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Old 31 Jan 17, 06:16 PM  
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Milpston
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Join Date: May 16
First family trip to DLP - Feb 2017

OK so here goes!

I expect some boos and hisses but I've never been much of a fan of Disney. I first went to Florida in 2001 and only went to the Magic Kingdom and Typhoon Lagoon once each. The rest of the fortnight was mainly spent at the Universal and SeaWorld Parks.

I went back to Florida 10 years later prior to a cruise and again just did the Universal and SeaWorld parks. Our holidays over that time have mainly consisted of the Caribbean, beach breaks and city breaks.

In the middle of 2016 I somehow came across The Dibb and have spent more hours than most reading Florida trip reports. Expanding the family means that a Florida trip is out of the question for a few years yet.

I have never even considered a trip to Disneyland Paris in the past but started looking into it last year and quickly had a little trip booked. It is a bit of a last minute thought to do a trippie. I have learnt so much about Florida from reading those that others have painstakingly done so I thought I'd do one for DLP from the point of view of a complete amateur. There does seem to be a shortage of DLP trip reports which has left me migrating back to my Florida dreams on a daily basis. I have done a trip report before, on a different forum, for a cruise and even now it gives me pleasure to read back through it for a few hours.

Introducing the cast. I am Paul and I'm 37 from Essex.



That feels a bit like a dating profile but hey ho. I have been nice enough to let the Wife join me for the trip and. Sally likes to say she is a year younger than me but no one really believes her!



Chloe is my Step-Daughter who is now 15. I try to ease up on winding her up as the teenage years don't seem to accept it as easily. These picture of us were taken on our honey moon in 2013.



At the end of 2014 Emma came into the world and drastically reduced the amount of holidays we went on.



This is a recent picture of the 4 of us on a trip to Centreparcs a couple of weeks ago. Not very flattering but about the only recent one I could find of all of us together.




So, enough of the boring introductions. Originally we were thinking of a DLP trip in the May half term. We decided to do it a little earlier as we were considering making another addition to the family and thought that the February half term may be a better option as, if all went to plan, Sally would be in her 2nd trimester and widely thought to be the best time to travel. Do these things ever work out to plan?

So, a fair bit of deliberation went into the travel plans. I found it very difficult as I had no idea where to start! We considered the Eurostar, Flights etc but eventually decided to drive using the channel tunnel. This just made sense for us
as it meant we had little luggage restrictions, Folkestone isn't too much of a trek from Essex and just felt like it gives us a little more freedom to have the car there should we want it. Recently it has been confirmed that we will be on the 06:20 train so can make the most of our first day at DLP on arrival. I think our return is about 20:00 on our return trip so have a bit of freedom to do plenty on our last day too. The kids can sleep in the car on the way home... hopefully

So where to stay. We decided we wanted to be in a Disney hotel and it was coming down to a choice of Hotel New York or the Newport Bay Club. Following some Dibb reading post refurb we decided on the Newport Bay. Looks quite nice and feels consistent with my long term plan of staying at the Yacht Club for part of our epic 2021 WDW trip. (not that every detail is already planned... much )





Having read lots of things regarding breakfasts being a bit of a scrum depending upon what time you eat we decided to go for a Compass Club Lake view room. This offers some sort of separate lounge for breakfast with hot offerings. Think this offers a separate booking in area and an extra fastpass each so thought that would be worth a punt due to it being half term.







So on 1st June 2016, after a bit of web surfing and phone calls, it was all booked. Now what? Having already been researching Florida I have to say I was a bit underwhelmed as there isn't much left to plan! I haven't even got a spreadsheet.

Fast forward through the rest of 2016 and a nice Centerparcs break with friends in January I realise I'd better make some kind of effort.

Oh, in the meantime we got the news we had been looking for. The family will be expanding as planned. Below is a picture of the 12 week scan. I must be pretty excited to have included that!



It means that Sally will be 27 weeks pregnant whist we are at DLP so she will just about still be in the second trimester. She has been suffering a little bit with tiredness and dizziness so we will certainly be doing things at a steady pace. Just means I may have to take Chloe on some of the bigger rides whilst Sally and Emma do other things... not how I planned it at all

We haven't really done much shopping for this trip. We have bought some thermals, hats and gloves each as it looks likes it's been damn cold over the last few weeks. I was about to buy a kit for driving in France but Sally managed to borrow one from a colleague at work so should be able to stay legal whilst driving down.



Having given our departure some thought I realised that it will be a really early start for us on the Monday morning (probably about 03:00 to be safe) and not sure how happy Emma will be about it. To save it being quite such an ordeal I got online and managed to book this



The one closest to the Folkestone Eurotunnel was fully booked but this one is only a short drive away and cost the Princely sum of £31.50 for the 4 of us. It doesn't include breakfast but we will have left before that starts anyway

Restaurants are our current mission. So far we have just booked the one. We are planning on visiting the lucky nugget for lunch on arrival day as I have read decent things about it and figure we will be hungry after an early start.





The only booking we have made so far is for our first night. To keep things simple we have booked Cape Cod at the Newport Bay.





I think I have probably bored people enough for one day and that just about brings our plans up to date. Am hoping to make decisions and get some more restaurants booked in the next couple of days. Am trying to decide between Auberge de Cendrillion or Inventions on one night as I don't want to be ripped off twice :angry: ! Will then most likely be a couple of Rainforest Café, Annette's Diner or a trip out of Disney for the other 2 nights. Was considering Planet Hollywood but struggle to read anything positive about it!. Will update again when we have finalised any further plans.
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Orlando Villas/cruises 2001-2013, DLP Newport Bay Compass Club Feb 2017
October 2018 - 22 nts, Beach Club & Dibb villasTrip report *Completed*
July 2020 and August 2021 - cancelled by Covid!
August 2021 - Anthem of the seas UK mini cruise Trip report *completed*
Vegas/LA Aug 22 - Trip Report In Progress
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Old 31 Jan 17, 07:00 PM  
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kateh134
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Have a fabulous time! Me and OH are off to DLP for the first time in march so I'm looking forward to reading your trippie. OH loves a spreadsheet but other than tracking the costs, he doesn't have one either!
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Old 31 Jan 17, 07:03 PM  
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Lisa_Lollipop
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How exciting, we got back from our first ever DLP trip last night and had the most amazing time! We too stayed in Newport Bay... such a stunning hotel, you will love it!

Have a fab time and congratulations on the lovely baby news!
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Old 31 Jan 17, 07:08 PM  
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Milpston
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Originally Posted by kateh134 View Post
Have a fabulous time! Me and OH are off to DLP for the first time in march so I'm looking forward to reading your trippie. OH loves a spreadsheet but other than tracking the costs, he doesn't have one either!
It's such a shame but a spreadsheet seems a bit overkill for a 4 night trip :angry: Sally and Chloe have been before but it was a good few years ago. It will be their first time having me there to embarrass them!
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Orlando Villas/cruises 2001-2013, DLP Newport Bay Compass Club Feb 2017
October 2018 - 22 nts, Beach Club & Dibb villasTrip report *Completed*
July 2020 and August 2021 - cancelled by Covid!
August 2021 - Anthem of the seas UK mini cruise Trip report *completed*
Vegas/LA Aug 22 - Trip Report In Progress
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Old 31 Jan 17, 07:11 PM  
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Milpston
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Originally Posted by Lisa_Lollipop View Post
How exciting, we got back from our first ever DLP trip last night and had the most amazing time! We too stayed in Newport Bay... such a stunning hotel, you will love it!

Have a fab time and congratulations on the lovely baby news!
Thank you I have been checking the trip report page hourly for the start of your trippie as I found your pre trip report a couple of days ago! I read your last Florida trippie a while back so am expecting great things. Have it finished before I go please
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Orlando Villas/cruises 2001-2013, DLP Newport Bay Compass Club Feb 2017
October 2018 - 22 nts, Beach Club & Dibb villasTrip report *Completed*
July 2020 and August 2021 - cancelled by Covid!
August 2021 - Anthem of the seas UK mini cruise Trip report *completed*
Vegas/LA Aug 22 - Trip Report In Progress
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Old 1 Feb 17, 05:38 PM  
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Lisa_Lollipop
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Originally Posted by Milpston View Post
Thank you I have been checking the trip report page hourly for the start of your trippie as I found your pre trip report a couple of days ago! I read your last Florida trippie a while back so am expecting great things. Have it finished before I go please
Ah how lovely to know it's so eagerly anticipated! Thanks so much for reading my last report and the pre-trippy for DLP!

I am hoping to get the first installment posted early next week... I need to sort through my 800 odd photos over the weekend and then will get cracking I promise!
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Old 2 Feb 17, 10:01 PM  
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Milpston
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A little update as we have been trying to book The Rainforest Café for one of the nights n Disney. We were told a couple of weeks ago that we could not making a booking until 14 nights before. We called again on the Tuesday 31st January to try and book a table for 10 on 14th February. We were told that we had to call again the following day as that would be 14 days before. The man on the phone couldn't quite grasp that the following day would be 13 days before. However, undeterred we called again the following day to a helpful person saying, "would you like to book a table? and then asked to hold. On return they stated that they were not taking bookings for 14th Feb as it's a special day. Valentines Day apparently... Eventually we requested a table for the following day and after another short period of holding we were told they did not accept pre-bookings for tables :angry: Glad I made so many phone calls now. Have been trying to making a booking for 10 as some friends and family's trips cross over with ours. Looks like we will just have to turn up and wait for that one.

Previously, we had tried to book inventions for the same night but were told it was fully booked. We decided to book it for our last night which will be Thursday 16th February.







So it looks like we will have to turn up and wait for our other two evening meals. Likely to be Rainforest Café and Annettes's Diner although may swap that for George's Steak restaurant at Val D'Europe if we fancy the short drive out of the Disney bubble.

The only other things I have just ordered online are some more essentials.



x 2 for Chloe and Emma. Sally didn't want any. Also ordered an autograph book for Emma but it's going to be touch and go as to whether it arrives on time.

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Orlando Villas/cruises 2001-2013, DLP Newport Bay Compass Club Feb 2017
October 2018 - 22 nts, Beach Club & Dibb villasTrip report *Completed*
July 2020 and August 2021 - cancelled by Covid!
August 2021 - Anthem of the seas UK mini cruise Trip report *completed*
Vegas/LA Aug 22 - Trip Report In Progress
Milpston is offline Boy Mouse Click to view Members Trip Plans Add Member to Ignore List
Old 9 Feb 17, 12:02 AM  
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kadypants
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Oooh exciting! Looks like we're going the week after you (half term up north!)

We tried to book Rainforest Cafe too with no luck! We also had an automated message asking if we'd like to book a table and were then told that we couldn't!

Looking forward to reading your trippie! You'll have to let us know what the weathers like!

P.s congratulations on the baby news!
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