Day 1 – The Journey
Saturday 14th May
And we're off! Everyone is up and dressed before 8am. Helen completed most of the packing yesterday so it's just the last few bits to finish off and then to fit all the bags into car in a way that still leaves room for passengers. What with laptops, iPads, cameras etc I'm certain we are takin more technology along than the original Apollo moon landings...mind you, they weren't going to be gone for as long as we will.
We leave the house just after 9am and head to Gatwick which we reach in 40 mins or so, phoning the meet and greet car people on the way. They didn't inspire the greatest amount of confidence when they arrived, but the reviews were good so let's think positive thoughts, eh?
Off to do bag drop after checking in online yesterday and we had a choice of agents. In fact I've never seen so many empty desks. Has everyone else gone to the cup final, or is this always what you get when you take the later Virgin flight? Bags quickly dealt with, and we head the the newly opened Giraffe for some decent breakfast consisting of kids brunch for Helen, croissant for Emma, and double choc muffin for Ryan. Oh, and full brunch for me...so so good, and £22 including tip.
5 mins queue for security and Emma gets a bleep on the scanner to be randomly searched...all nicely handled though, and we head to WH Smith for magazines and drinks. Head off to the gate, and once passports are checked we hear the call for boarding for our seat numbers, so straight to the plane. We have 4 seats in the middle of row 56 and get settled in for the flight with everything to hand. No real delays, and we leave around 10 mins late.
End up watching The Machinest with Jason Statham. Not normally my thing, but was surprisingly good and passed a couple of hours. Kids played games on the iPad, read magazines, and were generally well behaved...the benefits of them getting slightly older and not having to introduce a new toy for them every hour!
Food was pretty decent with choice of roast chicken or cumberland pie. I seemed to eat everything on my tray along with a glass offer wine, so thumbs up for everything apart from the slightly spotty and slowish service. Helen went for the chicken, but ended up mostly eating from the kids’s trays as they turned up their noses at it. Time to break out the pringles, instead.
Now the eagle-eyed among you will notice the seat numbers from before. Row 56 = near the back of the plane, and therefore right at the rear of the line which now snakes back and forth throughout the immigration hall. Only 300+ people in front of us..oh well. It moves at a slow but steady pace, though it’s still nearly an hour before we get to the front. On to baggage reclaim and we grab the cases within a couple of minutes…finally, we’re good to go. We do the drop-off of bags through immigration rather than take them on the train – we’re packed for 3 weeks, so there’s a lot to carry here!
We arrive in the terminal and head for the 2nd bag claim, which is nicely on the ground floor, the same as the rental cars. I leave Helen and the kids here for a while and nip off to sort out the car. We’ve booked a minivan through US Rentacar and they kindly updated the booking with my Dollar Express number…so let’s see how well this works.
Straight out to the garage armed with my paperwork and to the Dollar office. Handover the voucher and my licence, and the guy takes a maximum of 60 seconds to find the documents and keys for our car! Am seriously impressed and have to ask him if that is it? – it seems too simple. He chuckles and says that’s the idea of the Express programme, and wishes me a happy vacation.
Walk round to the reservations lane to find a gleaming new Dodge minivan with 500 miles on the clock, all mod-cons including a colour reversing camera – lovely gadget to have on a big car.
Sorry for the shaky picture
Back to Helen and the kids to collect luggage which took another 20 mins or so, loaded up the car, and then we were finally headed out of the the airport.
It’s around 7pm by now, and we’re all starting to flag a little, so we decide to head to McDonalds on the 192 on the way to Indian Creek. Eyes are drooping as we dig into the food, but it’s quick and filling, and we’re then off to the villa.
We’re stayed at Indian Creek on many occasions, but never at this villa before. We find it quickly though and obtain the key from the lockbox outside, and are then pushed to one side as the kids run in to choose their bedrooms! Suitcases follow quickly and a quick tour tells us we’ve chosen well. Unpack just the essentials for now and we’re all in our beds by just gone 9pm after a long, but very satisfying day.
Day 2 - Epcot, Flower and Garden Festival
Setting the Scene and Index
Saturday 14th May
And we're off! Everyone is up and dressed before 8am. Helen completed most of the packing yesterday so it's just the last few bits to finish off and then to fit all the bags into car in a way that still leaves room for passengers. What with laptops, iPads, cameras etc I'm certain we are takin more technology along than the original Apollo moon landings...mind you, they weren't going to be gone for as long as we will.
We leave the house just after 9am and head to Gatwick which we reach in 40 mins or so, phoning the meet and greet car people on the way. They didn't inspire the greatest amount of confidence when they arrived, but the reviews were good so let's think positive thoughts, eh?
Off to do bag drop after checking in online yesterday and we had a choice of agents. In fact I've never seen so many empty desks. Has everyone else gone to the cup final, or is this always what you get when you take the later Virgin flight? Bags quickly dealt with, and we head the the newly opened Giraffe for some decent breakfast consisting of kids brunch for Helen, croissant for Emma, and double choc muffin for Ryan. Oh, and full brunch for me...so so good, and £22 including tip.
5 mins queue for security and Emma gets a bleep on the scanner to be randomly searched...all nicely handled though, and we head to WH Smith for magazines and drinks. Head off to the gate, and once passports are checked we hear the call for boarding for our seat numbers, so straight to the plane. We have 4 seats in the middle of row 56 and get settled in for the flight with everything to hand. No real delays, and we leave around 10 mins late.
End up watching The Machinest with Jason Statham. Not normally my thing, but was surprisingly good and passed a couple of hours. Kids played games on the iPad, read magazines, and were generally well behaved...the benefits of them getting slightly older and not having to introduce a new toy for them every hour!
Food was pretty decent with choice of roast chicken or cumberland pie. I seemed to eat everything on my tray along with a glass offer wine, so thumbs up for everything apart from the slightly spotty and slowish service. Helen went for the chicken, but ended up mostly eating from the kids’s trays as they turned up their noses at it. Time to break out the pringles, instead.
Now the eagle-eyed among you will notice the seat numbers from before. Row 56 = near the back of the plane, and therefore right at the rear of the line which now snakes back and forth throughout the immigration hall. Only 300+ people in front of us..oh well. It moves at a slow but steady pace, though it’s still nearly an hour before we get to the front. On to baggage reclaim and we grab the cases within a couple of minutes…finally, we’re good to go. We do the drop-off of bags through immigration rather than take them on the train – we’re packed for 3 weeks, so there’s a lot to carry here!
We arrive in the terminal and head for the 2nd bag claim, which is nicely on the ground floor, the same as the rental cars. I leave Helen and the kids here for a while and nip off to sort out the car. We’ve booked a minivan through US Rentacar and they kindly updated the booking with my Dollar Express number…so let’s see how well this works.
Straight out to the garage armed with my paperwork and to the Dollar office. Handover the voucher and my licence, and the guy takes a maximum of 60 seconds to find the documents and keys for our car! Am seriously impressed and have to ask him if that is it? – it seems too simple. He chuckles and says that’s the idea of the Express programme, and wishes me a happy vacation.
Walk round to the reservations lane to find a gleaming new Dodge minivan with 500 miles on the clock, all mod-cons including a colour reversing camera – lovely gadget to have on a big car.
Sorry for the shaky picture
Back to Helen and the kids to collect luggage which took another 20 mins or so, loaded up the car, and then we were finally headed out of the the airport.
It’s around 7pm by now, and we’re all starting to flag a little, so we decide to head to McDonalds on the 192 on the way to Indian Creek. Eyes are drooping as we dig into the food, but it’s quick and filling, and we’re then off to the villa.
We’re stayed at Indian Creek on many occasions, but never at this villa before. We find it quickly though and obtain the key from the lockbox outside, and are then pushed to one side as the kids run in to choose their bedrooms! Suitcases follow quickly and a quick tour tells us we’ve chosen well. Unpack just the essentials for now and we’re all in our beds by just gone 9pm after a long, but very satisfying day.
Day 2 - Epcot, Flower and Garden Festival
Setting the Scene and Index