WDW holiday, 11th Oct – Flying home

Wednesday/Thursday

We had to get up at 5.30am this morning. Our flight wasn’t until 11.40 but Disney does like to get you to the airport nice and early. We’d had notification that we were being picked up by the Magical Express at 7.15 and to get there 15 minutes early.

I only had a couple more things to pop into the suitcases and they closed easily, thanks to my expert packing skills 😉 (plus we hadn’t done much in the way of shopping)

We made it to the bus stop in plenty of time and the coach arrived bang on 7.15. I do like using the Magical Express. It’s a door to door service and you can just sit back and relax. They play cartoons and trivia games on the overhead screens and the seats are comfortable. Much better than the stress of driving back and having to faff about returning a hire car at the airport.

The airport was quiet this morning and once we’d used the self-service kiosks to print our boarding passes and luggage tags, (I’d already checked in online), we were seen straight away at bag drop. There was only a short queue at security, but we were able to go through a different line as our boarding passes had ‘TSA Precheck’ on them. It was brilliant. The laptop stayed in my hand luggage, our jackets could have stayed on, if we hadn’t been carrying them, and our shoes didn’t need to come off. Five minutes from flashing our boarding cards to walking out of security the other end. We have never got through that quickly before. Maybe they decided to give us a break after my pat down last year, and Stephen’s this year LOL

Once airside, we headed for Starbucks for a light breakfast. Stephen had a sandwich and I had some pumpkin loaf – yum. Then we headed for our gate and sat and waited. We had over two hours before our flight departed but I’d rather be two hours early than two minutes late 🙂

We were quite looking forward to the flights, for a change. I love flying, but hate cramped seats, especially on transatlantic flights. We were so happy that we’d got such a good deal on premium economy with Air Canada. It’s definitely easier now that we’re getting older.

We were almost the first people on the plane and settled in to our lovely comfy seats. We had some juice while we were waiting for take off, and were handed menus to select our lunch option.

The food was delicious, and I don’t think I’ve ever said that about airline food before. We both had the chicken tandoori and there was loads of really tasty chicken. I love the hot towels that you’re given to freshen up before eating, and I love that they clear your tray as soon as you’re finished. It’s completely different to what we’re used to in economy.

I finished my book on the Kindle during the flight, (Earthly remains by Donna Leon – very good) and started another, (the latest Stephanie Plum – Turbo twenty-three by Janet Evanovich). Stephen watched Passengers on the iPad that’s provided.

Our flight took off slightly early and landed about 30 minutes early. We had ages to wait for our next flight but it went fairly quickly. We went for coffee, and had a walk round a couple of times. I bought some maple chocolate, which was yummy.

Boarding went smoothly again and we settled down for our longer flight. Once again we got the juice, hot towels and a lovely meal. No photo of the food, but I did get a pic of the menu. I had the chicken and Stephen opted for the beef. Both were very nice indeed!

I slept for most of the flight after we’d eaten and I think Stephen managed to get some sleep too.

We landed a bit earlier than scheduled and were through security and waiting at the courtesy bus stop by 7.10am. The bus came ten minutes later and we were soon in our hire car and on the road. We stopped at Oxford services for some breakfast and finally got home at about 11am.

Stephen had to take the hire car back and while he was gone, I tidied up. I’d moved a few things to give the cats more space to play so had to rearrange the furniture a bit. I washed all their blankets and quilts too as they’d been well used and needed freshening up.

The cats were happy to be let out into their enclosure and seemed very happy to see us. They look as if they’ve been well looked after while we were away. Kitty Angels do a brilliant job. I’ll post some of the photos that they sent us when I get time.

We had a brilliant holiday, seeing some new things and revisiting old favourites. Yes, it was very hot and humid and occasionally very rainy, but we still managed to do everything that we wanted and spent plenty of time relaxing too.

 

Kitty Angels

Before we’d even booked our last holiday, we’d talked about how the cats would be cared for while we were away. We looked at several options but quickly decided against a cattery. The cats are used to having the run of the house and I knew they’d hate being confined to a small space. Plus Sammie would be really stressed by strangers and noises.

That left a cat sitting service and after doing a lot of research, we contacted Kitty Angels. They arranged to visit us and spent some time with us telling us about the service and asking us lots of questions about the cats and their habits. Tony filled in a questionnaire with all the details of how we wanted the cats fed and cared for. We were very impressed and went ahead and booked with them.

They’ve got brilliant reviews on Facebook, which was just as reassuring as the various documents that Tony had brought to show us, such as insurance and DBS checks.

We had another visit a couple of weeks before we went on holiday, this time from Andrea who would be the main visitor. We showed her where everything was and she made sure she had all the information about the cats that she needed. She also met the cats and made friends with Frodo straight away.

What I loved about the service is that they set up a WhatsApp group so that I could receive twice-daily updates and ask any questions. With every update I got a chatty account of the visit telling me what games they’d been playing and including lots of photos and the odd video. Because of the time difference, the first update was there by the time that I woke up so it was lovely to be able to see how the cats were doing first thing in the morning.

Andrea and the other Angels took some great photos. These are just a few of them.

They played with the laser pointer, the flying frenzy and a piece of string. They got down on the floor and played with mice. They fussed them and cuddled them and talked to them. Even timid little Sammie had a fuss and some playtime.

They cleaned up any mess, even getting the vacuum out and took any waste away with them so there was no smell. They let us know that the cats were eating well and using their litter trays. On bonfire night they put my iPod dock on a timer so there was some music to block out the fireworks.

I’ve already booked them for next year. I came home to happy, healthy, well-fed cats and you can’t ask better than that.