March 13
Well, I set the alarm for 7:30 p.m. not a.m. so the kid woke us up at 8:30. DD and DH got dressed and I sent them off to ride Crush. I stayed behind to pack. I also grabbed some pastries from the lounge and kept them in the room while I waited for my family to come back. They were gone until around 10. They grabbed something to eat and then we made sure our bags were fully packed. On our way to the parks we stopped at the Castle Club concierge and made arrangement to pick our luggage up at luggage services later in the afternoon. They didn’t recommend us sending our bags to the Eurostar since the lineups can be crazy long. I tried to make a reservation at Walt’s for lunch. However, Walt’s was closed for a renovation so we made a lunch reservation at Inventions.
We went to the parks before our 2:30 p.m. lunch reservation. We ended up waiting in line to ride Crush again. That was by far and away the kid’s favourite ride. We also went on Pirates of the Caribbean again. Honestly, it is all a blur. It was really easy to get around the two parks. Lineups were short. The 45 minutes we waited for Crush was by far the longest line we were ever in. The kid also enjoyed the Indiana Jones roller coaster so we went on the couple of times. I do recall that the last ride we went on was Pirates of the Caribbean (our first AND last ride of the trip).
Lunch was fantastic. I took a video of the offerings. Now, I don’t think it was worth the 80 Euro they were charging. However, it was fine with us because it was free. Thank you, free dining plan!
After eating, we went and sat in the Castle Club lounge for a bit (they told us that would be okay when we made our lunch reservations earlier in the day). We chilled out until it was time to pick our luggage up from bell services. It took forever (probably 20 minutes) for them to bring our bags out.
Then we walked to the train station. There were a few moments where I got mixed up. I tried to take us through the employee entrance at one point since the signage was confusing. Regardless, eventually we made it to the train station (in about 10 minutes including my mess ups). Then we entered the world’s longest line to board the train. I am so glad we got our luggage from the hotel instead of picking it up at the station. It was chaos. Our train ended up getting delayed by 15 minutes because of the volume of passengers. I guess they just weren’t prepared for everyone to show up?
While waiting in line I was able to book a reservation (and use a groupon) for dinner that night at Trader Vic’s at the Hilton in London. DH and I love tiki bars!
The train ride was uneventful. Nobody was seated with us. The only problem was that I actually had us exit the train a station early. Oops. We were able to get back on the train. Just my ego was harmed.
When we arrived at OUR station (St Pancras) we had to get in line to go through immigration. It was hard to see but there is a special area to the left for people who are not members of the EU. It was a lot quicker for us.
Unfortunately, our train arrived in London about half and hour later than we expected. DH started getting antsy worrying about being late for our reservation. As a result, I let myself get a bit rushed. So, we went and found a taxi. It took us the Amba Hotel Marble Arch. He had to double park to let us out. It was a dark side street so I didn’t get to do my usual show check and double check to make sure we hadn’t forgotten anything. But, I counted our bags and assumed everything was fine.
We checked in. They asked to see our passports. I went to get them. Oh crap. No passports.
Cue the massive panic attack. DH and DD dash outside to see if we dropped them on the street. There are tears. Our customer service rep was very kind. She talked me through it. She told me she was sure everything would end up okay. She decided to give us complimentary access to the Executive lounge while we were staying at the hotel. It helped take the sting out of my stupidity a bit. We took our bags to our room. I tried to reach the taxi company and the train station. No luck. So, we decided to go for dinner. We were late for our reservation but, whatever. We needed a drink.
There was about 30 minutes that passed between realizing our passports were lost to getting to the restaurant. We took another cab there and discussed our plight with the driver. He gave me some other numbers to call.
The restaurant/bar was pretty dead when we got there. We got our seats and reviewed the menu. And then my phone dinged. I had a message! It was the train station. They had found our passports (they were all in a pink passport pouch). Thank goodness! Unfortunately, they didn’t leave a return number but the message told me to go to lost items in the morning.
A bit more relaxed now (I couldn’t completely relax until I had them in my hands). We enjoyed our dinner and had a couple of drinks. They were quite potent. The food was excellent! We took a cab back to our hotel. I set an early alarm so that I could go to the train station first thing.