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Old 4 Apr 20, 02:44 PM  
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nothingless
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Talking 5-week Split Stay in Florida, Feb/March 2020 - Day 01: Travel Day

Day 01: Travel Day
February 10, 2020

[-- Trip Index --]

Finally - the day has arrived and we're off to Florida! I finished all our packing the day before, making heavy use of packing cubes as we'd be moving hotels so many times:



We all slept well (though it did take me ages to get to sleep, I always get SO nervous travelling!), and the alarm woke us up at 5AM. Michael and I quickly got dressed and sorted, then I woke and dressed Myla. Michael took her downstairs for a little bit of cornflakes while I packed her last few bits and pieces (baby monitor, favorite teddies, etc), and brought the cases down.

This is all the luggage we had with us for the 5 entire weeks:

Pretty good, right? I was pretty proud of this - it would make traveling a lot easier to not have a stroller with us either!


We were in the car for just after 6, and drove the 30 minutes to Schiphol, Amsterdam Airport. We normally do the long-term parking there, which involves parking ages away and taking a 10 minute bus to the terminal, but we'd gotten a really good deal on the Valet Parking this time, so we headed straight for P6, such a quick and easy walk into the terminal from there. It was super handy, it saved a ton of time and it meant we didn't need to go outside anywhere so we weren't freezing in our hoodies without winter coats!


Walked over to check-in, waited only a minute or two, the check in queue was considerably smaller than the bag drop, so it was a good thing I hadn’t checked in online haha!


After that we headed straight up to security - no wait there either, we walked straight to a scanner. Same with passport control after that, no wait and we walked right up to an officer.


This is us heading for our gate at 7:10, barely an hour after leaving the house! Score!

We stopped by Starbucks for a coffee for Michael, fruit for me, and water to fill up our bottles. We sat and ate it there, and Myla was looking out the big windows at the planes as it slowly started to get light:


Then we headed to the gate and sat there for a bit, watching our plane and everything happening on the ground. After a last pee from Myla, it was time to board. She was behaving like a dream so far, excited to be at the airport and enjoying herself!



We had seats at the back of the plane, Myla and me beside the window and Michael across the aisle. To my joy, there was no one behind us, so we could recline our seats without feeling guilty, yay!




Myla immediately got herself installed with her headphones on - she loves them and was elated to have a good reason to wear them! I have to say, they're super handy. These stay on her head really well, are adjustable so they'll last a few years, come with a carry pouch, have automatic volume limits so they won't damage her hearing, and are practically unbreakable!

It was still very windy, and sitting on the plane before it took off, the wind was shaking it like a boat, which was very unpleasant! Then during takeoff, there was quite a lot of turbulence, which scared myla and didn’t help my sick feeling, yuck. It calmed down once we were in the air, and myla almost immediately took off her headphones again and snuggled under her blanket to go to sleep , she was tired after the early start this morning!


I joined her, knowing I wouldn’t get any sleep if she was awake, and so we napped the first 2 hours of the flight.

During this time, they served breakfast but Myla and I missed it as we were asleep. However, they’d kept the meals aside for us and one of the nice flight attendants brought them around later when she noticed we were awake again. Great service! 😊


It was scrambled eggs, which Myla didn’t touch, plus rolls with bread which she devoured and a chocolate muffin. Tasty enough!

After that, hours 3-8 of the flight were spent watching movies, playing on the iPad, and with her coloring books. It was a bit tiring at times to entertain her, but she was very good and never cried or anything!

We got a light lunch just before landing, consisting of a turkey pretzel roll and pesto bread sticks. To my surprise Myla ate her roll - she must have been hungry!


First glimpses of the US!


Excited to land! I was just as excited as Myla was, since I knew we might get a good view of the New York City Skyline. And I was right - it was a bit cloudy, but we could see everything - from the Empire State Building to the Freedom Tower and Statue of Liberty!


This had me super excited - it just brought back so many memories of visiting NYC with my mom in 2007 and 2011, which were such awesome holidays! Michael loved seeing these landmarks as well - he's never been to New York, but I'll take him one day when Myla is a little older!

We landed into Newark on time, Myla was fine during the landing, and we were off the plane in no time.

We headed to immigration and I was bracing myself - last time I went the US it was a 2 hour queue, and we only had a 2 1/2 hour layover so I was a little worried about that. However , I needn’t have! We were directed to a different queue as we were returning on a previously used ESTA - and I say 'queue' but there was none! We walked right up to the officer and were through in minutes!


I was so relieved, it was great to not have a lengthy queue. We walked on and picked up our suitcases, and went through the baggage security check too with very little wait. All this was super easy and quick!

Then it was as simple as following the signs to the Connecting Flights Dropoff and we waved the cases goodbye again as we headed to the monorail to Terminal C.


This was a quick ride, though Myla was very excited about riding the 'train'!



We passed through security again there to get airside again, and less than an hour after we got off the plane, we were sitting down with sandwiches and fruit, which by the way cost an eye watering $35 for 2 sandwiches, a banana, and an apple! Welcome to the USA, where a burger and fries is half the price of a veggie sandwich and fresh fruit!




Then we headed to our gate and got some Starbucks coffees to take with. We were watching the plane out the window and Myla was very excited when she spotted our suitcases being loaded in haha:


Soon it was time to board our second flight and on the way in, Myla waved hello to the flight attendant. She thought Myla was so cute and asked her if she wanted to see the cockpit! The pilots invited her in and she got to press buttons, it was so cute! And so sweet of them to spend this time with her. 😊


After sitting down it took a while before we were taking off - the weather had turned bad with lots of rain. Myla played on the iPad and Michael and I both started watching things on the seatback screens, which were turned on and working. I have to say, by the way, United's selection of movies and TV shows is excellent! We flew with TUI a few months ago and had such a small selection, maybe a dozen or so movies. United had like, hundreds! Plus this smaller plane from Newark to Orlando had the seatback screens just like the big plane, even though it was the size of an Easyjet plane. Nice surprise!


But eventually we were underway, and like the last flight, Myla fell asleep nearly right away after takeoff.



She didn’t wake the whole rest of the flight, not even for the landing! I slept a bit too and Michael just watched stuff on the seat back screens. We were all pretty tired at this point - even though it was like 5PM Florida time, it was nearing on midnight Amsterdam time.

The flight from Newark took only just over 2 hours, and we soon landed in a sunny and warm Florida. Myla only woke up when we lifted her off her seat to disembark the plane - seriously, she was such an angel to fly with. Couldn't have made it easier for me, she's such a good traveler! Some people make comments when they hear we're off on a long flight with a toddler, and I know it's different for every kid, but my 3-year-old is just really good and I wouldn't ever hesitate to take her on long flights.

Because we were now off a domestic flight, it was a 2 minute walk to baggage claim and that was all! No other queues or anything! We saw our first hint of Disney on the airport monorail doors:


That had both me and Michael excited as we were very eager to see Galaxy's Edge in a few weeks time!

I carried Myla on my hip carrier as she slowly woke up again from her deep sleep and Michael wheeled the 3 suitcases. We walked over to collect the rented stroller from Kingdom Strollers, which Myla was very pleased with. This again didn't take more than a minute, and I popped her right into the stroller to try it out - she said she loved it and it was very comfy haha! We rented a City Mini, and it was perfect for us, lightweight yet easy to push.



Next up we went to collect the car, about 3 desks to the left of where we collected the stroller haha. Because I’d done online check-in for this, we again didn’t have to queue and were picking out a car less than 40 minutes after getting off the plane. How's that for great timings!
Michael picked a Ford that he said was really good - it has leather seats and lots of gadgets inside but that's about the extent of my knowledge lol!





We headed to the rental office to pick up the villa key in our new car - Myla fell asleep again once we started driving. The rental office was on Rolling Oaks Boulevard, close to where we stayed in Windsor Hills last year, so we knew the area a little bit - it was a 40 minute drive from the airport, and then another 40 minutes or so to West Haven.



And as a bonus, we got to drive under the WDW sign on the way there! Cue more excitement from us haha!

Once we got to the Ocean Holidays office, I walked inside to check in while Michael stayed in the car with Myla. The guy told me there wasn’t actually a villa available in the area we’d booked in West Haven, so they’d upgraded us to a villa in Windsor Hills! This is where we’d stayed last year and because it’s so close to Disney, it usually costs a lot more! So I was pretty happy with that surprise upgrade!

We drove over to the villa, which was only like 10 minutes instead of the 40 it would have been, and were pleased when we walked in - it’s huge, 4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, big kitchen/living, nice pool and as we were checking everything out, we happened to notice the Magic Kingdom fireworks going off out across the pool deck!

Super tired, we quickly unpacked the basics and got into bed just after 8pm. Myla had woken up again when we got to the house, but she was scared of her new room and didn’t want to sleep alone, so I crawled into bed beside her and actually fell asleep there for a few hours myself! I woke up again around 11:30, snuck out, and crawled into our bed, very happy with the easy and hassle-free travel day, we'd been super lucky and everything had literally gone as smoothly as it could have. Great start to our holiday!

Edited at 02:31 PM.
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Old 4 Apr 20, 08:16 PM  
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4fromsuffolk
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Loved reading about your travel day. Your Daughter was so good. Really impressed with your packing for 5 weeks! Look forward to reading more, thank you for sharing.
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Old 4 Apr 20, 09:55 PM  
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Ivegottadream
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5 weeks! I'm so jealous 😁. Myla is a little cutie and such a good traveler!
Anyway I look forward to the rest of your report. Thanks for taking the time.
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Old 5 Apr 20, 07:38 AM  
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love this

looking forward to more too
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Old 5 Apr 20, 08:06 AM  
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margyloveswdw
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Great travel day; looking forward to reading more!
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Old 5 Apr 20, 08:36 AM  
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Thanks for starting to share your family trip, 5 weeks 😎
Windsor Hills upgrade 👍👍
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Old 5 Apr 20, 02:48 PM  
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Thanks for your report.
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Old 6 Apr 20, 08:20 AM  
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Really good start to your holidays. Your daughter is a little star. I’ve stayed at Windsor Hills twice and love the location. Looking forward to reading more.
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Old 6 Apr 20, 09:32 AM  
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Great travel day Myla was a little 🌟


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Old 6 Apr 20, 09:40 AM  
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Excellent travel day all round, looking forward to some more
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