View Full Version : When does your holiday start?
Is it only my husband who likes to be at the airport hours before departure-
he likes to have a large breakfast after checking in the bags, then a look round duty free, and sit in the lounge reading the paper, its all part of his hols- I wouldn't mind an extra hour or two in bed, and don't like the large breakfast[ but don't object to the Duty Free!], but still its a step nearer to sunny Florida!!
ON the other hand, he won't pack his case till about midnight the night before- no longer though, I have retrained him on that one!
What do all of you do with regard to packing, and going to airport etc.
gail and david roberts
18-05-2010, 10:57
we do like to get up and off early to the airport , always pack a couple of days before we leave
and I do it all
pack all cases, book the car , flights getting the money [msnscared]
so for me once at the airport and cases have gone I can relax
until we get to Orlando (car hire)[msncool]
I don't mind sitting in the airport as long as we leave on time ,finger crossed for June flights [msnscared]
will be taking my notebook with me , as this helps a lot with the wait
ShirleyD
18-05-2010, 12:36
I only live down the road from the airport, so I don't normally arrive very early. I will always shop in Florida, so duty free doesn't really interest me... just one more thing to carry!
We're a bit like Susan's husband and like to be at the airport about 3 hours before.
I pack the day before normally and Geoff packs his own things the night before and it takes him about 2 minutes.
I don't relax until the cases go through and then my holiday starts. I love to have breakfast, stroll round the shops and treat myself to loads of magazines and a book, and I wind down slowly!
Think I will take my Notebook with me next time too Gail.
Don't get me started [msnsmile2]
My boys ( lee included ) always say that we have to be at the airport as early as possible because I am paranoid about being stuck in traffic and missing the plane. This almost happened to me once and I held up the plane while Lee parked the car [msneek]. So in most cases we get to the airport the night before and if possible check in and off load the bags then.
On the morning of the flight I am not happy till we are through security and then we have a nice breakfast, followed by a browes round the book shop. once we have taken off I can relax until it comes to immigration and car hire ( thank heavens for Dollar Express ).
I usually pack over the week before the trip as the boys will insist on wearing stuff they then want to take. So I have to wash, iron and pack as I go. Once it is in the case heaven help the boy who tries to take an item of clothing back out![msnwink]
I like to be there nice and early case of any hiccups, traffic etc, had looked into on-line check-in etc and did think that it would not give you much time to browse, normal 3hr before flight sounds a lot but by the time you have something to eat and a browse round shops/ duty free etc it does go in quite quickly, part of the holiday for me. usually enjoy a couple of beers too regardless of the time of day but will nedd to give that a miss this time as will be driving at the other end, roll on Sept.
Susan, for me, my holiday starts the minute we turn the key in the lock and get into the car on our way to the airport!
We, too, love to be early to the airport. We book an overnight hotel and are up bright and early to get to the airport 4 hours before the flight. I love getting in the taxi in the morning with the sun just rising and the roads clear and bright. I just can't wait to get there! It is only when we are checked in that I can finally relax, and to be honest, the time goes in a flash and I never have enough time to do everything I want to do. We go and have a relaxing breakfast - this has become a bit of a ritual - then I browse round the shops whilst my husband watches the world go by or reads a newspaper, I buy a long book to read, and chill out.
We are paranoid about missing the flight so would not feel able to leave it to the day in case of traffic problems etc. But my two daughters had a near miss recently - they were flying back from Dubai and on waking discovered that the electricity had tripped out in their hotel room. They had to finish packing in the dark and could not use the bathroom until the maintenance guy arrived so they were late leaving - and they were a fair way from the airport. They eventually arrived at the airport to see the board saying 'flight closing.' Thankfully the airport is quick and easy and they ran like mad and made it with a couple of minutes to spare. Now for me that would have been a total nightmare (one daugher is like me and likes plenty of time, the other was quite happy not to have had to sit and wait!). So it takes all sorts to make a world! :D
As for packing, I used to pack weeks in advance when I had the children - had a packing room which I used. But now I tend to pack the week before - again, I could not cope with packing the night before, but each to his own. [msnwink]
My holiday starts the minute I book the flights, I plan and plan and plan, where shall we visit, what shall we take, what size car do we need etc etc. We always fly from Gatwick and drive down the night before for twylight checkin. Then we go to our hotel for a nice meal and an early night. Up on the day of the flight we have a nice English breakfast leave for airport about 2 hours before flight time, straight to security, enough time for a look round the shops before going to the gate. I just love all of it, at the moment we have a trip planned for late October and one for February. Before we go next Feb I will have to book Octobers[high5]
chrizzy100
18-05-2010, 20:08
Mine starts when I get on the bus to Boston...we leave early so we can eat at the airport..I don't really pack much because we have stuff at the house in FL..
Hi
Like Gail, I do it all, from booking the villa, flights, car, park tickets etc to packing cases and after the trip before last supervising the loading of cases into the car ! we got to the near enough the motorway and my husband said "where are the cases!!!!" the one job he had to do was to put them in the car !!! I ask you.... men !
My ritual (apart from checking I have the passports 100 times before we get to the airport checkin) is when we get through security etc I have a large hot chocolate with whipped cream and a chocolate spoon from Costas (not just when we go to Florida but any time I go away) then my holiday can start ............[msnsmile]
Like the sound of the Hot choc ;)
I do everything too..........think hubby worked that on me really, but now the next question........how about the trip home to UK?!?! [or other part of US] bet you're not at the airport as early then? We are though :(
Funny how many of us do it all and partners just turn up for the flight[msnsmile2] I have one like that.....oh wait, that's doing him a disservice as he does pack his own suitcase.
Seriously though our travel experiences for airport journeys are like chalk and cheese. The number of flights we have almost missed (Florida to the UK and UK to Florida) because my other half is so laid back, he's almost horizontal it's unbelivable. The year we bought our house in Florida on one trip we turned up at Sanford just as the check in was closing but as my husband says, almost doesn't count we've always made the flight.
Having said that, I drive him crackers with my ritual cleaning of our house in the UK before we leave. It's the same every time, I do all the things I've meant to do for ages and the house is perfect just before we go. That is for about five minutes until my sons gets home from Uni and turns it into a tip[msnsad]. One of them lives at home so my joy is normally short lived on that front!
Can't change my other half, he hates hanging around at the airport, whilst I don't mind it at all. In fact I find checking the bags in and being able to wander around quite nice before a long flight.
Still, he has some good points, bless him.
E. Cosgrove
19-05-2010, 21:25
I am with your husband Susan, my husband would be with you........wanna trade?[msnwink][msnwink]
For trips to Florida there is very little to pack as we have everything we need right there so technically we could travel just with hand luggage but we take the suitcases for the return journey and all our shopping!:D
When we are going somewhere else the planning starts before we even book, once we have booked the euphoria lasts a little while with lots of research on the internet, and then things cool down until about a month before we go when I start making lists and buying things we will need for our trip!!:D
I am like Karen, I clean the house from top to bottom before we go. My Mum used to do it too, she said that if anything happened to her while on holiday, she would hate for someone to have to come into her house and find it dirty. I seem to be the same. As for packing, I usually do it and then my husband comes in and says, 'you don't need that or that or that' and takes out all the extras. It makes me mad, but now as we leave most of our stuff in Florida we only need hand luggage, at least on the outward journey, the return is somewhat different, we are usually loaded down.
Andrena
<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Funny how many of us do it all and partners just turn up for the flight I have one like that.....oh wait, that's doing him a disservice as he does pack his own suitcase[/quote]
You are lucky your other half does that much - I flew out a week ahead this time and Stuart said as I was flying with Andrew and he had hold luggage I could take his odd bits with me and put them in the hold so he only had to bring camera, book, passport and money. Next time I will let him fly out a week early.
DLB-GOUROCK
23-05-2010, 02:45
I consider the holiday starts when you drive away from home heading for the airport.
I have what I call "Oh Yeah" moments.
I like to fly and love the feeling when we turn off the taxiway on to the far end of the runway and the pilot winds up the engines, you get that push in the back as you hurtle down the runway. The springs in the undercarriage absorbing the undulations of the runway, faster and faster then smoothness as the pilot rotates the plane and you start to climb. (Oh Yeah 1)
Then 9 hours of looking at your watch wondering how long until we are there and working out the time difference. Are we there yet! Yawn!
Then you start to descend and you are on approach. Lower and lower, final approach, flaps down, now I'm sure that this is when the pilots deliberately start to faff about, left a bit, power back on a bit, right a bit, power off, another adjustment power back on, the ground is getting closer, for goodness sake just land the thing, then bump, reverse thrust, any landing is a good landing. (Oh Yeah 2)
Taxi round to the terminal, up to the gate, the walkway comes up and touches the plane, the door opens and the air changes, you can start to smell different smells. (Oh Yeah 3)
You walk off the plane, US soil, you feel the temperature rise. (Oh Yeah 4)
AND WE HAVE ONLY JUST ARRIVED !!
I just love holidays !!
Why do we women do it all, in my case we could arrive and have no clothes at all hubby wouldn't know untill he looked in the wardrobe[msnsad] But if I let him pack he would take anything he owned, the shorts he does the gardening in, the t shirt he uses for painting, you get the picture.
You know what .... I reckon it has been breed in to these men to look totally vague at times like this .... it is a good job we are as good as we are ladies .... of course we have to do everything for everyone all the time BUT ... we apparently can't bar-b-que ..... now that is a MAN's job !!!![msnwink]
For me holiday starts the moment I set up the vacation rule and close down the pc before leaving the office.
Wendy, I agree with you totally.
My husband packed for me once- for our honeymoon- I was diagnosed with gallstones a few days before we married.....and felt very sick after the reception- ended up bedridden for 2 days, but recovered a little to fly out to tenerife for our honeymoon- in the meantime, my helpful caring husband packed the cases and cleaned the house- we had only moved in the house after our wedding, so it was just a question of putting away wedding gifts [I didn't find some of them for a week after our return] and hoovering up, etc
so I staggered downstairs on the morning of our trip, got weakly into the taxi, and slept through the flight. Once we landed on foreign soil, I was tons better - which was a shame- for a weeks trip, I had NO underwear [I know it was a honeymoon but] 3 nighties, a pair of jeans I had worn to decorate the house in for the previous 3 months, an old washed up t-shirt- a 'going out' short skirt, and a couple of pairs of shorts and a decent T-shirt, and a pair of white stilettos. WHAT WAS HE THINKING OF?! needless to say, we dressed very unisex that week, and I had to do a bit of shopping too! so, since then..............
David, your post made me feel all excited- well put!!