Rob and I are going in August with our friends and their children but we had been getting itchy feet...
We had a week booked off work in early March and started looking at trips. We found a reasonable price, checked dates with work and booked the dog into kennels.
Then on the Friday after getting back from work we booked the flight + car and got ourselves a villa for 6 nights and one night at the Buena Vista Palace.
4th March
So after booking our flight, accommodation and airport hotel last night
we got up this morning to do everything else before we left for the airport
this evening!
Due to time we split up to get more done…I headed into town to buy some
dollars and get toiletries that could be taken through security. Rob started
the process of cleaning the house whilst we did some washing.
I returned with lunch and after we had eaten Rob popped to his parent’s
house to do some ironing (as our iron had managed to break) whilst I continued
cleaning.
Once that was sorted we took the dog to kennels and then started packing
our bags. Oddly we didn’t feel rushed and somehow managed to remember everything
except our hats!
Rob’s parents collected us from the house at around
1700, we had a relatively easy drive with a slight detour due to our normal
route to the M25 being closed.
They dropped us off at Gatwick at around 1930 and
we headed straight into the terminal to check in our luggage.
There was no queue so we were back outside in a
couple of minutes.
We then checked in at the Premier Inn where we took
the stairs due to the ridiculously slow lifts before going back to the terminal
where we had dinner at the The Nicholas Culpeper.
We both had
cheeseburgers which were actually pretty good, then went back to the hotel for
a quiet night.
5th March
We got up and headed to the
Terminal around 0900. We passed through security quickly and as usual went to
Armadillos for breakfast. Scrambled and poached eggs on toast were our
choices.
After eating we had a little wander around and got some moisturiser from
Boots using points.
We then went to the gate to find that the original aircraft had a
technical issue. Luckily we were only delayed around 40 minutes as they swapped
aircraft, they had already loaded the catering onto the original and so this
caused the delay while they moved it. We were given bottles of water while we
waited.
Once we got on board it became obvious very quickly that the flight
wasn’t very full and when the crew did their normal intro they announced that
there were only 188 passengers on board so very quiet!
After pretzels and a drink we got hot towels....now we haven't been with
Virgin for a couple of years but we don't remember getting them in economy...!
The service on the flight was very good – we had regular drink service plus
the fab ice cream.
Afternoon tea sandwich was a bit odd (cream cheese and peppers) but the
little chocolate snack and the crisps were good.
We landed on time despite our late departure and were off very quickly –
in fact we were off the plane before premium and upper class as we were so near
the front and ready to go! Immigration was ok (they have changed the process
using the machines again) but bags took a while.
We collected our car from
Alamo (we got a Jeep Patriot which Rob was a little disappointed by) and were
on the road by 1730, we had a little bit of traffic on I4 but arrived at our
accommodation around 1830.
We dropped off our bags and then went to Walmart to get supplies and pizza
for dinner on the way back. We watched a little of our HGTV favourites before
going to bed around 2130.
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