Express and Out to Impress

Advantages: modern,up to date eye exam and care, excellent customer service, great with kids
Disadvantages: need to prebook exam usually, buying your glasses costs more than mail order

...regular check ups at a reputable optician. Being Army, we moved about a lot, so my parents used Pearl Vision Center as the high quality chain can be found in nearly every city in America. At 14 I had had enough of wearing just glasses, and my parents were persuaded to let me be evaluated for contact lenses. I was deemed suitable, and I continued using Pearl for my visual care needs until moving to the UK 10 years ago after my marriage. Casting about for a similar sort of establishment, one name kept appearing in people?s personal recommendation, and with their plethora of outlets they seemed to be the perfect replacement. This place is known as Vision Express. ~~~~The Company~~~ Unlike Pearl Vision Center, Vision Express is a fairly young company. A subsidiary of its parent company, Grandvision, Vision Express opened its very first...

Shroud 16.05.2007 · Read review
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Review of Vision Express (Shop)

Shuffle down to Shoe Express

Advantages: cheap
Disadvantages: no personal service. not for children's shoes as no measuring

...When I was a child I remember going shopping for school shoes. I remember the little stools you sat on and the special foot measurer to tell the size and width of your feet. Oh what happy days. It seems the traditional shoe shop is disappearing. And in its place are cheap shoe supermarkets. One such example is Shoe Express. I?ve never reviewed a shop before so thought Shoe Express might as well be my first adventure into the delights of the shop review What is Shoe Express? Shoe Express is a nationwide chain of budget shoe shops. They usually seem to be located in shopping centres for some reason, or perhaps it is just the ones I am familiar with four of their stores. These are located in the Loreburne Centre Dumfries, the Thistle Centre Stirling, the Arndale Centre Manchester and the on Stockport in the Longsight area...

duskmaiden 05.08.2003 · Read review
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Review of Shoe Express (Shop)

Looking To The Future With Clear Vision. (Vision Express)

Advantages: Make you feel special and ensure you are happy with your eyewear.
Disadvantages: More expensive than some other high street opticians.

...I have been a customer with Vision Express for many years now, probably more than 10, and I think I know a fair amount about their service and their standards. I am a contact lens wearer which means I visit regularly both for sight tests every 2 years and for contact lens check ups annually. The store where I live in Chelmsford is bright and airy, and every time I have been there I have found it to be welcoming and friendly, and also extremely professional. They had a refit in the last 2 years and so it has a plush seating area for customers to wait for their sight tests and pre checks. With an up to date computer system there is no form filling in now, it is all stored and so takes all that initial work out of the equation. The eye test is thorough and they have a full range of new and up to date equipment to check...

Violet1278 15.06.2009 · Read review
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Review of Vision Express (Shop)

Airport Express

Advantages: The service
Disadvantages: The timetable (at times)

...People who drive automatically assume that travelling by public transport is HORRID. It takes longer, it's probably more expensive, you have to sit with (get spoken at by) people you don't know and, very quickly, don't like, it's inconvenient?it has, in short, nothing to recommend it. Those of us who don't drive are intrinsically more tolerant of all of the above. We have to be. That doesn?t mean that we aren't fair-minded and capable of writing a critical review when we get rubbish service. In this instance it is fair-mindedness that inspires me to write a review about un-rubbish service. Looking up National Express coaches on the site, I discover that they are not exactly flavour of the month. My experience of them has always been pretty good ? with the exception of the one case where I was just going down with the Kathmandu...

hiker 07.03.2009 · Read review
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Review of National express

Poorly Expressed

Advantages: It tries to bring a little known hero to light.
Disadvantages: It's hackneyed in all respects.

...?s politically active brother Will. The large number of montages alone requires a lot of scoring, courtesy of Mark Isham. The majority of the arrangements centre around warm, hopeful string refrains. There are also insistent piano arrangements that set the scene, deep bowed cellos and electric guitar with rising brass and drums for Ernie?s first high school game and the usual triumphal brass for victories. However, there seem to be passages of music for virtually every scene, so you filter it out after a while. It also feels as though the composer is trying to blackmail you into feeling whatever emotion he?s pushing. The other soundtrack choices include popular music of the day from black artists, including ?Mojo Working?, and ?What I?d Say?. They add a historical context, but overall the music feels overzealous. ?The Express? is a serviceable...

afy9mab 01.09.2009 · Read review
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Review of The Express (DVD)

Holiday Inn Express Leeds the way to good service.

Advantages: Excellent self-service breakfast. Clean rooms and good facilities.
Disadvantages: Rooms are a bit too small generally. Bit expensive.

...On my trips to Leeds I always book into the Holiday Inn Express, chiefly because it is the closest hotel to where I need to be. Within this review I refer to my last experience of staying there about 10 months ago. Outside the building doesn't look too attractive, and the entrance is a bit basic with its blue doors and plants. However, when you make your way through the doors, the lobby is much more impressive. As I approached the counter to sign in, I was greeted by a member of the staff politely within a few seconds. I had already booked so it was just a matter of signing the piece of paper and taking my key card for my room. I was on the 6th of its 7 floors and being rather lazy, decided to take one of the 2 lifts they have. The corridor I travelled down to my room is rather luxurious, and lacks the certain cheap and tacky...

Sbriers1 20.10.2009 · Read review
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Review of Holiday Inn Express Leeds City Centre, Leeds

HI express Banbury,Excellent value + comfort close to Silverstone

Advantages: located within a few miles of Silverstone racetrack and close to 2 chain restraunts.
Disadvantages: Bar prices,no bath in room

...We chose this Hotel for a weekend break to watch the motorsport at Silverstone because of its close proximity. We had stayed in alot of Holiday Inns in the past so we didn't have extremely high expectations, just somewhere for us to rest our heads inbetween the action at the race track! we were pleasantly suprised however when we arrived to a lovely new hotel which had fantastic motorway links and beautiful surroundings, being on the outskirts of the picturesque town of Banbury. The lobby was large and very modern in decor and the reception desk was manned by two very polite members of staff who checked us in efficiently and gave us all the information on breakfast times etc.. Our room was decorated to an extremely high level and had everything that you would expect from your usual hotel chain. We were offered a wireless connection...

CarrieAnne76 02.11.2009 · Read review
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Review of Holiday Inn Express, Banbury

The Polar Express

Advantages: great christmas film
Disadvantages: not so good after christmas

...The Polar Express DVD I was bought this film for Christmas from my mum as I was complaining that before Christmas I had nothing to watch that would get me into the Christmas spirit. Apart from sitting watching Alistair Sims version of scrooge with my dad which in my view is not giving as much Christmas spirit as it should. Anyhow it being February now nearly March I thought it time I watched it. Seeing as I'm on my sick bed from work and too skint to afford any more blockbuster movies this is one in my collection that i had yet to watch so shoved it on to see what it was all about. The first thing I noticed when beginning to watch this film is that Tom Hanks appears to do most of the adult voices and appears as many a different character. The film starts with a young boy at home on Christmas Eve and wondering really if...

newby2 27.02.2007 (22.09.2008) · Read review
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Review of The Polar Express (DVD)

Pizza Express - a great place to eat!

Advantages: great value and great quality food
Disadvantages: can get very busy at peak times.

...In my opinion Pizza Express is a great place to eat. The environment is warming, welcoming and friendly and the food is of hig quality too. The cost of a main meal is around £8 give or take a few pennies. However there are always deals and offers floating around such as this 2 for 1 ofer here. http://www.pizzaexpressoffers.co.uk/ Though some may say the menu is limited, i beieve that they cater for everyone.. in all honesty how many different pizza toppings can you have without becoming ridiculously obscure! The menu does not just stop at pizzas, they offer a range of different pastas and salads..... which i would strongly recommend. The starter menu is also very appealing as they are cheap and a nice start to the meal... not hefty and leave you feeling full before you even have your main dish like many restaurants. All in All...

pinkroo1 12.03.2009 · Read review
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Review of Pizza Express

Not Quite an Express

Advantages: Can be an inexpensive way to see the country, frequent service, free wifi on board
Disadvantages: Overcrowding, old trains, journey times slower than 25 years ago

...The east coast mainline is one of the major rail links in the UK, linking London with major cities in Yorkshire, Northumberland and Scotland. Previously operated by GNER, the franchise passed on to National Express in 2007 after GNER?s parent company filed for bankruptcy protection. It was felt that National Express had paid way over the odds for the franchise and sure enough as the recession began to bite, they found themselves in a perilous financial predicament, and upon failing to renegotiate the terms of the franchise with the government, it was announced in June 2009 that the government would be taking the franchise back under state control, with the franchise going back out to tender sometime in 2010. To all intents and purposes however nothing much has changed since the GNER days apart from train liveries and the fact wifi is...

rosebud2001 02.11.2009 · Read review
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Review of National Express East Coast