E. Cosgrove
02-04-2005, 15:08
Well, this was it, our first family holiday for 6 years! My more recent trips to Florida have been more to do with buying the villa, but now we were going to stay there, 11 of us[msnoo] A baptism of fire for our lovely new home.
First let me introduce you to the party - 2 families, the Hobdays and the Cosgroves, hence 'The Hobgroves';)
The Cosgroves consist of myself, my hubby David, eldest son Nick (23), his girlfriend Nicola (21)- confusing I know, my younger son James (21) and his girlfriend Natalie.
The Hobdays are my sister Helen and her hubby Stuart ( co owners of our villa)their eldest son Jonathon (24) and his fiancee Catherine ( 'Kitty' 24), their daughter Sophie (21) was going to join us for just 5 days as this was all the time she could take off work.
Just to make things even more incestuous, Kitty and Nicola are sisters and are both Florida 'virgins'.
The Hobdays and Nicola all live in Greater Manchester but were travelling with us from Gatwick so came to stay on the evening of Sun 20th, I hade plenty of room to sleep them as James went off to Nats for the night, but bathroom facilities were to be somewhat challenged as I was having 2 new bathrooms installed whilst I was away and the en suite was already out of commission. If we could manage 8 adults in a 4 bed home with one bathroom and the downstairs loo, then 5 beds and 3 baths was going to be a breeze.
We decided to get up at 4.30 and leave by 5.30, normally we would have had an overnight stay at Gatwick, but I was already paying flights and park tickets for 6 people so was trying to keep costs down a bit. I woke naturally at 4.10 after a short fitful sleep, dived in the shower whilst David put the kettle on, then went to wake up Nicola, we had decided she had to be one of the first up as she is so slow!! Something that was going to try our patience severely over the coming days.
At 5.15 we rang James to make sure they were up, they were just about to leave Nats house only 3 mins away and sure enough arrived shortly afterwards.
We could have squeezed into 2 cars but decided to take 3 as we were predicting extra luggage on the return journey;)
The journey to Gatwick was uneventful and took the predicted 1 1/2 hours, we parked the cars and were ready to check in by 7.30 for our 10.50 flight to Charlotte with US Airways. Our seats had been pre assigned as 2 groups of 5, one at the front of the plane and one near the back, it was too much hastle to start changing so I promised to change seats with Nicola at some point so that she and Nick could sit together.
Following a relatively smooth check in we went off in search of breakfast. Garfunkels provided us all with sustenance and after a quick whizz round duty free we were off to board our flight.
The flight itself was uneventful, the cabin crew were somewhat disinterested, although Helen reported better service in her cabin, the food was bland and spartan, but the entertainment system was excellent, the flight was smooth and on time and more importantly the tickets were very competitively priced!
We arrived at Charlotte on time and after our passage through Immigration we collected our bags, cleared customs and then dumped our luggage again for our connrcting flight, we had been cheked right through to MCO at Gatwick so there was no need to check in again.
We had a couple of hours before our next flight, so bouyed up by the fact that we were at last on US soil, we headed off for Starbucks and my first Mocha frappacino of the hoilday[msntongue]Kitty and Nicola were fascinated by the US accents which here in Charlotte were particularly drawling.
Nat and James went in search of food, and Nick and Jonathon went to the Sports Bar for a pint, funnily enough the only place they were asked for ID all holiday.
Our flight to Orlando was on time and apart from the fact that it was quite bumpy and we were strapped in for half the time there were no real problems.
When we arrived in the baggage claim hall, Helen and the kids went to collect the baggage whilst David, Myself and Stuart went
First let me introduce you to the party - 2 families, the Hobdays and the Cosgroves, hence 'The Hobgroves';)
The Cosgroves consist of myself, my hubby David, eldest son Nick (23), his girlfriend Nicola (21)- confusing I know, my younger son James (21) and his girlfriend Natalie.
The Hobdays are my sister Helen and her hubby Stuart ( co owners of our villa)their eldest son Jonathon (24) and his fiancee Catherine ( 'Kitty' 24), their daughter Sophie (21) was going to join us for just 5 days as this was all the time she could take off work.
Just to make things even more incestuous, Kitty and Nicola are sisters and are both Florida 'virgins'.
The Hobdays and Nicola all live in Greater Manchester but were travelling with us from Gatwick so came to stay on the evening of Sun 20th, I hade plenty of room to sleep them as James went off to Nats for the night, but bathroom facilities were to be somewhat challenged as I was having 2 new bathrooms installed whilst I was away and the en suite was already out of commission. If we could manage 8 adults in a 4 bed home with one bathroom and the downstairs loo, then 5 beds and 3 baths was going to be a breeze.
We decided to get up at 4.30 and leave by 5.30, normally we would have had an overnight stay at Gatwick, but I was already paying flights and park tickets for 6 people so was trying to keep costs down a bit. I woke naturally at 4.10 after a short fitful sleep, dived in the shower whilst David put the kettle on, then went to wake up Nicola, we had decided she had to be one of the first up as she is so slow!! Something that was going to try our patience severely over the coming days.
At 5.15 we rang James to make sure they were up, they were just about to leave Nats house only 3 mins away and sure enough arrived shortly afterwards.
We could have squeezed into 2 cars but decided to take 3 as we were predicting extra luggage on the return journey;)
The journey to Gatwick was uneventful and took the predicted 1 1/2 hours, we parked the cars and were ready to check in by 7.30 for our 10.50 flight to Charlotte with US Airways. Our seats had been pre assigned as 2 groups of 5, one at the front of the plane and one near the back, it was too much hastle to start changing so I promised to change seats with Nicola at some point so that she and Nick could sit together.
Following a relatively smooth check in we went off in search of breakfast. Garfunkels provided us all with sustenance and after a quick whizz round duty free we were off to board our flight.
The flight itself was uneventful, the cabin crew were somewhat disinterested, although Helen reported better service in her cabin, the food was bland and spartan, but the entertainment system was excellent, the flight was smooth and on time and more importantly the tickets were very competitively priced!
We arrived at Charlotte on time and after our passage through Immigration we collected our bags, cleared customs and then dumped our luggage again for our connrcting flight, we had been cheked right through to MCO at Gatwick so there was no need to check in again.
We had a couple of hours before our next flight, so bouyed up by the fact that we were at last on US soil, we headed off for Starbucks and my first Mocha frappacino of the hoilday[msntongue]Kitty and Nicola were fascinated by the US accents which here in Charlotte were particularly drawling.
Nat and James went in search of food, and Nick and Jonathon went to the Sports Bar for a pint, funnily enough the only place they were asked for ID all holiday.
Our flight to Orlando was on time and apart from the fact that it was quite bumpy and we were strapped in for half the time there were no real problems.
When we arrived in the baggage claim hall, Helen and the kids went to collect the baggage whilst David, Myself and Stuart went