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[AmyMimi]

So last week, my almost-13 year old sister and I took ourselves to Disneyland Paris.

Day 1 - Sunday
We flew from Newcastle to Charles De Gaulle and landed at about 2:40.  We got to VEA bus stop just in time to get straight on the bus without waiting. The journey didn't take too long and the bus was nice, minus the excitable kids, but one can't really go to Disneyland and complain about loud kiddies, can you? We arrived at the hotel Santa Fe and checked in relatively quickly, even though the gentleman behind the desk didn't really know what he was doing and gave us the bare minimum information. Our room was on the fourth floor (SO MANY STAIRS) right by the river. It was very clean and Cars themed, and the 2 double beds were super comfy. My sister and I especially impressed with bathroom mirror which is super cool. We thought the room was more than big enough for the two of us, but might be too small for more than two people.
    We headed straight to the Disneyland park, and got in just in time to see the parade. It's such a lovely parade, it was extra special because my sister had never been to Disney before and she got to see the parade straight away. After that we did It's a Small World and the teacups and had a little browse around the shops. By this point we were pretty hungry, so we headed to Cafe Agrabah. Seriously impressed, the interior of the place is so gorgeous and even though it's probably quite big, it's all sectioned off and it feels really intimate. The food was gorgeous too. You must try the kebab, I'm not 100% sure what kind of meat it was but it was SO NICE. We had intended to stay in the park until for Disney Dreams, but we were so super tired, we headed to McDonalds in the village to leech the wifi and contact the parents. (OMG the queue in there, I work in McDonalds myself, and the queue was like something from a crazy nightmare of mine) After that we headed straight to bed.


Day 2 - Monday
We got up at 9am and headed for some late breakfast at about 10am. The breakfast was bread, pastries and cereal, standard continental breakfast stuff, nothing amazing, but not bad either. We went to Disneyland Park and got straight in the queue for Big Thunder Mountain. However, after about 40 minutes of queueing, the ride broke down! We were gutted. During the course of the day, we did many rides, including Buzz Lightyear, Star Tours, Pinocchio and Snow White. We ate lunch at Cafe Hyperion which was definitely not worth the money. I consider myself something of a fast food burger connoisseur, and you can get a burger for under £2 that would be ten times nicer than that one. It was edible but bland as hell. My sister had chicken nuggets which she said were okay. There was a Spanish dance school performing in there too, which was pleasant. We also saw the parade again today. We ate at La Cantina tonight, the fajitas were nice and it was really quiet. I think maybe because we chose to eat quite early, about 6:30pm. This time we managed to stay awake for Disney Dreams. I can't even find the words to describe how good it was, a MUST SEE. The spot we had was pretty far back and it was still amazing.  Being the crazy party animals that we are, we were in bed before nine.

Day 3 - Tuesday
We had a late breakfast again today and headed to the Walt Disney Studios park, but we weren't very impressed. We were in the queue for Crush's Coaster for nearly an hour when it broke down (beginning to think we were cursed at this point.) We didn't really fancy any other rides in there (my sister won't do big rollercoasters) but we tried the studio tram tour. We were surprised at how good it was , I especially liked the 'London post-dragon-apocalypse' scene.  After that we headed out of the Studios and back to the Disneyland Park. We ate lunch at Casey's, which was nice. I had the Cheddar hot dog and the cheese sauce on it was pretty tasty. We then got back in the queue for Big Thunder Mountain and actually managed to ride it this time. It was my sister's first rollercoaster ride. We also did Star Tours (my favourite) and Buzz Lightyear (my sister's favourite) again. After a spot of shopping, we ate at the Market House Deli. The tomato and pesto pizza - type thing is gorgeous. We saw Dreams again. We were really close to the castle this time, but I think the view was better when we were further back.  We then headed back to our hotel and did some packing.

Day 4 -Wednesday
We had our breakfast and dropped our bags off at the luggage room eleven. We were pretty tired today, apparently we just can't hack all the walking around! We queued up for more than an hour and did Big Thunder Mountain again. Totally worth it. We must have been on a massive go-slow today as we didn't get much done at all. We ate lunch at Hakuna Matata and it was lovely.  We had the chicken fingers and 'hakuna matata' fries which were gorgeous. Would definitely reccommend eating there. The service was also fairly quick compared to the Hyperion. We went on Buzz Lightyear one last time and had one more browse of the shops. We left Disneyland Park at about four to catch the VEA at five. It was on time, but the bus filled up at our hotel, so some people at the next stop, the seqoia lodge, were left behind, which would be a major worry to me.  Also I had to actually climb right inside the luggage compartment of the bus to retrieve our suitcases and the driver just stood and watched me, didn't move a muscle to help.

We had a really lovely time, and I would really like to go again at the same time next year.

Some points
- The Santa Fe is a really nice hotel, spotlessly clean and the beds are huge, but it you have small kids or mobility problems, request a ground floor room because those stairs were killer.
- All the cashiers are really reluctant to give you change. Like one guy waited for me to fish out 99 cents in change rather than give me one cent change from his till drawer. One lady wouldn't give me my 2 cents change at all.
- The Santa Fe looks really far away from the parks on the map but it's not that far. The walk is flat and pleasant and takes about ten minutes. There's really not much reason to get the shuttle unless you have tiny kids or mobility issues.
- Loads of the restaurants were closed even though it was really busy.
- We really weren't impressed with the Studios park. Mostly because we went in the huff because Crush's Coaster broke down.
- EVERYONE HAS TO SEE DISNEY DREAMS.

Thanks for reading!

[captain rocket]

Nice report! What a shame you missed out so much in the Studios! Did you not venture into Toy Story Playland? Did'nt try the Tower of terror? tut tut! No Stunt show or my absolute favourite, Cinemagique!
Lot's of things to do next time you visit!
I loved the mirrors in the Sanat Fe bathrooms!!
And Disney Dreams brings a lump to my throat everytime I see it!

[Shannon]

Nice report
I found that the cashiers were reluctant to give change too! One lady gave me 2 cents short and on numerous occasions we were asked for change rather than paying with notes or €1/€2 coins which was annoying, especially because the queues were long anyway!