Mice, Magic & A Maiden Voyage: Pre-Travel Day: Travelling, Trains and Toilets

[iheartwdw]

Pre-Travel Day: Travelling, Trains and Toilets

I always love reading people’s travel days, as you can feel the excitement bubbling away and feel the anticipation that only comes with a WDW holiday… I hope that I manage to capture the excitement and buzz that we were feeling after our long countdown!



As you would expect I didn’t have the best of nights sleep, as I was going through the ginormous checklist in my head trying to remember if I had packed the adaptors and what we needed to do this morning to make sure that we were ready and raring to go. I also didn’t sleep very well, as I was pretty much like a kid on Christmas Eve and was fit to burst knowing that we would be starting the first leg of our journey to Disney tomorrow .

We would be catching the train from Leicester to St. Pancreas today, then on to Gatwick ready for our flight tomorrow morning. We had pretty much packed everything the previous weekend and day before. Franklin had started his holiday last night, when we took him to Nathan’s parents. We stayed to settle him in and treated everyone to some fish and chips, as a thank you for putting up with our mischievous feline for a month. It didn’t take Franklin long to feel at home, he was munching on some of his favourite treats within the hour and was off exploring behind the nooks and crannies of the furniture as we left. I was going to miss his furry face lots and it is the only down side of any holiday for me , I knew that he was going to be spoilt whilst we were away and the 1 ˝ Ibs that he put on over the four weeks certainly suggests that he also ate just as well as we did on the DDP. I will fill you in on more of the antics he got up to whilst we were away on holiday later in the trippie…ooh, teasers!

Anyway, back to the actual travel day! My mum was kindly picking us up at 12ish to take us to the train station, so before she arrived we had to have some breakfast, finish off the packing, the tidying for burglars and switching off of all of the electrics.

I was awake at 7:00 and had been saving Beauty and the Beast to watch whilst getting ready. After watching Belle fall in love with her prince, we had showers and packed the last minute bits that you can never do until travel day. I had a waxing appointment at 9:00, so nipped out to be preened for a while. My beautician is lovely and was getting super excited for me, as she has been to Orlando before, so we were reliving lots of our favourite memories and discussing our favourite rides… it certainly helped distract from the pain!

I picked up a train picnic for lunch from M&S and then continued to triple check my list of things to do and pack; whilst I was doing this Nathan made a tip run. We didn’t want to leave the rubbish in the bin for so long and after our big holiday tidy up, we also had some extra stuff to get rid of. I think he was also secretly happy to leave me for a bit, as I was probably a bit stress and panicky at this point!

We took two large suitcases each; with a smaller case packed inside for all of the shopping I was planning on doing at the outlets and malls. We had a smaller suitcase filled with all of our fish extender gifts ready for the cruise and I also had a cabin case, as I get easily bored during flights and like to take plenty of magazines, colouring books and gadgets to keep me entertained – yes, this trip was to celebrate my thirtieth not third birthday, but I have a very short attention span when travelling and can never manage to sleep.



I forgot to mention that whilst finishing off the rest of the packing we listened to the brilliant Dibbcast that I was saving (Mid-July 2015)and heard our Bon Voyagee, which made me squeal and bounce around. Thanks again to the Dibbcast team for reading this out and all of the fab info that you continually provide! It was a brilliant start to the holiday!

My mum soon arrived and we chatted about our plans – my parents are also Disney fanatics and were off on their own Disney holiday a couple of months after us, which means that she understands the excitement. We loaded up the car with all of the bags and my mum checked numerous times that we had our passports and paperwork.



As it was the middle of the day there was no traffic and we got to the train station with plenty of time. We said bye to my mum and told her we would Facetime and text as often as possible… to make them jealous! We collected our train tickets from the self-serve machine and carried our cases into the waiting room on our platform, as the train wasn’t due until 1:00. The train was on time and we had reserved seats with a table, near the luggage racks. We had quite a funny train ride! As the conductor came around to check our tickets, there were two elderly couples sitting in the aisle opposite, the men were in the front seats, so the conductor first went to them. They were having a proper Chuckle Brothers moment as they couldn’t find their tickets and were sure that the other one had them. What they couldn’t see were their wives behind them, ready with the tickets out oblivious to the commotion that was going on in front of them. It entertained the both of us and made us giggle, they were very cute couples and the men got a good telling off for being so silly when it was all resolved and were reminded why they were not responsible enough to have the tickets in the first place!

During the train ride we chatted about our holiday itinerary, read some magazines and had our train picnic lunch. I was hungry, breakfast felt like a distant memory and the sandwiches were very yummy.



We arrived at St. Pancreas just after 2:00 and as my dad works in London we had arranged to meet him to say goodbye. My dad helped us carry the suitcases down to the Thames Link and we force fed him a pack of sandwiches that we had leftover – they were on 3 for 2 and he rarely makes time for lunch when he is working!



There were even more chuckles on the Thames Link. You cannot pre-book seats and Nathan was keen to find some near the luggage area to keep an eye on our bags, so found a seat right next to the door. I had what I can only call ‘a moment’ as I saw a disabled sign labelled toilet with an arrow pointing to a fold-down thing. I said to Nathan, that we couldn’t sit next to the toilet and he burst out laughing! The sign was showing that the toilet was further down the train and the fold-down thing was a seat/armrest . I still think that the signage was very deceiving, but in hindsight I don’t know what I was thinking… why would the toilet be in an open cabin?!



Nathan also had a ‘broment’ on the train, when a young American lady a few seats down was talking on her phone extremely loud. Everyone could hear her conversation; I was reading and attempting to ignore her, when I saw Nathan and the man in the opposite aisle having a good chuckle. Apparently, she was discussing how she had invented the smoothie! The two of them caught each other’s eye and couldn’t help but laugh, so overall we had a very entertaining and funny trip down!

We made to it Gatwick and walked straight across the road to the Premier Inn at 4:00. This was the first time that we had stayed here, having previously stayed at the Hilton and Sofitel and we were really impressed. It is sooo close and the service we had from everyone was really friendly. The lady that checked us in was very happy and genuinely interested about where we were off too, she also helped us to book a table for later on at the restaurant. We were given room number 1004 on floor 10 and I was super happy with the room.



It was a big corner room, so there were windows all the way around and it was also more spacious than a normal Premier Inn room. The other bonus was the view, we could see the runway! I watched few planes take-off and could also see a Virgin plane, which could have been our plane getting ready for tomorrow?!



After unpacking the bits that we would need for tonight and tomorrow morning, we took a stroll back over to the airport to have a mooch around the few shops over there and also to buy some sucky sweets for the flight tomorrow to help with all the ear popping. Cherry drops in hand we walked back to the room to freshen up. I gave myself a quick pedi and Facetimed my parents to show them the room, as they had also chosen to stay at this Premier Inn before their upcoming holiday. The foot bit on Nathan’s suitcase had also come loose on the way down, so we tried to fix that with some tape in the hope that it would stay together for tomorrow. It was nothing major, but it made it tricky to stand it up without propping it against anything. We got ready for dinner and made our way downstairs for our 7:00 reservation.

We had previously booked the hotel with the Ł22.99pp meal deal, which includes 2 courses and a drink, as well as breakfast the next morning. We both prefer starters to puddings, so had tempura shrimp and hoisin duck parcels to start, we shared these alongside the 3 for Ł3.30 detail; where we added onion rings, corn on the cob and chicken wings to turn our starter into our own sharing platter. Everything was tasty and well cooked – we ate it all!



For mains I had the Makhani chicken curry and Nathan had the first of many burgers, a double burger to be precise. Again, these were good pub grub. Nathan had a bitter to drink and I had a white wine, which was the only low point of the meal, it tasted like vinegar and I think I would stick to a soft drink if we went again .



The starter, mains and drinks should have come to Ł48, but we only needed to pay Ł3.30 for the additional sides. We also tipped for the full amount as our server was another lovely and helpful member of the hotel team. We were too stuffed for desserts, so we waddled back up to the room. We made sure everything was ready for the next day and planned to watch some TV, however, by 9:30 I couldn’t hear the TV over Nathan’s snores! An early night ready for another long travel day tomorrow to the happiest place on Earth! Eek!

Thanks for reading,

Laura Xx

[margyloveswdw]

Lol at the toilet in the train carriage!

Interesting start; looking forward to more.

[Piratecol]

Enjoyed the report and photos looking forward to your trip report.

[Sparksy72]

What a great start to your trip - I loved the 'toilet' sign lol! I also love your 'Disney countdown' - could I be cheeky and ask where you got it from? Thank you 😊

[tartan tink]

Can't wait to hear about your trip

[Flimsey]

Looking forward to reading the next installment

[collybird]

I feel like I'm there with you, I love the Premier Inn I think it has a great buzz about it.

[Buffton]

Oh wow what a treat to see this here!
Looking forward to hearing all about it!
Lizzie x

[SaratogaSp2015]

Fab pre-trip day! Looking forward to reading the rest

[lovedisney89]

Hi Laura,
So glad you have started your trippy, fab pre-travel day! Can't wait to read more, don't leave us waiting so long hehe xx