Trip Report October 2013 (better late than never)

[seraphelle]

Now I've learned how to include photographs finally  I thought I would add our report to the list  Plus, it's helping me get through to the next one, so...

Firstly, in August (sorry, it was July actually my husband reminded me last night lol) once we had finished paying off the holiday, we did a reveal with the kids. I have some photos of how we did it and will upload them a.s.a.p. as they're on a different memory stick. Basically, we bought our two girls little Minnie Mouses (Mice?  ) from the local Disney shop along with a large gift box. I bought some cheap 'silver' frames and printed out a countdown sheet:



And we wrote the days left on the glass frame in wipe-off marker pen. I also bought some gold envelopes, and inside put some Mickey head glitter pieces and letters for the girls from their favourite Princesses asking why they hadn't been to see them yet 

I put all this inside the box, and when they got home from school and walked into the living room they saw these huge boxes on the coffee table and were  . They opened them, and I'll be honest, their initial reaction was quite tame! I was expecting screams like on the adverts, but no, they just went very VERY quiet, then it sort of dawned on them that the days on the frame meant that's how many days there were until they were actually going to be in Disneyland for the first time, and then we finally got the screaming and crying and 'OMG!' reactions 

Day 1

The day of the journey we got a taxi to the airport (we only live 15 mins away from Birmingham airport so makes more sense for us to fly) and I swear I about turned inside out with excitement. The kids were almost catatonic with how excited they were, they barely spoke the whole way there, it was just wide eyes and little nods or shakes of the head!

I won't bore you with the flight, I'll just say I loved how brief it was and the staff onboard certainly knew their Disney stuff and asked my girls lots of questions about what they would be doing when we got to Paris 

We found the VEA relatively easy (ashamed to say my french is awful and I did the TALKING-VERY-LOUDLY-AND-SLOWY-IN-ENGLISH thing as CDG confused the hell out of me) and then waited not-so-patiently for it to drive to the parks. Once we got to the parks and dropping-off started we 'ooooh'd and 'awww'd at all the hotels until finally we pulled up outside DLH and I actually welled up.
The service inside was phenomenally good ('I should think so the money it's costing!' says my grumpy-from-travelling husband), we were given our tickets and our luggage was whisked away for us so we headed straight into the DL park as it was mid-afternoon at this point.

I don't need to tell you guys, that first 'through the gate' moment, oh my gosh, my heart was hammering and my kids were making 'squeeeeeeeeeeee!' noises. We paused here for a few quick photos (forgive the angles, we were rushing):
















Hubby ducked into Town Hall to get us a timetable for the parades and the girls and I soaked up the view, then we took our first walk down Main Street.







At this point we put the camera away despite our desire to snap everything and concentrated on familiarising ourselves with the layout and took a look at the map and decided where to head to first. I can't remember exactly what order we did things in, but Big Thunder Mountain was the first ride we all did  and we loved it! (Pretty sure we did it 12/13 times in the 4 days we were there).

Soon, it started to get dark, and we figured we better head back for Dreams, but we got lost!



I don't know how we managed it, but it seemed every way we tried to get back to the castle was blocked, and finally found a CM by a huge wooden gate that let us through and people were sat down with their Light Ears on ready for the show to start. We made it by the skin of our teeth and found a space to sit in just as the music was starting 
I cried, boy oh boy did I cry. From the moment 'the second star to the right, shines in the night for you' to the final firework. Sobbed like a baby lol. We sang our hearts out (to the english bits at least) and wriggled along with the music. My eldest cried too but my youngest just clung on to me through the whole thing (the girls were 8 and 6 during this trip). When it finished, we all agreed it was the best thing we had ever seen, and headed back to DLH for some grub in Inventions. I had my first glimpse of Mickey and welled up (again!) but he was gone before I could get a proper piccie, but we saw lots of characters and  hubby and I had some surprisingly nice Disneyland wine 











After stuffing our faces we agreed to head to bed. The waiter told us that the characters often do photos by the fireplace by the Inventions entrance in a morning and a list is displayed of the times and which characters will be there, so we were excited to see who might be there in the morning.

We got back to the room and I unpacked the bare minimum, and we all collapsed into sleep.

Day 2 will be added tomorrow...

[msRavenswood]

Lovely trip report! Can't wait to read the rest of the parts! 

[gemma2806]

Lovely report and pics, I'm looking forward to reading the rest of your report! 

[BlackPearl]

Great report! And I think I saw two very happy girls in your pictures 

[Joyce_Disney]

Lovely report! How nice that you stayed in the DLH!

[seraphelle]

Thanks folks 

Lovely report! How nice that you stayed in the DLH!

Well, it was supposed to be a 'once in a lifetime' holiday.....but as soon as we came home we started maniacally saving to make sure we could go back 

Day 2

Despite how excited we were, we all slept until around 7am (I was expecting us all up at the crack of dawn!). I unpacked the rest of the stuff while the kids got dressed, then the kids watched Disney channel while we got ready and we headed back to Inventions for breakfast. The closer we got to the restaurant entrance and the bar (Bar Fantasia is it called?) we could hear chattering and laughing, and when we got there there was a queue to have photos with Stitch! (I'll have to add our proper photos in later as we bought the official ones from the photographer).



We had a blast with him (he's very cheeky  ) and then went in and stuffed our faces full of sausages and croissants and all the other lovely stuff at the buffet.

We went into the park and this time we had an agenda for the day, and our eldest chose Space Mountain first for her and her Dad. Silly me should have checked the height restrictions before leaving as when we got there the CM said she wasn't tall enough and the look on her face almost broke my heart. However, the lovely CM gave her a special postcard from 'Mickey' that said although she was plenty brave enough, she wasn't quite tall enough, so when she visited again she could show this card and go straight to the front of the queue (provided she had grown enough! Which, thankfully, she has!).
We decided we'd go on Buzz following that slight blip, and we all loved it.



Following Buzz we went to BTM again, and did Phantom Manor too (which I think is possibly my favourite ride). Then we went to see the Cheshire Cat  Where we are in the UK is close to something called Telford Wonderland which has its own Alice themed maze.....but it's not a patch on this one!







I love the Dodo, we ran round him several times singing 'and round and round and round and round and round and round it goes' LOL, sure people thought we were mad but we didn't care!

Following this, we were dragged into the Princess Pavillion with assurances from our 6yr old that she would wait patiently no matter how long it took (she broke those assurances about 50 minutes in, but she did very well and only complained a bit). I tried to get a sneaky peek at who was behind which area when we got to the top but the CM was very professional and asked if we had met a particular princess and I said 'No I was just hoping for my daughter's favourite' which in hindsight I shouldn't have said because then he just directed us to one of the queues without asking who that was, d'oh! Regardless, we met Ariel which the girls were very happy about, and again I'll add these official photos in later when I've scanned them all in.






Hubby then had an appointment with Dapper Dan, so the girls and I tickled and poked him while he had this done (just kidding, we behaved):



Then, my goodness, the strings went up along Main Street and CM's were walking along with their giant Mickey hands....so we waited, it was the Hallowe'en Cavalcade 









The song from this parade is still my phone ringtone, I LOVE it 

After this, we headed over to the Studios for a while but the whole time we were there the kids were driving us mad to go back to DL! So we did Crush's Coaster and wandered around for literally half an hour and then headed back to DL park.







I have to say at this point, the CM with Jessie was amazing. There was a group of teenage french girls that physically shoved my kids out of the way to get in front of them waiting to have a photo / autograph with Jessie, and she made it known to Jessie who selected my kids to come forward next. There's nothing quite like when your kids looks at you with such a hurt expression because a grown-up or someone significantly older has done something wrong to them.  But bless the CM, she saw it and Jessie gave them lots of hugs and attention and thigh slapping lessons 

When we got back to DL park, we had some ice cream and decided it was time we bought some merch, and it was parade time again, with the magic everywhere song (we bought the cd with this song on, I'm surprised it still plays its been used so much!):





We just couldn't get over how much Eugene actually looked like Eugene, go Disneyland Recruitment!













At this point, I could see my 6yr old getting antsy, where on earth was Tink??? She adores Tink, and I knew where she was thanks to you lovely folks, but I didn't let on 



The float went past and there she was at the back. 'Tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiink!!!!!!!!!!!' my daughter screamed so loud that people look around at us, and Tink, bless her fairy heart, turned and looked right at my daughter and did a gasp and started waving frantically as if she knew who she was and was just as excited to see my daughter as she was to see her. My daughter cried, I cried, (I'm welling up typing this), even my eldest and my husband had shiny eyes. It was amazing. I'll never forget that and I know she won't either     

After this we did BTM again, Phantom Manor again, Buzz again, got some photos and autographs, mooched about in the shops and then got some ice cream and waited for Dreams. Then it was back to Inventions again for some grub and some cocktails in Bar Fantasia before heading off to bed.



Day 3 tomorrow....  Thanks for reading 

[norhel]

Nice report :-)

[gemma2806]

I know Telford Wonderland, I've been there with my son and his nursery! It's very poor compared to Disney standards. I must admit I looked at the few rides especially the Alice in Wonderland Cheshire Cat ride and wondered if they had to pay subsidies to Disney for using their characters, but I'm guessing not as they're not as good quality!

Loving the report so far 

[seraphelle]

Thanks again guys! 

I know Telford Wonderland, I've been there with my son and his nursery! It's very poor compared to Disney standards. I must admit I looked at the few rides especially the Alice in Wonderland Cheshire Cat ride and wondered if they had to pay subsidies to Disney for using their characters, but I'm guessing not as they're not as good quality!

Loving the report so far 

I do love Telford Wonderland I have to say, all the little houses with the fairy tale themes as you walk around the wood are just brilliant, wish they still had the Wind in the Willows ones but they weren't there the last time we visited (hopefully just being refurbished?). It's not a patch on Disneyland though, not even 1/100th as good  I do enjoy sitting at the Mad Hatters table though, that bit is quite fun.

Day 3

Today was going to be a big day and we got up nice and early. We had Cafe Mickey booked for lunch and then BBWWS for the evening, so we knew we were in for a tiring one.
We took the time after breakfast to try and take some photos in the hotel before we headed to the park as it was just so beautiful, I hope we get to stay there at Christmas one year as I can only imagine how amazing it will look all decorated!





I had to get one of this, the details in the rooms is just gorgeous isn't it?











First things first: breakfast. Well, we got to Inventions and Pinocchio was just finishing up photographs, but who was next? One of my favourites since I was a little girl; Minnie <3 I don't know what it is about her, she's hardly a female role model for a feminist like myself, but I adore her and I always have, from the bow in her hair to her amazing shoes.

I'll have to add to 'proper' photos in of us all with Minnie & Mickey, as my colleagues are fond of pointing out, they have never seen me smile so big 



I even told Minnie she was my favourite and she made a little *mwah* kiss noise and gave me a hug, I got through the photos and then walked to the shop to look at them straight away before we went into breakfast, and had a little wobble outside and had to sit down, I'd gotten all overwhelmed and my husband was in hysterics at me. I couldn't stop crying and laughing, the kids thought it was pretty funny, too. 

After breakfast (which was again delicious) we headed into the park.









We headed to POTC as we hadn't done it yet, and we loved it! Plus, hubby got some ears (Jack Skellington) from the shop there, we spent a small fortune in that shop on all the Jack stuff 





The girls and I decided it was time we bought some Minnie ears, so we quickly purhcased some and snapped some piccies:





And thank you to the passer-by who offered to take one of us altogether, what a sweet man!









We waited here for a while as we knew the parade would be starting soon, and we wanted to watch it again 
After the parade we headed down to BTM and managed to do it about 3 times in a row with hardly any waiting!



Then we went on Thunder Mesa (which the kids thought was boring but I loved, reminded me of a boat I went on once in New Orleans).



After that we headed to Phantom Manor, but who was having photos by Phantom Manor? My husband's favourite:



The guy was amazing, he even talked like Jack, he spent ages with the kids as there was a break in the queue and Sally went away and then Jack came back, so I think he gave my two extra time for being so patient which was very cool of him.









Phantom Manor was cool this time, but the CM was nowhere near as good as the guy that had been on the night before as it was getting dark. He really 'performed' for the guests where today the lady just let everyone in and did the minimal, was a shame really but I guess we'd been spoiled the first time we went on 

We started to head towards the Village as we had Cafe Mickey reservations for lunch, and managed another sneaky BTM ride on the way! This was our first experience of Disney Village, and I think we were a bit shocked at how big it was! We went in pretty much every store (and I ended up with a rather cool Maleficent shirt) and then went for lunch.
Food-wise, I think we were all a bit disappointed with Cafe Mickey, but hubby and I had a naughty cocktail which we enjoyed, and the character interaction was priceless. Chip n Dale had me laughing until my face actually hurt and I couldn't catch my breath, they were hilarious. Classic 'you had to be there' as it's never as funny as it sounds when you explain it to someone, but they kept running past and nicking my daughter's Minnie ears with the wedding veil on, and then holding mock weddings in front of us with any staff / customer / character that walked by. My goodness we laughed! At one point they had a 'fight' over who got to marry my daughter, and were squirting ketchup and throwing napkins at each other. It was brilliant. Poor Mickey though, when he appeared, they stole his bow-tie and ran off. Naughty chipmunks!













Gepetto kept tickling them whenever he went past, and couldn't resist even when it was time for photos!





We had a fantastic time 

We headed back to DL park to do a few rides, and then go and get changed before hopefully watching Dreams again and then heading to BBWWS. In the afternoon, we saw a few more cool characters:













After this we got changed and watched Dreams (which was insanely busy, the difference between a weekday and weekend was astounding!), then headed to BBWWS, which we loved despite our colour team not winning. Although I had to spend 10 minutes convincing my kids the buffalo were real as they thought they were fakes! I said 'if they're fakes, then whats the smell???'  Also, how cool is it that you get to keep the hats? 



Got some nice pics on way back from BBWWS to Bar Fantasia for a nightcap:

I took this one because my husband says I put our Christmas decorations up far too early...but if they're up in Disneyland in October, then November is plenty late enough for me  LOL:









After Bar Fantasia and a bit of post-cocktail hotel shop shopping (my poor credit card) we went to bed in our room for the last time

[seraphelle]

Day 4

Today was our last day, and all of us woke up very sullen and mardy with each other, like somehow it was someone elses fault that it was our last day  We soon snapped out of it but I did not enjoy packing the suitcases back up. Luckily we had Auberge to look forward to today as a special treat for my eldest (it would be her 9th birthday the following  day but due to work commitments we couldn't stay an extra day )

We did lots of shopping this monring, and re-did our favourite rides before heading for lunch at Auberge (which was surprise for the girls until we walked in):







We knew this was where all the Princesses hung out, but I don't think we were prepared for them to come and chat with us at our table! My eldest could barely speak when her favourite Princess (Cinderella) came over and said 'who's your favourite princess?' and she squeaked 'you are!!!!!'. Cinderella gave her a lovely warm hug and my eldests' eyes went very shiny indeed, it was a beautiful moment 











After Auberge, we had to go and get the coach to the airport, but as we walked back towards the Castle who did I spy? Only the best bad guy ever and my ultimate favourite character!!!



Unfortunately, as with Jessie in the Studios, there was far too much pushing and shoving for me to want to attempt to get a photo with her, but I shall try harder next time for one. We headed back to the hotel and got our suitcases and completed check-out, and then waited outside for the coach. Once it pulled into the car park both the girls started crying, with the youngest sobbing uncontrollably. I felt so sorry for the bus driver, he looked like he saw a LOT of tears every day and was doing his best try and cheer the girls up. They stopped crying about half way to the airport but I shed a few tears as we drove to the airport myself. Don't forget, this had originally been a 'once in a lifetime' trip, we never thought we'd go again. Both my husband and I are students and had saved fervently for a long time to afford this trip for our girls, so at this point we never thought we'd be back.

CDG was slightly less confusing this time but we greatly underestimated the time it would take to get through passport control, and by the time we did it was time to go to the gate. Travel all went without any hiccups and we were back home and in bed by 10pm ready for the birthday girl in the morning.

The children went out like lights cuddling their new Disney favourites and wearing their Princess robes over theor PJ's, whilst me and the hubby got a calculator out and started doing some serious maths. My Master's course ends September 14 and I'm lucky to already be in a job that will become permanent and full time just as soon as I'm done, so we juggled some figures around and hubby negotiated an extra shift in his part time job and we've managed to save enough for this year's trip.

Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed it 

[vampira]

What a wonderfull trip report! I enjoyed reading very much, and it seems you had an amazing time. I loved seeing all the beautiful Halloween decorations. This year I'm going to see them myself for the first time and thanks to your pictures I'm looking forward to it even more! Just like your husband, Jack is my favorite character! Hope I'll get to meet him too...
Oh and your daughters are very cute too! They look like they have the time of their lives!

[seraphelle]

Thank you very much  I hope you have a wonderful time, we're going back for our second Hallowe'en this year, it was just an amazing time. 

[msRavenswood]

So happy you all had such a wonderful time! You have such a lovely family! Welcome to the 'DLP addicts club' by the way! Lol! 

Wish you all the best with your studies and hope you will be able to visit the Magic again in the near future! 

[msRavenswood]

Oops, I just saw you ARE revisiting this fall! 

Haven't been to DLP for Halloween yet, but hubby promised me our next visit will be either at Halloween or Christmas. Jack is my favorite character so I'm dying to meet him either as the Pumpkin King or Sandy Claws! 

[Uragano Tati]

What a wonderful trip report!!! Thank you very much for sharing!!!
You had a great time in the park and it is amazing that you can go again so soon!!! You are a beautiful family and I really wish you all the best!