Daysleeper40
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 28, 2007
- Messages
- 526
For those of you that missed it - link to my pre-trippie, cast intro and a couple of live updates here:
Two Muggles & the 17 Nights of Sorcery: The Prequel
Sunday 8th May 2011 -
Finally the day before THE DAY had arrived and I can't tell you how odd it felt! On the one hand I was excited, on the other a little bit nervous (and if you've read the pre-trippie you will know about my general mixed emotions / family stuff going on) and feeling somewhat ill-prepared. You know when you have that horrible feeling that you have forgotten something very important? That was me.
Anyhow - the alarm went off at 8am and I re-set it for 8.30am - M slept through the first one. I'm not sure how he does this but I let the second alarm beep until he'd woken up and we were both out of bed by 9am. I had done the majority of my packing the previous day so just finished that off, had a shower and straightened my hair. M had done sod all preparing the previous day so had to do lots of ironing and all his packing. He was quite busy that morning!
But finally everything was in and our luggage all ready to go...
Made the obligatory "were off" phone calls to family and then had to deal with a bit of an ant invasion which is just what you want to see when leaving the house for 17 nights!!
We also very nearly had a cat related emergency which would be typical as this little charmer:
Spike 2 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr
...tends to maim himself at the worst possible moments. Usually on a bank holiday when he has to be admited to the emergency vet and kept in at about £300 a night. This time (and I promise I am not making this up) Spike fell out of bed (the bed sits on a shelf about 3.5ft off the floor) and landed on his back on the edge of the coffee table
Thankfully he survived the fall though and having made him walk and run up and down several times everything looked to be working ok so disaster averted!
At this point M did inform me of some interesting packing decisions he had made though - no long sleeved top / jumper and only one pair of (basically new) shoes. The no top decision was fine with me but no back up shoes? Taking only trainers he had worn a few time? What the hell was he thinking??!!! I pleaded with him to put his crocs in too but he wouldn't listen to me so I guess we will have to see how this decision plays out over the report...
We left home for Gatwick at 13:45 and made good time. We got a bit confused about the parking situation though as the Sofitel carpark now appears to be a builing site. M ran in and got a voucher for the Summer Special carpark and we drove over there. This was a bit of a bummer as I quite like the valet parking they had at the Sofitel previously. It didn't take too long though and the bellboy had already taken the cases so we didn't have to manhandle them onto the bus back from the carpark.
M doesn't much like it when things don't go exactly to plan so I think he found it a bit stressful - he only really relaxes after the cases are checked in so after getting checked into the Sofitel we headed off to do that next at twilight checkin and also began the dance of "shall we upgrade to PE?". Took the new shuttle to the South Terminal which was very quick & easy.
We had talked about PE beforehand and M said he was willing to pay up to £500 for the upgrade which I thought was too much. Asked about it at twilight checkin and guess how much it was? £249 each. You can only do it on the day of travel anyway so she filled out a form, checked us into our pre-chosen economy seats and left us to fight it out! To be honest I knew I had lost the battle before it had even started as M was dead set on the upgrade and frankly - I quite liked the idea anyway!!
We went straight for an early dinner (15:50)at the Giraffe after checking in which was a new experience for both of us. I really liked the ambience of the place and there was a good variety of options on the menu.
Started out with some beverages:
and then chose the following:
F - Mezze Plate and a side of fries
M - Chicken Schnitzel Burger and a side of onion rings
We may have had a few more drinks too...
We sharded a Rocky Road icecream fo dessert:
The whole lot came to £43.85 + tip and we gave it a 7/10 overall.
We stopped off for money / water / mints at WH Smith on the way back to the Sofitel and spent the evening variously watching TV / Shaving legs (mine - not M's), checking out the netbook and people watching out of the window. Tried to sleep at 10pm and failed so I read my book for a while and then had a not very good nights sleep - hot then cold then hot again - and woke up VERY EARLY the following morning...
Monday 9th May 2011
Yep - THE DAY had finally finally arrived and I was up and wide awake before 6am. Wrapped myself up in that weird strip of fabric they put on the end of the bed and sat on the windowsill.
I love a bit of people watching so this entertained me quite successfully until the alarm went off and it was time to go see about mission Upgrade to PE. If we were going to spend £500 I wanted them to be good seats so we didn't want to leave it too late - left the hotel at 8.30 and headed straight to the ticket desk with our form all ready... and we only got the emergency door seats in the bubble!! You know - the ones with about 3ft of space in front of them
After sorting this out we danced through the fast track security line (already loving PE) and then wasted a bit of time before we could enter the V-Room which is a lounge that Virgin offer. Our flight was 13:00 and you can only go in 3 hours before your flight. We got some magazines and I hunted down some perfume that my mum wanted me to get as it is a travel exclusive. I found a relatively quiet corner and called my parents - this was also the day of my grandads funeral and I really wanted to speak to my dad but he was out walking the dog the first time I called. He called me back though so I was pleased to have spoken to him.
Waited another 30 minutes and then it was time for the V-Room - M made me walk up the stairs with my stupidly heavy hand luggag - if anyone else is going I suggest you take the lift - and we signed in fine. It was pretty busy when we first arrived but as flights were called it got quieter and quieter until there were only about 6 of us sat there. M had essentially a full breakfast and I started with a bacon roll. Then moved onto the continental offerings , yogurt & granola and fruit and basically ate way too much!! It was all very yummy and washed down with orange juice, diet coke and mango smoothie.
Hot food area:
Fruit / Yogurt etc:
Continental / Cakes & wotnot
Internet / TV / PS3 Room:
Table / Family Seating (you can see how quiet it was!)
M in the Adults only section showing off the view:
We both found the V-Room to be great and definately worth the £20 each we paid. The prices of food at the airport is obviously really high and once a couple of flights had been called it was really peaceful. Obviously with our flight time we could have travelled to the airport that morning and not bothered staying overnight or getting the V-Room but it was a great way to start the holiday and I'm glad we did it.
Our flight had a 30 minute delay so no biggie and we set off for gate 19 at about 12:40 and felt very smug walking past the big queue and through the priority boarding line (still loving PE!!). Got called for boarding almost straight away and made our way up the stairs to seats 75 A & C. Had our complimentary glass of bucks fizz and a couple of bottles of waters and settled in. I can't tell you how great these seats were - so much room!!
M's legs stretched out - he is 6ft tall:
M's TV didn't seem to work properly initially but it was ok for the films which is good because he does love films. Took off at 13:30 and got a sneaky look at the flight deck just before as the door was open. Early snack was pop and pretzels:
Did the usual magazine / book reading until lunch arrived - we both opted for beef hotpot (I think the other option was curry) and it came with smoked salmon salad, roll, cheese & biscuits and a rasberry / white chocolate mousse.
We both had a couple of glasses of white wine and got a little giggly at this point. The man over the way was one of those that likes to let you know how much money he has and kept telling the crew about his vacation home - I don't actually remember anyone asking but he was determined to let them know! Tea and coffee finished up lunch and as plane food goes it was just fine.
M then settled down to watch a few films and I just read my book / listened to music / did puzzles for HOURS! At some point we had some vanilla haagen-dars icecream which was very nice. Some manky manky person kept farting which was highly unpleasant - I'm pointing the finger at Mr "Have I told you about my vacation home?". Yuck!
The late snack came at about 20:30 and was either coronation chicken or cheese and pickle sandwich with a cookie and hot drink.
I'm really not picky but these are the only two sanwich fillers that I can't stomach so I passed up the snack and had one that I had bought along myself (a Graze box - spicy mango salad which was very nice btw). M filled in his customs form - I had already done mine at the Sofitel. We finally landed at 17:10 local time and very much enjoyed the priority diembarcation (I may have just made that word up!) and being about 5th in the line for security. Sadly our bags were on the economy carousel as we had done twilight checkin but they didn't take too long to appear and we were off to ground transport for our Mears shuttle. We waited for one party for about 10 minutes but they were stuck in customs so we left them. Two drop off's before us but we did drive past Seaorld (first look at Manta) and Aquatica which caused much excitement!!!
Arrived at the Sheraton Studio City at about 7pm and checked into room 1003 with a slight view of Universal Studios amd booked our Disney transport for 8:10 the following morning. Did speed unpacking and then went to Sweet Tomatoes for dinner (as if we needed more food!). I don't have very good pictures of Sweet Tomatoes but it is one of our favourite places to eat - really fresh salad / soup / bread / pasta and a fab desert section.
We opted for smallish amount of salad and filled up on the breads / pasta this night which I failed to picture
Anyway - trust me that the photo does not do it justice.
We went straight back to the hotel after dinner and after washing etc we were both in bed for 22:00 and I don't remember anyone having trouble getting to sleep!
Destination in the morning: Typhoon Lagoon / Hollywood Studios / Epcot.
Three parks in one day? Yes, I am serious...
Two Muggles & the 17 Nights of Sorcery: The Prequel
Sunday 8th May 2011 -
Finally the day before THE DAY had arrived and I can't tell you how odd it felt! On the one hand I was excited, on the other a little bit nervous (and if you've read the pre-trippie you will know about my general mixed emotions / family stuff going on) and feeling somewhat ill-prepared. You know when you have that horrible feeling that you have forgotten something very important? That was me.
Anyhow - the alarm went off at 8am and I re-set it for 8.30am - M slept through the first one. I'm not sure how he does this but I let the second alarm beep until he'd woken up and we were both out of bed by 9am. I had done the majority of my packing the previous day so just finished that off, had a shower and straightened my hair. M had done sod all preparing the previous day so had to do lots of ironing and all his packing. He was quite busy that morning!
But finally everything was in and our luggage all ready to go...
Made the obligatory "were off" phone calls to family and then had to deal with a bit of an ant invasion which is just what you want to see when leaving the house for 17 nights!!
We also very nearly had a cat related emergency which would be typical as this little charmer:
Spike 2 by Daysleeper40, on Flickr
...tends to maim himself at the worst possible moments. Usually on a bank holiday when he has to be admited to the emergency vet and kept in at about £300 a night. This time (and I promise I am not making this up) Spike fell out of bed (the bed sits on a shelf about 3.5ft off the floor) and landed on his back on the edge of the coffee table
Thankfully he survived the fall though and having made him walk and run up and down several times everything looked to be working ok so disaster averted!At this point M did inform me of some interesting packing decisions he had made though - no long sleeved top / jumper and only one pair of (basically new) shoes. The no top decision was fine with me but no back up shoes? Taking only trainers he had worn a few time? What the hell was he thinking??!!! I pleaded with him to put his crocs in too but he wouldn't listen to me so I guess we will have to see how this decision plays out over the report...
We left home for Gatwick at 13:45 and made good time. We got a bit confused about the parking situation though as the Sofitel carpark now appears to be a builing site. M ran in and got a voucher for the Summer Special carpark and we drove over there. This was a bit of a bummer as I quite like the valet parking they had at the Sofitel previously. It didn't take too long though and the bellboy had already taken the cases so we didn't have to manhandle them onto the bus back from the carpark.
M doesn't much like it when things don't go exactly to plan so I think he found it a bit stressful - he only really relaxes after the cases are checked in so after getting checked into the Sofitel we headed off to do that next at twilight checkin and also began the dance of "shall we upgrade to PE?". Took the new shuttle to the South Terminal which was very quick & easy.
We had talked about PE beforehand and M said he was willing to pay up to £500 for the upgrade which I thought was too much. Asked about it at twilight checkin and guess how much it was? £249 each. You can only do it on the day of travel anyway so she filled out a form, checked us into our pre-chosen economy seats and left us to fight it out! To be honest I knew I had lost the battle before it had even started as M was dead set on the upgrade and frankly - I quite liked the idea anyway!!
We went straight for an early dinner (15:50)at the Giraffe after checking in which was a new experience for both of us. I really liked the ambience of the place and there was a good variety of options on the menu.
Started out with some beverages:
and then chose the following:
F - Mezze Plate and a side of fries
M - Chicken Schnitzel Burger and a side of onion rings
We may have had a few more drinks too...
We sharded a Rocky Road icecream fo dessert:
The whole lot came to £43.85 + tip and we gave it a 7/10 overall.
We stopped off for money / water / mints at WH Smith on the way back to the Sofitel and spent the evening variously watching TV / Shaving legs (mine - not M's), checking out the netbook and people watching out of the window. Tried to sleep at 10pm and failed so I read my book for a while and then had a not very good nights sleep - hot then cold then hot again - and woke up VERY EARLY the following morning...
Monday 9th May 2011
Yep - THE DAY had finally finally arrived and I was up and wide awake before 6am. Wrapped myself up in that weird strip of fabric they put on the end of the bed and sat on the windowsill.
I love a bit of people watching so this entertained me quite successfully until the alarm went off and it was time to go see about mission Upgrade to PE. If we were going to spend £500 I wanted them to be good seats so we didn't want to leave it too late - left the hotel at 8.30 and headed straight to the ticket desk with our form all ready... and we only got the emergency door seats in the bubble!! You know - the ones with about 3ft of space in front of them
After sorting this out we danced through the fast track security line (already loving PE) and then wasted a bit of time before we could enter the V-Room which is a lounge that Virgin offer. Our flight was 13:00 and you can only go in 3 hours before your flight. We got some magazines and I hunted down some perfume that my mum wanted me to get as it is a travel exclusive. I found a relatively quiet corner and called my parents - this was also the day of my grandads funeral and I really wanted to speak to my dad but he was out walking the dog the first time I called. He called me back though so I was pleased to have spoken to him.
Waited another 30 minutes and then it was time for the V-Room - M made me walk up the stairs with my stupidly heavy hand luggag - if anyone else is going I suggest you take the lift - and we signed in fine. It was pretty busy when we first arrived but as flights were called it got quieter and quieter until there were only about 6 of us sat there. M had essentially a full breakfast and I started with a bacon roll. Then moved onto the continental offerings , yogurt & granola and fruit and basically ate way too much!! It was all very yummy and washed down with orange juice, diet coke and mango smoothie.
Hot food area:
Fruit / Yogurt etc:
Continental / Cakes & wotnot
Internet / TV / PS3 Room:
Table / Family Seating (you can see how quiet it was!)
M in the Adults only section showing off the view:
We both found the V-Room to be great and definately worth the £20 each we paid. The prices of food at the airport is obviously really high and once a couple of flights had been called it was really peaceful. Obviously with our flight time we could have travelled to the airport that morning and not bothered staying overnight or getting the V-Room but it was a great way to start the holiday and I'm glad we did it.
Our flight had a 30 minute delay so no biggie and we set off for gate 19 at about 12:40 and felt very smug walking past the big queue and through the priority boarding line (still loving PE!!). Got called for boarding almost straight away and made our way up the stairs to seats 75 A & C. Had our complimentary glass of bucks fizz and a couple of bottles of waters and settled in. I can't tell you how great these seats were - so much room!!
M's legs stretched out - he is 6ft tall:
M's TV didn't seem to work properly initially but it was ok for the films which is good because he does love films. Took off at 13:30 and got a sneaky look at the flight deck just before as the door was open. Early snack was pop and pretzels:
Did the usual magazine / book reading until lunch arrived - we both opted for beef hotpot (I think the other option was curry) and it came with smoked salmon salad, roll, cheese & biscuits and a rasberry / white chocolate mousse.
We both had a couple of glasses of white wine and got a little giggly at this point. The man over the way was one of those that likes to let you know how much money he has and kept telling the crew about his vacation home - I don't actually remember anyone asking but he was determined to let them know! Tea and coffee finished up lunch and as plane food goes it was just fine.
M then settled down to watch a few films and I just read my book / listened to music / did puzzles for HOURS! At some point we had some vanilla haagen-dars icecream which was very nice. Some manky manky person kept farting which was highly unpleasant - I'm pointing the finger at Mr "Have I told you about my vacation home?". Yuck!
The late snack came at about 20:30 and was either coronation chicken or cheese and pickle sandwich with a cookie and hot drink.
I'm really not picky but these are the only two sanwich fillers that I can't stomach so I passed up the snack and had one that I had bought along myself (a Graze box - spicy mango salad which was very nice btw). M filled in his customs form - I had already done mine at the Sofitel. We finally landed at 17:10 local time and very much enjoyed the priority diembarcation (I may have just made that word up!) and being about 5th in the line for security. Sadly our bags were on the economy carousel as we had done twilight checkin but they didn't take too long to appear and we were off to ground transport for our Mears shuttle. We waited for one party for about 10 minutes but they were stuck in customs so we left them. Two drop off's before us but we did drive past Seaorld (first look at Manta) and Aquatica which caused much excitement!!!
Arrived at the Sheraton Studio City at about 7pm and checked into room 1003 with a slight view of Universal Studios amd booked our Disney transport for 8:10 the following morning. Did speed unpacking and then went to Sweet Tomatoes for dinner (as if we needed more food!). I don't have very good pictures of Sweet Tomatoes but it is one of our favourite places to eat - really fresh salad / soup / bread / pasta and a fab desert section.
We opted for smallish amount of salad and filled up on the breads / pasta this night which I failed to picture
Anyway - trust me that the photo does not do it justice.
We went straight back to the hotel after dinner and after washing etc we were both in bed for 22:00 and I don't remember anyone having trouble getting to sleep!
Destination in the morning: Typhoon Lagoon / Hollywood Studios / Epcot.
Three parks in one day? Yes, I am serious...
- interesting choice. you would never see a female taking only 1 pair of shoes 
I'm quite mean, as he just lets me get away with everything when we're there, so maybe I should save harder and he can have his upgrade 
