissant and apple juice and we then settled down to take advantage of the free wifi.
At 10:15 the screens showed that our flight would be boarding from gate 59 so we made our way down there where we found a queue to get into the gate and our passports and boarding passes were checked three times for some reason. We were also asked if we had return flights booked, which we have never been asked at the gate before.
Boarding began soon after so we took our seats and pushed back about 5 minutes early at 11:15. We dubbed the pilot a 'boy racer' because we seemed to taxi to the runway at quite a fast speed, he turned straight on to the runway and took off without stopping once!!
Once we were in the air there was a drinks service and then lunch, which was a choice of sausage and mash or chicken curry - we both had the chicken curry, which was some of the nicest airline food I have had for a long time. As we were eating lunch the entertainment system had to be rebooted because the TVs in some seats weren't working - it wasn't too much of a pain though because it was a video on demand system so I could just fast forward through to the middle of the film I had been watching - Tower Heist.
After watching the film I watched a few TV shows then the headphones were really hurting my ears so I took them off for a while, updated my trip report and played on my iPad for a while.
About an hour and a half before landing it was time for afternoon tea, which was half a chicken Caesar sandwich and half a pastrami sandwich plus a chocolate biscuit.
After a flight time of about 8 and a half hours we landed at 3:00, just ahead of the Virgin jumbo from Gatwick. Unfortunately we were just BEHIND the Virgin jumbo from Manchester, so there was a long queue in immigration and it was about 35 minutes until we were seen, but the upside was that we were able to pull our cases off of the carousel straight away.
I had pre-registered with Budget and joined their fast break service so we were able to bypass the desk and go straight over to the garage where we got our first bit of pixie dust - as we only had this car for one day I had only booked a compact but when I handed my driving licence over the guy behind the desk said that he was going to upgrade us to a Ford Focus, which is in the intermediate class. We went and collected our car and we were on the road about an hour and ten minutes after getting off the plane.
It was a straight run down to Port Canaveral and as we approached we got our first sight of the Fantasy. We carried on and checked in at the Radisson Resort
I had a scare when I couldn't find my credit card - it turned out it had fallen out of my trouser pocket when I pulled my driving licence out at the barrier at the airport and was on the drivers seat! We drove round to room 815.
The room only had one bed so we walked back round to reception to see if they had any rooms with two beds but they said they were fully booked and the best they could do was to bring in a roll away bed which we agreed to (you can see it in the first picture). We went back to the room and I then had another scare when I couldn't find the windscreen mount for my sat nav. I re-traced my steps to the car and it turned out I had kicked it under the car! After all the excitement we went down to the bar for a drink to calm ourselves down a bit and had a pint of Bud light each.
After our drinks we had a wander down the road to the Budget depot to see where we would have to drop the car off tomorrow and then walked back up to the McDonalds opposite the hotel. Dad had a quarter pounder with cheese and I had an Angus burger with bacon and cheese.
After eating we went back to the hotel and we were in bed by 10:00 ready for boarding the Disney Fantasy tomorrow.
Day 3
It took us about 15 minutes to make our way over to the North Terminal, where we found security to be very quiet and we were airside very quickly. We had a quick look around the Dixons duty free shop, bought a bottle of water each and then went down to the Aspire Lounge where they let us in half an hour earlier than we had booked for.
We had a coffee each, Dad had a bacon roll and orange juice, I had a croissant and apple juice and we then settled down to take advantage of the free wifi.
At 10:15 the screens showed that our flight would be boarding from gate 59 so we made our way down there where we found a queue to get into the gate and our passports and boarding passes were checked three times for some reason. We were also asked if we had return flights booked, which we have never been asked at the gate before.
Boarding began soon after so we took our seats and pushed back about 5 minutes early at 11:15. We dubbed the pilot a 'boy racer' because we seemed to taxi to the runway at quite a fast speed, he turned straight on to the runway and took off without stopping once!!
Once we were in the air there was a drinks service and then lunch, which was a choice of sausage and mash or chicken curry - we both had the chicken curry, which was some of the nicest airline food I have had for a long time. As we were eating lunch the entertainment system had to be rebooted because the TVs in some seats weren't working - it wasn't too much of a pain though because it was a video on demand system so I could just fast forward through to the middle of the film I had been watching - Tower Heist.
After watching the film I watched a few TV shows then the headphones were really hurting my ears so I took them off for a while, updated my trip report and played on my iPad for a while.
About an hour and a half before landing it was time for afternoon tea, which was half a chicken Caesar sandwich and half a pastrami sandwich plus a chocolate biscuit.
After a flight time of about 8 and a half hours we landed at 3:00, just ahead of the Virgin jumbo from Gatwick. Unfortunately we were just BEHIND the Virgin jumbo from Manchester, so there was a long queue in immigration and it was about 35 minutes until we were seen, but the upside was that we were able to pull our cases off of the carousel straight away.
I had pre-registered with Budget and joined their fast break service so we were able to bypass the desk and go straight over to the garage where we got our first bit of pixie dust - as we only had this car for one day I had only booked a compact but when I handed my driving licence over the guy behind the desk said that he was going to upgrade us to a Ford Focus, which is in the intermediate class. We went and collected our car and we were on the road about an hour and ten minutes after getting off the plane.
It was a straight run down to Port Canaveral and as we approached we got our first sight of the Fantasy. We carried on and checked in at the Radisson Resort
I had a scare when I couldn't find my credit card - it turned out it had fallen out of my trouser pocket when I pulled my driving licence out at the barrier at the airport and was on the drivers seat! We drove round to room 815.
The room only had one bed so we walked back round to reception to see if they had any rooms with two beds but they said they were fully booked and the best they could do was to bring in a roll away bed which we agreed to (you can see it in the first picture). We went back to the room and I then had another scare when I couldn't find the windscreen mount for my sat nav. I re-traced my steps to the car and it turned out I had kicked it under the car! After all the excitement we went down to the bar for a drink to calm ourselves down a bit and had a pint of Bud light each.
After our drinks we had a wander down the road to the Budget depot to see where we would have to drop the car off tomorrow and then walked back up to the McDonalds opposite the hotel. Dad had a quarter pounder with cheese and I had an Angus burger with bacon and cheese.
After eating we went back to the hotel and we were in bed by 10:00 ready for boarding the Disney Fantasy tomorrow.
Day 3
