We are back - highs and lows .....

[Corrineee]

Thought I'd follow the custom by posting highs and lows of our trip
We arrived back on Wednesday night after a fab 3night 4days at the NYH

Highs:
Christmas decs in Disney Village were far better than a couple of years ago!
The whole Disney Christmas feeling !
HNY was amazing, we even had an upgrade to Empire State Bfast every morning with the characters (thanks to a complaint 2 years ago)
HNY, upgrade to Lake/Ice rink view room! 2 x plutos left on the bed on arrival, choc coins left on the bed every night really amazed the kids!
Getting our 4 year old daughter on Crushes Coaster by packing her snow boots with my gloves LOL !! both our children (4 & 5) were desp to go on it and loved it !
On Tuesday it was really really wet and windy but we managed to get on all the rides within minutes and some of them we rode 2 or 3 times!
Using my nice shiney new shareholders card in the shops and restaurants
Taking snowsuits and snowboots for the kids
Rainforest Cafe - excellent meal and great for the kids.
LOWS:
Well, its really hard to find any but if I must ....
Annettes Diner, really slow service, we took to (all of us) putting our hands up to get a waiter!
Big thunder mountain breaking down when we were next at the platform
Queuing for 50 min to meet a princess in the princess pavillion.
Never being near Salon Mickey at the right times to use our Shareholders card !!


Oh and the biggest thing of all, the Eurostar hit a deer on Sunday, on the way there, we were delayed for over 2 hours but have now found out if the delay goes over 120 mins, you get a free journey within the next 12 months.......... oh well we'll have to go again

 

[Ware Bears]

Welcome back sounds like you had a ball.

And oh dear, you'll have to go back again ..... what a hardship, I do feel sorry for you!

 

[cherrymarzipan]

Hi

Welcome back, we were there at the same time as you! Tuesday did start badly didn't it but in fact we only needed our ponchos until about mid-morning.

We only visited Salon Mickey once ourselves but perhaps if the opening hours were more convenient it would be too popular and we would be even more disappointed at being turned away.

Did you visit the gingerbread house in the DLH lobby? It was deliciously festive.

 

[Vicki_26]

What is the gingerbread house?

 

[Corrineee]

Hi

Welcome back, we were there at the same time as you! Tuesday did start badly didn't it but in fact we only needed our ponchos until about mid-morning.

We only visited Salon Mickey once ourselves but perhaps if the opening hours were more convenient it would be too popular and we would be even more disappointed at being turned away.

Did you visit the gingerbread house in the DLH lobby? It was deliciously festive.

Hi Cherrymarzipan !
When the park started to get busier after lunch on Tuesday we went to try out the hotel pool !! but the wet morning meant easy access to all the rides! we did buzz about 4 times (just walked straight back on again), did BTM twice, PPan Flight a couple of time, just wish I'd checked out the queue for the princess pavillion
No I didnt visit the gingerbread house, what is it ? infact I'm not even sure exactly where the entrance to the DLH is (dont laugh)!!!!
Did you stay at DLH ?
Hope you had a great time too ?!

 

[cherrymarzipan]

Thanks Corrineee, we had a great time!

For Vicki and Corrineee, this year the Disneyland Hotel lobby has been decorated with a gingerbread house built with real gingerbread. The ingredients listed include 290kg gingerbread for the walls and roof; 20 kg caster sugar, 2 kg gelatine, 10 l egg white, 3 kg cane syrup for the marshmallow roof ridge;10 kg caramel for the stained glass windows; 30 kg marzipan and 10 kg royal icing for the lollipops and 6 kg gelatine for the giant sweets. No tasting! Sadly I didn’t take a photo. The entrance to the DLH is slightly obscure: if standing looking at the outside of the hotel from the village side (facing Mickey’s clock) there are two wide paths on either side of the main building. Take the right hand path and the entrance is into the right wing of the hotel, a little before Donald’s Desk opposite.

We stayed in the Cheyenne, in fact I have always wanted to stay at the SL over Christmas because I have heard it is has a very good Christmas atmosphere but this trip was very much a last-minute extra and as we didn’t need a pool and wanted bunk beds was better value. We had a longer stay at the Cheyenne last December in all the snow without any hot water and I had said never again but it was fine this time and looked great in the winter sunshine with its decorated facades.

 

[Belle's World]

We were on the same train out as you, the delay was really annoying although what made it worse was the amount of people whinging about it around us! We had one very miserable man who kept saying very loudly that once we got to Lille we still had another 2 hours to go and another family who were convinced it was only 10 mins from Lille (i think they got confused with Charles De Gaulle Airport) anyway they were both clearly wrong and in the end i was just happy to get there. Apparently we have 12 months from the date of the delay to book our free return journey and i believe you can book up to 6 months in advance so we actually have a year and a half to use them which i thought was really good and when the train driver announced that we would be getting a free return journey i started planning our next trip to Disney which DH thought was hilarious as hadn't even arrived yet!
I am surprised at what you said about Annettes, we went there on the Sunday we arrived about 7pm, we did queue for a while outside but once we got in the service was really quick and we couldn't complain at all. Whilst we were in the queue waiting a lady did leave with her children who were complaining they hadn't had desert and she said the service was so appalling they were going somewhere else which did make us worry slightly but maybe it depended where you were sat as our waiter was brilliant.
We also stayed at New York Hotel and were given an upgrade to a lake view room as it was our anniversary they had also prepared our room so when we arrived there were balloons and an anniversary sign on the giant king size bed which we hada sked for instead of 2 doubles.
We did go in Salon Mickey 4 times as we went for EMH from 8am and by about 9.15am were ready for a break but it would be a lot better if you could enter from the park rather than leaving and then walking all the way round again.
We must have been constantly following each other around by the sound of things!

 

[Corrineee]

Hi Cherrymarzipan,
if its any consolation I spoke to a lady on the train who said she hadnt slept in 3 day for screaming kids at the SL !! I think you had a lucky escape
Gutted I missed the Gingerbread House!
I think I saw the entrance to DLH when exiting the park near Salon Mickey ?!?


Hi Belles World
Thats so funny, that was me complaining and telling our son he couldnt have dessert!! We were soooo fed up, we had a different waiter each time, we were sat in a corner and forgotten about Couldnt face waiting 30mins for a bowl of ice cream !!! .......so our paths did cross Have to say in Annettes defence, food was great (but the rest of the service was crap).

Thought the HNY was amazing, couldnt fault anything at all !

Wonder if we'll book the same dates again LOL x

We were on the same train out as you, the delay was really annoying although what made it worse was the amount of people whinging about it around us! We had one very miserable man who kept saying very loudly that once we got to Lille we still had another 2 hours to go and another family who were convinced it was only 10 mins from Lille (i think they got confused with Charles De Gaulle Airport) anyway they were both clearly wrong and in the end i was just happy to get there. Apparently we have 12 months from the date of the delay to book our free return journey and i believe you can book up to 6 months in advance so we actually have a year and a half to use them which i thought was really good and when the train driver announced that we would be getting a free return journey i started planning our next trip to Disney which DH thought was hilarious as hadn't even arrived yet!
I am surprised at what you said about Annettes, we went there on the Sunday we arrived about 7pm, we did queue for a while outside but once we got in the service was really quick and we couldn't complain at all. Whilst we were in the queue waiting a lady did leave with her children who were complaining they hadn't had desert and she said the service was so appalling they were going somewhere else which did make us worry slightly but maybe it depended where you were sat as our waiter was brilliant.
We also stayed at New York Hotel and were given an upgrade to a lake view room as it was our anniversary they had also prepared our room so when we arrived there were balloons and an anniversary sign on the giant king size bed which we hada sked for instead of 2 doubles.
We did go in Salon Mickey 4 times as we went for EMH from 8am and by about 9.15am were ready for a break but it would be a lot better if you could enter from the park rather than leaving and then walking all the way round again.
We must have been constantly following each other around by the sound of things!

 

[Sarah28]

Welcome back! Sounds like you had a great time, always good to see more highs than lows Sorry to hear about the delay on the Eurostar but good to hear you get a free trip