Flying Virgin Atlantic in the bubble April 2018

We flew to Florida with Virgin Atlantic (VA), Premium ecomony (PE).

Unlike past road trips, where we have booked directly with VA, this time we booked a fly-drive package with Virgin Holidays. When we booked there was a sale on and we got the return flights plus a car (midsize SUV) for less than the cost of our flights to Vegas 2 years ago. We also got free access to the Virgin lounge in Manchester airport so - quite good value really.

Being PE we could choose our seats months before we flew and as I am super organised I had the date saved and did this asap. I wanted to choose seats early as I was keen for us to sit in the bubble. For those that aren't aware the "Bubble" is the top deck of a jumbo jet and it looks like this

with so few seats in it feels like an oasis of calm compared to this (and this is just the economy section of the lower deck)

As well as more space PE comes with quite a few advantages - extra luggage (handy if your hubby wants to bring a chainsaw back from USA and yes that did happen 2 years ago), priority boarding, upgraded food and drink options. Because there are fewer seats in the bubble the flght attendants also seem to have more time for you. If you are flying economy I would also recommend you choose seats in the bubble when you can. You may not get all the perks but you get the peace, the attentive service and you're off the plane quickly as the top deck is emptied before the economy section downstairs. I always check out my seat selection on seatguru.com before finally committing. It lets you know of any issues such as limited seat recline / foot room etc.

Our flight was just over 8 hours. There is hours (days probably) of entertainment to watch - all latest releases too. We had a problem with hubby's screen so they gave him an ipad to watch the films on. Food and drink is excellent. Glass of prosecco on boarding then a constant steam of food, drinks and ice cream - even afternoon tea before we landed (warm scones and clotted cream - mmmmmmmm!) Hubby was driving as soon as we landed but I wasn't so I took full advantage of the drinks on offer.

Here's some photos..

Hubby is never going to "enjoy" flying but at least doing it this way it's as stress free as it can be for him (and I get the vodka - hic!).

Itinerary for Florida Road trip with some potential activities

Here is the bare bones of our upcoming road trip - as stated in previous post this is mainly for hubby's benefit but you are welcome to check it out.

All the accommodation is booked and the Harry Potter tickets but other than that we just have some vague ideas and things we'd like to try and see / do. If anyone's got any suggestions feel free to comment 😀

April 2018

16th Fly Virgin Atlantic to Orlando

        Pick up jeep, check in at Universal’s Cabana Bay Beach Resort,

17th Universal Studios Florida - Diagon Alley

18th Universal’s Island of Adventure - Hogsmeade and Hogwart Castle 🏰

19th Drive to Miami and Urbanica The Meridian Hotel for 4 nights.

20th possibly check out the Art Deco history

21st probably drink cocktails 🍹

22nd Maybe explore Little Havana, try Cuban coffee (but not Cuban cigars!) 🍵

23rd Drive along Highway 1 to Key West and The Southernmost House for 3 nights

24th Maybe visit the Ernest Hemingway House, or the bar where he wrote 📚

25th Potentially dive or snorkel or sail or sunbathe - choices choices...

26th Drive back along highway 1 to Airbnb’s Key Largo Getaway for 2 nights

27th Dive / snorkel John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park 🐠

28th Drive through Everglades to stop overnight at Comfort Suites, Sarasota 🐊

29th Drive up West coast to Plantation on Crystal River for 3 nights

30th options for next 2 days include swim with manatees, kayaking along the

        Chassahowitzka River, watching a sunset on the Gulf Coast etc etc……..      

May 2018

1st as above 😎

2nd Drive across to Jacksonville and an overnight stop at the Holiday Inn Express.

        Time for some history as we visit the Kingsley Plantation House on the way.

3rd A short drive today down to St Augustine and 2 nights in TRYP by Wyndham

4th Explore St Augustine - the oldest city in the USA (allegedly!)

5th Drive down to Airbnb River Front - home away from home, Cocoa for 2 nights

      Call in to Daytona International Speedway Track on the way 🏁

6th Visit Cape Canaveral & Kennedy Space Centre 🚀

7th Fly home Orlando to Manchester

8th Arrive home

Florida Road Trip - 3 weeks April / May 2018

For those of you who have been polite enough to show an interest in our exploits in Florida - here's a little taster of what's coming up. 

For anyone planning a road trip in the States, New Zealand or Australia I highly recommend the Roadtripper site. I've used it for 2 previous trips and it's incredibly useful (if not at times a little distracting - there's so much information on there).

I'll post a full itinerary in another post but that'll mainly be for Hubby's benefit as he still doesn't really know where we're going!

Marrakech Photo book - February 2018

We went to Marrakech at the beginning of February.

Here are some photos for you to enjoy.

We had watched Monty Hall's programme about Islamic gardens before we went so were inspired to visit these - so glad we did.

Also had a lot of fun wandering around the souks - as you will see from the photos.

https://www.bonusprint.co.uk/view-online-photo-book/a68ec034-d167-4e06-b87b-f588474cd5c8

Berlin 2017 Photo book

https://www.bonusprint.co.uk/view-online-photo-book/66a67bc7-5dcf-4db3-b261-e5e5dd94e745

Here is a link to my latest photobook - check it out.
I do enjoy making these.

3 days in Berlin in December - pandas (and other sights)

3 days in Berlin

From the outset let’s be clear. I came to Berlin for the pandas. Anything else was totally co-incidental to me.

Hubby, on the other hand has a more cosmopolitan view of life, and doesn’t wear "panda blinkers" so had a list of things he wanted to see. Berlin is quite a compact city with excellent public transport and we were both kept happy.

We arrived in Schonefeld Airport late afternoon. I’d bought a Welcome Card online before we set off so we just had to collect that from the Tourist Information desk in the arrivals terminal and we were able to use all public transport for the duration of our stay. I’d recommend getting one – it gives some discounts which may, or may not be, of use to you – it gave us discount on the zoo and the Trabi Museum so we felt we got value for money from it - quite apart from the convenience.

www.berlin-welcomecard.de

We stayed in the Select Hotel Berlin-The Wall and this was brilliantly located. Come out of the hotel and turn left – you’re at Checkpoint Charlie, turn right and you’ve got the Topographie of Terror and a large section of the Berlin Wall then it’s a short walk to the Potsdamer Platz with its range of shops and attractions

So here’s what we did………

Day 1.

No messing about today – straight up and out to the zoo to see the pandas. Here’s my review of the zoo should you be interested

https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction_Review-g187323-d314008-Reviews-Berlin_Zoological_Garden-Berlin.html

and here’s me looking really happy with a panda.

Because of where we were staying we also visited Checkpoint Charlie and a Christmas Market (which were literally everywhere!)

Day 2

We had pre-booked a visit to the Reichstag

https://www.bundestag.de/en/visittheBundestag/dome/registration/245686

and it was wonderful to see. Following our visit there we wandered back past the Brandenburg Gate and the Jewish Memorial along the Potsdamer Platz back to our hotel. Later that day we visited the Topographie of Terror, a free to enter museum on the site of the former Gestapo HQ, and saw a section of the Berlin Wall which remains in situ. Got a real sense of WW2 history and the post war impact on Berlin. 

Reichstag Building

Brandenburg Gate

Section of Berlin Wall

Day 3

I’m not going to apologise or explain myself – we went back to the zoo to see the pandas again! After that we looked at some of the sites around the zoo – including the ubiquitous Christmas Market!

Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, the symbolic centre of West Berlin, an anti-war memorial to peace and reconciliation.

We also checked out the Trabi Museum – a fun attraction, literally opposite our hotel and full of information about this famous East German car. You can do Trabi Tours around the city which all looked rather fun. 

Early flight home the next day so no sight- seeing. We loved Berlin and would happily go back. It’s easy to get round, it has an abundance of historic sights and is relatively cheap for a European capital city. Whatever your interest Berlin will deliver!

Flying Ryan Air to Berlin December 2018

Flying Ryan Air.

This was our first time flying Ryan Air and our first time in Berlin. I was a little bit nervous given all the negative publicity earlier in the year with flight cancellations etc. I did a bit of a Trip Advisor haul and went as prepared as I felt I could be. For 3 days we decided we could manage with hand baggage and we didn’t take the hard “trolley” cases but rucksacks – for 2 reasons.

1.    Easier to carry round getting to and from airport / hotel (there are a lot of cobbles in Berlin so this proved the right decision).

2.    I’d read that, while Ryan Air will often make people put hard luggage in the hold when the overhead lockers are full you are usually ok with rucksacks. This proved to be case (pardon the pun). It’s also not pleasant to see other passengers nearly coming to blows because they can’t get their luggage in an overhead compartment and something we like to avoid.  On the way back we chose to throw one of our bags into the hold (for free) just so we didn’t have to bother with it. There was so little luggage on the flight that it was there waiting for us when we got through passport control in Manchester.

We also bought an additional small hand luggage bag each (standard Ryan Air size)– these proved perfect for carrying the essentials, they fitted perfectly between our feet in the legroom space and I’m planning on using them on other flights in the future. The Ryan Air website gives full information about luggage sizes and limits and there were plenty of bags available on Amazon which fitted these limits.

All in all

The flight was absolutely fine. We didn’t buy anything on board – it was only a very short flight. Crew were friendly and helpful and we were on time. With a bit of pre-planning a hassle free journey and one we'd happily repeat.