Disneyland Resort Paris Trip Report
Day 1 (Sunday 18 May 2003)
Cast: Me (Anne Marie 35), my Mum Breda, my nephew Patrick (11) and niece Jade (7).
Staying At: Hotel Cheyenne
Hope its OK if these are long winded, Im not known for my brevity, and this is my first trip report.
Our flight from Dublin to Paris was at 7.10 a.m. so we stayed in Bewleys Hotel in Dublin the night before. We got up at 4 a.m., its amazing how easy it is to get up early when youre going somewhere niceJ and were at the airport by 4.45, I dropped Mum and Jade at the set down point with the cases and Patrick and I went to park in the long stay car park. Everything just went right today! Got a space for car in 1st row, shuttle bus waiting for us, flight took off on time, bags waiting for us when we got to carousel in CDG, and shuttle bus to Disney waiting too. The real icing on the cake was when we got to Hotel Cheyenne! Mickey and Goofy were in the lobby, Patrick ran to the hotel shop to get autograph books, and they had their 1st autographs and photos within minutes of arriving in Disney. We then queued at arrivals desk, I assumed we would just get our tickets and leave our luggage as it was still only 11.45 a.m., but no, we got our room key straight away!!!! We were in Block 16, Annie Oakley. By 12.10, 4 hours after leaving Dublin (Paris being 1 hour ahead), we were unpacked and ready to go. Now theres always a fly in the ointment and this time it was the rain, it was so heavy and it hardly stopped for our first 30 hours in Disney.
We really needed to eat at this point, Aer Lingus are cost cutting, so breakfast was juice and 2 custard cream biscuits. We should have eaten at the hotel, but I didnt think of this until we had got the shuttle bus to the village and saw the queues, then I remember reading this hint in the guidebooks. Oh well, we got hot dogs and chips from one of the snack carts, and I have to say they hit the spot. Mum, Patrick and I had our yellow ponchos from WDW in Florida in Oct 2000, so we stopped to get Jade a poncho, and then hit the Disneyland Park. Looking back, it would have been better to go to the Studios because of the heavy rain, but theres something about Main St USA and the Castle that makes you feel, YES! WERE REALLY HERE!!!!!!! I did mean to keep notes to write these trip reports, but was too busy, so here I am a week later trying to remember. Jade wanted to see the castle straight away, so we headed up that direction and went underneath into the lair of the dragon, its really dark in there, you need to take a few minutes to adjust your eyes, but it was quite impressive. Its nice that theres more to Sleeping Beautys castle than Cinderellas Castle in WDW. We went up into the castle shop from the Dragons Lair and then up into the gallery. The stained glass windows are really beautiful, I dont think I would have noticed the front window changing from a rose to 2 doves, if I hadnt read about it in the guidebook.
The very first (and as it turned out 4 days later, the last) ride we did was Phantom Manor. Jade spent the next few days, with her every 3rd sentence being Is that real?. We all loved this ride, were 4 scaredy cats really (well were from Kilkenny, so we would be cats anywayJ so no roller coasters for us, especially when the kids you have with you arent your own. I really liked the dancing ghosts in the ballroom, and Jade was a bit frightened at first by the ghost hitching a ride, but 2nd time around she put up her hand to the top of the car, and was fascinated when her hand passed right through him, then she couldnt decide if this meant he was real or he wasnt! I had found the English translation of the commentary on the net before we left, so I was able to tell the others the background before the ride which helped.
Big Thunder Mountain was closed for the duration of our trip, but we knew this before we arrived, it was a pity though as we loved it in Florida, its the bigger coasters with loops Im too chicken to try. We spent a lot of time on our first 2 days in shops ducking the rain, which was a pity really, but it was very miserable because the rain was just so heavy. The hoods of the ponchos could do with being a little wider as every time I pulled the hood down, the water ran down my neck, later I got a baseball cap and left the hood down, it was much better. I didnt really want to use a brolly, as there were already enough people in the parks trying to take each others eyes out with brollys, without me adding to the fray.
We headed from Frontierland to Fantasyland and found lots of characters from Robin Hood doing an autograph session outside The Lucky Nugget Saloon, luckily the rain stopped for 10 min or so to get these and then started again. We spent yet more time in shops because of the heavy rain and then headed to Le Carrousel de Lancelot when it was showing no sign of abating. Mum, Jade and Patrick did this as I wanted to video it, I did intend to get a go myself before we left, but never got around to it (theres always next timeJ I got quite wet while waiting for them to get on the ride, my shoes were letting the wet in around the stitching, so I stuck to runners (trainers) for the rest of the trip. The parade was on at this point but it was too busy and wet to see anything, so we saved it for another day.
Our next port of call was the Snow White ride and then we went into Alices Curious Labyrinth, it was lovely to do something completely new, and we really liked this. There is a wonderful view of the big castle and park from the top of the Queen of Hearts castle. The rain started again though, so I was getting a little fed up of the maze on the way out of the castle, should have cheated and gone back out the in door of the Queens castle, straight to the exit. The only word of French you really need to know in Disneyland Paris is that Sortie means Exit. After the castle we were just wandering around and found Pirates of the Caribbean with no queue, so we did it 3 times in a row!!! We bought one of the photographs here from the ride. As it was still raining (what a surprise!) we got on the Disneyland Railroad and went right around the whole way, and then stayed on again until we got back to Main St station. I was disappointed at the Grand Canyon diorama, I expected something much bigger and more dramatic, thats what happens when you do too much research! While waiting for the train a Cast Member called Caroline was speaking to us, and she was just so lovely and really enjoying her job despite being soaked wet that she cheered us all up immensely.
We had dinner in New York Sandwich shop in the village before heading back to the hotel and the children rang home to their parents (they did this each evening). Having been up so early, and knowing we had a character breakfast at 8 next morning we were in bed by 10 p.m. which is unheard of for me normally, and boy those beds are comfortable in the Cheyenne. I was in the bottom bunk, Patrick on top, and Mum and Jade in the double. No complaints about the hotel, it was lovely and we really liked the theming. The launderette was right across from us, but we didnt use it.
Day 1 (Sunday 18 May 2003)
Cast: Me (Anne Marie 35), my Mum Breda, my nephew Patrick (11) and niece Jade (7).
Staying At: Hotel Cheyenne
Hope its OK if these are long winded, Im not known for my brevity, and this is my first trip report.
Our flight from Dublin to Paris was at 7.10 a.m. so we stayed in Bewleys Hotel in Dublin the night before. We got up at 4 a.m., its amazing how easy it is to get up early when youre going somewhere niceJ and were at the airport by 4.45, I dropped Mum and Jade at the set down point with the cases and Patrick and I went to park in the long stay car park. Everything just went right today! Got a space for car in 1st row, shuttle bus waiting for us, flight took off on time, bags waiting for us when we got to carousel in CDG, and shuttle bus to Disney waiting too. The real icing on the cake was when we got to Hotel Cheyenne! Mickey and Goofy were in the lobby, Patrick ran to the hotel shop to get autograph books, and they had their 1st autographs and photos within minutes of arriving in Disney. We then queued at arrivals desk, I assumed we would just get our tickets and leave our luggage as it was still only 11.45 a.m., but no, we got our room key straight away!!!! We were in Block 16, Annie Oakley. By 12.10, 4 hours after leaving Dublin (Paris being 1 hour ahead), we were unpacked and ready to go. Now theres always a fly in the ointment and this time it was the rain, it was so heavy and it hardly stopped for our first 30 hours in Disney.
We really needed to eat at this point, Aer Lingus are cost cutting, so breakfast was juice and 2 custard cream biscuits. We should have eaten at the hotel, but I didnt think of this until we had got the shuttle bus to the village and saw the queues, then I remember reading this hint in the guidebooks. Oh well, we got hot dogs and chips from one of the snack carts, and I have to say they hit the spot. Mum, Patrick and I had our yellow ponchos from WDW in Florida in Oct 2000, so we stopped to get Jade a poncho, and then hit the Disneyland Park. Looking back, it would have been better to go to the Studios because of the heavy rain, but theres something about Main St USA and the Castle that makes you feel, YES! WERE REALLY HERE!!!!!!! I did mean to keep notes to write these trip reports, but was too busy, so here I am a week later trying to remember. Jade wanted to see the castle straight away, so we headed up that direction and went underneath into the lair of the dragon, its really dark in there, you need to take a few minutes to adjust your eyes, but it was quite impressive. Its nice that theres more to Sleeping Beautys castle than Cinderellas Castle in WDW. We went up into the castle shop from the Dragons Lair and then up into the gallery. The stained glass windows are really beautiful, I dont think I would have noticed the front window changing from a rose to 2 doves, if I hadnt read about it in the guidebook.
The very first (and as it turned out 4 days later, the last) ride we did was Phantom Manor. Jade spent the next few days, with her every 3rd sentence being Is that real?. We all loved this ride, were 4 scaredy cats really (well were from Kilkenny, so we would be cats anywayJ so no roller coasters for us, especially when the kids you have with you arent your own. I really liked the dancing ghosts in the ballroom, and Jade was a bit frightened at first by the ghost hitching a ride, but 2nd time around she put up her hand to the top of the car, and was fascinated when her hand passed right through him, then she couldnt decide if this meant he was real or he wasnt! I had found the English translation of the commentary on the net before we left, so I was able to tell the others the background before the ride which helped.
Big Thunder Mountain was closed for the duration of our trip, but we knew this before we arrived, it was a pity though as we loved it in Florida, its the bigger coasters with loops Im too chicken to try. We spent a lot of time on our first 2 days in shops ducking the rain, which was a pity really, but it was very miserable because the rain was just so heavy. The hoods of the ponchos could do with being a little wider as every time I pulled the hood down, the water ran down my neck, later I got a baseball cap and left the hood down, it was much better. I didnt really want to use a brolly, as there were already enough people in the parks trying to take each others eyes out with brollys, without me adding to the fray.
We headed from Frontierland to Fantasyland and found lots of characters from Robin Hood doing an autograph session outside The Lucky Nugget Saloon, luckily the rain stopped for 10 min or so to get these and then started again. We spent yet more time in shops because of the heavy rain and then headed to Le Carrousel de Lancelot when it was showing no sign of abating. Mum, Jade and Patrick did this as I wanted to video it, I did intend to get a go myself before we left, but never got around to it (theres always next timeJ I got quite wet while waiting for them to get on the ride, my shoes were letting the wet in around the stitching, so I stuck to runners (trainers) for the rest of the trip. The parade was on at this point but it was too busy and wet to see anything, so we saved it for another day.
Our next port of call was the Snow White ride and then we went into Alices Curious Labyrinth, it was lovely to do something completely new, and we really liked this. There is a wonderful view of the big castle and park from the top of the Queen of Hearts castle. The rain started again though, so I was getting a little fed up of the maze on the way out of the castle, should have cheated and gone back out the in door of the Queens castle, straight to the exit. The only word of French you really need to know in Disneyland Paris is that Sortie means Exit. After the castle we were just wandering around and found Pirates of the Caribbean with no queue, so we did it 3 times in a row!!! We bought one of the photographs here from the ride. As it was still raining (what a surprise!) we got on the Disneyland Railroad and went right around the whole way, and then stayed on again until we got back to Main St station. I was disappointed at the Grand Canyon diorama, I expected something much bigger and more dramatic, thats what happens when you do too much research! While waiting for the train a Cast Member called Caroline was speaking to us, and she was just so lovely and really enjoying her job despite being soaked wet that she cheered us all up immensely.
We had dinner in New York Sandwich shop in the village before heading back to the hotel and the children rang home to their parents (they did this each evening). Having been up so early, and knowing we had a character breakfast at 8 next morning we were in bed by 10 p.m. which is unheard of for me normally, and boy those beds are comfortable in the Cheyenne. I was in the bottom bunk, Patrick on top, and Mum and Jade in the double. No complaints about the hotel, it was lovely and we really liked the theming. The launderette was right across from us, but we didnt use it.
