Again we were quickly through security, although they turned out my cabin bag fully as they said there were so many chargers etc in it, they couldn't get a clear view of what was actually inside.
Everyone was very courteous and very friendly. We found a place called the Pub/Kitchen and it was waiter service and very civilised.
The flight pushed off from the stand about a minute early and we really enjoyed the experience overall. There was about as much legroom as we have ever had, they regularly brought us 'hydration opportunities'. You could have a wide range of free drinks bar once when they offered us a choice of water or pure orange juice. A glass of wine was free with the meal.
Meal choice was either BBQ chicken or ravioli pasta. I had the chicken which was great. Later on they offered us a sandwich - a baguette of either tomato and mozzarella (Caprese) or salami and cheese. There was a wide choice of recent and classic films to watch, including even 'The Sound of Music'! I watched 'Lincoln' properly through and I wasn't surprised that Daniel Day-Lewis got an Oscar. The I watched 'Rush' which was hugely entertaining and finally 'Gravity' which was as I expected - a cross between '2001 - A Space Odyssey' and 'Apollo 13' but not as good as either.
That saw me through to Philadelphia where we landed at Terminal A to bright sunshine. After we had 'de-planed'!!as they described it, we got through immigration pretty painlessly and then had to collect our cases and almost immediately drop them off again and go through security before we were allowed to transfer to Terminal C. Having warned us we would just about have to strip down for security, I was allowed to keep my shoes on and keep my various laptops and tablets in the bag and my cabin bag, which was emptied at Heathrow just sailed through!
There is free wifi here. For those of you coming back this way, you need to choose ATTWifi and accept the terms and conditions and you're in.
Message to Lady Penelope. Parker has tried to phone from Philly at just after 10pm your time today, but the phone won't have it.
Sarah is now flagging a bit and we have a couple of hours to wait for our 2 hour 40 minute flight to Orlando.
Well the flight to Orlando was good enough and only 2 hours and 10 minutes. On both flights we experienced what they described as 'moderate turbulence' on the way down. We got off at Orlando and had to walk quite a way then use the driverless train to get to the baggage claim area. Having found our cases, we realised that Alamo had a desk on the concourse. We got the car sorted - of course, even though you reserve a car with a seemingly all-inclusive package, they still wanted to sell me personal accident insurance (included in our travel insurance already) and roadside rescue - I said that if their nearly new car went wrong I was sure they would come out and sort it (which he said they would) so I didn't need to pay $5 extra a day (another £60 on the overall bill). Chris asked about being put on the policy as he is under 25 and that would have been $25 a day - £15 a day or about £200 for the time he is here.
We went across the road from the concourse straight to the Alamo multi-storey where a helpful lady said that as we had booked a 'van' we were free to choose whichever one we wanted from a line of new Chrysler Voyagers. We gave it a good look over for any damage and then set off. It is a beautiful vehicle and drives very smoothly. The SatNav soon conked as our in-car charger has stopped working so were were back to old fashioned directions from the written word
Msg from Lady P - glad you arrived safely and that the house is up to scratch. Will try to Skype late afternoon (or late morning for you) but don't worry if you have to go out to get provisions, I'll keep trying. Hope you had a good sleep; enjoy the sunshine - it keeps raining here xxxxxxxxxxxx
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