Summer at HNY - Pre-Trippie

[Ms Poppins]

Monday 25 July for 3 nights at Hotel New York

The Cast:

Me -Julie - 36
DH -John - 40
DS1 - Mark - 17
DD - Abbey - 14
DS2 - Lewis - 6

Background:
The last summer trip we had was 2 years ago and whilst we had a fantastic time the heat really drained us. So last year we opted for Halloween and all absolutely loved it.

Here they are last October:

We were all set to book for this Halloween again, but didn't book the original deals at the start of the year, hoping for a 40% off again.

So, we hung off and started thinking about what we wanted to do for summer. Abbey suggested a beach holiday, which we considered and then all agreed that whilst lying by the pool every day was relaxing, we would most likely get bored - especially Lewis. Soooooo, I suggested a compromise go to Disney in the high summer season to benefit from the pool by day and the late park hours by night....

DH discounted this to begin with and we were back to October, when out of the blue a few weeks ago everyone started to talk about how much they missed dlp and summer was mentioned again. Weather has been rubbish here (except this last weekend) so we were all up for it. I knew that in the past when one offer expires another shortly follows, and suspected a flash sale may be in the offing. To my absolute delight my wish was granted and we got a great deal booked.

The Plan:
Because we've left it so late the Eurostar is almost fully booked with a return working out at about £900 so we've decided to be very brave and just drive, using Eurotunnel. We will drive to Ashford on Sunday 24th, which we've done many times before. I got a good deal on Travelodge so we'll stay there. Most likely we'll eat at Frankie and Benny's (a bit of a ritual now) and might even go to the cinema to watch Cars 2 to get us in the Disney mood

I've booked an early crossing for Eurotunnel the next morning, and hopefully the drive will be straighforward (literally) and we'll be in Disney for lunchtime. (There will be many, many, many questions about this in the days to come )

The strategy for not being too hot and bothered is to do EMH, DH and DS1 may have long lies here, a late breakfast and then back to the parks until lunchtime/early afternoon. We then plan to soak in the HNY pool, or just rest for a few hours before going out again after dinner.

Things we want to do:

I've booked the Cityrama trip to Paris for Tuesday, something we've always wanted to do but never have
Lewis wants to try Big Thunder Mountain for the first time
See the Stitch Show
See Tarzan again - so happy this is back
Art of Animation and Buzz which were shut last time
Casey Junior and Storyboats - not been on these since 2005!!
Relax

We'll probably eat at our favourites, Cafe Mickey, Annettes and HNY buffet - I'd love to do Walts on our last day too. Quite enjoyed Blockbuster Cafe for lunch, so might do that again. Lewis would also love to see inside Pizza Planet which we always seem to miss.

Not long to go, less than 3 weeks

Will I manage to plan in that short time

 

[kizzabel]

Great plan Julie. Loved your last TR.
LOL DLP always wins in my house too! Its a given. Enjoy your trip and good luck with relaxing

 

[Ms Poppins]

Just off the phone to dining reservations and Cafe Mickey booked

We've decided on our eating plans now:

Monday - lunch at Earl of Sandwich - Dinner at Annettes
Tuesday -Dinner at HNY Buffet
Wednesday - lunch at Blockbuster Cafe - Dinner at Cafe Mickey
Thursday - late lunch at Rainforest Cafe before we leave

We decided on Rainforest Cafe after getting a discount voucher from our travel agent for 15% off, and as we've never been there before thought we may as well give it a go.

Just need to find somewhere to eat whilst in Paris for the day on Tuesday.

Also booked Travelodge for stop over on way home - a bit up the motorway, but hopefully will give us a good head start the following day.

Getting excited now. Lewis is counting down the days and jumping up and down every day and is so excited about trying Big Thunder Mountain

 

[Kazzabelle]

Sounds like a Fab trip
I remember your last trip report it was great, looking forward to hearing this one.
And just for the record Disney gets my vote too over the beach

 

[DLPdaft]

Julie I'm excited for Lewis - he'll love BTM, if he's anything like my DD it will rapidly become his favourite DLP ride !

 

[Ms Poppins]

SDD today

After hearing Disney classics being played in Morrisons (for the promotion) Lewis would not stop talking about Disney

This afternoon I decided to have a clear out and found Mark's Tarzan playset. Lewis asked to play with it, which then turned into him watching the video ( I had to re-programme our new tv as have never watched a video for years ), which then turned into talk about the Tarzan show in Frontierland.

And now, hours later and we've spent the whole afternoon watching all our old camcorder tapes of our visits to DLP - and I am now on the ceiling

I'm going to sound all gushy here - but watching them back makes realise just what amazing memories are made at Disney Seeing Mark on his 4th birthday meeting his absolute hero's Buzz and Woody just made me fill up. And the way Abbey gazed at Minnie was just adorable.

Anyway, I cannot wait until next weekend when I'll be packing like a mad thing.

 

[catkin]

SDD today

After hearing Disney classics being played in Morrisons (for the promotion) Lewis would not stop talking about Disney

This afternoon I decided to have a clear out and found Mark's Tarzan playset. Lewis asked to play with it, which then turned into him watching the video ( I had to re-programme our new tv as have never watched a video for years ), which then turned into talk about the Tarzan show in Frontierland.

And now, hours later and we've spent the whole afternoon watching all our old camcorder tapes of our visits to DLP - and I am now on the ceiling

I'm going to sound all gushy here - but watching them back makes realise just what amazing memories are made at Disney Seeing Mark on his 4th birthday meeting his absolute hero's Buzz and Woody just made me fill up. And the way Abbey gazed at Minnie was just adorable.

Anyway, I cannot wait until next weekend when I'll be packing like a mad thing.

I have a photo of DS3 (aged 2 1/2) gazing lovingly at Minnie Mouse during a character breakfast at Walts,meanwhile DS1 then 7 1/2 (can anyone tell me how to insert a proper 1/2 ?!) is studying his breakfast intently trying to avoid MM flirting with him!
My eldest 2 are similar in age to yours (DS1 will be 17 in Nov, DS2 is 14 with DS3 heading for 12 in Nov) and you're right it's amazing to look back and see just how wondrous everything was when they were little, ah happy days.

 

[Ms Poppins]

I emailed guest relations a few days ago to request interconnecting rooms, and got a very swift reply saying they had noted the booking, but to call the hotel 3 days before to check.

So, I'm just off the phone to Hotel New York reception and she confirmed the request is noted. I also asked that we have 2 double beds in each room (I know that parties of 5 have sometimes only had one bed in one of the rooms) and she said she'd note that too. She went on to say it's not guaranteed, but they always say that so I'm not overly worried.

I've got the car kit bits - need to work out how the headlamp adaptors go on. Checking the weather and it looks a mixture of heat, sun, rain and more rain.

Kagools will be packed - and I'm beginning to love the fact that we're driving so I can just chuck everything in the boot - including the millions of cans of coke that dh seems addicted to Hopefully that in itself will save us a fortune!

Lewis has watched Tangled about 3 hundred times so far and we got a new dvd twin screen player for the car, so he'll be able to recite the entire film by the time we get there

Now some more packing, packing and and packing to be done.

We leave on Sunday so lots to do - soooooo excited

 

[tinkertaylor05]

Always love your trip reports and it's lovely to hear of all the memories.

On our last trip I bought a really nice photo frame, the one with something like 'Disney photos make the most magical memories' on the glass, it's in my hallway I often stop and gaze at it whilst going up the stairs

Hope there's not too much rain for you guys x