What no Postcards - 31 March 06 - Getting There

**dodgey memory** · 08-01-2007, 00:00

What no Postcards - 31 March 06 - Getting There- 83f

DH 42 designated driver
Me 43 chief planner
DD1 (14) you are ruining my life
DD2 (11) can’t be bothered
DD3 (8) loves her mum and Pooh bear

Alarm went off at 4.30am not that we needed it who can sleep the night before a Florida holiday. The minute it rang DD3 hurtled into our room bouncing with joy. [clap]

We had checked in the day before using Virgin online check in. which was easy and walked straight to the front of the check in desks bypassing the lines which were huge. The time before the fight was spent having breakfast and a doing a bit of shopping and for some strange reason buying two bottles of Baileys. We had got the visa waiver forms from the check in desk and filled them in whole we were waiting. The flight was posted as leaving an hour late not so bad.

I don’t like the flight but this time it was a doddle perhaps because the girls were that much older. I read a bit, watched a film played a few games of Uno, played musical chairs with the rest of the family, the time passed. The people in front of all of us staid upright throughout the journey! I ate the vegetarian dinner which was lovely. DD 2 is a coeliac and we had ordered her a special dinner which was ok. The child’s meal for DD3 never materialised but the cabin crew were great and gave her an adult’s meal which they then supplemented with lots of extra goodies. Before we knew it we were coming in to land with DD3 jumping with excitement.

Immigration wasn’t too bad joined the line on the right hand side of the immigration hall and sure enough once the American nationals had cleared the line was opened up for us, we got the same official as on our last trip! It’s was such a great feeling to be on the monorail feeling the warm sun and that special Florida smell. The car had been rented from this forum, queue fine only two others in front of us. Started to get what we thought was the usual speal about upgrading but no we were being given a free upgrade ye ha! Finished up with a Chrysler Pacifica.

Found the villa at Orange Trees without too much trouble we had rented this privately, again from OV direct from the owner so knew what to expect... It was lovely only down point was it backed onto the US27 and there was a lot of road noise in the garden.

Swam and then out again for a mini food shop and tea. Bed for all of us at 8.00, real time 2.00 and we had been up for 16 hours.

Top tip- join the right hand queue in Immigration
If flying with Virgin check in on line.

**Kazzie** · 08-01-2007, 00:37

Great, when is the next installment? And dont forget you can always post some photos.

Karen

**dodgey memory** · 08-01-2007, 01:11

Thanks Kazzie I have many photo's but not the skill to post them I think I need to practice!

**pepsi** · 08-01-2007, 02:45

Enjoyed reading what looked like your experiences for the start of the holiday. Are you going to tell us what you did throughout your stay?

**LiesaAnna** · 08-01-2007, 11:26

Hi Theresa!
sounding great!!!! glad the first part "the flight" went well!
looking forward to part 2!!!

**eagleydo** · 08-01-2007, 12:57

Will try out that tip about the right hand queue on our trip in September. Not to sure about the online booking though, we do the twilight check in, what happens about your bags? Do you have to stand in a huge queue for these the next day?