The Flight Over:
So we arrived at Boston Logan plenty early for our 6:30pm flight to JFK. Then of course that flight was delayed. We had plenty of time to buy dinner and neck pillows. When we arrived at JFK (late), we then learned that we had to change terminals. This came as quite a blow, since we were lugging 8 carryons and three kids. Joseph and Abby each had a backpack and were carrying one other thing. Philip was supposed to be carrying his backpack, but it never quite worked that way. So Bill and I bore the brunt of that. We had to go OUTSIDE the one terminal, walk down a 1/4 mile sidewalk to a different building, then go up an elevator, walk a few hallways, then down another elevator, etc, before finally arriving at the international terminal. We raced around looking for Virgin Atlantic, and luckily decided to ask the people at the check-in counter if we OK to just go to boarding. They then took our boarding passes and must have logged us in as “there”, then told us to go through security. We were very nervous at this point, but they were expecting us at the gate, and they were holding that plane. We had to go through all the passport checking and stuff, and finally got on the plane.
Once on this huge plane, we were again delayed due to an electrical failure. Philip conked right out, but Joseph and Abby got right into the movies offered. They served a not too bad dinner - although it was so late that I hardly felt like eating. The kids also got nice dinners. I couldn’t keep my eyes open and finally succumbed to sleep, using my handy neck pillow and the eye mask that they provided. It was restless sleep at best. Bill slept not at all, and Joseph and Abby only a little.
When we arrived at Heathrow, we were bumped right through to the beginning of the customs line by a nice lady, bless her. The kids were cranky, and I think she felt bad for us. After that, we went to baggage where we heard our names paged and discovered that our bags had (of course) not arrived. Now this is somewhat inconvenient - not having clothes, toiletries, etc, but it ended up being a huge relief because this meant we did not have to lug 10 additional HUGE bags out to the taxi area, or around the train station. Our taxi took us to St. Pancras train station where we ate lunch, then boarded a train. There was absolutely nowhere to put luggage on that train, so I don’t know what we would have done if we had actually had those bags! We ended up having to change trains at Leicester to get on the train stopping at Kettering, and almost left Joseph’s violin on the train - some nice person noticed it and rushed it out to us before the train left!! Then at Kettering we caught another taxi to Styles Lodge in Rothwell.
Notes for future travel:
It might be worth the extra money (especially for a family with young children) to get a direct flight out of the US, therefore starting at the international terminal and eliminating the switch. A flight from Boston to Ireland and then on to England might work out OK, but from now on, I am going to try my best to start at the international terminal in Boston.
So we arrived at Boston Logan plenty early for our 6:30pm flight to JFK. Then of course that flight was delayed. We had plenty of time to buy dinner and neck pillows. When we arrived at JFK (late), we then learned that we had to change terminals. This came as quite a blow, since we were lugging 8 carryons and three kids. Joseph and Abby each had a backpack and were carrying one other thing. Philip was supposed to be carrying his backpack, but it never quite worked that way. So Bill and I bore the brunt of that. We had to go OUTSIDE the one terminal, walk down a 1/4 mile sidewalk to a different building, then go up an elevator, walk a few hallways, then down another elevator, etc, before finally arriving at the international terminal. We raced around looking for Virgin Atlantic, and luckily decided to ask the people at the check-in counter if we OK to just go to boarding. They then took our boarding passes and must have logged us in as “there”, then told us to go through security. We were very nervous at this point, but they were expecting us at the gate, and they were holding that plane. We had to go through all the passport checking and stuff, and finally got on the plane.
Once on this huge plane, we were again delayed due to an electrical failure. Philip conked right out, but Joseph and Abby got right into the movies offered. They served a not too bad dinner - although it was so late that I hardly felt like eating. The kids also got nice dinners. I couldn’t keep my eyes open and finally succumbed to sleep, using my handy neck pillow and the eye mask that they provided. It was restless sleep at best. Bill slept not at all, and Joseph and Abby only a little.
When we arrived at Heathrow, we were bumped right through to the beginning of the customs line by a nice lady, bless her. The kids were cranky, and I think she felt bad for us. After that, we went to baggage where we heard our names paged and discovered that our bags had (of course) not arrived. Now this is somewhat inconvenient - not having clothes, toiletries, etc, but it ended up being a huge relief because this meant we did not have to lug 10 additional HUGE bags out to the taxi area, or around the train station. Our taxi took us to St. Pancras train station where we ate lunch, then boarded a train. There was absolutely nowhere to put luggage on that train, so I don’t know what we would have done if we had actually had those bags! We ended up having to change trains at Leicester to get on the train stopping at Kettering, and almost left Joseph’s violin on the train - some nice person noticed it and rushed it out to us before the train left!! Then at Kettering we caught another taxi to Styles Lodge in Rothwell.
Notes for future travel:
It might be worth the extra money (especially for a family with young children) to get a direct flight out of the US, therefore starting at the international terminal and eliminating the switch. A flight from Boston to Ireland and then on to England might work out OK, but from now on, I am going to try my best to start at the international terminal in Boston.
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