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#939632 by selbyk
17 Nov 2017, 15:05
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Hi All,

Just a quick trip report on our first Antigua trip.

Made the almighty mistake of thinking I'd beat the M25 traffic travelling down from Lincolnshire to Gatwick at 4am, only to find the A1 was closed, sat nav sending us via M1 which I am not the biggest fan of at the best of times. Rather than follow instructions, carried on to trhe A1 and diversion around the sticks (after all I'd pre-paid the dart crossing charge ;-) ) and ended up M25 gridlock. In reality this was only eating into clubhouse time, instead of arriving at 7am, arrived at about 8.15, so, to ensure her indoors could book in a treatment at the spa, parked at short term and dropped the bags off so she could merrily head to the clubhouse while I went back out to park the car long term.

Check in was a breeze and the clubhouse team were fantastic, I just managed a full breakfast but no time to hit the redheads..

Straight on the plane when called and settled in quickly (154 pax, premium economy looked full and UC only had 2 spare seats so i assume plenty of space at the back)

Had the steak, which was a little tough, and watched a couple of movies, found the `mcdonalds' movie very interesting, and then had a nap the rest of the way. The crew where fine but not as pro-active as on our last trip to San Francisco and Florida, maybe my expectations are too high. The bar was full all flight, with plenty of laughs coming from that direction too.

There was a bit of a wait at immigration but through just in time to catch the bags on their first lap of the belt, the taxi was just a few minutes then on to Coco Bay.

We've been here a week now and really like Coco Bay, great staff, choice of pools and beach, a total chill out zone. Thanks to all who helped with recommendations for Antigua earlier in the year.

Anyway, one more week in the sun to go, back to the pool, cheers all :cool:
#939639 by marshy11
17 Nov 2017, 19:16
Mmm. Had the breakfast but no time for a redhead. Something is VERY wrong there!! :cool:

However, you redeemed yourself in putting your good lady first.

Thank you for the TR, hope you had/have a wonderful time in Antigua.
#939643 by hiljil
17 Nov 2017, 20:16
Thank you for the TR. A pity the flight was a little under par but it sounds as though Antigua has made up for that. Very envious of the warmth and sunshine !
#939668 by tomthumb
18 Nov 2017, 17:58
Many thanks for the Trip report - I do that same journey in 2 weeks time....
#939691 by pjh
19 Nov 2017, 19:38
selbyk wrote:Hi All,

Made the almighty mistake of thinking I'd beat the M25 traffic travelling down from Lincolnshire to Gatwick at 4am, only to find the A1 was closed, sat nav sending us via M1 which I am not the biggest fan of at the best of times.


The whole A1 / A14 / M11 is a complete mess at the moment, principally down to the A14 upgrade. You really have to watch the Highways Agency website to see when there are diversions and closures...

Happy to see you got some time in the CH, but for further reference you could stick an "and" rather than an "or" in between the words "full breakfast" & "redhead". :)

oldboy wrote:Thank you for your TR, I would have been having a mild panic with the traffic delays.


I well remember the very uncomfortable feeling of delay after delay on the M1 and M25 going to LHR last year. This year I think we'll be allowing more margin - after all, if we're early it's just more time in the CH.
#939693 by marshy11
19 Nov 2017, 20:40
The issue with LHR/LGW is that it isn't about one motorway, but about every single motorway/Aroad leading to that motorway. We don't chance it from Cornwall, it can take 4 hours or 10 hours. I'd rather rock up the day/night before and twiddle my thumbs the next morning. We did an overnight before a 3pm flight to BOS a few days ago, purely to avoid the M5/M4 scrum. If we had trains in this part of the world I would hop on and off at leisure. Unfortunately we don't.
#939721 by selbyk
20 Nov 2017, 14:38
Thanks for all your comments.

Daft thing is I've always stayed over the night before in the past, I must have had a weird premonition of empty motorways.....it wont happen again ;-)

Yep.. messed up on the breakfast/redhead combo, was in autopilot coffee ordering mode, another epic fail :-D

3.5 days left, better order another pina colada and get back in the sun :cool:
#939742 by Trax
20 Nov 2017, 19:01
Thanks for the TR, Gatwick is my favourite CH, well it has to be, its the only one we've been in.....

You do know a redhead goes great with a full English? ;-)
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