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[-breeno-]

Bad news...

TRIP REPORT TO BE DELAYED

See the how is your day going thread for full story.  Basically batteries came, desktop got viruses the next morning, laptop won't be sent away (NOT fixed, sent away to be fixed) til Wednesday and professional who he used to get to fix our computer is on holiday/turned into a selfish git.

I'll keep you posted via PSN, til then, please bare with me... again.

[-breeno-]

Good news...

If you have seen the How is your going thread then you will already know that my desktop is now virus free /   So, without further ado, let's get this show on the road with...

Day 1 (9th July 2009)

The start of my holiday if im being honest, started the night before the day of the holiday.  I said my goodbyes to my friend i usually play PS3 with (we play PS3 and talk on msn all the time) and then sat down to watch the traditional pre-holiday film, but first a last minute check, the camera.  I tried to turn it on, to check how much memory i had left of the card, but i was surprised to see that the battery had already died, i haven't had the camera long so i expect the battery life to be longer and last the holiday.  So i searched the house for AA batteries and i found some in the old reliable Sky remote, but, to my shock, they wouldn't turn the camera on either :shock:  This then left me with two conclusions, either the batteries didn't have enough energy in them to power a camera, or the camera, which i only bought a month or so ago, was broke.  I then tried to set this aside and sat down to watch the holiday film, which was Carry On Aboard, love that film, always gets me in the holiday mood.  Once the film was over it was around midnight so it was best to head off to bed, had a long day ahead of me, starting at 6:00am.

So on to the first day of my holiday, which actually started an hour later than it should have.  The night before we set the phone (reminder call on the landline, we use it instead of an alarm clock) for 6:00am N. Ireland time.  Although, i didn't wake up until 7:00am, my parents were up from 6am.  How on earth i managed to stay in bed for another hour on the day on the holiday i have no idea, maybe it was because i found it hard to sleep the previous night (i wonder why? ).  After i did wake up, i got out of bed and headed straight to where i usually go in the morning, the laptop  And straight onto the first in my favourites, which is also the first thing i go on 99% of the time when i hit the web.. the Magic Forum.  So i went on to say my goodbyes to here and PESFan (the other forum im a regular member on), and took the liberty of taking a photo of it..

Then, i shut down the laptop and got washed and dressing, i remember there being a mad rush for socks by me :lol:  it's extremely difficult to find a good pair of socks in this house sometimes.  Just before we went out the door and into the car i went back into my bedroom to grab my jacket, and i couldn't help but to look at the on-ride photo i have on me, on the first ever ride on the Tower of Terror, brought back good memories, memories i would be experiencing again very, very soon.

Don't know if any of you remember, but i promised a while back that i'd post that pic on here sometime, see i keep to my word (also if anyone doesn't know which one is me, i'm in the blue :lol: )

Then, after i left my room, i grabbed my suitcase and followed my parents out to the car, we dumped our cases into the boot (well when i say boot, only my case could fit fully in the boot, my mum's stretched across from the boot, through the folded down backseat and into the back and my dad's lay across the floor in the back, just about leaving me room in the back of the car)

Before you say it no, that's not my suitcase :lol:  Also you can kinda see what i was wearing through the reflection.

Then came the 2 hour car journey to Belfast International Airport, the holiday is almost there! :mrgreen:

An excited and rather young looking Breeno, in the car driving along the Fermanagh roads.

The traffic leaving Enniskillen wasn't too bad, the usual for a Thursday morning when the schools are off.  As we slowly but surely left the county i remember hearing the late Michael Jackson song "Beat It" appear on the radio, now i'm usually not the one to sing along to songs on the radio but, this was no ordinary day, as i've said before to my friend, i was using this holiday to relax, clear my head of things and have fun.  So i sang along to the MJ classic, i was surprised i knew as many of the lyrics as i do  As we moved along in our journey we eventually headed onto the motorway (no idea what name it is, can any the N. Ireland members help me here?) and i noticed that we were being overtaken by the worst cars possible :lol:  Now we were in a Toyota Yaris, which i'll admit doesn't exactly have the power of a Ferrari, but i was sat in the back watching the likes of Ford Ka's overtaking us (no offence to Ka drivers by the way, they are a cool little car)  As the airport loomed nearer and nearer, it started to rain, heavily.  This reminded me of the weather forecasts i read on the internet for Paris throughout the week.  The majority said everyday would be fine, but some said that today (Thursday) and the Sunday would have some rain, i was hoping that would be wrong!  The journey to Belfast felt like a lifetime, maybe it was because of my excitedness for the holiday, or maybe it was because of my dad's slow driving, either way, i was happy when we arrived at the airport.

When we arrived at Belfast International Airport we proceeded straight to the long stay car park we pre-booked the night before.  But, when we arrived we seen a sign blocking the entrance saying "Car park full, use Q park 'n' fly car park".  After asking a member of staff where this "Q park 'n' fly car park" was, we then drove on to it.  Sadly it was further away from the airport so we had to take a bus to the airport, rather than just walking to the airport like we usually do at the long stay car park.  We entered the airport it was about 10:30am, and our flight was due for take off at 11:50am.  So we checked in and noticed on the television screens that our gate closed at 11:30am, so we had about an hour of shopping, great :mrgreen:  If you've ever been in Belfast International you'll know that there are some shops and a restaurant between check-in and security, unfortunately all of the shops in this part were closed due to their 1,000,000th refurb (honestly it's all they seem to do in that airport), this wasn't good for me, as i planned to have a good look in the news agent for the latest PSM3 to read on the plane and, more importantly, batteries for my camera.  We then went through security and onto the other shops.  Thankfully, there was a WHSmith in this part of the airport, and i eventually found the issue of PSM3, it had a big article about the upcoming PES game, a must read for me.  Sadly i couldn't find batteries in here, but fortunately there was a Boots just beside it.  It was then i noticed the problem all along why the AA batteries from the remote wouldn't work, the camera only took V3 batteries, not AAs. #-o  So i bought a V3 battery, cost about €9, bit steep in my opinion.

As the clocked ticked on, our departure time drew nearer and nearer, so we then headed down to the departure lounge.

Me in the departure lounge, looking at tired as ever.

There wasn't a lot going on in the departure lounge, but my mum did get into conversation with a young mum going on the same flight, she had about 4 or 5 kids with her, oldest being about 6 or 7, youngest being a baby.  She said that she was going to France for 17 days with the whole family and will be visiting DLP before they leave.  We didn't get talking to her after that though, shame.

It wasn't long until our flight was called for boarding, and we boarded out Aer Lingus Airbus something something which was going none stop to CDG Aiport, Paris /

TO BE CONTINUED...

[Javey74]

Nice intro start to your Trip Report there breeno, I'm much the same before a trip to DLRP, final checks of things, then realising that there's always one thing not quite right, and that usual something always works or seems to be right up until the day you are leaving..  :roll:

As I say nice start, really looking forward to the rest..  :wink:  /

[Aveen2008]

Yay glad to see your TR is started! Aw I love the whole getting excited and going to the airport stuff hehe!

My camera eats batteries  lol I have already started buying Duracell batteries for my trip, Iwill hav eto take about 4 or 5 packs!! gurr! lol

Can't wait to read more! /

[bigrossco]

YUPEEEEEEEEEE

Good first part of your trip report and so cant wait for reading more!

I am the same when I am at the airport I just get so excited (also love planes!)

[Pete's Dragon]

Nice starter, now where's the Main Course. I'm starving (for photos)   :wink:

[MizzRabbit]

Next update!!! Loved the first part. I so relate to that. And love your forum screenshot haha. But now I want part 2!!!

[Aveen2008]

Next update!!! Loved the first park. I so relate to that. And love your forum screenshot haha. But now I want part 2!!!

I totally second that!!

[The Butlin Boy]

Great introduction to what I'm expecting to be a great trip report. Thanks for sharing it :wink:

[-breeno-]

Thanks for all your posts

Part 2 of day one will be posted either tonight or, most likely, sometime tomorrow.  Got more time tomorrow you see

[CentralPlazaPerson]

Nice report -Breeno- I regulary fly out of Belfast International :lol:

[Annet]

Your writing is very entertaining! Usually I'm not really into those long stories, but yours kept me reading. I'm looking forward to the rest of it!

[-breeno-]

Ok, time to continue this

Day 1 - Part 2

So we went onto our Aer Lingus flight, got our seats, put our hand luggage under the seat, in my case was my camera bag, put our choice of reading material in the net thing on the seat in front (which was the PSM3 mag for me) and sat back and waited for take off... which was a bit late.  The reason for this was two people who were suppose to be on the flight then at the last minute decided not to fly, so obviously their luggage had to be taken off the plane.  That left us a bit behind schedule but i didn't care, as long as i got to Paris that was all i care  Anyway as for the flight itself it was fine, managed to get a good read through that magazine, especially the part i wanted to read the most, which was the exclusive hands-on preview of PES 2010, i won't bore you all with the details but to put it simple, i'm looking forward to the game :mrgreen:  Oh and another thing, if you're ever on an Aer Lingus flight i strongly recommend getting the chicken and stuffing sandwiches, they're the nicest sandwiches i've ever tasted, and i'm a big fan of my sandwiches :lol:  The only down side of the flight was these three kids behind us were kicking our seats for the entire journey.  Well, they weren't exactly kicking the seats, what they were doing was putting the trays down, then racing to see who could push theirs up the fastest.  Not good :evil:   I was very close to doing one of three things, telling a member of staff the problem so they would sort it out, turn round and tell them myself to quit it, or tell their parents (who was sitting across from them, in perfect view of what was happening) what their kids are up to.  I did none of these things though, didn't want to have to get angry on my holiday.

The plane touched down in CDG airport at around 3:10pm France time (i think) and we proceeded on our way into terminal 1, my favourite airport terminal, why?  Because it's the one with all them escalators! :mrgreen:   We then picked up our luggage, which thankfully didn't take long, and went downstairs to the VEA Coach section.  As we went along to the VEA Coach area we were stopped twice by a man.  He asked us if we were going to the VEA coach, to which we said yes, then he told us that he was a taxi and would bring us there for €50 (which he said is cheaper than VEA's €70, is that right?  I'm not 100% sure).  We agreed to this and then followed him outside and into his taxi, which was a white mini bus, can't remember the make.  Also another family with two small children went with us on the taxi, we didn't get chatting to them but they were going to Santa Fe as well, so an easy drive for the taxi driver  I got into the taxi, got my seat and then went to fasten my seat belt, but something was wrong.  The seat belt was stuck between my seat and the one to my left (which my dad was sitting in), i tried a number of times to pull it out but no matter how long i tried it wouldn't budge.  Bit dangerous in my opinion, i would of informed the driver but i didn't because he was on his bluetooth headset for the majority of the journey and, seemed a little annoyed when he was talking through the headset.  Hopefully his future passengers won't be as much of a coward as me.

From the taxi on our way to Santa Fe, getting close!

We reached Santa Fe at around 4:05pm, we then got our luggage out of the taxi, paid the driver and went on our way.  Although after the taxi left my dad told me that one of the back lights on the mini bus was smashed, my dad knew this because the other family made a joke about it to the driver.  This got me thinking, i remembered back in February Javey said in his trip report that he took a taxi to his hotel, and the taxi had a broken light.  Just wondering David was it a back light or front?  I know its unlikely but maybe we travelled in the same taxi, the driver kinda had curly, black hair if that's any help :?:

Anyway we walked into the Santa Fe entrance and i noticed this as soon as i walked in

Notice anything wrong with this photo

Not a good photo, but you can just about make out the cowboy hat which is no longer there, something needs an update

After i spent almost forever trying to get a decent photo of that i joined my parents to the check-in, where we got our card key etc.  Our room was in building 33, room 225

When we got into the room we noticed something straight away, it's a much smaller room compared to Newport Bay.  We've stayed in NPB for quite a few years in a row now, but due to money we went for the cheaper option this year so the size of the room seemed different to us, as did the lack of room between the bathroom and doorway.  We didn't mind though, it's all the same place at the end of the day.  I then decided to get a few snaps of the room, but, a few weeks ago i noticed a panoramic option on my camera, i had to try it out


Our room


The view from our room

After we had unpacked everything and got changed into a fresh pair of clothes my dad informed us he was starving, myself and my mum were a bit hungry too, what with the travelling and all that.  We decided to have dinner early, so we went down to see when the Santa Fe restaurant, La Cantina, opened for dinner.  La Cantina opened at 6:00pm, so we had about an hour to kill.  As we walked about Santa Fe, in the shop, around the reception etc, all the memories i had from when i was younger all came rushing back.  This was the first time i was in this hotel since i was about 9, which was 6 years ago, but all the memories that came back were from when i was a lot younger, i remember many a time me and my cousin used to race up that corridor, and spent all night in that arcade, good times  Also, as we walked around the circle kind of room outside the La Cantina entrance (where the cardboard cutout Mickey is), i noticed this for the first time

(picture taken at different time)
We walked up the staircase i found waiting for us at the top... internet machines! :mrgreen:  "I'll go on one of these later" i thought, didn't really want to go on the internet just as i arrived.  Anyway also in the room was a door, and if you walked out the door (like we did) you would find this

Yep, thats the roof of the hotel :lol:  So i decided to get a few snaps from here


Whats that i see over there?



Also, forgot to mention this, i seen this when we were walking to La Cantina, does anyone know why these buildings are black and white?  As oppose to the usual Redish?



By the time we were finished exploring the roof it was time for dinner, so headed back down the staircase and to La Cantina.  We decided to use our first 3 half board tickets to pay for this.  For dinner i had pasta & bologneses and Mexican chicken, and for dessert i had chocolate mousse and chocolate pie.  I have to say it was DELICIOUS!  One of the best chicken i've ever tasted, and THE best dessert i've ever had!  I would strongly recommend La Cantina to anyone even if they aren't staying in Santa Fe, it's amazing.  And i haven't even mentioned the best bit, it's all you can eat!

By the time we were finished (which took a looong time, due to by dad going up and down for seconds, thirds and fourths) it was approaching 7:00pm, time for the parks now me thinks! :mrgreen:

TO BE CONTINUED...

[burntsienna]

Yey more Trip Report  :mrgreen:
I love the photos!!! and can't wait for some more trip report!  /

[Aveen2008]

great report but I want more, more more!

I have never noticed those stairs in the Santa Fe before.. I get the feeling perhaps that door at the bottom of them is closed. I wonder were you really allowed on that roof.. is that not kinda like dangerous for guests hehe :wink:

I noticed those Black and white buildings too...maybe they just ran out of red-y/orange paint  :lol:

Can't wait to read more!