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[ford prefect]

So, last week we had the worlds wettest camping holiday, and driving back from North Devon to home, my wife and I very damp, depressed and in dire need of Disney!

I booked a Eurostar to Paris and 3 nights at The Explorers' Hotel.  

Friday 15th August at Stupid O'clock (5.30am) saw my wife, myself and our 2 children (Jay nearly 4 and Niamh nearly 2) walk to the local train station.  Just over 6 hours later we arrived at the hotel.

We have never stayed at The Explorers' Hotel before, however I was rather impressed.  The foyer was clean and well cared for and the staff were efficient and friendly.  5 mins later we were checked in and headed for our room.

The crew room was smaller than I expected but again it was clean and tidy. We had planned to spend the afternoon relaxing with a swim and a play!

The swimming pool is great (a little cold for our 2 kids, although Sarah and I loved it!) with 2 slides and a fun "water play area".

Changing rooms are user friendly but the lockers took a bit of getting used to, finally sussed them out to find a queue of people all wanting to ask me how they worked.

After a swim we played in the indoor kids area for a while.  Jay and Niamh loved the ball pool and we struggled to get them out.  It is the best indoor play area in any hotel on or near the resort.

Dinner was at The Plantation restaurant, all you can eat for €22.  Good value, great service but dreadful food.  Cold and congealed with little variety.  An experience not to be repeated.  Also the music in the restaurant and bar was depressing.

We then went to the bar for a beer and sat outside on the terrace.  

Saturday we headed straight to the Disneyland Park and played!  The park looked great, and was not as busy as I expected, we did Dumbo, Tea Cups, Casey Jr and Voyage de pays Contes Fetes within 2 hours!  Lunch was at Cowboy Cookout, my favourite place to sit in the sun.  We timed our lunch for the Hillbilly Trio.

We stayed and played until just after the parade when we went for dinner at Silver Spur Steakhouse.  Fab as ever.  Much stuffed we went back to the hotel.

Sunday was a trip to the Studios park and the plan was to do Cars, Flying Carpets, Animagique, Cinemagique and Stitch Live.  The queue for Crush's coaster at one point was reaching the Partners' Statue!

All were brilliant and much enjoyed as always, apart from Stitch Live.

Was anyone else disappointed by this?  Technically superb and very clever but a bit boring.

Sarah and I were looking forward to this as a replacement for the terribly dull TV tour and yet we found it equally dull.  A shame.

After that we watched HSM 1 and loved it, just the right note of jolliness!

Dinner was at Billy Bob's La Grange (much stuffed again!) followed by a walk to Cheyenne and sat outside in the sun drinking beer and generally relaxing.  Couldn't be better.  

We then walked back to The Explorers' Hotel.   That was a stretch!  However it gave a really good perspective of how much undeveloped land there is around the resort.

Monday saw another play day in Disneyland Park, much busier but still able to do everything we wanted.  

Lunch at Walts was excellant and typified the brilliant service at DLRP.  A brief shopping trip and off home!

[Elaine]

You made that all sound like a whirlwind trip - but you did loads!
I had my first stay at the Explorers in June - I really don't think it can be beat when it comes to kids entertainment.

Elaine

[Aveen2008]

Great report, sounds like a great last minute trip! You fitted loads in and it sounds like it was good fun!:)

Aveen x