Our Cheeky Pre-Christmas One, November 2010 - Trip Report

[NatsyNoo]

So I’m finally getting round to doing my trippie!

Please see my pre-trippie for this visit to DLP here:

http://www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/show...37#post5513137


Day 0 – Travel Day

So it was finally here! After 5 months of waiting!
I woke up very anxious and excited! A busy old day was ahead!
I had to finish the ironing, packing and take my little bunny rabbit round to his Nanna’s to be looked after for the week.
However, 3pm finally rolled around and Matt went to drop his kids off back home
We then locked up the house and left at about 4pm. Our coach was at 4.40pm so this left us plenty of time to walk down to the station. It had been drizzly all day but thankfully it eased for us to get to the station.
We stopped by the Co-op to get a couple of drinks for the coach (coach tickets were £11), and left on time at 4.40pm.
We got to London in good time, but central London was chocka as the Chelsea football game had just finished. Then we found that there were planned gas works down Exhibition and Cromwell Roads which meant it took over an hour to get from Kensington to Knightsbridge which was crazy!
We were supposed to get into London at 7.20pm but we didn’t arrive at Victoria Coach Station until 8.10pm.
Unphased, we wandered over to the tube station, for a simple one-line tube ride to King’s Cross…well, it should have been, but due to several lots of engineering works, we had to change twice! And to make matters worse, they were not accepting card payments for tickets so Matt had to run off and get some cash (tickets cost £8).
We finally arrived at King’s Cross at 9pm and then tried to find our hotel. Again, disaster! Matt was following a map on his iPhone but it led us to completely the wrong place, and in fact, we had walked passed it twice!

We were booked into the Travelodge King’s Cross which we had got for the bargain rate of £19! We were actually really pleased with the room. It was clean, and the hotel was only about 5 minutes walk from St Pancras International Station.

Here’s a picture of the room:



So by now it’s 9.30pm and we were STARVING as we were supposed to be here by 8pm had my previous plans gone to plan! So we wandered off to find some food and ended up getting a KFC Variety Bucket to eat at the hotel and watch I’m a Celebrity on TV.

We crashed out at about 11.30pm, ready for the busy day to com!

[NatsyNoo]

We slept terribly! The pillows in our hotel were not good and eating KFC at 9.30pm was in hindsight a bad idea!
But adrenalin got us through the day!

We left our room to go to the station at about 7.45am, stopping by M&S Simply Food to get some orange juice as I was parched! We didn’t pick up any food as we thought we’d get some after we had checked in. Tip for today! There is very little choice once you’ve ‘gone through’ at St Pancras!

After yesterday’s disastrous journey, I thought ‘today must be better!’. Not so much…the baggage inspectors at the station clearly thought I was a drug smuggler and decided to empty my bags and test everything for drugs! They explained after it was because I had a suspicious amount of electronics with me. I said to him, ‘I’m going on holiday! Where do you want me to put them!’. I only had the normal things – laptop, iPhone, camera, video camera and my online banking Pinsentry machine as I had to pay a few bills before we left as I got paid today.

Anyway, arrest avoided, we proceeded to take a seat in the waiting area. We got some crisps in WHSmith after we realised that food options were limited. We then called my family to say goodbye, and check that Buttons (the bunny) was ok. About 15 minutes before we were due to board, Matt went and got a couple of paninis from the bar, and then we headed up to the train.

We were sitting in coach 16 seats 27 and 28, and were both suitably impressed with the train. You can tell it’s made a few journeys but it got us there safely and that’s all I cared about! We left London bang on time at 9.53am and arrived in DLP at 1.30pm. During the train journey, DLP Cast Members came round the train to give Disney Express users their tickets. I was not expecting this as I thought we did everything at the station. Anyways, I completed the check-in registration form ready for when we got to our hotel that evening, and we got our park passes. When the train arrived, we took our cases right up to the Disney Express baggage drop area, which took about 30 seconds and was very quick and easy! I can’t recommend it highly enough!

By 1.45pm, we were heading through the gates of Disneyland Park! We were soooo excited!









We were planning on getting some lunch first off, but were still full up from our paninis which we ate on the train. We spent a moment taking in the decorations and Christmas vibe, and headed right over to Space Mountain which was a walk on. Suitably shaken about, we went over to Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin which I won for the first time ever! Matt insists his gun was broken but I know it was a well-deserved victory!

[NatsyNoo]

Next we headed over to Pirates of the Caribbean. I really love the DLP version of this ride with the extra drops, but wish they would update with the movie characters! Phantom Manor, another walk on, was next. On the way, we got Fastpasses for Big Thunder Mountain, and also got some pictures with Stinky Pete in the Woody’s Roundup area. We had planned at this time to catch the Mickey’s Winter Wonderland show, but it wasn’t on Monday or Tuesday so we rescheduled!





After riding Big Thunder Mountain, we didn’t have long til the Disney’s Once Upon a Dream Parade started (5pm) so we wandered over to the Christmas Market (I remember this being bigger but I was smaller so maybe that’s why) and then, feeling a bit peckish, we headed over to Main Street to grab some fries and a drink (€5.45) before the parade started.

The parade was excellent, but very familiar, having seen it in Florida in 2007. The Christmas addition was really nice though, and I’m glad we took the time to see it again. I lost count of the number of children that were pushed in front of me during the parade, which I found rather annoying, but we still managed to see it anyway!

The parade finished at 5.30pm, so we had a quick wander round the shops to plan my purchases (though I didn’t see a lot to purchase to be honest!) and to pass time before the Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony at 6pm. We didn’t really know where best to stand during this so we stood to the left of the tree, if you’re looking up Main Street. In hindsight, not such a good decision, so we wound up watching this again later in the trip anyway.







Fully festive after this though, we wandered down to the shops on the opposite side of Main Street (mainly the art and crystal shop) to wait for Fantillusion to start (7.05pm), but in the meantime, we heard music, and realised that the Disney Showtime Spectacular was starting so we went to watch that. We were really lucky as this was the show that lit the castle! We didn’t get any photos though as the battery of our camera was going and we wanted to get some snaps of the parade.



After Fantillusion ended, we headed back to our hotel to check in. By this time, having opted to walk to avoid the cattle carts (buses), it was 8pm and we had a reservation at Café Mickey at 9pm so time wasn’t exactly on our side. I wanted to shower before dinner but we didn’t have time so I did it when we got back after dinner.

[NatsyNoo]

So we checked in (set up our charge card and requested breakfast slots), grabbed our cases and headed over to room 2271 (building 22, Soaring Eagle), our home for the next 3 nights, and I was massively impressed with the hotel Cheyenne. The theming of the resort is absolutely fantastic and the room was really nice. We very quickly unpacked, charged the camera and video camera a little, changed, and very quickly wandered to Café Mickey in the Disney Village.















We were seated not long after 9pm – we both drank water (last of the crazy people!), Matt ate Minnie Carbonara, I had the Pinocchio Pasta, and we both had the Snow White Apple Pie for pudding. Unfortunately, we left not that impressed by our experience. The characters were good, as always, but some walked by without stopping to see us, and overall we felt rushed and quite undervalued. Our food order came out wrong (and before our drinks), it was cold in the middle as it had obviously been microwaved, we got our dessert menu before our main course plates had been cleared, and had I not told the waiter I hadn’t chosen my dessert yet, no word of a lie, the meal would have been done and dusted in less than 40 minutes! For the cost and anticipation, while it was ‘ok’, we really expected more. Our meal came to €61.40.





















We then had a wander round the shops, and got a 2010 photo album and 5 2010 pens, all reduced by 50% due to it being the end of the year approaching for €14.90 which I was really pleased with.

At about 11pm, we called it a night, and were in bed by midnight, absolutely zonked!

[NatsyNoo]

The alarm went off at 6.45am and I was definitely not ready for it! We headed over for breakfast at 7.30am, and the dining room was actually quite quiet! It soon got busy though. After breakfast, we went back to the room for 20 minutes before heading over to the park, and we arrived at about 9.50am, ready for opening at 10am.

We went straight to Crush’s Coaster having made the mistake last visit in 2008 of leaving this til later in the day, and thoroughly enjoyed this attraction again! We went quickly went over to Toy Story Playland, which we were both dead excited about! The Parachute Drop was down, so we took the opportunity to ride RC Racer, and loved it so much, we rode it again! By this time, the Parachute Drop was open, so we went over for this and queued in our longest wait of the whole trip, about 30 minutes.

[NatsyNoo]

After a few photos of the area, we headed over to Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, seeing that Tower of Terror was closed (down, again) this morning.

By this time, it was midday and lunchtime, as we wanted to catch the 1pm showing of Animagique. We are not that keen on the quick service options in WDS so we tok the short walk over to McDonalds in the Village. I had a Double Cheese & fries, Matt had a Royale & fries, and we shared some nuggets, which came to a total of €16.40.



We got back to the Studios in the nick of time, and watched the 1pm Animagique showing as planned. Next, we watched the Stars & Cars parade (1.45pm). Once the parade finished, we noticed that Tower of Terror was opening, but it was playing ‘catch up’ so we waited about 20 minutes to get on. It was only running at half capacity so I wonder if there was still a problem with the other side.







By the time we had finished Tower of Terror, it was time to go and get a seat for the Lights, Moteurs, Action Stunt Show at 3.30pm. I found this particularly entertaining, as there was someone next to me who had clearly not seen it before and was making the funniest facial expressions and sounds!







Having sat in the cold to watch this for near enough 90 minutes, I was definitely ready for some shelter from the elements, so we went to watch the 4.30pm Cinemagique showing, which I actually enjoyed more second time round.





By the time we got out, I still hadn’t thawed so we took advantage of the Teatime Menu which was on offer all around the resort. We got a hot chocolate in a thermal mug with a brownie for €6 which was excellent value and warmed my cockles. The same items without the mug was €5.50 so I was really pleased with my new souvenir!



The final attraction that we hadn’t done that we wanted to was the Backlot Tour, so we did this next. Unfortunately, the camera battery died just in the middle of the Catastrophe Canyon section (the camera was really getting a hammering!) but we’ve done this so many times it didn’t really matter.



After a quick mosey around the shops, we headed back to the hotel for a little down time.

[NatsyNoo]

We had been lucky enough to get some of the €29 Buffalo Bills tickets for tonight, so we left the hotel at 8.30pm to see the 9.30pm showing. We were in the blue team last visit, and in my previous visits, I had always been yellow, so we were very happy to be in the green (Montana/Green Mountain) team.















I was really pleased to see that they had decorated the waiting area for Christmas. It really added to the atmosphere!

After Goofy had entertained us for a while, we headed in and for the price, our seats were fantastic! The arena was only half full which concerns me as I don’t want this show to leave DLP! After banging my frying pan for a while, the show began and I’m pleased to confirm that our team won the rodeo games! Hoorah! Though we had to share our gold! Boo! For the price, for the meal and show, we thought it was fantastic value, but both agree that £52 is too much.

Exhausted again, we headed back to the hotel after the show, and were in bed by 11.30pm.

[NatsyNoo]

This morning’s alarm was unwelcome at 6.30am, but breakfast was at 7am so we had to get up. Today was the only magic hours on offer during our stay, so we headed straight for Disneyland Park after breakfast, at about 7.45am. They were a little late letting us in, but it was very very quiet given how busy the hotels have been.

We took the opportunity to take some photos of us down Main Street with little crowds. We then thought we’d use the morning to do Fantasyland before it got busy with the crowds. On the way to Fantasyland, we went to see the stained glass windows in Sleeping Beauty’s Castle, which were beautiful.









We went on Peter Pan, Dumbo, the Carousel, Buzz LIghtyear, and Orbitron all by 9.15am, which was pretty good going, but the parks were filling up with other magic hours users by now so we just had a casual stroll whilst waiting for Frontierland to open.



















Once it did, at 10am, we went on Big Thunder Mountain (which I must say, hurts in the cold!), and then Indiana Jones. On the way to Pirates of the Caribbean, I got a hot chocolate (€2). Then, we went to It’s a Small World, which I love! Sorry folks, I’m not ashamed, I think it’s so cute!

[NatsyNoo]

By now, it was time to go and see my much anticipated Mickey’s Winter Wonderland Show (12pm) which I thoroughly enjoyed. When this ended, at 12.30pm, we headed over to the Last Chance Café near Phantom Manor for some lunch. We ordered a Texan Platter, fries, turkey leg & fries and a Coke Zero, and that set us back quite a steep (in our opinion) €23.35. It was nice to have something different, but I preferred what we ate in McDonald’s the day before for less money and at least that had an indoor seating area.







Fed, watered but cold, we headed over to Captain EO for some warmth! I’ve never seen this before, but we really enjoyed it! It’s a bit dated, yes, but I thought it was really good, and a lovely tribute! To stick with the George Lucas theme, next was Star Tours, and then we went to see the Dragon’s Lair at 3pm. We then grabbed some popcorn in a souvenir bucket for €7; it smelt so good every time we walked passed so we couldn’t resist!



We had a couple of hours before the Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony, that we wanted to see again with the castle as our backdrop to get a better view minus glaring spotlights, so we went over to the Studios, as we had done all that we wanted to in Disneyland Park.

The wait for RC Racer was 15 minutes, so we rode that. Then Tower of Terror, which should have been 5 minutes but was more like 15 minutes, and then we went to Armageddon, which was having some technical problems (during the introductory part, we heard sound but no video, so it was just an unentertaining person speaking a language we didn’t understand!).

We were starting to get a bit worn out now, so we grabbed a Sprite (€2.60) and headed back over to Disneyland Park, where we decided to do some final shopping (not that we had done much before) before the ceremony. We mainly got presents for others, but got a jumper for my sister for Christmas, a pen and magnet (€45.40), some Christmas decorations, more magnets and a postcard (€45.25), and finally a top for Matt’s youngest, notepad for my sister, keyring for Matt and musical Stitch keyring which we are actually going to put on our tree (€36.70). A lot of money spent in a short space of time, we watched the Ceremony as planned, and headed back to the hotel to do some packing and for a little downtime at 6.30pm before dinner at 8pm which we were having at Chuck Wagon at the Cheyenne. On the way, we stopped at Hollywood Pictures in The Village to get Matt’s oldest boy a Spiderman top (€19.95).

Dinner cost €51 for two adult buffets plus drinks. Matt had Coke Zero, I had Sprite. We thought this was excellent value with a great selection of foods. It was very busy and we were very impressed. I wouldn’t say that we had any stand-out meals during our trip, we weren’t expecting to, but this was really good. That’s one thing that WDW does win on over DLP, dining. Either way, we were much happier than after our meal at Café Mickey.



After settling our tab at reception (we had charged our purchases to manage our spends a bit better, €162.20), we grabbed a bottle of water from the gift shop after our BBQ buffet meal (€2.95) and headed back to our room at 9pm. I did some more packing, and then fell asleep! It’s been a very busy few days!

[NatsyNoo]

At 7am, the dreaded alarm went off again, and we headed down to breakfast at 7.45am. We finished packing, dropped off our bags for the Disney Express, and headed for the parks at 9.40am after taking some photos of the hotel.

We headed for the Studios first, to ride Crush’s Coaster, RC Racer, Tower of Terror and Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, before heading over to Disneyland Park.

On route, Matt grabbed a hot dog and Sprite (€7.95) and we picked up a Thumper Christmas bauble for the bunny rabbit and some sweeties (€20.40) from the shop on the way out of the Studios.







We got into Disneyland Park, and headed straight for Au Chalet du la Marionette for a kids meal for my lunch. I got a chicken burger, fries, strawberry yoghurt drink and orange juice for €5.75, and I added the lunchbox for €5.90 as I thought they were awesome. This was in fact the reason I ordered the kids’ meal!

Very proud:


Fully satisfied, we got a Fastpass for Big Thunder Mountain, then rode Phantom Manor before using our Fastpass. We then headed over to ride Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin for the final time (Matt won again, making him the victor at 2-1), Snow White’s Scary Adventure, Alice’s Curious Labyrinth (we didn’t get lost once! ), and It’s a Small World. We then wanted to thaw a little so went to watch some Cinedisney in Videopolis before doing the park-loop on the Railway.

We didn’t have long now til it was time to leave, so we grabbed one final pot of that gorgeous popcorn, and grabbed and hot chocolate, as we made our way out of Disneyland Park, ducking in and out of the shops for one last time. As we were eating our popcorn, it started snowing on Main Street which was really nice.

We weren’t hungry yet but knew we would be on the train, so we got a chicken club sandwich and tandoori chicken Panini (€15.85) from New York Sandwich in Disney Village to takeaway. We then picked up two bottles of Diet Coke/Coke Zero in Rainforest Café for €4. We seemed to suddenly have quite a lot of change, so we spent some of it on some biscuits in the Disney Store (€2.50) before heading into the station to pick up our cases, and waiting for check-in to open. We waited about 50 minutes but it was nice just to sit down!

When we eventually got through, minus drug checks, we got onto the train to find we’d been upgraded to the Leisure Select seats (coach 10 seats 54 and 58) which was nice. We were on the train about an hour and a half before it left at 7.37pm. We got back into London at 9.40pm and caught the tube (£8) to Waterloo ready for our train (cost £20) back to Bournemouth at 10.35pm. We got back home at 12.30pm, put some washing in the machine, and headed straight for Bedfordshire! Zzzzz!