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Old 17 Nov 19, 10:45 AM  
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WileyCoyote
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DLP Dash November 2019. The Beginning. And Dining at Annette’s

This visit came about through a completely chance conversation with a work colleague who mentioned a trip that she was taking and within 48 hours, myself and another colleague has booked ourselves on

This was back in March and it felt ages away.

In the meantime I had the epic road trip round a few states and my Disney work buddy visited both the Japan and Orlando parks - coming back from the latter just two days before the DLP trip. She is completely hard core and has awesome stamina!

It did mean that we were going with only a skeleton plan and booking the restaurants had been quite hard work as it took a while before we realised you dont need the tickets to make reservations... by which time Inventions was already booked up and we gave up on the phone line.

Thanks to the Dibb link we did manage a couple of bookings via the Dutch site. Thank you google chrome for auto translate !

So the “we” on this trip was not me and hubby. He did have the usual FOMO but agreed that this really wasnt going to be his thing.

I mean, Disney, in France, in November.

Definitely not his bag on any level.

The trip was Wed 13th to Fri 15th November.
2 nights at Sequoia lodge with premium dining and 3 day park entry plus Eurostar.

All good?

On y va !

Wednesday 13 November. Day 1

An early start at 5.30 . Even though we couldnt check in till 0900, there was no way either of us were taking any chances.

My Disney buddy had set off from home just before 6 and I wasnt too far behind. The trains to and from Euston in the last few weeks have been unreliable and as we both come into London that way neither of us were risking any delays.

I arrived just after 7 and she was about half an hour behind me.

A short walk to St Pancras where we picked up our train tickets and travel details from the tour organiser and decamped to Le pain au Quotidien for a somewhat overpriced and completely average breakfast before raiding M&S for snacks and drinks . We may have over done thus a bit . See for yourself later

As soon as the Disneyland train came up on the board we were straight in the queue and quickly through to passport control and security.

All very rapid and meant we had 40 minutes or so in the departure lounge before boarding.

A complete stranger enquired why it was so busy and commented that we didnt look like “these Disney people” - so we duly pointed out our Disney ears and suitcase to which he wanted to know if we did this for a living ( i wish) as in did we just go round visiting the parks.

Sadly he was on the Paris train and had to board so we weren’t subject to any more random commentary on our lifestyle choices.

We only had hand luggage so there was no faff getting on and the storage is really good so we were soon settled in and away on time .

The journey passed really quickly with a Christmas jumper competition



Gutted I didn’t win but others had jumpers that lit up and/or played music so I must up my game next year

Then there were Disney quizzes and puzzles and consumption of snacks and sandwiches.



Ah , just like a school trip. We were so busy we didnt even realise we had gone through the tunnel until the phones pinged to tell us we were in France.

We arrived on schedule at 2pm and straight over to the bus stop



Amazing photo right - a bin and a cone .

These seem to be staple items every 20 foot in the parks too.

A brief wait at the hotel while the party was checked in (the lady who organised this trip is blinking fantastic , it all went like clockwork).

We had to put the bags through a scanner before getting into the hotel which I wasnt expecting and it did cause a small queue ... but as we had a ground floor room we had no faff with waiting for the lift and were able to dump the cases, take a few pics





and were straight back out to the bus back to the park... passing quite a few of the group who were still getting to their rooms

We arrived back at the entrance just before 3 and opted to go to the Studios first . I’ve left the lighting in the photos just as it was the reality .. dark and gloomy






We just missed Christmas Goofy



Loved the indoor walk in with the restaurants, nice theming and it wasnt too busy.






We headed straight over to pick up a Fastpass for Ratatouille.



It looked lovely here - it was raining a little but not too bad. The Winter food carts looked really good but I think they would be better off indoors - certainly on our last day no one was standing outside to eat, bit of a shame.



We passed by the Toy story themed land



and straight on to Tower of Terror which was a walk on .




Look no queue



We were on and off by 3.20. What a brilliant start this was. The ride was fantastic - we screamed our heads off, it was way better than Orlando.



Loved the little details



Buzzing from our first ride we went next to the Flying Carpets and were on and off by 3.40. These were ok - for me, I think better than Dumbo but not as good as Orbitron




We passed the Monsters Inc Greet area. I’m sure whoever thought those scream monitors were a good idea never actually stood near them for any length of time with people screeching their heads off



From there it was over back through Playland




to Slinky Dog which was better than it looked but still not one we felt would warrant a re ride . We got on at 3.50 and were off 5 minutes later



We were back at Ratatouille for our Fastpass and feeling pretty good that we had already done 3 rides in our first hour and ticked off two headliners with ToT and Ratatouille.

It had quite a queue which i couldnt fathom as it was still issuing fast passes and has single rider. Why were people queuing for 40 minutes for it ?



Anyway we boarded our rodent



and thought the ride was ok - not as exciting as say Transformers or Spider-Man but lots of detail - which I think I didnt really appreciate on the first ride but did when we re rode on our last day. It’s a grower

All this hoarding was gone by day 3



And I do love the hat

With 4 rides done we decided to head over to the other park to catch the 5pm Stars on Parade while it was still dry.

We arrived at 4.30



It was so pretty



Loved how the tree and lights changed colour



By 4.40 we had a spot at the end of Main Street. It was cold by now so it was good it was only a short wait and also good that tons of people didnt pitch up at the end and start trying to find a place to stand. It was relatively civilised.

The parade was fab. The characters and performers really interacted with the crowd and came up to lots of people . It was really good fun and one of the nicest parade experiences I have had.



The dragon was my favourite by far



So intricate



Then the princesses. Not my thing really (oh the Dibb shame)



We took a stroll along Main Street from about 5.20 and had a look at the wait times




deciding to get a fast pass for Big Thunder which we got for just after 6pm so we doubled back and headed for Phantom Manor. We got in the queue at 5.45 and were out just before 6. Hmmm, not that impressed with this one.



Definitely not one we felt we would do again or worth a long queue.

Straight over to BTMRR and a short wait to get on with fast pass entry - this was another one with a long standby queue yet fast passes were still available.

People .. why are you queuing? - get a fast pass.

No wait, dont, or there will be none left.

Seriously though we never saw the fast passes run out over the three days and yet standby queues were 40-60 minutes . Madness

Like ToT , BTMRR was brilliant and IMO much better than Orlando - especially as it was now dark and we were fair whizzing along with what felt like more speed and drops than we expected. We were buzzing when we got off.

There was half an hour left till park closing so we navigated our way around adventure island - easier said than done in the dark with minimal lighting and made it to Pirates of the Caribbean.

There was, quite literally, not a soul around.

It is a really long walk to the ride through the themed area- dark and a bit creepy.

At one point we wondered if the ride was closed and we were going to be locked in!

It was totally empty. I am glad I had company as I would have been a bit freaked out on my own.

We got to the boats and they were all empty. Just as we got on a single chap pitched up so we had the front row and he had the back .. and we were the only people there the whole time.

It was a good ride - felt quite long and we were pleased to have done it while it was quiet so it wouldn’t be eating into park time tomorrow.


We were off at 6.45 and did the reverse navigating through Skull Rock - this would be ace for kids exploring but not so much for two freezing cold middle aged women using their iPhones as torches

My phone was almost out of charge by now too, so I was nursing it along on the last few bars of life.

We decided against stopping for Illuminations as we were both cold and tired .. and hungry so thought we would beat the crowds to dinner by heading straight out to Disney Village and were very pleased to get a walk up at Annettes with only a ten minute wait.



Our very lovely server Axel soon brought us our burgers (cheeseburger for me and veggie burger )




I had the cheesecake for dessert and this was amazing.



The food was pretty good, very fresh, the fries were perfect . We both had Cokes and the bill was 64 Euros for the two of us which we felt was reasonable value.

Disney Village looked nice all lit up


A quick store detour



It was a bit of a wait for the resort bus and we were so cold by now. 🥶

The hotel package entitked us two drinks each from the vending machine and we were very grateful for some hot chocolate



We unpacked, assembled the snack draw



And mini bar



And sorted our stuff ready to be out sharpish for EMH tomorrow.

We felt very pleased with our 7 ride tally across the two parks plus the parade (and with 20 minutes parade waiting time). Not bad for 4 hours on the first day

Edited at 07:08 PM.
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Old 17 Nov 19, 11:49 AM  
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Cutiepie
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That was a great day Amanda, you got a lot done in a few hours.
I would love to go back to DLP for a few days but having to fly from Belfast & travelling in school holidays makes it too expensive.
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Old 17 Nov 19, 07:42 PM  
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WileyCoyote
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Originally Posted by Cutiepie View Post
That was a great day Amanda, you got a lot done in a few hours.
I would love to go back to DLP for a few days but having to fly from Belfast & travelling in school holidays makes it too expensive.
We did didn’t we! And it really helped the next day that we had already done a couple of the slower rides like PoC and Phantom Manor.

Yeah, I am lucky now not being tied to school hols and the train was so quick too. It turned out to be such an unexpectedly brilliant trip.
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Old 18 Nov 19, 02:14 AM  
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florida girl
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You packed so much in , can’t wait to go in March. Thinking maybe a Christmas trip too as it all looks so lovely.
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Old 18 Nov 19, 10:41 AM  
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Sounds like a great, if cold, day. Lots done. What did you think of the hotel? That’s the one I’m thinking of booking.
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Old 18 Nov 19, 02:15 PM  
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margyloveswdw
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Sounds like an easy travel experience and that you got plenty done on the first day!

Looking forward to reading more.
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Old 18 Nov 19, 07:16 PM  
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WileyCoyote
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Originally Posted by florida girl View Post
You packed so much in , can’t wait to go in March. Thinking maybe a Christmas trip too as it all looks so lovely.
Thank you . It was so pretty. We had a great tally but an ever better one to come !

Originally Posted by mrsdjh View Post
Sounds like a great, if cold, day. Lots done. What did you think of the hotel? That’s the one I’m thinking of booking.
Hi there . It seemed nice. A bit dated maybe but is due a re furb. Nice shop, bar and lounge. Not that we used them as we were out in the parks so much There will be more pics of it on the last day.

Originally Posted by margyloveswdw View Post
Sounds like an easy travel experience and that you got plenty done on the first day!

Looking forward to reading more.
Thank you . It did go really well. We nailed it the next day, hard core touring
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Old 18 Nov 19, 09:02 PM  
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Goldia
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First things first, I love your mini bar and snack drawer!

It sounds like a pretty successful first day, with a bit of park hopping, fab rides in the studios with tower of terror being ride 1 what a great start! Then managing to get over to the main park and seeing the parade. It does look pretty cold, I'm not surprised you were ready for your dinner. Good idea to head for a burger.
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Old 20 Nov 19, 07:35 PM  
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WileyCoyote
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Originally Posted by Goldia View Post
First things first, I love your mini bar and snack drawer!

It sounds like a pretty successful first day, with a bit of park hopping, fab rides in the studios with tower of terror being ride 1 what a great start! Then managing to get over to the main park and seeing the parade. It does look pretty cold, I'm not surprised you were ready for your dinner. Good idea to head for a burger.
Ha ha, priorities right

It was cold all 3 days. Layers definitely the way to go 🥶
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Old 20 Nov 19, 10:59 PM  
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What a fab day! And so quiet!

We are in the same school holiday zone as Paris which means it would be impossible to do DLP without the crowds! You did so much!
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