Spuddybaby
22-11-2004, 14:21
Well, i got back last Friday morning from two glorious weeks of fantastic weather and theme parks, and now i have the post Florida blues, quite a common aillment which seems to afflict everyone on these boards.
So in an attempt to rid myself of them i am going to relive my holiday here for you all, and i might chuck in some of the 350 photos i took (if i can reduce the file size of them all!)
ok, here goes......
Day 1 - Thursday November 4th.
Me and my fiance Helen woke up at some ridiculous time in the morning, 4am i think, and jumped up and got dressed, actually that is a lie, going to florida or not, i like to grab as much time in bed as possible in the morning, so while helen got up at 4am, i carried on snoozing until at least half four, the last posible minute before getting up later wuld mean being late!
So after frantically rushing around in the shower, and finishing off my hand luggage packing, we jumped into the car and round to my mum and dads house. The trip was the four of us, so they were expecting us!
We had already tested putting the luggage in my dads car, so we knew we only needed to take the one car, saving us £100 on airport parking. So we loaded up the four cases and hand luggage and sat in the car. Dad turned the key.... nothing happened! He tried it again... nothing happened!! he tried it a third time... nothing happened!!! starting to get panicked and wound up dad got out of the car and got some air. i got out and started to open my car boot to see if there was anyway we could fit the luggage into mine. Unfortunately while my dad drives a rover 25 and we only just fit the luggage in with ourselves, i drive an Audi s3, which is significantly smaller with less boot and back seat space, and getting us and the luggage in, was never going to happen. Luckily we were early enough for me to make to trips to gatwick, if the worst came to the worst, as my car is capable of 155 mph if the police arent around, not that i drive at that speed or anywhere near it though.
Luckily though, dad had a brainwave. the previous night, he and mum had had fish and chips as they had thrown out most food from the fridge. Dad went to get them in his car, and when he got home he locked the car using the button key. seeing as these types of keys ar expensive to buy, if he lost one, he decided to only take the normal key with him on holiday. so in the morning he had unlocked the car wih the key instead of just clikcing the buttons. however, when you do this, the engine immobiliser kickes in and the engine doesnt start! So after a nervous five minutes with dad looking for where he had left the button key inside, he found it, unlocked the car again with it and tried the ignition....success!!! it worked!!
the car started first time and finally we were off!!!
It took about an hour to get to Gatwick, with the traffic even at that time in the morning, and from then on everything went pretty smoothly. Parking was easy and there was hardly any queue at check-in. We checked in about seven for our 11.15 am virgin flight, (dad likes to be there ealry in case anything happens on the way there) so we had four hours to kill. First thing on everyones mind was breakfast. After a quick hands up around the four of us, McDonalds was the majority vote.
We spent about an hour and a half in there after eating as it was empty, talking about all the times we had ahead of us and what we were going to do this time. How long ago that seems now...
Before we knew it it was half 8 and we decided to walk through to departures. Had a bit of a wander around the shops, and had another sit down. Eventually it was time to make our way to the gate. Last time i flew with Virgin to vegas there was a monorail out to the Virgin gates, but now that is being repaired and we had to walk down loads of steps and out into the cold air and get a bus!!! It was freezing!
Soon we were there and siting at the gate waiting to board. Soon we were up in the air on our way, but to our dismay, the entertainment system on the plane was broken and not working properly, and we only
So in an attempt to rid myself of them i am going to relive my holiday here for you all, and i might chuck in some of the 350 photos i took (if i can reduce the file size of them all!)
ok, here goes......
Day 1 - Thursday November 4th.
Me and my fiance Helen woke up at some ridiculous time in the morning, 4am i think, and jumped up and got dressed, actually that is a lie, going to florida or not, i like to grab as much time in bed as possible in the morning, so while helen got up at 4am, i carried on snoozing until at least half four, the last posible minute before getting up later wuld mean being late!
So after frantically rushing around in the shower, and finishing off my hand luggage packing, we jumped into the car and round to my mum and dads house. The trip was the four of us, so they were expecting us!
We had already tested putting the luggage in my dads car, so we knew we only needed to take the one car, saving us £100 on airport parking. So we loaded up the four cases and hand luggage and sat in the car. Dad turned the key.... nothing happened! He tried it again... nothing happened!! he tried it a third time... nothing happened!!! starting to get panicked and wound up dad got out of the car and got some air. i got out and started to open my car boot to see if there was anyway we could fit the luggage into mine. Unfortunately while my dad drives a rover 25 and we only just fit the luggage in with ourselves, i drive an Audi s3, which is significantly smaller with less boot and back seat space, and getting us and the luggage in, was never going to happen. Luckily we were early enough for me to make to trips to gatwick, if the worst came to the worst, as my car is capable of 155 mph if the police arent around, not that i drive at that speed or anywhere near it though.
Luckily though, dad had a brainwave. the previous night, he and mum had had fish and chips as they had thrown out most food from the fridge. Dad went to get them in his car, and when he got home he locked the car using the button key. seeing as these types of keys ar expensive to buy, if he lost one, he decided to only take the normal key with him on holiday. so in the morning he had unlocked the car wih the key instead of just clikcing the buttons. however, when you do this, the engine immobiliser kickes in and the engine doesnt start! So after a nervous five minutes with dad looking for where he had left the button key inside, he found it, unlocked the car again with it and tried the ignition....success!!! it worked!!
the car started first time and finally we were off!!!
It took about an hour to get to Gatwick, with the traffic even at that time in the morning, and from then on everything went pretty smoothly. Parking was easy and there was hardly any queue at check-in. We checked in about seven for our 11.15 am virgin flight, (dad likes to be there ealry in case anything happens on the way there) so we had four hours to kill. First thing on everyones mind was breakfast. After a quick hands up around the four of us, McDonalds was the majority vote.
We spent about an hour and a half in there after eating as it was empty, talking about all the times we had ahead of us and what we were going to do this time. How long ago that seems now...
Before we knew it it was half 8 and we decided to walk through to departures. Had a bit of a wander around the shops, and had another sit down. Eventually it was time to make our way to the gate. Last time i flew with Virgin to vegas there was a monorail out to the Virgin gates, but now that is being repaired and we had to walk down loads of steps and out into the cold air and get a bus!!! It was freezing!
Soon we were there and siting at the gate waiting to board. Soon we were up in the air on our way, but to our dismay, the entertainment system on the plane was broken and not working properly, and we only