Hello from S. Wales

[GarH]

Hi,

After many years of thinking about it, and over 8 months of waiting we’ve suddenly been given the news (out of the blue…) that our new California Ocean has arrived at the dealer, ready to be picked up. We’ll be collecting it in two weeks and are super excited to get away for our first trip.

I’ve been lurking in this forum since before we ordered in February, and I just wanted to thank all the people here for sharing their experiences, which have been really helpful while we’ve been waiting.

Hope to see you all about!!

Cheers,
Gareth

 

[kurienp]

Hi,

After many years of thinking about it, and over 8 months of waiting we’ve suddenly been given the news (out of the blue…) that our new California Ocean has arrived at the dealer, ready to be picked up. We’ll be collecting it in two weeks and are super excited to get away for our first trip.

I’ve been lurking in this forum since before we ordered in February, and I just wanted to thank all the people here for sharing their experiences, which have been really helpful while we’ve been waiting.

Hope to see you all about!!

Cheers,
Gareth

Welcome Gareth and Congratulations! Wohoo! 2 weeks of sleepless nights!

 

[Welshnick]

May see you around!

 

[Perfectos]

Congrats Gareth

two weeks of Dreaming the Dream, then reality !
the dream begins, lurk no more

don’t forget to post some photos

 

[Baronardup]

So, your adventures begin Gareth! (assuming you're new to this ).Although we've just sold our Ocean, we had a great time and after a year we just about got things down to a 'T'. You have so many decisions to make, which is all part of the fun. Things we discovered include the following: Some sites are better than others, indeed some can be boring for some 'je ne sais quoi' reason, it's just the way you feel when you get there. You also have to decide if you're sleeping 'upstairs or downstairs' etc. etc. You only find out after about 6 camping trips. We discovered that we never use the water tank, just fill up a small water container and stick it in the back, and never washed up in the on board sink as we always used site facilities, resulting in us never participating in the site 'rituals' of constantly rolling around clean or dirty water containers (some people actually seem to like that...).Recommended sites included Kessingland where you are sometimes woken up by Lions roaring in the safari park next door (magical feeling if you're sleeping up top), Wells and Delamere. Anyway, good luck with your adventures.

 

[RobertCalifornia]

Hi,

After many years of thinking about it, and over 8 months of waiting we’ve suddenly been given the news (out of the blue…) that our new California Ocean has arrived at the dealer, ready to be picked up. We’ll be collecting it in two weeks and are super excited to get away for our first trip.

I’ve been lurking in this forum since before we ordered in February, and I just wanted to thank all the people here for sharing their experiences, which have been really helpful while we’ve been waiting.

Hope to see you all about!!

Cheers,
Gareth

Croeso Gareth!

I remember the feeling of anticipation when ours finally arrived in February - hope yours is everything you’d hoped it would be!

Lots of great places to take it here in South Wales.

 

[Ting Tong]

Hopefully I won’t see you down at Sinclairs (for several reasons).

 

[GarH]

So, your adventures begin Gareth! (assuming you're new to this ).Although we've just sold our Ocean, we had a great time and after a year we just about got things down to a 'T'. You have so many decisions to make, which is all part of the fun. Things we discovered include the following: Some sites are better than others, indeed some can be boring for some 'je ne sais quoi' reason, it's just the way you feel when you get there. You also have to decide if you're sleeping 'upstairs or downstairs' etc. etc. You only find out after about 6 camping trips. We discovered that we never use the water tank, just fill up a small water container and stick it in the back, and never washed up in the on board sink as we always used site facilities, resulting in us never participating in the site 'rituals' of constantly rolling around clean or dirty water containers (some people actually seem to like that...).Recommended sites included Kessingland where you are sometimes woken up by Lions roaring in the safari park next door (magical feeling if you're sleeping up top), Wells and Delamere. Anyway, good luck with your adventures.

Yes, we‘re new to the California although we had an old high top VW conversion many years ago which we sold and have pretty much wanted a new one ever since , but with a pop top.

We will be sleeping upstairs mostly, I expect, unless we’re in the middle or a storm!!

I get your point on the water - I expect we’ll use the site facilities a lot, but will also try filling the tank and see how it goes. I’ve got a filter water bottle so we can try that water to get rid of the tank taste and other nasties.

Thanks for the site recommendations - the lions sound interesting

 

[GarH]

@Perfectos - yep, I’ll post some pics as soon as I get it. We’re thinking of spending a night or two away on the way home from collecting it, so it’ll be straight in at the deep end

 

[Karlos]

and enjoy.

 

[Saesneg Shaun]

Hi,

After many years of thinking about it, and over 8 months of waiting we’ve suddenly been given the news (out of the blue…) that our new California Ocean has arrived at the dealer, ready to be picked up. We’ll be collecting it in two weeks and are super excited to get away for our first trip.

I’ve been lurking in this forum since before we ordered in February, and I just wanted to thank all the people here for sharing their experiences, which have been really helpful while we’ve been waiting.

Hope to see you all about!!

Cheers,
Gareth

Welcome to the South Wales posse and congrats on the new van.
We sleep up top and always fill/use the water tank.
Everybody has different opinions on whats best but you will find your own way with what works with best for you with your Ocean.

 

[GarH]

Hi all,

Finally picked her up last weekend, and went straight from the dealer camping - nothing like in at the deep end....

All worked perfectly, we got to muddle through working everything out, and we had all the weather we could imagine. Everything held up perfectly - much better than I imagined.

We slept up top, despite the weather, and used the water tank, cooker etc. - the heater is definitely something I wouldn't want to be without this time of the year, even though it was blowing cold air for the first 5 minutes until I realised there were two settings.

Here's a pic:

 

[Tomato]

Welcome!

Good colours, my poverty look Coast needed extensive pimping sadly….looked rather sad when it arrived…now better

 

[66tim99]

Hi all,

Finally picked her up last weekend, and went straight from the dealer camping - nothing like in at the deep end....

All worked perfectly, we got to muddle through working everything out, and we had all the weather we could imagine. Everything held up perfectly - much better than I imagined.

We slept up top, despite the weather, and used the water tank, cooker etc. - the heater is definitely something I wouldn't want to be without this time of the year, even though it was blowing cold air for the first 5 minutes until I realised there were two settings.

Here's a pic:

View attachment 86310

Nice! Is that cherry red with sports pack? Looks great.
What did you learn about the heaters 2 settings? I tried it out at the dealer and couldn’t get ‘heat immediately’ to work (set to level 10). ‘Heat continuously’ kicked in after a minute or so, and was quickly very warm, but stank of diesel. I wonder if that’s something you just get used to, or was because it’s new…

 

[Loz2286]

Hi all,

Finally picked her up last weekend, and went straight from the dealer camping - nothing like in at the deep end....

All worked perfectly, we got to muddle through working everything out, and we had all the weather we could imagine. Everything held up perfectly - much better than I imagined.

We slept up top, despite the weather, and used the water tank, cooker etc. - the heater is definitely something I wouldn't want to be without this time of the year, even though it was blowing cold air for the first 5 minutes until I realised there were two settings.

Here's a pic:

View attachment 86310

Another Fortana Red with the Sports Pack!

 

[Photo Nan]

Fingers crossed they still have plenty of the cherry red paint left for my Coast.

 

[GarH]

Nice! Is that cherry red with sports pack? Looks great.
What did you learn about the heaters 2 settings? I tried it out at the dealer and couldn’t get ‘heat immediately’ to work (set to level 10). ‘Heat continuously’ kicked in after a minute or so, and was quickly very warm, but stank of diesel. I wonder if that’s something you just get used to, or was because it’s new…

It’s Fortana red with sports pack. The heater came on as a cold air blower first - took me a while to realise and then change it to heater mode. We didn’t notice a diesel smell but we’re used to boat diesel heaters so we may just be used to it…