Our Egyptian Adventure COMPLETED About This Page:

[Minnie Lor]

Great start even though it was a bit stressful. I always have so much to do before my trips and I don't work out of the home full time. I like the house in order, clean sheets and towels, and etc. when I get home from a trip. Dealing with unpacking and laundry is enough to worry about. Looking forward to the magical part.

[mcc0313]

What a crazy few days leading up to your trip, definitely sounds like you need this vacation. Glad that the trip to the hotel was easy and that Mark was able to find something to eat before getting ready to lay down for the night. The room is beautiful, definitely nice and roomy.

[ilovedisney247]

Definitely time for a vacation, although I think you are probably ready for another vacation now! (Only two months though right? ) Off to a somewhat shaky start, but at least you're on the road and the room at the Crowne Plaza looks nice!!

[Dlandmom2]

I think that you're right about being so busy right before a vacation so that you enjoy it when you're finally there! Hope Mark finds his charger!

[chezp]

Originally Posted by ilovedisney247

Definitely time for a vacation, although I think you are probably ready for another vacation now! (Only two months though right? ) Off to a somewhat shaky start, but at least you're on the road and the room at the Crowne Plaza looks nice!!

Tell me about it! Someone said to me that the last couple of days have probably wiped out all the benefit we got from the relaxing vacation we had had...

The next one is short but sweet, a weekend away in Vienna in mid-March, then my goodness, you're right - just two months to go and then we'll be seeing you and other wonderful friends at Disney!

[chezp]

Saturday 22 January – part one: where’s our flight?

We had set the wake-up call for 6.00am, but in truth we didn’t need it. Someone (can’t think who? ) told me that they’d be awake since 3.00am, something to do with the fact that he was hungry. How anyone can be hungry after polishing off a KFC meal just before going to bed is beyond me, but there you go...

We got moving quickly, as I figured that we might as well get an earlier bus out of the hotel. The bus runs every 20 minutes, at 10 past, half past and 10 ten and we were able to get on the 6.10am bus, but only just. Why do people take so long to check out? I stood ages behind one guy and I have no idea what he was doing, especially as I just walked up, gave the room number, handed in the key and that was it, I was off...

Mark told me that the bus driver had said he’d be waiting for another three minutes, so I think we only just made that one. There were probably only about 10 people on the bus in total and it was quickly becoming apparent that this is not a busy time of the year for vacations. It’s probably got something to do with the fact that it’s right in the middle of school terms. The car park had been pretty quiet when we arrived last night and it was no busier this morning. As Mark commented as we left the hotel, one time we’d stayed here and there had been cars parked on the grass verges as we left the car park. No sign of that today! :

We were quickly at our first stop of terminal 1 and most people got off here, leaving just us and one other couple. There’s no terminal 2 stop at the moment, as it’s closed for renovations, but to be honest, from what we saw, it looked like they were demolishing it and started all over again!

When we got off at terminal 3, we went to check where our check-in zone was. Oh-uh! Nothing showing for a 9.15am flight to Cairo with BMI. This was not a good start. We went to the airport information desk and the guy told us that we should be at terminal 1. I could’ve sworn that our tickets said terminal 3, but never mind! I thought we might have to take a bus, but apparently not.

He told us to take the elevator outside down to level minus 1 and follow the signs. Honestly, it’s like a little underground city down here. You can connect to just about every terminal from down here, out of the weather, which is a bonus. We passed the underground and train station on the way to terminal 1, which was a bit of a hike. I guess, being positive, we need the workout...

Finally, we got to terminal 1 and headed to check-in zone B for BMI. I wasn’t sure what to expect, never having flown with them before, but I was relieved to see barely anyone else there. There were, again, literally only about 10 of us there. We got stopped by the woman at the entrance to check-in, who was determined that we should use the machines. Personally, with people sitting at desks doing nothing, I’d rather have gone to see them, but to her, that wasn’t an option.

We checked in and mine went through fine and I got my boarding pass, but Mark’s details just wouldn’t go through and it told us to see a BMI representative, so off we went to see one of the people on the desk, which I think would’ve been easier in the first place. She immediately sorted it out for us and I enquired whether there were any seats with extra legroom, perhaps by the emergency exit? She immediately got us two seats in that row, the window and the seat next to it.

When we went to put our luggage in for weighing, as we’d guessed, we were nowhere near any weight limit. The limit, remember, was 20kgs (44lbs) and one case came in at 15.8kgs and the other was 13.4kgs. I think we’ve got a bit of leeway and can afford to buy a few things!

The woman who checked us in was very nice and chatty and told us that she’d visited Cairo with her daughter and had loved it, although her daughter had found it to be a very dirty city. She warned us it was busy, but then again, what city isn’t these days? She also told us that it had lots of history and beautiful architecture and that she was sure we’d enjoy it.

With those words ringing in our ears, we went through security and we were completely alone during the first section and with just a couple of people in front of us in the second section, with the actual scans. One of the women I spoke to said Saturday mornings were often quiet and it tended to be Friday nights that were much busier.

When we got to the scans, I had to wait for the woman in front of me, who obviously didn’t have much of a clue. She had to have a pat down and had her boots sent through the scanner, as that seemed to be the problem. To make matters worse, alarms went off over her hand luggage, as she’d left liquids inside it. Some people have no idea!

We headed into the terminal and were going to change some more money up, as neither of us had had time to do this yesterday, but not when they informed us, that despite the large “no commission” signs they had, they would charge a transaction fee of £3 per transaction. I don’t think so...

The first shop we visited, we grabbed the paper and lots of bottled water, getting four litres in total, as we wanted to have some supplies from home with us. Then we had a browse in a couple of other shops, before heading off for breakfast.

We went to Giraffe, as we’ve enjoyed meals in there before, but sadly there isn’t one in the south terminal of Gatwick, which is where we usually fly from to get to Orlando. As soon as I saw the menu, I remembered why we like this place so much. The breakfast choices were wide ranging and very unusual.

I ended up going for the scrambled egg with toasted focaccia, which sounded divine and it was, although there was far too much of it – something our wonderfully cheery and very attentive server had warned me about.



Mark had an English breakfast....



We took our time with our meal, admiring our surroundings. This is a huge Giraffe and seemed to go on forever, when we were taken to our seats.



We settled the bill, which came to £20.60 ($33) and gave our server a very good tip, as she was worth it. She was one of the best we’d ever come across at an airport.

Next: you’re putting someone who can’t move properly in the emergency exit row?

[ilovedisney0_0]

Wow, I have never heard of Giraffe, but your food looked fabulous! Your eggs looked very cheesy... mmmm ... and I am hungry now!

[honeybee723]

Those eggs looked soooo good! Sounds like you've had an adventure already, and you haven't even left the airport! Hopefully things go a little smoother...until the very end at least.

[unewillow]

Yay, you've started! Ugg, I hate it when little stressful things pile up right before vacation because then I always feel as though something isn't right, like I've forgotten a crucial bit of something and it takes me forever to calm down.

That's a really nice hotel room! Very spacious. And those eggs look YUM

[KMB733]

Great Start!!! Those breakfast dishes look

[ariel14]

Great start!!!!

[DisneyLuv]

Great start. Those eggs look soooo yummy!

[Huntermom]

Lovely start to your vacation.

[RobDVC]

Looks pretty good, for "airport food".

[lauriep]

Dealing with all the details before a vacation is stressful enough without the added work stresses. At least once you got to the hotel things started to look up. Beautiful room, and breakfast looked fantastic.