The long trek trip to DLP from the islands last day update

[paula34]

Hi there I have never written a trip report before (have been Disneyworld three times but never motivated myself lol) This trip report comes with a warning, it does have a very nasty moment in it, and a happy/sad ending (happy because I know I have done the right thing and sad because…well life’s just like that and you work through it) the writing down of it all is part of my working through it.


The gang

Me. 42 year old, who turns into a big kid at Disney (don’t we all)

DD Shannon, light of my life 4 year old, very hyper and still prone to acute deafness
(when orders are given) and tantrums, makes up for it by being very loving and giving

My partner 42 year old who is never impressed by anything

Emmer 15, prone to occasional strops but generally sweet(her name is Emma but Shannon always adds a r, so now emmer)


So it starts

The decision; we were looking for a cheap family holiday for us all, mostly at the park in Spain (which I can’t spell lol) and had a peek at Disney along the way *ahem*
We first looked at 4 days but decided that it was too short for all the travel we had to do, then we found the dream castle hotel for 8 days for £749 for the 4 of us deal, so we snapped it up. Booked the boat, bus, flights and shuttles. The tickets I bought of eBay and made awesome savings.

Day One;

Our start of travel is a Tuesday night at 11.45pm, on the northlink ferry service from Kirkwall, in the Orkney Islands, to Aberdeen. My dad has very kindly offered to take us to the ferry, so he picks us up at 11 and we are on our way. We arrive at check in hopes that we can get straight on and get settled into our cabin before Shannon wakes up too much….no chance, the earlier boat is still unloading so we have to board late, and through the car entrance grrrrrr
Never mind we get on find our cabin and with a lot of mucking around and giggling we get settled and sleep…….well everyone else slept!!!! So eventually I doze off to be awoken about 2 minutes later by the tanoy telling us its breakfast time blech. So we all get up get organised and head for breakfast. I had toast (their breakfast is nasty and overpriced!!) then back to the cabin picked up the luggage and headed for the bus station to get the megabus to Edinburgh, 3 stops and 3 hours later we arrive at Edinburgh airport, and check in with easyjet.
We have an hour to kill so get some overpriced and nasty Cornish pasties, but I ate it I was starving lol. Yay time to get moving for our flights, we are just about through security and emmer realises she left her handbag, with all her spends in, phone and Nintendo ds argggggg……security have picked it up, so her and ady go in hunt of it leaving me and Shannon waiting, they are gone forever, and just when I’m envisioning missing the flight they appear bag in hand *phew* . We get through security without further delay and get on the plane first because we have a little one so all get to sit together *yay* , after an uneventful flight we land at CDG and start looking for our transfer, no sign of anyone with my name on a card, eventually I check my phone and find 10 missed calls from our driver *oppps* who is standing at a different door than we are. We get into the minibus and after a pleasant drive arrive at our beautiful hotel
Wow we were all impressed, especially Shannon who shot straight in the ball pit and played happily while we checked in, we got a room on the 4th floor with nice view out front, and set off to unpack.
Once unpacked we decided just to eat at the hotel buffet (the most expensive we ate bar one place) and oh boy though I ate I was ravenous lol. We all headed straight to bed after this big day tomorrow……..

sorry no pix of the journey I packed my camera and camcorder and forgot my new phone takes pix never mind plenty to come

 

[gemmybear83]

Hi!! Sounds like a long first day - but your hotel sounds lovely! Looking forward to reading more

 

[paula34]

Day 2


I wake up with Shannon telling me “morning” and have a quick peek at my watch, 7.45am not too bad, I stumble out of bed and into the shower, after ten minutes in the shower listening to ever increasing shout’s of “I really neeeeeeeeed to go now” I stop torturing everyone and come out of the bathroom…then proceeded to bang on the door and tell them all to hurry up time’s a wasting
We have a full cooked breakfast here included in the price, so head of for the restaurant, and fuel up ready for the day ahead.
Everyone full and satisfied, we head out front for the shuttle bus and it arrives just as we get out the door…and so the scrum begins…..now I am not a pushy person and will stand up for pregnant women etc, so this for me was horrible, every morning we got the bus it was a shove and push to get on, I did learn eventually what god gave me elbows for though!!!!
We arrive at the park by 10.30, and head into Disneyland Park first (we have 2 day hoppers sort of and single tickets all off eBay) go through bag check with no problems ….and now for the moment of truth…have I been had on eBay…will the tickets work…will we have to buy more…..nope every one of them worked perfect *phew*!!! Who me I was NEVER worried not for one single second *ahem*
Anyhoo, in we go and everyone looks at me, ummmm what you all looking at, oh what first well okkkkkk, seeing as we have one very overexcited 4 yo lets head for the castle and the little rides.

going in

Then my idea for torture for the day came to me!!!! Lets go over here…this ride is called It’s a small world everyone a nice easy ride to get the little one going, so in we go (don’t know what the fuss is about I love that song!!!) Shannon adored it, and emmer liked it and ady well it isn't really a blokes ride lol but guess what??? The song was stuck in their heads…Oh yes I’m so evil hee hee. We head from here and do the spinning cups, took one look at the silly queue for dumbo and passed, and headed for POTC.

first view of the castle

Now I wasn’t sure how Shannon would take this one, as when I did it at the grand age of 7 in the original Disneyland, I screamed and cried to get off the whole way round, she loved it!!! It was her favourite ride in Disney full stop, and she still sings the song.
From here I send the other 2 to go to Indy , and told them to meet us back at the carousel. We went on this twice before they appeared and informed me indy was shut (they were doing a lot of filming while we were there) so we headed for space mission and they rode that while me and Shannon went on orbitron, then onto buzz, everyone loved this and as there was no queue we went on three times in a row, and I always won much to the disgust of himself lol.
It was time for a break now so we sat and got hot dogs and fries and the character express came by, me and Shannon got up and went to the side and watched it go by she was fairly jumping around and up to high doh about seeing some of her favourite characters. I got that feeling

We went back and helped finish up the food, and got the maps out and decide to head for honey I shrunk the audience, we all loved this and emmer and I jumped a mile when the air whooshes about your legs from here we went to star tours, which Shannon hated so I never got onto this again.
Then we head off for BTM, now I had decided to take Shannon on this as she met the height requirements, and had been on a log flume ride 6 months earlier and loved it, I found out my child has fear (which she has never shown before about anything which can be quite worrying) she screamed for off the whole way round…so I never got back to this either *sigh* . We decide to head back to POTC seeing as she loved it so much to restore her faith in rides, and hey what’s that characters woohoooooooo….I jump around a bit, while the other 2 look at me like I’m mad and Shannon joins in lol. So we head towards them. This is the second time I realised about scrums, I was making Shannon wait her turn, but there were grown up pushing in front (more than kids) so eventually I gave her a big push towards goofy, she loved him pictures taken we head towards, ummmm a bear??? Ok he signs the book and Shannon ask who is he is and I tell her (wasn’t that sure actually lol) that he is from the country bear jamboree; big al proceeded to have a little dance and gave me the thumbs up so I must have been right. Also here was a guy from the hunchback of Notre (not seen this film sorry) and more bears.


Big Al

After we had calmed down from meeting the characters we headed for phantom manor, which everyone once again loved, then E and A headed back to space mission for a couple more turns while me and S had a ice-cream and chilled out. We had missed the afternoon parade and were all feeling a bit foot sore so headed back to the hotel, to change and head out for dinner in Val de Europe, we decided on hippopotamus and the service and food were very good, ady had steak, I had ribs, Emma had a Chinese veggie platter, and Shannon chicken nuggets. We had a wander around the shops after dinner then caught the train and bus back to the hotel, sent the kids to bed and had a nightcap in the bar before bed.

big thunder mountain you can't guess she had been screaming her head off 2 minutes earlier lol

 

[DLPdaft]

Loving your trip report so far - very descriptive.

More please

 

[paula34]

Loving your trip report so far - very descriptive.

More please

why thanks, I was feeling a bit like i'm waffling on to much glad you are enjoying it

 

[paula34]

Hi!! Sounds like a long first day - but your hotel sounds lovely! Looking forward to reading more

unfortunatly this is the downside to living in orkney, expensive to get off the island and long trips to get anywhere....but the low crime rate and safeness for children and community feeling more than makes up for it

 

[manxtatt2]

great report

i live on the isle of man , and its expensive too getting on n off the island , and involves a trip to livepool or manchester to connecting flights etc

bit of a nightmare , but as you say , low crime and safeness beats it all

 

[Dianetigger]

Great first day report, really looking forward to the rest of your trip.

 

[Cyrano]

Enjoyed your 1st trip report including your epic journey there

Looking forward to the same amount of detail in future installments

 

[PJackson]

I too like detail so your TR is great What an epic journey though!!

 

[paula34]

Day 2

I forgot about an itinery so this is what we did

Day 1….Disneyland Park
Day 2…. Paris
Day 3….Zoo
Day 4….Asterix parc
Day 5….Big Cats Park
Day 6….Walt Disney Studio Park
Day 7…. Hopping between both parks and doing favourites again
Day 8….shopping before home



This is the day the bad thing happened, which coloured a lot of the trip for me, I decided to deal with it in earnest after the trip so it wasn’t ruined for all concerned as I knew there would be no repeat, but it still makes my blood boil and probably will make yours as well, do try not to judge I did as I thought best at the time.


Anyway back to the trip report

We arose at about 7.30, it was Emma’s turn to wake us up with a toilet call and once madam is up so is everyone else. We had a kettle in the room, which the hotel was trying to charge insane prices for giving out tea and coffee things with, needless to say we had bought our own, so we had a cuppa while we waited and waited and waited for Emma to come out(what do they do in there!!!!! Teenagers lol) everyone showered and dressed (cept Shannon, she always had her bath at night) fed and on our way by about 9.30. We caught the shuttle to the rer station and bought Paris visite passes for 5 days covering 6 zones, this pass covered all our travel by train, metro and buses right out to the airport and saved us a fortune.
We caught the rer, which was waiting just for us, and headed into Paris central, we had a lot of changes, but were managing not to bad until we had to wait, Shannon was bored and would not sit down (just for the know she is currently being tested for adhd after a year of doctors and health visitors saying nothing was wrong) I was dealing with her, when ady lost his temper picked her up and slammed her down so hard she started yelling the building down. I went off my head, but kept it down he knew I was FURIOUS, Emma was shocked also and he went way over the score (ady is/ was my bf and Emma is his daughter) let’s just say if the police had been around he would have been having a trip with them.
Just then the train arrived which we need to catch arrived, the other went on and I got Shannon’s hand and told her to come, she could hardly walk, so I grabbed her and went to get on the train…the doors started to shut …with her in and me out OMGGGGGG panic, ady was trying to force the doors open, then I saw the button pressed and the door opened and in we tumbled (I’m sure we gave some French commuters a good laugh anyway!!!) The rest of the trip into Paris was uneventful, although I went and fumed in another carriage for the rest of it.
We exited at our station and started looking for signs for our first (and last) stop the Eiffel tower. No signs could we see, but hey look up everyone and there it is the Eiffel tower way up there!!! WOW is all I can say, I knew it was big but it is enormous I felt sick and dizzy looking up at it, heights are NOT my thing. We let Shannon run around and let of steam for a while (she seems fine and a few Paris pigeons got good exercise, more on those later) I decided to keep stum, and keep it light for the kids at this point.

The Eiffel Tower

waiting in line

We joined the queue for the tower and it took about 30 minutes to get our tickets to go, we head into the first lift and up up up we go…..too high, I am looking out and refuse to look down, and my breakfast is debating staying put or not!!! We get out at the 2nd floor and have a look around (well the others did) then onto the next lift to take us to the top, here I did look out, and even managed to look down woohoo go me. I am so glad I did this; I proved to myself that my fears are generally unfound.
We stay up here for about half an hour then head down again (me trying not to think about snapping cables and things!!!)
At last I we get out feet back on solid ground, and head off to find the toilets and something to eat, we had hot dogs they were huge, and the best I’ve ever had, of course the pigeons were getting their share as well (what is it about feeding birds that is so pleasant) then the bet was made…..ady bet me 50 euro I could not catch one of these crafty birds, we have had this bet before in Glasgow, and they can be right at your feet and get away. Well this time I caught one!!!! I was feeding about five right out of my hand went for a grab and amazingly came up with a pigeon…..don’t know which off us was more surprised!!! (Mind you it was a very poor like skinny pigeon).

feeding the pigeons

So what next, well no one wanted to go anywhere else, so we headed back to val de Europe for dinner, we ate at the Italian right across from the rer station, which was so so, I had one of those meals where everyone else’s looked better than mine grrrr don’t you hate that, then back to the station and the short hop home.


Just to add as I don’t want to bring anyone down after this the trip was fine, but I cannot condone anyone doing this to my child, whatever the reason so ady and I are no more, I did look into flying home but could only get flights the day before we went back, so decided it was not worth spoiling it for the kids….It was made very clear to ady that he was never to touch her again. The day after we got back I finished it, and I know I have done the right thing all trust gone. I promise the rest of the trip is full of lots of happy Disney/asterix/zoo moments

 

[gemmybear83]

Paula I just wanted to give you a big .

 

[hildasmuriel]

Hey Paula, that's a tough, tough thing you've been through and you're probably right that writing it down is good for you.

Glad you managed to make sure the girls had a good holiday and you didn't allow it to spoil all the happy things of the week.

 

[Anne64]

 

[Dianetigger]

Paula, you did the right thing at the time on holiday and when you get back and that is all you can do. With hindsight you may want to change something you did or didn't do but all we can try to do is our best at the time things happen.
Like you when I was getting divorced, I sat and wrote things down it helped me immensely with my anger at certain things.

 

[Cyrano]

Paula can offer any words of wisdom but for you and the girls.

Looking forward to reading the rest of your days

 

[paula34]

Thank you all for your kind words of support , I have that warm fuzzy disney feeling as I type this and I know I have done the right thing. we have a weird thing going on as emma is also my cousin (ady was my 2nd cousins hubby) and she is coming over to visit with me and shannon tommorrow, which makes me so happy and she knows that I will always be here for her to talk or just hang out...she has had a hard time with her parent splitting up, but has come out of it a lovely girl and smart as a whip I couldn't be prouder or love her more if she was my own once again thank you for the kind words, hopefully I will get another chapter written tommorrow

 

[joolz1910]

Thank you all for your kind words of support , I have that warm fuzzy disney feeling as I type this and I know I have done the right thing. we have a weird thing going on as emma is also my cousin (ady was my 2nd cousins hubby) and she is coming over to visit with me and shannon tommorrow, which makes me so happy and she knows that I will always be here for her to talk or just hang out...she has had a hard time with her parent splitting up, but has come out of it a lovely girl and smart as a whip I couldn't be prouder or love her more if she was my own once again thank you for the kind words, hopefully I will get another chapter written tommorrow

You sound like a truly lovely person. Your comments about Emma have made me cry. For what it's worth, I think you did the right thing - your daughter, Shannon, will clearly always come first, as she should.

 

[DLPdaft]

You sound like a truly lovely person. Your comments about Emma have made me cry. For what it's worth, I think you did the right thing - your daughter, Shannon, will clearly always come first, as she should.

Can't add anything to that - big hugs from me too

 

[Jeccaboos]

You did the right thing and I am glad you decided to stay on for the children.