tony64
<font color=blue>Should've been a Cowboy<br><font
- Joined
- Jun 21, 2003
- Messages
- 9,002
The Posse
Tony ( Tony64) 41 Driver and runner to Fast Pass Machines
Theresa ( Latte Lover) 39(again) Chief organiser and banker
Maddie 16 Firmly believes everything dad says is stupid
Callum 15 would prefer to be playing in his band(but loves cat in the hat)
Thursday 11th August
Up, shaved, showered and presented Theresa with a cup of tea in bed before the alarm clock went off.
I popped in the check on the kids and Callum was up and dressed with Maddie not far behind.
I went back in to Theresa muttering something about wishing they were that easy to get out of bed on a school day, I wouldnt know as Im in the office by 7 most days.
Anyway we were all downstairs with the bins emptied and all the last minute jobs complete and the tickets, passports & car hire vouchers etc checked for at least the 3rd time by the time Peter BIL arrived at 6 oclock to take us to the airport.
We had even rehearsed this earlier in the week to make sure we will be able to get 4 large cases, 4 rucksacks and all of us in his car for the return journey.
We arrived at Gatwick at 6.50 and waved goodbye to Peter.
We made our way through to check in and although there were a lot of people waiting, they had a lot of desks open and we only had one family in front of us.
I forgot to ask where we would be sitting and when I checked the tickets we were in row 64.
I was a bit disappointed as I thought we must be right at the back of the plane and were likely to have a rough noisy flight as the last time we flew at the back of the plane this had been the case.
We looked around the shops on the land side and brought a couple of CDs for the kids and kept at eye open for Dimplenose as we were both flying at similar times, unfortunately we didnt see her due to the shear number of people , it was like looking for a needle in a hay stack.
We joined the long queue to clear security and went through to airside.
We changed some money that the Grandparents had given to the kids for their holiday and went to eat at Garfunkels as this is a bit of a tradition with us.
The queue at Garfunkels was about 20 deep so we gave it a miss and went to The Metro Café instead. We had coffee and paninis and watched the planes taking off.
We then grabbed some seats so we could watch the boards showing the flights and gate numbers.
I sent a text to a long Disney / Florida suffering work colleague By the way did I forget to tell you Im going to Disney today.
I cant print the message I received back.
Our flight was called and we moved to the departure area as they called for rows 1 to 20 and 59 to 69 We looked at each other a little confused as we had expected to be called last.
We made our way to the plane and were really surprised as we are shown upstairs!
This was an Air Atlanta flight and upstairs is not first class but we had our own cabin crew and they were really nice.
Air Atlanta has had a slating on the boards recently but we found on both flights the planes were clean, the crew pleasant and the meals good as far as airline food goes.
We had a 1 hour delay due to problems loading some cargo but the pilot said he would try to make this up.
He did we arrived 25 Minutes Early!!
Unfortunately Immigration was packed and they held us on the plane for 45 Minutes so we would at least be in the air conditioning.
When they did let us off, Immigration was still packed and it took us another 45 minutes to get to the front of the queue.
They had about 30 desks open and the girl showing us to the next desk said Thursdays are always bad as a lot of British flights arrive at the same time.
The Immigration Officer noticed my Disney shirt and said I dont need to ask if you have been before
He was really friendly and we moved through quickly.
I left Theresa and the kids outside in the shade and walked straight up to the car hire desk as most people seemed to be queuing to get villa details or something.
The Guy on the desk gave me the usual can I interest you in todays special upgrade, you can have the Jeep Grand Cherokee for only $49 a week inclusive of all insurance
I said no thanks we have had the Intermediate 4 door before and its fine thanks
So he gave me the keys and the paperwork and I went and collected the rest of the family and found the car.
This was my only gripe of the whole holiday!
Dollar have changed their hire fleet and the I4 car has a much smaller boot, you can only get 1 large case and 1 small case in.
We couldnt even get all the luggage in the car to go to the hotel and we would have twice as many cases to go home!
I went back to the desk and ask the same Guy about that special upgrade.
You can guess the rest.
We arrived at the Howard Johnson Maingate East on the192 at 6.30. We quickly unpacked the cases and went for a meal at JTs Prime Time to get our first fix of American food for 2 years.
We had burgers, chicken and ribs and gave it a 7/10.
We went back to the hotel and decided to have a swim in one of the three hotel pools before bed.
When we were in the pool Callum said The guy over there is flashing he said it 3 times and Theresa was just about to go to the reception to inform security when he said it again and she realised he had said The sky over there is flashing.
When she told us what she thought he had said we all cracked up.
We went to bed tired but happy.
Tony ( Tony64) 41 Driver and runner to Fast Pass Machines
Theresa ( Latte Lover) 39(again) Chief organiser and banker
Maddie 16 Firmly believes everything dad says is stupid
Callum 15 would prefer to be playing in his band(but loves cat in the hat)
Thursday 11th August
Up, shaved, showered and presented Theresa with a cup of tea in bed before the alarm clock went off.
I popped in the check on the kids and Callum was up and dressed with Maddie not far behind.
I went back in to Theresa muttering something about wishing they were that easy to get out of bed on a school day, I wouldnt know as Im in the office by 7 most days.
Anyway we were all downstairs with the bins emptied and all the last minute jobs complete and the tickets, passports & car hire vouchers etc checked for at least the 3rd time by the time Peter BIL arrived at 6 oclock to take us to the airport.
We had even rehearsed this earlier in the week to make sure we will be able to get 4 large cases, 4 rucksacks and all of us in his car for the return journey.
We arrived at Gatwick at 6.50 and waved goodbye to Peter.
We made our way through to check in and although there were a lot of people waiting, they had a lot of desks open and we only had one family in front of us.
I forgot to ask where we would be sitting and when I checked the tickets we were in row 64.
I was a bit disappointed as I thought we must be right at the back of the plane and were likely to have a rough noisy flight as the last time we flew at the back of the plane this had been the case.
We looked around the shops on the land side and brought a couple of CDs for the kids and kept at eye open for Dimplenose as we were both flying at similar times, unfortunately we didnt see her due to the shear number of people , it was like looking for a needle in a hay stack.
We joined the long queue to clear security and went through to airside.
We changed some money that the Grandparents had given to the kids for their holiday and went to eat at Garfunkels as this is a bit of a tradition with us.
The queue at Garfunkels was about 20 deep so we gave it a miss and went to The Metro Café instead. We had coffee and paninis and watched the planes taking off.
We then grabbed some seats so we could watch the boards showing the flights and gate numbers.
I sent a text to a long Disney / Florida suffering work colleague By the way did I forget to tell you Im going to Disney today.
I cant print the message I received back.
Our flight was called and we moved to the departure area as they called for rows 1 to 20 and 59 to 69 We looked at each other a little confused as we had expected to be called last.
We made our way to the plane and were really surprised as we are shown upstairs!
This was an Air Atlanta flight and upstairs is not first class but we had our own cabin crew and they were really nice.
Air Atlanta has had a slating on the boards recently but we found on both flights the planes were clean, the crew pleasant and the meals good as far as airline food goes.
We had a 1 hour delay due to problems loading some cargo but the pilot said he would try to make this up.
He did we arrived 25 Minutes Early!!
Unfortunately Immigration was packed and they held us on the plane for 45 Minutes so we would at least be in the air conditioning.
When they did let us off, Immigration was still packed and it took us another 45 minutes to get to the front of the queue.
They had about 30 desks open and the girl showing us to the next desk said Thursdays are always bad as a lot of British flights arrive at the same time.
The Immigration Officer noticed my Disney shirt and said I dont need to ask if you have been before
He was really friendly and we moved through quickly.
I left Theresa and the kids outside in the shade and walked straight up to the car hire desk as most people seemed to be queuing to get villa details or something.
The Guy on the desk gave me the usual can I interest you in todays special upgrade, you can have the Jeep Grand Cherokee for only $49 a week inclusive of all insurance
I said no thanks we have had the Intermediate 4 door before and its fine thanks
So he gave me the keys and the paperwork and I went and collected the rest of the family and found the car.
This was my only gripe of the whole holiday!
Dollar have changed their hire fleet and the I4 car has a much smaller boot, you can only get 1 large case and 1 small case in.
We couldnt even get all the luggage in the car to go to the hotel and we would have twice as many cases to go home!
I went back to the desk and ask the same Guy about that special upgrade.
You can guess the rest.
We arrived at the Howard Johnson Maingate East on the192 at 6.30. We quickly unpacked the cases and went for a meal at JTs Prime Time to get our first fix of American food for 2 years.
We had burgers, chicken and ribs and gave it a 7/10.
We went back to the hotel and decided to have a swim in one of the three hotel pools before bed.
When we were in the pool Callum said The guy over there is flashing he said it 3 times and Theresa was just about to go to the reception to inform security when he said it again and she realised he had said The sky over there is flashing.
When she told us what she thought he had said we all cracked up.
We went to bed tired but happy.
