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Old 3 Jan 20, 11:46 AM  
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disneyfan87
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4 go to DLP - Feb 2020

I have loved reading trip reports with small children in them to prepare me for this upcoming trip so thought I’d do one of my own in case it can be of use to any one in the future, and it will be lovely to look back on.

So, who are we?

There’s me & Matt

I have always been a huge Disney fan and love going to parks and getting lost in the escapism they provide. Matt is not quite so Disney-nuts as me but does enjoy a good trip.
We did a couple of pre-children DLP trips and a fantastic Florida trip in 2013.

Alice is 4 and Disney mad, especially princesses.

We went to DLP with her just before she was 2 and she loved it, doesn’t really remember it now but had a blast at the time and was a little star. She is so excited about this trip.

William is almost 18 months, doesn’t really know much about Disney but is coming along for the ride!

He is the main reason for my latest obsession with Dibb research and reports as he is a VERY lively toddler so we are more than a little apprehensive about this trip!
I’m sure there will be plenty of tears and tantrums but hopefully plenty of fun too!
Alice is at such a good age for the trip and believes so much in all the magic that we couldn’t resist fitting this in while we could do a term time trip before she starts school.


What’s the plan?

We have booked to go 2nd-6th Feb.
Matts favourite hotel is Sequoia Lodge so we are staying there. I had set my heart of going for 4 nights as I think we are going to need to go with the flow a lot, slow the pace right down, expect to need lots of breaks etc so I wanted to have plenty of time to cope with that as that will be a challenge for me! I like to be go, go, go and cram in as much as possible! Not the best approach with 2 little ones though!
We ummed and aahed about adding on the dining plan as we love some of the restaurants but decided to be realistic that we may need to be less structured this time and we will pay as we go. William can be a challenge at mealtimes so we wanted the option to do a counter service meal if he wasn’t up for a lengthy restaurant visit.
We have however upgraded to Golden Forest as a treat to ourselves. The idea being that we will fill up with an early breakfast, grab lunch in the park, head back to the lounge in the afternoon to chill out there or in the pool and then pop back to the park until they close at 7. The kids can graze at food in the lounge and other snacks bits and then me or Matt might pop out to grab a takeaway from EoS or somewhere if we need it once they’re asleep in the rooms.

The final add on is we have booked a princess breakfast for the first morning, mainly for Alices benefit as a huge Cinderella fan but I am excited too! We haven’t told her this part yet

We will be driving there, via the Eurotunnel, with a stop off in Folkestone each way to break up the journey.

Edited at 10:57 PM.
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Old 3 Jan 20, 12:00 PM  
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Lisa_Lollipop
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Excited to follow along with your trip! Alice and William are going to love it... Disney trips with little ones certainly can be a challenge but worth it a million times over!
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Old 3 Jan 20, 01:23 PM  
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From looking at previous reports the weather in Feb could be anything. 2018 was the beast from the East so bitterly cold and some of Feb 2019 looks sunny and warm!
Thankfully travelling by car we can take all sorts of options to be prepared.

I have made a couple of purchases this week to be prepared in case it’s on the chilly side:

Snow boots to keep tootsies warm!


T shirt for William as his Disney wardrobe is a bit lacking currently.


Olaf thermal sets for them both 👍🏻


Cheapy set of ears for Alice as she’s bound to want a pair but not sure she will actually wear them all that much so don’t want to shell out €20 in the parks for some!
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Old 3 Jan 20, 01:24 PM  
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Originally Posted by Lisa_Lollipop View Post
Excited to follow along with your trip! Alice and William are going to love it... Disney trips with little ones certainly can be a challenge but worth it a million times over!
Thanks for your comment. I liken it to a bit like Christmas with children - so much more magical but requires a bit more planning, tolerance & patience!
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Old 3 Jan 20, 02:13 PM  
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Lisa_Lollipop
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Originally Posted by disneyfan87 View Post
Thanks for your comment. I liken it to a bit like Christmas with children - so much more magical but requires a bit more planning, tolerance & patience!
Haha exactly this!

Great idea to take plenty f warm clothes, we were there at the end of January in 2017 and it was absolutely freezing! (but so beautiful!)
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Old 15 Jan 20, 10:36 AM  
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A little update from me, mainly shopping related!

A few more purchases have been made this week:

Alice has outgrown her trainers and although we are taking her new snow boots I wanted to take another pair of comfy shoes too so was thrilled to find these in Asda for £12, and so was she!


Whilst browsing Asda I couldn’t resist this comfy outfit for Alice and t shirt for William:


Alice is pretty determined she is only going to wear princess dresses in the parks and I know I’ll have a bit of a battle getting her to wear a coat on top of them so current plan (unless raining) is to layer up with the thermals, other long sleeve top under and then this over the top:


She loves dressing up and has masses of dresses, a rail that I’m very jealous of to be honest!

We are currently in negotiation as to how many she can pack - she wants to take pretty much all of them but that may be a little excessive!

The last bits I’ve bought are little bits and pieces mainly for car/queue line/restaurant entertainment. And also some glow sticks which they love which I am hoping might avoid the need to purchase the painfully expensive light up things they sell before illuminations!


We are currently waiting on Williams passport which is making me slightly anxious but I can at least track in online which is reassuring as I can see that they have sorted the photo and received our documents. Fingers crossed it gets sent out quickly- 17 days until we leave!

The other wobble we had this week was my mum mentioning that the day before we leave is the latest brexit date so a little concerned that might effect things with travel but after an initial panic realised there’s not really much we can do as it’s such an unknown! We’ve been in touch with car insurance about a green card, going to get an international driving permit from the post office (unclear online if this is really necessary but it’s only £5.50 so getting it anyway) and we have travel insurance in place already.

Williams latest thing he likes is Mickey Mouse Clubhouse so I’m very much encouraging that!

I keep focusing on how much Alice will love this trip but it would be really great if William recognises some characters and gets excited too.
I have decided against taking costumes for him as he really hates getting dressed and it’s a battle most morning involving a lot of screaming and shouting (mainly from him!) so I don’t really fancy shoehorning him into costumes in character lines to get better pictures. He has a buzz hoody and some t shirts so I’ll leave it at that.
Though I am very, very tempted to track down a Prince Charming top for the princess breakfast as Alice is going to wear a Cinderella dress... watch this space as this will fairly likely happen! 😂

We went to a garden centre this weekend with my parents which I thought would be a great opportunity to use the little life backpack with parent ‘lead’ with him to get him used to it ahead of the holiday... nope. It ain’t gonna happen! He was ok for the first few minutes but then kept tugging at it and saying ‘off’, pulling the bag up over his head until he was practically wriggling out of the whole thing 🙄 A friend has now lent us a proper set of reins that he wouldn’t be able to get out of so we are going to try and get him used to those and see how we go. He didn’t like the way the little life set kept riding up at the front so hoping he is more comfortable with a more fitted set. Luckily he is pretty chilled in the pushchair so we will use that mainly but it would be nice to let him have a wander round a bit too.

This week we booked our Holiday Inn near the Euro Tunnel. It’s not the nearest choice (about 15/20 mins away) but we’ve stayed there before and really like it. The room has the single beds and space for travel cot in a little alcove out of the way so Matt & I will be able to chill in front of the tv in the evening. And we know the food and breakfast is quite nice there too. We’ve booked the dinner & breakfast package for the hotel for the way home but not the way there. We are hoping to meet friends for the afternoon and dinner who live nearby on the way there and grab breakfast either at the Eurotunnel terminal or have a snack on the go and then stop off somewhere in France. Don’t want to be faffing with hotel breakfast on the first day - want to just get up and hit the road!
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Old 31 Jan 20, 08:37 AM  
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Mini update before we leave tomorrow morning 😃

Alice has been excitedly crossing days off her countdown each evening and is so excited to cross off the final one tonight at bedtime!


We went to a local Frozen event recently and she had a lovely chat with Anna 😊



The big relief since the last update was that Williams passport arrived, phew!
So I spent yesterday evening printing off all the various confirmations and putting the travel wallet together.

I managed to get off work a little early yesterday while the kids were at nursery and did some of the packing, will need to finish off the rest this evening. It always amazes me quite how much there is to take when you have children! Especially as the weather forecast isn’t looking fantastic so there’s all the extra layers, waterproofs, spare trainers etc for everyone. Hope it will all fit in the car!
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Old 31 Jan 20, 10:55 AM  
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Have a great time
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