Somebody give me a title for this TR!

[Rosabelle]

Hi all
I have just finished my 2nd last college assignment (one more due in 2 weeks) so I thought I’d use the break to get my TR done for our trip in May.
So here goes.
Cast: Dh, 36, first time to DLRP,
Me , 33, 2nd time at DLRP, love everything disney!!!
Dd, 16 2nd time at DLRP, loves loves loves princesses esp Ariel and also Lilo
Ds 6 (and a half!) 2nd time at DLRP, loves Toy Story and Stitch
This was a surprise trip for the smallies that didn’t really go to plan as some of you know already….
Date: Wed 5th May – Sunday 9th May
Flying Aer Lingus Dublin – CDG at 7.30am arriving 9.30am.
Transfer to DLRP with Eazy shuttle
Staying at – Sequoia Lodge (standard room booked).

Now for the fun bit (for “fun” read : horror, chaos, confusion, crying kids, crying me, illness, delays, delays, delaaaaaaaaaayyyyyssssss!) ahem.

5th May The Original Day 1….or so we thought

So this was amidst the whole Icelandic volcanic trouble and for the 3 days before we were due to travel, Irish air space had been closing for overnights and late mornings etc., but our flight was still unaffected. The children had absolutely no idea they were going to DLP, we told them on Monday we were going to Cork for a few days as they were both really upset over the swimming pool being closed and I wanted to cheer them up.

So all the packing was done from the week before, all our restaurants were booked for the week in Dlp, I had done as much organising as could be done so I had a bad feeling that things were going a little too well……tempting fate and all that!

I woke up at 4am and noticed my phone was on the mattress beside me, I’d fallen asleep browsing the disboards!! So I thought ah sure I’ll have a quick peek and see has anything changed since 3 hours ago lol but it HAD!! There was a post from Loodles I think, saying that the volcano had acted up again since midnight and lots more flights were cancelled in Dublin airport EEEK! I shook dh awake and told him but when we checked the airline our flight was one of the very few that wasn’t cancelled pheeewww. We woke up the kids for their early drive to Cork and rang my dad to make sure he was awake as he was driving us to the airport.
During this half hour I felt increasingly ill, I’d been in the loo more than out of it but I thought it was nerves and excitement and expected it to ease. It didn’t it got a lot worse as the morning progressed. So we picked up my dad and headed off. We had to stop by the side of the M50 a couple of times so I could get fresh air but we arrived safely, the airport would be closing from 11am so our flight would be ok to leave at 7.30am. We checked in our luggage and that’s where more fun started!
The check in man (for man read: idiot, fool, gobsh**e, moron……) told us to go to gate 52 and wrote it on our boarding cards. I won’t give you any more gruesome details of this awful morning so I’ll just give you some bullet points,
• Our flight left at 7.40am from gate 25!! With our luggage but not us. (aer lingus admitted it was their mistake but as the airport was closing at 11am they put us on the same flight, next morning)
• While our flight took off I was throwing up in departures lounge and feeling very embarrassed and ill.
• The kids figured out we were going to DLP, then we had to take them home because we weren’t .
• I rang our travel agent who basically said tough you lose a day in Disney.
• They requested a cancellation fee for that day.
• I told them where they could put their cancellation fee.
• Rang John in Eazy Shuttle who was at this stage sat at CDG waiting for us and he very kindly changed till the next day (the man is an angel!)

So that was day 1, I spent it on the couch but felt a little better by evening. The poor kids, esp ds didn’t know whether to be excited about maybe going to Disneyland the next day or distraught at not getting to go even to Cork! It was just a terrible day. But it was nearly over and hey, we were going to DLP the next day!

Thursday 6th May (We should be waking up in the SL!) Day 1… Again.

Good point: I was feeling much better and kids were not as inconsolable.
Bad Point: Checked the Aer Lingus site, our flight was cancelled.
So we rebooked for the next day, again, same time, again. I had to ring Aer Lingus and while talking to them I asked could we push our return flight to Monday instead of Sunday and that was fine. So I rang the travel agent and told them to change our booking and they did with no mention of extra fees or threats to rear ends or anything violent whatsoever! Rang Eazy Shuttle John and rebooked him again. (the man is sprouting wings and a halo at this stage!)
We had decided that if we couldn’t get to DLP on the Friday then we’d have to cancel the whole trip, it wouldn’t be worth just going for 2 nights after all the hassle.
Another day where the poor kiddies didn’t know whether they were coming or going. It felt very strange being here when I shouldn’t be. And even stranger when we realised we’d packed most of our shower stuff, phone chargers, Nintendo ds chargers and other essential stuff that we had to go buy, to use in our house *** our stuff was all on holiday somewhere LOL, baggage people couldn’t find it yet.

coming next..day 1.......again!

 

[Rosabelle]

Friday 7th May, Day 1 Again, again, again. (Groundhog Day hasn’t a patch on us!)

Ok see original day 1 report but without the sickness and sadly without the excitement too as we were expecting the worse again. More Bullets to speed things along.
• Got to airport, got to correct gate (after multiple OCD type checks)
• No luggage to check as it was somewhere in Europe.
• Got boarding priority for dd with her w/chair
• Felt a little ill but this was defo nerves!
• Checked correct gate, again, 20 times, so did ds.

Got on board and wait for it……………………..We took off!!! And we were on the plane!!! WOOOOOHOOOOOOOoooOOOOOOooooOO!!
About 50 minutes into the flight I finally relaxed and got excited, yep we were definitely going to DLP now. There was a couple beside me with their two handsome little men who’d had their flight cancelled too. They were with the same travel agent as us but they wouldn’t change their departure date for them, he was waiting to get to the hotel to try again so I hope he got sorted.
After landing we were met at the door of the aircraft by a very handsome French man who insisted on wheeling dd into the baggage claim for her w/chair and then stayed with us to collect our luggage (they’d found it, it was here!), he then brought us straight out to the arrivals hall to meet our driver and wouldn’t leave us until we’d met her. He was super helpful! Dh was super un-impressed lol lol .
We met a Lady called Fadwar (scuse the spelling!) Who was an absolute gem of a person and she said “Ah you finally decided to join us eh?” in a couple of minutes we were on our way to DLP, we answered about 20 texts and calls from everyone back home wondering if we’d made it this time, with a big fat “YES!!”

Fadwar drove a different way to our last bus driver and very soon the minivan was filled with “LOOK THERE’S SPACE MOUNTAIN, THE CASTLE!! THE CASTLE” And other much delayed and pent up excited little yelps. Dh was only seeing the tops of these wonderfully treasured sights so he didn’t get what they meant to us “seasoned” dlp’ers lol. We passed a field of horses which Fadwar told us were Disney’s horses from the Buffalo Bill show. Before we knew it we were pulling up at the SL and we were very impressed, it looked so grand but until I was actually inside the gates at Disneyland Park I wasn’t gonna fully believe we were actually here.

There was a bit of a wait at check in but no more than maybe 10 minutes. When the CM checked our reservation she knew we were two days late and she said “the hotel is full so we cant give you a very fancy room, but we will have a nice room for you at 3” We were booked into a standard room so I was hoping she meant a Montana room. She gave me a VIP brekkie pass so we could come down whenever we liked between 7 – 11 and made a big fuss of dd, calling her princess etc. I had a sneaky look at dh to see what his first impressions were and he was snapping away with the camera = good sign lol.

I went to the concierge and made some dinner bookings, we had missed café mickey the night before(a taxi from Dublin to café mickey would be a bit dear!) so I booked it for the next night and hunters grill for this evening at 7.30.

We dropped off the luggage and as there was a bus just pulling in we jumped on. I had another little panic when I completely lost my sense of direction and thought we were heading away from the Park. Dh just shook his head at me and muttered “wimmin” under his breath.lol

We were starving at this stage and ds said that since we started our last trip in the biggest mcdonalds in the world (well the biggest M) we should do it again today so that’s what we did. I was chomping at the bit to get into the park. Dh was amazed at the Village, the Lake etc, he wanted to go into the shops, and dammit he wanted to stroll!!! to “soak in the atmosphere” but not this soldier, I was flying on ahead of him pushing dd at top speed, with ds about 20 feet ahead of me LOL .

Then finally, there it was! The Pink Palace. We were almost inside and I realised I hadn’t opened the envelope to check if our tickets were in it!! Ripped it open and phew they were. Then we were in but I was all business, straight over to Town Hall to get dd sorted with an easy access pass. Into the store next door to get ds his new autograph book and pen (both Toy Story with light up Zurg eyes).

That’s when I relaxed. I stood on the path and looked around. There was New Orleans music playing, a Minnie balloon was sailing off over the train station, Tiana & Naveen were in the gazebo, Mickey Mouse was to my left, the character Express was coming around the corner and we were all here together in the middle of it all again. Finally! The disappointment and upset of the past few days just melted away. I said to ds and dd “Well we made it!” and ds roared “YEAH WE MADE IT TO DISNEYLAND” then he whispered “I really didn’t think we’d make it” and he started crying! Then I started crying and dd did too!! Dh who was still only a little disneyed, just looked at us and laughed, then we all laughed and went off to meet Mickey. I tell ye, I don’t think that mouse has ever been hugged as hard!! LOL.

We were dying to get on BTM but it was still closed for refurb, we’d been told it would be open by the next day. Then ds, the master of ceremonies today, mentioned that our first ride last year was on dumbo so we should do that again. So off we went, up Main Street USA to Fantasyland and in about 20 minutes dh had gone from bewildered to be-disneyed.

Note dh's beard: his razor was in the case for 3 days and he had to wait till our room was ready to shave lol

I knew it wouldn’t take long to hook him lol! Beyond that I can’t really remember what we did! I know we got drinks and fresh fruit(huge delish red apples that Snow White’s stepmother would be proud of) at the stall just at the entrance to Frontierland and took in the early Showtime Spectacular show. We were just standing on the road but a CM came over and sat us in the w/chair access place. On the way we met Goofy, but he was mobbed so we just got a quick high fiiiiiiiive. The show was brilliant! We all loved it. We got to meet Buzz, Angel, Woody, Donald &Jessie.

This was a record, we were less than 40 minutes in the park and we’d been on a ride, grabbed a snack, took in a show and met 7 characters!
After that show I have no idea what we did, I know at one stage we walked through the castle. Oh I remember! We missed the dragon last year so we went in there. We all walked in laughing and came out the other side approx 2.5 seconds later with dd hysterical and ds hanging onto dh for dear life with his eyes out on stalks begging us to get the CM’s to lock up the dungeon! Lol they recovered pretty quickly with the mention of Buzz Lightyear .
For the rest of the day we wandered around the different lands. We went on Autopia, Buzz,(twice), Mark Twain…..

Frontierland sounds very strange without the clickety clack, clickety clack of BTM in the background.. We got on the train at Frontierland Depot and went all the way down to Town Square. We were planning on going the whole way and had left dd's w/chair there. The train however stopped for 20 minutes at main st station because the Parade was about to start YIPPEEE!!! So I took the 2 smallies and got ourselves a nice patch of kerbside at Liberty arcade and dh walked all the way back to the Frontierland station and back with dd's w/chair.
We did a little shopping too (well actually a LOT!) and then as the park was closing early we headed back to the SL. Having never walked to the Santa Fe last year this was the first time we’d seen Lake Disney properly and it was lovely. There were hugenormous fish, bigger than the ducks! We took a few pics but need a better lens really to see them.
The kids were really excited about seeing their hotel room and so was I! fingers crossed for an upgrade!! We collected the luggage and went over to the check in, verrrrry slowlllllllyyyyyyyy the CM went through everything then finally she pulled up the map to show me where our room was and YES OH YESSSSSSSS 3rd floor main building here we come!! Woohooooo!!
Well our room was lovely, right next to the lifts, and the view!! it was clean cosy and best of all they’d put in bunk beds instead of a double bed to make room for dd’s chair! Dh reckoned it’s really a 1 bed sp. Adapted room and that another double bed wouldn’t fit in. This was just the icing on the cake for ds and he squeeled with delight as he climbed up! The best thing ever was having his very own individual light above his head lol.
here's our view! We had drinks on the deck each evening after the first night.

We had a quick wash and change and headed downstairs for dinner (d’ye hear that! Downstairs, NOT out of the lodge and up the road lol). We got a big squishy sofa and had a coke while waiting. Ds played with his new toy story mini figures and dd happily brushed her new Ariel dolls hair.

Dh had a 1664 and uttered the famous last words “I bet this fireplace looks lovely all lit up in winter” (hence the new ticker tee hee).
We ate dinner which wasn’t great tbh, but it was ok for tired hungry bellies and at 9pm we dragged our weary bodies upstairs “OOH Up THOSE stairs again! And we were all snoring soundly by 9.30. The snoring was interrupted several times during the night by dd and ds trying out their personal lights. I think they were just checking to make sure they were really at Disneyland. (I was doing it myself!)
So that’s the end of Day 1, or Day 3, or the 3rd Day 1 lol, whatever number you put on it, it was the end of our family’s first day at Disneyland and after almost not making it, twice, it was a day we had all thought we wouldn’t get to see at all. Several times during the night I got up to just look out at Lake Disney and thank St. Walt (& Fadwar) for getting us here safely. What a week! It could only get even better from here.

Tomorrow: Saturday: “The BTM Falling down laughing marathon day”

 

[ExpatDisneyLover]

Thanks for sharing! Sorry about the slow start - how frustrating!

If you are looking for a title - this is the phrase that popped into my head while reading. "If at First You Don't Succeed, Try, Try Again!"

Looking forward to more!

 

[mommy2ash]

what a great first (third) day. i cant wait to read some more. no pressure or anything lol

 

[paulinefc]

Call it post baby hormones, or excitment about our pending trip... but I had tears flowing while reading this!! Great TR, dying for more

 

[loladelorean]

YAY i'm so glad you finally got there and can't wait to read more about your trip.
You must have wanted to kill that guy who gave you the wrong gate number!!! I want to kill him just reading it! How could anybody be so daft?!
Your report makes great reading, thanks so much for sharing x

 

[DLPdaft]

Awwww your description of when you first stopped and took everything in when you got to the park , I've got a lump in my throat reading that - more more more please!

 

[Mum to Belle]

Well no great surprise that I am once again sat at my desk, eyes welling up reading your TR - even though I already knew about all the bad bits, your final arrival tipped me over!!

Great photos - and a great room, hoorah!

Right then, come on woman, we want more!!!!

 

[Rosabelle]

What a bunch of sentimental Disney addicts we all are
I'll have the next installment this eve, so you'll just have to go rock in a corner till then lol lol

I like the title expat maybe 3rd times a charm???

Thanks for the lovely comments guys, and thanks for reading the very long 1st day x3 installments lol x

rosabelle x

 

[paulinefc]

Awwww your description of when you first stopped and took everything in when you got to the park , I've got a lump in my throat reading that - more more more please!

I was all out bawling DH asked me what was wrong, did I get bad news hahaha

 

[ExpatDisneyLover]

What a bunch of sentimental Disney addicts we all are
I'll have the next installment this eve, so you'll just have to go rock in a corner till then lol lol

I like the title expat maybe 3rd times a charm???

Thanks for the lovely comments guys, and thanks for reading the very long 1st day x3 installments lol x

rosabelle x

Oh I like 3rd times a charm!

 

[LoodlesNoodles]

I'm so glad you're writing your trip report!
I can't wait to hear more!


By the way, it doesn't seem to be showing your photos for me...

 

[Rosabelle]

Ah you're all soft lol ( same as me lol)
I know it's a bit weepy chick flick type Reading but I really wanted to share the impact of the whole experience on us which was huuuuuuge !!

I don't know what's wrong with my photos I can't see them either : they seem to be gone off photobox too I'll check it out shortly and hopefully I can fix it

thanks for reading so far

rosabelle x

 

[scampbunny]

add me to the sentimental lot!! i did cry reading ur reaction to finally being there!!!

and yes, add me to the queue to throttle the bloke who cant get his numbers right!!!

more please, and cant wait for pics!!!

 

[Rosabelle]

add me to the sentimental lot!! i did cry reading ur reaction to finally being there!!!

and yes, add me to the queue to throttle the bloke who cant get his numbers right!!!

more please, and cant wait for pics!!!

OMG we were so upset at his stupidity, i reckon he got a right ear bashing that day! We saw him again the 3rd day when we were flying out but we just wanted to get on the plane so we let it go. We did intend formally complaining as we lost 2 days because of him but we were on such a high when we came home that it didn't matter anymore.

anyway, can ye see the piccies now?? i can!

 

[LoodlesNoodles]

anyway, can ye see the piccies now?? i can!

Can see them now!

 

[Rosabelle]

Day 2 actually IN Disneyland Paris: The BTM Falling Down Laughing Marathon Day,

Well none of us slept well last night, as mentioned the kids decided to alternate routine lighting checks every hour or so. At one stage ds sat up and asked me (dh was honking though he reckons he didn’t sleep a wink!) “Are you sure that dragon is tied up?”

I have to say here, although the SL is defo more “quality” than the SF, the bed was dire! The SF beds were un-getout-able they were soo comfy. Thankfully the shower at the SL was a good one and loosened up my knotted neck/back muscles. We were all up, fed and on our way for about 9.15. here’s a pic of our room from the outside. It’s 3rd floor and 1st room to the right of the balcony thingy.

I had been bamboozling(I prefer “impressing” but he says “boring”) dh for weeks with all the facts I’d gleamed from here and he liked nothing better than to mock me and call me “yes miss officionado” in a very sarcy tone.. So when I told him I intended to NOT use EMH for early rides but instead to get to the back of Liberty Arcade to q for rope drop in order to get on BTM asap, the words, “saddo” and “loser” “yeah right I’m goin for coffee” and “call me” were mentioned.
Fine so, Myself and the two officionadinos went and we were first at the rope. Ok so it was 9.30 but SO WHAT! BTM had been closed for a week, I knew there would be some crowds, Eventually a small group of maybe 20 other enlightened wise ones joined us and the time moved so s l o w l yyyy. A LOT of cm’s came out of that little door and every time I grabbed both handles on dd’s chair and got into starting position with ds in front ready to charge like the galloping clappers……and every time it was the wrong cm. But then we heard something, a chime or bell or something and there was movement somewhere in the park. We group of wise gazzells pricked up our ears, looked at each other and silently there was agreement that one of us should drop the rope. There were no more cm’s coming and there was definitely noise of things moving. One very brave young girl of maybe 18, put her hand on the hook &looked around the clan, we all looked approvingly at her and in one fell swoop the rope was dropped and we went tearing down that alleyway!! Ds was well gone but still within sight, with his instructions to get straight to BTM and wrap himself around the fast pass machine and NOT MOVE!

The peculiar thing was, and I didn’t notice at the time, I don’t know if it was because dd was in a w/chair or because we were first at the rope but none of the group passed us out in the alley way. They all jogged politely behind their leader hahaha. That was until we got to the end of the alley and I stopped dead and grabbed ds back to me!. Holiest mother of the divine intervention there was mayhem . But the best mayhem I have ever seen in my life! There were hordes and hordes of literally hundreds of people charging at top speed through the gates towards BTM!

There were grown men and women with the determination of marathon runners embedded on their faces, ducking & diving and running through the mammies pushing buggies and dragging the bigger kids who were hanging on to pockets, hoods, buggy handles, bag straps, hair…whatever they could get purchase on. I have images of them wafting behind their parents like a scarf on a pilot lol. : Kids who were big enough to run by themselves were the real winners, they were small enough to fit through the spaces left by bigger bodies and fast enough to run along the outside of the masses and get ahead of them. Any and all obstacles were ignored and everyone just ran around or bounded over them without missing a beat. But they were all roaring laughin! Everyone was cheering and cajoling and the glee in the place was just so infectious! It was manic, frantic and so much FUN!

It was every man, woman and child for himself. Myself, ds and dd were gobsmacked , we’d never seen anything like it in our lives, apart from movies of Armageddon but in those scenes, the thousands of people are running away and there’s not quite so much laughing.

After maybe 20 seconds (and ds telling me I’d said the F bold word 3 times)(preceeded by the W &T) I copped on, grabbed ds onto dd’s lap and ran like the clappers. They laughed and laughed and laughed. We didn’t get too far though as I realised I was completely weak from laughing myself. I was in knots, tears were streaming down all our faces and I was completely doubled over trying to push the kids. But I pushed on and we ran another bit through the crowds of happy mentallers, yeah I know we were part of that crowd too but so are you lot! I’d say I lasted another 5 seconds till I saw a very frantic dad passing his small child over the heads of people to his wife, who was standing up on the “rocks” at the edge and screaming “TAKE THE BABY!!! TAKE THE BABY….…......…I’LL GET THE TICKETS!”

well that was it I was on my knees laughing harder than I have ever done. I couldn’t get up. Dd and ds were as bad, TMI but ds actually blew a bubble out of his nose as the tears were streaming down his cheeks.
Somehow we made it to the fastpass machines, everyone seemed to have just gotten straight on the Q and it was already waaay down to the exit! We got our fp’s then had to go change them for different ones with the cm. As we were the first easy access people he let us choose 2 times for us to ride. So we had 10.30 and 11am. (We didn’t know until then that we weren’t allowed use fp’s) We gave our fp’s to a couple with 2 boys who were delighted with them!

We found a less manic spot to wait for dh and eventually spotted him. He was like somebody coming onto a scene of carnage, his eyes were wide and staring at the now 27 million people in the q (approx) his mouth was open and he was walking very very slowly. This started me off laughing again and I couldn’t even tell him what was so funny. The damndest thing though, he had the camera so no piccies of this hilarious event.

So so funny, and it set the mood for the rest of the weekend. mad hyper fun

Coming next : saturday part two

 

[Rosabelle]

Saturday continued: Lots of reading in the 1st part so I’ll keep this one for piccies.

For the rest of the day we would keep bursting out laughing at the memory of it. As for rides, we did BTM 4 times, buzz 3, star tours and pirates . We did most of fantasy land too and discovered the crepe stall. We kept finding excuses to by pass this way and getting a couple of crepes while we were passing lol. They were delish!!
We went over to the studios, met Buzz,(who was really happy to notice that little Buzz's buttons didn't work either) Sully, Woody, Jessy, Lilo & Stitch.

I do love Elvis Stitch
We took in Stitch Live where Ds got chosen to make a monkey face and have his picture taken by Stitch. I have a video of it but I don’t know how to put it here?? We had lunch in backlot café and met Captain jack (Pfwoarrrgghhh).

He tried to nick ds’s coke and asked him did he have any rum for it.
We also saw cinemagique (wow it’s brilliant!) I actually tutted at the guy who’s phone was ringing …. d’oh! And playhouse Disney. We rode magic carpets and got some photos of Toy Story testing of the parachutes.

 

[Rosabelle]

saturday continued, continued .

After Stars in Cars we went back to the Park. We went to Woody's Round up and met Mickey, Minnie, Woody, Jessy and Goofy. I love their cowboy clothes! This is such a good idea and our first time there. Ds asked Woody how come he got over from the Studios so fast and Woody made running gestures . PHEW!

In this pic dd is telling me minnie kissed her, we could hear kissing sounds from Minnie...never noticed this before?

I love this pic! Woody was so happy to see his best friend Buzz that he hugged him till he disappeared lol!
He waved for Jessie to come over too and was jumping and pointing at "Buzz". Ds was bowled over and still talks about this part of the trip x

After this we went to Adventure Isle and climbed in and out of Skull Rock, over the rope bridge, dh took ds up the Robinson tree house thingy.

That night we went to Café Mickey for dinner which was a bit of hit n miss compared to last year but the craic was mighty so we had a great time.

I have a hysterical video of Smee dancing so again if anyone can help me share it here I’d really appreciate it. We did a huge amount of shopping with wild abandonment but hey, we’d missed 2 days so that meant we had 2 extra days of money to spend. At about 9pm we strolled home, the lake and panoramagique were beautiful all lit up (apologies for the blurry pic!)

we had a quick coke in the bar, then went out on the deck to finish off the evening. Dh and ds played the table football game and ruined my attempts to unwind to the peaceful sounds of birdies in the trees. It was quite cold so we went in and got to bed about 10.30pm. We were all wrecked tired after such a busy frantic day so there was no need for the kids to check the light fittings hourly. Just maybe 2-3 hourly lol ZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

 

[loladelorean]

woo thanks so much for the update! Your TR is so well written, you had us crying at day one and laughing at day two the BTM madness sounds hilarious i'll have to watch out for that. Only ever been in September when its always been quite peaceful but I guess November will be busier.
You and your family look so happy, can't wait to read the rest