In Flight The Travel Bored Game

We are here! Again! Safely!

We had a really good, low stress flight. If you remove the fact that the plane was delayed 1 ½ hours.

Please skip the rest of this unless you want to read about my smugness at beating queues in the airport.

In Flight – The Travel Bored Game.

Anyone can play. For the whole family.
Aim of the game is to move round the board, from home to resort, as quickly as possible, with the least stress, for the least amount of money. The winner is the person/team who gets to their destination with the fewest Stress Points.
Use your skill and judgement to manage your stress by making decisions about where and when to fly, how you get to and from airports., before you start the game.
Free with every pack of In Flight.
The travel version of ‘Airport jeopardy’.
On every throw of the dice you get a ‘Chance’ Card’ or play ‘Bonus Cards’ earned while using the Internet:

Basic rule: if this is your first playing of the game you must wear a blindfold for the whole time.

The game is in two parts. Time spent in planning and on the internet can earn you Bonus Cards which can be used to reduce stress, save time or money.

Read On

Sunday we had a lovely lunch and afternoon with Carol and Ron, Dee, Steve, Beth and Sam. Ron had done a lovely job on the mandolin that was given to me by Paula.
We drove over to Manchester and found the Travelodge – the one at Knutsford Stavely is quite comfortable – only £19 p.r. if you book 3 weeks ahead.
Next morning a quick drive (Threw a 4 for traffic congestion) to Terminal 2 and drop the car (threw a 4 for what to do with the car while we are away) with the Meet and Greet man from Global parking, who are very good.
Picked up a chance card – Virgin Atlantic plane delayed by 1 ½ hours.
Through baggage drop (threw a 4) in 10 minutes. Straight through security (4 again). Though this left us waiting for 3 hours, it gave us time for breakfast.
We had good seats on the plane, right at the back there are 4 rows where the window seats only have two not three seats (I had used a Bonus Card when we booked the flight). This gave us a bit more room and freedom to squirm and move. But it is a long flight.
Moving through Orlando was almost perfect. Right at the back, almost last off. Sally’s wheelchair was waiting. Through to immigration (finger and eye check). Huge queues at all check ins – (bonus for double six) except handicapped. Straight through in about 10 minutes. Now about 10th off flight to get baggage. No queues now. Straight through agriculture and customs (Another 6). Drop off baggage again. One more security check (shoes off and full works job), no queue (another 6). Shuttle train waiting. Baggage appeared 2 minutes after we did (Yet another 6). Downstairs for the car hire. Big queue at Dollar! Went to Express Lane (played a Bonus Card, picked up by using the Internet), Only one person in front, showed card and driving licences and away we went. Crossed the road and collected our Dodge Nitro (Another bonus card – using Dollar Platinum, booked in the UK - £25 a day, all insurances, any driver, full tank of gas, drop off anywhere in Florida). We were underway to Tampa East 1 hour and 10 minutes after touch down. It’s a warm evening and we are safely back, with as little stress as we could possibly manage. Unbelievable.

D Day minus 2

It's only two days before we set off to Manchester. Terry has been working in a local school and doing things for our trip when he gets home. Quite tiring so he is ready for a long break. I've been doing all the necessary things to get ready for the trip as well as having plenty of rest, to try to get my energy levels up again after my relapse. Everything is done now except for the packing which we will do tomorrow - Saturday. On Sunday we will just have to pack the last minute things , close up the house ( dealing with the rubbish - trash- turning the heating down- setting the timers for the lights etc) and then we are travelling to Manchester, stopping at Ron and Carol's on the way. We are going to pick up Terry's mandolin ( thank you Paula) which Ron has repaired and got in working order again. Ron is a wizz where anything to do with wood is concerned - many thanks Ron. It will be good to see them again as it was in between Christmas and New Year when we saw them last. Plenty of catching up to do. Hope we see more of each other when the camping season gets going again. After a night in a motel at Manchester, we fly out on Monday morning arriving at Orlando 2.45 local time. Lets hope the strong winds we are having at the moment die down or we might have a bumpy flight.

Preparations

16th January 2008

We cannot believe that it's only 12 days till we board the 'plane and fly to Orlando again. It's been a busy time since our return on 5th December. Our daughter, Helen, who lives with us, got her H2B visa which allows her to work in the USA. She only had 5 days after our return to get ready for her return to Breckenridge, Colorado, where she is working in the Day Care facility near the ski slopes. There was a lot to do - shopping, washing, packing, Christmas presents to organise etc. etc. Terry drove her down to Manchester in the early morning on Dec. 10th and made sure she got on the plane safely. She is really enjoying working there and has settled in very quickly. This is her second time as she worked there last winter too.
Getting ready for Christmas was a scramble - thank goodness we had brought quite a lot of things from the USA with us. Our eldest son, John-Paul, wife Andrea and granddaughter Emma spent Christmas with us. We were given the best of Christmas presents when we were told that we are expecting another grandchild this year. Lovely. Then Terry and I flew to see the New Year in with our second son, Andrew, wife Marie and our grandson Ben.
I, Sally, overdid things over the holiday period and ended up back in bed for over a week with a relapse of CFS/ME. I'm back on my feet but am having to be careful to rest much more than usual. Hope I survive the flight.
Terry has been his usual efficient self and booked everything for our journey - flight tickets, motel, hire car etc and has booked us into various campsites and music festivals. He's been in touch with our dealer who is doing warranty repairs to our trailer - still not completed, but we are hoping they finish before we pick it up. I've been sorting out insurance and things we need to take.
We are looking forward to our next trip, mainly because we hope to meet up with various lovely people we have met on previous trips. We are getting excited about hearing and playing more Bluegrass and are dying to get back to some sunshine after our dull skies and cold, damp/wet weather here in England.