We had a long ‘pre-travel’ period for this trip!
We finished work on Friday, Rob had been away for most of the week at an event in London so we both had loads to do before we finished. Finally, at about 7pm we were done, so we had dinner and then it was time for bed!Saturday
We got up and went for our normal weekend breakfast before heading to town for toiletries etc!
We both did our gym classes and obviously did some washing and other prep. One of our friends had some car drama so we went over to offer some assistance which worked out well in the end.
We decided to have Dominos for dinner – sorry no photos!
Sunday
I had set an alarm for 7am so that I could do a 60 min peloton ride, Rob started doing the ironing while I was out there.
We did the last of our main washing and then we packed our bags! Our friends were very concerned that we left it so late.
We made bagels for brunch and then packed away our garden furniture and mowed the lawn.
We managed to clean the house for the burglars before we printed out our cruise paperwork.
We did the last of the washing (just the gym clothes) and put the dishwasher on.
After all of this we finally left home at about 1530, there was lots of rain and the usual A303 traffic. We stopped at Fleet (is it a holiday if you don’t?) and hoped to add a little bit of charge to the car but it was packed and there were no chargers available.
We kept going after a short rest and arrived at our hotel (the Thistle T5) at about 1800, of course we got wet unloading the car, as we hadn’t brought coats with us.
We decided to have dinner in the hotel restaurant - we both had burgers and millionaire brownies, the cost inc service charge was £53 which wasn’t bad.
Monday
Our alarm went off at 0545 and we got ready and walked to the pods, luckily it wasn’t raining, we had to wait a minute for the pod to “charge” and then we were on our way.
There was a short queue at check in but we were through security and onto the lounge at the B gates by 0715.
We saw Jeremy Clarkson and his partner Lisa on our way up the escalator - you might see the back of them in my video.
We got breakfast in the lounge - we had sausage bagels and I had a couple of pastries. I also had a couple of coffees.
We then walked to the C gates, which was apparently a 10 min walk but it was more like 5.
There was a very small seating area at the gate and a long wait to board. Apparently, we needed a clean plane and had to wait - we had assumed that was normal but apparently not.
On board we were offered drinks before departure and asked for a drink order for after we take off.
We had the usual safety video and we are taxiing at 1015, first drink and little snack (oddly nuts) by 1100.
Lunch started at 1140 and took about an hour - we skipped starters but had bread and salad. I then had pasta, Rob had chicken then I had cheese and he had panacotta.
We had some light turbulence which was scary with the drinks (in case they spilled) but otherwise the flight was really smooth.
I then watched Guardians of the Galaxy until I fell asleep for a little while. Then when we woke up we got drinks and a snack, before I watched 3 episodes of Andor.
I then started watching an episode of Mandalorian but then they brought afternoon tea. I skipped the sandwiches and had the scone and little desserts.
I just managed to finish that episode before we landed (even though I’ve seen it before.)
We were on the ground about on time 1445 I think at the stand.
Passports were quick although I had to get a new photo and fingerprints and Rob had to get a photo too, our bags were off almost immediately (thanks club priority tags).
We sorted out our roaming (we use Lebara and it’s £10 for 2 weeks (6gb) and then ordered an uber.
Took about 5 mins to arrive and we were in our way, the traffic was quite heavy (Monday rush hour) and a 22 mile journey took 50 mins.
The uber cost including a tip was £56.59 which considering parking at the hotel would have been $50 per night was a bargain.
We arrived at the Diplomat and checked in we headed down to get some food.
We had a pepperoni pizza and some cake for dessert
Then we took a quick look at the pool, beach and gym so we knew where everything was, sadly the building work on the pool area was more extensive than the website suggested.
Although the pool is technically ‘usable’ the noise from the work was so loud that we could hear it from our room on the 32nd floor.
We pushed through for as long as we could and ended up going to bed around 8pm.
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