A couple of weeks ago we went down to London on a weekend coach trip to see My Fair Lady at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane.
The overnight stay was in the Crowne Plaza Hotel at Heathrow Airport.
This hotel has 458 bedrooms, including some deluxe rooms and some suites, so it is a huge place, and there were numerous coach trips using the hotel whilst we were there. This meant that organisation was of paramount importance.
We arrived at the hotel and were greeted by a representative who boarded the coach to explain the checking in procedure to us. We were to collect our room key from the check in desk and our theatre tickets from a table set up in the reception foyer.
This all went very smoothly and we were told that we had to be back downstairs for our ‘early bird’ evening meal by 5pm and it was 4.15pm at the time. We were a bit disappointed as we had intended to go for a swim or at least fro a laze in the Jacuzzi but there was clearly no time for this.
The hotel has a health club with a swimming pool, children’s pool, sauna, Jacuzzi, plunge pool, beauty therapy room, solarium, gymnasium, children’s play area and golf course.
The room was very well appointed with king sized bed, plenty of hanging and drawer space, television, two easy chairs and a coffee table, a desk with a modem connection, direct dial telephone, trouser press and a mini bar. We couldn’t actually open the mini bar, but that didn’t really matter, as we wouldn’t have wanted to pay hotel room prices anyway!
The bathroom contained a bath with a power shower over it, a toilet and a hand basin. There were containers of Dove shower gel and liquid soap so I was happy as you can guess!
There were glass sliding doors opening out to a view over the front of the hotel and the car park. I was hoping that we would be in one of the rooms facing in the opposite direction so that I could watch the aeroplanes coming in – I’m sad like that!
The meal that we had pre booked as part of our weekend trip only cost us £10 for two courses and was a carvery meal with a buffet sweet to follow. There was plenty of choice and it was very well cooked and presented if a little rushed. It was served in the Concha Bar and Grill which is usually the main dining area.
The hotel also serves food in the bar called Dr O’Driscoll’s but not having been in a position to try this I can’t comment. We did have a drink from the bar and the service was quick and friendly.
We were told that breakfast would be served in the French restaurant area called Simply Nico’s and we were told to be there at 8.45 prompt. Because of the large numbers of people on coach trips staying in the hotel we were allotted time slots for breakfast, which had to be strictly observed!
The breakfast was a continental one and we considered trying to sneak into the Concha Bar where the other guests had got their cooked breakfasts but we thought better of it!
Our breakfast consisted of cereals, fruit juice, toast and croissants with butter, jam and marmalade. There were also two urns with (allegedly) tea in one and coffee in the other. We both like tea in the morning but the tea from the urn tasted as though it had originally contained coffee and they had then put tea into it without first washing it out. YUK!
The price of our weekend was £119 per person and that included all our transport plus tickets in the front row of the circle at the theatre.
Dave was interested in the price of the hotel in case he was that way on business so we enquired before leaving. The cost of a single, twin or double room is from £91 per room on a room only basis! The deluxe rooms and suites start from £131.
The hotel is very nice and was refurbished in 1998, but I don’t think it warrants that sort of price! We have stayed in much better hotels for much less than the prices that they were quoting.
The details of the hotel are as follows:
The Crowne Plaza Hotel Stockley Road West Drayton Middlesex UB7 9NA
01895 445555
cplhr@netscapenline.co.uk
www.london-heathrow.crowneplaza.com
They also provide a shuttle bus service to terminal 1,2 and 3 of London Heathrow Airport.
More details
Quality of Facilities
Good
Family Friendly
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