The one I am DEFINITELY planning! Pre-travel and Travel Day

Fri 8th Nov

We were both working from home today so we were awake at 6am and I did my peloton classes.

I started work at 0830 while Rob had started a bit earlier, and I put some washing on between meetings.

I had my nails done at 1130, it was just around the corner so I walked there and back to get some extra steps in.

I had my lunch then worked until 1430 when I was content that I had cleared the main tasks and so the team would be ok while I was away.

We then did our ironing and picked up leaves in the garden as we didn’t want them to kill the grass while we were away.

We then had a bit of drama as British Airways called us (Rob was on the phone to his dad so we couldn’t answer), we called back and they told us that our hotel in Tampa (which we were supposed to be staying at tomorrow night) was closed due to damage incurred during the recent hurricane.

This was quite annoying as we had called them the previous day (and in fact tried emailing them earlier in the week) and they had told us it was reopening on Saturday.

We managed to get them to find us an alternative after they offered us £220 to book our own (which was not enough for a hotel in Tampa with 1 days’ notice).

They actually ended up boking us into the Westin Tampa Bay which we had booked for our last night of the trip.

We then did our packing but we didn’t have enough time to clean for the burglars 

We left home at 1745, I realised along the way I forgot one of my T-shirts (which was my special Dinosaur top!)

I later realised that we had forgotten a few other bits (like our washing tabs, and our sliders) nothing critical but annoying and I still blame BA for disrupting our routine

We stopped for food and to add a bit of charge at Fleet, this cost about £17 for the electric and we were hopeful that would leave us enough to get home.

We did hit some M25 traffic as normal but arrived at the hotel at about 2100 after parking in the long stay car park.

We headed to bed after watching a little bit of tv.

Sat 9th Nov

We woke up just before 0800, got ready and went down to breakfast (free as gold members).

I had toast and pastries, Rob had an omelette and sausage, bacon etc and I forgot to take photos.

We left the room at about 0930 and walked across to the terminal, where we checked in quickly and were through security by 1000.

We had a quick look in the shops but there was nothing exciting to buy. We got ourselves a drink at Starbucks and sat there for a little while before taking a last quick walk around.

We were at gate 25 which as always was at the very end, although it was only a 5 min walk.

There were loads of people crowded around the gate as normal (I don’t understand why people do that) even before they announced that boarding had started.

Boarding started at about 1140 and was complete at about 1210 and we were heading towards the runway at 1240. We were in premium so were offered a pre-flight drink or orange juice or prosecco which we both declined.

As we left the flight time was showing at 9 hours 8 mins and we were due to land at 1650.

The first movie was Barbie (again) for me and Deadpool & Wolverine for Rob, we had the little pretzels and a drink before the main meal service.

For our meals we both had chicken tikka, I had ideally wanted the veggie pasta but they ran out. The meals were quite good for airline food.

Next, I watched Lady and the Tramp followed by a little bit of Brooklyn 99, we also picked up some little snacks from the box in the galley 

I then watched Inside Out 2, which felt quite similar to the first movie in terms of storyline, and I have a feeling that Rob might have watched Oppenheimer again.

We had a snack before landing which was a chicken/tomato pastry, which again wasn’t bad.

We landed 45 mins early (that has never happened before!) and were straight through with Global Entry, sadly our bags took forever as the belt seemed to break down.

At about 1800 we were finally out and across to collect the car, we used the self-service terminals and it was super easy.

We got a Wagoneer which is good as Rob liked the car last time and there is plenty of space for us, our friends and the luggage.

We then had a short drive to the hotel, we got some crisps and drink from downstairs before going to sleep at about 2030.