and humble apologies but I can't do a trippie any time soon due to a rather severe work crisis. Here's a little summary and hopefully I can get to a proper trippie later sometime.
Friday 27th March
So much nicer on the Eurostar to sit at a table for 4. The time just flew by and there we were being greeted by Chip and Dale. Straight into the park, onto the horse-drawn tram which we'd never been on before. We grabbed a fastpass for Buzz and used our DLH fastpasses for Star Tours, a first for DD (just 4) and she loved it. After Buzz we went to grab a FP for BTM, then rode Phantom Manor, also a first for DD. Not a success - DS hates it but had agreed to go on (presumably since DD wanted to!) so he was with me, and then the ride got stuck for such a long time they even turned the lights on and DD was crying for me in the other car with DH, as she couldn't see me. DS shut his eyes for most of the rest of the ride. Doesn't seem like we'll be doing that again! DD loved BTM though which was also a first for her as she's now just over the magical 1.02 metres. We were tired by this point and the children were excited to see the hotel so we went and checked in at the DLH. It looked gorgeous as there were shiny helium Mickey balloons all over the ceiling in the lobby for M'sMP. Must try to upload a pic of that even if I don't get anything else done. The kids were very impressed with the shop(!) and liked the room particularly as it had balloons in. For Emma's benefit, they were free, as they hadn't been able to give me the room I requested, but since they were 16 normal (round, non helium) balloons tied in 4 lots I'd have been pretty annoyed had I been mad enough to pay 50 euros for them. Perhaps you get different ones if you pay, hope so. Our room had a view of the car park.
We ate at Inventions Friday night and it was a great success as the children love prawns and even tried rollmops (although didn't like them!). Lovely food, and we saw Chip and Dale, Mickey, Minnie, a penguin, Pluto, Goofy and Tigger, most of them twice.
Saturday 28th March
A lovely DLH breakfast and we saw Eeyore and Mickey. I was expecting the park to be heaving today, the main press day, but it wasn't bad at all. Even when we didn't get in till 8.30 we walked onto all Fantasyland rides multiple times, and at 10 walked straight onto POTC. BTM called again so we hung out at the Cowboy Cookout for a while in the morning and ate an early lunch by the steamboats - which were both running as were both keel boats. We went over to the Studios in the afternoon and there seemed to be more press events happening here. Most of the front part ended up being roped off as they were doing a soft opening of Stars and Cars and also a press event involving lots of people at some special Animagique event, and Phil Collins singing. I confess although I saw him I didn't actually hang around to see him sing as at the exact moment the parade finished and all the bigwigs gathered the heavens opened and it hailed then poured down sheet rain. Not a good omen if you believe in those kind of things! We were all drenched and had rather lost our enthusiasm by that point so we retired to the DLH and put on dry clothes etc. Dinner in California Grill that night and we got a window seat in the hope there might be some fireworks but there weren't, just a noisy Disney bigwig dinner in the private room at the end. Fascinating watching the chefs prepare it all in a big production line though! Something was going on as the park closed to the public at 8 and there were spotlights on the castle, but we couldn't see anything else. lovely food for all 4 of us.
Sunday 29th March
Sunday was much busier, and we were tired so didn't get in the park very early. If was the first time the kids had shared a bed and DD turned out to be rather like a Catherine Wheel in bed so DS had requested a little bed made up on the floor for him, which was a nice little pile of eiderdowns. I was rather surprised when I heard him whimpering and calling for me at 5 am and could only see his feet sticking out - the rest of him had somehow wriggled under the bed in his sleep. Not so easy to go back to sleep after being pulled out from under a double bed. Didn't get on too many rides this day but we felt we'd already done more than we'd expected so we weren't bothered. The afternoon was spent hanging out with the pirates, the kids love that play area. Even the Swiss Family Robinson and the Nautilus had a big queue today. We eventually got home after midnight and feel rather deflated now but had a wonderful weekend.
Friday 27th March
So much nicer on the Eurostar to sit at a table for 4. The time just flew by and there we were being greeted by Chip and Dale. Straight into the park, onto the horse-drawn tram which we'd never been on before. We grabbed a fastpass for Buzz and used our DLH fastpasses for Star Tours, a first for DD (just 4) and she loved it. After Buzz we went to grab a FP for BTM, then rode Phantom Manor, also a first for DD. Not a success - DS hates it but had agreed to go on (presumably since DD wanted to!) so he was with me, and then the ride got stuck for such a long time they even turned the lights on and DD was crying for me in the other car with DH, as she couldn't see me. DS shut his eyes for most of the rest of the ride. Doesn't seem like we'll be doing that again! DD loved BTM though which was also a first for her as she's now just over the magical 1.02 metres. We were tired by this point and the children were excited to see the hotel so we went and checked in at the DLH. It looked gorgeous as there were shiny helium Mickey balloons all over the ceiling in the lobby for M'sMP. Must try to upload a pic of that even if I don't get anything else done. The kids were very impressed with the shop(!) and liked the room particularly as it had balloons in. For Emma's benefit, they were free, as they hadn't been able to give me the room I requested, but since they were 16 normal (round, non helium) balloons tied in 4 lots I'd have been pretty annoyed had I been mad enough to pay 50 euros for them. Perhaps you get different ones if you pay, hope so. Our room had a view of the car park.
We ate at Inventions Friday night and it was a great success as the children love prawns and even tried rollmops (although didn't like them!). Lovely food, and we saw Chip and Dale, Mickey, Minnie, a penguin, Pluto, Goofy and Tigger, most of them twice.
Saturday 28th March
A lovely DLH breakfast and we saw Eeyore and Mickey. I was expecting the park to be heaving today, the main press day, but it wasn't bad at all. Even when we didn't get in till 8.30 we walked onto all Fantasyland rides multiple times, and at 10 walked straight onto POTC. BTM called again so we hung out at the Cowboy Cookout for a while in the morning and ate an early lunch by the steamboats - which were both running as were both keel boats. We went over to the Studios in the afternoon and there seemed to be more press events happening here. Most of the front part ended up being roped off as they were doing a soft opening of Stars and Cars and also a press event involving lots of people at some special Animagique event, and Phil Collins singing. I confess although I saw him I didn't actually hang around to see him sing as at the exact moment the parade finished and all the bigwigs gathered the heavens opened and it hailed then poured down sheet rain. Not a good omen if you believe in those kind of things! We were all drenched and had rather lost our enthusiasm by that point so we retired to the DLH and put on dry clothes etc. Dinner in California Grill that night and we got a window seat in the hope there might be some fireworks but there weren't, just a noisy Disney bigwig dinner in the private room at the end. Fascinating watching the chefs prepare it all in a big production line though! Something was going on as the park closed to the public at 8 and there were spotlights on the castle, but we couldn't see anything else. lovely food for all 4 of us.
Sunday 29th March
Sunday was much busier, and we were tired so didn't get in the park very early. If was the first time the kids had shared a bed and DD turned out to be rather like a Catherine Wheel in bed so DS had requested a little bed made up on the floor for him, which was a nice little pile of eiderdowns. I was rather surprised when I heard him whimpering and calling for me at 5 am and could only see his feet sticking out - the rest of him had somehow wriggled under the bed in his sleep. Not so easy to go back to sleep after being pulled out from under a double bed. Didn't get on too many rides this day but we felt we'd already done more than we'd expected so we weren't bothered. The afternoon was spent hanging out with the pirates, the kids love that play area. Even the Swiss Family Robinson and the Nautilus had a big queue today. We eventually got home after midnight and feel rather deflated now but had a wonderful weekend.