This morning we left the villa with a feeling of sadness and I have to confess that I wished we were staying a bit longer. Little did I know I would get my wish...
We were out of the house by 9am and had breakfast at an IHOP. We all had a good breakfast which was a good thing! The journey to the airport was very smooth as we took the Florida Greenway which is a toll road and very quiet. We arrived at Sanford at 12pm, returned the car and made our way to the Departures. There were already quite a few people at our check-in desk, but when we looked at the screen, our flight said "See Agent" which was a bit worrying...
A woman standing near to us saw us looking at the screen and told us that we had a 24 hour flight delay as there had been numerous problems with bird strikes and technical problems. The word on the street was that we would be bussed to a hotel and flown out the next day.
A hour later this was confirmed by a Thomson rep but we had to check our luggage in, take out essentials such as clean underwear, etc and we would then be taken to a - what we thought - Best Western hotel. There was a mass scramble as people pulled knickers and pants from cases and anything else they thought they would need overnight. We then checked in and went to wait for our bus which took us to a beautiful hotel - The Westin in Lake Mary, about 30 minutes from the airport.
We were given two adjoining rooms which are beautiful ($299 a night). After checking in we went over to the local Publix and bought some water, some sparkling wine for later and necessities such as toothbrushes and razors (we'd thrown away our toothbrushes that morning and Keith had left his razor in his case). I also treated myself to three books in case the wait turned out to be a prolonged one.
The children were hungry by now so they had a margarita flatbread in a Crispers restaurant and then we headed back to the hotel for a shower and a freshen up (I washed a pair of knickers just in case). Thompson had put on a free buffet between 5.30pm and 7.30pm but after taking a look, we decided to go it alone and crossed the road over to a square where there were lots of shops, restaurants and...pubs!
The one thing we yearned for over the holiday was somewhere to sit outside and enjoy the warm evening air and we got our wish tonight when we found Liam Fitzpatrick's pub. We sat outside with drinks for a very pleasant and relaxing hour before moving inside for a meal which was delicious. Three of us had curried chicken (very hot!) while Keith had fish and chips. At 9.30pm there was live music - duelling pianos - but the children were becoming tired so we returned to the hotel.
As I write at almost 10.30pm we are still not 100% sure we will fly home tomorrow as Thomson cannot give us a guarantee. In a way I hope we don't but it will mean that the children will miss school if that happens. The way I see it is that we've been given an extra 24 hours of holiday and we really enjoyed the afternoon and evening, still basking underneath the Florida sun!
2 comments:
Wow Jane!!! You lucky lot,an extended holiday....for a moment I thought you had decided to buy that house you had your eye on....Lol.
Thomson's have looked after you well then. Glad you enjoyed your day..or will that be days!!I don't think you would mind if it was by the sounds of it!...anyway, hope all goes well. favie x
Thanks very much favie! We heard that the delay was caused by an eagle flying into one of the Thomson planes last Wednesday which caused a delay with all the subsequent planes. I think, though, that today will be the day when we go home! Thomson have been very good and have been at the hotel all the time to answer any questions!
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