wendybird7
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Mar 7, 2007
- Messages
- 411
Disneyland Paris, 14th – 17th Jan 2008.
Revellers:
Me (Jenna), 22, DLP Fanatic, been…around the 30 trip mark! Intelligent but extremely lacking in common sense…Disneyland Paris is like my second home ☺
Nadia, 21, Flatmate and best friend, never been to any Disney parks before but loves Disney. Loves avocados, John Snow and shaking her toosh at the milkshake bar where she works!
Helen, 22, Nadia’s girlfriend, super sweet and funny, gets drunk easily. Didn’t know what Frank Sinatra looked like before our trip.
Amy, 22, Flatmate and best friend, we went in January 2005. Acts like she’s not bothered, but loves it when she’s there. Usually seen smoking stressfully when characters appear.
Barbara, 19, ex-flatmate and best friend, went with her in March 2006 and she’s bee to WDW a few times. Calls everybody ‘chups’ for some reason. Has a thing for Zac Efron…
JD, 20, my ‘boma’ (best of mates always
) who has the funniest banter…ever. Common phrases include: (when greeting someone) ‘Hiya pal, whit’s happenin’?’, (when complaining or commenting on something sarcastically, eg, Tower of Terror) ‘How’s yer Tower of Terror ayeeee’, (when something is funny), ‘lol’. Not l-o-l. Lol.
Day 1: Hellishly tired, but determined to make the most of it!
Our flight was due to leave Glasgow Prestwick at 6.50am, and the plan was to get the taxi from our (Mine, Nadia’s and Amy’s) house around 4am, so Helen, JD and Babs would all come over to ours. Helen, Nadia, Amy and I all finished our packing, had a pizza and ‘watched’ (ie, talked excitedly) Sleeping Beauty before getting a few hours sleep from around 11-3, when Babs and JD came over.
The taxi came on time, but we were disturbed to find out that a) our taxi driver had been on a 12 hour shift and b) he’d never driven to Prestwick before. However, after about an hour and a quarter, we arrived there, checked in pretty quickly, bought a bottle of juice which was silly as we then had to bin it before security. Going through security, Amy was made to take her shoes off, but the silly thing didn’t think to then put them back on, so JD gently pointed this out to her by saying ‘How’s yer bare feet ayeeee??’
Ahem, we then checked out duty-free before going to the café to get some pretty horrible coffee and waiting for flight FR62 to be called. It was called and we managed to find seats all together, JD Amy and I on one side and Babs, Nadia and Helen on the other, which is how our two rooms in the Sequoia Lodge would be arranged as well. Amy got a little nervous before take off, but with JD providing a running commentary, she seemed to relax and soon we were up in the air, fitfully trying to sleep, read or talk about what we’d do once we got there.
We landed a bit bumpily ahead of schedule, which was good as we had a taxi coming to pick us up (RS Transports, really good) to take us to Sequoia around 9.25, and we were pleasantly surprised to discover our bags already off and waiting for us when we’d went through passport control. The smokers (JD, Amy and myself) had a quick shared puff while waiting on someone to appear with my name on a board, and after about 5 minutes he found us and took us over to the shuttle.
The trip was around an hour and a half with one break, but we played 20 questions so it seemed to go really quickly – then before we knew it we seen Space Mountain and the castle to our right!! We then arrived at the Sequoia Lodge, where we doubted we would be able to check in as it was only around 11am and check-in wasn’t until 3pm! We put our bags in the baggagerie and I picked up our park passes etc, we were all so tired but the excitement kept us going, and so we were off to the Disney parks – our more importantly, Disney Village to get something to eat!
We're here!!
We admired the views and were pleased it was quite a nice day – no rain, no wind, and definitely not freezing! We chose to stop off at New York Style Sandwiches as it looked like nice fresh food, there was no queue and it was fairly cheap. I think most chose to get sandwiches, but I got a croque monsieur which took a little longer as there was a problem with their toaster, but the service staff and manager were really good and friendly.
After this, we meandered down to the Disneyland Park
to see Main Street...
and the lovely castle
– didn’t take many pictures today as we were all so tired so what we did is actually quite blurry! I do know our first ride was Phantom Manor which went down well, and JD confessed that when he went on it when he was around 10, he had cried in the queue!! I must confess…I wasn’t brave enough to do it until my second trip aged 7 either!
After this we looked longingly at Big Thunder Mountain (which was closed on our trip…greatly disappointing!) and wandered over to Pirates of the Carribean which went down really well too. The second dip really surprised Nadia and Helen, though at the final dip, we were perched there for over a minute, though of course as soon as we asked each other ‘is it broken…?’ we started to move again!
The Disney veteran coping, Amy sleepy!
After this we wandered into Fantasyland and onto Peter Pan where we for the first time utilised our VIP Fastpasses (which I forgot to mention, we had a hell of a time getting off the hotel staff, but my powers of complaining eventually won out!). The ride was nice – but has taken a dive in terms of its smoothness, and braked often and suddenly, which was disappointing as of course those of us who had been on it before remembered it as being quite smooth, and for a two minute ride this isn’t much to ask for!
After this (things getting very blurry…) I believe we went onto Snow White and the Seven Dwarves and we were all in agreement – it is pretty scary for kids! I like this ride though, I’ll always have nice memories of the film as it is the very first film I ever saw in the cinema and the bad queen still has a power over my inner child!
I think we then went to the train station in Fantasyland and made it to Discoveryland, but the damn train was taking ages to move so we just got off there. In Star Tours you could tell we were all knackered (this was probably about quarter past 2) so we went on, and were amused both by the ride and the fellow young Scottish people in the row behind us (“haha, this is pure mental by the way”), but decided to head back to the hotel, as the rain was now coming on too. Hi Lumiere!
We walked back to the Sequoia Lodge and picked up our room passes…and here is where the problems started. I had been told due to the numerous problems I’d had with booking the holiday that we would be given adjoining Montana rooms with a lake side view. Of course their paperwork only said 2 Montana rooms. We went up to our rooms (smoking floor…) to find they were not lake side, and were not adjoining – which had been requested at the time of the original booking! I said ‘right! Who’s coming with me to complain?!’ Amy then jumped up in response and attempted to jump over JD’s bag…falling spectacularly on the floor with all the weight on her knee. The bruise is still healing. Babs came with me instead, we eventually got it sorted (ish) as we did not get a lake side room, but could see over the whole Disney village and the Tower of Terror which was nice.
In our room
We decided to rest for a while, which for me meant one hour (it was now 3pm) and out again about 4.20pm as the parks shut at 6pm. Only JD and I had the same mentality, with the others choosing to catch up on their Z’s (I did ask... Nadia’s response was to close the adjoining door on my face when I was like ‘LET’S GO KIDS!!!!’ Nice wake-up call ), and JD and I heading out about 4.30pm to the Walt Disney studios.
Eeek! Even from a distance it looks terrifying!
I’m so glad we chose to go! We managed to get onto Crushes Coaster (twice I think – JD could not believe how much of a thrill it was, we still speak about it!) and Rock n Roller Coaster, then nip over to Disneyland Park to go on Space Mountain and still see Candleabration -
which I teared up at, but JD seemed quite indifferent (it WAS raining and cold) but liked that the music sounded like something out of High School Musical!
Wooft. What a lot we did! And it does not stop there. We started to walk back to Sequoia Lodge, and when we reached Lake Disney we saw Nadia’s bright pink hair and then Helen and Babs. Amy was still asleep so we decided to go back and see what she wanted to do before heading out to Val d’Europ for something to eat. Amy wanted to stay in bed so we went back out in the spitting rain to Val d’Europ and got there about half 7ish.
We were going to go to the Chinese restaurant which looked lovely (and so cheap, particularly compared to Disneyland Paris – I would absolutely recommend going to Val d’Europ for dinner for anyone staying in the resort) but they did not seem to have any veggie options for Helen, so we went to the Italian place (can’t remember name, will check in a few weeks when I’m back!) just down from it. This was inside the shopping mall at the Les Terraces part by the way.
Well…what a superb meal. Each of chose the set menu, which for a starter or dessert and a main course plus a drink (water, 1664, or a carafe of wine) was…hold your breath….13 euros. This amazed me, and I felt like an idiot for paying Disney Village prices all these years, when most of the time the meals seem lukewarm and disappointing compared to what is described on the menu – though there are of course exceptions! I had the beef carpaccio (pretty tasty) and the spaghetti bolognaise which was kept simple and tasty – exactly like Italian food should! And trust me, my mum’s Italian so I’m pretty critical of Italian dishes, even though spag bol is pretty standard!!
The wine (red I had) was perfect, and you got a good 2 and a half glasses out the carafe, and the waiter was fabulous – we had about 8 free trays of bread and olive oil dip nd our water never ran out! The deserts were also great, Nadia and Babs got ice cream, which was 5 little plates of traditional home made ice cream, and there was plenty to share between all 5 of us, especially as you didn’t need a lot. Had a lovely, lovely meal here, would recommend to anyone…you think I would remember the name!!
After this about 9pm we went down to Auchan superstore
we loved Auchan!
in order to stock up on alcoholic beverages…I had never been here before so couldn’t believe the size of it!! We chose some 1euro 30 cents wine (!!!!!!!) and some other goodies and left Val d’Europ just before 10pm.
Oh dear...!
When we got back to our rooms we woke Amy up and we all stayed up until around 1am drinking and chatting and ‘makin’ memories’ (that are pretty blurry now!!) before we literally collapsed into bed, very very excited about the day to come…
TOWER OF TERROR!!!
Day 2…An amazing breakfast, Tower of Terror, Crushes Coaster, the pool…and Hurricanes!
Revellers:
Me (Jenna), 22, DLP Fanatic, been…around the 30 trip mark! Intelligent but extremely lacking in common sense…Disneyland Paris is like my second home ☺
Nadia, 21, Flatmate and best friend, never been to any Disney parks before but loves Disney. Loves avocados, John Snow and shaking her toosh at the milkshake bar where she works!
Helen, 22, Nadia’s girlfriend, super sweet and funny, gets drunk easily. Didn’t know what Frank Sinatra looked like before our trip.
Amy, 22, Flatmate and best friend, we went in January 2005. Acts like she’s not bothered, but loves it when she’s there. Usually seen smoking stressfully when characters appear.
Barbara, 19, ex-flatmate and best friend, went with her in March 2006 and she’s bee to WDW a few times. Calls everybody ‘chups’ for some reason. Has a thing for Zac Efron…
JD, 20, my ‘boma’ (best of mates always
) who has the funniest banter…ever. Common phrases include: (when greeting someone) ‘Hiya pal, whit’s happenin’?’, (when complaining or commenting on something sarcastically, eg, Tower of Terror) ‘How’s yer Tower of Terror ayeeee’, (when something is funny), ‘lol’. Not l-o-l. Lol. Day 1: Hellishly tired, but determined to make the most of it!
Our flight was due to leave Glasgow Prestwick at 6.50am, and the plan was to get the taxi from our (Mine, Nadia’s and Amy’s) house around 4am, so Helen, JD and Babs would all come over to ours. Helen, Nadia, Amy and I all finished our packing, had a pizza and ‘watched’ (ie, talked excitedly) Sleeping Beauty before getting a few hours sleep from around 11-3, when Babs and JD came over.
The taxi came on time, but we were disturbed to find out that a) our taxi driver had been on a 12 hour shift and b) he’d never driven to Prestwick before. However, after about an hour and a quarter, we arrived there, checked in pretty quickly, bought a bottle of juice which was silly as we then had to bin it before security. Going through security, Amy was made to take her shoes off, but the silly thing didn’t think to then put them back on, so JD gently pointed this out to her by saying ‘How’s yer bare feet ayeeee??’
Ahem, we then checked out duty-free before going to the café to get some pretty horrible coffee and waiting for flight FR62 to be called. It was called and we managed to find seats all together, JD Amy and I on one side and Babs, Nadia and Helen on the other, which is how our two rooms in the Sequoia Lodge would be arranged as well. Amy got a little nervous before take off, but with JD providing a running commentary, she seemed to relax and soon we were up in the air, fitfully trying to sleep, read or talk about what we’d do once we got there.
We landed a bit bumpily ahead of schedule, which was good as we had a taxi coming to pick us up (RS Transports, really good) to take us to Sequoia around 9.25, and we were pleasantly surprised to discover our bags already off and waiting for us when we’d went through passport control. The smokers (JD, Amy and myself) had a quick shared puff while waiting on someone to appear with my name on a board, and after about 5 minutes he found us and took us over to the shuttle.
The trip was around an hour and a half with one break, but we played 20 questions so it seemed to go really quickly – then before we knew it we seen Space Mountain and the castle to our right!! We then arrived at the Sequoia Lodge, where we doubted we would be able to check in as it was only around 11am and check-in wasn’t until 3pm! We put our bags in the baggagerie and I picked up our park passes etc, we were all so tired but the excitement kept us going, and so we were off to the Disney parks – our more importantly, Disney Village to get something to eat!
We're here!!
We admired the views and were pleased it was quite a nice day – no rain, no wind, and definitely not freezing! We chose to stop off at New York Style Sandwiches as it looked like nice fresh food, there was no queue and it was fairly cheap. I think most chose to get sandwiches, but I got a croque monsieur which took a little longer as there was a problem with their toaster, but the service staff and manager were really good and friendly.
After this, we meandered down to the Disneyland Park
to see Main Street...
and the lovely castle
– didn’t take many pictures today as we were all so tired so what we did is actually quite blurry! I do know our first ride was Phantom Manor which went down well, and JD confessed that when he went on it when he was around 10, he had cried in the queue!! I must confess…I wasn’t brave enough to do it until my second trip aged 7 either!
After this we looked longingly at Big Thunder Mountain (which was closed on our trip…greatly disappointing!) and wandered over to Pirates of the Carribean which went down really well too. The second dip really surprised Nadia and Helen, though at the final dip, we were perched there for over a minute, though of course as soon as we asked each other ‘is it broken…?’ we started to move again!
The Disney veteran coping, Amy sleepy!
After this we wandered into Fantasyland and onto Peter Pan where we for the first time utilised our VIP Fastpasses (which I forgot to mention, we had a hell of a time getting off the hotel staff, but my powers of complaining eventually won out!). The ride was nice – but has taken a dive in terms of its smoothness, and braked often and suddenly, which was disappointing as of course those of us who had been on it before remembered it as being quite smooth, and for a two minute ride this isn’t much to ask for!
After this (things getting very blurry…) I believe we went onto Snow White and the Seven Dwarves and we were all in agreement – it is pretty scary for kids! I like this ride though, I’ll always have nice memories of the film as it is the very first film I ever saw in the cinema and the bad queen still has a power over my inner child!
I think we then went to the train station in Fantasyland and made it to Discoveryland, but the damn train was taking ages to move so we just got off there. In Star Tours you could tell we were all knackered (this was probably about quarter past 2) so we went on, and were amused both by the ride and the fellow young Scottish people in the row behind us (“haha, this is pure mental by the way”), but decided to head back to the hotel, as the rain was now coming on too. Hi Lumiere!
We walked back to the Sequoia Lodge and picked up our room passes…and here is where the problems started. I had been told due to the numerous problems I’d had with booking the holiday that we would be given adjoining Montana rooms with a lake side view. Of course their paperwork only said 2 Montana rooms. We went up to our rooms (smoking floor…) to find they were not lake side, and were not adjoining – which had been requested at the time of the original booking! I said ‘right! Who’s coming with me to complain?!’ Amy then jumped up in response and attempted to jump over JD’s bag…falling spectacularly on the floor with all the weight on her knee. The bruise is still healing. Babs came with me instead, we eventually got it sorted (ish) as we did not get a lake side room, but could see over the whole Disney village and the Tower of Terror which was nice.
In our room
We decided to rest for a while, which for me meant one hour (it was now 3pm) and out again about 4.20pm as the parks shut at 6pm. Only JD and I had the same mentality, with the others choosing to catch up on their Z’s (I did ask... Nadia’s response was to close the adjoining door on my face when I was like ‘LET’S GO KIDS!!!!’ Nice wake-up call
), and JD and I heading out about 4.30pm to the Walt Disney studios.
Eeek! Even from a distance it looks terrifying!
I’m so glad we chose to go! We managed to get onto Crushes Coaster (twice I think – JD could not believe how much of a thrill it was, we still speak about it!) and Rock n Roller Coaster, then nip over to Disneyland Park to go on Space Mountain and still see Candleabration -
which I teared up at, but JD seemed quite indifferent (it WAS raining and cold) but liked that the music sounded like something out of High School Musical!
Wooft. What a lot we did! And it does not stop there. We started to walk back to Sequoia Lodge, and when we reached Lake Disney we saw Nadia’s bright pink hair and then Helen and Babs. Amy was still asleep so we decided to go back and see what she wanted to do before heading out to Val d’Europ for something to eat. Amy wanted to stay in bed so we went back out in the spitting rain to Val d’Europ and got there about half 7ish.
We were going to go to the Chinese restaurant which looked lovely (and so cheap, particularly compared to Disneyland Paris – I would absolutely recommend going to Val d’Europ for dinner for anyone staying in the resort) but they did not seem to have any veggie options for Helen, so we went to the Italian place (can’t remember name, will check in a few weeks when I’m back!) just down from it. This was inside the shopping mall at the Les Terraces part by the way.
Well…what a superb meal. Each of chose the set menu, which for a starter or dessert and a main course plus a drink (water, 1664, or a carafe of wine) was…hold your breath….13 euros. This amazed me, and I felt like an idiot for paying Disney Village prices all these years, when most of the time the meals seem lukewarm and disappointing compared to what is described on the menu – though there are of course exceptions! I had the beef carpaccio (pretty tasty) and the spaghetti bolognaise which was kept simple and tasty – exactly like Italian food should! And trust me, my mum’s Italian so I’m pretty critical of Italian dishes, even though spag bol is pretty standard!!
The wine (red I had) was perfect, and you got a good 2 and a half glasses out the carafe, and the waiter was fabulous – we had about 8 free trays of bread and olive oil dip nd our water never ran out! The deserts were also great, Nadia and Babs got ice cream, which was 5 little plates of traditional home made ice cream, and there was plenty to share between all 5 of us, especially as you didn’t need a lot. Had a lovely, lovely meal here, would recommend to anyone…you think I would remember the name!!
After this about 9pm we went down to Auchan superstore
we loved Auchan!
in order to stock up on alcoholic beverages…I had never been here before so couldn’t believe the size of it!! We chose some 1euro 30 cents wine (!!!!!!!) and some other goodies and left Val d’Europ just before 10pm.
Oh dear...!
When we got back to our rooms we woke Amy up and we all stayed up until around 1am drinking and chatting and ‘makin’ memories’ (that are pretty blurry now!!) before we literally collapsed into bed, very very excited about the day to come…
TOWER OF TERROR!!! Day 2…An amazing breakfast, Tower of Terror, Crushes Coaster, the pool…and Hurricanes!
Thought that we were the only one 
