Sue and One-eyed Steve bridge the gap in the UK! COMPLETED 7/1 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Sue and One-eyed Steve bridge the gap in the UK! COMPLETED 7/1
Now, before I begin, a few disclaimers here:
Chez and I talked about doing trip reports (since one of us has a tendency to not finish them ) and we decided to do two seperate ones. First of all, I know that Chez will be much more ahead then I will be, and second of all, there's alot of information to cover!
I wanted to get this started sooner, but between both of us coming home sick and a little incident with uploading my photos (don't ask, just suffice it to say that you should never upload different memory cards to the same folder ) and then getting kicked out of Photobucket for the entire day that I had off to do the uploading, I am a bit late getting out of the gate here. Oh, and did I mention that between Steve and I, we have over 3000 photos? (And 15 hours of video....)
So, the pictures are now downloaded and sorted, I just need to upload them to Photobucket (yes we are all happy again! ) and I am good to go!
Alot of my report is going to be pictures and our impressions of the country and our visit. I'm going to let Cheryl tell the story, she is a much better narrator (and note-taker) than me!
So we begin....
The cast of characters: Steve, Sue, Mark and Cheryl
The time frame: Thursday, May 1, through Saturday, May 10th.
Where: The UK, London, Maidstone, and sadly, Heathrow.
Why: It's about time we went to see Mark and Cheryl, they always come see us!
This trip started as an idea, hatched briefly at the October 2006 WDW trip. As you read in Chez's report, we talked about it then. I have on video Chez asking us when we were coming over, and I distinctly answered "Saturday, we will be there on Saturday!" Of course, over the course of the next few months, it didn't seem so incomprehensible that we could actually do this trip. Steve and I travel quite a bit, but with the exception of cruises, we have never travelled out of the country. What better place to start then a place where they speak our language, and where we have friends that can help us out?
We decided on the dates, and then I began to fare-watch. Now as a normal, healthy, red-blooded American traveller, I never buy plane tickets when the window opens. Heck, that's what "Ding" was invented for, right? So I watched fares between British Airways and Virgin, and...wait!!! They are not changing!!! No Dings for us! Finally, Cheryl told me that I should grab what I could as they tended to go up, not down. I took this totally foreign concept and booked our trip on British Airways with an upgrade to World Class Traveller for the additional seat room. A good move, as you will see later.
We had enough DVC points to book a room in London at the Royal Garden Hotel for three nights, so we did. We booked the Heathrow Marriot for our last night. And the other four days we would be staying with Mark and Cheryl. They would be joining us at the Royal Garden for 2 nights, also.
A flurry of emails later, we had our London Pass bought, our Heathrow Express tickets purchased, tickets for the London Eye, tickets for the Eurostar, tickets for "The Lion King", and a fantastic itinerary from Chez. We were ready to go!
Next...getting ready to go, and drive to the airport, and "Do you want wine with your dinner?"
Great start Sue - I'd forgotten all about the "Saturday" comment when we first asked when you guys were going to visit us. So now I know the real reason you hesitated for so long before getting those flights booked...
Can't wait to 'hear' all about your trip! I'm pleasantly surprised to see that BOTH of you have sig pictures of both of Steve's eyes...even if they are behind sunglasses, though I do note that the video camera is at the ready......more. please
Steve and I travel quite a bit, but with the exception of cruises, we have never travelled out of the country. What better place to start then a place where they speak our language, and where we have friends that can help us out?
For the record, I know another place like that too.....
Hooray, it is started! Sorry to hear you guys were sick, had photo issues, etc. Glad all is resolved and you can get about the business of telling your story.
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So with tickets bought and reservations made, we fell into the planning mode. This was quite a bit more complicated than I was used to. Donna (GoofyMom) was the recepient of more than one frustrated PM from me ( for listening...love ya, girlfriend! ) as we tried to work out the details. One of the biggest challenges was finding a place over here to exchange currency! You would have thought that the Poconos were a seceded union the way that no one could do this simple task! I finally ended up at AAA in a different county to make this work. The other issue was that fact that we had added 2 more furbabies to the flock. I couldn't ask my regular cat-sitter, Margo, to watch 4 cats, so they needed to be split up into 2 and 2. I asked my nephew to watch the 2 we were leaving here, and left the others with Margo. She was going to be returning from vacation the day we left, but another friend said she would keep the boys overnight till Margo got home. More on this later.... Then I needed to get a phone, since Verizon doesn't have service in the UK. Now, for those of you that think I am addicted to my phone, the real issue is that I am the sole caregiver of my 83 year old father, so I need to be able to have a way to stay in touch with him. Of course, the day before we left, Steve's work told him to feel free to use his work phone (he has AT&T) as often as he liked. Sure, why not wait till we were on the plane to tell us that?! Then I had to figure out paychecks, etc, since we had things coming due when we were away. Normally, I just pack the bills and toss them in the nearest mailbox the day they need to go out, that was obviously not going to work this time. I think this was the first time in my life that my checkbook was actually balanced 10 days in advance!
Finally, it was all good and we were set. Steve drove to work Thursday morning with the promise he ws going to leave early. I finished what I needed to do around the house, and took the dogs to "camp". I got everything ready for Tigger and Rocky to go to Margo's. I was dropping them off at work with Patti, my interim cat-sitter, and she was going to keep them overnight till Margo got them on Friday. I called Patti to make sure it was still OK. "Oh! I forgot I was doing that! I just said I would work till midnight!" Uh...WHAT??? It's noon...my boys can't stay in their carriers for 13 or so hours! "Oh, if they need to go, I'll just take them out and let them use the litterbox and then put them back in." Uh....no.....these are my boys and I don't want them wandering around the station where we spray for bugs, where the floor is gross and there are people that don't really like cats. Panicking now, I called Margo and got her before she left for home. I told her what went on, and literally begged her for help. She said that she and Suzanne (her travelling bud) would come up on Friday and get the boys and take them home. Whew! I told her where the spare key was, and set all the cats up to stay overnight. I called Patti back and told a little white lie, that Margo had called me to say she would be happy to do that as it would be less stressful for the cats (and me!).
Steve got home at 3, we were packed and back on the road at 4. Our flight left at 9, so we had plenty of time. We headed down the turnpike, got to the Blue Route and.... tailights as far as we could see! Per the radio, the back up was for about 12 miles, for NO APPARENT REASON! We sat...and sat...and sat....I had wanted to be at the airport by 6, but that was not going to happen. Finally, at about 6:30, we were exiting 95 at the airport.
We tried to follow Garmin to find the parking, but she didn't know that the road we needed was closed, and kept telling us to turn right where there was no road! We circled twice, Steve argued that I had missed the turn, but the second time through, he realized that Garmin didn't know about the road! We found our road, and were soon at Winner Parking.
A quick ride over to Terminal A, and we were on our way!!
We had pre-checked in the night before, so we got through the check-in process very quickly. Our bags were way under-weight, we checked them in and headed off to security. Security was a breeze, I have had more issues flying to Florida!
We looked at the Board, and there we were: British Airways Flight 0068!
We grabbed pizza at the local pizza stop, and then walked through a very empty terminal to wait for our flight.
Our flight was delayed about 20 minutes, but soon we were boarded. We were on the ground for another 20 minutes or so, apparently Philadelphia was very busy that night. We listened to the safety presentation (are we the only ones who ever really listen to that? ):
and then....
WE WERE AIRBORNE!!!!
Wow, what a feeling!!!
The flight attendants brought around drinks and snacks, we settled in with movies, TV and music in each seat, as well as a small pillow and a blanket. They began to serve dinner, and asked... "Do you want wine with dinner?" Heck, yes! I got a nice Chardonnay and Steve got a Merlot! Dinner was salad, chicken, rice and green beans, bread, and cheesecake for dessert. Beats the regular state-side snack mix! After dinner we settled in, Steve slept, I was only able to doze, and we set our watches five hours ahead to UK time!
Soon, our watches read 7:30, which meant we were close! The flight attendants brought breakfast (muffins, fruit and juice) and I had a really STRONG cup of coffee with what would be the last creamer I would see for a week! We ate, and our captain announced that we pretty much could see Heathrow, but we needed to circle for a bit. It was only about 20 minutes, though. At 10 AM UK time, we touched down!!!
Next... "Mind the Gap" , a room with a view, and a walk in the park!
Great update - and it sounds like you guys had a great flight too... after all the kitty issues. You see, I told you that they would feed you proper food on the international flights, didn't I? Now you see how the other half live...
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) and we decided to do two seperate ones. First of all, I know that Chez will be much more ahead then I will be, and second of all, there's alot of information to cover! 
) and then getting kicked out of Photobucket for the entire day that I had off to do the uploading, I am a bit late getting out of the gate here. Oh, and did I mention that between Steve and I, we have over 3000 photos? 
(And 15 hours of video....)
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Thank
Pixie Dust
More please 
PassPorter Guide Author
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Previous trips: POFQ 2005 & 2007, Boardwalk 2008, BCV & AKLV 2009 (our honeymoon) & 2012, BCV & BLT 2011, BCV 2013, AKLV 2014
for listening...love ya, girlfriend! 
) as we tried to work out the details. One of the biggest challenges was finding a place over here to exchange currency! You would have thought that the Poconos were a seceded union the way that no one could do this simple task! I finally ended up at AAA in a different county to make this work. The other issue was that fact that we had added 2 more furbabies to the flock. I couldn't ask my regular cat-sitter, Margo, to watch 4 cats, so they needed to be split up into 2 and 2. I asked my nephew to watch the 2 we were leaving here, and left the others with Margo. She was going to be returning from vacation the day we left, but another friend said she would keep the boys overnight till Margo got home. More on this later.... Then I needed to get a phone, since Verizon doesn't have service in the UK. Now, for those of you that think I am addicted to my phone, the real issue is that I am the sole caregiver of my 83 year old father, so I need to be able to have a way to stay in touch with him. Of course, the day before we left, Steve's work told him to feel free to use his work phone (he has AT&T) as often as he liked. 
Sure, why not wait till we were on the plane to tell us that?! Then I had to figure out paychecks, etc, since we had things coming due when we were away. Normally, I just pack the bills and toss them in the nearest mailbox the day they need to go out, that was obviously not going to work this time. I think this was the first time in my life that my checkbook was actually balanced 10 days in advance! 
It's noon...my boys can't stay in their carriers for 13 or so hours! "Oh, if they need to go, I'll just take them out and let them use the litterbox and then put them back in." Uh....no.....these are my boys and I don't want them wandering around the station where we spray for bugs, where the floor is gross and there are people that don't really like cats. Panicking now, I called Margo and got her before she left for home. I told her what went on, and literally begged her for help. She said that she and Suzanne (her travelling bud) would come up on Friday and get the boys and take them home. Whew! I told her where the spare key was, and set all the cats up to stay overnight. I called Patti back and told a little white lie, that Margo had called me to say she would be happy to do that as it would be less stressful for the cats (and me!).
We circled twice, Steve argued that I had missed the turn, but the second time through, he realized that Garmin didn't know about the road! We found our road, and were soon at Winner Parking.
Beats the regular state-side snack mix! After dinner we settled in, Steve slept, I was only able to doze, and we set our watches five hours ahead to UK time!
We ate, and our captain announced that we pretty much could see Heathrow, but we needed to circle for a bit. 
You see, I told you that they would feed you proper food on the international flights, didn't I? Now you see how the other half live... 
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