We are off to Florida

Not really an early start as the taxi would only pick us up at around 11.45 and take us to Gatwick Airport. We had spent the last couple of days taking down Christmas Decorations and also moving furniture from the Bar area  so that the carpet cleaner when he comes in the New Year has a clear run to try and remove some rather ugly red wine stains.
The usual traffic on the M25 and it was very bad if you were on the clockwise  side as it was at a snails pace and also the same on the Northbound M23 from Gatwick.
However we arrived at the Airport in plenty of time  and found the Norwegian Airlines check in area and was astounded to see so many people, apparently they had some European flights delayed due to bad weather and so there were many people now trying to check in. We were going to the USA which had a separate check in area and as we were in the Premier Class we checked in and got rid of the suitcases within about five minutes.

We were given ticket ‘s to the ‘One Lounge’ but when we got to the lounge entrance there was about twenty people waiting to enter and clearly it was full up and so we went to the restaurant and had a glass of Sancerre and some Salmon and prawns which was excellent but hugely expensive. By the time we had finished our meal they were calling the flight and off we went down the travellators to the other side of the airport, it seemed, and a few minutes later we boarded. The  Aircraft a Boeing 787 Dreamliner which had arrived much earlier that morning was about twenty minutes late being brought to the gate and so we boarded a bit later than expected and then we had to wait some more until finally the last passenger arrived who was not looking to good and had to be escorted to her seat. She looked confused and kept on getting up and talking to the service crew but finally sat down.
The aircraft was pushed back on to the carriageway and started its engines and no doubt the crew were doing the their final checks and then this woman was up and down again and finally there was a big discussion with her and then  the Captain  came out of the cockpit whilst another passenger who was a Doctor also attended. Anyway she sat down and the Captain went back in to the cockpit and then a few minutes later he made the announcement that we would be returning to the gate to offload a passenger who longer wished to travel, flight fright we understand. And so we returned to the gate and stopped engines and they brought out the gate and the lady got off and then so we had to go through the same procedure again to leave. So overall we left about two hours later than scheduled. Lets hope they charge her a lot of money for the delay etc.
We had chosen Norwegian Airlines as they have not a bad reputation and their Premier Class from a seat and space perspective is much better than Virgin or Ba whilst the pricing is a lot lower. We would not normally use premier economy on long flights based on our experience's with BA and Virgin and we would normally travel Business Class but the price differential was horrific. BA and Virgin to Miami wanted about £ 5800 business class return with no cancelation or flight changes whilst Norwegian was £ 2400 with the free option to change or cancel up to 6 hours before flight, no choice then.
The seats were very comfortable and plenty of leg space and even thought this was almost a ten hour flight, and what with the earlier delays we were in the seat for about eleven hours' so not bad really. Food was basic and Ok but because of Noel’s particular food requirements he had purchased some baguette rolls from Pret a Mange in advance of the flight just in case he could not eat the food on board.
We arrived in Fort Lauderdale and they parked the aircraft on a stand which was a pain, and then the Immigration games began. It looks like they are trialling a new electronic system where you stand in front of a machine which reads your passport, asks you for finger prints and then finally takes your photo and then issues a bit of paper which says you are clear to go. Only you are not free to go so after waiting about 20 minutes to get to a machine, others would wait a lot longer we went round the corner and there was another long queue to go through the same procedure again with a real live Immigration guy , so add another twenty minutes. 

So from aircraft arrival to being able to leave was about ninety minutes, very slow compared to other airports in the US. Oh well.
We found the Limo driver to take us to the the Embassy Suites Hotel where we arrived at 23.30 instead of the planned 21.00 . So quite a long day really and glad to be in bed.
Lets see what tomorrow will bring.