Although we've been to Disneyland a few times before, my nan had never been. So, one day last spring i phoned her up and said "how do you fancy coming to disneyland with us, the day after your birthday in september?!" :D We normally go in January, but we thought it would be better to go in the nicer weather, when it wasn't so cold, as nan was 88 years old and felt the cold a lot.
Anyway, she was MORE than excited! She'd seen all our photos, and heard all our stories, from when we'd been before.. and was always saying "oh wow - i wish i was able to go!", so you can imagine how happy she was to be going! :D
She came up to stay with us for her birthday, and then the next day our adventure began! :D/
We got to the eurostar terminal in plenty of time and went and had some breakfast and a cup of coffee before we boarded the train. Then just outside of folkestone we stopped :| And waited. And waited some more lol. It turns out that a train had broken down the other end of the tunnel and they had to move it off of the tracks. We only waited about an hour or so but it felt like a lifetime when you've got a train packed full of bored kids (including ours!).
Anyway... once we arrived i sent alan off with our bags to check into the Santa Fe... and i told him to ruuuuuun so that he beat all the queues - so he literally jumped off the train and ran as fast as he could (although he had to show two ladies and their children the way to the santa fe so he couldn't go as fast as he wanted :roll: ) bless him lol :lol:
Me, shola, bailey (in a pushchair) and nan (in her wheelchair) had to get the lift and said we'd meet alan outside starbucks. Except the lift never came :| We waited for about 25 minutes before a member of staff turned up and said the lift was broken (not the first time it's happened either! last time, just before we were about to get in it, it broke down halfway down with a lift full of people in it! :shock: ), and took us in the cage lift which took us up into the carpark.
Bless nan.. she thought it was an adventure :D :lol: Although i had to push her in the wheelchair, and try and guide shola to push bailey in the right direction.. and i didn't find it so amusing :lol:
So anyway... we finally met alan outside starbucks, and went to the park!!! :D/
The first obligatory 'entrance' pic!
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As soon as we went inside, we went to City Hall to get nan her disabled pass. Except we realised that we'd left her blue badge in the car at the eurostar car park as we'd parked in a disabled bay :roll: However, as soon as they realised that nan couldn't walk more than a few feet without wobbling they said she could have the pass anyway. They were ever so nice about it. And i must say that on every single ride, all 5 of us were allowed on with the pass, rather than the 3 or whatever was the limit on some of the rides :D
And when we got out of there, MMP was going on!!! :D
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And i honestly can't remember what order the next photos were taken in. or on which day :oops: So i'll just put them all in here, and hope you'll enjoy them :D
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The halloween decorations started going up on our last day there (30th) and they were absolutely fab!!! :D
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And that's the end of my trip report! Well... sort of :( Unfortunately nan went into hospital on Christmas eve, while she was staying with us, and sadly passed away on January 20th :cry: We all miss her terribly... but taking this short trip with her was the very best thing we've ever done i think. She had an absolutely amazing time, and didn't stop talking about it... she said it was one of the best holidays she's ever had (and she'd been on LOTS!), and i'm so so glad we took her with us; we'd been talking about taking her with us for ages, and we'd even thought about putting it off until this year, when bailey would have been out of his pushchair, to make it easier on us with the wheelchair.
I'm so soooo glad we didn't put it off. If we'd even put it off until January it wouldn't have happened.
Thanks for reading xxxxxxxxxx
Loved reading your Trip Report Bekiboo, and happy that your nan was able to make the trip and experience the magic of Disneyland Paris. Iit must have been so wonderful for you and your family to spend time together in such a magical place before your nan unfortunately passed away. Really enjoyed looking at the photos , the characters appeared to really make your trip . Your Nan must have had a magical experience, a disney experience.
a truely magical review which brought tears to my eyes. i am sure that your nan will be smiling down on you on your next trip.
What a lovely trip report :) I love the photo of your Nan in the big Mickey hat x I am glad for you that you got the opportunity to go together x
I must admit, I shed a wee tear reading this. It looks like you all had a truly magical time and it is wonderful that you got to take this trip with your nan - looks like she had a ball! Thanks so much for sharing it with us. This is what the magic is all about!
Your photo's are truely magical, knowing you gave your nan such a great experience in the last months of her life. She really seems to be enjoying yourself, as are all of you. That's surely an experience you'll never forget.
Me too, I had a little tear in my eyes.You all look so happy on these pictures, and you all keep a lot of happy memories from that stay. I believe some decissions are made at the right time...
My condolences for your loss.
Aurora
Thank you so much everyone - i'll treasure the memories forever... and i do believe that if we'd gone any earlier (for example in previous years) then we wouldn't have appreciated it as much.., i think that knowing how frail nan was made us appreciate, and make the most of, every single second we spent there :D
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