Sue: Chief organiser and planner
Jorge: (DH) Happy as long as he's in Orlando
Rebecca: (DD 8) Happy as long as she gets her own way!
Day 1: Who forgot the keys?!
We are due to fly out of Gatwick on Sunday but we have a party to attend on Saturday night and we are staying over!! OK, no problem we will take all our stuff with us on Saturday and leave for the airport bright and early on Sunday. 5am flight? No problem, we only need two hours sleep honestly!!
Saturday nights party is a blast; Rebecca is escorted to bed at midnight followed at 2am by Jorge and myself. After two hours fitful sleep the alarm wakes us and the taxi arrives on time to take us to Manchester airport. Outside the gales are blowing with full force as we fight our way into the terminal for the first leg of our journey: the BA shuttle to Gatwick. We dont care. We are off to the sun.
We check-in OK, belatedly realizing that I have completely forgotten the keys to our villa.
Usually I can find some excuse to blame Jorge but this time there is none and I have to take the rap! What an idiot!! As the flight is due out on schedule and we have no time to taxi back to retrieve the keys we have no choice but to leave without them. Never mind, our management company has a 24-hour emergency line; we can contact them and ask for keys to be left for us. Not wanting to wake anyone up at 1am in Florida we decide to wait until later to call.
The shuttle to Gatwick is akin to sitting on Big Thunder Mountain for 60 minutes as the small plane is buffeted about in the gales blowing outside. By the time we land most of the passengers are decidedly green, including Jorge. We get the tram over to the South terminal and spy the absolutely massive queue at Virgin check-in desks. The PE desks are deserted and we decide to go for an upgrade. We had already considered this weeks ago but couldnt book as our tickets had already been issued by Virgin. The lovely lady at the Virgin desk says yes, they have availability. For £957!?! Thats £319 each with no discount for children. But look at the queue!!! After a quick conflab which included the immortal phrase its only money we pass over the trusty Visa card. The Virgin lady cant quite believe we are prepared to part with so much dosh (neither can I to be honest) and says she will put us in the PE section with Upper Class sized seats. For some reason DH thinks she is upgrading us to Upper Class and his earlier ill health recovers considerably. I try to explain that we are still in PE but he will not have it. We quickly check-in and are allocated seats on row 11. Gatwick is jam-packed and we find that breakfast options are limited by the queues, which we just cant be bothered to wait in theres even a hefty queue for the ladies! Anyhow Jorges earlier sickness prohibits our traditional large brekkie and instead we settle for coffee and Danish pastries. We snooze/read the papers in some comfy seats and two hours later we are off to the gate to meet Jersey Girl our trusty plane.
As we settle into our seats with a glass of Bucks fizz, a last minute passenger is ushered onto the plane. None other than Dale Winton! Rebecca loves Dale as she saw his documentary on Cirque Du Soleil at Christmas. The pilot informs us that while he can see our luggage next to the plane, he cant physically load it himself and therefore we must all wait for the baggage handlers to arrive. Rebecca seizes her opportunity and sweetly asks the stewardess if it is in fact Dale, which she confirms and says he is a very nice man. Shortly after take off we realise that the stewardess has put in a word on Rebeccas behalf and Dale Winton comes around the curtain armed with posh crisps and peanuts for Rebecca, he even knows her name!! They chat about Orlando and Cirque for a few minutes and Rebecca falls in love with the orange skinned one, her new best friend. After posing for pictures and autographs he goes back to his seat and we take off half an hour late. Rebecca falls into a happy sleep for the next for 4 hours, thank the lord. Our upper class seats are lovely and comfy with full recline and enough space behind that you dont feel guilty so I have a little nap before lunch. When we are served the same fare as those in economy and can see the galley serving Upper Class with their fine food on white china plates Jorge is finally forced to admit that an Upper Class upgrade had been all in his imagination. Our food is OK though so hes not too upset. Drinks are a little scarce as our stewardesses are too busy attending to the Upper Class passengers so we find ourselves chasing them a couple of times to get even soft drinks, something I had assumed was not necessary in PE. That was the only niggle though and the rest of the flight is taken up with fruitlessly trying to phone for villa keys on the Skyphone, which resolutely refuses to work despite the efforts of DH, various cabin crew and myself. Watched Runaway Jury until they turned off the video 10 minutes before the end of the film, how annoying!
We arrive in Orlando at 4pm and are among the first off the plane (one of the perks of PE) Immigration is quick and our bags are quickly on the carousel. Jorge gets a signal on his mobile and phones for the keys. Answering machine!!! If wed known that we would have phoned 10 hours ago!! Grrrr!!! We take the little tram over and use our dodge the queues strategy by collecting the car keys first then doubling back for the bags. It works like a charm and we laugh at the queue at the Dollar desk as we skip across to find our Dodge Neon in the parking bays. We are out of the airport in a record 45 minutes and we finally manage to raise someone on the phone. They are 3 hours away on another job!! If we can wait they will come and let us in. By this time we have had enough, we are exhausted and all we want is something to eat and a bed so we decline the offer and decide to stay in a Hotel tonight. Jungle Jims at Crossroads was the planned eatery so the Doubletree Club Hotel opposite gets the pleasure of our business for the night. $85 for the night with free cookies when you check in. Jungle Jims is busy and we end up eating burgers in the bar with a couple of glasses of wine, a great wind down after a days traveling. We are finally here
Yay!!! Jungle Jims is just what we need with good food and a great atmosphere, it puts us all in a holiday mood, especially when their balloon man makes Rebecca a hat in the shape of a unicorn. The bill comes to a reasonable $50 and we (and the hat!) saunter back to the Hotel and are all sound asleep by 10pm.
Tomorrow we finally get into the Villa and experience Whispering Canyon Cafe.
Jorge: (DH) Happy as long as he's in Orlando
Rebecca: (DD 8) Happy as long as she gets her own way!
Day 1: Who forgot the keys?!
We are due to fly out of Gatwick on Sunday but we have a party to attend on Saturday night and we are staying over!! OK, no problem we will take all our stuff with us on Saturday and leave for the airport bright and early on Sunday. 5am flight? No problem, we only need two hours sleep honestly!!
Saturday nights party is a blast; Rebecca is escorted to bed at midnight followed at 2am by Jorge and myself. After two hours fitful sleep the alarm wakes us and the taxi arrives on time to take us to Manchester airport. Outside the gales are blowing with full force as we fight our way into the terminal for the first leg of our journey: the BA shuttle to Gatwick. We dont care. We are off to the sun.
We check-in OK, belatedly realizing that I have completely forgotten the keys to our villa.
Usually I can find some excuse to blame Jorge but this time there is none and I have to take the rap! What an idiot!! As the flight is due out on schedule and we have no time to taxi back to retrieve the keys we have no choice but to leave without them. Never mind, our management company has a 24-hour emergency line; we can contact them and ask for keys to be left for us. Not wanting to wake anyone up at 1am in Florida we decide to wait until later to call. The shuttle to Gatwick is akin to sitting on Big Thunder Mountain for 60 minutes as the small plane is buffeted about in the gales blowing outside. By the time we land most of the passengers are decidedly green, including Jorge. We get the tram over to the South terminal and spy the absolutely massive queue at Virgin check-in desks. The PE desks are deserted and we decide to go for an upgrade. We had already considered this weeks ago but couldnt book as our tickets had already been issued by Virgin. The lovely lady at the Virgin desk says yes, they have availability. For £957!?! Thats £319 each with no discount for children. But look at the queue!!! After a quick conflab which included the immortal phrase its only money we pass over the trusty Visa card. The Virgin lady cant quite believe we are prepared to part with so much dosh (neither can I to be honest) and says she will put us in the PE section with Upper Class sized seats. For some reason DH thinks she is upgrading us to Upper Class and his earlier ill health recovers considerably. I try to explain that we are still in PE but he will not have it. We quickly check-in and are allocated seats on row 11. Gatwick is jam-packed and we find that breakfast options are limited by the queues, which we just cant be bothered to wait in theres even a hefty queue for the ladies! Anyhow Jorges earlier sickness prohibits our traditional large brekkie and instead we settle for coffee and Danish pastries. We snooze/read the papers in some comfy seats and two hours later we are off to the gate to meet Jersey Girl our trusty plane.
As we settle into our seats with a glass of Bucks fizz, a last minute passenger is ushered onto the plane. None other than Dale Winton! Rebecca loves Dale as she saw his documentary on Cirque Du Soleil at Christmas. The pilot informs us that while he can see our luggage next to the plane, he cant physically load it himself and therefore we must all wait for the baggage handlers to arrive. Rebecca seizes her opportunity and sweetly asks the stewardess if it is in fact Dale, which she confirms and says he is a very nice man. Shortly after take off we realise that the stewardess has put in a word on Rebeccas behalf and Dale Winton comes around the curtain armed with posh crisps and peanuts for Rebecca, he even knows her name!! They chat about Orlando and Cirque for a few minutes and Rebecca falls in love with the orange skinned one, her new best friend. After posing for pictures and autographs he goes back to his seat and we take off half an hour late. Rebecca falls into a happy sleep for the next for 4 hours, thank the lord. Our upper class seats are lovely and comfy with full recline and enough space behind that you dont feel guilty so I have a little nap before lunch. When we are served the same fare as those in economy and can see the galley serving Upper Class with their fine food on white china plates Jorge is finally forced to admit that an Upper Class upgrade had been all in his imagination. Our food is OK though so hes not too upset. Drinks are a little scarce as our stewardesses are too busy attending to the Upper Class passengers so we find ourselves chasing them a couple of times to get even soft drinks, something I had assumed was not necessary in PE. That was the only niggle though and the rest of the flight is taken up with fruitlessly trying to phone for villa keys on the Skyphone, which resolutely refuses to work despite the efforts of DH, various cabin crew and myself. Watched Runaway Jury until they turned off the video 10 minutes before the end of the film, how annoying!
We arrive in Orlando at 4pm and are among the first off the plane (one of the perks of PE) Immigration is quick and our bags are quickly on the carousel. Jorge gets a signal on his mobile and phones for the keys. Answering machine!!! If wed known that we would have phoned 10 hours ago!! Grrrr!!! We take the little tram over and use our dodge the queues strategy by collecting the car keys first then doubling back for the bags. It works like a charm and we laugh at the queue at the Dollar desk as we skip across to find our Dodge Neon in the parking bays. We are out of the airport in a record 45 minutes and we finally manage to raise someone on the phone. They are 3 hours away on another job!! If we can wait they will come and let us in. By this time we have had enough, we are exhausted and all we want is something to eat and a bed so we decline the offer and decide to stay in a Hotel tonight. Jungle Jims at Crossroads was the planned eatery so the Doubletree Club Hotel opposite gets the pleasure of our business for the night. $85 for the night with free cookies when you check in. Jungle Jims is busy and we end up eating burgers in the bar with a couple of glasses of wine, a great wind down after a days traveling. We are finally here
Yay!!! Jungle Jims is just what we need with good food and a great atmosphere, it puts us all in a holiday mood, especially when their balloon man makes Rebecca a hat in the shape of a unicorn. The bill comes to a reasonable $50 and we (and the hat!) saunter back to the Hotel and are all sound asleep by 10pm.Tomorrow we finally get into the Villa and experience Whispering Canyon Cafe.
IThat is so nice that he came to see Rebecca.
