Just the two of us - Coast to Coast. Travel Day

[purple myra]

Just the two of us - Coast to Coast

Travelling and arrival day

We were up bright and breezy (not) at 3am…I’d only just finished mopping the downstairs floors around midnight! We do the necessary and have a cuppa before heading to the Airport around 4.00am. We use my pass to get into the car park and get a nice spot in the multi storey near the lifts…then it all starts to go pear shaped
Despite checking my itinerary on the Delta website almost daily ( flight times had chopped and changed lots of times ) and receiving an email the day before confirming all my times….we try to do the self service check in only to get an error message, so we go to the check in desks to be told we aren’t on the 6.10am flight, we are on the 9.10 flight as per our original itinerary…well the original Air France Itinerary anyway!
Oh well, breakfast in Edinburgh instead of Paris…I wouldn’t have minded those few extra hours in my bed instead of being stuck at my ‘work’ We have huge breakfasts in the Turnhouse bar .
Jake- Full Scottish breakfast £7.99
Me - Full Large breakfast £7.49
2 teas £1.49 each
As soon as we were fed and watered we went through security…my zip lok bag wasn’t good enough so it was binned and I was given a much smaller one! We had to walk out to our little “puddle jumper” but we had decent seats and it was only a short ‘hop’ to Paris. We were lucky enough to get a birds eye view of the Forth Bridge and Forth Road Bridge as we ascended.



It was quite a tight turnaround in Paris, we only had 90 minutes ( it turned out to be plenty of time ) we all had to deplane through one exit as one set of stairs didn’t arrive, then hop on a bus which seems to go for miles getting us to the terminal. There are lots of very posh designer shops but we don’t have time to browse, our major priority is a bottle of water or juice as we are parched! Good old salty breakfast!
We follow the signs to our gate and walk passed a row of check in desks, but we decide to ignore them as it looks like all the signs are indicating they are premier/first class , so we go through the automatic gates and turnstiles and then realise we have made a big mistake, we are now in no mans land without boarding cards ( for reasons which weren’t very clear we didn’t get them in Edinburgh ) we try to go back but we are stopped by security who then phone someone to come and deal with us…we hand over our tickets and passports and Mrs Grumpy Drawers comes back 10 minutes later with our boarding cards…my goodness her condescending attitude puts mine to shame!
Flight was on time and uneventful. We have seat back TVs with the on demand stuff. We are fed within an hour of taking off…my little menu says we were offered:
Surimi, carrot and zucchini salad accompanied by ratatouille bread
Then a choice of
Four cheese tortellini pasta with Neapolitan sauce and Italian cheese
or
Chicken with coconut spice sauce, basmati rice and fried onions.
Accompanied by
Camembert
Smoothie
Gingerbread fig tart
Coffee and tea
I’m sure we both had the pasta..it was ok. I watched UP and listened to some Cds, read my book, listened to my Ipod, watched the Simpson’s etc. Jake watched Harry Potter and sat with his eyes shut a lot!
The selection of films ( from memory ) was GI Joe, Harry Potter, Up, Young Victoria, Bugs Life and a few others, there was also a selection of TV series Friends, Simpson’s, etc.
We were then left to starve for hours on end…The flight was 11hours 40 minutes and apart from dinner there was no sign of anything else being offered or any cabin crew to be seen…a couple of times when I went to the toilet, I saw passengers stealing drinks from a trolley left in the galley, then they were stealing sandwiches! If only I’d read my menu properly it tells you that mid flight beverages, sandwiches and ice cream will be available in the self service areas…..oops! I’d never heard of that before, we were practically eating our own hands at one point!
Then an hour or so before landing we were fed properly again…the menu says:
Eggplant and carrot crumble
Brochette of chicken and yellow bell peppers, Sardinian potato salad with sun dried tomatoes, onions and espelette chilli pepper
Cheese
Chocolate cake
Coffee and tea
I had a dinky wee bottle of wine with both my meals and I think they were pretty good as far as in flight food goes.
As we deplaned in Los Angles we noticed that only one of the 4 super duper first class seats had been occupied…as we waited at the carousel for our luggage I’m sure it was Dita Von Teese who was standing back while a member of staff piled up all her fancy LV trunks ( a lot of luggage for someone who doesn’t wear much! ) it may not have been her after all.
It was 4pm local time when we arrived and although it was dark by the time we got outside it was still warm. We got the Disney Express to our hotel and we were pleasantly surprised by our “bargain” hotel, Ramada Maingate - At the Park…well we were pleasantly surprised after we’d walked round about the ticket sellers booth and the gift shop etc before eventually finding reception and checking in. I could see Tower of Terror from the hotel wooohooo!



We dumped our stuff and headed out for a quick explore/something to eat…we walked along South Harbour Boulevard, all the hotels and restaurants on our side of the road and Disney on the opposite side. We passed Tony Romas, Dennys, Cold Stone Creamery, IHOP, Kaptain Kidds Buffet, Millies Bakery and then ended up at Mimis…we had
1 Budweiser
2 pinot Grigio
1 chicken pot pie
1 chicken Caesar salad
1 cup of corn chowder
1 cup of split pea soup
The receipt says it was $43.46



We were back in the hotel and in bed for 9pm local time ( 5am UK time).
A long day!

[anji]

Great start - glad it all turned out ok in the end with your flights! Love the way you've done your photos too. Looking forward to reading the rest!

[Guest]

The food on your flight sounds quite tasty! Looking forward to reading the rest!

How much is the Ramada per night? I have booked the Fairfield Inn for $119 per night but if its cheaper i might change. How far is it walking wise to Disney?

[tiggersmum]

Glad you have started your report Myra, sounds like a long day. Its so long since i was over there i am looking forward to reading the rest

[purple myra]

Originally Posted by ukdiva

The food on your flight sounds quite tasty! Looking forward to reading the rest!

How much is the Ramada per night? I have booked the Fairfield Inn for $119 per night but if its cheaper i might change. How far is it walking wise to Disney?

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I paid $84 per night + Tax

I could see ( and hear ) Tower of Terror from my room door. Disney is directly across the street...we had to walk about 100 yards or so down the road to the crosswalk, go over the road and walk along passed all the shuttle buses etc to the entrance. Never took me more than 10 minutes from my door to the bag check.
There is another vehicle entrance right opposite the hotel, but this was coned off when we were there. Not sure if it was for roadworks or whether they only keep the one entrance open during the quieter times.
I've got a list of the hotels and what order they are in on South Harbour boulevard...I'm sure Fairfield Inn is 2 doors down from the Ramada...so that would save you 1 minutes walking time
I'll double check and post it later

[TrueBlue]

wey heyyyy Mrs... was wondering when you'd make a start on your trippie.

What a bummer you having to be at your 'place of work' for an extra 3 hours And whats with the attitude of the french woman? how rude...hope you gave her a bit of your scottish tongue hen lol

Love your pics...how did you manage to do them like that... smarty pants!

[purple myra]

Originally Posted by TrueBlue

wey heyyyy Mrs... was wondering when you'd make a start on your trippie.

What a bummer you having to be at your 'place of work' for an extra 3 hours And whats with the attitude of the french woman? how rude...hope you gave her a bit of your scottish tongue hen lol

Love your pics...how did you manage to do them like that... smarty pants!

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I did the photos on Picasa...it's free to download from Google.
Just tried to jazz them up cos travel day in a trippy is always so boring

[ali-s]

I've been waiting for this trippie good start, love your photos as well, will have to have a look at Picasa.

[truesdpr]

Great start Myra - hotel looks good. We had our dinner in Mimi's too on our first Anaheim night! Loved the carrot cake.

Pam.

[Guest]

Great start to your trip. Pity about the wasted hours in Edinburgh! Plane food sounds very nice!