Ms Poppins
I'm sure I'm very affected by all this Disney talk
- Joined
- Mar 14, 2009
As the title says this is a wee trip down memory lane for me.....I've been clearing out the cupboard with all our photos and came across an autograph book, in which I'd written a trip report of our very first visit to Disneyland Paris in 1998.
So, as I am now a self confessed Dis geek, and given that my family no longer speak to me on Disney related matters - I thought I'd bore you lot with some trips from the past. This is really only for my benefit, so if you don't go any further I won't be offended
Also, the photos may be a bit suspect as I've had to photo them from the photo album and put onto laptop - I did not have such devices in them days
Our first trip to the Magic
The Cast:
Me, Julie - 23 - so excited I could hardly breathe
DH, John - 27 - going with it
DS, Mark - 4 - disney maniac
DD, Abbey - nearly 1 - no idea where she was
Monday 4th May 1998
This was Mark's 4th birthday. We woke at 5:30 and phoned my dad to wake him as he was taking us to the airport. Got there in plenty of time, checked in and had some breakfast. The flight took off on time, 08:35 and the kids seemed fine. We had to change aircrafts at East Midlands, so by the time we actually got to CDG it was about 13:00. We followed the signs for the VEA bus, and took the only seats left, right on the back row.
Mark fell off the seat, and a very kind lady in from passed him some biscuits that kept him quiet.
When we got to DLP I remember passing all the other hotels before getting to ours and being so impressed with the NPB from the outside - my jaw just dropped. Then we went on to our chosen hotel, the Cheyenne. We had chosen this as Mark was cowboy daft. We were allocated our room in the Calamity Jane building.
I loved the theming and the park tickets:
It was about 15:30 by this time and I had pre-booked a character tea at Pizza Planet to celebrate Mark's birthday, which started at 16:00. The hotel had no idea what I was talking about when I asked and they directed me to the train station Knowing what we know now, I would never have accepted that, but being a complete newbie, I just took them at their word - Anyway we ran towards the parks, and for some reason walked all the way round Lake Disney past the NPB before realising we could have gone past the HNY....we really were complete idiots.
By the time we had rushed to Pizza Planet the tea was finished. I remember being so upset, as I had wanted everything to be perfect, but we decided to go in anyway as it was almost tea time and had Pizza instead. Mark was thrilled with the surroundings and even more so when he met his heros Buzz and Woody. I seem to remember it being very dark.
We were exhausted after this, and I don't remember going on any rides - we just headed back to the hotel for a rest. Later in the evening we had a knock at the door for a CM who handed in a large plate of chocolate chip cookies wrapped in ribbon, as an apology for us missing the character tea. Someone must have figured out what we had be on about - so that was nice that they tried to make it up
Tuesday 5th May 1998
We all slept well, and headed off to breakfast. Mark enjoyed all the cowboy touches.
We then had an unfortunate episode on a pony ride that Mark insisted on doing. If I'd realised that i'd be responsible for hanging onto the pony, I don't know that I'd have gone along with it. The sand that the pony walks on started getting in my sandals so I asked DH to take over, the pony nipped his hand and DH shouted out - the pony bolted with Mark hanging on for dear life, and he eventually fell off. Thankfully he wasn't injured, and when I think about it now it must have looked like something you'd see on You've been framed!! A purchase in the hotel shop of a cowboy had soon calmed him down.
Then we were off to the park, and after yesterday's hurried adventure, we really took our time taking in all the surroundings:
I was blown away by the Disneyland Hotel - 'one day we'll stay there' I promised to myself:
We took in the surroundings of Main St and explored the castle:
Note the 4 year old stealing a shot of his sister's buggy!
The first go at the sword:
Then off to the first ride - the Carousel. I loved Mary Poppins as a child, and without videos and only 3 or 4 channels on tv, Mary Poppins was the only film that was guaranteed to be on at Christmas - and I just loved it. Mark didn't want to come on the ride, we were a tad paranoid about leaving the buggy, so I ended up going on it myself!
We then did all the rides in Fantasyland and the kids loved them all - with Peter Pan being a stand out favourite. After a few hours we noticed that everyone else's buggys were fine, so we calmed down a bit and enjoyed ourselves.
We had dinner at Annette's which we all really enjoyed. I loved the the atmosphere and the roller skates:
After dinner we wandered around 'Festival Disney' and then headed back to the hotel for another early night
So, as I am now a self confessed Dis geek, and given that my family no longer speak to me on Disney related matters - I thought I'd bore you lot with some trips from the past. This is really only for my benefit, so if you don't go any further I won't be offended
Also, the photos may be a bit suspect as I've had to photo them from the photo album and put onto laptop - I did not have such devices in them days
Our first trip to the Magic
The Cast:
Me, Julie - 23 - so excited I could hardly breathe
DH, John - 27 - going with it
DS, Mark - 4 - disney maniac
DD, Abbey - nearly 1 - no idea where she was
Monday 4th May 1998
This was Mark's 4th birthday. We woke at 5:30 and phoned my dad to wake him as he was taking us to the airport. Got there in plenty of time, checked in and had some breakfast. The flight took off on time, 08:35 and the kids seemed fine. We had to change aircrafts at East Midlands, so by the time we actually got to CDG it was about 13:00. We followed the signs for the VEA bus, and took the only seats left, right on the back row.
Mark fell off the seat, and a very kind lady in from passed him some biscuits that kept him quiet.
When we got to DLP I remember passing all the other hotels before getting to ours and being so impressed with the NPB from the outside - my jaw just dropped. Then we went on to our chosen hotel, the Cheyenne. We had chosen this as Mark was cowboy daft. We were allocated our room in the Calamity Jane building.
I loved the theming and the park tickets:
It was about 15:30 by this time and I had pre-booked a character tea at Pizza Planet to celebrate Mark's birthday, which started at 16:00. The hotel had no idea what I was talking about when I asked and they directed me to the train station Knowing what we know now, I would never have accepted that, but being a complete newbie, I just took them at their word - Anyway we ran towards the parks, and for some reason walked all the way round Lake Disney past the NPB before realising we could have gone past the HNY....we really were complete idiots.
By the time we had rushed to Pizza Planet the tea was finished. I remember being so upset, as I had wanted everything to be perfect, but we decided to go in anyway as it was almost tea time and had Pizza instead. Mark was thrilled with the surroundings and even more so when he met his heros Buzz and Woody. I seem to remember it being very dark.
We were exhausted after this, and I don't remember going on any rides - we just headed back to the hotel for a rest. Later in the evening we had a knock at the door for a CM who handed in a large plate of chocolate chip cookies wrapped in ribbon, as an apology for us missing the character tea. Someone must have figured out what we had be on about - so that was nice that they tried to make it up
Tuesday 5th May 1998
We all slept well, and headed off to breakfast. Mark enjoyed all the cowboy touches.
We then had an unfortunate episode on a pony ride that Mark insisted on doing. If I'd realised that i'd be responsible for hanging onto the pony, I don't know that I'd have gone along with it. The sand that the pony walks on started getting in my sandals so I asked DH to take over, the pony nipped his hand and DH shouted out - the pony bolted with Mark hanging on for dear life, and he eventually fell off. Thankfully he wasn't injured, and when I think about it now it must have looked like something you'd see on You've been framed!! A purchase in the hotel shop of a cowboy had soon calmed him down.
Then we were off to the park, and after yesterday's hurried adventure, we really took our time taking in all the surroundings:
I was blown away by the Disneyland Hotel - 'one day we'll stay there' I promised to myself:
We took in the surroundings of Main St and explored the castle:
Note the 4 year old stealing a shot of his sister's buggy!
The first go at the sword:
Then off to the first ride - the Carousel. I loved Mary Poppins as a child, and without videos and only 3 or 4 channels on tv, Mary Poppins was the only film that was guaranteed to be on at Christmas - and I just loved it. Mark didn't want to come on the ride, we were a tad paranoid about leaving the buggy, so I ended up going on it myself!
We then did all the rides in Fantasyland and the kids loved them all - with Peter Pan being a stand out favourite. After a few hours we noticed that everyone else's buggys were fine, so we calmed down a bit and enjoyed ourselves.
We had dinner at Annette's which we all really enjoyed. I loved the the atmosphere and the roller skates:
After dinner we wandered around 'Festival Disney' and then headed back to the hotel for another early night