wilma-bride
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- Joined
- Jul 13, 2005
- Messages
- 22,681
Friday 25th October
I always knew that today was going to be a long day. Normally, our travel day goes something like this:- Get up, get on plane, get through immigration, get to hotel, get some food, get unpacked, go to bed.
Today went something like this
I was woken by urgent whispering at what seemed like 7ish but, in reality, was just before 5am. When I went to investigate, I discovered that the urgent whispering was coming from Sian Daniel, its 5 oclock in the morning, go back to sleep. Daniel was having absolutely none of it and was jumping all over poor Sian trying to persuade her to wake up.
I persuaded Daniel to get back into bed and climbed in with him, hoping he might drop off again. He didnt but I did and woke up just before 7 to find Daniel sitting next to me playing games on his tablet.
We got up, showered and dressed before heading downstairs for our Hilton buffet breakfast. I was feeling a bit rough this morning and, as I had only had one drink the night before, I can only assume it was caused by the stress of the previous few days. Consequently, I didnt eat much and went back up to the room first, leaving the others to finish their breakfast.
Once they came back up, we packed up our hand luggage before walking over to the terminal and through to Departures.
I grabbed a small zip-loc bag for my hand cream and lip gloss, the two liquid items I always have with me going through security. Daniel asked what the bag was for and we explained to him about the security risks of taking liquids on the plane. As we went through security, I reminded Gary to take his tablet out of his bag (as hed left it in the previous year and had been pulled aside for a full bag check). Daniel obediently took his tablet out too. Gary told me I needed to take my Kindle out but I knew it was OK so I left it. When we went through the scanner, we noticed that one of our bags had been selected for a full check. It was Daniels rucksack, which had a few of my things in too and Gary immediately started stressing at me, saying it was because I hadnt taken my Kindle out. The security guy began emptying things out, one by one, until he got right to the bottom and pulled out a bottle of Vimto. All three of us turned and exclaimed Daniel! We couldnt believe that, having just had the discussion a few minutes before, he hadnt thought to take it out. Stupid boy!
With that little incident over, we wandered through to the departures area, where we had a wander around the shops, then plonked ourselves down waiting for our gate to appear on the board. Sian and I went to Costa to get an orange raspberry cooler she is completely addicted to them and was really disappointed when our local Costa stopped selling them recently.
Daniel was keeping an eye out for one of his school friends, who was also flying today, on the later VA flight. He was a little disappointed not to have seen him. Down at the gate, we found a seat to wait for boarding to begin. I glanced up and spotted a lady and her daughter sat across from us. I wondered whether it might be Sam and her daughter, Lexi, who were part of our cruise group on Facebook. Just as I was wondering, she looked up and said Joh? so that was that. We had a little chat and then they announced that they were ready for boarding so we said goodbye, knowing we would most likely see each other the next day (and over the coming few days) anyway.
Since we had seats at the back of the plane, we were among the first to board and pretty soon we were happily settled in our seats.
Daniel and Sian decided what movies they were going to watch and I got my Kindle out of my bag, ready for a mammoth reading session (I was determined to finish the book I had been struggling through for the past few weeks). The pilot announced that we would be taking a slightly different route today, to avoid some bad weather over the Atlantic. We would be flying over to Canada, then down the coast. This might mean that we would be slightly late in arriving. I was slightly concerned as we were definitely on a schedule today, having arranged for a pre-cruise meet and dinner with fourteen of our closest friends/previous cruising buddies. Still, there wasnt much I could do about it at this stage so I settled myself in for the journey.
We had soon taken off and were being served drinks. I opted for the welcome cocktail, which is really just vodka, cranberry and orange but, hey, it tastes pretty good. I told Gary to ask for one too, even though he never drinks on the flight when he has to drive the other end. That meant I got to drink his too
Aaahhh, happiness is a cocktail and my Kindle (bonus points for anyone who can figure out what I was reading)
I soon got bored of reading and decided to watch a film The Heat which was pretty funny. Pretty soon we were being served lunch. I ordered the butter chicken, knowing I wouldnt eat it but thinking Daniel might try it. He didnt like it though, said it was too spicy. Im not sure I like the new arrangement of serving the dessert after the meal is finished, especially as the bread roll and dessert is usually the only thing I eat.
Still, it was worth waiting for as it was Key Lime Pie my fave!
Soon after the cabin crew had cleared the trays, I realised that it was very quiet in front of us and looked over to see that Daniel and Sian were both fast asleep.
I was quite relieved that Daniel was getting some sleep as I knew wed be having a late night (in comparison to our usual arrival days) as we were meeting up with our cruise friends this evening for dinner. Wed had the idea to have a bit of a pre-cruise meet when we realised quite a few of us were staying at the port the night before and had made a reservation for 14 people at Fishlips Bar and Grill (this turned into 18 when Chars sister and kids decided to come down to Florida for the week too long a story to go into now but, if youre like me and need to know the background to everything, here is a link to the story). Also, Abbys family were planning to eat there that night so we were hoping to bump into them too.
Anyway, back on the plane, I was desperately trying to get into my book and failing dismally so decided to try and have a bit of a nap too. I must have been successful as I woke up with a start and that awful feeling that I must have been snoring. Luckily, it appeared that the majority of people around me had their headphones on or were asleep themselves so I think I got away with it
The rest of the flight was pretty boring and consisted of eating sweets, reading, crosswords, listening to music and watching Pain and Gain (not as good as Id hoped it would be but still watchable).
Finally, we landed and were soon in the oh my goodness, completely packed immigration hall. We joined the queue (sorry, line) on the slope down into the hall. It was complete bedlam. Yes, the line was moving steadily but it was still heaving. I had never seen it so busy. It took a long time to get to the front but Daniel was remarkably well behaved. I think the sleep on the flight had helped. Other children were screaming and crying, it was not pleasant at all. Lots of parents had dumped the kids and bags off to one side of the hall (outside the queuing area) to wait in relative comfort and I honestly didnt blame them. Eventually, though, we were seeing our lovely immigration officer and were promptly welcomed into the country. Of course, the one advantage was that our luggage was all sitting on the carousel and we were soon on our way to the Hertz desk to collect our rental car. Since we only had a 1-day rental (to get us to the port), the guy didnt bother with the hard sell for upgrades or extras and we were soon out in the garage picking out our SUV.
Gary pulled up the SatNav (good old Co-Pilot) and we were on our way. It was after 6 by now and our reservation at Fishlips was for 7. I decided to text Char and let her know we might be a bit late and would just meet them there. Char texted back and said she could try and push back the reservation to 7.30 so thats what we decided to do. I texted Wendy and Rich to let them know and we could then relax a little and enjoy the drive to the port. It didnt take long at all and before long we were approaching the (now familiar) hump in the road over which we would catch our first glimpse of the Fantasy.
Except, of course, she wasnt there she was, at this very moment, on her way back from Castaway Cay. It was slightly disappointing not to see her but it was getting dark anyway so we wouldnt have had a very good view. Before too much longer, we were pulling into the car park of the Country Inn & Suites. We realised that the Hertz rental car return depot was right there across the street and briefly considered whether we should change the plans wed previously made with Char and Nate to return the rental cars but didnt want to let them down or mess them around so decided to just stick to what wed agreed.
As we were crossing the parking lot to go into the hotel, who should pull up but Dody (Chars sister, whom we met on our previous cruise) with her kids and Evan (Chars son) in the car. We had a brief chat, then said wed see them again later. We went inside, checked in and went up to our room to drop off the luggage. We had a lovely room a 2 queen, 1 bedroom suite which wed booked through hotels.com for a bargain price of £94. We had a view of the pool and who should we spy when we looked out but Char and Nate. I texted Char and told her we were in the room. She asked where we were and I said Were looking at you now. We were all laughing, watching them all looking around to try and spot us. Soon they did and we all waved madly. After a quick freshen up (hair brushed and deodorant and lip gloss on), we went downstairs to the lobby, where we were soon joined by Char, Nate and the family. It was so good to see them all again and there were plenty of hugs all round. Although wed spoken regularly, thanks to the modern technologies of Skype, it was great to see everyone in person. We were soon joined by Chars parents, forever known now as my Canadian Mum and Dad. We all piled into cars and drove over to Fishlips.
As we arrived at the restaurant and got to the top of the stairs, we literally bumped into Jody (Abbys mum) and Abby. Jody and I hugged (we had been emailing each other on and off since the kids met on our cruise 2 years prior) and Abby and Daniel just looked at each other. They were both so shy, all of a sudden, it was very sweet. We chatted for a while but we were anxious to get seated, get a drink and catch up with Wendy and Rich, who were already there and waiting. We said goodbye to Jody and Abby, knowing wed be seeing them the next day too. We got inside and exchanged hugs with Wendy and Rich. Wed obviously seen them more recently than Char and Nate (just a few months before) but it was so lovely to all be together again. I dont know whether it was the fact that the restaurant was right on the water or because I was tired but I started to feel a little queasy. Only one cure for that, right? Yep, a Cosmopolitan please waitress.
Cassie and Sian were pleased to see each other again (having spent plenty of time together when Cassie stayed with us in the summer) and were soon sat together, chatting away.
Daniel sat with Gabe and Luke (Chars younger boys) and Gary and I sat at the end of the table. I was feeling a little overwhelmed. It was a bit surreal. The restaurant was very noisy so not really conducive to chatting and there were so many of us, it was hard to talk anyway.
Although Id been starving earlier, I didnt feel very hungry now and neither was Daniel so we just ordered a couple of appetisers mozzarella sticks and boneless wings - to share. Sian ordered a turkey club sandwich and Gary chose a salad.
I think Sian quite enjoyed her sandwich but Daniel and I werent too enamoured with ours. Garys was a salad, what can I say I didnt even ask his opinion
Because it was the week before Halloween, the downstairs area of the building had been turned into a huge walk-through haunted house attraction and, somewhat randomly, throughout the meal these zombies kept walking past the table. Luckily the kids werent paying too much attention to them because they were quite scary with their glassy-eyed stares and blood-stained clothes.
We were all getting pretty tired now and, since Gabe was feeling sick, we decided to pay the check and head back to the hotel. Although we were a large group, wed all had separate servers and, as such, received separate checks. Ours was $65 (with 18% tip already included), which I thought was pretty steep considering what wed had. Just as we were paying the check, Abby and family came by the table to say goodbye. We all trooped out and back to the hotel. We had said goodnight to the others back at the restaurant but, once back in the room, Gary and I decided we would join the others down at the pool so we could meet friends of Char and Nates, who would also be joining us on the cruise, and in an effort to stay up a bit later so we might sleep in the next morning.
We grabbed a couple of chairs and sat, just listening really to the antics of the others. Neither of us was really feeling particularly sociable and, in the end, as it started to get quite cold outside, we called it a night at around 11. This was, by far, one of the most hectic travelling days weve ever had and, whilst it was fun and really great to see everybody again, I think we were all too tired to enjoy our reunion. Sian and Daniel were both fast asleep when we got up to the room and Gary and I quickly found our toothbrushes and wash stuff, before climbing into bed too.
I always knew that today was going to be a long day. Normally, our travel day goes something like this:- Get up, get on plane, get through immigration, get to hotel, get some food, get unpacked, go to bed.
Today went something like this
I was woken by urgent whispering at what seemed like 7ish but, in reality, was just before 5am. When I went to investigate, I discovered that the urgent whispering was coming from Sian Daniel, its 5 oclock in the morning, go back to sleep. Daniel was having absolutely none of it and was jumping all over poor Sian trying to persuade her to wake up.
I persuaded Daniel to get back into bed and climbed in with him, hoping he might drop off again. He didnt but I did and woke up just before 7 to find Daniel sitting next to me playing games on his tablet.
We got up, showered and dressed before heading downstairs for our Hilton buffet breakfast. I was feeling a bit rough this morning and, as I had only had one drink the night before, I can only assume it was caused by the stress of the previous few days. Consequently, I didnt eat much and went back up to the room first, leaving the others to finish their breakfast.
Once they came back up, we packed up our hand luggage before walking over to the terminal and through to Departures.
I grabbed a small zip-loc bag for my hand cream and lip gloss, the two liquid items I always have with me going through security. Daniel asked what the bag was for and we explained to him about the security risks of taking liquids on the plane. As we went through security, I reminded Gary to take his tablet out of his bag (as hed left it in the previous year and had been pulled aside for a full bag check). Daniel obediently took his tablet out too. Gary told me I needed to take my Kindle out but I knew it was OK so I left it. When we went through the scanner, we noticed that one of our bags had been selected for a full check. It was Daniels rucksack, which had a few of my things in too and Gary immediately started stressing at me, saying it was because I hadnt taken my Kindle out. The security guy began emptying things out, one by one, until he got right to the bottom and pulled out a bottle of Vimto. All three of us turned and exclaimed Daniel! We couldnt believe that, having just had the discussion a few minutes before, he hadnt thought to take it out. Stupid boy!
With that little incident over, we wandered through to the departures area, where we had a wander around the shops, then plonked ourselves down waiting for our gate to appear on the board. Sian and I went to Costa to get an orange raspberry cooler she is completely addicted to them and was really disappointed when our local Costa stopped selling them recently.
Daniel was keeping an eye out for one of his school friends, who was also flying today, on the later VA flight. He was a little disappointed not to have seen him. Down at the gate, we found a seat to wait for boarding to begin. I glanced up and spotted a lady and her daughter sat across from us. I wondered whether it might be Sam and her daughter, Lexi, who were part of our cruise group on Facebook. Just as I was wondering, she looked up and said Joh? so that was that. We had a little chat and then they announced that they were ready for boarding so we said goodbye, knowing we would most likely see each other the next day (and over the coming few days) anyway.
Since we had seats at the back of the plane, we were among the first to board and pretty soon we were happily settled in our seats.
Daniel and Sian decided what movies they were going to watch and I got my Kindle out of my bag, ready for a mammoth reading session (I was determined to finish the book I had been struggling through for the past few weeks). The pilot announced that we would be taking a slightly different route today, to avoid some bad weather over the Atlantic. We would be flying over to Canada, then down the coast. This might mean that we would be slightly late in arriving. I was slightly concerned as we were definitely on a schedule today, having arranged for a pre-cruise meet and dinner with fourteen of our closest friends/previous cruising buddies. Still, there wasnt much I could do about it at this stage so I settled myself in for the journey.
We had soon taken off and were being served drinks. I opted for the welcome cocktail, which is really just vodka, cranberry and orange but, hey, it tastes pretty good. I told Gary to ask for one too, even though he never drinks on the flight when he has to drive the other end. That meant I got to drink his too
Aaahhh, happiness is a cocktail and my Kindle (bonus points for anyone who can figure out what I was reading)
I soon got bored of reading and decided to watch a film The Heat which was pretty funny. Pretty soon we were being served lunch. I ordered the butter chicken, knowing I wouldnt eat it but thinking Daniel might try it. He didnt like it though, said it was too spicy. Im not sure I like the new arrangement of serving the dessert after the meal is finished, especially as the bread roll and dessert is usually the only thing I eat.
Still, it was worth waiting for as it was Key Lime Pie my fave!
Soon after the cabin crew had cleared the trays, I realised that it was very quiet in front of us and looked over to see that Daniel and Sian were both fast asleep.
I was quite relieved that Daniel was getting some sleep as I knew wed be having a late night (in comparison to our usual arrival days) as we were meeting up with our cruise friends this evening for dinner. Wed had the idea to have a bit of a pre-cruise meet when we realised quite a few of us were staying at the port the night before and had made a reservation for 14 people at Fishlips Bar and Grill (this turned into 18 when Chars sister and kids decided to come down to Florida for the week too long a story to go into now but, if youre like me and need to know the background to everything, here is a link to the story). Also, Abbys family were planning to eat there that night so we were hoping to bump into them too.
Anyway, back on the plane, I was desperately trying to get into my book and failing dismally so decided to try and have a bit of a nap too. I must have been successful as I woke up with a start and that awful feeling that I must have been snoring. Luckily, it appeared that the majority of people around me had their headphones on or were asleep themselves so I think I got away with it
The rest of the flight was pretty boring and consisted of eating sweets, reading, crosswords, listening to music and watching Pain and Gain (not as good as Id hoped it would be but still watchable).
Finally, we landed and were soon in the oh my goodness, completely packed immigration hall. We joined the queue (sorry, line) on the slope down into the hall. It was complete bedlam. Yes, the line was moving steadily but it was still heaving. I had never seen it so busy. It took a long time to get to the front but Daniel was remarkably well behaved. I think the sleep on the flight had helped. Other children were screaming and crying, it was not pleasant at all. Lots of parents had dumped the kids and bags off to one side of the hall (outside the queuing area) to wait in relative comfort and I honestly didnt blame them. Eventually, though, we were seeing our lovely immigration officer and were promptly welcomed into the country. Of course, the one advantage was that our luggage was all sitting on the carousel and we were soon on our way to the Hertz desk to collect our rental car. Since we only had a 1-day rental (to get us to the port), the guy didnt bother with the hard sell for upgrades or extras and we were soon out in the garage picking out our SUV.
Gary pulled up the SatNav (good old Co-Pilot) and we were on our way. It was after 6 by now and our reservation at Fishlips was for 7. I decided to text Char and let her know we might be a bit late and would just meet them there. Char texted back and said she could try and push back the reservation to 7.30 so thats what we decided to do. I texted Wendy and Rich to let them know and we could then relax a little and enjoy the drive to the port. It didnt take long at all and before long we were approaching the (now familiar) hump in the road over which we would catch our first glimpse of the Fantasy.
Except, of course, she wasnt there she was, at this very moment, on her way back from Castaway Cay. It was slightly disappointing not to see her but it was getting dark anyway so we wouldnt have had a very good view. Before too much longer, we were pulling into the car park of the Country Inn & Suites. We realised that the Hertz rental car return depot was right there across the street and briefly considered whether we should change the plans wed previously made with Char and Nate to return the rental cars but didnt want to let them down or mess them around so decided to just stick to what wed agreed.
As we were crossing the parking lot to go into the hotel, who should pull up but Dody (Chars sister, whom we met on our previous cruise) with her kids and Evan (Chars son) in the car. We had a brief chat, then said wed see them again later. We went inside, checked in and went up to our room to drop off the luggage. We had a lovely room a 2 queen, 1 bedroom suite which wed booked through hotels.com for a bargain price of £94. We had a view of the pool and who should we spy when we looked out but Char and Nate. I texted Char and told her we were in the room. She asked where we were and I said Were looking at you now. We were all laughing, watching them all looking around to try and spot us. Soon they did and we all waved madly. After a quick freshen up (hair brushed and deodorant and lip gloss on), we went downstairs to the lobby, where we were soon joined by Char, Nate and the family. It was so good to see them all again and there were plenty of hugs all round. Although wed spoken regularly, thanks to the modern technologies of Skype, it was great to see everyone in person. We were soon joined by Chars parents, forever known now as my Canadian Mum and Dad. We all piled into cars and drove over to Fishlips.
As we arrived at the restaurant and got to the top of the stairs, we literally bumped into Jody (Abbys mum) and Abby. Jody and I hugged (we had been emailing each other on and off since the kids met on our cruise 2 years prior) and Abby and Daniel just looked at each other. They were both so shy, all of a sudden, it was very sweet. We chatted for a while but we were anxious to get seated, get a drink and catch up with Wendy and Rich, who were already there and waiting. We said goodbye to Jody and Abby, knowing wed be seeing them the next day too. We got inside and exchanged hugs with Wendy and Rich. Wed obviously seen them more recently than Char and Nate (just a few months before) but it was so lovely to all be together again. I dont know whether it was the fact that the restaurant was right on the water or because I was tired but I started to feel a little queasy. Only one cure for that, right? Yep, a Cosmopolitan please waitress.
Cassie and Sian were pleased to see each other again (having spent plenty of time together when Cassie stayed with us in the summer) and were soon sat together, chatting away.
Daniel sat with Gabe and Luke (Chars younger boys) and Gary and I sat at the end of the table. I was feeling a little overwhelmed. It was a bit surreal. The restaurant was very noisy so not really conducive to chatting and there were so many of us, it was hard to talk anyway.
Although Id been starving earlier, I didnt feel very hungry now and neither was Daniel so we just ordered a couple of appetisers mozzarella sticks and boneless wings - to share. Sian ordered a turkey club sandwich and Gary chose a salad.
I think Sian quite enjoyed her sandwich but Daniel and I werent too enamoured with ours. Garys was a salad, what can I say I didnt even ask his opinion
Because it was the week before Halloween, the downstairs area of the building had been turned into a huge walk-through haunted house attraction and, somewhat randomly, throughout the meal these zombies kept walking past the table. Luckily the kids werent paying too much attention to them because they were quite scary with their glassy-eyed stares and blood-stained clothes.
We were all getting pretty tired now and, since Gabe was feeling sick, we decided to pay the check and head back to the hotel. Although we were a large group, wed all had separate servers and, as such, received separate checks. Ours was $65 (with 18% tip already included), which I thought was pretty steep considering what wed had. Just as we were paying the check, Abby and family came by the table to say goodbye. We all trooped out and back to the hotel. We had said goodnight to the others back at the restaurant but, once back in the room, Gary and I decided we would join the others down at the pool so we could meet friends of Char and Nates, who would also be joining us on the cruise, and in an effort to stay up a bit later so we might sleep in the next morning.
We grabbed a couple of chairs and sat, just listening really to the antics of the others. Neither of us was really feeling particularly sociable and, in the end, as it started to get quite cold outside, we called it a night at around 11. This was, by far, one of the most hectic travelling days weve ever had and, whilst it was fun and really great to see everybody again, I think we were all too tired to enjoy our reunion. Sian and Daniel were both fast asleep when we got up to the room and Gary and I quickly found our toothbrushes and wash stuff, before climbing into bed too.
Honestly, I'm glad to be doing it as well, it is nice to relive the memories, even if it does take forever to write.
