March 30... continued!

Wow - this was a LOOOONG day! We were all up early, and after packing up our hotel room, we headed over to the Virgin V-Room for breakfast. The kids enjoyed watching the planes, and Rosie was happy because they had plenty of scrambled eggs... she would eat eggs for every meal, given half a chance!
Charlie had a great time playing on the X-box, and playing table football with some of the other children.
Charlie was booked to have precautionary oxygen on the flight - he's always been fine short-haul, but because of the extended flight time and high altitude, his consultant asked that we get O2 for him, to keep him as well as possible. (And, jumping ahead a bit - it really did the trick - he was as fresh as a daisy when we got off the plane - unlike the rest of us!!)
So we were classified as special assistance, and had to board the plane first. We made our way to the boarding gate and waited for the doors to open. (Although not before a lady felt it necessary to point out in a rather unpleasant tone that we were taking up a seat intended for a "disabled person"... oh dear. I'm surprised she couldn't SEE my hackles rising. I know Charlie doesn't have a visible disability as such, but it drives me insane when people feel that they have the right to pass comment on others, with no knowledge or understanding of their situation. And I would give my right arm to be at the back of the queue and NOT to need special assistance. You'll be pleased to hear I didn't lose my temper with her - I just told her that Charlie IS registered disabled and required oxygen on the flight because of his cardiac condition. I was quite proud of myself!!)
The kids spotted our plane out of the window and we were tickled pink to see it was called English Rose! It felt like a good sign at the start of our holiday - and Rosie was very pleased to know that the plane was named after her!
The flight itself, though long (nearly nine hours) was fine. I would highly recommend Virgin Atlantic's Premium Economy seats - the extra space made all the difference, especially for 6'4" Pete, and Charlie with his O2 cylinder at his feet!
Rosie found Peppa Pig on the entertainment system and watched the same hour over and over again, interspersed with some Play-Dohing, colouring and sleeping. Charlie watched a few films, drew, played games, read, and watched the thing on the back of the seat to say how far
through the journey we were.
I was very glad to finally touch down as I am not a confident flyer by any means!
We made it through the airport quickly, picked up our car and headed for our hotel. (As an aside, driving on the right, in a left-hand drive car, was VERY weird for Pete! He kept trying to find his seatbelt over his right shoulder, and had no concept of where the right side of the car was, because he's so used to the edge of the car being next to his right shoulder!!)
We finally made it to the hotel, which is FANTASTIC - all themed with Disney characters. Our suite is Lion King themed, so Charlie has been waltzing around the place singing 'Hakuna Matata' and 'I Just Can't Wait to be King' since we arrived!
We eventually got the kids to bed at 9pm US time (the equivalent of 2am UK time!!)
They did both wake up at 4am (9am UK time) but both went straight back to sleep when we told then it was still the middle of the night, and slept another two and a half hours, which was just what we all needed.
I'll write about our first day in my next post...