We were all up early this morning, and showered and dressed by 6am. It was a good thing as we walked over to the Thomson check-in desks and were told that they would be open by 6.30am. Within minutes the security man was with us and checking our passports and after another few minutes we had our boarding cards and we were making our way through to Security. It was a lot less hassle than I had imagined so we had a bit of a wait until we could go to the Aspire lounge, but it gave the children a chance to do some shopping.
It also meant we could sort Mikey's iPod cable out as it had broken and he needed a new one to charge it up. When this was all sorted he was a much happier child!
At 8am we were inside the Aspire lounge and I'm so glad we booked it. It was a haven of peace and calm with free food (bacon rolls, cereals, pastries, biscuits) and free drink, including alcohol. We also had free wifi and complimentary newspapers and magazines and the staff were very friendly and helpful. It made for such a relaxing start to the holiday as the rest of the airport was very busy indeed.
At 9.30am we reluctantly left and made our way to the gate to board the plane that was to be our home for the next nine hours. It was a First Choice plane, a bit scruffy around the edges, but it did the job and the flight wasn't bad at all. The only gripe was the middle aged prat in front of me who bounced around in his seat like a demented two year old and then, when he was able, reclined back until I was almost touching his head. Luckily, Mikey wanted to swap seats with me so I readily agreed!
The food was very good, I have to say, with a choice of barbecued chicken or beef stew for lunch, with a starter, dessert and cheese and then afternoon tea just before we landed.
So, the moment of dread arrived - would I be questioned like last time? As we queued, the sniffer dog was in action, picking out two hand luggage cases that obviously contained food. He was so clever! When it was our turn we had a very jolly, friendly official who made fun of our passport photos and asked me very politely if I was OK. I got the feeling he knew I'd been stopped before, but this time we had no trouble at all and were out and picking up our villa directions within minutes.
The only hassle we had was with Alamo who wanted us to upgrade to a bigger car and sell us more insurance, but we had the last laugh as the man who picked out our car for us gave us a huge white Chevrolet Malibu and all our luggage fitted very snugly in the boot! He got a nice tip for his trouble!
We had a couple of dramas on the way to the villa! We got lost twice (we ended up in Celebration, a town designed by Disney which was absolutely perfect) and then had an issue with a toll, where I chucked in four quarters and they didn't go down the shoot. We waited but the light was still on red, so I decided to reverse and go into the change lane, only for it to turn green. Naturally, we thought that the money had registered but when we drove back through all the alarms went off, so we may have ended up with a $100 fine!
Finding the villa was easy and we were very pleased with the house which is beautiful. Mikey decided to switch on the TV and pressed the wrong button so we need to get that sorted out...it always happens...we spend two weeks getting to know how things work and then it's time to go home!
I just couldn't face unpacking this evening as it was past 8pm (midnight UK time) so we dumped the bags, bought some breakfast foods, milk and coffee at Publix and ate in a terrifically busy Applebees. There were a lot of very tired looking Brits in the restaurant and we were all shattered ourselves, but we had a lovely meal (chicken, burgers, ribs) served by one of the friendliest waitresses we've ever had. And it was good value too, at just $60!
Back at the villa we collapsed into bed, hoping upon hope that we wouldn't all be up at 4am!
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