Steven and I have had ONE night alone since we became parents nearly 5 years ago. When Annie was a little over a year old we spent a night away in Branson while Steven's parents kept her for our Anniversary. That being said: it was time. We both felt like Emery was old enough to be able to handle our absence, so we started planning. We originally planned to go to the Dominican Republic during his vacation, where all-inclusive resorts are super cheap, but we've both been there....and weren't really feeling it. (It's a good thing too because hurricane Irma hit!!). Steven randomly said one day, "I wish we could go somewhere like.... I dont know....IRELAND." And so, we did!!
Now, most of you know that Steven works for Delta Airlines - and one of the perks to being an airline employee is: we fly. For FREE. The downside to this is we have to fly standby, which means if there is room, we get on and if not, we are up a creek. Last year Delta experienced a HUGE outage and Delta had to cancel hundreds of flights which sent passengers into a frenzy. As a thank you to their employees for handling the situation with patience and grace, Delta gifted every employee two positive space tickets (meaning, we get on the plane as if we purchased a ticket) to anywhere in the world (except they dont fly to Antarctica or New Zealand [boo]). We decided to use these tickets for our trip to make things a little less stressful for us! These seats also came with complimentary upgrades (more on that later!)
We made the arrangements and two months later, on Monday the 18th we drove the girls to Arkansas to stay with my parents! We originally attempted to fly, but again, Hurricane Irma had her way and flights were a disaster. We spent the night halfway at a hotel and let the girls swim at the hotel pool because they LOVE to fly too - and were pretty disappointed that we weren't able to. We got to mom's on Tuesday, got the girls settled, and on Thursday we left for our VERY long journey to Ireland!
We flew from Memphis to Atlanta and then Atlanta, up the east coast and across the Atlantic to Dublin. Remember how I said our seats came with complimentary upgrades? There were two seats in FIRST CLASS available - and guess who got them? *Ding Ding Ding* WE DID. Now, these weren't just any first class seats. They were DELTA ONE seats. People sitting in these seats paid anywhere from $8,000-10,000 just to sit in them (which blows my mind, but after experiencing them..... I get it now). Delta One passengers got free alcohol (which I dont drink, but I totally had a mimosa), comfy pillows and a cozy comforter (not a cheap thin blanket) - so you could snuggle into your seat, that laid
flat into a
BED. This was a pretty important thing since the flight was 7.5 hours. (and now I can't imagine ever sitting in coach on a flight that long!) The seats also reclined or repositioned anyway you wanted them to. Feet up, legs up, head back, butt down - whatever you wanted.
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| both of us... in my seat |
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| the seats across from me (the middle ones) |
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| my tv and seat controls |
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| my seat |
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| Hottest guy I know sitting right behind me |
It really was quite possibly the most AMAZING experience.... and we hadnt even left the ground. We felt like celebrities. Each seat had its own 20" tv monitor, noise cancelling headphones and a host of other benefits. I'm not sure how food goes for coach passengers on an international flight ... I do know that all passengers get two meals, but our meals truly were first class. They gave us a menu which contained three courses. Three appetizers (you received all three), a choice of three different entrees, and three dessert options with snacks in between. We got SUSHI with our appetizer, LAMB and roasted vegetables for our main course, and ice cream sundaes for dessert. An hour and a half before the flight landed we were served breakfast with scrambled eggs and sausage, potatoes, fruit, and a croissant. I can't imagine why any human would need so much food in a 7.5 hour time frame, but we absolutely took advantage of it - and prayed for forgiveness afterward.
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Top Left: Breakfast | Top Right: Dinner appetizers
Bottom left: main course | Bottom right: dessert |
We ate our first class dinner, watched two movies, and tried to sleep. Dublin is 6 hours ahead of our Missouri time, which means that when we landed - it would be 8:30am in Dublin but only 2:30 am in our brains. We would have to function an entire 12 hours when we landed - meaning that we would have been awake a total of 31 hours before we were able to REALLY go to bed. BUT: more on that later. We tried to sleep and we got an hour or so, but I had a terrible headache and we just couldnt quite get into a deep sleep. We were, afterall, on an airplane with 300 people and flight attendants going up and down the aisles. Plane rides can be super uncomfortable and a 7.5 hour ride - yikes! However, we were SO comfortable it hardly felt like we were on a plane, but we couldnt relax enough to really sleep. So: we did our best and landed in Dublin Ireland at 8:30am on Friday morning - excited, but already exhausted.... and the day had just started.
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complimentary eye mask, a real pillow, and super cozy comforter.
Take note of the "table" area behind me with outlets for my Apple Watch and
Phone. There was nothing Delta didn't think of!!! |
We made the arrangements and two months later, on Monday the 18th we drove the girls to Arkansas to stay with my parents! We originally attempted to fly, but again, Hurricane Irma had her way and flights were a disaster. We spent the night halfway at a hotel and let the girls swim at the hotel pool because they LOVE to fly too - and were pretty disappointed that we weren't able to. We got to mom's on Tuesday, got the girls settled, and on Thursday we left for our VERY long journey to Ireland!
We flew from Memphis to Atlanta and then Atlanta, up the east coast and across the Atlantic to Dublin. Remember how I said our seats came with complimentary upgrades? There were two seats in FIRST CLASS available - and guess who got them? *Ding Ding Ding* WE DID. Now, these weren't just any first class seats. They were DELTA ONE seats. People sitting in these seats paid anywhere from $8,000-10,000 just to sit in them (which blows my mind, but after experiencing them..... I get it now). Delta One passengers got free alcohol (which I dont drink, but I totally had a mimosa), comfy pillows and a cozy comforter (not a cheap thin blanket) - so you could snuggle into your seat, that laid flat into a BED. This was a pretty important thing since the flight was 7.5 hours. (and now I can't imagine ever sitting in coach on a flight that long!) The seats also reclined or repositioned anyway you wanted them to. Feet up, legs up, head back, butt down - whatever you wanted.
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