MichelinMan
I Am Speed - Ka-Chow!!!!
- Joined
- Apr 16, 2009
- Messages
- 790
12-16 July 2009, Newport Bay Club Admirals Lakeside Room
The Cast
DH – Me (Marc)
DS – Alasdair, 5 years old
DW – Caroline
The Plan
We went on honeymoon 15 years ago to WDW and had a great time, but always felt there was something missing – a child to share all the fun with. Well, now we have one, and we’ve been waiting until Alasdair is old enough to do Disney. We had been waiting until he would fully appreciate WDW, then stay at the Animal Kingdom Lodge, so thought around 6 or 7 years old would be the best age. Then out of the blue, DW suggested we might like to try DLRP this year as an interim ‘fix’ of Disney for him. As it is normally me who likes to go on holiday, and DW is normally the more reluctant one to part with cash for a holiday, I didn’t need asking twice, so started my usual manic holiday planning!
We decided to combine a 4 night stay in DLRP within our two week holiday down to England, visiting relatives and London (we live in Stonehaven, near Aberdeen). So the itinerary goes something like this:
Day 1 : Travel by car to the Outlaws, East Yorkshire
Days 2-4 : Yorkshire (including a day trip to Scarborough)
Day 4 : Travel by train to London
Days 6-8 : London, stay in Premier Inn, Kings Cross
Day 9 : Travel to DLRP by Eurostar
Days 10-12 : DLRP
Day 13 : DLRP, travel back to London on Eurostar
Day 14 : Travel back to Yorkshire by train
Day 15 : Spend a day recovering in Yorkshire!
Day 16 : Travel back to Scotland by car, tired and skint!
The Hotel Choice
Now, the intention was to try and stay onsite, but do things as reasonably as possible. So, first choice, the hotel. First we thought we would book the Hotel Cheyenne. DS wanted to have a pool (we weren’t bothered, and thought the theming looked great), but then discovered it had no air conditioning – seeing as we have acclimatised to Chilly Jocko Land, we didn’t like that idea, so I thought we would stay in one of the standard SL rooms. Then I realised these are in the lodges, not the main building, and fancied the idea of staying in the main building better. But then I also realised that it wouldn’t cost that much more to have a lakeside room, so decided to go for that.
I then made the mistake of showing DW the pictures of SL, which she thought looked ugly, and she worked out it would only cost us £50 more to stay at the Newport Bay Club. Finally, after I read many reviews, including on here, I decided it was worth upgrading the room to stay on the Admirals Floor with a lake view to avoid long walks to the room, and the other little extras you get. I am hoping we will be able to get a view of the fireworks at night from the room (and I am going to request a balcony). So we went from a cheap room at the Cheyenne, to an expensive room at NPB! (And we seriously considered the Pink Palace at one point, but decided that was going a bit silly!) We got the 4 nights for the price of 3 deal (the 40% offer wasn’t available when we booked).
The Meals
Next question : What will we do about meals?
As I stated previously, we had intended to try and do this trip cheaply – we would have been content with eating at McD’s and Annettes most of the time. But we decided we wanted to do BBWWS. And then we thought we needed to do a character meal too – so Café Mickey became a must do too. Given those two meals would cost so much, it immediately made sense to go for the Half Board Premium meal plan. The question then is what to do with the rest of the vouchers? Inventions seemed like an obvious choice (with the Premium vouchers it works out good value) – so the final choice came down to either Lucky Nugget or Auberge de Cendrillon for the princess meal. Now, although DS is a real lad, he also seems to be into Disney Princesses and Mama Mia at the moment too (I’m getting worried about him!), so I think we will end up doing the princess meal, ‘*** I know he won’t want to do it when we go back again! We are also going to do Annettes one day. So the meal plan goes something like this:
Day 1 : Annettes (paid with cash)
Day 2 : BBWWS
Day 3 : Inventions dinner
Day 4 : Café Mickey dinner
Day 5 : Auberge de Cendrillon late lunch before going home
The Aims
To do everything in 5 days!
My Aim : To get DS onto BTM as he is such a wuss – I will need to build him up gradually I think!
DS Aim : To beat DW and me on Buzz, see C3PO and R2D2 at Star Tours, and fight Captain Hook if he sees him!
DW Aim : To have a rest from housework!
At the moment the plan goes something like this:
Day 1
Arrive by Eurostar, try and check-in early at Newport Bay Hotel before heading for Annettes to have a late lunch/early dinner. Then hit DLP, starting with some gentler rides to get DS into the swing of things (e.g. IASW, Buzz, Storybook Land, Caseys Train) before catching the evening parades – not sure if we will wait for the fireworks, as I don’t want to tire out Alasdair, and we want to see the fireworks on Bastille day anyway.
Day 2
Make use of EMH (but I think getting there for a 08:00 start is optimistic!), then spend a day in DLP, will try and get DS onto BTM and Phantom Manor today. May have a break late afternoon to get a swim before dinner at BBWWS.
Day 3 : Bastille Day
I am assuming today will be busy in DLP, so will spend the day in WDS, before heading to Inventions for dinner, then ambling back to DLP for the fireworks late on.
Day 4
Try to mop up rides we haven’t done so far in either DLP or WDS. May even try to get DS onto Crush’s Coaster, but I think that may be pushing him too far!
Day 5
Let DS decide which rides he wants to do again. Do the princess meal at Auberge early afternoon, as we won’t have time for a big meal by the time we get back to London on Eurostar.
To help with the queues, we have managed to get hold of 9 Fastpasses from Ebay, so hopefully that will help lots.
Whilst in London, we are also thinking of doing either Chessington World of Adventures or Legoland Windsor – although not Disney, I would welcome any views of what you all think would be better, because the reviews I’ve read of Legoland haven’t been good.
The Cast
DH – Me (Marc)
DS – Alasdair, 5 years old
DW – Caroline
The Plan
We went on honeymoon 15 years ago to WDW and had a great time, but always felt there was something missing – a child to share all the fun with. Well, now we have one, and we’ve been waiting until Alasdair is old enough to do Disney. We had been waiting until he would fully appreciate WDW, then stay at the Animal Kingdom Lodge, so thought around 6 or 7 years old would be the best age. Then out of the blue, DW suggested we might like to try DLRP this year as an interim ‘fix’ of Disney for him. As it is normally me who likes to go on holiday, and DW is normally the more reluctant one to part with cash for a holiday, I didn’t need asking twice, so started my usual manic holiday planning!
We decided to combine a 4 night stay in DLRP within our two week holiday down to England, visiting relatives and London (we live in Stonehaven, near Aberdeen). So the itinerary goes something like this:
Day 1 : Travel by car to the Outlaws, East Yorkshire
Days 2-4 : Yorkshire (including a day trip to Scarborough)
Day 4 : Travel by train to London
Days 6-8 : London, stay in Premier Inn, Kings Cross
Day 9 : Travel to DLRP by Eurostar
Days 10-12 : DLRP
Day 13 : DLRP, travel back to London on Eurostar
Day 14 : Travel back to Yorkshire by train
Day 15 : Spend a day recovering in Yorkshire!
Day 16 : Travel back to Scotland by car, tired and skint!
The Hotel Choice
Now, the intention was to try and stay onsite, but do things as reasonably as possible. So, first choice, the hotel. First we thought we would book the Hotel Cheyenne. DS wanted to have a pool (we weren’t bothered, and thought the theming looked great), but then discovered it had no air conditioning – seeing as we have acclimatised to Chilly Jocko Land, we didn’t like that idea, so I thought we would stay in one of the standard SL rooms. Then I realised these are in the lodges, not the main building, and fancied the idea of staying in the main building better. But then I also realised that it wouldn’t cost that much more to have a lakeside room, so decided to go for that.
I then made the mistake of showing DW the pictures of SL, which she thought looked ugly, and she worked out it would only cost us £50 more to stay at the Newport Bay Club. Finally, after I read many reviews, including on here, I decided it was worth upgrading the room to stay on the Admirals Floor with a lake view to avoid long walks to the room, and the other little extras you get. I am hoping we will be able to get a view of the fireworks at night from the room (and I am going to request a balcony). So we went from a cheap room at the Cheyenne, to an expensive room at NPB! (And we seriously considered the Pink Palace at one point, but decided that was going a bit silly!) We got the 4 nights for the price of 3 deal (the 40% offer wasn’t available when we booked).
The Meals
Next question : What will we do about meals?
As I stated previously, we had intended to try and do this trip cheaply – we would have been content with eating at McD’s and Annettes most of the time. But we decided we wanted to do BBWWS. And then we thought we needed to do a character meal too – so Café Mickey became a must do too. Given those two meals would cost so much, it immediately made sense to go for the Half Board Premium meal plan. The question then is what to do with the rest of the vouchers? Inventions seemed like an obvious choice (with the Premium vouchers it works out good value) – so the final choice came down to either Lucky Nugget or Auberge de Cendrillon for the princess meal. Now, although DS is a real lad, he also seems to be into Disney Princesses and Mama Mia at the moment too (I’m getting worried about him!), so I think we will end up doing the princess meal, ‘*** I know he won’t want to do it when we go back again! We are also going to do Annettes one day. So the meal plan goes something like this:
Day 1 : Annettes (paid with cash)
Day 2 : BBWWS
Day 3 : Inventions dinner
Day 4 : Café Mickey dinner
Day 5 : Auberge de Cendrillon late lunch before going home
The Aims
To do everything in 5 days!
My Aim : To get DS onto BTM as he is such a wuss – I will need to build him up gradually I think!
DS Aim : To beat DW and me on Buzz, see C3PO and R2D2 at Star Tours, and fight Captain Hook if he sees him!
DW Aim : To have a rest from housework!
At the moment the plan goes something like this:
Day 1
Arrive by Eurostar, try and check-in early at Newport Bay Hotel before heading for Annettes to have a late lunch/early dinner. Then hit DLP, starting with some gentler rides to get DS into the swing of things (e.g. IASW, Buzz, Storybook Land, Caseys Train) before catching the evening parades – not sure if we will wait for the fireworks, as I don’t want to tire out Alasdair, and we want to see the fireworks on Bastille day anyway.
Day 2
Make use of EMH (but I think getting there for a 08:00 start is optimistic!), then spend a day in DLP, will try and get DS onto BTM and Phantom Manor today. May have a break late afternoon to get a swim before dinner at BBWWS.
Day 3 : Bastille Day
I am assuming today will be busy in DLP, so will spend the day in WDS, before heading to Inventions for dinner, then ambling back to DLP for the fireworks late on.
Day 4
Try to mop up rides we haven’t done so far in either DLP or WDS. May even try to get DS onto Crush’s Coaster, but I think that may be pushing him too far!
Day 5
Let DS decide which rides he wants to do again. Do the princess meal at Auberge early afternoon, as we won’t have time for a big meal by the time we get back to London on Eurostar.
To help with the queues, we have managed to get hold of 9 Fastpasses from Ebay, so hopefully that will help lots.
Whilst in London, we are also thinking of doing either Chessington World of Adventures or Legoland Windsor – although not Disney, I would welcome any views of what you all think would be better, because the reviews I’ve read of Legoland haven’t been good.
im in east yorkshire near scarbough so i will wave to you as you go by
