The Tri-City Tour November 2021: Travel Day 3 - DLP to London

[Gill H]

<<DLP Day 2

Thursday 18 November

Our last day at DLP – boo! We were up at 7am and quickly got packed over a coffee, then went downstairs to get our wristbands and go to breakfast. (The drink in the picture is apple juice, not beer, honest!)

Then it was back up in the lift for the last time to finish the final bits of packing and say a sad goodbye to our lovely room. I always say I don’t mind staying at the cheaper hotels at DLP, but I think this place may have spoiled me a bit!

We took our case downstairs and left it with the staff at the luggage room, before heading out to the park for the last time.

Our first stop was Salon Mickey for a coffee. Today’s shortbread was Cruella – made in two colours as a nod to her hairstyle.

As always, it was lovely to relax in the little lounge, and you can’t beat the feeling of opening a door directly into the park when you leave.

Just as we stepped into Town Square, we saw the bus taking on passengers, and decided to get on it, just for a change. As we waited to drive off, we saw Mickey, Minnie and Goofy coming out to go to their next show above the railroad, so we waved to them.

Oh hello there, beautiful castle!

[Gill H]

Today was Mickey and Minnie’s birthday, according to all the social media outlets, and there was apparently a special magic shot near the castle, so we decided we would head there first.

The queue for the magic shots was very short and we were soon done.

We moved on to Pirates, which had a 15 minute queue, and today the Photopass picture worked, hooray!

Hi Jack! (Hijack...)

Through Adventureland and into Frontierland, where we found a magic shot station for some fun pics with Chip and Dale.

Doesn’t the mountain look great from any angle?

[Gill H]

Then to one of my favourites, Phantom Manor. The queue moved very quickly, and we soon arrived at the closed front doors. I was expecting to have to wait a little while, so I got out my phone and took a quick snap of beautiful Thunder Mesa from the steps. It turned out better than I ever thought it would.

The ride was over all too soon. I still haven’t got used to being able to hear Vincent Price’s restored narration in the stretching room. This was one of the last things he ever recorded, and it’s great to have it as part of this iconic ride again.

Walking through Adventureland, Peter decided to go on Indiana Jones, so I went to the Cool Post and got a couple of Cokes and a doughnut for us to share when he came back. The Christmas theming is cute but I still feel DLP need to up their game when it comes to snacks. (Why did it have to be snacks? Oh sorry, Peter was still thinking about the Indy ride!)

We then decided to spend some time checking out the shops, as well as the fun Christmas windows.

In the Emporium, we bought a Donald toy soldier plushie as this year’s Disney Christmas decoration. We also popped into City Hall for a special sticker to commemorate Mickey and Minnie’s birthday.

[Gill H]

By now it was almost time for our lunch reservation at the Silver Spur, so we strolled over there and were soon shown to our seats.

As we had the Half Board Plus, we got the Sheriff’s Menu. To start, I chose the prawn cocktail (bit different from the 1970s version!).

Peter went for the Silver Salad, which was basically cobb salad.

For our main course, we both chose the Scottish beef flank steak.

I found this rather disappointing, not a very tender cut and not much flavour. Last time we ate here, we paid up for the more expensive menu and really enjoyed our steaks, but currently the Sheriff’s Menu is the only one they are serving.

My dessert was ‘Woody’s Sweet Sensation’. This was a choux pastry filled with popcorn flavoured cream. It was delicious and the presentation was clever too.

Peter had the caramelized pecan pie, which was good.

By the time we had finished our meal it was gone 2pm, so we bid a fond farewell to the park and strolled back to the hotel to collect our luggage.

Our driver was due to pick us up at 3pm, and we were waiting in the lobby for him when I received a text on my phone to say he was just coming. I nipped across to the ladies and when I got back, Peter said our driver had arrived but gone to find the loo. We waited ages and ages – I think he must have got lost!

But eventually he returned, and soon we were saying our goodbyes to the beautiful hotel before heading off to the airport.

[Gill H]

We arrived at CDG about 4pm, and were through bag drop and security in plenty of time. There was a slight scary moment when I couldn’t get through the barrier, but I discovered I had tried to use my outbound ticket on my phone by mistake, rather than the return one – oops!

As there were very few shops in the area we ended up at Relay for some soft drinks, a small tin of Pringles and a packet of mints. Then there was little to do but wait for the flight to be called – until I spotted a piano! So I walked over and played ‘White Christmas’ before coming back to where Peter was sitting. A few people clapped, so hopefully I brightened up someone’s dull pre-flight routine!

Our flight boarded and left on time at 18.10 and we had no problems. To be honest we mostly slept, for the short amount of time we were in the air! And once we were back at Heathrow, everything went smoothly apart from border control, where there was an issue with the machine reading my passport, so I had to wait for the woman at the desk to be free. I think it’s because of the way the watermark shows up on my passport – I’ve had issues before with scanning it too. But once I was actually able to show it to a person rather than a machine, I was through in no time.

The great thing about Heathrow is how easy it is to get on the Piccadilly line, which in our case was ideal. We were soon speeding back to Acton Main Line and then walking the short journey to the High Street by 8pm. We had previously decided we were going to eat at a new Chinese restaurant that some of our friends in Acton had recommended. But by the time we got there, we weren’t really feeling it. We decided to go back to a favourite haunt of ours when we lived there, the North China Restaurant.

This place is an institution, it’s been there since 1976 and Lawrence, the owner, does an amazing job. The menu rarely changes, but that’s because the dishes are so good! We went for our usual choice, Set Menu C. We started with chicken and sweetcorn soup, then crispy duck with pancakes. The main courses were sweet and sour pork, and chicken with cashew nuts in yellow bean sauce (which is my favourite, the chicken is always so silky and tender). These were accompanied by vegetables and egg fried rice. To finish we had slices of ‘toffee apple’- apple in a light batter sprinkled with sesame seeds and caramel (it usually comes with banana also, but because of Peter’s allergy we just had apple). And the price for all these delights was £19.50 per person. Honestly folks, I’m not sponsored by them or anything, but if you happen to be near Acton at any point, hunt out the North China. It really is that good. Sorry, though, no photos as we were too busy chatting with Lawrence and enjoying our food!

After our delicious meal we came out into the cold November air and waited at the bus stop for the next 207 bus back to the hotel. Fortunately we didn’t have long to wait, and we were soon checking back into the Ealing Premier Inn once again. We collected our second case from the luggage room where they had been kind enough to store it, and went straight up to our room. Within half an hour we were in dreamland, enjoying the last night of our eventful tour.

Join us tomorrow for our journey home, a look back over our trip, and news of our future adventures.

>>Travel Day 4: London to Llantwit

INDEX

[MrsBC]

DD surprised me with the Donald Toy Soldier plush on Christmas Eve - I didn't even suspect she'd bought it

[P&S]

A lovely last DLP day you seemed to get a lot done
How lovely to be able to eat in a favourite restaurant of yours again