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[seraphelle]

Day 1 – Monday 29th May 2017

For the first time ever we were travelling to DLP in the afternoon rather than at the crack of dawn like we usually did. It was a bank holiday, it was half term, and we were all too excited to sleep so were up ridiculously early, and we HATED the wait until it was time to go to the airport! We took the dogs on an extra long walk and I checked the bags over making sure we had everything, watered the plants, changed the cat litter boxes, etc etc. And we still had almost 2 hours to kill before our lift arrived! So, we watched Moana, haha!

Our friend collected us at 11:45am and drove us to Birmingham airport, I had already checked us in online the day before and we only took hand luggage- so no queuing for us at check-in desks (which was good as it was incredibly busy!). We headed straight to Frankie and Bennies and had a couple of pre-flight cocktails before heading through to Departures. This is the first time I've taken the girls on a holiday abroad during school holidays and my goodness, it might well be the last! The airport was heaving and lots of grumpy tired kids crying everywhere, bless them!
After we got through passport security and into Duty Free we were greeted by a wall of people, I've just never known it so busy! We managed to get through (no perfume for me, I really couldn't be bothered to fight my way through to look at stuff!) and as soon as the gate was announced we headed round there for a breather. It was nice to sit in the quiet for a bit, and soon after it was time to board ready to take off at 14:05.

The flight was a little turbulent but I'd warned the kids that the weather was a bit choppy so they were prepared. Hubby looked a little green at the end but he was OK, the free beer helped I'm sure!
When we landed there was a huge queue to get through security in France, but once through and out into arrivals area our Taxi driver was waiting there with my name on a board. Not gonna lie, felt a bit like a rockstar haha!
Instead of RS Transport this time, we had used Prestige Transfers and I would really recommend them if you're not getting the TGV. They have dvd players in the back and Disney films for the kids to watch on the journey which was ace. We arrived at our hotel around 40 mins later and I checked us in and we headed to the room. We were staying in Adagio and I had booked the room ages ago through Booking.com so we'd gotten it at a brilliant price for a half term week, and the room was lovely, we had a corner room with a balcony on the 3rd floor. Very nice indeed. It was crazy hot in there though and no air con, so we opened all the windows before we unpacked and headed to the parks.

We arrived at the parks around 6pm (French time) and were surprised by how busy it appeared on first glance, but then soon realised the parade would have recently finished so all the people milling about were probably those that had gathered to watch on Main Street. We headed to Frontierland as per our routine and straight to Phantom Manor for our first ride and there was only a 10 minute wait time. I love it soooooooo much, I'm really nervous that it will be closed for so long next year and I hope they don't change it too much as I love it just the way it is. It was exiting PM that we noticed that Big Thunder Mountain was not only not running, but that a train was stuck on the incline with people in – and Cast Members were helping them out of the train and down some stairs. Scary stuff! So we scrapped the plan of going to wait for that and scooted across to Discoveryland so hubby could do Star Tours as he was practically exploding with excitement to go on it. I confess that as much as I love Star Wars (and I do, biiiiiiiiiiiig fan) I never really enjoyed the old Star Tours as it just made me feel sick. I'm useless on Ratatouille as well. But I went on because it's had a massive overhaul and curiosity got the better of me.
The journey we had on Star Tours (which was only a 20 min wait by the way) was incredible. Yes I still felt sick afterwards but it was a lot more worth it this time around haha!


***Spoilers below***Look away now if you don't want to know!***





Firstly, the pilot is now C3P0.
Our journey took us first through a couple of hyper-jumps and a Scout Trooper battle I think on Endor (?), then to Kashyyyk and lots of Wookies in trees shouting and waving at poor C3P0 for flying so low to their houses. Then we jumped again and 'crashed' into the water on Naboo and saw some monsters eating a ship and then each other, and then we were in Gungan underwater area and Jaja hit our windscreen before sliding off. Then we were back out of the water and crash landed into a hangar where a droid came through the windscreen and shouted at C3P0. It was incredibly vivid and convincing and the addition of 3D glasses is amazing, and my stomach certainly felt like we'd done all the things the simulator showed us hahaha!
I really enjoyed it despite feeling pretty sick.

After this, I took the little one to Buzz Lightyear (10 minutes wait) and my husband took our eldest on Hyperspace Mountain (15 minutes wait). I have never been on Space Mountain (nor will I!) but husband said it was even more 'throwy around' than before and the G-force seemed much stronger too. Our eldest daughter loved it, obviously!

We all decided we needed a calm ride after this so headed round to It's a Small World (5 minute wait) and walked onto a boat. I'm a bit annoyed that they've taken the Welsh people out of this – but they've kept the Irish, English and Scottish in. What's all that about? Anyway, we all know this ride and the song LOL, and I was glad to have a chuckle along with my hyena buddy as he cracks me up.
What I did notice a lot is children on other boats kept standing up and their parents did nothing! I mean, I know I am a bit of a neurotic Mom and try and make sure my kids are aware of other people and polite and follow the rules – but these people seemed to have a 'F you' mentality and didn't care that their kids were ruining the ride for other people in their boat. I'm so glad my children know how to behave!

Following IASW the girls went on the Teacups and hubby and I decided we needed to call it a day after that as we were hungry and exhausted. So when the kids came off Teacups we had a slow meander through the castle and along Main Street and out the parks and headed to the Village, and we went to Rainforest Café and had some food (and coronaritas, obviously). The food, as ever, was gorgeous, and the service was ace. After this we jumped on the number 50 bus back to the hotel, had a quick game of Uno with the kids and then all went to bed.
As I was closing our bedroom curtains, I noticed that a homeless woman was sleeping on a bench across the street with a shopping trolley full of bags. It was a really hot night so she must have been sweltering – and I mentioned it to my husband when I got into bed. He just rolled his eyes at me and told me to forget about it and go to sleep, but it was obviously playing on my mind a lot as I had a restless night and what bits of dreams I remember was about being homeless and everywhere I found to try and sleep was either wet and cold or too hot. 

Day 2 – Tuesday 30th May 2017

So despite wanting to get up early today and get to the parks, we were all so exhausted from a hot and restless night's sleep that we didn't quite make it up as early as we'd hoped we would.  We decided to hit Auchan first to stock the room up for the rest of our stay. I feel I need to emphasise how much I love shopping in Auchan, but my god the staff are so rude!!!  I try not to let it put me off every trip but they are just awful and deliberately difficult to tourists, I really think they go out of their way to make the life of non-french speaking people more difficult. I'm not one of those tourists that is a pain and tries to be awkward, and I'm probably one of the bubbliest and friendliest people you'll ever meet, but they would test the patience of a Saint in that place. I'm sure the staff have to put up with a lot in there but there is no excuse for the way they behave.

With that being said, we got a bunch of yummy food and super cheap wine (that's usually 12 quid in Sainsburys I might add, and is only 4 euros in Auchan!!!) for a very reasonable price in the end and other customers in there were lovely, and one French lady even stopped me to tell me that my girls were beautiful and well behaved (most other children in there seemed to be running riot as if it were a playground) so that restored my faith in the place a little!

We headed back to the apartment and unpacked all our goodies and had a quick brunch, then went and got the bus to the parks. I told the kids about the homeless lady when we were on the bus and they said they had seen her as well. We decided if we saw her again we would try and do something nice for her. When we arrived we realised that very soon there would be a show on Castle stage (the Mickey birthday one, not the Princess one), so we got an ice cream and went and grabbed a prime spot to watch it in. Now, this is my 8th trip to DLP, and you lot know how much I love the place and how positive I am in general about it all. But I am starting to understand how the shine and sparkle can be dimmed a little during busier visiting times. Why oh why oh why do parents think it's OK to just push their children in front of other children? When those children are sat on the floor right where the discs are on the concrete and it is clear that this is the line that the CM's wish people to sit behind? So then the CM's come over and try and get people to move, and the parents then argue with the CM's? It's just ridiculous, we saw this so many times on this trip, moreso than any other trip we've been on, and it started to really get to me by the end of the holiday, so much so I was starting to stand with my elbows rigidly stuck out so nobody could push past my girls who had waited patiently for ages to have a good view (we're all really short LOL, the poor things take after me rather than their lanky Dad haha!). Grrrrrrrrrr!

Anyway, negatives aside. The show started and it was very enjoyable, lots of laughing and we got a high 5 from Stitch and Peter Pan which was ace. I won't go into too much detail as I don't want to spoil it for anyone, but it's a lovely little show and I'd recommend you try and catch it if you can.

Following this, we scooted around the back of Fantasyland and I grabbed Fastpasses for Peter Pan later on in the day, and we went across to Casey Jnr and the 'story boats' as my youngest calls them. These are perfect chill out rides I think, out of the way a bit so usually only a short queue time (5 mins each in this instance) and you can usually spot a character or two in this area. We saw Eeyore and Tigger in this area as we were heading to the rides and they gave us a wave as we walked past and waved to them, they were being mobbed my tiny kids so we didn't try and get a photo, but it was lovely to see all the little ones laughing and bouncing with Tigger.  When we came off Casey Jnr my youngest daughter said it seemed slower than usual, and me and the eldest exchanged a look and I knew she was thinking the same thing- the little one was not so little anymore and was ready for faster rides. Awww my ickle baby isn't quite so ickle anymore! I made a mental note to talk to her Dad later on about taking her on something a little more speedy another time.

When we came off the story boats, the heat was getting to us a lot. We wanted a drink and to get into the shade a little, our first idea was to get some slush puppies (those of you visiting in hotter weather will be glad to know there are slushies sold at most of the popcorn carts throughout the parks), but then my husband suggested we go to Café Fantasia for a cocktail. And I never turn down cocktails LOL. So we wandered up to the DLH, and upstairs into the cool of the bar. Hubby went and spoke to the Maitre D in Inventions and got us a booking for Thursday evening  - so the kids were super excited for that later on in the holiday. I checked the weather app on my phone at this point and saw it was 27 degrees, no wonder we had been melting outside! I made the kids drink a lot while we were in the bar and we got bottles of water from the shop before heading back into the park after a couple of Fraggle Rock cocktails for me and him (yum!!!).

We went straight to Frontierland after getting back into the park, and had a wander through there – merch spotting what we might want to buy on the way through (Phantom Manor t-shirts that *glow in the dark* people!!! Glow in the dark!!!), BTM seemed to be down again so we headed round to Indiana Jones and found it only had a 5 minute queue. Hubby said he'd take the little one on it as well if she wanted to go on and she said she did, so off those 3 went while I waited in the shade. They were back within about 5 minutes as it had been almost a walk-on, and the CM had let the little one on even though she apparently missed the height restriction by a centimetre. She loved it and wanted to go on again straight away! So off they went again and they were back again in 5 minutes. The big one was excited now because she had a buddy to go on scary rides with instead of having to drag her Dad on all the time! They chatted excitedly together all the way back to the Castle where we went up the stairs and found a spot to watch the parade from as everywhere else we usually stood was already jam packed with half an hour to go before the parade, we'd never seen it like this, not even during Hallowe'en season! We got a great view and stood there and watched the parade from above. I'd recommend trying to do this at some point if you can, you spot things you wouldn't necessarily see by being ride at the front as things come past you, such as how the dancers not on floats are in shape formations all the way around the route and so on. It was nice to spot things like that  which we hadn't really noticed before.

After the parade had gone past the castle stage and was making it's way around the rest of the route, we tazzed our butts round to Peter Pan for our Fastpass slot and jumped on there and went off to Neverland. I love this ride so much. Peter Pan is a big favourite of mine, it's my 'I'm poorly and I want to cheer myself up' film of choice so the ride just makes me happy.

When we got back from Neverland (hehehe!) we went to see Snow White. I'm a huge Snow White fan, it's the first Disney film I remember watching as a kid with my Nan. I also play Roller Derby and my skater name is Snow Bite (I'm a zombie fan, too, so I combined the love!). This ride is super short but I do love it (shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiny pomme?) hahaha, it reminds me a little of the Ghost Train at Blackpool Pleasure Beach with all the UV spooky stuff. And I just love how the 'water' comes out of the statue mouths in the dungeon area, the way the lights move is just like the cartoon and it is detailing like this that just blows my mind in Disneyland.

When we got off this ride the heat seemed to be increasing, and it was so hot that my iphone was telling me it needed to cool down if I wanted to take more photos! I checked the weather app and it was 29 degrees, at almost 7 at night! We were melting and hungry and still tired from the night before, so we decided to head back to the apartment to get a nice cool shower and an early night so we could make the most of the next day. We grabbed blue slushies in the village in looooooooooong novelty cups (blue is the best flavour; blue tiptops, blue WKD, blue smarties....hahaha!) and jumped on the bus back to Serris. When we got off, hubby said he had an idea and would meet us at the hotel and headed into Val d'Europe, so me and the kids went back to the hotel and each had a lovely cool shower and sat on the shady balcony in our PJ's (it's ok, nobody could see us).

When he came back, he had been to Auchan again and had bought 2 small oscillating fans! He plugged one in near our bed, and the other near the girls bunkbeds, and we had lovely cool breezes on us for the rest of our stay (fyi for anyone wondering, it was about 13 euros for 2 fans, well worth it if you're in a hot hotel!). We made some food, played a few games of cards with the kids then all headed to bed for an early night, and I slept like a baby with a cool breeze on me. He's a clever sausage, my fella.

[seraphelle]

Day 3 – Wednesday 31st May 2017

This morning we were awake at a more reasonable time and had all slept really well thankfully, we had some breakfast and the kids were messaging their friends while we made some packed lunches to take with us later on. We checked the weather app and it was going to be another scorcher, so I took the kids to the park across the road from the apartment while hubby popped to the shops to grab some more suntan lotion, as we'd only bought a small travel size one to share and it was almost all gone from the day before. A quick look out the window before we left confirmed to me that the homeless lady was on the bench again, so we made another sandwich and grabbed some of our cold cans of juice out the fridge before we headed out.

When we crossed the road, we walked slowly towards the homeless lady who was sorting through her trolley so as not to startle her. I said 'bonjour' and she turned around and said 'bonjour'. The kids held out the 2 cans of cold juice and the cheese baguette and she beamed at them and said 'merci a vous' (I think? She said it very fast). She took the items from us and the kids smiled at her and we moved away and she waved and said 'merci' again. 'That was brilliant' said my youngest daughter, before they ran off together to the park gate and I found a bench to sit on. It might not have been much, but I'm glad to know she got some food in her belly and a nice cold drink in the heat.

Our apartments had a swimming pool and the kids were driving us mad to go for a swim after playing on the park (it was already around 26 degrees at 10:30am!) so we agreed to have a quick swim before we headed to the parks to cool down a little. The pool in Adagio is open 11am-9pm and we got there bang on 11am. It was delicious slipping into cool water after being outside in the heat, and for the hour we were in there we had the pool to ourselves for most of it as another family came in a bit later on.

At 12 we headed back to the room to shower off and I plaited the kids hair while it was wet so it would hopefully keep them cool for a while before it dried, we put loads of sun cream on and grabbed our hats and lunch and headed to the parks around 1pm. When we got into the park, we saw that Daisy had quite a small queue to meet her. As some of you may remember, the little one is a huge Daisy fan, so we jumped straight into this queue. We didn't have to wait too long and it was our turn, but it was a bit disappointing that there was no proper photographer at this character meet, as we had a PhotoPass, but the CM quickly grabbed my phone and told me to get in there for a photo too, lol! He had been admiring my tattoos (I have a Disney sleeve amongst other things) and he made Daisy look and she pointed to my tattoos, then to herself, then raised her hands as if to say 'and where am I?' I was cracking up and the kids were laughing their heads off. She lifted my other arm (which has some space on) and she pointed to an area and then to herself and gave me a thumbs up. So that's it now, I've had my orders, I need to get a Daisy Duck tattoo, haha! It was a lovely meet and greet, and as we left the CM told us that Donald was down by Casey's for the next hour or so if we wanted to see him too (which we did), so we headed straight there and got into another very reasonable sized queue and had another lovely meet and greet. My youngest had got a tshirt on with Daisy on the front, and he kept hugging her and pointing to it and making hearts with his hands in the air. It was super sweet!

Following our meetings with the Duck family, we scooted down the side of Liberty arcade and through to Frontierland and round to Phantom Manor. It was a fairly short queue again but this didn't stop people trying to push in front. Sigh.
We enjoyed the ride nevertheless, and I love how my kids know all the words to Leota's spell, even in French! Hahaha, probably an indication of how often we go on it when we visit! We mooched about on Boot Hill for a while and then went across Central Plaza to the Castle stage and grabbed a spot for the Princess Waltz show (and another ice cream as it was scorchio again despite being a bit cloudy). It seems CM's had gotten wise to the pushy parents as the rope was already up, or it could be that this was the last show before the parade so they knew that people would probably stick in their spot (as what we were planning to do) to see the parade afterwards. Regardless, we had a prime spot right by the rope, and we sat down and munched our ice creams while we waited the 10 minutes or so for the show to begin.

Again, I don't want to give too many spoilers, but do try and see this if you visit while it is on. It's such a lovely little performance and so nice to see all the princesses – although I would love it if they had included Moana, because Maui said she is a Princess so that's good enough for me hahaha! It was very nice and we enjoyed watching it, plus we had a sweet spot for the parade afterwards, so it was good that we did it that way I think. I ran off to grab drinks after the show and when I got back there were a lot of people in that area so I'm glad we got a space when we did. The kids got a bit miserable sat in the heat waiting for the parade but they sucked it up when I said there was nowhere really undercover where they'd get a view this good, so they agreed they just had to tough it out and stay hydrated.

Once the parade started, all grumpiness was gone and we were loving it. The song is very good and I'm sure it will grow on me as much as Magic Everywhere, the new floats are just phenomenal and the additions of new characters to the parade is very cool and nicely done. One thing I will say is if you're going to view the parade where we did, bear in mind you won't see a great deal of the characters on the far side of the floats, so if you have a Minnie Mouse fan for example, it might be worth trying to view it somewhere else so you can see that side of the floats better if you see what I mean? The Steampunk Maleficent is just stunning, the dude driving that knows he has the coolest job in the whole parade haha!

Once the parade had made it's way past us and was heading to Central Plaza, we went as quickly as we could past the passport bureau and Plaza Gardens to Discovery arcade and headed out of the parks before we got blocked in by roped areas as the parade continued on it's route. We headed straight to King Ludwigs in the village and grabbed a table for some tea (ok ok, for some happy hour beer). This restaurant is so lovely, the food is always ace, the staff are super friendly, the beer is lush and the theming is just amazing. We love eating here and it is a firm family favourite, I heartily recommend the place. I have to confess, I was a bit squiffy by the time we left here, not drunk obviously, but I had a happy head on and a nice fuzziness around my edges, haha! So much so, I stupidly agreed to go on Indiana Jones with the kids later on, eeeeeeeeep!

Following us stuffing our faces we had a little lookie through the shops in the village. There is some lovely stuff for sale at the minute and you could quite easily go bankrupt I reckon if you're partial to a bit of merch! A CM in the lego shop was particularly lovely and took photos of us by the lego Maleficent wall which was cool of him, he was hilarious, lying on his back in the shop to get a shot looking up at us with the dragon behind us, we were in hysterics by the time we left the store (I have commended him to Guest Services).

Sadly, as we headed back towards the parks the kids needed the loo so we popped into the toilets by the sports bar and amusements. There was a cleaner in there sweeping the floor so we waited until she was done and then hustled past as the little one was desperate. I heard her tut at us as we walked through but ignored it. I was done first and went to wash my hands. This same cleaner was now mopping the floor (despite people coming and going and her knowing we had still been in the cubicles), she yelled at a girl in French and the girl left the toilets, then she yelled again and I turned to find she was yelling at me in French. I can't speak a word of French really, I've tried loads of times to learn but I get so far on DuoLingo app and then give up as I just don't have the time to commit to it. So I explained as clearly as possible in broken French, 'no parles francais, je suis anglais' which I thought sort of said I don't speak French, I am English, and hoped that she would stop giving me evils and tutting and yelling. Nope. She carried on yelling and gesturing at me, and a French girl came out of a cubicle to wash her hands and said 'she wants us to leave so she can clean the floor'. I thanked her for translating but explained my kids were still in a cubicle and I couldn't leave without them. She confirmed back to the cleaner for me and she started yelling again and gesturing. The French girl looked at me and rolled her eyes as if to say 'I'm sorry about this' and ended up having an argument with the cleaner. In the meantime, my kids had appeared and I told them to wash their hands so we could go as the cleaner was crackers, as we were making our way out of the toilets she was chuntering to herself still and fiercely mopping the floor again and ended up hitting my foot with the mop itself. I looked up at her and she glared at me. I was gobsmacked. So I tried to look at her name badge because at this point I was losing my temper, and she kept turning away so I couldn't see it! The French girl said 'are you ok?' and I said 'I want to know her name' and the girl looked as she could see from her angle, and said 'her name is Rose' so I got my little notepad out and wrote it down and thanked the girl. 'Rose' looked indignant. What a madam! If you're daft enough to mop toilet floors with a very soggy mop when its busy then you can't get mad when people leave soggy footprints! And you certainly can't bash their feet with the mop! Madness. We got out the loos and told my husband and he was laughing – he thought we were joking! The French girl came out the toilets and said 'I am sorry for that' and we told her it wasn't her fault – I think she was as disgusted as we were. I still can't believe it!

Anyway, after that brief bit of nutcase cleaner drama, we went back into the park and went to Big Thunder Mountain as it was finally working! The queue was 30 minutes but we waited only around 20 minutes. I still love how much more impressive this ride is since the refurb, don't get me wrong, it was brilliant as it was, but the added effects and more zippier speed make it truly awesome. Naturally we got the dodgy photos afterwards added to the photopass!

At this point, with my still not entirely sober head, the kids dragged me round to Indiana Jones...We headed through the entrance with no issues with a queue time of 5 minutes, which in all honesty was around a minute as it was a walk-on. I had to sit right at the front and the CM's were laughing at me because I kept saying I didn't want to do it and I'd changed my mind while we were waiting to go, and then, whoosh! We were off!

I'm sure for adrenaline junkies, or those that like fast or scary rides, or those who are under 5ft tall or over 5ft 5" tall (I am 5ft 2"), this is a lovely and fun rollercoaster. For me, it was like someone was playing Pinball with my head, which essentially just bashed off the inside of the harness repeatedly, despite me trying to keep my head back in the seat. When I left the ride my ears were bright red and I immediately had a headache. That was the first and last time I will ever go on the Indiana Jones ride!

I needed something calm and relaxing after that, so we headed back to Phantom Manor for another spooky visit which was also a walk-on. I felt better once I'd sat without my head being shook for a while haha! There is something special about being on the porch of Phantom Manor during twilight, Frontierland is so beautiful.

Following this, we walked slowly back towards Central Plaza to nab a space for 'Illusions' (although I must have said 'Dreams' a million times). I feel like I've been really negative throughout this report so I'm just going to briefly mention that we had a prime spot twice only for someone really tall to come and stand in front of my kids the first time, and the second time for a tall man with a child on his shoulders to stand in front of the kids the second time. This trip really tested my patience. We finally found somewhere where nobody could come and get in front of the kids and watched the show.

I enjoyed it, the kids enjoyed it, and hubby enjoyed it.
Was it exciting? Yes.
Were the effects as high quality as expected? Yes.
Were there lots of new scenes that were brilliant? Yes.
Did it make us laugh? Yes.

Was it as good as Dreams?
Not a chance.
Sorry. I really just don't think it was a patch on Dreams.
We liked it, but did we make sure we saw it again before we went home?
Nope.
Did we care?Nope.
If it had been Dreams, we'd have tried to see it again before we left, at least once more.

So we were glad to have seen it, but we weren't too bothered about seeing it again. We headed towards the village with the plans of waiting for the bus, but the amount of people swarming to the bus station made us decide to just jump in a cab. You can expect to pay the same in a cab from the taxi rank to Serris as you would in a Black Cab in the UK (uber taxis are cheaper, so try and get the app before you go!), also this is the third time we've had a female driver, so if you're a female who would feel more comfortable with a female driver if travelling alone, this is certainly possible.

When we got back to the apartment we were all exhausted, so no game of Uno tonight, we all just slobbed into our pj's and headed off to bed.

[seraphelle]

Day 4 – Thursday 1st June 2017

We woke up this morning and decided to hit the Studios first, so we had breakfast and got dressed and headed to the parks on a very busy bus from Serris. We tried the annual pass entrance but were told our Dream passes did not permit us access through the special entrance – only Infinity or Magic Plus was permitted – I can't remember who wanted to know this but there you are, I tried for you  (interestingly, we had no problems entering the Disneyland Park in the gates on the right by Salon Mickey).

We got through another entrance and headed straight through to the area just to the right of the entrance for Art of Animation, where there is a door that states the meet and greet for Belle is there. We entered the room and there was already quite a queue, but as we hadn't really had to queue for a long time for anything so far we didn't mind so much. Hubby and I took it in turns to take the kids to draw characters in the corner while the other one stayed in the queue, and hubby even went and got Ratatouille fastpasses for later on in the day for us.

The schedule brochure had stated that Belle was in the location from 11am but we heard a CM telling another family that this was a typo and that she was in fact there from 09:45am, so please do check when you visit what the correct times are. We arrived at 10:45am and it was around 12:30pm when we were at the front of the queue to meet Belle. That is quite a while to wait and longer than a wait in the Pavillion, but Belle has never been there when we have in the past so the kids were very excited to meet her and she was wonderful with them (sadly, a negative, whenever Belle went for a break, some of the crowd of people waiting for her were actually booing – it was pretty disgraceful behaviour). After our meet with Belle we were leaving the building and I heard a CM say to a family that had just joined the queue that it would be at least 3 hours! Yikes! So get there early if you can folks!

After being in a shady building for almost 2 hours it was crazy to walk out into glaring sunshine and what we suspected was close to 30 degree heat. It was like someone shining a torch in your eyes while you walked through a sauna haha! I checked the app for the wait time for Spidey as we were so close and found it was only 20 mins, so I ran round there while the necessary ice lollies were purchased by the others and they caught me up!

You might remember I have a bit of thing for Spiderman (*swoon*). So it was nice to get to see him on this trip as I didn't get chance in February when we visited with my parents. The others caught up to me and we munched our ice lollies in the queue and finished them just in time for our turn. The CM was talking to me about Spiderman and asking me questions about the different versions and what I thought about the film adaptations, he seemed really knowledgeable about Marvel so it was nice to geek out with someone about it all. He told me that Andrew Garfield had visited the parks to open the Spiderman meet a few years back and had held a dinner in the café next door for loads of special needs kids, and how much of a nice guy he was. I knew it!!! What a sweetie!

Anyway, it was my turn, I mean, our turn. So I went first and Spidey gave me hugs and we had some pics and then the others joined in and he hugged everyone, but he held my hand so I wasn't (too) jealous. He was fab. I was a bit of a flutter afterwards hahahahaha!

At this point whilst I was on my Spidey high, I was completely taken advantage of by my family and dragged onto Rock N Rollercoaster as it was only a 10 minute queue time. I love all the theming in the waiting area that we zoomed by, but I couldn't help feeling that the video with Aerosmith was incredibly dated. It just seemed a little bit lacking. Anyway, we went through to the queuing area and were told where to stand, and this time I was at the very back of the ride with my eldest daughter. Just a few seconds later and we turned the corner and waited for our launch.

Now, I had disliked the Indi ride for hurting my head and ears despite me forcing my head back into the seat as much as I could, so I was somewhat prepared for more of the same on this ride. It was worse. Much, much, much worse. The difference between Indi and RnR was that on Indi, I could at least appreciate the theming and that it was over fast. I confess to screaming a bit on Indi but I could sort of understand why the kids loved it.

On RnR? My eyes were squeezed shut, it seemed to last forever, the music coming through the speakers by my head was stupidly loud, and I didn't make a peep. And when we finally got to the 'end' or what I thought was the end and we were just queueing to wait our turn to get off, this was in fact a malfunction and the ride had shut down, and we had to be escorted off by Cast Members and taken out an exit backstage and then directed back through into the park.

So, dear readers, if like me you used to love thrill rides but now aren't too keen on them – don't be swayed by your family and force yourself through the ordeal. They are as horrendous as you think they might be. And if you're around 5ft 2" tall, and you value your ears, either wear something to cushion them or be prepared to have a headache afterwards!
Never again! 

We decided now was a good time to have our lunch as we were feeling pretty peckish and the park seemed to be really busy all of a sudden, and my god was it hot! There were lots of little areas that cooling water mist was being sprayed out from (one by toilets, 2 by ToT that we saw) so we jumped under that as and when we past them! We headed out of the studios and towards Fantasia gardens and sat in a cool shady bandstand on a bench and ate our lunch watching the world go by. It was a gorgeous place to sit and relax for a while, and there was a little stream that ran there too so the kids were racing little twigs in the water from one side of the bandstand to the other. I know it sounds silly but even though it wasn't a fancy ride or a character meet or even a moment in the parks, this is one of my favourite memories from this trip. Just sitting in the bandstand in the shade having our picnic lunch, listening to the fountains and stream, watching the kids running from one side to the other with an insanely blue sky background. Just lush.

Soon it was time for us to head to Ratatouille for our fastpass slot so off we went back into the studios and through to the ratatouille area. I just love the theming of this whole area, it's so lovely, like it's own little village! We walked straight into the fastpass line and waited around 5 minutes before being sat on a rat (which I'm super glad of as the regular queue was around 60 mins). I think this ride is amazing and just wish it didn't make me feel quesy with the motion sickness lol, it seemed to have been vamped up a little as we got more than a few drops on one particular part (I won't spoil it!). It was a lot of fun.

We needed a 'livener' at this point, as my Dad would say, as we were full from lunch and the combination of that with the heat was making us a bit knackered and grouchy, so we popped into DLH before going back into the Disney park for a quick drink in Fantasia. The kids had a milkshake and a cocktail, hubby had a beer and I had a mojito.

Yum! We felt nice and refreshed and headed back into the park and straight to Phantom Manor to be foolish mortals again, which was a 5 minute queue time. A lovely stroll after that round to Adventureland and we wandered through the Aladdin passage looking at the models (gahhhhhhhh tiny things I want to look in the tiny windows sooooooooooo much!!!). The kids made their wishes with a couple of 1 cent coins they had thrown in the little fountain and we wandered around to Fantasyland and rode on Casey Jnr and the boats (again, very small queues).
We then had a slow meander around to IASW which was a walk-on, and following this we wandered the new secret way around to Discoveryland (how long has this been the norm? You haven't been able to do this on any of my other trips!). It felt so naughty walking through the colourful gates next to IASW but then you follow the path round to the right rather than to the left where the parade floats appear from. The path then brings you out between Star Tours and down the side of the building in Discoveryland that has the Jedi training in, so it is a little bit quicker than taking the usual route round past the castle stage. I wonder if they'll keep this open all the time now?

We carried on walking slowly up to Central Plaza and along Main Street paying attention to the little decorations we hadn't noticed before (tiny Tinkerbelle on streetlamps), and had a look in a couple of shops we hadn't been in yet. It was around 7:45pm at this point and still crazily warm, and we had a reservation at Inventions at 8:30pm, so when we were done we just headed to DLH to wait for our slot for dinner (and yes, squeeze in another cocktail).

Soon we were sat in a lovely little room to the right of the main dining area where the buffet was, and needless to say we stuffed our faces with all the yummy food. I'm pretty sure I ate my own weight in seafood before I even moved on to the mains (I like a full tummy LOL), and we saw the following characters: Mickey, Gepetto, Goofy, Pinocchio, and Minnie. We had an amazing evening.

What I will say, is if you have a child that is very recently 12, and they ask how old the child is, you may want to consider what age you give in response, as 12 years olds are charged at the adult rate. As this is a very pricey restaurant anyway, and although I don't necessarily condone fibbing to save a few quid, I know this decision could make or break a choice to dine here, so I just wanted people to be aware and be able to make an informed decision.

If anyone wants to jump on me for saying this and that 'rules are rules' – I spent almost £2000 in the parks, shops, resort restaurants and hotel bars over the 6 days we were there and do so every time we visit which is multiple times a year. I have no guilt on saving a few quid where I deem it acceptable, so please don't waste your time. 

It was around 10:30pm when we left Inventions, and we were that tired we couldn't wait for Illusions at 11 so just headed straight back to the hotel for bedtime and zonked out.

[seraphelle]

Day 5 – Friday 2nd June 2017

Today was going to be a hard day for me, as back in England a dear friend of mine was being laid to rest after losing a terrible battle with cancer which had lasted a good 10 years. I had been threatened by her husband under no circumstances was I to cancel our trip or ruin it for the kids by being snivelly and down all day, so I put my brave face on and resolved to have as good a day as possible.

Firstly, we went swimming in the hotel pool as soon as it opened at 11. It got busy pretty quickly and I started to feel my anxiety niggling at me in the back of my mind, so I told the kids I was going to get snacks ready to take with us so we didn't lose any park time and they could stay in the pool with their Dad for another half hour or so, and off I went to the room and chilled out for half an hour in the quiet to get my head together before speed-making snacks for later on. They came back shortly after and washed their hair and we headed out to the Village.

We went straight to Rainforest Café for lunch and stuffed our faces in a restaurant we just love, and then made our way to the Studios. It was getting very grey at this point and thunder storms were forecast, but they'd been forecasted for a couple of days and there had been nothing but stifling heat, so I was dubious as to whether they'd appear or not.

We got into the Studios and found a space right at the front for the First Order march, as we hadn't had chance to see this as yet and hubby was turning inside out to watch it. There were a couple of drops of rain felt while we sat there, but it was still warm and bright although lots of clouds, so we stuck where we were and watched the march and stage performance, then the subsequent show of 'Star Wars: A Galaxy Far Far Away'. We really enjoyed this (big fans) but I admit it made me a bit emotional with all the scenes of Leia and thoughts of what was going on back at home.

As soon as this had finished we rushed across to the Animagique theatre to catch Mickey and the Magician and OMG we LOVED it. This show is amazing, if you just think 'oh its just going to be a basic show' then you're wrong, please try and see it when you visit. It is very good indeed and was one of the unexpected highlights of the trip. I won't give spoilers, but if like me you get shivers down your spine and a few goosebumps when you hear your favourite Disney songs then this is a show for you without a doubt. It's clever and it's quirky and very entertaining. You won't regret it. And try and sit either in the front section, or in the first couple of rows from where the second section starts.

When we left the theatre, the Incredibles were searching for future super heroes which seemed a lot of fun if you have smaller kids, so if you have kids younger than 8 this is worth catching too I'd say.

We headed across to the Disneyland park at this point, and the app told me the waiting time for the Darth Vader Meet n Greet was just 10 minutes, so we made a beeline for that. This meet was hilarious. The CM's who work this are ace, and wish you good luck as they let you through to the chamber where you wait for Lord Vader. The photographer does not smile, she does not speak to you, and after every photo she bows her head and says 'Thank you, Lord Vader'. Vader himself is HUGE. I know I'm short, but my husband is 5ft 10 and he towered over him too, he had to be around 6ft 5 at least! And he points and beckons and sort of strides towards you backing you into a corner while you cower under him. I couldn't stop laughing and the kids were worryingly telling me to shush thinking he was going to use the force on me or something! I said thank you at the end and he marched towards me and I squeaked and ran out. So he is quite a formidable figure!

After this it would have been silly not to do Star Tours, so on we went as the queue was only 15 mins.



***Spoilers below***Look away now if you don't want to know!!!***






Pilot again was C3P0.
On this journey, at the beginning Darth Vader appeared in the hangerand  tried to stop our ship with the force, and we were thrown about a bit, then we hyperjumped and entered a dog fight and saw a battle between XWings, Tie Fighters and the Millenium Falcon and a large cruiser (whilst dodging them frantically), then another jump and a different crash into water but still ending up in Gungan area (but no Jaja this time), then out of the water and flight through a forest (Endor perhaps?) avoiding trees and ending up sliding into a hangar awkwardly with the droid crash at the end.
It seems there are different sections of possible films and they are randomly linked together to create various journeys, and although I feel pretty queasy after I do think this is massively improved on the old Star Tours.

We did some shopping for presents after this and took some piccies, and then decided to go and have some cocktails. We'd been telling the girls about the trip we had without them where we tried to do a Hotel Bar Crawl on my birthday and they were giggling and wanted to try it. So first we went to Café Fantasia and had a cocktail each (non-alcoholic for the kids don't worry) – they were offering a special cocktail called 'Starlight' with a star shaped glow cube in so I raised a toast to my friend and I have a lovely little memento to keep.

[Just to clarify – this wasn't a 'lets get drunk' crawl, it was just to show the girls the different hotels and the theming, as even the cocktail menus are different.]  

After Café Fantasia we headed allllllllll the way around the Lake to Newport Bay and up to the Captains Quarters Bar, and hubby and I had a Black Pearl while the girls had milkshakes (they love the Vanilla Milkshakes). I do love this bar, the dark wood and old leather and nautical theme is just up my street.
We had a look in the hotel boutique too and the girls were surprised at some of the different things available in the shop that they hadn't seen in the park before. I do want to stay in this hotel at some point but I can imagine at the end of a Disney day my feet might cry at having to walk all the way around the Lake to get back there! Haha!

After the Captain's Quarters we headed to Sequoia and for the first time ever managed to sit on the sofa in front of the big fireplace – it was lovely. We ordered some drinks and sat and chatted.

At this point my husband was wondering aloud if his University results would be available when we got back to England. I don't know how many of you know this, but my husband has been on a degree programme for 4 years studying History. He began in 2013 on a Foundation Year to bring his basic skills up to scratch as he had very little in the way of official qualifications from school, and continued onto the BA (Hons) degree in 2014. He had always been told he was 'thick' and 'not cut out' for academic study as he couldn't read or write particularly well – but I work at a University and have 2 degrees myself, so I knew for a fact he was capable of it.
Anyway, it transpired within 3 weeks of beginning and handing in his first essay, a wonderful Lecturer put him forward for a dyslexia assessment as she believed he was dyslexic, and lo and behold, he was found to have severe dyslexia and dyscalculia! He was given extra help to assist him and submitted every piece of work set for him and sat every exam, and he hasn't failed a single thing. I'm so proud of him it's untrue. He may not have gotten the grades that he hoped to in some cases, but honestly, he's tried his damnedest and that's all that matters.

Sooo...back to Sequoia Lodge bar and us chatting and sitting on the sofa in front of the fireplace. He decides to pop to the toilet while we're waiting for our drinks to arrive and I quickly grab my phone and log in to the University staff system on it (I know, bit naughty), and yes, I can see his final results, but they haven't yet been released to students. He has been awarded a final classification of a 2:2, only narrowly missing the margin to get a 2:1. I squeaked and showed the children and they both started getting teary-eyed, he'd thought at best he might scrape through with just a 3rd class degree, but he'd almost gotten a 2:1.
The waiter brought over our drinks and asked if we were alright as we all had tears in our eyes and I explained quickly and he was very happy for us.

When hubby came back I raised my glass for a toast (we do this a lot to daft stuff, 'cheers everyone, may your farts smell like roses' and things like that, very mature we are  ), everyone raised their glass and the waiter came over and hovered nearby, and I said 'To Roberto, an official graduate with an honours degree in History' and his face was amazing!!! The waiter leaned over and said 'Congratulations Monsieur!' and shook his hand. Hubby's eyes were all watery too afterwards! I said 'There you are, you will remember that you found out you'd passed your degree in our favourite hotel in Disneyland Paris', and I'm ashamed to say, dear readers. that he snogged my face off for a minute or so and the kids were very embarrassed!!! Hahaha!

He chatted rapidly about what he would do next and was on cloud 9. We finished our drinks and headed out and the waiter waved to us. We decided our throbby feet couldn't handle the wander down to Santa Fe and Cheyenne to visit their bars – which was a shame because I really want to go to the Cheyenne one in particular so it's on my list to do next time. Instead we went straight to Hotel New York and were seated in a cosy corner by the lovely waiter who was chatting with my daughters for ages about all the cool things they'd seen on their trip. I wish I had managed to catch his name because he really went above and beyond. Hubby and I had Big Apple cocktails and then a further cocktail with champagne in to celebrate his results. He was still beaming like an idiot and just kept saying 'I can't believe it'...'I just can't believe it'. It was lovely.

We headed back to the hotel on the bus afterwards and had a game of cards with the kids before bedtime. It was a lovely day.

Day 6 – Saturday 3rd June 2017

I got up before everyone else and quickly packed everything – we had a fast breakfast and piled everything up on the table that we were leaving behind (the little fans, some unopened packets of crisps, etc) – we'd not been there long enough for the cleaners to visit our room (stays of 7 days + at Adagio means you get cleaners visit) but I'd rather they went to someone than got wasted or thrown away.

We headed to the parks and dropped our bags at guest services, hubby headed off to get us BTM fastpasses and the kids and I grabbed some Mickey Head cookies and meringues and went straight to Buzz Lightyear and waited for him to meet us there. The queue for Buzz was only 10 minutes so when he arrived we jumped straight on it. After this we did some shopping and I really had to reign the kids in because I knew we had limited space left in our hand luggage bags, but I managed to get my pack of new vintage posters that they've released so I was happy.

Soon it was time for our BTM fastpass so we wandered around to Frontierland and joined the FP queue. I was stopped by a French lady in the queue who asked if my shirt was from the parks (I had a pink Cheshire Cat vest on) and I said it was from the UK and she was disappointed. In all honesty I think it might be a pajama top from Asda but it's too cool not to wear in Disneyland haha! Anyway, we were in the train within 7 or 8 minutes, and enjoyed our ride immensely.

After this, we wanted to calm down a little so we headed to the Frontierland station for the Disneyland Railroad and it was nice to sit in the shade and wait for the train for 20 mins or so. When the train came we did the full circuit and got back off in Frontierland and decided to try and find somewhere to eat.
I wanted it to be a bit fancy to continue our celebrations of hubbys results, so I sent him off to Agrabah Café to see if they had any times free with the instruction he should phone me when he was almost there, and I headed to Silver Spur Steakhouse on a wing and a prayer! 
The Maitre D said if I could wait he would seat us, so I hung on and text hubby to come find me which he did after a few minutes looking very confused but impressed with the restaurant. After 10 mins or so we were beckoned to a table and given menus. Our waiter was excellent and really interacted well with the children, we placed our orders and waited.

We have always avoided the 'Steak' or 'BBQ' restaurants because myself and the eldest of our girls are vegetarian, but honestly, I feel like a fool now for having done so because the restaurant is amazing and the food was phenomenal. My husband had a fancy steak, my eldest some Italian tomato pasta dish BUT the thing I loved is that they gave her the food on a Mickey head plate, and the pasta was plain, with the sauce and cheese in separate bowls on Mickeys ears. This was a big win with my daughter who is often given tomato pasta dishes swimming in sauce which she's not all that keen on, so she was able to mix the amount of sauce she wanted into the past and put the amount of cheese she wanted on the top. Brilliant.
I had Salmon which was so delicious it makes my mouth water just thinking about it. And my youngest daughter had a beefburger. Warning to parents – the burgers will come medium so there will be pink in them. I hadn't thought about this and managed convince the little one that's just how the meat looked after it had been cooked on their special grill (by the way, the kitchen is viewable from the restaurant – which is a lovely touch). She ate it all up and said it was delicious!
We really enjoyed our meal and will definitely go back there, without a doubt.

Following this we had a very quick last go on Phantom Manor – then headed to Guest Services to collect our bags, and into the DLH foyer to wait for our Taxi to CDG airport.

The taxi driver arrived a little early and walked into the hotel with my name on a screen, and we waved at him and were soon on our way with another Disney film on in the in-car dvd player.
Check in and security went quickly and we headed to our gate. The kids were playing on the free videogames available in that part of the airport while I did some very important macaron shopping at the Laduree stand (they're so expensive but sooooooooooo delicious). The macaron thing is a bit of a tradition for us as I always buy some for our friend who house sits for us while we're away, and I usually get some for my mother in law who also loves them, and I get a little box for me and hubby as it takes the edge of the Disney blues when we have our bedtime cup of tea on our first night back at home. I'd highly recommend it!

Soon we were on the plane, and then back in the UK and heading home during an amazing sunset. We'd had a lovely trip (aside from a few blips) but my God was it nice to get in bed and fuss my doggies.

Thanks for reading 

I will pop photos on as soon as photobucket co-operates!

[elisje]

Thank you for your wonderful trip report I really enjoyed reading it.
It sounds you had a wonderful trip.

Indi hurts me too. I try it every trip and regret it a soon as I get off promising myself I well never go on it again. But I always forget how much it hurts when I am there on my next trip. Don't have any problems with rock and roller coaster though.

[seraphelle]

Thank you 

[claire2281]

Thank you for your wonderful trip report I really enjoyed reading it.
It sounds you had a wonderful trip.

Indi hurts me too. I try it every trip and regret it a soon as I get off promising myself I well never go on it again. But I always forget how much it hurts when I am there on my next trip. Don't have any problems with rock and roller coaster though.

IJ never hurts me and I'm 5'3" but does hurt my slightly taller friend.I think it's more to do with body proportions as when we sit down my upper body is actually longer than hers (she's more legs!  ). Similarly, SM used to bash her ears in much more than it did me!

Anyway, great trip report. Thanks!

[bp_serene]

Amazing trip report, thank you so much for sharing!

[NCC1701Q]

Loved reading your trip report, makes waiting till July 21st a bit easier (that's when we leave for DLP again).

[seraphelle]

Thank you guys - I do enjoy writing them as it's a good way to remember all the things you might otherwise forget or jumble up xx

[DisneyFan43]

What a great report! Will come in handy for my trip on 24 July.  Also we have booked our transfer with Prestige Transfers, what terminal did you fly into at CDG? I always try to find out where they stand to meet you at the airport. We fly into terminal 3 with jet 2 ☺

[tubbsy]

Congratulations to your DH!
Thoroughly enjoyed reading your report

[Cherrymoon]

Loved reading this, thank you for sharing your wonderful experience!

[seraphelle]

Thank you 

We fly into 2E usually - but when you collect your baggage and go through arrivals and exit out your driver should be waiting there for you I would have thought as they ask for your flight number when booking so they should know where to collect you from. Xx

[Lavi]

Great trip report as always!
Congratulations to your hubby!