Just back and a few observations .....

[kittb]

Thanks for all your help before we travelled Just thought I'd share a few our of thoughts from the trip:
[list]
As you might remember we were a bit disappointed when Disney advised us that the pool would be closed at SL ... well it turns out they misread our/their dates and it was open! We'd packed swim stuff in case and I was really pleased we did! However a note of caution .... it was FREEZING! But our little one absolutely loved it

• Breakfast .... we didn't get to find out about fantasyland breakfast but did get an email from Disney admitting that they do use this as an overflow facility when its busy. And it was HEAVING, the staff working the breakfast shift need a medal and a huge pay packet that they probably don't get. The reason we didn't ask about the fantasyland breakfast in the end is because on check in they volunteered the info that pregnant ladies - "are you expecting company" was how the sweet chap on check in put it get a VIP breakfast pass. So as long as you can elbow your way through the crowds and scrums waiting for breakfast you can just go straight to the front of the queue and to the next table! I thought this was a bit cheeky but as it turned out I found the whole trip to be way more tiring than I expected so really appreciated this. We just slept til our little boy woke and then headed down.

• Parks - were significantly busier than we expected having been at this time of year a few times before. Much much busier which made it tough on me with my baby bump and tough on a normally boisterous toddler who found it quite overwhelming. What we found even more peculiar given the above is that lots of things were operating on very restricted opening times eg we headed over to casey junior/ les payes des contes de feyes and were amazed to find these only open weekend and later in the day! Another example was the park train. I'd have visions of just hopping on this to get from a-b and as it was something my little boy would love. All stations are now closed for getting on so you ahve to join the queue at Main Street .... which would be fine but there was only one train per 30 minutes!!

• Another pregnancy "perk" .... you can collect a special pass from the City Hall which gets you *****closed assistance at a very limited number of attractions. They stress this isn't priority boarding but the ones we were able to test included: going in the lift at Main Street station and being able to sit and wait 30 minutes for the train, at Les Payes des Contes de Feyes hopping straight on via the disabled entrance, being given a seat at Playhouse Disney and sitting up front at Stitch Live. We didn't try it but one of the other things they could help with is being able to to sit at the parade near the disabled roped off area ....

• meet and greet the characters seemed a lot better than when we've been before .... there were actually roped off queues and minders rather than the scrums we've seen in the past.

• Cafe Mickey - a fab experience for our little boy and well worth it for the photos we got. However, I don't think I would have paid (it was our complimetary offer due to them messing up our booking though we had to argue for it on arrival). The food was nice enough but would have come to 104E!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Generous portions but I would say of a decent Harvester standard not posh restaurant. I was shocked at the level of service, when we were finally seated we waited 15 minutes before finally we went and found a waiter to let us see the menus, then the same to place the order, then the same to get the food, same to order desert/ drinks etc. Noone cleared our table, we just had to keep getting up and finding someone to serve us. Terrible! And it wasn't because they were standing back to let the characters interact etc. The characters were great but perhaps *** we had a two year old just came, hugged him and disappeared straight away, not even time to take a photo with some of them! It took 2 hours to eat!

• Disney express luggage worked much more smoothly that it has in the past when collecting luggage from the station on the way back. Perhaps because less people travel on a Saturday? But we thought we'd have a long queue for our case but there was only one other person there and a handful waiting for security.

So on the whole we had a super trip, yet another learning curve of having a child, we got a LOT less done than we had thought, he liked and disliked things we couldn't have predicted, there was no way we'd have stood in a lot of the queues for the childrens rides 30 minutes + for a few minutes of fun when he was happy to wander round just looking (when the crowds allowed). And so much more exhausting being pregnant than I had expected. Sequoia Lodge was lovely though breakfast far from relaxing. The cost of food in proper meals was astronomical but quality seemed reasonable. I've spent today doing and sleeping!

Hope these ramblings help someone

Kittb

[CityBlue]

Can I ask when you went? We are going at the end of this month and are hoping it isn't going to be too busy!!!!!!

[thelittlemermaid83]

My friend went last week and the park was apparantly very very busy.

[Mum to Belle]

Welcome back!

Thanks for posting your observations - always useful! We go next week and I'm thinking that the park is going to be a lot busier than we were expecting, but at least I know what to expect!

Glad your little one got to use the pool after all, even if it was freezing!!

Good to read all those "perks" you get if pregnant! I'm not, but if I eat a few more cakes I'd probably look it!! NOT that I'd pretend about being pregnant, it would probably tempt fate if nothing else!! Good to know that you were looked after though.

[cap'njack.]

We went last week and the weekends were super busy...Monday was busy, Tuesday to Thursday were quite queit but not as quiet as we'd have thought and then Friday was busy again.

There were a lot of Irish, Scottish and Spanish people there, moreso than in any of my previous trips.

[kittb]

We were there Thursday to Saturday last week so 10-12 September.

Guess their promotions are working I kind of liked it when it was quiet in the past! I don't mind closures and restrictions if its quiet enough to enjoy whats left!

Kittb

[ema74]

welcome back! glad you had a great trip!