Not so Easy (Jet) Start to our Holiday
I received some flak for wanting to keep all these posts in chronological order...seems no one would scroll back to see that there were a bunch of new entries so I have changed the dates from the original time period (April & May) so that they will appear 'new'.
April 27th
Wednesday night we kicked off our trip with a 21:55 (that's 9:55pm to our readers in the States) flight to the Nottingham East Midlands Airport. We had the usual running around and crazy rush out of here but things were looking good in the schedule department and we were ready to start a stress-free holiday.
We have decided not to kill ourselves with rushing too much as long as Logan is under the age of 2. See, we still get Priority Boarding without having to pay for it so it does not matter what time we check in since we will be in the Second Priority Boarding Class until August 4th :) This means we can allow some extra breathing room using the Public Transportation to the airport - which we need when we have (3) bags for check-in, (3) Carry Ons, and a Stroller :)
We had a very nice, uneventful (read: no one got sick for a change) flight to the UK and were ready to just go through Customs, get our bags, and use whatever method necessary to reach the Travelodge we were staying at for the night. Ben took charge of getting the luggage while I ran off with Alex to find the nearest W/C - the poor girl had been holding it in for almost 20 minutes and we were reaching critical leg clenching.
When we exited the Ladies Room, we saw Ben with all the luggage and Logan in his stroller - Great, I thought, two things down and one to go. Insert typical Dramatic Music here. As we approach I notice that Ben is making a lot effort to make eye contact before I get to the desk he is standing by. "Small problem" he says...and moves over to the stroller to demonstrate the new fold over ability of the handle which was broken in transport. With the aid of a Service Rep we get the Damaged Bag claim filled out and our sheet of instructions for how to finalize the claim upon our return. Another attendant realizes we are SOL without two working handles and runs off to find something to use as a brace and something close to Duct Tape. This proved to be a good short term fix but it would not last more then a day or 2 max.
Now, anyone who knows what I have to do daily with this stroller can appreciate just how horrible this situation was for me. To make matters worse, it had to be broken on this portion of our trip...the first few hours, in the most expensive city of all.
With nothing to be done at 11pm at night, we gathered our items and I pushed the stroller one handed to an Information Kiosk. We were told our best bet would be a Taxi to our lodging and we carefully folded down the stroller and made sure it sat on top of everything for the ride. We checked in and collapsed since we had an early start the next morning to catch a train from Loughborough Station to St. Pancras International in London. With GBP signs swimming in front of my eyes, I fell into a fitful sleep...worries about finding a suitable replacement that I could carry up 8 flights of stairs plagued me most of the night and unfortunately blew the stress-free start.
April 27th
Wednesday night we kicked off our trip with a 21:55 (that's 9:55pm to our readers in the States) flight to the Nottingham East Midlands Airport. We had the usual running around and crazy rush out of here but things were looking good in the schedule department and we were ready to start a stress-free holiday.
We have decided not to kill ourselves with rushing too much as long as Logan is under the age of 2. See, we still get Priority Boarding without having to pay for it so it does not matter what time we check in since we will be in the Second Priority Boarding Class until August 4th :) This means we can allow some extra breathing room using the Public Transportation to the airport - which we need when we have (3) bags for check-in, (3) Carry Ons, and a Stroller :)
We had a very nice, uneventful (read: no one got sick for a change) flight to the UK and were ready to just go through Customs, get our bags, and use whatever method necessary to reach the Travelodge we were staying at for the night. Ben took charge of getting the luggage while I ran off with Alex to find the nearest W/C - the poor girl had been holding it in for almost 20 minutes and we were reaching critical leg clenching.
When we exited the Ladies Room, we saw Ben with all the luggage and Logan in his stroller - Great, I thought, two things down and one to go. Insert typical Dramatic Music here. As we approach I notice that Ben is making a lot effort to make eye contact before I get to the desk he is standing by. "Small problem" he says...and moves over to the stroller to demonstrate the new fold over ability of the handle which was broken in transport. With the aid of a Service Rep we get the Damaged Bag claim filled out and our sheet of instructions for how to finalize the claim upon our return. Another attendant realizes we are SOL without two working handles and runs off to find something to use as a brace and something close to Duct Tape. This proved to be a good short term fix but it would not last more then a day or 2 max.
Now, anyone who knows what I have to do daily with this stroller can appreciate just how horrible this situation was for me. To make matters worse, it had to be broken on this portion of our trip...the first few hours, in the most expensive city of all.
With nothing to be done at 11pm at night, we gathered our items and I pushed the stroller one handed to an Information Kiosk. We were told our best bet would be a Taxi to our lodging and we carefully folded down the stroller and made sure it sat on top of everything for the ride. We checked in and collapsed since we had an early start the next morning to catch a train from Loughborough Station to St. Pancras International in London. With GBP signs swimming in front of my eyes, I fell into a fitful sleep...worries about finding a suitable replacement that I could carry up 8 flights of stairs plagued me most of the night and unfortunately blew the stress-free start.
posted by Pam at
9:30 AM
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