HappyPanda
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 9, 2012
- Messages
- 1,422
We're back! After the most amazing 4 night stay at the Disneyland Hotel for DDs 6th Birthday.
As you will see from the title of this thread, there really aren't many lows to speak of, so we will start with them.
Travelodge - Kings Cross: We stayed here on Saturday 16th for one night, before we booked it did state that due to the location some noise may be heard. That is a vast understatement. We were allocated room 323 which is a disabled access room as apparently they no longer do family rooms? The room was right on the corner of the building where the train line went under. So every few minutes the whole room would shake as the trains went past. This combined with the loud club across the road meant I got very little sleep that night!
Character Scrums - I am sure these just get worse and worse. It was great to see so many characters about for meet & greets but we actually only got to see a few of them as the scrums were just awful. Olivia ended up saying she didn't want to see any more characters as it always ended up with her getting "hurt and pushed around" - this is just so not what Disneyland should be like!
Now onto the highs....
Disneyland Hotel - Our first experience of staying here and we absolutely loved it. I can't ever imagine staying anywhere else now! The main advantage for us was being able to pop back to the hotel to rest and warm up (which did on many occasions!). The breakfasts were also fabulous! It really was the perfect base for our trip and totally worth the money we paid!
Meet Mickey - What a gorgeous way to meet the big man himself! Although we had already met him on a few other occasions, I'm so glad we did this as well! Olivia would have been quite happy to stay in there all day as it was nice and warm and had the cartoons on to watch! The actual setting for the meet & greet was wonderful too.
Ride Firsts Had our first ever go on Crushs Coaster and we LOVED it! Even though we got into the studios at 0945 we still had to queue for over an hour, but it was worth it! DD also felt brave enough to try ToT, she hated it but was very proud that she tried it! Another first for us was getting to go on Dumbo in all my trips to DLP this is one ride I just never made it on before!
Magic on Parade On our last trip, I was left a bit flat by this parade and didnt think it really lived up to the previous one. But I think that was because we had a rubbish view last time. This time we got a place opposite Bella Notta and DD got a lot of attention and it was really magical!
Rainforest Cafe We had two lovely meals in here, very delicious food and great service!
Stitch Live We went in this twice and both times Stitch chose Olivia to be his new best friend. I was really proud of how well she spoke to Stitch (she can sometimes be painfully shy!) and she was bouncing off the walls after!
Auberge We had a really nice meal in here, we met Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Belle & The Beast the interaction was brilliant as always. I just love how the princesses make every single child feel special cant be an easy job!
Dreams What can be said about it that hasnt been said before, its just perfect in every way! We saw it on 2 of our 4 nights and the other 2 we listened to it from our room!
New Security Layout I love that once you enter DLP you can move freely between the two parks and the village without having to go through the bag check again! This meant that for our whole 5 days we were completely in our Disney bubble and didnt have to negotiate the annoying street sellers!
I could really go on and on about all the highs, but will save that for my actual trip report! Which I hope to start writing this weekend!
As you will see from the title of this thread, there really aren't many lows to speak of, so we will start with them.
Travelodge - Kings Cross: We stayed here on Saturday 16th for one night, before we booked it did state that due to the location some noise may be heard. That is a vast understatement. We were allocated room 323 which is a disabled access room as apparently they no longer do family rooms? The room was right on the corner of the building where the train line went under. So every few minutes the whole room would shake as the trains went past. This combined with the loud club across the road meant I got very little sleep that night!
Character Scrums - I am sure these just get worse and worse. It was great to see so many characters about for meet & greets but we actually only got to see a few of them as the scrums were just awful. Olivia ended up saying she didn't want to see any more characters as it always ended up with her getting "hurt and pushed around" - this is just so not what Disneyland should be like!
Now onto the highs....
Disneyland Hotel - Our first experience of staying here and we absolutely loved it. I can't ever imagine staying anywhere else now! The main advantage for us was being able to pop back to the hotel to rest and warm up (which did on many occasions!). The breakfasts were also fabulous! It really was the perfect base for our trip and totally worth the money we paid!
Meet Mickey - What a gorgeous way to meet the big man himself! Although we had already met him on a few other occasions, I'm so glad we did this as well! Olivia would have been quite happy to stay in there all day as it was nice and warm and had the cartoons on to watch! The actual setting for the meet & greet was wonderful too.
Ride Firsts Had our first ever go on Crushs Coaster and we LOVED it! Even though we got into the studios at 0945 we still had to queue for over an hour, but it was worth it! DD also felt brave enough to try ToT, she hated it but was very proud that she tried it! Another first for us was getting to go on Dumbo in all my trips to DLP this is one ride I just never made it on before!
Magic on Parade On our last trip, I was left a bit flat by this parade and didnt think it really lived up to the previous one. But I think that was because we had a rubbish view last time. This time we got a place opposite Bella Notta and DD got a lot of attention and it was really magical!
Rainforest Cafe We had two lovely meals in here, very delicious food and great service!
Stitch Live We went in this twice and both times Stitch chose Olivia to be his new best friend. I was really proud of how well she spoke to Stitch (she can sometimes be painfully shy!) and she was bouncing off the walls after!
Auberge We had a really nice meal in here, we met Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Belle & The Beast the interaction was brilliant as always. I just love how the princesses make every single child feel special cant be an easy job!
Dreams What can be said about it that hasnt been said before, its just perfect in every way! We saw it on 2 of our 4 nights and the other 2 we listened to it from our room!
New Security Layout I love that once you enter DLP you can move freely between the two parks and the village without having to go through the bag check again! This meant that for our whole 5 days we were completely in our Disney bubble and didnt have to negotiate the annoying street sellers!
I could really go on and on about all the highs, but will save that for my actual trip report! Which I hope to start writing this weekend!
Totally agree with you about the improvement to the security layout too.
So we ended up going to Rainforest Cafe instead! 
