Trip report - Sequoia lodge golden forest club 28 – 31 of march

[elisje]

Unfortunately we are back. Time went so fast I just can’t believe it. But it was the most wonderful trip

For my pre trip report http://www.magicforum.eu/index.php?topic=21692.0


I will write a complete day by day trip report with pictures sometime next week, but since we have done so much and there is so much to tell I don’t expect it to be ready soon. So I decided to just do a quick highs and lows report today.


Highs
- The golden forest club. If you have the money, just do it! It is wonderful.
    - We could see the castle from our room
- The parade and especially maleficent.
- Seeing ‘happy anniversary Disneyland Paris’ as the first thing we did at arrival. I just cried and cried 
  and cried.
- Mickey and the magician. What a great show.
- Eating at Walt’s and chez Remy.
- Star tours le adventure continue. It is an awesome ride. Definitely better than the old version.   
   Even despite that time we had to change star speeders 3 times because they all broke while we
   were in them. More about that in my later trip report.

Lows
- Illuminations. It just didn’t lived up to the expectations. It just didn’t do it for me. It only made me
  miss dreams.
   - The two people just before us who just didn’t want to sit down, while everybody else did.
      And the big argument between the lovely English people behind us and the two terrible
      people who were right at the front and just did not want to sit down. It was not a lovely
      experience. We could see clearly. But I felt so terrible for the lovely English people
      and their kids behind us who could hardly see anything anymore, despite waiting for more
           than half an hour.
- Being stuck in buzz right before we needed to catch our train to go home. I was so terrified I would
   miss the train. But luckily we didn’t

[MrsRoachy]

Crikey positives are that but negatives sound eventful. Look forward to hearing the full report. We go in just over 2 weeks

[dukemom2002]

Looking forward to hearing about your trip- we are staying in a GF room in few weeks, so I'm dying to hear how it is...  Did you get the free half board plus?  Would love to know more about that, too, and how breakfast works with GF rooms, etc.  Did you do a character meal?  Are there characters around the hotel yet?  Going with my two older sons (6 and 9) so debating whether to do a character meal or whether there will just be enough characters around the place to not bother about it, etc.   

[elisje]

Looking forward to hearing about your trip- we are staying in a GF room in few weeks, so I'm dying to hear how it is...  Did you get the free half board plus?  Would love to know more about that, too, and how breakfast works with GF rooms, etc.  Did you do a character meal?  Are there characters around the hotel yet?  Going with my two older sons (6 and 9) so debating whether to do a character meal or whether there will just be enough characters around the place to not bother about it, etc.

Hey
I am going to post my first day tomorrow I promise.
But to give a quick answer to your questions...

Yes I had the free halve board plus.ust tel the aiter you have it and they explain the rest

Breakfast was amazing, just go to the lounge in the morning. how your hotel easy pass to the cast member at the desk and they will guide you to your table.

I did not do a character meal
Pluto was at my hotel every morning between 8 and 11 and I saw more than 15 different characters meet and greets during my stay. They were literally everywhere. We decided to just do two because we are not big character fans and don’t think queuing for it is worth it.

thank you for your amazing reply.

[elisje]

Day one  28-03-2017

The journey

After a very very short night where I had about 4 hours of sleep (because we were going to Disney in the morrow :0 and how could you ever sleep knowing that) our alarm clock went at 5:30. We were at the station at 6:30 (yes we live very close to the station) and started our first Disney day at the Starbucks, waiting for our thalys to arrive and smiling as two crazy ones at the poor people who had to go to their work.
after a long and joyful train journey we arrived at Gare du Nord in Paris. We took the RER B to Chattelet les Halles. Where we changed to RER A to Disney! It is about an hour long journey from Paris to Disney. It was 11 o’clock when we walked out of the station and bam!!! Disneyland Paris was there. I just could not believe it. It was more than 2,5 years since my last visit and I have been dreaming about this trip ever since. I just stopped for a minute to soak it all in, and cried of pure happiness. 



Checking in

It was our first time at sequoia lodge so everything was new for us. But to make sure this very long trip report will not be too long I will only write about the golden forest club.



It was wonderful to be able to walk straight past the normal check in queue to the special golden forest check in area. Where we were invited in by a lovely lady who asked us to take a seat.  It all felt as a very luxurious VIP experience to me (take notice that I am a student who is not used to any kind of VIP experiences). the check in lady took loads of time explaining everything to us about our hotel fastpass, half board plus and pause gourmand vouchers. She even took the time to ask us if we had made any restaurant reservations (which we did) and tried her best to change our 3 o’clock bistro chez Remy reservation. Unfortunately al earlier times where already booked. We left our back at the reception, they were brought to our room when it was ready!

First hours in the Disneyland park



And then it was finally time to go and visit my home away from home. Walking on mainstreet, listing to the music, smelling the smell... I wish I did that and treasured the moment. But to be true, planning modus kicked in and there were things to do. My first mission was to go inside the emporium to buy the black and gold 25 anniversary mickey ears. Unfortunately they weren’t there. that had to wait until another time (I bought them later that day in flora's unique boutique). the happy birthday Disneyland Paris show was about to start so we went to the hub. We found time to pay a quick visit to the castle and la Galarie de la bell ou bois dormant where I finally realized where I was and was able to stop planning and just enjoyed the beautiful castle.
happy anniversary Disneyland Paris was the perfect introduction to our trip, and I think it is the best day time show I have ever seen in dlp. Even my boyfriend liked it and he is more of an attractions guy and doesn’t really care about mickey (I know it is a shock, but well I just have to live with that ). We were fortunate to see it while everybody was sitting down and well I cried again because it was so Disney and so very Disneyland Paris. I won’t spoil the story in case anybody want to see it unspoiled. But it was perfect and the song is still in my head right now.



Afterward we had a look at the wait time for big thunder mountain, but decided to get a fastpass and went on Phantom Manor instead. we went to boot hill to look at the working! Fountains. My boyfriend never saw them work and was very excited. Next it was time for a coaster, but BTM still had a long line so we walked towards Indiana Jones. On our way we stumbled onto Timon & Rafiki.
 


since there was almost no line we decided to go for it. We had a lovely interaction. After that we went on Indiana Jones and ouch that coaster hurts! It was fun, but the pain was just too much for me. After Indiana jones we  rode the new startours ride twice. It was amazing. I think the 3d is a good improvement and the work they had done to the queue area and the outside environment is really refreshing and looks really good. We then visited the dragon under the castle.

Golden forest lounge and our room

Since we still had to pick up our room key and we were a bit hungry we decided to go back to the hotel and take a look at the lounge. The golden forest lounge is open every day from 12:00 till 22:30 for free soft and hot drinks. Between 16:00 and 18:00 there is a little buffet with cakes and some savoury high tea like snacks like wraps with cream cheese. It was 4 o’clock so we decided to go to the lounge first. We showed our hotel easy pas to person at the desk and he guided us to our seats and took our drink order. The cakes were lovely. We had Madeleines, cupcakes, profiteroles etc. There were also some savoury things but I didn’t really liked the look of them. 



\

After stuffing ourselves with cake, we went up to take a first look at our room. I was delighted to find that our suitcase was there already. It felt like a little piece of Disney magic. The room was nice. It had two double beds, a mini fridge, a Nespresso machine, a kettle and a view of lake Disney and the tower of terror.








Returning to Disneyland park

We returned to the park just in time to get a good spot for the stars on parade. We were located across from pizzeria bella notte. The parade is amazing. It makes the old parade look sad and small. I saw it unspoiled and I was amazed about every float. So much detail, so beautiful. Unfortunately for us the dragon had a case of stage fright and didn’t breath fire. After the parade it was time for our BTM fast pass. The ride seemed a lot faster and smoother to us, and it looked perfect after the refurb. After the parade it was time for our reservation for the silver spur steak house. If there is any demand I will write a full food report when I am done with this trip report. But to summarize it: The food was ok and the atmosphere was great.  We had the free half board plus vouchers so mentioned it to the waiter when he handed us the menus. He explained what our choices where and took our vouchers later. we could walk out without having to ask for the check, of handling any money. After our meal we rode BTM (with our hotel fast pass). Phantom manor was our last ride for the day.





Illuminations and bed time

I still don’t know if I like it. The first night we watched it from the back of the hub and waited for about half an hour. It is a good and spectacular night time show. But it just isn’t dreams. There is no story and no emotion in there for me. It is just beautiful and spectacular. It did not pull my heart string and it didn’t make me cry. My boyfriend felt the same thing. The use of fireworks and pyrotechnics where good. But we missed peter pan, and the intro didn’t do anything for us. It was strange walking towards the Disneyland hotel after the show. We watched a good nigh time spectacular and we had a great day but we missed dreams so much. All was forgotten though when we saw mickey mouse on the main street station. He waved us goodbye and said he hope to see us again soon .







We entered Disney village and it was time to shop! We visited the world of Disney store and the Disney fashion store before we decided to call it a day. We picked up some free drinks from the lounge to take in the park tomorrow (just ask the person at the desk) and went to bed. I think we fell asleep a soon as heads touch the pillow

step counter: 9769
attractions: 7

[kanuxa]

Heyyy!!! Well it really look like you had a blast! And now I'm even more excited (goingo after tomorrow)!!!!

Im so happy that everything went ritgh for u!!!!

waitinf for the  report of the other days!! xoxo

[elisje]

Heyyy!!! Well it really look like you had a blast! And now I'm even more excited (goingo after tomorrow)!!!!

Im so happy that everything went ritgh for u!!!!

waitinf for the  report of the other days!! xoxo

Thank you for your nice reply
And I hope your trip will be just as fun as ours was

[BeautyandtheBeast]

Thanks for sharing. It's always nice to see Trip reports on here. It gets me excited for my own trip later this summer!!

[Lavi]

Thank you for writing! It looks like  a very nice start of the trip!

[dukemom2002]

Thanks so much for sharing!  I'm even more exciting about the trip and staying in the GF rooms, all going well!!  I think we probably won't do a character breakfast either, as there are so many other opportunities to see characters, and it will be so nice to have the GF breakfast at the hotel in the morning! Your pictures are great!  Only a few weeks to go-  I'm surprising my boys, so they have no idea...  My mother did the same once for me when I was little-  best childhood memory ever! Looking forward to making more great memories - Glad you had such a wonderful time!

[MrsRoachy]

Sounds amazing! We go next week and my daughter would love to meet Rafiki, fingers crossed we're lucky enough to meet hom'

[vampira]

Sounds like you had a great time!
I like your description of the Golden Forrest club, since we were thinking about staying there on our next visit.
I like the 25th anniversary decorations too! 

[elisje]

Day two

Breakfast time

The first day you wake up in Disney is always a wonderful day. And waking up to see the Hollywood tower hotel from your hotel window is extra special.
Our alarm was set for 6:45 so we could have breakfast early and enjoy the extra magical hours. I was awake just before the alarm went off and was buzzing with energy and excitement. My boyfriend had more trouble with the early rising so needed a few more minutes.
The golden forest breakfast was one of the main reasons why we decided to book the golden forest club. I always dreaded the hotel breakfast in the Cheyenne. The queues, the set times, the noise, the fighting for a table… I hated it all. It was the only part of staying in Disney that I didn’t liked. The breakfast in the golden forest club was everything I hoped it was. It was a calm and beautiful oasis  with lovely food. We loved every single bit of it. We arrived at the breakfast room (The room next to the lounge) and handed over our hotel easy pass to the cast member at the desk. She told us to wait for just a minute for her colleague. He was there within a few seconds and escorted us to our table. He was really nice and made us feel welcome guests. I loved that he put a little sign on our table with reserved on it. The buffet was great. There was a lot of choice: full English, lots of breads, cereals, fresh fruit, cooked eggs, pancakes and lots more there was even soy milk and grapefruit juice available. We both went for toast and pancakes with maple syrup and bacon. If you ever doubt about going golden just do it. I think it is worth it just for the breakfast.





Extra magical hours.

We were at the park around 8:30. Not as early as I planned but early enough. In previous trips we always started our extra magical hours with one or two rides on space mountain. Space mountain was closed during our trip to turn it in hyperspace mountain (a big mistake if you ask me, but that is another topic).
So instead of going to Discoveryland we went straight for Fantasyland. We rode peter pan, Dumbo and the tea cups. It was my first time on Dumbo since I was a little child and it was awesome. It felt a bit silly at first. Two adults standing in the queue between all the little children. But once on the ride I couldn't stop and smile. Buzz Lightyear was next so over to Discoveryland it was. I failed incredibly on buzz as always. I can't remember our exact scores but mine wasn't higher than level 2. It was great fun anyway.





We planned to be at the studios gate before rope drop so it was time to leave the Disneyland park and make our first visit to the Walt Disney Studios

Walt Disney Studios and our last viewing of cinemagique.

For me, studios is mostly a park I go to for a quick spin on the big thrill rides. But with pirates and space mountain closed and a new show (mickey and the magician), a last ever chance to see a show (cinemagique) and Ratatouille we planned to spend a lot more time in the studios than usual.



The plan was to go to crush’s coaster first to see what the line is there, and then go to ratatouille. Since there was already a very long queue for crush we went directly to ratatouille instead. It was about 15 minutes before the park officially opens and there was just a little line for ratatouille so we went for it. It was my boyfriend's second time on ratatouille. He only went on it ones during soft openings. We both find it one of the best attractions of the park. My boyfriend especially loved all the details and little extras like the eyes in the fridge, and the fire scene. After Ratatouille we went to toy story playland to say good morning to buzz, we went on RC racers (which is a lot faster and higher than I could remember) and the soldiers parachute drop.



Next on our list was mickey and the magician. We went to the 11:10 show, and waited for about 30 minutes to get a good seat. Again I won't spoil anything. But Wow. Just walking inside the theatre made me gasp. I will always love and miss animagique but this is a worthy replacement. It is by far the best Disney show we have ever seen.
   We planned to go the 15:15 show of cinemagique so we had quite some time to do some rides in between. It was fairly quiet, there were hour long queues for crush and  ratatouille and a 30 minute queue for the tower of terror but everything else was 15 minutes or less. We grabbed a fastpass for the tower and went to: the rock and roller coaster, Armageddon (one of my boyfriend’s favourites), the tower of terror (fp) and the flying carpets over agrabah. I have been to dlp 17 times but never rode on the flying carpets before. It was a fun little ride but I wouldn’t go on it again. It doesn’t really does it for me. Not like Dumbo anyways.
We really wanted to ride crush at least one time. The sign outside stated there was a 70 minute standby queue and a 25 minute single riders queue. We decided to go for single riders, it was a great choice. We were on it in about 10 minutes. I love this coaster but I don’t think it is worth the more than an hour queue there is most times.





 Time went quickly today and it was 3 o’clock before we even knew it. Today was the last day cinemagique was on so we wouldn’t want to miss it. Cinemagique isn’t one of our favourites. On most trips I wouldn’t even think about seeing it but this was our last chance. We were surprised by two water effects like sprinklers coming from the ceiling. I can’t remember seeing or better feeling those before. I like the show more than I remembered I did but I don’t think I will miss it. I hope it will be replaced by something that is as great as mickey and the magician.

Back at the Disneyland park.


After cinemagique we went back to the Disneyland park. On our way there we used our pause gourmand on an ice cream and some orange juice. It was a lovely walk through fantasia gardens which looks absolutely fantastic again. We did some shopping on main street and went over to ride big thunder mountain but it had broken down. I was starting to feel hungry so we decided to go over to the lucky nugget saloon for some late lunch / early dinner.
   We both ordered the spareribs and settled down for a nice diner. There was hardly anyone there so we were surprised to see that a show was about to begin. It was a fun little puppet show presented by a great show girl. She was awesome and I don’t think the puppet show would be as fun without her. While we were watching the show she came and sit at our table and asked how we liked the show and the food. After a wonderful conversation she asked my boyfriend if he wanted a surprise. He is always in for surprises so of course he said yes. She promised us she would be right back and would arrange some things for him. We were both so flabbergasted that we totally forgot our food. She returned shortly and started another show. This time there was a pianist and a puppet of a show girl on the piano. The puppet started to sing about falling in love with …you guessed it… my boyfriend. It was so hilarious. He was invited to come on stage and got a serenade from the puppet. Al while the show girl was gesturing to me about how terrible it was that the puppet stole my boyfriend. It was one of the highlights of the trip. The food was great too by the way. We had to hurry with our desert though, because it was almost time for the parade.







There were already a lot of people waiting for the parade, so we didn’t have a great view. We were on the right side of the main street gardening department behind a border. It was still a great fun to watch though. We had a good overview of the beautiful huge floats but couldn’t see the dancers and characters on the ground.
   After the parade we decided to see if btm was running again. Unfortunaly it wasn’t. The molly brown was ready to depart tough so we went for a relaxing trip around the rivers of the wild west instead. 






Btm was still broken when we returned to tunder messa, so of too fantasyland it was. We rode snow white’s scary adventure, Casey junior (backwards), le pay du contes de fees and it’s a small world.



Our star speeder broke down (three times)

After our trip through the world we had time to do one more ride. Since we didn’t used our hotel fastpass jet we decided to go on a trip to an intergalactic destination. Off to star tours it was. There  was about a 20 minute queue but we skipped all of that with our fastpass. We were all loaded on our star speeder very soon and were ready for departure (loading bay A). But our star speeder never left ground. We were escorted to another vehicle (on loading bay D)  but as soon as we were on it, it broke down too. Off to a third loading bay (loading bay B). People were staring to get angry at that point and wanted to go out. So the cast members friendly escorted them out. I just found the situation very funny, and felt for the pour cast members who had to deal with this very unfortunate situation and some very angry people. We were waiting on loading bay B for quite a time before we were send to loading bay E because… yes.. that one broke too. I was wearing my Cheshire cat dress, and the cast members were starting to blame me. It was hilarious. ‘Are you the black cat ?’ they asked. Luckily with a big applause and an lot of cheering our 4th start speeder departed.





Illuminations and the not so friendly standing people

Because of our delayed flight we were too late to get a good spot for illuminations. We found one on the right side of the castle and sat down. The two people in front of us were standing but everybody else was sitting down on the floor. The show was about to start and they were still standing. So we decided to stand up too. We are shy people so we were afraid to ask the people in front us to sit down. The lovely English people behind us asked us to sit down immediately. I explained the situation and they stepped to the people before us and asked them politely if they wanted to sit down so the children could see. They refused!. They didn’t know or wanted to speak English and only repeated ‘no!’. The people behind us got really upset and angry and were still arguing when the show started. Eventually everyone stood up. We let as much children before us as we could but I am afraid they still couldn’t see much. It was hard to enjoy the show. I just couldn’t shake of that awful feeling. Unfortunaly Illuminations didn’t offer enough to make me forget everything around me. After illuminations we left the park shakenly. Lucky mickey was there at the station to say goodbye and let us remember we were in the happiest place on earth.



Time for bed and a happy surprise

After saying goodnight to mickey we went to the village to do some shopping. My boyfriend wanted to take a look at the Lego store and after that we went to the art of Disney store. We were a bit peckish so decided to go to the earl and buy ourselves a sandwich to eat at our hotel room. At the hotel we picked up some free soft drinks at the lounge and went to the store to pick up the colouring book I bought earlier that day. While relaxing in our room I discovered a lovely surprise. If we stood just right we could see the top of the castle form our hotel room!



Step counter: 6397
attractions : 20

[Lavi]

Awesome trip report! A very enjoyable reading! Thank you!

[tubbsy]

Loving your report! such a shame that you had the rude guests in front of you for Illuminations.
DD now wants to re-enact your Mickey ears in front of the castle photo!