jillrobinson
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 30, 2005
- Messages
- 6,953
Another free holiday courtesy of Tesco's, although I will admit to being rather pleased Leger have now left their Clubcard Scheme as I have vowed never to step foot on a coach again and the temptation would be far to great if the offer of a few paid for days at Disneyland Paris was still available.
Who we are:
Me: Jill and my DS's Liam (8) and Jamie (13)
My sister Ann and my niece Jessie (5)
Day One.
Collected at Newport at 8.25am as promised and we made good time on the trip to Dover with a couple of stops onroute to stretch our legs, our crossing was scheduled for 3.15pm, the Leger announcement came over the tannoy and we all got back on our respective coaches and waited to board and waited and waited. An hour late, we were finally on our way, but the crossing was very, very, rough, thank goodness we'd all taken travelling tablets, although despite Liam also wearing his Seabands, he was ill, poor thing. The journey from Calais to DLRP was uneventful and we arrived at the resort at 10.30pm, one hour late exactly, last time we were the first drop off at SL, this time we were last but one after the SF and Cheyenne, but it was lovely to see their Christmas decorations up too, Cheyenne's looked particularly effective. Finally it was our turn and I have to say Leger do provide a very good service, the drivers go into the hotel to check you in and confirm everythings as it should be, I thought there was a problem, when the driver called the receptionist back and started pointing to the envelopes containing our documents, but then she came over smiling saying "Well aren't you the lucky ones, you've got a free room upgrade !" We'd been given Montana rooms and they were in a fabulous position floor 2, south wing, on the same floor as reception, but far enough away from the busy areas on that floor not to have any noise. As requested we had adjoining rooms, which was lucky as my sister's card key didn't work once during the stay. For those people worried about GMF's there was a large board advertising them at SL reception, I contemplated requesting one, but another large coach party arrived as we were being checked in, it was late and I didn't fancy queuing behind them.
The view from the rooms wasn't brilliant, lots of large trees obscuring it, but we were facing towards the New York, overlooking the lakeside exit from SL. The room was exactly the same as the Lodge one we'd had last time with the addition of a mini fridge and as last time I had no toiletries whatsoever in the bathroom, my sister had a bath/shower gel and a handsoap and had brought her own (kept from her last visit), so I borrowed hers, I'm not sure if this is a costcutting measure or just bad housekeeping at SL, another thing is when did they stop leaving chocolate coins on the beds ?
I know the SL has lots of fans but it does nothing for me, the rooms could do with a little TLC, the woodwork is chipped and shabby, noticeable because it's so dark and the bathroom grouting could do with being cleaned or replaced, but it's not that that I don't like I find the rooms colours a bit dreary, and the whole place is very brown, personally I prefer the crisp navy, white and red colours of the NPB, but as we only shower and sleep in the room, it's not really a big deal.
Anyway back to the trippie we unpacked, made some hot chocolate and fell into bed around midnight after I'd set both room phones Wakeup call for 6.30am, much to everyone's dismay, got to make the most of those EMH.
Day Two.
Maybe 6.30 was a bit ambitious, so I asked Goofy to call back again in 15 minutes, we were all up showered,dressed and at the breakfast table by 7.30, we were seated straight away, we started with a leisurely breakfast until the announcement "Disneyland Park is now open" at which point I was on pins to get going, we couldn't help noticing the extraordinarily long queue for breakfast when we left the restaurant.
Saturday was a cold dry morning with a heavy frost, but we were all wearing our thermals.
Took this photo just outside Cafe Mickey, poor Liam fell on his bum, the step was very slippery.
By maleficent_mum
I suppose it was around 9.00 when we got to the park and I was amazed how many people were around, we were very silly then, wasting time taking photos and videos of the Christmas decorations, looking at the Window displays, etc. but everything was so gorgeous, the snowmen above Main Street station,
By maleficent_mum
the sleigh, toys
By maleficent_mum
and that fabulous tree around the bandstand area and as for the view up Main Street - WOW !
First ride of the day was Buzz, our favourite from last time, only to find that Jessie who sat in my cruiser didn't like it -uhoh, so the others went straight back on and I took Jessie to buy the autograph book I'd promised her. I'd tried to persuade her to come on Orbitron with me, but she was having none of it, IASW was next on the list as far as she was concerned, so when the others joined us we made our way over - there was already a queue and I guessed it wasn't opening until 10.00, but we decided to wait, I couldn't believe that the EMH slot was almost over, IASW was fabulous as always, I still can't get a photo of the Welsh dolls, they're so high up my camera flash doesn't reach them but you can't not like this ride and Jessie came off smiling, she'd brought a toy rabbit - Rory, her classmascot with her so he appears on many of the photos,
By maleficent_mum
we decided to take as many as we could on Saturday so we could leave him at the hotel on Sunday, I was convinced he was going to end up lost, it wasn't a case of "where are the kids ?" but "whose got the rabbit ?" Belle's village was open, it's very very pretty, with stalls selling hot chestnuts and pastries, I noticed Belle walking through, she's Jessie's favourite princess so we ran to catch her up and managed to get near the front of the queue for her "Meet and Greet". Jess doesn't normally stop talking but she was awestruck, she had Belle on her hat and scarf and Belle said how pretty they were, Ann said "you're her favourite princess", she signed the autograph book and we took some photos. When Jessie came over I said "you didn't speak to Belle" and she replied "I didn't know what to say, I've never met a real princess before" aww bless her.
By maleficent_mum
The Winnie the Pooh show was about to start so I dragged everyone in there, it's OK but it's really aimed at pre-school Pooh Bear fans, IMHO and my family's obviously who kept giving me daggers. Oh well !!!
When we came out Fantasyland was heaving so we headed over to Frontierland, on the way we picked up some FP's for Peter Pan and because I'd remembered to bring my old tickets some FP's for BTM too and then we headed over to Molly Brown, Ann and Jess hadn't been on the river boats before and we went upto the top deck, fabulous views from up there, although the foghorn made us all jump. Feeling brave Jessie agreed to go on Phantom Manor so we joined the queue stretching up and down and around the garden area. Then we had to make a decision BTM or Peter Pan, the FP windows were almost identical, we decided on BTM another first for Jessie, she wasn't tall enough last time, she was very brave although she didn't like the tunnel, for a change of pace we decided to try the Keelboats,
By maleficent_mum
a first for all of us this time, I'm sure not many people know it's there because the queue was comparitively short, we were seated on the lower deck and it's a very pleasant trip passing some coves I'd not noticed before.
By maleficent_mum
As we were so close we decided to have a look around Woody's Round Up, it's a great photoshoot location.
By maleficent_mum
By maleficent_mum
The queue for Santa was phenominal, we thought we'd give it a miss! especially as Santa came hurrying past us, waved and said "Be back in a Jiffy" ???
We headed back over to Fantasyland and more specifically the castle, upstairs to see the Sleeping Beauty story and then underneath to see the dragon, Jessie wanted to do IASW again but on our way over we came across a group of characters around the Bella Notte area and managed to get some photos before they got mobbed.
By maleficent_mum
By maleficent_mum
By maleficent_mum
By maleficent_mum
This was I'm afraid one of the lows for me and I now know what other DISers have complained about, I was disgusted at the way people were behaving pushing their kids up to the characters with no respect for the characters or the other children and I even saw one lady grab hold of Peter Pan's arm as she tried to get her camera out of her bag
- absolutely appalling behaviour 
We gave IASW a miss because of the queue and headed for the Storybook ride which I thought might be less busy, oh how wrong can you be ! but it was worth the wait Jessie and Rory loved this ride.
By maleficent_mum
It was around 3.30pm so I foolishly thought we'd find a place to watch the parade, we were heading back to Bella Notte, following advice on here about the Princess stop and it being a quieter place to watch - LOL, people were literally 5 or 6 deep, we stopped by Bella Notte and the kids stood on the wall outside, but then a family decided to get some chairs from the cafe, put them in front of us and stand on them, not only that but dad had a child on his shoulders, completely obscuring the view. We decided to give it up as a bad job and leave, the only way out was to stay close to the walls of the buildings over the walled shrubbed areas and up and down off the walls, we met a family come rushing the other way and the MOTHER actually pushed Jessie out of her way, so when we turned the corner and another lady pushing her way through swung around and hit Jess in the face with her backpack I did see red
I caught hold of her backpack, she swung back around and I told her exactly what I thought of her, I don't know whether she understood what I said but I think from the look on her face she got the gist of it. By now I'd really had enough of the park 
(I never thought I'd hear myself say that) and needed some time out so we decided to take a chance and head over to Cafe Mickey for some tea. I was convinced we wouldn't get a table but Ann must've used all of her charms because before I knew it I was sipping one of their Cosmopolitan cocktails and reading the menu.
We were seated downstairs by the window, what a fabulous place this is
Jessie really got into the swing of autograph hunting, we saw plenty of characters and they all spent lots of time with us, Mickey pretended that Liam had hurt his hand when he shook it and he pointed to his big muscles,
By maleficent_mum
it was so relaxing and such a change from the madness in the park. Ann had the lamb, I had the pasta and Jamie had steak, as always it was a very enjoyable meal although I couldn't finish all the pasta, I had to leave a little room for the Tiramisu. Liam and Jess loved the kids dessert buffet and came back with some strange concoctions. I know some people have complained about the cost of Cafe Mickey but in my opinion it's worth every penny and not necessarily for the food although we've never had cause to complain just the atmosphere and the characters alone.
By maleficent_mum
By maleficent_mum
Feeling de-stressed, (I think it was the cocktail) and as it was only 6.30 we decided to head back to the park, everyone was waiting for Fantillusion which was just arriving at the bottom of Main Street and again people were 5/6 deep, we stopped by Ribbons and Bows and I got Jessie up on my shoulders so she at least could see, she was thrilled and kept me informed of what was coming next, because she was pushing my Minnie Mouse hat down over my eyes I asked Liam to take it off and we somehow lost it, I did try City Hall the next day and Ann tried in Ribbons and Bows store but it hadn't been handed in, it was the only one I'd ever seen like that, but I suppose it's about time I had a change. The boys wanted to do Phantom Manor in the dark, so we wandered over and Jess and I grabbed a seat and watched the spotlights from WDS making patterns in the sky over Frontierland, then it was back through the village and a wander around the shops, when we got back to the hotel we were all exhausted and just fell into bed.
Who we are:
Me: Jill and my DS's Liam (8) and Jamie (13)
My sister Ann and my niece Jessie (5)
Day One.
Collected at Newport at 8.25am as promised and we made good time on the trip to Dover with a couple of stops onroute to stretch our legs, our crossing was scheduled for 3.15pm, the Leger announcement came over the tannoy and we all got back on our respective coaches and waited to board and waited and waited. An hour late, we were finally on our way, but the crossing was very, very, rough, thank goodness we'd all taken travelling tablets, although despite Liam also wearing his Seabands, he was ill, poor thing. The journey from Calais to DLRP was uneventful and we arrived at the resort at 10.30pm, one hour late exactly, last time we were the first drop off at SL, this time we were last but one after the SF and Cheyenne, but it was lovely to see their Christmas decorations up too, Cheyenne's looked particularly effective. Finally it was our turn and I have to say Leger do provide a very good service, the drivers go into the hotel to check you in and confirm everythings as it should be, I thought there was a problem, when the driver called the receptionist back and started pointing to the envelopes containing our documents, but then she came over smiling saying "Well aren't you the lucky ones, you've got a free room upgrade !" We'd been given Montana rooms and they were in a fabulous position floor 2, south wing, on the same floor as reception, but far enough away from the busy areas on that floor not to have any noise. As requested we had adjoining rooms, which was lucky as my sister's card key didn't work once during the stay. For those people worried about GMF's there was a large board advertising them at SL reception, I contemplated requesting one, but another large coach party arrived as we were being checked in, it was late and I didn't fancy queuing behind them.
The view from the rooms wasn't brilliant, lots of large trees obscuring it, but we were facing towards the New York, overlooking the lakeside exit from SL. The room was exactly the same as the Lodge one we'd had last time with the addition of a mini fridge and as last time I had no toiletries whatsoever in the bathroom, my sister had a bath/shower gel and a handsoap and had brought her own (kept from her last visit), so I borrowed hers, I'm not sure if this is a costcutting measure or just bad housekeeping at SL, another thing is when did they stop leaving chocolate coins on the beds ?
I know the SL has lots of fans but it does nothing for me, the rooms could do with a little TLC, the woodwork is chipped and shabby, noticeable because it's so dark and the bathroom grouting could do with being cleaned or replaced, but it's not that that I don't like I find the rooms colours a bit dreary, and the whole place is very brown, personally I prefer the crisp navy, white and red colours of the NPB, but as we only shower and sleep in the room, it's not really a big deal.
Anyway back to the trippie we unpacked, made some hot chocolate and fell into bed around midnight after I'd set both room phones Wakeup call for 6.30am, much to everyone's dismay, got to make the most of those EMH.
Day Two.
Maybe 6.30 was a bit ambitious, so I asked Goofy to call back again in 15 minutes, we were all up showered,dressed and at the breakfast table by 7.30, we were seated straight away, we started with a leisurely breakfast until the announcement "Disneyland Park is now open" at which point I was on pins to get going, we couldn't help noticing the extraordinarily long queue for breakfast when we left the restaurant.
Saturday was a cold dry morning with a heavy frost, but we were all wearing our thermals.
Took this photo just outside Cafe Mickey, poor Liam fell on his bum, the step was very slippery.
By maleficent_mum
I suppose it was around 9.00 when we got to the park and I was amazed how many people were around, we were very silly then, wasting time taking photos and videos of the Christmas decorations, looking at the Window displays, etc. but everything was so gorgeous, the snowmen above Main Street station,
By maleficent_mum
the sleigh, toys
By maleficent_mum
and that fabulous tree around the bandstand area and as for the view up Main Street - WOW !
First ride of the day was Buzz, our favourite from last time, only to find that Jessie who sat in my cruiser didn't like it -uhoh, so the others went straight back on and I took Jessie to buy the autograph book I'd promised her. I'd tried to persuade her to come on Orbitron with me, but she was having none of it, IASW was next on the list as far as she was concerned, so when the others joined us we made our way over - there was already a queue and I guessed it wasn't opening until 10.00, but we decided to wait, I couldn't believe that the EMH slot was almost over, IASW was fabulous as always, I still can't get a photo of the Welsh dolls, they're so high up my camera flash doesn't reach them but you can't not like this ride and Jessie came off smiling, she'd brought a toy rabbit - Rory, her classmascot with her so he appears on many of the photos,
By maleficent_mum
we decided to take as many as we could on Saturday so we could leave him at the hotel on Sunday, I was convinced he was going to end up lost, it wasn't a case of "where are the kids ?" but "whose got the rabbit ?" Belle's village was open, it's very very pretty, with stalls selling hot chestnuts and pastries, I noticed Belle walking through, she's Jessie's favourite princess so we ran to catch her up and managed to get near the front of the queue for her "Meet and Greet". Jess doesn't normally stop talking but she was awestruck, she had Belle on her hat and scarf and Belle said how pretty they were, Ann said "you're her favourite princess", she signed the autograph book and we took some photos. When Jessie came over I said "you didn't speak to Belle" and she replied "I didn't know what to say, I've never met a real princess before" aww bless her.
By maleficent_mum
The Winnie the Pooh show was about to start so I dragged everyone in there, it's OK but it's really aimed at pre-school Pooh Bear fans, IMHO and my family's obviously who kept giving me daggers. Oh well !!!
When we came out Fantasyland was heaving so we headed over to Frontierland, on the way we picked up some FP's for Peter Pan and because I'd remembered to bring my old tickets some FP's for BTM too and then we headed over to Molly Brown, Ann and Jess hadn't been on the river boats before and we went upto the top deck, fabulous views from up there, although the foghorn made us all jump. Feeling brave Jessie agreed to go on Phantom Manor so we joined the queue stretching up and down and around the garden area. Then we had to make a decision BTM or Peter Pan, the FP windows were almost identical, we decided on BTM another first for Jessie, she wasn't tall enough last time, she was very brave although she didn't like the tunnel, for a change of pace we decided to try the Keelboats,
By maleficent_mum
a first for all of us this time, I'm sure not many people know it's there because the queue was comparitively short, we were seated on the lower deck and it's a very pleasant trip passing some coves I'd not noticed before.
By maleficent_mum
As we were so close we decided to have a look around Woody's Round Up, it's a great photoshoot location.
By maleficent_mum
By maleficent_mum
The queue for Santa was phenominal, we thought we'd give it a miss! especially as Santa came hurrying past us, waved and said "Be back in a Jiffy" ???
We headed back over to Fantasyland and more specifically the castle, upstairs to see the Sleeping Beauty story and then underneath to see the dragon, Jessie wanted to do IASW again but on our way over we came across a group of characters around the Bella Notte area and managed to get some photos before they got mobbed.
By maleficent_mum
By maleficent_mum
By maleficent_mum
By maleficent_mum
This was I'm afraid one of the lows for me and I now know what other DISers have complained about, I was disgusted at the way people were behaving pushing their kids up to the characters with no respect for the characters or the other children and I even saw one lady grab hold of Peter Pan's arm as she tried to get her camera out of her bag
- absolutely appalling behaviour We gave IASW a miss because of the queue and headed for the Storybook ride which I thought might be less busy, oh how wrong can you be ! but it was worth the wait Jessie and Rory loved this ride.
By maleficent_mum
It was around 3.30pm so I foolishly thought we'd find a place to watch the parade, we were heading back to Bella Notte, following advice on here about the Princess stop and it being a quieter place to watch - LOL, people were literally 5 or 6 deep, we stopped by Bella Notte and the kids stood on the wall outside, but then a family decided to get some chairs from the cafe, put them in front of us and stand on them, not only that but dad had a child on his shoulders, completely obscuring the view. We decided to give it up as a bad job and leave, the only way out was to stay close to the walls of the buildings over the walled shrubbed areas and up and down off the walls, we met a family come rushing the other way and the MOTHER actually pushed Jessie out of her way, so when we turned the corner and another lady pushing her way through swung around and hit Jess in the face with her backpack I did see red
I caught hold of her backpack, she swung back around and I told her exactly what I thought of her, I don't know whether she understood what I said but I think from the look on her face she got the gist of it. By now I'd really had enough of the park (I never thought I'd hear myself say that) and needed some time out so we decided to take a chance and head over to Cafe Mickey for some tea. I was convinced we wouldn't get a table but Ann must've used all of her charms because before I knew it I was sipping one of their Cosmopolitan cocktails and reading the menu. We were seated downstairs by the window, what a fabulous place this is
Jessie really got into the swing of autograph hunting, we saw plenty of characters and they all spent lots of time with us, Mickey pretended that Liam had hurt his hand when he shook it and he pointed to his big muscles,By maleficent_mum
it was so relaxing and such a change from the madness in the park. Ann had the lamb, I had the pasta and Jamie had steak, as always it was a very enjoyable meal although I couldn't finish all the pasta, I had to leave a little room for the Tiramisu. Liam and Jess loved the kids dessert buffet and came back with some strange concoctions. I know some people have complained about the cost of Cafe Mickey but in my opinion it's worth every penny and not necessarily for the food although we've never had cause to complain just the atmosphere and the characters alone.
By maleficent_mum
By maleficent_mum
Feeling de-stressed, (I think it was the cocktail) and as it was only 6.30 we decided to head back to the park, everyone was waiting for Fantillusion which was just arriving at the bottom of Main Street and again people were 5/6 deep, we stopped by Ribbons and Bows and I got Jessie up on my shoulders so she at least could see, she was thrilled and kept me informed of what was coming next, because she was pushing my Minnie Mouse hat down over my eyes I asked Liam to take it off and we somehow lost it, I did try City Hall the next day and Ann tried in Ribbons and Bows store but it hadn't been handed in, it was the only one I'd ever seen like that, but I suppose it's about time I had a change. The boys wanted to do Phantom Manor in the dark, so we wandered over and Jess and I grabbed a seat and watched the spotlights from WDS making patterns in the sky over Frontierland, then it was back through the village and a wander around the shops, when we got back to the hotel we were all exhausted and just fell into bed.
!
