The Wedding Anniversary Trip - DLRP About This Page:

[Silvercat]

When
Friday 6 June to Tuesday 10 June 2014

Who
Carolyn – trip planner and organiser, Disney-aholic since 1989
DH – more recently confessed Disney-aholic, but no less obsessed than me!

Transport
Car, Aeroplane, shuttle bus

Accommodation
Disney’s Sequoia Lodge Resort hotel

Experience
Carolyn – 7th trip to DLRP, previously stayed at Santa Fe, Cheyenne, and Sequoia Lodge resorts
DH – 3rd trip to DLRP, previously stayed at Santa Fe resort

Planning
I began planning this trip about 3 months ago, as I had been looking for something nice for us to do to celebrate our 2nd wedding anniversary. We have been to DLRP twice before together, but these were both trips made with friends and family, and I thought it would be nice for us to experience the parks on our own for once, just the two of us. I originally wanted to book us into the Newport Bay hotel, as this is a bit more up-market and somewhere that would have been new to both of us. Being a shareholder in DLRP, I can get discounted accommodation rates there, so I rang the shareholder’s booking line to enquire about making a booking. When I asked for the Newport Bay hotel though, I was informed that I could stay there if I really wanted to, but they wouldn’t recommend it as that particular resort is currently undergoing a massive refurbishment project, the restaurant and swimming pool are closed, and the resort would be particularly noisy during the day due to the building works. They recommended I try for the Sequoia Lodge instead, (which is my favourite of the resorts there that I have been to, so far anyway). Therefore, the very helpful Cast Member looked up the shareholder rates for the Sequoia Lodge resort, and after some comparisons, came to the conclusion that they couldn’t match or beat the current offers open to general members of the public!

So I booked a 4-night, 5-day stay at the Sequoia Lodge Resort, with 5-day park-hopper tickets, and was given a Half-Board Plus dining package for free! We have never been given free dining at DLRP before, so I was really excited about this. Disneyland Paris resort hotels always include a free continental breakfast anyway, but after that you are left to fend for yourself all day. We now had a table-service meal included for each night’s stay, free of charge. I was quite happy with this! I also booked our return flights, with Air France, from Birmingham airport to Charles de Gaulle airport, plus I pre-booked and paid for return shuttle bus trips from CDG airport to DLRP. You can take this bus and pay the driver for your trip as you board, but I wanted to get everything booked and paid for in advance, as I prefer this.

I made a note in my diary to ring the dining reservation booking line 60 days out, and then went home from work and surprised my loved one with the news that we would be celebrating our 2nd wedding anniversary in the French Mouse-House! He was surprised, excited, and then very happy at this news!

We looked at all the options for dining, and picked out the restaurants we fancied trying. We have only ever eaten at fast-food or snack locations there before, so we were really looking forward to trying some new, fine-dining eateries. At the 60 day point, I called the booking line and managed to make reservations for all the restaurants we wanted to try, at the times we wanted as well – result!

Two days before we left for our trip, I stayed up until 00.30 a.m. in order to do the online check-in for our flights. For some reason, online booking opens 30 hours before your flight, and I wanted to ensure we had the best choice of available seats! I secured our seats quite easily, and printed off the boarding passes.

I had booked a half day off work on the Thursday, and spent that afternoon packing. How come packing takes so long?? We were only going away for 5 days, but it took me hours to get everything together! I eventually closed the cases, hoping I hadn’t forgotten anything, and attached the lovely Disney luggage tags that had arrived with our vacation paperwork a couple of weeks previously.

The only flights to Charles de Gaulle airport from our local airport left at either 6.25 a.m. or midday, so wanting to make the most of our time at the parks, I had opted for the earlier flight. Hit by the realisation that we were going to have to get up at stupid ‘o’ clock in the morning to get to the airport, I was in bed by 9.00 p.m. after a quick shower, to try and get some sleep …… DH followed shortly after.

Day 1 – Friday 06 June 2014
Plan : Travel to DLRP, check in to hotel, DLP
Actual : The alarm clock shrilled at 2.55 a.m., followed 5 mins later by my phone alarm, as I didn’t trust just one alarm to wake us up! We crawled to the bathroom, splashed our faces with cold water, brushed teeth and got dressed quickly, downing a cup of coffee or two to try and emerge into the land of the living. We left the house as planned 45 mins later, for the drive to my parents’ house, which is close to the airport. My son, who works nights, met us outside their house at about 4.20 a.m., having just finished work, and drove us the 10 min journey to the airport. This meant we did not have to pay parking fees at the airport, and bringing him a gift back from DLRP was cheaper than getting a taxi there!

We waved him off as he headed home to bed, and went into the airport, looking for the bag drop area. Ooh, this is a surprise – it is automated! You put your bag on the conveyor belt which weighs it, scan your boarding card under a machine, confirm you are who the machine thinks you are, and it prints out your bar-coded label. Following the instruction printed on the label, (not easy after such a small amount of sleep!), you attach it to your bag, keep the sticky receipt bit and stick it to the boarding pass, press a button and wave bye-bye to your luggage! What happens if your luggage is overweight, I have no idea – both our bags were significantly underweight at this point, as we were allowing for the bringing back of Disney stuff and had deliberately packed light. We did notice an attendant keeping a discreet eye on us from afar to make sure we were okay and didn’t need any help, but he mostly left us to get on with it ourselves, which was fine.

Luggage-free, we headed up the escalator towards ‘departures’, keen to get checked in and find some breakfast for DH, (I had brought some cold toast with me, but can’t face food too early in the morning). Customs and security was very quick and easy, and we were soon heading out into the other side of the airport, via a quick stop at W H Smiths for the obligatory mints and bottled water. We found a food place that was serving breakfast, and I ordered a full English fry-up for DH, with hot tea. I just nibbled on my cold toast! At this point, it was around 5.15 a.m., and the restaurant was full of groups of young people heading out to Spain and the like for hen or stag do’s – and the vast majority of them were drinking beer. At 5 in the morning!! I felt so old ……

After breakfast we wandered over to our departure gate, and sat and read for a little while. The flight lounge wasn’t very full, and we waited for the boarding call. It seemed to be a bit late, to us, as we didn’t begin boarding until around 6.15 a.m., and we were due to take off at 6.25. Once we were seated, however, it became obvious that there was a small problem with the plane – the air conditioning wasn’t working, and it was becoming hotter and hotter in there. There was also a very strong smell of aviation fuel, which began to make DH feel queasy. We managed to flag down a flight attendant and asked what was going on. She was very nice, and explained that only one of their 3 air conditioning units was working, hence the feeling of intense heat on the plane. This also meant that the fumes from the fuel were not being cleared away as quickly as normal. She was very apologetic, and said they had engineers on board trying to fix things, but that they may have to just go with the plane as it was, as they had a full flight coming back and they didn’t have any other planes that had enough seats to replace the one we were on. This also explained the delay in boarding.

About 5 mins later we began to taxi to the runway, and the fuel smell dissipated quite quickly after that, although the air conditioning never got any better and after a smooth and quite quick flight, we were sweating buckets by the time we approached CDG airport! The pilot made an announcement to apologise for the heat, and told us that she had been fast-tracked to land as soon as we arrived, rather than circle until our landing slot opened. We were on the ground about 10 mins after that, and everyone was really glad to get out of the oven-like plane! We grabbed our carry-on luggage from the overhead bins, deplaned, and walked to the transfer bus, which whisked us round the airport to terminal 2, where we collected our luggage really quickly – they were one of the first lot out! We loaded our cases onto a trolley, and, following the directions printed on our bus ticket, exited the airport at the door indicated, to find the bus stop. This was a bit difficult – we could see 3 or 4 Disney shuttle buses standing at a bank of stops, but it was across a very busy road section with no walkways or crossings obvious to us. We crossed our fingers and dodged between cars to get to the stops, and as we waved our bus ticket, a driver directed us to his bus where we popped our luggage in the storage space under the bus. We easily found a couple of seats, and 5 mins later grinned like idiots as the bus left the airport and began its journey to the Magic!

The bus journey was also smooth and quick, there were lots of traffic jams on the motorways but they were all going the opposite way to us, so about 35 mins later we began to see roadsigns for the Davy Crockett Ranch campground, which was our first clue that we were nearly there. We were like an excited pair of children, bouncing on our seats and craning to look out of the windows to see what else we could spot! We saw the Earful Tower, and the Tower of Terror, before the Disneyland Hotel loomed into view and we turned off the main road towards the resort hotels. The Newport Bay was the first stop, and a couple of people got off there, and then the Sequoia Lodge was the next stop – this was us!

We got off the bus, retrieved our luggage, and headed for check-in. I moved DH to one side and left him with the bags while I went to the reception desk with just the necessary paperwork, and was seen almost immediately. I was told that our room would be ready after 4 today, and chose our breakfast times for the next 4 mornings, opting for 7.30 a.m. tomorrow, followed by 7.45 a.m. every other day. The Cast Member who checked us in was lovely, funny and helpful. She gave me our meal vouchers, which we would be able to exchange each day for a table-service meal, and then she also gave us an unexpected ‘afternoon tea’ voucher for each of our 4 nights, which was essentially a snack credit, good for one hot or cold drink and one pastry or mini ice-cream per day, valid between the hours of 3.00 p.m. and 7.00 p.m. Clutching our park passes, we then took our bags round a corner to Bell Services, and left everything there that we didn’t need to take out with us.

We were now free to visit the Disneyland Park! We exited through the back of the hotel, and walked to the right hand side towards the Disney Village. Just before we entered the Village, we noticed that there were lots of barrier fences set up in such a way as to funnel everyone through a security marquee before entering the Village – this was a new thing to us, and was the start of the massively increased security measures that we encountered this time. When we got to the marquee, everyone had to remove their bags and place them on an airport-style scanner; you then had to walk beside the scanner and collect your bag at the other end. This was so much quicker than the bag search that we have encountered previously, we really liked this!

We took our time strolling through the Village, noting the new stores that were here since we last visited 5 years ago. The first thing we saw was a huge Earl of Sandwich, two stories high, that was a brand new building and hadn’t been open for long – we were sure we would visit that at some point over the next few days! There were also two large Disney Stores, and as we rounded the corner near to Planet Hollywood, there was another new building – the World of Disney store! We were looking forward to exploring these new stores soon, but for now we were keen to try and find Salon Mickey, the shareholder’s club room. (I have been a DLRP shareholder for 2 years now, but this was to be our first visit to the parks since I invested in them!).

We went through the turnstiles and to the left hand side of the Disneyland Hotel, thinking this was where the club room was, but we couldn’t see it. We asked a Cast Member, and they directed us over to the right hand side. We still couldn’t find it, and finally asked another CM, who pointed it out to us – it was back out of the turnstiles, before you even entered the park! We exited the park, and went up to the normal and unassuming-looking door, discreetly marked with a tasteful sign. Because we are quite childish, we were thrilled by the secretiveness of this whole operation, and proceeded to make up our own ‘secret knock’ to knock on the door with!

A CM carefully opened the door a little, and looked at us questioningly. I was a bit nervous, as I had never done this before, but gave her my shareholder’s card and asked if we could come in. She asked for my passport, as apparently I have an old-style card with no photograph on it, and then she asked for our park tickets. After checking my passport, she handed that back to me, but held onto the club card and park tickets for the time being. We followed her into a small room, where she explained the club rules to us – 4 visits per month allowed, only open between 9.00 a.m. and midday, unlimited tea, coffee, water and orange juice, and two pastry products each per visit, but everything must be consumed on the premises. The choices were muffins, cookies, or doughnuts. We opted for a doughnut and cookie each, which she handed to us in paper bags, and then she showed us into the main club room. This was really small, only having seating for about 12 people, and was decorated like an old-fashioned, private gentlemen’s club, all in dark wood – it was lovely! The room was air conditioned, and had tables and chairs, plus a couple of over-stuffed sofas. There was a couple of gorgeous bathrooms, one each for male and female, and a coffee machine and fridge. On the mantelpiece over the fireplace resided a life-size plaster bust of Walt, and there were beautiful pictures on the walls, of building works at Disneyland California with Walt overseeing everything. There was also a huge, dark wood Grandfather clock on the one wall.

We nodded politely to the other 3 or 4 people in the room, settled ourselves at a table, and then got coffee and orange juice. The orange juice was gorgeous, really sharp and full of bits of orange; the coffee was freshly ground and delicious. The ring doughnuts were light and fluffy, with a chocolate sauce running through them, and the cookies were chewy and fresh. It was all yummy! This was like a secret haven away from the madness of the parks and crowds, and we loved it in there.

After about an hour of relaxing, and a quick bathroom visit, we signalled for the return of our club card and park tickets, and were led out through a different door that led us straight into the Disneyland Park, without having to go through the turnstiles again.

After pausing to admire the pretty “Spring” themeing everywhere, and gaze adoringly if briefly at the pink castle, we entered the Emporium as I needed to get a new Ear headband. (The silver one I already own is in a storage locker in America! And I didn’t know where I had ‘safely’ put my bride one from Disney World a couple of years ago). We found a pink satin headband with sequinned ears and a sparkly pink and white bow on it, and after trying it on, I took it to the checkout. Remembering to present my shareholder’s clubcard, I was really pleased to get 15% off the total price! I refused a carrier bag, electing to wear the Ears straightaway. We also spotted some gorgeous snowglobes in there, and had a good look at them – I wanted to get one later in the week, but couldn’t make up my mind which one I liked best! (In the end, I forgot about getting one and never got round to it).

We exited into Main Street, and took our time walking up towards the hub. The park was quite busy, and the weather was gloriously hot and sunny – a tiny bit too humid, but better than being in the UK!

We turned left at the hub and headed into Frontierland, thinking to check out Big Thunder Mountain to see what the wait time was and the FastPass situation. The standby wait time was 50 mins, so we carried on walking and at the FastPass machines, (which are quite a walk away from the main entrance), I picked up a couple with a return time of 1 hour later. (Surprise here – the return window was only 30 mins long!) We continued our stroll round to Adventureland, and to Pirates of the Caribbean; however, it had broken down and the CM had no idea how long it would be down for. Fantasyland was next, where we boarded boats at It’s a Small World after a 10 min wait, and sang happily all the way round! Storybook Boats were showing a 5 min wait, and we really like this little boat ride, so we wound our way round the twisty queue and were soon sailing through the pretty little vignettes. We checked out the Casey Junior train, as I love this one, but it was showing a 25 min wait time, which was longer than either one of us wanted to queue; however, looking at the line, it looked much shorter than that to me, I thought it looked about a 10 min line. So we joined it, and I was right, we were seated within 10 mins. We took separate rows in this train as the seats are a little snug! It is also slightly faster than I remembered, which made it thrilling but still fun. (This was something we noticed a lot over the next few days, the standby times were quite often wildly inaccurate, and we had to use our own judgement where possible as to the real standby times).

We were now in our Big Thunder FastPass window, so marched purposefully back round to Frontierland and the FastPass queue. This still took us 10 mins to get through, but we thoroughly enjoyed our Wildest Ride in the Wilderness! I LOVE this ride, it is my favourite one at DLRP.

Next we walked round to Phantom Manor, showing a 5 min wait time, although this was nearer to 15 mins by the time we were loaded into our Doom Buggies. One bizarre thing we noticed here was that in the stretching room, sometimes the doors that opened into the spooky corridor were on our left, and so next time we would queue over towards that side, but then they would open on the right instead – although they always seemed to open onto EXACTLY the same corridor! Absolutely no idea how this happens! Anyway, we really enjoy this ride, it is much darker and spookier that the one in Walt Disney World, with rotting skeletons and bits of rotting body parts lying around. I love the end bit, where you ride through an old mining town full of ghosts and ghoulies! Although the singing busts do look a bit incongruous in here, as they are all smiling and cheerful and this doesn’t fit in with the rest of the themeing at all. I seem to remember previously that this ride had a French-spoken narration, but now it doesn’t seem to have any narration at all, other than the bit in the stretching room, and Madame Leota of course. (She is terrifying in this ride, no nice, friendly musical instruments flying about!) There is one point where a skeletal dog growls menacingly quite close to your Doom Buggy – he made me jump the first time I encountered him, after which I named him ‘Fluffy’ and tried not to be scared of him!

Unfortunately, the Ghost-in-the-Doom-Buggy effect never worked the whole time we were there, so we were left staring at ourselves in a series of mirrors at the very end, which made no sense really. We did pause to watch a miniaturised ghost bride do the “hurry baaaaack!” line through a grille, before exiting into the hot, French sunshine. As you exit this ride, you can either turn right and walk down a hill to the front of the ride, restrooms etc., or turn left and mosey around Boot Hill for a while – this is essentially a graveyard, with big tombs and gravestones, and is a lot of fun. It isn’t interactive, but the engravings are all quite funny to read. We went to do this, but unfortunately DH had the sun shining in his eyes and he failed to see a small wall in front of him until he fell over it! No-one rushed to his aid and no CMs seemed to notice. Luckily, he was okay, just grazed his shins a bit.

After browsing, (or in DH’s case, limping!), round the graveyard, we left that area and moseyed on down back to Main Street. It was mid-afternoon by now and we were severely struggling, having been up and about for 12 hours so far. I spotted the Gibson Girl Ice-Cream parlour, and asked DH if he fancied an ice-cream. He thought about it for a millisecond, and agreed that that would be a great idea! There was a huge queue, so I sent him to a nearby windowsill to sit down and I joined the queue. I noticed that the ice-cream choices had become very Americanised since our last visit, when before the flavours had been things like coffee, mint choc chip, strawberry, and chocolate. Now, it was Ben & Jerry’s ice-cream and the flavour choices were much more yummy! We both had a double scoop in a cup, with DH choosing Peanut Butter Cup and Cookie Dough, and myself having Peanut Butter Cup and Chunky Monkey. We took these into the Bakery next door as they had some seating available, and relaxed in the air conditioning with our icy treats. I did consider picking us up some cold drinks and pastries with our Teatime Treat vouchers while we were there, but the queue for the Bakery was also huge and we were very tired and in need of a break by this point, so once we had finished our ice-cream we headed out of the park and back to the Sequoia Lodge, about a 10 min walk.

DH went to Bell Services to collect the luggage, whilst I went back to reception to pick up our room assignment and key cards. I also asked for the loan of a kettle for the room, as I knew there were no tea & coffee making facilities in guest rooms and so accordingly we had brought our own supplies with us. (I expected to be asked to leave a small cash deposit for this, but they just rang the request through to Mousekeeping and never asked me for anything). We were given room number 1153 in the North Wing, which was quite a walk away and involved going down in the lift and walking along two very long corridors. We finally found our room, and it was lovely – nice and big, with a King sized bed, and decorated really nicely. There was also a roll-away single bed in there too, which to be honest was in the way a bit, but we couldn’t be bothered to ask for it to be removed and just used it as a sofa and storage space.

DH lay down on the bed for a nap, and I unpacked and put everything away. The kettle was delivered quite quickly, and I set up our tea & coffee space on the table. I had tea-bags, a small tin of instant coffee, individual UHT milk cartons, and I had also taken two of our refillable mugs that we had previously had from Walt Disney World. (DH : “oh, we don’t have anything to make drinks in!” Me : “ahem”, smugly producing refillable mugs from my suitcase …….) One thing I didn’t think of was a teaspoon though – we had to ‘borrow’ one from the breakfast room the next day!

About an hour and a half later, I woke DH up and we both changed into cooler clothing, before heading back to the Disneyland Park. By being experimental and taking a chance, we managed to find a short-cut out of the back of the hotel, very close to our room, that was a lovely little walking path winding round some mature trees and little gardens, and took us straight out to the lake area. (All the Disney hotels are placed around this lake, which is to the side of the Disney Village).

We had a reservation for dinner at the Plaza Gardens restaurant at the top of Main Street. We had checked out the menu beforehand and thought it looked similar to the Crystal Palace in the Magic Kingdom in Florida, which is one of our favourite Disney World restaurants. We arrived about 10 mins before our seating time, but were taken through straight away. When you walk into the restaurants here, the queue line is divided into two sides – one side for those with reservations, and one side for those without. I was glad I had made reservations in advance, as we witnessed quite a lot of people over the next few days attempting to get into restaurants we had already booked, without success.

Our server took our dining vouchers from us, and we were shown to a table. They brought us a soft drink each and a cold bottle of water, and told us to help ourselves to the buffet, which we did! There were lots of salads, hot and cold potatoes, various cooked meats plus a hot carvery ham, bread rolls various vegetables, and chicken nuggets too. We tried bits of lots of different things, and thoroughly enjoyed all of it! The little Mickey-head shaped potato croquettes were delicious! The desserts were a tiny bit disappointing though – they looked nicer than they tasted. I had a tiny citrus tart, which looked lovely but had an odd flavour and appeared to have soggy sultanas in it. DH seemed to enjoy his dessert choices, and to be fair I was too full for much dessert anyway. The cost should have been 66 Euros in total, but we happily ate for free!

After a leisurely dinner, we left and strolled through the Castle and into Fantasyland. We took a magical journey into the worlds of Snow White and Pinocchio, both of which had minimal wait times, before walking round to Pirates, but this was still closed. We felt our dinners had gone down sufficiently to try Big Thunder Mountain, followed by Phantom Manor – both of these were almost straight walk-ons, and the Park was quite empty by now, even though it was only 9.00 p.m. and it didn’t close until 11.00 p.m. We were starting to flag again now, so after one more trip on Big Thunder with a slightly longer wait time, (15 mins), we decided to make our way back to the hotel. We would have liked to stay for the fireworks, but they were still over an hour away and we were totally exhausted by this point!

We began our slow walk back to Sequoia Lodge, entered by our ‘secret’ short-cut, and after a quick shower I was asleep before DH turned off the TV and the lights!

Day 2 – Saturday 07 June 2014
Plan : Disneyland Park
Actual : We set an alarm on my phone last night before retiring, as we had a set breakfast time each morning. We both slept incredibly well last night! The alarm went off at 7.00 a.m., and after a quick wash & brush up, we made our way via our short-cut to the restaurants. There are two in this hotel, and breakfast was split between them both, although for some reason we were always allocated to the one called Beaver Creek.

We were seated by a server, and told to help ourselves to the breakfast buffet. We had bread rolls, ham, cheese, croissants, orange juice, coffee, and yoghurt. All of this was very fresh and plentiful, and we thoroughly enjoyed it all. During breakfast we also discussed what to do today, and both of us agreed that we loved the Disneyland Park so much that we wanted to return to it again today.

After breakfast we headed back to our room to get ready for the day. We both had a touch of backache, I think due to all the walking we did yesterday, so we took some painkillers, then set out for the Park. While walking through the Village, we spotted a mounted policeman near the World of Disney store. This, alongside the sniffer dog we had seen near the Casey Junior train ride yesterday, and the airport-style security scanners before you enter the Village either from the train station or the hotels, made us realise that Disney have really ramped up the security here! We had also noticed a change in Cast Member attitude since our last visit 5 years ago – they were much more playful and friendly now, and seemed to be laughing and having fun more too.

The Disneyland Park has Extra Magic Hours each morning at this time of year, opening up an hour or two before the regular opening times. This is achieved by having the turnstiles and Main Street open, but then having CMs hold a rope across the entrance to each land to keep people out until opening. However, resort guests can enter to one side of the rope upon presentation of their park tickets, which show they are resort guests. We did this, and entered Discoveryland before the masses were allowed in!

We headed for Buzz Lightyear’s Laser Blast, which was showing a 15 min wait but was a straight walk-on. I won by quite a lot, to my glee. Star Tours was next, which is still showing the old ‘flight to Endor’ film, but whilst this stated 5 mins standby, it actually took about 10 mins as the ride opened just as we walked up, and there was already a big queue. We did think this ride was quite jerky, and I felt a tiny bit nauseous when we exited. We decided to ride the train around the park, so walked round to the Discoveryland Train Station, next to Star Tours. However, the station was closed, so as you cannot exit Discoveryland from anywhere other than where you enter it, we walked back to the hub. When we had been in Walt Disney World last year, we had taken one of their guided tours which, amongst other things, had pointed out to us the sheer amount of detail in the architecture, paving, railings etc in Disney parks, and the way they all change between lands. This has made us more aware of our surroundings, and so we took a really slow walk around the hub, noticing the way the railings and light fixtures were all different, the way the pavement changed, the different colours and décor around. It was lovely to slow down a bit and take in all the special attention to detail, something we’ve never done before.

We walked back down Main Street and exited the park, going to the door to Salon Mickey and giving our ‘secret knock’, where we enjoyed cookies and coffee, orange juice and peace and quiet! I tried the hot chocolate too, which was as good as I was expecting it to be! While we were in there, we got chatting to another couple who were really nice, she was originally from California and he was German, and she had recently moved to Germany to work for his company. We all agreed that Salon Mickey was a lovely place to get away from the crowds for a while!

When we left there and went back into the park, the weather, which had been extremely hot and sunny, had changed a little and there was a sprinkling of rain. It wasn’t much though, so we ignored it and carried on. We checked out the Main Street Train Station to see what the wait time was, and it was showing as 60 mins! That was a bit too much for us, so instead we walked through the Emporium, pausing to pick up a couple of postcards to send home. However, the CM at the cash register, who was English and very young, said that they didn’t sell stamps, neither did the resort hotels, and she didn’t know where we would get any from! (This turned out to be incorrect, as later in the week I picked up postcards and stamps from the hotel shop, where there was also a postbox). I left the postcards there, as I wasn’t going to get them if I couldn’t get stamps to post them with.

We walked all the way down Main Street through the Emporium, just browsing as we went, then walked through the Castle, past Fantasyland, and into Adventureland for Pirates of the Caribbean. It was showing a 30 min wait time, as the Park was packed again, so we just decided to go for it. It actually took about 20 mins before we were loaded onto a boat, and we thoroughly enjoyed yo-ho-ho-ing around with the Pirates. No Captain Jack Sparrow, all of the Pirates speak French, and the singing trio are down to one lone Pirate with a squeezebox, despite the soundtrack still featuring 3 Pirates! Still lots of fun though, as there are two drops rather than the one we are used to in Florida, and the first drop is quite a steep one!

After that we walked round to the Indiana Jones & the Temple of Peril rollercoaster, so DH could have a look at it as he hadn’t seen it before. He considered riding it, but decided against it for now. (I rode it years ago and it goes upside down and is very fast, there was no way I was doing that again!)

From there we strolled round to Frontierland and Big Thunder Mountain, but it was closed and the FastPass machines were covered over, so we decided to pick up a little light lunch from Casey’s on Main Street. However, when we got there, it was closed until 4.00 p.m.! DH was a bit fed up with closed things now, so I sat him in the Casey’s seating area and shot off to the Market House Deli for a couple of croque monsieur sandwiches and some cold drinks. Cost of this was €20, and the sandwiches were delicious. There was also a voucher printed on the receipt that was the same as the ‘Teatime Treat’ vouchers we already had, giving us a hot or cold drink and pastry or mini ice-cream between 3.00 p.m. and 7.00 p.m. that day.

The weather had moved back into the hot and sunny zone, so after lunch we checked out the nearby information board to see what was happening, queue-wise. Everything was showing a 1 hour + wait time, so we decided to ride the train all the way round the park for a bit of an escape from the crowds. We walked down Main Street to the Railroad station, which was now showing a 30 min standby time, an improvement from earlier. However, it still took us an hour before we were seated in the very rear coach of a train! This train journey is so lovely, you pass lots of little vignettes set up solely for the train passengers and not visible from anywhere else, plus you travel through the front of It’s a Small World and through some pirate caves – I had really been looking forward to this! But – I was so tired by this point that I nodded off within seconds of us pulling out of the station and slept all the way round the Park!! DH said he was a bit worried about me at one point, as I was slumped in my seat with my head lolling forward and making some very strange gurgling noises! He poked me awake as we pulled into the Main Street station again, and I was so upset at having slept through everything that I made us stay on until we had reached Fantasyland, 2 stops down the line. This event means that I can no longer mock DH for falling asleep during the “One Man’s Dream” film in Florida last year - twice!

When we got off the train in Fantasyland, we walked to the restaurant on the other side of the train station, called Toad Hall, in order to get our drink and snack with the till receipt from lunchtime. Guess what? It was shut!! Fed up with this, we carried out through Fantasyland till we reached another restaurant, Belle Notte, which was actually open and serving. (Footnote : I walked down the aisle to this Disney song when we got married two years ago!) DH grabbed a seat at an empty table, while I queued to order Sprite, Fanta, and mini Magnum ice-creams with our ‘Teatime Treat’ vouchers, and coffee and choc-chip pannetone with our receipt voucher. (DH ate everything, but I only had my ice-cream, and took the pannetone with me for later – it ended up in a drawer in the room until the day we left, when DH ate it!) While we were in there, the daily parade started from just beside the restaurant, but we couldn’t see it very well so vowed to catch it another day. We also spent some time actually reading the park map we had picked up earlier, and discovered that Disney had implemented a smoking policy here! Last time we visited, there wasn’t one, and people just smoked everywhere they wanted to. This time, there was indeed a policy, with smoking banned everywhere but in the designated smoking areas – but no-one took the slightest notice of it and still smoked everywhere they wanted to!! This would become more of an issue with us as time went on and we observed the CMs doing absolutely nothing about it …

Once the parade had passed, the crowds had cleared from in front of the restaurant, and we had finished our drinks, we went to Pirates of the Caribbean and again had about a 30 min wait, but it was still a fun ride. As we exited, we turned immediate right and we were at the Blue Lagoon restaurant in time for our dinner reservation. This is the restaurant that is inside the Pirates ride, and we were really excited to be dining here. I requested a water-side table, but was told that there was nothing available, and so we were seated at the very back of the restaurant, farthest away from the water; however, we were in quite an elevated position so could still watch the boats as they went past us.

Our server turned up and DH ordered a beer, while I went with iced water, and we perused the menu. DH decided on a prawn cocktail starter, followed by barracuda served with vegetables and rice, and a mango dessert with ginger bread. I opted for minted cucumber soup with whipped lemon butter and curried melba toast, also followed by the barracuda, and a coconut cream with pineapple dessert. This was all utterly delicious! So different to anything we have had before. DH’s ginger bread, which he had expected to be a sweet gingerbread, was actually a slice of ginger-flavoured bread; my curried melba toast was lovely, and definitely not something I would have normally ordered. Neither of us had tried barracuda before, and we both really enjoyed it, being a light fish with the flavour of the sea, rather than a strong, fish flavour. The desserts were amazing, so light and fresh. We would definitely dine here again! The cost should have been €70 in total, but the bill was actually just €6.99 for the beer.

We waddled out of the Blue Lagoon and round to Pirates, where after a 20 min stroll through the queue, we were gently sailing past all the diners we had just left! We waved at them, and some waved back, the way we had just been doing.

Big Thunder Mountain was next on our agenda; we were hoping the park would have become a bit quieter by now, like last night, but it was still quite busy, and there was a 35 min wait for the ride. We joined the queue, though, as we thought it would give us time for our dinner to settle down. The queue was extremely slow to move, and when we estimated we were approximately 10 mins from the boarding point, the ride broke down and CMs began to evacuate the building. They opened up all sorts of gates we hadn’t noticed before in order to get everyone out. We quickly walked round to Phantom Manor instead, before everyone else got the same idea, and managed to be on the ride within 5 mins. When we exited that ride, we could see loads of working lights on in Big Thunder, something we hadn’t seen before. There was a train at the very top of the biggest incline, which we assume had had to be evacuated, and it was interesting to see lit up areas including one of the long tunnels that are normally dark when you ride through them. We assumed the ride wasn’t going to be working again soon, so we took a slow stroll round to Main Street to find a place to stand and watch the fireworks show, Disney Dreams.

We found a good position to stand, lots of people were sitting on the floor so it was easy to manoeuvre round them and find a good spot. After about 15 mins of waiting, DH pointed out a weird light in the sky – there was a bright red, flashing light almost directly above us, very high up. It was completely still, and made no noise that we could hear. After a few moments, the light shot away from us, but without gradually speeding up – it went from still to moving very quickly. Then it stopped dead, didn’t move for a few moments, and zipped back towards us again. Another couple of minutes of stillness, before it zoomed off out of sight. We kind of looked at each other and shrugged. The guy standing in front of us had been watching it too, and he muttered something about it being a UFO. We carried on waiting for the show, and it was absolutely stunning – fireworks, lasers, lights, and projections onto both the castle and some water screens. There were elements in there that we recognised from Fantasmic in Florida, and some absolutely unique projections too. We loved it! About halfway through it, I glanced up and realised the red light was back, in a slightly different place, and the light was now pulsing quickly, rather than the slow blink of before. DH took a photo of it, but it just shows as a red blur. It stayed still for a while, then slowly moved away and we never saw it again. Weird. It definitely wasn’t an aeroplane, and it didn’t move like a helicopter would, so we have no idea what it was. We talked about it later, and as we have way too much imagination for our own good, we called the alien “Hank” and gave him quite a personality. We reckoned that the first time he zoomed off, he’d gone to get popcorn and soda so he could come back and watch the fireworks in comfort.

At the end of the show, we thought it was going to take us ages to get out of the park, as it was closing and everyone was leaving. We formulated a quick plan for a meet-up place in case we got separated, and then DH grabbed my hand and we set off determinedly. Shockingly, we were out of the park, through the Village, and walking round the lake towards our resort in less than 10 mins!

We exhaustedly trekked back to our room, watched a little TV and fell asleep quite quickly.

Day 3 – Sunday 08 June 2014
Plan : Shopping day
Actual : We were up early again, got dressed and headed down for breakfast quite quickly. Today I tried some fresh fruit with yoghurt over it, which is something I really enjoy. I also had a croissant and a fresh bread roll. DH had his usual bread, ham and cheese.

We were having a slow start this morning, having spent two days of commando-style touring. Therefore, after breakfast, we went back to our room and while I took a shower and then checked email etc., DH went back to sleep! (The resorts all have free wifi, with a very fast and easy connection). I finally woke DH up and made him have a shower, before we set out at around 11.30 a.m.

There had been quite a lot of rain during the night, and again this morning while we were having breakfast, but it had cleared up by the time we left our room. However, within 2 mins of us walking outside, it began to rain really hard again! We about-faced and went back to the room to pick up rain ponchos and umbrellas. It had stopped raining by the time we got back outside, got hot, sunny and humid, and didn’t rain again that day!

We walked to the Disney Village, and began to browse the stores. There are two Disney Stores there, one larger than the other, with a very good choice of merchandise. We were excited to explore the new World of Disney store, but were actually quite disappointed with it – there was nothing in there that we couldn’t find anywhere else, and everything was so spread out that it looked like a small amount of merchandise in a large warehouse. I would have liked some exclusive to WOD stuff, or at least a bigger range. Most disappointing. We picked up a couple of things in there and had them sent back to our resort.

We went back to the second Disney Store we had been into, picked up more shopping, and again asked for it to be shipped back. We really liked the new Disneyland Paris design, it was done in brown and green and looked like a postage stamp, it is really nice. We got DH a t-shirt with the design on. We also got ourselves a couple of nice DLRP mugs, and some gorgeous glass tumblers that look like recycled glass, in a smoky dark grey colour. We picked up some gifts for family and friends, and DH got some pins too. I couldn’t find anything with Pluto on it, which my son had requested for giving us a lift to the airport, so I got him a t-shirt with some Disney Star Wars figures on it, and a tiny tin of hard candy with Pluto on the lid. In the park one day I had spotted a lovely red baking set, which consisted of a whisk, palette knife, spatula etc., all held in a red plastic measuring jug. We found it for sale in the Disney Store, so I got it from there, rather than having to go back to the Emporium. And the best part? I got 15% off everything we bought, using my shareholder’s club card!

We were now ready for a rest and a bit of lunch, so went to the Earl of Sandwich. I sent DH upstairs to find a seat, while I picked us up a meal deal package each. DH had a BBQ Hawaiian sandwich, and I had the Original 1764. We both got a packet of crisps and a cold drink with that. Because it was a meal deal, I wasn’t allowed to use my shareholder card for a discount, however. I did ask for coffee instead of cold drinks, but the CM taking the orders clearly didn’t understand me as she said I could have coffee, but then when I collected the orders I was given paper soda cups. To be fair, I then forgot I had asked for coffee, and filled up the cups with iced soda myself! I took all this upstairs to where DH had snagged a lovely table outside on the balcony, overlooking the lake, the PanoraMagique balloon, and the Village. The sandwiches were delicious, the bread was quite different to what he had had before at Earl of Sandwich, but no less tasty. We were really thirsty, so the soda was very welcome, too! We could have got free refills on them, but didn’t want to carry them round with us, so we just left when we had finished dining.

We decided to spend the second half of the day walking round the Disney Studios, planning to spend more time there tomorrow, so we headed for the Studios next. The park was really busy, and we thought we would probably just have a look round today, and ride stuff tomorrow, when hopefully it should be a bit quieter in there, not being a weekend day.

(We love the entranceway to both the Disney parks here, the Disneyland Park is all pretty gardens, and the Studios is set up like a working movie studio, it is really fun.)

The first thing we noticed upon entering the Studios park was the building work around Crush’s Coaster, which had a 70 min wait time! Hopefully this building work is to install FastPass machines, which is much needed for this attraction, as it is hugely popular all the time. We have not had chance to ride it yet, being much too lazy to run there first thing in the morning, which is about the only time the queue is more manageable!

We turned right as we entered the park, and decided to watch the Animagique show first, as there was one about to start. This is a fun little show, with puppets and live characters, and the theatre was absolutely packed! We really enjoyed the show.

After exiting there, we continued our journey round to the (new to us) Toon Studio and Toy Story Land. Unfortunately, the Flying Carpets over Agrabah was closed for refurb, which was a shame, as we really enjoy this ride. We stopped for a moment to watch the multi-turntable, spinning Cars Rally ride, which was full of laughing children and green-coloured adults, before going off to explore Toy Story Land. This is a lovely area, really well themed, although there was little we could actually ride here. There is RC Racer, which is a bit like an old-fashioned pirate ship ride – riders sit in a huge RC Racer car, which goes backwards and forwards on a Hot Wheels-style half-loop, very quickly and quite high! Then there is the Slinky Dog mini-coaster for littler kids, which is really fun looking and exciting. Lastly is the Toy Soldiers Parachute Drop, which did what it said it did, but again very quickly!

We really enjoyed exploring this area, but we were really hot now, and it was so crowded, we felt like we needed a break. I attempted to pick us up a drink and a snack at one of the outdoor carts, but despite it showing the “Teatime Break” logo, they didn’t accept the vouchers we had. We therefore went back into Studio 1, which is where you enter the park, and found the Restaurant en Coulisse, which was a fast food joint. I used up four of our Treat vouchers, (I had a couple of spares we didn’t use on Friday), and got us a coffee and Sprite/Fanta each, a mini Magnum ice-cream, and a packet of Mickey Cakes each (these were a twin pack of one small chocolate and one small vanilla cake, shaped like Mickey heads). We saved the cakes for later, and enjoyed our ice-creams and drinks. It was really busy in there but DH managed to find us a table while I queued for food.

Feeling somewhat refreshed, we headed out and walked towards the back of the park, wanting to try for the Backlot Tour, but it was showing a 45 min standby line and we were too hot for that, so we continued our walk and ended up going around the back side of the Tower of Terror and the Lights, Motors, Action stadium, which was interesting. We emerged near the Rock & Roller Coaster ride, but couldn’t see the standby time so have no idea what that was; doubtless it would have been a shockingly long wait, though! Not that we had any intention of riding this just yet.

We were near the Blockbuster Café, and I wanted to check it out because we hadn’t been in there before and I understood it to be full of movie props. We went in and it was like a quiet, cool haven! It wasn’t very crowded, and we could take plenty of time looking round. It was all themed to the Pirates of the Caribbean films – there were cages of props, and one part of the Café was set up to look as though you were on board a pirate ship. There was a ships wheel, tattered sails, dark woodwork, it was lovely! One of the cages was full of pirate treasure! We took lots of photos and generally just enjoyed the peace and coolness.

It was now approaching park closing time, so we walked slowly back towards the entrance. There was to be one last showing of the Cinemagique show, and we managed to dive in there just in time. I remember enjoying this show before, it is a mixture of film and live action, and stars Martin Short, who I love as a comedy actor. However, it was loads better than I remember, as they have updated it a lot and added in lots of new film clips, including Pirates of the Caribbean, the Incredibles, Titanic, Ratatouille, Silence of the Lambs, the Exorcist, and it even briefly starred Gollum from Lord of the Rings. It was really, really funny, and then made me cry at the end!

We wandered through the Studio 1 store at the entrance, and left the park as it was closing. We had a dining reservation that night at The Steakhouse in the Village, so we walked slowly round that way, as we were a little early. However, once again we were seated as soon as we arrived. We loved the atmosphere and themeing of this restaurant, it was all done out like an old meat warehouse in New York, from the 1940s or 50s. DH ordered a caeser salad to start with, followed by chicken with stuffed and sliced jacked potatoes, and a beer. I had a shrimp cocktail, then steak with salad and fries, and we both finished with the New York-style cheesecake with red berries. Everything was outstanding, freshly prepared and cooked, and the presentation was beautiful. The cost should have been €72, but was actually just €8 for the beer. The service here was really good too, attentive without being intrusive, and very well timed.

After dinner we took a slow stroll back to Sequoia Lodge, and visited the resort gift shop. We had a look round there, although it is only a very small store. They didn’t have any resort themed merchandise, but one thing caught my eye – H20 toiletries! In 2011 we had stayed at Disney’s Old Key West resort in Florida, and the room toiletries were these lovely range – they are pale blue in colour, and scented with what smells to me like jasmine. We have stayed in OKW again since then, and also Saratoga Springs resort, but have never found this particular range of toiletries since. I did find some body lotion in the OKW store in 2011 and bought it, but I had almost used it all up now. So I was delighted to find it again here! They had shower gel, shampoo and body lotion, all in big bottles, costing €20 a bottle. I picked up some body lotion for myself, and then also got a couple of postcards, after having confirmed with the CM behind the cash register that I could indeed get stamps from her. DH was bored and tired by now, so I gave him a room key and sent him back to the room while I made the purchases, and also collected our shopping from the Village earlier, that had been sent back to our resort.

I finally made it back to our room laden down with purchases, wrote the postcards, and relaxed for a while before turning in early as we were exhausted again!

Day 4 – Monday 09 June 2014
Plan : Disney Studios
Actual : Today was our wedding anniversary! We got up and exchanged lovely anniversary cards, before heading down for breakfast.

After breakfast we went back up to the room for quick showers and to collect our brollies, in case of rain again, as it was a bit cloudy today, had rained earlier, and the weather forecast said to expect a showery day. We then went to the Studios, and as we had hoped, the park was definitely quieter today.

We walked down to the Backlot Tour, which was showing a 50 min wait time but we could see the whole queue and I estimated it to be nearer 20 mins, which turned out to be right. We really enjoy this version of the ride, although Catastrophe Canyon is not narrated and so is slightly less educational than Florida’s version. But at the end of the ride, you are taken through a set-up whereby a dragon has landed in London and destroyed parts of it – you don’t actually see him, but you certainly experience his fiery breath!

When we got off the ride, we had a quick discussion as to what else we wanted to do here. The upshot was that we decided we did really like this park, but we LOVED the Disneyland Park and would much rather spend time in there! So we left the Studios at this point, and walked round to Salon Mickey’s for doughnuts and coffee. (I am allowed 4 visits per month, and can take up to 4 guests at a time with me; therefore, as we were going to be in Paris for 5 days, we missed out yesterday so we can visit today and tomorrow instead).

The weather had been sunny and hot again, and hugely humid, but it was now starting to cloud over again so we wanted to make the most of the dry weather. Therefore, after our coffee and doughnuts we walked up to the Castle to visit the Dragon in the dungeon, (gorgeous!), and then hurried over to Big Thunder Mountain. The standby line was showing 50 mins, so we went to the FastPass queue which actually took 15 mins to get to the machines! Again, I was surprised that the return times were in 30 min slots, not 1 hour windows as I am used to. Our FastPass was good for in an hour’s time, so we used that time to go to Phantom Manor again. Which was down. Again. However, guests were crowded around the entrance and when I approached a Cast Member to check what was happening, he said that reopening was imminent, so we waited too. After 5 mins, the gates opened and we hustled round the skeletal and abandoned garden to the Manor front doors. The doors swung open and we walked straight into the stretching room, moving to the left hand side as that is where we thought the next door opens into the corridor. We were right, and we were the first people on the Doom Buggies! I said ‘hello’ to Fluffy as he was growling and threatening to rip my throat out, bless him.

The ride stopped for a few minutes twice, once where you have swivelled to look down the long corridor, and once in the ballroom, but it wasn’t stopped for long. The Ghost in the Doom Buggy still wasn’t working at the end.

As we left the ride, we were attracted by movement on the track of Big Thunder Mountain, which is quite visible from Phantom Manor. All the working lights were on again, the track wasn’t moving, and CMs were evacuating a load of guests from a train stopped at the top of the high incline! People were getting out of the train and walking carefully down a staircase at the side of it. We couldn’t see where they went from there, but bearing in mind that this ride is on an island, and to get to it the mine train goes through a long, totally dark tunnel under the river, I’m betting they had an interesting walk back to the station!

We went back on Phantom Manor again, as Big Thunder was obviously down, and only had a 10 min wait time. Irritatingly, the stretching room doors opened up on the right hand side this time! How do they do this? You exit into what looks like exactly the same corridor, and from the same direction!

As we exited this time, we could see that the Big Thunder mine train had gone from the incline, and although the working lights were still on, we could hear the track running, so we walked round to investigate the situation as our FastPasses were now valid. CMs were telling people they didn’t know how long it would be shut for, and our FPs would be honoured at any other time that day. They had covered over the FP machines at this point, too.

I cornered one of the CMs, who was wearing a badge that stated his name was Christopher, and asked him about the smoking policy. He said not to worry about it, and to smoke anywhere I wanted to! The change in his facial expression when I told him I did not actually smoke and wanted to COMPLAIN about people smoking everywhere, was almost a joy to watch. He looked completely panic-stricken, and so he should – this is an utter disgrace, and the CMs are doing NOTHING about it. He told me that of course people should adhere to the policy, but that CMs found it very hard to enforce the no-smoking rule and that it would take a complete culture change to bring about the enforcement. He suggested I complain to City Hall about this, as he said that the more guests complain, the more likely it is that this will be brought up in the daily briefing that they have each morning, and something will actually be done about it. He was apologetic, but couldn’t get rid of me quickly enough once he realised he had made an error!

(Subsequently, I did not complain at City Hall at the time as I didn’t want to put a downer on our holiday, but I have emailed Guest Relations at DLRP to make this point – I am still awaiting a response).

We put away our FPs and walked round to Pirates of the Caribbean, where 30 mins later we were once more sailing the seven seas and singing along with the pirates, thoroughly enjoying ourselves!

We needed a few minutes break, and were near the Hakuna Matata restaurant, so went in there for our ‘Teatime Treat’ of free coffee and a pineapple tart, which was a soft pastry case, filled with sweet custard and bits of pineapple – yum! The rain poured down while we were in there, and we were also slightly irritated by a gang of small children treating the place like a playground and running round and round in circles around the tables and chairs. As it is probably illegal to club them savagely with a pineapple tart as they pass, we settled for tutting and glaring at their parents, in a very British manner.

We finally exited into a light sprinkling of rain, and went back round to check out the Big Thunder situation. The ride was now open, although the mine cars were quite wet! We followed quite a crowd of people through the FastPass entrance, up some steps, across a bridge, up some more steps, and then watched in disbelief as they all turned left and went the WRONG WAY in the queue area! We laughed at them and turned right, walking straight down the gangway and onto the loading deck. Stupid sheepy people! We were sat in the very front row of the mine train, whereas before we have been in the middle or at the back, and DH was quite startled by how much faster this felt – I always think that the back rows are the fastest, but he seemed to think it was quicker at the front, as you are first down the drops. Anyway, we still had great fun, and as we walked out of the exit afterwards, laughing and joking about how much fun that ride is, a lovely couple gave us their FastPasses as they had to leave! We accepted them with gratefulness and glee, and ran round for another go! We had a 5 min wait, and were seated at the back this time. It was still sprinkling with rain and the seats were a bit wet, and the speed of the train made the rain feel so much more fierce, but we just laughed and enjoyed it anyway. As we exited this time, the ride was being closed down as there was a threat of lightning in the area – despite the fact that the rain was now stopping and the sky was clearing!

We walked back to the hub, and then over to the entrance to Fantasyland on the far side of the park, next to Discoveryland, as we hadn’t walked this way yet. It was so pretty! There was a little stage area, all set up for some kind of Spring-themed show, with flowers everywhere. We took lots of photos, and the rain had stopped completely by now, with a blue sky and hot sun. I walked down to the wishing well behind the Castle, and struck up a pose beside it, twirling my open umbrella, for DH to photograph. Then he wanted the same picture of himself, so we swapped places and he twirled his brolly for me!

It’s a Small World was next, showing a 20 min wait but the queue looked to be moving quite quickly so we joined it and were aboard the Happiest Cruise in around 10 mins. We next went to Alice’s Curious Maze as I really like this little walkthrough attraction, (although the Maze itself was in serious need of a good trimming!), but it was also shut due to threat of lightning, so we checked Peter Pan’s Flight – 45 min standby and no FastPasses, no thanks.

It was nearly time for the parade, so we walked back round to Belle Notte and stood behind some folk seated on the ground, behind the rope and opposite the parade gates. After just a few minutes waiting, the gates swung open and the Disney Magic on Parade began. It was lovely! And we were in a perfect position to watch it, as the floats came towards us from out of the gate and then turned to our right to begin the route. It also meant that once the last float had passed us by, (Hi Mickey! *wavewave*), CMs dropped the ropes and we could get going before most other people had even seen the parade. With the obligatory catchy tune still being hummed, we headed back to Alice’s Maze which was now open, and spent a fun half hour wandering the Maze and climbing the stairs to the top of her tiny castle. (We did think a bit of maintenance was overdue in here, everywhere was overgrown and in need of a coat of paint). Despite our having walked through this attraction several times over the years, the Queen of Hearts STILL makes me jump when she leaps up from behind a hedge and yells at me in French!

We walked over to the Fantasyland Train Station, and after a very short wait boarded a train round to Main Street, marvelling at all the pretty scenery I had slept through the other day! It was now time for our dinner reservation at Walt’s – An American Restaurant, for our anniversary dinner. (I did mention this when I made the reservation here, but we never received any fuss or extra attention for our anniversary from the CMs, despite wearing our ‘Happy Anniversary’ buttons from Disney World – but that was okay, we didn’t mind, we were having too much fun to worry about this).

We were seated in a lovely, tiny room upstairs, by the window and overlooking Main Street. Our dining room only seated about 12 people, and wasn’t full while we were there. Our server brought us the menus in French, although he spoke to us in English, and we ordered soft drinks. After a few minutes, when he returned with the drinks, I asked for English menus as DH can speak a smattering of French but I don’t speak any, and the menu was way beyond us! Once we had these, we decided what to order – DH opted for salmon tartare to start, followed by mushroom ravioli, and chocolate fondant for dessert. I chose a pineapple tomato and goat’s cheese platter with pesto, followed by steak with potatoes and salad, and a mango Carpaccio to finish. We both had Fanta to drink. While we waited for the food, we spent quite some time taking photos of Main Street out of the window and admiring the view.

Once again, the food was outstanding – I had never tried pineapple tomato before, it was lovely! I wasn’t keen on the goat’s cheese, so DH ate that, but the main course was delightful – the steak was so tender, and the potatoes were cooked with a cream and cheese sauce. The desserts were amazing! DH’s was very rich, he loved it, and my dessert was wafer-thin slices of fresh mango in a mango syrup, and bits of fresh raspberry. We loved everything! Cost would have been €60, but merely cost us a tip for the waiter.

After dinner, we checked out the tip board at the hub to see what was going on. The park seemed a lot quieter again now, and wait times were looking better than they had earlier today. Big Thunder Mountain and Pirates of the Caribbean appeared to be currently out of action, so we walked into Discoveryland and battled out our inner Space Heroes by going head-to-head on Buzz Lightyear, after a 20 min wait time. DH won by a huge margin! The ride slowed down to a stop at one point, and he unfairly used that to his advantage by shooting at a really hard to get target, repeatedly. I couldn’t seem to keep up with him!

Next up was Star Tours, although remembering that this one was very bumpy, and having just eaten a rather large dinner, I opted to wait this one out and let DH ride on his own while I bravely held his bag and sat on a wall, (and got bitten on the ankle by some horrible little black beetle, for my trouble! This later went nastily septic, requiring antibiotic cream and a lot of limping!). There was only a 5 min wait for this ride, and DH was soon on his way back to me, but he then realised he had lost his hat somewhere along the way. We checked if he had dropped it in Buzz, but there was no sign of it. He remembered taking it off when we went into Walt’s for dinner, so we went back there and he said to the CM, “I think I may have left my hat here”. The CM replied, “I think you may have done!” and went off to fetch it – he was lovely, really funny.

Hat in hand, we wandered back up Main Street, but were just feeling too tired to go anywhere else now, so despite there still being an hour to wait, we found a railing in front of the Castle to lean on and waited for the Disney Dreams show to start. We spread ourselves out a bit in order to feel comfortable, and then spent the next hour being slowly squeezed closer and closer together as people pushed their way onto the railing to either side of us. One or two of them tried to dangle their child over the railing and onto the grass in front of the moat, only to have a CM come and make them move it back again! With just a few minutes to go, an English family with small girls in pushchairs came and stood behind us, then grumbled loudly to themselves about how ‘tall people’ were standing in the way of their precious little darlings being able to see. Well, these ‘tall people’ have been standing here for an hour, so tough luck – you should have got here earlier. Besides which, this was a firework and projection show, so everything the kids needed to see was high up anyway!

We enjoyed the show even more than the previous occasion, as we were able to see some details on the water screens that we had missed before, and it is just such an awesome show. We loved it! (Hank the alien clearly wasn’t impressed though, as he never came back again – unless his vacation was ended and he had had to return home?)

After the show we once again held hands and were swept along out of the park. As we exited the Village and began the walk round the lake back to Sequoia Lodge, we watched the most amazing lightning display over the lake – we actually stood and watched it for a while, it was incredible. There was no thunder or rain, just sheet after sheet of lightning, with the occasional fork too. There would be a huge flash in the clouds, then a second later another one, and this continued for quite a while before it went dark again. It was so weird, I’d never seen anything like it before! During one break in the continuous flashing lights, we went to our room, as I was starting to worry that either we or the hotel would be struck by lightning. I sent an exhausted DH to our room and popped back to the resort store in order to pick up more H20 body lotion for my mum and sister, then went back to the room and took a shower while DH made some coffee, and we were in bed shortly after. There were HUGE thunderstorms during the night – one woke me up, but DH would sleep through a nuclear war so he never heard anything!

Day 5 – Tuesday 10 June 2014
Plan : Pack, DLP, fly home
Actual : We got up reluctantly, quick wash and dressed, and headed down for our last breakfast for this trip. We had the usual croissants, bread, yoghurt etc., and generally prevaricated as much as we could before we finally had to stop delaying the inevitable, and went back to the room to pack. It was raining really hard outside at this point.

We had final showers, did the packing in 30 mins, checked that we hadn’t left anything in the room, and took our luggage to Bell Services for them to hold for us. I dropped our room cards back at reception and confirmed check-out with them.

We then paid one final visit to Salon Mickey, where we sat and chatted with a young family and their extremely polite small children, and watched the dreadful weather through the windows! (Discussions were about the number of EuroDisney shares you need to hold to be able to join the shareholder’s club. It started at 20 two years ago, went up to 30 last year, and is now 100! I have 30, and had decided before we came here not to bother with the increase; however, the joys of Salon Mickey and the 15% discount we had got on everything was slowly changing my mind …..) Eventually, we decided to brave the rain, and donned our ponchos. I had a horrible moment where I got the hood of my plastic poncho stuck on my Minnie ears and the plastic covered my mouth and nose meaning I couldn’t breathe for a second!

Panic over, and with the rain coming down harder, we dived into the Emporium to pick up a t-shirt for my dad and have one final look around. There were very few people in the park, surprisingly! We spent a few minutes perusing the Statue of Liberty exhibition in the walkway behind the Emporium, which told the story of the manufacture and delivery of the Statue to the people of New York, and was really interesting. There was a little scene set up with some audiomatronic people on a luxury boat, looking across the bay at the Statue, which we only found because we wondered what was behind a red velvet curtained doorway, and went to find out!

We finally splashed our way over to Phantom Manor, through a mostly deserted park, and walked straight onto the ride. As we went in, we could see all the lights on in Big Thunder Mountain again, so it looked like it wasn’t running. When we exited, however, the rain had eased up quite a lot and it looked like Big Thunder was running again. We briefly considered riding it, but there was a 20 min wait time listed and we couldn’t afford the time really, particularly in light of the amount of times it had broken down or been closed due to the threat of lightning in the last few days.

We continued our walk round the park, rode Pirates of the Caribbean (5 mins), checked Peter Pan again but 30 min wait too long for us, so just walked slowly through Fantasyland, through the Castle, and back down Main Street for one final time. We waved a tearful goodbye to the Disneyland Park, and then realised that time really was running short for us, as our bus was due soon. We decided that DH would go on ahead and collect our luggage as he is a fast walker, and I would catch him up by the bus stop at the side of Sequoia Lodge.

I arrived about 10 mins after DH, and he already had the luggage. 5 mins later, our bus was due – but a white van suddenly pulled into the bus stop, and a CM jumped out. He told us that the next bus to arrive was going to be full, but that another one was on its way and would arrive 5 mins after the full one. The full bus duly pulled in briefly, and then left again. 15 mins later, (not 5!), another bus arrived, and this one was nearly empty – on we got. Luckily, we had left plenty of time to get to the airport before our 6.25 p.m. flight!

40 mins later, we pulled into the airport. We stopped at some seats just inside the doorway so that DH could change his boots for trainers, as during the walk back from the Park to the hotel, the sole had come off his walking boots and he had had to flop his way damply to the bus stop! He got his trainers out of the suitcase, and a dry pair of socks, and we just binned the boots. While he was doing this, I got my folder of paperwork out of my hand luggage and got our e-tickets ready to check in for our flight.

We made our way to the departure point, and checked in via a self-service machine, dropping our cases off at the automated bag drop as before. Although, this was in a very quiet part of the airport and there were a couple of attendants there who were clearly bored and hadn’t seen any passengers for a while – they ‘helped’ us, even though we didn’t really need any help, and were very chatty and friendly!

Customs was also pretty deserted, and the normally solemn and curt customs officer laughed at my Minnie ears! We found our gate, and as we still had well over an hour before boarding, we got some coffee and settled ourselves down for a while. We finished off the Mickey cakes and pannetone, and DH also had a packet of fig roll biscuits, as we knew we wouldn’t be eating dinner tonight. I suddenly realised I hadn’t had the popcorn that DH had promised me I could have in the Disneyland Park! Oh well, there’s always next time.

We boarded on time, the flight was smooth and uneventful, and upon arrival at the airport our luggage came out fairly quickly. I rang my sister who then came and collected us, and we finally made it home by about 11.00 p.m. that night.

SUMMARY

Just before we left our hotel room for the last time, DH made me put down what I was doing, and gave me a huge hug. Which is not really unusual, but I asked him what that was for. He replied that it was to say thank you for the wonderful holiday, where we had laughed and had fun and generally acted like small kids for 5 days. He said it was so lovely to get in touch with your inner child, which is something you can do so easily at Disney, and no-one judges you or tells you to act your age or grow up. Aw.

Overall, we had a really good time at Disneyland Resort Paris. The parks were prettier than I remember, and it was so nice just to relax and enjoy each other’s company and our surroundings, without having to dash from one ride to another all the time. We sometimes felt we hadn’t done much each day, but then we did spend a lot of time just walking around, or sitting and relaxing on a nice bench somewhere, so I think we did make the most of our time there.

A couple of things we were extremely happy with :

1) The increased security, and the bag scans – this made us feel more secure around the parks, and greatly speeded up entry into the parks;
2) The attitude and manner of the Cast Members – they were much more fun and friendly than they had been on previous visits.
3) Salon Mickey – we LOVED this little shareholder perk, and would not hesitate to use this again. There is only limited space in there, and we had worried we would not be able to get in, but on this trip we didn’t have any problems at all.

And a couple of things that weren’t quite so top notch :

1) Several restaurants seemed to be randomly closed until 4.00 p.m. on occasions, for no discernable reason. It’s not even like we went out of season!
2) The breakdown levels of our top 3 rides in the Disneyland Park – Big Thunder Mountain, Phantom Manor, and Pirates of the Caribbean. I know sometimes this can’t be helped, but it did seem to happen an awful lot in just the 5 days we were there!
3) On almost all of the ride vehicles we experienced, not all the rows/boats/cars were being used, leaving empty seats at peak ride times, when surely CMs should have been trying to maximise load numbers. Seats appeared to be either broken or out of action for some reason, and this was apparent all around both parks. We were never given an explanation of this, but it did seem to be prevalent everywhere.
4) SMOKING POLICY!! Non-adherence to, but more importantly, no action taken by Cast Members at any time!! I have emailed Guest Relations about this, and am awaiting their response.

So, overall, we had a really great time on our anniversary trip, and will definitely return there, probably some time next year. On my return home, I promptly purchased the extra shares needed to maintain membership of the shareholder’s club!

Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoyed reading the report as much as I enjoyed writing it.

[chezp]

What a wonderful time you guys had!

You definitely made the right decision with your resort. I don't know if you saw Watchdog a couple of weeks ago, but one of the items was all the complaints
about the lack of facilities during the refurbishment of the Newport Bay Club.

I am so with you on the smoking policy, but I don't even bother to complain, which I know is wrong, but I always got the impression the Cast Members would never do anything about it if you did. I'm glad to hear you found the CMs more friendly on this trip, as that's always had an issue with on previous visits.

You certainly did get a great deal with that free dining, although they are doing some amazing offers right now. I still can't believe how little we've paid for our November trip staying in the Disneyland Hotel.

Thanks for sharing your trip with us - it's got me more enthused about our November visit!

[xwewhisper]

Thanks so much for sharing! We opted for sequoia after learning of the refurbishment and now I'm so excited for it. We have never been before and we are definitely going to try to get dinner at walts so it was great to hear you loved it!

[Disneybine]

I'm glad you had such a nice vacation - and what your DH said: awwwww

I hear ya about the smoking And when I was last at DLP in spring 2013, we had a LOT of trouble with rides being down as well. Seems like they aren't keeping up with the maintenance like they should, which is just sad.

Thanks for writing your trip report!