Just The Two Of Us - Trip Report - FINALLY FINISHED 28.08.2012

[HappyPanda]

I wasn't planning on doing a Trip Report for this trip, but after looking through the photos I was keen to relive the trip through writing this.

So, here we go...

The Cast:

Me (Helen) - Age 28 1/2
Olivia - Age 5 1/4

Day 1 - Wednesday 6th June 2012 -- The stopover.

As we were booked on an early Eurostar, we decided to stay near St. Pancras so that we didn't have to struggle through the rush hour tube journey.

We had booked to stay in the Travelodge Royal Scot - Kings Cross. The hotel was about a 10 minute walk from Kings Cross tube station. We arrived at about 8pm at night and the check-in process was really quick and efficient.

The room itself was pretty basic, but given that we only paid £39 for the room I wouldn't have expected anything more. This is the only picture I took of the room:

Doesn't really show you much, but I would definitely use this hotel again if I wanted a place to rest my head before getting the Eurostar!

As we had such an early start the next day, I put Olivia to bed in the hope that she'd drop off straight away....... no chance!


I tried everything I could think of to get her to go to sleep, I sang to her, read to her, put the tv on, let her play on my iPad etc... but NOTHING worked she was just too excited to sleep.

It got to 11.30pm and I was acutely aware that we'd have to be up in less than 8 hours time so I decided to setup camp in the bathroom with my cover and iPad and just stayed in there until she dropped off. IT WORKED! About 10 minutes later she was fast asleep! Problem is, now I couldn't sleep. There was a lot of noise from outside and I just couldn't switch off... I think the last time I looked at the time it was 2am.. so must have nodded off sometime after that!

The alarm went off at 6.45am and I felt pretty awful due to lack of sleep, but we got our bits together and headed off to St. Pancras. The nice walk really helped to wake us both up and by the time we got to check-in we were feeling bright-eyed and bushy tailed and ready for our Disneyland Adventure!

 

[HappyPanda]

Day Two - 7th June 2012 - Arriving in the Magic

Our Eurostar was leaving at 8.50am, we got through check-in quickly and found ourselves a nice seat to wait for the train to be announced. We also managed to nab a Kids Pack, that we didn't get last time.

Once the train was called, we headed to our carriage. We were really surprised by how quiet the train was. There were only about 10 other people in our carriage. This helped to make the journey really peaceful and enjoyable.

Olivia spent some time doing her puzzle that came with the Kids Pack:

Then she lay down on the empty seats next to us, to attempt to have a nap:

This didn't last long though...

We had arrived in Marne la Vallee before we knew it, we headed to the Disney Express Desk to drop off our bags and pick up our park tickets and then it was off to the Parks!

Unconventionally, Olivia wanted to go to the Walt Disney Studios first, to go on the cars ride. It had already started to rain so we were glad that we had our fetching rain coats with us!

The queue was only about 5 minutes and I really enjoyed the ride (Olivia took Daddy on last time!). We then saw that Cinemagique was just about to start, so decided to escape the rain and head in here.

I loved all the new scenes and Olivia seemed to enjoy it a lot more this time, but she doesn't like the bits with the rain (she's such a wimp when it comes to water!).

When we got out of the Cinemagique the heavens really opened, we had wanted to do Stitch Live that was due to start in about 20 minutes, but due to the rain everyone had gone in there to shelter so the show was showing as full. The CM on the door said that even if people left after the rain finished, they wouldn't be able to let in any more as they wouldn't be able to keep track of the numbers.

So we decided to head out of the Studios and to take our first steps on Main Street...

 

[Ms Poppins]

Good start, with exception of the rain

Eurostar is definitely the best way to get to DLP

 

[HappyPanda]

We arrived into the Disneyland Park at about 1.30pm.

We had planned to take a nice stroll along main street, but as the rain was out in full force we took the bus option instead.

This is the first time that we've used any of the main street transport, it was a really nice way to travel!

Took this photo from the bus, not sure if you can really tell from this how bad the rain was, but it was bouncing of the pavement!

As the rain showed no signs of stopping we decided to head straight for our choice of lunch location for today.... Cowboy Cookout!

There was no queue to get in, but did find ourselves having to wait about 20 minutes to order the food. I had the Angus Burger and Olivia had the Kid's burger. I was quite impressed with the size of the meals and the burger was sooooo delicious.

We got a seat right next to the bandstand, which Olivia loved she was up out of her seat dancing to all the music!

The first character we met was Tigger:

Shortly followed by Pluto:

We then saw Woody & Donald but they never made it to our table!

The next character we saw was Hook, but Olivia was a bit scared of him so didn't want her photo taken with him!

We had finished our food by now and Daisy was still doing the rounds, so we hung on a bit longer until she got to us as she is Olivia's favourite character!

I really enjoyed the character interaction here, at one point Tigger got all the children up and dancing to the music - thought I had a picture of it but I don't! Was very funny to see!

Olivia then wanted to go on Phantom Manor, so we headed that way. By now the sun had come out!

There was a little English girl behind us who was a bit scared of going into the lift, so Olivia helped to reassure her that it wasn't that scary.

I do still like this ride, but wish they'd fix the bit at the end where the ghosts would appear at the back of your doom buggy, now the mirror bit at the end is a little redundant.

I'm struggling to remember what we did next (I didn't keep a diary this trip as I was too tired each day to remember to write it!) but I know we ended up at Princess Pavilion. The board outside said it had a 60 minute wait and as Olivia REALLY wanted to see Rapunzel on this trip, we thought we'd give it a go.

90 minutes later we were at the front of the queue! We ended up meeting Snow White, which looking back now was good as we didn't see her at the Auberge later in a trip. But at the time, I was a little sad as she's the only Princess we met on our last trip!

We then had a nice stroll back through the park and to the Hotel to check in and collect our bags.

We were assigned room 202 in the Yosemite Lodge. As I mentioned in my Highs and Lows, this was a disabled access room. So it only had one (tiny) single bed and a set of bunk beds and wet room instead of a bath.

Initially, I wanted to go straight back to reception to request a different room. But, before I could move I noticed that Olivia had climbed up onto the top bunk, placed her Teddy and huggle buddy up there and was excitedly shouting about how she was going to sleep up there. So, being the soft touch that I am, I decided to suck it up and just make do.

 

[HappyPanda]

We didn't have much time to relax as we had an 8pm reservation at Cafe Mickey. So we had a nice walk around lake and got there by about 8.15pm. The queue was about 20 people deep, but they go through it quite quickly and we were soon seated upstairs.

Olivia and I decided to share a Pizza and Garlic Bread.. to be honest, the pizza would have been more than enough on its own. But the Garlic Bread was nice, too!

We saw Tigger, Pluto, Mickey, Rabbit and Eeyore

Eeyore never made it to our table, despite twice getting as far as the table before us and then being ushered off downstairs.

The service was fairly quick for getting the food out but waiting for the bill seemed to take an age. We left the restaurant at about 21.45pm.

We then headed back to the park and went on Buzz twice and then found ourselves a nice spot for DREAMS!!! We arrived at Central Plaza at about 22.40 and it was fairly busy but still plenty of good spaces to be had.

We found a nice spot just slightly to the right of Central Plaza, everyone was sitting down and we were sure that everyone would stand up once they started and that we would lose our great view.. but they didn't! It ended up giving us the most amazing view.

I didn't take any photos of the show as 1) I knew that my photos wouldn't do the show justice and 2) I wanted to enjoy the show properly and not through the lens of a camera. But I did take a picture of the castle so you could get an idea of our location:

The show was just amazing, Olivia and I spent the whole time shouting wow! I definitely had a tear in my eye in certain places! After the show we had a nice walk back through the village and slumped into bed at about 00:15!! I knew at this point that we'd not have a hope in hell of making it up for EMH!

 

[Ms Poppins]

That's the only thing about Dreams being so late - no chance of EMH Roll on the winter months when it'll be on earlier

Cowboy cookout looks good. Lewis doesn't like Captain Hook either and I'd hoped he wouldn't be at CC, as I'd like to try it next time.

Your DD looks so happy in the photos - and well done on giving up a nice big bed for the sake of bunks....not sure I'd have done that

More please

 

[Ms Poppins]

Forgot to say - such a great idea everyone sitting down for Dreams - must have given an amazing view

 

[HappyPanda]

Forgot to say - such a great idea everyone sitting down for Dreams - must have given an amazing view

It was such a great idea, really made all the difference and meant that everyone could see whether tall or small!

Shame it wasn't like that on our last night when a few people decided to stand up so then everyone had to!

 

[HappyPanda]

Day Three - Friday 8th June 2013

I had optimistically set my alarm for 7.30am There was no chance of me getting up then! In fact, I was so zonked I don't even remember me turning it off!

We finally rose from our slumber at about 9.30am and as we had missed our breakfast slow we decided to make our first ever visit to Salon Mickey!

I let Olivia knock on the door and we were quickly ushered inside, I felt so important! We each collected a cookie and a bottle of water and went inside to sit down whilst they prepared our VIP Fastpass!

Olivia said this cookie was the yummiest... ever!

We finished our unofficial breakfast break, collected our fastpass and then headed out into the park!

We saw Duffy was out and there no-one waiting to see him . He looked a little lonely so Olivia went over and gave him a big hug to cheer him up!

We then went through the covered walkway to Frontierland and took advantage of our VIP Fastpass by going on Big Thunder Mountain. On our last trip, Olivia tried this ride twice and hated it both times. Now that she's 5 she wanted to try it again to see if she'd like it more now!

She held onto me so tight that she actually left dents in my arm! But once the ride stopped, she said she LOVED it! So much so she had to ring up Daddy to tell him straight away!

We then went on Phantom Manor again before heading over to Pirates of the Caribbean, this was closed on our last trip so was a new experience for Olivia. She was a bit worried about the drops but (again, whilst holding onto me for dear life!) she braved it and really enjoyed it.

She also made a little friend in the boy who was sat next to us with his Dad, I hadn't realised he was English and was busy telling Olivia all my best pirate jokes such as:

What is a Pirates Favourite Shop? Arrrrrrrrrrgos
Why are Pirates called Pirates? Because they Arrrrrrrrrr
What is a Pirates favourite music genre? Arrrrrrrrrrrrr & B etc.....

He then made a comment about how brilliantly bad they were!

By now, it was about midday and time to head over to the castle to see if anyone else had made it to the DISmeet. I had already had a text from Scampbunny to say about her shuttle being late, but luckily (with a bit of a run down main street) she made it just in time. It was really nice meeting her and her two boys, plus Jothp and her girls (and husband who very kindly took our pictures!).

As you can see from the picture, we had lovely blue sky weather didn't we ladies? What you can see is that on all other sides of the castle were big grey clouds and we had to shelter inside the castle to avoid the rain shower!

After saying our goodbyes, Olivia & I headed back to the hotel for a swim going via Disney Village:

The Swimming Pool in the Sequoia Lodge is lovely, although I can't say I got to enjoy it much as Olivia pretty much screamed the whole time. She's not at all confident in the water so even with her arm bands on, she did not want me to let go of her in the water at all.

So after about 45 minutes we go out and headed back to the parks! By now, the sun was really out (as you can tell from Olivia needing to wear her sunglasses).

 

[scampbunny]

loving ur report n seein what u were up to!!!!

a few of the projections in pm werent working - the ghost head in the ball and the singing heads.... ds1 was not impressed so we only did it once!! (they have the film on dvd and know it inside out lol)

yes - the group pic is deceptive!! but the rest of the day (after the rain) was lovely!!!

im way off doing my tr - still workin my way thru the pics - im on sunday evening now lol and no hope of rememberin all we did

 

[tinks_1989]

Olivia is so beautiful I hope Incan enjoy a mummy princess trip one day when Elsie is older!

 

[HappyPanda]

a few of the projections in pm werent working - the ghost head in the ball and the singing heads.... ds1 was not impressed so we only did it once!! (they have the film on dvd and know it inside out lol)

:

Oh no, that's awful. When we went these bits were working, just not the ghosts behind the seats at the end. But then, this wasn't working in March either so I'm guessing it's gone forever!

im way off doing my tr - still workin my way thru the pics - im on sunday evening now lol and no hope of rememberin all we did

I am really regretting not writing a diary on this trip, it's really hard to remember what we did. Think I have Disney Amnesia

 

[HappyPanda]

Olivia is so beautiful I hope Incan enjoy a mummy princess trip one day when Elsie is older!

Thank you I am really glad that I took her away for our girlie getaway. Would definitely recommend it! Might even do it again when she's a bit older... although I'll be hiring a chaffeur to carry my bags around!

 

[scampbunny]

Oh no, that's awful. When we went these bits were working, just not the ghosts behind the seats at the end. But then, this wasn't working in March either so I'm guessing it's gone forever!



I am really regretting not writing a diary on this trip, it's really hard to remember what we did. Think I have Disney Amnesia

i have that amnesia too

yes, its annoying they werent working - we love the singing heads!! lol i hope the ghosts at the end come back *** they were fun!!

 

[jothp]

A great start to the trip report. It did rain a bit on Thursday, we hopped back to the hotel for a nap soon after it started and were really pleased when we woke up to blue sky and sunshine.

You were really lucky to meet Eeyore in cafe mickey. We spent the whole week hoping to meet him but never did. It was partly my fault though because he was at the DLH outside breakfast one morning but we were in the studios and chose not to go back for him - I wish now we had.

It is a lovely picutre of all of us in the beautiful sunshine - it was great to meet you guys

 

[sammie1884]

After reading all these tr about Cowboy cook out and then seeing your pics I have decided we are deffo going there monday lunch time!!
Fab tr

 

[DLPDreams]

Loving your TR Helen .

We loved Cowboy Cookout too - great fun and would definitely do again (not sure it will be on in November though?).

I think one of the things I am looking forward to is Dreams being on earlier in November - it was lovely but did make it hard going with EMH too - we only managed two days of EMH at the beginning of it really. But, and I didn't think I would say it, we really enjoyed the evenings on the rides - doing BTM in the dusk/almost dark is great .

Olivia really looks like she is having a ball - she has grown up a little from your previous trip even though it wasn't that long ago!

 

[Mum to Belle]

I can't believe that your photos from Day 1 are actually on the same day - pelting rain & then brilliant sunshinee & blue sky! Lucky you had your lovely raincoats!! (Did Olivia not keep it on for Cinemagique?!)

I love the idea of a trip with just me & DD - maybe one day!

Lovely DISmeet photo too!

Really wish Cowboy Cookout was going to be an option for our November trip - it sounds FAB - and you met DAISY!!!!

 

[ROBEAR84]

Aw love the meet photo, such a shame we missed you all by a day!

That first day (our last day!) weather!! argh! The sun came out just as we were leaving and I was already soaked for the trip home!

I so which I could do a trip just me and Skye, we could queue for the princesses etc then that DH never wants to do and makes faces when I say me and Skye will go alone! She was so good waiting for dreams that I know a trip just us two would be so much easier!! I just don't think Cole would appreciate it though! I'd have to come home, get him and go again! (if only money were no object I would!!)

Skye and I waited 2 hours for Dreams one night but I think it was because we had such an awful view the first night (noone sat down, or at least not where we were!) When we waited all the front was sat down behind us so we probably could have snuck in towards the start of the show!

Looking forward to the rest of your TR!

 

[HappyPanda]

After reading all these tr about Cowboy cook out and then seeing your pics I have decided we are deffo going there monday lunch time!!
Fab tr

I will definitely be going back there next time - if it's still on!! Even without the characters it was a good meal and the live band they have on in there sets the atmosphere perfectly!

I think one of the things I am looking forward to is Dreams being on earlier in November - it was lovely but did make it hard going with EMH too - we only managed two days of EMH at the beginning of it really. But, and I didn't think I would say it, we really enjoyed the evenings on the rides - doing BTM in the dusk/almost dark is great .

Olivia really looks like she is having a ball - she has grown up a little from your previous trip even though it wasn't that long ago!

We didn't manage EMH one... actually, we didn't even manage breakfast once! I am looking forward to going back in March and not having to stay up until midnight each day! As I reallyl felt like we missed out on a lot of ride time (and food!) by having a lay-in each day!

It's strange, when I was looking through the photos I thought that Olivia looked older than our last trip, even though there is only 3 months between them! But then, as she kept reminding me - she was only 4 then and now she's 5!

I can't believe that your photos from Day 1 are actually on the same day - pelting rain & then brilliant sunshinee & blue sky! Lucky you had your lovely raincoats!! (Did Olivia not keep it on for Cinemagique?!)

It was a strange day weatherwise, but I was happy that it was mostly dry!

Olivia took her raincoat off in Cinemagique.. think she regrets that now!

Really wish Cowboy Cookout was going to be an option for our November trip - it sounds FAB - and you met DAISY!!!!

I think it will be silly if they stop it, it's so popular and without that then that part of frontierland becomes even more redundant! Maybe they are just going to change it a bit? I think it would be good if they made it Toy Story themed so you know you'd definitely meet Woody & Jessie and then have a few more characters in their cowboy gear thrown into the mix!

Aw love the meet photo, such a shame we missed you all by a day!

That first day (our last day!) weather!! argh! The sun came out just as we were leaving and I was already soaked for the trip home!

I did keep my out for you on our first day, but you must have been hiding from us! The weather was very unsettled that day, but luckily it brightened up in the end!

I so which I could do a trip just me and Skye, we could queue for the princesses etc then that DH never wants to do and makes faces when I say me and Skye will go alone! She was so good waiting for dreams that I know a trip just us two would be so much easier!! I just don't think Cole would appreciate it though! I'd have to come home, get him and go again! (if only money were no object I would!!)

It was hard work, but was also nice to be able to do all the girlie things! Andrew isn't convinced about coming with us in March, but my Mum (and possible my brother) will be coming along for some moral support!

Skye and I waited 2 hours for Dreams one night but I think it was because we had such an awful view the first night (noone sat down, or at least not where we were!) When we waited all the front was sat down behind us so we probably could have snuck in towards the start of the show!

Looking forward to the rest of your TR!

We were very spoilt with our view on the first night especially as we only turned up 20 minutes before it started. I think if we hadn't found a good space we would have staked out a better spot on another night!

Still can't believe that Skye sat so nicely for so long. Olivia was very restless after just those 20 minutes!