'Practically Perfect in Every way' - Summer 2011 Trip

[Princess Clayre]

Day Five

We were up around 7.30am this morning, got ready and finished the last of the packing. We dropped the bags off with the luggage store and dropped the keys in the box, all very efficient. We went off to breakfast and were shown to the Manhattan Restaurant. I was quite pleased as now we had tried all 3 options. We found the same great breakfast selection as the previous 2 days.

We had decided to head back to the Studios again today. Jack wanted to ride the Parachutes, Cars and Crush again and we still hadn’t seen Animagique or the Stunt show. We were let into the studios early again and waited at the rope drop for Toy Story Playland. First we rode the Parachutes, I do love this little announcement video:

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Next we rode Cars Race Rally (15 min wait) before headed across for the 11.15 showing of Cars, Motor, Action! We picked up some FPs for TOT along the way. We never seen this show before and were really impressed. I’d not told Jack about Lightening McQueen so he was surprised when he made an appearance.

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After the show it was time for our TOT slot time. Jack still couldn’t be persuade to ride so Justin went first while I waited with Jack. Unfortunately despite having FPs it still took Hubby over 30 minutes to ride and as we wanted to catch the 12.45 showing of Animagique I never got my go. We made it just in time for the Animagique showing. We all loved this, especially Jack as Donald is his favourite character. We had 1.30pm reservations for Cafe Mickey so started making our way there next, singing the Animagique song along the way!

There was no-one in front of us at Cafe Mickey’s so we were seated straight away to the main downstairs part of the restaurant. We had 8 characters; Mickey, Pluto, Gepetto, Mr Smee, Friar Tuck, Chip & Dale. Friar Tuck was great fun and really made up for being a less familiar character. Jack was pleased to get Chip & Dale as he missing his two side teeth at the moment and show we alway says he look like dale at the moment. He proudly demonstrated this to dale

I’d read very mixed reviews about the food but we were very pleased with our choice. Hubby and I both had the Simba's Black Angus Burger. These we one of the best burgers we’d ever had. Jack had the Mickey Pasta. His plate was cleared so it must a have good. The kids dessert buffet is really a sweet fest I said yesterday that I had the Gourmet Coffee at Walts but actually i’ve just realised it was here I had it!

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Our aim was to leave for Paris about 17.30 so we had time to fit in 1 or 2 finally rides. We all decided that no matter what the queue was it had to be Crush! We headed back to the parks and over to Crush that was a 55min wait time. The only slight down side was that it was super hot by this time and there’s not much shade at the start of the queue but within 15 mins we were safely in the shade.

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The ride was just as good as the first time. I even managed to pick up more details on the twisty bit this time! We all left the studios taking a few last photo’s and feeling very sad

We headed back through the village and up to the HNY. We’d promised Jack the previous evening that he could have a go on the Inflatable ball things before we left but they weren’t quite ready yet so we had a stroll over to the Sequoia Lodge for a look. When we got back the ball things still weren’t open so we decided to have a go the balloon instead. Because it was such a beautiful day the views were incredible. We could see all the way to Paris. I have to stay I wasn’t keen in how the thing wobbles though

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We picked up our bags and sadly made our way to the RER station. This was such a heartbreaking moment as Jack burst into tears the moment he pass through the barriers. It took all my effort not to cry too. We promised we would could back soon and we still had lots to look forward to in Paris. It took him a good 10 minutes to calm down.

The RER came quickly and we boarded ready to go to Paris. The one was drama before we left though as a girl almost left on the train without her mother as she was too busy finishing her cigarette outside!!!!! If it wasn’t for a guy stood near the door that managed to force the door back open I don’t know what they would have done. The mother didn’t even say thank-you to him

So there it was the end of our Disneyland Paris trip, so many wonderful moments and memories we will never forget. We will certainly not be leaving it 13 years till the next visit this time.

If anyone wants to hear about the Paris part, just say and i'll continue

 

[Ms Poppins]

That was lovely Poor Jack having a wee cry leaving DLP. That's how I feel every time.

Love the pictures from the balloon. It's been a good few years since we've done that and planned to do, but just ran out of time - a good reason to go back

Thanks for posting, love all the pictures and you all seem to have had a great time

I'd like to hear about the Paris bit if you can be bothered

 

[markpsych]

Great report and pictures, thanks so much for sharing....Paris next please

 

[Princess Clayre]

Love the pictures from the balloon. It's been a good few years since we've done that and planned to do, but just ran out of time - a good reason to go back /QUOTE]

I have to say whilst the view was incredible I wasn't keen on the feeling of being suspended. Not sure i'd brave it again

Great report and pictures, thanks so much for sharing....Paris next please

Thank-you. I'll start on the Paris bit next week

 

[tinkertaylor05]

Looks like a wonderful trip. I never get tired reading reports and seeing kids looking so happy

 

[kizzabel]

Aaaaaah poor Jack getting upset
Fantastic TR. The weather looked great. Looking forward to the Paris bit

 

[dontcallmeprincess]

Excellent review! Sounds like you all had a wonderful time! Y'know, each thread makes me a little more excited for our upcoming trip. So glad you found Jack's bear. Darrell has a meltdown if he leaves Jessie at nursery, never mind completely losing her...

 

[jothp]

I have finally found time to get to the end of your report. It looks like you had a wonderful time and didn't queue for too long either which makes me really hopeful for our trip.

Looking forward to reading about the paris part

 

[Princess Clayre]

I have finally found time to get to the end of your report. It looks like you had a wonderful time and didn't queue for too long either which makes me really hopeful for our trip.

Looking forward to reading about the paris part

We did seem to be really lucky with the queue's. I was expecting alot more, especially with being there over a weekend. I had made a list before we went of which rides tend to build queues quickly and which were usually walk ons and worked around that. Have Fun

Excellent review! Sounds like you all had a wonderful time! Y'know, each thread makes me a little more excited for our upcoming trip. So glad you found Jack's bear. Darrell has a meltdown if he leaves Jessie at nursery, never mind completely losing her...

Thank-you. I will be forever indented to the Eurostar staff for letting me go back for that bear!

Aaaaaah poor Jack getting upset
Fantastic TR. The weather looked great. Looking forward to the Paris bit

We were so lucky with the weather I'm sure the trip may have been different if it had rained all the time. I'm aiming to star the Paris bit soon!

Looks like a wonderful trip. I never get tired reading reports and seeing kids looking so happy

Thank-you.

 

[River<3Mickey]

Loving your trip report, well loving it til the sad bit leaving.

 

[Ware Bears]

Really enjoyed reading this and looking at your lovely photos. Thank goodness you got Jack's bear back! On our first trip to Florida my youngest DD (7 at the time) was so excited she left her teddy on the plane, luckily one of the stewardesses spotted it before it was too late - phew!

They did trial fastpass on Crush a few years ago but it wasn't successful - can't remember why now, it was either because it's too slow-loading a ride or because it caused a bottle-neck by the Magic Carpets but whatever the reason they didn't make it permanent.

Glad you liked Walt's - it's my favourite DLP restaurant. I think you were in the Fantasyland room.

I do hope you continue your trippie with Paris.

 

[tennisfan]

Fabulous report, glad you all enjoyed Disney & you got to meet Rafiki, I will have to try & spot him next week. Awesome photos

 

[Princess Clayre]

Loving your trip report, well loving it til the sad bit leaving.

Thank-you

Fabulous report, glad you all enjoyed Disney & you got to meet Rafiki, I will have to try & spot him next week. Awesome photos

Thanks. Rafiki seem to be a permanent part of the magic moments Jungle Rhythms, swapping between him, timone, king louie & baloo, so hopefully you will get to meet him.

Glad you liked Walt's - it's my favourite DLP restaurant. I think you were in the Fantasyland room.

I do hope you continue your trippie with Paris.

I think it could have been Fantasyland, there were a lot of princess pictures about. I confused me though as the decor was green.

Paris bit to follow soon. Been sidetracked with mine and Jack's birthdays the last couple of weeks

 

[Princess Clayre]

Finally i've got around to writing some of the Paris part!

So we left off as we were just leaving Disneyland Paris

We took the RER train directly to Charles De Gaulle Etolite station. We located the exit for Champs Elysees and left the station. As we came up the escalator we were greeted by the sight of the Arc De Troimphe! Such amazing detail in this building. We walked down the Champs Elysees and found our hotel, the Marriott Champs Elysees. All I can say is WOW. We’re Marriott rewards members redeemed loads of points for our stay here but boy was it worth it. As you enter the hotel you are greeted by the most beautiful staircase. The lobby is light and airy with a glass domed top. I lovely guy called Leo quickly checked us in and we were off to our room. There was more wow’s as we entered the room, it was large, spacious and elegantly decorated

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It was about 7.30 by this time and had been such a hot day that we decided not to head out anywhere but to relax in the hotel this evening. We went down to the hotel bar, where I treated myself to the Pink Paris cocktail and hubby brought the most expensive beer he probably ever had

Went to bed around 10.30pm after a bit of unpacking.

Day Six - How Long is that Queue?

We woke up late this morning around 9.30am. We got ready and headed out on the Champs Elysees for breakfast. We had spotted a nice looking coffee shop a couple of shops down the night before and headed there. We enjoyed coffee’s & orange juices and the most delicious pastries while sat on the outside patio of the coffee shop in the sun

Our plan today was to use the Batobus to take in the sights along the river and visit the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame & Tuileries Gardens. We headed to the Champs Elysees stop of the Batobus which is located just by Pont Alexandre III.

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We purchased our a 1 day pass (€14 for adults & €7 for children) and waited to board the boat.We really enjoyed using the batobus, it’s certainly not the fastest method of transport but on a nice day it’s a lovely way to see some of the sights. The boats go around a one way system so this first trip we went up the river turning at the Eiffle Tower, then down pass Musee D’Orsay and down to Notre Dame where we got off the boat. It was about 12.30 by the time we reach Notre Dame and super hot. There was quite a queue to get into the catherdral so we decided to buy some baguette and cold drink and sit in the park for a bit.

Then we joined the queue to get into Notre Dame. Although it was a big queue to moved very fast and once inside it wasn’t too crowded. The stained glass windows look spectacular with the sun beaming through. I managed to get some lovely photo using the natural light setting on my camera.

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After Notre Dame we walked across the Siene to the Hotel De Ville stop to catch the boat. This cut out part of the loop to save us a bit of time. We travelled down down the the Louvre stop where we disembark ready to visit Tulleries Gardens. We went pass the Louvre Pyramid and then enjoyed a walk through Tulleries Garden stoping at the outdoor cafe for some ice creams as we were flagging in the heat. Next stop was the Eiffle Tower so we head back to the Batous taking in Place De Concorde out the way.

We arrive at the Eiffle Tower around 4.30pm to be greeted by a mass of people and a very long queue. Now i’d heard the queues are bad so was partly prepared for this but this turned out to be the slowest moving queue ever!!! (second only to US immigration on a bad day.....)We waited and we waited and we waited, almost giving up at one stage. They closed the summit at one point during our wait but Jack said he still wanted to wait and just see the second level. In total we waited for just under 2 hours from the start of the queue to boarding the elevators!!!!!! Now for reference you can pre-book your tickets online which gives you access to a different queue. We spoke to some-one who had done this and they’re queue was around 30 mins.

The Queue:

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Just as we were about to board Jack noticed the summit had re-opened but with a 45 minute wait. There was no way we wanted to go back to change our tickets now and didn’t really want to stand in another long queue so we promised we come back another time and do the top. We finally got on the elevators, Jack thought it was cool that they we double-decker ones. The views were great but I noticed there was actually no queue to go up to summit and was gutted we hadn’t now got tickets. But around the corner I noticed there was a kiosk to upgrade your tickets Hooray! I distracted Jack so Hubby could go and changed our tickets without him knowing. We looked around a bit more and then said we better go. We pretended we were heading back down but went on the elevator to go up. Jack commented that it was a different elevator but we said they must just use a difference one to go down Went the lift start Jack said ‘Hey were going up!’ We told him ‘Surprise!’ We had one excited little boy. The views from the top were incredible. We treated ourselves to a glass of Champagne to celebrate making it to the top!

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[Princess Clayre]

View from the Top:

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[Aurynn]

A lovely report. Thank you for sharing

I love the Eiffel tower but the queue is murder.

 

[Ms Poppins]

Great! We enjoyed the bus tour too - and loved the Tower. We were part of an organised tour from DLP so we only queued about 10 minutes to get in.

Love your pictures, and how lovely to surprise your ds with going to the top!

 

[Princess Clayre]

Day Six cont....

From the top of the tower we caught the elevator back down to the first floor. I’d printed the children’s quiz off the website before we went and Jack was still keen to complete this. For any kids that are into this kind of thing there are copies available free while your there. It was fairly quiet on this level so Jack could dash from one clue to another within being in anyone’s way! A thunder stormed started while we were on this level which was desperately needed as the humidity had reach a horrible level.

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Quiz completed and a few souvenirs brought we headed off the eiffel Tower. It was 9pm by this time and we decided to try walking back to the hotel as it didn’t look too far from the view off the Eiffel Tower. This was probably not the best idea. It was about a 30 minute walk, which usually wouldn’t have been that bad, but after a long hot day we were really flagging by the time we reach the hotel. We were also very hungry as we hadn’t eaten dinner yet. Too tired to head back out again we ordered room service and crashed in the room, finally getting to bed around 11pm.

Day Severn - Is that the time!

All the late nights had really caught up on us by this morning. It was our finally day and the main aim was to see the Musee D’Orsay. It was already nearly 10am by the time we woke up so we got ready quickly, me packing again (I was fed up of packing by this time!) and hubby popped down to the coffee shop to pick up breakfast. We checked out, stored our bags and headed out. It was 11.30am by this time and with our Eurostar booked at 4.30pm time was against us. We caught the metro down to the Tuileries stop using some of the tickets from our carnet and took the short 10 minute walk to the Musee D’Orsay which is just across the bridge from the Tuileries Gardens.

As we came around the corner we were greeted by.......yes another queue! Now for any Dr Who fans this did make us smile. We stood there saying ‘I’m sure the Doctor didn’t have to wait in a queue!’ he he. Luckily it was a fast moving queue and so we were in the museum within about 15 mins. The entrance fee was a bargain as Eurostar have a deal of 2 for 1 on entry. You just shown your ticket to the desk and Jack was free. All us for just €8!

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I’d read before we went that they we renovating the museum and some of the exhibits had be moved or may possibly be on display but I hadn’t realized how bad this would be. I’m a big impressions fan and sadly only about half of this collection is now out and unfortunately there were no Van Gogh’s at all that weekend. You also couldn’t visit the clock part Having been my favorite Paris museums from my last trip to Paris I was disappointed but i’m sure it will be wonderful again once the renovations are finish.

We left the museum around 1.30pm and found a lovely restaurant around the corner for lunch. It was called La Frigate and I would really recommend it for anyone visiting. The wait staff are charming, the food was really good and the decor is traditional parisian cafe style.

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It was 2.45 ish by the time we finished lunch so we had to start making our way to the Eurostar. We caught the metro back to the hotel, collected our bags and then caught the RER back to Gare Du Nord. We got a little lost navigating to the Eurostar check-in and so when we finally made it there was only 25 mins until our train I thought they might tell us we were too late but the tickets scanned fine and luckily we went straight though security, phew. I would NOT recommend leaving it this tight!

So that brings us to the end of our trip. The trip home was very uneventful. 2 hour Eurostar journey, a simple tube journey across from St Pancras to Paddington and then a long 3 and a half hour journey back to Hereford, of which for the last hour of it we had the whole first class carriage to ourselves! We arrived back about 11pm, tired but saying what a truly great trip it had been. Six weeks on and we’re still talking about it and of course keeping an eye out for a good deal to return We’ve also downloaded ‘Just like we dreamed it’ from itunes which we put on to cheer us up.

Thank-you to everyone that has read my report. I hope you have found it useful. It has been lovely to write and brought back lots of good memories of the trip.

THE END

 

[MazdaUK]

This has been so useful - we are planning on going to DLRP (and staying in HNY!) next year, end July/beginning August. I was so please to note the crowds did not seem to be too horrendous! I'm really hoping to see fireworks this time - they've never been on when we've been before