BLOG: A three year old and a disappearing buggy wheel

First stop’s Orlando as Bev Fearis and family head to the Sunshine State to escape the January blues.

Getting three suitcases, a child’s car seat, a buggy and a very excited three-year-old across the Atlantic was always going to be a challenge, so imagine our joy when the wheel of buggy decided to fly off in the crowded departure hall at Gatwick South, never to be seen again (it was somewhere between Pret a Manger and Boots but we traced our steps several times and couldn’t find it). Thankfully, the smiles of the ever-glamorous Virgin cabin crew at departure gate 17 helped lighten the mood.

We boarded with some new goodies – Freddie had a new Virgin ‘k-id’ satchel, with sweets, books and games, and I grabbed three or four glossy magazines from the rack. I realise now they were probably there for Upper Class passengers, but nobody said anything.

Flight VS 15 departed on time at 13:00. There were plenty of empty seats on the flights and passengers were invited to take advantage of the extra space. We stuck to our allocated row of three and I was surprised at the generous legroom in my aisle seat. Blankets and pillows were already in place, and we used our pillows to bolster up Freddie up so he could see the seatback screens more easily.

We took off bang on time and, once the headsets were handed around, got stuck straight into the seatback entertainment. There’s a child-friendly viewing option, only showing U or PG rated films, so Freddie could then select anything he liked. There were some great kids movies – Ice Age 4, Madagascar 3, Brave – but I think he was more interested in playing with the touch screen and the headset socket (in, out, in, out) than by the actual content.

For adults, there were nearly 50 movies in all, loads of TV shows and even more choices when it came to music. I watched two movies, most of the comedy section, flicked through a few albums and even had a go at the in-flight games. In fact, I came a surprising second in the in-flight trivia game (you get rated against other passengers). Warren, my other half, came eighth and wasn’t happy. Hah!

The crew were excellent – friendly and attentive and immaculately turned out. The cabin temperature was bearable and the seats were comfy. With no one seated behind me, I didn’t feel bad reclining my seat to the max. The only thing I was slightly disappointed about was the size of the meals. The menu was fine – bangers and mash, chicken in a creamy sauce or veggie pasta – but the portions were definitely on the small side. The afternoon tea, served 1hr 30mins before arrival, was a bite-sized cheese and onion sandwich (no crusts) and a very small cup cake. It was a very nice cup cake, but just too small. Other snacks (pringles and chocolate) were offered throughout the flight but you had to pay for them. Virgin redeemed itself slightly by handing out ice cream lollies.

We landed on time and the queue for immigration wasn’t too bad. Not only that, the officer actually had a sense of humour. A rarity indeed. But it all got stressful just after baggage reclaim when we had to abandon our bags again as we couldn’t get them up the escalator. We checked them in and were told, rather vaguely, to collect them again near the car rental desks. A few rather fraught trips up and down in the lift (it’s floor 2, no Warren I’m telling you it’s 3) and we eventually worked it out and, thankfully, our bags re-appeared.

There was a bit of a queue at the Hertz rental desk but it moved quickly and the process was surprisingly pain free. We didn’t care what car we got, as long as its boot was big enough for all our bags and it had a satnav. Warren and I would not be together today if satnavs hadn’t entered the world.

Our shiny silver Chevy Impala was waiting for us at level 2 of the car park, keys in the ignition, and after a few minutes working out how to use our Hertz Neverlost (from Neverland?) and flashing our licence at the exit kiosk, we were on our way to International Drive. Luckily International Drive is very well signposted, because the GPS signal didn’t kick in until we were about half way there.

By day three we had worked out how to use it. With a three-week tour almost the length of Florida ahead of us, it was a good job too.