I finally got around to finish writing my posts about our adventure that was our first ever Family Holiday as a Family of 4 back in September 2016! There is always that day before the holiday so let me tell you a little bit about that one which was an adventure itself as well!
Starting the week with knowing that after a day of school and nursery run, you will load your full packed bags and the children into the car and head off to the airport was rather exiting and even though there was the stressful part of making sure that all the windows are closed and locked, the house is all cleaned and we haven’t forgotten anything once we sat in the car starting our 90 minute journey to Gatwick Airport we slowly started that “holiday” feeling knowing that this time tomorrow we will sit on the hotel pool with a cold drink in our hands whilst the kids have some fun in the water!
Upon arrival we parked our car and went into the terminal to find our Hotel for the night. Due to the flight leaving at 6.50am the next morning we decided we might as well stay over and have a less stressful first day of our holiday. Well, that was the plan which unfortunately didn’t go that way!
Once we dropped our Bags into the room and came downstairs to find a restaurant for some dinner. We decided on the Giraffe who gave us a free drink per main meal when we showed them our BLOC Hotel room key card and they also gave us a 20% discount for breakfast the next morning, unfortunately they didn’t open early enough for us to come back again but its a pretty sweet deal and knowing from past visits in London their breakfast is rather delicious too!
The “eating out” experience didn’t go that well, even though Giraffe is a very child friendly place and provided the kids with a colouring sheet and some crayons the peace lasted a whole 15 minutes before they got cranky and overtired so I made a swift exit to return back to our room.
The kids both were fascinated with the amazing view out of our massive corner family room with windows right onto the busy runway and because it was pretty dark when we return from dinner the lights flashing up was even cooler than with daylight! The room was very spacious had plenty of wardrobe space and had a very modern interior to it, it even came with your very own integrated tablet in the wall to switch your lights on and off, regulate the temperature, put the blinds down and even check out so you only need to drop your key card in one of the boxes on every floor next to the elevator as well as on the reception desk which was very handy for us indeed. Here is a little video I shot of the kids watching the planes take off:
After a bit of a disastrous check in Saga (lets better not talk about that sore point) we grabbed some hot chocolates and a light breakfast before heading off to find our gate and on the way there we found a fantastic little soft play area where the kids could burn off some energy before the 3.5hours flight.
The flight itself went alright with the kids playing nicely on the iPad or doing some drawing and reading their new magazines!
And then the holiday finally began! You can read all about our week at the Pirate Village Resort in Santa Ponsa, Mallorca in my follow-up post and find out what adventures awaited us there!
Disclaimer: The BLOC Hotel in Gatwick Airport has kindly given me a media discount on our stay in exchange for a mention on my post and social media channels, but all opinions and thoughts are my own.