mInNiE
19-10-2008, 04:49 PM
The Night Before and the day of the Mammoth Journey
The day before we left I was working, as was DBF. I didn’t mind though because I knew I was finishing early to travel up to Heathrow and also knew I didn’t have to be back for over two weeks, such a great feeling!! I’d agreed with work that I could leave early at 4pm and Alun was finishing early too. My DM is a Primary School teacher and was off work for the holidays and my DF was also off work so that we could make an early getaway.
We left our house on time, and drove the short distance (all 11 houses away) to my DM and DF’s house. We were taking two cars (as we were going for a fortnight and my parents for three weeks) but we were following my parents up to the Hotel. After loading up the cars, we set the Tom Tom up to try it out as we were taking it to WDW with us and it didn’t let us down. A quick stop for petrol at Tesco’s and we were off!
The trusty Tom Tom
http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn166/rhianje/Florida%2008/8a12ceda.jpg
We arrived at the Holiday Inn where we’d booked two rooms for the night and me and DM had a few glasses of wine and some snacks in my parents room while Alun and my DF went to check out the Bar!!
A few pints later they soon returned and we said goodnight as we had an early start in the morning! With the alarm set for 6.30am we had a lovely night’s sleep ready for our busy day ahead.
The next morning I was up as soon as I heard the alarm and quickly showered and dressed – notice the familiar face – or should I say feet – on my t-shirt? :grin:
http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn166/rhianje/Florida%2008/6b37eeb3.jpg
We then met my parents out by the lifts and made our way down to reception to fill in the paperwork for the cars as we were leaving them at the hotel whilst we were away. After a slight incident with the revolving doors, we made our way outside to wait for the Hoppa bus to Terminal 3.
http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn166/rhianje/Florida%2008/f1aefb77.jpg
After a few stops at the various Terminals, we were dropped off at Terminal 3 and made our way towards the Air Canada line to check in for our first flight of the day to Ottawa! When pricing up the flights for the holiday, my DF had found that we would save £££’s by flying a non-direct route. This meant a flight from Heathrow to Ottawa, Ottawa to Toronto and then Toronto to Orlando. This was fine by us as we were all adults and didn’t have any little ones to keep amused on the flights – Alun did have his Nintendo DS to keep him quiet though and I was looking forward to seeing a bit of Canada even if it was only from the air!
The lady checking us in had to give the four of us the boarding cards for all three flights so we were a little while at the desk and chatted to her while we waited.
After dumping the luggage, we made our way through security fairly quickly and found ourselves a table by Starbucks, I had a Hot Chocolate and the rest had Lattes.
http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn166/rhianje/Florida%2008/102c5bcb.jpg
http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn166/rhianje/Florida%2008/5f9f56d5.jpg
We also shared some Pizza and didn’t have long to wait before they were calling our plane to board. The flight to Ottawa was uneventful and I passed the time by reading and watching TV. We were sat by the window in the row infront of my parents. We had one last look at the gloomy UK weather before we were off.
http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn166/rhianje/Florida%2008/17f9cb69.jpg
http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn166/rhianje/Florida%2008/c01c1ac9.jpg
http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn166/rhianje/Florida%2008/f3e28bf2.jpg
It didn’t seem long to wait before the food was brought around
I chose the fish
http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn166/rhianje/Florida%2008/31f19584.jpg
Alun had the chicken
http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn166/rhianje/Florida%2008/332598cc.jpg
At Ottawa we had to queue to clear immigration and then go through to collect our bags to check them in for the next flight of the day. Luckily all 4 bags were already going around the carousel as they were ‘in transit’ so we quickly collected them and dropped them back off at ‘connections’. Fairly painless so far as we had been worried that our luggage may not make it all the way to Orlando, but so far so good!
We then had a little wander and then sat near our gate
http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn166/rhianje/Florida%2008/fb950c01.jpg
Continued Below
The day before we left I was working, as was DBF. I didn’t mind though because I knew I was finishing early to travel up to Heathrow and also knew I didn’t have to be back for over two weeks, such a great feeling!! I’d agreed with work that I could leave early at 4pm and Alun was finishing early too. My DM is a Primary School teacher and was off work for the holidays and my DF was also off work so that we could make an early getaway.
We left our house on time, and drove the short distance (all 11 houses away) to my DM and DF’s house. We were taking two cars (as we were going for a fortnight and my parents for three weeks) but we were following my parents up to the Hotel. After loading up the cars, we set the Tom Tom up to try it out as we were taking it to WDW with us and it didn’t let us down. A quick stop for petrol at Tesco’s and we were off!
The trusty Tom Tom
http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn166/rhianje/Florida%2008/8a12ceda.jpg
We arrived at the Holiday Inn where we’d booked two rooms for the night and me and DM had a few glasses of wine and some snacks in my parents room while Alun and my DF went to check out the Bar!!
A few pints later they soon returned and we said goodnight as we had an early start in the morning! With the alarm set for 6.30am we had a lovely night’s sleep ready for our busy day ahead.
The next morning I was up as soon as I heard the alarm and quickly showered and dressed – notice the familiar face – or should I say feet – on my t-shirt? :grin:
http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn166/rhianje/Florida%2008/6b37eeb3.jpg
We then met my parents out by the lifts and made our way down to reception to fill in the paperwork for the cars as we were leaving them at the hotel whilst we were away. After a slight incident with the revolving doors, we made our way outside to wait for the Hoppa bus to Terminal 3.
http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn166/rhianje/Florida%2008/f1aefb77.jpg
After a few stops at the various Terminals, we were dropped off at Terminal 3 and made our way towards the Air Canada line to check in for our first flight of the day to Ottawa! When pricing up the flights for the holiday, my DF had found that we would save £££’s by flying a non-direct route. This meant a flight from Heathrow to Ottawa, Ottawa to Toronto and then Toronto to Orlando. This was fine by us as we were all adults and didn’t have any little ones to keep amused on the flights – Alun did have his Nintendo DS to keep him quiet though and I was looking forward to seeing a bit of Canada even if it was only from the air!
The lady checking us in had to give the four of us the boarding cards for all three flights so we were a little while at the desk and chatted to her while we waited.
After dumping the luggage, we made our way through security fairly quickly and found ourselves a table by Starbucks, I had a Hot Chocolate and the rest had Lattes.
http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn166/rhianje/Florida%2008/102c5bcb.jpg
http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn166/rhianje/Florida%2008/5f9f56d5.jpg
We also shared some Pizza and didn’t have long to wait before they were calling our plane to board. The flight to Ottawa was uneventful and I passed the time by reading and watching TV. We were sat by the window in the row infront of my parents. We had one last look at the gloomy UK weather before we were off.
http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn166/rhianje/Florida%2008/17f9cb69.jpg
http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn166/rhianje/Florida%2008/c01c1ac9.jpg
http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn166/rhianje/Florida%2008/f3e28bf2.jpg
It didn’t seem long to wait before the food was brought around
I chose the fish
http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn166/rhianje/Florida%2008/31f19584.jpg
Alun had the chicken
http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn166/rhianje/Florida%2008/332598cc.jpg
At Ottawa we had to queue to clear immigration and then go through to collect our bags to check them in for the next flight of the day. Luckily all 4 bags were already going around the carousel as they were ‘in transit’ so we quickly collected them and dropped them back off at ‘connections’. Fairly painless so far as we had been worried that our luggage may not make it all the way to Orlando, but so far so good!
We then had a little wander and then sat near our gate
http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn166/rhianje/Florida%2008/fb950c01.jpg
Continued Below