dhidra
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 19, 2014
- Messages
- 964
17-21 Feb Highs & Lows
Highs
The reactions of the kids
Their excitement when we told them where we were going, their faces when they caught their first glimpse of the castle (Nick started jumping up and down!), their joy at meeting all the characters and seeing how much they enjoyed the rides. All brilliant and made it worth all the money planning, packing, travel stress etc!
Ratatouille Ride
I was so looking forward to this and I was no disappointed. It exceeded my expectations. It was so cleverly done. A real multi-sensory experience. We were lucky enough to ride it twice and we all loved it both times.
Bistro Chez Remy
The Ratatouille restaurant; this was new to me aswell. The theming is just brilliant, you're totally immersed in the surroundings and you really feel like you are the size of a rat! The food was lovely and we had a fab waiter. The kids all said that this was their favourite restaurant. It was fairly reasonable too; I think it was €73 for me and the two kids and a glass of wine.
All our other restaurant choices!
We didn't have a bad meal. We enjoyed every one of them. Apart from Chez Remy, we ate at Blue Lagoon, Inventions, Auberge De Cendrillion (lunch with the princesses) and Annette's Diner. We also had hot chocolates and crepes in Cafe Fantasia (in the Disneyland Hotel), which was lovely, albeit quite expensive!
Meeting Stitch and Sleeping Beauty
These are John's favourites so I was really hoping we would meet them, especially Stitch as we hadn't met him before. The Easy Access Pass we got for him was a Godsend for both of these meets; otherwise they wouldn't have happened.
We met Stitch in the Studios and he was great fun. Very playful and he loved John's Stitch hat.
Also when we went to the 'Stitch Live!' show, John got picked out if the audience and Stitch took a photo of him and then swallowed the camera. He was thrilled!
We didn't see Sleeping Beauty at the Princess lunch so we chanced our arm at going to the Princess Pavillion the next day. We were in luck! The very kind CM let us pick between Rapunzel and Aurora. John was so happy to meet her and we got some fabulous photos. We were beaming from ear to ear coming out! This was a big highlight.
Nick!
Nick was taller and braver than last year! A the only ride he didn't do that John did was Crush's Coaster.
Dreams
An amazing show from beginning to end. Enjoyable for kids and adults alike.
Weather
It wasn't as cold as I expected. Well it was cold, but it didn't bother us too much, and Wednesday and Thursday were lovely sunny days.
Adagio Apartments
These were better than I expected. They were clean, spacious and well equipped. A one minute walk to the Val D'Europe shopping centre where there were loads of shops and restaurants.
Annual Passes
These gave us 10% discount in the restaurants, 20% in the shops, (which really helped to take the sting out of the prices!), free buggy rental and free baggage storage. Very handy indeed.
Lows
These are only small things really, they didn't affect us too much. Just little moans.
Ratatouille Ride closure
My poor Mam queued for an hour to get Fastpasses for us only to discover that the ride wasn't running. It didn't open at all that day so we had to go back the next day but thankfully we got on it then.
Queue jumpers
These drive me NUTS! Lots of them around Ratatouille, but plenty of others aswell.
Stars & Cars Meet & Greet in the Studios
This was a scrum. There's a roped-off circle and the characters are in the middle, going around the circle, signing autographs and posing for photos. Sounds great in theory but in practice it didn't work as there were no organised queues and it was the people who pushed & shoved their way through who got to meet the characters. We ended up using the Easy Access Pass here as I was scared that the kids would get trampled on or lost! So thankfully we did get to meet some characters.
Last year they had a better system with organised queues and CMs making sure that people didn't skip.
Photopass
We lost our Tower of Terror photo and I didn't realize until it was too late. It nearly happened again at Big Thunder Mountain and Princess Pavillion - you really need to double check that they're properly loaded on the card.
Rain
Friday was very wet. It rained all day. Thankfully we were well prepared with good coats, boots and ponchos. My sister and nieces, however, got fairly wet and had to change socks a few times.
Traveling from Adagio to the parks
Now were spoiled on the last two trips, staying in the Disneyland Hotel and Hotel New York, which were very close walks to the parks. Having to get the bus/train/taxi was a pain. Especially in the evenings.
Airports!
I just find it so stressful traveling with kids! Especially without DH!!!
Trip report and photos to follow!
Highs
The reactions of the kids
Their excitement when we told them where we were going, their faces when they caught their first glimpse of the castle (Nick started jumping up and down!), their joy at meeting all the characters and seeing how much they enjoyed the rides. All brilliant and made it worth all the money planning, packing, travel stress etc!
Ratatouille Ride
I was so looking forward to this and I was no disappointed. It exceeded my expectations. It was so cleverly done. A real multi-sensory experience. We were lucky enough to ride it twice and we all loved it both times.
Bistro Chez Remy
The Ratatouille restaurant; this was new to me aswell. The theming is just brilliant, you're totally immersed in the surroundings and you really feel like you are the size of a rat! The food was lovely and we had a fab waiter. The kids all said that this was their favourite restaurant. It was fairly reasonable too; I think it was €73 for me and the two kids and a glass of wine.
All our other restaurant choices!
We didn't have a bad meal. We enjoyed every one of them. Apart from Chez Remy, we ate at Blue Lagoon, Inventions, Auberge De Cendrillion (lunch with the princesses) and Annette's Diner. We also had hot chocolates and crepes in Cafe Fantasia (in the Disneyland Hotel), which was lovely, albeit quite expensive!
Meeting Stitch and Sleeping Beauty
These are John's favourites so I was really hoping we would meet them, especially Stitch as we hadn't met him before. The Easy Access Pass we got for him was a Godsend for both of these meets; otherwise they wouldn't have happened.
We met Stitch in the Studios and he was great fun. Very playful and he loved John's Stitch hat.
Also when we went to the 'Stitch Live!' show, John got picked out if the audience and Stitch took a photo of him and then swallowed the camera. He was thrilled!
We didn't see Sleeping Beauty at the Princess lunch so we chanced our arm at going to the Princess Pavillion the next day. We were in luck! The very kind CM let us pick between Rapunzel and Aurora. John was so happy to meet her and we got some fabulous photos. We were beaming from ear to ear coming out! This was a big highlight.
Nick!
Nick was taller and braver than last year! A the only ride he didn't do that John did was Crush's Coaster.
Dreams
An amazing show from beginning to end. Enjoyable for kids and adults alike.
Weather
It wasn't as cold as I expected. Well it was cold, but it didn't bother us too much, and Wednesday and Thursday were lovely sunny days.
Adagio Apartments
These were better than I expected. They were clean, spacious and well equipped. A one minute walk to the Val D'Europe shopping centre where there were loads of shops and restaurants.
Annual Passes
These gave us 10% discount in the restaurants, 20% in the shops, (which really helped to take the sting out of the prices!), free buggy rental and free baggage storage. Very handy indeed.
Lows
These are only small things really, they didn't affect us too much. Just little moans.
Ratatouille Ride closure
My poor Mam queued for an hour to get Fastpasses for us only to discover that the ride wasn't running. It didn't open at all that day so we had to go back the next day but thankfully we got on it then.
Queue jumpers
These drive me NUTS! Lots of them around Ratatouille, but plenty of others aswell.
Stars & Cars Meet & Greet in the Studios
This was a scrum. There's a roped-off circle and the characters are in the middle, going around the circle, signing autographs and posing for photos. Sounds great in theory but in practice it didn't work as there were no organised queues and it was the people who pushed & shoved their way through who got to meet the characters. We ended up using the Easy Access Pass here as I was scared that the kids would get trampled on or lost! So thankfully we did get to meet some characters.
Last year they had a better system with organised queues and CMs making sure that people didn't skip.
Photopass
We lost our Tower of Terror photo and I didn't realize until it was too late. It nearly happened again at Big Thunder Mountain and Princess Pavillion - you really need to double check that they're properly loaded on the card.
Rain
Friday was very wet. It rained all day. Thankfully we were well prepared with good coats, boots and ponchos. My sister and nieces, however, got fairly wet and had to change socks a few times.
Traveling from Adagio to the parks
Now were spoiled on the last two trips, staying in the Disneyland Hotel and Hotel New York, which were very close walks to the parks. Having to get the bus/train/taxi was a pain. Especially in the evenings.
Airports!
I just find it so stressful traveling with kids! Especially without DH!!!
Trip report and photos to follow!
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sounds like you all had a great time. I hear ya on airport travel. I had thought of a harness for James but he'd think he was a horse!
guaranteed you'll find a bargain
