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.
Saturday 24th July (Arrival Day)
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)
According to the airline paper work, we needed to arrive two hours before take off at 10am, so I ordered a taxi for 7am a few days ago. Then the day-before check-in staff said we neednt check in until an hour and ten minutes before take off. I was nervous of aiming to arrive this close to the flying time, but I thought it would be nice to have an extra half an hour at home and moved the taxi pick up time to 7.30am. I didnt want to take any chances with the traffic or horrendous queues of any sort at Gatwick.
I was up and out of bed at 6.30am, kicked Trevor out of bed and told him to get washed and dressed first a.s.a.p. so he could get the kids organised while I had a shower (need to get these good Sergeant Major techniques into practice ready for the holiday). Luckily our movements woke Michael, we just had to dig Piers out of bed. We all managed to get dressed and ate something light, not very much though, in plenty of time. Taxi arrived on schedule and we left at 7.30am. The driver was very nice and polite but looked more like a nightclub bouncer! He was a very safe and careful driver, went to Gatwick via the A3, M25, M23 and got to Gatwick North Terminal shortly after 8am. Gave him the £35 plus a £5 tip.
Went straight to the First Choice Premium desk (as requested yesterday, although we are not premium passengers) and they redirected us to the ticket services desk at the back of the hall. This didnt take long and we went off to McDonalds downstairs. Queued up for food (if you can call it that at McD.) while Trevor hopped over to Boots to get some more sunglasses, he came back with two pairs (special offer one pair was free). We all ate something then up to go through security and into the departure lounge. I had visions of every bag totally emptied out and checked but they didnt bother with most of it. The security woman did a sort of swab with a pad on a stick around one of my bags, she said this was to check for traces of explosives! Sat down for a few moments to get our breath back ......
...... Some toilet visits, then off to Gate 46, the furthest possible walk from the departure lounge - someone obviously decided we needed the walking practice! Luckily there were a lot of those moving walkways which helped. I suspect that First Choice, being a cheap cut price organisation, paid less for having a Gate further away. As we sat there, various groups of row numbers were called, but we couldnt be bothered to go through when our group was called. Wed rather wait until most of the passengers had gone through, didnt see the point of being on the plane any longer than we had to and the kids getting bored for longer waiting for take-off. While we were standing at the back of the queue about to go through the gate, we phoned my mother and the in-laws just to tell them we were just about to board the plane. Needed just to tell them about milk still in the fridge they could use to make themselves coffee and a plant in need of care on the kitchen windowsill. Then we were down the corridor and on the plane. We had two seats behind two seats by the windows on the right hand side of the plane. The boys wanted to sit together which we were a little nervous about but this worked out brilliantly, staying there and behaving beautifully for the whole flight. Trevor and I got the unusual luxury of sitting together on a plane in relative peace, seemingly without the kids for the whole flight. Kept getting a shock every time we got up to find we still had them with us!
Get out of the way Mum!
We were delayed by 43 minutes from taking off because of heavy air congestion over London, finally taking off at 10.43am. We were disappointed to get all aircraft safety advice via video. I used to love watching the stewards/stewardesses doing those hand gestures! First Choice really do a lot of hard advertising of their services during their flights (on this long haul one anyway). All this did was make me more determined not to show up for the Welcome Meeting when we got there! They also used the video screens to show you how to fill in the green and white visa forms. One of the in-flight movies was that recent Looney Tunes one with Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck. We made good time travelling, landing on time, making up for the lost 43 minutes. We were feeling the usual drop and lift sensations of the aircraft during our decent into Sanford airport, very much like a roller coaster. So much so that most of the passengers did the oooohs and aaaahs in the right places with arms stretched up in the air, followed by applause by everyone when we landed. Very funny! Got us all even more into the holiday spirit. Obviously most people here on the aircraft were headed for the same final destination as us.
We got of the plane fairly quickly, we were seated fairly close to the exit and made our way into the immigration hall. Unfortunately, it was well crowded already, despite our best efforts to get there as quickly as we could. But, on the bright side, the queue kept moving at a reasonable pace and it didnt seem long before we were showing our passports to the security guy. It took us only half an hour from getting off the plane to getting to the baggage reclaim carousel brilliant! And then only five minutes before we were walking off with our luggage on a trolley. We decided not to bother with splitting up as planned (i.e. one collecting luggage and one to the car hire) as things seemed to be running smoothly. As it happened, the security people wanted family groups to stick together through another load of x-ray machines before exiting the building.
We then headed straight to the Dollar desks, Trevor had to stay outside with the trolley as they dont like luggage in the building for some reason. This was a quick process and I was only there for five minutes. It took a bit over an hour from landing to collecting the car. They did try to persuade me to upgrade to a bigger car for an extra $70 per week, but the extras on the vehicle didnt seem worth the bother. We had a silver coloured Dodge Stratus which was quite adequate.
We then decided we had better tell First Choice we had arrived (had already seen someone standing at the other end of the Dollar building with a First Choice plackard). They were not there anymore but did find a F.C. rep who was glad we showed up, they were holding the coach for us!! When I booked the car hire several months ago (off my own bat through the internet), I cancelled the airport transfers via Lunn Poly (who I had booked the holiday through). We were still on First Choices transfer list though. Probably just as well we announced our presence to them otherwise they would still be waiting there now! The rep was actually very helpful, he gave us a Dollar booklet full of maps and showed us how to get to C.B.R. and the First Choice welcome pack including details of the Welcome Meeting the following morning scheduled for 10.45am with a chap called Steve Wignall. SORRY, NO CHANCE OF US BEING THERE MATEY! What do these guys think we are doing in Florida! I have only three weeks for goodness sake and we would be half way round the Magic Kingdom by then, good grief! Havent got time to be sitting in hotel conference rooms all day! Huh! We were typically British and polite though, took the information, gave our thanks and that was the last they saw of us! Well, it would have been, if it werent for an unscheduled bit of wind on 13th August and we had to see them on the night of the 14th for a very unscheduled extra night in Florida BUT THATS ANOTHER STORY!
To give First Choice credit, a lot of their passengers wouldnt know as much about Florida as we did and a Welcome Meeting could actually be very useful, so I dont want to discredit these events too much! But I know these can be mainly a sales pitch. 10.45am still seems a very odd time to have a Welcome Meeting when most people will have been up at the crack of dawn. Why not hold it at 8am and it would still give people most of the day to do something?
Left Sanford between 45 and 60 minutes after queuing at the Dollar desk. We got to the WDW area with no problem but found no signs for the Caribbean Beach Resort (or we missed them). For some reason, the rep advised us to go at least one junction further south of the resort than we later worked out would have been better. We sort of managed to work out where we were but realised now that we were heading towards Animal Kingdom and Blizzard Beach. CBR is located directly south of Epcot, so anyone knowing the area would know we were heading too far west.
This is when I started to show off my knowledge and show my appreciation for the DIBB. It was a bit of a strain because we were all tired and just wanted to get to our room at CBR as soon as possible. But with a bit of concentration, I could tell from the signs which direction we needed to head from what I remembered from maps and information I had already learnt and give immediate directions rather than fumbling with maps. Many thanks to the DIBB!
We finally arrived at Custom House, CBR, at 11pm (BST) and I asked about getting a room in Jamaica 45 or the nearest building to the bridge in Aruba and an upstairs room in whichever building we ended up. They had no space in Jamaica 45 and the best they could do was Aruba 54. I asked if we could move rooms if one became available in Jamaica 45 at a later stage. They were very happy for me to keep phoning to check. So, we got back in the car and drove round to Arubas car park. Aruba 54 is was slightly further to walk than Jamaica 54 but was actually a very nice (and actually very large) building. It stretched from the car park at one end to the pool area and beach on the other.
Our Building - Aruba 54
Our Room 5459
Trevor had a lie down while the kids and I went for a quick scout around the resort. Walked by the pool and onto the beach, each of us trying out a different hammock. There were four or five on Arubas beach. Made a mental note to make sure I use these in the evening when writing up my notes in the evening. We walked over the bridge, admiring Jamaica 45 on the way, recognising it with no problem at all thanks to Mcpaul. The island and two bridges joining Aruba and Jamaica with Old Port Royale is a very pleasant place where they apparently used to have parrots. Looked briefly at the themed pool and went into Old Port Royale to buy our refillable mugs. Didnt get one for Trevor as I thought hed like to choose his own. There were various colours and two different shapes. We returned to the room to dig Trevor out of bed (am I mean or what?!
) and we all headed back to Old Port Royale for a meal. We didnt actually think much of the hot dog, chicken strips were not too bad, take-away food was generally not brilliant. We never got round to eating in Shutters, CBRs sit-down restaurant.
Remember the Magic Roundabout? "Time for bed" said Z... Zoe!
Saturday 24th July (Arrival Day)
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)
According to the airline paper work, we needed to arrive two hours before take off at 10am, so I ordered a taxi for 7am a few days ago. Then the day-before check-in staff said we neednt check in until an hour and ten minutes before take off. I was nervous of aiming to arrive this close to the flying time, but I thought it would be nice to have an extra half an hour at home and moved the taxi pick up time to 7.30am. I didnt want to take any chances with the traffic or horrendous queues of any sort at Gatwick.
I was up and out of bed at 6.30am, kicked Trevor out of bed and told him to get washed and dressed first a.s.a.p. so he could get the kids organised while I had a shower (need to get these good Sergeant Major techniques into practice ready for the holiday). Luckily our movements woke Michael, we just had to dig Piers out of bed. We all managed to get dressed and ate something light, not very much though, in plenty of time. Taxi arrived on schedule and we left at 7.30am. The driver was very nice and polite but looked more like a nightclub bouncer! He was a very safe and careful driver, went to Gatwick via the A3, M25, M23 and got to Gatwick North Terminal shortly after 8am. Gave him the £35 plus a £5 tip.
Went straight to the First Choice Premium desk (as requested yesterday, although we are not premium passengers) and they redirected us to the ticket services desk at the back of the hall. This didnt take long and we went off to McDonalds downstairs. Queued up for food (if you can call it that at McD.) while Trevor hopped over to Boots to get some more sunglasses, he came back with two pairs (special offer one pair was free). We all ate something then up to go through security and into the departure lounge. I had visions of every bag totally emptied out and checked but they didnt bother with most of it. The security woman did a sort of swab with a pad on a stick around one of my bags, she said this was to check for traces of explosives! Sat down for a few moments to get our breath back ......
...... Some toilet visits, then off to Gate 46, the furthest possible walk from the departure lounge - someone obviously decided we needed the walking practice! Luckily there were a lot of those moving walkways which helped. I suspect that First Choice, being a cheap cut price organisation, paid less for having a Gate further away. As we sat there, various groups of row numbers were called, but we couldnt be bothered to go through when our group was called. Wed rather wait until most of the passengers had gone through, didnt see the point of being on the plane any longer than we had to and the kids getting bored for longer waiting for take-off. While we were standing at the back of the queue about to go through the gate, we phoned my mother and the in-laws just to tell them we were just about to board the plane. Needed just to tell them about milk still in the fridge they could use to make themselves coffee and a plant in need of care on the kitchen windowsill. Then we were down the corridor and on the plane. We had two seats behind two seats by the windows on the right hand side of the plane. The boys wanted to sit together which we were a little nervous about but this worked out brilliantly, staying there and behaving beautifully for the whole flight. Trevor and I got the unusual luxury of sitting together on a plane in relative peace, seemingly without the kids for the whole flight. Kept getting a shock every time we got up to find we still had them with us!
Get out of the way Mum!
We were delayed by 43 minutes from taking off because of heavy air congestion over London, finally taking off at 10.43am. We were disappointed to get all aircraft safety advice via video. I used to love watching the stewards/stewardesses doing those hand gestures! First Choice really do a lot of hard advertising of their services during their flights (on this long haul one anyway). All this did was make me more determined not to show up for the Welcome Meeting when we got there! They also used the video screens to show you how to fill in the green and white visa forms. One of the in-flight movies was that recent Looney Tunes one with Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck. We made good time travelling, landing on time, making up for the lost 43 minutes. We were feeling the usual drop and lift sensations of the aircraft during our decent into Sanford airport, very much like a roller coaster. So much so that most of the passengers did the oooohs and aaaahs in the right places with arms stretched up in the air, followed by applause by everyone when we landed. Very funny! Got us all even more into the holiday spirit. Obviously most people here on the aircraft were headed for the same final destination as us.
We got of the plane fairly quickly, we were seated fairly close to the exit and made our way into the immigration hall. Unfortunately, it was well crowded already, despite our best efforts to get there as quickly as we could. But, on the bright side, the queue kept moving at a reasonable pace and it didnt seem long before we were showing our passports to the security guy. It took us only half an hour from getting off the plane to getting to the baggage reclaim carousel brilliant! And then only five minutes before we were walking off with our luggage on a trolley. We decided not to bother with splitting up as planned (i.e. one collecting luggage and one to the car hire) as things seemed to be running smoothly. As it happened, the security people wanted family groups to stick together through another load of x-ray machines before exiting the building.
We then headed straight to the Dollar desks, Trevor had to stay outside with the trolley as they dont like luggage in the building for some reason. This was a quick process and I was only there for five minutes. It took a bit over an hour from landing to collecting the car. They did try to persuade me to upgrade to a bigger car for an extra $70 per week, but the extras on the vehicle didnt seem worth the bother. We had a silver coloured Dodge Stratus which was quite adequate.
We then decided we had better tell First Choice we had arrived (had already seen someone standing at the other end of the Dollar building with a First Choice plackard). They were not there anymore but did find a F.C. rep who was glad we showed up, they were holding the coach for us!! When I booked the car hire several months ago (off my own bat through the internet), I cancelled the airport transfers via Lunn Poly (who I had booked the holiday through). We were still on First Choices transfer list though. Probably just as well we announced our presence to them otherwise they would still be waiting there now! The rep was actually very helpful, he gave us a Dollar booklet full of maps and showed us how to get to C.B.R. and the First Choice welcome pack including details of the Welcome Meeting the following morning scheduled for 10.45am with a chap called Steve Wignall. SORRY, NO CHANCE OF US BEING THERE MATEY! What do these guys think we are doing in Florida! I have only three weeks for goodness sake and we would be half way round the Magic Kingdom by then, good grief! Havent got time to be sitting in hotel conference rooms all day! Huh! We were typically British and polite though, took the information, gave our thanks and that was the last they saw of us! Well, it would have been, if it werent for an unscheduled bit of wind on 13th August and we had to see them on the night of the 14th for a very unscheduled extra night in Florida BUT THATS ANOTHER STORY!
To give First Choice credit, a lot of their passengers wouldnt know as much about Florida as we did and a Welcome Meeting could actually be very useful, so I dont want to discredit these events too much! But I know these can be mainly a sales pitch. 10.45am still seems a very odd time to have a Welcome Meeting when most people will have been up at the crack of dawn. Why not hold it at 8am and it would still give people most of the day to do something?
Left Sanford between 45 and 60 minutes after queuing at the Dollar desk. We got to the WDW area with no problem but found no signs for the Caribbean Beach Resort (or we missed them). For some reason, the rep advised us to go at least one junction further south of the resort than we later worked out would have been better. We sort of managed to work out where we were but realised now that we were heading towards Animal Kingdom and Blizzard Beach. CBR is located directly south of Epcot, so anyone knowing the area would know we were heading too far west.
This is when I started to show off my knowledge and show my appreciation for the DIBB. It was a bit of a strain because we were all tired and just wanted to get to our room at CBR as soon as possible. But with a bit of concentration, I could tell from the signs which direction we needed to head from what I remembered from maps and information I had already learnt and give immediate directions rather than fumbling with maps. Many thanks to the DIBB!
We finally arrived at Custom House, CBR, at 11pm (BST) and I asked about getting a room in Jamaica 45 or the nearest building to the bridge in Aruba and an upstairs room in whichever building we ended up. They had no space in Jamaica 45 and the best they could do was Aruba 54. I asked if we could move rooms if one became available in Jamaica 45 at a later stage. They were very happy for me to keep phoning to check. So, we got back in the car and drove round to Arubas car park. Aruba 54 is was slightly further to walk than Jamaica 54 but was actually a very nice (and actually very large) building. It stretched from the car park at one end to the pool area and beach on the other.
Our Building - Aruba 54
Our Room 5459
Trevor had a lie down while the kids and I went for a quick scout around the resort. Walked by the pool and onto the beach, each of us trying out a different hammock. There were four or five on Arubas beach. Made a mental note to make sure I use these in the evening when writing up my notes in the evening. We walked over the bridge, admiring Jamaica 45 on the way, recognising it with no problem at all thanks to Mcpaul. The island and two bridges joining Aruba and Jamaica with Old Port Royale is a very pleasant place where they apparently used to have parrots. Looked briefly at the themed pool and went into Old Port Royale to buy our refillable mugs. Didnt get one for Trevor as I thought hed like to choose his own. There were various colours and two different shapes. We returned to the room to dig Trevor out of bed (am I mean or what?!
) and we all headed back to Old Port Royale for a meal. We didnt actually think much of the hot dog, chicken strips were not too bad, take-away food was generally not brilliant. We never got round to eating in Shutters, CBRs sit-down restaurant.Remember the Magic Roundabout? "Time for bed" said Z... Zoe!
