Ware Bears
Bring me that horizon
- Joined
- Jan 23, 2003
- Messages
- 27,443
Monday August 22nd 2005
At last!!! The long awaited day had finally arrived and our holiday was about to begin!
Following our return from WDW in April 2004, our once-in-a-lifetime holiday just HAD to be repeated but funds would not allow that for two or three years. So we started to think about visiting DLP, somewhere we had always been reluctant to go to before, partly because of all the bad things we had heard in the days when it was called Eurodisney and partly because we had wanted to go to WDW first. Friends of ours then visited DLP for Bonfire night and came home enthusing about it and I turned my attention from the UK Trip Planning forum to the Disneyland Paris one. The rest as they say is history !!! . You lot so convinced me that I would love it at DLP that I persuaded the rest of the family to go, bought shares and even booked a second holiday at Christmas before going for the first one!
Our plans were to travel up to London on Monday and stay there for 3 nights, then catch the direct Eurostar on Thursday and spend 5 nights/6 days at DLP.
Bryans brother was emigrating to Australia while we were away, so we had all been for a family meal on Saturday night which was very pleasant, if a little sad, and then on Sunday the dogs had been despatched to the kennels for their holiday, which they thoroughly enjoy and always come back groomed to perfection and looking much better cared for than when they go!
The taxis arrived and we arrived at Bournemouth station to catch the 9.56am train. Not a good idea. When it arrived, there was not a seat to be found and we spent the start of our journey sat on our suitcases outside the toilet. Thank goodness no other passengers wanted to use it! When the train reached Southampton, lots of people alighted and we were able to secure seats. The journey soon passed and we arrived at Waterloo just before noon. Unfortunately we had brought the lousy weather with us. It had just started drizzling as we left Bournemouth, by the time we got out of Waterloo station it was tipping it down.
We soon reached our hotel which was in Victoria and what a gem it turned out to be. I had found it on the internet and believe me, it is very difficult to find family rooms for 5 in London without ending up either in the backyards of beyond or at a backpackers hostel. After freshening up, we ventured back out into the rain and hailed a cab to go to the Tower of London. I had purchased the tickets in advance online as there is normally up to a 2-hour queue to pay at the gate! Not today!!! There were probably only about 50 people in the whole place, the majority being Yeoman Warders! Anyhow, we thoroughly enjoyed looking around, it was just a shame about the weather. After the Tower closed at 6pm, we walked up to Pizza Express. We had to be back at the Tower by 9.30pm as we had tickets for the Ceremony of the Keys. We managed to spin our meal out until 8pm, by then we felt that we were starting to outstay our welcome, so we walked down to the Thames and had a very pleasant sojourn along the river, all in the pouring rain! Tower Bridge was lit up and looked very impressive, despite the downpour. Eventually 9.30pm came and we assembled at the gates to the Tower. Luckily it finally stopped raining and we watched the Ceremony. This has been performed every night for over 700 years and was quite awe-inspiring, one of those moments that makes you feel very patriotic. If anyone is interested, this link explains the ceremony http://www.toweroflondontour.com/keys.html
Then it was time for bed, we were all tired but happy!
Tuesday August 23rd 2005
After a good nights sleep, we awoke about 7am and ate a delicious breakfast at the hotel which consisted of juice, cereals, and full English. Then we were on our way by 9.30am, we had to be near the London Eye for 11am for our Duck Tour. On the way we stopped to show the girls the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben. The Duck Tour was great fun. Its a tour by road and river in amphibious craft originally known as DUKWS which were used for the DD landings in WWll. After a quick snack in McDonalds, we walked to the British Museum via Whitehall, Trafalgar Square, and Piccadilly. Lets just say I enjoyed the museum, but my darling husband and daughters were bored out of their brains. Suffice to say, I have a family of Philistines! Stopped off on the way back to the hotel at a Pizza Hut. I forgot to say that today was a lovely sunny day, hence the reason we were walking everywhere!
Wednesday August 24th 2005
After another hearty breakfast, we walked down to the London Eye where we had booked a hosted capsule for 11.30am. It had just been drizzling when we left but by the time we got there it was pouring yet again! Anyhow the rain didnt stop our enjoyment of the Eye, we still had fantastic views from up there and I would definitely recommend booking a hosted visit. There were 17 of us for the 11.30am slot and they split us into two groups of 8 and 9, giving us all plenty of space, and the host told us loads of info and pointed things out that we would never have known. Afterwards we took a cab to the Natural History Museum. Phew! What a relief! Everyone liked this museum, my youngest DD is mad on dinosaurs so that section went down really well! We then went to Planet Hollywood for a very nice meal, all the better because my youngest two ate free! Then back to the hotel to get packed up for the big day tomorrow! We have all enjoyed our days in London, this is the first time the girls have been and theyve liked recognising places theyve seen on TV. I used to come to London regularly with my dad when I was a child but this is my first visit for nearly 20 years and I was impressed with how clean it was everywhere, a lot cleaner than Bournemouth!
Thursday August 25th 2005
Another lovely sunny day. After breakfast we checked out of the hotel and took a cab to Waterloo to catch the Eurostar. We soon found our seats and before we knew it we were on our way. Once we had picked up the Ashford passengers, we were served our breakfast which consisted of fromage frais, cheesy omelette with a chicken sausage, baked beans and tomato, bread roll, croissant, butter and jam, and an apple plus tea, coffee, hot chocolate, soft drinks, water etc. It was really nice, much better than airline meals and was served in ceramic containers rather than the airline disposable ones. The time seemed to fly and before we knew it we were there! Great excitement! We found our way to the top of the station and as luck would have it a no.54 bus was waiting there! We were at the Explorers by 2pm and although check-in was not supposed to be until 3pm, we were hopeful that our room might be ready early. No such luck! We decided to wait rather than use the left luggage room and took it in turns to explore the hotel and of course the Disney shop! The room was ready at 3.15pm, it was perfectly adequate for us a room with a double and two singles, then a cabin room off this with bunk beds and another television. More than enough storage for clothes and belongings, and plenty of floor space for children (especially young ones) to play in the cabin room. Tea/coffee facilities are provided for the first night, then you have to buy further supplies from reception but I had brought some teabags from home! Once we had dumped our luggage, it was full steam ahead to the parks! We caught a bus back and as we got off it started to pour with rain (yet again!) However, our first sight of the Disneyland Hotel was still fantastic and it looked beautiful even in the rain. The CM on the ticket booth was very friendly and helpful, and sold us temporary Dream passes for 101 euros each, working out at under £69 each, yes £69, and told us where to go to get the permanent passes. As we walked through the turnstiles we were met with a wave of yellow ponchos exiting the park due to the rain, and the magic just hit us, we were in Disney and it was SO SO FANTASTIC!!!
We made our way down Main Street and savoured our first view of Sleeping Beauty Castle. Even in the rain its beauty just shone through. We quickly made our way to the Passport Bureau, filled out the appropriate forms, had our passes made up and were presented with a gift each. Samantha chose a cuddly Tigger, Danielle, Francesca and I chose cuddly Plutos and Bryan picked a pen and pencil set. The CMs in the bureau were really nice and this proved to be the case throughout our whole stay, every CM we encountered was friendly, helpful and pleasant.
Now the magic could really begin! First was Its a Small World, a big favourite of all of ours, then Le Pays des Contes de Fees. Then Casey Jr le Petit Train du Cirque. Then we decided to suss out where Pirates of the Caribbean was, seeing as we had booked a meal at the Blue Lagoon that evening. When we got there it was a walk-on, we couldnt believe this! POC is a great ride, much much better than the one at WDW, it seems twice as long and I managed to spot the hidden Mickey in the treasure!
We decided to watch the Wonderful World of Disney Parade and went over to the seats by the Pooh theatre. You see how useful all your tips have been! Although we werent in the front we still had a good view and we all enjoyed watching this. Dancin A Catchy Rhythm is on my Ultimate Disney CD so we all knew the music already! Then it was back to Adventureland and the Blue Lagoon. We were seated with a brilliant view of the water and it really felt like we were at an exotic location! Danielle and Francesca ate the pirate sausage kebab and fries followed by a Mickey ice cream. Samantha was delighted to see that they were doing a teenager menu and ordered a Black Pearl burger and fries followed by chocolate chip cake, very appropriate seeing as POC-The Black Pearl is one of her favourite films. Bryan and I both had Tahiti style shrimps for starters (yummy), Bryan then had chicken curry while I had a tuna and swordfish fricassee (even yummier). We both had a roast banana in rum for our dessert, this looked revolting but tasted absolutely delicious. We all loved this restaurant for its delicious food, excellent setting, good service, and wonderful ambience. Thanks for persuading me to come here, Karen and Steve, we will definitely return!
We then waddled back to the Pooh seats for Fantillusion. We were sat right at the front and we had such a brilliant view! This is an excellent parade, just as magical as Spectromagic. I especially loved the change to evil and back again. Then we made our way to the central hub for Wishes. I think the best word to describe this was enchanting. I really cant understand what they are all complaining about on the DLPguidebook forum. We all loved this and we all had our own favourite bit of the light show on the castle. Mine was the broomsticks from Fantasia. I love Wishes at WDW and I love Wishes at DLP and I am so glad that they are not identical.
So that is the end to our first day at DLP, a very happy day. We made our way out of the park with everyone else, I dont need to go into how manic the buses are! Lets just say we were prepared but werent going to risk getting hurt and we finally got to bed about 1pm.
At last!!! The long awaited day had finally arrived and our holiday was about to begin!
Following our return from WDW in April 2004, our once-in-a-lifetime holiday just HAD to be repeated but funds would not allow that for two or three years. So we started to think about visiting DLP, somewhere we had always been reluctant to go to before, partly because of all the bad things we had heard in the days when it was called Eurodisney and partly because we had wanted to go to WDW first. Friends of ours then visited DLP for Bonfire night and came home enthusing about it and I turned my attention from the UK Trip Planning forum to the Disneyland Paris one. The rest as they say is history !!! . You lot so convinced me that I would love it at DLP that I persuaded the rest of the family to go, bought shares and even booked a second holiday at Christmas before going for the first one!
Our plans were to travel up to London on Monday and stay there for 3 nights, then catch the direct Eurostar on Thursday and spend 5 nights/6 days at DLP.
Bryans brother was emigrating to Australia while we were away, so we had all been for a family meal on Saturday night which was very pleasant, if a little sad, and then on Sunday the dogs had been despatched to the kennels for their holiday, which they thoroughly enjoy and always come back groomed to perfection and looking much better cared for than when they go!
The taxis arrived and we arrived at Bournemouth station to catch the 9.56am train. Not a good idea. When it arrived, there was not a seat to be found and we spent the start of our journey sat on our suitcases outside the toilet. Thank goodness no other passengers wanted to use it! When the train reached Southampton, lots of people alighted and we were able to secure seats. The journey soon passed and we arrived at Waterloo just before noon. Unfortunately we had brought the lousy weather with us. It had just started drizzling as we left Bournemouth, by the time we got out of Waterloo station it was tipping it down.
We soon reached our hotel which was in Victoria and what a gem it turned out to be. I had found it on the internet and believe me, it is very difficult to find family rooms for 5 in London without ending up either in the backyards of beyond or at a backpackers hostel. After freshening up, we ventured back out into the rain and hailed a cab to go to the Tower of London. I had purchased the tickets in advance online as there is normally up to a 2-hour queue to pay at the gate! Not today!!! There were probably only about 50 people in the whole place, the majority being Yeoman Warders! Anyhow, we thoroughly enjoyed looking around, it was just a shame about the weather. After the Tower closed at 6pm, we walked up to Pizza Express. We had to be back at the Tower by 9.30pm as we had tickets for the Ceremony of the Keys. We managed to spin our meal out until 8pm, by then we felt that we were starting to outstay our welcome, so we walked down to the Thames and had a very pleasant sojourn along the river, all in the pouring rain! Tower Bridge was lit up and looked very impressive, despite the downpour. Eventually 9.30pm came and we assembled at the gates to the Tower. Luckily it finally stopped raining and we watched the Ceremony. This has been performed every night for over 700 years and was quite awe-inspiring, one of those moments that makes you feel very patriotic. If anyone is interested, this link explains the ceremony http://www.toweroflondontour.com/keys.html
Then it was time for bed, we were all tired but happy!
Tuesday August 23rd 2005
After a good nights sleep, we awoke about 7am and ate a delicious breakfast at the hotel which consisted of juice, cereals, and full English. Then we were on our way by 9.30am, we had to be near the London Eye for 11am for our Duck Tour. On the way we stopped to show the girls the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben. The Duck Tour was great fun. Its a tour by road and river in amphibious craft originally known as DUKWS which were used for the DD landings in WWll. After a quick snack in McDonalds, we walked to the British Museum via Whitehall, Trafalgar Square, and Piccadilly. Lets just say I enjoyed the museum, but my darling husband and daughters were bored out of their brains. Suffice to say, I have a family of Philistines! Stopped off on the way back to the hotel at a Pizza Hut. I forgot to say that today was a lovely sunny day, hence the reason we were walking everywhere!
Wednesday August 24th 2005
After another hearty breakfast, we walked down to the London Eye where we had booked a hosted capsule for 11.30am. It had just been drizzling when we left but by the time we got there it was pouring yet again! Anyhow the rain didnt stop our enjoyment of the Eye, we still had fantastic views from up there and I would definitely recommend booking a hosted visit. There were 17 of us for the 11.30am slot and they split us into two groups of 8 and 9, giving us all plenty of space, and the host told us loads of info and pointed things out that we would never have known. Afterwards we took a cab to the Natural History Museum. Phew! What a relief! Everyone liked this museum, my youngest DD is mad on dinosaurs so that section went down really well! We then went to Planet Hollywood for a very nice meal, all the better because my youngest two ate free! Then back to the hotel to get packed up for the big day tomorrow! We have all enjoyed our days in London, this is the first time the girls have been and theyve liked recognising places theyve seen on TV. I used to come to London regularly with my dad when I was a child but this is my first visit for nearly 20 years and I was impressed with how clean it was everywhere, a lot cleaner than Bournemouth!
Thursday August 25th 2005
Another lovely sunny day. After breakfast we checked out of the hotel and took a cab to Waterloo to catch the Eurostar. We soon found our seats and before we knew it we were on our way. Once we had picked up the Ashford passengers, we were served our breakfast which consisted of fromage frais, cheesy omelette with a chicken sausage, baked beans and tomato, bread roll, croissant, butter and jam, and an apple plus tea, coffee, hot chocolate, soft drinks, water etc. It was really nice, much better than airline meals and was served in ceramic containers rather than the airline disposable ones. The time seemed to fly and before we knew it we were there! Great excitement! We found our way to the top of the station and as luck would have it a no.54 bus was waiting there! We were at the Explorers by 2pm and although check-in was not supposed to be until 3pm, we were hopeful that our room might be ready early. No such luck! We decided to wait rather than use the left luggage room and took it in turns to explore the hotel and of course the Disney shop! The room was ready at 3.15pm, it was perfectly adequate for us a room with a double and two singles, then a cabin room off this with bunk beds and another television. More than enough storage for clothes and belongings, and plenty of floor space for children (especially young ones) to play in the cabin room. Tea/coffee facilities are provided for the first night, then you have to buy further supplies from reception but I had brought some teabags from home! Once we had dumped our luggage, it was full steam ahead to the parks! We caught a bus back and as we got off it started to pour with rain (yet again!) However, our first sight of the Disneyland Hotel was still fantastic and it looked beautiful even in the rain. The CM on the ticket booth was very friendly and helpful, and sold us temporary Dream passes for 101 euros each, working out at under £69 each, yes £69, and told us where to go to get the permanent passes. As we walked through the turnstiles we were met with a wave of yellow ponchos exiting the park due to the rain, and the magic just hit us, we were in Disney and it was SO SO FANTASTIC!!!
We made our way down Main Street and savoured our first view of Sleeping Beauty Castle. Even in the rain its beauty just shone through. We quickly made our way to the Passport Bureau, filled out the appropriate forms, had our passes made up and were presented with a gift each. Samantha chose a cuddly Tigger, Danielle, Francesca and I chose cuddly Plutos and Bryan picked a pen and pencil set. The CMs in the bureau were really nice and this proved to be the case throughout our whole stay, every CM we encountered was friendly, helpful and pleasant.
Now the magic could really begin! First was Its a Small World, a big favourite of all of ours, then Le Pays des Contes de Fees. Then Casey Jr le Petit Train du Cirque. Then we decided to suss out where Pirates of the Caribbean was, seeing as we had booked a meal at the Blue Lagoon that evening. When we got there it was a walk-on, we couldnt believe this! POC is a great ride, much much better than the one at WDW, it seems twice as long and I managed to spot the hidden Mickey in the treasure!
We decided to watch the Wonderful World of Disney Parade and went over to the seats by the Pooh theatre. You see how useful all your tips have been! Although we werent in the front we still had a good view and we all enjoyed watching this. Dancin A Catchy Rhythm is on my Ultimate Disney CD so we all knew the music already! Then it was back to Adventureland and the Blue Lagoon. We were seated with a brilliant view of the water and it really felt like we were at an exotic location! Danielle and Francesca ate the pirate sausage kebab and fries followed by a Mickey ice cream. Samantha was delighted to see that they were doing a teenager menu and ordered a Black Pearl burger and fries followed by chocolate chip cake, very appropriate seeing as POC-The Black Pearl is one of her favourite films. Bryan and I both had Tahiti style shrimps for starters (yummy), Bryan then had chicken curry while I had a tuna and swordfish fricassee (even yummier). We both had a roast banana in rum for our dessert, this looked revolting but tasted absolutely delicious. We all loved this restaurant for its delicious food, excellent setting, good service, and wonderful ambience. Thanks for persuading me to come here, Karen and Steve, we will definitely return!
We then waddled back to the Pooh seats for Fantillusion. We were sat right at the front and we had such a brilliant view! This is an excellent parade, just as magical as Spectromagic. I especially loved the change to evil and back again. Then we made our way to the central hub for Wishes. I think the best word to describe this was enchanting. I really cant understand what they are all complaining about on the DLPguidebook forum. We all loved this and we all had our own favourite bit of the light show on the castle. Mine was the broomsticks from Fantasia. I love Wishes at WDW and I love Wishes at DLP and I am so glad that they are not identical.
So that is the end to our first day at DLP, a very happy day. We made our way out of the park with everyone else, I dont need to go into how manic the buses are! Lets just say we were prepared but werent going to risk getting hurt and we finally got to bed about 1pm.
.
) and am about to sit and read it now - it's so long and with piccies too - great!!! Back after I've taken it all in!!
)
