A New Adventure Begins ....

It's Saturday 14 September and, after many months of excited anticipation, Catherine, Andrew and Chris Whooley finally got themselves aboard Virgin Atlantic's flight VS27 en route from London Gatwick to Orlando.

Early start as our flight was at 10.10 so we were up & out of the room around 7.  Checking out of the hotel was easy as we just had to drop the key cards in a box as we left.  We headed straight over to the airport and through security relatively painlessly although Andrew & Chris both got pulled for extra screening.

First stop after security was to the Wetherspoon’s to get some breakfast.  This was heaving with other travellers who'd had the same idea so we had to wait a little while for a table. However, once we’d been seated & placed the order the food came quickly.

After this we found a perch in the main seating area and also had a look in some of the shops but nothing took our fancy.  Our gate number was announced at 9 and we headed down to the gate.  While there we were surveyed by a very friendly guy from the Civil Aviation Authority about where we had travelled from and what the purpose of our trip was.  Our seat rows were among the last to be called (as always!) and Chris was subjected to further random screening before boarding the plane.

Once on board it seemed as though we wouldn’t be waiting too long and most of the other passengers were in their seats.  However we sat on the tarmac for a good 30-40 minutes before we slowly moved off from the stand and out to the runway.  Eventually we took off – thank goodness! 

The flight was pretty uneventful.  There was some turbulence but not as bad as some of the other transatlantic trips.  The boys enjoyed the in-flight meals and afternoon tea provided.  Virgin are always good at providing drinks service on a regular basis & this was no different.  The last 2 hours of the flight seemed to drag a little bit compared to the previous 6 but the time did tick down slowly.

Once we’d landed and taxied to the gate again it took ages for us to be allowed off the plane.  We were seated fairly close to the exit and so made a concerted effort to get off speedily to get through customs & border protection before the rest of the folks on the plane.  Our pilot informed us that we were one of the first planes in today but that there were another couple of jumbos following us so don’t dawdle!!

Immigration was an absolute breeze.  We queued for no more than 5 minutes to see an agent and he only asked us a couple of questions, stamped our passports, took photos & we were in.  Luggage came through quickly as well and we got out of the baggage area without any questions from the customs staff about the 96 Weetabix & 6 bags of chocolate buttons Catherine has brought (all for her own consumption since the USA don’t believe in good breakfast cereals or chocolate!)   We caught the skytrain to the main terminal building and made a beeline for the food court (so Catherine could get her first Orange Chicken of the holiday from Panda Express).

However this mission was delayed slightly as we caught sight of Mum, Dad & Grandma in the food court waiting to get their flight home.  We had a quick chat (over Orange Chicken for Catherine!) & catch-up and then parted ways at 4pm as it was time for us to pick up the hire car.

Handing over the baton at Orlando Airport

No problems at Alamo for the car – we’ve ‘chosen’ (there wasn’t much choice!) a Nissan Rogue (or Qashqui for those of you in the UK) as our vehicle.  Journey to the house was fine and we couldn’t believe that having landed at 2.30 we’d managed to get through the airport, meet family, get the car and drive to the house within 3 hours.

After a quick unpacking session we decided to get some dinner at Miller’s Ale House in ChampionsGate.  It was busy when we arrived with it being a Saturday evening in American Football season but we were seated within 15 minutes (just enough time for the boys to try their first beers of the holiday).  Andrew challenged himself to a Zingers™ Mountain Melt (including a very hot wing sauce), Chris had a burger and Catherine went for some Zingers (still a bit full from the afternoon’s visit to Panda Express at the airport).

It's more challenging than it looks!

All food successfully demolished (Andrew thinks his time for eating a whole Mountain Melt could be a family record - (How can he know that as I've never timed myself! - Ed).  It was then back to the house and a fairly early night ready for our early start the next morning.