The Royal Ascot was everything we imagined and more! At the end of the day, the four of us declared that this has been our favorite activity so far in our London adventure, and we will definitely be back next year!
We started the day with breakfast, getting Eli settled for a day full of outings with our favorite babysitter, and Joe and I and the Bergamo’s headed to Waterloo to take the train directly to Ascot. It was a ~25 minute taxi ride from our place to Waterloo, then we were on the train for an hour. We lucked out and got a table on the train, so we enjoyed the room and chats on the way! Note for next time-bring champagne or wine and throwaway wine glasses for the train ride. We ended up being in the middle of a large group and were passing wine glasses back and forth and it was so fun and festive!
We got off the train at Ascot and we were herded like cows directly to the Ascot entrance so there was no getting lost. After reading some reviews beforehand, we settled on Queen Anne Enclosure tickets and they did not disappoint! While I cannot speak for the other enclosures, since we did not visit them, I would definitely buy the Queen Anne Enclosure tickets again! If you are lucky enough to find somebody to get you in The Royal Enclosure, that is really the place to be because it seemed much less crowded. 
We headed in, took a tour around and got a table on the lawn to hang out and have a few drinks for a bit. The boys headed to get us some lunch while we were holding the table, and they found the area with all of the food and drinks, so we abandoned the table and headed to meet them. We splurged for the 1768 Grill and Tearooms for lunch and it did not disappoint. We had steak and lobster with yummy sides! We weren’t sure if we would be able to get in last minute because they allowed reservations beforehand, but we headed over at 12:30 and we were able to sit right down.
With a full stomach and yummy cocktails in hand (and mocktails for me), we were ready for the royal procession and the horse races to begin! We decided to watch the royal procession at the winners circle and while we walked up late so couldn’t see a ton, we were still able to get a glimpse at the Queen! Then we headed inside and watched her walk the path to her box for the races!
Photo credit: Brett Bergamo
We watched the first two races in the stands, but we all deemed it too crowded and decided to make our way to the lawn for the rest of the races! That was the best decision because we had so much more room and we were still right in on all of the action! At the end of the third race when I was headed to the restroom (maybe or maybe not storming off mad that Joe accidentally spilt cranberry juice all over my blush dress ha), I found somebody standing up from their bench and quickly snatched it! That made the experience so much better now that we had a bench to sit and take a break on and eat snacks in between races! Benches are hard to come by and we totally lucked out, so next time I would go find a bench earlier in the day to keep hostage until the race! 
After the races were over, we had fun hanging out on the lawn with some new friends. We then headed to listen to the DJ which was funny because they literally just played the chorus to every song and moved on. Ha! We thought it was hilarious, but still so much fun! We headed out just in time to only catch the rain storm for ~10 minutes while waiting for the train! So glad we got out of there before the downpours began! We ended our night with pizza on the couch and resting after a long, but wonderful day!
We had an absolutely fantastic day with some of our best friends! We are so happy to be on this London adventure with them!
Notes for next year:
- We left our house at 9:30 this year, took the 10:40ish train, and arrived at the racecourse around 11:45, and this was perfect timing. We were discussing arriving at the course right at 10:30 when the gates open, but I think 11:30-12:00ish is a happy medium with the races starting at 2:30.
- We bought train tickets online beforehand which I would definitely do again, but I would check into an option of maybe getting them delivered to the house or printed out because the queues were so long at the station.
- Bring drinks and snacks for the train ride fun!
- Book reservations if we want to do the 1768 restaurant again, just in case we don’t luck out again next year with availability!
- Bring a shawl or a picnic blanket to lay down on the grass outside. This way if we don’t get a bench we can still sit down on the grass, get a pitcher of drink and hang out for the races. Also, even if we got a bench again, it would have been nice to have a place for others to sit on the ground in front of us since only 2 of us could sit on the bench comfortably at a time.
- We brought an umbrella this year which really came in handy because it started storming on the way out while waiting for the train! Definitely bring umbrellas again!
