Our West Coast Adventure - May 2017 - Travel Day

[Lisa_Lollipop]

Index can be found here

Wednesday 10th May 2017
Steps: 7,053
Miles: 2.97

With the washing now conquered and the suitcases nearly empty I thought it was about time I got cracking on writing my trip report… 16 nights of West Coast fun coming up… enjoy!

So the day prior to travelling Paul and I both had a full day at work so I didn’t think it was worth including a pre-travel day as it wouldn’t be very exciting! But just to get you up to speed here’s a quick overview of the evening’s antics!

We were both home from work not too long after 6:30 and at 7pm Paul’s Dad Alan and his wife Val arrived to taxi us to the airport. As our car is bigger than theirs it had previously been decided they would drive us up in our car, we had a lot of cases to transport and the boot of a Nissan Juke was just not going to cut it! Everything was loaded in (even with our bigger boot space it was still like a giant game of Tetris trying to get everything in!) and by 7:40pm we were on our way to Heathrow!

It was a a nice smooth journey around the M25 (the traffic gods must have been looking down kindly on us this day) and by 9pm we were pulling up at the Bath Road Premier Inn. This was our first time staying at this hotel as we normally fly from Gatwick but as Virgin doesn’t service LAX from there we had no choice but to shift out of our comfort zone and give Heathrow a try! Entering the hotel it was hard not to be impressed, it was huge! Very high ceilings, soft lighting and pretty trees. There is also a Costa, a bar and a restaurant all on site so it certainly has all the facilities you need for an overnight stay.

I had already checked us in online so after a quick visit up to the reception desk I had keys in and hand and we were good to go. Alan and Val were going to join us for dinner in the onsite restaurant before heading off so Paul and I agreed we would quickly drop our cases in our room and them meet them back in reception.

I don’t seem to have taken any photos of the hotel room, but it was pretty much your bog standard Premier Inn room really! We were on the first floor so the view was minimal but bearing in mind we were going to be there less than 12 hours it really was all we needed!

I apologise now but I have no notes or photos of what we ate at dinner… but from memory it was pleasant enough and filled a hole! With bellies full we waved Alan and Val off at about 11pm and then made our way back to our room, the excited butterflies were really kicking in at this point. I love spending the night at an airport hotel the evening before you fly, it really is where the holiday starts for me!

On arriving back at the room I was straight into my PJs and then painted my nails. With those done we both sat on the bed to watch some TV, we must have promptly fell asleep though as I woke up at 1am with the TV still on and Paul sound asleep next to me! I managed to drag myself up and to the bathroom to brush my teeth but then was straight back to bed and sound asleep again within minutes!

I had set the alarm for 8am the following morning but woke on my own accord at 7:30am, I was too excited to sleep… we were flying to LA today! By 8am I was out of bed and got myself showered and ready to go. By 8:50am we were all set and heading out of the room, quite a task with 5 suitcases in tow! (Particularly when you are faced with the longest hotel corridor in the world!)

After handing over our keys to the reception desk we headed outside to wait for the shuttle bus that would take us over to terminal 3. I don’t seem to have noted it down but I am sure this was at a cost of £5 each. The sun was shining which was lovely!

The bus arrived at 9:04 and by 9:20 we were pulling up in front of terminal 3, a very easy transfer indeed. A bus selfie was of course necessary!

Before checking our cases in we wanted to pick up some extra padlocks, we had two already but this trip we were flying out with 3 cases for the hold. Paul headed up to the WH Smiths whilst I waited for the case and soon returned with two additional padlocks (£9.99). With zips firmly fastened and my fear of seeing my undies travelling around on the baggage reclaim belt at the other end vanished we were good to go!

Now with only our two carry-on cases in tow getting around was much easier! We headed straight to security which was fast moving. In making my way through the scanner I prompted the terrifying beeping sound and was pulled to the side for additional scanning. Luckily all was good and I was soon sent on my way!

By now it was 9:50am and we were both feeling rather peckish so first on the agenda was finding somewhere to have breakfast. We opted for Oriel which had a good breakfast menu that included pancakes, I was instantly won over!

Paul chose the Oriel breakfast with an orange juice and a Peroni (it’s a holiday tradition that he has a beer with breakfast!) and I of course chose the pancakes with bacon (and asked for no banana, bleurgh!) and an orange juice.

The food was really good and certainly set us up well for the long day of travelling ahead. The only minor complaint was that they didn’t have any toilets inside the restaurant so it was a fair old walk through the terminal to find some should you need to spend a penny!

After the settling up the bill we were out by 11am allowing us some time to have a wander around the shops before boarding. Now I must say at this point whilst Heathrow is a perfectly fine airport I most certainly prefer Gatwick! Terminal 3 just doesn’t feel like it has much there and we were very soon feeling like we were struggling to fill time! There is a Jack Wills though which is a small win over Gatwick, I very nearly bought myself a zip-up hoodie but conscious of all the shopping we would be doing over the next couple of weeks I talked myself out of it!

At 12:15 we started our walk to gate 19 as our plane had started boarding, stopping first at WH Smiths to pick up a bottle of water and Paul bought a car magazine.

Making it to the gate we showed our passports to the Virgin staff and were directed straight onto the plane. As we were making our way down the tunnel I overheard a couple of guys chatting behind us and one was saying that he had an ESTA from a previous visit that was still in date but had had a new passport now but that was fine… yikes, clearly not a Dibber! I am intrigued to know what happened to him when he got to security at the other end!

We were on the plane and in our seats by 12:40 and more than ever I was relieved we had opted for premium economy seats back when booking… they made the prospect of an 11 hour flight much more bearable! The air stewardess came round offering up drinks and we both opted for a glass of sparkling wine, mine was only for toasting and photo purposes… Paul quite happily drank both glasses!

Ahead of take-off we both set about putting on our very fetching flight socks! Paul had these from last year when he was travelling with a fractured ankle but this was my first experience of wearing them, flying long haul when pregnant made them somewhat of a necessity and they were actually much more comfortable than I was expecting!

We were scheduled to depart at 1pm but where slightly later than planned with us taking off at 1:20… LAX we are on our way!

At around 1:50pm we were offered up drinks (Coke for Paul, apple juice for me) and a snack of sour cream and chive pretzels, what’s a flight without these bad boys?! Paul also had a walk down to the wander wall and picked me up some chocolate and popcorn… you can never have too many snacks in my opinion! (For those unaware, the wander wall is situated in the galley between upper and PE and allows you to help yourself to drinks and snacks, a nice little perk!).

Fully loaded with drinks and snacks I settled down to watch Bridget Jones’ Baby and Paul was occupying himself with a football game. This was followed by Moana, he has rather a soft spot for Dwayne Johnson and has been known to play ‘You’re Welcome’ on loop at home!

Lunch was served up at 2:45pm. We both went for the chicken option which was actually very nice. I was most disappointed to see the dessert was cheesecake… yuck! Paul ate all of his but mine was left untouched!

Not long after the lunch trays had been cleared away Paul was standing up in the aisle stretching out his legs when he noticed a man in the opposite aisle collapse! He responded quickly and rushed to get the air stewards (what a hero!) who promptly gave him the medical attention he needed and thankfully despite hitting his head on the way down he seemed to be fine.

My next snack of the flight was a pack of crisps and a can of coke from the wander wall which I tucked into whilst watching The Girl on the Train. I read the book last year and really enjoyed it, the film was pretty good I have to say!

At 7:10pm we were offered up some pasties and drinks, I went for the peppered steak and an orange juice and Paul opted for cheese and tomato and an orange juice. They certainly were keeping us fed and watered on this flight!

My next viewing was a Las Vegas destination guide; it was about half an hour long and certainly got me very excited for getting out there in a few days!

At 10pm afternoon tea was served (yes, more food!) and whilst eating this I watched a couple of episodes of Modern Family (I was getting pretty tired by this point and it felt like a nice easy watch!).

After what felt like a very long flight (we certainly felt those extra hours after being so used to our Orlando flights over the past few years!) we landed in LAX at 11:40pm (3:40pm local time), which despite taking off late was actually 30 minutes ahead of schedule!

We lucked out with immigration and were through nice and quickly, finding ourselves in front of the baggage reclaim carousels by 4:10pm. This is where things definitely slowed down! The bags were painfully slow in coming through! We had Paul’s pretty quickly but it was a painful wait for mine and I was starting to get a little panicked that it wouldn’t be making an appearance! Thankfully my fears were unfounded and by 4:30pm all bags were accounted for and we were on our way out of the terminal!

We had booked a car through Alamo and unlike at MCO they are situated just offsite so we had to jump on a shuttle bus to get over to the garage (which took about 15 minutes).

Dragging all our cases inside we decided to give the self-service kiosks a go, we have always avoided these in the past but there were plenty free and we were feeling brave!

In reality it probably didn’t work out any quicker than if we had queued up for counter service but at least we knew how to use them for any future visits! It was easy enough and with our booking found we also added on the roadside assistance and a tank of fuel (so we could return the car empty).

We were all sorted by 5:10pm and made our way to choose our car. We had booked a standard SUV but getting out to our row to make our selection we found there was very little choice and most of the row was made up of minivans! Paul had been hoping to get a Ford Edge but there weren’t any of these in sight sadly. Instead he opted for a Dodge Grand Caravan GT, which despite looking like a complete family-mobile (it had 7 seats!) it was actually very nice inside and surprisingly quick! We also found it had a built-in sat nav, very handy but made the one we had bought for this trip completely redundant! (But not a problem as always useful to have for any future trips!).

By 5:35pm we had all the cases packed into the boot (we put the back three seats down so had plenty of boot space for all our luggage) and we were ready to hit the road. Paul’s first remark on pulling out of the garage was “S**t, what side of the road should we be on?!”… erm, that’s a good start! But no fear, he was soon driving a like a local (as always I never fail to be amazed by his ability to seamlessly adapt to a new car in completely new surroundings!).

The first stop on our trip was Anaheim so with Hotel Ménage programmed into the sat nav we were on our way. The journey took longer than anticipated as we of course hit the standard LA traffic (which will feature several times later in the report!) so it wasn’t until 7:07pm that we were pulling up in front of the hotel (an hour later than the original arrival time the sat nav gave us).

We parked up the car and headed into reception where the lovely Geoffrey checked us in. It was at this point we were informed that the pool was closed for refurbishment and should we want to swim we could access the pools in the neighbouring sister hotels which they were running shuttles for. Not a huge issue as it was unlikely we would have time to swim what with the next few days being booked out solidly with Disney fun but a little disappointing and I was surprised I had not have any notification of this when booking or prior to arriving.

With room keys (well, cards but you know what I mean) in hand we headed back to the car and moved through to the self-park car park. Dragging all the cases with us we made our way to room 428 but on making our way inside we found that it wasn’t a pool view room which we had paid extra for. All the rooms were accessed via external corridors and this one was directly opposite the lifts so it didn’t actually have a view of anything other than that so Paul rang down to reception, mentioning we had upgraded at booking. They were most accommodating and sent someone up within minutes to give us a new key for room 234. He also helped us move all the cases down on a trolley which was much easier than dragging them all!

Our new room was much better and had the pool view we had been wanted. I am sure I had booked a king room and this was a twin but we were happy to live with this (there was no way I fancied swapping rooms again!). The room was lovely and spacious with everything we needed including a fridge which was most handy!

As we were only here for 4 nights we had no intention of fully unpacking so with everything inside we decided to head out to find a shop to get some supplies and by 8pm we were making our way back out of the room and down to the car.

Only minutes away from the hotel we found a Walmart, but instead of the normal huge ones we are used to it was instead a smaller ‘Neighborhood Market’ version… very handy when we only wanted to pop in for a few essentials (you can lose days wandering around a full-size Walmart!).

I don’t know what it is about them, but I absolutely love a US supermarket!

We had a good wander around picking up the bits we thought we would need. We also found ourselves down the alcohol aisle, a little bit of a tease as there would be none for me on this trip!

We made our way to the tills to pay for our supplies (water, crisps, twizzlers, shower gel and anti-bacterial gel) and it came to a very modest $15 which included a $1 charity donation (when we stay in a villa our first night Walmart trip is normally much bigger than this but as we would be moving on in a few days it seemed silly to stock up on too much!).

Leaving Walmart we decided we were feeling a little peckish and ignoring the fact that it was now 4:30am UK time we decided to stop in McDonalds for a bite to eat!

Given the time I opted for a simple cheeseburger whilst Paul went for a Big Mac Meal. We both of course had a strawberry milkshake (for any of you who read my WDW report you will know we have somewhat of an obsession with McDonalds strawberry milkshakes!)

Leaving McDonalds we didn’t feel quite ready to call it a night (it was only 9pm local time after all!) so instead we decided to have a quick drive into Downtown Disney to get our bearings of where we should be heading to tomorrow morning for our first Disney day.

Making our way onto Disney property we followed the signs for DTD and parked up in Simba 20C and then made the short walk over to where the shops and restaurants were.

We had a brief stroll around but I refrained from taking photos as I knew we would be back again when I was more awake and able to take it all in better! I was excited to see so many shops though; I couldn’t wait to be let loose in them all! There was live music playing on the central stage and quite a crowd had gathered.

We didn’t stay too long as we were both starting to flag after such a long day of travelling so by 10:20pm we were back in the room. After pottering around for a bit and unpacking the essentials I collapsed into bed at 10:45pm, by now we had been up 24 hours and I was absolutely pooped! Paul turned on the TV and started flicking through the channels; I on the other hand was asleep within seconds!

So that ends our rather long travel day! Tomorrow will see us experiencing Disneyland for the very first time… oh I have goosebumps just thinking about it!

Day 1 can be found here

[HelenJNT]

Ooh so happy you've started!

The Premier Inn does look very Premier indeed. Considering it's less-than-lovely location, it looks nice inside!

Seriously impressed that Paul managed to get outside of three boozy drinks before 1pm. Well done that man.

Oh and I also have a mild obsession with The Rock. Hehehe. #yourewelcome

Between the wonderwall (hehe) and the pasties, I'm very excited about flying PE!

What a ball ache with the room changes and not being given what you'd booked.

Loving the pic of you looking miserable in the booze aisle... sorry...

Can't believe you did so much on arrival! Shopping, McDonalds and a recce of Disney. Seriously impressed. I'm usually SO grumpy when we arrive. Poor A.

Brilliant travel day though. Now hurry up on day 1, I can't wait to read it!

[Redrach1903]

Yay so glad to see this posted

First of all, I love your travel outfit - you looked gorge!

Loving all the food on the flight and I am so happy we finally know what a wonder wall is. Oasis have been asking for years

I dunno how men manage to adapt to different cars and sides of the roads etc either! I'd be in a right old flap! Haha!

Glad you got your room sorted, it looked lovely.

Kudos to you guys for heading out and having a wander around, i'd be soooo sleepy after that long flight!

Oh and $15 in Walmart? That HAS to be some sort of a record!

Can't wait for your first Disney day!

xxx

[jocat]

I've stayed in that Premier Inn and you're not kidding about it having the longest corridors in the world!

I never knew about the wander wall for extra snacks in PE with Virgin. They must have kept that a secret when we flew to New York with them.

We're flying at a similar time to you so am pleased to see you were able to stay up until a reasonable hour. I've got visions of me wanting to be in bed by about 7pm, although by the sound of it we may still be in traffic at that time.

Where is the entrance to DTD? I've been trying to look on a map but have had no luck so far. Think I must be missing the obvious.

[Unexpectedpenny]

Great start
I had the same meal as you on our flight in April but unlike you I liked the mango cheesecake! We normally get a chocolate orange pud and I'm not a fan of those.

Love how the Walmart Neighborhood Market still looks massive
I don't think I've ever spent less than $50 in a Walmart so that's impressive!

I'm impressed with how much you fit in after you landed too!

[Jaty]

Great travel day and you've started so quickly! I still can't decide whether to do a pre-trippy. Is it wrong that a mini Walmart has made me even more excited?!
Looking forward to your Disney days and the rest too! X

[EJSakaAnna]

Very excited to see this Lisa .

Sounds like a great plane journey, all that foooood! Well done for surviving such a long travel day, I would never have managed that when i was pregnant!

Can't wait to read along xx

[clochette]

So glad you've started your report. What a great and busy travel day. I think I would ha e gone straight to bed.

Looking forward to Disney tomorrow.

[Lisa_Lollipop]

Originally Posted by HelenJNT

Ooh so happy you've started!

The Premier Inn does look very Premier indeed. Considering it's less-than-lovely location, it looks nice inside!

Seriously impressed that Paul managed to get outside of three boozy drinks before 1pm. Well done that man.

Oh and I also have a mild obsession with The Rock. Hehehe. #yourewelcome

Between the wonderwall (hehe) and the pasties, I'm very excited about flying PE!

What a ball ache with the room changes and not being given what you'd booked.

Loving the pic of you looking miserable in the booze aisle... sorry...

Can't believe you did so much on arrival! Shopping, McDonalds and a recce of Disney. Seriously impressed. I'm usually SO grumpy when we arrive. Poor A.

Brilliant travel day though. Now hurry up on day 1, I can't wait to read it!

See more...

Paul certainly took on my quota of alcoholic drinks, I'd have hated to see it go to waste! ;-) Also since watching Baywatch at the weekend his Dwayne Johnson crush has definitely ramped up a gear!

I think we were totally running on adrenaline once we got there, I was so excited that I think that totally cancelled out the exhaustion! Don't worry it does eventually catch up with me later in the trip! :-P

Thanks for reading and being so quick of the mark with your comments... mwah!

Originally Posted by Redrach1903

Yay so glad to see this posted

First of all, I love your travel outfit - you looked gorge!

Loving all the food on the flight and I am so happy we finally know what a wonder wall is. Oasis have been asking for years

I dunno how men manage to adapt to different cars and sides of the roads etc either! I'd be in a right old flap! Haha!

Glad you got your room sorted, it looked lovely.

Kudos to you guys for heading out and having a wander around, i'd be soooo sleepy after that long flight!

Oh and $15 in Walmart? That HAS to be some sort of a record!

Can't wait for your first Disney day!

xxx

See more...

Oh shucks, you make me blush! I usually go for a much smarter chino/t-shirt combo but I totally opted for comport over style this trip... seriously those trousers are like wearing your jammies!

Haha Oasis totally were spot on... that wander wall really did save me (from the inflight munchies!)

Hands down cheapest Walmart shop ever!

Thanks for reading along, lots of Disney fun coming soon I promise! xxx

Originally Posted by jocat

I've stayed in that Premier Inn and you're not kidding about it having the longest corridors in the world!

I never knew about the wander wall for extra snacks in PE with Virgin. They must have kept that a secret when we flew to New York with them.

We're flying at a similar time to you so am pleased to see you were able to stay up until a reasonable hour. I've got visions of me wanting to be in bed by about 7pm, although by the sound of it we may still be in traffic at that time.

Where is the entrance to DTD? I've been trying to look on a map but have had no luck so far. Think I must be missing the obvious.

See more...

We have flown PE our last two trips to Orlando and never been able to find the wander wall... it was totally my saviour this trip, if I have to miss out on the free drink then I am certainly making up for it with the free snacks!

I totally think once you get there you will be so excited that the tiredness will go out the window! We were keen to keep going as long as possible to try and avoid the jet lag hitting too hard (and it definitely worked!)

The easiest way to access DTD is through S Disneyland Drive (off W Ball Road) and then follow the signs for DTD parking. It was super easy and once parked up it was only took a couple of minutes to walk through to where everything is.

Originally Posted by Unexpectedpenny

Great start
I had the same meal as you on our flight in April but unlike you I liked the mango cheesecake! We normally get a chocolate orange pud and I'm not a fan of those.

Love how the Walmart Neighborhood Market still looks massive
I don't think I've ever spent less than $50 in a Walmart so that's impressive!

I'm impressed with how much you fit in after you landed too!

See more...

Haha we are complete opposites when it comes to desserts... I would have loved the chocolate orange pud!

It was definitely the smallest Walmart shop we have ever done, we even used the self-service tills as we had so little in our trolley!

Originally Posted by Jaty

Great travel day and you've started so quickly! I still can't decide whether to do a pre-trippy. Is it wrong that a mini Walmart has made me even more excited?!
Looking forward to your Disney days and the rest too! X

See more...

Definitely do a pre-trippy! Not only will all us fellow Dibber love to read it but its also lovely for you to have it to look back on in years to come to remember all the excitement ahead of your trip!

Originally Posted by EJSakaAnna

Very excited to see this Lisa .

Sounds like a great plane journey, all that foooood! Well done for surviving such a long travel day, I would never have managed that when i was pregnant!

Can't wait to read along xx

See more...

The food definitely helped pass the time! Ahead of going I was a little nervous about such a long day of travelling but in reality it was totally manageable... I think I was lucky in that we travelled in the perfect window where the morning sickness had eased and I was yet to be big enough to feel sluggish!

Originally Posted by clochette

So glad you've started your report. What a great and busy travel day. I think I would ha e gone straight to bed.

Looking forward to Disney tomorrow.

See more...

Haha we certainly like to keep our days jam-packed, this day was certainly no exception! The Disney days to come are also pretty full so be prepared for long instalments with lots of photos!

[janewah]

Yay you've started! Great travel day, can feel the excitement for the trip ahead. So impressed you managed so much on arrival! Xx