Disney Christmas in the DLH (now with a brief review of the Studio tour)

[Disneyfoo]

My fiancée Katy (26) and I (27) just got back from 4 days in Disney, I thought I would write a trip report as I haven't for our past few trips. So here goes

I will underline when I review something so it is easy to find.

I am going to use a few iphone photos here and there, so apologies for the rubbish picture quality of those!

Travel and Day 1 in Disney

After successfully avoiding everyone in my office who was coughing and sneezing, and seemingly taking great delight in telling me how they had a cold and/or the flu, we were on our way! We took the short train ride to London Euston and whilst in St Pancras we saw the Lego Christmas tree we had heard so much about.

This is a close up of the tree

Over 600000 bricks were used apparently and we were suitably impressed

We arrived in Paris and took the RER to Val d'Europe, we had decided to stay in the Ibis for a night before going on to Disney to get the most out of our first day.

Ibis We checked into the Ibis at about 7ish, it was quite literally a minutes walk from the rear exit of the train station to the hotel lobby so was in an ideal location. The room itself was nice and very clean and the shower was huge! It was only a ten or so minute walk to the shopping centre and we would definitely stay here again. There is also an etap next door, they are the same hotel chain but they do have different rates, so it is worth checking out both of these for the best rate.

After we had checked in we went to the shopping centre and headed for the food court, we had never been to Val d'Europe before and it felt like we were never going to reach our destination as it took so long. After we had grabbed some food we headed off to the supermarket, we were slightly miffed to see that the Champagne we had bought in the UK and lugged all the way back to it's country of origin was only slightly more expensive than we had paid for it but we know for next time.

We headed back to the Ibis and set our alarms for as early as we thought we could manage (about 7:45).

The next morning we managed to get ourselves up and onto a train for about 8:50 (there goes the 7:45 ). At the park baggage check we were asked for proof of our reservation at the DLH, but when I gave the letter the CM didn't even check it; oh well!

We checked in and were hit with the unique DLH smell; we were later disappointed to find they no longer sell this in the shop. A very nice Gentleman on reservations sorted everything out for us and we left our luggage before heading to the park

We went straight to City Hall to sort out Katy's SAP, once that was done we went on Buzz where Katy trounced me. We then went on Star Tours before heading to Frontierland via the Castle.

The Castle looked amazing and we noticed a big difference since the refurb.

I think we must have taken more photos of it then ever before!

After we had ambled around some more we headed for our Lunch reservation at Walt's

Walt's We were shown to a table in Adventureland underneath this rather imposing, stylised, image of Pirate Cove

The food was very nice as usual, we both had the Chicken salad to start and steak for the main course. The steak was somewhat fatty and not quite as well done as we asked for, however it was still very nice indeed. The potatoes that accompanied the steak were perfect and we both polished off our plates.

Steak

We nearly always eat at Walt's, but getting a nice table can be very hit and miss. If you are stuck in the middle of the room by a door it can be feel quite busy, fortunately we were given a window seat this time and it felt much more private being able to stare out over main street rather than over someone's table!

After we had finished our lunch we headed off to the Hotel to collect our room key. I booked on-line and hadn't had any contact with the hotel, so I was a bit apprehensive about the room view we would get. I was in two minds about sending an email but thought I would leave it to chance; however I needn't have worried as we were given a most delightful room overlooking the park entrance that was very close to the lobby. We had the same CM as earlier and he remarked he had given us a nice room, so maybe checking in so early had helped!

Greeting us as we arrived in the room

This is the view during the day

And at night

We could hear the Christmas music from the park and even the "Welcome" that greets you as you push through the turnstiles! Despite being so close to the lobby we heard no extra noise and it was a very quiet room apart from the park music. The room was in very good condition and had different décor to our previous room in the DLH.

I only spotted the Disney touch after we had been in the room for a day!

The rather nice toiletries, some of which may or may not now adorn my bathroom cupboard

And finally the cute pictures on the wall

The room number was 1212 in case anyone is wondering.

We then decided it was time to buy a Duffy teddy, so we went to Galerie Mickey and chose one. We spent the next few days musing about buying him the sailor outfit, but never did!

After we had stayed in the hotel for a nap we headed off to the park again and went on a few more rides, we left about 8:30ish as the park shut at 10 and we tired from the long day.

We decided to give the Earl of Sandwich a go for dinner so made our way to Disney Village about 9.

Earl of Sandwich Delicious! We both loved the food here, I wasn't sure what to expect but the sandwiches we ordered (the full montague) were reminiscent of the type of food Adam Richman eats on Man vs Food, albeit it a much smaller portion. They were packed full of tasty ingredients and we knew we were going to eat here again! (Which we did).

After our foray into new eatery territory we headed back to the hotel, we decided to pick up a tea time from Main Street on our way back as the park was just about still open. I spent quite some time searching for the ice machine before bothering to look at a map and it was time for bed after that!


Day 2 coming very soon indeed!

 

[tinks_1989]

Great first day and what a view how magical listening to Christmas music from the park in your room! X

 

[disneykid123]

Great start, I look forward to the rest!

 

[Disneyfoo]

Great first day and what a view how magical listening to Christmas music from the park in your room! X

Thanks It was nice to listen to the music, even though it was pretty cold we left the window open almost all the time! We could also hear Thunder Mountain, especially when they were testing it after the park was shut!

Great start, I look forward to the rest!

Thanks!

 

[Disneyfoo]

As is tradition on our Disney trips these days we managed to both wake up feeling ill I was really dizzy and had a headache, and Katy felt much the same. I was really ill this year with severe labyrinthitis, and it started with a day of feeling slightly dizzy. The vertigo I had with it was horrible and I couldn't stand up without nearly falling over and was stuck in bed for weeks; so when I started feeling dizzy during the night I was pretty worried it had come back

We took it slowly and thought some fresh air before breakfast might help, so we headed off to Main street. I started feeling much less dizzy after a while so went on Buzz and were careful not to spin too much! We made our way to breakfast after this, hoping that as we left it till 10:00 it would be pretty empty.

We headed to Main street lounge to see which characters were out, Mickey, Minnie and Pluto were there but had pretty large queues. So we went straight into breakfast and were seated in the California Grill with this view

We were sat next to a rather expensive cabinet of champagnes, so were extra careful with our elbows! and we took advantage of being able to grab a few bottles of water for our table!

Once again the breakfast was delicious! I absolutely love maple syrup, pancakes and bacon so was in my element. The range and quality of breakfast food offered is great, and after filling up with the aforementioned hot foods as well as pastries, fruit, olives, salami and all manner of other tasty delights we were happy not to eat another full meal till our dinner at the Steakhouse that night! We ate until about 11:15 (yes we ate breakfast for 1 hour and 15 minutes ) and then headed back to the room to collect our things for the day. I was pretty much feeling fine by this point and felt okay for the rest of the trip so that was a relief.

We had booked a guided tour of the Studios at 4, so we decided to head for the main park before going to the Studios later. After going on a few rides we headed for the Castle to take a few photos in the fleeting blue skies

I am always aware when I take photos from this side of the castle just how popular a view it is and wonder how many photos exist of it and with the 250 millionth guest recently, there must be tens of millions of unique (if that word can be applied in this circumstance!) shots of this side of the castle!

Here is another one to add to the list

At this point we attempted to get on Thunder Mountain and as I said in my highs and lows thread we were faced with this

On both of our 2011 trips we have seen the train get stuck on this incline, and both times watched as the passengers were evacuated. We went on Phantom Manor instead, took the above photo and then had a Casey's corner hot dog to share. Our one and only bit of food between brekkie and dinner!

overexposed sky with Casey's Corner beneath it

We strolled around some more, stopping to once again take some photos of the castle

overexposed castle with sky above it

It was getting close to our guided tour time so we made our way back to the hotel for a quick stop off and break. We sat in the lobby and Chip and Dale appeared. Well they snuck up on me actually

They stayed around us for ages, even when a crowd amassed they still continued to interact with us and ensured we got some photos, after this brief interlude we made our way to the guided tour.

We picked up a POTC limited edition pin event lanyard from the Studios, which took forever as it was the last one left and they couldn't decide if they wanted to sell it to us We then made our way to the Studio Services and waited for our guide to appear.

Walt Disney Studios Guided Tour I have no photos of this part as it suddenly got bitterly cold and very windy. It was a great tour and really worth doing. It is quite different from the Disneyland Park tour as it focused on the history of cinema and Walt's influence on it; there is information about the park but the Disneyland Park tour is much more about pointing out little details and secrets (as much more exist!). This tour did point out the different themes and influences but also combined this with a history of Disney and cinema as well. For cinema buffs it is great, our guide was very friendly and obviously loved Disney. He told us about this time working in Epcot, and told us we needed to visit WDW even it it meant missing two trips to DLRP! He took us around the whole park, telling us about the influence of Hollywood on the theme and about Walt. We really enjoyed it and it helped that he was so enthusiastic, he told us he was happy to answer any questions we had and we were welcome to go back at any time to speak to him. The tour cost 15 euros, took just under 90 minutes and we got a nice pin at the end. Well worth doing However I would do the main park tour first, then this one.

After this tour we headed back to the hotel room as Katy needed a rest after the walking. We suddenly realised we hadn't been on Thunder Mountain on that day yet so rushed off about 6:30, having never gone a day in Disney without going on TM at least once we were determined to make it. We did, just about, and it turns out the earlier closure had lasted for two hours.

We left the park after this and went for another rest before our dinner at the Chicago Steakhouse.

Chicago Steakhouse I had booked this for 8, thinking that we would miss the rush as the park shut at 7. I managed to, rather stupidly, forget that Fantillusion lasts till 7:30 and we ended up in a terrible scrum to try and make it to Disney Village. We queued up, were ignored by the lady behind the counter asking for reservations to step forward, and were eventually seated. We had no idea that the character meals had been swapped to the Steakhouse following the closure of Cafe Mickey for the week, so it was quite a surprise to see all the characters walking around. It was a nice surprise though, one by one the characters snuck up on me and we had our photo taken with Baloo, Mickey, Minnie, Tigger, Pluto, Goofy, Chip and Dale. We also saw Smee but he never came over. At one point the little girl on the table next to us had a b'day cake brought over and all the characters gathered round the table. Goofy was dancing right next to me, saw we were all laughing at this and danced in an even more exuberant fashion. We cracked up at this and were couldn't stop laughing for ages. The character interactions were fantastic and it was probably the best meal we have had at Disney! Oh the food was nice as well.

Katy took this photo and for some reason we found it hilarious, the expression on Baloo's face and the angle are perfect. I'm sure you don't want to see another photo of me but silliness like this is why we love Disney

Day three to follow soon, but here is a picture of the DLH Christmas tree and Gingerbread House.

A sign told us not to eat it

When we arrived back in the room we found Duffy and Pooh Bear happily sat on the bed after turndown

 

[Disneyfoo]

I thought I would finish this off today as I have some free time

These two updates are pretty short as we didn't really do anything I can review, and just milled around the parks!

Day Three

We managed to sleep into 10 this morning, so didn't get chance to have a go on Buzz! We rushed down to breakfast and were seated in Inventions, this is the first time I have ever been in there and it made a nice change from the California Grill. Although I think the surroundings of the CG made for a more relaxing breakfast. Again the food was very tasty and we were given a window seat overlooking the train station and beyond. We ate for quite a while and had a leisurely meal before heading off to the Park.

We did our usual tour of Buzz, Thunder Mountain, Phantom Manor, Peter Pan, and POTC. Stopping for a photo of the Castle from Fantasyland

I went on Indiana Jones. there was hardly any queue so that was nice. We never usually bother with IASW but thought we would give it a go with the Christmas overlay.

We had a look around the Castle and Katy saw a ring she liked, but in each shop we asked in they didn't have her size which was quite frustrating.

We stopped for another photo of the castle

After this we headed off to the Studio so I could ride the Tower of Terror, it was freezing at this point so I didn't get any photos of the Studios!

We wanted to get back into the main park for the lighting up etc so we left WDS as soon as I got off TOT. It was great fun as usual, the CMs who work on this ride are always great fun and make it really atmospheric I just wish they still sold the Bellhop Mickey soft toy as we never bought one and can't find any now! In fact the TOT shop is not as good as it used to be, when they had the bathrobes etc it was great, but it is now more generic.

After we got back to the main park we had a tea time with the new Mickey brioche that we both enjoyed. We also liked the two mickey head cakes and the almond one in particular was delicious.

It was getting dark at this point so we rode Thunder Mountain and POTC, we actually skipped the Castle lighting up in the end, deciding to enjoy the empty park instead. After we had explored the park a bit more in the dark we decided to head back to the hotel, deciding to take the scenic route

We then caught Fantillusion which was good as always, we decided to wait around in the park until the Castle was lit up again.

and we then headed back to the hotel

At this point we discovered the problem with the charge card that I won't bore you with, we were possibly going to eat at the Steakhouse again but it got to about 9 pretty quickly with having to sort the issue out so we just grabbed an Earl of Sandwich and headed back to the room to enjoy the food listening to the Christmas Music from the park

Day Four

We got up pretty early for once and went on Buzz, before heading off for Breakfast. We checked out before we headed off to the Park. We decided to get our photo with Duffy and Mickey as we meant to everyday but were never around at the right time.

We had a look in the Storybook store where we saw Duffy, we also bought the Duffy book that is in the 1st post of this report.

After some more rides and a few more tea times we headed off home and had an uneventful journey

 

[Sarah28]

Loved reading your TR! Sounds like you had a fab time. I absolutely love your piccys of the castle at night with the lights, so pretty!

 

[tinks_1989]

oh its finished already :0 enjoyed reading your report! I always wanted to do a tour but now with DD dont know if we can or if she would want to!
Do they still do the TOT tour? When we were there in 2010 they were advertising it that you got to go on the first ride of the day and spend time looking around.

 

[Disneyfoo]

Loved reading your TR! Sounds like you had a fab time. I absolutely love your piccys of the castle at night with the lights, so pretty!

Thanks! The castle is so photogenic, especially at night. No matter how many pictures I look at I still enjoy seeing more!

oh its finished already :0 enjoyed reading your report! I always wanted to do a tour but now with DD dont know if we can or if she would want to!
Do they still do the TOT tour? When we were there in 2010 they were advertising it that you got to go on the first ride of the day and spend time looking around.

Thanks, I enjoyed writing it

I haven't heard much about the TOT tour recently, I think it was only conducted in French and our guide actually mentioned it but then mentioned the language barrier but that they are hopefully translating it into English. He seemed really, really keen on getting more tours going as he said there is the potential for other attractions to get tours. I hope this is true as I would happily take part in them all!

 

[Linda67]

Great TR, thanks for taking the time to post

 

[Disneyfoo]

Great TR, thanks for taking the time to post

Why thank you and thanks also for reading!

 

[loladelorean]

Thanks for sharing your trip report with us, I really enjoyed reading it. And looking at those Christmas photos! Christmastime wasn't quite as magical for us this year, hoping to make a short trip in December 2012
Hope you had a lovely christmas!

 

[Disneyfoo]

Thanks for sharing your trip report with us, I really enjoyed reading it. And looking at those Christmas photos! Christmastime wasn't quite as magical for us this year, hoping to make a short trip in December 2012
Hope you had a lovely christmas!

I had a nice Christmas thanks! Hopefully you will make it there next December, with the 20th and the Christmas overlay it should be amazing I am not sure when we will make it in 2012, we are planning a Tokyo trip in September, so will get a Disney fix that way; but we can't miss the 20th anniversary! It already feels like an age since we went, even though it is less than a month

 

[torsie24]

Really loved reading your TR.

Makes me miss the DLH a lot!