OMG was it really that busy or was I dreaming?..!!

aj2703

Addicted To Disney
Joined
Nov 22, 2009
Messages
515
Hi,

This is my first report (I think), so please go easy on me. :-)

Day 1. Travel Day (To Ashford) :-( 01-01-2014

Now your probably wondering why I have a sad face as it's travel day?. Truth is I had a long car journey ahead of me in the most treacherous conditions, something I wasn't at all looking forward to. I live in Great Yarmouth and had a first part journey down to Portsmouth to pick the kids up who had spent Christmas at their mums on the Isle of Wight. I set off at around 8.30am and the rain was coming down hard to say the least. Part of the M25 was shut as there had been a fatal accident at around 1.30am the night before where someone sadly for whatever reason lost their life. This meant a diversion adding another hour or so on my trip. I eventually arrived at Portsmouth and rather then meet the kids at the hover terminal as first arranged I had to make my way to the ferry port as both the hovercraft and fast cat services from the island had been suspended. I took a quick drive to the seafront before meeting them and TBH seeing how bad the Solent looked I nearly phoned up and told my ex to stay on the island with the kids, however I knew that they were already boarded and on their way. So a rather nervous 40 minute or so wait happened for them to arrive safely which they duly did. :-). A quick changeover took place as the ex was catching the same ferry back that she arrived on, so off we set. Please excuse the lack of pictures but with things the way they were I didn't even think to take any.

So Christian, Anthony and I set off to Ashford's Eureka Leisure Parks Premier Inn to start our holiday. The weather hadn't let up in all the time I had been out and didn't ease at all on the journey there. All in all I saw the aftermath of at least 4 accidents of which two looked pretty bad. :-(. So we arrived at Eureka some 8 hours or so after I first set out. YAY got here in one piece. However that was not the end of the drama for the day. We made our way to check-in and the lady asked my surname to which I gave it to her. She took a few minutes and then went 'Hmmm'. Ok I thought here we go...lol. She then asked for my reservation number and after some faffing around I managed to find it and give it to her. 'Oh' she said, that's not our code sir, that is the one for Ashford Central..!. I said your joking and she said no, I can see it on our system. So the FFS, DOH, slap myself around the face followed :-). I'd only gone and booked the wrong hotel by mistake. (I did wonder why it was so cheap..lol). I asked her if I could transfer it to this hotel to which she said that as I had the £29 deal it was no amendments but there were rooms available. So I said I'd take one which then set me back another £68, but by this time all I wanted to do was get showered changed and relaxed. She booked me in and I was in room 101, front facing on the far left as you look at the hotel. The room was immaculate, lovely and warm too with piping hot water. :-).

We then got showered and changed etc. By now we were more then ready for dinner so made our way to the beefeater next door for dinner.

Chris and Aj

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Christian didn't want a child meal and opted for the Same Burger as I ordered. The New Yorker - Emmental cheese and bacon.

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Anthony had the Chicken Burger.

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I have to say that the meal was fantastic and much needed after such a busy day.

Deserts for the boys were a chocolate brownie with marshmallows.

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I had the Classic Banoffee Pie.

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After deserts we retired to one of the tables around the bar area where I had another beer or two ;-)

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Shortly after that we decided to scrap going to see a movie at the cinema and just head back to the room for a early night :-).
 
Not the best start but at least you arrived in one piece and enjoyed your meal. Looking forward to your next installment :goodvibes
 
Joining in!! A shaky start but seems to be going to plan now, great pictures! Can't wait for the next instalment :)
 
Now it does not matter when the journey time is, when on holiday I am always up with the birds, I just can't seem to lie in, even after yesterdays journey. So around 5:30am I gave in trying to sleep and switched the telly on. I lay there for around an hour watching BBC News. I looked over to the boys bed and noticed Aj was awake. I asked him if Chris was and Chris answered saying yes :-). We decided to get up get showered and head to Mc'donalds for an early breakfast as I also wanted to head over to the Sainsbury's just the other side of the park to buy a new jumper, some sweets and deodorant as I had forgotten to pack it. We came across these dresses while looking for onesies? (spelling) for the boys and I took a pic for you guys who have daughters. I looked at the price tag of the snow white one and it was £15, much cheaper then the Disney prices.

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I made sure this trip I packed my camcorder too as I wanted to add to my You Tube Disney movies one of the leisure park. Please take a look and watch in HD..! :-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3LE7zyK8Fg

So after doing this we headed back to the room and got ready for the taxi which was booked for 8.30am. The night before the receptionist told me that parking was free so I decided that rather then pay for parking and not be able to drink the night before I would leave my car at the hotel. The journey was around 10 minutes and cost around £8. When we arrived the upstairs check-in was open so rather then have a drink in the downstairs cafe we headed straight upstairs and went through passport control etc into the main waiting area.

Anthony and I.

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Christian and I.

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The Eurostar arrived on time and we headed off at around 11am. :-)

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The boys watching a movie on the train :-)

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We arrived some 2hrs later. This time I consciously did not book Disney Express. It was either this forum or another I read a post by someone saying they deliberately did not do it so they could get to the hotel before everyone else to negotiate a better positioned room before they were all allocated out. I thought that sounded like a good plan as on my last stay although I booked a lakeside view room, we went Disney Express and were really disappointed with the room. It was at the back overlooking a small part of the lake directly at Newport Bay. So we got to reception and before i could even ask which room I was notified that no-one could check in as the rooms weren't ready. We were told to come back at 3pm. So we went to the bar and waited. I then at 3 went back and spoke to the same guy at reception. I asked him which room I was in and TBH it wasn't too bad looking at the plan he gave, it was on the side at the front this time looking at the lake towards Hotel New York. I asked him if he had anything more central and he said room 4233 wasn't allocated. This was much much better two floors above the lakeside entrance doors, looking across the lake towards Earl of Sandwich but it would be another 30 minute wait till it was ready. I said i'd take it :-) and waited the 30 minutes.

Our view. :-)

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On the room table for the kids were a few chocolate coins and a rather amusing welcome letter to a Mr and Mrs Hampshire.

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Where they got the Mrs from i'll never know as I am single and booked just the 1 adult with 2 children ..lol, still it got a chuckle from us all. :-)

We unpacked and had a bit of a rest then got ready for dinner. We knew we would be hungry and decided to eat in the Hotel (Hunters Grill). We were among the first in there which meant no queuing. If your not familiar it is a buffet, all you can eat menu. Here are some pics of the food. I will be honest and say that I put a bit of everything I could on the plate and can't remember what half of it was, but it was lovely. We have eaten here many times and have NEVER had a bad meal.

A Bit of everything (Well almost) :-)

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We didn't have any set plans so after dinner we headed of into the parks. It was chilly but not too cold, dark too which came as a bit of a surprise. We got to the entrance and BOOM..! Crowd level grand central, it was heaving. The tree did look totally awesome though.

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The obligatory selfie :-)

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Crowd levels were high as I have just said. Even at what 7.30pm (ish) the queuing time for Buzz Lightyear was at 45 minutes. We decided to wait as fastpass were all gone for the day and this was my favourite ride. After that it was on to Pirates of The Caribbean which again was around the same time for queuing. After that the day took it's toll and we decided to just have a walk around and head back to the village for a browse around the shops before calling it a day. :-)
 

poor you, travel day sounded like a bit of a nightmare but it all turned out ok in the end. :)
 
A rough start but looks like things have picked up. enjoying finding out more. How old are your boys?
 














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