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[loladelorean]

I thought I had posted this trip report on here but I guess I never got round to it! I'm copy-pasting from the DIS boards so apologies to anyone else who uses both forums and has already read it, its exactly the same.

On Saturday 6th November we certainly were 3 big kids as we travelled down to London from Glasgow – full of excitement, we had a really fun train journey. We upgraded to first class and had the carriage to ourselves the entire way down. We made plans for the trip, ate free biscuits, and watched Snow White and Ratatouille on the laptop!
The train journey seemed to go in quickly, we were soon at Kings Cross and got a taxi to the Royal Scot Travelodge (its within walking distance really, but we had far too much luggage. We SERIOUSLY regretted this on the return trip, we were loaded up like pack horses with DLP carrier bags lol).
The Royal Scot Travelodge is more like a hostel really, the room was a triple and very small and basic! But we got it extremely cheap, and it was just somewhere to sleep that night, it was clean and perfectly adequate. We got changed and went to meet our cousins who live in London for dinner. It was great to see them, we had a brilliant catch up and enjoyed fantastic pizzas at Fire and Stone in Covent Garden. Back to our little hotel room and there was finally only one big sleep to go!
Sunday 7th November
The big day was here! We got ready very quickly (in our matching Mickey Tshirts, how cool) and got another taxi to St Pancras. The check in wasn't open yet so we got a posh breakfast in Le Pain Quotidien (yummy). We were amazed how quick and easy the Eurostar check in was, if only we lived nearer to London as this is a much preferable method to flying. There was about a 30 minute wait for the train, it seemed to last forever! There were lots of families around just as excited as us.
Here we are on the Eurostar!

DISer Kazzabelle recognised me and introduced herself on the Eurostar – how lovely to meet another DISer! We bumped into her again on the trip and I think she and her family had a great time too ?
The Eurostar journey was also quick and pleasant, we watched Monsters Inc and by the time it was finished it seemed we were nearly there. The only slight annoyance was a man who stopped to ask us if we were really going with no children, and to openly laugh at us. How rude can you be?! Luckily we never saw him again once we got there!
At the DLP station there was Christmas music playing, and I thought I was going to burst with excitement! My mum struggled to keep up with me and my sister as we raced through the village towards HNY with our massive suitcases (it was drizzling with rain at this point, but we didn't care).
Ooh it was amazing to see HNY again, it felt like coming home. I paused to sniff the lovely smell as we entered the lobby, which looked more beautiful than ever all dressed up for Christmas. There was no queue, we were able to check in straight away and our room was ready early! The CM (Armand) was lovely, outlined everything very helpfully. We were asked to choose breakfast time slots for the first 2 days and to get cards for the rest of our stay after that.
Our room was 2260, in Brownstones. This was great, last year we were at the far end of Gramercy Park and had a serious slog to the room, Brownstones is so much more convenient. And we had a lake view! It looks in this photo as though you can't see much for the trees, but really it was a beautiful view.

Our room was lovely, but this was no time to be settling in! We were off to the park – here is a photo of me and my sister, very very excited to be back.

We oohed and aahed our way down Main Street, loving the Christmas decorations and feeling a bit like we were dreaming. I had thought about this moment so much that I could hardly believe it was finally here!

The hub show was starting just as we reached the stage, with the characters coming out at the side.

When we saw Tiana and Naveen my sister squealed "It's Tiana!" and Tiana heard her, looked round and said hi to us. That's it, we were firmly in the magic!
The show was great, we thought it was much much better than the Magical Party show last year. The Christmas addition is just one song at the end, but the whole thing was really fun.
After the show we were pretty hungry so went to Cable Car bake shop, where we ate our ciabattas and Mickey brioches out in the arcade, mmm this was a delicious lunch the chicken and sundried tomato ciabatta is gorgeous.
The first ride in our mind was BTM, this is the only bigger ride that my mum will do, so we swung past for fastpasses. We had been expecting the park to be really busy with it being Sunday but it wasn't bad at all.
We knew that Snow White was going to be shut after this day, and had never been on it before so this was our first ride. It was especially good because we had just watched the film on the train. We thought the ride was very focused on the witch though, doesn't seem to feature much of the happy side of the story! Of course we had a little wander around Fantasyland too, drinking in the magic. After this, we made our way slowly back to BTM through Adventureland, admiring the scenery and taking in the Aladdin walkthrough. BTM was every bit as fun as we remembered, we all loved it and this was to become a daily feature of the trip!
By this time it was 4.30pm so we staked out a spot on the corner by the Emporium to watch the parade, tree lighting and Fantillusion. We didn't take any photos of these because we just wanted to enjoy them. Just Like We Dreamed It had us welling up, we were so happy to be back! And the Christmas addition to OUAD parade is fab, it snowed on Main Street as Santa went past and we were overjoyed lol. After OUAD it was getting dark and we were pretty chilly, so I jogged back to HNY to get hats, scarves and gloves, which we had been in too much of a hurry to remember at the start. I made it back just in time for tree lighting, wow this is so magical! There were loads of characters on the mobile stage, and they danced to a medley of Christmas songs before choosing a lucky child to help light up that magnificent tree! We felt so lucky to be seeing the very first tree lighting of the year, and it was breathtaking.
We stayed in the same spot to await Fantillusion, so we just saw the castle lighting from a distance – we would see this better on other nights! This was the first time we had seen Fantillusion and we loved it – we realised when we got back that we didn't take any photos of Fantillusion at all, every time we watched it we were just mesmerised by it.
As the park closed, Santa was up on the railroad platform, waving goodbye to everyone. We had had a truly magical start to the trip, and couldn't wait to get to Café Mickey for dinner. We showered and quickly changed in the hotel and made it just in time for our 9pm booking. We were seated in the terrace area downstairs, and had a very nice waitress (phew, no creepy waiters like last year). The restaurant was very busy with LOTS of birthdays, the waitress said they had 15 that night. We got loads of characters though – Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Stitch, Gideon, Pluto, Tigger and Chip and Dale.


My mum and I shared a nice bottle of rose wine, we were pleasantly surprised by the wine prices everywhere at DLP, we had expected it to be really expensive but it was just about the same as a restaurant at home, 5 euros for a large glass. I had the Ariel's Delight (or something to that effect) seafood dish, it came out looking a bit messy on the plate but tasted lovely, really nice risotto with salmon, cod and prawns. The fish was all cooked perfectly. My sister had carbonara which was a massive portion, and my mum had Fish and Chips which she found to be too oily. She is a really really fussy eater though (isn't it supposed to be the kids who are fussy?!) and thought most things were too oily or too something all week, so actually the fish and chips were probably fine!
We were seated next to a lovely Irish family with a young son and daughter – their son was scared of the characters and hid under the table when they came along. They said he had been really looking forward to meeting the characters before the trip but just found them too overwhelming and had hid from them all weekend. Most of the characters let him be when they saw how scared he was, but one of the chipmunks got down on hands and knees and joined him on the floor. Don't know what he did, but soon the little boy was laughing and hugging him! It was amazing to watch – after that he couldn't wait to hug all the characters. His mum and dad were over the moon! It was his big sisters birthday, and she looked like she was in heaven as all the characters came over with her chocolate cake! They were kind enough to give us some too, so we didn't need desserts. The cake is really delicious!

We enjoyed Café Mickey, a great start to a week of fantastic meals, and it was made even better by befriending this lovely family and sharing a little in the great character moments with their kids.
We had a quick look in the Village shops but we were pretty dead on our feet, and we were asleep about 11pm! Ready for our first full day in the parks...

[loladelorean]

Day 2 – Monday 7th November

It was our first full day in the parks, and we all got up bright as buttons after an amazing sleep in those blissful HNY beds. 7.30 breakfast in the Parkside Diner which was also glitzy for Christmas.
I love the HNY breakfast – each day my sister and I filled up with sausages and potatoes, while my mum went for the lighter fare of fresh fruit, yoghurts and pastries. Ok, so I had some pastries too!  After a more leisurely breakfast than we had intended, we made it to the park for about 8.30. We all went on Buzz, which my mum had never done before, she loved it and came off giggling. I got the best score, woohoo. Then my mum popped into constellations while we did Space Mountain – it was a walk on, and a rattley ride! That'll wake you up in the mornings! We love Space Mountain though, we always come off laughing, it's such a rush.
Into Fantasyland now, and my mums favourite ride – the Carousel! I had planned to be at TSPL for rope drop on this day so it was time to head to the studios.  The Christmas theming is minimal in front lot, but we loved all the glitz and tinsel inside Studio 1! There are big band Christmas songs playing in the studios, compared to old style carols in the main park, we thought this was a great Disney touch.
When we got in at 9.50, Crush was only showing a 10 minute wait, so that was an opportunity we couldn't miss. Sure enough, it really was only 10 minutes, and a fun ride! My mum has back problems so decided against this one, good thing too, it was a lot jerkier than we remembered.
Time for TSPL! We love this area, its smaller than we expected but loads of fun and a great splash of colour. We walked straight on to RC Racer, another surprise, and loved it! We are big thrill seekers and this really satisfied our need for excitement, your heart is really in your mouth. People have complained its too short, but I don't think I could take much more! Then, for a laugh, we went on Slinky with my mum...a bit of a silly ride, but a good one for kids. Parachutes was shut, as it was for most of the week. Possibly not weather proof enough for Paris?
On our way to get ToT fastpasses we noticed the Tram Tour was boarding, with no queue, so we jumped on. We've never done this before as it's always been shut, at first we were like hmm, is this just a tour of bits of grass with statues on? But of course, it got very exciting, and we loved it (even though you cant hear a word of the video).
We were in need of some sustenance now after a morning battling the elements (rain was on and off so far), so we popped into Blockbuster Café. Again, this is a place some people don't like but we loved both sides of it. We just got coffee and brioche to keep us going, took some photos, and we left my mum in here for a bit while we went to RnRC – another 10 minute queue.

 I was really really looking forward to this, as it was my favourite ride in WDW and I've never done the Paris one, but I have to say we were disappointed. Neither of us had working speakers, and although the initial blast off is great, we felt that other bits of the ride were very slow. Shame.
We still had some time before our ToT fastpasses and it was starting to rain heavily, so the 3 of us headed into Art of Animation. A lovely show, I always well up at the montage! When we came out the last room was full of very wet characters who had fled from the rain! We got some fun photos:



Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum were hilarious, they got us dancing with them, and then they kidnapped another 2 girls in a hug and wouldn't let go. They made everybody laugh!
My sister and I dashed through the rain to ToT while our mum continued to look around the animation gallery and shop. We were in and out of ToT in 15 minutes – still our very favourite ride! Gets better every time.
It was now 12.45 and we had a reservation for Walts at 1pm. I've always wanted to eat at Walts, and we were all really excited, but when we got there it was shut! We headed back to City Hall and they said the booking should never have been taken, and they didn't know which days Walts would be open. We were gutted, and had to choose somewhere else for lunch. On a bit of a whim I decided on the Silver Spur – not one I'd read much about as we hadn't been planning on going, but decided to give it a go.

We dashed round the covered walkway as the rain was pretty much torrential at this point, and were soon in the cosy warmth of the Silver Spur. Gorgeous traditional Christmas decorations and delicious smells!

We were seated near the back and again had a lovely waiter. I had the Cowboy Platter (supposed to be a side order to share but look its massive!) which was very tasty, especially the quesadillas and crispy prawns. Mmm. My sister the carnivore had a fillet steak which she wolfed down and said it was one of the best steaks she had had! My mum had roast chicken with potatoes, she quite liked it but wasn't keen on the sauce. Told you, fussy. Then I had a crème brulee which came out all aflame, and my mum had a café gourmand. Delicious, and needless to say we were stuffed by the time we left.




My mum decided to go back to the hotel and unpack properly while my sister and I braved the rain and tried to go on a few more rides. It was really coming down, and the park seemed deserted as we trudged through Frontierland towards Pirates. We went down towards Santa's village and there was nobody around! Popping into his grotto there was one little boy with his mum just leaving and that was it, so we took the chance to get a photo. Think Santa was pleased to see us on such a slow day.

It really was weather for ducks

I took this to try and illustrate the rain as it was bouncing off the river, but it didn't come out too well

Pirates, when we got there, was shut due to technical difficulties, boo, so we explored the caves a bit instead.
We're pretty rain-proof, being Scottish, but even we couldn't face BTM in such downpour. We headed back to the hotel via the castle to visit the dragon. She was pretty restless!

For a bit of refuge from the rain we also popped into the DLH lobby to take some photos of the gorgeous decorations:



This had popped up in front of HNY, it hadn't been there in the morning

When we got back mum had done the unpacking but had also fallen asleep! We were tired too, and we ended up all having a nap for a couple of hours. We got up at 6pm, got spruced up and headed to the HNY Bar for a long awaited cocktail! The bar was busy with conference goers, there was some sort of Pharmaceutical company having a conference while we were there. Good buzz about it though. I had a Havana Mai Tai (I like my rum, as you will see as the TR goes on), mum had a New York New York and sister had a Glowtini (well somebody had to!)



While we were there, the family at the next table told us the fireworks had been cancelled because of the weather. We were disappointed but not that surprised. When we headed out though, it had actually stopped raining! Disney must have been annoyed, they probably could have had the fireworks after all. We popped into almost all of the Village shops before going to Annette's for dinner (yes, more food, it's all the walking...) My mum hadn't been before and loved the themeing, its one of our favourites from last year. I had the onion burger, ooo those caramelized onions! Sister had a foot long hotdog and ate every bit, don't know how after that steak in the afternoon. And mum had 2 starters, breaded camembert and hash browns. I had another cocktail, can't remember what it was but it had rum in it and was very tasty hic


Having been too tired for cocktails the night before, we were behind on our plan to visit all the different hotel bars! So, needs must, we had to do 2 on Monday. We strolled round to the Sequoia, where we all absolutely loved the Christmassy feel and the decorations.



We've decided if we come back altogether, we'd like to stay at this hotel (going to try and bring dad along next time). The bar was busy in a nice, atmospheric way, and we got a table quite near the awesome fireplace.

Another cocktail might have tipped me into drunkenness, so it was hot chocolates all round. We relaxed there for a while and planned the next day before going back to our lovely HNY to sleep.

[loladelorean]

Day 3 – Tuesday 9th November

We were up a little later today, and made it down for around 8am breakfast. The Parkside Diner was very busy, it turned out to be getting used for the conference, so we were seated in the Manhattan Restaurant. We were delighted, we love the décor in here and the comfy seats! A very elegant start to the day. Met this guy on the way, with nobody else around.

My mum decided to go back to the room while we did EMH, and we agreed to meet her at Salon Mickey later. (partly because of her back problems, she did DLP the relaxing way, with lots of rests, but she still had a great time!)
So it was back to the park for me and sister, I'm pretty sure it was raining again but not as heavily as the day before. EMH was very quiet, even though we weren't there for the start, and everything was a walk on. We went on Buzz, Space Mountain, Buzz again, Pinocchio (this was open because Dumbo was closed, very pleased because we'd never ridden it before), Peter Pan, the Teacups, then Space Mountain again just to make sure we were awake!
Here is a nice photo sister took:

We met up with mum at Salon Mickey about 9.45am. I was so excited to knock on the little door for the first time! It was opened quickly by a lovely CM, who took our tickets and my shareholders card and said we could have 2 food items each, and help ourselves to drinks inside. We all had a pastry or croissant, and a piece of fruit, the chocolate pastries in there are delicious!
I felt very important being in Salon Mickey, and loved the atmosphere. There was always traditional Christmas carols playing, which we thought a nice touch, and it provided a little haven away from the weather (and the crowds, later in the week). We have photos later in the week, I'm really rubbish at remembering to take photos while I'm taking something in for the first time, oops.
After half an hour looking at everything in Salon Mickey and relaxing, it was back into the park (via the Salon Mickey back door, again making us feel very important!)
Because Pinocchio was to be closed for the rest of our stay, and we had enjoyed it, we took mum back on that one before another ride on Peter Pan. Even though EMH was over everything was still a walk on! My mum was amazed at Peter Pan, she hadn't ridden it since 1994 and said it was much more magical than she remembered. After this we were dying to explore Belle's Village. Just as we arrived, we bumped into Belle and her Prince – they were wandering around a bit aimlessly, seemingly trying to locate their meet and greet spot. We followed them...

 and because there really weren't a lot of people around, we were first in the queue when they figured out where they were meant to be. Usually we don't bother with characters where you need to queue, so this always means no princesses, so it was lovely to get this great photo.

We had picked up BTM fastpasses again earlier, so after a look at all the stalls in Belle's Village, it was time to go back on our favourite ride! We probably shouldn't have bothered with fastpasses as there wasn't much of a regular queue either, and we managed to get on the front of the train making it even more fun.
We wanted to show mum Santa's Village with all the snow etc, so we got a few photos round there.

These elves were all from England and were very funny!


Coming out of Woody's Roundup area, there were lots of characters around the Cowboy Cookout so we got some more fun photos.


Overall, we thought there were significantly more characters around this year than there had been in September 2009. It seemed that everywhere you went there were characters, it was fantastic, and we saw many kids having magical moments with them. Thumbs up Disney!
Indiana Jones is a ride we find a bit boring, but we thought we might as well give it a go on the way to Pirates. It was just a 5 minute wait, and was OK but compared to the other coasters at DLP it just feels like there's something missing with this one, I don't know what. On the plus side, the harness is the most comfortable of all the thrill rides!

Then the 3 of us went on Pirates, and were seated at the front of the boat. We got excited passing Blue Lagoon as we had dinner booked there for Thursday. We all loved the ride, especially my mum who couldn't believe the detail and length of it (she insists she doesn't remember anything about this ride, but I'm pretty sure she and I went on it in 2006. Anyway...) Because we were sitting at the front, our ride photo was great and we bought it. I'll need to take a photo of the photo to add in.

We had all been impressed with Blockbuster Café on our short visit yesterday, and decided this was where we wanted to eat lunch today.  On our way out of the park, it was snowing on Main Street! With Carol of the Bells playing, it was truly magical.

While I nipped to the loo in Front Lot, the other 2 met Mickey in his Christmas outfit with no crowds! Lucky them.

And once inside, there were yet more characters about, including this guy who we'd never met before.

We had a nice lunch, very reasonably priced, in the Blockbuster Café, sitting in the Pirates side. My mum was hoping Jack Sparrow might make an appearance but no luck. I had a cheese and mushroom toastie (nom nom) followed by Mickey brioche, and the other 2 had Mickey pizzas.

After lunch we were very excited for Stars n Cars, and staked out a good spot in front of the stage. It was raining a bit but it was bearable. When the parade came though, it didn't stop at all and we were really disappointed not to see the little show. It's pretty feeble without it, in my opinion. Presumably it wasn't on due to the rain.

The next Stitch Live in English didn't start for 20 minutes, enough time for sister and I to race over and ride RC Racer again, picking up ToT fastpasses on the way. We met mum back at Stitch Live, and raced in just in time for the start. Mum didn't know what to expect with this, and thought it was very clever and funny. A guy in our row was the Space prison escapee, and a woman we had spoken to on the Eurostar was Stitch's girlfriend. There were a few parts of the show we had never seen before, and although the main format is the same, it never stops being funny!
We were planning to visit Val D'Europe either today or Wednesday, but as the rain was getting worse we thought we would just go today. So after our ToT ride, we headed back to the hotel to get changed. We booked the shuttle at concierge for 5 euros per person to pick us up half an hour later.
I had won 50 euros of vouchers to spend at La Vallee Village, little did I know that there is nothing to be had at La Vallee Village for 50 euros. I spent a fairly miserable hour or so traipsing the designer shops searching in vain for something I could get with my winnings. Maybe I'm a bit strange, but I really don't like designer clothes. I like to look good, but I don't understand why you would pay so much more for  a name on something. E.g. 200 euros for a bog standard t shirt, allegedly with 30% off.  The sales people in the shops looked at us like we were dirt too, like in Pretty Woman. Not an enjoyable experience.
When we reached the end of La Vallee Village, we were delighted to see a normal mall and spent another hour or so in there. Sister got a couple of things in H&M, we all got make up in Sephora, and we enjoyed listening to a pianist and guitarist playing in the middle of the mall. My mum got a couple of Christmas presents too, and a necklace for herself. I still hadn't spent my stupid vouchers, so we had to go back through La Vallee Village. We found tiny Guess bags for 56 euros, but they were really girly and totally not my style. My mum got one for our cousin, to give her for Christmas, and said she would get me something back at DLP to make up for not getting to use my prize. Nice mummy! The woman in front of us in Guess had her bag beautifully wrapped in cloth etc, but when the sales girl saw we were using vouchers, she visibly turned her nose up at us and just threw it into a carrier bag. The opposite of Disney service!
So, back to HNY, phew. The rain was nearly off so we were hopeful about the fireworks for tonight. We didn't have any meal booked for tonight, and sister really wanted to go to Rainforest Café. I was a bit resistant as no shareholders discount, but this is where we ended up and I'm very glad we did. We were seated straight away  quite near the door, under the giant mushroom. I had yet another cocktail, mum had yet more wine, and the meal was great.

Sister had the turkey escalope, mum had a starter size Caesar salad, and I had the Fajita Party – wow!

Thankfully mum helped me with these a bit, as there were loads, yum I love fajitas! The chicken was really nice and spicy and you got loads of sauce etc. For dessert, I had banana toffee pancakes (I can never resist any banoffee offering) and sister had some monstrous chocolate brownie ice cream concoction, which she loved. And mum had another Café Gourmand, these were her favourite thing about the trip!
We made friends with the family sitting next to us again after the little boy tapped me on the arm to tell me their names and ask ours, he was so cute! They were Irish too, the boys were 4 year old twins, and they had just arrived for their first ever DLP visit. We gave them a few tips (in true DIS fashion) and had a good laugh over the funny things the boys were saying.  
When we emerged, very full, from Rainforest Café, the rain was off! Hurrah, the fireworks would be on! Sure enough, the lake was buzzing with people, and we got hot chocolates before finding a spot in front of HNY.

The first part was Mickey's Bonfire, which was more of a light show than fireworks, but very good and reminded us a bit of Fantasmic in WDW. We wished we had stood at Sequoia to see Mickey better though. The fireworks display itself was incredible, nobody does fireworks like Disney. There was every genre of music you can imagine, I quite liked the fact that the music changed so much as it was great to see how the coordinate the fireworks to the sounds. At least 3 times it seemed to build up to a finale, and I thought it must be ending, only to go on to an even more intense or exciting part. If only DLP could have fireworks more often, this was really an excellent part of the trip which I'd recommend if anyone is considering Bonfire season next year. Sorry no photos again, was too busy watching it. Call myself a trip reporter...
Newport Bay for cocktails tonight! We had originally booked for NBC and upgraded to HNY later on, and we were quite glad because with the path being shut at the other side of the lake it is quite a trek to NBC. This wouldn't bother us too much, but with the weather we experienced we were back at the hotel a lot and the extra 5-10 minutes each time would have been miserable.
Anyway, my mum has always wanted to stay at NBC due to the New England style and she loved it even more inside. We all liked it better than we expected to, very fresh and elegant. Pausing to look at everything, we had our way to the bar where of course more cocktails were in order.

A very friendly and funny CM kindly offered to take our photo.

And we got the obligatory Christmas tree shots.

We left the NBC saying that we really did need to stay there one day, in the summer maybe. Just as we had said we needed to stay at SL after visiting there last night...well if 2 trips are needed, then so be it!

[loladelorean]

Day 4 – Wednesday 10th November

Sorry for the wait between instalments folks, thanks for all the lovely comments so far, I'm glad you're enjoying my trip report!
So, on the Wednesday when Mickey rang at 7am to wake us up, we were all pooped and made the sleepy joint decision to skip EMH that day. I know, shocker, but we reasoned we still had two days of EMH left, and those HNY beds are sooo comfy.
We eventually got up around 9am, and wandered down to breakfast. Our time card was seriously wrong, oops, but they didn't bat an eyelid. We were surprised how busy it was at this time, we had to wait in a small queue, but got seated in the Manhattan again which made us all happy. It felt good to have a bit of a lazy morning and we headed to the park about 10am.
When we got to Main Street, some characters were coming towards us in the Main St vehicles, and Dancin a Catchy Rhythm was playing! Yes, we had a wee dance. Better still, the weather seemed pretty mild and the clouds even quite light in places, with NO RAIN!

One of mum's favourite rides is IASW, so this is where we headed next (I must confess, I'm not a big lover of this ride, although would always do it once) We walked straight on and were seated on the front of the boat. I must admit, I liked it a LOT more with the Christmas overlay! The festive songs mixed in mean that the tune isn't quite so.....hypnotic/annoying. A cheery way to start the day, and put a big smile on my mums face.
When we came out it was back to Belle's Village in search of mulled wine! We couldn't see it advertised anywhere but a quick scan of the menu at the food stall found "Vin Chaud" at the bottom for 3 euros, result! The girl seemed a bit puzzled that we were asking for vin chaud in the morning, but got it for us anyway (mum and me only, sister claims to hate it, she's mad). Mmm it was amazing! Everyone who is going at Christmas needs to try it, nothing feels more Christmassy.

Suitably warmed and feeling festive, we went into Alice's Labyrinth, one of my favourites as a child and going in there really takes me back. The water effects were off but it was still good fun.

And when we reached the top of the castle, we were blinded by an unfamiliar light, could it really be...sunshine?!

We had loved visiting Salon Mickey the day before so decided to return for a snack before it closed. Couldn't resist this photo...

Sister found hidden mickeys inside:

While we relaxed in the salon we took a look at what we still wanted to do, I really wanted to see Captain EO and ride the railroad all the way around the park. The other two weren't sure about the idea of Captain EO but agreed to go there next. I found the bit at the start a bit too drawn out and boring, but loved the show itself and so did my mum. Sister wasn't so keen, but she's not a great lover of 3D effects. It's a silly story, but good fun and very retro!
When we came out, look who we met:

He wasn't up for a joke, unsurprisingly.
We missed the train at Discoveryland station, so wandered back to Fantasyland to try and catch it there, stopping to enjoy the park in the unexpected nice weather. We boarded at Fantasyland and rode all the way around, we loved it! The diorama was much more intricate than I expected. We decided we wanted to get off at Frontierland, so we went most of the way around again – lol! We ended up being on the train for over an hour, but it went by really quickly as we were people- and sight- watching. While we were on though, it started to spit with rain again, uh oh.

Colonel Haitis was the plan for lunch, so after picking up BTM fastpasses this was where we headed. Great theming inside, and all done up for Christmas too! Sister and I got the pasta meal deal, pasta, garlic bread and a drink for 10e95 – it was a really generous portion, tasty and fresh. Would definitely recommend this as a fast food option. Mum had gone in search of crepes, and we were to meet her back at BTM, but when we emerged from Colonel Haitis the heavens had opened again and it was seriously pouring. We ran to BTM and found mum sheltering in Fuente del Oro courtyard with a Mickey brioche, no crepes to be found apparently. We watched the rain for about ten minutes and suddenly it went off and the sun started to come back out, hoorah! Back on BTM, as good as ever. And look how great the weather was when we got off! It looks almost biblical.


It was time for one of mum's famous rests, she claimed she was off for a swim but she never went! While she trotted back to hotel, we went off to the Studios.
Sad saxophone geek that I am, I was overexcited to find the jazz band in Studio 1, playing carols no less:

And then we were even more excited to go on the Cars ride! A bit silly, maybe, but we have recently discovered the awesomeness of Cars.

The CM squeezed the two of us and an adult couple into one car, it was hilarious! We were killing ourselves with laughter right through the ride, it was so much fun, really glad we went on.
Feeling daft, we went on the Magic Carpets next. We were walking straight on to everything again, why not?! We did RC Racer and ToT before bumping into Buzz with no queue

Then we went back to get mum outside the main park. The 3 of us had a quick conference about what to do next....another go on BTM! This was during OUAD time so it was just getting dark, BTM is amazing when you can see all the lights across the park.

Then we watched Showtime Spectacular – I got split up from the others, my mum text me saying "we're in the middle at the front!" so I fought to get there, and they weren't. I stayed anyway on my tod and got great videos of the show, I love the Princess and the Frog parts! Found them afterwards, apparently when she said the front she didn't mean the very front. Obviously. Photos at the Winnie the Pooh bit:

We watched Fantillusion, and were at the right point for the villain stop this time, this is great! After a quick change at the hotel, it was time for our 8.30pm booking at the Steakhouse.
We were a bit concerned about the enormous queue here, when we explained we had a booking they told us to sit in the bar area. We were there for about ten minutes and staff all seemed very stressed. We were seated near the back, a very nice table and our lovely waiter was called Remy! Awesome.
More cocktails for me and mum (photo taken by the nice couple next to us, yes we appear to make friends at every meal)

I asked what the fish of the day was and Remy replied "Ponga". He had no idea what this would be in English, but he said it was white fish and I thought it couldn't go far wrong so I ordered that. It was really nice – I googled it later and apparently you should never eat Ponga in France as it's a "dirty fish" (?!), but I enjoyed it and felt fine. Sister said her steak was even better than the one in Silver Spur, and mum avoided potential oilyness with another Caesar salad (a generous one at that)



For dessert I had a gorgeous apple tart, it was very light. Mum had a crème brulee and sister had a black and white sundae – thumbs up all round. We were really impressed with the quality and atmosphere in the Steakhouse, the most fine dining experience so far. There was a live pianist playing contemporary tunes which we thought a nice touch, and a good buzz about the place.

[loladelorean]

Day 5 – Thursday 11th November

Armistice Day was here! We were determined to get up early to make the most of EMH before the inevitable crowds appeared – well, sister and I were, mum hadn't slept well the night before (nothing to do with the beds, she always has trouble sleeping and actually got the best sleeps at HNY she's had in months!) Mum didn't come to breakfast, so the two of us went (Parkside Diner today, but we didn't mind lol) and took her a pastry and yoghurt back to the room. Then it was into the park not long after 8am.
Just as we entered the park, the fire truck was pulling up so we jumped aboard. The CM who was driving was very cheerful, she was singing songs and waving at everyone.

I love riding the vehicles up Main St in the morning, you feel so important!
First stop, Buzz, as usual, followed by Space Mountain. Then into Fantasyland for Peter Pan. We had arranged to meet mum at the Studios at 10am but we decided to head over early to try for Crush - the Fire truck was reaching the top of Main St with the same CM, so we jumped back on for the return journey!  The queues outside the Studios were already crazy, about 50 people deep spread right along the gates. We knew to expect crowds on this day, but it was still a bit of a shock to the system after days of walking straight on everthing.
So we joined the throng, waited about 20 minutes to get in, then went straight to Crush. There was already a queue and the ride wasn't open yet, so we joined it, reasoning that we hadn't had to wait for a single thing all week so it was worth it. We queued maybe another 20 minutes before the line started moving, and once people were going inside we realised we were quite near the front – we made it to the bottom of the steps before all the lights came up and they announced "technical problems". If we had been outside the building, we might have given up but since we were already in we waited it out. Another 30 minutes later, the ride started up again, and it seemed like we were on in no time. A really fun ride, but a bit of a frustrating start to the day.
When we came out the park was heaving with people, and it was raining again. Hard. We met mum in Studio 1 and all headed in to watch Animagique, which was full. We all quite like this show, but its not a favourite for us. After this we wanted to watch Cinemagique (what else can you do in such crazy weather?!Plus all the rides had ridiculous queues) and we got a snack in Restaurant en Coulisse while we waited for it to start. Hot chocolate in souvenir mugs and yet more Mickey brioche. It was bedlam inside Studio 1, people everywhere and everyone was soaked. We spent a lot of this day feeling really sorry for families who had come just for that one or two days only to experience such horrific weather and queues.
Cinemagique was full too, and we loved this. Mum hadn't seen it before and couldn't stop going on about how clever it was! Afterwards, the rain was even worse, starting to get truly stormy. We had booked a tour of the main park for 2pm but we were all starting to think that the idea of walking around in this weather was horrific.
We went back to the main park, and into City Hall to cancel the tour booking. I had been really looking forward to it, and was disappointed, but trust me it would have been a horrid experience in this weather. We don't have any photos of Thursday during the day because it was all you could do to walk in a straight line let alone whip out a camera!
We were at a bit of a loss at this point, with our plans for the afternoon scuppered. We headed to the castle (mostly through the covered walkway), which again was full of people, but we took the opportunity to have a good look around the Dragon's Lair, both shops and the upper gallery.

We got a nice surprise coming out of the shop:

I LOVE the Princess and the Frog and had really wanted to meet Tiana, but wasn't willing to join the big queues at the Castle Stage. So this was a nice bonus brought about by the bad weather!
After about an hour inside the castle, we were all thinking about lunch (man did we eat a lot on this holiday...) We decided to go back to the HNY and get snacks in the City Bar, as we had Blue Lagoon booked for 6pm so didn't want anything too heavy. Upon leaving the park there was a flurry of hailstones, but we managed to shelter with a few more people under one of the gazebos. The rain was blowing furiously sideways, and we decided to dash to the DLH instead and get something to eat in there.
This stop at the DLH was the one negative experience of our holiday, the CMs were so rude. I posted about it in an earlier thread, so I'll just copy and paste that here. Sorry for the ranting nature of it, but we were shocked at the attitude of the staff here.
We turned up at Cafe Fantasia at about 2pm - the bar and Main Street Lounge areas were very busy, no free tables, when we asked a CM where we should wait to be seated he didn't even reply, just waved his hand in an annoyed way as if to say "fend for yourselves".
2pm - arrived, 1st cast member ignores our question
2.10pm - found a table, sharing with an english couple
2.25pm - asked CM1 if we could order, ignored
2.35pm - asked CM2 if we could order, ignored
2.45pm - asked CM3 if we could order, ignored
2.50pm - other couple ask for the bill and they insist that CM1 takes our order when she brings it to them.
The CM sighed heavily when we ordered food, saying "this will take a long time" (it only took about 15 mins, we didnt think it was that long), she was obviously annoyed that we ordered food. She repeated the order back and it was wrong, she got even more annoyed when we corrected her. This was the opposite of service with a smile, she appeared to be disgusted with the fact that she had to speak to us. When she brought the food over, it was thrown down without any further comment.
The English couple said they also had to wait 45 minutes to be served, they were residents at the hotel. A French family at the next table ordered 3 cokes, waited half an hour then asked where their drinks were and girl stormed off, came back with the cokes and slammed them down, glaring at the family. If looks could kill...
I'm not exaggerating, I've never personally been treated so badly by staff or seen others get treated so badly anywhere. All 3 CMs in the area were avoiding eye contact with customers, scurrying around looking annoyed but not serving anybody. We enjoyed our food and the atmosphere but this terrible service was a big blight on the trip for us, and it is the last thing we expected at DLH. We thought popping in there for a couple of hours would be a bit of luxury and a treat!
So, aside from the nasty staff, we did like the piano that played itself, the décor of the DLH, and the yummy food (which wasn't THAT expensive).


We shared two ciabattas, then those cute Mickey waffles. And I had the best hot chocolate in the world ever, hot milk with a cute of rich chocolate to melt into it. Mmm.
Due to the bad service, we were in the DLH for about 2 hours! Coming out, the lobby was packed, it was nice to look down on though, like a scene from a movie. This lovely brass quintet was playing Christmas songs.

I had been determined to visit all the Disney hotels on this trip, but the other two weren't fussed about seeing Cheyenne or Santa Fe in this weather. While they went back to HNY to get ready at a leisurely pace for dinner, I trudged off along the river. I reasoned that I was already soaked, so what did it matter? I was really surprised by how short the walk was, I timed it and it was less than 5 minutes from outside HNY to the first Cheyenne building.

I loved the feel of the "streets" at the Cheyenne, and soon found my way to the reception. It felt very cosy and Christmassy and I loved all the Western theming.

After a good snoop around the bar, Chuck Wagon and shop (dripping all the way, but I wasn't the only one who was drenched so nobody really cared), it was time to brave the elements and visit Santa Fe. I know there are people who are very fond of the Santa Fe, and the weather that day won't have done it any favours, but I was shocked by the difference. I found it bleak and depressing to walk amongst the buildings, especially with all those parked cars. It didn't feel like it had a theme at all (I know that the theme is Mexican town, therefore it will just be buildings, but I don't like it!) The public buildings were bright and cheery, and I liked the Cars touches, but after this short visit I decided I would never want to stay there – it's just not to my taste. I much prefer the Cheyenne.
The walk back along the river wasn't easy, I was getting blown about and lashed with rain, struggling to walk straight! I was very grateful to get back to the room and jump into a lovely warm shower. It was only 5pm by this point, so we all got ready and mum even started packing, boo.
When we left at about 5.40pm, miracle of miracles, the rain was off! The walk to the Blue Lagoon was actually very exciting, we loved Adventureland at night with all the lanterns and fairylights, it feels even more like you are in another world altogether.
We were seated straight away on the lower level of the restaurant, next to the Pirate ship, and our waiter Gregory was the most attentive we had had all week (we were relieved after the DLH staff shocker!) He took this photo for us (and yes that is another cocktail in front of me).

Blue Lagoon was my favourite restaurant so far, we all absolutely loved the theming and feeling like we were in the ride! I was brave and ordered the shark with plantain, coconut milk and spiced vegetables. I'm really glad I did, this was the best meal of the trip. Shark tastes similar to seabass, I thought, but with a much meatier texture, even meatier than swordfish. The plantain and vegetables were brilliant too. Ooh I'd eat it again right now.

Sister had the chicken burger which she really liked, from the teen menu.

And mum had the Chicken Colombo, which I thought looked awesome, but she didn't like, predictably enough.

With the teen menu, sister got a fruit salad as desert which was enormous so the two of them shared that while I ordered the best dessert of the trip, banana milkshake with battered banana, toffee sauce and ginger sorbet.

Christmas decorations in Blue Lagoon:

The park was open until 9pm that night and we finished dinner not long after 7, so we were excited to have time in the park (without rain!) in the dark. We took our time walking towards Fantasyland (via BTM to pick up fastpasses), oohing and aahing at how amazing everything looks at night. We bumped into Kazzabelle and family again, and had a quick catch up, glad to hear they were making the most of things too and having a great time just like us.
The teacups stood out with their amazing illuminated lanterns, so we headed there first.

The rides were all surprisingly quiet, as everyone was watching the events on Main St, so sister and I walked straight on, while mum took photos from under a convenient patio heater.

Next we were dying to see Discoveryland at night, and it didn't disappoint, possibly the best nighttime land in the park! Space Mountain was showing 10 minutes so sister and I went on this, it turned out to be a walk on too. It's extra exciting doing the blast off in the dark.
It was then time for our BTM fastpasses, this ride is so good in the dark with the most stunning views around the park. A must do for anyone who is visiting when the park is open late!
We caught the end of Fantillusion before heading back to HNY to pack ? We had been planning on DLH cocktails that night, but after our experience in the afternoon we decided against it. Here is the photo of all our purchases, lets just say packing wasn't easy even though our cases were massive.

[loladelorean]

Day 6 – Friday 12th November

Our last day ? We were a bit sad, but it felt like we had been there forever, we couldn't really remember the real world by this point! We were up and organized pretty early, and checked out before breakfast, leaving our cases at HNY. The hotel was VERY busy this morning, and we didn't get a choice of restaurant so were sat in the Parkside Diner which was a wee bit disappointing, but we enjoyed our last breakfast.
Mum actually came for EMH today! We all rode the Paddy Wagon up Main St, and wanted to go on Buzz, Peter Pan and Dumbo, but everything was queued out as if it was the middle of a Saturday. 50 minute queue for Peter Pan DURING EMH. We were a bit mollified, only managed to get on the Carousel, then back to Salon Mickey for the last time before the main crowds hit.
We bagged the couch in Salon Mickey, yay.

We had another planning meeting to see what we still really wanted to do. Sister and I were really keen to try the Parachutes, as they had been closed all week with the weather but it seemed a bit milder today. We also wanted to re-do Stitch Live and give RnRC another shot, so it was off to the Studios.
The Parachutes were open! The queue was massive but we remembered what DISers had said about single riders and asked about this. There was a small single rider line of about 10 people, but once others saw us joining it they soon followed. We waited about 10 minutes, and got on the same ride, sitting separately. It was more fun than I expected, really glad we got a chance to try it. If it is so susceptible to bad weather conditions though, it was maybe a silly ride to build in Paris. This is a view of mum from the ride!

We got fastpasses for RnRC before going into Stitch Live. There were 3 French shows and 1 English show per hour that day, which made sense as the crowds were mostly French. The English show was barely half full. It was just as fun as ever, we were sitting next to the Space Prison escapee again, Crazy Alfred from Germany. His wife was laughing so much!
While we went on RnRC after this, mum went back into Cinemagique as she'd loved it so much yesterday and wanted to keep warm. We had been wanting to give RnRC a second chance but it was even more disappointing this time, the sound was slightly better but the main ride felt even slower. Boo.
We met up with mum, who had loved Cinemagique just as much the second time, and it was time (finally!) for our 1.30pm lunch at Walts. Walts had eluded us in 2009, being closed every day, and again on Monday, so we were all very relieved to find it open!
This restaurant is so beautiful. We are actually really glad that this ended up being our last meal, because it was such a magical place. We were seated in the Fantasyland room, which after a look round the others we decided was our favourite. We enjoyed a beautiful long lunch with wine and a great conversation about our favourite parts of the trip.

Mum had a Caesar salad (it's the only flippin thing she eats), which she said was lovely. Sister ordered the rump steak well done, it came out more medium but the CM whisked it away when we asked for it to be cooked a bit more, and was soon back with a fresh one that was cooked perfectly. She loved it! Can't believe the amount of steak she consumed on this trip. Having had my fill of fish, I went for the duck breast – it was amazing, cooked the perfect shade of pink with a delicious sauce and risotto.


For dessert I had the cheesecake, it was a proper New York cheesecake, thick and rich and although it was lovely I struggled to finish it after the duck. Sister had chocolate cake which she loved, and mum had the Millefeuille which she declared to be the best dessert she had ever had in her life.



The meal was amazing, a very relaxing experience in beautiful surroundings and we were extremely full when we reluctantly left after 2 hours! We couldn't quite face any rides, so went for a wander up the treehouse. There was even a queue for this! I know it's a bit tired in places, but this is still one of my favourite works of Imagineering in the parks, so I'm glad we fitted it in.

Then it was time for Mickey's Winter Wonderland! (After getting BTM fastpasses for 5.30pm, which we had to queue about 10 minutes for. I'm never going to visit on a weekend, I couldn't do DLP like this for a whole trip!)
We went along early and I'm glad we did as they stopped letting people in about 10 minutes before the show. This show is so festive and fun, great to see all the classic characters involved. Wish it had been on earlier in the week as we would have liked to see it more than once, but glad we caught it on the last day as we left feeling all Christmassy.

On mum's to do list was to try and meet Jack Sparrow, so we went back to the Blue Lagoon and there he was! There weren't too many people there, but he was great and took his time to wind up everyone, so we waited about 10 minutes but it was fun to watch him interacting. He was very convincing and mum was happy to have a flirt with him.

We were revisiting our favourite areas, and a quick stop at Belle's Village revealed that the Casey Junior and Pays de whatsit area was open! I was overexcited, and we walked straight on to the storybook ride. Nobody seemed to know this ride was here, most of the boats were empty.

We would have liked to try Casey Junior but it was showing a 20 minute wait and we wanted to get a good spot for OUAD Parade. On our way to Main St we spotted some people sitting on the benches at Castle Stage, we had never thought of watching the parade from here but we nabbed seats in the second row. Turned out to be a great decision, no sore feet, great view and everything framed by the castle in the background. It was particularly atmospheric as it started to get dark.


We all welled up a bit watching the parade, we didn't want to leave! After it was finished, there was just one thing left to do – BTM! Our trip wouldn't have been the same without this amazing ride, and it was the perfect end to the holiday especially as darkness was just coming over the park.

The less said about struggling back to the train station with the cases the better, they were unbearably heavy and we were also laden with carrier bags containing all the stuff we couldn't fit in. I thought we were never going to reach the station. The Eurostar check in was quick and easy again, and the journey uneventful. We were on a bit of a downer back in the rubbish London Travelodge, got a McDonalds for dinner and wished we were back at DLP. Sadly, the end of our festive, fun, soggy, hilarious, delicious, magical holiday.

[never2old]

Sounds like you girls had a great time!! It sure makes a difference staying for so long, you can really make the most of everything... And you can try so many restaurants I have to say, all the food in your pics looks delicious...

Great read, thank you very much for sharing!

[ed-uk]

Good trip report and it does sound like you had a very magical time. However I was sorry to read about the rude service you experienced from some CMs in Cafe Fantasia in DLH. Polite service from the CMs is one of the most important things on a Disney holiday. And although my experiences have been mostly very good, on occasion I have noticed they do full short in this regard.

[carrydee38]

great trip report we were there at the same time from the 8th November till the 12th and i agree the weather was so bad it was the first time we didnt take the usual 200 photos...so we are heading back in april to make up for my bad trip in November.  As for the Newport bay I would not recommend for staying in we were very disspointed with standard and service to be honest.  We have stayed there a few times and this time we are going for Cheyenne and well its cheap and cheerful and we have never had a bad stay there...

[MrsPirate]

Loved reading your trip report and your food photos are making me hungry!!

[loladelorean]

Sounds like you girls had a great time!! It sure makes a difference staying for so long, you can really make the most of everything... And you can try so many restaurants I have to say, all the food in your pics looks delicious...

Great read, thank you very much for sharing!

Thank you I'm glad you enjoyed reading it, as I always enjoy reading your TRs!
I'm used to longer trips, and my next trip in June is only 2 nights - I'm already toying around with the best ways of fitting everything in, and trying to choose just 3 restaurants is not easy!

[loladelorean]

Good trip report and it does sound like you had a very magical time. However I was sorry to read about the rude service you experienced from some CMs in Cafe Fantasia in DLH. Polite service from the CMs is one of the most important things on a Disney holiday. And although my experiences have been mostly very good, on occasion I have noticed they do full short in this regard.

Yes it really was shocking - but I must say, every other CM we encountered for the rest of the week gave wonderful service, 100% Disney. That's probably why this one occasion of bad service stuck out so much for us, but unfortunately it makes us think twice about ever staying in DLH in future or even visiting for a meal again, as staff in HNY were so much nicer.

[strawjaw]

Great trip report - shame the weather was so poor - but at least you still had an amazing time. =)
Making me all the more excited for our upcoming trip now. Thanks for sharing.

[stepintothepink]

All the food looks amazing! I definitely want to be going to Walt's on my next trip.

[Minne&Mickey92]

Great trip report , really helped us with our planning ready for our trip this christmas , cant wait to try some of the food in your photo's!

Have got to ask where you get all your awesome mickey mouse/ disney tops and clothes from? their so nice !!