2BoysMum&Dad
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Feb 5, 2004
In my hand-written notes I made at the end of Friday 23rd July, I spookily gave the days report the heading The Calm Before The Storm, only because it was the day before we flew out to Florida and didnt think at the time it was really a very good or apt title. I have decided to name all the parts of my trip report The Calm Before The Storm Tour, in honour of the climax of our trip - Hurricane Charley which gave us an extra day in Florida.
Friday 23rd July (Butterflies in stomach day, flying tomorrow)
THE CAST
Sergeant Major Zoe You WILL enjoy yourselves
DH Trevor I am NOT going to like this
Birthday Boy Michael (aged 10 to 11)
Why to everything Piers (aged 8 and a bit)
Its Friday and the day before we fly out. I woke at around 4am, a bit restless! What better way of passing the time in the middle of the night than doing a spot of DIBBing! Then I went back to bed at around 5am and managed to sleep soundly until 8am. Michael was already up (usually is before anyone else anyway).
Trevor was working until yesterday, day off today to help finish packing and we need to be at the airport at some stage to do the day-before check in thing with First Choice.
A friend had asked me a few days ago if I could give her and her family a lift to Woking railway station this morning. They are flying out on holiday to Boston from Heathrow and catching a coach at 9.30am from Woking to the airport (flying at 2.30pm). They will be spending some time in Cape Cod with her brother and his family and then a few days in Boston before flying home again in two and a half weeks time. Giving them a lift really got me into the holiday mood, turned up to her house at 8.45am, loaded up my car with luggage and got to the station with no problems. Fond farewells and off home again back to Guildford.
Piers was still asleep, it was easier to get ourselves organised if we left him in bed until he woke. Trevor still hadnt given Michael any breakfast! I blamed him and he blamed me because I was supposed to stop off at the newsagent to collect some milk on the way back from Woking. Back out of the house, got the milk, all four of us were then fed and dressed by 10.30am. Got the car loaded with the main luggage and out by around 11am. Got to the in-laws house in Reigate (which is close to Gatwick airport) by 11.30 and left the kids with them while Trevor and I went to Gatwick.
When I was on my way out of the house to collect the milk, I spotted the postman. Good opportunity to mention in confidence to him that we would be away for three weeks and would appreciate him keeping an eye on the house. It was actually more of a ploy to make sure he shoved all the post all the way through the letterbox, but did no harm to have an extra pair of reliable eyes to keep a watch on the house. While we chatted, he handed me a parcel from Amazon.co.uk, a couple of cheap Gameboy games to surprise the kids on the plane.
Got to the First Choice premium desk in the North Terminal by 12noon, this is when the fun began. The woman behind the desk had never heard of this day before check-in system where you can turn up without the kids and was puzzled why we hadnt got them with us. She kept asking where they were! We were particularly cross because I had made at least four telephone calls over the last few months to check and re-check we were able to turn up without them, every time speaking to someone different, including one call this morning. Each time it was confirmed this would be ok and we had the letter with us confirming these details. It was like a scene out of that real life Airport programme where irate passengers start pointing fingers at confused airline staff! Luckily the situation was quickly resolved after speaking to several levels of hierarchy at the airport and we were allowed to check in our hold luggage and get our boarding cards. The checking in procedure itself took an eternity because there was a problem with the computer system.
There were signs on the screens above her saying each individual piece of luggage was not allowed to weigh more than 32 kilos. Our two large pieces of luggage felt extremely heavy and we were starting to get worried, especially as we had left plenty of room in both for shopping. She asked for the heaviest piece first, fingers crossed, yes we were ok, fractionally over 20 kilos and the other piece was only 12 kilos. Florida shops here we come! This is going to be the best holiday EVER! A friendly porter was summoned who took our luggage and us to the x-ray machines in the far corner of North Terminal. They had to be checked in our presence before they let us off the premises. They were deemed to be ok. He then took them away for overnight storage. We made our way back through the throngs of people queuing up at the various airline check-in desks and back to the car park. Hopefully, we would be reunited with our luggage in Florida!
Drove back to the in-laws in Reigate, felt we ought to take the kids on holiday with us! We decided to all go out to lunch (with the in-laws) at a Harvester in (or near) Dorking. Parted company and we drove back to Guildford for the night. We gave the in-laws our flight details so they could keep an eye on flight information and they agreed (as they usually do) to keep an eye on the house while we are away mowing the lawn etc. Just before we arrived home, we popped into Sainsburys to buy some new sun protection cream. Yes, I know its probably cheaper in the US, but I dont want to be spending all my free time buying supplies. I dont mind doing some shopping (like clothes), but I can do without the effort of buying all my toiletries when I get there! We also paid a visit to the cash machine to make sure we had enough money for tomorrow mornings taxi. Had a chat with the next-door neighbours and gave them a spare set of keys. They will be around for the whole three weeks.
From mid afternoon until 1.30am we packed, re-packed, weighed, re-packed and re-weighed all the hand luggage. We had been warned how fussy First Choice is about weight limit of hand luggage. First Choice hand luggage weight limit is 11 lbs. I bought a nice new piece of Samsonite hand luggage fairly recently and it turned out to weigh 6 lbs, so in the end I had to ditch it for a cheap light old piece of hand luggage instead! I was very sad to have to make a choice between the camcorder and the laptop. But, the camcorder, of course, had to win the competition. I was very upset at the prospect of not being able to do nightly DIBBing. As it happened, I really wouldnt have had much time being in bed often after 11pm and sometimes nearer 12. At various stages of this packing process, I had to do some last minute research of course! Ulsterscot had started a new thread dedicated to my imminent departure (thanks Keith) and in the afternoon I started a new thread with my so long, farewell speech, got loads of really nice replies from all my friends! Finally made it to bed around 1.30am Saturday morning. Set a few alarms just to be sure we didnt oversleep - AS IF!!
Friday 23rd July (Butterflies in stomach day, flying tomorrow)
THE CAST
Sergeant Major Zoe You WILL enjoy yourselves
DH Trevor I am NOT going to like this
Birthday Boy Michael (aged 10 to 11)
Why to everything Piers (aged 8 and a bit)
Its Friday and the day before we fly out. I woke at around 4am, a bit restless! What better way of passing the time in the middle of the night than doing a spot of DIBBing! Then I went back to bed at around 5am and managed to sleep soundly until 8am. Michael was already up (usually is before anyone else anyway).
Trevor was working until yesterday, day off today to help finish packing and we need to be at the airport at some stage to do the day-before check in thing with First Choice.
A friend had asked me a few days ago if I could give her and her family a lift to Woking railway station this morning. They are flying out on holiday to Boston from Heathrow and catching a coach at 9.30am from Woking to the airport (flying at 2.30pm). They will be spending some time in Cape Cod with her brother and his family and then a few days in Boston before flying home again in two and a half weeks time. Giving them a lift really got me into the holiday mood, turned up to her house at 8.45am, loaded up my car with luggage and got to the station with no problems. Fond farewells and off home again back to Guildford.
Piers was still asleep, it was easier to get ourselves organised if we left him in bed until he woke. Trevor still hadnt given Michael any breakfast! I blamed him and he blamed me because I was supposed to stop off at the newsagent to collect some milk on the way back from Woking. Back out of the house, got the milk, all four of us were then fed and dressed by 10.30am. Got the car loaded with the main luggage and out by around 11am. Got to the in-laws house in Reigate (which is close to Gatwick airport) by 11.30 and left the kids with them while Trevor and I went to Gatwick.
When I was on my way out of the house to collect the milk, I spotted the postman. Good opportunity to mention in confidence to him that we would be away for three weeks and would appreciate him keeping an eye on the house. It was actually more of a ploy to make sure he shoved all the post all the way through the letterbox, but did no harm to have an extra pair of reliable eyes to keep a watch on the house. While we chatted, he handed me a parcel from Amazon.co.uk, a couple of cheap Gameboy games to surprise the kids on the plane.
Got to the First Choice premium desk in the North Terminal by 12noon, this is when the fun began. The woman behind the desk had never heard of this day before check-in system where you can turn up without the kids and was puzzled why we hadnt got them with us. She kept asking where they were! We were particularly cross because I had made at least four telephone calls over the last few months to check and re-check we were able to turn up without them, every time speaking to someone different, including one call this morning. Each time it was confirmed this would be ok and we had the letter with us confirming these details. It was like a scene out of that real life Airport programme where irate passengers start pointing fingers at confused airline staff! Luckily the situation was quickly resolved after speaking to several levels of hierarchy at the airport and we were allowed to check in our hold luggage and get our boarding cards. The checking in procedure itself took an eternity because there was a problem with the computer system.
There were signs on the screens above her saying each individual piece of luggage was not allowed to weigh more than 32 kilos. Our two large pieces of luggage felt extremely heavy and we were starting to get worried, especially as we had left plenty of room in both for shopping. She asked for the heaviest piece first, fingers crossed, yes we were ok, fractionally over 20 kilos and the other piece was only 12 kilos. Florida shops here we come! This is going to be the best holiday EVER! A friendly porter was summoned who took our luggage and us to the x-ray machines in the far corner of North Terminal. They had to be checked in our presence before they let us off the premises. They were deemed to be ok. He then took them away for overnight storage. We made our way back through the throngs of people queuing up at the various airline check-in desks and back to the car park. Hopefully, we would be reunited with our luggage in Florida!
Drove back to the in-laws in Reigate, felt we ought to take the kids on holiday with us! We decided to all go out to lunch (with the in-laws) at a Harvester in (or near) Dorking. Parted company and we drove back to Guildford for the night. We gave the in-laws our flight details so they could keep an eye on flight information and they agreed (as they usually do) to keep an eye on the house while we are away mowing the lawn etc. Just before we arrived home, we popped into Sainsburys to buy some new sun protection cream. Yes, I know its probably cheaper in the US, but I dont want to be spending all my free time buying supplies. I dont mind doing some shopping (like clothes), but I can do without the effort of buying all my toiletries when I get there! We also paid a visit to the cash machine to make sure we had enough money for tomorrow mornings taxi. Had a chat with the next-door neighbours and gave them a spare set of keys. They will be around for the whole three weeks.
From mid afternoon until 1.30am we packed, re-packed, weighed, re-packed and re-weighed all the hand luggage. We had been warned how fussy First Choice is about weight limit of hand luggage. First Choice hand luggage weight limit is 11 lbs. I bought a nice new piece of Samsonite hand luggage fairly recently and it turned out to weigh 6 lbs, so in the end I had to ditch it for a cheap light old piece of hand luggage instead! I was very sad to have to make a choice between the camcorder and the laptop. But, the camcorder, of course, had to win the competition. I was very upset at the prospect of not being able to do nightly DIBBing. As it happened, I really wouldnt have had much time being in bed often after 11pm and sometimes nearer 12. At various stages of this packing process, I had to do some last minute research of course! Ulsterscot had started a new thread dedicated to my imminent departure (thanks Keith) and in the afternoon I started a new thread with my so long, farewell speech, got loads of really nice replies from all my friends! Finally made it to bed around 1.30am Saturday morning. Set a few alarms just to be sure we didnt oversleep - AS IF!!
