Angela's Disney Dream Day 1 trip report

[angelamc]

cast members

Me 32(complete disney fanatic)

DD 6 = youngest Daughter 3rd disney trip
DD 13 = oldest daughter 3rd disney trip
DS 4 months = baby son 1st disney trip
DB 29 = brother 1st disney trip
DSis 26 = sister 1st disney trip
DM = Mum 1st disney trip

30th March 2008

Woke up this morning before everyone else at 6.45. Nobody in our house does mornings happily, including me unless Im going on holidays.

After preparing the carry on bags for the flight, and fixing a huge breakfast I packed some lunch items should the children get hungry (during the 1hr 25min flight)

I finally woke the rest of the house. The time seemed to whizz by as I tried to get the baby organised and before I knew it, it was 9.00 and time to leave for the airport. DH was driving us, and DSis was leaving her car at my house and had arranged to drop the car off at quarter to nine. At quarter pass nine, she finally turned up, yeah we could finally leave!!!

The flight was uneventful, took off in time at 11.15 and flew by. This was DB's first experience of flying and so he bagged a window seat.
The flight was fairy empty as this was the 1st flight of Aer Lingus's new schedule for Belfast to CDG.

We arrived at CDG for 2pm and hit a small snag when we couldn't locate DS's pram or carseat. Suddenly realised how bad my French was. Finally after 30mins we found it had been deliverd to oversize baggage.

We were booked to stay at the Marriott village and I had arranged transport through them for a driver to pick us up. Had started to panic a little as the time was passing by so quickly, I was afraid he would leave thinking we had not got the flight. So we exited from arrivals as fast as we could and I sighed a huge sigh of relief when I saw a friendly looking man holding a board with my name on it.

The driver was as friendly as he looked and gave us plenty of information on Marriott and the village as we drove to the villas. From the minute i had booked this trip I knew I would not relax until I had checked into marriott.
Always on the look out for a bargain I had seen the Marriott village on ebay, which had matched my dates. At £299 for the week, it had seemed to good to be true, but we checked in with no problems and the villa
and hotel met all my expectations and more.

It was now 4.00pm and my plan was to go straight to Disney and organise our fantasy AP's. However some of us were tired so we stopped at the villa for an hour and had some refreshments. DD7 took this opportunity to change into her snow white dress her dad had bought her for her birthday. We finally reached Disney at 6.30pm. We went straight to guest relations and bought the temporary AP's using the shareholders discount and the family discount combined to get 30% off.

After finally locating the AP office (which was packed) we queued for 30 minutes. My ticket was Bambi nine,
and each time I heard the word nuef, I had to go enquire if it was our ticket, not knowing the french for bambi.

I had booked Cafe Mickey for 8.00pm for DD7's birthday. We arrived at 7.50 and were finally seated at 9.00.
This was tiring as we were exhausted from the travelling. However we had a great time, and DD7 was soooo surprised when they brought her cake out. DM and DB and I had the lasagne which was delicious.
DSis had fries and chicken and DD's had the pizza and fries. DS 4m woke in time to have a quick bottle and much to his delight get a kiss from Minnie.


<img src="http://imgs.inkfrog.com/pix/harry1/disney_002.JPG" width="600" height="400">


<img src="http://imgs.inkfrog.com/pix/harry1/disney_005.JPG" width="600" height="400">


<img src="http://imgs.inkfrog.com/pix/harry1/disney_004.JPG" width="600" height="400">



We had yet to discover the no.34 bus that stopped outside Marriott yet so we ate quickly and left the restaurant around 9.35 to make the last bus at 9.45 back to Marriott.

We all fell straight into bed exhausted. I fell asleep that night with such a huge smile on my face because I was going to be at Disney for an entire week.

I have found previous trips of 3 or 4 nights to go by much too quickly. It was a pity that this was to be the case with this trip as well.

 

[tennisfan]

Great start with lovely photos . Just a shame you had to wait a long time to be seated at Cafe Mickey.

 

[ema74]

shame about the wait but great start of your trip - look forward to more

 

[karenmoloney]

Hi
We are going now in 3 weeks, flying from Belfast to CDG (we are on Easyjet) and staying at Marriott for the first time. So I'm dying to hear all the details about Marriott. I'm planning to cook while we are there (we also have a baby, but she will be 17 mths) so I'll have to make dinners up for her - did they have a casserole dish that could be put in the oven? I know your baby was too young, but do you know if you could get or hire a high chair there? It was interesting to read that you arranged transport with Marriott. How much did this cost? Maybe I'll do that too. Reading your report is getting me excited about going. How did your baby enjoy it. Ours was nearly 7 mths last year when we went & loved the characters, just hope she won't be scared to them this year!

Looking forward to reading the rest of your report.

 

[karenmoloney]

Forgot to add, I'm really jealous of the price you got your week for - well spotted! I never thought of trying ebay. I'll know in the future!

 

[angelamc]

Hi

Our baby really enjoyed disney his favourite ride seemed to be small world, he would barely sit still and was looking all around and smiling. he showed alot of curiosity regarding the characters, although we had been teaching him the characters at home he certainly seemed to recognise Mickey and Minnie

The Marriott is amazing and total luxury. I would love to stay there again, and highly recommend it. There was a travel cot in one of the bedrooms, which looked new (although most things within the villa looked new anyway. The baby sheets were new still in the wrapper. There was no high chair, although i would ring or email and see if you can hire one. There was no casserole type dishes only pots, which again looked unused, although we certainly put them to use on many occasions. We found the onsite shop extremely expensive compared to the village supermarket, a loaf which was 5 Euros was only 55 cents in the village.

Please feel free to ask any other questions and I will do my bet to help.

 

[angelamc]

Sorry forgot to answer our driver from Marriott was 127 Euros each way because we were travelling on Sundays. Its normally 110. This was for 6 passengers and an infant so we needed the minivan. I knew there were cheaper alternatives out there, but booked the Marriott driver because I was constantly phoning them and double checking my reservation was going to be okay.

I took a bit of a gamble with the ebay thing as I bought from a new ebayer with no feedback, I then worried myself sick about it for 6 weeks. I kept thinking this is too good to be true, but couldnt pass it up. I went equipped with my credit card incase I had to book in elsewhere.

Im booked into the sante Fe for May and have booked alwaysshuttle as they are only charging 144 Euros return for a private shuttle this is for 4 passengers and the infant is free.

 

[disneyangel]

Forgot to add, I'm really jealous of the price you got your week for - well spotted! I never thought of trying ebay. I'll know in the future!

Me too ! That's a fantastic price

We payed 654€ for our last stay of 5 nights which given the really poor exchange was over £500 but we really love staying there

Prior to DD starting schol we've managed to go off season for as little as 99€ a night which is a real bargain

Karen - the contact number I have is +33 (0)1 60 42 90 00 if you want to call about the high chair. We looked at their transport once before and it was a bit more pricey than RS transport but maybe they'd ensure they had a car seat

I had thought there were casserole type dishes - I think we used on to keep our snacks in.

Angela- We must be similar in nature as well as name I love Cafe Mickey and the Marriot too and have been on a trip recently without my DH . Your night sounds lovely DD must have thought it was her best birthday ever.

 

[angelamc]

The look on DD's face was priceless, she was so surprised, I was almost in tears. DD13 forgot she was a teenager now and usually way too cool for this stuff and insisted she would like the same or her next Birthday

The Marriott driver did bring along a car seat for DS which was already fitted, but we brought ours along as it is part of his pram, and very handy to not have to disturb him when he is sleeping.

 

[disneyangel]

It's just lovely watching your children's expressions when they meet characters . It's the thing i love most

 

[Cyrano]

Great start and most impressed with how much you did on your travel day

 

[Disney owl]

great start with lovely photos

 

[MazdaUK]

That was a looooooong first day for the little ones!

 

[Ware Bears]

A great start.