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Old 10 Jun 18, 02:00 PM  
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Stewboy
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Split Stay Get Away - Day 0: Overnight at the Bloc Hotel, Gatwick

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Thursday 24th May 2018

Hello again Dibbers. It’s been less than a week since we returned from our 10 night split stay trip to Disney World, and (SPOILER ALERT) it was such a fantastic trip that I wanted to share it with you all straight away!

So without further ado, here’s a quick intro for those that haven’t read the pre-trip (here it is if you want to read it, I promise it isn’t that long ).

We’re the Sear family: Stewart (your scribe), Jo (trip architect), and Isabella (trip report writer in training).

Right, here we go.

So today was pre-travel day; this afternoon we would be driving to Gatwick, doing BA twilight check in, and staying overnight in the Bloc Hotel.

This morning Jo was working, Isabella was going to school, I was…. doing nothing! Ok, that’s not strictly true, I was going to do the school run, go to the gym, get Isabella some dollars, and then help Jo with packing.

The day started at 7:30am; I woke up, made tea, got Isabella up at 8am, got her Weetabixed and ready for school while Jo got ready to tutor at 9am.

Isabella and I headed off to school at about 8:40am, and then I made the ten minute drive to the gym.

I finished in the gym about 10am then made the short drive into town (Hertford). I eventually found somewhere to park and headed to ‘Money Matters Worldwide’ where I exchanged Isabella’s £50 for $65 then headed back to the car in the rain and drove home.

Jo had officially finished work for (almost) 2 weeks, and was celebrating by making us both boiled eggs with soldiers. After a quick shower it was time to eat - those boiled eggs were so good


Hey Jo


Breaking fast

With breakfast over it was time to get serious and start packing! While Jo started packing the various piles of clothes and other stuff - most of which we’d sorted out the day before - I sorted out the devices; iPad, Hudl (remember those?!), fans, car DVD player. As well as making sure they were charged and that we had all the correct leads and chargers, we needed to ensure there was various forms of entertainment on them downloaded from the multiple entertainment sites we appear to be signed up these days: SkyGo, Netflix, BBC iPlayer, Amazon Prime, DisneyLife…


Packing

By now it was 1:30pm - lunch time. We were trying to clear out the freezer so we had fish finger wraps, simple but delicious.

Once we’d eaten those and taken the time to have a little break from all the packing related activities, it was now getting close to picking Isabella up from school. As the packing was now mostly done I took all the cases out to the car and managed to find the right configuration in order to fit them all in to the boot - never seems to get any easier!

Jo wanted to finish off packing the hand luggage, including our overnight bag for Gatwick, and getting herself ready, so I went to pick Isabella up from school. As always her class was the last one out, but she’d remembered to bring home her water bottle and her PE kit - well done Isabella

We made the short drive home, and once inside Jo took Isabella upstairs to get ready, informing me that there is a packet of Wotsits (or rather ASDA’s own brand ‘Cheesy Wiggles’) waiting for me in the kitchen if I was peckish - I was.


Cheesy wiggles

Twenty minutes after returning home we were all ready to go: #GoTeamSear!

We were so glad to only be driving to Gatwick instead of Manchester like on the previous two trips. As expected it was straightforward, even the Dartford Crossing is stress free these days, especially if you have a Dart Charge account like I do that automatically tops up by £10 if it falls below £10 meaning I never have to worry about paying; of course, having not crossed for ages, I’d forgotten this, so WAS worried and had to check the account online to ensure a) There was money in it and b) I’d been charged for the crossing!






Excited driving faces!


Dartford crossing

Anyway, our journey was straightforward and by 5:15pm we’d arrived at Gatwick Long Stay parking. Last time we parked here we struggled to find a parking space, fortunately this time there were a few more available. We found one close(ish) to a bus stop, parked up, unloaded and were on our merry way.

The weather had been odd today; there’d been rain this morning, and a bit on the journey, but despite a the odd drop, it was warm now. Jo had insisted that we wouldn’t need hoodies, so even though I’d been waiting to wear my Disney hoodie since we got back from Animal Kingdom Lodge, I’d ended up leaving it at home. Jo was right though (as always!), we definitely didn’t need them either before or during the holiday, or on the way home.


A spot of rain

Once at the bus stop, we had a short wait, maybe five minutes, before a bus came. We like the Long Stay Car Park, the buses are regular, and the journey to the terminals is a short one; years ago we used to stay at an offsite car park when we flew from Gatwick, and the bus journey took ages!

As you may have spotted we had no stroller with us this year, which definitely cut down on the amount of effort needed in carrying luggage around, and made getting on and off buses a breeze!

The bus arrived, we got on it, ten minutes later we were strolling into Gatwick South Terminal. We headed to the BA desk to do twilight check in; this is the first time we’ve ever done this, I’ve read so many other trip reports where Dibbers do this, always thinking “that sounds like such a good idea” and finally I get to experience it myself!




On the bus


Twilight check in

Check in was super easy - 5 minutes and we were done. Now what? Well, now we could go check in to our hotel INSIDE THE AIRPORT! Jo had seen some YouTube Disney Vloggers staying here and it looked so convenient and nice. We found the hotel on the third floor, right next to Departures. We checked in and took the lift up to eighth floor to our room. The room is small, but perfectly formed. It’s ultra modern, with a tablet device for controlling the room lighting, and for checking out (when it works - more on that later!).




The Bloc


Weird head lift selfie!


Floor 8








Our room


Our view






Our Isabella


Our faces


Voucher book

We chilled out in the room for a bit; Isabella checked out the top bunk of her bunk bed, we checked out the view, Jo and I had our cans of drink (Vodka and Cranberry for Jo, Gin and Tonic for me), and we watched a bit of Eggheads - Isabella loves quiz shows, she watches them after school with her nan. In fact, we came to a sad realisation only last night, that she doesn’t watch Jake and the Neverland Pirates or Mickey Mouse Clubhouse or Doc McStuffins anymore, now it’s quiz shows and wildlife shows (non-fiction as she likes to describe them) - when she’s not got her nose in a Roald Dahl or Fairy princess book that is!

I digress…


Room selfie


Drink selfie

After about 20 minutes we headed off to find some dinner. Staying at the Bloc meant we got some vouchers for some of the restaurants in the Terminal, so we decided to go get some dinner from Giraffe where we could get a free glass of wine (or dodgy lager) with our meal.

Considering it was an airport restaurant the theming inside was really nice, even better than the only other Giraffe I’ve ever been to at Brookfield (farm) at Cheshunt/A10.

We were seated straight away and dived into the menu. I was now in full Trip Report mode and taking photos of everything, including the menu!


Oo look a giraffe






Inside the restaurant


Menu (see, told you!)

Here’s what we had:

Jo & I shared a starter of Katsu Chicken Gua Bao Buns (Taiwanese soft steamed buns, filled with Katsu chicken)

Mains
Jo - Spicy Rice Bowl (Brown rice with sugar snaps, red peppers, crispy onions, chilli & soy sauce, topped with a fried egg)

Me - Chilli Beef Burrito (Soft tortilla filled with rice and chilli beef, topped with smoked cheddar, adobe sauce, sour cream, pink onions and toasted seeds. Served with mixed leaves, salsa and tequila & lime dressing)

Isabella - Chicken Wrap (Chicken breast and mayo in a soft tortilla wrap. Served with vegetable sticks, baby gem & tomato salad and crunchy tortilla chips)
Jo and I had a glass of house red wine with our meal, Isabella had water, and she also got a Kids Sundae (Vanilla ice cream, chocolate sauce & fresh strawberries) to finish off her meal.


Her eyes!





Red red wine


Katsu Chicken Gua Bao Buns


Spicy Rice Bowl


Chilli Beef Burrito


Chicken Wrap


Isabella, Jo & dessert

The food was really good, and the servers were nice. While we waited for our food, we amused ourselves with Isabella’s activity sheet - I like how Giraffe really put the effort to give the kids something that actually keeps them occupied for the whole time you’re there.






Drawing robots

A great first holiday meal done, we headed back to the room via Caffe Nero where we got a decaf latte for Jo, and a decaf cappuccino for me; we got a 10% discount as Bloc guests.

Time was about 7:30pm now so time to get Isabella bathed or in this case showered as the Bloc doesn’t have a bath, and even the shower is actually a wet room (which is great except that means the whole floor is wet!). Once showered Isabella was in bed by 8, we had a long day ahead of us tomorrow after all! It was then that Jo discovered she hadn’t packed Isabella any pyjamas. Oops. So once she was showered she went to bed in her t-shirt.

I had a shower, and then Jo and I watched episode 1&2 of ‘The City and the City’ on the iPad. We didn’t want to watch two episodes, but inexplicably all four episodes were only available for a few more days - i don’t really understand why things aren’t available on BBC iPlayer for longer, after all isn’t the BBC the one service that everyone has to pay for?

So anyway, we enjoyed this show (did anyone else watch it?) and it was about 10:45pm when we went to sleep. There was one slightly odd thing that happened before we went to sleep, the shower suddenly started dripping, we think it had something to do with someone in another room either above or next door also having a shower. Despite that, we really liked the Bloc, it was modern, clean and comfy.

And that is the end of that, first day done, and I think that’s the quickest I’ve ever got a Trip Report first day up! It was a really straightforward day, no major stresses, twilight check in was a breeze, dinner was yummy, and the Bloc was super convenient. Thankfully driving to Gatwick was problem free (which is never guaranteed when you’re going round the M25) and parking was also easy.

All in all a great start to the holiday!

Hope you enjoyed reading.

The Sears.
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Edited at 03:57 PM.
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Old 10 Jun 18, 02:30 PM  
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mick
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A great pre travel day

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Old 10 Jun 18, 03:52 PM  
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ely3857
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We loved Bloc last year. We did book Premier Inn with breakfast for this Aug but cancelled and booked Bloc when our flights changed to 10:00 (I can’t eat a buffet breakfast at 05:00!) but we’re very happy about the move. We would have booked Bloc originally but PI was far cheaper at the time.
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Old 10 Jun 18, 04:16 PM  
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Posiesmum
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Thanks for the Bloc review. We’re using it in August for our Club Europe flight to Nice so didn’t need a breakfast as we’ll use the lounge. It eases my travel day nerves to be in a hotel actually IN the airport!
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Old 10 Jun 18, 04:28 PM  
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princess allie
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Great Pre travel day. Looking forward to hearing more.
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Old 10 Jun 18, 04:50 PM  
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l33na
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Great pre travel day. The bloc looks really good. I wish I could convince hubby to stay the night before.
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Old 10 Jun 18, 05:51 PM  
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Hooray, I'm glad to see another trip report. I like the idea of the bloc but do you think the rooms would be big enough for a family of 4 and a small wheelchair (we'd do twilight check in but need to keep the chair with us).
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Old 10 Jun 18, 07:34 PM  
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Exciting another trip for you guys! Great that you got to try out twilight check in and stay in the airport. I love that you had eggs and soldiers followed by fish finger wraps, we like to use up stuff before a holiday, one year we had some potatoes and onions but not much else so I made corned beef hash as a pre travel day lunch. I'm really looking forward to the next update, fingers crossed it will be here shortly.
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Old 10 Jun 18, 08:11 PM  
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Woohoo can't wait to read along! When did kids start getting so big though? 😢 Our DD is now 6 and seems so adult, but lovely to have the trip reports to document them growing up through Disney 😊
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Old 10 Jun 18, 08:27 PM  
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i love jack
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Great pre travel day, bloc looks so cosy
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