We get soaked!

This morning we decided to got to Celebration for coffee and cake. I've always wanted to go to the town, created by Walt Disney in the 1990s, as it's supposed to be absolutely beautiful. It wasn't a long drive from our villa and before long we were on the outskirts of the town, admiring the gorgeous houses which all looked immaculate, many of them flying the American flag outside.

We headed to Market Street and I parked easily opposite a large lake. I'd looked at the places to go before we left the villa and a cafe called Sweet Escape sounded good for coffee. It was pleasantly busy and Sophie and I ordered at the counter while the boys found a table. I enjoyed a very good latte while Sophie had iced tea, Keith a normal coffee and Mike chose a chocolate milkshake. Sophie picked out a gooey pastry to eat, Keith had a cookie while I had a delicious blueberry muffin. As Mike had eaten his leftover pizza for breakfast, he passed on anything to eat!

Sophie grappling with her gooey cake!

I thought how lovely it would be to live in the town and stroll down to the cafe for coffee every morning! Even the local fire brigade turned up to get a brew!

After we'd eaten we wandered around the town and Sophie and I went into a shop called Soft as a Grape where they had tee-shirts and other lovely things to buy. Sophie bought two tee-shirts and one had "Estd 1996" on the front...well, she just had to, didn't she? I bought a mug to drink my morning coffee out of and the sales assistant was really lovely and chatty.

We met the boys who had strolled down to the lake and I took loads of photos of the town on my phone. I've also taken quite a few with my camera but I've had difficulty connecting it to Sophie's laptop so I'll have to publish them when we return home.

Market Street

Note the beautiful Florida sky!

Sophie and I agreed we'd love to stay at this hotel!

Market Street

By now it was quite hot so we decided to reluctantly leave Celebration and head off to do some shopping. We did a couple of circuits of some residential areas before finally spotting signs for the I4 and getting back onto the West Osceola Parkway. Keith had found an outlet shopping centre not far away but somehow we missed the turn for Vineland Road so we ended up back at The Loop where we visited JC Penney's.

This turned out to be a good idea as Mike bought two pairs of shoes that he'd wanted for ages, Keith bought two pairs of Levis and Sophie bought two more tee-shirts and a pair of Levis jeans. It seems strange to see my family so keen on the brand when I worked for them 25 years ago!

The US doesn't seem to have caught onto the idea of charging for shopping bags yet so we had loads which, later on, turned out to be a good thing! We put all of our purchases in the boot of the car and headed off to Universal. I needed to get some petrol and as we neared Universal I was worrying we would run out. Luckily, just as I had about 40 miles left in the tank we spotted a garage and thankfully pulled in. As Keith wanted to pay in cash we had to go into the shop and pre-pay. We thought about $40 would do but I didn't think it would fill the tank. Keith started to fill up with fuel but we soon realised we had far over-estimated the payment. We just about got $30 in (and that was a struggle!) so we had to go back into the shop and get $10 back! I told the cashier that it would have taken about $70 back in the UK to fill the tank!

We were also accosted by a man as we were filling up who wanted "$3 of fuel to get home." He looked perfectly turned out and was wearing brand new Levis shorts so we don't quite know how he came to be in that situation, but Keith gave him some money and we saw him at the next pump to us. We've also seen a couple of men brandishing home-made signs asking for money or food at busy intersections. Again, I don't know their situation, but surely in Orlando, there are jobs to be had?

At Universal we didn't bother with the Prime parking and we were directed up onto the roof again. On the way down to the park we saw vast areas of the lower (covered) levels of the multi-storey empty...is this a way of making people pay for Prime parking next time?

We headed for Islands of Adventure today and already it was very hot. Sophie was peckish as she'd abandoned half her gooey cake so we went into one of the cafes in the Cat in the Hat area and queued up for some lunch. It took ages for some unknown reason and we were astonished at how expensive the food was. We ordered a slice of pizza, two portions of French fries, two Sprites and a bottle of water and it came to $25. However, it was beautifully cool in there!

The Crazy Golf at the entrance to Universal.

After we'd eaten I bought an "Eye" key ring, the same as my necklace, from one of the stands and then we went into the Poseidon's Fury attraction. We did this ages ago and it's quite cheesy and we all (mostly) enjoyed it again today. It was lovely to be inside and really cool!

After Poseidon's Fury we trekked over to Bluto's Bilge-Rat Barges and queued for 55 minutes.

A glowing Sophie waiting in the queue!

Overhead the clouds had massed into one angry lump and I could tell we were in for some rain. We shared our barge with a great group of people and we all got thoroughly soaked! And I mean wringing out water soaked! However, it was great fun and it's still one of our favourite rides.

The plan was to exit Islands of Adventure and go over to Universal to ride Escape From Gringotts, but Keith was feeling very weary and the shoes he was wearing were giving him some grief. We agreed to leave him sitting somewhere while we did the ride. It began to rain and by the time we'd reached the other park it was coming down hard. It didn't matter to us as we were soaked anyway!

A lot of people were streaming out of the park and we thought this was a good sign, but when we eventually go to Diagon Alley, the wait time for the ride was 105 minutes! None of us were prepared to wait that long so we decided to call it a day and return to the car.

The bags from JC Penney's were used to protect the car seats from our wet bums and we drove back to the villa on the very busy I4.

Our lovely villa, a haven of peace and quiet!

After we'd changed and dried off we dropped Keith at an Irish pub next to Publix and I went shopping with the children to get some essentials. We have quite a bit of frozen food to eat before we leave on Wednesday so we stayed at the villa and ate pizza, curly fries and southern fried chicken followed by ice-cream.

As it was still so warm Mike, Keith and I had a dip in the pool and it was like taking a very large bath!

(No) pork and beans...

We had a lazy start to the day and Keith and I opened a can of "pork" and beans we'd bought in Target yesterday for breakfast. I imagined there'd be little sausages inside the can, but there was nothing...just beans! How does that work then?

We spent the morning around the pool and had an early lunch at midday before getting ready to go to Universal. It has been very hot today as there's been little cloud cover and the sun has been really fierce.

We decided to try yet another route to the park - this time we went on the West Osceola Parkway, the same road we'd used before and we drove past BJ's (our dinner destination for this evening) and the large shopping centre called The Loop. The traffic on the West Osceola Parkway was quite light, but when we turned onto the John Young Parkway, it became a lot busier and stayed that way until we reached Universal. It was a good route but it still took us an hour.

We paid a bit more for parking today and ended up inside (in Jaws) and not that far from the attractions. The park didn't seem that busy and the wait times weren't bad at all. We wanted to do the Jimmy Fallon ride first but you do "virtual" queuing here and we decided on a time slot starting from 4pm. Having obtained a little ticket we headed for Transformers and the waiting took place inside the air-conditioned building which was good. It was a very noisy wait, though, with characters from the film scowling and growling at us all the way along!

The ride itself, I thought, was great but Keith and Mike weren't so impressed. It's very similar to Spiderman in that you sit in an enclosed car wearing 3D glasses and move around on a track with various screens opening up in front of you. The characters appear in 3D and there's the usual flames, water and other things being hurled at you!

We emerged from the ride and Sophie said she'd treat us all to a Dipping Dots ice-cream. However, we spotted a Ben and Jerry's cafe so we went inside and found a seat while Soph and Mike queued up. It took forever! Keith wandered off to watch a Blues Brothers act and when he returned, they were still queuing! I'm just so glad it was lovely and cool!

After our ice-cream we went to the Jimmy Fallon show and after a confusing start, we thoroughly enjoyed the ride as it's very similar to The Simpsons. You see some entertainment first and then you get taken through to a waiting area where you all sit in rows in theatre-like seating. A large screen opens up in front of you and Jimmy Fallon appears, saying we're going to accompany him on a ride through New York. We are then hurtled along with him and there's lots of driving through the streets, collisions with other vehicles and eventually a trip to the moon, where we returned to earth on a roller-coaster! It was thoroughly enjoyable!

Sophie and Mike went on Revenge of the Mummy next (I chickened out and Sophie said I would not have enjoyed it!) while Keith and I waited for them in the shade. It was very, very hot! We wanted to do Escape from Gringotts next,  but there was a wait time of 70 minutes and we just didn't have time so we explored Diagon Alley (fantastic!) and then made our way back to the car.

The heat was unbelievable and we find that the walk back to the car is the hottest. We had to re-trace our route of earlier to get to BJ's but of course, we got lost! However, we soon found the way and were delighted to find there wasn't a wait for the table.

Keith tried a four beer sampler (the nine beer wasn't available any more) and Sophie had a lager. Poor Mike had to stick with strawberry lemonade while I enjoyed a glass of wine.

No beer for Mike!

Sophie was asked for ID again by the very friendly waitress who chatted to us non-stop all the time she was serving us, which was great. We enjoyed boneless chicken wings in a root beer sauce to start as well as Mozzarella sticks. For mains I had Parmesan crusted chicken served with mash and broccoli, Keith had fish and chips, Sophie had a chicken noodle dish while Mike had a very expensive "build-your-own" pizza.

We certainly didn't have room for dessert (especially not after the ice-creams we'd had earlier) so we asked for the bill. It was slightly wrong - we'd been charged for a burger we didn't have and the voucher for $10 off that I'd downloaded to my phone wasn't included - but it was soon put right and after a lovely chat with the young waitress we set off for the villa. The bill had come to $126 and Mike's pizza was $25...yikes! It was a good job he took it home with him!

A day of rest!

I managed to sleep in until about 7am this morning which was huge improvement on yesterday! We've discovered that channel 2 on our television is given over to local news and weather which is really useful and also lists all the programmes, another small bonus!

We decided to go to Target this morning, a huge supermarket on the 192 and stock up with more essentials, bottled water being the most important. Before we got into the car I took some photos of the house and our car...

Target was amazing, as always, full of huge choices of everything and we had soon filled our trolley with a big pack of water, bread, pizzas, beer and wine, foods to have for lunch, an enormous pack of cherries and some ant spray as we have the little blighters all over our patio area. Sophie had to wait for her fried chicken but in the end it was ready and we went through the checkout having spent $140! However, we had decided to stay at the villa all day today so our only other expense would be dinner tonight.

The traffic on the 192 was already busy and it was bliss to get back to our villa, unload all the shopping and feast on the fried chicken! It was brunch! The rest of the day was very leisurely and we spent a lot of time in the pool or snoozing by the side of it. The weather is very hot (of course) with the usual Florida sky of big white fluffy clouds.

Towards the evening the sky clouded over and we could hear rumblings of thunder in the distance with occasional flashes of lightening. I took everything inside and arranged the chairs against the walls so they wouldn't get wet in the inevitable downpour.

Keith and I sat outside and watched nature's entertainment and we were amazed to see a small rabbit appear from the other side of the hedge and sit and nibble at the grass! We sat and listened to the thunder and watched the lightening flashes and then we got ready to go out for the evening. We'd all decided to eat at Chili's further along the 27 and when we left it was still raining although the sun was out as well.

As we were quite early, we were seated straight away and had a good look at the menu. I fancied a steak so I went for the 6oz Sirloin served with mashed potatoes and broccoli. I also ordered a side of asparagus and garlic roasted tomatoes. Sophie went for a lime chicken dish served with rice, Mike had a burger while Keith had a full rack of ribs. Sophie ordered a Margarita and as it was Happy Hour, she received two! She said they were delicious but I don't think they were as strong as we make at home! She was also pleased not to be asked for ID!

The restaurant started to fill up and we were glad we'd arrived early. Three of us had desserts - I chose the New York cheesecake, Sophie went for the griddled cookie served with ice-cream and Mike enjoyed an Oreo topped mountain cake, which was huge!

We paid the bill ($104) and returned home to sit outside with a glass of wine. Every night we've been here we could hear bangs and explosions in the distance and tonight it dawned on me what it was - Disney's Illuminations fireworks!

Feeling hot, hot, hot!

I said to Keith this morning that I hated using the I4 to get to Universal and that I remembered another road we used to use which was much easier. We had a good look at the map that Alamo gave us but Keith couldn't remember the exact way. I even looked back at my blog to see if I'd mentioned the road and although I stated it was the West Osceola Parkway, we couldn't see how we had used it as it was nowhere near the parks.

We had decided to go to the park earlier today so we set off at about 9am and came off the I4 onto the 417 which is a toll road. However, we became lost after a while and ended up on the Florida Turnpike! Luckily we saw signs for the I4 and drove back onto it, but the good thing was that we had missed out a good chunk of the evil road! Getting into the car parks was a slow process as there were loads of cars heading towards them and we were directed up onto the roof of the multi-storey again, in the "Jurassic Park" section.

Universal was busy and there were loads of people flowing through the turnstiles, but it wasn't overly crowded. It was hot, though, and the sun shone out of a gorgeous blue sky.

Our first ride was Spiderman with a 50 minute wait, which passed quite quickly. The ride seemed much more intense than last time and was really fun! We walked through the cartoon section - always my favourite because of the bright colours and palm trees - and into Jurassic Park where the children went on the water-ride which had a 25 minute wait. I was going to give it a go until Sophie remembered that the drop was quite steep...I decided to sit it out! Instead, Keith and I enjoyed a beer and waited for them in the shade, watching the huge amount of people walk by.

The children emerged from the ride quite wet and Sophie bought a tee-shirt in the shop. It's really great that you can break up the hot walks with a trip into one of the shops which are all fully air-conditioned. Sometimes you get a blast of cool air as you walk past!

Our next ride was the Harry Potter Forbidden Journey and there was a 45 minute wait, which again passed very quickly as there is so much to see within Hogwarts. The ride itself was great and we were really thrown about. There was a lot of screaming on our car!

Before leaving we decided to take the new Hogwarts Express into Islands of Adventure. As it goes from one park to another we had to show our tickets again. There was a ten minute wait which was good because I'm not sure I would wait any longer to go on it! You get on a lovely old steam train (the carriage seats eight) and on either side of the carriage are screens. One side shows the train rolling through countryside like in the films, while the other side has the characters walk past in shadow. The last bit was interesting as it shows scenes from modern day London, so it was a bit like being at home!

By now we were all very hot and tired and the walk back to the car seemed to take ages. We stopped on the way for some bottled water ($3 each) as Sophie felt really warm. Our car was literally baking in the heat up on the roof of the multi-storey...the temperature was 102f again and all the metal parts inside were burning hot to the touch!

We were going to have lunch at Shake Shack on International Drive and then return to the villa for the rest of the day to relax. After one wrong turning we found the restaurant and parked in a badly lit car park next to the Orlando Eye. Sophie loves this fast food restaurant and had been to the New York one several times but I don't think that Keith was prepared for it to be counter service! However, the food was delicious and three of us had the double burgers with crinkle cut fries, while Keith had a chicken version. I had a strawberry milkshake which was thick and delicious! As we'd only had a tiny bowl of cereal for breakfast I felt I deserved it!

The really nice touch about the restaurant was the free chilled water and we all made use of this with our meals. I think we were a bit dehydrated from our visit to Universal so we all topped up our fluid levels and felt much better.

We took quite a long detour back to the villa and ended up on the I4 again but the traffic was very slow. We weren't sure what the hold-up was but we did see an ambulance fly past. Getting back to the villa was bliss and we all jumped into the pool to get cool! All of our clothes went straight into the washing machine!

The rest of the day was very relaxing. We either sat around the pool or relaxed in the cosy living room where I watched a couple of episodes of Modern Family with a glass of wine. Perfect!

Caught in a storm!

Keith and I were awake very early this morning. He said he was up at 2am whilst I opened my eyes at 4.25am. It's always the same and it takes us a few days to get used to the five hour time difference.

I made the most of the early hour by unpacking (far too tired to do it last night) and catching up with things on Sophie's laptop. I am going to avoid using my phone if I can so I'm communicating with my parents via email. I think it's better as I can send them photos!

The children gradually awoke and as soon as it was light we sat outside with a coffee and watched two hot air balloons glide by. The weather looked a lot better than it did yesterday so that was good! After we'd all showered we had breakfast at a new IHOP next to Highlands Reserve. This is definitely a bonus as we all love the restaurant and I've tried to recreate their Smokehouse Combo at home!

The heat, even at 8am, was quite intense and the sun was shining out of a clear blue sky. Perfect! We had a great breakfast served by Toni from Louisiana and she was very friendly and chatty, saying she loved our accent. Well, we loved hers! Sophie and I had, of course, the Smokehouse Combo while Keith went for eggs and bacon and Mike devoured a  plate of chocolate pancakes! He's been having them ever since his first visit, when he was nine!

From IHOP we had to go and register our arrival at the Virgin offices further down Route 27. It didn't take long and after authorising Keith's credit card in case of damages, we went to do some shopping at Publix. Our trolley was soon full of breakfast foods, pizzas for lunch and boring things like loo rolls and laundry products. Hopefully, we won't need to buy things like that for a little while! Oh, and we bought some beer and wine!

Things do seem a little more expensive this time, I have to say. We spent just over $100 on really not that much, considering what we're able to buy at home. Even the wines seemed much more expensive with most bottles over $12 - one of the wines we stocked at the shop was selling for $25!

Back at the villa we unpacked and we were soon in the pool or around it. The weather was glorious - gorgeous blue skies and big fluffy white clouds...a real Florida sky! We spent a couple of hours sunbathing and being entertained by a couple of squirrels who scampered all over the pool netting, their tails wagging furiously! We even saw three huge buzzard-like birds of prey circling above on the thermals. I spent my time cloud-gazing and very relaxing it was too!

Our pool is very private and we have no-one overlooking us at the back, which is lovely.

In the early afternoon we showered again and set off for Universal, using route 27 and the I4. However, after about fifteen minutes we realised we hadn't brought the voucher with us to get our park tickets...we had to turn around, pay two sets of tolls as we'd very briefly driven onto the Florida turnpike and each needed exact change (which was a pain) and go back to the villa! The temperature hovered between 95f and 102f and the sky looked very stormy!

Back on the road again we arrived at Universal and parked right on the very top of one of the multi-storey car parks in the "Cat in the Hat" section. We didn't have to walk far and at the entrance we had to put our bags into an airport scanner. This was very reassuring and security was extremely tight indeed. Getting our tickets was simple and straightforward and we were soon inside and looking forward to some fun!

The park seemed busy but not exceptionally so and we decided to do Shrek first, as we always do! There was a wait of 15 minutes and along the walk we were kept cool by fans and mists of water. Inside the ride itself we were treated to air-conditioning, which was great and very welcome!

After Shrek we rode ET which is always lovely and there was hardly any wait time at all. Up above, the clouds were really gathering. Those little white fluffy ones of earlier in the day had massed into towering masses of dark grey and we knew we were in for some rain soon!

The wait time for the Simpsons ride was 45 minutes but I'm sure we were in much quicker than that. I always love people watching and of course, here there were loads of different nationalities to listen to and observe! We rode with a family of three and the little girl with them was extremely nervous! However, she loved the ride after we'd all reassured her that it wasn't frightening, although this time it seemed a lot more intense! It was fabulous!

When we emerged, the storm had arrived and the rain was unbelievable! We couldn't venture out into it so people coming off the ride were getting mixed up with those waiting to go on...it was all a bit chaotic and the staff were looking a bit panicked!We were herded into a tent like area where some people put on ponchos over their clothes. They were obviously well prepared for the Florida weather! However, within about fifteen minutes the rain had stopped and we were able to make our way to Men in Black and ride that. I did pretty well this time, getting a score of over 40,000, more than the little boy sitting next to me which was good!

By now, we were all getting a bit tired. Our early starts were catching up with us, so after a brief trip to London to see the new Harry Potter attraction we made our way to the Bubba Gump restaurant for dinner. It was 7pm and there was no wait so that was brilliant! In the past we've had an hour's wait for a table!

The restaurant was hectically busy, even so, but we had a good table near some overhead fans and at one point I did feel a bit chilly! Keith had a pint of beer, Sophie asked for a bottle of Corona (and was asked for ID) while Mike and I had lemonades. Mine was strawberry and had chunks of the fruit in the glass. Delicious!

We all opted for different meals - Keith went for the Dumb Luck Shrimp, I had shrimp and veggie skewers served with rice, Mike opted for Shrimp Heaven and Sophie had a Dixie Fishwich. The food was very good and plentiful and the bill came to $126. Our only gripe was the cost of a pint of beer - $9!

It was still light so I was very pleased about that! I always find getting out of Universal and back onto the I4 very difficult and this evening was no exception. However, we managed to find the way and were soon on the very busy interstate. There was some seriously bad driving going on with cars dodging in and out of the traffic like mad things. I never see this kind of driving on the normal roads and I did ask Keith if there was an alternative route to use as I hate the I4 with a vengeance.

It was a huge relief to get back to the villa and sit by the pool with a glass of Clos du Bois Cabernet Sauvignon. I think I deserved it!

A long day!

We were all up at 6.30am and getting ready to leave the hotel by 7.30am. Outside the weather was grey and overcast and I looked forward to getting through the cloud and seeing the blue skies and sunshine again.

We left the hotel at 7.30am and joined the throng in the airport. As a treat I had booked us into the No.1 lounge and this gave us access to the Premium Security channel, which was a huge bonus. We managed to get through very quickly, although Keith was scanned by the body scanner. We were able to go into the lounge at just after 8am and I was determined to get my money's worth!

First impressions were a bit disappointing, I have to say as it was very busy and resembled a hotel dining room. I honestly didn't think it would be so crowded! We found a table and ordered bacon rolls and while they were being prepared we helped ourselves to cereals, yoghurt, fruit and croissants. The coffee was very good and you could have as much as you wanted.

The lounge overlooked the airport apron so we could see all the planes taking off. I began to feel a little nervous! After we'd eaten we sat on more comfortable seats by the bar and indulged in a couple of drinks. Yes, I know it was early but they were free and I needed to steady my nerves!

Keith then spotted a much quieter area called The Library and this was lovely. No children under the age of 12 were allowed in and it was a haven of peace and quiet. Perfect!

A vodka and tonic...just to help me relax before the flight!

Keith in contemplative mood.

We kept watching the flight screens and all too soon we were told to go to gate 566, a fair walk away. We reluctantly left the serenity of the lounge and made our way to the gate where people were already boarding the plane.

We were amongst the last to board but there was plenty of room for our cabin bags and Mike, Sophie and I sat together while Keith sat on the aisle seat in front.

The flight was OK, if a little noisy at times. Unfortunately we had a child behind us who kept kicking the seat and after I'd swapped with Mike, it really got on his nerves. I passed the time by reading, sleeping (a bonus) and watching the film "Allied" again. I borrowed Sophie's headphones which were fantastic at cutting out all the background noise! We were fed at regular intervals - lunch was a coleslaw salad followed by Toulouse sausages served with mashed spuds and broccoli in a delicious onion gravy as well as a Gu pudding and cheese and biscuits. Again, all drinks were free but I just had a glass of wine with my meal.We also had a sandwich, crisps and a chocolate biscuit just before we landed.

We were due to arrive in Orlando at 3.30pm but I think there was a storm as I could see huge banks of clouds out of the window and our estimated arrival time fluctuated between 3.50pm and 3.40pm. When we touched down the captain told us that another six flights had arrived at the same time as us so we had to sit on the plane for another hour. Luckily they turned on the in-flight entertainment and the air-conditioning but it soon began to get very uncomfortable. A lot of babies were crying and it was huge relief when we finally disembarked.

However, a huge mass of people awaited us in Immigration and although we completed the checks at the kiosk, we still had a wait to be seen again. We had fingerprints taken (except Sophie, probably because she had been in January) and then we were allowed through. Phew! By now we were all very tired and several babies were screaming, their parents looking very harassed.

We took the shuttle to the main airport and then eventually found the Virgin rep tucked away by the rental car desks. She gave us directions and the address of the villa and we went over the road to pick out our car. I went for a dark blue Toyota Camry and after checking it all over and loading our bags into the boot, we gingerly set off into the rain!

Keith was directing me and we found our way onto the 417 where we passed through numerous tolls. We had forgotten all the coins we had at home, but in retrospect this was probably good as it would have taken us ages to fiddle around with all the different denominations, and we just handed over dollar bills!

From the 417 we took the I4 towards Tampa and then came off the interstate towards Clermont. We knew this road well and I was delighted to discover that there were traffic lights as you turn left into Highlands Reserve. This will make it a lot easier to get in and out of the estate.

Our villa is in Troon Circle and we are very pleased with it. It has three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a lovely cosy dining room/lounge and a large kitchen. We dumped our bags and then went straight out to Publix where we bought some coffee, tea and milk and then headed to the nearby Applebee's for dinner.

Fortunately, there was no wait and we were seated immediately. We started with boneless chicken wings and mozzarella sticks, followed by burger for Mike, a lime chicken dish for Sophie and chicken and shrimp for Keith and I. At the end of the meal we were all shattered and it was great to just have a short drive back to the villa and a very welcome sleep!

Some photos:

Our bedroom

We're off!

So, the first day of our holiday has finally arrived! We spent the morning tidying and cleaning the house and doing last minute packing before leaving at about 11am. The weather has been beautiful and sunny, with...you've guessed it...a Florida sky!

The traffic on the M1 and M25 was very busy but we made it down to Gatwick by 1.30pm, a bit too early to check into the Premier Inn. We decided to check out where the parking for our car was, an industrial estate not far from the airport.We found it with not too much bother and headed back to the short stay parking, which was very nearly full! We eventually found a space on the top floor and took all our luggage to the hotel to check in. As you can imagine both the airport and the hotel were extremely busy.

We collected our keys and discovered that Keith and I were in room 606 whilst the children were way up on the ninth floor! Not an ideal situation! We dumped our bags and headed down to Costa where Soph and Mike had toasted sandwiches and I had a much needed cup of tea! We also booked a table for the evening.

Mike went back to the room while Soph, Keith and I walked over to the North terminal to find out where the Virgin Twilight check in was and thankfully it was easy to find. No shuttle to the South terminal this time!

It was time for Keith and I to go and park the car so we left the children and went to pay for the short stay parking - £12 for just over an hour. Unfortunately, the payment machine was playing up and ate our ticket but we somehow managed to retrieve it, pay the amount and flee! The whole place was chaos!

We drove back to the industrial estate, found our parking spot easily and went to wait for the taxi I'd booked yesterday. It was due to arrive at 4pm so we had a little wait and watched endless cars come and go, the majority of which were being parked while their owners were on holiday. The weather was still gorgeous with beautiful skies and we saw planes taking off regularly. Tomorrow it will be us!

The taxi collected us and we had a very easy ride back to the Premier Inn where we re-united with the children and discussed plans for the evening. We then went over to the airport and checked in our luggage and this was very easy and hassle-free, thank goodness! We discovered we were in seats 35 A, B and C and 34 C.It was great to get rid of all our bulky suitcases and once back at the hotel we watched Pointless for a while before Keith and Mike went down to the bar for a drink. Sophie and I showered and joined them at 6pm.

The bar and restaurant were heaving but luckily the men had found a table by the window so we could watch the comings and goings as people arrived for their flights. Sophie and I shared a bottle of Italian Pinot Grigio while Keith and Mike had beers.

We had a lovely meal - we started with garlic flatbreads (with cheese and without) followed by chicken escalope for me, haddock and chips for Keith and burgers for Sophie and Mike. I even had a Gin and tonic!

It was now almost 9pm so we decided to call it a day and head back to our rooms to get an early night. Tomorrow will be a very long day!