As the sun rose over London on the 15th October, they came, from
Royal Marsden, Royal London, Great Ormond Street, Chase, Sherwood Park and
St Bartholomew's in Metro's, TX1's and Fairways all converging on Canary
Wharf tower at Cabot Square. So started the Company of Hackney Carriage
Drivers 1999 Children's Magical Taxi Tour to Disneyland Paris. My 'family'
consisted of Keeron, Oliver, Becca (our nurse) from the Royal London and
me.
My 'family', along with two others, were in cabs sponsored
Seeing the kids and the cabs off at Cabot Square:
Michael Barrymore together with DaC account clients Denise Sullivan
(Pershing) and Sasha Ewart (Killicks)
DAC ON THE WAGONTRAIN TO CHEYENNE
The Lord Mayor of London, Lord Levine of Portsoken, joined us for breakfast together with the Master of the Company, Malcolm Linskey and a representative of Canary Wharf before waving us goodbye.
With all of our goody bags collected (containing camera, colouring book and games, lunch bags and for drivers, a free copy of John McLaren's new novel 'Black Cabs' which incidentally gives DaC a mention) we boarded our vehicles and the Wagontrain of 101 vehicles started to roll at 8.45am.
Le Voyage et Commence
The first leg of our journey to Dover was fast and uneventful
thanks to our friends from the Metropolitan police aided by outriders from
the Kent County Constabulary. At Dover, time for a quick stretch and then
onto the ferry, gulp down lunch and raid the 'Duty Free' shop before
visiting the games arcade. Why do they only have car and motorbike video
racing games - never taxis!
At Calais we were escorted by the Gendarmerie to Paris from
where French CRS outriders took us on to Disneyland. So after around 240
miles and a ferry ride from E14C, we parked in Disneyland at about 6pm,
French time.
We stayed at Disney's Hotel Cheyenne which is laid out like a
typical 'Wild West' town with the
At breakfast, several Disney characters wandered round talking to the children. Many of the boys were challenged by Goofy to a fast-draw competition and somehow Goofy managed to lose every time! We then took the shuttle bus to Disneyland.
All of the rides were greatly enjoyed although a hiccup on Space Mountain with my 'family' aboard resulted in the shuttle stopping halfway up!
Mosey Along Down To The Rio Grande
That evening, we walked along the bank of the Rio Grande and used our food
vouchers to eat in the village at Annette's Diner - selected by nurses
from the Royal London. Entertainment was provided at intervals by the
staff who stopped serving, clambered onto counters and tables and sang
well known hits. The waitresses, all wearing roller skates, (must have
been a bit cold!...Ed) provided a very speedy service without dropping
any trays.
After breakfast on Sunday some of the children enjoyed a ride
around the car park on Police bikes, having first been instructed in the
use of the controls for the blue lights and the sirens. About 9.30am David
Rowland somehow managed to regain possession of his men and machines and
we mounted our
Again, the CRS handed control over to our Gendarme chums who assisted us to arrive in Calais on time to board the ferry and commence the homeward journey.
At Dover we said goodbye to the Sherwood Park group and the rest of us, once again helped by the Kent County Constabulary, sped to-wards the Blackwall Tunnel where the Wagontrain split up to make their various ways home.
Thanks are due to many 'Dream Teams' the Disney committee which
includes our own Russell Poluck (T55) and Jim Rainbird (T25), the
guys that go 'all the way' Chief Superintendent Keith Mahony, Inspector
David Rowland, Sergeant Phil Scott, PC's Roger Brooks, Robert Summelin,
Michael Shaddock, Paul Parkinson, and Laurence Cohen. The Kent County
Constabulary. The Gendarme squad. The CRS lads Oliver Landry, Joffrey
Favquemberge, Pascal Concil and Juan Martinez. The nurses and Doctors, AA
crews, London Ambulance Crews and of course the drivers, who this year
included Terry Bezant (W87), Tony Boon (P29), Patrick Hinchion (R61),
Stan 'Gasman' Roth (Y53) and our marathon man John Dixon (B67). My
apologies to any DaC drivers I may have omitted.
One missing highlight this year for the DaC team was our
chairman Brian Rice, usually there suitcase in hand to wave us off. He did
however send his apologies, claiming 'work must come first', but Brian
where was the money for your round...!
