Hello, everyone!! 
So we're back from our trip. Our fabulous, marvellous, stupendous, wonderful, magical trip! Can you tell already that we enjoyed it? As is the tradition, here follows our highs and lows. I'll start with the lows so we end on a happy note:
Lows -
1. Walt Disney Studios. We went on the Wednesday and found it a bit underwhelming. We couldn't put our finger on why, but came to the conclusion that it just didn't feel as 'special' as the Disneyland Park. It didn't help that the Info Board had the wrong time for the English version of the Stitch Live show, so we raced around various rides in ToyStory Playland in time for the show only to find that we were half an hour early. We decided to just wait around because we thought we'd be let into the auditorium sooner than we were, but in hindsight we should have just gone off then come back again. But it was worth it once we got in as it was a really clever, fun show and we all enjoyed it.
2. Nothing to do with the trip, but I was disappointed with some of my pics on my new camera. I obviously just don't know how to work it properly yet to get the best out of it. Thankfully my DH had our old Canon so we have sufficient record of the magic.
Highs -
1. No surprises....... Dreams. We squeaked into the park on our very first night just in time to see it from the very far end of Main Street, nearest the park entrance, and it was impressive even from that distance. But it absolutely took our breath away the next time we saw it from right up close to the Castle. So clever, inventive, colourful, imaginative and unforgettable. The look on our DD's face as she watched it was priceless. Our favourite bit was the Rapunzel song and we were singing it for the whole trip. I'm sure that everytime I now hear this song it will remind me of our holiday and bring back such happy memories.
2. Big Thunder Mountain. I wasn't sure how my DD would like this, being faster than any rollercoaster she's ever been on before. She loved it! Thanks to our DLH fast passess we were able to ride it again and again and again..... All in all, we must have been on it 20 times during our trip. Great fun!
3. The Cast Members, in particular their reactions to my DD. They were really lovely with her, so friendly and responsive. She was thrilled to try out her few words of French, or to say "Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!" on POTC, or shout out "Yeehah!" on BTM - she never once failed to get back a lovely smile and cheery reply. One CM in particular let us on to BTM a couple of times through the Fast Pass route without taking our FPs as he said the park wasn't busy, which felt like such a treat! We ate in Walts on Thursday evening and the waitress moved a whole table so my DD could sit at the window easily to watch the parade.
4. Lack of queues. The park was nice and bustly without being overly busy so we only queued twice for any length of time during the whole trip. Once was for "Stitch Live" and that was because of the misinformation on the programme board, and the other was for our first trip on BTM - the only time that we didn't use FP, so we really can't complain.
5. Extra Magic Hours. We got up early on the Tuesday to do Fantasyland and then again on Thursday to do Discoveryland, which worked really well. We were able to get pretty much straight onto all the rides we wanted to do with only a few minutes of waiting.
6. The Disneyland Hotel. The staff, the room, the public areas, the shop, the restaurants, the breakfast - everything was great. We had a bottle of sparkling water in the room and an autograph book and pen when we arrived, and the receptionist gave me a voucher for my DD to choose another gift herself. On the Tuesday night we had a problem with our hot water and a maintenance man arrive to fix it within minutes. As for the location, it really can't be beaten. It was indescribably fabulous to exit the park at the end of a tiring and be a mere hop, skip and a jump away from sinking into a hot bath.
7. The Christmas decorations. Just WOW!!! So beautiful, and so much to see and admire. In fact, it struck me that you could spend a very happy day in the park just looking at things and taking everything in without even stepping foot on a ride.
8. Animagique. I particularly wanted to do this so after the disappointment of WDW on the Wednesday we decided to go back on the Friday, our final morning. I'm glad that we did as this show was such good fun.
I really could go on and on! But best end here as this is already very long. We all thoroughly enjoyed the trip, and haven't had so much fun together as a family for ages. We could all quite happily have stayed for another couple of days as there was still so much that we could have seen or done. Next time!
Thanks to everyone who had answered my various questions before our trip as the info really helped to make it all happen.
All the planning and thought that preoccupied/stressed me in the weeks leading up was worth it! It was by no means the cheapest holiday we've been on but I can honestly say with my hand on heart that it was worth every single penny and I'd go back and do it all again in an instant. 
So we're back from our trip. Our fabulous, marvellous, stupendous, wonderful, magical trip! Can you tell already that we enjoyed it? As is the tradition, here follows our highs and lows. I'll start with the lows so we end on a happy note:
Lows -
1. Walt Disney Studios. We went on the Wednesday and found it a bit underwhelming. We couldn't put our finger on why, but came to the conclusion that it just didn't feel as 'special' as the Disneyland Park. It didn't help that the Info Board had the wrong time for the English version of the Stitch Live show, so we raced around various rides in ToyStory Playland in time for the show only to find that we were half an hour early. We decided to just wait around because we thought we'd be let into the auditorium sooner than we were, but in hindsight we should have just gone off then come back again. But it was worth it once we got in as it was a really clever, fun show and we all enjoyed it.
2. Nothing to do with the trip, but I was disappointed with some of my pics on my new camera. I obviously just don't know how to work it properly yet to get the best out of it. Thankfully my DH had our old Canon so we have sufficient record of the magic.
Highs -
1. No surprises....... Dreams. We squeaked into the park on our very first night just in time to see it from the very far end of Main Street, nearest the park entrance, and it was impressive even from that distance. But it absolutely took our breath away the next time we saw it from right up close to the Castle. So clever, inventive, colourful, imaginative and unforgettable. The look on our DD's face as she watched it was priceless. Our favourite bit was the Rapunzel song and we were singing it for the whole trip. I'm sure that everytime I now hear this song it will remind me of our holiday and bring back such happy memories.
2. Big Thunder Mountain. I wasn't sure how my DD would like this, being faster than any rollercoaster she's ever been on before. She loved it! Thanks to our DLH fast passess we were able to ride it again and again and again..... All in all, we must have been on it 20 times during our trip. Great fun!
3. The Cast Members, in particular their reactions to my DD. They were really lovely with her, so friendly and responsive. She was thrilled to try out her few words of French, or to say "Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!" on POTC, or shout out "Yeehah!" on BTM - she never once failed to get back a lovely smile and cheery reply. One CM in particular let us on to BTM a couple of times through the Fast Pass route without taking our FPs as he said the park wasn't busy, which felt like such a treat! We ate in Walts on Thursday evening and the waitress moved a whole table so my DD could sit at the window easily to watch the parade.
4. Lack of queues. The park was nice and bustly without being overly busy so we only queued twice for any length of time during the whole trip. Once was for "Stitch Live" and that was because of the misinformation on the programme board, and the other was for our first trip on BTM - the only time that we didn't use FP, so we really can't complain.
5. Extra Magic Hours. We got up early on the Tuesday to do Fantasyland and then again on Thursday to do Discoveryland, which worked really well. We were able to get pretty much straight onto all the rides we wanted to do with only a few minutes of waiting.
6. The Disneyland Hotel. The staff, the room, the public areas, the shop, the restaurants, the breakfast - everything was great. We had a bottle of sparkling water in the room and an autograph book and pen when we arrived, and the receptionist gave me a voucher for my DD to choose another gift herself. On the Tuesday night we had a problem with our hot water and a maintenance man arrive to fix it within minutes. As for the location, it really can't be beaten. It was indescribably fabulous to exit the park at the end of a tiring and be a mere hop, skip and a jump away from sinking into a hot bath.
7. The Christmas decorations. Just WOW!!! So beautiful, and so much to see and admire. In fact, it struck me that you could spend a very happy day in the park just looking at things and taking everything in without even stepping foot on a ride.
8. Animagique. I particularly wanted to do this so after the disappointment of WDW on the Wednesday we decided to go back on the Friday, our final morning. I'm glad that we did as this show was such good fun.
I really could go on and on! But best end here as this is already very long. We all thoroughly enjoyed the trip, and haven't had so much fun together as a family for ages. We could all quite happily have stayed for another couple of days as there was still so much that we could have seen or done. Next time!
Thanks to everyone who had answered my various questions before our trip as the info really helped to make it all happen.
All the planning and thought that preoccupied/stressed me in the weeks leading up was worth it! It was by no means the cheapest holiday we've been on but I can honestly say with my hand on heart that it was worth every single penny and I'd go back and do it all again in an instant. 
and it just goes to show the difference between the week you went after the school holidays and the week before
. My girls are going to be in heaven when we tell them 
.
Thanks for sharing 
