a week of disney magic - trip report!

[susannah365]

hi guys,

well we are back from a fantastic week at disney and i can't wait to tell you all about it. i will try to do it in one day installments so stay tuned!

saturday 29th may - travel to paris.
spent the morning packing up and were on our way by 11.45. 3 hours later (with andrew having slept for a couple of hours) arrived at sissinghurst. spent a lovely couple of hours running about the gardens in the rain. they had the most beautiful Aqualiga which i would just love for my garden. 4.30 back into the car to get to the Eurotunnel - we had bought our tickets with tesco vouchers - £30 in vouchers. arrived there 5.15ish and were put on the next train at 5.45 (not our original booked train of 6 something). we ate our picnic tea on the train and put the kids in their jammies. back on the road in france and arrived at our F1 hotel at 10ish. half an hour of faffing with rooms (and room codes that wouldn't work) and the kids were into bed (amy on the top bunk and andrew in the travel cot we had brought). they didn't seem to care that we had an extra baby in the room. several hours later andrew finally went back to sleep!

sunday 30th may - first day in the main disney park
up at 6.30am french time, packed up and on the road. we ate our packed breakfast that i had brought with us in the car. we got to Davy crockets ranch at 8ish to find no queue at check in, yeah, and a man doing balloon modelling. andrew got a monkey up a tree with bananas and amy got a teddy cuddling a big heart. picked up all the tickets (but not the room key) and drove to the park (10 mins). we were right at the front of the car park. out the car and straight to salon mickey for a snack. it felt very exciting going in the secret door with everyone looking. we had choc chip cookies, pain au chocolat, water, orange juice and hot chocolate. it was smaller than i was expecting but very quiet and clean. a real little haven. we used the cleanest nicest toilets in the park before leaving, by the front door and straight throught the turnstiles.

as soon as we got in we found characters doing a meet and greet at the top RHS of main street. armed with our new autograph book (with spaces for photos - E10) and pen (E2.50) we got autographs from Pinnocchio, tigger, goofy, and also met eeyore and lilo and stitch - who tried to sit in our buggy but lilo wouldn't let him! and woody, who andrew was very excited to see - but he was too mobbed for us to get a photo or autograph.

we left the characters and walked down main street. we were headed to the sword in the stone to try our luck but it wouldnt' budge! next we went on the carousel, which was only about 5 min wait, and was much enjoyed, even by andrew who went on a horse by himself. dumbo was all covered over and we were sad not to see it. we went on it s a small world next which is still a favourite. andrew was sat on my lap enojying all the characters adn i got that really happy magical disney feeling!!! it was alonger ride than i had remembered, in a good way!

next stop was alices maze which amy was keen to tell me about - especially to warn me about the queen who pops up. we somehow go to the top of the castle and enjoyed the view.


the sleeping beauty show was next which amy loved as ususal. andrew however was not impressed and was far happier playing with his cars and trains! we were all hungry by this point so headed to bella note for lunch. amy had a kids pizza meal for 4.95E andrew and i shared a 4 cheese pizza at 8,95E and gordon had the penne bollognese, garlic bread and coke meal at 10,95E. i then put andrew in the buggy and walked him about till he fell asleep (12.30ish) while amy and gordon finished their lunch.

amy then decided we were off to explore so we ended up in discoveryland at star tours, which she said she wanted to do. so we did a baby switch, i stayed with andrew asleep in the buggy while gordon went on with amy. strangely there was no queue. amy was terrified and clung onto gordon - halfway through she said she thought it was the ride with buzz lightyear. i then had my turn once they got off - i thought it was great!





right, i need to go and do some washing. more later!

 

[Jayney73]

I love a new Trip Report
Cant wait to see what you thought of Davy Crocketts...we are going there in July so will soak up any info you have
Balloon modeling in reception sounds like a good start though...esp at 8 in the morn!
Looks like you had a great start to your trip looking forward to more

 

[susannah365]

I love a new Trip Report
Cant wait to see what you thought of Davy Crocketts...we are going there in July so will soak up any info you have
Balloon modeling in reception sounds like a good start though...esp at 8 in the morn!
Looks like you had a great start to your trip looking forward to more

davy crocketts was fab, we were really pleased we decided to stay there. top tip is definitely to e-mail a week before and ask for tomahawk or coyote trails which are nearest the pool etc. . the pool opens from 3-10 each day - they have armbands. breakfast can be collected from 7.30 each morning - which is when everyone wants it so they can get into early magic hours so you end up with huge queues - it would be better if you could collect from 6.30 really. at the moment the coyote trail is the best because they have taken away loads of cabins so instead of 80 odd which each of the other trails have, coyote only has 25 so a much smaller queue in the morning - i don't know when they'll put those cabins back though! characters are out from 7-10 each evening in the area outside the saloon. i'll have a think if there's anyting else. when i finish the first day, you'll hear about hte queue to get the key to the cabin which i had to endure at 6.30ish, without a balloon modelling man!

 

[Jayney73]

Thanks for that info.....we have booked a refurbed prem 2 bed which is on either of the trails you mentioned so that is good
We plan on getting there by about 7.30am to get tickets etc...but expect to come back to pick up keys between 2 and 3 as we will have been travelling from about 3am and we will be shattered!!...fingers crossed we dont encounter a huge queue!
Am glad characters are about in the evening was there alot of pushing and shoving like you can encounter in the park? Was hoping it would be a bit better?? Do they have someone taking official photos at all?What kind of entertainment was there in the evening?
Have noted tip about breakfast...we will be qeueing by 7am
Cant wait for the rest of your report any more tips you may have

 

[susannah365]

right, wee man is asleep so i'll see how far i can get with sunday's report!!

second half of sunday 30th may

after star tours we headed off to see big thunder mountain. she got us there with some impressive map reading, without our help! we stood and watched the train for a while and decided to do it on a quieter day since it was so busy.

by this time a change of pace was needed, so we headed to the pocahontas indian play village for half an hour or so, where the kids had a great time on the slides and running about.
next we decided to check out what woody's roundup was all about. i'd heard people on disboards saying you could meet characters but i wasn't sure how it worked - well it was great. bascially there is a fenced in area with a gate which starts the queue to the hut (where we always found goofy in his wild west outfit) then another cabin where minnie was, then a podium where mickey was then another hut where woody and jessie were!! because it was one long queue you got to see them all really quickly with no pusing and shoving or scrum. bliss compared to other places! andrew was sooooo excited to see woody and show him that he was on his t-shirt. he actually let woody put him on his knee for a photo which was so cute. jessie was also very cute and patient with him - they made our day.

we next headed back to main street for a wander up and down before getting a spot for the 3.20 disney showtime spectacular at central plaza which we loved.
Next we wandered over to see the dragon, which was very dark and busy so I didn’t really get a good look, but surprisingly amy said it wasn’t too scary which was good.
We then headed back to central plaza to catch the end of the all star express – it comes down main street to in front of the castle where the characters get off and disperse to the shade to do meet and greets – although it’s a terrible scrum!!

We then meandered over to bella note to get a parade spot, we stood on the corner opposite bella note and this ended up being exactly where princess tiana and prince naveen got off the float to dance! parade over we headed to Annettes for dinner. We were seated downstairs and were served by someone on roller skates which was good. The service was much better than last time, very fast which was just what we wanted. We had 2 of their ‘favourites’ menu which was a chicken burger for me and a cheese burger for Gordon with brownie a-la-mode for pudding for 17.50E each, delicious. The kids had shepherds pie and pasta, both with ice cream for pudding at £11.40 each – although they were really too tired to eat so we pretty much had to feed them!

After dinner, back in the car for the drive back to DCR to get the key – had to wait for 30 mins in the check in queue. Got a cabin on coyote trail (no 1502 – right at the entrance) unfortunately there wasn’t a cot prepared so we put our cot up, nor were there any towels. We put the kids to bed, although there were tears as they were so over excited, so they finally went to sleep at 8.30ish. we phoned housekeeping who brought the towels over and said the cot was in the wardrobe – it was just another travel cot so we didn’t bother with it. Got unpacked and finally sat down with a glass of wine!



that's all for now - more later

 

[susannah365]

Thanks for that info.....we have booked a refurbed prem 2 bed which is on either of the trails you mentioned so that is good
We plan on getting there by about 7.30am to get tickets etc...but expect to come back to pick up keys between 2 and 3 as we will have been travelling from about 3am and we will be shattered!!...fingers crossed we dont encounter a huge queue!
Am glad characters are about in the evening was there alot of pushing and shoving like you can encounter in the park? Was hoping it would be a bit better?? Do they have someone taking official photos at all?What kind of entertainment was there in the evening?
Have noted tip about breakfast...we will be qeueing by 7am
Cant wait for the rest of your report any more tips you may have

there will be no queue at 7.30 but expect quite a queue at 2-3pm.
not really any pushing and shoving for characters, not too busy, but there wasn't any civilised queuing spot like there is at the hotels which i thought was a shame. and no-one taking official photos either. don't know what other entertainment there was in the evening - we always drank wine in the cabin and got an early night!

 

[ExpatDisneyLover]

Thanks for sharing! More ideas for the upcoming trip!

 

[jothp]

How did you find crowds on the Sunday compared to later in the week? We are thinking we might go half term week again next year but may leave Sunday so we have more recovery time before the girls go back to school.

 

[zinderella]

Really enjoying your TR, thanks for doing it in so much detail, esp where to stand to see Tiana - must make a note of that one!!!!

 

[susannah365]

thanks zinderella - i wasn't sure whether to put in all the detail but i love other people's detailed reports so i thought why not! plus i'm copying them into word to keep as a record for us.

right - on with the report.

monday 31st may

woken up by the kids at 6.30, up washed - gave amy her new belle dress which i had bought off ebay for £8 which she was very pleased with, and we were straight in the car after picking up the breakfast at 7.30. less than 20 cars in the car park this morning! we headed straight to discoveryladn as we had agreed Buzz was to be the first ride of the day. unfortunately it was closed due to 'technical problems' so we went on orbitron instead. this was a hit with everyone. andrew spent the whole ride smiling and saying 'lets go'! we were just passing Buzz when they started letting people on so we ditched the buggy and were one of the first people on, hooray. amy and i loved it, i got to 20900 level 3 and amy was very impressed i saved her from the evil emperor Zurg! andrew loved the gun but was slightly bemused by everything - but not at all scared which was great. we then headed over to fantasyland to do peter pan, but even though it was still only 9am the queue was huge! so we did the carousel instead, almost a walk on, followed by the tea cups - which surpising was also a hit with andrew. he's more of a daredevil than i thought! he was actually moving the central wheel to make it spin faster! next was our daily trip to small world, where we tried to spot things which we hadn't noticed before.

by this point it was 9.55 and we were tired so we headed in the opposite direction to the crowds, back up to salon mickey for some free cockies etc and a well needed rest. again it was almost empty.

we finally decided we couldn't sit in there all day, and amy was requesting a fun place(which means a playground) so we headed to adventureland and did passage d'aladin, cabin robinson and adventure isle. by this time it was 11.15 so we changed and fed andrew then went to the upstairs bit of the castle where amy enjoyed looking at the sleeping beauty scenes (her favourite princess) back downstairs and it was 11.40 so gordon took andrew for a walk to get him off to sleep while amy and i went to the christmas shop which i love!

11.55 we met in the queue for Auberge de cendrillon. it took no time and we were meeting cinderella. amy had gran's old tiara on and looked so beautiful. at the reception desk i showed them my shareholders card (for the discount) and asked for a table by the fireplace, which we got, even with andrew still asleep in the buggy, which was perfect. it was the best seat in the place as far as we were concerned! the waitress was fantastic an on the ball. we had our prince's cocktail (non alcoholic) 'amuze buche' of garlic butter shrimp, yummy, a basket of lovely warm rolls and she asked whether we wanted red, white or rose wine - even tellling us the type of grape for each wine! the starters arrived quickly, a choice of three on the plate but since i'm not into fois grois or smoked salmon i just had the rocket and salsa salad stuff. amy didn't think much of her starters either, just eating the tuna mayo and breadsticks. main course however was delicious! we had the (well done - which was just right) lamb with potato dauphinoise and ratatoi (sory about the spelling!) and amy had the hamburger (without a roll??!!) mash (strange green mash?) veg and gravy which she ate most of with the help of tomato ketchup! dessert was the usual highlight - no idea what our 3 were but they were all delicous, even the strange looking green goo - yum! amy really enjoyed her selection of pink and chocolate puddings, too many to mention all on one plate! while all this was going on andrew stayed asleep in his buggy, the princesses arrived (12.15) with aerial and prince eric doing the dance near us then came over to see us. we didn't meet her in october so that was nice. however, disappointingly it ment belle wasn't there - and amy had her belle dress on! next to our table was snow white who was lovely as always. sleeping beauty hadn't appeared yet, and since she was amy's favourite, i mentioned that to the head waiter when he asked how the meal was (as well as complementing the chef of course!) that ment that at 12.45 when the princesses were leaving, she was brought over to see us before she left which saved us some complaining from amy! suzy and perla had welcomed us when we go to our table but we forgot to get autographs so when they appeared again at 1 i asked the lady with the clipboard (who obviously keeps track of where the characters go!) if it would be possible for them both to come over and see us for an autograph and quick photo with amy. very shortly that's what happened, great! the princesses came out again at 1.15 til 1.45 but didnt come to see us again, but it was lovely seeing them walk about. at about 1.45 andrew woke up and ate one of the rolls which we had asked to be left on the table, and a biscuit. it was 2pm by the time we left, it cost E135 incl of tip, and 15% shareholders discount, and 6 photo's of various sizes of amy and cinderella which had been taken at the entrance and are now included in the price.


we then wandered over to the studio's to see if we could see one of the attractions and by chance the english showing of stitch live was about to start so in we went. it was nice and i do love stich but i'm not sure i'd rush to see it again? we were very tired by this time so it was back to DCR and off to the pool. it was a good size with a very fast flume, a few shallow areas for andrew to splash about it and a hot tub, but the main pool was pretty cold! back to the cabin by 5ish to watch playhouse disney and eat pasta and french breat, then it was bedtime and another day was over!



stay tuned - more to follow!

 

[susannah365]

Tuesday 1st june

Up and out even earlier today – we were at the gates at 8.05! went straight to fantasyland today. We had a plan to get to peter pan’s flight which amy had been refusing to go on as you had to sit in pirate’s ships. So today we didn’t say where we were going we just went straight there and because there ws absolutely no-one there we were on the ride before she noticed! Thankfully she really enjoyed it so we went on again – another walk on! Andrew was ok on it but he said he didn’t want to go on again so he and Gordon went off to the carousel. We met them after peter pan and we all did the carousel twice. Then onto our daily trip on it’s a small world, no queue at all so we got on the front of a boat which was great for Andrew, he could really see everything better. Next we did the teacups all together and

managed to get the cup spinning quite fast. It was now 9.15 so we headed to salon mickey for our ususal mid morning snack! As ususal we were allowed through the entrance gates to get out (sortie, that way…. Ah salon mickey of course you can come this way!)

next we went over to the studios. We were at the gates at 9.50 and they were already letting people in, so I guess they open before 10. we headed straight to crushes coaster which was closed due to technical difficulties so we went to the buzz meet and greet. It was 5 to 10 and he was due to appear at 10.30, but at 10 he came out the front which was great. We got his autograph (stamp) and lots of photos. Andrew was still frightened of him though. Then we noticed mickey was also out hidden around the corner so we got some great photo’s of him (we asked the cm to take photos of all of us which is one of our best photo’s of the trip)

next, after a 40min queue, was the cars ride. This was a nice ride for all, but far too long a queue! Strangely this is the only place to get a photo with lightening mcqueen, which we tried to do but Andrew was too busy looking at him to smile for a photo! It’s a shame he wasn’t up with luigi and guido rather than down at the ride.

By now it was 11 and we were hungry – food seems to be featuring often! We had a quick luch at blockbuster café – amy loved the HSM theming. We had 2 kids meals, a salad, a sandwich and a bottle of coke for E24.90. then I took Andrew off for a nappy change and a nap. While he napped I had a lovely time looking around the shops – quite a different range of stuff in the studios I found. At 12.40ish I got bored and met up with the others (we had brought our walkie talkies which were invaluable!) g had decided he wanted to do ToT so off he went. Meanwhile, stitch had appeared so we got his autograph and lots of nice photo’s. I think stitch might be my favourite now as he was so much fun. Even stealing amy’s Minnie ears and trying to hide them in his ear!! We then found Donald duck, hidden away next to the playhouse Disney show with hardly anyone around him. He gave us an autograph but had to go before I got a photo – but he motioned that he would be back in 5 mins so I promised we would be there. and sure enough he appeared 5 mins later and came straight to us and gave us a lot of time to get some nice photos of him with both kids (even though Andrew was still asleep in the pram!) it was now time for playhouse Disney, which gordon only just made with a quick sprint from the tower. We had gone through the gates and it said that it was full a few people later but the cm’s let Gordon in to join us which was nice. It was a good show as usual and amy managed to find a pink streamer which was played with the whole rest of the holiday!

We went over to see if we could get on crush while the parade was on, but there was still a massive queue so we watched the parade go by and then split up. I went on ToT (with a fastpass it took 35mins – even though there was no fastpass queue) while the others bought candy floss – which took ages! ToT was a good thrill ride, I screamed and enjoyed myself!

Finally we went to the 3.30 motors stunt action show. It was a good show - but not for our age of kids because it was too long, too loud and they didn’t like the fire at the end. Not one to do again.

By now it was raining so we headed to the village to buy amy the big fluffy Pluto which she awnted to buy with her birthday money. We also bought Andrew the toy story figure set which he was very excited about – I was excited about the 15% shareholders discount!

Back to the cottage, pasta for dinner and Andrew off to bed. Gordon and amy then went off to see the characters which are out between 7 and 10 every evening. They met Minnie and amy was very excited! Back she came and off to bed. We drank wine and read our books before heading off for an early night – Disney is tiring business!

 

[susannah365]

by the way, i have some photo's i'd love to post but i can't figure out how to, can someone help?

 

[davewasbaloo]

It is great reading your views during the same time we were away (lovely to meet you).

Tuesday 1st june

Finally we went to the 3.30 motors stunt action show. It was a good show - but not for our age of kids because it was too long, too loud and they didn’t like the fire at the end. Not one to do again.

It is funny how different kids are. My two have always loved the stunt show, even as babies. But that said, Jessica used to love the Dragon, this year she was nervous around her.

 

[davewasbaloo]

by the way, i have some photo's i'd love to post but i can't figure out how to, can someone help?

Well, there are a couple of choices. You can either put them on your preferred photo web site and provide a link like I did to Facebook. Or you can use something like Photobucket to upload the photos to, find the URL for each one, and embed it using the insert picture function.

 

[susannah365]

Wednesday 2nd June
This was to be our one non-disney day as Gordon had persuaded me we should take the kids to see the Eiffel tower etc. so we were up and out by 8. parked and got tickets for RER and day metro passes, about E35 for two adults and one child. Train to paris took about an hour, then onto the metro to get close to the Eiffel tower. Amy was very impressed by it and very eager to have her photo taken with it. From there we walked down the river to get our tickets to vedettes de paris. This is where things started to go wrong. We got there at about 10am and they said there would be a 10.30 sailing. Great we thought, an hour on the boat then lunch then time for andrew’s nap. They said boarding would start in 10/15 minutes. So we waited, and waited, and waited with Andrew getting more and more anxious until eventually he was having a full blown tantrum lying down at the gate screaming with legs and arms flailing about!! By now it was 10.30 and I was angry. I finally found someone who said the 10.30 had been cancelled but we could go on the 11am!!!! Why couldn’t they have told us this was a possibility at 10.15 when I suspect they already knew???!! So we forced (literally) Andrew into the buggy and went another walk back up to the Eiffel tower for 20mins – with him crying all the way. Eventually we were allowed on the boat – at 11am, so it didn’t leave till 11.15ish, and like a switch had been flipped, Andrew was happy – he was finally on the boat we had promised him an hour before! The trip was lovely, and it was a great thing to do, amy really paid attention to the commentary( which was in French, English and Spanish), and I won’t say we’re

sorry we ever decided to do it – just that we might use a different company next time!! By the end we were all starving so we grabbed a quick croquet monsieur (E15 for three) and then put Andrew down for a nap in his buggy. We walked along the river to the metro and got off at the muse d’0rsy, and walked over to the jardin Tulliers, where we thought we would let amy have a run around in the park we had been told was there – unfortunately it was closed, so we had an ice-cream instead. The toilets were also closed! So a long walk to find others. We then wandered over the the louve which was nice . by now it was 3.30 and we decided we’d had enough of paris so we headed back to the rer station and home. We got home at 5ish and went off to play at the DCR playground which was just what the kids needed. We went back to the lodge at 6ish and gave the kids spaghetti hoops and bread and put Andrew off to bed. I took amy up to see the characters again, we saw Pluto, Donald duck and Minnie, and got a pizza from the saloon to take home (E9.50). amy off to bed, pizza and wine consumed and in bed by 9pm again!

 

[susannah365]

Thursday 3rd June
Up and out early as ever and at the gates at 8am, to be met with a queue which pretty much set the scene for today – it was much busier, but not during extra magic hours! Our first stop was Buzz which we did 3 times, the nice cm even letting us hop through the disabled door after the first time when amy was saying ‘ lets go again’ and I was excitedly replying ‘ of course’. Got a high score of 105600 this time so I was improving – not helped by amy who liked to keep the pod moving around in circles the whole time! Next we went on orbitron which had a small queue. After that off to fantasyland to do the old favourites of carousel, and small world. By now it was 9.45 so we headed to autopia to get in the queue, only to find it didn’t open till 11.30 – we were not impressed! So we went to salon mickey instead. We noticed a change in cm attitude today – they made us go all the way round to the exit and back around to get into salon mickey and they wouldn’t let us take the rest of our half drunk bottle of water into the park with us - they’re only going to throw it away so we didn’t see the point in this at all!

The aim of today was to do big thunder mountain so we got fastpasses next, for 11.20. while we waited we headed to the pirates play area (after finding the Pocahontas play village was closed) - on the way we bumped into some characters – the genie, Baloo, king louis, Zafina and Timon which was a great surprise. We then had 20 mins in the play area before big thunder mountain time – which we did a baby swap on. Gordon and amy went on the ride using the fastpasses (and picked up a ticket from the cm) while I waited with Andrew at the exit. Then I went straight on the ride from the exit once they were off – no waiting at all! (note that I did not need my fastpass ticket, and amy could have come on with me). Amy didn’t really like this ride – too fast and dark she said. I don’t think she likes roller coasters very much! I thought it was good and would do It again.

Time for lunch and we decided to splash out and go to lucky nugget. Food was great, we had nachos, fajitas, potato dauphinoise, chips, pizza, chicken nuggets, yogurts and lots of puddings! Cost E75 incl drinks and our 15% discount. We would definitely go back (although auberge and café mickey are better ) we got there at 11.45 and there were already characters out, so we met mickey, Pluto and goofy. At 12.45ish they left and straight after out came mickey, smee and hook. The band also started playing and it started to get busy – so much so that we didn’t actually get to meet hook. The character interaction was fab for the first 30mins, amy even got to dance with mickey which she is still talking about (such a cute video!) but after that we hardly saw the characters as they spent all the time in the terraces seeing the people coming in – which I guess is fair, it’s just a shame there weren’t more characters. We left 1ish and it was very busy by then with queues for the buffet food.

It was now nap time so we wandered over to do space mountain – to be told it was closed today and tomorrow, not good! So we did nautilus instead. Amy was scared and so I didn’t get to stop and look at anything, so it was abit boring. Amy was dying to do autopia, which was now open, but the queue said 1 hour. We spoke to a cm at the entrance to ask if I could take the buggy in the queue since Andrew was still asleep, he said no, but that we could do a sort of baby swap where Gordon and amy queued then Andrew and I joined them from the exit to get on at the same time as them. That was great, amy was really good in the queue since she really wanted to do the ride and Andrew got to finish his nap. I woke him just as they got to the front of the queue and we got in the car behind them. It was a good ride, amy loved driving, and was better than me! Andrew enjoyed it as well.

It was now 2.40 so we headed over to videopolis to see the end of the African tam tam’s which were great. Then it was ice cream time, which we ate in a good spot to see woody and buzz in the central plaza show (on the left hand side as you look at the castle, next to the disabled viewing area). Then we watched the train, another hit with Andrew, before using out 4pm buzz fastpasses. Since we had only picked up 2 of these (can’t remember why since we didn’t have fastpasses for anything else?) we did a baby switch. Then we raced over to woodys roundup to see woody agan, and also saw Jessie and scrooge mcduck (we skipped the rest of the queue to see goofy, mickey and Minnie, since Jessie was just standing there on her own with no-one to speak to , and that’s who we really wanted to see!) by now it was 5pm so we went back for pasta at the lodge and kids in bed by 7pm.

 

[susannah365]

Friday 4th june

Into the park by 8am and straight to peter pan which we rode 4times, again being allowed in the disabled door rather than having to go all the way round. Great cm’s on this ride who were really into the spirit of it. Then we did carousel, teacups, and small world, all by 9ish!

We then stopped to take some photos of the castle on our way out to the studios. We were on a mission to do crushes coaster today. We were at the gates at 9.25 and they opened at 9.30. we rushed over to crush and were about 20th in the queue. Gordon and amy went on and then I followed on a baby swap ticket – all of which took about an hour. Amy thought the ride was scary and I found it very dark and disorientating. I loved the start of the ride and thought they had made the dark bit too dark, it would be better if you could see the jellyfish and coral better.

We then queued to see buzz, even though Andrew was in a grump and had a bit of a tantrum in the queue and didn’t want see him – he would press buzz’s big red button though, which made buzz stop working until you pressed it again, which the kids found hilarious! We then got fastpasses to ToT, and went onto Animagique, at 11am. I thought this was amazing – a massive highlight that I can’t wait to do again – I’m surprised more people don’t rave about it!!

Next Gordon took Andrew off for a walk while I took amy for lunch at blockbuster again (we shared a childs sandwich meal and a mickey pizza and coke for E12.40). we wandered about looking in the shops and met Gordon at E12.45. amy had decided on what her next purchase was to be – a big fluffy winnie the pooh so we went to the village to buy it, and got Andrew a big stuffed rex at the same time. (both E22.90-15%).

We decided we were knackered so we headed back to DCR for a snack ,and then a swim. a bit more chilling out in the lodge then it was time to head back into the village to go to Buffallo Bills wild west show. We got there at 5.30 for the 6.30 show – we did get a front row ticket and saw the pre-show with goofy, but the best reason to get there early is to be first in the queue to have a photo with mickey mouse in his wild west gear. We got the photographer to use our camera (which she did grudgingly) and got a great photo of all four of us with him. The show was amazing! We were all very impressed by the horseriding, cows and buffallo’s (although they weren’t out long) but didn’t think much of the shooting which looked staged. We also loved having mickey and co as part of the show. The food was good, plentiful and our drinks were re-filled often. Definitely a highlight for us which we would do again. Luckily we had taken the kids pj’s with us so we got them changed before we got in the car, and they were both fast asleep by the time we got back to the lodge – result! The evening was spent packing as we were to check out in the morning.

 

[susannah365]

Saturday 5th june
Up, car packed and key dropped off, and at the park at 9ish. Straight to buzz – the biggest queue we’d had of 15mins! Got fastpasses for later. Photo’s by the castle again of the kids since amy was in her Cinderella dress, and off to salon mickey. Next stop was the queue to see winnie the pooh – which had become a must do since amy’s purchase the day before! I joined the queue, third in line at 10am, while Gordon and the kids sat in the shade. Strangely they didn’t open the queue area proper until 10.30 when winnie the pooh arrived – they should open it before since the queue was huge by then! Andrew was sooooo excited when he spotted winnie the pooh it definitely made the queueing time worthwhile.

Next it was time for our buzz fastpasses – but it was broken, so we headed off to see the all star express then the sleeping beauty show. Andrew was having a meltdown by this point so Gordon took him for a walk. Amy and I went around the top of the castle with me narrating the sleeping beauty story to her (strangely everyone else was walking around the wrong way?), went to see the dragon and had another look in the Christmas shop. At 11.50 we met up at café mickey for our 12am lunch booking – I didn’t realise that it didn’t actually open until 12. amy had a kids pizza meal, which included a fantastic dessert buffet, and we shared a pizza and baby cesear salad. Very yummy and only E35 total. we met mickey, Minnie, goofy, chip, dale, Friar tuck, and had great interaction – all while Andrew slept in his buggy at the side of the table.

Next we headed back to do our fastpasses on buzz which we woke Andrew up for – Gordon go a huge score of 850,000 (his top tip is to shoot triangles which score 5000 each time) but party his high score was because we got stuck for a long time – amy was starting to get worried, while I was just trying to increase my score!

Next we wanted to go inside again because it was just too hot outside so we watched some old cartoons in videopolis – saw steamboat mickey which amy was really interested in. it was now 2.30 so we went off to see if we could do anything in fantasyland, but the queues were HUGE, so we gave up and headed over to the studios to do stitch live. And I got picked as the woman stitch tries to chat up – he thought I was ‘beautiful’ and he made fun of Gordon – it was great! Next we went over to do the scream machines (at amy’s request) and round sully hidden down the side with hardly anyone else there. we spent ages with him – he loved interacting with us. We got a photo and played about with him and then stood back for others to have a chance but because they weren’t interacting at all he kept coming over to us to make the kids laugh, and he kissed my hand and roared at Gordon who was filming! He obviously liked the interaction as much as we did!

It was now time to get some dinner and Gordon had decided we should do rainforest café. We sat near the elephants which were good, and amy loved the thunder effects. The food was ok but not great – and hugely expensive, E85 for two kids meals, two burgers and two desserts (we were very disappointed with the sundae, which turned out to be a scoop of ice cream with tonnes of that awful cream stuff on top – nothing else!)

Now it was time to get the kids in their pj’s and get in the car. It was 6.30 when we left the car park, we got to Calais by 9.45 and waited for our train at 10.20 – the traffic getting into the car park at the tunnel and then through customs was manic! We then had the long drive home and got into bed at about 1 am(French time)

 

[susannah365]

for those of you who have stuck with me to the end, thank-you. i hope you have enojyed reading about our adventure and that i've been able to give you some information to make your own trip run smoothly.

we are already planning when we can next justify a trip back!! we're hooked!

 

[davewasbaloo]

Sounds like a fantastic trip. Glad you had so much fun! Tip for next time, check out medieval Provins if you stay for a long trip and want to check out a little of real France near the resort.