The 'Neither of them know about it' PTR

[hazelj27]

A little early I guess, but with only 5 weeks and 1 day until we set off from Cornwall, (which undoubtedly will fly by) I’m sure I’ll be forgiven for doing our PTR now .

The cast:
Me - 27, will turn ahem…28 whilst there.
Mum – 64
DD – 7

This is a completely surprise trip, my Mum and Daughter know absolutely nothing about us going back to Disney! Our first trip was back in October 2008 and I was literally infected with the magic of DLRP. Every half term, I try and take my Daughter and Mum away somewhere, just so we can have some downtime, even if it’s only to the next county. I take Mum with us as she is good enough to look after my DD whilst I’m at work, so it’s kind of like a thank you to her for looking after DD.
Now my DD has turned 7, to go for my birthday in October and stay onsite is much more than I can afford or justify (even though I absolutely adore the Halloween season at Disney). I had booked the time off work and was getting depressed at the fact that I couldn’t go to Disney for my birthday again.

I joined this website and started reading the forums. With people’s invaluable knowledge and insight, I thought maybe, just maybe, we can go! I started looking at hotels nearby and found Kyriad on eurobookings.com at a good price of E224 for 2 nights including breakfast. The addition of the free shuttle bus won it for me and I thought what the hell, I’ll book it! Then I read about the cheap BBWWS tickets. Uh oh…I’ve wanted to see this since our first trip. That was also an offer too good to refuse! Because it wasn’t on on a Wednesday or Thursday (the 2 nights I’d booked at Kyriad), I had to find somewhere for us to stay on the Tuesday. I came up with Premiere Classe Marne la Vallée, Bussy St Georges for E42. Sorted! I had saved up quite a lot of Tesco clubcard vouchers and so used these to book the eurotunnel.

So, that’s the background to our trip. Here’s the rough itinerary.

Monday 25th October. Leave Cornwall as early as possible, having (hopefully) packed the car the night before. Drive to Dartford in Kent, some 320ish miles. Stop and have a cup of tea with my Brother and his family before continuing the last 65 miles down to Dover to stay in the Premier Inn which I got for £29. I recently purchased the DLRP music CD from Amazon, so when Mum and DD are in bed, I will sneakily put it in my car stereo to play the next morning.

Tuesday 26th October. Our Eurotunnel crossing is booked for 08:50am. Apparently the Premier Inn is only 5 miles away from the Folkestone terminal so shouldn’t take us that long to get there. Arrival in Calais is at 10.25am. All I’ve told Mum and DD is that we’re going to France for a few days, staying near Calais. When we get out of the terminal I’ll put the music to the OUAD parade on and they’ll figure it out !

Check in at BSG is anytime after 2pm. I’m pretty sure that’s how long it will take me to drive there anyway. We only generally have 1 pit stop on the way down just so I can stretch my legs. After checking in, it’s straight to the parks! Well, having said that, I’m quite tempted by Annette’s take out (seemingly very reasonable prices) and then to the parks. Buy our AP’s then have a mooch about, taking in the Halloweenmosphere! My guess is that a lot of the major rides will be busy by the time we get there, so we will content ourselves with the parade that day, oh and IASW (my Mum’s favourite) and hopefully Phantom Manor (mine and DD’s favourite)! The park shuts at 8pm I think for MNSSHP, so we’ll wander to the village before our trip to BBWWS at 9.30pm. I had no problem with booking that time of night; my DD has enviable stamina and never misses out on anything! After the show, we will hopefully be tucked up in bed by midnight ready for the next day.

Wednesday 27th October – A whole day in both the parks. We have to change hotels this day too. I’m still undecided as to the best plan of action on this one. Check in is from 3pm til midnight. Having purchased Dream AP’s the day before, I fully intend to make use of EMH then a stop off in Salon Mickey, for the first time as a new shareholder! The park shuts at 10pm I believe, so what might be an idea is to leave the park at 230pm, drive to Kyriad, check in, then perhaps get the shuttle bus back to the park hopefully by 5pm. Have dinner, do some rides and stay until closing.

Thursday 28th October – Much the same again; EMH, Salon Mickey, a snack for lunch, rides, parades, shows, then maybe a special dinner at…Inventions? For my Birthday meal. Stay until closing yet again!

Friday 29th October – EMH again! The rest of the day at leisure until roughly 230pm/3pm. Leave the parks and drive back to Calais for out 750pm shuttle.

The rest of the journey back to Cornwall will be as miserable as sin, so I shalln’t bore you with the details!

Like many others, I have read and re-read the restaurant reviews thread. Are there any really must do’s? For my birthday meal I’m still torn between Café Mickey and Inventions. I think the atmosphere and dancing might be good in the former, but if the food isn’t great then I will probably be disappointed. However, is the atmosphere in Inventions uncomfortably stuffy? Or is it kind of fun but in a posher environment?
I enjoyed Plaza Gardens in February this year; I might do that Wednesday evening. If anyone has any thoughts about food, opinions greatly received!

Here are some pictures from our 2008 trip…

DD trying Minnie ears on for size.

Enjoying halloweenmosphere.

IASW

15th anniversary celebrations

Me & DD (I had started to get a cold by that point!)

 

[ExpatDisneyLover]

Yay!! Sounds like it will be a great trip - so much fun being a surprise!

 

[hazelj27]

Thanks hopefully it will be! It's killing me not saying anything. Every time Disneyland is mentioned I have to keep saying 'but we're not going for another 5 months yet'!!

 

[Ms Poppins]

Sounds very well planned

Well done keeping it a surprise, think I would have burst by now!

Have fun!

 

[Asker Family]

Well done!! There is no way I could keep that a secret! Sounds like you enjoy the planning like myself Hope you have a fab time.

We loved Inventions, it does feel posh but not stuffy. Our kids were jumping about with excitement and enjoying the characters. There is a lot more room around the tables than in cafe mickey which we also liked and it did feel like a special meal. But we had fun in both so whatever you choose I'm sure it will be memorable

 

[hazelj27]

Oh yes I LOVE the planning bit! It's so much fun, although I do frequently have to minimise the webpages so no one can see! Thank you for your info re inventions. I am a firm believer of you get what you pay for food. I know Cafe Mickey is far from cheap, but I think most of the money there is for the character interaction. Having looked at some pictures of the Inventions buffet, it does look really nice. I think I've decided that is what we will go for, especially with the SH discount. (Hopefully that applies there?!) I just don't know what time is best to book for!

 

[Asker Family]

We had booked for 7pm at Inventions on a monday eve but got there about 6.30pm. They let us in no problem and it was quite quiet. We sat in the room to the right of the buffet room which was lovely and stayed fairly empty the whole time we were there. We are going back on our first evening again when we visit at Christmas *** we loved it so much

 

[hazelj27]

We had booked for 7pm at Inventions on a monday eve but got there about 6.30pm. They let us in no problem and it was quite quiet. We sat in the room to the right of the buffet room which was lovely and stayed fairly empty the whole time we were there. We are going back on our first evening again when we visit at Christmas *** we loved it so much

Well, if you're going again, it must've been great. That settles it, I'll try and get booked up for the Thursday around 6.30pm. Even if it takes a couple of hours, the park is open until 10pm I think, so will still have plenty of time left to enjoy the park afterwards .

 

[hazelj27]

So...a few last minute changes have been made. I've just doubled the length of our trip

I posted a thread about it on the main forum, however; I get Martin Lewis' Moneysavingsexpert email, and one of the deals this week was, £10 off per room per night with hotels.com (for hotels in the UK & Europe, stays up until 31/12/10 and booked by 12th October). I searched for hotels within close proximity to DLRP and loads came up. I had been looking at Premiere Classe St Thibault des Vignes. Tbh it didn't look wonderful, but the way we see hotels is they're just a place to sleep/shower. For 6 nights, it came up as £201 for the 3 of us. 6 nights = £60 off (with the deal) so £141 for 3 of us. I then stumbled across the Premiere Classe at Torcy. I think in terms of mileage, it is a little further away but on a more direct route (just off of the A4). The rooms are pretty much the same (i.e. rather small), however, it had recently been decorated and has an onsite restaurant and free parking. It also has much better reviews in terms of staff friendliness and cleanliness. So...with discount, I booked it £157.50 for 6 nights for 3 of us.

Of course this means I will be dog tired by the time we get there. Will go straight from Cornwall, all the way to Torcy...in 1 day!!! However, it means we will get an extra 2 full days in the parks
I cancelled the other 2 rooms without any problems or any incurred costs. Incidently, the price I would have had to pay cumulatively for BSG and Kyriad worked out at £255...so, you can see how much money I have saved! I will still have to pay £29 for the Premier Inn booked in Dover for Monday 25th, unless anybody wants it?! Plus a small charge to change the eurotunnel outward eurotunnel crossing. But, all totalled, I should still save some money.

On the restaurant front, (and with thanks to the Asker Family recommendation) I have booked Inventions for my birthday meal on the Thursday at 6.30pm. I'm looking forward to it immensely . I've been on the phone again this morning to book The Steakhouse brunch on the Sunday 24th at 1pm (I was lured in by the great reviews and free champagne on the restaurant review thread (that's turning out to be a very bad influence for me!)), and Plaza Gardens for the Monday 25th at 7pm. We thoroughly enjoyed it there in February when we had the free dining vouchers.
So, pretty much sorted now. Just have to wait 3 weeks and 2 days!!!

 

[Mum to Belle]

Hoorah!!

I can't wait to hear about your restaurant experiences when you get back - those review threads can be very addictive!!

 

[hazelj27]

Can't they just! I was very much torn between Cafe Mickey and Inventions. However (as you can see from the pic above, although I have lost 3 stone since then lol!) the food is very much a part of the experience for us as well. The food seems to be hit and miss at CM so I opted for Inventions instead. Will possibly do CM next year instead! As if I need another excuse to go back! Have you decided on where you're eating for your next trip??

 

[Mum to Belle]

First of all, CONGRATULATIONS on the weight loss!!!

IKWYM about CM, our food was a little disappointing on our last trip

My plans for this trip are:
Fri lunch - Walts
Fri evening meal - Inventions
Sat lunch - Auberge
Sat evening meal - Pizza Planet
Sun lunch - Steakhouse brunch
Sun evening meal - takeaway on way to/at airport

I was worried that I'm trying to fit too much in but figure that it will be busy & cold so it will be nice to get inside and warm up - that's my excuse & I'm sticking to it!!

 

[hazelj27]

Thanks I'm currently on cereal for breakfast and dinner and a sandwich at lunch lol. I work evenings, and at the moment am not getting home much before 10.30pm at night. It's far too late to eat anyway, so in a bad way, it's a good thing!

Those restaurants sound like a good plan to me. I much prefer an evening meal, and although I was tempted with Walt's quick menu, it's only on until 4pm by the looks of it. Plus, Walt's, Inventions & The Steakhouse would be too much extravagance. (Even though you're doing all of them, but you're there for less time than us, so that's perfectly acceptable!!) There'd be nothing much left to try next time! I'm not sold on Auberge yet. The food 'looks' nice, but the menu doesn't appeal. DD likes Princesses but not that much. Maybe we will do it at some point! A lot of people seem to enjoy Blue Lagoon, and although I like the look of it from the onride viewpoint, I don't think I'd like the unusual menu. Have you ever been there?

 

[Mum to Belle]

It does seem a bit extravagent doesn't it?!!! DD really loves the characters and I feel that if I can fit in a character meal each day then I know she is guaranteed some good character interaction. I did consider CM instead of Inventions this trip as it would be cheaper, but the great thing about it being a buffet is that if the characters turn up, you don't need to worry about your food going cold while you take photos/get autographs/find the video camera!! DD is princess mad so Auberge is a must for us!! I fell in love with Walts quick lunch on our last visit so I'm really keen to go back! I've never been to the Blue Lagoon, I wasn't sure that DD would be too keen on the setting as it's quite dark. It's a possible for when she's older though (She's 4 in 3 weeks time!)

 

[hazelj27]

Aww we almost share the same birthday, well a week apart, if it's 3 weeks today lol! I never knew half these places existed until I started reading the boards. Now, they're a good and bad influention all rolled in to one! I'm looking at it as, I saved a stupid amount on the hotel...so I will streeeeetch for some quality dining to enhance our trip! I will try and go to Annette's at some point, I just really want to see the park schedule first, so I know I won't miss anything exciting!!

 

[Mum to Belle]

I just really want to see the park schedule first, so I know I won't miss anything exciting!!

I know! I want to book a good time for evening meals but don't want to miss the tree lighting etc so I'm using last years programme as a guide. Will try and wait a while before booking!

 

[hazelj27]

Jill managed to find the park schedule from today until the 8th. (Not on the main site...strange it's not on there yet?!) Assuming the parade and show times stay relatively the same, we shouldn't miss much at all. I have Inventions booked for 6.30pm, the last show on is the showtime spectacular at 6pm. So we shall be able to watch a bit of that before dinner. We tend to watch the shows evey day, I don't know why lol!