Come with me back to England :(

Time to go back home :( 

After eight fantastic days in America, it was time to go home. As soon as I woke up, the first thing I heard was our flight had been delayed by four hours … I think I accidentally jinxed us when I said I didn’t want to come home! Things did get worse before they got better and our flight got delayed another four hours, taking us to a grand total of an eight-hour delay! 

I didn’t mention the hotel we stayed in whilst in Miami, it was a Holiday Inn in Fort Lauderdale and despite having a low rating was actually really nice! The accessible room had high beds which makes life much easier for my PA’s and it was spacious for me to get around. The bathroom wasn’t really adapted so we had to improvise… we somehow managed to turn the rooms desk chair into a shower chair by covering it with an extremely fashionable Disney poncho! It wasn’t the most convenient, but it did the job!

On route to the airport, we decided to try and see the sea by heading towards Miami Beach. Unfortunately, despite the delay the car still needed to be dropped at the airport for 2pmso we didn’t actually reach the beach and I still haven’t seen the sea! Ah well, gives us an excuse to go back one day!

Even though we had a delay we still had to check in at the same time as our original flight, so in total we spent 10 hours in the airport just waiting 👍🏼.  Much like the city, the people in Miami airport were rude, so again wasn’t a fan! We got through security pretty fast … which left us with nine hours to entertain ourselves. There were a lot of shops but with this being the end of the trip we were just so tired, though I did get to try Chick-fil-A which was very nice!

As I expected to be going to the beach, I wore beach wear which I most definitely would’ve frozen in once landing in England. The disabled changing room was … something … the best way I can describe it would be a hole in the wall 😭 but it did the job and I managed to change into warm clothes in time for the flight! It just baffles me how they have money to build a child’s play area but not a suitable disabled toilet. 

The staff didn’t seem as organised in Miami and I’m not sure they were fully expecting wheelchairs, though they did take and return my chair in perfect condition, so all was okay! Something that wasn’t okay was the airplane itself! The first thing my cousin said when she returned to me after putting the bags at our seat was ‘the seats are f*cked’, unfortunately she was not wrong. Despite booking an extra seat for me to lay down on, it was deemed pointless because the armrests didn’t move - whoever designed that honestly baffles me. 

By this point it was midnight and there was no chance I could sit up for another eight hours without sleeping. After some conversations with the cheif stewardess  we all got upgraded to first class so I could lay down for the duration of the flight, if they didn’t do that, I honestly don’t know how I would’ve coped so am very grateful.  I was very excited to be ticking off something on my bucket list, but as soon as we took off… I fell asleep so have no clue what it’s like to fly first class apart from the fact their beds were very comfortable. Mine and my nans seats were facing backwards, so that in itself was a strange experience lol.  When I sleep, I have to use my ventilator so having the space made the flight so much easier. I woke up around an hour before we landed so experienced breakfast which was VERY fancy and looked tasty, overall would definitely recommend first class (if it’s a free upgrade (:). 

Once we landed back in England it took a while to get my chair to me, but the staff were great at making sure we were comfortable while waiting. At Heathrow there’s a train to get from the plane to the baggage… that’s how you know you’re back in London! We managed to get out pretty quickly and the baggage trolleys were free! 

That marks the end of my trip to America! It’s been just over a week since we landed, and I’ve just about recovered from jet lag! I had the most amazing time and I hope to return to the states some time in the future!

The biggest thank you of all goes to my nan Debbie and cousin Amy, without them the trip wouldn’t have been possible, so I am extremely grateful and thankful to you both if you’re reading 🫶🏼🫶🏼. 

If you’ve read all my posts over the past week, I’m very grateful and I hope you enjoyed them!  

This isn’t the end of my busy period, I have a lot coming up, so look out for more posts! 

Ellie Xx