We arrived at Manchester airport extremely early, even after a McDonald’s breakfast stop our rush hour contingency was not needed. The airport seemed quiet and we dropped our bags quickly and headed through security. No queues and no bag searches although I was selected for the random full body scanner.
We had a brief look around the shops but made no purchases (I know what you’re thinking, did I feel ok?). Despite our gate being advised as 206 we saw the Virgin jumbie at 203 so sat here and chilled. There was no one around and it was almost eerily quiet. There were a few folks at 206 who clearly seemed undeterred that there was no plane to take them anywhere. After an hour or so we went to get some food. With a late flight (2pm) it was lunchtime so Paul was hungry. This took us up to boarding time so we headed back to the gate. By this time is was heaving, no idea where everyone had come from!
We headed straight for the priority boarding line which meant the main queue was held back to let us on (people must just love us – not!) and made our way to our seats. We were upstairs in Premium Economy on the front row. As the cabin filled we found ourselves next to a family with a baby which filled us with dread.
The flight itself was ok. For an Orlando flight is was really short at just 8 hours. There were minor bumps as we reached the eastern seaboard but nothing to warrant the belt sign going on. The baby was reasonably behaved although the parents were most annoying being really loud. Paul quickly donned his acoustic 3’s to get some peace! Paul watched Mission Impossible 4 and listened to music and we both played the logos game on the iPad for quite a while; Paul finding my lack of logo awareness highly amusing!
We landed ahead of schedule and got off the plane as soon as we could. A route march to immigration was then met with horror as we saw the entirety of the Air France jumbo still queuing. It took ages to get through and the bags had been going around the carousel for an eternity. We picked them up quickly, got through customs and headed up the escalator. A couple of mins for a tram and we we on our way to get the car. Paul had opted for Hertz gold service so no rental desk but straight to the car lot. There was a small booth and a screen with Paul’s name and a parking bay number. Given the immigration delay this speedy service was appreciated and was excellent, I highly recommend it.
Our car is a Nissan Versa (or as Paul needed to pronounce it to the agent at Sun Pass; a Neessarn). We left the airport about 7pm which having landed at 5:30 was a worst in years.
We made our way to Premium Outlets as we had to pick up my watch. We stopped briefly at Marc Ecko for Paul to get some more polo shirts and also at Prada where I decided to treat myself to a new bag (made up for the lack of airport shopping already). We then headed to Tag and got my watch.
We stuck to our predictable routine after this and ate at TGIs (Jack Daniels sesame chicken strips and some fries went down well, although there was a problem with the soda in the soft drinks, it was really bitter). A quick stop at Publix for essentials and then we headed to our hotel.
It was 10pm by the time we checked in so given the 5 hour time difference we were getting tired. We headed to our room and pretty much went straight to bed.