Okay - here we go!
So, our packing was done - look, here's Simon packing the carry on bag as proof:
The dog was settled in the kennels
and we were ready for the off. We went to bed early because we had to be up at the crack of dawn to get to Manchester Airport for our flight. I can't usually sleep when I know I have to get up in the early hours, but I actually managed to get a bit of shut eye.
The alarm went off at 3am and we staggered out of bed. I woke the girls and proceeded to then change my bed ready for my Dad and his partner coming to stay and house sit. I think I managed it okay but it was very early!!
Our taxi arrived five minutes early - just before 4am. And miraculously - we were all ready! Tony was our taxi driver and he drove a wonderful comfy mercedes people carrier with loads of room for our luggage and us! There was a DVD player and a fridge with drinks but it was really too early to make use of these. I think Kate might have liked to watch a DVD but was too polite to demand one!
We had a good journey and got to Manchester Airport around 6:20am. We said a fond farewell to Tony and went to check in. Check was all very quick and smooth and soon we were going airside.
No, no, of course we wouldn't be so stupid as to carry a liquid over a certain size in our hand luggage? Would we? Just in time we realised that we had a bottle of sun tan lotion in there (we've heard it gets quite hot in Florida doncha know!) and had to dump it in the special bins. We hoped we could get from the airport to the hotel without being sizzled by the sun!
Anyway, after an expensive bacon buttie (see food report) we went to wait for our flight to be called.
This was the view from our gate window:
Lovely weather in Manchester eh? Are we there yet?
Now some of you may know that when we went in 2006 it was just after a terror scare and we had a horrendous delay of ten hours.
Barring a cancelled flight, anything was going to feel like a doddle after that and we were pleasantly surprised to be sitting in our allotted seats at 10:25 as promised. Our plane was called English Rose. Very nice.
Now, I hate flying with a vengeance. Not the take off or landing which I find quite exhilarating, but being umpteen thousand feet up in the air is just not natural. I can just feel all the space beneath me. I usually manage to keep my sheer panic buttoned up but I know it's there. I can't help wondering why I agreed to an 8 hour flight feeling as I do.
But this flight was bearable. Look, I'm even smiling with Sarah:
Nope, not strained at all! Here's what Simon and Kate did for most of the flight:
Great company eh? I like watching the movies and eating the aeroplane food (sad I know!). I watched Iron Man and Nim's Island. Neither were breathtaking but both watchable.
Oh, I'll tell you what I do like doing - watching the little aeroplane on the screen and the red wriggly line show you were you are! That's fun!
Despite the bearable flight, I got backache and was very glad when we landed in America (hurray!).
We got through the dreaded immigration with no problems (phew!) and Simon and Kate swore it was the same guy we had back in 2006! Cool!
We picked up our luggage, now beginning to be on our edge of grumpiness. All we had to do was get to the hotel. Now, Simon had told me a few days previously that he had booked a limo from the airport to CBR as a surprise. He only told me because he knew I was fretting about how we were going to get to the resort.
The girls didn't know - they thought we were going on the bus. It took a bit of time to locate the limo driver (a very smart sassy chap called Joseph) but we eventually led the girls outside. This was Sarah's face when THIS pulled up in front of us:
Neither of them could believe it was for us. We're not limo people in everyday life but Simon had wanted our holiday to get off to the best possible start so he decided to treat us. That's the kind of guy he is.
Well, what a great way to get to CBR. Inside was spacious and cool and the Rescuers were playing on the DVD screen. It was like a haven after the madness of the very long day we'd had:
We got to CBR at around 4:30pm and it looked as gorgeous as we hoped. We went to Custom House to check in. It wasn't that busy and we were soon sorted. We were staying Barbados room 1131, which was walking distance from the custom house. Having booked a lot of town cars to take us off property this proved to be invaluable. The woman who checked us in asked how many of our keycards were to have charging privileges. We told her just Simon and myself. She looked at Sarah, shrugged and said 'Well, I did try!' Sarah thought this was hilarious!
After checking in we went to concierge services to get a couple of ADRs changed slightly. Again there was no queue and we got sorted in no time. Next up we went to bell services and left them with our luggage whilst we went to find our room.
Some people on the CBR threads have warned against booking a water view room (like we had done) as you may get just a glimpse of water or be overlooking a pool. So I was quite worried about our room location, whether we had paid extra for something that wasn't worth it.
However, when we saw our room, we all agreed that we were glad we did. This was the view from our window:
(They're are other pics of the view later on.) We over looked Barefoot Bay and the lighthouse. We were on the ground floor and we weren't overlooked by anyone. The whole time we were there it felt very private and secluded. We also hardly heard anything from our next door or upstairs neighbours.
Here are some pics of the room:
We loved it! There was plenty of room for all our things and the room itself was spacious and clean. The beds were a good size - very high off the ground though! That meant room to put the cases under them.
Our bags got to our room so we unpacked and headed over to Old Port Royale for our ADR at Shutters.
We were in Disney World! Tired but very excited and the night was still young!
Coming up: Sarah gets 'picked' in Downtown Disney.
(hoping this is Cirque popcorn and not AMC!!)
