I slept in stops and starts, which is not unusual for me the night before a holiday or when I have to be up very early. This time I had a combination of both. The fact that the bed was a lot firmer than what I am used to did not help either. Still, I got a decent amount of sleep.
The alarm was set for 3:00, but I was awake about 20 minutes before it went off. I stayed put as I did not want to wake up Graham. When the alarm went off, we got ready. I packed my electronics and put the overnight wash kit in the suitcase. Then we walked over to the terminal. On the way, we had a real treat. We saw a group of hares going about their business.
We got to the terminal about 03:25 and there was already a healthy line at check in. We were told that check in was not due to open until 04:15. This seemed very late for a 06:15 flight with a lot of people connecting to international flights. Ten minutes later, they opened check in. The first person checking in had a bag that was well over the legal limit of 32kg. He was sent away to sort it out. After this, check in went smoothly. We were both well under our limit. I was a bit surprised that we were issued paper boarding passes even though we had electronic boarding passes.
Security was a charm. Graham walked straight up to security, and I waited until he was done. I was surprised when my backpack took a detour. I had put anything that may cause interest in my handbag and taken all the electronics out. It turned out it was the box with my jewellery that caused interest. I don’t know how often that same box had travelled in the hand luggage through Manchester airport. Still, we had plenty of time and the process was quick.
Once we were in the departure lounge, we got a bit of breakfast. We went to Costa Coffee. Graham had an Americano and a gingerbread muffin, and I had a sticky toffee latte and a chocolate orange muffin. Once we had finished our breakfast, we went to find some seats. It was surprising just how busy the airport was that early in the morning. I worked on my trip report and Graham just chilled.
Soon, it was time for boarding. This was quite a smooth process even though the electronic gate near our boarding area did not like me. We had some amusement when the cabin crew played Tetris with the hand luggage. It was unbelievable that they managed to fit everything in. The flight down to London arrived slightly early.
When we got to the departure lounge, our flight was showing a 40-minute delay. This then went back to being on time. When I went to the bathroom just before the gate was due to be listed, it showed a delay again and this time, it was an hour. There was nothing we could do about it. They did advertise the gate area quite early though and we headed over there.
When we had got off the little train linking the main terminal with the satellite gates, I got a unique perspective of a plane from ground level. I took a photo. I had wondered if this was actually our plane, but in the end it was not. When we got upstairs, we settled down near what turned out to be our gate. I got treated to a very close look of our morning flight taxiing past. On the way back to where Graham was sitting, I encountered a cleaning robot that amused me.
The reason for the delay was that original plane had developed a fault and they had to switch the planes. Boarding was again pretty smooth. It is nice having some status with the airline, which gave us priority boarding. This also had allowed us to select our seats free of charge 7 days before the flight, which meant that we did not have to worry about being separated.
Once we were settled in, I played Trivial Pursuit for a bit. After I had beaten the computer a couple of times, I started to watch one of my favourite films, Crazy Rich Asians. I watched this in stops and starts. First, they came round with the drinks service. Graham had a Sauvignon Blanc from Chile, and I had a gin and tonic. A little while later, lunch was served. There was some kind of mystery starter that contained beetroot, which I detest. I gave this to Graham. For our main course, we both had the peri peri chicken that came with a pea and sweetcorn rice. This was very nice. This also came with roll, cheese and crackers, and a chocolate and salted caramel dessert. As Graham can’t eat chocolate, he gave me his dessert, too. However, this was way too sweet for my liking, and I only had one. We both had some coffee after lunch.
After lunch I finished watching Crazy Rich Asians. Then I played Monopoly for a bit. I made a tactical mistake and lost interest. I went back to Trivial Pursuit for a while. This time the computer got the better of me and won two out of three games.
Once I had enough of playing games, I watched another old favourite- Pitch Perfect. During the film, they served vanilla ice cream. This was very nice. After the film, I went back to playing games. Graham had played a game earlier on where you have merge tiles with the same value until you have a tile with the value of 2048. It is very difficult, but very addictive. Neither of us succeeded, but I spent a happy couple of hours trying.
With about two hours to go, they served a second meal. Normally, this is fairly basic like at sandwich, a pizza slice, or a savoury pastry of some description. I was very surprised when we got a proper main course. Graham had the chicken in tarragon sauce, which came with roast potatoes and broccoli. I had gnocchi in a tomato sauce. The gnocchi were unlike any gnocchi I ever had, but the dish was very tasty. We were offered a choice of tea or coffee and we both went with tea. We also got a lemon cheesecake dessert, which was very nice. After everything was cleared away, I went back to playing Trivial Pursuit again. This could have gone either way, but we landed before the game was done.
I was a little nervous about immigration. I had read recent accounts of immigration at LAX taking up to three hours. They were definitely set up for serious lines with switchbacks running along the whole length of the terminal. However, the line was constantly moving. When we got to the front of the line, things were very quick and easy, too. Graham had to provide fingerprints as this was the first time he travelled to the US on his new passport. As I had used my passport to enter Seattle last year, all that was required was a quick photo. They have also done away with the customs forms in Los Angeles and the whole immigration process was quick and easy. Our luggage came out just as soon as we found our luggage carousel.
One thing that had changed is the arrangements for transfers. Transfers, ride-share services like Uber and Lyft and taxis are no longer allowed to pick up outside the terminals. They have a dedicated pick-up area called LAX-it. There are regular free shuttles that connect the terminals with LAX-it. This is very well signposted, and a shuttle arrived as soon as we got to the shuttle stop.
Originally, I had planned to get an Uber to the hotel. However, they did not allow me to make a reservation ahead of time and I learned the hard way that airport pick-ups can be unpredictable. With a couple of days to go, I buckled and booked a transfer. All seemed well. I had downloaded their app and when I checked this on our way to LAX-it, I had details of our driver and the car. I also had a text reminding me that I had a pickup at 16:00. Due to the delay on the flight, we arrived about 10 minutes after this. However, they are checking arrival times of flights, and you also have to click on a link on the app when you are ready to leave. I was not worried. I clicked the link as soon as we got to the pick-up point. A few minutes later, the company called me. They wanted to know where we were. I gave them our location. Apparently, our flight was showing as arriving at 17:20. He called our driver and then advised the driver would be with us within 25 minutes. I was less than impressed. This was precisely the kind of thing I had tried to avoid by booking a transfer. On the plus side, I saw my second Emirates A380 of the day taxiing past while we waited.
30 minutes after the call, the driver still had not arrived. I rang the company back and they tried to call the driver. The driver did not pick up and I was advised to wait another 20 minutes. I was decidedly less than amused at this stage. At least the calls did not cost me any money as my contract allows me free roaming in the USA. Fortunately, the driver did arrive a few minutes later. The driver was not exactly a happy soul. Traffic was pretty heavy, and he was complaining about this and the standards of driving all the way from the airport to the hotel. He was also swearing blind that there was nothing added to Disneyland Hotel in decades. I was not entirely sure if the Villas at Disneyland Hotel had their own check in area as they have a different address from the rest of the hotel, and this is the address I had provided. It was not worth the argument though and I figured all would become clear once we got there.
That part worked like a charm. They checked our reservation at the barrier and when we arrived at the hotel itself, we were directed to the kerbside right opposite the entrance. We were offered luggage assistance, but we declined as our suitcases have wheels and we have backpacks for our hand luggage. Check in turned out to be at the hotel. There was no line, and the process was quick. We were given a map of the hotel and some instructions. Then we were on our way. The person who had checked us in had mentioned that it looks a lot further on the map than it really is, and she was right about this. We did take a slight detour though. We followed the path to the end and ended up in the pool area. The main entrance is actually slightly off to the left. However, this added a couple of minutes at most.
Our studio was on the 6th floor. The studios at the Villas at Disneyland Hotel are stunning. They are also huge. They come either with a Jungle Book or a The Princess and the Frog theme. Ours was The Princess and the Frog. I could not believe the size of the shower. A family of four could have showered simultaneously in this. I also liked the look of the rainfall shower head. I was delighted that they had the H2O+ Spa toiletries. I have always loved those products and was sad when the company closed down at the end of last year. I had not expected to still find their products in the hotels nearly a year later.
I took a few photos of the room. Then we both freshened up a little and had some water before settling down for the night. The bed was very comfortable, but was the smallest bed we had slept in for a number of years. It still did not take long until we were both asleep.
Dolphingirl’s Travels 
Leave a comment