Hola, Chicas! And welcome to another exciting instalment of Roaming Roren! On this episode, we find our heroine on a perilous journey. One that takes her off to a foreign land, crossing oceans and timezones! Where has our fearless femme gone this time? Stay tuned to find out!
As some of you may know, I was recently on holiday in ORLANDO, FLORIDA! I'm talking sun, heat, and blue skies. Ahhhh, now that's the life! Not that we had much leisure time to sit back and enjoy, but that was perfectly ok by me. But let's start at the beginning.
One of my good friends works for a timeshare company and a few months ago asked if we would be interested in going with them for 2 weeks to Florida for a holiday to do "The Park Experience". Disney, Universal Studios, Sea World, the whole shebang! I think anyone in their right mind would have given the same answer of jumping up and down all the while squealing out the word YES repeatedly. It was only then that we were informed that the accommodation was taken care of for us. I think I nearly passed out from sheer joy. Oh, the money we would save! (Or so I thought at the time)
As time wore on, holiday days were booked and confirmed, flights arranged, and money pinched at every penny. Except when it came to actual Penney's. We needed some new summer clothes because I knew how hot Florida can get, so we packed up our life savings and hit the store full force. Shorts, t-shirts, tank tops, bathing suits, cover-ups, sandals, sunglasses... You name it for summer, we most likely bought it. So with our new summer wardrobe in hand, we grabbed our suitcases and headed off to meet the aircoach. At 1AM.
Have I ever told anyone that a Roren on little sleep is not exactly a pleasant Roren? I suppose that's putting it mildly. We had our choice of a 1AM bus or 3AM bus. We chose the 1AM bus even though our flight wasn't until about 8 in the morning as a precaution. If something happened on the way, we wanted to make sure that nothing would stop us from catching our flight. But that wait time was a bitch. We got off the bus and headed straight through security. It was 3:30-4AM when we reached the airport and figured, let's just get through and then we can relax and chill and eat and anything we wanted really.
The whole airport was practically a ghost town, so needless to say, security was a breeze. We made our way to the waiting area and quickly realized that nothing opened until 5. Except for a restaurant that I couldn't have told you the name of if I was sitting in their booth because that's how exhausted we were. We ordered a breakfast to try and perk ourselves up. I ate everything and promptly felt so sick. Not a nice way to start your holiday. But walking around the just opening shops seemed to help.
At last, we could go to find our gate. We moseyed on down to our numbered gate, unaware of the plight that would meet us to the next airport, and relaxed again. There's no stopping us now.
The uneventful flight to London Gatwick quickly became quite the opposite as we disembarked. The gruff Englishman told us to "follow the signs" for the connecting flights. And we would have except that we didn't see any damn signs, nor was there a single soul about to ask for help. So we trudged onwards, only to find ourselves back at the security line, where we would have to re-do the process. I was not impressed to say the least. Time was a ticking, and with less than an hour between our connections, it seemed that missing our flight to the sunshine state was becoming more and more likely.
After finally making our way through the security line, time was of the essence. And we did something my mother would have been so proud of. We Amazing Race'd our way through the terminal, to our gate. Yes, fellow adventurers, we became a team from the TV show my mother will never stop watching until they cancel, as we ran through the duty free area, yelling "Excuse me!", and continuously thinking "Jesus, people, MOVE". Of course our gate was one of the last ones in the terminal and at the very end of a super long corridor. Gatwick, you are a CANKER BLOSSOM.
The Roommate and I made it with minutes to spare. Hot, Sweaty, and spent, we took seats in the waiting area of the gate. I needed something to cool me down or else I was going to go all Johnny Storm on somebody because I was on FIRE. I looked around, and my prayers were answered. A drink and ice cream vending machine. I got one of each and sat to enjoy the cool items and hoped they would release me from this pre-mature hot flash.
The boarding began shortly after finishing my delightful delicacies. We took our seats, prepared our own entertainment items, and sat back for the long 9 hour flight to Orlando. We were officially on our way.
Stay tuned for our next episode: The resort and Disney!
