Booknut
<font color=green>I couldn't figure out why people
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2005
Day 3 Part II:
Sorry for the delay in finishing/posting this but i've had surgery on my right hand and i'm finding typing with one hand incredibly frustrating - this has taken a few days to type! Anyhoo, onwards and upwards...
After lunch at Cafe Mickey we made our way to the Studios park. I must admit that I wasn't as excited to visit this park mostly because there wasn't much for us to do there as a family. However I really loved the entrance and the whole boulevard thing, it looked really fun and if we hadn't have been in a hurry to get back to Frontierland later to see Mickey's Winter Wonderland i'd have loved to have just hung out soaking in the atmosphere.
Making our way to the Studios
Entrance
Inside
The Christmas decorations were fabulous
I love this statue, we have a small bronze of this at home which we bought last time at WDW and it was nice seeing it in the Studios.
After having a wander around we rushed to see Animagique. I had heard so many great things about this show and we were not disappointed!!! I loved it very much and Matilda enjoyed it too and didnt cry once even though it was quite dark and at times really loud. She especially loved the LittleMermaid bit, we stood her up against a seat and she bopped up and down to the music, it was a special memory for us
After Animagique we practically ran back to the Disney park as we wanted to catch the last showing of Mickey's Winter Wonderland. This is where the rest of the trip starts to go a bit pear shaped. We got to the entrance and Phil went through with his ticket and I had Matilda so I walked to the door so the CM would let me through. We had about 8-10 minutes to get to Frontierland and we would have made the train as it left Main Street 5 minutes later. However, when I tried to go through the door the CM stopped me and asked me to wait. Then out of nowhere some young CM's started to come through the door, most of them holding some brochures, they had probably just finished some training course. I waited while about 20 people came through really slowly then asked the CM to please let us through as we were running late and he just lifted up his arm and held up his hand, basically telling me to wait whilst they all left. I waited and heard the train leave. I couldn't move to another place as the CM had taken my pass to put through the machine. Needless to say I was in tears by the time I got through and I told him he that never in a million years would the CMs at WDW ever treat a guest like that and he just looked at me with a blank stare. We still rushed to Frontierland but it was too late and we missed the show.
I was so gutted and was feeling sad and sorry for myself so Phil just hugged me and said it was time for some hot chocolate and a mickey brioche (I wasn't going to argue) so we walked around and settled on Hakuna Matata which we thought might cheer us up. Big mistake. I sat down at one of the few tables available very near the tills and Phil got in the queue which was 8 people deep so I figured it might take 10-15 minutes. At the table behind us were 4 teenage boys with a can of whipped cream, sitting there filling up their mouths and having a competition to see who could take the most, snort the most, it was pretty stupid and they were loud and making a huge mess. Thankfully after 20 minutes they left, only to be substituted by two boys under 5 who each had a plastic sword and thought it was funny to swing it at Matilda and try to poke her. I told them to stop in English, French, German and Portuguese just in case and they just smirked and kept swinging. I grabbed both the swords and they both looked over to their father who was in the queue and he stared at me and called both his sons over. I let go of the swords and off they went.
After 35 minutes poor Phil finally came back with 2 hot chocolates and a brioche and I have to be honest, at this point we actually discussed coming home that evening. We were miserable, cold and just tired of having to fight our way through everything. Disney should not have to be this hard so we thought best to go early.
We quickly downed our hot chocolate (which wasn't very hot if i'm nitpicking) and started walking back towards Main Street when I realised it was time for the afternoon parade so I thought let's stay for this and at least we'll have a happy memory with which to leave the park. So we watched the parade and it was beautiful and Matilda loved it!! And that music is so infectious, I was humming Chante C'Est Noel for ages afterwards
Feeling better after the parade we decided to not come back to England that evening but to stay in the park a while longer and come back the next day. As we were freezing we headed for the Plaza Gardens as it looked so nice and inviting and WARM! We were able to get a nice table and I got a nice kir royale for free thanks to my AP so I was well on my way to warming up! The Plaza really is a fab restaurant, will post a review and photos of the buffet on the Plaza restaurant review page later but here are a few shots of the restaurant:
The food was nice and it was such a relaxing setting. Matilda was grateful for the warmth and promptly fell asleep as soon as we got in. The selection was very good and they even had yogurts and fromage frais for the kids and were really kind in giving me some for Matilda to eat later in the evening when she woke up.
We then left and staked out a good place for the Enchanted Candleabration. This was my favourite thing of the whole trip, it was so beautiful and this time my tears were of joy and happiness
We decided to leave the park after this as the bitter cold was getting to all of us and Matilda needed to crawl around so we walked back to the bus stops. We waited 30 minutes for a bus and people pushed and shoved so much we could barely get on. Matilda was now crying so I took her out of the pushchair and Phil squeezed himself onto the train with her and I stayed behind with the pushchair and waited another half an hour for another bus. I was an icicle by the time I got to our room!!
Day 4:
As we had decided to not go back to the parks today we slept in, relaxed in the room and had a late breakfast again in the restaurant which was nice. After one last stop in the gift shop we made our way for home. I was sad to be leaving but also relieved which was also sad in itself. Matilda however seemed happy to be in the car nice and warm:
We decided to stop in Vimy to see the Canadian War Memorial as i'm originally from Canada and i'd never been there. It was beautiful and very moving. Here's a photo of the memorial:
We stopped in Carrefour in Calais to buy some food for a late lunch and for Matilda's birthday party the next day and at 6pm we were in the tunnel headed back to England. We were home by 8pm and I set out right away to make her birthday cake - i'll leave you with a photo of the cake, it was yummy and she loved the characters:
Final thoughts:
I found this report very hard to do. I love Disney and wanted so much to love DLP as its so close to us - 4 hours door to door if we take the train - and to be able to go lots with Matilda when she's young so that she can love it the way I do and experience the magic. But I am gutted that a lot of the magic just wasn't there for us. Phil was not impressed and does not want to return. I must be more forgiving or more optimistic as I would like to go again in better weather and give it another chance in case it really was just bad luck for us. But if i'm truly honest i'm only doing this for Matilda as I don't think I would go back if it was just Phil and I
We've just had such magical vacations at WDW and knowing that magic is there we'd probably just save up and go as and when we can.
But I don't want Matilda missing out because of us - she won't care about pushy people or rude CMs or cold expensive hot dogs. The magic will be real for her so we're gonna try real hard to go back and see things through her eyes. I'm certainly hopeful!! I think we'll be going back in September and we'll be bringing my parents too so hopefully my next TR will be better!
Thanks for sticking around and reading my TR, happy new year to you all!
Sorry for the delay in finishing/posting this but i've had surgery on my right hand and i'm finding typing with one hand incredibly frustrating - this has taken a few days to type! Anyhoo, onwards and upwards...
After lunch at Cafe Mickey we made our way to the Studios park. I must admit that I wasn't as excited to visit this park mostly because there wasn't much for us to do there as a family. However I really loved the entrance and the whole boulevard thing, it looked really fun and if we hadn't have been in a hurry to get back to Frontierland later to see Mickey's Winter Wonderland i'd have loved to have just hung out soaking in the atmosphere.
Making our way to the Studios
Entrance
Inside
The Christmas decorations were fabulous
I love this statue, we have a small bronze of this at home which we bought last time at WDW and it was nice seeing it in the Studios.
After having a wander around we rushed to see Animagique. I had heard so many great things about this show and we were not disappointed!!! I loved it very much and Matilda enjoyed it too and didnt cry once even though it was quite dark and at times really loud. She especially loved the LittleMermaid bit, we stood her up against a seat and she bopped up and down to the music, it was a special memory for us
After Animagique we practically ran back to the Disney park as we wanted to catch the last showing of Mickey's Winter Wonderland. This is where the rest of the trip starts to go a bit pear shaped. We got to the entrance and Phil went through with his ticket and I had Matilda so I walked to the door so the CM would let me through. We had about 8-10 minutes to get to Frontierland and we would have made the train as it left Main Street 5 minutes later. However, when I tried to go through the door the CM stopped me and asked me to wait. Then out of nowhere some young CM's started to come through the door, most of them holding some brochures, they had probably just finished some training course. I waited while about 20 people came through really slowly then asked the CM to please let us through as we were running late and he just lifted up his arm and held up his hand, basically telling me to wait whilst they all left. I waited and heard the train leave. I couldn't move to another place as the CM had taken my pass to put through the machine. Needless to say I was in tears by the time I got through and I told him he that never in a million years would the CMs at WDW ever treat a guest like that and he just looked at me with a blank stare. We still rushed to Frontierland but it was too late and we missed the show.
I was so gutted and was feeling sad and sorry for myself so Phil just hugged me and said it was time for some hot chocolate and a mickey brioche (I wasn't going to argue) so we walked around and settled on Hakuna Matata which we thought might cheer us up. Big mistake. I sat down at one of the few tables available very near the tills and Phil got in the queue which was 8 people deep so I figured it might take 10-15 minutes. At the table behind us were 4 teenage boys with a can of whipped cream, sitting there filling up their mouths and having a competition to see who could take the most, snort the most, it was pretty stupid and they were loud and making a huge mess. Thankfully after 20 minutes they left, only to be substituted by two boys under 5 who each had a plastic sword and thought it was funny to swing it at Matilda and try to poke her. I told them to stop in English, French, German and Portuguese just in case and they just smirked and kept swinging. I grabbed both the swords and they both looked over to their father who was in the queue and he stared at me and called both his sons over. I let go of the swords and off they went.
After 35 minutes poor Phil finally came back with 2 hot chocolates and a brioche and I have to be honest, at this point we actually discussed coming home that evening. We were miserable, cold and just tired of having to fight our way through everything. Disney should not have to be this hard so we thought best to go early.
We quickly downed our hot chocolate (which wasn't very hot if i'm nitpicking) and started walking back towards Main Street when I realised it was time for the afternoon parade so I thought let's stay for this and at least we'll have a happy memory with which to leave the park. So we watched the parade and it was beautiful and Matilda loved it!! And that music is so infectious, I was humming Chante C'Est Noel for ages afterwards
Feeling better after the parade we decided to not come back to England that evening but to stay in the park a while longer and come back the next day. As we were freezing we headed for the Plaza Gardens as it looked so nice and inviting and WARM! We were able to get a nice table and I got a nice kir royale for free thanks to my AP so I was well on my way to warming up! The Plaza really is a fab restaurant, will post a review and photos of the buffet on the Plaza restaurant review page later but here are a few shots of the restaurant:
The food was nice and it was such a relaxing setting. Matilda was grateful for the warmth and promptly fell asleep as soon as we got in. The selection was very good and they even had yogurts and fromage frais for the kids and were really kind in giving me some for Matilda to eat later in the evening when she woke up.
We then left and staked out a good place for the Enchanted Candleabration. This was my favourite thing of the whole trip, it was so beautiful and this time my tears were of joy and happiness
We decided to leave the park after this as the bitter cold was getting to all of us and Matilda needed to crawl around so we walked back to the bus stops. We waited 30 minutes for a bus and people pushed and shoved so much we could barely get on. Matilda was now crying so I took her out of the pushchair and Phil squeezed himself onto the train with her and I stayed behind with the pushchair and waited another half an hour for another bus. I was an icicle by the time I got to our room!!
Day 4:
As we had decided to not go back to the parks today we slept in, relaxed in the room and had a late breakfast again in the restaurant which was nice. After one last stop in the gift shop we made our way for home. I was sad to be leaving but also relieved which was also sad in itself. Matilda however seemed happy to be in the car nice and warm:
We decided to stop in Vimy to see the Canadian War Memorial as i'm originally from Canada and i'd never been there. It was beautiful and very moving. Here's a photo of the memorial:
We stopped in Carrefour in Calais to buy some food for a late lunch and for Matilda's birthday party the next day and at 6pm we were in the tunnel headed back to England. We were home by 8pm and I set out right away to make her birthday cake - i'll leave you with a photo of the cake, it was yummy and she loved the characters:
Final thoughts:
I found this report very hard to do. I love Disney and wanted so much to love DLP as its so close to us - 4 hours door to door if we take the train - and to be able to go lots with Matilda when she's young so that she can love it the way I do and experience the magic. But I am gutted that a lot of the magic just wasn't there for us. Phil was not impressed and does not want to return. I must be more forgiving or more optimistic as I would like to go again in better weather and give it another chance in case it really was just bad luck for us. But if i'm truly honest i'm only doing this for Matilda as I don't think I would go back if it was just Phil and I
We've just had such magical vacations at WDW and knowing that magic is there we'd probably just save up and go as and when we can. But I don't want Matilda missing out because of us - she won't care about pushy people or rude CMs or cold expensive hot dogs. The magic will be real for her so we're gonna try real hard to go back and see things through her eyes. I'm certainly hopeful!! I think we'll be going back in September and we'll be bringing my parents too so hopefully my next TR will be better!
Thanks for sticking around and reading my TR, happy new year to you all!
what happened to putting paying customers first? It saddens me that parents would allow their children to run amok in a restaurant. I always tell my children that they stay put - as much for their safety as for the other diners! I am worried about facing rude people when we go - it infuriates me when people are like that.
and those kids in Hakuna Matata 
and I think the fact that these things happened on your last park day will have definitely put a downer on your trip, if it had happened on your first day it is a lot easier to put out of your mind.
To be honest, I think I have experienced more rude people at WDW than I have at DLRP but somehow the glorious sunny warm weather at Florida tends to make us take less notice things of these bad experiences than when the weather is cold and miserable.
We are definitely going to give DLP another go (especially as they invited us back at their expense!). I hope you guys experience some magic your next trip. 
