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Old 5 Sep 19, 03:22 PM  
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Libby
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Join Date: Nov 03
Southern California - 2019 1. Travel Day

Here’s the start of my trip report. I have copious notes for the first 10 days but after that info might be a bit sparse.

First of all some background info.

DH and I (both 57) planned this trip back in March. We usually holiday with our DD(25), (her brother (28) hasn’t wanted to holiday with us for years), but this year she changed jobs and was reluctant to commit to 2 weeks away. So a grown-ups only holidays. Or rather a never-really-grown-ups’ holiday.

Initially we wanted to go to the whole of California but after some research decided on Los Angeles, Palm Springs and San Diego. So we went ahead and booked…

PE flights with BA from LHR to LAX return.
2 weeks car rental with Alamo via Virgin Holidays (just because we like the clear way they set out their insurance cover.)
4 different hotels. 3 booked via expedia and 1 direct with Disney.

We had a very stressful countdown to our holiday, with a lot of the joy and excitement sucked out of the run up by the threat of BA strike action. In the end we were the lucky ones and the dates didn’t affect our plans. We did have some challenges, though.

Wednesday August 7th Travel Day

After an anxious and sleepless night, I crawled out of bed at 5am. Our taxi was due just for 6am so time for a cup of tea before we got ready and dressed for our adventure.

The taxi is actually a little early so just time for a quick goodbye to our bleary eyed daughter before we are whisked off to Heathrow.

All this time we are happily ignorant of the IT debacle that Is just starting as we arrive at Terminal 5.

We are a little early for bag drop so wait until our allotted time and go to try and check in. We’re told they are having problems so are checking in flights just 2 hours before take off. We’re a bit miffed as we were looking forward to a Weatherspoon’s breakfast before we travel. There’s not a lot we can do with 2 cases in tow so we just sit and wait it out.

An hour later and they are still not ready to take our bags. We decide to join the lengthening queue (we still think it is just a baggage problem at this point.) We chat away to people in the queue. I’m quite chilled about the delay but have started to notice that short haul flights are starting to be cancelled which is beginning to worry me.

Passengers are now being called out of the line to check in for specific flights. An hour before our flight we can finally get rid of our bags. Oh no, we can’t. Our home printed boarding cards are unreadable by the machine and we have to have a human manually check in our bags.

I think the BA staff members we dealt with were very good and they dealt with angry and frustrated customers very calmly and professionally.

Obviously the long queues at bag drop meant a lack of queues elsewhere and we sailed through security without any problems.

As our gate was already announced we popped into a Prêt a Manger to grab a takeaway breakfast instead of the full English I had been hoping for.

On our way to the train we passed a huge queue of people who I guess were sorting out cancelled connections.

Our flight was delayed a little which gave us time to eat breakfast but we were soon boarding a 747 and our first experience of PE. I have mixed feelings about it but it was mostly a good experience. Really the only not so good part was the seat itself. A little snug for my size 22 bottom and the headphone jack could dig in if I moved. But everything else was very good for the price we paid. The food was the best I have ever eaten on a plane.

The welcome announcement from the pilot told us there were IT problems at Heathrow and although they had special order meals they didn’t know which seats they were for so please show your boarding card to the cabin crew if you’ve ordered one.

Also we were warned that there was a passenger with a severe nut allergy in economy and to wash our hands before entering economy section if we had been handling nut products. (2 problems with this were that both my meals contained nuts and my nearest toilet/wash basin was at the back of economy.)

The pilot seemed to be in a hurry to get away from the IT problems and we were soon taking off.

It was a very smooth flight. As we came into land I noticed a plastic cup of water had been left on the armrest table of an empty seat. I had expected it to splash everywhere but not a drop was spilt on landing.

Being in PE we were of the plane quickly and within 15 minutes were at the immigration machines. Mine was completed without any trouble but, after 4 attempts at taking his finger prints DH was awarded a giant X. We then had to queue for another 45 minutes to see a human. But I don’t think 60 minutes is too bad to clear immigration.

By the time we reached the baggage hall it was already empty. We found 1 suitcase but not the other. There was a BA rep there handing out missing baggage forms and quite a few people filling them in.

We took the 1 bag and joined another queue for customs feeling a little underburdened.

As we left the airport building we saw the Alamo bus just boarding passengers. It was a quick ride to the Alamo garage. We buy extra breakdown cover but turned down the accident and luggage insurance. We had a quick loo stop before going out to choose our car. Just a handful of full sized cars available and DH chose a Nissan Altima.

We were now a little later than we had hoped to be leaving due to filling in the lost case paperwork. The traffic was very heavy and took nearly 2 hours to drive to Burbank where we would be staying for 3 nights (hopefully the bag will arrive in that time.)



We were staying at the Best Western Media Center Inn. We chose it because of location, breakfast and free underground parking. It was very nice and the room quite spacious with a view of the Warner Brother’s water tower from our window.



The first thing we did was to check through the case to see what we had with us. Sadly it was the least useful of the cases but it still had a few days worth of clothes for each of us, nightwear, sandals and suncream. I had emergency toothbrushes, deodorant and toothpaste in my hand luggage. So we could cope for a few days with what we had.



Then we walked to a supermarket to get some drinks and snacks for the room. I didn’t know that Trader Joe’s isn’t a regular supermarket but more of a health food shop. We got some apples there and then stopped of at an off licence for some Diet Pepsi.

It was a nice area and I felt really safe walking around. The much mentioned Tangerine Hotel was right opposite our hotel.

On the way back from the supermarket we bought sandwiches from Subway and then went back to our room to eat them before going to bed. We were asleep by 8pm. It had been a long, long day.

Part 2 of report here

Edited at 05:02 PM.
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Old 5 Sep 19, 06:27 PM  
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KayLouise
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Join Date: Aug 08
Oh no, hope your baggage turned up! Looking forward to reading more 😊
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Old 6 Sep 19, 12:01 PM  
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GandL
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Join Date: Feb 15
A bag not turning up is my worst nightmare. Luckily you seem to be super prepared with your emergency items and atleast you have a few days clothing.

Hope it turns up soon! x
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Old 7 Sep 19, 12:57 AM  
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KarenG
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A trying start but you’re there now and looking forward to more!
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Old 9 Jun 21, 10:14 PM  
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Libby
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Join Date: Nov 03
*Bump*
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