DAY 1 & 2 TRAVELLING
AND DUBLIN
Our day started with leaving
our baby girl off at Happy Catz Pet Hotel. Few tears and hesitation
but finally gave in and left her there. I am happy to leave her there
because the people who run it are so loving and caring. You can tell
that they are genuinely animal people and truly care about each and
every pet that comes through the door. There were cats pottering
about all over the place. We even had one jump on the roof of the car
and just lay down lol. I would highly recommend Happy Catz to anyone
needing to have their pets looked after while going away.
We had some time to kill, so
we dropped in on my mum and dad to surprise my grandmother who visits
on a Friday. It was a lovely treat to get a hug from my nanny. She is
a wee darling. It was a short but sweet visit, because we still had
to pop in on Thomas's mum and walk the dog and sort out her
medication for the week. I actually periscoped while I was out
walking. It was the most anyone has ever watched my periscopes. I
love periscope. It is great for live videos. Anyway I digress.
We got the coach from
Glengall Street to Dublin. It arrived and left on time. There was no
air con so it was a little stuffy but it wasn't too warm so it was
manageable. I dozed off a little which helped pass the time. I am not
a good traveller so it is always good to be able to doze a little.
We got to the airport and
after a little faffing around we finally found where we were supposed
to get the bus but we would have a 50 minute wait so we decided to
just grab a taxi. €8 instead of €2 but we got there quicker. So
it was worth it.
We got checked in quickly,
we were booked in for breakfast and they encouraged us to book in for
dinner. We needed to eat anyway and for 29.99 for meal deal. Two
course Dinner and wine in evening and then breakfast buffet in the
morning. Definitely worth it. We went to the room and had a little
chill time with a cuppa before heading down for dinner. Thomas and I
both fancied a steak. It came with a choice of potato, I had boiled,
Thomas had chips. We both had green beans and mushrooms, absolutely
delicious!! The steak was done perfectly and the rest was so tasty.
We chose a glass of House Red each to go with it. As our meal came
with two courses we opted for dessert. I had an amazing Choc o Lot
Sundae and Thomas had Caramel Apple Crumble, which of course he
thoroughly enjoyed. We rolled back to our hotel room and were fast
asleep around 10pm.
We had a wonder sleep. So we
popped down to the restaurant for breakfast. I didn't feel 100% so I
opted for muesli and yoghurt. It was enough for me. Though there was
a fantastic choice of cooked food and breads. Thomas enjoyed his
cooked breakfast, even the quorn sausages. We had our usual cup of
Tea for Tom and Coffee for me.
We got packed up and headed
down for the bus to the airport. €1 each. It comes every 30
minutes. After a short wait we headed on over to the airport. We got
in and saw that there were kiosks to check in and print boarding
passes. So we headed over to try this out. We got all the way to the
end and the machine went off. It had run out of paper. So we headed
to a Customer Services help desk. He was able to print off our
boarding passes easily. We then weighed and tagged our bags and sent
them on their merry way to be put on the plane, while we headed on
upstairs to departures. We had a quick look through the shops and
grabbed a magazine and some water to drink, but we were too anxious
to get through immigration so we headed on through. It wasn't overly
busy. We had to go through another security section and that worried
us because we had bought liquids and thought they would take them of
us. So in case you have this same concern, don't panic, because it was
bought in the airport it was fine, we could take it on through. Phew
didn't want to have wasted money already. So we got through the
security with no issues and on to the actual clearance area. We were
nervous, just because it was the first time we had done this but
excited for something new too. There are kiosks for you to do it
yourself as long as you have used your passport to go to the states
before. So we headed over to use them. Thomas entered all his details
and all went fine. When it was my turn unfortunately we had issues
with my finger prints. I have had issues with my fingerprints for so
long because of my eczema causing them to be fainter. So my clearance
card had a big x on it. So with this deflated feeling we headed to a
manned clearance desk. We both had to hand all our documents in and
tried my fingerprints again a few times before we actually got sorted
then they stamped our passports and we could move on. We were very
relieved to be through that part. We just chilled and chatted and
faffed about on our phones. I started writing some of this blog. Just
to pass the time.
Our flight did get delayed
by a short time as they were waiting on housekeeping getting done to
the plane. It was no big deal we weren't delayed by long. The runway
felt like it went on forever, trying to hold my phone to film for
what seemed like three days. I had planned to vlog while I was away,
but I decided that as my husband is not very comfortable with being
on camera that way I would blog instead. I will have some videos, but
it wont be an actual vlog.
The actual flight was tough
going. There was nothing specific I could complain about. It just
seemed to drag in. The first hour was ok and they brought us a meal
round. The food was not bad, but nothing to write home about either.
Though anything is better than United Airlines food service we got
last year. The options we had were Beef Stroganoff and Rice or Herb
Chicken and Potato Wedges. I had chicken Thomas had the beef. It came
with a Lemon Curd mouse, which was very nice. Just the right amount
of Lemon in it so not to be too sickly sweet or too tart. We had Tea
and Coffee round next. I of course am a coffee fiend and Thomas is a
tea drinker. Both were ok. It was caffeine, that was good enough. I
tried not to sleep too much as I wanted to be able to sleep that
night and we would be getting into Florida at 6:30 and so by time we
would get to the villa and get sorted we would be ready for bed.
However if we were to do our usual sleeping on the plane then we
would be wide awake all night and not be able to enjoy Disney the
next day. We read, we watched tv shows and films. I watched the
Danish Girl. I had been wanting to see that movie for a while. My
earphones only had one working but that is ok, I made the most of
what sound I had. An hour before landing we were brought round
sandwiches and water. Chicken salad sandwiches, which if I am honest
were only just about edible. The bread was soggy from the salad. It
is very hard to make and store salad sandwiches without that
happening, so I wasn't too surprised.
We landed on time and got
off the plane quite quickly. We headed straight on through to pick up
our bags. It was weird not having to go through immigration there,
having done it before we took off. We got the monorail and headed to
baggage claim. We expected to be hanging around for ages, but as we
got the carousel the alarm went to signal the bags starting to come
through. I was very surprised that it was such a short wait, but
after 10-15 minutes we were heading to the garage to look for Alamo
to pick up our car hire. We had gone through the online check in for
car hire so all we had to do was go to the line to pick up our
reserved car. Of course Thomas had wanted the mustang convertible
again having had that last year he was definitely wanting to drive a
beast again. They were mostly black options with one grey one
available. So we opted for Black. The keys were in it of course. So
we got the boot open and got one suitcase and the hand luggage in
and the second one went on the back seat. We headed to the exit with
our paperwork, picked up our hired sat nav and documents and we were
on our way. Even though we knew where we were going we followed the
Sat Nav and it took us along the Toll Roads and in the back way to the
neighbourhood we were staying in.
Once we arrived and got our
stuff out of the car we dropped our stuff in the family room and took
a tour of the villa. Of course going outside to check out the pool as
it was our main reason for choosing this particular villa. We wanted
a pool big enough to swim laps in. We were not disappointed. We were
shocked to see just how big the deck area is out the back. Plenty of
space for eating out and sunbathing. There is a family table
underneath a covered area, which is where I am currently sitting to
type this up for you all. They have another table and chairs out in
the open area for those wanting to be in the sunshine. I prefer to
chill in the shade rather than melt in the sunshine so I stick to
being under the canopy roof while I am just hanging out. I love the
sunshine but it is nice to get out of it for a while especially in
the height of the afternoon. The sun gets very intense and I burn so
easily.
Anyway, back to it, once we
had run around checking out the place we grabbed some money and
headed for a local Publix to pick up some essentials. Mainly Milk,
sugar and Coffee. Thomas saw Crispy Creme Doughnuts and decided he
really wanted to try them we also bought some Lays of course.
We headed back, had a well
needed cup of tea and headed to bed ready for our first real day of
being in Florida. Magic Kingdom is the first park on our itinerary.
