A single parent girly trip - our first time!

[Serenlas]

We've been back to reality for a few days now so I thought I'd better get started!

Starring..

Me - aged 30, a big kid at heart
Lucy - aged 6 (and that all important half), pretty open minded and easy going when it comes to rides
Millie - aged 4, loves Disney Princesses but a bit of a wuss when it comes to rides

Day 1 - Thursday 24th March
We'd stayed the night with the girls' grandparents who live in Surrey, much closer to Ashford than we are at home. My 4 year old woke me up at 6.30am saying "Disneyland Paris!" - she was sooooo excited!
We got a lift to the Eurostar station and it was pretty uneventful. We arrived in plenty of time and bought some lunchy bits from the cafe before checking in. Check in was pretty easy, other than the odd moments of getting flustered with trying to juggle children, baggage, fold buggies, not lose tickets and passports etc! We checked in with Disney Express in the waiting area and got our park tickets which made it all seem real It wasn't long before Mickey and Donald's voices announced that it was time to go.. squeeeeee!
The train journey was fine, although I must admit I'd expected the Eurostar to be more spacious than it was. We arrived in Paris, headed up to the Disney Express counter, and checked our suitcase in - there was only 1 person infront of us! And then we were off to the parks!
We sat and looked at the castle while the girls ate the iced doughnuts I'd treated them to at the Cable Car Bakehouse. Then we wandered in to Fantasyland and had a quick go on the Carousel and It's a Small World before walking up to the Santa Fe to check in.
Our room was right next to the fake volcanco, on the ground floor of the block. It was clean and comfortable, although the phone was dead and I never did figure out how to work the safe!
As soon as we'd got our case we headed straight back to the park and arrived just in time for the parade. The look on my girls faces was magical

We were hungry after this so we went up to Annette's and were seated straight away. It was pretty quiet, but by the time we left it was heaving and there were quite a few people waiting to be seated. I had the Eurochick burger, followed by the brownie. It was very nice:

The girls both chose the hotdog, but Millie didn't like it so she mainly jsut ate her bodyweight in chips! Millie had the pancake for dessert and Lucy chose mousse.

After this we walked back to the hotel for a bath and an earlyish night (although not that early at all by the time the girls fell asleep!) It was so mild that we didn't even need jackets after dark

 

[Serenlas]

Day 2 - Friday 25th March

I didn't have the best night's sleep - I was too excited!! By the time my alarm went off I was already dressed, so I just had to get the kids ready and head down to breakfast.

I'd been warned to avoid 8am because it would be busy, but I can't say that 7.25am was a barrell of laughs either. We got our food and wandered around for ages looking for a table. Loads of people had bagged a table and left 1 of their party to hold it while they took turns to fetch their food, which was really frustrating, although I can understand why people did it! As soon as we'd eaten I went to reception to swap the following morning's breakfast pass for breakfast in the park. Pluto was there so we queued to meet him.. our first character meeting!

From here we went straight to Fantasyland, with the girls running most of the way there We went on the Flying Dumbos first, which was probably one of our longest queues and it was only about 20-30 minutes. We also went on the Teacups, Carousel again, It's a Small World again, Casey Jr (Millie found it too fast and didn't like it), Peter Pan's Flight (Lucy loved this but Millie was afraid of the dark and cried most of the way round), and Le Pays des Contes de Fées. By the time we'd done all this it was time for our reservation at L'auberge! Millie was quite overwhelmed by this point and was a bit moody, but the instant she saw Cinderella she forgot all about this and was completely enchanted

It was an expensive meal (133 EURO for 1 adult, 2 kids, plus the professional photos pack which was irresistable) but it was so worth it. The food was delicious. I had the lamb and it literally melted in the mouth! The Prince's cocktail and wine were yummy, too, and we were given bread and a litre bottle of still water for the table, which we used to refill my trusty Tesco water bottle when we'd drunk enough. The kids didn't like their main courses much (Mickey pasta) but ate so much of their starter and desserts that I let them off The character interaction was great, and without even asking we'd been given a table right by the fireplace and had a great view of Ariel and Eric's dances!

The desserts were AMAZING..

We were there for 2 hours and it was a welcome break because it was quite warm outside and I think everyone was ready for a decent sit down by lunchtime!

After this we went for a bit of a wander. We sat and watched 10 minutes of cartoons at Videopolis Theatre. We caught the train to another part of the park to give our legs a rest After a quick break to watch the parade again we went for a boat ride on Thunder Mesa River, and possibly went on something else but my memory fails me! After grabbing a bite to eat at the Market Street Deli (2 huge croques between us, plus drinks, and snacks from my rucksack for the girls) we headed back to the hotel, where the girls giggled for what felt like hours and I wondered how on earth small children manage to have the energy to stay awake when I was struggling myself!

 

[Serenlas]

Day 3 - Saturday 26th March

Our phone had been fixed, so we had a wake up call from Mickey which the girls loved We got dressed and headed straight out for our breakfast reservation at Au Chalet de la Marionette. It was a bit out of the way for us but it was a MUCH nicer experience. The food was better and best of all they had empty tables! I'll definitely do this again, although I'll probably plan for a day when we actually want to be in Fantasyland

We then headed to the Studios and arrived just as it opened. I must admit that I really liked the Studios. It had a nice feel to it.. kind of more laid back. We only went on 2 rides, Slinky Dog and the Flying Carpets, although the girls loved the Carpets so much that we went on them 3 times We also saw the Playhouse Disney show (a bit young for my two but they liked it), Stitch Live (brillant), Animagique (also brilliant) and Cinemagique. I wasn't too impressed with Cinemagique - the effects were great, but it contained some scenes that I don't think are particularly appropriate for small children (eg the Exorcist projectile vomit scene!), and I'd have appreciated a warning about that before we went in.

We did the Scream Academy bit, and queued to meet Sully who is one of my favourites

We had lunch at the Blockbuster Cafe where we were served by a very disinterested CM. I had a pastrami and mozzarella roll deal, and the girls had the kids lunch deals. It was fairly expensive for what it was, I guess, but nice enough and not extortionate. Mickey was in the cafe so the girls went for a photo with him

We watched the Stars and Cars parade which was fun, and headed back to the park to watch the OUAD parade (although not straight away, I can't remember the order we did the above in!)

We had dinner reservations at Walt's for 6pm. It was raining by then so we were glad to get inside! I must admit that, while the food was lovely, something about it didn't click with me and I don't think I'll be in a hurry to go there again. It felt like more of an adult restaurant, although there were kids there and mine did enjoy their food. I can't explain it!

The rain stopped while we were eating, so we stayed dry on our walk back to the hotel. Yet again the girls took forever to get to sleep, grr!

 

[Serenlas]

Day 4 - Sunday 27th March

Our last day

Mickey tried to wake us up at 7am, but as the clocks had changed in the night it was actually 6am, and my girls had only had 9 hours sleep. They slept through the call!! In the end I got up and showered and then woke them up, which didn't go down particularly well

We went for breakfast, and it was a lot quieter, probably because people were having a post clocks-changing lie in. We also dropped off our case at the luggage room and checked out

We'd planned to re-do our favourites and do any of the rides we hadn't already done. So we started with Orbitron, which actually made me feel a bit giddy (am I becoming a wuss in my old age?!). Then to Fantasyland, where Alice's Maze was open at last after being closed for a refurb during the week, so we gave that a go. We then redid our favourite Fantasyland rides and had a play in Pocahontas' Indian Village before heading to Cafe Mickey for lunch.

We all enjoyed the interaction at Cafe Mickey, which was fab, but I can't say I thought much of the food! I had a pizza, thinking they couldn't go too far wrong with pizza, but it was soggy and way too herby. The girls had meatballs and pasta which didn't look that nice, but they both ate a good amount. We met Mickey, Eeyore, Chip and Dale, Friar Tuck and Pluto. I loved all the Happy Birthday singing.. it looks like the most fun place to havre a birthday EVER!

After our meal we went to the Studios to redo Animagique and the Flying Carpets, and then back to Main St to watch the parade for the last time. I don't want to cause anyone any embarrassment but I bet you can guess which of us cried when the parade passed us for the last time

From here we went to the big Disney Store in the Village. I'd told the girls they could spend whatever I had left on my Fair FX card on toys on our last day. Lucy chose a cuddly baby Simba, Peter Pan figure set and a pack of rings. Millie chose a cuddly baby Minnie, a Minnie figure set and a cheap snow globe. They were both so, so thrilled with their purchases! ALl I got was a photo album

We grabbed some food from the Annette's takeout window, but I wasn't overly impressed. I prefer McDonalds food really but Annette's cost a lot more! They got our order wrong and we had to wait for ages, so we had no choice but to eat on the run. Then came the Eurostar experience which was SO much more stressful than the Ashford end. Huge queues at every point, really struggling with our shopping bags ontop of everything else, escalators and no obvious lifts (there must have been some somewhere!). We only found our train carriage with 5 minutes to spare and boht girls had started to cry because they thought we'd miss the train But hey, we made it in the end!

I'm still gutted to be home and can't stop thinking about going back. It was such a brilliant holiday and surprisingly easy as a single parent. It would have been helpful to have had another adult around to take Millie on the gentler rides so that Lucy and I could have tried some of the bigger rides, or vice versa, but neither of us were really bothered. Just another excuse to go back I imagine that Disneyland is the sort of holiday that changes each visit as your kids get older.

I'm hoping for a Christmas visit next and I know the girls' Nanny wants to come too. It'll probably be 2012 but I'd LOVE for it to be 2011!! Fingers crossed for some bargains.

 

[DLPdaft]

that was brill, loved reading it - you did loads for a first trip .

 

[jothp]

what a great trip - you got loads done

 

[KatyTheFairyPrincess]

Fab trip report! Love seeing people pics!

 

[Serenlas]

Thanks everyone! I wish we were still there!

 

[LoodlesNoodles]

Lovely TR, enjoyed reading this.
Sounds like your daughters and you had a magical time!

 

[Mum to Belle]

What a lovely trip! I love your Auberge photos, and the one of your DD watching the parade...

Fingers crossed for 2011!