Day 5 - Disneyland Paris Trip Report

Good grief, where on earth has the last month gone?!! So sorry for the unintentional sabbatical, I'll carry on with the trip report now and try not to be gone so long this time!!

Thursday 13th February - Day 5

Sadly another terrible nights sleep for me - my ear was so so painful I couldn't get comfortable at all. I had some of those little hand warmers that you get from £1 shops and kept putting them on my ear as it was helping a little - I had to sneak the kettle into the bathroom so I could use it to reset them without waking anyone else up, would have been hilarious to watch I'm sure!! I gave up trying to sleep at 4am and started reading a book - had finished the whole thing by 8am when the others woke up lol. At this point I suddenly remembered that I'd popped some anti inflammatory tablets in the bag at the last minute but they were in a different pocket to the 'medicine bag' so took some of those and within an hour my ear started to feel better - couldn't believe it!!

Anyway, a quick look out of the window showed that it was absolutely pouring with rain - literally, throwing it down in bucket loads so we decided not to rush and have a lazy morning. When the cleaners arrived we were all still in pyjamas reading books, playing games and slowly starting our packing - they must have thought we were complete nutters being at Disneyland and vegging about in our pj's!!

We got washed & dressed and made our way to the parks at abut 11ish and the rain had all gone. We saw Goofy in his usual M&G spot and E wanted to see him again so we wandered over and hiding behind him was Donald Duck - yay, so so happy! Great photo ops here as Donald is so mischievous and was dancing with E. We then saw Goofy straight away - he is just brilliant, he pretended he was leaning on E's head but when E moved away he stayed in that position pretending not to notice he'd gone and then 'fell over' when he realised, just magical!!

We decided to take L over to Discoveryland next as we hadn't been there yet - the Autopia ride was shut (as usual, never seems to be open on my trips!!) and E is scared of the Buzz's Laser Blast ride so we hadn't really made much effort to visit up until that point. We had a good look round and then did a little shopping at one of the shops. We received a text from one friend to say that they were in the park too so we arranged to meet them at the Hakuna Matata restaurant in Adventureland in 20 minutes time.  We wandered via central plaza in front of Sleeping Beauty's castle and I asked a cast member if there was anything special happening for Valentine's Day tomorrow - sadly not he said, which was a shame. It started to rain again at that point so when we met our friends we had to huddle under a doorway to avoid a drenching! Was so nice seeing them - had a quick chat with them about what we had all been up to and E told them all about his character meets! Was such a shame that we'd had to change most of our dinner plans due to illness and couldn't spend more time with them this time.

We left them as they headed off to Walts Restaurant and we were going to go to the Toad Hall counter service restaurant, via the Aladdin photo op, to share some fish and chips as it had been open the day before - when we get there though it was shut, boo :( They have little signs up now though that show which counter service restaurants are open instead and really the only one near us was Chalet au Marionette, which I've never been to before. We locked up the buggy and headed indoors - it was raining a lot so it was packed inside but we queued up and were served fairly quickly. There weren't many seats so we ended up sharing a large bench seat / table with another English family. I was very pleasantly surprised by the food - L and I both had the half chicken and chips meal deal and E had a children's meal, the food was nice, hot and plentiful and we all enjoyed it. I think it cost approx 40 euros. When we left it was still pouring with rain and there was hardly anybody about - was a bit eery actually seeing it so quiet! The Flying Dumbo's were closed, presumably because of the weather so we headed to the Mickey Mouse M&G - it's indoors so thought it would be a good place to keep warm and dry for a bit.

The wait was 30 minutes (I think everyone had the same idea lol) but it flew by as there is a huge cinema style screen with fantastic traditional cartoons shown on it - E was belly laughing watching them and has kept asking about them since we returned home. We had a lovely time meeting Mickey and when we left it had stopped raining and the sun had come out with a beautiful rainbow stretched over Fantasyland - it looked so special and like it had been put there especially for the magical effects :)

Time for another ride on IASW, where I managed to hang onto all of my possessions this time haha. Time was getting on a bit now and we wanted to see Descent of the Stairs in the Disneyland Hotel (sort of a mini character procession down the main staircase) as we had missed it on our arrival day due to the late train. It wasn't too busy when we first arrived but the crowd soon built with everyone waiting patiently at the bottom of the staircase - for some reason though the characters didn't come down it and there was no music like usual, they just wandered out of a door next to the lifts instead. Bit of a shame but still lovely. Today's characters were Tweedle Dee & Dum, Mickey, Tigger, Eeyore, Goofy and Gideon (from Pinocchio) - we've met all of them on this trip except Gideon so we rushed over for a photo and autograph and then decided to leave as it was busy and we wanted to get a space for the parade. A friend of mine booked the same deal as us for the same dates but because of all the illnesses (her and her children were poorly too!) we hadn't managed to meet up yet - I text her to let her know where we were and realised that she was in the hotel meeting characters, we had literally just missed each other, so frustrating!!

We waited about 45 minutes for the parade - it had stopped raining and the sun was coming out but was now freezing cold with a biting wind. It doesn't matter how many times you see the parades at Disney, they are still just as magical and L said she thought it was better than the one she saw in Florida a few years ago.

 It was our last evening so I was desperate to stay and see Dreams, the night time show, but L and E were cold & all of our feet were hurting at this point so we agreed to head to the hotel for an hour to warm up and return later. We stopped at City Hall to see if we could bring our Cafe Mickey booking forward so we could eat instead of going to the hotel but they were fully booked until 10pm. Once back at the hotel, everybody was tired and wanted to rest before dinner. I was the only one who wanted to go back and wait for Dreams (E is still scared and doesn't want to watch - L is worn out!) so we didn't go back to the park and I STILL haven't seen it - more than gutted.

We walked back to the village for our 8pm reservation at Cafe Mickey and there was a huge queue however a lot of people hadn't reserved a table and were turned away - such a shame but really shows you need to book dining reservations before you go! We were seated upstairs, which is a first for us but it was really lovely, our table felt like it had more space round it and there was a great atmosphere. The usual characters were present - Mickey, Minnie, Tigger, Eeyore, Goofy & Pluto - who were all brilliant and really interacted with E, coming back to our table several times; he was bouncing off the walls with excitement. Pluto was also very happy to have a 'selfie' photo taken with us, which seemed to amuse everyone!! L and I didn't want the set menu but E had the children's one. We ordered a garlic pizza bread to share as a starter between the three of us (E wasn't fussed on the soup or salad option on the kids menu), L and I both had the fish and chips, E had pizza and we all had drinks - it was really very tasty and we couldn't eat all of our main course, probably shouldn't have had a big meal at lunchtime too! Total cost was 78 euros, which I was very pleased with as it can be very expensive to eat at Disneyland.

We took a slow walk back to the Hotel Santa Fe at 9.45pm (still big queues to get into Cafe Mickey at that point!!) - all completely shattered but we finished our packing and headed to bed sad that it was our last night :(

AFUK x

Day 4 - Disneyland Paris Trip Report

Day 4 at Disneyland Paris - Wednesday 12th February 2014

Not a good start, I had a terrible nights sleep - I had a horrible earache and sore throat and was up for about 4 hours in the night trying to find something in my huge 'medicine bag' that would stop it all hurting. L laughed at me when I first unpacked my stash of medicine (there's no pharmacy / dr at DLP) but I was extremely grateful for it all during this week!

I must have dozed off at some point because the next thing I knew it was 9am! We missed breakfast and got ready to head into the park - I was in a bit of a dazed stupor from the lack of sleep and medicines but we made it into the main park just after 10am and queued to meet Winnie the Pooh at his usual spot near Casey's Corner counter service restaurant. Whilst we were waiting we saw Tigger and Eeyore outside the Plaza Gardens restaurant on the opposite side of Main Street doing a M&G so we headed over there straight after meeting Winnie - this was a fabulous spot! It was a stunningly beautiful morning and the characters stood so that the castle was in the background of photo's - the Cast Member's very kindly took a photo of the three of us with both characters and it's one that I will treasure forever; just really sums up Disney and our trip to me in that shot!

We took L to Sleeping Beauty's and went upstairs to view the stained glass windows - we've never been outside on the balcony before as it's always been closed on our trips so it was a novelty and we had a lovely view out over Fantasyland. We then decided to have a look round Mickey's shop in Fantasyland (by the carousel - I can never remember what it's called!) but still there were no Frozen cuddly toys . As we left the shop we saw Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum opposite the entrance to Alice's Curious Labyrinth so ran over for more photo's and autographs. E thought they were absolutely hilarious because they pretended to pick their noses and flick bogies at him - boys are revolting, even at this age!!!

It was then time for another ride on IASW as E was having withdrawal symptoms hehe, we saw Rabbit and Piglet doing a M&G but their queue line was closed so the Cast Member told us to come back at 12:15, which was only about 20 minutes away. We had a lovely ride round IASW in a quiet boat but I realised when we got off that I must have dropped my hat in the boat - it's a good job that it wasn't too cold that day! We waited for about ten minutes for Piglet and Rabbit but there was no sign of them so we gave up and wandered back the way we'd come - Dee & Dum had gone but Alice was there instead - yay! We queued and got her autograph, she was really lovely chatting with E and thought it amusing that their names were very similar - I got some great photo's of them together. As we were so close to the maze, E insisted that we had another go round and we had a fantastic view from the balcony as it was such a beautiful day.

We wanted to try and see if Peter and Wendy were out again today so headed towards Adventureland but stopped at the loos for L - whilst we waited for her Hook and Smee walked past and Smee rubbed E on the top of his head to say hello, I had one  very very happy boy even though they were obviously the last ones out at the photo location because there was no Peter and Wendy sadly. E was desperate for more Baloo cuddles (I think we have a new favourite in this family now haha) so back round we went and he was there - yippee!

By this point I was really flagging - everything was catching up with me so we just wandered around taking in the atmosphere and did some 'people watching' for a bit. After an hour or so we walked back to the Hotel Santa Fe and rested for a while. We had a sandwich in the bar at the hotel before heading back to our room.

Very frustrating day as I so wanted to do more, especially on a glorious winters day but it just wasn't meant to be - very early night instead!

AFUK x

Day 3 - Disneyland Paris trip report

Day 3 of our Disneyland Paris trip report - Tuesday 11th February 2014 

E woke up at 6am - very, very unlike him on one of our DLP trips as usually we all sleep later from all the excitement and walking about; it's one of the things I love lol. On this trip there was only Extra Magic Hours (EMH) on two of our five mornings and this was one of them but typically, not expecting to be up and ready, we had booked to have a character breakfast at the restaurant Cafe Mickey (CM) in the Disney Village. We decided that it would be too much of a rush to do an hour in the park and then back to CM in time for breakfast so instead we had a relaxing couple of hours having showers, getting ready etc and left the hotel just before 9am to walk to the village.

We arrived early but they let us in and before we'd even taken our coats off and sat down Gepetto from Pinocchio came over to give E a cuddle. L was very impressed with breakfast and we all enjoyed the hot buffet.  We filled up on the pastries and fruit (no croissants though, they'd run out unfortunately) to prepare us for the day ahead. Before our trip E had said that he wanted to find Chip & Dale because we couldn't find them on our Christmas visit so he was absolutely over the moon when they were at breakfast - he couldn't stop cuddling them and was saying 'look Mummy, they remember me from when I saw them on my first holiday'; he was only 2 on his first visit so I was amazed he remembered so much about it! He also saw Mickey, Goofy and Pluto before we left at 10.20ish and walked to the Studios park.

It seemed really busy in the Studios that morning but I think it was probably because Crush's Coaster, one of the most popular 'thrill' rides, wasn't open yet (technical issue I think) so there was a huge queue snaking across the central section of the park between two of the theatres that took some negotiating!

We had a wander round past a little area where Buzz Lightyear & Mickey Mouse were doing M&G's (big queues, we decided to leave it for another day) and headed to Toy Story Playland - this is a fairly recent addition to the Disney Studios and, as is fairly self explanatory, is themed around the Toy Story movies! E wanted to see the giant Rex the dinosaur but he still didn't want to go on any rides so we just showed L around and E had fun pretending to drive the RC Racer remote control car in his 'car wash', which is basically just another little area to take copious amounts of photo's! 

We walked over to watch one of the theatre shows, Cinemagique, but I hadn't read the programme properly and hadn't realised that it actually closed today for the DLP AGM but all was not lost as just as we arrived Remy, the rat from the Ratatouille film, came out for a M&G. We rushed over and were second in the queue - yippee! We had quick cuddles and he signed E's autograph book, which he was very happy about. As we were having our photo taken more characters - Mushu (the dragon from Milan), Lilo & Stitch, Daisy Duck and Woody from Toy Story - came out from behind the scenes.

Remy from Ratatouille

We had great fun queueing to meet them all except Mushu who we missed as by the time we'd seen the others his queue line was closed. E loved meeting Woody - he was totally in awe and completely dwarfed by him as he was so, so tall. 

I always feel a little bit lost in the Disney Studios Park as it doesn't have the same magic for me as the main park so when E said that he'd had enough and wanted to leave we popped to the shop by the entrance for a look around. L bought E a lovely china plate and little cup for home which we arranged to have sent back to the hotel to collect later on in the day and we then left the studios (with high fives to the funny cast member at the gate lol) and walked over to the main park instead.

When we got into the park we walked past Goofy, Minnie & Duffy and decided that we'd start by purchasing the soft toys that E wanted. When we visited in November we bought him the soft toy versions of Anna and Olaf (characters from the Disney Frozen movie) and, in addition to that, he got the Elsa one for Christmas so I'd promised that we could get Sven & Kistoff on this trip to almost complete the set - he'd seen them in the shops on Main Street in November but being the mean mummy that I am I'd said that he couldn't have them all so he chose Anna & Olaf. An hour into our search we've scoured all the shops along Main Street and I have that horrible sinking feeling in my tummy when none of them have a single Frozen soft toy for sale. Plenty of other merchandise (although the clothing is all for girls - very frustrating!) but not the ones we wanted. Uh oh! I distracted E by telling him we'd try some other shops later on and we headed to Frontierland to have a look round. The queue times for rides were very short most for most of this week as it's a quiet time of year to go - this morning it was only a ten minute wait for Big Thunder Mountain, which is another popular thrill ride. As it was only me that wanted to ride anything we didn't stop - one day soon I'm just going to go and do all the rides by myself haha!

We enjoyed showing L the lake around the ride and where the paddle boats normally are (they were being refurbished so weren't running, which is a shame) and showed her the Pochohantas Play Village for younger children, which was also closed (apparently due to the weather although it was a beautiful sunny day!) and then headed across towards Adventureland. As we went past the Hakuna Matata restaurant on our left we saw King Louis from the Jungle Book doing a M&G on the right - he gave great cuddles but E was a little disappointed that he couldn't sign his book lol. Usually at the Cast Members are able to stamp the autograph books for characters that can't hold a pen or are unable to sign but there wasn't one for King Louis unfortunately.

E wanted to see if Peter Pan and Wendy were out again today so we headed over to their M&G and saw Captain Hook - he makes E very nervous so he was not sure about him but the Cast Member explained that he was just closing the queue for Hook but if we wanted to join it and wait a few minutes Peter & Wendy would be along, so we waited. We chatted to some people in the queue whilst we were waiting who were also character hunting today - we had good fun comparing who we'd all met and then Peter & Wendy arrived! All of a sudden E was very shy - so far, none of the characters he'd met had been 'face' characters so hadn't spoken & he was thrown a bit that Peter & Wendy wanted to chat!! They were absolutely fantastic with him, really brought him out of his shell by asking where he lives and if it was near Neverland etc They signed his book and had photos taken with him and then they said that Tinkerbell had been to sprinkle fairy dust on him and 'flew' him down the steps back to me - it was just magical and since we got home he's not stopped telling people that Wendy & Peter taught him how to fly up in the sky, brings a lump to my throat every time!

E decided that he could actually go on a ride now and wanted to go on the 'big dragon horse' on the carousel so off we went and I lifted him onto this giant horse on the outside of the carousel - for a child who is scared of everything I have no idea how he was happy sitting that high up!! We had fun going round and waving to Nanny each time we saw her. After that he said he wanted to do IASW again but L needs the loo so we headed there first - whilst we wait for her (couldn't possibly go in, what with all those flushing toilets lol) E said he was really cold and wanted to get in the buggy so he sat down and I wrapped him up in the blanket that I keep underneath it - he was asleep within seconds! Bearing in mind he hasn't used a buggy at home for about two years it felt very odd having him nap in it. 

We decided that as he was asleep we'd have a nosey around the shops that we had missed out earlier - Tigger & Eeyore were doing a M&G outside the Plaza Gardens restaurant but we didn't want to do it without E so we walked past. We went down Discovery Arcade (covered walkways down each side of Main Street) and headed straight for Harringtons - I love this shop so much, it sells beautiful glassware, crystal and other trinkets but I don't ever dare take E in it when he's awake as he would want to touch and pick everything up! L bought a glass for my niece and we watched whilst her name was engraved on it. She also bought her a beautiful tiara in there and it was only 15 euros - she's 10 years old so maybe a little bit old for a tiara generally but she's an Irish Dancer and has to wear one when she's in competitions so should be perfect for her.

We left the park and wandered round World of Disney megastore before heading back to our room for a rest. It turned out to be an extended rest as E slept for 3.5 hours!! Unheard of! I think the few days of being poorly and the early start had finally caught up with him.

When he finally woke up we decided to go back to the park to watch Dreams, which is a light and laser show projected onto Sleeping Beauty's castle, and then go to our reservation at Cape Cod in the Newport Bay hotel but as we walked out of our room it was absolutely pouring with rain! We started to walk along the river but we hadn't taken the buggy and L was really struggling against the weather so we diverted into the Sequoia Lodge hotel instead of going to the park and decided on an early dinner in Hunters Grill restaurant instead as I love this buffet.

It was lovely and quiet and the food was brilliant as always - the only down side was that I wasn't paying proper attention when I was using the food tongs and lifted my hand a bit too high, burning it on the heat lamps that kept the food hot. I took an ice cube out of my drink and wrapped it in a napkin but it was very quickly apparent that I needed something more substantial on it so I asked the waiter for some more ice and he brought me a large cup full with a stack of napkins - very embarrassing!! I had to sit through the whole meal with it wrapped up, repeatedly changing it as the heat from the burn kept melting the ice! We had a really enjoyable meal other than that and when we were finished we popped upstairs to look round the hotel boutique (still no Frozen soft toys - eek) and sat by the fire in the bar. More and more people were coming back to the hotel soaked from the rain that didn't seem to be letting up so we decided that we should head back to the Hotel Santa Fe, we needed to collect L's shopping from earlier in the day and E wanted to FaceTime Daddy again so we went to the bar via the shop.

Another day was over already, time flies when you're having fun!!

AFUK x

Disneyland Paris - trip report!

Apologies for the radio silence - we've carried on the illness theme here, feels like it's been going on all winter!!

So, we've been back from Disneyland Paris for two weeks now - the time has flown by! I thought I'd share a trip report and some photo's with you so I can relive a little bit of the magic. It's a day by day account so you might not find it very interesting (sorry!) but, if you're into anything Disney or are planning a future trip, you might find it a little helpful :)

Cast - Me, Little Man (E) and my mother in law (L) on her first ever trip to the Paris parks

We travelled by Eurostar from Ashford International train station and stayed at the Disney Hotel Santa Fe (budget hotel).  

We left home just after midday on Saturday 8th February and headed down to Ashford, we had a room booked at the Premier Inn at Eureka Park and have stayed here twice before so knew what to expect. We were checked in within minutes and headed to our room whilst hubby turned the car around and headed back home as he had decided not to join us on this trip - says he's 'Disney-d out', honestly how is that possible haha?!

Had a lovely meal in the Beefeater next door although E was getting a bit grumpy towards the end - we've both been really poorly leading up to this trip as you know and haven't had a lot of sleep but thankfully we were both feeling much better today so wanted to get back for an early night.

E is asleep by 7 so L and I just chat, read and watch tv until we decide to get some sleep too. At about 2.30am I hear some 'revellers' come back to their room but nothing major and I go back to sleep. At 4am they are right outside our room and are very drunk - not abusive at all but just that drunk way in which you have no idea of time & volume control lol. L wakes up and we have a little giggle at the grown man almost crying like a toddler at his friends because he's lost his socks and nobody likes him! Half an hour later they're still going and now E is awake so I'm not finding it quite so amusing - I stick my head out the door and ask them politely if they could move away a little bit as they've woken us all up. They were all very apologetic in their slurry way and decided that it might be a good idea to go back to their room. Nice and quiet again and E and L go back to sleep but I'm wide awake, grr. I decide to read until the others wake up at 7.30 and then we head down to breakfast, which was fab as always.

I'd asked the hotel to call a taxi for us to go to the train station and when we checked out they asked how our night had been - we had a little chuckle and told them about the drunk people but weren't complaining at all; it was a Saturday night in a Premier Inn after all, I imagine they see much worse things but they immediately said that they were going to refund the cost of our room - very impressed as hadn't even thought to mention it to them and was only a passing comment as they'd asked!

Anyway, taxi arrives and we have a hilarious driver - really sweet older man who gives us lots of tips about what to do at the station (didn't like to tell him we've done it several times before, bless him!) and asks E lots of questions about who he's going to see.

Straight through at the station and no other passengers at security so we're really early but get a drink and snack to pass the time. I decide to ask at the Disney Express desk if we can pay here for our luggage to be taken to the hotel or if we have to wait until we arrive - the staff member says that we have to pay on arrival but if we confirm that we want it he'd take our details and phone ahead to have our tickets and documents sent over to the station so we can go straight to the parks, I never knew this part of the service existed so we were very happy about that and gave our details over.

At this point it's obvious that E needs the loo (he's dancing on his toes, he's that desperate!) - now on our November trip to Disneyland he developed a complete phobia of the automatically flushing toilets in the park. Sadly, it's stayed with him and he is now terrified of public toilets. Not great at all. We have lots and lots of tears as he is desperate but wants to try and wait until we reach the hotel - obviously, not an option and by now I'm worrying that he's going to give himself an infection trying to hold it in! In the end I literally have to pick him up, take him into the disabled toilet (thought there'd be less stress with nobody else around) and stand and wait for him to go, whilst he fights me trying to get away - it was very, very stressful and I was almost in tears watching him be so scared. Thankfully he went and was then very proud of himself - I can't even imagine what everyone else in the departure lounge thought of us, him in tears and me walking him back and forth to the toilets trying to coax him into going in!!!

Not a great start to the trip but it's one hurdle over and done with so I think the day can't get any worse. Wrong. We head to the lift to get down to the platform and head to our carriage. We get all the luggage on the train, sit down and then there's an announcement to say that only one of the tunnels is operating so we can't leave Ashford until at least 11.45 - it's currently 11 o'clock :( Disappointed groans all round but we play games and chat to the very friendly people in front of us and then the train leaves at 11.45 - hooray!! Or not. The train manager announces that we're only going as far as the tunnel and then we have to wait again - for another half an hour :( Boo hiss. By this time, the lack of sleep and the stressful morning are starting to catch up with me. E and all the other kids in our carriage are behaving brilliantly, they really were stars. We finally get into the tunnel but there's speed restrictions so takes approx 35 minutes to go through (normally only about 20 minutes) and then we are finally on our way, We arrive at Marne La Vallee train station, which is just outside the park entrance, 95 minutes late but we're here!!

Bit of light reading to pass the boredom on a delayed train!

We head upstairs to the Disney Express desk and it's chaos - everyone from our train is trying to leave their luggage whilst the people due to go home on the direct Eurostar service are trying to collect theirs and check in at the same time. Anyway, we find the right desk to collect our tickets and pay our fees to have the luggage taken to the hotel (16 euros per adult) and then escape the station.

We head to the main park and I'm expecting the parks to be heaving as it's a Sunday but it wasn't nearly as bad as I had feared. We go to see the castle and E just doesn't seem very excited to be here at all, which is really unlike him (it's his third trip). I ask him if he's ok and he starts to cry saying that he has earache and doesn't feel well :( We head to It's A Small World (IASW) to see if that will cheer him up as it's his favourite ride - it's a little boat ride that meanders along a river, through different countries of the world, with appropriate scenery - but he is very quiet and is crying again by the time the ride ends. It's dry but very windy in the park and the wind is bitterly cold so we decide we'll go to the hotel and write off today, only it's parade time and we can't get out easily through the crowds waiting to see it! We eventually find our way out though thankfully. By this time E is sobbing as his ear hurts so much . We head to the bus stop to get our hotel shuttle and wait for ten minutes, the crowds are huge and he's really, really upset so we give up and decide to walk instead - back through security we go! It feels like the longest walk ever with a poorly, crying boy but we eventually make it to the hotel and collect our key - we stayed at the Hotel Santa Fe, which is a budget Disney onsite hotel and has recently been refurbished in a Cars (the film) theme, so there's lots of little touches of that around like traffic cone lamps and Lightning McQueen pictures etc. After checking in, we go to get our luggage from the store room but the shuttle bus has just arrived and there's a huge queue so we decide to leave it and come back later. I had emailed the hotel the week before we left to see if we could have a room near reception and a kettle (so English haha!) - the hotel is set out in blocks, like an American style motel I think and we were in block 53, which is down by the river but we did have a kettle so were very happy about that! Poor E is cold and tired now so I pop him in a warm bath whilst L goes back to get the first lot of luggage - she can't carry / drag it all at once and E is being very clingy to me so I can't instead so she has to make two trips, this day is getting better and better lol.

Anyway, finally we have all the luggage and E is warm again and after cuddles he is feeling a bit better. We have a 7pm reservation at Chuck Wagon Cafe, at the Hotel Cheyenne next door (well, just across the river) so head over there. I've never been to the Cheyenne before and I just love the theming - it's a Wild West / Cowboy set up, great fun! Sadly, the food was awful :( The chicken was undercooked and still raw in the middle, potatoes were very dry, the bread stale but the chocolate dessert was fab - I think it was just the end of a very bad day and we gave up trying anything else so all just ate copious amounts of pudding! 

I was exhausted and now felt really ill myself, we just all needed to get to sleep so back to the Hotel Santa Fe for more baths / showers and then early nights all round.

So that's the end of day 1 - I will post day 2 soon :)

AFUK x

And we're off...

...well almost!

The germs are finally starting to evacuate the building and we are all on the mend at last! We've hibernated as much as possible avoiding pre-school, toddler groups I volunteer at, work for a day, swimming lessons etc etc and I *think* that we are on our way back to normal (touches wood, crosses fingers!!).

And just in time because tomorrow we are off to Ashford, Kent to stay overnight before we head off on the Eurostar to Disneyland Paris on Sunday!

Yes, again.

I know, I know. It is a bit greedy but this is kind of an accidental holiday.  I saw a holiday that was clearly mis-priced and booked it on the off chance that the company would honour the reservation, never expecting them to.  I spoke to them several times and have had many email conversations but they've assured me that the booking has been honoured so we are off on our bargain of the century trip in 1 more sleep - hooray!

We were initially going with some friends but due to unforeseen circumstances they can't make it now and hubby is 'Disney'd out' and doesn't want to go again (we were only there 3 months ago to be fair!) so my mother in law is coming with me and little man for her first ever trip to the Paris parks - we're really looking forward to it and if we can drag ourselves away from the fun & magic we might even venture into Paris this time too although we've been before so not the end of the world if we don't make it this time.  We will miss our friends as would have been fantastic to have them with us but we're going to do a little holiday report for them so will feel like they're there with us too :)

Now just to wrestle with the rest of the packing and we can be on our way tomorrow - let's just hope the weather plays ball, I'm not liking the look of the massive storm heading our way and have everything crossed it doesn't do any major damage.

I'll report back when we get home - au revoir!

AFUK x