Monday 5 October 2015

The Longest Day - 4339 Miles from London to Orlando (with a toddler!)


You may have noticed that things have been a little quiet here on this blog recently. An organised blogger might have scheduled some posts to keep things ticking over but nope, not me! That would be too organised! We were actually away on our family hols and travelled to Orlando, Florida for Elliot's first American holiday and his first long haul flight.

Our flight wasn't until 1.30pm so we didn't have to do any mad driving through rush hour traffic to get to the airport - we actually booked a local taxi firm to take us which was SO much more relaxing, especially for my husband who would have been doing the driving! The taxi dropped us right outside the departures area so we were able to head straight over to the check in desks. Apart from a short wait at airport security while our buggy got scanned, we made it through to departures fairly quickly and it was a lot less stressful than our last holiday! We flew with Virgin and we'd decided to book into their V-Lounge.....so glad we did and it was definitely worth the money. We were able to help ourselves to hot/cold breakfast items (unlimited), plus hot/cold drinks (unlimited) and there were cakes....also unlimited! There were loads of tables all over looking the runways and also a play area for children which also had a tv showing CBeebies - brilliant! Another benefit of the V-Lounge is that they call you when your flight is boarding so no need to keep an eye on the departures board, you can just relax and wait for the announcement.

Our flight was called and we made our way down to the gate and onto the plane. I started to feel a bit nervous at this point because I was about to spend 9+ hours in a small confined space with a toddler - eeek!! I recently blogged about flying longhaul with a toddler  and had a lot of things in my hand luggage to keep Elliot amused for the duration and we also had the i-Pad so we were keeping our fingers crossed he'd be ok!


As it was, Elliot was good as gold on the flight. He didn't sleep a wink despite being tired but was quite happy to wear his new headphones and watch films and Peppa Pig on the seat-back tv! In fact, the only activity I used from my bag of goodies was the play-doh and that was put away within minutes as soon as he spotted the ice lollies being handed out!


Bum change time was....interesting. Elliot is yet to be potty trained (despite our best efforts!) and so I knew changing his bum might be a bit of a squeeze! Elliot isn't a small toddler so he was too long (and probably heavy) for the pull down baby change shelf thingy so I had to change him while he stood on the toilet. This was a mission in itself because he wanted to touch everything!! Taps, flush, tissues, tampons, soap...you name it, he had his grubby mits all over it! We then had the issue of me needing a wee too so he had to stand up against the wall whilst I used the toilet - but then he kept sliding the lock open and shut - arghhh!!!

I wondered if Elliot might get sore ears on the flight but it didn't seem to bother him. I had boiled sweets just incase but they proved too much of a temptation and he'd munched his way through a bag of rosy apples before the midway point ;)

Before we knew it, my husband and I had both managed to watch 2 films (a luxury these days!) and it was time to land in Orlando. No issues with the landing and Elliot was excited to get off the plane, he even high fived all the nice Virgin flight attendants on his exit!

We landed at around 5.30pm local time which was 10.30pm UK time - way way past Elliot's bedtime and I could tell he was flagging by the time we'd got off the plane and reached passport control. We have travelled to Orlando Airport before and have always always had to queue - I understand this bit takes some time to get all the passengers through and check passports etc but it's such a faff. Especially when you have a sleepy child and your buggy is waiting for you with the luggage. There were a lot of grizzly children at this point and the heat definitely did not help matters! Finally we made it through customs (he was a stern man - they scare me!) and we picked up our cases and buggy were on our way. Well, on our way to the next queue at the car rental desk. Eventually we exited the airport and we found our car....only to have to spend the next hour struggling to fit the child seat! My poor husband, it was like a sauna in the car and it wasn't very well lit so he had a bit of a mission on his hands, Luckily Elliot had dozed off in his buggy by this point so at least I didn't have to keep him amused!

Finally, feeling very sweaty and tired, the car seat was in properly and we were able to actually start our holiday! We did a quick supermarket stop for the essentials (fried chicken, lucky charms and beer) and so by the time we got to our villa and sat down with a cold drink, it was 11pm (4am UK time). I had never wanted to jump in a pool so badly as this moment! What a long day!



We squeezed so much into our two weeks so I have lots to blog about over the coming weeks. First up will be my review of "Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party" so look out for that...spoiler, there was ALOT of candy!



Linking up with the following...


blogging mummy
The Twinkle Diaries

13 comments:

  1. Ahhh you did it! So it wasn't that bad after all :-) Elliot is so good to sit there with his headphones on, what a good boy. The nappy changing bit sounds a nightmare - at least it makes a funny story! I still don't think I'm brave enough to go long haul with Tyler, so well done for doing it! Sabrina xx

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    1. The flight home was hardwork because he was so tired, we flew at 730pm so he was ready for bed but he turned into an overtired screamy shouty monster!! "Nooooooo I don't want my seatbelt on!!".....luckily he fell asleep bout 3 hours in so I was able to watch Jurassic World in peace ;) xx

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  2. Well done to Elliot for coping so well with the flight although getting out of the airport and to your apartment sounds like it was all a bit of a faff. That pool looks very inviting! Hope you had a good holiday :-)

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    1. Yes it was very much a faff but totally worth it once we started relaxing!!! x

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  3. Thank you for linking up with #anythinggoes we took our eldest to Egypt when he was just 1 year old he was 1 and we flew the day after. I was dreading it as thats a 6 hour flight and it was really OK. I think we work ourselves up about it before hand and really its not as bad as we think. I had all the worries like you the ears, nappy change, sleeping etc. x

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    1. Yep you're right, I think I was panicking over nothing! x

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  4. Well done Elliot for making the journey there so easy! I hope you had a wondering holiday and I can't wait to read all about it! Thanks for linking up with #TwinklyTuesday

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    1. Had a lovely holiday thanks, got soo much to blog about I don't know where to start! xx

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  5. Oh he sounds like he enjoyed the flight. What a lovely start to what sounds like a wonderful holiday!

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    1. he did, he loved the novelty of using his headphones! x

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  6. We flew out via Virgin on the 19th sept returning on 8th oct so you must have been out the same time as us. The v room was great wasn't it and I was surprised at how well ours did on he flight. Not so scary party was fantastic. We came back with 8 bags of candy!

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    1. Wow small world, we probably passed each other at the parks! The candy was just amazing, we had so much. We've still got a mound of it in the cupboard now! x

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  7. OMG so glad I found you! I have been searching for tips from someone going from UK to Orlando, we are going to Disney world in November and this will be my sons first time on a plane, with the drive to the airport and the plane ride we will be travelling for over 15 hours, Josh will be 5 years old so I am hoping he will cope ok with it all. So excited to take him, we are also staying in a villa for two weeks. Will stick around to see how your holiday went :)

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