An Easter return to the Isle of Man COMPLETED 5/10 - Page 4 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Well, we are finally home - we got out on the British Airways flight this afternoon, although there were a couple of hairy moments - I'll save those for the trip report.
This morning, we went back to the Sound and it was beautiful out there. It was a lovely day and the cloud/sea mist had lifted completely. I got some wonderful photos to share with you.
I'll begin the trip report when I get a chance....
Glad you and Mark made it back fine with all the inconvenience! Take your time with the TR (I know you won't) as this last day and more got in your way of getting back! Will be interesting to hear exactly about those crazy moments about your return flight and so on!
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
Glad you and Mark made it back fine with all the inconvenience! Take your time with the TR (I know you won't) as this last day and more got in your way of getting back! Will be interesting to hear exactly about those crazy moments about your return flight and so on!
I am actually ready to go, as oddly I had a lot of time to kill at the airport so I was able to work on it...
Ok, time to get this trip report started after a bit of an enforced delay... but before I get to that, there's a lot of fun and great photos first. Here we go:
Thursday 2 April – part one: “I want to take this chair home with me”
Although we wouldn’t be flying out until tomorrow morning, like so many of our trips, this one began the night before. Thankfully, I had a nice, relaxing day at home – well, in truth, it wasn’t exactly relaxing, as I was working for much of the day, as I’ve got a project I need to concentrate on and I need to get it finished by the middle of May, so I need time to work on it without interruption and that’s what working at home allows me to do.
There are some perks to this, as I was able to meet Debbie, my friend, for lunch. We had a lovely time, although parking in Maidstone was an absolute nightmare. I literally drove round and round and round and round, and then for a laugh, I drove round a little bit more – 20 minutes in total, before I found a parking space. I didn’t realise the schools had broken up yesterday, as someone told me they were in today, but apparently not, and for some reason, everyone seems to think it’s a great idea to bring their kids into town to go shopping – personally I can’t think of anything worse…
Mark headed home about 4:30pm, which is roughly when I finished work too. We got ourselves sorted out, packed the last few bits and pieces in the suitcase. We didn’t need that much, as we’re only away for two nights and, at the end of the day, we’re still in the UK, so if we forget anything, we can always get it at the airport or when we get there. So long as we have the essentials, we’ll be fine.
We headed out to pick up Mark’s parents just after 6:00pm, and the sky was absolutely beautiful with the setting sun…
They were ready and waiting for us, and we were soon back on the road again, heading over to Gatwick. I have to be honest, we were both anticipating a horrendous journey, as the news reports had been suggesting that it would take up to four times the usual travel time to get to the airports tonight, as so many people would be flying over Easter. Well, all I can say is that I don’t know where the traffic was, but it wasn’t going our way. In fairness, there were horrendous queues going the other way, but we were fine, and we were actually at Gatwick before 7:00pm, which is when we’d told the valet car company we’d be there, so we had a few minutes’ wait before the guy turned up. He checked our car very thoroughly, which is always a good sign, while we got the luggage out.
We handed the car over, and made our way over to the terminal.
When we got there, Mark went to check if we could check our suitcases in now. I figured the answer would be no, as I knew that EasyJet only offer this from 8:00pm, which is what it turned out to be, but it never hurts to ask.
Instead, we headed over to the Hampton Inn, walking through a bit of a building site to get there, so I guess while work in the south terminal may be done, obviously not in the north terminal.
We quickly checked in, and headed up to the second floor to drop off our luggage in our rooms, which were very nice.
Barb, I know, was especially impressed with the chair, which she said she wanted to take home with her!
We headed back down to the bar behind reception, and put our orders in. It took a while for the food to arrive, but we were fine chatting away. Everyone else got the burger…
… but I opted for the soup of the day, which was tomato, and I was very impressed with the fact that my roll turned up warm. A nice surprise!
I had wanted the nachos, as I’d loved them last time, but unfortunately they weren’t on the menu. Mark spotted them on the specials of the day, when he went up to get me some profiteroles for dessert, and those were very good as well.
Once we were done eating, we headed back to the rooms to get our suitcases, and took them downstairs to the terminal. There was one guy in front of us, so we were done in less than five minutes. I bet it will be a very different story in the morning.
With that done, it was time to head to bed, as with an early flight, we’d have an early start in the morning.
The weather today was sunny and reasonably warm with temperatures in the low 50s. The best thing today was how simple it was to drop the luggage off. The worst thing today was not getting the nachos at dinner. Today we tried taking Barb and Dave up for their first overnight stay before a flight at an airport And the result was they seemed to like that approach. The most magical moment today was that Barb really liked the room, and especially the chair in it!
Next: “right, we’ve got cows and donkeys – any other animals?”
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A fairly relaxed and smooth day before your flight! You've got the airport routine down so well and the traffic was cooperating. I guess you more than made up for this with the journey home, but at this point, all is well!
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Will be interesting to hear exactly about those crazy moments about your return flight and so on! 
so I was able to work on it...
I didn’t realise the schools had broken up yesterday, as someone told me they were in today, but apparently not, and for some reason, everyone seems to think it’s a great idea to bring their kids into town to go shopping – personally I can’t think of anything worse… 
Well, all I can say is that I don’t know where the traffic was, but it wasn’t going our way. 
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