Happy Anni-birth-aversary...A 33 night Celebration & HHN too.....SF & RPR September 2022 TR

[schumigirl]

Have a safe trip home. Can't wait to hear all about your adventures and to see all of your pics!

Thanks....flight home was excellent.......hopefully start TR next week.......my head is a little fuzzy right now, but it`ll get better.

 

[schumigirl]

Hope your flight was smooth and fantastic!
Let us know when you get home

It was mac thanks......

Little late but, we`re home

 

[schumigirl]

Can't wait to read the TR!

Did I tell you we went ahead and booked London the first week of December? Of course Virgin Premium and trying to get to Edinburgh for a couple of days. You've been a very bad influence on me!

I hope your flight home was uneventful and lovely!

Congratulations!!!

I love being a bad influence on folks.....lol......London will be lovely that time of year with the lights on. I`m sure you`ll love it. My cousin had a day in Edinburgh on her recent visit, she did enjoy it but she visited when the trash men were on strike, so the city wasn`t at it it`s best!!

Thanks.....look forward to starting it.......

 

[kbelle8995]

Glad to hear you got through Ian and made it home. We cut our trip short due to Ian and elderly parents in Tallahassee

 

[macraven]

It was mac thanks......

Little late but, we`re home

All that matters are you both are safely home!
You have been missed.

 

[Cara]

Glad you arrived home safely, Carole! Looking forward to your report once you recover from the jet lag!

 

[BroadwayHermione5]

Happy to hear you made it home safe! Can’t wait for the report!

 

[schumigirl]

Glad to hear you got through Ian and made it home. We cut our trip short due to Ian and elderly parents in Tallahassee

Oh I`m sorry to hear that.

Hope the parents were ok and suffered no damage to their homes. Yes, Ian certainly did hit bad in some places.

 

[schumigirl]

All that matters are you both are safely home!
You have been missed.

Thanks mac.....I`m glad the flu didn`t hit till we got home as I couldn`t even lift my head from the bed without help. It was a bad one. Still feeling yukky but getting there.

 

[schumigirl]

Glad you arrived home safely, Carole! Looking forward to your report once you recover from the jet lag!

Thanks Cara.....

Tom plans to upload the pictures tomorrow, hopefully, then I can start it next week.

I`m hoping the fact I more or less slept 35 hours means jet lag might not last a full week as it did in May!

Hope you`re doing ok........

 

[schumigirl]

Happy to hear you made it home safe! Can’t wait for the report!

Thanks BH......coming up soon

 

[kbelle8995]

Oh I`m sorry to hear that.

Hope the parents were ok and suffered no damage to their homes. Yes, Ian certainly did hit bad in some places.

Luckly Tallahassee was not in the path of Ian this time. They are doing fine. It's just they were concerned because Hurricanes can be somewhat unpredicatable and it was in the large area that was predicted. And we did not want to get trapped in Orlando. So it worked out

In the end a shortened vacation is not the worst thing. Especially with the state that Fort Myers is in. I think about them every day

 

[schumigirl]

Luckly Tallahassee was not in the path of Ian this time. They are doing fine. It's just they were concerned because Hurricanes can be somewhat unpredicatable and it was in the large area that was predicted. And we did not want to get trapped in Orlando. So it worked out

In the end a shortened vacation is not the worst thing. Especially with the state that Fort Myers is in. I think about them every day

They certainly can be unpredictable, glad they`re ok though.

There were several TM`s who had families impacted from local areas to further afield. Some of the damage was truly shocking.

 

[saskdw]

@schumigirl No December trip this year?

 

[schumigirl]

@schumigirl No December trip this year?

along saskdw......

Nope, next trip to the USA for us will be May next year.....think it`s only around 200 days now.......not that I`m counting of course......lol.....

What about you, are you going for the Holidays this year or is next year you head down there?

 

[saskdw]

We are going Dec. 10th-24th this year and have a room already booked at RP for Dec. 2023!

It's good to be going back to Orlando. We went for 10 straight Decembers, but haven't been there since 2017.
Very excited and our adult son is coming for the first time since 2014.

 

[schumigirl]

We are going Dec. 10th-24th this year and have a room already booked at RP for Dec. 2023!

It's good to be going back to Orlando. We went for 10 straight Decembers, but haven't been there since 2017.
Very excited and our adult son is coming for the first time since 2014.

Sounds like a lovely trip you have planned. It`s lovely when the adult kids still want to travel with us.

 

[schumigirl]

​

Welcome back!!!!

Finally making the start of this September into October TR. Yes, it did go into 5 weeks instead of 4 which wasn`t too much of a trial for us of course, we always just go with the flow where we can.

This trip as most of you know was a celebration of both my 55th birthday and our 30th Wedding Anniversary.....my mother had to let me know it was our Pearl Anniversary......I only knew the 25th truth be told!! And it was a blast of a trip....we had fun, we relaxed, we did nothing some days and we caught up with friends which was so important to us. And met some new ones along the way too which is always fun!! We had some lovely surprises along the way and I got a special gift and a special honour too!!

So, will head back to the end of August (was it really that long ago) and hope if you are reading along, you enjoy it!!

WEDNESDAY AUGUST 31ST​

We slept so bad the night before, as is usual of course...what is it about the night before a trip, no matter how tired you are, you just cannot sleep! I think both of us saw every half hour on the clock before finally giving up and getting up around 5am.

The cases had been packed just before we went to bed last night, only last minute things to pop in and of course check we have our Passports and Credit Cards.....anything else is not really essential, but without those we`re going nowhere. And we do check about a 1000 times and then check again.

Kyle was off on a weeks vacation as he had days to use up, but he was off on a 10 mile run with some friends this morning, so we didn`t have to wave goodbye to him which always bothers me, so after he had eaten breakfast he set off to meet his friends and we waved him off. We`d be Facetiming a lot, when we can catch him in of course.....

I tidied up and our car service was here before we knew it. I had called my mum last night for a chat, she was doing good and knew we`d be away for the month so she and other family members had already given us cards and gifts for birthday/anniversary.

Car service was on time and we chatted all the way up to Manchester, it took around 3 hours and never seems as long as that but we got to the Radisson early, too early for our room to be ready so we planned to leave the luggage with Bell Services and go get lunch in the Little M Bar. However, when we checked in they said there was a room ready but it didn`t have a runway view, we said we didn`t care if it did or not, we`d take it, we could see the runway from the Executive Lounge.

Straight up to the room, we dropped off the luggage and our room is bright and more importantly, very clean.

They used to have a dedicated 9th floor check in desk, but since Covid they have never opted to use this area for Executive Level rooms check in, they blame lack of staff and to be honest, there`s not much else to do up here for staff so it makes sense and the regular check in desks are fine. And they replaced the desk with a comfy sofa and chairs which is much more useful.

Our room is no surprise after all these years, but we do like consistency and these rooms never disappoint.

Comfortable and large bed with super soft pillows I love, but Tom is not so keen on them. His pillows are like bricks at home!!! How he sleeps on them I`ll never know, although never stops him rolling over to my side on occasions and never complains then!!

The products they have in the bathrooms suit us as it saves us having to bring out shower/hair products for one night and they are quite nice, very fresh.

I never use the ironing board, despite being tempted.....I am someone who does enjoy ironing, I do however use the hairdryer and the safe is a handy thing to have to save carrying passports around.

This view has changed over the years, we used to be able to see the City in the distance but now more little hotels are popping up as this airport just seems to get busier every year. The land that those two little hotels are built on is tiny and I always doubted they`d get two on there.....but they did.

Before going down for lunch, we popped into the lounge to see what was new. Nothing really, it was exactly the same except wine wasn`t out during the day anymore as it used to be. Seems unsurprisingly, it was being abused.

You can still get soda`s, waters, tea and coffee throughout the day.

Once we had snooped around a little, we headed down to the Little M Bar for lunch. This is our only option for lunch in the hotel, but it is a good one and we always enjoyed our food from here and we had looked forward to being back without the stress of our previous visit waiting for covid results!!!

We sat at our usual booth and Aggy was working, she usually worked the Lounge upstairs so it was nice to see her and she was surprised when we remembered her from May and December. She is very nice and said she was more down here now but there was a lovely young lady upstairs now who we`d meet later.

We ordered a bottle of sparkly as is usual for the start of our trips, but this one was special of course, so we said we`d have that then decide what to have for lunch.

We do love fruit in our sparkly, so when Aggy prepared a special side for the sparkly, it was such a lovely touch and she had poured in some cherry liqueur which I adore and it was lovely.

We thought we`d have sandwiches for lunch today, we both love white bread and it is the freshest bread they use. Tom chose ham and tomato and I chose smoked salmon with arugula and cream cheese, both come with fries and potato chips.

Aggy very kindly brought us each some extra sparkly which was very kind of her and it was rather lovely, but we didn`t want to be completely pickled for later, especially as I had a Salon appointment booked later in the afternoon. So we headed back upstairs and would get some tea while we relaxed in the lounge.

Our afternoon passed rather nicely and around 3pm I went down to the Salon for my appointment.

They have a full gym and Spa along with a swimming pool downstairs, but it`s never fully advertised enough. I do think the hotel could do more to push what they offer as their Spa is lovely, I was surprised with the services they offered and how large that whole area is.

We had used the pool many years ago when Kyle was much younger, it`s not huge but if it`s quiet, it`s a nice pool.

I did enjoy my appointment, the young lady was lovely, very friendly and I had booked several treatments and they were all very nice and it was all very professional. I`ll definitely book some more treatments for our stay in May.

Back upstairs I was completely relaxed.....not sure it was the treatments or the fizz that was being thrown at us.

Tom had met Lily who was running the lounge and got chatting, she had asked what the trip was for and he said it was our Anniversary so when I appeared she brought out a bottle of fizz for us to celebrate and it didn`t stop at one!!!

Around 4.30 she brought out the cold appetisers which were very nice and right up our street, Charcuterie, Olives and fruit......and copius amounts of fizz of course!

The meats were very nice and one was nice and spicy, so we did snack on them for a while. They did used to have a bigger variety on offer, but some of it wasn`t the best, so what they had here worked for us.

They have red, white and rose wine on offer, also they do have hard liquor such as gin, vodka, whisky and spiced rum on offer for folks to help themselves

The hot items are a little unusual as snacks....little mini pies and deep fried haloumi sticks. The closed ones are almost like beef casserole, the open topped ones are cottage pie, so again beef, but, they`re alright.

Our evening passed nicely, as it got busier we had a couple come sit beside us so we chatted the evening away with them.....Lily brought us out another treat later......she had done enough though by making sure we never ran out of Prosecco!!!!

​

Even as someone who is not the biggest chocolate fan, this was nice. Kyle would have loved it too.

We headed to our room around 9pm, no idea if we would sleep tonight or not, but we`d try.

We had a quick chat with Kyle, got some emails from friends in Orlando and some wishing us safe travels and I did online check in for our flight and saw we didn`t have the seats I thought we had, but they were still decent seats in Premium.

With that over and done with, we made some tea after boiling the hotel room kettle several times to make sure there was nothing dodgy in the kettle leftover from previous guests! We do like a cup of tea in the room while we watch some tv that I have no memory of what it was now.

At 10.30, we put the lights out and tv off and hoped with not much positivity that we might get some sleep tonight.

 

[Worfiedoodles]

​

Welcome back!!!!

Finally making the start of this September into October TR. Yes, it did go into 5 weeks instead of 4 which wasn`t too much of a trial for us of course, we always just go with the flow where we can.

This trip as most of you know was a celebration of both my 55th birthday and our 30th Wedding Anniversary.....my mother had to let me know it was our Pearl Anniversary......I only knew the 25th truth be told!! And it was a blast of a trip....we had fun, we relaxed, we did nothing some days and we caught up with friends which was so important to us. And met some new ones along the way too which is always fun!! We had some lovely surprises along the way and I got a special gift and a special honour too!!

So, will head back to the end of August (was it really that long ago) and hope if you are reading along, you enjoy it!!

WEDNESDAY AUGUST 31ST​

We slept so bad the night before, as is usual of course...what is it about the night before a trip, no matter how tired you are, you just cannot sleep! I think both of us saw every half hour on the clock before finally giving up and getting up around 5am.

The cases had been packed just before we went to bed last night, only last minute things to pop in and of course check we have our Passports and Credit Cards.....anything else is not really essential, but without those we`re going nowhere. And we do check about a 1000 times and then check again.

Kyle was off on a weeks vacation as he had days to use up, but he was off on a 10 mile run with some friends this morning, so we didn`t have to wave goodbye to him which always bothers me, so after he had eaten breakfast he set off to meet his friends and we waved him off. We`d be Facetiming a lot, when we can catch him in of course.....

I tidied up and our car service was here before we knew it. I had called my mum last night for a chat, she was doing good and knew we`d be away for the month so she and other family members had already given us cards and gifts for birthday/anniversary.

Car service was on time and we chatted all the way up to Manchester, it took around 3 hours and never seems as long as that but we got to the Radisson early, too early for our room to be ready so we planned to leave the luggage with Bell Services and go get lunch in the Little M Bar. However, when we checked in they said there was a room ready but it didn`t have a runway view, we said we didn`t care if it did or not, we`d take it, we could see the runway from the Executive Lounge.

Straight up to the room, we dropped off the luggage and our room is bright and more importantly, very clean.

They used to have a dedicated 9th floor check in desk, but since Covid they have never opted to use this area for Executive Level rooms check in, they blame lack of staff and to be honest, there`s not much else to do up here for staff so it makes sense and the regular check in desks are fine. And they replaced the desk with a comfy sofa and chairs which is much more useful.

Our room is no surprise after all these years, but we do like consistency and these rooms never disappoint.

Comfortable and large bed with super soft pillows I love, but Tom is not so keen on them. His pillows are like bricks at home!!! How he sleeps on them I`ll never know, although never stops him rolling over to my side on occasions and never complains then!!

The products they have in the bathrooms suit us as it saves us having to bring out shower/hair products for one night and they are quite nice, very fresh.

I never use the ironing board, despite being tempted.....I am someone who does enjoy ironing, I do however use the hairdryer and the safe is a handy thing to have to save carrying passports around.

This view has changed over the years, we used to be able to see the City in the distance but now more little hotels are popping up as this airport just seems to get busier every year. The land that those two little hotels are built on is tiny and I always doubted they`d get two on there.....but they did.

Before going down for lunch, we popped into the lounge to see what was new. Nothing really, it was exactly the same except wine wasn`t out during the day anymore as it used to be. Seems unsurprisingly, it was being abused.

You can still get soda`s, waters, tea and coffee throughout the day.

Once we had snooped around a little, we headed down to the Little M Bar for lunch. This is our only option for lunch in the hotel, but it is a good one and we always enjoyed our food from here and we had looked forward to being back without the stress of our previous visit waiting for covid results!!!

We sat at our usual booth and Aggy was working, she usually worked the Lounge upstairs so it was nice to see her and she was surprised when we remembered her from May and December. She is very nice and said she was more down here now but there was a lovely young lady upstairs now who we`d meet later.

We ordered a bottle of sparkly as is usual for the start of our trips, but this one was special of course, so we said we`d have that then decide what to have for lunch.

We do love fruit in our sparkly, so when Aggy prepared a special side for the sparkly, it was such a lovely touch and she had poured in some cherry liqueur which I adore and it was lovely.

We thought we`d have sandwiches for lunch today, we both love white bread and it is the freshest bread they use. Tom chose ham and tomato and I chose smoked salmon with arugula and cream cheese, both come with fries and potato chips.

Aggy very kindly brought us each some extra sparkly which was very kind of her and it was rather lovely, but we didn`t want to be completely pickled for later, especially as I had a Salon appointment booked later in the afternoon. So we headed back upstairs and would get some tea while we relaxed in the lounge.

Our afternoon passed rather nicely and around 3pm I went down to the Salon for my appointment.

They have a full gym and Spa along with a swimming pool downstairs, but it`s never fully advertised enough. I do think the hotel could do more to push what they offer as their Spa is lovely, I was surprised with the services they offered and how large that whole area is.

We had used the pool many years ago when Kyle was much younger, it`s not huge but if it`s quiet, it`s a nice pool.

I did enjoy my appointment, the young lady was lovely, very friendly and I had booked several treatments and they were all very nice and it was all very professional. I`ll definitely book some more treatments for our stay in May.

Back upstairs I was completely relaxed.....not sure it was the treatments or the fizz that was being thrown at us.

Tom had met Lily who was running the lounge and got chatting, she had asked what the trip was for and he said it was our Anniversary so when I appeared she brought out a bottle of fizz for us to celebrate and it didn`t stop at one!!!

Around 4.30 she brought out the cold appetisers which were very nice and right up our street, Charcuterie, Olives and fruit......and copius amounts of fizz of course!

The meats were very nice and one was nice and spicy, so we did snack on them for a while. They did used to have a bigger variety on offer, but some of it wasn`t the best, so what they had here worked for us.

They have red, white and rose wine on offer, also they do have hard liquor such as gin, vodka, whisky and spiced rum on offer for folks to help themselves

The hot items are a little unusual as snacks....little mini pies and deep fried haloumi sticks. The closed ones are almost like beef casserole, the open topped ones are cottage pie, so again beef, but, they`re alright.

Our evening passed nicely, as it got busier we had a couple come sit beside us so we chatted the evening away with them.....Lily brought us out another treat later......she had done enough though by making sure we never ran out of Prosecco!!!!

​

Even as someone who is not the biggest chocolate fan, this was nice. Kyle would have loved it too.

We headed to our room around 9pm, no idea if we would sleep tonight or not, but we`d try.

We had a quick chat with Kyle, got some emails from friends in Orlando and some wishing us safe travels and I did online check in for our flight and saw we didn`t have the seats I thought we had, but they were still decent seats in Premium.

With that over and done with, we made some tea after boiling the hotel room kettle several times to make sure there was nothing dodgy in the kettle leftover from previous guests! We do like a cup of tea in the room while we watch some tv that I have no memory of what it was now.

At 10.30, we put the lights out and tv off and hoped with not much positivity that we might get some sleep tonight.

Woohoo! So excited to be coming along on this special Anni-birth-aversary trip!
Can I just say I love your dress? Perfect for traveling!
I'm so glad you had some spa treatments to relax as you kick things off.
All the treats look yummy, and what a comfortable room.

You are off to a fabulous start. This trip is going to be Epic!!

 

[schumigirl]

Woohoo! So excited to be coming along on this special Anni-birth-aversary trip!
Can I just say I love your dress? Perfect for traveling!
I'm so glad you had some spa treatments to relax as you kick things off.
All the treats look yummy, and what a comfortable room.

You are off to a fabulous start. This trip is going to be Epic!!

Thanks Maria.....

I honestly am not really a Spa person, I only ever really went under sufference with my friend E who passed away in 2016. She loved a Spa day.

But, I have a few cousins who live in Manchester and one is a CID officer and she treated 3 of her team to a Spa day here during the summer. She isn`t the biggest Spa fan either, but when she told me how much she enjoyed this one with her team, I thought I`d give it a bash. I did like it.

Yes, the rooms are so comfy there.

Glad to have you along for this one too.......