Well, the alarm goes off at 3am - or is it 4am? Yes, we would have to choose the day the clocks go back to go on holiday!
Luckily all goes well and Tony the Taxi Guy arrives to take us to Manchester Airport at the right time!
We get to Manchester after travelling (and dozing!) for about two and a half hours. Check in all goes smoothly and we browse in some shops and enjoy a full english breakfast.
We start boarding at 9:20 and are in the air by 10:15. The flight takes about 1 hour 15 mins - my kind of flight! We are served pastries and drinks by very polite and attentive Air France staff.
Charles de Gaulle is amazingly different to the last time we went there - the improvement is imense - much lighter and more comfortable than the concrete jungle we remembered.
We found the VEA shuttle very easily and soon got settled on the bus. Then we waited...and waited...
Come on!! We wanted to set off! We wanted to get to Disney!! Finally, after about twenty minutes we were off!
When we got to Disney we stopped at Newport Bay Hotel first - then round the corner to Sequoia Lodge! It was as beautiful as I remembered! We went to check in - unfortunately our room was not ready yet! We put our cases into the baggage check and went to look around - we had been told our room would be ready in about half an hour so we didn't want to go into the parks just yet.
We had a look in the shop which was very nicely equipped and also went out onto the verandah and the girls had a game on table football while Simon and I lounged on the deck chairs in the sunshine - what great weather!
Soon our room was ready so we went to get our bags and go to our room. We were in room 3162 in the South Wing. This was the view from our room window:
We were happy with the room - everything was clean and tidy in both the bedroom and the bathroom. We didn't hang about though - we dumped the bags - and our coats - and went to find the parks!
The walk to Disney Village was only five minutes - very handy! Look - here's us walking!
One thing that struck us was how busy
Disneyland Parc was! The crowds were heaving - the price you pay for going during half term holidays - and near Halloween!
Here is our first glimpse of the beautiful Castle:
We went straight in search of Casey Jnr - one of my favourite rides and one that had been closed when we went there in 2003. There was a 30 minute wait so we decided to go for it!
The girls pretended to be wild animals!
We had awesome fun on this ride - although Simon was mocking it as he loves thrill rides!
Here are me and Kate enjoying Casey:
Mission accomplished we went for our reservation at Silver Spur restaurant. We had been there in 2003 and enjoyed it very much so we thought it was a safe option for our first meal. We chose the set three course meal and couldn't believe the huge size of the portions! We rolled out of the restaurant feeling VERY full. Also - Simon got to use his shareholders card for the first time and got a satisfying 15% off the meal. I'll post a review on the SS thread - but we were very happy with the meal and had excellent service.
After tea we went outside - it was dusk and very beautiful in Frontierland/Halloweenland.
We decided to go on another of our favourite rides - Phantom Manor! Again we had about a thirty minute wait - there was a good view of Big Thunder Mountain and the Castle as we waited.
It was great to get in our doom buggy and ride around Phantom Manor - we would do so several more times before our trip was over!
Si and Kate checked out the queue for BTTMR - but it was 110 minutes! To be honest - it was pretty much around this mark for most of the time we were there!
We wandered back towards Discoveryland looking in some shops and taking in the atmosphere.
Simon and Kate went on Space Mountain while Sarah and I had a date with one of Sarah's favourite guys:
Yup! Sarah adores Buzz and this ride is 'our' ride when we are in Florida. We couldn't wait to check out the new French version.
(Disclaimer: If you haven't already figured out from some of the photos - our clan like to be VERY silly at Disney. Very. Silly. Be warned!)
Sarah and I decided that each time we went on Buzz we would be different characters from our fave cult TV shows. So the first time we went on Buzz we were Apollo and Helo from the new Battlestar Galactica!
We waited about 40 minutes (we don't like to wait over 30 minutes for a ride - but hey - this is BUZZ!) but the ride was awesome!! Different to Florida but just as much fun!
We met up with the others and did Star Tours - another family favourite!
By this time we were very tired and decided to wander back to Sequioa Lodge. We had a drink in the Redwood Bar - this is so lovely and I forgot to take any photos!
Another quick look around the shop and then it was time for bed! What an exhausting day!
Coming up: Would we survive breakfast? Would EMH be worth it?
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but didn't notice you at all. But then, there were LOTS of people there, weren't there? I couldn't believe how lucky we were with the weather.
