Fly on Friday the 13th?? Yep, we`ll turn superstition into 23 nights of fun!! A Sept/Oct 2024 TR

[schumigirl]

Thursday Sept 12th continued...

We paid the check and headed back to the lounge for a cuppa, on the way you pass the Collage Restaurant that opens for breakfast and it is an amazing buffet breakfast with champagne included, works for me.....and dinner too. We used to eat here regularly even having the lounge but the menu changed too much and they produced a very limited menu which we didn`t care for.

Now it is better I`m told, but the lounge has some nice appetiser styled food which suits us nicely after having enjoyed lunch in the bar, they do a nice job with the snacks up there. ​

The lobby is exceptionally quiet today, I guess it is still early for most folks to check in, but they do have a little section where they have added basic snacks and drinks if guests want to purchase them. ​

I do love the traditional styled post box where you drop your keys in the morning if you don`t need to check out with a member of staff. ​

It was around 2pm now, so we made ourselves a cup of tea......dreaded teabags of course, but they`re not bad and they do set out real milk which is much nicer than the little plastic pots, I did notice they replenished the milk receptacle every hour so it didn`t sit for too long and stayed fresh, not much worse than milk that is sitting out going warm.

Once I`d had my cup of tea, I got my ipad out and did online check in, everything is already filled in with one of the apps they offer, so it was a very quick job to do and we were checked in within a few seconds.

VA offer twilight bag drop between 4 and 8pm in the terminal, we have done it before where we take all our cases down and get them out of the way so in the morning we just go through security with hand luggage. We decided to keep the cases with us till the morning which meant I could keep all my make up and perfume with me and not worry about liquids in hand luggage.

The airport is fairly quiet in the afternoons, most flights leave in the morning and some of the bigger flights like Emirates leave later and I always enjoy watching those huge planes take off, even with the soundproofing you can hear those mega jets take off. I do love airports!!​

The lounge was quiet all afternoon, a few people popped in and made a drink and left, we were like permanent residents this afternoon as we genuinely didn`t move, but it is so relaxing and peaceful sitting here chatting while we are both on ipads of course!!!

I did wonder if we put someone off coming in, a man walked in three or four times, saw us, looked a little spooked and left......well, of course it became a little bit of a joke, but Tom kept it going and he had me in stitches with his excacerbation of the man`s antics, I honestly couldn`t stop laughing, couldn`t breathe at one point and of course Tom took a picture when I was laughing, not a flattering picture of course but captured a moment ​

The man never did make an appearance later!!! ​

A few more people appeared shortly before the evening appetisers came out and it was a nice bunch of folks tonight, sometimes people keep to themselves and sometimes most folks chat all together and glad to say they were a friendly bunch tonight for the most part.

Darius was looking after us tonight, very nice young man who seems to be a very hard working young man who is training to be a pilot from this month and was on his own tonight. There were always two staff up here before, but I`m guessing cutbacks have hit here too.

He sets the alcohol, red and white wines and various beers out just after 4.30pm, then some of the cold snacks before setting out the hot snacks, to be honest we could just have a meal of the cold stuff!!




​

Tom and I both adore charcuterie, so we did enjoy the cold options today, cheese not so much, but the meats were very nice indeed along with olives and because it was so quiet, there was no mad rush as soon as the food appeared. ​

We don`t drink strong liquor the night before a flight and as we had bubbly at lunchtime we were delighted to see they had fizzy on offer too and glad it wasn`t Rose which is not to my taste at all, this however was lovely and I could sense a fun evening ahead! ​

They have the basics of gin, whisky, vodka and bacardi on offer and all the mixers you could want in the fridges to the side alongside the beers on offer, more or less something for everyone as well as coke and so on.

And they had a space for the sparkly which was nice and it was replenished often as quite a few of us would enjoy it tonight. ​

I think there were around 12 people tonight in the lounge, one family arrived, had a drink and went downstairs for dinner in the restaurant, Tom asked if I wanted to do that, but this would do just fine for tonight and by now there was a lovely atmosphere in the lounge.

Hot options weren`t our favourite, they had mozarella sticks, some kind of meat in a mini puff pastry which didn`t really taste of much and some kind of fake shrimp wrapped in a very heavy Filo pastry, so these didn`t tempt us very much at all when we tried them, we stuck to the cold selection. ​

We didn`t go too crazy with the fizzy as we are all too aware of flying in the morning and up reasonably early and no way on earth did we want to fly feeling a little under the weather or have a headache, so we were drinking lots of water too which did the trick.

Then we heard someone mutter martini`s on the way!!!!​

He brought out the martini cocktail tree which looks so nice but we only liked the mango one, the dark one was Espresso and the bottom one was a mint mojito, we both loathe mint things, unfortunately I assumed it was just a regular martini or margarita so tasted it before I realised my mistake

It was nice enough but again unlike last visit when they were replenished, once these were gone they didn`t refresh the tree, but there were so few people in here tonight I guess. Nice touch though. ​

Desserts are not really my thing, but they had a very nice selection tonight including a sharp lemon tart and profiteroles so we were tempted with them a little.​

I had gone down to our room to get an email address I had only written down and came back to add her to my contacts, then got up to make a cup of tea, Tom eventually said will you sit down for five minutes.....lol....I was surprised as he was laughing and everyone seemed to be looking at me at this point, I did wonder if my dress had tucked up somehow ....but nope, it was fine!!

Next thing Darius came out from the kitchen area and everyone started singing Happy Birthday!!! ​

One woman laughed and said he had been waiting ages for me to sit down for two minutes so he could bring it out and everyone could sing.....oops!!!!

It was lovely though, Darius had been asking where we were going and all the usual chatter, Tom had said it was my birthday tomorrow and Darius had asked if he could do something for me from the kitchen, so he had gone down and asked the chef to create a plate for me!! It was so nice and certainly doubled his tip!!! It was a little like a cherry bakewell tart that had a vanilla centre, very nice indeed!!

We made another cuppa and watched as the foul weather rolled in and I do love it when it`s horrible outside and we`re inside warm and cosy. Not the clearest of pictures but that rain was torrential! ​

Tonight had been nice, the whole day had been nice to be fair, and around 9ish we thanked Darius for taking such good care of everyone tonight, sad to see not everyone tipped him, although it is help yourself he had kept most tables topped up with whatever they were drinking as well as keeping the snacks and desserts topped up, he certainly deserved a good tip.

Back in the room, we put the low lights on, tv on and settled down for the rest of the evening, I forget what we watched but I fell asleep watching the rain batter against the windows around 10.30, so Tom put the tv off and closed those heavy drapes as I couldn`t complain!!!​

As always, hoping we can both sleep well through the night without waking, but never usually happens....too much excitement in the air and the ever present worry of sleeping in, not much chance of that with an alarm call, ipad alarm set and both phone alarms set for 10 minutes apart. But, you never know!

And Friday the 13th had always been lucky for me, so I wasn`t worried at all!!!

​

 

[disneyseniors]

Thursday Sept 12th continued...

We paid the check and headed back to the lounge for a cuppa, on the way you pass the Collage Restaurant that opens for breakfast and it is an amazing buffet breakfast with champagne included, works for me.....and dinner too. We used to eat here regularly even having the lounge but the menu changed too much and they produced a very limited menu which we didn`t care for.

Now it is better I`m told, but the lounge has some nice appetiser styled food which suits us nicely after having enjoyed lunch in the bar, they do a nice job with the snacks up there. ​

The lobby is exceptionally quiet today, I guess it is still early for most folks to check in, but they do have a little section where they have added basic snacks and drinks if guests want to purchase them. ​

I do love the traditional styled post box where you drop your keys in the morning if you don`t need to check out with a member of staff. ​

It was around 2pm now, so we made ourselves a cup of tea......dreaded teabags of course, but they`re not bad and they do set out real milk which is much nicer than the little plastic pots, I did notice they replenished the milk receptacle every hour so it didn`t sit for too long and stayed fresh, not much worse than milk that is sitting out going warm.

Once I`d had my cup of tea, I got my ipad out and did online check in, everything is already filled in with one of the apps they offer, so it was a very quick job to do and we were checked in within a few seconds.

VA offer twilight bag drop between 4 and 8pm in the terminal, we have done it before where we take all our cases down and get them out of the way so in the morning we just go through security with hand luggage. We decided to keep the cases with us till the morning which meant I could keep all my make up and perfume with me and not worry about liquids in hand luggage.

The airport is fairly quiet in the afternoons, most flights leave in the morning and some of the bigger flights like Emirates leave later and I always enjoy watching those huge planes take off, even with the soundproofing you can hear those mega jets take off. I do love airports!!​

The lounge was quiet all afternoon, a few people popped in and made a drink and left, we were like permanent residents this afternoon as we genuinely didn`t move, but it is so relaxing and peaceful sitting here chatting while we are both on ipads of course!!!

I did wonder if we put someone off coming in, a man walked in three or four times, saw us, looked a little spooked and left......well, of course it became a little bit of a joke, but Tom kept it going and he had me in stitches with his excacerbation of the man`s antics, I honestly couldn`t stop laughing, couldn`t breathe at one point and of course Tom took a picture when I was laughing, not a flattering picture of course but captured a moment ​

The man never did make an appearance later!!! ​

A few more people appeared shortly before the evening appetisers came out and it was a nice bunch of folks tonight, sometimes people keep to themselves and sometimes most folks chat all together and glad to say they were a friendly bunch tonight for the most part.

Darius was looking after us tonight, very nice young man who seems to be a very hard working young man who is training to be a pilot from this month and was on his own tonight. There were always two staff up here before, but I`m guessing cutbacks have hit here too.

He sets the alcohol, red and white wines and various beers out just after 4.30pm, then some of the cold snacks before setting out the hot snacks, to be honest we could just have a meal of the cold stuff!!




View attachment 903589​

Tom and I both adore charcuterie, so we did enjoy the cold options today, cheese not so much, but the meats were very nice indeed along with olives and because it was so quiet, there was no mad rush as soon as the food appeared. ​

We don`t drink strong liquor the night before a flight and as we had bubbly at lunchtime we were delighted to see they had fizzy on offer too and glad it wasn`t Rose which is not to my taste at all, this however was lovely and I could sense a fun evening ahead! ​

They have the basics of gin, whisky, vodka and bacardi on offer and all the mixers you could want in the fridges to the side alongside the beers on offer, more or less something for everyone as well as coke and so on.

And they had a space for the sparkly which was nice and it was replenished often as quite a few of us would enjoy it tonight. ​

I think there were around 12 people tonight in the lounge, one family arrived, had a drink and went downstairs for dinner in the restaurant, Tom asked if I wanted to do that, but this would do just fine for tonight and by now there was a lovely atmosphere in the lounge.

Hot options weren`t our favourite, they had mozarella sticks, some kind of meat in a mini puff pastry which didn`t really taste of much and some kind of fake shrimp wrapped in a very heavy Filo pastry, so these didn`t tempt us very much at all when we tried them, we stuck to the cold selection. ​

We didn`t go too crazy with the fizzy as we are all too aware of flying in the morning and up reasonably early and no way on earth did we want to fly feeling a little under the weather or have a headache, so we were drinking lots of water too which did the trick.

Then we heard someone mutter martini`s on the way!!!!​

He brought out the martini cocktail tree which looks so nice but we only liked the mango one, the dark one was Espresso and the bottom one was a mint mojito, we both loathe mint things, unfortunately I assumed it was just a regular martini or margarita so tasted it before I realised my mistake

It was nice enough but again unlike last visit when they were replenished, once these were gone they didn`t refresh the tree, but there were so few people in here tonight I guess. Nice touch though. ​

Desserts are not really my thing, but they had a very nice selection tonight including a sharp lemon tart and profiteroles so we were tempted with them a little.​

I had gone down to our room to get an email address I had only written down and came back to add her to my contacts, then got up to make a cup of tea, Tom eventually said will you sit down for five minutes.....lol....I was surprised as he was laughing and everyone seemed to be looking at me at this point, I did wonder if my dress had tucked up somehow ....but nope, it was fine!!

Next thing Darius came out from the kitchen area and everyone started singing Happy Birthday!!! ​

One woman laughed and said he had been waiting ages for me to sit down for two minutes so he could bring it out and everyone could sing.....oops!!!!

It was lovely though, Darius had been asking where we were going and all the usual chatter, Tom had said it was my birthday tomorrow and Darius had asked if he could do something for me from the kitchen, so he had gone down and asked the chef to create a plate for me!! It was so nice and certainly doubled his tip!!! It was a little like a cherry bakewell tart that had a vanilla centre, very nice indeed!!

We made another cuppa and watched as the foul weather rolled in and I do love it when it`s horrible outside and we`re inside warm and cosy. Not the clearest of pictures but that rain was torrential! ​

Tonight had been nice, the whole day had been nice to be fair, and around 9ish we thanked Darius for taking such good care of everyone tonight, sad to see not everyone tipped him, although it is help yourself he had kept most tables topped up with whatever they were drinking as well as keeping the snacks and desserts topped up, he certainly deserved a good tip.

Back in the room, we put the low lights on, tv on and settled down for the rest of the evening, I forget what we watched but I fell asleep watching the rain batter against the windows around 10.30, so Tom put the tv off and closed those heavy drapes as I couldn`t complain!!!​

As always, hoping we can both sleep well through the night without waking, but never usually happens....too much excitement in the air and the ever present worry of sleeping in, not much chance of that with an alarm call, ipad alarm set and both phone alarms set for 10 minutes apart. But, you never know!

And Friday the 13th had always been lucky for me, so I wasn`t worried at all!!!

View attachment 903650
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Your evening at the club sounded like a fun time and even got sung to for your birthday.
I just meant to say earlier that I love your shorter hair, and am glad you like it too. I had to laugh at you having to say goodbye to good tea when you go to the US, LOL. I know you must grit your teeth each time you have to use a tea bag. I have an antique tea "ball" of silver that I have never used, for loose leaf tea. I admit I have never tried it. A friend in the UK gave me tea in bags from Harrods, which tasted pretty good. I guess I don't know what a "real" cup of tea tastes like
Awaiting the rest of your adventure.

I almost forgot to answer your question about Randy. He has been to Universal with his family but it has been a long time, so a lot will be new to him. I honestly don't know if he is a thrill rider or not, but if he is he will be alone

 

[Deb1993]

I saw you posted so I grabbed my coffee and settled in.

 

[schumigirl]

Your evening at the club sounded like a fun time and even got sung to for your birthday.
I just meant to say earlier that I love your shorter hair, and am glad you like it too. I had to laugh at you having to say goodbye to good tea when you go to the US, LOL. I know you must grit your teeth each time you have to use a tea bag. I have an antique tea "ball" of silver that I have never used, for loose leaf tea. I admit I have never tried it. A friend in the UK gave me tea in bags from Harrods, which tasted pretty good. I guess I don't know what a "real" cup of tea tastes like
Awaiting the rest of your adventure.

I almost forgot to answer your question about Randy. He has been to Universal with his family but it has been a long time, so a lot will be new to him. I honestly don't know if he is a thrill rider or not, but if he is he will be alone

It was a lovely first evening for sure.

Thanks, I`m glad you like it, I absolutely love it shorter now!!

Well, Harrods tea is very nice, I have real tea from Harrods that is lovely, usually gifts, and I have tried the bags, I just prefer real tea and hate to say I`ve never had a decent tea bag before in America....but, hey.....they do everything else so well!!!! (apart from chocolate.....ssshhhhh)

Oh goodness, he will have so much fun with you, and you can enjoy showing him all the new things!! It`ll be like a new park for him after such a long break from visiting!

So, you`ll not be doing Velocicoaster with him lol.....ah, you`ll have a wonderful time whatever you end up doing

 

[schumigirl]

I saw you posted so I grabbed my coffee and settled in.

lol....hope you enjoyed that coffee!

Nothing like having some quiet time enjoying some reading

 

[texaslover]

I've read all of your trip reports and never commented but I have to jump in and say I'm excited for this new one! You are always so informative and entertaining and I appreciate everything I've learned from you and implemented on my trips!

 

[schumigirl]

I've read all of your trip reports and never commented but I have to jump in and say I'm excited for this new one! You are always so informative and entertaining and I appreciate everything I've learned from you and implemented on my trips!

along Texaslover!!

Thank you, I`m happy to hear you enjoy the reports, always nice to hear and I`m glad you joined in, look forward to seeing you post along the way

 

[schumigirl]

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 13TH

TRAVEL DAY

​

We slept amazingly well last night, I only woke once and sat up to watch the airport that remains a busy little place during the night, but after 5 minutes or so I got back to sleep, I think it was around 2.30am, so I did worry I`d be awake for ages, but next thing I remembered was the first alarm which was the alarm call, so everything else was switched off. We were awake.

Tom wished me a happy birthday first, I already had my main gift from him as it was a new watch, the ones that tell you more than you need to know about yourself health wise!!! And this one is sarcastic, it says things like.....now you have rested for a time, maybe consider going to do some yoga or something similar!!!!

​

I don`t bliddy well think so!!! But, that aside, it`s a better one than I had before and it is nice to know how many steps we`d take every day, which turned out to be less than we thought lol....but we didn`t do a whole lot this trip to be fair!!

I had brought my own shower gel and shampoo/conditioner so looked that out and I got showered first then did my hair as Tom had his shower, meanwhile my phone was going constantly with birthday wishes, ironically no message from my mum lol.....but to be fair, she assumed I don`t take my phone with me which is usually correct, we tend to use Tom`s as his contract is different from mine for some reason.

He can use his phone in the States with no extra charge, if I use mine it costs and arm and a leg, but I will take it and use it for the camera and use local wifi. I just won`t use it for calls or txts, i can receive txts for free, just not send them while I`m in America.

The hotel restaurant offers an amazing buffet breakfast, but at this time of the morning it would be just too much so we plan to eat something in the airport.

The lounge offers a few items for almost a grab and go style breakfast, but they weren`t the freshest last trip when we had a look in, so Tom just went down to take some pictures of the offerings before we left for the terminal.

He came back in as I was putting the last of our toiletries in the cases, we only had three but they are large ones, even so we thought we had done ok weight wise, we gave them a last check and they were all under 23kg, but just to be sure we popped them on the hotel scales which they told us were calibrated often and yet again on them, we were under weight with them.

You exit the Radisson and can go one of two ways in the Skywalk, today as usual we were turning left for T2, but my goodness the work that is going on here is crazy, none of the moving walkways are working and when we got to the terminal, we had to turn left, go outside, turn left again and walk a little distance and come back in another door......ahem, it was cold this morning and we are dressed for Orlando!!!! But, we got back in and turned right for the VA check in desk and bag drop.

Lovely young lady took our bags and told us two out of three were overweight....er, no they`re not. She didn`t say anything when we said they absolutely weren`t overweight and they went through ok.

Got our boarding cards and we headed over to security, we had the Fast Trax which only costs a few pounds, we didn`t need it in this area as there was no one there, but through the other side the lines can be long, so we wandered straight to the front which was nice.

No alarm bells rang for either of us and we didn`t have to take shoes off as there was a new gadget to pop your feet in if you have a wedge for example, much more civilised than wandering about a dirty floor with bare feet.

It can be stressful here, with Officers having to be clear to folks what they have to remove and what they have to keep inside the bags, so it can get a little manic, and loud, today wasn`t too bad and we got through very quickly.

We were both ready for a cup of tea and a bacon roll now, so we headed straight for the place we have gone to a couple of times before, it`s decent and not too busy.

We got a table by the window and Tom went up to the bar to order us a pot of tea each and a bacon roll, then we sat back and relaxed now we were through the security areas that can be stressful even if it`s too busy.

The airport really is going through a massive regeneration and it does look a mess right now.

We also hoped the VA plane sitting in the middle of the nowhere was our flight either!!! Getting bussed out to planes is never fun.

Someone is very happy

Tom got our rolls and the teapots each only had one teabag in them, so they would be incredibly weak, I had taken some from the lounge so we added two to each pot so it would at least have some strength to it, but it was decent.

Bacon rolls were nice and enough to eat right now as we do get food on the plane later.

Sometimes we book the Executive Lounge in the airport, but we find it is now too busy compared to what it used to be and you can only stay in it for around a couple of hours, so not really worth it for us anymore.

A couple came and sat at the table next to us and very excitedly told us and anyone else who was listening their plane was about to take off when they returned to the gate, one of the tyres had a puncture!!! crikey, you don`t hear that often!! They were going to Greece and had no idea when they would take off again. Horrible to hear something like that, I hope they got off again soon.

We passed some time here, I replied to emails and txts then we went to buy some water and hand wipes, it`s just handy having a bottle in the bag beside us on the plane, saves getting up if we`re comfy and headed down to watch the boarding screen waiting to see where our gate was, although we could guess!!

Yep, we were sitting in the shiny new part of the terminal which is bright, light, spacious and airy, we saw on the screen we were departing from gate 204 which is way back in the old part of the terminal and a 3 mile camel ride back there to what looked like it belonged in the 1980`s, dark and cold, very cold this morning as there is not a drop of heating on that side now!! Joy.

We get there almost first and take a seat, ground crew all have on warm clothes, they have the right idea!! It was just after 9am and we were supposed to start boarding at 9.45, so not too long to wait.....or so we thought. Usually they ask for strollers and so on first, but nothing and we couldn`t see any CC waiting to get on the plane which is unusual.

10.10 they announce there is a delay boarding for Operational Reasons, I asked Tom if there was actually a plane sitting outside at this point, he laughed and said yes there was, but no sign of any boarding yet. 10.30, same announcement, and again at 10.45, this did not feel good right now, it also didn`t help we were all freezing!!

Finally just after 11am when we should have been taking off, they began boarding wheelchair pax and anyone who needed assistance, well at least we were boarding. Turns out the pilot had got stuck in traffic, that was the delay.

Upper Class are boarding group 1, then we are 2, they ask folks who are not in those groups to stay clear, but I`m not sure folks understand that for some reason as we still have to say excuse me a dozen times to get through folks who are nowhere near boarding, the lady behind me very clearly yells her way through which did make me laugh as they did move out of her way!

It was passports today and not facial recognition but within a few moments were greeting CC and getting to where our seats were, not our usual back row but they were still good seats and two windows which is nice.

We get our bags put away above us, I keep out the camera and my glasses or I won`t be able to read anything and get settled down, I have the window seat as is usual and we have loads of room with these seats and they are extra wide too which is nice for those of us with extra padding!!

These flights didn`t cost us anything which makes them even sweeter being honest. Way back in May 2023 when we came back home they had oversold the flight and asked if we would fly back economy (the horror ) and as a thank you, we would get three free return flights in Premium valid for three years, so we decided to do it and we still have one return set to use in the future as Kyle has no plans to come back to America anytime soon and there is no charge to transfer the name on his flights for us to use, win win!

Before we take off and folks are still boarding to the back of the plane we get our glass of fizzy....now we`re on vacation!!!

Obligatory fizzy picture!!

We glance at the menu they offer us, we already know what we`re having as we had pre-ordered about a week ago, I think Premium and Upper Class get to do that, saves being left with the veg option neither of us want, but nice to glance through it anyway.

We head for the runway and we both love flying and do look forward to the flights, always love the take off and landing, but I have it in my head today about the plane with the puncture earlier, but very happy when we do start trundling at high speed down that runway and we have the smoothest take off. This is always where I miss the jumbo for the four engines, that take off was always immense!! But, at just after midday we were up in the air.

Our view before we turn and start to head out to sea. Our pilot says we`ll make up time and should land before 4pm with a flying time of around 8hrs 40 minutes, not too bad at all.

I love the Skymap!!! Gives you so much info when you start to search instead of just hitting the main screens and it`s nice to know roughly where you are in the world.

As soon as we level off and get above that awful UK grey cloud, the seat belt sign goes off and CC come round with the first drinks service of the flight, Tom gets a beer and I get the red wine, wine in a can is still something to behold to be honest!! But, it`s not awful and passes some time as well as the little snack they offer which I`m sure is dairy free, nut free, lactose free, gluten free and completely taste free too, but again it`s something to do.

We get the movies going in the screen in front of us now and there are thousands, but how many you`ll actually watch is another story, loads of foreign language films which just don`t interest me at all, but something for most folks.

I chose Abigail which I had read was a scary one and very good, so I popped that on while Tom chose a superhero of some kind of movie which I don`t watch generally unless Robert Downey Jr is in it

The food comes round about an hour and a bit into the flight, Tom and I had both pre ordered the breaded chicken with a garlic sauce, so no surprises today. We also get another drink with the meal and again I went for wine and Tom had a water as he was driving at the other end of the flight.

Granted, it doesn`t look amazing......but it was quite decent and tasty too and the dessert and cheese were very nice too and followed by a mug of tea which was just ok, but it is nice it`s in a mug and not a plastic cup.

We had taken a weird turn, second one actually, instead of going straight over Ireland as we usually do we had headed South a little and then turned sharply upwards, but we guessed he was avoiding weather.

I wasn`t sleepy yet, but wanted to sleep so on the drinks service I did have another wine and Tom grabbed a snack from the Wander wall for later, this should work.

I finished watching Abigail which was complete and utter rubbish!!! Honestly, utter nonsense ending, they could have made it a very sinister movie and a decent movie, but will never watch that one again!!

At this point, I wanted to sleep, they had promised me some turbulence later.....

​

I like turbulence and have been known to sleep through the worst turbulence known to man at times!! It kinda lulls you to sleep, well for me anyway. Tom has watched me sleep and wonders how on earth I can do it as the plane shudders it`s way usually across the Atlantic.
I pulled the blanket over me, got the neck pillow and the eye mask, I reclined as the lady behind me had reclined too, man in front of me didn`t recline so I had loads of extra room, blinds were already down because of the sun anyway and about now they did dim the cabin lights, ideal for sleepy time!

And sleep we did, there was a little turbulence, but nothing worth speaking of. I woke first to see Tom still out for the count.....and we were up and over Canada, usually we go straight along the Eastern Seaboard but not today.

It was a little misty out there, but the views were incredible as we passed over that vast area with nothing for what looked like forever.

We both use the bathroom and come back to our seats and I put on the newish Bad Boys movie, it was really good! Not really a Will Smith fan, but do enjoy some of his movies and it passed some more time too. We had some water and by now both of us were getting a little antsy to land, it was long enough now!!

With just over 90 minutes to go they bring round afternoon tea, I don`t think anyone is really hungry, but it`s something to do and refreshes everyone up as by now you can feel the lag in the cabin from everyone.

To the side of us in the middle four seats we had a young couple with two very young children, one was a baby and the older boy was maybe not quite two yet. They were a dream, the parents kept them amused and apart from now when the older little boy was starting to get tired and probably bored we never heard a peep from them and they were the only children in the Premium cabin today.

I think we all sympathised with the little un, it`s a long flight and we all just want to get there, he didn`t cry for long and promptly fell asleep again.

Afternoon tea was lovely, turmeric bread with chicken, parsley and Arugula filling, mini quiche and a tiny crayfish muffin followed by a scone with jam and clotted cream and of course a cup of tea in a proper mug.

You did have two options for afternoon tea which was nice.

There is a spark from everyone on the aircraft as we get closer to Orlando, you can feel it, folks who have been tired suddenly come to life with the expectation of our imminent landing and at this point, you don`t even feel as though you`ve been in air for so long.

We can see we are heading past Orlando and momentarily wonder if we`re landing in Tampa as the Capt had mentioned weather, but we again, do a sharp turn and head inland, we had never come in this far down before, but before too long we were getting very low and the airport was right in front of us and then we were down, bit of a rougher landing than usual, but we landed and stopped, that`s all you can ask!! We landed at 3.48pm, as promised by the pilot.

We felt as though we were driving from Tampa the time it took us to get to the gate, I think we were in the back of beyond runway today, but we could see the gate waiting for us and it was a welcome sight.
People criticise everyone for getting up as soon as the seatbelt sign goes off, but when your butt has been pressed for so long, you want to stand up, so we did and got the bags down awaiting the airbridge moving towards us.

Everyone was chatting and then we all started to look out the windows on the other side of the plane and one man beside us had his screen to plane camera and was watching them struggle with something.....turns out the airbridge wasn`t moving at all!

​

Yep, some smarty pants did actually say it was Friday the 13th and that`s why it wasn`t moving....doh!!!

The pilot kept us updated, but we could see, that thing was going nowhere fast! The poor guys were trying everything they could and eventually there was a lot of scratching of heads and no one looked quite sure what to do and by now 25 minutes had passed, that early landing didn`t matter now but as if by magic, it did slowly start to shudder towards us, but nowhere near the plane door it had to cover. Double Doh!!!

By this point we were all saying just open the doors and we`ll jump, but all of a sudden they got it clamped to the door and although no one cheered out loud there was a resounding sigh of relief. One of the CC said it wasn`t as simple as just moving to another stand as one would think, it would take a long time and not what anyone wanted, so this airbridge was indeed a welcome sight!!

With renewed energy we began to disembark the aircraft ready for this vacation to begin....finally!!!!

​

 

[SCDizFan]

This is one of our favourite times as the whole trip is all in front of us.

I know that feeling! Ours is when we get one the AirTrain to take us from Fort Lauderdale right into the Miami Airport!

We made another cuppa and watched as the foul weather rolled in and I do love it when it`s horrible outside and we`re inside warm and cosy. Not the clearest of pictures but that rain was torrential! ​

That is one of my most favorite things to do! We have just headed into dry season so the rains will probably stop for some time.

I love your reports! They are so detailed and fun and thank you for taking the time to write them!

It also gets me excited for my own trip abroad. Unfortunately it doesn't look like we will get to fly Virgin this trip as they do not have direct flights from Miami to Paris.

I also love that photo of the Nice wine! I have quite a few of my own of the Sauvignon Blanc!

 

[schumigirl]

I know that feeling! Ours is when we get one the AirTrain to take us from Fort Lauderdale right into the Miami Airport!

That is one of my most favorite things to do! We have just headed into dry season so the rains will probably stop for some time.

I love your reports! They are so detailed and fun and thank you for taking the time to write them!

It also gets me excited for my own trip abroad. Unfortunately it doesn't look like we will get to fly Virgin this trip as they do not have direct flights from Miami to Paris.

I also love that photo of the Nice wine! I have quite a few of my own of the Sauvignon Blanc!

It`s the best feeling with everything ahead of you!!

Oh that`s a shame they don`t fly direct there, when is your next trip to Paris?

I agree though, they will always be our first choice to fly anywhere if possible. Everyone thinks it`s funny with the "Nice" wine and the fact it`s in a can, but, it`s fine, we don`t go on there expecting what we would normally drink.

Thank you, I`m always glad when folks enjoy the reports, it`s always a pleasure to read and reply to comments and it`s very much appreciated!!!

 

[schumigirl]

FRIDAY 13TH CONTINUED.



With the airbridge secured, we thanked CC and headed off down to Immigration and because of the delay another flight had appeared so the general lines would be a little longer than usual, but having Global Entry we had no worries as we are through in seconds usually. And we were glad of it looking at the regular lines!

Today was no different, we looked at a screen, went to an Officer who was very pleasant, answered the food question that we had British chocolate, cookies and Scottish Gin which always raises an eyebrow or two, and then waved through with Welcome to the United States.

Even better with the delay most of the luggage had been removed from the plane and most had been lined up to the side of the carousel due to the sheer amount coming off minus passengers picking them up. I went to the bathroom to freshen up and when I came back he had all of our cases, so we headed off and up to the fake monorail which is a welcome sight indeed and we are heading to the main terminal in a flash.

These suitcases may be under 23kg but we feel as if we`re dragging 10 times that amount! We don`t stop to admire the central area and head down to where the car rental area is, this is going to be fun.

We first picked up our Visitor Toll Pass before going anywhere, that is so easy to do and we can add the car reg once we get the car. This is fabulous as we can just drive through any sunpass or toll road with no charges, works for us.

For the first time we were using Sixt, never considered them before as they were off airport, but several folks we knew had used them since they moved onto airport, but they are not in the main area where all the usual suspects are, so it was a bit of a hike, down in an elevator, walk to the left, find a moving escalator, turn left, go up, find another elevator and then I was lost!!! And all this lugging these cases in the heat, it was rather warm I`m sure you won`t be surprised to hear, but eventually we found it.

A rather lovely young lady told us which car we had, er no thanks to that one, I forget what it was but we didn`t want it, so she said she had a Chevy Trailblazer, we could have that if we wanted, so looked it over and said yep, that`ll work. Could it be this easy????

The car was immaculately clean, smelled very fresh and was filled with fuel, can`t ask for more. A very nice young man helped us put the rear seats down so we could get all our luggage in and then we set off out the garage and headed for home.

The roads are so wonderfully familiar and we feel no strangeness as we enter what seems to be like entering the Hell on earth death zone tonight!!! Within the first few moments, three cars rather violently cut us up and then we had a car in front of us just stop on a penny, no warning in the slightest, luckily Tom managed to swerve and there was nothing either side of us at that point. Heck!!!

But, after that it was plain sailing and we turned up Universal Blvd and passed all the usual landmarks, but we did get a little surprise to see the Epic additions, even though you see it on all the sites, it`s nothing like seeing it live for the first time, even though it`s not done yet!!!

Traffic was against us and we stopped at every light today, always the way when you just want to get where you`re going, but we turned into RPR parking lot before we knew it and it is such a lovely feeling!

Tom had sent M a message when we were leaving the airport as she had asked roughly what time we were arriving, and I didn`t see them as we turned to go over the bridge, but they were talking to someone while watching for us and suddenly M appeared in front of us, what a lovely surprise and I got a shock too which was funny as I was marching on like a galleon in full sail, but always a pleasure to see them both, lovely ladies!!!

They took us straight up to our suite and had our keys with them, I did think it was so kind of them to come up with us and when we went in I knew why.....

My birthday had been remembered

What a lovely surprise!!! ​

The suite itself is very familiar too, we do like this one and enjoy the quiet if we fancy an afternoon snooze as the pool view can get rather loud at times, but we`d be happy with the pool view too. The rooms are always immaculately clean and not a thing out of place.​

I always remember one woman asking how we could suffer being so close to the elevators when we are trying to sleep in that room....I don`t think she realised it was a King Suite and it had a separate bedroom, we told her once that door is closed you never hear a sound from the corridors and it`s true, you really don`t hear a thing. ​

We had a good catch up with both ladies, so much had changed since we were last here in December and of course one subject was Helios and how many staff were going to be moving there, some surprised us and some didn`t but should be a good move for most, opening a new hotel is something most staff want to do.

And of course hearing the latest news on Epic too was very interesting!!

We could have chatted all night to both ladies, but we`d catch up with them soon for dinner and throughout our trip which is always lovely.

First thing we did was unpack and shower, which didn`t take too long as I had kept most items on a hanger so it was just a case of hanging everything straight in the closets. I tend to completely overtake the bedroom closet, Tom happily uses the other one.

We head down to the lounge to get some tea and the lovely Trish greets us tonight, it`s so nice to see another familiar face, we have a quick catch up and head back down to the room where we begin to enjoy our lovely treats!! ​

M took this picture and sent it to me afterwards, we were so grateful to her for everything.

I set out all the cards I had to open, I was glad I had brought them now, then we sat down and I sent Kyle a quick email to let him know we had arrived and settled, we`d chat to him at some point. We put the tv on and happily Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone was on which is my favourite of the Potter movies and dinner tonight was the fruit and cheese plate, birthday cake and the bottle of bubbly!!!

Not a bad first night dinner.

The movie kept us awake till around 10pm, maybe just a little later than that, by then our eyes were physically closing without our permission! So, off to bed and we did leave the drapes open a little tonight.

As I drifted off I was thinking what a lovely birthday this had been.

This just felt so lovely!!




​

 

[kbelle8995]

What a beautiful cake! I love Royal Pacific. I also love the express check out box at your airport hotel. So cool.

 

[disneyseniors]

Sounds like a wonderful birthday greeting at RPR And a deserved rest after that horrible traffic from MCO. That's why we hate driving in Orlando, most of the time.
Roger's favorite HP movie is the same one as yours, except we call it HP and the Sorcerer's Stone.
Lovely way to start your trip!

 

[schumigirl]

A little break from normal service for something rather different from me

WDW pics. But, they are from way back in 07/08 time period when there really was no one around in September.

I hade been telling Ruth about the empty Splash Mountain and how we had gone round about 6 or 7 times in a row without getting off one day, there was no one waiting and the CM just kept us on, it was fun!!

And we met a couple on vacation who we met in the Club Lounge, I think his name was David and I forget his wife`s name and they have only ever known Disney for the last two or three years and I`m sure they didn`t believe us when we were talking of those times.

So, for Ruth @disneyseniors who I promised to post them for and for David and wife who doubted it, politely of course!!!

One of my favourite early pictures of Kyle, this was our first time on Splash Mountain, he loved it!!

Apart from the vivid pink shirt, I love this picture below, I forget what time of day it was but maybe before the 3pm parade at some point, but there was hardly a soul around.

The reason for the shirt was, we were having lunch and got some food from another guest spilled over the top I had on. A very lovely manager sent one of the CM`s to the nearest store and came back with the shirt for me to change into as I tried to clean the one I had on as best I could.

Incredibly nice of them, I made sure we stopped by guest services on the way out to make sure they were recognised for going above and beyond.

Now back to normal service with UOR!!

 

[schumigirl]

What a beautiful cake! I love Royal Pacific. I also love the express check out box at your airport hotel. So cool.

That cake was lovely! So fresh and the icing was perfect, it lasted us a good few days.

Yes, it is very cute, very British lol....

 

[schumigirl]

Sounds like a wonderful birthday greeting at RPR And a deserved rest after that horrible traffic from MCO. That's why we hate driving in Orlando, most of the time.
Roger's favorite HP movie is the same one as yours, except we call it HP and the Sorcerer's Stone.
Lovely way to start your trip!

It really was and such a surprise and yes, a lovely start to the stay.

Funny thing is, we love driving over there, but when you`re tired and just off a long flight, it`s the last thing you want to be dealing with!

Yes, they changed the name to Sorcerers Stone for the American market for some reason, I do prefer Philosopher over Sorcerer for the title

 

[kbelle8995]

That cake was lovely! So fresh and the icing was perfect, it lasted us a good few days.

Yes, it is very cute, very British lol....

I watch a gentleman on YouTube called JoolzGuide. He walks around areas of London and talk about it's history. He Picks out what monarch initials are on the mail boxes. That's probably why I noticed that picture. Ours are so modern and BLah.

 

[schumigirl]

I watch a gentleman on YouTube called JoolzGuide. He walks around areas of London and talk about it's history. He Picks out what monarch initials are on the mail boxes. That's probably why I noticed that picture. Ours are so modern and BLah.

Yes, our post boxes are quite historical and not boring at all.

Hope they don`t get rid of them the way they have with the old traditional phone boxes, we all miss seeing them on the streets of all our towns and villages, but no one used them anymore and sadly letters are going that way too.

 

[jump00]

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 13TH

TRAVEL DAY

​

We slept amazingly well last night, I only woke once and sat up to watch the airport that remains a busy little place during the night, but after 5 minutes or so I got back to sleep, I think it was around 2.30am, so I did worry I`d be awake for ages, but next thing I remembered was the first alarm which was the alarm call, so everything else was switched off. We were awake.

Tom wished me a happy birthday first, I already had my main gift from him as it was a new watch, the ones that tell you more than you need to know about yourself health wise!!! And this one is sarcastic, it says things like.....now you have rested for a time, maybe consider going to do some yoga or something similar!!!!

​

I don`t bliddy well think so!!! But, that aside, it`s a better one than I had before and it is nice to know how many steps we`d take every day, which turned out to be less than we thought lol....but we didn`t do a whole lot this trip to be fair!!

I had brought my own shower gel and shampoo/conditioner so looked that out and I got showered first then did my hair as Tom had his shower, meanwhile my phone was going constantly with birthday wishes, ironically no message from my mum lol.....but to be fair, she assumed I don`t take my phone with me which is usually correct, we tend to use Tom`s as his contract is different from mine for some reason.

He can use his phone in the States with no extra charge, if I use mine it costs and arm and a leg, but I will take it and use it for the camera and use local wifi. I just won`t use it for calls or txts, i can receive txts for free, just not send them while I`m in America.

The hotel restaurant offers an amazing buffet breakfast, but at this time of the morning it would be just too much so we plan to eat something in the airport.

The lounge offers a few items for almost a grab and go style breakfast, but they weren`t the freshest last trip when we had a look in, so Tom just went down to take some pictures of the offerings before we left for the terminal.

He came back in as I was putting the last of our toiletries in the cases, we only had three but they are large ones, even so we thought we had done ok weight wise, we gave them a last check and they were all under 23kg, but just to be sure we popped them on the hotel scales which they told us were calibrated often and yet again on them, we were under weight with them.

You exit the Radisson and can go one of two ways in the Skywalk, today as usual we were turning left for T2, but my goodness the work that is going on here is crazy, none of the moving walkways are working and when we got to the terminal, we had to turn left, go outside, turn left again and walk a little distance and come back in another door......ahem, it was cold this morning and we are dressed for Orlando!!!! But, we got back in and turned right for the VA check in desk and bag drop.

Lovely young lady took our bags and told us two out of three were overweight....er, no they`re not. She didn`t say anything when we said they absolutely weren`t overweight and they went through ok.

Got our boarding cards and we headed over to security, we had the Fast Trax which only costs a few pounds, we didn`t need it in this area as there was no one there, but through the other side the lines can be long, so we wandered straight to the front which was nice.

No alarm bells rang for either of us and we didn`t have to take shoes off as there was a new gadget to pop your feet in if you have a wedge for example, much more civilised than wandering about a dirty floor with bare feet.

It can be stressful here, with Officers having to be clear to folks what they have to remove and what they have to keep inside the bags, so it can get a little manic, and loud, today wasn`t too bad and we got through very quickly.

We were both ready for a cup of tea and a bacon roll now, so we headed straight for the place we have gone to a couple of times before, it`s decent and not too busy.

We got a table by the window and Tom went up to the bar to order us a pot of tea each and a bacon roll, then we sat back and relaxed now we were through the security areas that can be stressful even if it`s too busy.

The airport really is going through a massive regeneration and it does look a mess right now.

We also hoped the VA plane sitting in the middle of the nowhere was our flight either!!! Getting bussed out to planes is never fun.

Someone is very happy

Tom got our rolls and the teapots each only had one teabag in them, so they would be incredibly weak, I had taken some from the lounge so we added two to each pot so it would at least have some strength to it, but it was decent.

Bacon rolls were nice and enough to eat right now as we do get food on the plane later.

Sometimes we book the Executive Lounge in the airport, but we find it is now too busy compared to what it used to be and you can only stay in it for around a couple of hours, so not really worth it for us anymore.

A couple came and sat at the table next to us and very excitedly told us and anyone else who was listening their plane was about to take off when they returned to the gate, one of the tyres had a puncture!!! crikey, you don`t hear that often!! They were going to Greece and had no idea when they would take off again. Horrible to hear something like that, I hope they got off again soon.

We passed some time here, I replied to emails and txts then we went to buy some water and hand wipes, it`s just handy having a bottle in the bag beside us on the plane, saves getting up if we`re comfy and headed down to watch the boarding screen waiting to see where our gate was, although we could guess!!

Yep, we were sitting in the shiny new part of the terminal which is bright, light, spacious and airy, we saw on the screen we were departing from gate 204 which is way back in the old part of the terminal and a 3 mile camel ride back there to what looked like it belonged in the 1980`s, dark and cold, very cold this morning as there is not a drop of heating on that side now!! Joy.

We get there almost first and take a seat, ground crew all have on warm clothes, they have the right idea!! It was just after 9am and we were supposed to start boarding at 9.45, so not too long to wait.....or so we thought. Usually they ask for strollers and so on first, but nothing and we couldn`t see any CC waiting to get on the plane which is unusual.

10.10 they announce there is a delay boarding for Operational Reasons, I asked Tom if there was actually a plane sitting outside at this point, he laughed and said yes there was, but no sign of any boarding yet. 10.30, same announcement, and again at 10.45, this did not feel good right now, it also didn`t help we were all freezing!!

Finally just after 11am when we should have been taking off, they began boarding wheelchair pax and anyone who needed assistance, well at least we were boarding. Turns out the pilot had got stuck in traffic, that was the delay.

Upper Class are boarding group 1, then we are 2, they ask folks who are not in those groups to stay clear, but I`m not sure folks understand that for some reason as we still have to say excuse me a dozen times to get through folks who are nowhere near boarding, the lady behind me very clearly yells her way through which did make me laugh as they did move out of her way!

It was passports today and not facial recognition but within a few moments were greeting CC and getting to where our seats were, not our usual back row but they were still good seats and two windows which is nice.

We get our bags put away above us, I keep out the camera and my glasses or I won`t be able to read anything and get settled down, I have the window seat as is usual and we have loads of room with these seats and they are extra wide too which is nice for those of us with extra padding!!

These flights didn`t cost us anything which makes them even sweeter being honest. Way back in May 2023 when we came back home they had oversold the flight and asked if we would fly back economy (the horror ) and as a thank you, we would get three free return flights in Premium valid for three years, so we decided to do it and we still have one return set to use in the future as Kyle has no plans to come back to America anytime soon and there is no charge to transfer the name on his flights for us to use, win win!

Before we take off and folks are still boarding to the back of the plane we get our glass of fizzy....now we`re on vacation!!!

Obligatory fizzy picture!!

We glance at the menu they offer us, we already know what we`re having as we had pre-ordered about a week ago, I think Premium and Upper Class get to do that, saves being left with the veg option neither of us want, but nice to glance through it anyway.

We head for the runway and we both love flying and do look forward to the flights, always love the take off and landing, but I have it in my head today about the plane with the puncture earlier, but very happy when we do start trundling at high speed down that runway and we have the smoothest take off. This is always where I miss the jumbo for the four engines, that take off was always immense!! But, at just after midday we were up in the air.

Our view before we turn and start to head out to sea. Our pilot says we`ll make up time and should land before 4pm with a flying time of around 8hrs 40 minutes, not too bad at all.

I love the Skymap!!! Gives you so much info when you start to search instead of just hitting the main screens and it`s nice to know roughly where you are in the world.

As soon as we level off and get above that awful UK grey cloud, the seat belt sign goes off and CC come round with the first drinks service of the flight, Tom gets a beer and I get the red wine, wine in a can is still something to behold to be honest!! But, it`s not awful and passes some time as well as the little snack they offer which I`m sure is dairy free, nut free, lactose free, gluten free and completely taste free too, but again it`s something to do.

We get the movies going in the screen in front of us now and there are thousands, but how many you`ll actually watch is another story, loads of foreign language films which just don`t interest me at all, but something for most folks.

I chose Abigail which I had read was a scary one and very good, so I popped that on while Tom chose a superhero of some kind of movie which I don`t watch generally unless Robert Downey Jr is in it

The food comes round about an hour and a bit into the flight, Tom and I had both pre ordered the breaded chicken with a garlic sauce, so no surprises today. We also get another drink with the meal and again I went for wine and Tom had a water as he was driving at the other end of the flight.

Granted, it doesn`t look amazing......but it was quite decent and tasty too and the dessert and cheese were very nice too and followed by a mug of tea which was just ok, but it is nice it`s in a mug and not a plastic cup.

We had taken a weird turn, second one actually, instead of going straight over Ireland as we usually do we had headed South a little and then turned sharply upwards, but we guessed he was avoiding weather.

I wasn`t sleepy yet, but wanted to sleep so on the drinks service I did have another wine and Tom grabbed a snack from the Wander wall for later, this should work.

I finished watching Abigail which was complete and utter rubbish!!! Honestly, utter nonsense ending, they could have made it a very sinister movie and a decent movie, but will never watch that one again!!

At this point, I wanted to sleep, they had promised me some turbulence later.....

​

I like turbulence and have been known to sleep through the worst turbulence known to man at times!! It kinda lulls you to sleep, well for me anyway. Tom has watched me sleep and wonders how on earth I can do it as the plane shudders it`s way usually across the Atlantic.
I pulled the blanket over me, got the neck pillow and the eye mask, I reclined as the lady behind me had reclined too, man in front of me didn`t recline so I had loads of extra room, blinds were already down because of the sun anyway and about now they did dim the cabin lights, ideal for sleepy time!

And sleep we did, there was a little turbulence, but nothing worth speaking of. I woke first to see Tom still out for the count.....and we were up and over Canada, usually we go straight along the Eastern Seaboard but not today.

It was a little misty out there, but the views were incredible as we passed over that vast area with nothing for what looked like forever.

We both use the bathroom and come back to our seats and I put on the newish Bad Boys movie, it was really good! Not really a Will Smith fan, but do enjoy some of his movies and it passed some more time too. We had some water and by now both of us were getting a little antsy to land, it was long enough now!!

With just over 90 minutes to go they bring round afternoon tea, I don`t think anyone is really hungry, but it`s something to do and refreshes everyone up as by now you can feel the lag in the cabin from everyone.

To the side of us in the middle four seats we had a young couple with two very young children, one was a baby and the older boy was maybe not quite two yet. They were a dream, the parents kept them amused and apart from now when the older little boy was starting to get tired and probably bored we never heard a peep from them and they were the only children in the Premium cabin today.

I think we all sympathised with the little un, it`s a long flight and we all just want to get there, he didn`t cry for long and promptly fell asleep again.

Afternoon tea was lovely, turmeric bread with chicken, parsley and Arugula filling, mini quiche and a tiny crayfish muffin followed by a scone with jam and clotted cream and of course a cup of tea in a proper mug.

You did have two options for afternoon tea which was nice.

There is a spark from everyone on the aircraft as we get closer to Orlando, you can feel it, folks who have been tired suddenly come to life with the expectation of our imminent landing and at this point, you don`t even feel as though you`ve been in air for so long.

We can see we are heading past Orlando and momentarily wonder if we`re landing in Tampa as the Capt had mentioned weather, but we again, do a sharp turn and head inland, we had never come in this far down before, but before too long we were getting very low and the airport was right in front of us and then we were down, bit of a rougher landing than usual, but we landed and stopped, that`s all you can ask!! We landed at 3.48pm, as promised by the pilot.

We felt as though we were driving from Tampa the time it took us to get to the gate, I think we were in the back of beyond runway today, but we could see the gate waiting for us and it was a welcome sight.
People criticise everyone for getting up as soon as the seatbelt sign goes off, but when your butt has been pressed for so long, you want to stand up, so we did and got the bags down awaiting the airbridge moving towards us.

Everyone was chatting and then we all started to look out the windows on the other side of the plane and one man beside us had his screen to plane camera and was watching them struggle with something.....turns out the airbridge wasn`t moving at all!

​

Yep, some smarty pants did actually say it was Friday the 13th and that`s why it wasn`t moving....doh!!!

The pilot kept us updated, but we could see, that thing was going nowhere fast! The poor guys were trying everything they could and eventually there was a lot of scratching of heads and no one looked quite sure what to do and by now 25 minutes had passed, that early landing didn`t matter now but as if by magic, it did slowly start to shudder towards us, but nowhere near the plane door it had to cover. Double Doh!!!

By this point we were all saying just open the doors and we`ll jump, but all of a sudden they got it clamped to the door and although no one cheered out loud there was a resounding sigh of relief. One of the CC said it wasn`t as simple as just moving to another stand as one would think, it would take a long time and not what anyone wanted, so this airbridge was indeed a welcome sight!!

With renewed energy we began to disembark the aircraft ready for this vacation to begin....finally!!!!

View attachment 903904​

Hi Carole!
Love the airplane pics. Seats look so comfortable. Gareth and I swore we are going premium next trip to Europe. Showed him your seats on VA! Very nice. . Thanks for including the menus …… your chicken dish did look yummy.
Reading along
Brenda

 

[schumigirl]

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 14TH



It`s funny how you can be absolutely shattered going to bed, but wake bright as a button at 2.30am and can`t get back to sleep! Yep, that was me and while Tom happily slept I decided to get up and go through to the sitting room and read a book I had brought with me so as not to disturb him. I got quite comfy on that sofa and must have eventually dropped off to sleep as I woke up later and I was frozen to the core!!!

I knew someone who would be boiling hot and I hoped my ice like presence wouldn`t waken him as I got back into bed......lol.....









I failed!!!!

He woke with a start and may have uttered something rather insulting!!!! oops.

Neither of us really got back to sleep after that, we chatted and eventually it was time to get up and I enjoyed another shower first, the showers in RP have fabulous water pressure and is perfect for waking us up.

It does take a few days before we feel we have settled into this time zone, a good sleep usually helps, but hopefully if we have a good sleep tonight, we`d be back to normal tomorrow.

We head down for breakfast to the lounge and it is so lovely to see a couple of familiar faces again that we knew from the last trip and again some new faces to get to know. We were chatting to one girl and she said she knew us from the picture hanging up of us in the kitchen from a couple of years ago and I mentioned how much we missed some of those in it, she told me matter of factly that Daniel was back as a supervisor!!! My words were, Our Daniel......she said yes, that`s the one. We were over the moon to hear that as we had missed him.

Breakfast was lovely, we didn`t have a lot as we weren`t overly hungry but we were over the moon when Daniel appeared, one of the girls had called him to say we were in the lounge and came straight up!!! He is just so lovely and it was good to catch up with him, he had been part of the wonderful team up here in May/Sept 2022. It was good to see how well he had been doing and he is so funny!!!

After we have a catch up we head downstairs to get a lock box from behind the front desk, doesn`t take long and I make an off the cuff comment about getting my Tiffany bangle out of it later. Tom visibly pales and said Carole it`s not in there! We have a ziplock bag where we keep stuff and usually pop it in there till I take it out to wear it, and if it wasn`t there......panic!!

We go back upstairs to check everywhere, luggage, bags, drawers the lot and it was nowhere to be found! I felt sick at this point and remembered last seeing it when I took it off in the Radisson and was convinced then I hadn`t put it in the little bag, but after that I wasn`t sure, I was now thinking it had been left there and my fault.

I immediately sent Kyle an email asking him to call the Radisson giving him our room number and got him to ask if it had been found, then I began to wonder if it had accidentally gone in the suitcase and somehow got lost there......but we came to the conclusion we would have to claim off the insurance as it was deemed lost in our minds. I was so upset about it at this point I didn`t want to do anything or go anywhere, this would cast a shadow over our trip even if we didn`t want it to.

We went back down to the lobby and we were chatting to some of the lovely folks we know and Tom said he`d be back in a minute, he went back into the lock box to check it all again and I knew he was doing it while I was chatting so I was kind of distracted, but eventually he came back out with the bangle in hand.....I saw that lovely turquoise blue colour and immediately burst into tears!!! The relief of knowing it was there all the time. Tom had popped it inside another little bag and forgot, so hadn`t seen it earlier when he looked.










This kind of drama we could do without!!!

Came back upstairs, put the bangle in the safe and sent Kyle another email saying we had found it, he said Radisson had told him nothing had been handed in and to let them know if we found it, so he said he would call them back and let them know and apologise. Told Kyle we would chat later today when we came back in.

We had hoped we might have a chance to arrange a meet with Caroline (DisneyAndi) but this morning just got away with us and time wise it didn`t work out, she was leaving today so we had missed out there, maybe one day our dates will align and we can meet up finally.

Now, we could go and have lunch somewhere.....our stomachs were no longer churning, so Tom suggested Beth`s Burger`s, we hadn`t gone for a while and always enjoyed it, so we set off to head outside forgetting for a moment it was September, till we walked through the doors.....

Holy Moly!!!! We forgot just how it is this time of year, and I had promised to never utter the words "I`m too hot" as I had spent all year complaining I was too cold, so I changed it slightly to the words...it`s just hot enough isn`t it, that sounds better than whining it`s too hot.

But it was Hotter than Hades and we were loving it.

The drive down to Beth`s Burgers takes us past the new hotels and you can see a little of the stuff that`s been built in the new park, we`d try to snatch some pics on the way back up and we commented how busy this road was going to get, it was always so quiet up till now. It`s similar to Turkey Lake Rd, when we first visited that whole road from Palm Parkway till you hit the turning for Seaworld area was completely deserted apart from two Timeshare buildings, the whole area around and all the way long was in perpetual darkness, now it has dozens of restaurants, houses, a school and even a hospital!! Very different place now and once Epic opens this road will be crazy busy.











Beth`s Burgers is a very friendly and very local place, the staff have always told us they don`t get many tourists and even less Brits in here, but we like it and the food is good. We even met Beth herself a couple of years ago, nice lady who has won awards for her burgers hence the tagline "Proof once again one girl can beat Five Guys" love it!!

You order your food and get your soda cup here and then they bring you the food and you get your own soda, usual options on offer and they have extra condiments and so on there too. ​

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We find a nice booth and Tom goes to get our drinks, I think we both had fanta today and he came back with some mustard and ketchup in case we wanted any, I doubted we`d need them though.

It does have a lovely relaxed and friendly feel, we always say we`re going to come down one evening as it is supposed to be a lot of fun, but so far we`ve never found the time! ​

I don`t think we ever picture these burgers very well, there are burgers in there, honest!

I had opted for the single Western burger with no cheese which came with onion rings, bbq sauce and jalapenos, I did ask for extra jalapenos too, she looked surprised and said it did come with a lot of jalapenos, I said it was fine. I was glad I ordered the extra pot!!! Tom asked for the single burger Black Jack which came with blackened seasoning, pepper jack cheese, bacon and thousand island dressing, we ordered both with fries and they were lovely, the buns are nice here too. ​

We did enjoy our lunch and once we were done we headed over to the Publix in the same area to pick up a few things like sunscreen and other little items including shampoo, conditioner and shower gel, we do like Publix for shopping, the staff are always so nice and incredibly helpful if you ask them anything.

Once in the car we headed back home and did manage to catch some pics of the new hotels, both to the front are the budget ones, I`m told they look better at night where they sparkle in the night light. I don`t think we would stay in them, but it might be nice to have a wander round them. ​

We would get some better pictures of Helios later in the trip, but we could get an idea of it from here today and it sounds amazing from all we have heard about it. You can just see Helios in the centre of the picture below.

The rooftop bar in Helios itself sounds incredible and that will be a very popular spot when it opens!!! ​

More to come...