My first trip report August 2009 now completed!

[Rosabelle]

This is a rather belated report, more a post-pre trip report. But as I’ve only recently discovered disboards I think that’s a good excuse for being late

Date of trip 18th – 22nd August 2009
Staying at Santa Fe
Cast
Me (33)
Mum (50+)
DD (16)
DS (5)
DN1 (12)
DN2 (8)
DN3 (6) All first timers to DLP and a surprise trip for DD

pre-trippy
We are confined to school holidays as I work in a school so at the start of summer I was looking for a slim chance of a cheap getaway. My brother who lives in London suggested Alton Towers and he would come meet us for a day or 2. So Mum and I checked out the flights, hotels and park prices and I was very VERY shocked to see how much it would cost! Having been to France on camping /mobile home trips a few times I was comparing it to this and it was still hugely expensive. My mum said the famous last words “Ye know, ye would probably get Disneyland cheaper than that!”

I scoffed at her and told her not to be ridiculous, Disney was a once in a lifetime holiday that costs millions!! But I couldn’t resist and that evening I was sat in front of my laptop screen with goosebumps all over and the biggest cheesiest smile ever….and that was only after hearing the tinkly sound that comes when you change a page on the DLP website . It was enough I was HOOKED!
2 days later I’d called the most wonderful travel agents in Cork who helped and guided us in every decision and that was it, we were all booked!

We’d gotten flights from Dublin – Beauvais, private transfers, 2 connecting rooms in Santa Fe for half what we would have paid at A. Towers. We got an extra day and night free, 2 x under 7’s free AND 40% off! Now all we had to do was get the passports, shopping & packing organised as we’d only 4 weeks till departure date eeek!

My dd has special needs, and as part of her condition is a learning disability she can’t understand time. This meant if we told her we were going to DLP then she would think we were going NOW and would get really upset when we didn’t. To avoid confusing her we said nothing about the trip. It was really difficult but somehow we managed. The little kids were fantastic they were bursting with excitement but still held it in around dd. Excitement reached frenzy status when our tickets arrived with a Disney brochure, oh how that book was pored over for hours each day by all of us. If we weren’t scrutinising the pictures in the brochure we were on the interweb looking at videos of the rides and on here reading reports.
Our TA had booked all of our evening meals for us for each night so we spent ages researching the restaurants too.
Every Sunday I’d meet my nieces in Mums house and they would all shout out the countdown when we arrived “3 more Tuesdays!” “2 more Tuesdays”. Ds was marking off the days on the calendar each morning. Then we were into single days, only 4 sleeps, 3 sleeps, 2 sleeps and holy wackamole it’s tomorrow!!!EEK.

The day before
As dh couldn’t come with us to DLP due to work we all spent the whole day together, doing some last minute shopping, a lovely long walk in the park and a play in the playground. All of a sudden it was evening and time to get the kids bathed and into bed. I was so wound up trying not to tell DD why she was going to bed early I actually felt sick. After having a quick whispered excited chat with ds who was strangely calm I actually did go throw up! And I’m the grown up!! TMI I know, apologies for that. Back into ds to see how he was and he said “Mammy this is the best bedtime of my life!”
I went downstairs to have a very late dinner with dh and I was really upset at leaving him for almost a week, but he’s great at cheering me up so although I still felt guilty and sad about him being here working while we were all off having fun he assured me that he was happy for us to go. I did some last minute ironing then sneaked into the kids rooms to pack up their hand luggage bags.
I packed up my bag and left all very important items sitting on top, the passports, flight tickets etc. Plugged the camera battery in for another charge just in case and dropped exhaustedly into bed at approx 1 am.

DAY 1
I woke up about 5 times during my very short sleep feeling ill with excitement again, checked on the kids who were snoring soundly and somehow managed to get a bit of sleep before the alarm went off at 4am! I was up showered and drinking tea in about 15 minutes LOL I felt fresher that morning than I had done ever . I made some hot chocolate for the kids and went to wake them. I knew they wouldn’t entertain brekkies at that hour even if they had been asleep for a good 8 hours. First I woke ds “Wakey wakey Sean it’s time to go to Disneyland” well he shot out of bed and was washed & dressed in about 4 seconds LOL, then we all went in to wake dd together, “Wakey wakey Janey time to get up” She was having none of it till ds says “Janice come on we’re going on holidays” she shot upright in the bed “called ?” she says “whaddye think” I asked her and the first thing she says is “Disneyland?” and we all went “YEAH!! WE’RE GOING TO DISNEYLAND!!
That was it we couldn’t contain the excitement anymore, 4 weeks of whispers and secrets and not getting giddy burst out and we were all laughing, crying (me) shouting and mental hyper. I reckon the neighbours thought we were loons dancing around the house in the dead of night Dd just kept asking for Ariel, she has loved her all of her life and she just couldn’t comprehend that we were actually going to meet her so over and over all the way to the airport the little voice in the back of the car was asking “Ariel there?” and ds beside her as nutty as ever, “I’m gonna see Buzz and give him high fiiiiiiiiiiive.” “I’m gonna see Woody and give him high fiiiiiiiiiive.” “I’m gonna see Baloo and ……” you get the idea .
The only downpoint was when dh said “I’m really happy that the kids are getting to do this but I wish this was our holiday and we were all heading off together”. So there and then I vowed to go back with just the four of us.

We arrived at the airport at 5.20 ish, but got stuck in traffic for 15 minutes at the entrance!!! Eventually we met my mum and the nieces and within 2 minutes we’d said our teary goodbyes(me again) to all the daddies and we were running to the gate which was closing at 6am. Not an easy feat when you’re pushing a wheelchair and carrying 3 hand luggage bags (I sorely regretted not buying little trolley cases, emphasis on sorely). DD was roaring laughing the whole way getting pushed at 60 mph through hordes of people LOL. I reckon that's why Ryanair is so cheap, they make you walk the first half of your journey!

We got to the gate just at 6 and almost dropped on the floor. If it wasn’t DLP we were going to I think I would have! It was the excitement that was keeping us all going My TA had informed Ryanair that we had a w/chair so that was ok. They let everyone else get onboard first then brought us out, took the w/chair and helped me up the stairs with dd. Ds was so good carrying his big heavy bag by himself . They had kept the 2nd row for us so it was nice and easy getting in to our seats and ds could see into the cockpit when it opened.

Just before I turned my phone off dh sent me a text saying he’d watch us take off from the viewing point outside the airport, he said he’d flash the car headlights so we’d know it was him. So we all leaned over and sure enough in the dawn light just as the plane took off we could see him flashing the lights waving us on our happy journey. We all waved back like mad eejits then sat back to enjoy the start of our first ever magical Disney holiday.

 

[Bagpuss]

Just before I turned my phone off dh sent me a text saying he’d watch us take off from the viewing point outside the airport, he said he’d flash the car headlights so we’d know it was him. So we all leaned over and sure enough in the dawn light just as the plane took off we could see him flashing the lights waving us on our happy journey. We all waved back like mad eejits then sat back to enjoy the start of our first ever magical Disney holiday.

How lovely was that

Enjoyed reading this, can't wait for more.

How you were excited at the time is how I am feeling now about our 1st visit in 3 weeks, but I can't share it with my daughter yet as it is a birthday surprise so i'm trying not to let it slip but its really hard as I want to share the excitement.

 

[Mum to Belle]

Awwww, I'm all teary!! (Not over the being sick bit tho'!! )

Well done you for keeping it a secret!

We're leaving DH behind this time - loved how he "waved" goodbye!

 

[mommy2ash]

awwww what a great start. i remember how excited i was the first time i went.

 

[zinderella]

Just wiping my eyes right now...can't wait to read the rest of it.

 

[adr2.8i]

absolutley fantastic!! you have brought a tear to a grown mans eyes!

 

[Rosabelle]

awwww you're all as soppy as I am
Day 1 continued.
We landed at Beauvais in our jeans and cardigans, summer in Ireland doesn’t involve heat, and we couldn’t believe how warm it was! We had only hand luggage so we were straight out to meet our driver Fajid. Within a couple of minutes we were hitting the road to Disney. At one point we were caught in a little traffic but otherwise the drive was fine and we arrived at the Santa Fe by 10.30 am. Check in was very busy so I sent my mam over to sit down with all the kids and I checked us all in. Goofy was there and we were utterly gobsmacked! We weren’t expecting anything Disney-ish outside of the park so this was a huge surprise. We got our park tickets, and breakfast passes. I turned down breakfast in the park because I hadn’t a clue what she meant and to this bewildered soul it just sounded too daunting! Our rooms were ready and off we went. We were in a block down by the river at the Cheyenne.
After passing the volcano and a crashed spaceship it started to dawn on us that maybe this hotel was a bit different from a regular hotel.

Our rooms were nice enough, big comfy beds and nice view of the river and the jail next door LOL. We sat and rested for a few minutes and let the kids check out the tv. they had great fun with the interconnecting doors. After a little bit we felt rested enough to head up to the park. We were gonna walk but the wall of heat that hit us when we left the hotel changed our mind quick enough! Apparently it was 35Celsius and not even noon! So we got the shuttle bus and decided we needed food, we were guided to the Village and were instantly struck dumb by everything we saw. Even the Disney Village sign blew us away! This is the gang under the sign.

We wandered through the village like aliens lost on an unbelievably awesome planet, eyes popping and jaws dropping, until we found McD’s and decided that would do for a quick bite. After taking photos of everything from the giant Starbucks (they’re not that big here) to the crocodile outside Rainforest café we headed out to find the entrance to the Park, yup we’d missed it when we saw the Village.
We must have looked deranged as even the tents for bag check blew us away. We thought this was the actual entrance for Disney so you can imagine what we were like when we turned the corner and saw the Disneyland Hotel! I remember just standing and staring at it while the kids were actually squealing and jumping saying “We’re really here!!” Here we all are, except DN1 who's taking the piccie.

There was a bit of a Q at the turnstiles at the side of the DHL and we were quite happy standing there till a CM came over and invited us to go through an unopened gate instead. This was our first taste of being spoiled because of dd.

We went in through the turnstiles and walked the whole away around town square (I think that’s what it’s called) taking everything in. The kids were running everywhere looking at everything while I gathered my wits about me and sorted out the easy access pass for dd. We walked up Main Street USA

and it was great craic to finally see the real life versions of all the shops and restaurants we’d been drooling over on google for the past month. Our first stop was of course The Castle, we walked through it with our jaws scraping the ground LOL and promptly got lost. Somehow we found ourselves at Dumbo and queued for approx 30 mins before a CM came over and told us we didn’t need to q if we got an easy access pass. She thought it was hysterical when I told her I actually had it but didn’t realise I could avoid queues with it.
And that was it we were away, we rode on Dumbo which was lovely and cool up in the air, and wandered all around Fantasyland. At this point we were unaware that there was waaaay more than Fantasyland in Disneyland Park.

Around 4pm we were utterly wilted with the heat and spotted some people sitting with their feet in the ornamental fountain in Central Plaza (I think that’s where it is!). There were people actually sitting in the fountain! We grabbed some space on the edge and gratefully dunked our roasted piggies in to the cool water. Mum got us all some lovely ice pops and we just sat and chilled taking in the atmosphere. Suddenly I heard a yelp beside me and I looked just in time to see ds fall backwards off the ledge into the water . I grabbed him out thinking a)he would be very distressed and b) we’d get arrested and kicked out of DLP! But he was roaring laughing and saying how great it felt! There was a stunned silence around us then everyone started letting their kiddies in for a splash. We were mortified thinking we’d started something terrible but everyone was laughing and dancing and splashing each other. Some Cast members walked by and stood laughing for a few minutes, one splashed one of the kiddies and said how lucky they were to be able to cool down so I figured we wouldn’t be getting arrested after all.
With all the kids soaked to their skin and thoroughly enjoying it, we had no choice but to go back to the hotel. They were quite dry getting on the bus as it was so sunny so there were no embarrassing puddles anywhere.
We had a dinner reservation for 6.30 in Walts but by the time we all had cold showers and made our way past all the distractions on the way there we were too late. The CM at the restaurant made a booking for us in the Steakhouse for after the OUAD parade, we watched that before heading over there.
We were shown to a fantastic w/chair spot outside town square and there was enough room for us all to stay together. We were blown away by it all! Are the CM’s told to pay attention to the w/chair spots because every one of them waved and blew kisses at us? When dd saw Ariel and Prince Eric she was delirious, she was waving her Ariel doll at her and blowing kisses like mad! Ariel waved right to dd and she promptly burst into tears, But poor ds was terrified of the characters and shot behind me and his sisters w/chair when any came near us. I thought he would have a terrible time if this was to keep up.
After the Parade we headed over to Steakhouse but unfortunately we had a really bad experience here. I won’t go on about it but we were super disappointed with the whole service, our waiter was at best indifferent and at worst quite rude. There was quite a scary experience too. It was so bad that we would be very wary of darkening their door again!

But anyway back to the good stuff. After dinner we went back to the park for Fantillusions and it was everything we expected it to be only better. We’d had a taster at Disney on Ice but this was so much more! We stayed in town Square resting our weary legs on a rare bench

and watched what we thought were the fireworks. We could see one or two glittery sparkles over the rooftops and were impressed by these and the lovely music. It was when we were walking out of the park and looked back from the DLH that we saw what we’d been missing, eejits! LOL We vowed to make it the next night.
So utterly exhausted we headed out of the park at 11.15pm for the buses. We met a lovely CM who told us to wait at the turning point for a private w/chair minibus and not to even attempt to q with the millions of guests waiting on buses. We were delighted with yet another little touch that made us feel so welcomed.

At midnight we were in our pj’s telling dh all about our first very long day and within 20 seconds of saying goodnight we were snoring ZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

I have more piccies to upload so beware! The next days reports are shorter but more photos

Hope you're still awake Rosabelle x

 

[Rosabelle]

Day2.
We woke up full of beans about 8am, had a lovely brekkie which I was very surprised about, we'd heard how busy the hotel would be and were picturing cattle markets, but again we were taken from the Q and directed in to the Cantina via another door, we were told to come in that way each morning and not bother q'ing at all, happy days!!
We Met Minnie on our way out,

We were in the park by about 10am, we don't do hurrying in my family LOL armed with a map, an easy access pass and a full nights sleep we were all guns blazing !! We went straight up to Frontierland land and got fastpasses for BTM for 1pm, even with the easy pass we still had to wait an hour. We went on the Steam Boat, met Woody at The Roundup ,

had a walk around by the Castle Stage where Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella were holding court. There was I reckon about 100 people waiting to meet them and not being able to get dd up the steps we were thinking of heading off and just leaving my mam with the others to meet them. That’s when the CM spotted us and came straight down off the stage. She asked if we’d like to meet the princesses and I said yes but we would wait till they were finished and meet them on their way down. Not at all she says, they’ll be right over to you! Well Janice was squeaking and squealing with pleasure at the sound of this and I was shocked to my core! We were asked to wait at the other side of the stage where they come down and in about 30 seconds Aurora and Prince Charming (can’t remember his name!) came right down the steps to us! Janice was over the moon and squished the daylights out of them both. I felt like everyone in the Q was hating me and and I just wanted to get Aurora back up on stage asap!!
Aurora on the other hand was knelt down beside Janice admiring her many bracelets and letting Janice see her shoes, she lifted up her dress so she could get a good luck, prince was really lovely and was able to understand dd’s speech perfectly, they had a good long chat with all of our gang and we got some lovely photos before they headed back up on the stage.This is a different photo of another time we met Aurora, I videod the first time at the stage.

Then Cinderella and her Prince came down. Well Dd was thinking she was royalty at this stage LOL, again the dress, shoes and hair had to be examined and the jewels! Cinderella had the most beautiful voice she really was very princessy, For these photos, some very peed off parents (I don’t blame them) pushed their kiddies out under the barrier and plonked them beside dd and Cinderella, so we have lots of photos of strange kids in our album too!

Back to BTM which we all loved, then lunch sitting by the waterside at the steamboat. We felt much more organised and the heat wasn’t getting to us as much today. Next we did Buzz, Autopia, Orbitron, Buzz again, IASW, Alice’s Labrynth, Carousel and the Teacups. All with the Easy Pass so little or no queuing. Sometimes only 3 were allowed on with dd but most of the time we all were so it was really fantastic!

can I just add, my gun was definitly NOT working on Buzz

We met Rabbit, Alice, Mad Hatter,Hook, White Rabbit and Chip n Dale. (some of these pics are from other days but we met all these for the first time on our 2nd day)
White Rabbit sneaked up behind dd and frightened the life out of her , she laughed her head off

Each and Every time we saw a character they made a beeline for us. Not Once did we have to fight our way through hordes of people and we noticed too that that the others in the crowds calmed down a lot around dd in her chair. We were beginning to feel very special indeed! LOL.
After this we headed over to the Studios for the first time
and we absolutely loved the whole lay out, we got some lovely cold ice lollies and got ourselves in a great place for the HSM show.

Ds was picked to do the dance bit but he was too shy to venture out. “Troy Bolton” came over and kissed dd and all my nieces on their hands which started off a load of screaming and swooning LOL.
We met Mickey for the first time and Ds ran and hid!

After meeting Buzz, who appeared out of nowhere and pounced on us!Ds bravely crept out and got his long awaited high fiiiiiive

We stupidly ventured onto Crush’s coaster, biiiiiig mistake! As if being terrified on it wasn’t bad enough, the bloody thing broke down and we were stuck on it for 15 minutes!Here's ds and mum, with dn 1 and 3 stuck in their car after we were released.

But we got out alive to go ride Lightening McQueen, Magic Carpets and visit Playhouse Disney.

When we were back in the hotel that eve, ds’s tooth came out! I told him this was just perfect as Tinkerbell was THE tooth fairy and she would leave a very special coin for him tonight. BUT he would have to be very brave and show her that his tooth had come out. I was hoping this might get him over his fear of the characters, the only one he’d come near to was Buzz and the princesses *** “they’re real people not big animals like Mickey!” awww

We had dinner in La Cantina that evening and really enjoyed it, the kiddies loved the idea of choosing their own items and the unlimited desserts LOL, the grown ups liked that too LOL.

After dinner we headed back up for a stroll around the village and to take in Fantillusions and the Fireworks. We were just outside fantasy Land for fantilussions so we got to see the very start of it.

Ds with his hood pulled right down to his nose and the rest of him hidden up to his chin, stuck his toothless gums out at Tinkerbell and whispered “My tooth fell out today Tink” As if by magic Tink waved her magic wand at us as she passed. That was all we needed, he was made up and declared that Tinkerbell had cured him and he wasn’t afraid anymore. He managed to stand beside dd’s chair and wave at everyone instead of behind her peeping out.
At the end of the parade we were all ushered down away from the castle and got some great seats at the Big Orb thingy outside discovery land. Well I don’t need to tell you guys how great they are! I’ve never seen children anywhere just sit and stare in awe as they did that night. And we weren’t even looking straight on! WOW is all I can say. I got a lump in my throat looking at them and the castle with the moving lights on it and Tink up the top sprinkling her fairy dust…. Magical! I was so in awe I didn’t even think to take a photo!

That was it, day 2 over, we took our time getting through the crowds and getting back to the bus.

Ds and dn3 took turns riding on dd’s lap as their little legs were so tired at this stage. Never once did they complain that they were tired or fed up, they seemed to be unaware of the lateness and just enjoyed every single second. Our friendly driver Ronan was there again waiting to bring us back to our beds.

With one very sleepy phonecall to dh over we all zonked out again just after midnight ZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzz

 

[Cyrano]

What a lovely, refreshing trip report. Your enthusiasm shines through along with everyone's excitement.

Really pleased to hear that your Princess was given lots of attention by the characters and CM. This is an area that Disney excel in

 

[mommy2ash]

well that is the most lovely trip report i have ever read. i cant wait for more. im glad disney made everything so easy on you. personally i think shame on anyone who would glare at someone getting some special attention because they have a disability. i witnessed this in the queue to meet mickey on st patricks day. a boy and his brother got to meet mickey without queuing. he looked over the moon and kept squeezing mickey, ash said to me mammy that little boy is really happy to see mickey mouse and i said yes pet he is. honestly it looked like it made his day and who would deny any child that.

beautiful pics, i agree with cyrano you can just see the excitement on everyones faces. thanks so much for sharing

 

[Mum to Belle]

Awwww, another fantastic day! Loving the Disney Magic!!

More, more, more!!

 

[Suzi-Q]

What a great trippie I get the feeling you're still jumping around with excitement while typing it

Looking foward to reading more

Suze xx

 

[Rosabelle]

Day 3.(sorry for the delay, I’m trying to do my pre trip for the next trip too!)

Well ds woke up about 7.30 and immediately checked under his pillow to see if Tinkerbell had taken his tooth! But unfortunately as we were so tired the night before we had forgotten to take it out of the little packet we put it in. I got the packet down and gave it to ds to put under his pillow for that night. Well he nearly fell over when he took out the tissue and instead of his tooth there was a shiny gold Disney coin with BUZZ LIGHTYEAR on it!! Tinkerbell must have known where to look This is the best pic I have of the coin.

I can’t really remember this day, they all blend into one! so I’ll just post some pics.
here's ds in the green top, discussing dental matters with a little boy also missing a tooth , this is the DJ Stitch stage, the show we missed :-(

somewhere near Indiana Jones

cooling down in the lovely icy water vapour sprays, Thanks Disney!

In the Labrynth

The Plaque at the entrance to Discovery Arcade,

Another OUAD parade and dd waving like mad at her special princess Ariel , still haven't met her yet though :-(

Getting ready for Fantillusions in our new DLP Fleeces.

Ds was as brave as anyone else there tonight and shouted a big thank you for his "real" gold coin to Tink as she passed ,

After the fireworks we again made our weary way out to the bus and once again our driver was there waiting for us to bring us home. We brought some hot chocolates and muffins to bed which made a lovely supper. A quick phonecall to dh and we were snoring ZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzz

 

[ExpatDisneyLover]

Oh my goodness what a wonderful trip report - magical just reading it! Lot's of smiles and chuckles - Thanks for sharing!

 

[Rosabelle]

AWWW thanks a lot for the lovely comments you're giving me really great feedback, i'm loving writing the report now! Although I have forgotten some details.... anyway....

Day 4.
Can’t remember what time we woke up at, we were well and truly exhausted this morning I know that! After breakfast we headed up to the tourist office and got some tickets for Sea Life at Val D’Europe. We also needed directions for a chemist as ds had been developing a strange rash on his face and we needed more sunscreen. There’s none in DLP but the Disney store in the Village sells sunscreen behind the counter (€20 for small bottle!) We boarded the train in the DLP station and the kids thought it was the coolest thing! A triple decker train! One stop down and we were there.
The chemist is directly across the road when you come out of the station and the pharmacist was really helpful. The Val D’Europe centre is huuuuuuuge, like the Trafford Centre in Manchester kind of set up, although the foody part of Trafford is bigger. Sea Life was ok, it wasn’t all that it was made out to be and tbh we were disappointed to have missed all that time away from Disney

We headed back pretty quickly and spent the day dashing between WDS and the Park catching all the different shows and parades, we didn’t want to miss a thing as this was our last full day here. We had some lovely sambos , fruit and yoghurts for a picnic lunch in the area between the parks, it was lovely but the wasps were everywhere! We'd noticed these all over the park actually, especially around the stands that sold ice pops and slush puppy drinks. They were only after the sugar though so we figured out when we were sitting anywhere to just put some ice lolly or smoothie on the ground and they left you alone.
We had dinner/lunch reservations booked all 5 days by our TA but we didn’t make any of them. Tonight Café Mickey was booked for 7pm and I was determined not to miss this one! So we were in Fantasyland and all of a sudden it was 6.40pm and the park was super crowded. We hadn’t been on the Disneyland Train yet so we ran up to the stop to see if we could get the train back to Town Square and save our very slow legs. There was a huge line of people waiting. DD’s easy access pass only allowed dd plus 5 more so I was sending my Mum on with the kids (smart huh ) and I was gonna run on ahead. The CM came over to take the pass and counted us but I told him I wasn’t getting on. However he insisted and made a big fuss of dd and the smaller 2 kiddies. He said there was plenty of room so we all got on. Ds told him we were in a hurry to get to Café Mickey for Mickey’s birthday party (this was when I realised they all thought we were there because it was Mickey’s 15th Birthday not DLP’s awwwww, I didn’t correct them) when the CM heard this he told ds that he would ask the driver to get us there extra quick and he would ring Mickey’s pals and ask them to wait for us.

So 5 minutes later we were at town square, But we hadn't made it back to the hotel to freshen up (again!) so i sent the gang running over to the Village and i nipped into one of the little boutiques around town square and bought a load of DLP t-shirts.

we arrived at Cafe Mickey at exactly 7pm and exploded in the doors like crazed loons! there was no way we were missing this place!! I'd read and heard so much about it, and I'd talked about it to the kids and mum so much that we were all completely hyped up by the time we got there!
What I didn't tell the kids or mum was that the characters would be there

So in we went, skipping the poor people queing with no bookings :-( and I asked for a table downstairs as instructed. We got a great table, a lovely big round in the centre to the right. there was a line of booth type seating beside us. We were in awe of the place, we loved everything from the Mickey plates to the seats to the lights, the menus were brilliant and the kids all popped their glasses out straight away,

we were only sat down a minute when this fella came over to take our order

then this fella had a boing boing boing competition with my niece. bouncing all over the place! it was hilarious!

ds's mickey mouse pizza yum! can't remember what i ate but i do know there were no leftovers on anyones plate

some more visitors to our table,

Around the time eeyore was walking around the song Freedom came on and all the staff lined up and did a great dance routine. Some were up on podiums and Mickey was up on one too dancing his socks off LOL! We were rofl at eeyore boogying away with his droopy sad face lol lol. i have a small video of them dancing I'll add it later.
then it was the little girls beside us b/day so the whole gang came over to sing happy birthday to her. My gang thought they were singing it to Mickey so we all sang along too hahaha
Dn couldn't find her autograph book and captain hook was so unimpressed with her handing him a page to sign, he threw it away several times and refused to get out of my dn3's seat lol

Everybody had such a great time! the kids were so happy to have shared in Mickey's birthday party with his other friends and like any b/day party there was sweets galore for dessert!
Absolutely brilliant night all in all, the food was super, total bill for 4 adult meals, 3 kiddy meals and 1 beer was approx €170, but we each had starters, lots of drinks and desserts so good value if you ask me the atmosphere magic! we left here and went straight into the disney store and went mad shopping! we were on a mad high and were in great spirits. We went back to the park in time to watch fantillusions and the fireworks and went home to the santa fe very very happy

 

[Rosabelle]

Day 5, Our Last Day booooo hoooooo hoooooo sniff sob

But what a day!!!
We were all awake around 7 to finish off packing, this was hugely difficult as we'd only brought hand luggage and we had bought 10 times our combined body weight in VIDS (Very Important Disney Stuff) We had some tough decisions to make about leaving certain items behind and eventually several pairs of flip flops, pj's and suddenly unneccessary(sp) items of bulky clothing were dumped and our novelty souvenier giant popcorn/drink/slush puppie cups and containers were packed

so after a quick brekkie we met Donald for the 1st time which was great!

we dumped our luggage at the office at santa fe and jumped on the bus determined to fill every single minute of our last day at DLP. First thing we did was head straight up to Fantasyland and go on all the rides that we missed before, then into Frontierland and did the same in there then likewise in Discoveryland. We didn't do any of the BIG thrills like Space Mountain or Indiana Jones as I was the only 1 willing to but I didn't want to do it alone......next time!
We had planned on going to Buzz's Pizza Planet for lunch but then we spotted Honey I shrunk the Audience and went in there instead. We took another walk through the castle and managed to help dd up the stairs

she was roaring laughing when she heard "sleeping beauty" snoring

We waited at castle stage for a few minutes as dd still hadn't met Ariel and i was beginning to realise that we probably wouldn't at this late stage in our trip . dd was very upset about this and kept asking for her.
We wanted to go on the Tram Tour so we headed over to WDS and thanks again to the easy access pass we got on within 10 minutes. the kids loved this and the grown ups were terrified! Especially when the water pours down the hill....Chickens! LOL

Next we took in Stitch Live, awesome!! Loved every second of it!
We were well and truly starved at this time so quite by accident found ourselves going into rest des stars and lo and behold it turned out to be Ratatoiulle's Restaurant! Well this was great news. Once again we were taken from the Q and given a really good table near to the buffet counter. The choice of food was really extensive, ds over looked the chicken nuggets again (his fave back home but hadn't touched them once here) and chose beef bourgignon(sp!) and loved it! I had paella i think and the others had an assortment of good healthy dinners. for dessert ds had a stack of crepes, he adores these! and dd had apple pie. I can't remember what anyone else had
Little Remy and his chef was being wheeled round on his cheese dish, and the chef was singing lovely french songs all the while. It was great fun but soo sooooo noisy!!

After having our fill we headed outside again, it was 2.30 and we hadn't ticked off some thigns on our map that we still wanted to do! Our transfer to Beauvais was coming at 7.30 so time was ticking. We watched HSM again for the girls and they loved it!
We took a walk over to Monsters Inc and met this guy, but ds was too afraid of him so he sat in the shade with the others and had an icecream.

TBC

 

[Mum to Belle]

Loving it!! Your Cafe Mickey experience sounds fab - glad the train got you there in time!!

 

[Rosabelle]

thanks Mum to Belle, we loved cafe Mickey so much, it was just a very special evening I still get all teary eyed when I think of it!

HOLY WACKAMOLY! My spelling/grammar is terrible in the last post!
Anyway,

Day 5 continued

My mum and 2 dn's hadn't been on IASW or Pinoccio so we headed back over to the park for this and I was secretely hoping and praying to St Walt that we would meet Ariel this our last time in the Disneyland Park, as you can prob see in the last few photos poor dd was really down This was really the ONLY person she actually wanted to meet!

So on our way up to IASW Mary Poppins was dancing with Bert and the rest of the crew so we watched the last 2 minutes of this. We were just about to leave when Mary and Bert came right over to us to have a chat and some photos

We ran up main street which was the busiest we had seen it all week, well it was Saturday afternoon so not surprising! Slowed down going by the castle and castle stage just in case but still no sign of Ariel. We went on our last 2 rides and did a last bit of shopping in the arcades before leaving. really I was delaying things in case there was an appearance.
It was getting late now so we headed back over to the Studios to catch the Stars n Cars. We had missed it all week and really wanted to see it before leaving. So we arrived in good time to get a decent spot for my family and myself, dd and ds took our spot in the easy access place. We were at Place des Stars looking side on to the stage. Having never seen Stars n Cars I had no idea if this was a good or bad spot to be in but the CM assured me it was "comme si comme sa"(sp!!) so I was happy with that. Mum arrived over to us with some icy refreshments as we were standing in the glaring sun with no shade, we sat on the ground and tried to cool down.

Then the music started and everyone was cheering and looking way down the street behind us!! OH NO We couldn't see a thing! I was just about to send ds off to my mum when Goofy's big hat appeared over the crowd coming up the street towards us WOOOOHOOOOOO it's a parade type show I was thrilled!!
We saw Lilo and Stitch in their car,
then Jessy & Woody
then Donald & Daisy,
Mickey & Minnie of course
Jasmine & Alladdin
mulan and Meeshu/Mushi/Mishi (can never remember that fellas name!)
Cruella, Gaston and I can't remember who else???
Sully and ds hid again lol
Snow White & Dopey or Happy I wasn't too sure ?
And OMG wait..... a green car with waves and sea horses and a huge sea shell......"It's ARIEL MAMMY LOOK IT'S ARIEL!!!"
there were others but after Ariels car came around the corner that's all we could see LOL

So dd perked up hugely as Ariel was so close to us, we really enjoyed the whole show and dance routine, we didn't know they would get out of their cars so you can imagine the shock we got when they finished their dancing and started to mingle with the crowds!! OMG! I noticed the characters split in two groups with each group taking an area at the sides of the stage. I was almost on my knees praying that Ariel would come to our side.
But I couldn't see her anywhere now so figured she must be gone over to the other side :-(
dd was calling her name and waving like mad so I just told her she was busy and we'd prob meet her later, I'd decided to ask the CM's to meet her if she didn't as we were desperate at this stage.

before long all these guys came over to us

my very favourite pic of the whole holiday! I have this one blown up and framed x

continued in next post as too many pics .......

 

[Rosabelle]

so here we go again.......

And then OH NO! the characters were all making their way back to their cars and the stage area. I was frantically looking for a CM to ask for Ariel, dd was getting upset again and even ds was too as he'd met his fave BUZZ and was eager for dd to meet her special person too. I was trying to ring my mum to get her to find a CM or Ariel as I couldn't leave dd but my phone wouldn't connect the call
OH this was turning into a terribly sad day as we were about to leave for our transfer , I felt like crying myself and just gave dd a big hug and told her we'd get her an Ariel doll in the disney store instead. I told her to watch the cars going by and I bet that Ariel would wave at her. This seemed to placate her a little but after a whole week of wanting to meet only 1 princess she was devastated at not getting to, as were ds and I. (As dd has a learning disability she is really only about 3/4 in her heart iykwim ) so it's really difficult for her to understand that we wouldn't be meeting Ariel at all.

As I was kneeling beside dd tickling her and distracting her ds was poking me on the back and pulling my t shirt, I just waved his hand away but he kept it up so I turned around and who's on her way straight over to us!?????

This very special and much loved princess

We could not believe it!! I was blubbering as much as dd when she came over! i don't know where she came from as we hadn't seen her since the meet n greet started, I don't know if someone noticed how distressed dd was and told Ariel ,or even if she heard dd calling her but I do know that this was the most magical moment of our entire trip .
Dd was beside herself and Ariel seemed just as excited to meet her! she was absolutely brilliant with and had a good chat with dd, I told her that she was princess #1 in our house for the past 15 years and that we sang all of her songs in the car every time we went out ,

It made our holiday,well tbh, judging by dd's reaction, it was the sweetest moment in her life

The other Cms had started singing again and winding up the show so Ariel said her goodbye's and told dd she was delighted to have met her and her lovely family and headed back over to the stage.

When they were all driving by on the way out again every one of the characters we'd met waved and blew kisses at us! We felt like royalty (although I'm sure they do this at all the easy access places )

Ariel went by on her car and waved that lovely princessy wave and said "Bye Bye Janice!" That was it the lump in my throat couldn't be surpressed anymore and I was bawling like a mad eejit

What a fantastic way to finish up our holiday! And we got to relive it all a few minutes later by telling my mum and my nieces the whole story again. they were all delighted that dd had met Ariel too bless them x

So we sat on the stage steps for a few minutes and had cold drinks, ds and dn 3 put on a show for us dancing on the empty stage and then all too soon it was time to leave.
We walked very slowly out of the studios, trying to absorb everything and take some of it away with us just by looking at it all

One last sit on the enchanted broom and mop buckets

One last longing look towards the gate, everyone was either crying or pretending not to be crying as we left....

And then we were heading back to the Santa fe to collect our luggage and meet our transfer driver back to Beauvais. I ran into the shop in the hotel and grabbed a couple of little surprises to give to ds and dd on the plane that night to cheer them up and bought myself a 2009 15th Party photo frame to cheer me up .......any excuse to buy Disney stuff .

so within 5 minutes of getting back to the hotel we were on the road. 90 minutes later we arrived at the airport and thanks to ryan air being delayed by an hour we were home in our beds at about 1.30 am. EXHAUSTED!!!!

we woke up the next morning and played the hours of video and slideshow-ed the photos for dh over and over and told him all the stories about our hols.

So that's us for this trip..

Coming up our pre trippy for our May 2010 trip, the one WITH dh LOL
thanks for reading

rosabelle x

 

[dawnydoo]

Hi. OMG My eyes are red raw! That was an absolutely FANTASTIC trip report............LOVED IT
Thanks so much for sharing........... can`t wait to hear all about Your next trip. Have a great time ( I`m sure You all will)
Dawn.