The "let's be kids again" trip report 21-24 Sept - Finished!!

[AnotherKindOfBelle]

Well, this is my first trip report so be nice

First of all, the cast:
Me (20) Complete Disney Nut, booked the trip and organised EVERYTHING so had fingers crossed very tightly that it all went well!
My Sister (24) Also loves Disney, especially the princesses.
Best Friend 1 (20) Like the idea of Disney, hates rollercoasters.
Best Friends 2 (20) Loves Disney, especially Winnie the Pooh - very excited!

As I said, I booked and planned everything (I'm a bit of a freak, I like to know exactly what I'm doing when). Had booked a three night/four day stay at the Sequoia Lodge. Here goes...

DAY ONE

Up at 2:30am!!!! Not a great start. I remember in the car on the way to the airport wondering why I had thought a 6am flight was a good idea but we got there and were about 3rd in line for check in.

Managed to have a cup of tea and a bacon buttie at the airport which was nice. Think there was a ten minute delay for the flight but can't actually remember as I got on, put my seatbelt on and fell asleep until we hit the ground at Charles de Gaulle!

Taking photos of the cool tunnel at Charles de Gaulle!

It was a bit cool and dull but I had checked the weather forecast many, many times and knew we were in for some good weather later on. So no moaning from me! Grabbed our suitcases and headed for the bus that takes you to the VEA terminal. Had thought I'd read on here that you could pay the driver for the VEA but there was a queue at the desk so my sister and friends told me we had to queue and that they wouldn't feel comfortable just waltzing past them all...

So we queued and got on the bus and second stop - Sequoia Lodge! Man was I happy to be back there. The place is just beautiful!

We checked in, room not ready yet, left our cases with the luggage people, made a reservation for dinner at Cafe Mickey and headed off to the parks, with a quick stop at McDonalds for an early (11am) lunch. We hadn't eaten since about 3:30am so we were starving! Went straight for the main park because I never feel like I'm really there until I see the castle

Mary Poppins was singing her heart out when we arrived. We would have stopped to listen and watch but my eyes were drawn to the big pink castle behind her...

I swear it gets more beautiful every time! (As a side note: Tinkerbell disappeared after the first day. Every night I noticed there was a big crane up next to the tower and realised they were putting the lights on the castle ready for Christmas but Tinkerbell never reappeared - has she gone forever?)

Sleeping Beauty was doing her thing down by the castle:

We wandered around Fantasyland for a bit, doing a couple of the rides, like Pinocchio and Peter Pan, before heading back to the hotel to find out where our room was. We were very excited to see that we had been upgraded from being in the Lodges to being in the main building (I had secretly hoped this would happen but didn't verbalise this wish to anyone for fear that it might jinx it!) We follwed the instructions given by the man at the desk and headed up in the lift to the 6th floor. Our first instinct was to drop on the beds from exhaustion.

Our second instinct was to check out the view...
I couldn't believe it. A full panormaic view of the lake from Newport Bay right round to the New York Hotel, with Disney Village and the Castle in between. I was SO happy!

(Only part of the view here, but you get the idea!)

We slept for about an hour and a half and then dragged ourselves back up and out to head over to Cafe Mickey. We had made our reservation for 6, knowing we'd be hungry. That was definitely the right time! There was no queue when we arrived and a HUGE one when we left!

Pinnochio and Mickey were on top form, being silly and messing around. They spent equal time with us as they did with the families which we were pleased about!!

Friar Tuck and Chip and Dale also made an appearance and Minnie and Goofy arrived towards the end of the meal. For those interested, we ordered two pizzas and a garlic bread pizza thing between the four of us and it was more then enough. It actually ended up being our cheapest meal of the holiday (minus McDonalds, of course). The waiters did give us some funny looks though!! Think they expect people to go all out when they dine there but the prices are ridiculous, especially now with the exchange rate so bad. Even Mickey pointed to a meal on the menu and did the sign for money as if too say it was too much!!

After that we wandered through the Village watching the sunset and eating Ben and Jerry's take away from Annette's. Heaven!

We ended the day with what we thought was a well-deserved cocktail at the Redwood Bar. We had such a laugh and got really excited because we loved being "adults at Disney" even though during the day we were so desperate to act like kids!!

We flopped into bed at about 11pm, desperate for sleep, and knowing we had booked breakfast at 7:30am!!!!

(As another side note, to sing the praises of the Sequoia Lodge staff, we noticed a wet patch on the floor of our room the other side of the bathroom wall. This was at about 10:45pm. We called the maintenance people from the hotel room phone who sent someone up immediately. He spied a crack in the wall of the shower/bath. He offered us another room if we wanted or we could just shower towards the curtain rather than the wall. We loved our room and didn't want to move so said we'd put up with it. When we got back from the parks the next day the wall had been fixed, tiles replaced, new sealant put on. The wet patch disappeared and didn't return!!)

And so concludes day one! I'll try and get day two up asap, when I look a little less like this guy -

 

[tennisfan]

Great start, fab photos. I look forward to the rest

 

[AnotherKindOfBelle]

Day Two!

We were up at 7am, to get our breakfast at 7:30am. Breakfast at the Sequoia Lodge was lovely! Very impressed with the selection of food on offer which I wholeheartedly made the most of. The hot chocolate out of the machines was also yummy

I had hoped to be in the parks at 8am, but I hadn't counted on my friends faffing around so much, so every day we were walking through the village at about 8:15am. Not bad, but I would have loved to be there for the very start.

The sunshine was lovely at the beginning of day 2, if a little chilly still. But everywhere looked stunning.

We headed over to Discoveryland where we rode Orbitron (which strangely became our favourite ride of the holiday, though we're not sure why!), Buzz, and Space Mountain whose queue was only 5 minutes the whole time we were there!!

We loved being able to practically walk straight on!

We rode Orbitron again...

Me on Orbitron...

My friends in their tiny spaceship when they couldn't get the up/down thing to work! Highly amusing

We headed over to Fantasyland and did all the rides that were open, sad to see that the Storybook Ride and Casey Jr. were closed. Casey Jr. was my favourite ride when I was little

We did It's a Small World - love this! - and then made our way to Adventureland and up the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse.

Then on to Pirates, Phantom Manor and Big Thunder Mountain. The queue said 15 minutes so we didn't bother with fast passes. Wish we had, that queue is so deceptive!

We had lunch at Fuente Del Oro, which was lovely. We bought two meals and shared them (yes, we're cheap, but it was more than enough!!) The only annoying thing was that there were some wasps around!

We decided to spend the afternoon in the Studios as we hadn't been there yet. Walking through Studio 1 we stopped to listen to the jazz band. They called me over to have a photo with them!

My sister and BF2 went on Tower of Terror (not for me!) and we did the Studio Tram Tour, Cars Ride Rally, Armaggedon Special Effects, Flying Carpets and Crush's Coaster. BF1, who isn't keen on rollercoasters, came with us as she didn't know what exactly it was... Needless to say she did not enjoy it and refused to trust us about anything else the whole time!

Was amused by this sign:

Does it mean you can't eat cheese on the rides?!

Posed with Mike Wazowski and BF2 who adores Winnie the Pooh, had a photo with Eyeore. She was in her element!

Saw the "The Toys are Coming" sign and got all excited and squealy. We all love Toy Story

Headed back over to the other park to catch the parade. Sat down in our spot not long after Mickey's Magical Party had finished. Got VERY annoyed however, when I saw a Cast Member coming out from under the Central Plaza Stage holding a black bin bag with what was quite obviously Mickey's head in it!!!!!!!! The shape was unmistakeable. Couldn't believe it. I actually almost cried. Just the thought of her walking through the park with that when there were so many kids around made me so mad.

The parade started not long after which took my mind off it! I won't bore you with the millions of pictures I took of the parade but here are a couple of good ones!

We'd made reservations to eat at the Blue Lagoon at 6pm, which was the most wonderful decision we'd made. I can't tell you enough how lovely and beautiful it is in there. And it's so magical! We asked if we could sit close to the "lagoon" and found it quite funny when boats went past and people took photos of us eating!

We headed back to the hotel after that, got ourselves washed and dressed up (as much as you can be with clothes that you bring for a theme park holiday!!) and wandered back over to The Disneyland Hotel. We were desperate to visit the Fantasia Cafe and have glowtinis!!

All dressed up...

For this very special moment...

It was magical! And then we drifted back to the Sequoia Lodge for another night's sleep.

Cheers!

 

[dawnydoo]

Really enjoying Your trip report.
Are the glowtinis nice? I quite fancy one of those when We go in March.
Dawn.

 

[Stitch's Girl]

Great trip report so far Can't wait to read and see more!

The glowtinis looks cool, I have never heard of them before, what exactly is in it??

 

[FPL]

Loving your trip report - adults only but wanting to be kids - just what i'm hoping for on my trip in December! Keep it coming!!

 

[manxtatt2]

gr8 start, all looks fab

mmm glowtini , im deffo having a few of those when i go

hm are they ,can you remember

 

[AnotherKindOfBelle]

In the Disneyland Hotel Glowtini's were about 14 euros!!!! But they were cheaper in other hotels and restaurants. We just wanted to splash out

Think they're vodka and peach schnapps, but other than that I can't actually remember. Lovely though!

 

[manxtatt2]

think we will have ours @ the dlh as its my birthday , so will be something diff

 

[AnotherKindOfBelle]

Day 3

Up for breakfast again at 7:30am. Made it to the park for about 8:20am. Noticed that the streets were all wet even though it hadn't rained. Someone else mentioned this on their trip report, I think they wash the streets at night. Nice to know they're keeping it clean and tidy.

Lovely to be on Main Street when there are only about five other people there! We did Peter Pan, Orbitron, Buzz (twice), Space Mountain (twice). Still not sure why we favoured Orbitron so much when it doesn't really do a lot. I think it was just funny to us all that we were four adults squeezing into two tiny spaceships and just going round and round

Anyway, when the park was about to open for real we headed out and round to the Studios. Sad to see Rock n Roller Coaster shut for the whole week - I haven't been on yet! But we all "sang in the rain" instead...

We did Cars and the Magic Carpets again, and saw Stitch Live which we all thought was excellent. Very clever and funny, even for adults. I haven't seen Lilo & Stich but it didn't really matter. We also went to see Animagique which was so lovely, although I was extremely tired and fought hard to keep my eyes open!!

We managed to get a couple of photos with Buzz which was cool. He does a lot of this > but not much else! Also, why does he stamp his autograph? His costume is no more difficult to write in than any of the others!

After we'd exhausted the possibilities in the Studios (and deciding that Crush wasn't worth 50 minutes waiting, after we'd queued for just 20 the day before!!) we wandered back over to the main park in the gorgeous sunshine!

We went all the way round the park on the Disneyland Railroad, which I hadn't done since I was a very little girl so that was nice. Didn't realise it went through Pirates either! When we got back off the train at Main Street we walked up behind Minnie's Party Train.

We then went on Pirates just so that we could match up where the train goes, which we sucessfully did! Here's our photo We're the four girls on the middle row.

We grabbed fast passes for Big Thunder Mountain and then headed back towards the castle for the parade. We sat in a different spot so that we could see the princess stop. It was lovely to see them dancing in their twirly skirts, and all the little girls in princess dresses were watching with big grins on their faces. It was too sweet!

We did Big Thunder Mountain with our fast passes and then went to Phantom Manor. Now, I had heard that on the right side of Phantom Manor (if you're looking at it straight on) the phantom or the bride appear in one/two of the windows. I wasn't that clear about it, but thought I'd have a look anyway. We studied the windows for a good 10 minutes. We picked out two that looked like the might have something/someone in them. But nothing moved or lit up or anything. I wondered if they maybe only showed up when it was dark? If anyone knows any more about this, I'd love to know. Here are the two windows that we thought might have something in them:

I wondered if because it was sunny it made it more difficult to see. I love Phantom Manor, the story behind it and all the quirky little details so I was really hoping to figure this one out!!

We dined at the Rainforest Cafe that night. Made no reservation as they don't take bookings after 7pm so when the park closed we just walked across and we were seated straight away. I had the tagliatelli which was yummy. And all four of us had that chocolate pudding dessert. Gorgeous food!

We wanted cocktails again, but rather than move we just ordered them there and they were lovely. I love the theming in there too!

Then we went back to the hotel and sat and watched Hannah Montana for a bit before sleeping long and hard. We did wonder about trying to pack but were all too tired and said we'd do it in the morning!!

I had to fight for my EMH the next day though as the hotel had booked us in for breakfast at the Plaza Gardens at 8:45am. My friends thought this meant we got a lie in, but I was still determined to be at the parks for 8am!!

 

[Bolanette87]

I'm loving your TR so far!!!

In answer to your question about the bride in the window of Phantom Manor I believe its actually the window directly above the door that she sometimes appears in. I have seen a picture online somewhere.... I don't have the time right now but once I get into work I'll try and find it for you...

Bob xoxoxox

 

[Bolanette87]

Just found it now!

http://www.hiddendlrp.com/?p=140

I'm going to have run now or I'll miss my bus!

Bob xoxoxox

 

[AnotherKindOfBelle]

Day Four - Last Day

I managed to get everyone to wake up at 7:15am, even though we all looked a bit like we were dead. I guess busy days, cocktails and early morning make people look like that! We packed as quickly as possible and the other girls dropped our cases off at the luggage place while I checked us out. Made it to the park for 8:10am which was the earliest we'd done but still not the very start. Ah well, will have to save that for when I have kids to drag around!

Bit drizzly but still warm. I kept telling myself that the weather didn't really matter as we were heading home that afternoon.

We went to Fantasyland first and did Dumbo which we hadn't done yet the whole time we were there!

I think that ride is so cool! I love being able to see across the park. Then we went to Discoveryland for our last ride on Buzz, Space Mountain and Orbitron. Then we went for our breakfast at Plaza Gardens. This was lovely and didn't seem as busy as it was because the place is so huge. I don't think I'd been in there before.

By the time we finished we just had chance to get on Peter Pan again before the crowds descended. Then we ran to Space mountain where the queue was still only 5 minutes!!

Back across to Fantasyland to do It's a Small World and Alice's Labyrinth which opened later than the rest. Still no sign of Casey Jr. being open. Honey I Shrunk the Audience was also closed, along with Snow White. Grr! We thought about doing Autopia but the queue was always massive - WHY?

On It's a Small World...

Caught a glimpse of Cinderella just as she was leaving a meet and greet: she had to "go and meet Prince Charming"... love it!

We went through the whole of Adventureland and Frontierland doing our favourites and then stopped for lunch at the Cowboy Cookout, where we managed to catch the live band!

I thought they were great, though funny how the lady is actually French but speaks and sings like a cowboy

When we left there was a meet and greet going on outside with a few characters like Robin Hood, Chip and Dale and Jessie! I love Jessie. I had to queue to have my picture with her but it was so worth it. And as you can see, I'm modelling my very own pair of Minnie Mouse ears

We did Big Thunder Mountain once more, then back through Fantasyland to see the mini Sleeping Beauty show thing which was excellent.

We stood around for a few minutes watching the princesses on the castle stage but didnt have time to queue. As Cinderella came off Snow White and Dopey arrived, as did the Evil Queen in old witch form who stood around with the crowd being scary. She was a lot of fun.

We had free drinks vouchers from our lunch meals and tried to give them away to a deserving family as we queued up for Orbitron one last time but it was their last day as well and we forgot about them after that which is a shame, I really wanted to give them away and make someone's holiday that little bit more magical

We watched the beginning of Mickey's Magical Party Time (I love the song and the dance routine. I want to be in that show!) and then went back to the hotel to pick up our cases and catch the VEA.

The VEA came on time and everything at the airport went smoothly. We even landed back in England slightly early. Four amazing days!

Highlights:
*Eating at the Blue Lagoon
*Glowtinis in Cafe Fantasia
*Crush's Coaster
*Silly rides that we loved like Cars and Orbitron
*An amazing hotel room, gorgeous view, and fantastic service

Lowlights:
*Mickey's head in a plastic bag

I actually think that's the only thing made me sad/angry while we were there. So yes, a brilliant trip!

Thank you for reading!!

 

[Verity Chambers]

Really enjoyed your reports, thanks for taking the time to do them. It looks like you had such a fun time.

 

[mamaboogie]

I really enjoyed reading your TR - we are staying at Sequoia Lodge in 2 weeks - so it was lovely to hear your thoughts on it!

I like the amount of cocktail drinking that went on! I especially want to try some cocktails in the Redwood bar!

 

[Disneyfanswicklow]

Fantastic report and great photos! We just can't wait

 

[thelittlemermaid83]

Great report, i was there the same time! I'm glad i wasnt about to see Mickey's head in a plastic bag, probably would of tramatised me for life.

Thank you for sharing