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Old 22 Feb 17, 03:43 PM  
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Blondie1979
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Glowtini Girls Do DLP - Day 1 Travel day


I slept reasonably well considering I was so excited. I woke up 10 minutes before my alarm was due to go off so I jump out of bed and stick the kettle on.



I post this on Snapchat, it was at 0345am, only on a Disney day could I be happy to be up at this hour 😄
With a text to Rachel to make sure she's up (of course she is!) I make my way to the bathroom for a shower and get myself ready.
I pack up my bag, text Rachel and we quietly meet in the hallway to start our Disney adventure🙂✨✨



We load up the cases into the car and we leave the hotel bang on our predicted time.
The drive took us less than 10 minutes from hotel car park to the car park at Ashford International.



We park the car on the 5th level as this gives direct access to the glass walkway which takes you to the departure lounge, I love all the Disney decals on the wall here, it starts to build up my excitement!
We are through check in, security and passport control (both British and French are done this side of the journey) by 5.30am.



We walk up to our 'usual' cafe and purchase a cup of tea and a banana to keep us going, it's so early I can't stomach anymore than this right now.
Whilst we are sitting I spot a booth at the end of the lounge and just mention to Rachel I wonder what is is for... Rachel being Rachel immediately gets up to investigate 😄



It turns out to be a photo booth where you can get your photo taken with different French background and have it emailed to you for free.
Sounds like fun so once Rachel's back I go and have a look for myself.



Lol... I'm useless when it comes to looking in the right direction 😄 So I don't look quite as awesome as Eurostar seems to think!



We finish our drinks and at 6.15am we are called down to the freezing cold platform to wait for our train.



It's freezing, it's early, but we don't care, we're going to Disney!



We settle into our seats are are finally on our way to Paris, in no time at all we are in the tunnel and 20 mins later we are saying Bonjour to France.
It's at this point we slow right down to a crawl and finally to a stop at Calais. The train guard announces it is a service stop and we are on our way after 5-10 mins.
Once we are moving again Rachel goes to get us a cup of tea from the buffet car which is only the next carriage along (good planning by Rachel there!)



Much needed to keep us going, we also dive into some popcorn we've bought with us as our stomachs are starting to growl.



Yes we had popcorn for breakfast 😄

We arrive on time into Gare De Nord at 0930 where we head straight down to the Metro and purchase our tickets for our journey to Marne La Vallee.



Catching the train from Paris to Disneyland is much easier than you may think. We did it for the first time last year and although at the time we vowed never to do it again at this time of year there are no direct trains into Disneyland and the price was a bargain so we bit the bullet and decided to do it again, this year knowing what we were doing made it a lot easier and in no time at all we were on the train for the 40 minute journey to Disneyland.



We arrive into Marne La Vallee at 1045am and make our way up to the Disney express desk on the top floor of the train station.



We drop our bags off and collect our park tickets, half board vouchers and hotel fastpasses, a perk of staying in a Golden Forest room.



We leave the station and head out towards Disney Village, as always we both shed a tear when we walked out of the station and saw Disney for the first time this holiday, nothing beats this feeling of just arriving and having it all ahead of you. Luckily for us the weather was being really kind too 🙂



First up on the itinerary is brunch here at Earl of Sandwich, by now we've been up for ages and we are absolutely starving, I love EOS it's one of my favourite places to eat.



I order an Earls club (my favourite) and Rachel has a Caprese (minus cheese) and a bag of crisps each. We wait for our order and then head upstairs, as it's still quite early on in the day EOS is pretty much empty and we have the upstairs practically to ourselves.



The views upstairs across the lake towards the hotels are stunning and with the sun shining on us we sit back and relax whilst tucking into our yummy sandwiches.






Mmmmmm I could eat this right now!

After finishing our brunch we make our way back downstairs and start to layer up, it's sunny but freezing today and with a day in the Disneyland park planned we need to be warm!
Fleeces, scarves and gloves all on we head out of EOS towards the park gates.



Look at that sky and those smiley faces!






We make our way under the Disneyland Hotel and through the turnstiles into the park.



Getting emotional by this point, I know I'm going to see that beautiful castle in a minute!



I see it! ...



We've arrived! 💖💖💖



Castle selfie managed we decide that we are going to have to break with our tradition of riding It's A Small World first, we have hotel fast passes to use and these are not only dated but they cannot be used between 1pm & 4pm so as it's now nearing 1pm we decide to use our one for today on Big Thunder Mountain, this was shut last year for a massive refurbishment and we were so looking forward to riding it this time that we knew we just had to do this first, Frontierland here we come!



The wait time was posted at 35 mins, not bad at all but with our FP's we walk straight on, I request that we sit at the back and the cast member was happy to oblige 👍🏼



Wow, just wow! The ride is so much better, everything has had a good clean and paint and the special effects are just amazing, what made it all the more fun was how bloomin cold it was whizzing around, our eyes were streaming when we got off 😂



Here's our on ride photo, my hair shows exactly how fast we were going!



With BTM done we take a leisurely walk over to Fantasyland, the park seems nice and quiet today and we are able to really take in all the work that DLP is putting into making the park shiny for the 25th celebrations.



We are about to get in the queue for It's a Small World when we hear the announcement for 'Frozen A Royal Welcome' which would be passing our way in 10 mins so we decide to hang around and wait for Queen Anna and Princess Elsa.



This is how empty the park is right now!



Finally the frozen sisters pass our way with Let It Go blaring over the speakers in French as they do.



We give the girls a wave and head into the queue for IASW.



We walk straight onto the ride and set sail on the happiest cruise that ever sailed (said no one ever!) 😄 Just kidding, I do love it really.









Next up is Alice's Labyrinth, Rachel isn't keen on mazes but is a massive Cheshire Cat fan so with the promise that I won't get her lost we head into the maze.






We didn't get lost and Rachel got her photo with Chesh so all was well.



The Queen of Hearts castle had been painted and is looking stunning but unfortunately for reasons we never found out it was closed the whole time we were there.



We leave the Labyrinth and as we do we spot the White Rabbit who is meeting guests just outside, the queue is short and neither of us has met him before so we join the back of the queue.



It was a really good meet and he loved Rachel's bag and kept pointing to it and then to the Cheshire Cat in the maze😄



Next up was a Meet with the Main Mouse himself, the queue was only 20 minutes so we headed inside to the warm and waited. It was another fantastic meet and he was so lovely, he kept blowing us kisses!



We left Mickey and started to wander out of Fantasyland towards the castle.



We noticed as we walked past that Snow White was a walk on do we decided to ride that now as it was so quiet.



We exited Snow White and remembered that it's about here that we are supposed to be looking for Cinderella's Carriage, it's one of the things on our list of things to find, we find it just where Geoffa told us it would be, glinting in the sun in the courtyard of Auberge De Cendrillon.



A selfie was quickly taken just to prove we found it!



The wishing well is also found here.



We walk back through the castle and decide to go upstairs to look at the stained glass windows telling the story of Sleeping Beauty, I love the fact you can explore Dlp's castle.






I'm reminded of Geoffa here but can't think why?! 😉😄



The views across Fantasyland from the balcony of the castle are beautiful and being the only two up here at this moment we may have taken the opportunity to have a little dance 😃



As we make our way out of the park to check in at the hotel we decide to ride Buzz.






A fairly respectable score and I beat Rachel... 👍🏼



We leave the park and walk around to the Sequoia Lodge to check in, it's such a beautiful day today.



I absolutely love this hotel, it's my favourite.



We bypass the reception check in queues and enter the Golden Forest private check area.
The cast member who checks us in was brilliant and although we tell her we've stayed before she still runs through everything with us including what rides are open in Extra Magic Hours.
We are given our room key and told that our bags will be delivered to the room for us so we make our way up to the 6th floor.



Our room is beautiful.



Coffee maker and kettle come as standard in a Golden Forest room as does a fridge which is good news for us as we've bought two bottles of prosecco with us!



The best thing about our room is the incredible view, we can see the Tower Of Terror to the left and in the gap in the trees we can see the castle... perfect.

We unpack our bags and put our feet up for a bit and have a well deserved cuppa.



We then make our way to the Disneyland hotel to meet up with the third member of the Glowtini Girls, Auntie Mel, who arrived for her first solo trip the day before. We meet overlooking the lobby and head straight into Cafe Fantasia for cocktails!



Of course there was no question as to what cocktail we were going to order, Glowtini's all round !



We have a lovely time catching up and hearing what Mel had been up to since she arrived.
Rachel and I didn't plan the matching stripy tops by the way, this sort of thing happens a lot when you've been friends for so long!😄



Before we know it our glasses are empty so we decide to order another cocktail, Rachel and I have a Rouge Et Noir and Mel has a red Glowtini for the first time.
We spend more time chatting and before we know it it's time to leave to go and watch Dreams.
We stand to watch Dreams halfway down Main Street and we all get emotional standing watching it.
With Dreams finished we part company with Mel but not before agreeing to meet up in the Golden Forest lounge after dinner for another cocktail.



Rachel and I head to the newly opened Vapiano, we were looking forward to eating here as we've read lots of good things about the food.
We were greeted at the entrance and given a plastic card each, we vaguely make out that we order at the counter and then scan our cards.
I managed to eventually find us a menu and we sit to look it over and decide what we're having.
I decided on pizza, Rachel chose pasta, this is where it all got a bit confusing, I went to the station for pizza and ordered mine, I scanned my card and got given a buzzer, I look to find Rachel who is still at the back of the pasta station queue. After a while we work out that pasta is cooked there and then in front of you so you wait and pizza is cooked and you go back for it, this then shows one big flaw, I was obviously going to be eating way before Rachel as she is still after 20 minutes at the back of the queue, we decide this isn't for us and leave. The idea of eating dinner together is that you eat it together!
This has put us off a bit but we have both said we would like to try it again once we know exactly how the ordering process works!



So now we're at a bit of a quandary as to where to eat, Disney village is busy so I suggest going back to Earl Of Sandwich (it is my favourite!) neither of us are wanting a big dinner so it makes sense.
We both ordered exactly the same as we had for lunch but instead of crisps we order potato wedges to go with our sandwiches, I can't tell you how much I enjoyed my 'bonus' trip to EOS!
We finish our sandwiches and walk back around the lake to the hotel where we drop off our bags in the room and go to meet Mel in the lounge.



Obviously another cocktail was required by now so I order a 'Woodcutter' Rachel orders the strongest cocktail on the menu, the 'Blackwood' and Mel has a 'Melontree' all of them were delicious but Rachel has decided I should order her cocktails from now onwards as she always seems to order the strongest 😂
Mel very kindly treats us to our cocktails and we stay chatting until the lounge closed at 10.30pm.
We arrange to meet Mel in the Studios in the morning to ride Tower of Terror together and we then wearily make our way up to bed.



What an amazing day we have had, it's also been a very long one. By the time we crawl into bed we have been up for 20 hours!
My head hits the pillow and a Disney cocktail induced sleep happens in seconds.

Day 2 to follow...

Thanks for reading. 🙂


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Old 22 Feb 17, 04:12 PM  
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Jake71
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Looks like you girls are heading for a great time. I can feel the excitement from you as I read.
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Old 22 Feb 17, 05:54 PM  
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New Photo Added by Blondie1979 - 22 Feb 17 4:54 PM.
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Old 22 Feb 17, 06:32 PM  
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Love it - I can feel the excitement you both felt, and I can definitely remember those cocktails
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Old 22 Feb 17, 07:43 PM  
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I want to go back right now!
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Old 23 Feb 17, 09:08 AM  
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I love it, and has given me idea of a girls weekend away too!
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