Florida Holiday 2017 ~ Day 1 - London to Orlando!

So we decided to book a hotel the night before our Florida flight to save travelling up to the airport mega early. We got a great deal via the Sandman Hotel in Crawley which included parking for the two weeks.

We left Dorset around 4.30pm and soon had to do an unscheduled poo stop for Elliot! Timed it just right though as Erin needed feeding and everyone was hungry so we had a quick Mcdonalds tea.

We arrived at the hotel after a nice easy journey and lugged all our stuff to the room. Travelling with 2 small children is certainly a different experience to travelling as a couple - SO MUCH STUFF!!!

Up bright and early the next morning and we were on our way to the airport just after 8am. We were flying premium economy so we breezed through check in and on to the metal detectors. Elliot and I both beeped so we had a full body scan!

I had done a click and collect order from Boots so we went and picked this up - such a great idea, I wasn't sure how much baby formula I'd need so ordered loads!!

We had brekkie in Jamie's Italian - never eaten at one of his places before but was really impressed. Paul had eggs benedict and it was sausage sandwiches for me and Elliot. The food came really fast and was lovely - Paul said his breakfast was one of the nicest he'd ever had! After trying his I really wished I'd ordered it too!

Once we'd boarded the plane we found our seats and were quite pleased - our original seat choices had been changed so we could use the skycot and were a bit worried we'd be crammed in but we had so much room! Paul was in the middle and Elliot and I had two seats at the front of premium with absolutely loads of room for all our stuff and Erin in the skycot.

The flight was good - certainly can't fault Virgin on their cabin crew. It felt like they were constantly feeding us and they were lovely to the kids! Really impressed with the food - usually plane food is rubbish but I loved this. For my hot meal I had chicken in sauce with mash and veg (really nice) plus a chocolate brownie - yum!! Elliot had the kids meal but he didn't like his pasta and started eying up mine so the lady swapped it for a chicken dinner which was good of her! Afternoon tea was nice - loved the clotted cream!

I didn't watch any films, nothing really took my fancy plus my headphones were so crackly but the time did go fast as I had the kids to entertain! (plus I actually got to read a bit of my book which is a luxury these days!)

Soon it was time to buckle up again and we started descending down towards Orlando. We got a great view of Kennedy Space Centre! The pilot warned us that it was raining in Orlando and he wasn't wrong, it was absolutely bucketing it down. What a welcome!

We wanted to minimise our time in the immigration queues so we made sure that when the plane stopped we were literally packed and ready to go with no faffing about. We were one of the first off the plane and got pointed in the direction of the new machines - it only took a few minutes to scan the passports, take a finger print and take a photo....easy peasy apart from Erin's pic which we had to redo!! I thought we'd got away with queuing but nope, onto another queue to have our passports checked again. I'm always a bit scared of the people behind these desks as they are so stern and make you feel like you've done something wrong but the man we had was actually quite friendly and chatty!

We finally got to the baggage claim and grabbed all our cases...and buggy...and car seats. We definitely needed a trolley but it was still a struggle!! We then had to ditch the baggage again and get on the monorail but thankfully we were able to keep hold of the buggy so I didn't need to lug Erin around. We finally got our luggage back (after losing each other in the airport!) and headed over to the car rental garages. We did all the paperwork online which made things loads quicker - we just picked a car and were good to go! I have no idea what car we have but its silver and there was plenty of room in the boot for our everything-but-the-kitchen-sink luggage!

The kids were knackered by this point and both fell asleep as soon as the car started - it was probably only 6pm Orlando time but obviously 11pm UK time so no wonder they crashed. We stopped on the way to our villa for the obligatory fried chicken and beer (this has turned into a bit of a tradition since the last time we came to Florida) and spent almost $90 on junk...as you do! (Very excited to see caramel m&m's though!!)

Our villa is in Kissimmee and we stayed here last time so it was easy to find and nice to be back in familiar territory. Elliot was wide awake again now so he was straight in the pool in his pants!

Straight to bed and hoping we don't get woken up too early! (Famous last words....)

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!

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