30 is going to happen anyway, best do it in Vegas - Pre Travel Day - Travel to Gatwick Nov/Dec 2018

[fiona88]

Index Here
Intro: a very late trip report, it was written much nearer the time but I never got round to adding photos and uploading it. I now have the extra time and am missing holidays so it'll be a nice bit of a distraction

Report:
Today did not go as planned. 28/11/18 My 30th Birthday
Apologies for very few photos, it was a manic day

We’d both booked the day off with the idea of getting packed early and at the station to catch an earlier train than our 4:30 booking, using an open ticket for 2 people £183, so an alright price from Newcastle to London return.

My birthday present was a refurbished iPod Classic, a replacement for my beloved version which was stolen when our car was broken into 3 years prior! So remembering how to used iTunes was first on my list this morning

Usually all my printing is done at work, but as I wasn’t allowed in the office due to my broken foot and a fire safety procedure needing to be put in place, I had to buy a printer. This had been done a few days before our trip, but in my wisdom I refused to pay Currys prices for paper.

Leaving things to the last minute I tried to print off the tickets etc while we were packing and realised that paper is useful in this situation, so my cheapskate behaviour had added to my list for the sake of £2 a few days back. I needed to collect our currency from Sainsburys anyway, so off I went. Arrived 2pm to discover bureau de change closed until 2:30. So, I used this time to book the car hire Hyundai Santa Fe (or similar) for £180 for the week Alamo via Autoeurope.

Eventually the bureau lady returned, and I raced back home with cash, snacks, paper and a car hire agreement confirmation in tow.
Time disappeared, and it was 4:00 when we were dropping the dog off with my parents and leaving the car there, we weren’t making that 4:30 train then. Deciding to stay and have a coffee, missing rush hour and giving him time to settle in, we booked a taxi to the station for 5:00. The 6pm train would have us at the hotel around 10pm, enough time to have room service and a good night’s sleep before breakfast.

Arriving at the station at 5:30 we had plenty of time to grab some drinks and get to the platform which was over the bridge…. Frustrating moment number 1 occurred at 5:55, the train would be arriving at a different platform, back over the bridge we went.

We managed to get on the train, find space in the luggage rack and 2 nearby empty table seats SCORE! My cider bottles were calling me!
Until “This train is being taken out of service, please alight and wait on the platform for further information”
SH*T

We waited for further information, which became line damage in the Newark area, then our tickets became usable on all routes to the Doncaster area…. Then around 7:30 while Nay was getting us a burger king they stated that we should not attempt to travel and that our tickets would be valid tomorrow! That’s a load of use when I need to be at the airport at 9am!

After some tears and chips, we investigated our coach options, this wouldn’t get us into London until 7:30, then the travel to Gatwick is around another hour, leaving little window for anything going wrong. Good job I didn’t hit the gin during the train situation, as we were back to my parent’s place and on the road at 9pm.
ETA at Jurys Inn Croydon 2:30am.

Mid journey we also grabbed a McDonalds cheeseburger and booked Premier Gatwick parking £75 for valet parking.
Weirdly I took a photo of what a McDonalds service station looks like at 1:10am (Nay beside the pillar, she'll kill me for this)

Actual arrival time turned out to be 4:00am, as I needed to stop for several coffee and subsequent pee breaks. Really, we should’ve cancelled the room and asked for it to be rescheduled for our return, but were just so focussed on getting there that this didn’t cross our minds.

We found the NCP car park across the road from the Jurys and were sent up to our room, it was an upgraded room with a table and chairs as well as a small sofa. On the table was a bucket containing a bottle of prosecco and 2 glasses ‘Happy Birthday, we hope you enjoy your stay’, well that set me off, the exhaustion had hit.

We decided not to open it and leave it in the car when we left *remember this thought* We crawled into bed at about 4:30, after 22 hours awake, alarms set for 6:00