Poppie's Trip Report Day One... Bit of a disaster all round !!

[poppie123]

Day One !!

My alarm went off at 2.30am and after hardly any sleep i decided i would have been better off staying up and not going to bed at all.!!!
I woke my daughter who isn't exactly a morning person and we managed to be showered and dressed and out the door by 4am.
Arrived at Heathrow way too early (5.15am) and found that they were still checking people in for the 6.40 flight. Ours wasn't until 8.45. Crumbs, this was going to be a very long morning !! For anyone who has never flown from Heathrow Terminal 2 lets just say there isn't much there. In fact after finally going through to the departure lounge we had exhausted all the shops within half an hour. One thing we did notice though and that was that my daughter seemed to be the only child or should i say teenager in the whole of Terminal 2. Very strange

Finally took off at 8.55 which was only 10 mins late and was rather pleased that we had no-one sitting next to us. As for the flight itself well what can i say, i have flown many times and can honestly say that i have never ever felt so sick on a plane in my whole life To say it was bumpy is an understatement, in fact i don't think the seatbelt signs went off for the whole 45 mins flight. My daughter was just as bad and at one point i was really worried that she was actually going to be sick.

Once off the plane we had no idea where we were supposed to be going, as it turns out we had to get a train one stop in order to collect our baggage. I wish i had of known this before i went it would have made it so much easier. Finding where we were supposed to get the VEA was another problem. There were no overhead signs that pointed us in the right direction and after walking round for a good 15 mins completely lost it was only by chance that we passed a side exit the had the word VEA written on it. I made an mental note to myself there and then that i would never ever go by plane to DLP again.

The journey on the VEA i am glad to say was uneventful, i was concerned that after such a bad flight my daughter would feel even worse travelling on a coach but i am pleased to say she was just fine. After just under an hour we arrived at the Sequoia Lodge. By sheer luck the driver had put our cases on a completely different side to everyone elses and he opened this side first. This meant we were first through the doors to reception much to everyone elses disgust. I already knew that i would not be able to get into my room until after 3pm but we collected our park tickets put our cases in and took the short walk round the lake to entrance to the park.

Even though i have been once before 5 years ago the sight of the Disneyland Hotel still gave me goosebumps, walking down Mainstreet is such a magical feeling. First stop was Frontierland, we had already decided weeks before we went that Big Thunder Mountain was going to be our first ride.
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The wait time was 45mins and i have no idea why but we decided we would wait. I still can't work out why on earth we did not just go and get a fastpass In fact the board with the wait times on was clearly lying and we eventually got on after one hour 5 mins. Never again !!
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After grabbing some lunch at Toad Hall we then took ourselves over to Adventureland
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We waited 20 mins and rode indiana jones and the tempil of peril. I have to say i do prefer it going forwards. The last time i rode it it was backwards and it did make me feel quite ill.!!!!
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After this we decided that we should get back to our hotel, it was 3.15pm and we were both shattered. Thankfully there was no queue at the check in desk and i went to pick up my key. Oh my was i in for a shock. Now i booked this trip last July and booked a Montana room. I liked the idea the you didn't have to get coats on in order to go to breakfast plus they have a mini bar ideal for storing bottles of water. I was told that they had a problem with their computer system and that all the Montana roms were fully booked the only room they could offer my was a one in one of the lodges. I insisted on speaking to the manager who was no help whatsoever and only repeated that they were very sorry but there were no Montana rooms available. I was given a refund (36 Euros) and sent on my way. If i had of wanted a room in one of the lodges i would have booked one. I know sometimes people say they were upgraded to a Montana room but has anyone ever heard of anyone being downgraded before ???: . No seriously though I do plan to write and complain about this so if anyone has any advice on the best person to write and complain to i would be most grateful.
We were given our breakfast times and although i tried to get as early as possible all they had left were 8.30 Tuesday, 9.30 Wednesday and 7.45 for the last 2 mornings. What is it with the place. ??
After finding out way to the Big Sur Lodge we unpacked and decided to go for a swim, why, i have no idea as we were both knackered but swim we did anyway. The changing rooms are a bit of a tight squeeze and the lack of privacy when you need to get dressed caused my 13 year old daughter some concern.
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After a quick shower we made our way to the Disney Village to get something to eat. We decided on Planet Hollywood's despite being told there would be a 40 min wait for a table. In actual fact we only waited about 20 mins, maybe it had someting to do with there only being two of us. The meal was good and for 2 starters, cheeseburgers/chips for main and 3 drinks the total bill was 53 euros, which i didn't think was too bad.
We finally made our way back to the hotel at around 9.30pm to get a good nights sleep ready for our 8.30 breakfast slot.

Tomorrow... how many rides can we do in one day ???

 

[thelittlemermaid83]

Great start withe fantastic photos

Cant believe you was downgraded though.

 

[Cyrano]

Shame that the journey didn't give you the magical start to the trip
Hopefyully you realised that you could arrive at whatever time you wanted for breakfast so the ticket times shouldn't have caused to much problems

Hope you have a good park day tomorrow

 

[hildasmuriel]

Oooooh - I hope Day 2 had less disappointing moments.
The Park looks really quiet in your photos - I'm amazed there was such a long wait for BTM.

 

[poppie123]

I thought i had picked the perfect time of year to go with regard to crowds but it seems everyone had the same idea. I don't think i would go again when it was under 12's free and the 4 nights for the price of 3.
I think the whole of the park had decided they would go on Big Thunder Mountain the same time as us.

 

[the_princess]

Great start, but I can't believe that you couldn't get early breakfast... Is this a big problem at this hotel at the moment?

 

[loobymiss]

Great start, but I can't believe that you couldn't get early breakfast... Is this a big problem at this hotel at the moment?

I am interested to know this too. I want to have early breakfast so I can take advantage of the EMH at 8am.

I'm also booked into a montana room so had better get one!!!

 

[mulan1]

Oooooh - I hope Day 2 had less disappointing moments.
The Park looks really quiet in your photos - I'm amazed there was such a long wait for BTM.

I was thinking this too!

hope day 2 worked out better for you both!

 

[jillrobinson]

I thought we must've been blind when we flew, because we didn't see one sign for VEA either, we ended up following another family who looked like they knew where they were going (saw the Disney tags on the luggage and we had others come up and ask us too !)

What a shame about the room, having stayed in both lodge and main building though, I found the walk back to the lodge noticeably shorter and the rooms were exactly the same - Dismal Sorry, it's not my favourite hotel.

Re: The breakfasts did you try just turning up early ? on both our trips last year we were given later slots after 8.30, but just arrived at the restaurant at 7.00-7.15 and were shown straight to a table.

We've been during the Kids go free and extra night free promotion and found that the park was pretty busy, despite still being termtime, but then it does make a considerable difference to the cost and probably makes it affordable for many people who wouldn't consider paying full price.

Love the photos and looking forward to reading all about Day 2.

 

[DLPdaft]

The popular slots for breakfasts are actually the busiest (ie around 8.30 onwards, in time for finishing then heading for the parks for opening time) - but in my experience, thats the time to be avoided at all costs!

Regardless of which slot we've been given, we are usually at breakfast by 7.30 - no problem getting seated, and no queues.

Elaine

 

[BRobson]

I wish they would demolish CDG airport and start again - the only good thing is you are nearly at DLP.

Sorry about your bad start - hope things improve

 

[Ware Bears]

Yikes ~ not only did you have a terrible flight but then this mess-up at the hotel. I hope things get better.

 

[tennisfan]

Hope the holiday got better for you. Lovely photos

I have queued nearly 2 hours for BTM at Easter last year & that was in the evening. It was the only time I was going to get on the ride that trip so I put up with, one advantage was that I got to ride it in the dark which was great