arieljasmine
<font color=magenta>Who says these things pass you
- Joined
- Apr 12, 2004
- Messages
- 6,098
Laurs, Andy and bump do LA and Vegas, baby Day 1
Laurs 29
Andy 29
Bump 12 weeks
Friday 21 March 2008
We got up at 7.30 am and I was thrilled to discover that I was feeling a lot better. I was so pleased, I hadnt been looking forward to such a long flight with such a sore throat. We decided to breakfast at the airport so we could get on, so we packed up, checked out, sorted out the car parking and took a taxi to terminal 3.
We had done the online check in and printed our boarding cards before we left home, so we went to drop off our bags and then it was time for breakfast. Bump was very pleased because we have been craving sausage sandwiches and they had those, so it was an easy choice for me! Andy had sausage, bacon, beans, scrambled egg and toast and a cappuccino. Me and bump were on tea.
We went through security after breakfast which was quicker than it might have been as we got waved through the fast track lane. We went to Smiths for a couple of bottles of Sprite, a paper, Closer magazine and Auto Express (Ill let you guess whose was whose!) There were still no instructions to go to the gate on the screens so we went for a mooch round Duty Free. Andy bought me a Victorias Secret Love Spell set shower gel, body scrub, body lotion and body spray in a cute purple bag to cheer me up as I had been poorly.
It was now telling us to go to the gate and we did so, but instead of the usual seating area there was just a huge queue! We stood in it for a long time and eventually boarded our plane Cosmic Girl. We were an hour and a half late setting off, finally getting in the air at 1 pm.
We were told that the crew were short staffed but they were probably the most attentive we have ever experienced. The other good news was that the plane had more advanced TVs than weve ever had on Manchester flights there were about 60 films to choose from and you could start them whenever you liked and pause, rewind and fast forward too. I watched three films Juno (cute - and of particular interest to me at the moment!), the Simpsons Movie (very funny) and Stardust (the best of the lot). Andy watched Rush Hour 3 instead of Stardust, and laughed all the way through it.
It took until 3 pm to get lunch because of the crew shortage, bump was not pleased. We did have drinks (diet coke for me and a couple of Stellas for Andy) and worcester sauce pretzels before that but we were definitely ready for lunch. Lunch was beef in mustard gravy (nicer than it sounds) with mash, carrots and broccoli, greek salad, bread roll, cheese and crackers and a Fru blackcurrant dessert (where was the chocolate?!)
Good thing about the longer flight was that we got more food! I am heavily interested in eating at the moment.
We got tubs of vanilla ice cream in the afternoon, a banana, and a chicken and honey mustard wrap. Tea was a cheese and pickle sandwich, a hummus and peppers sandwich (even less nice than it sounds!) and a double chocolate chip cookie (aah, theres the chocolate).
The flight took approximately 10 hours and 39 minutes hows that for attention to detail?! We landed at 12 midnight UK time which was 5 pm LA time (as this was prior to the clocks going forward). Customs was very similar to Orlando, in fact, I kept thinking thats where we were. We picked up our bags and then got on the Dollar bus to collect our car from their depot which was a few minutes drive away.
I sat in the sunshine with the cases whilst Andy went to sort out the car and sat nav. We were able to pick our own car out (weird) and we ended up with a black Hyundai Sonata or a Hun-day as the Americans pronounce it. We had fun setting up the sat nav as it had been left on the Spanish setting so we had to figure out a way of getting it back to English. Luckily we managed this as the queue in the Dollar office wasnt worth even considering.
We were finally on our way to San Diego! The drive took around two and a half hours. The sat nav was a Godsend until we got into the Gaslamp Quarter in San Diego when it proceeded to attempt to send us down several one way streets. We were both very tired and me and bump were very hungry, so how we resisted throwing the device through a window is something akin to a miracle. We unplugged it instead and Andy figured a way to get us to the Hard Rock Hotel.
It was valet parking only, which we hate, we like having the freedom of self parking. When we got to the front door of the hotel we were confronted by two bouncers and lots of very well dressed Friday night revellers. Not what you want when youve been up for nearly 24 hours and look like a pair of refugees. There were more of these scary people inside, but we managed to get checked in pretty quickly. We took the lift to our room to discover more bouncers on the lifts, and another one on our floor. It was strangely like staying in a prison.
We ordered a bacon double cheeseburger and a couple of pepsis from room service and took it in turns to shower whilst we waited for the food. We split the burger and fries (with a big dill pickle, yum) and wolfed them down pretty quick.
Unfortunately, we seemed to have the noisiest room in the hotel we were on the floor with the bar which seemed to be THE place in town to go and not only that every single person going to or leaving the bar had to pass our room. If Im being fair to the hotel, they probably put us there as a couple without kids who were booked in for Friday and Saturday night but it didnt suit two weary travellers, one of them pregnant. I think weve been spoilt with the HRH in Orlando which is, of course, much more family oriented. We went to bed at 11 pm and did our best to sleep through the noise luckily we were exhausted.
Laur's
Laurs 29
Andy 29
Bump 12 weeks
Friday 21 March 2008
We got up at 7.30 am and I was thrilled to discover that I was feeling a lot better. I was so pleased, I hadnt been looking forward to such a long flight with such a sore throat. We decided to breakfast at the airport so we could get on, so we packed up, checked out, sorted out the car parking and took a taxi to terminal 3.
We had done the online check in and printed our boarding cards before we left home, so we went to drop off our bags and then it was time for breakfast. Bump was very pleased because we have been craving sausage sandwiches and they had those, so it was an easy choice for me! Andy had sausage, bacon, beans, scrambled egg and toast and a cappuccino. Me and bump were on tea.
We went through security after breakfast which was quicker than it might have been as we got waved through the fast track lane. We went to Smiths for a couple of bottles of Sprite, a paper, Closer magazine and Auto Express (Ill let you guess whose was whose!) There were still no instructions to go to the gate on the screens so we went for a mooch round Duty Free. Andy bought me a Victorias Secret Love Spell set shower gel, body scrub, body lotion and body spray in a cute purple bag to cheer me up as I had been poorly.
It was now telling us to go to the gate and we did so, but instead of the usual seating area there was just a huge queue! We stood in it for a long time and eventually boarded our plane Cosmic Girl. We were an hour and a half late setting off, finally getting in the air at 1 pm.
We were told that the crew were short staffed but they were probably the most attentive we have ever experienced. The other good news was that the plane had more advanced TVs than weve ever had on Manchester flights there were about 60 films to choose from and you could start them whenever you liked and pause, rewind and fast forward too. I watched three films Juno (cute - and of particular interest to me at the moment!), the Simpsons Movie (very funny) and Stardust (the best of the lot). Andy watched Rush Hour 3 instead of Stardust, and laughed all the way through it.
It took until 3 pm to get lunch because of the crew shortage, bump was not pleased. We did have drinks (diet coke for me and a couple of Stellas for Andy) and worcester sauce pretzels before that but we were definitely ready for lunch. Lunch was beef in mustard gravy (nicer than it sounds) with mash, carrots and broccoli, greek salad, bread roll, cheese and crackers and a Fru blackcurrant dessert (where was the chocolate?!)
Good thing about the longer flight was that we got more food! I am heavily interested in eating at the moment.
We got tubs of vanilla ice cream in the afternoon, a banana, and a chicken and honey mustard wrap. Tea was a cheese and pickle sandwich, a hummus and peppers sandwich (even less nice than it sounds!) and a double chocolate chip cookie (aah, theres the chocolate).The flight took approximately 10 hours and 39 minutes hows that for attention to detail?! We landed at 12 midnight UK time which was 5 pm LA time (as this was prior to the clocks going forward). Customs was very similar to Orlando, in fact, I kept thinking thats where we were. We picked up our bags and then got on the Dollar bus to collect our car from their depot which was a few minutes drive away.
I sat in the sunshine with the cases whilst Andy went to sort out the car and sat nav. We were able to pick our own car out (weird) and we ended up with a black Hyundai Sonata or a Hun-day as the Americans pronounce it. We had fun setting up the sat nav as it had been left on the Spanish setting so we had to figure out a way of getting it back to English. Luckily we managed this as the queue in the Dollar office wasnt worth even considering.
We were finally on our way to San Diego! The drive took around two and a half hours. The sat nav was a Godsend until we got into the Gaslamp Quarter in San Diego when it proceeded to attempt to send us down several one way streets. We were both very tired and me and bump were very hungry, so how we resisted throwing the device through a window is something akin to a miracle. We unplugged it instead and Andy figured a way to get us to the Hard Rock Hotel.
It was valet parking only, which we hate, we like having the freedom of self parking. When we got to the front door of the hotel we were confronted by two bouncers and lots of very well dressed Friday night revellers. Not what you want when youve been up for nearly 24 hours and look like a pair of refugees. There were more of these scary people inside, but we managed to get checked in pretty quickly. We took the lift to our room to discover more bouncers on the lifts, and another one on our floor. It was strangely like staying in a prison.
We ordered a bacon double cheeseburger and a couple of pepsis from room service and took it in turns to shower whilst we waited for the food. We split the burger and fries (with a big dill pickle, yum) and wolfed them down pretty quick.
Unfortunately, we seemed to have the noisiest room in the hotel we were on the floor with the bar which seemed to be THE place in town to go and not only that every single person going to or leaving the bar had to pass our room. If Im being fair to the hotel, they probably put us there as a couple without kids who were booked in for Friday and Saturday night but it didnt suit two weary travellers, one of them pregnant. I think weve been spoilt with the HRH in Orlando which is, of course, much more family oriented. We went to bed at 11 pm and did our best to sleep through the noise luckily we were exhausted.
Laur's
nice to see you are eating for two...im sure bump is pleased !
Agree with Claire, I love the way 'Bump' is involved in this trippie. Seems like a stressful two days, hope tomorrow is calmer!
