nifferwilko
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jun 6, 2006
- Messages
- 208
Finally got chance to sit and write my trip report today - very long as it's my first one but I don't want to edit anything out. Sadly I've misplaced one of my camera's memory cards (hopefully I'll find it!) so I'm a bit short on photos. But enjoy!!
CMs - Me (22 going on 6)
- Sister (17)
Day 1 (Tuesday 11th July)
Got up early (well 6:45) and caught bus to coach station. Bus was very late and we feared we were going to miss the coach. Luckily the coach was running late too so we managed to catch it. Some magic was definitely already with us! Arrived at Victoria coach station at 10:30 and managed to navigate the underground with two very heavy bags and lots of stairs to be at the Eurostar terminal for 11am.
Another shock of the day the electronic ticket machine didnt recognise the booking reference. Visions of us having to go home again flew through my mind but a very nice man found it and we were on our way.
The Eurostar journey was painless. We had to change at Lille but the connecting train arrived at the same platform so we just waited. Huge problem on the connecting TGV with places to put the bags as the train was packed. Finally arrived at Disney at 17:15 French time, after 9 hours travelling.
Caught the bright pink bus to the Hotel Kyriad and was pleasantly surprised. Ive heard mixed reviews about this hotel and wasnt expecting a lot from a budget hotel but the staff were friendly and the room was immaculate and a decent size. We were even given a choice of times for breakfast.
Not being ones to take it easy, we decided to have a quick trip to Val DEurope to assess whether or not it was worth a longer visit when I come back at Christmas. Slight hiccup at the train station when the guy in the booth decided not to give us our change (we did get it back though). Val DEurope is a nice place, if a bit clinical and new, but its a nice time out from Disney which I may use in the future.
Finally back in the room at 9pm. So tired that a quick shower and bed by 9:30 in readiness for the first day at Disney tomorrow.
Day 2 (Wednesday 12th July)
Up around 8ish and went down to breakfast. Breakfast was buffet style with French bread, croissants, pain au chocolate, fruit salad (tinned), crème fresh, apple sauce stuff (cant remember its proper name), cold hams, cereal, fruit juice & hot drinks. You could have as much as you liked and I did see a number of people in quiet corners making sandwiches for lunch. It was clean as well as there were two men cleaning the tables at a rapid pace.
Off too the park. We aimed to get there around 9:30 to miss some of the opening rush and tried to buy our annual passport at the ticket booths. Big mistake. The woman refused to accept the fact that you can be sponsored without the sponsor being present, despite the fact that point 7 on the T&Cs says you can. After a pointless discussion we decided to just get daily passes and go to the Passport Bureau later to change them. This turned out to be a very good plan as we managed to get fastpass tickets on the daily tickets then get a second set when we had changed them to annual passes. Fantastic!
The passport office didnt open until later so we headed to Town Hall and booked a table for Café Mickey. We then started on the rides. BTM was first (naturally) and we grabbed a fastpass before joining the queue. It was only 15 minutes long and we got to sit at the very back of the train (whooooo). Decided to go on a fastpass mission and went and got fastpasses for Peter Pan, Buzz laserquest and Star Tours. They were for later in the morning so we headed back to the passport office. No problems at all with our sponsorship so we got 2 fantasy passports for 116 each instead of 129. I did consider getting the dream but I figured I wouldnt use the extra benefits so it wasnt worth the extra expense. The man who gave us our passports was called Francesco and was wonderful. Very funny man.
Off we went for our first ride on POTC. Walked straight on the ride at the front and somehow got very wet! Ive never got wet before on that ride. We played spot the Jack and we think we found him but I was never convinced. Had a bit of time to kill before our fastpass for Star tours so we had a stroll around Adventure Isle and Skull rock. Managed to lose each other in the caves and wandered around in circles with us both trying to find the other. I was more concerned as my sister had all the fastpasses!!! Luckily we were reunited and headed off to Star tours. On the way my realisation about the fasspasses occurred to me and we grabbed another one for Buzz. Sat at the back of the Star tours ride and couldnt touch the floor. Also was wearing very slippery trousers so couldnt stay still on my seat. By the end of the ride my stomach was hurting as the seatbelt was the only thing holding me in place. It was still lots of fun though.
Bad planning with the fastpasses as we then had to walk to the other side of the park to ride BTM. I loved the fastness of the fastpass. Ive never used them before and it was wonderful to walk past the inevitable long queue and get straight on the ride.
Next was back over to Discoveryland to ride Buzz for the first time ever. Not really too sure what to expect as it sounded a bit of a silly concept for a ride but it was brilliant. The sister took the role of shooting and I had plenty of fun spinning our spaceship around. Her first score (which she became determined to beat) was 27500.
It was time for our fastpass for Peter pan so off we went. All the boats were active (surprise surprise) and at 1pm the queue waiting time was 90 minutes! I loved this ride when I was little but it doesnt hold much attraction for me now. But it was ticked off the list at least.
It was a bit warm today so we decided to go back to POTC to cool down a bit. I love the fact that you almost always get to wait inside for this one. It was bliss to walk into the queuing area and be much cooler. Waited a bit longer this time but its never too long.
Next stop was Phantom Manor. Waited for around 5 minutes to get into the lift but we strategically placed ourselves so we were first out and first on the doom buggies. Very creepy as the next people were 5 carts behind us so we were on our own!
By this time it was 2:45 and we decided that we were very hungry and we wanted lunch. I didnt want burgers so we decided to try Caseys Corner. We both had menus with hotdogs sisters with cheese, mine without. Very nice and hot and the 10% off was fantastic too. Im surprised weve never eaten here before! After Caseys we attempted to get across Main Street but they had already cordoned it off for the parade. We headed to Fantasyland and stopped to watch the Music performers that Disney invites go past. They were from somewhere in England and I recognised a few from breakfast they were staying in our hotel.
We decided to watch The Wonderful World of Disney parade and positioned ourselves at the start of the route. We had quite a good view and we were both happy to hear Dancin a catchy rhythm. We made idiots of ourselves singing and dancing along.
At the end of the parade we rushed over to Its a Small World for, strangely, our only time. We didnt want to leave the comfort of the France Telecom display as it was so hot outside. We did discover some water sprays near the old windmill and stood under them for a short while. As we were in the area Caseys was next and I was sure that the ride used to go faster that or Im getting older! By this time it was really hot so we headed to get a drink.
Au Chalet de la Marionette is where we decided to go as I knew it would be empty and cool. As everyone at Disney knows, you queue both sides of the till and they alternate sides. So I stood in line and waited to be served. Everyone who had been waiting before I arrived had been served so even without the alternation I was next. The cast member turned to serve me and a very rude French guy made guestures and spoke rapid French to indicate that he was next and he would be served before me. I turned to him and said No, Im next so you can just shut up. Bit rude, yes, but he was being really rude and there was no need for his behaviour. The place was hardly packed. Anyhows, he picked up his stuff and stormed out. It was very amusing and a bit pointless as he would have been next, but its nice to know that a few stern words can stop queue jumping!
We were having our leisurely drink when the sister pointed out that we had 15 minutes left on our fastpass!! Off we (walked rapidly) to Buzz and made it in time. Sisters score this time 27600.
I had a chance to wander around the Buzz shop this time and wanted to buy everything Alien related!! I love those little guys I think theyre so cute! We both decided that we were wiped so walked down Discovery arcade and headed out of the park. Got on a very packed pink bus (it was 6:45) and headed back to the hotel. Had a rest and a shower and went back to Disney village for Dinner.
We had booked a table at Café Mickey and were very happy that we had. Lots of people were trying to walk in and get a table but they were full. Although all the menu looked wonderful we both decided on Pizza as it was a cheaper option. Our waiteress was a bit in need of some personality. She really did not want to be there. The characters are what we went to Café Mickey for and we saw lots of them! The Sheriff of Nottingham was attempting to collect taxes but I had no money. So he figured my camera was the next best thing. Noooooooo! Goofy and Mickey went to every other table in our section but us. We were very unhappy with that pair. Gepetto was wonderful and posed for photos with us. Tigger scared me by appearing behind me but we quickly made friends and got a few photos. There was another round of characters as we were settling our bill but we didnt get to meet them. There was one character which neither of us recognised but someone told us he was called Brer Fox? He tried to steal my credit card so I was not impressed.
We headed back to the hotel on the bright pink bus which sadly had a large group of drunken underage English schoolchildren on. Even more upsetting was the fact they all got off at our hotel. And half of them were staying on our corridor. We were kept up at least I was until 2am. Shouting, running, screaming, slamming doors I was ready to strangle them all and reception did not seem to care as nothing was done. It spoilt the day a bit but I quickly fell asleep once they all were quiet.
CMs - Me (22 going on 6)
- Sister (17)
Day 1 (Tuesday 11th July)
Got up early (well 6:45) and caught bus to coach station. Bus was very late and we feared we were going to miss the coach. Luckily the coach was running late too so we managed to catch it. Some magic was definitely already with us! Arrived at Victoria coach station at 10:30 and managed to navigate the underground with two very heavy bags and lots of stairs to be at the Eurostar terminal for 11am.
Another shock of the day the electronic ticket machine didnt recognise the booking reference. Visions of us having to go home again flew through my mind but a very nice man found it and we were on our way.
The Eurostar journey was painless. We had to change at Lille but the connecting train arrived at the same platform so we just waited. Huge problem on the connecting TGV with places to put the bags as the train was packed. Finally arrived at Disney at 17:15 French time, after 9 hours travelling.
Caught the bright pink bus to the Hotel Kyriad and was pleasantly surprised. Ive heard mixed reviews about this hotel and wasnt expecting a lot from a budget hotel but the staff were friendly and the room was immaculate and a decent size. We were even given a choice of times for breakfast.
Not being ones to take it easy, we decided to have a quick trip to Val DEurope to assess whether or not it was worth a longer visit when I come back at Christmas. Slight hiccup at the train station when the guy in the booth decided not to give us our change (we did get it back though). Val DEurope is a nice place, if a bit clinical and new, but its a nice time out from Disney which I may use in the future.
Finally back in the room at 9pm. So tired that a quick shower and bed by 9:30 in readiness for the first day at Disney tomorrow.
Day 2 (Wednesday 12th July)
Up around 8ish and went down to breakfast. Breakfast was buffet style with French bread, croissants, pain au chocolate, fruit salad (tinned), crème fresh, apple sauce stuff (cant remember its proper name), cold hams, cereal, fruit juice & hot drinks. You could have as much as you liked and I did see a number of people in quiet corners making sandwiches for lunch. It was clean as well as there were two men cleaning the tables at a rapid pace.
Off too the park. We aimed to get there around 9:30 to miss some of the opening rush and tried to buy our annual passport at the ticket booths. Big mistake. The woman refused to accept the fact that you can be sponsored without the sponsor being present, despite the fact that point 7 on the T&Cs says you can. After a pointless discussion we decided to just get daily passes and go to the Passport Bureau later to change them. This turned out to be a very good plan as we managed to get fastpass tickets on the daily tickets then get a second set when we had changed them to annual passes. Fantastic!
The passport office didnt open until later so we headed to Town Hall and booked a table for Café Mickey. We then started on the rides. BTM was first (naturally) and we grabbed a fastpass before joining the queue. It was only 15 minutes long and we got to sit at the very back of the train (whooooo). Decided to go on a fastpass mission and went and got fastpasses for Peter Pan, Buzz laserquest and Star Tours. They were for later in the morning so we headed back to the passport office. No problems at all with our sponsorship so we got 2 fantasy passports for 116 each instead of 129. I did consider getting the dream but I figured I wouldnt use the extra benefits so it wasnt worth the extra expense. The man who gave us our passports was called Francesco and was wonderful. Very funny man.
Off we went for our first ride on POTC. Walked straight on the ride at the front and somehow got very wet! Ive never got wet before on that ride. We played spot the Jack and we think we found him but I was never convinced. Had a bit of time to kill before our fastpass for Star tours so we had a stroll around Adventure Isle and Skull rock. Managed to lose each other in the caves and wandered around in circles with us both trying to find the other. I was more concerned as my sister had all the fastpasses!!! Luckily we were reunited and headed off to Star tours. On the way my realisation about the fasspasses occurred to me and we grabbed another one for Buzz. Sat at the back of the Star tours ride and couldnt touch the floor. Also was wearing very slippery trousers so couldnt stay still on my seat. By the end of the ride my stomach was hurting as the seatbelt was the only thing holding me in place. It was still lots of fun though.
Bad planning with the fastpasses as we then had to walk to the other side of the park to ride BTM. I loved the fastness of the fastpass. Ive never used them before and it was wonderful to walk past the inevitable long queue and get straight on the ride.
Next was back over to Discoveryland to ride Buzz for the first time ever. Not really too sure what to expect as it sounded a bit of a silly concept for a ride but it was brilliant. The sister took the role of shooting and I had plenty of fun spinning our spaceship around. Her first score (which she became determined to beat) was 27500.
It was time for our fastpass for Peter pan so off we went. All the boats were active (surprise surprise) and at 1pm the queue waiting time was 90 minutes! I loved this ride when I was little but it doesnt hold much attraction for me now. But it was ticked off the list at least.
It was a bit warm today so we decided to go back to POTC to cool down a bit. I love the fact that you almost always get to wait inside for this one. It was bliss to walk into the queuing area and be much cooler. Waited a bit longer this time but its never too long.
Next stop was Phantom Manor. Waited for around 5 minutes to get into the lift but we strategically placed ourselves so we were first out and first on the doom buggies. Very creepy as the next people were 5 carts behind us so we were on our own!
By this time it was 2:45 and we decided that we were very hungry and we wanted lunch. I didnt want burgers so we decided to try Caseys Corner. We both had menus with hotdogs sisters with cheese, mine without. Very nice and hot and the 10% off was fantastic too. Im surprised weve never eaten here before! After Caseys we attempted to get across Main Street but they had already cordoned it off for the parade. We headed to Fantasyland and stopped to watch the Music performers that Disney invites go past. They were from somewhere in England and I recognised a few from breakfast they were staying in our hotel.
We decided to watch The Wonderful World of Disney parade and positioned ourselves at the start of the route. We had quite a good view and we were both happy to hear Dancin a catchy rhythm. We made idiots of ourselves singing and dancing along.
At the end of the parade we rushed over to Its a Small World for, strangely, our only time. We didnt want to leave the comfort of the France Telecom display as it was so hot outside. We did discover some water sprays near the old windmill and stood under them for a short while. As we were in the area Caseys was next and I was sure that the ride used to go faster that or Im getting older! By this time it was really hot so we headed to get a drink.
Au Chalet de la Marionette is where we decided to go as I knew it would be empty and cool. As everyone at Disney knows, you queue both sides of the till and they alternate sides. So I stood in line and waited to be served. Everyone who had been waiting before I arrived had been served so even without the alternation I was next. The cast member turned to serve me and a very rude French guy made guestures and spoke rapid French to indicate that he was next and he would be served before me. I turned to him and said No, Im next so you can just shut up. Bit rude, yes, but he was being really rude and there was no need for his behaviour. The place was hardly packed. Anyhows, he picked up his stuff and stormed out. It was very amusing and a bit pointless as he would have been next, but its nice to know that a few stern words can stop queue jumping!
We were having our leisurely drink when the sister pointed out that we had 15 minutes left on our fastpass!! Off we (walked rapidly) to Buzz and made it in time. Sisters score this time 27600.
I had a chance to wander around the Buzz shop this time and wanted to buy everything Alien related!! I love those little guys I think theyre so cute! We both decided that we were wiped so walked down Discovery arcade and headed out of the park. Got on a very packed pink bus (it was 6:45) and headed back to the hotel. Had a rest and a shower and went back to Disney village for Dinner.
We had booked a table at Café Mickey and were very happy that we had. Lots of people were trying to walk in and get a table but they were full. Although all the menu looked wonderful we both decided on Pizza as it was a cheaper option. Our waiteress was a bit in need of some personality. She really did not want to be there. The characters are what we went to Café Mickey for and we saw lots of them! The Sheriff of Nottingham was attempting to collect taxes but I had no money. So he figured my camera was the next best thing. Noooooooo! Goofy and Mickey went to every other table in our section but us. We were very unhappy with that pair. Gepetto was wonderful and posed for photos with us. Tigger scared me by appearing behind me but we quickly made friends and got a few photos. There was another round of characters as we were settling our bill but we didnt get to meet them. There was one character which neither of us recognised but someone told us he was called Brer Fox? He tried to steal my credit card so I was not impressed.
We headed back to the hotel on the bright pink bus which sadly had a large group of drunken underage English schoolchildren on. Even more upsetting was the fact they all got off at our hotel. And half of them were staying on our corridor. We were kept up at least I was until 2am. Shouting, running, screaming, slamming doors I was ready to strangle them all and reception did not seem to care as nothing was done. It spoilt the day a bit but I quickly fell asleep once they all were quiet.
, your second day sounds like it was a lot of fun!! 
