Another Park Visited - Day 1 ~ The Journey

**wickesy** · 26 Mar 10, 10:08 AM

Day 1 - The Journey

I was up at 7:30 and after doing my last bits of packing and putting the headlight adaptors on the car we were on our way by 8:15. We made one small stop to give the car a drink and even with a half hour delay thanks to the M20 being closed between junction 8 and 9 we were still at the Eurotunnel by 9:40 with 10 minutes to spare before check-in closed at 9:50 for our 10:20 departure.

I went up to the self-checkin and thanks to number plate recognition technology our reservation was brought up straight away and I printed out the hanger for the rear view mirror before driving round to the terminal. There was just time for a quick comfort stop as they had already called our letter for boarding so we made our way round to the platforms where we found there was actually a 10 minute delay. Boarding began at 10:15 and after parking up on the upper deck we were finally away 20 minutes late.

The journey was smooth and painless and once we emerged from the tunnel I switched on my TomTom and spent a couple of minutes laughing at it’s efforts to get us off the railway line and back on to a road, including a couple of requests to “turn around where possible” and a final desperate plea to “Turn left in 400 yards”.

We arrived at the station at 12:15 and made our way onto the French motorway network, driving for just over an hour before stopping for lunch as we joined the A1 at Amiens. We went into the motorway services where we had a tuna baguette, cookie and coke each for 8 Euros 50 each. Suitably refreshed we carried on without incident until we left the motorway and a car pulled up alongside us pointing to my left front wheel. I stopped at the next rest area and found that the wheel, although not flat, had definitely lost some air and so as we were only about 13 miles from Disneyland I decided to carry on and stop at the next garage we came to. As it turned out we didn’t pass any more open garages so the wheel would have to wait until later in the week.

We arrived safely at the Disneyland Hotel at 3:45 and were allowed through the security barrier without even seeing the security guard. Just past the gate was a roundabout with a road leading off to the right and into the distance and a further set of barriers straight in front of us. Not exactly sure where to go I went round the roundabout a couple of times before we decided that the only possible way we could go was through the barriers. It turned out that they were the type of barriers that open automatically as you approach them and so we went through and found the hotel a bit further ahead. There was no sign of any self-parking so we stopped at reception where bell services took our luggage and said that they would park the car for us.

We then went into the hotel and I handed over our confirmation from DVC and was given a registration form to fill in. As I was doing that the opening bars of “Dancin’ A Catchy Rhythm” started up VERY LOUDLY and judging by the expression on the receptionist's face this is not something that they like having to deal with. It turned out that this was the beginning of a character meet and greet in the hotel lobby which is accompanied by very loud music. This is all very nice for the hotel guests but unfortunately it doesn’t make the life of the cast members on the reception and concierge desk very easy and is something I really think needs to be re-thought by the powers that be.

The receptionist managed to battle the noise and explain the free hotel FastPass system and location of the room to us and we made our way up to our room on the third floor on the opposite side of the hotel. We waited a while for our bags to arrive but having got fed up of waiting we went down to have a look around the hotel shop and then out to the car park to have a look at the deflated wheel. It wasn’t completely flat and so we decided that we would speak to the concierge desk at some point and see if they could recommend somewhere that we could take it to be looked at and replaced if necessary.

We then went back up to the room where our bags had now been delivered so I grabbed my camera and we went out for a wander to get our bearings. We started off with a walk around Disney Village where I had a look at the menu for Annette’s Diner and decided that as I liked the sound of almost everything on the menu we would eat there later on. We had a quick look around the shops before going for a walk around the lake where I took a few photos

We decided this one probably meant “No swimming uphill”.

After completing a circuit of the lake we went into the Disney Studios Park where we had a wander around before leaving and going back to Annette’s Diner. By now it was just before 7:00 but we were seated almost immediately and I ordered a Bacon Chili Cheeseburger and glass of Carlsberg and Dad had a French Mountain burger with a glass of 1664. Just as our food came the wait staff started a rock and roll dance number but unfortunately we couldn’t see it from where we were. The meal came to 46 Euros 15 and because Dad wanted to leave a cash tip but needed some change he managed to completely confuse the waitress by giving her both a 50 Euro note and a 20 Euro note! He ended up having to ask her for two 5 Euro notes in the change, one of which he left as a tip.

It was now dark so we went back to the hotel and went into the Café Fantasia bar where Dad had a Tequila Sunrise, I had a Remy Martin and we followed up with a Remy Martin each before going back to the room and unpacking. We were in bed by 10:15 ready for our first ever full day at DLP tomorrow.

Spot the Hidden Mickey

Café Fantasia

Day 2