dylanks

Thanks! Definitely having a washing machine most of the time helped, as well as my wife doing a good job on limiting what we packed. It was pretty humorous that BA would have allowed us 20 checked bags and 10 carry on bags! On our trip in 2014, we took nearly twice as much stuff as we had a car seat, and a 4+ week trip. Most of that trip we had a minivan but we regretted taking as much as we did.

dylanks

With only two full days in Amsterdam, we were determined to make the most of our time.

My son and I woke up early and we spent some time playing in the park near our flat. We had to avoid the big slide as it was unfortunately covered in fireworks wrappers from people getting an early start on New Year's Eve festivities. While fireworks are legal in AZ a few days per year, we had no idea how serious fireworks are in Amsterdam!








After the park we visited the market and then picked up a coffee for my wife. Around noon, we took the 14 tram into central Amsterdam near the Dam, and had a surprisingly nice lunch at Royal98. I say surprisingly nice as most places in the area were fast food or chains, but this place had reasonable lunch fare that was well prepared. We did not get to spend a lot of time in the historic center of Amsterdam, but our kids got a quick glimpse of the area on a very busy day.

We then spent a bit of time in de Bijenkorf department store, as our oldest daughter needed to find some better shoes for the remainder of the trip. I was amazed at the sheer number of people shopping in a department store, given how rarely I actually make it into stores. The store itself reminded me a bit of the original Chicago Marshall Field or mid-town NYC Macy's.

After shopping, we took the 14 tram back to our flat as we had tickets with our friends to ride the Christmas Light canal tour in the early evening. The tour was surprisingly impressive, with an excellent collection of lights both in the water through a series of novel designs and 3D projections, as well as lights on various buildings and trees throughout the canals of Amsterdam.















After the cruise, we decided to walk back to our friends' flat, and attempted to find a light snack along the way. It was well into New Year's Eve and most places were closed for the night. We managed to find some starters at a decent Italian restaurant, and warmed up a bit on a chilly and foggy evening. We then finished the walk back to their flat around 10pm, where we had a small party to watch the fireworks, enjoy a number of snacks prepared by our hosts, and meet some of their friends.

The fireworks began to pick up around 11pm, and by midnight it was the most impressive fireworks display we had ever seen. In spite of significant amounts of fog, the amateur displays were more impressive than what most cities have as their official fireworks shows. The photos do not do justice to the display, which was happening in all directions around us.





And at 1am, when it was time for the UK's new year, another large wave of fireworks were launched. We walked back to our flat just before 2am, and we could hear fireworks until at least 4am. It was a truly impressive celebration of the new year.

dylanks

After a late New Year's Eve, we slept in as late as possible, and then made a mad dash to repack our bags and be out of our flat by 11am. We then headed over to our friends' flat as our flight wouldn't depart until 16:45, and had a light lunch and visited and the kids watched part of Ratatouille. Mostly our goal was to try to stay awake as long as possible.

We then took the 18 bus back to the Amsterdam Central Station, bought train tickets, and took the train to Schiphol airport. We arrived about 2 hours before departure, and quickly made our way through the CE/priority check-in queue, and checked a few of our bags and had our stroller tagged so it could be checked at the gate.

Security was fairly lengthy, but we have priority access and skipped most of the 30 minute queue. Amsterdam airport has recently completed a very nice set of renovations, but I don't recall ever seeing a queue this long for security. Perhaps because it was New Year's Day, or maybe because they're now using the newer body scanners (even for children), or maybe they are combining more passengers into a centralized queue?

Regardless, they also have a conveyer belt system similar to that at LHR, DUB, EDI, etc. where multiple passengers can empty their carry-on bags at the same time. Frankly this is a bit chaotic with a family of five, as you want to get all of your bags through in a timely manner, and get all of the kids scanned and together at the same time. A couple of our bags were selected for additional screening, though there was nothing contained in them that was not allowed. We then waited for passport control. Had we not had children, we could have used the automated gates, but with children we ended up in a 15 minute queue before having our passports stamped.

We wanted to quickly get a meal, and lounge food did not seem sufficient, so we ate at an Italian restaurant immediately after immigration. We order two pizzas, a salad, and a couple of side dishes. It was not extraordinary, but better than most airport food. We realized later that we never received our tiramisu.

After eating, it was time to make the 15 minute trek to our boarding gate. We arrived a few minutes prior to boarding commencing, and turned in our stroller to the gate staff and then waited patiently in the Fast Track queue. We were fortunate that the fog had cleared enough to not have significant delays at AMS and LGW after a few days of many flight cancelations.

January 1: AMS-LGW
BA 2761
Seats 6A, 6B, 6C, 6D, 6E (ET)
Scheduled: 16:45 - 16:50
Actual: 17:45 - 17:25

There was a longer than expected delay in boarding, but we were then invited onboard and sat in seats 6 ABCDE. BA's theoretical seating had originally blocked 6F, but the flight ended up completely full due to cancelations throughout the week. We probably would have paid for CE if there had been a reasonable one-way fare.

We were then delayed for about an hour because one passenger had decided not to travel, and then there was an issue in that the ground staff could not determine if the correct number of bags were in the hold, so they had to unpack and resolve every bag.

After several updates, the issue was finally resolved and we were on our way, with takeoff fortunately happening from the closest runway. At this point we had to wake our son up as he was sleeping across seats and the armrest had to be lowered for takeoff.

The cabin crew quickly served snacks and drinks in one of the final days of non-BoB. Fairly late in the flight, landing cards were handed out. I do not understand why they did not choose to hand these out during the delay, as filling out five cards quickly was unnecessary when they could have handed the cards out earlier.

We also arrived into LGW without being placed in a holding pattern. Overall the flight did the job of getting us from AMS-LGW, but was not memorable in any way.

We arrived at LGW at one of the furthest gates, and had a 10+ minute brisk walk to immigration. Based on our experience at LHR, we used by Registered Traveler card to skip a relatively short non-EU/UK queue. The friendly immigration officer explained that in the future, both my wife and I would need to be part of the Registered Traveler program to skip the queue, but because it was so short, she would make an exception. Our youngest daughter tried to cross one of the closed immigration barriers which set off an alarm, and our agent kindly turned the alarm off and did not make a big deal out of our daughter's attempt to illegally immigrate.

We then headed downstairs, collected our bags, grabbed a couple of snacks from M&S, and then took the tram to the train station. We had just missed the Gatwick Express, so we had a 30 minute way as the train was running on a holiday schedule. The train ended up being nearly completely full, but we found a table for the five of us to sit, and took the quick 30 minute ride to Victoria Station.

From Victoria, we took the Jubilee Line to Green Park and then the Piccadilly Line to Covent Garden Station. We chose the transfer at Green Park because there are lifts for switching between stations.

We arrived at Covent Garden station, picked up our keys, and made our way to our flat (about a 4 minute walk from Covent Garden Station). A lovely group of people staying on the first floor from the Canary Islands helped us bring our bags up to the third floor, and we started to settle into our home for the next six nights.

As everyone was hungry and many restaurants were closed for New Year's Day, my oldest daughter and I went to Rock & Sole Plaice to pick up some fish and chips for the family. We were fortunate to get some of the last fish and chips of the evening as they were just about sold out of fish. Our family enjoyed their first proper fish and chips experience.

We quickly learned that this flat had amongst the slowest wifi I've used in over 10 years (I believe the connection speed was 384KB/128KB), so we were happy that we both had local SIM cards with data. After a fairly long day and the short night of sleep the night before, we all fell asleep with ease.

LANDJ999

I can barely keep my wife from getting lost in Europe. Brave man, good for you.

dylanks

Ha, thanks! I have a good story about that coming up in a day or two. I pretty much always know where I'm going, to the point of random people asking me for directions in London and Paris and I usually knowing where they need to go. One day in London we were walking from the London Eye to Waterloo station and I made a wrong turn and the family was a bit grumpy. So I gave them the opportunity to lead the way. It was a humorous five minutes.

After a couple of busy days of work, I'll hopefully get back to the report tomorrow.

MCOGUY

Thank you for sharing with us your family's holidays. You're photos are outstanding, and perfectly capture the essence of the moment. The impromptu shots of your son walking towards the escalator, your daughters on the staircase, the family's selfies, youngest sleeping etc (plus all your plane photos!) are EXCELLENT!

I am curious about a couple things. We will be flying BA First in May on a trip to South Africa on a mixed AA/BA itinerary. Most of the trip is on BA and we are in 1A and K on the 747 portions, and in other First Class adjacent seats on the 777 and A380 portions.

On the 747 in seats 1A did it feel claustrophobic at all? I've read these are the best seats, yet with the nose curving inward does it feel cramped at all? Do most people use that forward closet, or pretty much for row 1 and 2 as there isn't overhead space for them?

Are the two restrooms behind First just for First, or are they shared with Biz?

And regarding the Fast Track; you didn't have a paper invitation. Is this something the FA's are supposed to hand out in flight, or being something new are you supposed to get these at the gate? Anything to save time would be good.

Sorry for so many questions; I've looked thru the many threads and so many people have opinions, but after reading your report, I would value your opinion.
Thanks again for a terrific trip report! Happy New Year!

dylanks

January 2: London Transport Museum

My son and I woke up early, with the goal of visiting a market, bakery, and a coffee shop. I didn't remember that January 2nd was somewhat of a holiday in the UK, meaning that many venues were closed or opening later than normal. So after finding M&S and Covent Garden Grind closed until later in the morning, as well as the Paul location down the street, we settled on the Tesco next to our flat. We walked a fair amount, and my son got to see the large Christmas tree in Covent Garden and run around a fair amount.






A couple hours later we returned to Covent Garden Grind, ordering a coffee for my wife, some pastries for the kids, and picking up a few pastel de nata, one of my favorite lighter dessert. We would visit Grind all week, so my son quickly warmed up to the staff.

We returned home, and today was a day my son had been waiting for the entire trip: to see trains and double decker buses at the transport museum, which was just a few minute walk from our flat. I ordered annual passes online (same price as a single visit), and we arrived at the museum which was busy but not overly crowded. For the kids, they have a stamp scavenger hunt. It's somewhat non-intuitive, so I found myself explaining how it worked to a few adults.

The museum is really impressive. You start at the top where you see some of the oldest forms of transportation (various carriages and early trains). It then moves into steam trains, and eventually buses, the tube, and more. Some of the buses and trains allow you to walk inside and sit and experience things.





There's also a separate exhibit focused on the design of London Transport (e.g. the evolution of signs and tools to design new Underground stations).





There are a few kids areas where smaller kids can play. Our son had the opportunity to wear a TfL uniform.



There's also an extensive area with Brio train tracks (there's a London set exclusive to the transport museum).



At the end there's a gift shop. At this point of the trip our son had eagle eyes for finding gift shops! After purchasing a few small souvenirs for the kids, we decided it was time for lunch. One place I wanted to take the family was Dishoom, which was only a couple of blocks from our flat. Unfortunately it was closed on this day, so we ended up at Jamie's Italian. While a chain, it provides nice food and a reasonably kid-friendly atmosphere. We would try several more days to get a table at Dishoom, but at both lunch and dinner, even at times outside what we would consider to be the main rush, the wait was always at least 90 minutes.

After lunch, we walked around a bit and then headed back to the flat so our youngest could take a nap. In the evening, we ended up at Suda, a Thai restaurant a few minutes from our flat. The food was reasonably nice and we had an enjoyable dinner. Afterwards, we took a walk towards Piccadilly Circus, and then down towards Pall Mall, through Trafalgar Square and then back to our flat. Our kids were in great spirits, and we had a fun walk through an interesting area of central London on a mostly deserted night.

dylanks

Thanks for the kind words! Photos definitely tell the story, and I'm also happy to have this all recorded so I can share this thread with my family in 5 or 10 years to look back at this trip.

I don't find them to be claustrophobic, and would say they are the most private seats on the 747. 2A/2K may have slightly more space, but the space between your seats feels more like your own with 1A/1K. Even when traveling alone, I tend to prefer 1A or 1K on the 747.

First on the A380 is definitely an improvement over the 747, but I still enjoy the 747.

As far as the forward closet, it depends. Mostly it's for the passengers in 1A/1K, as well as a few coats from passengers. On our flight, we boarded pretty early, and there wasn't really space for anyone to add anything else to the closet. I overheard one passenger further back (row 4 or 5?) ask the flight crew to put her bag up front, but he instead suggested it go above her seat as the front bin was primarily for the passengers in the first row who do not have an overhead bin.

They are definitely not shared. There's a curtain with a rope behind the second restroom to discourage someone from Club World (or World Traveler Plus on the mid-J 747) from using the F toilets. Other than the 20 minutes towards the end of the flight when everyone is scrambling to change back into their street clothing, it's pretty rare to wait for a restroom in First.

if you are just connecting through LHR, it doesn't matter at all, as you'll be using transfer security, and your boarding pass will be sufficient for a fast track transfer. The issue seems to only be with T3 arrivals immigration.

If you do have a stopover in London, the flight attendants are supposed to give these out before landing. I think the flight attendants either assumed that we had UK or EU passports and never asked, or maybe they don't fly into Terminal 3 very often and simply forgot.

If you are flying into LHR terminal 3 (from PHX, LAS, MIA, DEN, YVR, CPT, and maybe a few others) and they don't remember, just ask. For arrivals into terminal 5, it's all BA/IB flights, so your boarding pass is more than sufficient. I think the issue is that in T3, with many different airlines, the card is used to determine how much to charge BA and other carriers for fast track access.

No problem at all. I've learned so much from FlyerTalk over the years, and I'm always happy to share my thoughts and experiences. Enjoy your trip to South Africa!

MCOGUY

Thanks again for your answers to my questions. Again I LOVE your photos- truly a memory of a lifetime for your family, and for others such as myself to enjoy. I take tons of photos, but I especially like the 'story' your photos tell just by looking at them - very descriptive without words!

On a side note - we are flying on AA from MIA to terminal 3, and although we have a 12 hour layover to Capetown, are thinking to get a day room at the Sofitel in terminal five. Have you ever stayed there? We are then leaving on BA 747 First to Capetown that night, again out of terminal 3. Returning after the trip, on an A380 back to London, and then a five hour layover, back to PHL via a 777 out of terminal five. And then back to MCO.

Ever tried the airport pods at Heathrow? Thought about it on the way home as we have five hours but not enough time for a hotel. Going over the Sofitel sounds like a decent place for a day room.

Thanks again for the quick response and more postings about your trip. I was in PHX last week - too bad couldn't have met up for more questions! Thanks!

dylanks

Thanks... sometimes it's just luck. One thing about the way I take photos is that I always have the phone ready, but I don't like photo taking to dominate the holiday. So I take a lot of quick photos and find the ones that turned out ok, rather than trying to perfectly frame the right shot.

I really like the Sofitel and have stayed there at least a dozen times. In the past my biggest complaint was slow wifi, but that was resolved a few years ago. Some of the BA regulars prefer other hotels, but it's my favorite near LHR. It's convenient, they have a solid restaurant or two, nice bath/shower/bed, and it's relatively quiet. It's a quick 5 minute walk from the T5 tube or Heathrow Express station, both of which are about 5 minutes from T3. The tube has more frequent service usually. Also if you have a priority pass card, the hotel lounge is accessible, which includes the spa/showers. This is useful if you want a free light meal, or you're in transit, though I don't recall if each person needs a priority pass card to access the lounge. There's a thread somewhere in the BA forum about it.

I've not tried the pods. Given that you are flying back out of T5, if you email or call YouFirst 28 days in advance of your return flight, you can ask to reserve one of the 3 CCR cabanas. It has a day bed, shower, desk, tv, and you can order food for delivery to the cabana. You can also pre-book treatments at the Elemis Spa via the same YouFirst service (they allow one pre-booked appointment at each time slot in T5, so asking exactly 28 days in advance is key). I would aim to have the cabana for 2-3 hours, then time for spa bookings near the end before it's time to board the flight (that way if the in-bound flight is delayed you don't miss the booking). I've slept for 2 hours in the cabana before, and it's more spacious than the pods. They refurbished the furniture in the cabanas about a year ago, so they're in relatively decent shape.

Yes, too bad you we didn't chat before your trip to PHX. Would have been great to meetup for dinner, maybe next time!

M.Wilson

I am thoroughly enjoying reading your trip report! Your photos are wonderful at capturing the experiences.

Reading about your son is making me smile - I recently spent the Christmas holidays with my two year old niece. Like your son, she would have had a ball riding the escalators at Paddington Stn and playing in the park on a cold and grey day. It's all about the little joys of life!

Looking forward to reading about the remaining days on your trip

dylanks

In the early morning, my son and I started with a walk to the nearby M&S market and to Covent Garden Grind to get coffee and pastel de nata and other pastries. My son was particularly fond of the tubes of small apples, packaging that you would not normally see at home. You'll notice my son seems to always have at least one car or truck in his hands. For the past year or so this has been the case, even when he's sleeping.



Once everyone was ready to go, we walked across one of the Golden Jubilee pedestrian bridges, giving the family a nice view of the London Eye, Shard, and Parliament.






Our son was asleep in his stroller at this point and the kids were hungry, so we stopped into Wagamama, which is a decent Asian Fusion chain. After lunch, we picked up a few snacks from the nearby Christmas market, and then proceeded to the London Eye.


Our visions of riding the London Eye were dashed when we saw the queue, and learned that Fast Track tickets for the day (indeed the week) were also sold out. The more expensive anytime fast track tickets were available, but we decided to save our money. The first week of January was filled with many tourists even though some schools had already returned to session, and the London Eye would be closed the following two weeks for maintenance and repairs, so we changed course and decided to visit the British Museum instead.

We walked to Waterloo station and I took a wrong turn which made our family a bit grumpy in the cold weather, so I encourage them to lead the way. After five humorous minutes of watching them attempt to navigate to and inside Waterloo Station, I then led the family to the Northern Line which we would take to Tottenham Court Road. We then walked a few minutes to the British Museum, and walked around for a couple of hours.

The museum has a separate area for families which includes affordable lockers and an area to eat a sack lunch together. We walked around various Egyptian and Roman exhibits, as well as areas of Japanese, Korean, and Chinese history. My kids were probably most intrigued by the Cradle to Grave exhibit, which shows the life of typical British husband and wife in the form of every pill they had taken over the lives.



After the museum closed, we took a short walk back towards our flat. Throughout our time on this Europe trip, we enjoyed the holiday lights throughout the streets during our walks. We again attempted to eat at Dishoom but did not stay for the wait. We ended up ordering a decent takeaway meal from a Vietnamese restaurant near our flat and the kids ate some of the food from the market and some leftovers.

After dinner, our daughters had wanted to try Snog, a frozen yogurt place downstairs from our flat. It was pretty awful, with a particularly synthetic flavor that I would describe as similar to eating yogurt laced with a cleaning product. Instead, we should have had some of the gelato from Amorino, a nice establishment next to Snog, but our daughters did learn that picking a place just because it looks very modern and fun is not a guarantee of something being good.

dylanks

Thanks! It really is so enjoyable to see the world through the eyes of children. It makes me appreciate all the small marvels of the world, the things we just take for granted as being there, but that seem truly amazing through the eyes of a child!

dylanks

My son, youngest daughter, and I began our new morning ritual with a walk to M&S. We had an earlier day than usual, so today we all went to Covent Garden Grind and enjoyed our breakfast at the coffee shop. Today's plans were focused around meeting up with our friends who have a 1 year old son, and recently moved back to their place in Kensington. We took the Piccadilly line from Covent Garden to South Kensington.

We had intentions of visiting the Natural History Museum, but we only had an hour before we were to have lunch with our friends, and the queue to get in looked to be at least an hour long. Instead we walked up to the south end of Hyde Park, at which point it started to rain so we made our way into Whole Foods to stay dry and pick up a few things. Our original lunch destination was closed for the holidays, so we ended up at Locanda Ottoemezzo and had an excellent lunch, featuring a nice Charcuterie plate. I had a nice lasagna, and we enjoyed the somewhat organized chaos of a mid-week meal with 4 kids and 4 adults.

We spent the afternoon visiting with our friends back at their flat, and then we went back to the Natural History Museum for an hour of ice skating. None of our kids have spent much time ice skating in Arizona, but they all did fairly well and we enjoyed the festive setting.






After ice skating, we took the Circle Line from South Kensington to St. James's Park, and then walked through the park to the bridge for a nice, though foggy, view of Buckingham Palace and the London Eye. When I lived in London, I was very close to St. James's Park and would spend summer days at the park and shared some of these experiences with our kids. Our oldest daughter asked if I ever saw the queen, and I shared a story of when my walking across the street was disrupted by the queen driving by.

We then walked towards Westminster Abbey, which was open later than usual, but only for another 20 minutes. We decided to not pay to enter given the short amount of time, and general fatigue of our children.



We then walked past the parliament building, which most people call Big Ben, when in fact that is just the name of the bell.





We then took the Circle line to Embankment, and walked back towards our flat. We attempted to have dinner at Dishoom again (2 hour queue), and settled on Carluccio's which was near our flat. While I prefer Carlcuccio's for breakfast, the kids enjoyed their food and we then walked around a bit. We found a spa and after two weeks of carrying luggage and kids, we decided to make bookings for my wife and me, on each of the next two mornings. We then walked a bit more around a typically crowded Covent Garden and then called it a night.

LondonElite

I haven't finished yet, but I'm really enjoying this TR, especially the pictures. We have four children and have felt your pains about toddler-travelling many times, but the rewards later on ("remember when we were in Paris Christmas 2016...") will make it all worthwhile!