Days 4 & 5. Bye bye USA, hello UK.

Sleeping really didn’t get much better…  Well, we didn’t switch on the TV in the early hours anyway - progress. All the walking yesterday obviously didn’t tire us out enough as once again, we were both awake when we should have been asleep, then asleep when we really should have been awake, as Paula nudged me awake at 10am.  We hopped out of bed smartly and headed straight to the nearby Denny’s (do they do loyalty cards?) expecting it to be much quieter than previously. It wasn’t.  Whilst Paula made do with toast, I settled for the quesadilla with a burger pattie.  It came with the most tasteless nachos ever, (no salt or flavour) so they stayed on the plate and it was swilled down with a large glass of orange juice.  Coffee could come later.

We almost had to hurry back to HoJo’s as check out was 12 noon, and as is usual when taking a long flight, leaving the shave and shower to the last possible minute helps feel a bit les grubby on arrival at the destination.

We enjoyed HoJo’s and as stated earlier, they do a far better job than many so called superior hotels.  Check out was easy and we parked our luggage roadside awaiting the Disneyland Express coach at 12:42. A good run right to LAX when the traffic ground to a temporary halt as they had checkpoints and three lanes of traffic converged.  Fortunately, Air NZ is at terminal 2 and once again a speedy, smiling check in.

So what was the outgoing experience like, given the usual tight security?  We handed over our checked in luggage to a porter who delivered them to a very frazzled X-Ray area, where the luggage was just piling up as they seemed to have a mechanical malfunction and the operatives there were not looking too happy.  We checked with the nearest and he confirmed that we didn’t need to wait for our bags – thank goodness.  All zips were secured with cable ties rather than Aviation approved locks and we headed straight for the escalator.

The immigration part was conducted very quickly at the foot of the escalator by a somewhat po faced female official – which is often the norm here in this area and we headed up the escalator to the inevitable long queue for scanning.

Shoes off.  Belts off.  Trousers fall down (just kidding..). All pockets emptied. Electronic devices such as computer and Kindle into trays. Once again, a bit short-sighted here, as the amount of bench space prior to the scanners is way too short, as you only have about two metres before the scanner and you are busy pulling items out of your hand luggage at the same time as trying to get half undressed and using up about 5 trays.

Into the body scanner and out again, then pile all the stuff back into the hand luggage and get dressed.  Reminder to self.  Wear slip on shoes in future and put the electronic stuff into one carry on – which is always a bit awkward, if they weigh your bag and it is over 7kg – which it may well be.  A full sized camera and long lens, video camera, laptop computer and Kindle, compact camera etc., all items they suggest you put in your hand luggage!   They didn’t weigh our hand luggage this time in Auckland or LA, but they certainly did on our previous Auckland flight (economy).    

A welcome coffee at Starbucks (again) and the usual wait for boarding.  Same seats as last time and an on time departure heading for Heathrow and an expected actual flight time of 9 hours and 35 minutes which augured well – until the usual holding pattern at Heathrow effectively put us back on schedule instead of early.

Another decent flight, though my USB stick wouldn’t work and then the screen totally locked up at dinner time and needed rebooting.

 

May 29^th – UK!

 

Another totally sleepless night (no surprises there then) and an on time landing.  For many people, Heathrow is another airport that they would prefer to avoid but as in LA, a smooth, quick friendly immigration interview – well, a quick look at the passport anyway, after a fairly long walk.  Travelling on a British Passport is certainly an advantage here but it was noted that less than half the staff were of European descent. 

Straight to the luggage carousel and less than two minutes later, once again we had all our baggage on a trolley and headed for the Enterprise Car Hire desk, as per our instructions.  It was unmanned but the lady on the courtesy phone told us to head outside to pick up area 2 and the van would be around in about 5 minutes.  It took 10, but by this stage, we were happy enough to have landed safely and escaped the system.

A fairly quick paperwork and out to the cars.  We opted for a silver Vauxhall Astra as I knew the boot was a decent size.  What I didn’t notice until we sat inside and had signed all the paperwork, was that the previous hirer was a tobacco addict and the evidence was all too plain, but at 12:30, we carried on anyway and into the usual melee of the M25 London orbital motorway.

The car seemed a bit gutless to me and only later did I realise it was only 1400cc, but the UK has a punitive road tax for larger or less fuel efficient vehicles.  I just had to get used to stirring a gear lever again.

We headed north in bright sunshine, aware of the new average speed cameras now installed on some sections of the motorway.  It was about 19 degrees (cooler than the Auckland we’d left behind) that gradually faded and we hit rain for a while.  A quick comfort stop and a Costa’s toasted two filling sandwich (definitely not as good as Scott’s egg, bacon, tomato and cream cheese, triple decker toasted sandwich in NZ) before turning off the M1 motorway at an earlier junction than normal, as the traffic was slowing to 40mph ahead.

Massive road works between the motorway and Nottingham, as at long last they are turning the road into a dual carriageway.  People had been campaigning for that 40 years ago, so by 2015, it should be completed.

At brother Dave and Sue’s and our base for the next month, for the usual warm welcome and then a visit to see my son and lively grandson, before heading back to Sue’s for a meal and eventually, another fairly early night.

From now on until we cruise, the blog will be fairly intermittent with posts only every few days until we start the cruising June 28^th.  No doubt we’ll pack fair bit into the 28 days anyway, so who knows?  Watch this space – if you are still awake.

Days 2 & 3 - "Long Nights in LA"

Good value at $4!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

When I put that our body clocks were ‘totally screwed’, it really manifested itself by about 1:30am (though I’d previously woken at 11:30pm…) and with both of us wide awake, at 2:30am we switched on the TV.  Two episodes of ‘Married With Children’ later, we tried once again to sleep.  Not easy.  The next thing we knew, the cleaner was trying to get in, as we’d forgotten to hang the ‘do not disturb’ sign on the door!

The next time we were awake it was 12 noon!

After the ablutions, we wandered up the street to Denny’s again and Paula managed the $4 breakfast plus a smoothie.  Now for the equivalent of $4 in NZ you’d be lucky to get toast, but Paula scored two poached eggs, 2 sausages, two so called mini pancakes with butter and maple syrup.

For my $8, I got the above plus two strips of that disgusting crispy bacon that some obviously prefer, a pile of hash brown (more like potato rosti), coffee and a small juice.  Note to our NZ Thursday coffee club.  When you next gather, please tell Scott that he may need to examine his menu pricing…

We waddled out leaving a pancake each untouched (a certain son and a couple of grandsons would be horrified) and opted to use our three day Disney Hopper passes with no expectations of riding, as we knew the Memorial Day crowds would be huge.

We opted to amble around clockwise and a few minutes later we were seated in the cool air of the theatre to enjoy 3D Muppet Vision – no queue.  Next around was the imposing “Hollywood Tower Hotel” attraction but we passed that by, though I will ride it one day, even though I am not  huge fan of ‘drop’ attractions.  

When we last visited Disney’s California park, it was just a few day before they opened the expensive and extensive “Cars Land”, based on the “Cars” movie.  Wow! Needless to say, the star attraction is “Radiator Springs Racers” and with a posted 85 minute queue time for those without Fast Pass tickets, we had no intention of queuing.  Yet, a few metres back, it was only a five minute queue for the spinning tyres ride.

A clever system of inflated tyres on a pad that blows air upwards so that the tyres float. To steer, the occupants lean left, right, backwards or forwards.  I GOT PAULA ON A RIDE!!!!  Good fun.

A stroll outwards to “Bugs World” where instead of the usual 4D movie, they were showing a preview of “Malificent”, Sleeping Beauty updated. So we went into that as once again, there was no queue.

A stroll around the whole park which was of course busy, but it seemed to us, no worse than in 2012 when it was overrun with people using up the last days of their annual passes before they expired.

As we had hopper passes, we strolled across to Disneyland just as the Military band were performing in the square and we hopped onto the train for a ride, getting off at the far side of the park and walking back.   Feeling quite weary (hey, we’d been up for nearly six whole hours…) we decided to eat at Captain Jack’s Buffet, straight opposite the Disney entrance.  Advertised as $9.49 (see pic), that only applies before 4pm and having had good reports from the Thorpes, we opted to give it a go at $10.49. It was surprisingly good (though we do know to trust Thorpe’s foodie assessments).

Although we’d not long been out of bed that long, we were still feeling a bit dopey but the walking had also taken its toll in the heat, so back to HoJo’ to relax and we nodded again briefly, until we finally crashed at an impressive 11:15.

We have an early access on our 3 day Disney pass so a theoretical early start.  We’ll see.  We are not setting the alarm.

 

Tuesday May 27^th.

 

True to form, another hopeless night and another episode of ‘Married With Children’ in the early hours – finally waking at 10am…  A bit too late for the early access.

We opted to skip breakfast and headed for California Park with the intention of seeing what the queue was like at Radiator Springs Racers.  It said 60 minutes and we decided that wasn’t too bad.  The number of people piling in on Fast Passes was unbelievable.  We found out later that you had to head straight to Bugs Land for a Fast Pass, but by about 11am, they’d issued the allocation for the day, which probably means that later on, you returned anything up to 10 hours later to use it!  Anyway, that 60 minute queue stretched to about 80 minutes before we finally climbed aboard our car for a  3 minute experience.  Quite mad really.  You can’t help but admire what they have done, creating a rocky desert on what was, a few years ago, a car park.

A rice based Thai/Chinese meal then on to ‘Toy Story’ with a queue of another 35 minutes before getting  a fast pass for ‘Soaring’ (over California) and a return about an hour or so later – so enough time for a coffee at Starbucks. Ironically, we’d passed it the day before and not even realised it even was a Starbucks.  We enjoyed the sit down (and shared a warm, cinnamon iced bun) and as this park is all about the 1920s to 1940’s, I certainly enjoyed the music, both live and over the speakers as it was very much to my liking.

Paula managed “Soaring” but still had her eyes closed for a fair bit of it. 

Although this was the day after Memorial Day, the crowds were still huge late afternoon, so we wandered over to Disneyland again - just in time for the afternoon parade.  Another train ride and a short walk.  The queue at 5pm for Indiana Jones (my favourite ride) was 95 minutes and no single rider speedy access either.  So we walked back to HoJo’s instead.

We returned to Denny’s and managed to stay awake until 10.25.

Paula has had enough of walking so although the crowds will be much smaller tomorrow, we have elected to relax tomorrow morning before the flight to the UK, so the two day Disney Pass would have been enough.

Much as I love the whole Disney thing, it really is essential to visit out of season to get the most out of it otherwise it is impossible to experience anywhere near as much as you would like.

Day 1 May 25th - the longest day... NZ to LA

 

 

We’re off!  After yet another catch up with relatives and friends Sunday morning through brunch (that was the 7^th farewell!), we arrived home with just three hours to do all those little jobs that can only be done on the last day.  The only thing we forgot was to dump the small amount of milk left in the fridge – which of course was switched off, doors open.

We were ready - with 45 minutes to spare – which is more than can be said for some.  We usually opt to get picked up by a shared Shuttle and accept that instead of taking 30 minutes to the airport, we allow an hour. Unfortunately, it took nearer 90 minutes as people had either been picked up already (cash customers), or weren’t ready and by the time we’d returned, they’d gone.  So three stops were a total waste of time for us and also of course for the poor driver.

We just had to chill and Air NZ Premium Check in was a friendly, efficient breeze.  After dumping the luggage and filling out a departure card, it was straight up the internal escalator direct to a dedicated immigration official.  Dedicated he may have been.  Smiling he was not.

Scanning was OK with the usual temporary hiccup when the X-ray showed up my sugar jar…  A tastie ham toastie (well fougasse if you want to be posh) and  a coffee (with sugar) before an on time boarding and departure. 

Premium seats on a 777-300 are the AirNZ ‘pods’.  Fairly spacious and fairly comfortable, but I still didn’t really manage any sleep. The on board entertainment system is wide ranging.  Three recent episodes of Top Gear, (one of which I’d missed), some country music (there was no traditional jazz option…) and two meals later, we arrived on time at LA.

Now we know this is one of the most hated airports but it was a short wait, a very friendly immigration official and by the time we got to the luggage carousel, our luggage was already there – all of it this time.

A FREE luggage trolley to the Green bus stop (far left once outside the terminal building) for the hourly “Disneyland Express” coach, due at 1:45. Now someone is being a bit naughty here, as two shuttle vans marked “Disneyland Express” stopped and the drivers tried to entice us on board…  The coach was on time but a warning; either a prepaid voucher (which we had) or credit card only.  One young family with two kids were not having a good day here and only had cash, but had expected to be picked up, so we took their money and put it our card.   Then before the coach had even made the next terminal stop, they had contacted their friends and hopped off again! We gave them their cash back and managed to get a refund from the ‘conductor’.

An easy Sunday run to Howard Johnson’s at Anaheim, but the traffic around the Disneyland Hotel on this this Memorial Weekend was horrendous.  Check in was as usual at HoJo’s, very friendly after a short wait and we managed to lug all our luggage (is that where it got its name from?) without a trolley to our room in block 2.  The room was overlooking the pool, which was full of happy (read noisy) kids.  No problem.  The double glazed windows cut out the noise.

Now it is fair to say that HoJo’s only ever really presents itself as a family hotel, but it ticks all the boxes.  Coffee machine with 4 modern coffee pottles (similar to the Nespresso), topped up/replaced daily;  wide double bed; large flat screen TV in the right place; fridge; microwave; ironing board and iron (whatever that is); in room safe and free WiFi.  A nice friendly little shop and both swimming pool and kids water play area and a large spa pool.  Although no use to us, even car-parking is free. A five minute walk to any number of eateries and a ten minute walk to Disney is fine by us.

We had  short nap (big mistake…) as it was still Sunday in LA even  after the 11.5hr flight then opted for Denny’s, as from past experience, their range of options suits us. A light (cheap) snack of toasted turkey, avocado and cheese sandwiches with a cup of creamy broccoli soup plus a small glass of juice each came to just under $17.00 plus tip. 

A stroll to the new shopping area “Anaheim Gardens” which looks to be taking off.  Certainly, Bubba Gump’s was doing a roaring trade, whilst my previous favourite, Tony Roma’s Ribs was not.  Totally over-priced now, so no wonder.

We crashed out a bit early according to the physical clock, but our internal clocks were totally screwed.  The noisy Disney fireworks at 9:25pm preclude really early nights anyway.

May 26^th – Monday, Memorial Day tomorrow, so we are not really expecting anything other than huge crowds at both Disney Parks so we’ll just wander in without any intention of riding.  We haven't set the alarm either, so goodness knows what time we'll be out of bed. 

Two Weeks to go...

Exactly two weeks to go now before we head for the airport (almost to the minute!) .  After organising and being MC for our race series awards dinner last night, I can now unwind as apart from a magazine article to write (for BMW UK), the remaining ‘to do’ list is just basics and what could best be described as bits and pieces.  Getting the paperwork details sorted and trying to establish contact with one or two overseas friends to try and pin down a time to catch up,  plus printing luggage tags both for cruises and even the flights, are the important ones.

Why tags for flights?  Well if you’d read the 2012 blog, you may remember my luggage was checked in at San Francisco and presumably, during a behind the scenes luggage check, the sticky label that is normally so difficult to tear off, was separated from the luggage.  It took a week of frantic phone calls, emails and checks to get the luggage identified and back to NZ, fortunately, intact.

I now write each individual flight number on the back of a business card; laminate it; hole punch it; then attach by cable ties, one to each piece of luggage – even the hand luggage. No guarantees of course, but it is a belt and braces approach.

The Dawn Princess is in Auckland this Wednesday en route for Sydney and our good friends Mal & Megan are boarding in Auckland, then cruising to Sydney for the official start of the World Cruise.  We will of course catch up with them in Southampton July 12^th.

I must catch up with Ganjo’s Blog (see the link on the right)  to see if they have resolved their internet connection hiccups on their ship, the Ocean Princess.

Our packing regime has started already, as gone are the days when I could pack for a six week UK trip and be out the door in 30 minutes!  So many things that are now extras such as about half a mile of cables and plugs, chargers, batteries and electronic devices.

Clothing now has to include gear for formal nights and no doubt a range of temperatures, as even though June is the month with the longest hours of daylight in Europe, it doesn’t always mean warm – but it can be.

I have made a big mistake however (note I, not we…) as I thought I was being smart by getting a flight schedule via LA not only on a favoured aircraft (777-300), but at a pre-peak season price and before the end of May, so that the kids would still be at school. I was looking forward to an early start in Disney’s California to experience the new “Cars Land”.  To my horror, I found that we arrive just in time for Memorial Day and that rates a 10/10 for busy!  Oh dear.  We may have to just loll around on the Monday, swim - and much to Paula’s delight, probably catch a bit of the Indy 500 on TV…

Anyway, too bad.  We can’t do anything about it now and we’ll just have to hope the flights are all  good and that our hire car is OK, as I haven’t tried this company before, but they do at least have a one way hire, with a pick up at Heathrow and a drop-off at the Southampton Docks, something our regular company doesn’t do.

So a bit to cram into the two weeks and when we return, some work to do on the house as the re-roofing wasn’t able to be started as there is a shortage of scaffolding (thanks to Health and Safety, every job higher than about 4” needs a full set of scaffolding complete with safety rails – and shortly, air bags too, just in case a builder does a dive over those safety rails…).