When You're the Best of Friends - Glowtini Girls do DLP Jan 2019 - Travel Day/Day 1

[Beaker7929]

Even writing this I can feel the excitement all over again, and I’m so glad I’m already booked to go back in July!

Yes, you read that right, I was up and having my morning cuppa at 3.20am…..man it was early!

I’d actually set my alarm for 3.30am but woke with a start after what was, unusually for me, a very good nights sleeps (I say night, I actually mean a few hours ) just after 3am so thought I might as well get up.

Anna and I messaged each other to make sure we were both up, which of course we were, and I proceeded to shower and get dressed, splitting out items that I wasn’t taking with me into a bag to leave in the car, then before I knew it it was 4.40am and time to leave the Premier Inn!

It was a very easy 10 minute drive to Ebbsfleet International, following the sat nav all the way, you go through a very residential area which doesn’t feel right at all but eventually you join the main road and shortly after reach the station.

Like Ashford, Ebbsfleet has a few parking options. Having done this trip back in December Anna knew that the cheaper Car Park D option was perfectly do-able, you drive past the train station main entrance and follow the road round to some parking barriers, then up a hill you reach the car park itself. We parked in the area to your right as you approach the car park as this is closest to the station, the car park is huge so you could easily add another 5 mins walk if you’re not careful. Parking in Car Park D cost us just £29 for 5 days parking, vs around £60 for the main car park.

Car parked, we heaved our suitcases out of the boot and walked 5 minutes or so to the station (note that you have to go down a hill, then up a hill….and then obviously to that in reverse coming back so I strongly recommend suitcases with wheels!)

At this time of day security and passport control was a breeze and we were through and in the Eurostar terminal within minutes.

This is a lovely terminal, slightly smaller than Ashford but it has a Café Nero, result!

Anna and I got ourselves a hot drink each and a croissant (hot, fresh from the oven!) to share.

Our train was due to leave at 5.58am and at 5.50am we were called down to the platform, I always get excited when the Eurostar arrives.

The journey on the Eurostar was smooth, and full of commuters….and then there’s us chatting manically about Disney, we arrived into Gare du Nord on time at 9.20am.

We then headed down the escalator to buy our RER tickets, they’ve replaced the row of manned booths with lots of ticket machines, but because the machines have an English option they are really easy to use.

A few minutes later Anna had the RER tickets in hand, they are 7.60 euros each and we headed to the platform to get the Metro to Chatelet Les Halles where we then change to get the RER to Marne le Vallee. On reaching the platform though we could tell something was going on, trains were being held and using our GCSE French we established that due to a person in a tunnel no trains were leaving Gard du Nord.

We waited about 15 minutes and finally the trains at the platforms left, but because the train was absolutely rammed we decided to wait for the next one which came a few minutes after. The change at Chatelet Les Halles was easy as always, just remember to keep an eye on your pockets and belongings! And we were soon on the RER to Marne Le Vallee. Frustratingly we also had delays on this line, it was very slow moving and often stopped in stations for longer than normal. Finally though, around 11am, we arrived at MLV!

First stop was to drop our bags with the Disney Express, clearly my ‘bonjour’ was so well said that the Cast Member thought I was French and proceeded to chat away without me understanding a word

Once we’d clarified that we were in fact English he took our bags and gave us all of our paperwork, daily fast passes and our (new to me) Magic Passes! These are plastic cards that are your hotel room key, park entry ticket and can be used to charge items back to your room, so a bit like a magic band but not quite as sophisticated and a plastic card….not a cool wristband.

So with bags dropped we were free to head into Disney! Out of the station we went, very excited and happy to be back. First up though, was our traditional brunch at Earl of Sandwich.

As always at this time of day it was very quiet, we placed our orders with no queue, and bagged a table upstairs overlooking Lake Disney.

Within minutes our sandwiches were ready and we were tucking in, obviously absolutely starving having eaten our breakfast not long after 5am!

Brunch devoured, we had a bit of time to kill before meeting Mel in front of the castle at 1pm so we spent about 10 minutes trying to get the best selfie in front of Panoramagique and Sequoia Lodge. I was already desperate to get into the hotel, I’d waited a year to get back!

We then wandered through Disney Village, taking a stroll around World of Disney before we headed into the park.

Am I the only one who finds this mural above the (old) Disney Store hilarious? It's like something you'd see at a travelling funfair

Now, what I’m about to say next was one of the highlights of our trip….and you may never forgive me….

On approaching the Disneyland Hotel I turned to Anna and said, ‘since when has that god awful chimney been there, it’s hideous!’ ok, so it turns out it has always been there!

Anna and I have never noticed it before and were convinced it was new, but on checking previous trip photo’s it was clear that this wasn’t the case at all (I’ve since checked photo’s right back from 2004….yep chimney was there then too!)

Once we'd got over that shock it was then time for a few arty (and some not so arty) photo's...

Then it was time to head through the turnstiles and into the park, we were home!

On our way down Main Street we popped into Main Street Clothiers where I spotted a gorgeous mickey patterned scarf and decided there and then that I simply had to have, and I’m so pleased I did, I wore it for pretty much the whole trip!

We also mooched around Lilly’s boutique for a bit checking out what we might like to buy and messing around with the funhouse style mirrors

Then it was time to meet Mel!

As we approached the castle we could see her waiting on a bench, queue lots of hugs and smiles! Earlier that morning Mel had messaged us to say that there was a Photopass photographer in front of the castle, unfortunately by the time we reached her they had left but there were loads of Cast Members hanging around all happy to take photo’s and one even had Minnie and Mickey props!

Once we’d had our pictures taken in front of the castle we decided to head into Fantasyland as Mel had discovered that despite the programme saying otherwise, Dumbo was open. I haven’t ridden Dumbo since coming with my daughter back in 2008, so it was a no brainer, especially when we saw that the queue was only 10 minutes, unheard of for Dumbo!

After Dumbo, we took a ride around It’s a Small World….and timed it perfectly to get a boat all to ourselves! Clearly they knew who we were

After IASW we felt in need of something to warm us up, although it wasn’t quite as cold as I’d anticipated, it certainly wasn’t warm either! Last year we’d had a delicious anniversary hot chocolate from March Hare Refreshments, being in that area we decided to pop over to see if it was still being sold and were very happy to see that it was! However on getting to the counter we were told that they were all out of the blueberry syrup, but we were ok with that and went ahead and placed our orders….ok so with the exception of it not having the 25th wafer or blue stars on top it was exactly the same as last year, and seriously yummy!

After our hot chocolate stop and a lovely long natter (while trying to dodge all the birds in this area) we mooched over to Pirates which was a walk on!

We all agreed after Pirates that we should go and use our hotel fast pass on Big Thunder Mountain so we walked through Adventureland stopping briefly for a comfort break at the nice toilets near Aladdins Passage (which was closed ) and a walk through the shop opposite (something to do with a Giraffe!)

Using the fast pass line BtM was a walk on, we love this ride so much!

After BtM we had a walk through the shop opposite, another favourite of ours, and soon realised that we could all be spending some serious money this trip, there is so much we wanted to buy!

After that we walked up Main Street and….yes you guessed it….went in some more shops and checked out the Pandora selection in Harringtons, ear marking a few that we might like to buy later in the trip.

At that point Anna and I thought we should head over to Sequoia Lodge to check in, so the 3 of us went back through the village and around Lake Disney, arranging to meet with Mel in the Golden Forest Lounge for afternoon canapes.

I cannot even begin to put into words how much I love this hotel!

Our check in using the Golden Forest concierge was as smooth as always, our luggage tickets were taken away so that our bags could be brought up to our room. After checking in we headed up to the 7th floor to room 7222 to see what we had. It was lovely as always.

In a change to previous trips we didn’t book a Lakeside room as the difference in price was too much to justify, but we were very happy to see that we had a lovely view overlooking the front of the hotel, and to the right over fields.

While we ooh'd and ahh'd over our room our bags were delivered and we did some quick unpacking (basically put the Prosecco in the fridge ) grabbed our essentials and headed down to meet with Mel.

On our way to the lounge I popped back into the Golden Forest check in area as our safe had flashed up with ‘low battery’ when I’d tried to use it, they said they would send someone up and sure enough by the time we went back up to our room later it was fixed.

Time for canapes! This is another perk of booking Golden Forest at Sequoia Lodge, you get access to the Golden Forest Lounge where in the afternoon they lay on bite size sandwiches, cakes, crepes, soft drinks and hot drinks. We obviously tucked in!

Once we’d had our fill we headed back up to our room, via the hotel shop (another favourite of mine!) where Anna and I did a little more unpacking and planned to meet Mel in her room at 6pm to toast our holiday with…yes, you guessed it….Prosecco! And also to watch the Star Wars show on Tower of Terror from Mel’s balcony! How jammy was Mel! (the balcony you can see in front was the room next door to Mel)

It also turned out that our rooms were on the same floor, and with the exception of the lifts being in between actually next door to each other. Clearly Disney really did know who we were as we didn’t link the bookings!

While we were watching the occupants of the room next to Mel came out onto their balcony (which, as mentioned above, was in front of Mel’s) they had the cutest 3 year old little girl who then proceeded to tell us how cold it was, repeatedly, and give us all high fives, she was so sweet! We wished her parents luck with getting her to sleep as she was very awake!

With the Star Wars show coming to its loud finale we arranged to meet Mel at the lifts at 7.40pm to head downstairs for a pre-dinner cocktail

Once back in our room, we went to close our curtains as it had got dark when we realised that the trees out of the front of the hotel were all lit up, gorgeous!

Before we knew it it was cocktail time, woo hoo! In complete contrast to our previous experience of the Golden Forest Lounge the Cast Members took FOREVER to take our order and then an age bringing us our drink, the plan had been to have a cocktail in the lounge before dinner but we ended up having to take it to dinner with us, good job we were eating in the hotel tonight!

Our cocktail of choice for our first evening was called Le Trappeur and it was delicious!

So cocktail in hand we headed downstairs to Hunters Grill for dinner. We’ve eaten here before and last time missed out on the melted cheese option so just had to come back! Below is a photo of Herve, as far as we’re aware all he does is melt cheese in Hunters Grill as he was there the same time last year!

As always this is a lovely buffet, I completely forgot to take a picture of my starter, but here is a picture of my main and a view of the restaurant from our table.

I’m afraid it was too busy around the buffet to get any decent shots of the food. Dinner came to just under 40 euros each, our most expensive of the trip, but it was worth it for the food and knowing that we didn’t have to leave the hotel again that evening

During dinner I received a call from home, which was unexpected as I had planned to talk to them on Tuesday evening as DS does Cubs on a Monday night. Unfortunately the call did not go well, DS was very upset that I was away from home, and especially because I was somewhere where he wanted to be. I tried to placate him with talk of us planning a trip together which sort of worked….so, that’ll be another trip in the planning at some point then!

Phone call from home and food finished we went back to our respective rooms, Anna and I had well and truly hit the wall, it was just after 10pm by the time we got back to our room and we’d both been up since just after 3pm! By the time we got into bed it was close to 11pm and we were asleep in minutes

Next up...Day 2

[Guest]

Loving the report.

I have never noticed that chimney either! Just had a look back at my photos from October and yeah - there it is! How have I never seen it before?!

[Beaker7929]

Originally Posted by Stubbs86

Loving the report.

I have never noticed that chimney either! Just had a look back at my photos from October and yeah - there it is! How have I never seen it before?!

See more...

I'm so glad it's not just me that view is forever ruined

[princess allie]

Great first day x

[Beaker7929]

Originally Posted by princess allie

Great first day x

See more...

Thank you

[Melanie R]

Originally Posted by Stubbs86

Loving the report.

I have never noticed that chimney either! Just had a look back at my photos from October and yeah - there it is! How have I never seen it before?!

See more...

Trust me, the chimney is now all you will ever see every time you see a pic of the hotel 😂
We couldn’t believe none of us had ever noticed and we probably have over 40 trips between us!

Great day Rachel - brings back all the lovely memories

[HappyPanda]

That chimney! How have I never noticed it before? Thanks for ruining that view for me forever

A lovely first day - shame about your slight delay at GDN but at least you didn't lose too much time!

[HFJohnson]

Add me to the "seen that hotel a million times and never noticed the chimney" club! Weeeeird!

[Hels80]

Yay! Glad to see the 3 of you back together!

[Animagus]

The very early start didn’t get in your way. You did well to keep going till 11!

It was so reassuring to read how easy the journey is. It’s exactly the route I’ve booked for May and I was a bit nervous we’d get lost.

Looking forward to seeing what else you got up to and what you bought