Best holiday ever! Alana and Mum go to DLP, September 2019

Alana1980

Mouseketeer
Joined
Nov 13, 2018
Day 1, part 1: "Oh good, it's only 75 minutes now"

Mum and I had an early start, the taxi picked us up at 8.30 to take us to Ashford International to get the direct Eurostar to Disneyland Paris

439620

Me inside the cottage before the taxi arrived

439621

Me and Mum outside the cottage

We got to Ashford in plenty of time despite slow traffic caused by an accident, got through all the passport control etc. and waited in the lounge. Eventually the announcement came to let us know which platform our train was, followed by an announcement from Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck saying something about it's nearly time for your holiday, I can't remember the exact wording but it was such a nice touch! We made our way to the platform and got on the train. Once on the train and on our way I presented Mum with the lanyard I got her to put her Magic Card and room key in and she was very touched.

439622

Mum with lanyard (not sure why the pic is sideways)

439623

Me with lanyard, yes I wore the ears at Ashford International and on the Eurostar! I only took them off to go through security when we got there.

439626

Breakfast on the Eurostar

We got to Marne-La-Vallee/Chessy station and made our way to the Disney Express counter, Mum's TA had arranged for us to have Disney Express service and a Photpass - or so we thought. Our names weren't on the list so we has to pay for it ourselves. We got our magic passes, but no photopass, and we were told that we would have to go to the hotel to pick it up. We went to the hotel and started queueing for reception, a helpful CM asked what we were after while we were waiting and suggested that we bought a photopass from the hotel shop, Mum was getting worried because she felt that I was losing time to be in the parks, I didn't mind but she didn't want to queue any longer so we went and bought one and I activated it and linked it to the app as we walked towards WDS.

439627439628


I met Goofy and got my first signature in my autograph book

439630439631

After that I went straight to TOT only to find out that they had run out of FPs and the wait time was 110 minutes! I decided to wait and see if it went down.
 

Attachments

  • DLP18.png
    DLP18.png
    456.8 KB · Views: 1
Day 1, part 2: "Oh good, it's only 75 minutes now"

Next Mum and I went and rode Studio Tram Tour which we both really enjoyed.

439632439633439634439635439636439637

Then we rode Ratatouille and didn't have to wait as we both did it single rider, we were in the same car though and I was behind Mum. I loved it but she wasn't as keen. After that I checked the app and all the other characters had finished for the day, Mum was a bit tired so she went back to the hotel. I rode Flying Carpets Over Agrabah and enjoyed it, and then had a choice to make between either RC Racer and Micky and the Magician or TOT. I thought that if Mum was still with me I would have done Micky and the Magician but I wasn't too fussed about seeing it by myself so I checked and the queue for TOT was now only 75 minutes, so I queued up. The line kept moving so it wasn't too bad. I absolutely loved it, definitely in my top 3 rides.

dlp28-png.439638


After that I got a couple of photos in on the way back to the hotel room.

439639439640439642
 

Attachments

  • DLP28.png
    DLP28.png
    660.7 KB · Views: 94
Day 1, part 3: "Oh good, it's only 75 minutes now"

I went back to the hotel room to meet up with Mum, she explained that when she checked in and got our room key cards she was handed a photopass that had been paid for by our TA. She then burst into tears from stress and the thought that we could have had the free photopass if we had checked in rather than buying the photopass so we could go to the parks. The very nice CM calmed her down and gave her a voucher to use in any Disney shop in DLP for the amount of the photopass, so that was very nice.

Our room and bathroom were very nice

439644439645439646439647

We went down for our dinner reservation at Inventions and there was a brief confusion over drinks. When I looked at the drinks menu it said "Non-alcoholic cocktails" and under that "Virgin Lada" and "Glow Cube". I thought the Glow Cube was a cocktail, the non-alcoholic version of a Glowtini, so Mum tried to order one while I was at the buffet getting my first plate of food, only to be asked if I wanted the Glow Cube with or without a drink, so I ended up with an apple juice with a flashing colour changing light up plastic star in it, so this could have been called "Oh, so that's what a Glow Cube is!" I ordered a Virgin Lada with another Glow Cube in.

439648439649439650439651

Mum was still a bit unsure about interacting with characters at this point so I got both autograph books signed
when I met characters.

439652439653
 
Day 1, part 4: "Oh good, it's only 75 minutes now"

439654439655

We raced from dinner to get to Illuminations but missed a few minutes and didn't have the greatest view, but it was still amazing. I didn't know Mum was taking these pictures of me watching it so I'm not posing at all

439657439658439659439660

We got back to the hotel and I decided I was too tired for swimming, so I did a little bit of souvenir shopping in the hotel boutique and we then went to bed.
 


Day 2, Part 1: "Don't rain on my parade"

We were up bright and early and into the main park ready for our breakfast in Plaza Gardens.

439662

Disney bounding much? Also I love my highlighter here, I'd tried a new makeup palette that I'd been given as a gift.

Breakfast was good and Mum warmed to the idea of meeting characters, especially Eeyore who is one of her favourite characters.

439663439664439665439667439668439669439670439671
 

Attachments

  • DLP79.png
    DLP79.png
    566.5 KB · Views: 1
Day 2, Part 2: "Don't rain on my parade"

After breakfast we went to the Princess Pavilion and got to see Cinderella

439673439674

Mum went back to the hotel room for a rest and I headed to Discoveryland as it had the most rides I wanted to do by myself. I rode Hyperspace Mountain which is now my favourite ride at DLP

439675

Then I queued up to meet Darth Vader, I didn't think I would be scared but I forgot just how tall he is

439676439677439678

Then I rode Star Tours: L'Aventures Continue which is also in my top 3 rides (very close between this and TOT, I'd be hard pressed to decide which was number 2 and which was number 3) and Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast (I do have a ride photo but I don't like it as I'm scrunched up weirdly trying to get a shot).

I checked the time, headed into Fantasy Land and had just enough time to ride Snow White and Pinnochio before lunch. Mum met me outside Auberge du Cendrillon and we headed in for lunch.

439679439680

Starter: Cream of pumpkin soup with a pastry lid. It had mushrooms in, which I don't like, but I just ate the soup and left the mushrooms. The vegetarian main course was pasta with a cream and mushroom sauce, I enquired if I could have it without the mushrooms and they explained the sauce comes with the mushrooms already in and offered tomato sauce which I accepted gratefully

439681

I had the cheese board for dessert

439682
 
Last edited:
Day 2, Part 3: "Don't rain on my parade"

During dinner we met Suzy and Perla, Cinderella again, Aurora, Snow White and Belle

439683439684439685439686439687439688439689439690

You can see where Belle has just asked me what some of my favourite books are and I'm deep in thought.

Mum took a couple of pictures of me outside the Auberge after lunch

439691439692
 


Day 2, part 4: "Don't rain on my parade"

As we were very full from dinner we did a few gentle rides and walkthroughs: the gallery of Snow White castle and the lair of the dragon, It's A small World After All, Payes de Conte de Fees and Alice's Curious Labyrinth

439693439694439695439696439697

After this we were both tired so we went back to our hotel room for a rest.

We headed out for the parade in plenty of time and got a good spot. It had been drizzling in the morning and I'd used my rain poncho, but it dried up in the afternoon and even started looking quite bright so we went out without rain ponchos or waterproof jackets (Foreshadowing much?)

439698439699439700439701439702

You may notice the sky slowly getting darker and darker. Shortly after this the heavens opened and what I can only describe as a cloudburst hit us. No light amounts of rain slowly getting heavier, no, this was huge fat raindrops coming down thick and fast. We were soaked through in about 10 seconds, and I just held my arms out, tipped my head back and laughed. It was a real laugh or you'll cry moment. We waited for the parade to finish and hot footed it through Discovery Arcade and caught part of the parade again.
 
Day 2, part 5: "Don't rain on my parade"

I thought the Maleficent float didn't breathe fire any more, but I was wrong!

439707

Once the parade had gone past we ran back to the hotel. This was when we were so glad that we were in the Disneyland Hotel! Exit park, enter hotel, up in lift, into room, world's quickest change and towel dry and a quick blast from the hair dryer and we were still in time for dinner. I bumped into Minnie Mouse when we got into dinner and I said "Oh Minnie, I've been hoping to see you all day, I was wearing a dress like yours but we got absolutely soaked watching the parade! Beaucoup de pluie, pas de parapluie!" A passing CM complimented my French when I said that.

I forgot to take pictures of my food, but here's all the characters we met.

439710439711439712439713439715

The window you see next to Mum had a perfect view of the castle, and we thought we would be able to get a good view from one of the glass corridors either side of the restaurants but alas there were too many trees. We asked if we could go back into Inventions just to look through a window and they said that they were too busy, but they let us go into the Castle Club lounge just to watch Illuminations

439719

Watching Illuminations inside the Disneyland Hotel Castle Club lounge.

We left as soon as it was over so we wouldn't get into trouble and did a bit more shopping in the hotel boutique, I was thinking about getting some swimming in but decided to have a nice bubble bath instead.
 
Day 3, Part 1: "Harissa - how hot can that be?"

We started the day with an early breakfast as soon as the hotel buffet opened

439722439723439724

I headed straight into the park at 8.00 and went to Frontierland, where the gates were still closed and being guarded by a CM who told me that all the lands were opening at 0830. I don't know if this is normal or not as I was still in breakfast at Plaza Gardens at 0830 the previous morning. I looked at the map and did some planning and looked at the castle and then Frontierland opened and I followed the other park goers to Big Thunder Mountain

439728

Then I went back over to Dicoveryland and rode Hyperspace Mountain, Star Tours and Buzz Lightyear again

439730439731

I like this ride photo much better than the first one. I also got to go shopping in Star Traders, it had been closed the previous day and I found out that this was because the lights didn't work. I bought a plush Porg for me, a colour change mug for my husband, and his and hers T-shirts for both of us, I've got Princess Leia with the caption "I love you" and he's got Han Solo with "I know". I went back to the hotel room, Mum had already left to check out but our luggage was still there and I was just about to pack the last bag of souvenirs when there was a knock at the door and it was a CM to pick up the bags for Disney Express, he was very helpful and assisted me in packing the souvenirs. I went down to reception and met my Mum. Once we were sorted we headed into the park, first we caught a showing of Mickey's PhilharMagic which we both loved and then we went to Adventureland and found where Agrabah Cafe was. I looked for the curious giraffe but it seems to have been removed, however I found a queue and asked the CM there what it was for as I couldn't see anything and he explained that it was a queue for Aladdin and Jasmine who were on a break and would be back at 2pm. Mum and I were about to go through Aladdin's Passage when Genie appeared and we joined a queue that spontaneously formed

439734439735439736

Then it was time for our lunch reservation at Cafe Agrabah

439738
 
Day 3, part 2: "Harissa - how hot can that be?"

I loved the food - well almost all of it. I tried Harissa which was described as a spicy tomato paste and pulled a comedy face when it was a LOT hotter than I was expecting!

439739439740439741439742

Also an African drummer came round every table and let people try some drumming

439743439744

After dinner we went through Aladdin's Passage and then joined the queue to meet Aladdin and Jasmine

439745

Jasmine admiring my dress while Aladdin signs the autograph books

439746

Me posing with Aladdin and Jasmine.

We were hoping to catch some other characters on the way to Pirates of the Caribbean but the lines were shut when we got to them so we just went to Pirates. Mum wasn't sure if she liked it but we got a ride photo with both of us in it, even if we were mostly covered by the people in front

439747

We went from Adventureland to Frontierland and rode Phantom Manor and I was able to tell Mum interesting facts like the laugh is Vincent Price.
 

Attachments

  • DLP133.jpeg
    DLP133.jpeg
    68.1 KB · Views: 0
Day 3, part 3: "Harissa - how hot can that be?"

We got a few photos of me with the Halloween decorations that were going up at various points today.

439749439750439751439752439753439754439755

After Phantom Manor and some photos, we had a hot drink in the Cable Car Bake Shop and then left the parks ready to get the Eurostar back to the UK

439756

A final wave goodbye to DLP and the Disneyland Hotel

439757

Dinner on the Eurostar.

This concludes my Trip Report, I hope you all enjoy reading it.
 
Looks like you had an amazing trip :) glad you enjoyed yourself!

Great report. I love your purple dress.

I can't zoom in, but I think I have that purple dress! Is it a Halloween dress from Hell Bunny? With cats and witches etc on it?
71avZ9ZtXRL._UX569_.jpg
 
Looks like you had an amazing trip :) glad you enjoyed yourself!



I can't zoom in, but I think I have that purple dress! Is it a Halloween dress from Hell Bunny? With cats and witches etc on it?
71avZ9ZtXRL._UX569_.jpg
Yes, it's a Halloween Hell Bunny dress! Slightly different pattern to the one above, mine has ghosts and pumpkins on too.
 
Thank you for sharing, really enjoyed reading. Looks like you had a great time. I have been trying to read as many TR's as I can in preparation for my upcoming trip in November. BTW I love that purple dress too (LOVE all things purple...)
 
I did have a great
Thank you for sharing, really enjoyed reading. Looks like you had a great time. I have been trying to read as many TR's as I can in preparation for my upcoming trip in November. BTW I love that purple dress too (LOVE all things purple...)
I did have a great time, thank you 😊. The dress is from Hell Bunny if you're interested.
 
I love your trip report, it got me in the mood for our own trip in December, which will be me, my mum and my toddler.
 

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!










Top