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[seony141010]

Disney Trip 30th November to the 5th December including a London stay over.

Hiya everyone.
Well we have un packed, done the food shopping and put the Christmas tree up!
Our Disney trip was amazing, I hope with this Trip report it will help others plan but also answer a few questions people may have.
Our trip which included me, Hubby, our son Seon (pronounced Shaun) aged 4, my mum and also my dad. We have all been before except our son. We booked the trip over 12 months ago through world travellers.
Here we go....
Day 1. London
We left our little village in Lancashire to travel to Manchester Piccadilly for the 11.35 Virgin train, we seemed to have a lot of luggage but managed quite well, at the station we had a quick Starbucks and boarded the train. Great journey. We took a cab from Euston to the St Pancras premier Inn as we had decided to have an overnight stay due to my dad being diabetic and we did not want to mess around with his injections too much also it would of meant a 5am start (nahh). For anyone wanting a stay over this hotel is excellent, we booked the meal deal option too. We had time before tea so tubed it to Leicester square as my M+D had never been to m&m world which we love. After a lovely meal mum and I wandered across the road to St Pancras to get our Eurostar tickets from the machine and had a nosey in the shops, before bed we organised our luggage so we could easily get are winter woollies on once off the Eurostar.

Day2. London to Disney
We had a leisurely breakfast and again wandered across the road to the Eurostar terminal, once Seon had finished playing the piano (for those who have never been to St Pancras there are several pianos you can have a play on) we grabbed some sandwiches for the journey and headed through customs. Plain sailing apart and then we just chilled in the lounge until we were called. You get called about 20 minutes before the train is due to leave and everyone just helped everyone on and hats off to a true gentleman who could see my mum was struggling to get on so offered his arm as a lever. A Disney Cast member came along the carriage and gave us our park passes, meal vouchers, pause gourmand and luggage tags he was lovely and made quite a fuss of Seon as he was wearing a Spiderman top.
On arrival at Disney it was so easy to take the luggage up to Disney express however I was really surprised how many people hadn't purchased this option but still decided to queue up to see if they could dump their luggage, this just caused longer queues. We didn't have long to wait, we popped on our warmer things and for Seon in the Disney store sale I had bought him a Lightning McQueen padded suit so he put that on along with a Dusty hat ( he wore this over his clothes and fleece every day and was commented on several times.
To the park! We headed towards the main park, I kept looking at me mum and she kept looking at me and yes you've guessed it we both burst into tears the second we walked into the park. The hubby started snapping away with his camera and dad with his video camera whilst mum and I visited city hall. To quickly explain Mum had emergency brain surgery earlier in the year and as a result is now has limited movement and vision in her right eye, her eye specialist mentioned to us about taking a letter to Disney so that she could maybe go into an area to watch the parades/ shows etc., the DCM (Disney cast member) here was lovely and mum was given a green card, he told us that some of the rides can be slowed down or stopped so that she could get on, we didn't expect this at all. We wandered down Main Street and we popped our head in a shop as Seon was desperate for an Olaf, unfortunately they had run out of soft toy Olaf's and would not get any more in whilst we were there. Down towards the castle which Seon just loved and he was desperate to go on Buzz, the queue was 10 minutes so we hopped on, only hubby and I have been on this before but everyone loved it and it was going to be a firm favourite. We caught the Christmas parade, it was short but we loved it and Seon just thought it was great. Through the castle to Fantasyland, Seon and I hopped on the carousel before we used our afternoon tea vouchers at Casey's. It was starting to go dark so it was lovely to watch the parade again before heading to the NPB.
On arrival we sailed through to reception to get our room keys, the lady who gave me the keys was in all honesty useless, she told me I could turn up from breakfast whenever I wanted and that I had to see the concierge for my luggage, neither of which are true, apart from hunting down my luggage which was quite easy I decided to wait till after tea (I am a Lancashire lass so to some of you this is dinner) to sort out breakfasts. Our rooms where on the same floor as reception just past the convention centre. We had half board plus vouchers but we had pre booked Cape Cod for tonight and there was a great range of food available for all of us. After tea I asked to see a manager as I was not happy as they first of all did not acknowledge my email but after a phone conversation they still had not organised an 8am breakfast for us so I showed them my email and also gave the name of the person I spoke to including the date and time, as a result I had an 8am breakfast slot but the upgraded us to the Captains quarter for VIP breakie which I will say is yummy. We then had a wander to the village, mum and I shopped and got Seon an Olaf which is a bit like a Mr Potato head and the wandered back to the NPB.
Day 3
After Breakfast we headed towards the main park where Mickey and Minnie where doing meet and greets but a DCM had closed the queue so we noticed a queue for just Minnie which was starting in a few minutes, my mum used her card as some French families decided to queue jump which also knocked Seon over, Minnie was great and made Seon very happy. We did a trip to Fantasyland on the train, a queue was forming for Meet Mickey but we were told due to technical issues it was closed, not to worry we did Dumbo, the Casey train and boat ride which we have never been on then Seon spent ages in the Alice in Wonderland maze then it's a small world which we love at Christmas time. Before lunch at the Market Deli Buzz was fitted in. On the way out the bells where ringing meaning it was going to snow or as Seon re named it bubble snow! We wandered through Adventureland up the tree house and all the caves before toddling through to frontierland, a 10 minute wait for big thunder mountain yes please, hubby and I hopped on and thoroughly enjoyed it again, Mum and I collected out afternoon tea whilst Seon got his spot for the parade. Afterwards we checked the Disney app to see if meet Mickey was open, it was so off we went, this is unbelievable, we spent a good 5 minutes with the main mouse, the DCM was ace and was asking my mum if she needed more lights on so she could see. Round to peter pan but they were in the process of closing it and Disney's fire and rescue where on their way in. we did small world again and the through to discoveryland ohhh and Buzz. We had booked Plaza gardens for 5.30pm and we were glad of it as the outdoor temp was a little nippy. Good food and plenty of it, we are not fussy eaters at all so had a lovely meal before heading out around 6.30pm for Dreams, mum was going to the assistance area but to be honest we found a great safe spot for her to the right of the castle. Dreams was unbelievable and we were totally made up when Seon sang "let it go" at the top of his voice. We wandered back to the hotel and crashed.
Day4
Cafe Mickey for Breakfast. We arrived at 7.50am and it was quite busy already, great seats, we saw Pluto, goofy, eeyore, Mickey and Chip& Dale. Seon had a blast and I love the little cards on the table explaining what you need to do. I will just mention that Mickey did not get round to every table, well this caused chaos, a French guy shouted at a DCM in front of everyone and whilst we were leaving 2 English families where shouting at one of the DCM at the desk, they got a free breakfast the next day, just watch the characters as they do half an hour slots, we had no issues but others seemed to.
We decided to pop in the main park for EMH again it was fab, Seon decided he wanted to go on the horse and tram to the castle, we came back up to the top of main street in the car and then a return trip on the bus! Off to the studios park. I was in for a shock as I didn't realise how much it had changed, we wandered through and took quite a few photos of my favourite statue of Walt and Mickey. Seon was desperate to see Spiderman so we found our way to him. After a 10 minute wait we met the main man. Spidey introduced himself to Seon and called him by name, we spent a good 5minutes with him and had the fantastic photo taken, simply brilliant. As we walked past Stitch stars and cars  was starting so we got to see Remy, Emile, Jafar, Gaston, Tigger, Donald, Daisy, Stitch, Lilo and Aladdin and Jasmin. Next we headed towards Toons and before mum and I could say Buzz Lightyear my dad, hubby and Seon hop footed it onto the cars ride, without us! We decided to jump in the queue to meet Buzz which was timed perfect for them getting off the cars ride, again a brilliant meet and greet. We wanted to see the Disney Junior show so we wandered over to the show.  You go in to a holding area and all the kids got to have a dance with Jake and Sofia and then we moved into the show area, Mum was given a seat which was very appreciated, the DCM where brilliant as Seon needed the loo so very discreetly they let him and the hubby out and within moments where back, the show was excellent and Seon loved it, very interactive and all the children looked like they had a ball on the way out we saw Stitch. Lunch time, we headed over to the Blockbuster café, lovely lunch and dad and I enjoyed looking at all the posters of the ironman suits. We decided to make our way over to ratatouille but unfortunately there was a huge queue of people hanging around to see if the ride would reopen as it was closed due to technical issues, not to worry we went round to slinky and all had a few goes on that, I love it when you're about to get off and you hear "when leaving the ride please make sure you have your hat, keys and children". We nipped back round to Ratatouille but still no joy, we then decided to go on the tram tour, Seon loved it especially because his Granny got wet! We had our afternoon treat which included Mickey cakes very yummy, Seon decided he wanted to see Mickey and Minnie who were in the front lot, we bought a Mickey balloon and I purchased the Spidey photo. Tea was in the Cape Cod and again lovely, mum and I decided to go off shopping whilst Seon played in the small play area with numerous children but hubby and dad enjoyed a pint whilst he played.

Day 5
We decided to have a slightly later breakfast..... 8.30am!, we returned to the studios park hoping for Ratatouille, still no, the boys went off to slinky whilst mum and I took a look in the lovely shop and then had a nosey in the chez Remy window, there was an awful lot of people queuing still so you can imagine the applause when  it reopened. We walked straight on, oh my goodness it was brilliant, in fact we spoke about it all the way to the main park and down main street through to peter pan, I see they have change the seats to comfy ones, we all love this ride so it was great for Seon to experience it, Dumbo again and Alice, again he was ages but mum and I fancied a coffee well actually it was our excuse to buy the Christmas travel mug whilst hubby and dad where not watching. Up to know Seony hadn't asked for much but he came out of the maze wanting Mickey hands! From here we wandered through the castle to get lunch on Main Street.  After lunch we had a look round a few shops whilst Seony got his Grandpa into the correct parade watching spot! In all this week I watched the Christmas parade 9 times but loved it. Mum and I wanted to pick up a gift for a friend so the boys headed to discoveryland and did orbitron and star tours, the weather was a little nippy so we popped on Videopolis for afternoon tea and Mickey cakes, just as we had got our hot drinks we spotted Chip and Dale so off we went for photos then we had our drinks whilst watching Star wars rebels on the video screen. The boys then went on Buzz and autopia whilst mum and I headed over towards the castle. I had a huge decision to make as tonight we were spouts to be going to Inventions for a birthday treat but I could see that my family enjoyed Dreams so much they would love to see it again and to be honest s we had seen so many characters I didn't want to overwhelmed Seon to much so we popped in plaza gardens and booked for tea. Mum and I then did Snow white and Pinocchio before arriving in time to see them on autopia. Everyone was made up that they could see Dreams again. Plaza was a bit manic but good food, we got a fab spot for Dreams and as the wind had dropped it was so much better and yes Seon sang his heart out again. We took in the Disney magic and headed to the NPB, Seon had a blast in the play area whilst we had glowtini's and beer. Then for the packing, I won't bore you with the details.

Day 6.
Packing done, a leisurely breakfast and I got to open my cards a presents before checkout which was nice and easy with the bags going to Disney Express. City Hall had already given me my Birthday badge so I wore it with pride. On our way through the village my mum suggested we should have coffee so we sat on the wall outside the world of Disney sipping our drinks. We asked Seon to pick 5 rides and we were going to see if we could fit them in. Seon picked Ratatouille, which I suggest everyone must ride at least twice to get the full effect, Peter Pan, Buzz (of course), Small world and the carousel. We managed them all with a spot of lunch at Colonel Hathis slotted in and as a bonus we saw Hook. Smee, Timon and Rafiki and on the way to Buzz we got to see Balou and King Louie. We caught the parade outside small world and then just to top off our holiday we saw Anna and Elsa well Seon's face was amazing and clearly they both saw this as they came over and said Hi.
We said our goodbyes to everything as we walked up Main Street and popped into the village to grab some sandwiches for the train home. To be honest we were dreading the journey home BUT we were sat near two families with children the same age as Seon and we had a right good laugh as the kids rein acted Frozen and just played games. We quickly moved from St Pancras to Euston for the train to Manchester which involved Seon wanting his PJs on so he could fall asleep next to daddy and Grandpa

We had the best time, the NPB even though its being refurbished there was no hassle, I am so glad we booked our meals and did half board plus and finally the Disney cast members where brilliant especially with my mum.
Merry Christmas everyone and Thank you for all your hints tips and reports.

[littlebitofpixiedust]

Wonderful trip report
Really enjoyed reading it, sorry to hear seon was pushed over! That's just terrible I must say that's the only downside to Disneyland Paris the people who push and shove. They do it to my son climb over his wheelchair and everything wich really upsets me (and my son!) here's hoping things change? Our last trip (October) ques for characters seemed a little more orderly?

Anyway sounds like you had a blast! All of you! We're of in 7 days and are very exited as havnt done Disney in December for a very long time.

The NBC is a lovely hotel it's on our to do list for next year as we havnt tried it since the refurb.

[daddyof2]

Yeah, some people (dare I be controversial and say mostly continentals?) are just rude - though they normally back down when challenged so be brave against the pushers and queue jumpers everyone. If you do it in earshot of a CM, it normally gets sorted pretty quick - most CM's are quite good.
I'm glad to read again about a person with a disability getting some help. Those of us that are more able need to remember that just because we can't always see a disability or impairment, it doesn't mean its not there.
I think the NPB would be nice in spring/summer as the photos make it look bright and airy. We've chosen SQL for October for the opposite reason - looks cosy and warm

[Uragano Tati]

Really like your trip report! Thanx for sharing!!

[seony141010]

Your welcome everyone, I will attempt to add some pics at some point.

[BlackPearl]

Great trip report! Thank you for sharing it 

[samuelvictor]

Nicely written trip report, thanks for sharing

Sorry to hear of your child getting pushed, that was our only real complaint before. I know things are slowly getting better but I still wish more was done to stop this happening, can spoil the moment somewhat for a child!

However, it sounds like you had a great time overall. We're going on the 18th (just over a week) and can't wait, so good to hear from people who've only just been. 

[seraphelle]

Lovely report. Shame about the pushing, we had the same thing when we were there but soon got tough to it.