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[Laurence]

I know it's very late but due to moving house and not having any broadband for a couple of months, this is the first chance I've had to tell you all about my DLP trip from January.

There were 14 of us in our party altogether. I'll talk you through who everyone is, bear with me!

There was myself, my wife and our 9 month old twins.
There was my sister-in-law, her boyfriend and their 9 month old.
My Mother and Father-in-law.
My Auntie-in-law and her two children, aged 9 and 14.
And finally my sister-in-laws partners parents.

So quite a few of us altogether!

For most of us, we had been to DLP many times before, apart from the babies of course and my sister-in-laws future in-laws (if that makes sense!) but they have been to Florida countless times.

Day 0 - Travelodge in Ashford the night before travelling

We were travelling over on the Eurostar from Ashford and decided to stay in a Travelodge about 10 minutes away from the train station the night before so we didn't have to worry in the morning about the two hour drive.

After working on the Wednesday, we left for the Travelodge at about 7pm and get there about 9pm. The babies slept in the car on the way there and woke up so sat in the bar with us for a couple of drinks and a chat before bed as a few of our party had made their way up a little earlier in the evening.

I don't know why but we didn't take any pictures in the bar that evening, I guess we were all too excited for what the next day held! We all went up to bed about 11pm and, surprisingly, the babies went to sleep pretty much straight away in the travel cots provided by Travelodge.

Day 1 - Almost not making it but getting there in the end!

Our alarm went off at 7am. The twins had a pretty good night and only stirred a couple of times which was very unexpected being in strange surroundings. It was freezing cold outside but we hadn't had any snow.

Over breakfast, we excitedly chatted about Disney and couldn't believe we would be there in only a few hours. We all had our fingers crossed for snow to make it that bit more magical.

We left the Travelodge at about 9:30. It was only about 10 minutes to the train station but we wanted to get there in time to have a coffee and a relax before getting on the train. If only we knew!

It was only one junction down the motorway to the train station and we were about a mile away from the junction when all of a sudden, the traffic in the outside lane just basically stopped moving. It was so sudden that a car actually went in to the back of another one. Luckily we were in the middle lane at the time and so just carried on in that lane, skipping past a line of traffic. We merged into the outside lane at the last moment before the slip road and joined the queue.

We were hoping that there was just roadworks or something at the top of the slip road and was causing a short delay. So we sat there and waited...and waited...and waited.

After about 15 minutes, we hadn't moved. Literally not one car length. We tuned into a local radio station and heard that the jam had already gone three miles down the motorway.

After still moving hardly anywhere for about half an hour, it was now getting on for 10am. Our train was leaving just before 11 and check in is supposed to close half an hour before. I decided to get out of the car and walk up the slip road and see what the delay was.

When I got to the top...total gridlock! Despite being a traffic light controlled roundabout at the top of the slip road, the whole road was just static, noone was going anywhere. I went and had a look to see what I could see and found a broken down car with and AA van beside it, blocking two of the three lanes going around the roundabout, meaning noone could basically get around the roundabout.

The time was ticking on so I decided to start directing the traffic. I was waving people through to try and get some movement and get the traffic flowing again. I did this for about 15 to 20 minutes and during this time even directed a couple of police cars and highway agency vehicles, none of them stopped to help!!

I called the car to find that they had just made it to the top of the slip road. It was now getting on for about 10:20 or so. Check it was due to close any minute and we were still stuck in the middle of a jam and then about 5 more minutes away from the station.

I ran back to the car and jumped in, hoping that the traffic would keep moving. However, the minute I got back in the car, the whole flow of traffic just stopped again as people blocked the junctions. I got out of the car again and directed a bit more traffic until my wife in our car got to us.

We were in four cars altogether and we were at the front of our group. The others were a few cars behind us apart from my sister-in-laws future in-laws who had stayed in the outside lane from the very start and hadn't even got to the slip road yet!

Anyway, I know I'm rambling so I'll try to do this a bit quicker. By now, we had pretty much lost all hope of getting our train. It was now about 10:30. The train left in about 20 minutes, check in was now closed and we were still about 5 minutes away.

Once we were off the roundabout, thankfully the roads were clear and we were able to get to the station quickly. We pulled up outside the station. I ran in as my wife unloaded the twins into the buggy. I sprinted up the stairs to the Eurostar desk.

"Have we missed the Disney train?" I managed to ask, out of breath.
"It leaves in 18 minutes. We can still get you on it if you're quick. We are still waiting for 14 people."

All 14 people were us! I called back to the other cars and they had literally just got off the roundabout so they were about 5 minutes away. However, we still had to unload the cars of baggage and babies, park the cars, get through security and passport control and get down to the platform. It was going to be tight.

I ran back downstairs and went and parked the car as my wife pushed the buggy up to the Eurostar check in.

I got back to the Eurostar desk with about 10 minutes before the train left. Thankfully, the rest of our party had just pulled up outside, minus two (my sister-in-laws future in-laws).

We quickly unloaded the cars and the men went off to park those as we ran through the station and up to the passport desk. There were even some very nice men repairing as escalator who came and grabbed some of our bags to help us.

We got to the Eurostar desk just as the men came back from parking the cars. It was now about 5 minutes until the train was supposed to depart and we still had to get through security. Massive kudos to the Eurostar staff, they were absolutely excellent. All hands were on deck to help us get through as quickly as possible. The train was down at the platform, the departure lounge was empty and everyone was sitting down, waiting for the doors to close and depart. We sprinted through the departure lounge with about a minute to go. The Eurostar staff took the babies in their pushchair down to the platform in the lift as we dragged our bags down the stairs. We got to the platform and the staff asked what carriage we were supposed to be in, carriage 2! This meant running half the length of the train!

We started to make our way down the platform as the staff told us to get on to an earlier carriage and just find any free seats in that carriage. We all jumped on the train. Again, massive thanks to the Eurostar staff. They held babies for us as we collapsed pushchairs to get them on the train and helped in any way they could. I was last on the train and looked back at the station clock just as I stepped on to the train. 23 seconds late! We had made it! The door shut behind me and the train moved off.

We were all in the doorway area of the train and just looked at each other and just started to sigh and breath again for what felt like the first time in the last hour. We just couldn't believe we were on that train. From being at a Travelodge 10 minutes away from the station to having a journey that took us nearly two hours and then an absolutely mental rush through the station, we just couldn't believe what had happened and the fact that we had actually made it. We were seriously all almost in tears from the relief.

After spending a couple of minutes getting over our experience, we made our way into the carriage to find some empty seats as the staff had told us. I opened the door into the carriage and couldn't believe it, they'd put us in first class!!

The carriage was entirely empty apart from two businessmen at the far end of the carriage. We couldn't believe everything that had happened.

I just want to take a couple of moments here to say an absolutely huge thanks to the Eurostar staff at Ashford. They were absolutely incredible. They did absolutely everything they could for us when they actually didn't have to do anything. We were well past check in time and they could have easily turned us away but they all went to a huge amount of effort to get us on that train and then to top it all off, they'd put us in first class. So a huge, heartfelt thanks to them all. We made sure we sent Eurostar an email when we got home to pass on our thanks.

Unfortunately, my sister-in-laws boyfriends parents hadn't made it. We managed to call them before we went into the tunnel and they were still on the motorway, they hadn't even got to the sliproad yet. Thank God we stayed in the middle lane and merged into the outside lane at the last minute.

Now, I'm sorry this has gone on for a while but I wanted to try and get across the stress and panic of our journey to the station and the absolute relief when we had made it to the train.

Anyway, on with the stuff you're really here for, I'm sure you don't really care about our awful journey to the station!

We were saying the night before how we would love some snow at Disney. It had been cold at home but we hadn't had any snow. The journey through the tunnel seemed to literally go in seconds due to still trying to wind down from our journey to the station. However, when we popped out of the tunnel:


SNOW! (Sorry for the awful picture, its not easy taking one through the train window.)

We all cheered and suddenly all the stress was forgotten. We had got on the train, we were on our way to Disney and there was even a little bit of added magic with the snow.


Me and my niece-in-law enjoying the train journey and getting excited by the snow.


My son sitting with his second cousin.


And my daughter looking after her Mum's handbag.

We called my sister-in-laws boyfriends parents when we were about half an hour away from Disney and they had only just made it to Ashford train station. They were going to get a Eurostar into Paris later in the afternoon and then an RER to DLP and were due in at about 9pm.

After what seemed like a much shorter time than usual, we were all looking out the right hand side of the train, straining to try and get the first glimpse. And there on the horizon, the Hollywood Tower Hotel. We were almost there.

The babies had done amazing on the train and hadn't been any trouble whatsoever which was great. We were a little worried how they would be but they couldn't be faulted.

We unloaded ourselves from the train and made our way up to the Disney Express desk so they could take our bags off to the Hotel Cheyenne for us to collect later and we made our way to the parks. It's always so great to make your way from the station to the parks for the first time of the holiday, it is a feeling unlike any other.


Making our way to Disneyland Park in the snow.

As you can see, there was a little bit of snow on the ground but nothing compared to what we would see over the next few days.


We made our way up a snowy Main Street and our first stop was the information board.

Big Thunder Mountain - Closed
Indiana Jones - Closed
Pirates - Closed (planned rehab)
Buzz - Closed (planned rehab)
Dumbos - Closed
Orbitron - Closed

Basically, anything that was an outside attraction was closed which was sort of to be expected with the snow and the temperatures a touch below freezing. It was a shame to have Pirates and Buzz closed for our whole stay, losing two major indoor attractions. Still, we'd all been to DLP before and had done these rides before and this holiday was more about the babies so it didn't bother us to much.

We decided to make our way to Small World and introduce the babies to their first Disney attraction.


My daughter and I waiting in the five minute queue for Small World.


My wife and our son.


He seems excited to be going on his first Disney ride. He's a cheeky boy!

So we went for a sail around the world and the babies absolutely loved it. They were looking all around and moving along to the music. When we got back to the station, there was no one waiting so we stayed on for a second ride.


Looking on in wide eyed wonder.

After Small World, we went and got a hot drink at Casey's and then it was time for the parade.


All wrapped up warm for their first Disney parade experience.

To be fair, the babies were probably tired at this point. They were happily watching the parade pass by (I won't bother with loads of parade pictures, we've all seem them before!) but fell asleep within seconds of it being over.

As the babies were asleep, we took a little walk to Frontierland to see if BTM showed any sign of opening. There was no life at all so we decided to go on Phantom Manor instead. That meant finding a cafe for the people staying the the babies to keep warm in. Tried the one opposite the BTM entrance (can never remember its name), closed. Tried Pizza Outpost, closed. Tried Last Chance Cafe, closed! In the end we gave up and sat in the covered outside area out the front of the Last Chance cafe. I know it was a Thursday well out of season but it seemed like the only cafes open were the ones on Main Street and Videopolis.

A few of us went to ride Phantom Manor and got a couple of pictures from the exit path of BTM (the Boot Hill area was also closed).




As you can see, the whole river around BTM was totally frozen solid. Molly Brown was iced in. The big chunks of ice on top of the ice on the river was were people had thrown chunks of ice at the river and it wasn't even making a dent. I don't think I had ever seen ice so thick.

There was still no sign of life at BTM so we gave up any hope of it being open today.

It was only about an hour now until Dreams so we decided to wait it out and watch the show despite it now starting to get very cold. We made out way to Videopolis for a rest until the show.

Whilst we were in Videopolis, my 14 year old cousin-in-law had realized that he had lost his bag. He has autism so his bag contained a lot of things to keep him entertained such as a portable DVD player, iPod, PSP and so on. He had used it on the train and we didn't want to send so much stuff through the Disney Express service. We worked out that the last place we had seen the bag was back at Casey's before the parade.

My sister-in-laws boyfriend made his way there and asked the staff if a bag had been left there. They said that there was and they asked him what was in it. They would only hand it over once he had described the contents of the bag which I think was a very clever thing to do. My cousin-in-law was very grateful to get his bag back and with everything still inside it. Well done Casey's staff!

It was nearly time for Dreams and despite it being only 10 minutes before the show started, we managed to get a good spot right in the middle of Central Plaza without to many people in front of us.

Well, what can I say about Dreams that hasn't been said before. A totally amazing show with amazing effects. I won't go on and on about it but it takes theme park night time shows to a whole other level.

After Dreams had finished, we made our way to Disney Village for dinner at Earl of Sandwich which was very nice and pretty good value.

We walked around Lake Disney and up the Rio Grande towards Hotel Cheyenne. All the water was frozen solid but was to dark to get any pictures.

We arrived at Hotel Cheyenne and checked in to find we had been given rooms in the block nearest to reception which was a great help with the babies. There were no travel cots though like were promised but a quick walk back to reception and they were delivered to our room within 10 minutes which was good service.

Up until this point, despite the show on the ground, no fresh snow had actually fallen. That soon changed!


It started snowing at about 9pm and hadn't stopped by the time we had gone to bed.


Of course, it wouldn't be right not to have a bit of fun!

My sister-in-laws boyfriends parents finally got to the hotel just before 10pm. We all felt so sorry for them but were in good spirits considering everything they had been through.

After what seemed like a very long day, we all settled down for a well earned rest and we were all, including the babies, sound asleep within seconds.

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Well, I'm sorry this has gone on for so long, lol! I was hoping to do the whole trip report tonight  but this has taken me about two hours so that isn't going to happen! I'll be back soon to finish up and hopefully it won't be as long winded as this.

Thanks for reading.

[gemmasteele84]

loving the report so far and glad you all got there in the end.

[Rafael]

Great report! Thanks for sharing!

[jeakat24]

Excellent trip report so far!

Even though I knew you would make the train from the title of your post my heart was still in my throat! I would be in such a panic! Glad you all got there in the end.

I have to say you're very brave taking twins to Disney (theyre adorable by the way). My daughters 14 months old and sometimes leaving the house requires military precision  :lol:

[TigerLily]

Really enjoying your report. :shock: at your travel trouble with the train...I would of been stressing out big time I think. So glad you made it!

[Aurora1]

WOW! What an experience! I`m so glad you (almost( all made it to the train!
Cute babys, there!
Aurora1

[gemma2806]

Really enjoying your report! So glad you made it, what an experience with the mad dash and then snow to contend with. Can't wait to read the rest!

[cinderslg]

What an eventful start  :|  really looking forward ro the rest  

[BlackPearl]

Great trip report so far! Thanks for sharing.
The start of your journey could be used for a movie! :shock:

[Laurence]

Even though I knew you would make the train from the title of your post my heart was still in my throat! I would be in such a panic! Glad you all got there in the end.

I have to say you're very brave taking twins to Disney (theyre adorable by the way). My daughters 14 months old and sometimes leaving the house requires military precision  :lol:

I'm glad I got your heart in your throat, that is what is was going for. I was trying to get across the panic and stress that we were feeling on our way to the station and the relief when we finally made the train just in the nick of time.

In terms of being brave, I have to say that we would never have even thought of taking the twins to DLP at just nine months old if it wasn't for the people that went with us who were a huge help for the whole holiday.
Also, it meant a very different attitude to the whole holiday, We were prepared to accept that we wouldn't be getting on many rides and that there wouldn't be a firm routine and we had to be very flexible and basically let the day revolve around what the babies needed and when. To be honest though, they were so well behaved and seemed more than happy themselves to be flexible with their routine and that made all the difference.
As long as you accept that it will be a very different DLP holiday to usual, I would thoroughly recommend taking a nine month old baby, or two, to DLP.

Anyway, first an apology for taking so long to keep this trip report going. It is difficult to find an hour who update you all but the babies are sound asleep so update time it is!

Day 2, Friday - Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

So, we went to bed with the snow falling and woke up to a bit more snow on the ground. It wasn't snowing in the morning but there was a fair bit through the night that had settled. We had a nice breakfast and the babies enjoyed their first taste of croissant and pain au chocolate. We did the typical Brit abroad thing and filled our bags with rolls and other bits and pieces for a nice cheap lunch in the parks later.

We made our way to the parks. We walked there and back every day to save the scrum on the shuttle bus with the pushchairs.


A look at the hot air balloon in the snow on the way in to the parks.


Guess where we started the day.


A rather cold looking enchanted broom.

We started off with a look at the information board. WDS didn't seem as badly affected by the weather as Disneyland Park. The only ride that was shut was Studio Tram Tour but this was a scheduled rehab anyway so we were expecting it to be closed. I was surprised to see that Moteurs Action was going ahead as scheduled.

We decided to make our way to Toy Story Playland as RC Racer only had a 10 minute wait and a few of us had never been on it before.

While the people who wanted to go on RC Racer did, we got the babies out of the pushchairs for a look around Playland and to have their picture taken with Rex:




Rex must have been hungry!

A few of us went on Tower of Terror whilst the other took to babies into Studio 1. A ten minute wait for TOT and it was as great as we remembered. One of the best rides in the whole resort.

After a bite to eat in Studio 1, we made our way to Disneyland Park.

First stop again was the info board.

Big Thunder was shut again, as were Indy and the Dumbos. Again, Pirates and Buzz were down for rehab.

We decided to give the babies a go on the carousel as it was a walk on.


To give you an idea of how cold it was.


A look back at Main Street from the castle drawbridge on our way to the carousel.

Despite the Carousel being a walk on, it took more than five minutes to get the ride started due to the slow loading procedure and making sure everyone had their seat belt done up. How many years have carousels operated without seat belts? All seems a bit over the top to me.

As we had the babies, we got in one of the carriages.


It's difficult to get all the babies looking at you at the same time to take a picture!

The babies seemed to like the Carousel which was good.

A few of us went on Space Mountain whilst the other and the babies had a sit down in Videopolis. Can't believe how rough that ride has got, they really need to go something about it. Well done to my cousin-in-law though, her first upside down and her first launched roller coaster and she loved it.

We decided not to hang around for Dreams this night and made our way back to our hotel. We had a look around the restaurants in the Village on our way back but decided to give the buffet at our hotel a go. Normally we don't eat at the hotels as our budget doesn't normally stretch that far but we decided to treat ourselves as we hadn't spent any money on lunch and were we glad we did, it was excellent. A wide variety of food which was all very scrummy with plenty to give the babies to mush around their face and get a bit in their mouths! One word of advice though, don't pay the extra 3 Euros to have a drink with your meal, all the drink is is a soft drink can. You're better off buying a bottle of soft drink in the hotel shop and taking it in with you which they don't seem to bothered about.

Despite not snowing throughout the whole day, a glance out of the window during dinner and it was absolutely hammering down again, about the same time as the night before.


As we went off to bed, the snow was falling hard. Yet again, we were all asleep within seconds. And yet again, the babies had a great nights sleep. Their Disney holiday must be as tiring as it is for us.

Thanks for reading again, hopefully it won't be as long before my next update.

[Laurence]

Well, I've got a bit of time and the babies are sleeping well so I'll do the next update now.

Day 3 - The day the snow truly arrived.

Well, we went to bed with it snowing heavily and woke up to it snowing heavily. By the look how much snow had fallen, it didn't look liked it had stopped all night:


The view out of our hotel building looking down the Hotel Cheyenne street.

We made our way to breakfast and we surprised by how busy it was. Normally when we go to DLP, we go from a Monday to a Friday to avoid the weekends as they are obviously busy. However, due to lack of availability on the direct Eurostar service, we had to go from a Thursday to Monday, meaning our first ever weekend at DLP. To be honest, we knew it would be busy and felt that going in January, the weather would keep the crowds away. Despite the snow, the hotel restaurant was almost full for breakfast but we managed to find a couple of tables and had a good breakfast.

We made our way to the parks and I took the opportunity to take a few scenic pictures around the hotel grounds. I won't bother to caption them:








Rio Grande river.

As we got to the paths along the Rio Grande on the way to Lake Disney, it looked like the Disney night shift had been very busy clearing paths:





As we got to the lake, it was clear how cold it got during the night. Half the lake was frozen.



Yes, it was very cold!

We made our way through Disney Village and towards Disneyland Park.


The paths next to the pond weren't open (I guess they were slippery) but it let to some great photo opportunities.

A quick look at the info board and yet again, no Big Thunder or Indy but that was no surprise whatsoever as the weather had really gone downhill overnight. The park was busy as expected so we accepted that it was just going to be a day of going on one or two rides and taking plenty of photos in the snow. So here are a few pictures from around the park in the snow. Again, the park seemed to make a great effort in clearing the pathways but it still made for some great scenes:









Amazingly, considering the conditions and how slippery it could potentially make it, the tree house was open so we made our way up there which let to even more great photos of the snow:





We stopped for a hot drink and a bit of lunch at Hakuna Matata Cafe which I had never been in before and I really liked it. One that we will definitely visit again.

As the park was so busy (compared to what we are used to) and with only a few rides open to cope with the crowds, we decided to wait 15 minutes for Small World so we did a ride for the babies and then made our way back to the hotel for an afternoon rest which we all appreciated.

We then had an Earl of Sandwich on the way back to the park to watch Disney Dreams once again. As we got there only ten minutes before the show and the park was busy, we were only about half way down Main Street but we still got a good view. As the babies had had a big afternoon nap, they were awake for this showing of Dreams and weren't fazed by the fireworks which was good.

We walked back to the hotel via World of Disney which I was really impressed by. One thing we really appreciated with a double buggy is how much space there is in the shop, certainly a lot better than Disney Store which isn't as easy to negotiate.

We got back to the hotel just as the babies were getting tired and again, we were all asleep soon and had a good nights sleep.

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Sorry this day was a bit picture heavy, I went a bit mad taking snowy pictures as you don't get to see them very often and we didn't get up to much in the parks this day due to the crowds. Hope you all enjoyed the pics. Another update again soon.

[gemmasteele84]

Love your reports

[Aurora1]

Don`t worry! I love seeing pictures!

[BlackPearl]

Love the "snow-pictures", they are awesome! Especially the pirate ship. Winter in Neverland!  
And your little ones are so cute.

[Fluffymilly]

Oh my goodness your journey reminded me of our hideous journey a few years ago when because of snow on the M20 the last couple of junctions at Ashford were gridlocked just like you found. Our one hour journey took nearly 4 hours!! Similarly we were bundled through the station with the train already in the platform and when we got on the train I didnt stop crying for an hour!! The Eurostar staff truly are amazing, I reckon they might be well practised at doing this!