Itinerary, Bashing it out

Okay, here are a few initial suggestions for what to do in the week. I'd appreciate some speedy feedback for rearrangement and substitution, and especially something to do on Wednesday night. (see the 'What?' thread) If you want it as another game night (We'll have Smallworld and hopefully console action besides Dark Heresy), I'll try to shuffle things about so we don't have two game nights in a row.
I'm not sure about the North Coast Tour because it's 3 hours on a bus to the Giant's Causeway (at least), four hours to run around and three hours back. But although I've listed what might be a lot of sightseeing, bear in mind you won't get away with no sightseeing at all in the week. If you think you're coming all the way to Belfast just to play lasertag and eat japanese food, you're mistaken...

EDIT: switched things around a bit. Trying to juxtapose energetic stuff with slow-paced or short-lived activities. I've listed two nights for possible gaming but I think we might have plenty of quiet interludes for a small bit of something.

EDIT 27/8: Battlefieldsports is closed next week! So that's a quick switch with the Giant's Causeway on Sunday.

*Friday Morning - Arrive
*Friday Evening - Rest. Games, probably. Takeaway? Recce?

*Saturday Morning - City Centre sightseeing. Bus? Black Cab?
*Saturday Evening - Cinema. Eat out. Somewhere

*Sunday Morning - Carrickfergus Castle
*Sunday Evening - Battlefieldsports laser tag

*Monday - North Coast Tour

*Tuesday Morning - Zoo
*Tuesday Evening - Resting. Games. DH?

*Wednesday Morning - Bangor. Ulster Folk & Transport Museum. (Steam trains)
*Wednesday Evening - Dundonald Ice Bowl (Bowling, EDIT 27/8 - no big kid's playground for groups less than ten. Two sessions bowling or one bowling, one ice-skating? People who don't want to skate can have a go on the pool table in the cafe.)

*Thursday Morning - Archery.
*Thursday Evening - Zen

*Friday Morning - Arrive

- Do you have everyone's arrival times and places? We can't get into the property until 2pm, so we'll need to amuse ourselves until then.

*Friday Evening - Rest. Takeaway? Recce?

- Definitely takeaway, the early afternoon might be naptime for those of us who got up at 5am and can't take it (that would be me).

*Saturday Morning - City Centre sightseeing. Bus? Black Cab?

- Taxis with six people are fairly reasonable as long as everyone splits the bill. £10 for a quick easy journey is easier to swallow when it's £1.67 each!

*Saturday Evening - Cinema. Eat out. Somewhere

- I love Chinese, Italian, english pub food, Belgian, etc. I can't quite take Indian but if we do go somewhere I can handle some Tikka so everyone else needn't miss out. Also I LOVE naan bread. The new films are usually out on Thursdays, so perhaps pick up a new cinema listings on the 27th and we can all put our tuppence in on what's worth seeing.

*Sunday - North Coast tour

- Do we get to play on the Giant's Causeway?

*Monday Morning - Carrickfergus castle.

- I love castles, so this should be fun.

*Monday Evening - Dundonald Ice Bowl (Bowling, Big kid adventure playground)

- Is there... ice skating? Bowling is good too. I thought adults were only allowed in the playground if they booked beforehand?

*Tuesday Morning - Bangor. Ulster Folk & Transport Museum. (Steam trains)
*Tuesday Evening - Resting. Games.

- Dark Heresy, whoo! Since Darxide has played before, he should totally make a one shot and play with us . However, I packed up my dice, so we are currently diceless. Help?

*Wednesday Morning - Zoo

- This sounds like fun. I'm looking forward to seeing some big cats.

*Wednesday Evening - ???

- Gambling night?

*Thursday Morning - Battlefield Sports (IR tag)

- Indoors now because of too few players. However I will be playing this time. Watch me fail spectacularly. How far is it to this centre?

*Thursday Evening - Zen

- Will we have time to do the Battlefield, get back, shower and wash, recuperate if needed and then go out again for the Japanese? I'm just worried that people will be too tired to enjoy it and it may be called off, and since it's the last day really that means no Japanese meal out. How long does the Battlefield thing last?

I'm thinking here of the Belgian paintballing trip, where I'm sure afterwards nobody wanted to have to heave to and be off again. If it's more like the Laserquest from the Edinburgh 'fest then it'll be relatively less strenuous and certainly shorter and easier to recover from.

Apart from those few comments, I'm all good. I have the release code for the house, so after 2pm we just need to turn up to the house and I can get the keys.

I'll get a few arrival times tonight and chase Darx down. Could also be a bit inconvenient if everyone turns up before 2, and we have to wait 'til then to ferry them and their luggage to the house. I was planning on driving person to house, unloading, going to next arrival destination to pick up next person, etc. etc.

Might do a bit of grocery shopping then, too. Could be a useful time to point out the conveniences.

I meant bus tour or black taxi tour! But if you just want ferried in to the city centre, the buses will probably be cheaper still. I think I should find a link to some discounted weekly pass tickets or something.

There's a glut of restaurants on the Dublin Road, right next to the cinema, so we'll be spoilt for choice. If we go to an Indian you can always go for the korma. Ask to cut out the chilli etc.

On that note, I'll want to know everyone's strong dislikes. I already know to have alternatives to spicy stuff and seafood on hand, but is there anything else? I don't want to feel clever about exotic menu choices and sweat over a hot oven for ages, only to have someone sidle up to me and moan 'but I don't like that.'

Blandy, this includes you. Speak up.

If you can stick the three-hour trip, yes! Seems like there's only one tour bus up to the north coast in the morning and one down in the afternoon, though. I'll need to look at the bus services up there to see if we can take a quick jaunt to the Bushmills distillery or elsewhere.

Ice-skating... adventure playground... whichever you like! I'll likely be sitting at the sidelines cheering you on either way.

I've spent close to £100 on the Smallworld board game and resources for multiplayer Saturn Bomberman, so I hope we're going to have a bit of time for those too. And on the same note: does anyone else have a poker set, if they're dead-set on it?

The tigers, cheetahs and pumas are fairly hard to see, but hopefully you'd get a kick out of the barbary lions.

I don't know because the website doesn't buggering well have an address. The news section says they have an indoor site at Dundonald Ice Bowl so I'd guess we could check it out when we go bowling/ice-skating/swinging like baboons.

It opens at 10am. Indoor sessions last an hour and start on the hour. Even with two sessions I'd say we could be back at the house at early afternoon, latest? (Emailed for session prices, awaiting reply)
It seemed to be one of the two things people were most excited about, so I thought I might try to end the week on some kind of high note rather than another sightseeing trip. But if it still sounds like too much bother I can move it to another morning or evening slot (just found out they stay open to 10pm).

UPDATE

Lasertag has been booked for Sunday evening, 7-8pm. We need to be there 10 minutes beforehand. It's £6.50 per person. £39 altogether and I've already paid £20 of it on the deposit.

Bowling has been booked for Wednesday evening, 7pm. Afterwards anyone who wants to go ice-skating afterwards can join in the public session without booking. The rest of us will laze around playing pool...

Looks like the Archery place is closed for today, but we've a whole week to sort that out.

Giant's Causeway's been moved to Monday. Remember, it's a three hour bus journey each way, leaving Belfast at 9:05am, so brace yourself! I don't know what the fare is yet but at that distance, within Northern Ireland, it's likely to be £15 return. Getting into the Causeway is free, and if we've an hour or two left over, the Bushmills Distillery and some old ruined castles aren't too far away.