Let me just start off by saying some days it is very very hard to find something tortuous about kids. Today was not supposed to be one of those days - after all, we were flying with 5 kids, 3 who had never flown before and 1 who had but couldn't remember. I was expecting crying and moaning and maybe a little bit of vomiting to have to deal with. But instead I got this:
This was Josh at the very moment the plane finally took off, screaming out loud "this is AWESOME! ROLLERCOASTER!" People around us could not stop giggling.
Across the aisle, the three older girls were a little less thrilled. Ella was very nervous and had a few quiet tears as she got on the plane but big sister Mackenzie showed glimpses of the beautiful young lady she will be (once the teenage years are done), holding her sister's hands through take off.
If you look closely you can see Ella looking very upset and Mackenzie holding her hand and also Lucy's.
Now I want you to take a look below and take special note of the seating arrangements. So I was seated next to the two youngest - Olivia and Joshua (Buzz Lightyear!) and Mackenzie was seated in between Lucy and Ella. But where you may ask during all this time, was Marj? Marj, where are you?! Oh there you are..all alone with a seat to spare next to you...are you comfortable? No kids to look after? How did you manage that? Oh you say you booked it like that?
And, apparently the flight home is booked the same way! That's my cheeky wife! But to be fair to her, she actually has problems flying. If you check out the picture you can see her holding her own hand and breathing in trying to calm her own nerves!
And how was our youngest dealing with the pressure of flying for the first time?
Well Olivia was pretty much just chilling. Legs crossed, reading the emergency instructions like it was a cartoon book.
When we hit some air pockets and turbulence she turned to her mum and said she was a little bit nervous. Marj told her they were air pockets and the pilot was popping each one to which Olivia replied, "Oh well that's cool then."
And that was about as non-tortuous as a flight with 5 kids gets. They were fabulous.
They each were given two food items to take on the plane and of course Josh opened his as soon we were seated. Olivia chose pretzels as one of her two options and Mackenzie went for a turkey sandwich because her Subway meatball lunch in the airport had cheddar cheese not mozzarella on it which had caused a slight teenage moment. (Just to be clear Mackenzie is not a teenager, she is 12- but already exhibiting many of the signs of teenage-itus).
Lucy was her usual quiet self. We'll call her "No problem" Lucy from now on!
So once the flight landed Ella was awarded her wings by the crew for getting through her flight. And they also allowed the kids into the cockpit which of course was an opportunity Buzz "Joshua" Lightyear could not resist:
So take off and landing were smooth, all we needed to do was pick up our van rental that we had booked online a month ago. We headed over to the Budget counter and there was a bit of a lineup, so we stood in line. And we waited...and we waited...and we waited...a man in front of us wanted to talk which was fine but with all the waiting the talking got boring and then kind of awkward. He asked if we liked hockey! I mean hello - I'm from UK! But we pretended we did. Marj said she was a Canadien's fan. I thought that was stretching things a little. Eventually after about half hour waiting and awkward talking with strangers, we were called to the desk but as we were called to the desk, the attendant also called the people behind us over also. SO in fact she called two people at the same time and then said she would help us both at the same time. She then proceeded to help the people behind us first. Strike 1! Greg, be patient. You are on holiday. As she asks us if we'd like a minivan to save time as they do not have a lot of cars I said "oh no its ok we already pre-booked our vehicle" "Everybody has booked" she said, "but the cars aren't all available so we will just get you what we can". I then told her we had booked a 12 seater van, thinking that was unlikely to have been a popular vehicle and so if I clarify that she would realize she could get us the vehicle we booked without further ado. "Well you are special then aren't you". Strike 2!! I had to think for a moment. Did she really just say that? I felt a chuckle growing inside, I wanted to start laughing but I knew if the laughing started the sarcasm would follow. I swallowed my chuckle and instead went silent. All the while she has not made eye contact with us or smiled or calmly explained the big delay. I'm not really sure what else she said after that, something about Orlando drivers being very very bad and that we would need extra insurance and she was very very stern about it. I declined and she continued to press us because the Orlando drivers are very dangerous. Yes no thank you still. Have you driven a 12 seater before? Yes. She continued: Because they are big vehicles and you really should get extra insurance. NO. STRIKE 3.
So we finally got the vehicle but they got their bad review here on my blog. To all 10 readers - dont go with Budget in Orlando if you need to rent a vehicle. They are officially the torture moment of the day!
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