Natsynoo's Perfect Panamian Adventure: DCL EBPC Oct 2018 - Day 1 Travel & Disneyland

[NatsyNoo]

So the alarm sounded at 5.30am, and we headed down for breakfast at 6am. Matt declared himself the champion after consuming 5 sausages, 7 bacon, 4 hash browns, 3 eggs, tomato, and two portions of beans – how he managed all that I don’t know! I had a small serving from the hot buffet, and grabbed a couple of blueberry muffins and pain au raisins to go (I can’t eat that much early in the morning) before heading down to catch our taxi to the terminal.

20181017_060059 by Natalie Pope, on Flickr

Our taxi was a few minutes late, but took us in good time to terminal 5 for £14. I had originally planned to catch the bus but with our luggage, we were glad to pay for the taxi. I took it as a good sign when Madonna’s ‘Holiday’ played on the radio as we pulled up at the terminal.

Bag drop and security were done and dusted by 7.20am and so we had a wander around the shops. I bought some perfume, nail varnish and eye shadow in Duty Free (£114), bought a copy of Hello magazine (for Beatrice’s wedding pictures) plus a couple of waters and soft drinks from WHSmith (£8.45) and then we sat for a while waiting for the gate at the main area of the terminal and then the C gates until our flight was called.

IMG_1011 by Natalie Pope, on Flickr

IMG_1012 by Natalie Pope, on Flickr

IMG_1014 by Natalie Pope, on Flickr

We were the last boarding group called at 9.30am. Our flight then left the gate on time at 9.50am where we spent 30 minutes taxiing and were airbourne from 10.35am.

IMG_1015 by Natalie Pope, on Flickr

We loved the bulkhead seats – so spacious!

IMG_1016 by Natalie Pope, on Flickr

I spent the first portion of the flight catching up on the new seasons of Greys Anatomy and This Is Us. Our lunch was served at 12.15pm, Matt had the chicken tikka masala and I had the tomato & pesto pasta, with some cheese and crackers, and a milk chocolate ganache for dessert. There were also Graze boxes which I packed away for later.

IMG_1020 by Natalie Pope, on Flickr

IMG_1019 by Natalie Pope, on Flickr

IMG_1021 by Natalie Pope, on Flickr

IMG_1022 by Natalie Pope, on Flickr

I then watched Book Club on the in-flight entertainment, read my Hello magazine, watched Life of the Party, and was doing some wordsearch puzzles when the Magnums came round. I decline, but Matt had one. Matt watched The Purge, Infinity War, Jurassic World 2, and Rampage.

IMG_1023 by Natalie Pope, on Flickr

IMG_1026 by Natalie Pope, on Flickr

Finally, I watched Whitney which took us up to landing. We were served a folded pizza and flapjack about 75 minutes before we landed.

IMG_1024 by Natalie Pope, on Flickr

I’ve mentioned in my Highs and Not So Highs that we were a little underwhelmed by the BA offering – the service from the cabin crew was quite lack lustre (very few smiles), the food wasn’t as good, no menus (just a little touch from Virgin which makes a different – we were offered chicken or vegetarian, but the chicken was curry, which I don’t eat, so those extra details do matter), and I still can’t understand why we spent about 9 hours of the 11 hour flight in total darkness. It was daytime when we left the UK and daytime when we landed in LA so why all the blinds were closed and the lights were turned off doesn’t make any sense to me?!

Anyway, we were glad to arrive on time at 1.05pm and were through immigration and had our luggage in hand about an hour later, which we were pleased with. Once we found the Uber pick up point, we ordered the car which picked us up at 2.20pm. It cost $52.97 and we arrived exactly an hour later at the Sheraton Park in Anaheim.

We checked in, quickly changed and then walked to Disneyland (via CVS for some drinks - $4.40) and were in Disneyland by 4.15pm. We couldn’t have asked for better than that.

20181017_161351 by Natalie Pope, on Flickr

IMG_1029 by Natalie Pope, on Flickr

20181017_161604 by Natalie Pope, on Flickr

I purchased the Maxpass for each of us ($20) and booked It’s a Small World straight away. Our first stop was Main Street Clothiers to confirm that my coveted sequin spirit jersey was in stock, before heading down Main Street to catch our first glimpse of the Castle!

IMG_1032 by Natalie Pope, on Flickr

20181017_162655 by Natalie Pope, on Flickr

IMG_1030 by Natalie Pope, on Flickr

We were a bit peckish by now so we headed over to New Orleans Square for some Mickey beignets to pass the time before our IASW Fastpass ($9.15).

IMG_1033 by Natalie Pope, on Flickr

IMG_1035 by Natalie Pope, on Flickr

IMG_1034 by Natalie Pope, on Flickr