| Welcome to the R C C G B - The Premier Roller Coaster Club of Great Britain ! | |
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Day 1 - Saturday 6th June 2009 Trip Report from the Airports & Flight |
USA 2009 Stand Behind The Yellow Line started when we all met up at Heathrow Terminal 5 on a very dismal morning, raining and overcast. We all got checked in without problems and headed to the departure lounge. There we split into various groups for some last minute duty free shopping, a beer (Ryan!) and a full English Breakfast as we won't have this for a couple of weeks! When our departure gate was displayed on the screens we headed over to the shuttle to get to gate area B. There we could get some last minute refreshments before boarding our plane, a Boeing 747-400 non-stop flight to Washington DC.
Having boarded the plane we settled down, at this point we were running to schedule for our take off at 10:50. Then came some disappointing news. The cargo hold had some unknown liquid spilt in it so the ground crews had to start the task of identifying it, cleaning it and then sign it off, paperwork!! This took forever, we were given some juice from the cabin crew and were initially told it would only take about half an hour. This was followed by further announcements and delays. The liquid turned out to be water based and smelling of fish! Once the job was completed we were set, and an hour and a half late we headed for the runway just behind a huge Singapore Airlines Airbus A380! The new A380 is some size, so we were pleased we were only on a 747 otherwise US immigration would have been a nightmare! The flight was a good one with just a small amount of turbulence. After landing we were shuttled to the terminal and the dreaded immigration area. This took forever but once cleared and on the coach we were on our way to the historic area of Williamsburg in Virginia.
Nev gave us all some information about the forthcoming events at the start of the journey along with the rules for the trip. Some of us decided to have a snooze, others took in the scenery! Once we arrived at our hotel we received our keys, took our cases up to our rooms then it was straight out for a meal and some refreshments. Now as we are in America we need to realise the portion sizes in the restaurants are huge so we needed to be careful in what we ordered otherwise we would be asking for a doggie bag carry-out! After the night out we all headed back to the hotel and retired for the night in readiness for the early start in the morning. As we were in this hotel for 2 nights, we didn't need the luggage in the hold of the coach next morning.
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| Ryan's his normal nervous self before flying | BA Guru who organised the flights | Ann managing to spill her refreshments! | Ryan interrogates the evening's Menu | Group Photo taken at Hooters! |
