Disney Feast of West & East Day 1 SF: Are we there yet?

[WileyCoyote]

All sing along with me , If you're going to San Francisco , be sure to

pack some thermals in your case …………….

Yes , never mind wearing the flowers in your hair nonsense and hippy boho clothes, woolly pullies, beanies and mittens are what you need.
But I get ahead of myself. Before we can thrill in our arrival in the City by the Bay, we have to endure the torture that is known as GETTING THERE.

As always , travel day sneaks up like a ninja. You spend months and weeks waiting for it and then suddenly, bang, its in your face, ground rush sets in and you are running around like a loon doing all the things that you now realise you have forgotten or left until that fatal “ a bit closer to when we go”. Liberation was finally completed when work computers and phones were safely stored away ( retrieving them from their “safe place” would be a challenge on return, as was remembering passwords ).

The night before travel was spent going out for nice pub dinner and then lining up all the cases in the hall so they could be easily whisked away early doors the next day. With our housesitter(MIL) in situ, there were no worries about last minute tidying up as she is a fab housekeeper ! One of the most stress free starts to a holiday we have ever had – nice !

So it was beddy-bye time and no-one was apparently remotely tired but all asleep within minutes Except me, listening to the sound of the snoring house and making mental lists of all the things that could possibly go wrong in the next 24 hours and 40 days. By 1.45 I couldn’t stand it any longer and got up for a coffee with the pooches to keep me company, who were both balefully eyeing up the cases and giving me the “we know you are abandoning us” look.

Around 3am I did the final ferret about in the cases and weighed them again for the bazillioneth time. All underweight by a few kilos

By 3.45 alarms were pinging all over the house and bleary eyed boys were emerging from their caves. Amazingly no grumbles about how early it was and no one had to be cajoled to get ready- funny that, never happens on a school day.

Our taxi arrived at 4.45 and we all piled in – there is something that bit more exciting about leaving for the airport in the dark –trying really hard not to wake up all the neighbours as you are pushing and shoving all the stuff in the car. I had seriously over egged the travel time – with it being the start of the Olympics we had allowed loads of time but the roads were empty and we pitched up at Heathrow at 6.15 ( for a 1030 flight). Never mind, I said confidently , there will be a very big queue at security so we will need the time.






Our first time using the self check in desks, we managed to get it all done , bit of a faff for the five of us but finally bags are dispatched and we are on our way for frisking - where of course there is no queue at all and we are though in record time , despite the fact that with all our electronic devices we take an age to unpack our bits of handluggage and then pack them all up again.

So its now 0650 and we have a loooooooooong time to wait for our flight. The excitement is overwhelming...




No one is hungry but fortunately the shops are open which provides at least 30 minutes of distraction in our 3 hour wait. I have a Starbucks coffee and croissant to calm my nerves as I am now tired and getting stressed about the flight ( I hate flying) as well as suddenly emotionally overcome that the big holiday is finally here. I feel quite tearful

Finally , we are called to board, Jamie gets given the kids bag, much to the irritation of his older brothers who profess to not being bothered but keep going on it about it.



We have booked the extra legroom seats and Andy has an exit row seat. He has got the aisle which is great for his long legs. The boys are two rows behind him and I am in the aisle seat behind them. A great arrangement. The few extra inches did make the journey that little bit more bearable .

There then ensued lots of hours of looking at the sky , watching films and being asked “ how much longer till we get there”. The seat back IFE was really good with the pause facility and some really good films- between us all we watched Sherlock Holmes, In Time, Safe House, The Hunger Games, The Grey, Haywire and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. A great selection and I didn’t even get time to see the Woman in Black.

A glass of wine followed by dinner , which was a choice of chicken in a cheese sauce ( it was ok) or minced beef thing with salad and a mango cheesecake. I thought it was ok but the kids weren’t terribly impressed but no problem as they had stocked up on pringles and other snacks to keep them going.



They did seem to keep feeding us at regular intervals – there was the rock hard choc ice that gave you brain freeze and then followed a little while later by the choice of a sausage roll or cheese Danish. I chose the Danish thinking it was that sweet cheese but it wasn’t, it was some type of cheddar . And then came afternoon tea of a cheese and onion sandwich ( bleurgh, just nasty for skanky breath) and a cupcake that was really a fairy cake with sweet frosting. It was all fine but the novelty of flying with Virgin for the first time made it all probably better than it really was . The flight felt like it went on forever but finally the little map shows we are not far off and its time to land.

The captain comes on to say that an Air France jet has just landed in front of us – so of course that’s not going to mean a mad dash for immigration is it ? We were quite slow off the plane but as seasoned brisk walkers we soon found ourselves amidst our fellow French travellers. Fair play to SFO immigration, as soon as all the returning US passengers had cleared their domestic arrivals lanes they opened them up for non US peeps and made a point of seeking out large family groups with small children and moving them to the front. We didn’t benefit from that having older kids but it was a top move as we all know how tedious these queues can be trying to entertain overtired and overexcited little ones, been there, done that !

Finally we are there and all my anxieties about whether a secret doppleganger has committed some heinous crime in my name which will result in my immediate deportation are calmed as they let us in , yay, and the guy has a sense of humour, yay and its only taken 30-40 minutes , double yay.

continued ...

[WileyCoyote]

Off to get the cases and now time to worry about the car pick up – it will be a miracle if its here as booking it had been quite a challenge with the guy not really getting all the details quite right – so now I am fretting about where and when I should be calling the office. We get all the cases and as I am rifling about in my bag looking for the phone number, we are greeted by our driver – who is already there. Big smiles of relief . He trots off to get the car and directs us where to wait



– which we do for quite a while and begin to wonder what’s happened



but finally this pulls up and the boys are well impressed.



RockStar service to the hotel. Its a great journey – lots of traffic though and quite hard to take it all in that we finally made it here.









We pull up around 3.30 pm local time.



The Handlery is right in the heart of the city – as we pull up some protestors are complaining about the Hotel Frank and a fire engine screams by – hope our room is at the back ! It’s a grand entrance and we are on the 7th floor. We are doing really well, the room is ok – a bit dark ( as it looks straight at a wall ) but its ok.







We then have to wait an age for the cases to come up and the rollaway bed and that did for us – instead of going straight out , we ended up sitting about and suddenly fatigue hit us – in those 45 minutes we were done for ! Cases finally arrived so we decided to put shorts on ( it was sunny after all) – we step out and after 25 steps decided to retreat and put the trousers back on , the wind is super chilly .

Suitably re-dressed we venture into Union Square – it’s a Friday afternoon and its busy. Its loud and a bit crazy and I think in our tired state , it overwhelmed us a bit especially the children.







We had planned to eat in the Cheesecake Factory but its mobbed out and a 50 minute wait ( it was like this all the time ) so no way is that going to work. The kids are wilting and tiredness is taking it toll on our patience so we walk over to Lori’s Diner which looks just the ticket.

continued ...

[WileyCoyote]

Lori's Diner





Nick says he feels sick and doesn’t want anything to eat ( could be tiredness or could be the multiple bags of sweets scoffed on the flight), Jamie is falling asleep at the table and being quite difficult. Oh dear, not a great start but its 1830 SF time which means we have been on the go now for over 18 hours and our body clocks are all over the place. We order some food – a delicious burger for me, chicken tenders for Connor, Fish and chips for Andy and some medium wings for Jamie ( which turn out to be too spicy). With drinks and two beers for Andy, the bill is $62 – so around $80 with the tip. I was obviously too tired to take any food pics !

We desperately need our beds now – I do wonder if we had managed to keep going when we first arrived and not had that wait around if we might have felt better – we could have eaten earlier . Who knows. We just hadn’t anticipated jetlag on the outward leg .
We are all in bed by 7pm – its light outside but we don’t care. The kids watch a bit of TV but by 7.30 all 3 are fast asleep and I think Andy and I weren’t far behind


Sat Nav Sabotage count: nil today ,
Shopping count : Breo Roam Watch bought on the plane to replace the one that stopped working as soon as we left the house

[KarenG]

Oh what a super start.

We got the later BA flight which meant by the time we arrived at SFO, made our to the hotel and then went out for tea, meant we could go to bed at a proper time. It wasn't planned that way (it was just cheaper ) but worked well.


We tried and tried to eat in the Cheesecake Factory but the queues were stupid! Funnily enough we ended up in Loris one night too

[Guest]

Ahh San fran! We're doing the same outward leg :-) Nice limo - great touch! We've just got our red envelope & have a historic room at handlery. Very excited now thank you! I guess CF is a maybe for us depending on the wait!

[WileyCoyote]

We got the later BA flight which meant by the time we arrived at SFO, made our to the hotel and then went out for tea, meant we could go to bed at a proper time. It wasn't planned that way (it was just cheaper ) but worked well.


We tried and tried to eat in the Cheesecake Factory but the queues were stupid! Funnily enough we ended up in Loris one night

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Hi Karen - we were originally booked on the 1.30 pm flight which would have arrived at 6.30 pm SF time and I think that would have been better but they put us on the earlier flight about 6 months after we booked it . We did get in to the CF but had to wait 45 minutes - making use of the sofa department in Macys to pass the time

Ahh San fran! We're doing the same outward leg :-) Nice limo - great touch! We've just got our red envelope & have a historic room at handlery. Very excited now thank you! I guess CF is a maybe for us depending on the wait!

See more...

Nearly Single digits now - how is the packing going ?

[Guest]

Nearly Single digits now - how is the packing going ? [/QUOTE]

I haven't managed to start packing yet, haven't really unpacked after London lol! I have all my clothes sat ready in the drawers just haven't had the time yet, hoping to get a start on Saturday to make a proper list :-) Looking forward to reading more of your report!

[Guest]

Travel days are so long and tiring aren't they? We ate at the Cheesecake Factory when we arrived in SF, must have timed it right for a short wait! We had a lovely coke float at Lori's one day though! Looking forward to reading more

[parisdisneyfan]

Can't blame your kids for not wanting tea. Dh was adamant we had to eat at US time but that first night I just didn't want anything as my body thought it was about 3am!

Looking forward to reading lots more

[KarenG]

Originally Posted by WileyCoyote

Hi Karen - we were originally booked on the 1.30 pm flight which would have arrived at 6.30 pm SF time and I think that would have been better but they put us on the earlier flight about 6 months after we booked it . We did get in to the CF but had to wait 45 minutes - making use of the sofa department in Macys to pass the time

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We did make it back a different night but we weren't clever enough to sit on the sofas! Actually, thinking back it might have been a Sunday night as Macy's itself was shut, and you got herded up the escalators and not allowed to deviate onto the shop floor