I am back :o( day 1 & 2

princessphoebe

Earning My Ears
Joined
Jan 8, 2011
Messages
26
Right, so here goes, my first trip to Disneyland Paris! this was previously on another board but would be better suited here


Day 1 Wednesday 2nd February

I was dreading this day, 5 hours on the train with 3 kids, one of which is learning to crawl! Just to add the kids didn’t know we were going at this point, this secret holiday i had kept from them since September!!!!! So off to the train station for 2pm, with soooo much luggage, there’s me, with the baby, and a large suitcase, handbag and food bag, boyf , with the buggy and the other large suitcase, the other two carrying anything else left!

Very long, tedious train ride from Cornwall to London, but eventually we arrived flagged down a taxi and set off to the Travelodge for the night. Thanks to the taxi driver not really knowing his way around London he dropped us off at the wrong one, so we had to pile all the stuff into another taxi to get to the right hotel! Not so much fun with 3 very tired children and a worn out mother! :mad:

Kids and boyf went to sleep pretty quickly, but i just couldn’t drop off, every time i turned over i woke up thinking i had missed the train and wondering what the kids would say in the morning when i told them where we were going!

Day 2 Thursday 3rd February

After the most hideous night’s sleep i couldn’t leave the children asleep any longer i had to wake them up! It was a moment i think i will cherish forever; the look on their faces was as magical as Disney itself! My daughter, 10, had received a letter from Princess Tiana and my son, 6, a letter from Buzz to say they were going to see them later at DLP!!! They could not wait to get to the Eurostar! :yay::yay::yay::yay::yay:



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(kids after the letters of surprise)

The train ride to DLP was a very quick and pleasant trip, i seemed to miss the Disney Express option when booking, i will be doing it next yr believe me! So the luggage was a bit of a pain again, the one lift at the station was a little annoying but we got up to the buses quite quickly and managed to get straight on one to the Cheyenne!

One word for the hotel: Awesome, words of my son! Very good service at reception, was queuing for approx 5 mins and this was at about 2pm, was given a wealth of info and was allowed to go straight to our room, which was a god send with the hungry little one.i was a little concerned about the distance of the room from reception but we got Billy the Kid block which was literally right behind reception! This did please me.

Room very comfy and brilliantly decorated, especially for those loving the whole cowboy theme! The room was plenty big enough and i loved the welcome message on the tele! We needed a travel cot and it was brought to the room within ten minutes of check in, very good service. :goodvibes

So its gone 3pm by now and i was just itching to get out in the parks, so off we set, walked the lovely walk behind the hotel to the parks, says it takes about 10 mins but it didn’t feel that long to be honest, think i must have been rushing just to get there! Walked a little slower through Disney Village, the kids wanted to stop in all the shops but i made sure they were bribed with something if we just hurried up and got into the park!


Went through all the bag check and queues and there in front of me was Disneyland Hotel, i had to stop and take it in for a few minutes, my dreams had come true and there i was about to enter the best place on earth! I had forgotten for a few moments that i had the family with me, taking it all in i remembered that this was a trip in memory if my dad who passed away 18 months ago. I know he would have loved to have seen the kids faces so i was determined to make this a holiday they wouldn’t forget! :cloud9:


So walking through the ticket thingy i caught a glimpse of Main St USA, i literally have never been sooo excited about a holiday in my life, i just could not wait to get in and walk down towards the castle! The vision of which blew me away! My daughter had decided to skip her way down Main St, making her look like she was starring in a Disney film, the music and just the all over atmosphere was mind blowing, i felt very happy!

It took us a while to get down to the castle but when we got there it was beautiful, the weather was a bit grey but it didn’t take away the magic of the park.

All we wanted to do was eat by this point, i had made a list of all the places i had wanted to eat before i went, mainly from reading posts on here, so i decided that our first night should be at Au Chalet de la Marionnette in Fantasyland, purely because i am a really big fan of Pinocchio plus i had thought it was going to be a pretty good deal, i was however quite disappointed, the meals were pretty icky, plus we were told that they would be closing within 10 minutes and at 5pm i thought this was pretty odd, felt like i was being rushed, the staff were pretty much watching us eat, my son dropped his drink and nobody helped us find anything to clean it up, we were just sighed at, i was not overly impressed with the quality of food and begrudged spending 40 Euros on a glorified McDonalds. We made our exit pretty quickly and vowed that would not be somewhere to eat again! Tomorrow we would try Buzz Lightyears Pizza Planet.

After dinner, we had a stroll around the parks making the most of the 5 day tickets, to be honest i was sooo tired from the travelling i wanted to get back to the hotel and go to bed but i wasn’t going to let my kids down and stayed out a little longer, god job we did, walking through Frontierland we stumbled across Woody, Jessie, Minnie, Mickey and Goofy!!!!!!!! and there were hardly any people there so my two managed to get photos and autographs really easily!!! Pretty good for the first day :woohoo:

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i was very relieved, however to see the hotel, my feet were killing me! I was aching in my legs where i had never ached before!

So into bed, all 5 of us, the kids wanted to watch the tv, oh the joy of that woman on channel one, things to do before you go!!!!! My two are still reciting the list now! I was quite pleased to see hte Disney channel to be honest, its on all the time here so it wasn’t to bad, first day though, i now am sick and tired of hearing the theme tune to Wizards of Waverly Place, Hannah Montana and That’s so Raven!!!!!

Best night’s sleep, although i have to say the walls are a little thin and the headboards are noisy!!!! :rolleyes1

so thats the first two days, i have spent the day making a slideshow dvd for the kids to take to school tomorrow, really pleased, i got the musci from the Once Upon A Dream parade and the skippy Main St music from Itunes, i have to say i am pretty chuffed with it!
 
Fab start!!! I can really sense your excitement when you got there :yay: it reminded me of our first trip! :cloud9:

Your kids are very cute - and we haven't seen baby yet!! :lovestruc

Well done you for keeping it a secret soooooo long! :thumbsup2

Roll on the next day ... popcorn::
 
how wonderul!!! I got excited myself just by reading this!!!!

Waiting for Buzz pizza review.

BTW how old is your DS?
 
GRRRReat trip report so far, I love reading about other people's first trips, it's sooooooooo exciting!
 

great start, your l.o's are gorgeous! cant wait to read more! and its really lovely remembering your dad and giving your kids lovely new memories, it mcu have been a tough 18months xxx
 
well done on keeping the surprise for so long :thumbsup2 - great first day in the park too.
 
ds is 6, eldest dd is 10 and the youngest dd is 10 months old! thanks for the lovely comments about the kids, it was such an amazing surprise, i really don't know how i kept it for so long!

part 3 coming up very soon!!!
 
ok peeps so here goes with day 3!

Day 3 Friday 4th February

So, when we picked our breakfast for this day, we were told that 8am would be fine to eat and that it wouldn’t be that busy! WRONG! Heaving, however my daughter launched herself into a chair while the family were still getting their belongings together, so we managed to get a table! I was pleasantly surprised to find special k on the menu! I know, silly to be watching my weight while i was away, but i had lost 10lbs up to the day of departure so i did really want to stay ontop of it! Saying that mind, the fried chicken and chips aren’t good for dieting! The walking it off after helped. ;)

As for the rest if the breakfast, my kids were pleased with the cereals, the bread rolls came in very handy for lunch and so did the ham and cheese! Loved the coffee and fresh juice all in all nice breakkie! However i was determined to get there a little ealier the next day!

So off we go to the parks, walking again, to help with calorie burning! We went to Walt Disney Studios first today, we didn’t get long the day before so i said we would go there first, amazing atmosphere! We wanted to go here really for the Toystory Playland, great that there weren’t many people here, took advantage of the Magic Hours so the queues were not very long, OH was persuaded to go on the flying carpets i was looking after the baby so i said he could go on and i am sure he enjoyed it! We set off to find the Toystory part, my son wanted to go on the parachutes, so off they go again, although this time all i can hear is my little one crying! :o( it went up quite high and the only good thing about the rides at DLP are that they don’t last very long so he was down in no time! His tears were quickly gone on the sight of the slinky ride, but it was my turn this time, didn’t queue for very long and the ride was over pretty quickly, was a good ride and the kids loved it! Next off to find a coffee, instead we bump into Buzz Lightyear! OMG my little boy went mental, he loves Buzz and there weren’t that many people so we didn’t have to wait very long to see him, they were thrilled to have their pic taken with him although he couldn’t sign anything.



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We then screamed in the Monsters scaring thing then went off to find a coffee! This time The Blockbuster Cafe, the reason: up until my son discovered the Jonas Brothers he thought he was Troy Bolton, so as the cafe is HSM themed i thought it would be a good idea to have a coffee here and see the basketball stuff! When we got there it was really really busy but Minnie Mouse was in there in a cheerleaders outfit and the kids had their pic taken with her too! Was quie funny, my son has a tuft of hair that never goes down and Minnie pretended to lick her hand and wet his hair down, my little one thought this was hilarious!



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For me the WDS is probably suited better for older kids, there are alot of shows here and its quite hard to take a 10 month old in them without her getting scared, i think next time will be better, she will be that little bit older and able to cope with loud noises etc!
So we decided to go back out to Disneyland park, on the way out my OH suggested a trip on the train to the Va’l D’Europe, great idea, only 3 euros return for adults and 1.50 euros for children, its about 3 mins on the train and the hypermarket there is amazing, plus we got loads of yummy French food to eat for lunch! It was also a good way for the kids to see how people in France live, not just Disney, my son was very confused at the fact he was in France but couldn’t work out how! Bless. It is a must for anyone!

We got back to the resort in time for lunch and as we had bought some yummy Rillete ( pork pate, a must buy) and had some rolls from breakfast we headed back to the hotel, i have to say we did this most days, reason being, feeding a baby a bottle outside in the parks is a little cold and we just wanted her to be comfortable, plus all the walking exercise was good for us!

Back into WDS after lunch, we managed a lovely walk around the shops, the kids were itching to spend some money, my son wanted to get a present for his girlfriend, so we had to find her something pretty, great there seemed to be sales on in most of the shops, so 2 euros later we had a HSM necklace and a postcard, to be honest most of the presents we bought for people were in the sale, and i do love a good bargain! All this shopping had made the kids excited about the next place to eat!!! Ll they think about is food, plus OH was getting hungry, he is 6 ft 4 and is constantly hungry too! So today it was off to Buzz Lightyears Pizza Planet, only to find the place closed! Very very sad little boy, next place to eat on the list of restaurants was Pizza Bella Note, also closed and according to the hotel receptionist Buzz Lightyear is closed until JUNE!!!!!! :confused3

Walking back out of the fantasyland to see if we could spot some more characters, by this point the kids were getting tired and even more hungry, plus it had started to get a little chilly, we were walking through Liberty Parade i could hear the guy announcing a parade about to start, as we walked out of the alley two huge gates opened and out comes the Once Upon A Dream Parade, all food and the cold wind forgotten, the kids really wanted to watch this, so did i really plus we hadn’t really seen a parade all the way through. i tell you it is the best place to watch it, not crowded and all the characters waved at the kids, was magical to see their faces and we could almost touch them! :yay:

I have always been a fan of Disney for as long as i can remember, my first film was Mary Poppins and i can vividly remember watching it with my dad, so when she appeared on the float i was thrilled!



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Then Aladdin, well i must have gone to see it at the cinema 5 or 6 times when it came out, i love that film so much! Was very pleased with the parade, people always say that it’s a magical experience and it truly is, but until you go for yourself you can’t really understand how magical it is!

Anyhoo, i was getting hungry by this point, so i suggested going to the hotel restaurant, Chuck Wagon, yes i have to admit it is a little pricey, 22.50 for adults and 11.90 (i think) for kids, but it’s all you can eat and i was quite happy to pay a little extra for some good food and i wasn’t disappointed!

So i am dieting, fearful of chips all over DLP, but what a selection of really nice yummy scrummy food! The list is endless, jacket potatoes, new potatoes, chicken, meatballs, sautéed beef (yum!) ratatouille, pork, chips, pasta and loads of salads! The puddings were out of this world! Chocolate tart, fruit tart, passion fruit tart, lemon meringue pie, chocolate mousse, white chocolate mousse, fruit, cheese and it really was just the most amazing buffet, which is why i was really boring and decided that we should eat here for the rest of the holiday! It was worth it to see my son eat 3 bowls of pudding and i didn’t need to say enough is enough, i can’t afford it! Plus i didn’t have to eat chips and the baby was able to eat well too! She loves meatballs and pasta so it worked out well.


So after eating my entire body weight in food, it was the perfect opportunity to go to bed! I feel a little sad to say that the only time we got to see DLP at night was on the last night, only because the baby is asleep by 7 and her dinner time is pretty much the same every night, next yr i will be able to keep her awake more.



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i was pretty glad to get into bed to be honest, i had decided to get to breakfast a little earlier the next day so i wanted everyone asleep early! Ooh i must add how amazing the shower is, 4 power settings and the strongest took my skin off!!!!! Quite nice after walking loads and carrying heavy luggage the day before :o)

Just enough time to watch a lovely episode of Hannah Montana before nodding off!!!
 
oh, how wonderful!!! Just sad to hear you didn't get a chance to eat at Buzz. But, oh, what fun everything else! :thumbsup2
 
What a lovely day! And your baby... :love: how cute???!!!

We've never seen Pizza Planet open on any of our trips, maybe this June though...!
 
Great trip report.Your kids look so happy and well done for keeping the surprise so long...Looking forward to reading more
 
i havent forgotten to finish! i am very busy with cake business! rest assured i will continue after i have sent out 2 horse head cakes and 24 cupcakes! :cutie:
 












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