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[pjulie75]

We are going on Monday and my twin girls who are 4 nearly 5 want to go on Crush, would you recommend?  I have heard a lot of people so it is a bit scary for their age.  Did she go in Phantom Manor?

[princessmummy]

She didn't like Phantom Manor (didn't even get on the ride - she took one look at the inside and insisted on leaving) but then she's scared of anything spooky.

She LOVED Crush's Coaster - she would have done it over and over if not for the queues and the breaking-down.  It made me scream a bit though (you go whizzing round and round in the dark and it feels like you're falling alot).  Whether or not it's suitable for your girls will depend on (1) if they're over 1.07 metres as they do enforce the height restriction and (2) whether or not they're thrill seekers or more into tame rides, as it is really quite swirly and a bit scary.  Bear in mind as well that the turtle shells seat four but they are two seats side-by-side, back-to-back so if you're not taking another adult then your little girls will either have to sit together with no adult next to them or one will have to essentially ride alone as you can't see the people on the shell who you're back-to-back with.  If you're taking another adult, no problem as you can have one adult sitting next to each child.

Hope that helps.

Siobhan

[Nala_84]

Sorry, I didn't read the whole report, but I just wanted to say that the picture of your daughter and Minnie is so sweet! She looks so happy and excited on the photo, that's surely a great moment for parents !

[princessmummy]

Day 4 – Thursday 13th March 2008 (the final day)

We got up nice and early and checked out at 8:30am – a great time to check out as there was no scrum and it only took 2 minutes.  We dropped our bags at the luggage room to be taken to the Disney Express desk at the station and headed off to the park.

We did Buzz Lightyear again (obviously, as my daughter was obsessed) and the Orbitron as I figured during the Extra Magic Hours was the last chance she'd get given the length of the queue during the day.  Then we decided to go back to the Studios for opening time to see if we could catch Crush's Coaster again.  We got there 10 minutes before opening and joined the pre-queue line (the actual queue line not opening until 10am).  At 10am they opened the queue line we all started to move forward and 2 minutes later we were stopped and turned away because, surprise surprise, Crush had broken down again.

What is it with that ride?  From my experience it breaks down twice a day – why don't they just close it for a couple of weeks and fix the flaming thing!?!

Anyway, I'd fancied doing Tower of Terror as I missed it the previous day but even with a Fastpass it would be a while before I could get on and, given that there was less at the Studios to interest Josephine (and it was her holiday, after all), I didn't think it was fair to make her wait.  So we headed back to the park to make the most of our last day.

We went straight to Frontierland as she had been nagging me to do Big Thunder Mountain with her again for two days so we got Fastpasses for later and then joined the short queue line for an immediate ride.  While we were doing that, Chris went off and got me a Fastpass on his ticket for Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril.  As soon as we finished on Big Thunder Mountain, we went round again courtesy of our Fastpass.  Just did it in time too because as we rallied down the Fastpass lane, the staff decided the main queue was too long and opened up a section of the ordinary queue to allow it to use the Fastpass lane.  If we'd been 30 seconds later our 1  minute queue would have been at least 10 minutes.

Having done BTM for the 2nd time, Josephine decided she'd had enough of that so we headed over to Discoveryland where I used my Fastpass for Indiana Jones.  Wasn't much point to that – the main queue was only 5 minutes long and the Fastpass entrance took me to the end of the short, existing queue.  The ride was ok but ludicrously short (maybe 30 seconds – you spent more time getting in and out than on the ride) – now I know why nobody could be bothered to queue for it.

Then we took Josephine for an early lunch at Casey's Corner before heading off to Fantasyland (stopping by Buzz first to get some FPs).  We got a quick photo opportunity with Cinderella's mice:





Everything that afternoon was dictated by Josephine so we headed for It's a Small World (the dolly boats, as she calls them) where she took loads of pictures.  Then we ran back to Buzz, rode, and got another set of FPs.  Back to Fantasyland where we did the tea cups three times in succession as the queue was short (they were her 3rd favourite ride – we did them about 7 times in total).  We also did the Carousel again (although it was far too painful on my ankle to mount and dismount so when she decided to go round again, I lurked in a shop instead while Chris went on with her).  Then it was back to Buzz again (for the final time) and on the dolly boats again.

After that it was ice cream and the Parade:



We then ran back to Fantasyland to try and do Dumbo while most of the crowds were hopefully still back at the parade.  The queue was shorter than normal but still took at least 30 minutes.  We didn't mind though as it was raining again and the queue was under cover.  Eventually we got onto Dumbo and had a very pleasant flight being rained on at high speed – nice.

Then we had one final go on the dolly boats and the tea cups and it was time to go!  So we had one final picture of Josephine at Disney:



Before heading to the station for Eurostar home (stopping along the way to buy a giant Minnie Mouse balloon as promised since the day we arrived).

I won't go into much detail about that (I think some of it got mentioned in my rant on day 1) except that check-in opened 15 minutes later than we'd been advised so there were a lot of narked passengers blocking up the station, all the toilets on the train were blocked and wouldn't flush (lovely with a 4 year old who can't hold it), we were separated from each other, and Josephine had a paddy because she couldn't sit with her daddy (although production of a large, cuddly surprise Stitch helped ease that a little).

We got into Ashford at 8:40pm, but it took nearly an hour to clear the station (can you believe the parking machines didn't take credit cards – who carries £46 in cash on them to pay for parking?).  We drove home marvelling at Operation Stack blocking up the motorway (I've never seen 6 miles of lorries just parked on a motorway before) and arrived at 1am.

Then we went to bed and the next day I headed to casualty to get the ankle checked out.

So, what did we think to Disneyland Paris?

The hotel – Newport Bay Club – from our experience, it doesn't deserve the criticism I've seen about it on various reviews, but we did only use one room in the whole hotel so maybe we just got lucky.  Our room was nice with a lovely view and the staff were very polite and helpful.  However, breakfast is impossible unless you want to waste half a day queuing so take some snacks and plan for an early lunch each day.  The pool area was nice, the changing rooms clean, but the water was far too cold.

The restaurants – expensive!  I'm not naïve and expected it to be pricey, but the cost was ludicrous (70 euros for 2 adults and a child having a single course and drinks at Café Mickey - 30 euros for 2 adults and a child to have a take-away hotdog from Casey's Corner).  I understand Disney have a captive audience there and I appreciate them wanting to make a good profit but given the sheer quantity of visitors they get, they could make an excellent profit without being quite such a rip-off.  Wasn't at all impressed.

The rides – here are the highs and lows (according to my 4 year old):

Best rides/attractions

1 (bestest).   Buzz Lightyear's Laser Blast (she rode that 8 times)
2.      Crush's Coaster (rode only once - shame it hardly ever works)
3.      Mad Hatter's tea cups (rode 7 times)
4.      Big Thunder Mountain (rode 4 times)
5.      It's a Small World (rode 5 times)
6.      Orbitron
7.      Dumbo
8.      Lancelot's Carousel
9.      Cars
10.      Animagique


Worst rides/attractions (again, according to my 4 year old)

1 (worstest).   Phantom Manor
2.      Honey, I Shrunk the Kids
3.                The dragon under Sleeping Beauty's Castle (which I thought was
                          great)
4.      Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs
5.      Pinocchio


We're hoping to go back in 4 years so our youngest can get the same opportunity as Josephine but I don't know if the budget will stretch to it.  If we do go, I hope that time I get to do the things I missed this time, namely Tower of Terror and Space Mountain (and I'd also really like to do Crush's Coaster again if they've managed to fix it by then).

And, for those of you with tired eyes, you'll be pleased to hear that's the end of my very long and waffling trip report (the down side from being able to type fast – you're not very economical with your words).

Bye for now!  :nemo:

[toonarmylass]

i fully enjoyed that whole report thankyou for it.

[The Butlin Boy]

Fantastic report, thank you for sharing it, I really enjoyed reading it   =D>

[Riebi]

What a wonderful trip report! I enjoyed it soooo much! Thank you for sharing!  

I also haven´t ever complains about NPBC. Nice that I´m not the only one  :lol:

[Reiana]

I love the picture from your DD in bed. She looks exhausted, but very happy.  

[Soap]

Thanks for sharing, great read and lovely pictures!!!  

[Nala_84]

Thank you for sharing this great report (now I fully read at least the last part of it ) and the great & lovely pictures !

[TowMater]

Sounds you had a good time. (Apart from the incident at Honey! I Shrunk The Audience)

I could see in my head the look on your daughter's face when she saw Stitch.

[MinniesBestPal]

We did the rainforest cafe! I can't decide wether I liked it not!

Its great when they have thunder storms and everything, but we got a table right in the corner next to two huge gorrillas and they started making ridiculous monkey squealing every 5 minutes. I jumped out my skin every time they did, even though I could see it coming!

It was good though! The food was nice, even though it was mainly hotdogs and chicken nuggets! It was a good night out!