We had set the alarm for 09:00 and woke up just before then. We must have needed our beauty sleep. We took turns having a shower and packed the few odds and ends that we had unpacked. Then we headed downstairs to check out. The wait for the lift to go downstairs felt like the longest part of journey we were taking that morning. Eventually we made it downstairs. Check out took only a few seconds and they were only too happy to look after our luggage for us. We then headed to Kensington Olympia station.
When we originally realised that we would be able to spend a weekend in London as part of this trip, Graham had mentioned the Disney 100 exhibition. I had dismissed this out of hand. Partly this was because it is not cheap, but the main consideration was that we were staying in Kensington, which is an area of London that I am not really familiar with. I figured it would be a pain to get from there to the Docklands. With a week or so to go, videos about the exhibition showed up on my newsfeed on Facebook and I had to admit that this looked amazing. Add to this the weather forecast that was rotten for that day and I did not care how long it would take to get there. In the end it was a complete non-event. The London Overground station was only a hop, skip and jump from the hotel. We took this for one stop to interchange to the Central Line to Tottenham Court Road. From there we then connected onto the Elizabeth Line to Custom House. It really could not have been any easier. Better still, they had released a discount code earlier in the week saving 20 % of the ticket price.
When we exited the Elizabeth line, there was a footbridge right to the Excel. Near the entrance to the footbridge was a Starbucks. This took care of breakfast. Graham had a sausage butty and an Americano. I had the three cheese and red pepper egg bites and a caramel macchiato. When we had finished our breakfast, it was nearly time for our ticket window to open and we headed to the entrance to Disney 100.
There was only one family in front of us to check in. They scanned our tickets. I asked if I needed to leave my handbag in a locker as the ticket information stated that you could only bring in bags that are smaller than a A4 piece of paper. My handbag was bigger than that. I was told that it was up to me and that I could take the bag in if I referred. I kept the bag. They took photos against a green screen near the entrance and then we headed down a corridor. The first part of the show is a film and we had to wait about 5 minutes before we could go in. When I tried to find out about the exhibition, I found reviews that referred to this part as indoctrination. I actually thought this was well done and moving. It was a potted history of the early days of the company and at the end, Walt Disney addressed the people present. Apparently, this sequence was created by AI by splicing together various audio. It did not take much time and then we were free to explore.
The first gallery concentrated on the biography of Walt Disney and the early days of the company. This made perfect sense as it followed a timeline. There were also some rather special exhibits in this area including some early sketches of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. I wish the same was true for the rest of the exhibition. The exhibits themselves were top-notch. I mean where else can you see the original carousel horse that Dick van Dyke sat on in the film Mary Poppins. There was also a good selection of sketches, story boards, props, costumes and even ride vehicles. This part of the exhibition was amazing. Because of this, I did feel that I had got my money’s worth. However, considering that Disney is a master in storytelling, this aspect was sadly missing. A lot of the exhibition felt very disjointed. There was one gallery that combined costumes of Pirates of the Caribbean, props from a Jules Verne inspired movie as well as various props and costumes from Star Wars and the Marvel universe. This left us shaking or heads. Ironically, near the end of the exhibition was a room with display cases showcasing different aspects of Disney organized by decades. I think they should have grouped things together by decade from the beginning until today. This would have made much more sense.
I appreciate that there were some aspects that would not easily have fit in this format, but this could have easily been solved by having a separate gallery for each of those. They did this very successfully with the Sounds and Music Gallery. I thought this was well done displaying some of the original sheet music, a display of Disney records, a listening station where you could listen to different Disney songs and my personal favourite, screens where they played famous songs from Disney movies, where each verse was sung in a different language.
Other exhibits that would have benefitted of being grouped together is maybe something called “How Movies Are Made” that could have included the story boards and also the reference models for various characters. It also would have made sense to put everything relating to the theme parks together. The was some amazing concept art of attractions that were randomly grouped together with exhibits relating to the movies Moana and Lilo and Stitch. At a push, I can see the link between the two movies as there is a lot of cultural overlap, but how concept art for Soarin and Matterhorn fits in with this will forever be a mystery. This would have fit in much better with the exhibits on how Disneyland came to be. This was a real gem. The centre piece was a drawing that Walt Disney asked one of his animators to do of Disneyland long before the park existed. He wanted this to form part of the pitch that his brother Roy made to a bank to get funding for Disneyland. This was a reproduction, but it was fascinating to see just how many similarities there are between the original idea and the actual park.
Something that was done really well was an area that celebrated all Disney parks around the world and included numerous props including ride vehicles. However, this would have been even more effective if it had been grouped together with various other theme park related exhibits. We did enjoy the exhibition and felt getting tickets was money well spent, but this could have been really amazing. We both had seen a fantastic Disney exhibition in Singapore, and I also have had the privilege to visit the Disney Family Museum in San Francisco, and both did a great job telling a coherent story. I suppose we are a little spoiled.
One thing that I really was disappointed about was the gift shop. I had hoped that they would sell spirit jerseys. I had budgeted both money and luggage allowance for this. However, there were no spirit jerseys available. I found the offerings very limited and walked away empty-handed. I was not too impressed with the photos that were taken either and again, I passed. After a quick bathroom stop, we headed back to the station. We briefly considered using the Dockland Light Railway for a change of scenery but decided to stick to the same route we had taken in the morning.
I had a bit of an ulterior motive for sticking to this route. On our travels to China, I developed a taste for the cheese teas by a company called Heytea. I know this sounds horrible, but the name is somewhat misleading. Their speciality is a variety of teas with a cheesecake-like dairy topping. I have enjoyed their offerings in China and Singapore, but they have now expanded into the UK, the USA and Canada. Indeed, they have recently a shop right here in Manchester. I knew that there was a branch of Heytea in Soho on the edge of China Town, which is somewhat infamous for its huge lines. I was still tempted though. When I Googled the details, I noticed that they now have multiple branches in London and one of them is in Holborn, which was only a detour of one stop on the underground. I figured we could check it out and if the line was too long, there was nothing lost. I was delighted when I found no line at all. There were quite a few people around, but there was only one person in front of us waiting to order. This was too good to pass up. Graham had the Very Grape Cheese Tea. I am more of a purist and had the Regal Aqua Green Jasmine Cheese Tea. This was every bit as good as I remembered. I am very happy that I can have this whenever I fancy this. Ironically, I have since found out that I had been within metres of the first Canadian branch of Heytea multiple times while in Vancouver as there is one very close to the Skytrain station that was close to our guest house. When I found this out, I could have kicked myself. I could have had some cheese tea every day during our stay in Vancouver if I had only known that earlier. Still, at least it won’t be another five years until I get to have my next cheese tea.
Once we had finished our cheese tea, we decided it was time for some lunch. We stuck with the Asian theme. On the way back to the underground station, we walked past a noodle bar called Itsu. Graham had some salmon sushi. I had some udon noodles with vegetables in a katsu broth. I also added some grilled chicken and a soft-boiled egg. The portion did not look very big, but not only was I absolutely stuffed, but I did not even quite manage to finish it.
After lunch, we headed back to the hotel. We retrieved our luggage and used the bathroom. Then we headed to Kensington Olympia station once more. There were a couple of train cancellations. Not only did we have a bit of wait, but when a train finally arrived, it was absolutely packed. Fortunately, Clapham Junction is not too far away from Kensington Olympia. We had to change trains there. We just missed a train to Gatwick, but we were in no rush. The next train was due 30 minutes later and we managed to get a seat on this one. We were also able to use contactless payment right up to Gatwick. Not only was this really convenient, but it was also a lot cheaper than buying a standard ticket. Fortunately, I had done my research before we left the hotel.
The station is attached to the south terminal, which is also were we were flying from. Our hotel, the Hilton London Gatwick Airport, was marketed as being connected to the south terminal via a covered walkway. That statement used a certain artistic license. We followed the signs for the hotel and ended up outside the terminal. After wondering if we had missed some signposting somewhere, we saw a further sign directing us to a multi-storey parking structure opposite the terminal. We then had to take a lift down to the basement. There seemed to be a lot of people on the move, and it took a while until a lift stopped on the floor where were. When we got to the basement, there was then a covered walkway that led to the hotel entrance. Once we knew where we were going, it did not take long to get there.
Check in was also quite busy, but after a short wait, we were checked in. We headed up to the room to relax. I checked in online and then a spent a couple of hours reading. Around 19:00, I asked Graham if he wanted to get some dinner. He was not in the mood to traipse back across to the terminal to get some dinner after having settled down. In fairness, I was not really hungry. That lunch was really a lot more filling than it looked. We both got ready for bed. I plugged in our assorted gadgets and read for a while longer, but Graham was asleep pretty much straightaway after getting ready for bed.
Dolphingirl’s Travels 
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