ghockley1981
<font color=red>Wishes his work lift was ToT<br><f
- Joined
- Jun 19, 2008
Day 4
So we woke up sad knowing it was our last day of Disney magic
, we had already done quite a bit of packing the night before so we got washed and dressed and finished off packing. We said good bye to our room and rolled our cases downstairs to the luggage locker room and handed in our key.
I didnt bother waiting for our bill as we had not bought anything while in the HI, however when we got home we found a charge of £8 on there. So for any future trips there I will certainly request a final bill. My bank were kind enough about it and gave me the money back as a good will gesture but I still think something more sneaky happened there.
Anyway we caught the next bus to Disney and got there about half 11, just the right time to catch all the characters in Disneyland. My gf loved this and ran around like a little school girl to see everyone ( even skipping across the road with Mary Poppins ) She completely got into the spirit of things and I loved this. She loves Mary Poppins and so we got some pic with her in the background looking over their shoulders. I then got this pic below just before the famous skipping event took place, it was a lovely moment and made the trip all that more special.
We then headed off to the princesses meet and great, today it was Snow White so we took some pics making sure we timed it in between the children swapping over and got some good photos. We then continued our character mission by walking towards a Small World catching the jungle nook and lion king meet and greet area. The people queuing here were all well behaved and we managed to get some great pictures here too. We couldnt believe how many characters we had met within half an hour. Cass then asked if there were any other meet and greet characters we could see so we went to hunt down Woody. We made it over to Woodys round up area at the back of the park past BTM and Indy and saw the queue was quite small and so decided to have a joint pic together. So we queued up for 4 minutes and asked the attending CM to take a pic of us both either side of Woody, soon after this Jessie came over and swapped to the disappointment of those queuing. So we felt quite lucky to have had the pleasure of a photograph with him.
We then knew we had done all the meet and greets we could and headed off to get some food at the ranch style burger place nearby. To our excitement there was Cowboy Goofy, Pluto, Timon and Eeyore. So we quickly got our cameras out for one last snap. Cass really wanted her pic with Eeyore so we made it our mission to get one. However there was no queue in place and the kids were all pushing to be next, as adults we didnt want to impose so after standing around a few fruitless minutes we decided to get a pic with Cass standing behind him while the kids were swapping over so that we didnt get involved in any squabbling and go for a head shot instead. We got the pic and Cass started to walk away when Eeyore signalled for the kid to step back and pointed to Cass. She was walking away at this point so I pointed out Eeyore wanted to see her, she got a cuddle and then a great pic. It really made my day, the CM had obviously seen what we were doing and made sure we didnt leave disappointed. It just shows that they do make the effort.
Now we had got that magical picture we decided to go and eat, so we went for the appetising veggie burger and burger meal combinations wed had on 3 of the 4 days. Anything else is just too expensive in my view for a meal and this was far more expensive than the delicious croquet monsieurs we had the previous days. But still it was our last day so we thought what the heck. As we were eating some mischievous monkeys came along and started entertaining everyone, even stealing someone pushchair. It was very funny to see them cause chaos and the adults as well as children really enjoyed it.
Once we were full we went to go on BTM but the queue was just to long and had been for most of the trip, and Indy was closed so we decided to leave Disneyland and head over to the Studios. On our way over there we popped into the shops and Cass enjoyed being Belle for a few moments!!!
We still hadnt seen Cinemagique and so went to see this which we really enjoyed, I still cant remember where Id seen that actor before so if anyone knows then answers here please! We then used all our FPs on ToT so we were sorted for the rest of the day, we did Aerosmith again still smiling at the Norris scream wed heard the day before. We then walked around a bit and then completed our compulsory goes on ToT before we headed over to crush where the queue time was 25 mins. We wanted to go backwards as we thought this was always the best way to go on this coaster but we had to go on front ways the first time. We were running out of time but decided to try and get on again before we had to leave and luckily got our desired backwards seats for our last Disney ride of the holiday. We could then leave the parc smiling and headed to the village to pic up some quick magnets and pens before returning to the HI to pick up our case and head over to the station for our return Eurostar home.
This however did not go smoothly, we arrived at half 5 with our train due to leave at 7.30. However a train in the channel tunnel had just caught fire and so all trains had been cancelled, now luckily because we were so early we were at the front for all queues going forward from this point onwards but for others this turned out to be a torrid time.
We were first told to go to the Eurostar booking desk on the floor below to change our tickets for a train tomorrow, we were about 20th in the queue which quickly became about 200 within a few minutes. Once we got these tickets exchanged we were then sent to a waiting area while the Eurostar guys sorted out what to do with a train full of customers stuck on the wrong side of the water. Within half an hour we were then told we would be put up in hotels for the night and we had buses shuttling us to the hotel of their choice. This turned out to be the Holiday Inn! Which was quite a relief because we imagined been sent miles away.
We arrived on the first bus there and the HI had no idea who we were or what we were doing here but told us all to put our bags in the luggage room and to go to the dining room while they called Eurostar. The issue was soon sorted out and we were told to help ourselves to the Dining Buffet which we duly did. Now for 29 euros it seemed quite expensive and I would much prefer to dine out in the village on that money but the food they did was nice, especially the Lasagne and the chicken nuggets!
We were then told to collect our keys, however due to all the confusion they gave out a lot of keys already allocated which led to a lot of embarrassing situations. We luckily were given an executive room and settled down to watch some tele as it was now about 10 and we didnt fancy leaving our room!
After watching BBC we fell asleep and awoke the next day for what we thought was an extra day in the parcs.
How wrong we were, we were told in reception that Eurostar had charter planes to take us all home so we had to hurry to the station and catch a train to the airport. This begun our long day home.
At this point the tunnel was still shut so we were pleased just to be heading home. We werent to know that I would be up and running the next day. We had Eurostar staff with us the whole time, they took us on a private eurostar to the airport and walked us around the terminals to the check in desks. Now we were here for a good two hours as they had no ones details for the plane tickets! Everyone was good about this though, happy we were being looked after and on our way home.
We eventually got checked in and went through to departures to find our plane was due to arrive late, we eventually were loaded on when it arrived but because it was late it missed its takeoff slot. Now because this was a specially charted plane it was not easy to get another allocated take off slot so eventually after an hour and a half sitting on the tarmac we left for home.
The plane took us to Stansted and when we arrived we were then met by more Eurostar staff who gave us tickets for the Stansted to Liverpool Street Flyer ( two stops from St Pancreas ).
This trip took us 45 minutes and so eventually we were back in London 24 after we were meant to be, we then continued the gruelling final trip home after a 12 hour journey.
Glad to be home we then reflected on our great time in Disney and the fact even with this hiccup we would love to come back and feel the magic again.
Thanks for all your comments, hope you enjoyed our trip report and have fun if your off shortly.
Now I have to get planning our next one to Sequoia Lodge!
So we woke up sad knowing it was our last day of Disney magic
, we had already done quite a bit of packing the night before so we got washed and dressed and finished off packing. We said good bye to our room and rolled our cases downstairs to the luggage locker room and handed in our key.I didnt bother waiting for our bill as we had not bought anything while in the HI, however when we got home we found a charge of £8 on there. So for any future trips there I will certainly request a final bill. My bank were kind enough about it and gave me the money back as a good will gesture but I still think something more sneaky happened there.
Anyway we caught the next bus to Disney and got there about half 11, just the right time to catch all the characters in Disneyland. My gf loved this and ran around like a little school girl to see everyone ( even skipping across the road with Mary Poppins ) She completely got into the spirit of things and I loved this. She loves Mary Poppins and so we got some pic with her in the background looking over their shoulders. I then got this pic below just before the famous skipping event took place, it was a lovely moment and made the trip all that more special.
We then headed off to the princesses meet and great, today it was Snow White so we took some pics making sure we timed it in between the children swapping over and got some good photos. We then continued our character mission by walking towards a Small World catching the jungle nook and lion king meet and greet area. The people queuing here were all well behaved and we managed to get some great pictures here too. We couldnt believe how many characters we had met within half an hour. Cass then asked if there were any other meet and greet characters we could see so we went to hunt down Woody. We made it over to Woodys round up area at the back of the park past BTM and Indy and saw the queue was quite small and so decided to have a joint pic together. So we queued up for 4 minutes and asked the attending CM to take a pic of us both either side of Woody, soon after this Jessie came over and swapped to the disappointment of those queuing. So we felt quite lucky to have had the pleasure of a photograph with him.
We then knew we had done all the meet and greets we could and headed off to get some food at the ranch style burger place nearby. To our excitement there was Cowboy Goofy, Pluto, Timon and Eeyore. So we quickly got our cameras out for one last snap. Cass really wanted her pic with Eeyore so we made it our mission to get one. However there was no queue in place and the kids were all pushing to be next, as adults we didnt want to impose so after standing around a few fruitless minutes we decided to get a pic with Cass standing behind him while the kids were swapping over so that we didnt get involved in any squabbling and go for a head shot instead. We got the pic and Cass started to walk away when Eeyore signalled for the kid to step back and pointed to Cass. She was walking away at this point so I pointed out Eeyore wanted to see her, she got a cuddle and then a great pic. It really made my day, the CM had obviously seen what we were doing and made sure we didnt leave disappointed. It just shows that they do make the effort.
Now we had got that magical picture we decided to go and eat, so we went for the appetising veggie burger and burger meal combinations wed had on 3 of the 4 days. Anything else is just too expensive in my view for a meal and this was far more expensive than the delicious croquet monsieurs we had the previous days. But still it was our last day so we thought what the heck. As we were eating some mischievous monkeys came along and started entertaining everyone, even stealing someone pushchair. It was very funny to see them cause chaos and the adults as well as children really enjoyed it.
Once we were full we went to go on BTM but the queue was just to long and had been for most of the trip, and Indy was closed so we decided to leave Disneyland and head over to the Studios. On our way over there we popped into the shops and Cass enjoyed being Belle for a few moments!!!
We still hadnt seen Cinemagique and so went to see this which we really enjoyed, I still cant remember where Id seen that actor before so if anyone knows then answers here please! We then used all our FPs on ToT so we were sorted for the rest of the day, we did Aerosmith again still smiling at the Norris scream wed heard the day before. We then walked around a bit and then completed our compulsory goes on ToT before we headed over to crush where the queue time was 25 mins. We wanted to go backwards as we thought this was always the best way to go on this coaster but we had to go on front ways the first time. We were running out of time but decided to try and get on again before we had to leave and luckily got our desired backwards seats for our last Disney ride of the holiday. We could then leave the parc smiling and headed to the village to pic up some quick magnets and pens before returning to the HI to pick up our case and head over to the station for our return Eurostar home.
This however did not go smoothly, we arrived at half 5 with our train due to leave at 7.30. However a train in the channel tunnel had just caught fire and so all trains had been cancelled, now luckily because we were so early we were at the front for all queues going forward from this point onwards but for others this turned out to be a torrid time.
We were first told to go to the Eurostar booking desk on the floor below to change our tickets for a train tomorrow, we were about 20th in the queue which quickly became about 200 within a few minutes. Once we got these tickets exchanged we were then sent to a waiting area while the Eurostar guys sorted out what to do with a train full of customers stuck on the wrong side of the water. Within half an hour we were then told we would be put up in hotels for the night and we had buses shuttling us to the hotel of their choice. This turned out to be the Holiday Inn! Which was quite a relief because we imagined been sent miles away.
We arrived on the first bus there and the HI had no idea who we were or what we were doing here but told us all to put our bags in the luggage room and to go to the dining room while they called Eurostar. The issue was soon sorted out and we were told to help ourselves to the Dining Buffet which we duly did. Now for 29 euros it seemed quite expensive and I would much prefer to dine out in the village on that money but the food they did was nice, especially the Lasagne and the chicken nuggets!
We were then told to collect our keys, however due to all the confusion they gave out a lot of keys already allocated which led to a lot of embarrassing situations. We luckily were given an executive room and settled down to watch some tele as it was now about 10 and we didnt fancy leaving our room!
After watching BBC we fell asleep and awoke the next day for what we thought was an extra day in the parcs.
How wrong we were, we were told in reception that Eurostar had charter planes to take us all home so we had to hurry to the station and catch a train to the airport. This begun our long day home.
At this point the tunnel was still shut so we were pleased just to be heading home. We werent to know that I would be up and running the next day. We had Eurostar staff with us the whole time, they took us on a private eurostar to the airport and walked us around the terminals to the check in desks. Now we were here for a good two hours as they had no ones details for the plane tickets! Everyone was good about this though, happy we were being looked after and on our way home.
We eventually got checked in and went through to departures to find our plane was due to arrive late, we eventually were loaded on when it arrived but because it was late it missed its takeoff slot. Now because this was a specially charted plane it was not easy to get another allocated take off slot so eventually after an hour and a half sitting on the tarmac we left for home.
The plane took us to Stansted and when we arrived we were then met by more Eurostar staff who gave us tickets for the Stansted to Liverpool Street Flyer ( two stops from St Pancreas ).
This trip took us 45 minutes and so eventually we were back in London 24 after we were meant to be, we then continued the gruelling final trip home after a 12 hour journey.
Glad to be home we then reflected on our great time in Disney and the fact even with this hiccup we would love to come back and feel the magic again.
Thanks for all your comments, hope you enjoyed our trip report and have fun if your off shortly.
Now I have to get planning our next one to Sequoia Lodge!
Still brill though, we met Timone and Rafiki last time, was really nice!
