Our trip to DLP March 15 – March 18 2010
I was planning on taking my husband for a trip to dlp since it would be his 40th birthday and our 10th wedding anniversary to celebrate. So I managed to organise someone to take care of our dairycows and also found good places for our four small kids to stay, as we needed some time just for the two of us. We will take the kids when they are a bit older, but now, with three of them still wearing diapers, it would be just too much and way too stressful...
Day 1 – Monday, March 15:
My brother came to pick us up and take us to the airport at 5 am. I didn't sleep well at all that night, not primarily out of excitement, but more out of sorrow over what would happen to our children if we wouldn't come back for some reason from this trip... Well, I am just not used to traveling anymore, and not at all used to leave the kids and the farm for four loooong days ;-) !
We landed in Paris shortly after nine, picked up our suitcase and made our way to the trainstation as I had booked the TGV for the first time to take us to DLP. Everything went well and at 10.39 am we arrived in Marne-la-Vallée!
My husband still didn't know we were staying at the Disneyland Hotel, so I used some tricks to make him follow me through Fantasia Gardens and into the lobby of the hotel. Wow, what an amazing hotel! The lobby, the smell, the CMs! I was truly impressed by the beauty of it, especially the lobby is wonderful!
We checked in and left our luggage and that's when my husband realised that we were not staying at the Sequioa but here (it was my birthday surprise for him), and he got all excited about it!
We then left for the park and at 11 am we passed the turnstyles – earlier than ever before on a first-day-of-the-trip, thanks to TGV and the wonderful location of the hotel! ?
The weather was wonderful, sun shining, a bit cloudy at times and on our first day a bit windy, too, which made it feel rather cold.
We wandered down Main Street and were hungry since we didn't have anything to eat all morning. We stopped at Casey's for a hotdog which is a tradition in our family: first thing to do when you arrive! But – wow – stiff prices for food here (and for everything else, as it turned out)! But I expected it to be that way, so I was prepared.
While standing in line, we saw some Characters on Main Street Vehicles pass by to the oh so familiar tune ,,Dancin' a catchy rhythm" – great to hear that song again!
After the hotdogs we could hardly make up our minds on where to go first. We headed to Discoveryland and started out with a go on Buzz. Can't remember our scores, but throughout the whole trip we never managed to accomplish some real good results – but anyway, we had fun and that's all that counts ? !
I must admit that I can't remember exactly what we did and in which order, and since I didn't take any pictures on our first day, I don't even have these to help me remember. We just strolled through the park, not in hurry to do this and do that but rather just plainly enjoying to be there; soaking up the atmosphere, listening to the familiar tunes and background music, watching people and children (I thought it had many families with pre-school children there this time; at some places there seemed to be a real stroller-invasion ? ).
From Discoveryland we moved over to Fantasyland and did IASW and then on to Adventureland (gosh, I really, really, really missed POTC! ? ) and then into Frontierland, where we went on BTM (with our extra Fastpasses from the Disneylandhotel ? ) and on Phantom Manor before we went back to the hotel at 3 pm to check into our room.
The room was wonderful; lots of space, a balcony and a huge bed! It went out over Fantasia Gardens, you could see the castle and Disney Village. It was located on the right hand side when leaving the park on the far right, in the round corner after passing the passerelle on third floor. We were at the turnstyles in less than a minute!
We lay down and relaxed for an hour. They brought our suitcase to our room, we changed into something a bit warmer and off we went for a couple rides on the coasters. Since the hotel was so close, we didn't need a bag or anything, so it was perfect!
We first went on BTM, then on Indiana Jones (I think 2 or 3 times in a row, since it was a walk on) and then over to Space Mountain. The first time we were seated in the first row and it was cool! We went on it again and this time we had the very last row, and you could really feel the difference: up front you got much more from the special effects and in the back more airtime.
We then started heading back towards Main Street and the exit, while taking a first look around all the souvenir shops (which is a crazy thing to do at this time of day, I know! ;-) ). But since we didn't have to do any souvenir shopping yet, it was quite funny!
At closing time, we went back to our room to relax a while, hoping that most of the people would have left the Village before we were going to get some dinner.
At 8.30 pm we made our way to the Village and got in line at Annette's. We didn't have to wait long (about 10 minutes), but the more we moved up front, the more sick I felt. And when it was our turn to be seated, we unfortunately had to leave since I felt really sick. We ran to McDonald's quick, since my husband was hungry and then back to our room. I don't know wether it was because I hadn't eaten enough that day or maybe from the temps changes when going in and out (I have a low blood pressure) or from something else. I was slowly starting to feel a bit better and so we went to bed for a good nights rest.
Since I didn't take any pictures on the first day (I don't like spending my holidays watching through a lense the whole time), I thought I'll post the pictures of our room and some of the hotel now at this point, although they had been taken over our whole stay.
Our room:
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Fantasia Bar:
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Lobby:
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There was a fire in the chimney!
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The view from our room:
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And at night:
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Our room:
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I hope you enjoyed reading so far and it will be continued, although I can't tell you when exactly.
Great start to the report although also the pictures don't seem to be showing?
Anyway can't wait to read the rest of it:D!
Quote from: "15MagicalYears"Great start to the report although also the pictures don't seem to be showing?
Anyway can't wait to read the rest of it:D!
I don't see the pictures either.
Great trip report, very detailed. But I can't see the pictures, too.
now, that's funny, as I can see them!?
well, there must be something with the site I've uploaded them. I'll try to sort things out, but it may take a while, I'm sorry!
hi
loosk like it is caused by the wrong links being used, you will ned to use something ending in a file type for exampble .gif .jpg etc
wow disnelyland hotel!!! Cant wait to hear the rest.
(i too cant see the photos)
now I hope it's working!
I can see them now! What lovely pictures, the Disneyland hotel looks stunning and the view from your room looked great.
I'm really excited to read the rest of your report:).
So how did you trick your husband into going in the DLH?
Great report so far, it's made me want to go back again real bad! And great pictures, what a beautiful room you had!! Great view from it as well!!
Looking forward to more :D
loving your report so far - i agree with you the hotel was amazing
Wow! Love the report and photos :D
wow fantastic photos the hotel looks gorgeous!!!!! Lucky you and your husband
thank you for your comments so far!
n2o:
I told him about a new check-in possibility for guests arriving by train located in the DLH, that's how he didn't get suspicious when I checked in at the reception. (he doesn't kno any English or French). Only when the man from the luggage said he would take our suitcase to our room and made a huge gesture towards the big stairs, my husband realised what was going on. :D :mrgreen:
I hope I'll get to work on day two today.
That sounds like an awesome trip!
Thank you for sharing the photos too!
Second Day – Tuesday
We slept in until about 6.45 am and got ready for breakfast, which opened at 7.30. Since I could spend hours at breakfast with no kids to take care of, I would have liked it if it started at 7, but it was okay like this, too. We were 5 minutes early and so I took some pictures of the room in front of the restaurants and the bar. We were among the first people to be seated and had a table at the window going out on Mainstreet Station and the Mainstreet behind it, right across from the buffet. And I tell you, breakfast was out of this world! They had all you could dream of and prepared in such a nice and perfect way, with lots of love for the details. We enjoyed this wonderful meal with a wonderful view! Today was my husband's birthday, by the way.
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At about 8.15, we left and headed to the park for Extra Magic Hours. We did Peter Pan, Buzz and Space Mountain and just strolled around to take pictures, since it was almost totally empty.
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At 9.15 we decided to go back to our room quick (since it was on our way) and then to the Studios, as we wanted to beat the crowds for Crush – well, it didn't quite turn out that way as you'll see:
We were at the gates at 9.30, and queues have already started to build. There was a nice, proper queue behind every turnstyle; about 20 people in each line. We decided to queue on the far right, what turned out to be wrong. The park did not open its doors until 10 am. The queues had grown really long until then, but still more or less organised, even without any fences. When the park opened, all uf a sudden there came at least 70 people passing us on the right and pushing in right at the turnstyle! It took ages for us to finally enter the park and I was so angry, I tell you!
Once inside, we passed Studio 1 and when we came out, the line for Crush was only 20 meters away from the doors of Studio 1, no fences or CMs or anything who would organise or watch the scene.
Well, we got in line, but I could hardly believe it, always people coming and pushing or sneeking in further up front and nobody supervising!
We made some progress slowly, and while coming a little closer, we saw that the shells were still going around empty, and it was 10.20 at least by this time. I don't know if they had some problems or what the reason was. We talked about leaving the line and enjoy some other attractions before the crowd start to build up, but then we didn't. We got to ride Crush shortly before 11, and it was a great ride as always! I just love this Coaster and so did my husband, since it was the first time for him. The queueing time of 1.5 hours alltogether first thing in the morning is just hilarious. But as dicussed many times before, what could you do about it (except a single rider line)?
To be continued... :-)
Your trip sounds great so far and the photos are lovely too!
Great Trip Report so far!!
Sounds like you had a good time :)
Can't wait to read more!!
Loving your report-Foood obsessed that I am-Wow! Look at that breakfast! :D
Lovely report!!!
I also missed PotC on my trip, I'm going to ride it twice as often on my next trip :P
Day 2 part 2:
After our ride on Crush's we skipped ToT and went straight to RnRC. We didn't have to wait long to ride it and it was very exciting, especially the start, as always. I thought the ride was very bumpy though, I reminded it to be much smoother.
We went on it again and afterwards, I wanted to check out the new interior of the Backlot Express. Well, the salad was good, but the surrounding.... I don't know. We sat down in the Pirate's section, but it didn't really thrill us. So we had a quick bite to eat and left.
We then went on ToT for the first time for both and it was fantastic! The themeing, the building, the CMs, the atmosphere and the ride itself are brilliant! And I love the souvenir shop and ToT souvenirs! I bought a bell for my brother as a souvenir.
I wanted to see Animagique then, since we haven`t seen this before and we really liked it! The effects look great and it must be very difficult to act in the dark and in a costume like Donald's or Mickey's.
We then left the WDS and went to our room for a short nap before we went back to Disneyland Park and enjoyed all the different rides and lands.
We ended up in Frontierland where we wanted to have a bite to eat, since I booked Café Mickey's for 8.45 pm, and it was still a couple hours to go. Although closing time was over an hour away, all the restaurants in Frontierland were already closed! There was a sign next to the door of the Cowboy Cookout saying it would be open until 7 pm, but it was already closed. Disappointed, we decided to ride BTM and PM again and then grab something in Main Street on our way out of the park.
After a rest in our room, we went for Café Mickeys at 8.45 and had to wait for about 15 minutes before we were seated upstairs. We made our choice and while waiting, about 3 or 4 characters were wandering around, visiting each table. We had a lot of fun with Captain Hook and Chip (or Dale?) before our food arrived. It was okay, but unfortunately not hot anymore. That was too bad, but I think that the best and most delicious food is spoiled when it`s barely warm anymore.
We finished and left the (noisy) place to have a beer at Billy Bob`s before we went back to our room to call it a day.
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