schumigirl
It's a bit of a roodie doodie word for lady parts
- Joined
- May 15, 2007
I can`t quite believe another trip has past and I am reliving it again through another trip report.
For those that don`t know we are Carole, Tom and Kyle.........I am sure along the way you`ll get an idea of the type of people we are......one thing we don`t do is Plan.........we refuse to plan anything as one of the wonders of a Universal trip is the ability to have a plan free trip. We generally wake in the morning and decide what to do that day.........we always have an idea of places we want to go and where we want to eat.........but it`s what we feel like on the day or at the time we`re hungry. That may not suit everyone....but the thought of planning restaurants and heaven forbid....rides, months ahead fill me with dread! That`s not how we vacation.
What we had this year was a very busy but, at the same time a relaxing trip......we didn`t travel around as much as we usually do but generally this is because we were having so much fun around the hotel and the Universal Parks. Again, this won`t suit everyone as we like to re-ride the rides as often as we can. We also didn`t take our usual amount of pictures, so at times there are no food pics because we didn't take the camera everywhere. It won`t be the most exciting trip report you`ll ever read and will seem repetitive some days, but we had the most wonderful time
DAY BEFORE WE FLY......Monday Sept 8th
It doesn`t take much to organise us really. But it`s so much fun on travel to the airport day....excitement levels are through the roof and we are all so happy ready for the journey ahead. We were all up quite early, no surprise there.....had breakfast outside in the garden as it was a beautiful day, then I left for an appointment giving a couple of last minute things to check.
I only packed this morning, no real need to do it any earlier for us.......so after I got home from a leg waxing appointment, the cases were all down from the attic and they had even started to do their own without me! I was surprised. It takes me not very long as I know exactly what is going and where it should be. I got into the habit of spreading our clothes out between the 3 cases in case anything should happen to any of them, and we have a couple of outfits in our hand luggage. I`m a worrier.
Next we check all our paperwork. Passports and money in whatever form are the most important things.....anything else we can pick up or get sorted. But everything that involves flights are all connected to our passports, plus we can`t go anywhere without them!! Once all our paperwork is in order it goes into a folder and the most responsible person gets to look after it
Car then gets loaded.......we have had this car 2 years now and every time we pack our stuff it never goes in the same way? But we manage it and are more or less ready to go. I do give my neighbour my friends telephone number who is looking after our house, just in case anything happens. Also give her her daughters birthday card as that`s another one while we are away. She wishes us a happy trip and we set off after rechecking the house is all locked up ....again. This year though I have to have a little detour to my friend Sue`s house. It`s her birthday when we are away so I have to make sure she gets her gifts and card and also her 2 children`s (19 and 21??) cards too......September is my busiest month for birthdays! She is surprised to see me and comments how organised I am......I wish!! So I give her a hug and we set off on the way to Manchester Airport for our overnight stay at the Radisson.
It takes about 3+ hours to get there, but after an hour we stop off at the same diner we stop off at every year. It`s a lovely little place where everything is freshly made and always nice. Kyle and Tom have a toasted sandwich and I have a ham and peach salad. Its really nice and not too much for a lunch. We stop for 45 minutes then off again. Traffic is good and not too many roadworks. Weather is really nice too which is unusual, it`s usually raining whenever we make this journey. But we arrive just after 2pm and park the car. It will be taken off site for the duration of our trip and will be waiting for us when we get back.
We get a trolley and walk around to the front of the hotel to check in. We love this hotel, its so handy for the terminals because of the connected walkway and only takes minutes to walk to. We had booked our usual family room with a runway view and always ask for a high floor. You don`t see much but you do see the hustle and bustle of a very busy airport and a good few planes taking off. We check in and they tell us they don`t have any family rooms with connecting door so have upgraded us to 2 separate rooms with a connecting door.........I`m confused because isn't that the same thing??? Turns out instead of the second room having two singles, Kyle gets a proper bed. So its all good. We are on the 8th floor with our requested runway view. And as it`s one of their refurbed rooms.......it`s purple.
So we had a good look around our two rooms, everything was immaculately clean and they had changed their complementary products in the bath and shower are, but they were still nice.
Before we took our luggage down to bag drop we decided to go down to the bar for a drink........it was empty, so we took a booth and went and ordered a drink. Tom and mine came fairly quickly she said it wouldn't be long for Kyle`s. 25 minutes later after serving everyone else who came in she brought it over. It was ridiculous. She had put it in a martini glass and it was only half full. I was going to complain but Tom said it wasn`t worth it so we left after he had his very small drink. We didn't notice till later she had charged more for the non alcoholic version of the drink than the alcoholic one!!
So we went back up to our room and collected our hold luggage and took them down to the terminal to do twilight check in. Now, this is the first year we haven't flown Virgin Atlantic and I was a bit nervous of who we were flying with. But as it turned out they were brilliant. And they offer twilight check in, so we only had to take hand luggage in the morning and not have to be there so early. We were flying from T1 for the first time so we walked down to it and I immediately thought it wasn't as nice. But we got to the check in desk and stood in the very small queue.......handed over our passports and she asked where we were flying to..... was it Turkey?? Eh no. Orlando.......oh you need to be over there!!! Really!! No signs or anything to say which was twilight. Anyway, we wandered over to the next girl and paid our money to use the service......this airline charges extra for everything unlike Virgin, but it was still ok. Meant we didn't have to be up as early in the morning too. Then we wandered back and bought some snacks for later in case dinner wasn't good.
Eventually we wandered down to the restaurant in the Radisson. Last year we hadn't enjoyed it very much. But its convenient and a friend had told us he had enjoyed it few week before, so we gave it a try. Glad we did as it was lovely.
I had the meat pizza, Tom had a burger and Kyle had chicken and fries then a chocolate dessert to start him getting ready for all the choc desserts he planned to eat in the States.........food was all lovely and we had a lovely bottle of wine to go with it. It`s a nice place and will definitely eat there again next time. We were all full now......the pizza was quite large and I couldn't finish it.
So we headed upstairs and made some tea in the room. I love looking out from the room when its dark and the airport lights are all twinkling and the rooms always look so cosy.
We all got our clothes ready for the next morning and watched some tv.......watched some flights take off and just chat. This is almost one of the best bits of the trip....everything is in front of us........18 nights in our favourite hotel and we hope we can sleep as we are so hyped for this trip
For those that don`t know we are Carole, Tom and Kyle.........I am sure along the way you`ll get an idea of the type of people we are......one thing we don`t do is Plan.........we refuse to plan anything as one of the wonders of a Universal trip is the ability to have a plan free trip. We generally wake in the morning and decide what to do that day.........we always have an idea of places we want to go and where we want to eat.........but it`s what we feel like on the day or at the time we`re hungry. That may not suit everyone....but the thought of planning restaurants and heaven forbid....rides, months ahead fill me with dread! That`s not how we vacation.
What we had this year was a very busy but, at the same time a relaxing trip......we didn`t travel around as much as we usually do but generally this is because we were having so much fun around the hotel and the Universal Parks. Again, this won`t suit everyone as we like to re-ride the rides as often as we can. We also didn`t take our usual amount of pictures, so at times there are no food pics because we didn't take the camera everywhere. It won`t be the most exciting trip report you`ll ever read and will seem repetitive some days, but we had the most wonderful time
DAY BEFORE WE FLY......Monday Sept 8th
It doesn`t take much to organise us really. But it`s so much fun on travel to the airport day....excitement levels are through the roof and we are all so happy ready for the journey ahead. We were all up quite early, no surprise there.....had breakfast outside in the garden as it was a beautiful day, then I left for an appointment giving a couple of last minute things to check.
I only packed this morning, no real need to do it any earlier for us.......so after I got home from a leg waxing appointment, the cases were all down from the attic and they had even started to do their own without me! I was surprised. It takes me not very long as I know exactly what is going and where it should be. I got into the habit of spreading our clothes out between the 3 cases in case anything should happen to any of them, and we have a couple of outfits in our hand luggage. I`m a worrier.
Next we check all our paperwork. Passports and money in whatever form are the most important things.....anything else we can pick up or get sorted. But everything that involves flights are all connected to our passports, plus we can`t go anywhere without them!! Once all our paperwork is in order it goes into a folder and the most responsible person gets to look after it
Car then gets loaded.......we have had this car 2 years now and every time we pack our stuff it never goes in the same way? But we manage it and are more or less ready to go. I do give my neighbour my friends telephone number who is looking after our house, just in case anything happens. Also give her her daughters birthday card as that`s another one while we are away. She wishes us a happy trip and we set off after rechecking the house is all locked up ....again. This year though I have to have a little detour to my friend Sue`s house. It`s her birthday when we are away so I have to make sure she gets her gifts and card and also her 2 children`s (19 and 21??) cards too......September is my busiest month for birthdays! She is surprised to see me and comments how organised I am......I wish!! So I give her a hug and we set off on the way to Manchester Airport for our overnight stay at the Radisson.
It takes about 3+ hours to get there, but after an hour we stop off at the same diner we stop off at every year. It`s a lovely little place where everything is freshly made and always nice. Kyle and Tom have a toasted sandwich and I have a ham and peach salad. Its really nice and not too much for a lunch. We stop for 45 minutes then off again. Traffic is good and not too many roadworks. Weather is really nice too which is unusual, it`s usually raining whenever we make this journey. But we arrive just after 2pm and park the car. It will be taken off site for the duration of our trip and will be waiting for us when we get back.
We get a trolley and walk around to the front of the hotel to check in. We love this hotel, its so handy for the terminals because of the connected walkway and only takes minutes to walk to. We had booked our usual family room with a runway view and always ask for a high floor. You don`t see much but you do see the hustle and bustle of a very busy airport and a good few planes taking off. We check in and they tell us they don`t have any family rooms with connecting door so have upgraded us to 2 separate rooms with a connecting door.........I`m confused because isn't that the same thing??? Turns out instead of the second room having two singles, Kyle gets a proper bed. So its all good. We are on the 8th floor with our requested runway view. And as it`s one of their refurbed rooms.......it`s purple.
So we had a good look around our two rooms, everything was immaculately clean and they had changed their complementary products in the bath and shower are, but they were still nice.
Before we took our luggage down to bag drop we decided to go down to the bar for a drink........it was empty, so we took a booth and went and ordered a drink. Tom and mine came fairly quickly she said it wouldn't be long for Kyle`s. 25 minutes later after serving everyone else who came in she brought it over. It was ridiculous. She had put it in a martini glass and it was only half full. I was going to complain but Tom said it wasn`t worth it so we left after he had his very small drink. We didn't notice till later she had charged more for the non alcoholic version of the drink than the alcoholic one!!
So we went back up to our room and collected our hold luggage and took them down to the terminal to do twilight check in. Now, this is the first year we haven't flown Virgin Atlantic and I was a bit nervous of who we were flying with. But as it turned out they were brilliant. And they offer twilight check in, so we only had to take hand luggage in the morning and not have to be there so early. We were flying from T1 for the first time so we walked down to it and I immediately thought it wasn't as nice. But we got to the check in desk and stood in the very small queue.......handed over our passports and she asked where we were flying to..... was it Turkey?? Eh no. Orlando.......oh you need to be over there!!! Really!! No signs or anything to say which was twilight. Anyway, we wandered over to the next girl and paid our money to use the service......this airline charges extra for everything unlike Virgin, but it was still ok. Meant we didn't have to be up as early in the morning too. Then we wandered back and bought some snacks for later in case dinner wasn't good.
Eventually we wandered down to the restaurant in the Radisson. Last year we hadn't enjoyed it very much. But its convenient and a friend had told us he had enjoyed it few week before, so we gave it a try. Glad we did as it was lovely.
I had the meat pizza, Tom had a burger and Kyle had chicken and fries then a chocolate dessert to start him getting ready for all the choc desserts he planned to eat in the States.........food was all lovely and we had a lovely bottle of wine to go with it. It`s a nice place and will definitely eat there again next time. We were all full now......the pizza was quite large and I couldn't finish it.
So we headed upstairs and made some tea in the room. I love looking out from the room when its dark and the airport lights are all twinkling and the rooms always look so cosy.
We all got our clothes ready for the next morning and watched some tv.......watched some flights take off and just chat. This is almost one of the best bits of the trip....everything is in front of us........18 nights in our favourite hotel and we hope we can sleep as we are so hyped for this trip
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As we walk in I immediately recognise some of the staff from last year......one girl, who is so quietly spoken let`s out a massive Hi when she sees us.....lol....it was so unexpected but we were thrilled to see her. She was pregnant when we left last year so it was lovely catching up with her and her baby and everyone else who was still around. Lounge wasn`t too busy so we sat on the comfy sofa`s and had a drink....didn`t eat as we were going to Jake`s for dinner.....first night tradition. It was so lovely just being back so we sat and just relaxed for an hour or so and caught up with the lovely staff members and met some lovely new ones.
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