Martyn B
CF Legend
Right, so here goes!
Done all the packing on the Wednesday, picked Chloe up at 3pm, then headed straight for Lakeside for some shopping! Got to Lakeside in really good time, around 4.50pm, which is insane considering I picked her from the centre of Norwich!
Left Lakeside around 9.30pm, and before we knew we were at our hotel by Gatwick, the Menzies Chequers - bizzare name or what! The hotel was ok, £100 wasn't bad for the nights stay and 18 days parking. Especially when 14 days parking at the local Airparks is £80.
God the room was hot though! Really bad nights sleep was had by both of us. Not good considering how long the following day was going to be! Oh, and £14.95 each for breakfast, piss right off!
It was my first time at Gatwick, it was ok. Long queue at the Virgin check in, but we wanted the extra leg room, which ment going to a different desk, with no queue. £20 each was well worth it in my opinion, and it also ment no queuing!
Had some lush eggs benedict at the Weatherspoons, then grabbed a Mcdonalds to take to the gate - good job I did....delay. (I've not flown that many times really (compared to some people), and I've been quite fortunate that I've never been delayed before).
It was only 15 mins to begin with, but then it changed to 2 hours! My plans for going to Old Town/Fun Spot tonight were well and truely cancelled...
On a plus side, we had to change plane. We were actually going to be on an old one, but we changed to one of the newly refurbished planes. It was pretty smart and the entertainment screen was amazing. It just had so much on it, and a 9 hour flight wasn't long enough for me to watch/listen/play everything I wanted to! Only downside was that it was touch screen and there was no remote, so my arms started to ache after playing on some games.
The 9 hour flight went really quick, probably due to all the excitement! (and entertainment (and free drinks!))
Border control was a bit of pain, we waited around 40 mins, but luckily this ended up being the longest queue of the entire trip!
So we got our bags, eventually found the Virgin desk, got on our bus, and we were soon at the hotel.
They (randomly) give you a cookie each when you check in, they're lush! Probably the best cookies I've ever had. Needless to say most days we stop at reception to ask for more! And so was everyone else!
Woke up at 4am, feeling wide awake (9am UK), so we decided to check out the area a little bit. Opposite the hotel there was a little huddle of restaurants, including a Subway, Indian and the Village Inn. We walked a bit further up the road towards the conference centre, the humidity was horrible in a nice 'novelty' way. When you've never experienced it before, it can be a bit much. Luckily they dont care about being green in the States, and as a result of that, everywhere has aircon! Anyway, we found an Ihop, Dennys and Mcdonalds - breakfast it was then!
They have like 15 different meals for their breakfast menu! Including chicken steaks!
Outside the McDonalds
Our hotel - we loved it!
We weren't in the tower, just in one of the smaller blocks. We weren't bothered about this because apparently the rooms in the tower aren't as nice (according to reviews)
Oh, and the 'Expedia travel expert' desk was insanely helpful, especially for first time visitors like ourselves!
So after faffing around in the hotel, we head to our first park of the trip, Seaworld. It was literally just behind the hotel, but annoyingly they had closed to gate to the back way out due to some road works along the pathway, but they did put on a shuttle bus for the convenience.
After we got our quick queue wristbands (perks of the hotel), we headed for Manta.
I liked it. I loved the queue and the splash down effects, but the pretzel loop was disgusting, after that it was good fun though. Take out the pretzel loop and it is pretty much the same ride experience as Air.
Not going to lie, I fell in love with Journey to Atlantis!
Kraken was a bit.....eh. Weird really, I went on a very similar coaster earlier in the year, which I love (Superman), but Kraken was.... I dunno. It was uncomfortable, it felt like the wheels had no rubber on them, and it was just metal on metal grinding along the track.
We then went to see the Dolphin show, which was called Blue Horizons I think. I wasn't impressed tbh. Not much dolphin action, just lots of people swinging about and diving randomly.
Struggling to remember what we did really, so I'm just going by the photos....
I enjoyed the Sealion and Otter show, it was childish, goofy fun. Better than that Blue Horizons turd.
I liked this area of the park, it was really well themed and looked nice.
Closed due to high winds, ugh! #FantasyIsland
The Empire of the Penguin thing thats being built caused a pain for getting around the park. Basically, if you're at Kraken and you want to go to the Sealion show, which is right next door, you to walk all the way back down to Manta, along a bit, then back up. I suppose its not too much of a pain, but then there was another section of the park like this where they had a pathway closed, for no apparent reason (between the entrance and Wild Artic/Bayside stadium.
Onto the 'One Ocean' shamu show then. Again, it was ok, but it was just music and whales jumping about randomly. Soaking people was quite funny, but I would have liked to have learnt a little about the whales.
The show then spits you out into the kids area, it would be rude not to have a look around!
Oh look, there's a coaster! Might as well go on it whilst we're here....
I forgot to mention, despite the shows being packed out, everything was actually walk on, and I proper walk on (we were riding some rides on our own and Kraken/Manta were both running with just one train)
And I guess that was it for Seaworld (for that day). Think it was around 1pm, we got the bus back to the hotel, and from there we caught a Lynx bus to Disney. We went to the Hollywood Studios via Downtown Disney.
Looks like their balloon here has gone for good!
The entrance to the park hardly warrants a photo, its a bit poor by Disney's standards, so here's what you see when you enter.
After checking the info board, it seemed best to go get a Fastpass for Toy Story Mania, as that had a 40min line, whilst other major rides only had 5/10minute line. Even though it was around 2.30pm, the Fastpass return time was after 7pm! Even in a quiet park, its a very popular ride.
The Backlot Tour was near by, so we gave that a go with low expectations after the Paris version.
Apart from this scene to help break up the queuing, it was pretty much the same as in Paris.
So yeah, not overly impressed really.
Its worth a 40minute queue to be honest, but there's no point when everything else doesn't have a queue.
I love this view.
Same as really. This one does have the different way of operating, which I couldn't get my head around, but its all the same really.
Right next door was the Rock 'n' Rollercoaster, and this is why DHS is better than the WDS in Paris:
This area is such a higher quality than its namesake in Paris.
I liked the 'kind of' story line too.
Again, this looked cool.
The actual ride area is just random road signs lighting up, so I think the Paris coaster went one better with all the lights.
I honeslt had no idea it done this, and it confused me!
Toy Story Midway Mania, what a ride! Oh it was so fun!
I want to know how some people get scores of 550,000+, I was going hell for leather and only managed around 160,000!
The Little Mermaid musical thing was ok I guess, not much else to say.
I like this photo!
I cant really remember what else we went on, we were just milling about waiting for Fantasmic. Think we done the drawing, which I was disappointed in, they rush you like mad, so you end up with like half a drawning, and when they done Buzz, the 'Disney' guy's drawing didn't even look like Buzz....
It was really, really, REALLY good! It was amazing, I absolutely loved it! Its these types of attractions that make Disney SO good!
Couple of shots as we then left:
We were obvs tired, so we just went back to the hotel for some sleepies and that was it for our first day (Friday 7th Sept).
Done all the packing on the Wednesday, picked Chloe up at 3pm, then headed straight for Lakeside for some shopping! Got to Lakeside in really good time, around 4.50pm, which is insane considering I picked her from the centre of Norwich!
Left Lakeside around 9.30pm, and before we knew we were at our hotel by Gatwick, the Menzies Chequers - bizzare name or what! The hotel was ok, £100 wasn't bad for the nights stay and 18 days parking. Especially when 14 days parking at the local Airparks is £80.
God the room was hot though! Really bad nights sleep was had by both of us. Not good considering how long the following day was going to be! Oh, and £14.95 each for breakfast, piss right off!
It was my first time at Gatwick, it was ok. Long queue at the Virgin check in, but we wanted the extra leg room, which ment going to a different desk, with no queue. £20 each was well worth it in my opinion, and it also ment no queuing!
Had some lush eggs benedict at the Weatherspoons, then grabbed a Mcdonalds to take to the gate - good job I did....delay. (I've not flown that many times really (compared to some people), and I've been quite fortunate that I've never been delayed before).
It was only 15 mins to begin with, but then it changed to 2 hours! My plans for going to Old Town/Fun Spot tonight were well and truely cancelled...
On a plus side, we had to change plane. We were actually going to be on an old one, but we changed to one of the newly refurbished planes. It was pretty smart and the entertainment screen was amazing. It just had so much on it, and a 9 hour flight wasn't long enough for me to watch/listen/play everything I wanted to! Only downside was that it was touch screen and there was no remote, so my arms started to ache after playing on some games.
The 9 hour flight went really quick, probably due to all the excitement! (and entertainment (and free drinks!))
Border control was a bit of pain, we waited around 40 mins, but luckily this ended up being the longest queue of the entire trip!
So we got our bags, eventually found the Virgin desk, got on our bus, and we were soon at the hotel.
They (randomly) give you a cookie each when you check in, they're lush! Probably the best cookies I've ever had. Needless to say most days we stop at reception to ask for more! And so was everyone else!
Woke up at 4am, feeling wide awake (9am UK), so we decided to check out the area a little bit. Opposite the hotel there was a little huddle of restaurants, including a Subway, Indian and the Village Inn. We walked a bit further up the road towards the conference centre, the humidity was horrible in a nice 'novelty' way. When you've never experienced it before, it can be a bit much. Luckily they dont care about being green in the States, and as a result of that, everywhere has aircon! Anyway, we found an Ihop, Dennys and Mcdonalds - breakfast it was then!
They have like 15 different meals for their breakfast menu! Including chicken steaks!
Outside the McDonalds
Our hotel - we loved it!
We weren't in the tower, just in one of the smaller blocks. We weren't bothered about this because apparently the rooms in the tower aren't as nice (according to reviews)
Oh, and the 'Expedia travel expert' desk was insanely helpful, especially for first time visitors like ourselves!
So after faffing around in the hotel, we head to our first park of the trip, Seaworld. It was literally just behind the hotel, but annoyingly they had closed to gate to the back way out due to some road works along the pathway, but they did put on a shuttle bus for the convenience.
After we got our quick queue wristbands (perks of the hotel), we headed for Manta.
I liked it. I loved the queue and the splash down effects, but the pretzel loop was disgusting, after that it was good fun though. Take out the pretzel loop and it is pretty much the same ride experience as Air.
Not going to lie, I fell in love with Journey to Atlantis!
Kraken was a bit.....eh. Weird really, I went on a very similar coaster earlier in the year, which I love (Superman), but Kraken was.... I dunno. It was uncomfortable, it felt like the wheels had no rubber on them, and it was just metal on metal grinding along the track.
We then went to see the Dolphin show, which was called Blue Horizons I think. I wasn't impressed tbh. Not much dolphin action, just lots of people swinging about and diving randomly.
Struggling to remember what we did really, so I'm just going by the photos....
I enjoyed the Sealion and Otter show, it was childish, goofy fun. Better than that Blue Horizons turd.
I liked this area of the park, it was really well themed and looked nice.
Closed due to high winds, ugh! #FantasyIsland
The Empire of the Penguin thing thats being built caused a pain for getting around the park. Basically, if you're at Kraken and you want to go to the Sealion show, which is right next door, you to walk all the way back down to Manta, along a bit, then back up. I suppose its not too much of a pain, but then there was another section of the park like this where they had a pathway closed, for no apparent reason (between the entrance and Wild Artic/Bayside stadium.
Onto the 'One Ocean' shamu show then. Again, it was ok, but it was just music and whales jumping about randomly. Soaking people was quite funny, but I would have liked to have learnt a little about the whales.
The show then spits you out into the kids area, it would be rude not to have a look around!
Oh look, there's a coaster! Might as well go on it whilst we're here....
I forgot to mention, despite the shows being packed out, everything was actually walk on, and I proper walk on (we were riding some rides on our own and Kraken/Manta were both running with just one train)
And I guess that was it for Seaworld (for that day). Think it was around 1pm, we got the bus back to the hotel, and from there we caught a Lynx bus to Disney. We went to the Hollywood Studios via Downtown Disney.
Looks like their balloon here has gone for good!
The entrance to the park hardly warrants a photo, its a bit poor by Disney's standards, so here's what you see when you enter.
After checking the info board, it seemed best to go get a Fastpass for Toy Story Mania, as that had a 40min line, whilst other major rides only had 5/10minute line. Even though it was around 2.30pm, the Fastpass return time was after 7pm! Even in a quiet park, its a very popular ride.
The Backlot Tour was near by, so we gave that a go with low expectations after the Paris version.
Apart from this scene to help break up the queuing, it was pretty much the same as in Paris.
So yeah, not overly impressed really.
Its worth a 40minute queue to be honest, but there's no point when everything else doesn't have a queue.
I love this view.
Same as really. This one does have the different way of operating, which I couldn't get my head around, but its all the same really.
Right next door was the Rock 'n' Rollercoaster, and this is why DHS is better than the WDS in Paris:
This area is such a higher quality than its namesake in Paris.
I liked the 'kind of' story line too.
Again, this looked cool.
The actual ride area is just random road signs lighting up, so I think the Paris coaster went one better with all the lights.
I honeslt had no idea it done this, and it confused me!
Toy Story Midway Mania, what a ride! Oh it was so fun!
I want to know how some people get scores of 550,000+, I was going hell for leather and only managed around 160,000!
The Little Mermaid musical thing was ok I guess, not much else to say.
I like this photo!
I cant really remember what else we went on, we were just milling about waiting for Fantasmic. Think we done the drawing, which I was disappointed in, they rush you like mad, so you end up with like half a drawning, and when they done Buzz, the 'Disney' guy's drawing didn't even look like Buzz....
It was really, really, REALLY good! It was amazing, I absolutely loved it! Its these types of attractions that make Disney SO good!
Couple of shots as we then left:
We were obvs tired, so we just went back to the hotel for some sleepies and that was it for our first day (Friday 7th Sept).
