First Timers Report Day 1 - An Expensive Start

LouiseB

Earning My Ears
Joined
Jan 18, 2002
Messages
38
The Crew:
Paul (31), loves his gadgets, aka young man (!)
Louise (39 today), planner extraordinaire, aka old girl

Monday, April 22nd (Old Girl’s birthday)

As we had checked in online for our very civilised flight time of 1055, we didn’t need to physically check in until 60 minutes before, but we wanted to look around the duty free shops so decided to allow 2 hours. After Paul’s mum had brought us coffee in bed (we declined breakfast), I opened my cards and presents and checked that we had all essential passports, tickets and money, and we were ready to leave at about 0830.

Paul’s dad was driving us the 10 minutes or so to the airport and after about 5 minutes, Paul’s mobile phone rang …. “ Hi mum, oh…… oh…… oh dear, oh…. we better had then….” Paul’s dad had by this time already turned around and was heading back. Now Paul is a bit forgetful sometimes and nothing really surprises me about him, so I asked him what he had forgotten. “You’ve forgotten the money!!” he said! What, me…. Planner Extraordinaire, Miss Highly Organised – I think not! I checked my bag, and sure enough as I thought, the money was there, about $1000 in fact! Paul phoned back his mum, and told her we had the money, Paul’s dad went back round another roundabout again, pointing us in the right direction, and we still don’t have a clue what his mum was on about! We all found it quite amusing though!

Got dropped outside the door, and went to check in. When we got to the BA counters, there was the usual madding crowd waiting to check in. We looked around not wanting to join the end of the queue as we had already checked in, and saw the fastbag drop checkout with only one passenger in the queue. He he…. What a brilliant system, we bypassed the masses and checked our bags in immediately and were free to go through into the duty free – online checking in is definitely well worth doing!

We had a quick look at the perfume, as I had run out of Gucci Rush but they didn’t have any so we went to W H Smith and managed to spend £14 on magazines and sweets! We had a look at Sunglass Hut too, as Paul was buying me some new sunglasses for my birthday, but we thought they would be cheaper in the US.

Paul said he just wanted to pop into some electronic gadgety type shop (no change there) and I knew he had his eye on a new Sony Camcorder. They didn’t have the one he wanted, so he went into Dixons, with me tagging behind as usual. They also didn’t have the camcorder he wanted either but he saw another Sony one!! We then went back to the other shop but they didn’t have the one he now liked – he loves all things Sony, something to do with the memory sticks(?). By now, they had called for us to board, but Gadget Boy was on a mission – so back into Dixons we went, and after about 15 minutes came out with a neat little gadget and £899 lighter! But think of the saving from the high street price – he says. Oooooh young man, you are spoilt!

Fairly uneventful flight, no seatback TVs, and as we were at the front, we had the big screen right in front of us, so it was too close to watch. Landed at just gone 3pm. No probs with those immigration forms, grabbed our bags and went to Dollar to get the car. The nice Dollar guy did his best to offer us an upgrade from our Compact to a Convertible for only $30 per day, but we declined, so he tried to upgrade us to an Intermediate instead. Again we declined. He did however, charge us $32 to return the car empty, but we said we wanted to return it full, so he said we would have to fill it up within 10 miles of the airport and then they would refund the $32. When we got to the car lot (I’m using American speak now), we were allocated a Stratus rather than a Neon, so we got a free upgrade anyway!

We were staying in a condo off 192, and we made our way there fairly painlessly with only one wrong turning via Celebration. We checked in and went to our ‘room’. Wow, it’s huge – as you enter, there’s a nice kitchen with oven, microwave, coffee maker, dishwasher, washing machine and tumble dryer, then through to a lounge/ diner, with nice table and six chairs, a settee, occasional table and huge 46” TV and video. Big bedroom off with a Jacuzzi in one corner, 25” TV in a cabinet, and doors out to a furnished balcony in the other corner. I was a bit concerned about the bed, as I noticed it had three pillows, and I wondered who was joining us – after all, it was my birthday – lol!!! The bathroom was off the bedroom and again was big with a double shower, twin basins, loo and large wardrobe with iron and ironing board – we were very happy for $49 per night – this’ll do us nicely.

Sat out on the balcony for a short time, then went to Wal-Mart and bought filter coffee, milk, sugar, coke, soda, muffins, cinnamon buns, crisps, sun tan lotion and probably a few other things I’ve forgotten about, but only spent about $38. When we were in Wal-Mart, I told Paul I wanted to buy some stuff called Super C Serum, so we started looking around the cosmetic area. I told him it had vitamins in and presumed he had remembered what it was I actually wanted. He called me over … “this has got vitamins in” he says. Over I scurry, (well as much as someone who by this time feels like the living dead can scurry), only to discover he had found weight loss tablets!! Charming – Super C Serum is wrinkle cream – ooooh young man, you are awful!

Lost the car in the car park, we only found it by Paul continuously zapping the remote door keys as the headlights came on with each zap!! On the way back, we went to Wendy’s on 192, Paul had a double combo burger with coke and I had a single cheeseburger, cost $7.38. By the time we arrived back at our condo, it was 9.30pm and we had a coffee and went to bed.

End of An Expensive Start!
 
There's nothing quite like a trip to Walmart to get you into the US way of things, is there? ;)
 
Loiuse, that 'room' sounds fabulous and for $49 a night too!


I was a bit concerned about the bed, as I noticed it had three pillows, and I wondered who was joining us – after all, it was my birthday – lol!!!

Har de har !!:D

And me mind's all over figurin out a double shower!

Happy Birthday an'all :)
 
I too love shopping in the airports, its where your holiday starts. but even I havent managed to spend that much!!:D

Great reports, keep them coming.

Emma
 

Wow...that room does sound nice.:D

A trip to Wal-Mart is a great start to the holiday..:)
 
Glad Mr Gadget had fun in the duty free!

Wow - sounds like a fab condo!

Astrid :)
 
Glad i'm not the only one with a Mr Gadget Louise. LOL.

Great start to your holiday and the condo sounds fantastic - great price too!
 
Thanks for the wonderful report - luv reading them!!!!
 














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