Reaz Birthday Bonanza Trip - February 2018

[NatsyNoo]

Preamble

2018 is a big year for my family - DH (Matt) turns 40, my sister (Reaz) turns (or turned!) 30, and this needs to be celebrated.

When we started to plan this trip last April (which in itself is unbelievable!), we didn't have too much planned for this year. Reaz was pondering around what she wanted to do to celebrate her big 3-0, and has been desperate to take her little girl (Molly - the best niece in the whole world) to Disneyland to meet all of her favourite people. Reaz isn't really big into expensive gifts or parties, so instead, she just wanted to take Molly to Disneyland, and she wanted me and Matt to share in the magic. Well, I am in no position to turn down a trip to Disneyland, am I?!

So here we were: 4 adults, 1 toddler, ready to go and celebrate in the happiest place….in Europe, at least.

The plan came together that on Sunday 4th February, we would stay at the Premier Inn in Ashford for the night ready to travel to Disneyland the next day for 4 nights, and we would be staying at the Sequoia Lodge for 4 nights in a Golden Forest room. We decided that we would try staying in one room together to try and save costs, and thankfully, it worked out perfectly - phew!
So here we go!

[NatsyNoo]

Finally the day was here and we were beyond words excited! Knowing that this was how I would feel, I purposefully made a busy day for us, which involved leaving home at 9.15am. We dropped off our beloved Buttons (cheeky house rabbit) at our friend's, popped into the Toby Carvery for a breakfast (£14.88 for 2 breakfasts and 2 refillable sodas), nipped into Tesco to get some drinks for the journey and some Mickey & Minnie PJs that I had seen with Eiffel Towers on them (very fitting) for me and Reaz (£32.39), and hit the Holiday Road.

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I put on some special Disney Jamberry nail wraps for the trip!

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Meanwhile, little Molly was helping with the packing!

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We made it to Ashford in good time and arrived sooner than expected, so we popped into Dobby's Garden Centre for a wander and into McDonalds for a milkshake before we were due at Cineworld to watch 'The Darkest Hour', which was great (and even better that the cinema was free through my health insurance!).

After the film had finished, I got a text from my sister (who had had to work that morning) that they had arrived at the Premier Inn so we headed over there and let the fun begin! We checked in and paid the £50 per couple for the Premier Inn meal deal which would cover a 2 course dinner and breakfast for us all. The restaurant was a Beefeater, which I personally am a fan of. Matt and I had the ribeye (which had a supplement of about £2.50 and Dan (my sister's husband) ended up paying for), and then for dessert Matt had a sundae and I had the strawberry frozen yoghurt.

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We then headed back to the room to shower and get ready for tomorrow, when we finally get to take Molly to Disneyland!

[NatsyNoo]

We both awoke to the unpleasant sound of the alarm after a bad night's sleep for both of us. We put it down to the room temperature being on the high side. We all meet in the corridor at 7.20am and headed down for breakfast. I didn't have much to eat as I was still full from the previous night, so stuck with pancakes I think, but Matt enjoyed a full English to set him up for the day.

We de-iced the cars and headed for Ashford station at 8.20am. We were parked up and checked in by 8.50am…a bit on the early side for our 11am train…oops!

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The wait at the station was unremarkable, as was the train journey. We did all enjoy singing the Frozen Fever song, 'We're making today a perfect day for youuuuuu….'. We departed slightly late so were 20 minutes late arriving into Marne La Vallee station. Molly busied herself with Disney Life on the iPad and some colouring, but was getting ratting having not had a nap by the time we arrived so the wait at the bus stop was interesting!

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Finally, after a wait that was longer than I would have liked, a Sequoia Lodge bus turned up. We checked in smoothly and went to find our room which we were pleased with. It was bigger than we were expecting, but it is admittedly looking tired. It's definitely due a refurb. Having the vanity area separate from the toilet definitely helped with there being 5 of us in there.

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At 3.30pm, we finally found ourselves at the entrance to Disneyland Park, and we were excited! Molly, however, was fast asleep. Great. Kids eh?!

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So we wandered through to Discoveryland and grabbed some Fastpasses for Star Tours, and then over to Adventureland to ride Pirates of the Caribbean (we took it in turns so someone could look after Molly).

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After this, we headed back to Star Tours but Molly was stirring by now so Matt and I rode whilst Reaz and Dan waited in Café Hyperion. When we got off, they decided to eat in their for ease. I wasn't thrilled at the idea of sinking 40 Euros on food that is that bad, so Matt and I escaped to Five Guys and had a Little Bacon Cheeseburger, a 'normal' Bacon Cheeseburger, large fries and soda for E29.50. Still expensive but definitely better than the park food.

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By the time we got back into the park, Molly was ready and raring to go, so we rode Buzz, It's a Small World and Pirates (again), which turned out to be three of her favourite rides of the trip!

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It was getting close to Illuminations time by now, so we pitched up a found a spot in the Hub, and it started to snow. We had no idea at this point how bad it would be! Illuminations was just wonderful. I've read a lot of people saying that they found it boring or weren't impressed, but I was quite the opposite. I've been going to Disney Parks for 25+ years now and it takes a lot to impress me, but Illuminations blew me away, I thought it was magical. I much preferred it to Dreams and the new rumours that it's going make me sad. It was made extra magical by the snow, which in the strobe lighting, looked like glitter, it was so pretty!

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It was park closing time by now so we headed towards the exit. Reaz and Molly were pretty tired so they and Dan headed back to the hotel to get started on showering and unpacking. Matt and I (well, I) had spending money burning a hole in my pocket, so we stopped off at the World of Disney store and got my beloved gold 25th anniversary ears and a Tinkerbell 25th anniversary Vinylmation for EW46.97. We also stopped in the 'old' Disney Store and got a flashing necklace for Molly for E1, plus a hair bow for 50c and some rubbers (for a friend) for 50c.

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Our final stop was our hotel gift store where we bought the 25th anniversary photo frame (we buy one every trip) for E12.99.
We were back in the room, unpacked, showered and in bed by 10.20pm.
All in all a successful day and we were all excited for tomorrow!

[NatsyNoo]

We were awake at 6am…but we didn't mind because we were in Disneyland! We pulled ourselves out of bed at 7am and were down at breakfast in the Golden Forest lounge at 7.40am. We loved this facility and think we'll find it hard to go to DLP any other way now! The upgrade to Golden Forest cost an extra £7pppn and it was worth every penny with the breakfast and the drinks we were picking up in the evenings!

Molly enjoyed her cereal

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This was my daily munch!

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We got to the park at 9.15am, which was later than I had hoped, but I guess that's what happens when you travel with children! Our first ride was Peter Pan, which only had a 10 minute wait. Molly didn't seem too fussed, she definitely had other firm favourites!

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So thrilled with my new ears!

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Our next stop was 'Meet Mickey'. We had all been waiting for this for so long! We got to the entrance at about 9.50am and waited about 40 minutes inside too, tough going with a 2 year old! She loved it though and it was worth the wait. It was just a perfect interaction. She was a bit hesitant but she did give him a big cuddle and got more confident throughout the week. No tears was a success in our eyes! I love these pictures!

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One of the most magical moments of the trip came next - Molly came out of the building, jumping around in the snow mounds and falling snow, shouting 'Best Day Ever'. You can't put a price on that and I wouldn't have missed that moment for the whole world!

Next up was the teacups and this was to be a firm favourite for Molly. She absolutely loved it! She's definitely a thrill seeker and I can't wait to take her on the Barnstormer in WDW in April (she just needs to grow one more inch!). When it was time to get off, she wasn't happy!

Look at her face!

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We rode Pinocchio next which she didn't seem all that fussed about, and then it was time to go on It's a Small World again, which she loved again. She was just so mesmerised with the colours, lights, sounds…everything! She is adamant that her daddy sings this to her in the car but he is quite sure he doesn't!

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We went over to Discoveryland next to get some Hyperspace Mountain Fastpasses next. Matt and I were excited to ride this after hearing so many good things!
After this, we split up for a bit - my sister's feet were really soggy because of the snow (Sketcher Go Walks are apparently not waterproof!), Dan had a cold head, and Molly's shoes had also wet through so they needed a shop to buy some new shoes, socks and a hat.

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Matt and I spotted a Donald meet & greet so decided to go there. I love this picture!

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We went and grabbed a hot chocolate/Coke Zero & Star Brioche (about E10) whilst we waited for them (apparently there had been a proper Molly meltdown because Auntie Nat & Uncle Matt weren't there). Eventually, we were reunited, and it was time to ride Hyperspace…but Hyperspace had other ideas as it was down.

Oops, took a bite!

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Instead, we went and picked up some Fastpasses for Buzz to use later. It didn't take long though and Hyperspace was running again…hoorah! And it was fab! The only thing that let it down was that there was no sound. We all assume that there should be music and sound effects but each time we rode it, it wasn't working. The new track has made such a difference though and I do think the theming works really well (and it pains me to say that…I really really don't like Star Wars!).

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We hadn't been to Frontierland so far so wandered in that direction now to ride Big Thunder…guess what, that was down too! So instead, we rode 'Naughty Pirates' with Molly, which she loved again.

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We headed back over to Discoveryland next because Reaz and Dan wanted to ride Star Tours, and today was a very important day - it was Fastpass day for WDW! I was already about 3 hours late in doing them so I was keen to at least get Toy Story Mania and Flight of Passage sorted. In the end, I got them all done (took me 90 minutes though! ).

The snow was continuing to fall heavily now nut we were all desperate to ride Big Thunder so we went to try that again and it was working! We used our Hotel Fastpasses to skip the line which worked well but my goodness was it cold! With the cold wind, the snow (which felt like hail) it was a painful experience but we all laughed and wouldn't have done it any other way. This did however mark a turning point for us all in terms of bearing the cold any longer.

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We tried to soldier on and went to ride 'Naughty Pirates' for Molly but that was down (notice a theme here?! That snow has a lot to answer for!) so we went for the Carousel instead. She really wasn't sure on this but came around to the idea of it in the end. We also rode the Teacups again for her, and of course, It's A Small World, before calling it a day. It was 5.30pm by now so we'd had a good stab at it and we needed to get to Buffalo Bills ahead of the 6.30pm show.

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Buffalo Bills was great. This show never fails to please me! Molly really enjoyed it, the food was pretty good, and they even gave Molly food and an ice lolly even though we hadn't had to pay for her which was nice of them. The show lasts 1.5 hours which was just about right for little Molly and we're all so pleased that we decided to do it. Thanks Mum for buying us all the tickets for our Christmas present!

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After the show, we made the treacherous journey back to the hotel, where we grabbed some hot drinks from the lounge, showered, chilled a bit, and went to bed. What a fantastic day it had been!

[NatsyNoo]

We woke up this morning at 7.20am, got dressed, and went straight down to breakfast. Matt and I left the rest of them in the room, we wanted to get into the Studios park for EMH today to get as much done as we could and make the most of the time. We arrived there at 8.30am, and headed straight to Crush's Coaster because there is no Fastpass and the queue moves sooooooo slowly! However, the ride didn't open until 9am for some reason so it was still a 40 minute wait. However, it didn't really matter, because we still managed to ride Crush, Ratatouille, Tower of Terror and Rock n Roller Coaster by 10am! Pretty good going!

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By that time, my sister had texted to say that they were in the park and in the line to meet Moana. Good idea we thought, get in there early….and two hours later, it was almost our turn! Oh my life, never ever did I think we would be waiting for 2 hours to meet Moana! And nor would we have done had we known! That being said, Molly was so star struck and it was so cute to see.

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After that, it was lunchtime, so Molly, Louise and Dan headed into the main building, so Matt and I took the opportunity to ride RC Racer and we met Molly, Louise and Dan to ride Slinky Dog Coaster after, which again, Molly loved!

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Next up was the Disney Junior show which again, Molly absolutely loved!

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We were all in the mood for a sweet treat next so headed into the main building again for a hot chocolate and cookie (€8 ish) before wandering over with Reaz to ride Rock n Roller Coaster and Tower of Terror whilst Matt and Dan (and Molly) watched the March of the First Order.

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As we came out of Tower of Terror, I found a Tsum Tsum of Anna for Molly to match her Elsa one, so I bought that (€5.99), and then we all wandered round to Ratatouille again. Molly was asleep but woke up just in time!

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By now it was 4.45pm so we decided to head over for an early dinner. This is where things all went a bit downhill…

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The snow was so deep, it filled the fountain by the entrance of the Studios!

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I loved these 25th anniversary flags!

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We decided on Vapianos to get some pizza & pasta. This place was fab, we loved the food BUT I wasn't very impressed with the concept. It is confusing if you haven't been before and no-one explains how it works, and also doesn't really lend itself to eat as a group. But the food was very delicious and we loved how fresh it tasted. Matt had pasta al fredo, I had carbonara, and we also shared a Hawaiian pizza, because we are a bit greedy lol and because we wanted to taste both. We felt the pasta just pipped the pizza but both were yummy. With our drinks, I think it came to about €70 but I've lost the receipt so I'm sorry I don't have the actual cost! Not cheap but nor is anything in DLP!

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Molly had been off her food all day (well, all trip to be honest) but we put it down to excitement because she seemed fine in herself. Then, she did this massive belch and brought up a load of water into her bib. We didn't think too much of it, but Reaz thought it best to get her back to the hotel to rest and have an early night ahead of her big day tomorrow!

Matt and I took the opportunity to wander around the Village a bit. We bought a Christmas tree decoration and USA flag Vinylmation (reduced to €3) for €15.99.

This Lego creation gets me every time!

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We then headed back into the Studios to see it in the dark (as it usually closes it 5pm on previous trips!) and to wander round the shops (we bought Molly a Toy Story alien plush for €19.99). We then waited for the Star Wars projection show to start (it was freezing! ) at 7.15pm. Matt absolutely loved it, and it was definitely clever but I am by no means a Star Wars fan so it was a bit lost on me!

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After this, we wandered back to the hotel and when we got to the room found that poor little Molly had a full sickness bug. She was being sick every 5-10 minutes and because she hadn't eaten much, it was just bile. This continued until after midnight, poor little mite. My sister pretty much wrote her birthday off which was such a shame, but SPOILER ALERT, she was right as rain from 3am and was calling out for a brioche! It was a hairy few hours though as she was so poorly! Anyway, when Matt and I got back, we showered and went to bed to keep the noise down.

[NatsyNoo]

We all woke up not sure how today was going to play out after last night's events. We decided to give it and go and see how she got on, because it was Reaz's big day after all, and she hadn't been sick since midnight and had kept her drink and brioche down ok.

Before anything though, we had to give the birthday girl some pressies! For her main present, I've booked Reaz and I on the Keys to the Kingdom tour in WDW in April, which we are both excited about (and the boys just aren't interested lol) but I also had a hoodie and some badges made by the wonderful Tabzie at Fairytale Sparkle which she was thrilled with (she lives in her hoodies so this is a wonderful keepsake for her!)

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We left the room at 9am to wander down to our character breakfast at Plaza Gardens. We had pre-booked this for €8 per person upgrade which we felt was reasonable. The grounds were treacherous as we walked, as it had not stopped snowing for days, and the grounds were very icy as they had not been treated, so it did take a bit of time to get there safely.

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We got there just at 9.45am (our reservation time) but there was a line to get in. We were laughing hysterically whilst in line as there was a big patch of ice next to us, which was very visible, but rather than avoiding it, people were walking on it and slip sliding all over the place. It sounds cruel to have laughed but it was just person after person after person looking like a cartoon sketch of slipping on a banana skin and the whole line was laughing. Thankfully this washed all of the tension of the past 12 hours away!

The snow did cause chaos on our trip but it was beautiful!

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We all enjoyed the food at the character breakfast (very similar to what we had been enjoying in the Golden Forest lounge) and the character greets were brilliant. Molly just loved it there and tucked into a decent sized breakfast. We knew she was ok now!

We saw Mickey (who nearly slipped over as we walked into the restaurant), Daisy, Goofy (who actually slipped and fell on Reaz's head), Eeyore, Tigger and Piglet. She was a very happy lady!

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At 10.50am, we left Plaza Gardens and wandered over to Frontierland to find Woody and ride Big Thunder. At long last, it was sunny, and although cold (-7!) a very pleasant day! We failed on both counts as Woody wasn't there (a lot of the character greets had been cancelled because of the ice) and Big Thunder was closed due to ice on the track.

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Instead, we wandered over to Pirates of the Caribbean, where we had our second calamity…Matt fell down! The wooden planks on the walkways were very wet because of all the melting ice, and they were very slippy. It didn't take much for him to lose his footing and fall down, and he unfortunately did really hurt himself - he had really badly bruised his elbow and knee, and also ripped (or burned!) a hole in the elbow of his coat.

Thankfully nothing broken and we were able to laugh it off, so after 'Naughty Pirates', we wanted to make sure Molly had the time of her life after being so poorly the previous night, so we went to ride Snow White (I expected her to be scared, but she wasn't) and Pinocchio (her choice, very weird!), and then tried to get onto Hyperspace Mountain but it was down, so we got a Buzz Fastpass instead.

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After this, we spotted that the Anniversary show at the Castle stage was just about to start, so Reaz thought she'd had a nosy around Star Traders to spend some of her birthday money, and Matt, Dan and I went to watch it. We met up again afterwards, and went to the Christmas shop in the Castle where we bought my Mum one of the plush tin soldiers (she loved those tin soldiers on our Christmas trip to WDW in 1998 as kids, and still talks about them!) which was €13.99. We went back to Star Traders and I got three character keyrings (Angel and Tinkerbell for me, Stitch for Matt) for €20.97 (ouch!).

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Finally a sunny castle shot!

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It was now time to use our Buzz Fastpasses and I think for the first time in history, I beat Matt! Hoorah!

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After this, we spotted that the Dark (?!) Vadar meet & greet had only a 15 minute wait so we encouraged Matt and Dan to go. They refused, so Reaz and I decided to make a statement and go ourselves. We laughed hysterically through it because it was so awkward (because we don't really know who he is) and intimidating (he's so tall!).

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Molly enjoyed a pit stop whilst Mummy and Auntie Nat were off on their adventures!

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So far so good - this day had the potential to be a write off last month and it was going amazingly so far!

After this, we grabbed two more Buzz Fastpasses, before wandering over to It's a Small World (her favourite!) and then the Teacups. We then used our Buzz Fastpasses again, and finally managed to ride Hyperspace Mountain. Once again, no music 9

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It was close to parade time now, so we went and secured a spot near the Bella Notte restaurant right near the beginning of the parade route, before heading towards the exit to head into the Village where Reaz wanted to have dinner at the Rainforest Café.

Molly loved the parade - she was mesmerised!

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Matt and I loathe these type of restaurants, but it was what she wanted to do on her special day so we went along with it. We had a large bottle of water to share between us, shared the sharing appetiser plate and both had the ribs for main. It was mediocre at best and definitely not worth €90 but Reaz was happy and that's all that mattered.

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It seems I forgot to take one of our ribs, sorry!

After dinner, I wanted to go back and watch Illuminations again as I had enjoyed it so much on Monday. Despite it being freezing cold, Matt and I decided to do this while Reaz and Dan took Molly back for a bath and some rest. In the Disneyland Park, I bought two Pandora charms - I don't have a Pandora bracelet but this year, Matt and I are lucky enough to be visiting DLP, WDW, Disneyland in California and taking a Disney Cruise, plus it is of course Molly's first time, so I wanted to mark this by creating a Pandora bracelet stacked full of memories. I bought the Playful Mickey charm to represent Molly's first time meeting Mickey, and the Teacup charm to represent it being one of her favourite rides. These came to €108 and are now waiting patiently in my WDW suitcase ready to go in 2 weeks' time!

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Illuminations was once again absolutely magical, the version of 'A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes' by Heather Headley is just spectacular!

After this, it was time to go back to the room, shower and pack! I couldn't believe it was time to go home tomorrow after having the best time! We hit the hay at about 10am.

[NatsyNoo]

The alarm very inconveniently woke us up at 7am today, to finish off our packing, have breakfast and get into the parks for EMH. Dan waited for bell services to come and collect the cases (which took ages!) whilst the rest of us went down to breakfast.

We were in the Studios by 9am, but were disappointed that the weather had deteriorated again today. We were all however determined to make the most of today!

Matt, Reaz and I queued for Crush but it was down again (as it had been on Wednesday) so we all went to meet Goofy in the Animagique waiting area instead. Molly once again loved it! Sorry, piccie overload!

IMG_6979 by Natalie Pope, on Flickr

IMG_6974 by Natalie Pope, on Flickr

IMG_6992 by Natalie Pope, on Flickr

We then grabbed some Fastpasses for Ratatouille before going to meet Buzz, who didn't turn up (presumably due to the ice) again, so we rode the Cars ride, Ratatouille with our Fastpasses, and then RC Racer.

IMG_6998 by Natalie Pope, on Flickr

It was freezing today already so we decided to thaw out with a hot chocolate and donut, before riding Tower of Terror with our hotel Fastpasses. Reaz and Dan went first whilst we waited with Molly, but it broke down whilst they were on it, so we missed our 'slot' to use them before 1pm (Hotel Fastpasses cannot be used between 1pm and 4pm). We weren't too fussed, we'd had a good innings on this trip and we always had WDW to look forward to.

IMG_6999 by Natalie Pope, on Flickr

Matt and I were a bit fed up of the cold by now after 4 days of it so gave up and went to the Disneyland Hotel for a little mooch (as is tradition) and a very expensive but lovely round of drinks at the Café Fantasia - I had a hot chocolate, Matt had a Coke Zero, and this came to €13.70.

IMG_7002 by Natalie Pope, on Flickr

IMG_7001 by Natalie Pope, on Flickr

As we walked out, Reaz called and said that they were in the Earl of Sandwich already (30 mins early) so Matt and I wandered up there where we ordered two Hawaiian Melts, 2 drinks (paid for separately because I forgot to order them as a meal deal, €6.58), 1 brownie, 1 bread pudding, 1 crisps (€22.30) which was absolutely delicious! It was so good, we went back for some wedges, another bag of crisps and a fruit cup for Molly (€12.35).

IMG_7003 by Natalie Pope, on Flickr

After a nice relaxing lunch, we decided it was time to head to the station, collect our luggage and get checked in for the Eurostar home. It was very slow though, taking 1 hour & 20 minutes to collect our luggage and check in for the Eurostar. They were definitely running behind schedule because the train left late as people just couldn't get checked in quickly enough.

The train journey home was unremarkable. We were about 30 minutes late getting into Ashford because of speed restrictions as a result of the snow but it didn't really matter too much to us.

Matt and I said our farewells to Reaz, Dan and Molly after a delightful 5 days together, and we went our own way - they were headed home, and Matt and I were headed to Watford as we were going to the Harry Potter Studio Tour the next day. We stopped off at some services en route to grab a McDonalds and got to the Premier Inn at 10pm, where I showered, got changed, and hit the hay.

What an amazing trip! We made another million memories with our besties and absolutely adored watching the magic through our little Molly's eyes. We don't have our own children so we treat Molly as our own in every way and we so appreciated the opportunity to watch her Disney dreams come to life. It's only made us more excited to get to WDW in just 2 weeks!

So until then….see ya real soon!

IMG_6665 by Natalie Pope, on Flickr

Thanks for reading!

[burns3466]

Awww, little Molly is so sweet! You also took some really great photos. What a lovely trip you all had, and I agree (as we were there the same week as you) it was so very bitterly cold and by the second day, the novelty was starting to wear off for us!

[NatsyNoo]

Originally Posted by burns3466

Awww, little Molly is so sweet! You also took some really great photos. What a lovely trip you all had, and I agree (as we were there the same week as you) it was so very bitterly cold and by the second day, the novelty was starting to wear off for us!

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Ah what a strange coincidence! It really was very cold huh?!
Little Molly is just the entire world to us, we think she is the best (but appreciTe we are a bit biased).
Thanks for reading! X

[margyloveswdw]

Lovely report of what sounded like a great birthday trip (barring the sick child of course!).

You and your sister look so alike!

You are very brave sharing a room with another couple - I'm afraid I couldn't do it even to save money.

Wow, what an amazing holiday year you have to look forward to. I always enjoy your reports so bonus to have so many in one year