So, after a frankly unbelievable run of bad luck, to the extent that we thought we might never make it to the hallowed day, it's May 4th and the day before the holiday begins.
As an example, i'd managed to lose one of our credit cards two weeks prior to departure, and then having received new ones in good time, a minor miracle given all of the bank holidays, we'd then managed to sign each others new card by mistake. No chance that the bank could supply new cards again in time again so we had no choice but to go with what we had. We had id and so on but it was an unwanted worry to add to all of the usual pre-holiday stress.
We'd decided to use Virgin's twilight check in facility at Gatwick and had arranged our day around that. We, or Carly, had done most of the packing the weekend before. I had gone into work and Maddie was at school as normal. I'd arranged to leave work early and so we all headed over to Gatwick around 4pm. As mentioned previously, we live about 5 minutes from Gatwick so we were soon pulling into the car park. I nearly passed out looking at the short term parking fees, expecting a lengthy check in.
We wheeled our trolley with our three bags into the terminal (little tip: we used one of those handy little hanging scales to check the bag weight so were pretty confident we were well under our limits) and braced for the queue. To our surprise, the Virgin check in was so quiet, we nearly didn't spot the two check-in staff at all. Check in took all of five minutes and we were heading back to the car, boarding cards in hand.
Slightly stunned by how easy this was, we headed home. Maddie went to Brownies as normal while Carly and I got ready for Logan's dog walker to collect him for his own little holiday. We couldn't contemplate putting him in kennels, and although the dog sitting option is quite expensive, we knew it was the only way we would be able to sleep at night. Logan jumped into the sitter's car when collected with nary a backward glance. Sigh! Hopefully our own departure would be as painless.
We made sure we had our hand luggage sorted and then turned in for a somewhat restless night's sleep.
As an example, i'd managed to lose one of our credit cards two weeks prior to departure, and then having received new ones in good time, a minor miracle given all of the bank holidays, we'd then managed to sign each others new card by mistake. No chance that the bank could supply new cards again in time again so we had no choice but to go with what we had. We had id and so on but it was an unwanted worry to add to all of the usual pre-holiday stress.
We'd decided to use Virgin's twilight check in facility at Gatwick and had arranged our day around that. We, or Carly, had done most of the packing the weekend before. I had gone into work and Maddie was at school as normal. I'd arranged to leave work early and so we all headed over to Gatwick around 4pm. As mentioned previously, we live about 5 minutes from Gatwick so we were soon pulling into the car park. I nearly passed out looking at the short term parking fees, expecting a lengthy check in.
We wheeled our trolley with our three bags into the terminal (little tip: we used one of those handy little hanging scales to check the bag weight so were pretty confident we were well under our limits) and braced for the queue. To our surprise, the Virgin check in was so quiet, we nearly didn't spot the two check-in staff at all. Check in took all of five minutes and we were heading back to the car, boarding cards in hand.
Slightly stunned by how easy this was, we headed home. Maddie went to Brownies as normal while Carly and I got ready for Logan's dog walker to collect him for his own little holiday. We couldn't contemplate putting him in kennels, and although the dog sitting option is quite expensive, we knew it was the only way we would be able to sleep at night. Logan jumped into the sitter's car when collected with nary a backward glance. Sigh! Hopefully our own departure would be as painless.
We made sure we had our hand luggage sorted and then turned in for a somewhat restless night's sleep.
