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Old 8 Nov 19, 11:58 AM  
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minnie52
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'The One Where They Do Disney' - Travel Day

So, that’s another trip done! It was exactly what we needed – a week with each other and some Disney magic. There were a lot of highs and only a few lows. I've not been great at photos but hopefully I have enough to fill the report!

In case you haven't read the Pre-Trippie, we are a family of 4 - Me (31), Dan (32) and two daughters Leah (8) and Ellie (6). We lasted visited DLP in 2013 when Ellie was about 8 weeks old. In between then and now we have been lucky enough to vist WDW three times. This trip we are travelling with our friends

So, for this trip we spent 5 nights at the Vienna Dream Castle Hotel with 3-day park tickets and Halloween Soiree tickets. We drove via the Eurotunnel – which worked really well for us - we are about an hour and a half from Folkestone but we drove down the night before to break the journey up. The drive from Calais to DLP was just under 3 hours and is such an easy route. The tolls were 22.50 one way. Driving worked really well for us as we were able to take our own essentials such as water, fruit shoots and snacks for the kids. Although this meant we seemed to take so much more luggage we spent a lot less than expected which is always nice!

But, back to the beginning.

We drove down to Folkestone Premier Inn on Saturday 26th October. Leah had a swimming party, so we left at about 8.30 and we had a clear run with no traffic so worked well (although we forgot to pay the dart charge – doh! So, we are expecting a fine any day now!). We arrived about 10.00 and were able to park right outside reception. We checked in which was quick and easy and headed to our room. There are two buildings here, one with Reception in and one which is attached to the restaurant. It's literally a case of crossing the car park from one to the other but we were in the building attached to the restaurant. Our room was on the bottom floor. I don't have any pictures but this one from Google shows the two buildings.



We always tend to stay in a Premier Inn before we go away - they are cheap and have everything we need. This one was no different. The room was clean and the beds were made up which meant the kids could collapse into them straight away. It didn’t take the kids long to fall asleep and I wasn’t far behind them with an alarm set for 7am.

Turns out we didn’t need it! The clocks went back so bang on 6 (which would have been 7) the kids were up and excited! I had slept reasonably well – I’m not a great sleeper before we go away anyway because I have so much going through my head, have I remembered everything, did I remember to lock up – you get the gist. Anyway, on top of this whoever was above us was making noise way after we went to bed and way before we were up, which had disturbed me even more. Never mind today was Disney day!


My Travel Day Jumper (modelled at home!)

I had booked breakfast for 8.15am (forgetting the clocks had gone back) but after laying in bed watching breakfast tv for a while we got up and were ready for about 7.20am so we headed down. It wasn’t busy in there, so they didn’t mind seating us early. I had paid for breakfast when I booked the room which had cost a total of £55 for the room and breakfast for the 4 of us. It was a buffet style breakfast and they had plenty of food which kept coming out. I made sure we all had extra portions to try and last us as long as possible! I didn't really want to have to stop on the car journey to the hotel!

We were all fed and watered by 8 when we headed back to the room to brush our teeth and pack the last of our bits up. We dropped our key into reception on our way and made the short drive to the terminal – approx. 6 minutes. The location for the hotel was great and so convenient and we will be using again when we travel to Holland in May.

When we arrived, we were offered the 9.20am train but I wanted to pop into the terminal so we asked if we could get the one after – he said that was no problem and gave us the hanger and let us through. We parked up and had a toilet stop, I grabbed a magazine and Dan got some Gin and Bailey’s. They had some giant games and photo ops which the kids entertained themselves with for a while.





We were still waiting to be called for boarding, so Dan went to grab a coffee from Starbucks and just after he paid, we were called! Typical! We waited a few minutes for his coffee and then headed back to the car, we had to que for border control (both English and French) which meant we missed the 9.50 train anyway but we were one of the first to board the 10.20 with no trouble (On the return leg we did passport control before arriving at the terminal which made much more sense to me!). We followed the signs for France and were onto the train and parked up as directed.


Awful photo but I loved the France signs!

It didn't take long at all to load the cars on and we were on our way before we knew it. Me and Leah read for the 35 minute journey, Dan played on his phone and Ellie played with her figures. Dan and Ellie popped to the toilet at one point too. As we were the first on - when they opened the front doors, we were one of the first to drive off too! As we had already done passport control we were pretty much straight onto the motorways! I couldn't believe how simple the process was! We put the hotel postcode into the Sat Nav which said 2 hours 45 minutes and we were off. The girls did so well and we didn’t need to stop which was a result and meant we arrived bang on the time the Sat Nav predicted which was just before 3.

It was easy to find the hotel and we managed to park close to the hotel entrance. It is a beautiful looking hotel from the outside!



As soon as we walked in they had a Halloween display, me and the girls had a little explore around the huge lobby while Dan checked in.





He came back with a cute Vienna House drawstring bag which had a telescope, crayons and a few other bits in and a lolly each for the girls.

We headed to our room which was 2039 on the second floor with a view of the fountain and gardens. We text our friends who had arrived not long after us and had been allocated a room on the same floor just further up. I didn't take a picture of the room before we scattered our stuff everywhere but I found one from the website and ours was exactly as pictured.



Our bed was huge and the girls had bunk beds to the side. The top bunk was higher than normal so Ellie decided she didn't want to sleep in it. We also had a dressing table, a cupboard with a fridge, a TV and a decent size wardrobe and bathroom.

We unpacked quickly and went exploring – the gardens were lovely and well kept and the girls enjoyed exploring them. The inside was really well themed with knights of armour and thrones in the lobby area.



They found a small park and got soaked going down the slide! They had pool tables, arcade games and foosball tables around the hotel. Although we tried a couple of the supposedly prize every time games and didn’t win anything so we left well alone after that!

Dan wanted to watch the football at half 5 so we popped into the bar who said they would be playing it and then went for a quick change and freshen up before heading back down.

It didn’t look overly busy in the bar but they struggled to accommodate a table of 8 – instead giving us two separate tables of 4 on opposite sides of the restaurant. Luckily, a table left before our food came so we were able to sit together.

I ordered a special Zombie cocktail and Dan had a Gin and Tonic which came to a total of 22euros.



For food, we ordered two kids meals with pudding and a drink, a chicken club with French fries for me and a bacon burger with French fries for Dan. Dinner was hit and miss. Dan’s was lovely – mine wasn’t great looked like the cheapest white bread and had some strange sauce in it which I wasn’t keen on. It also took ages for mine to come out, which meant we were all eating at different times. The food came to a total of 60euros for the four of us. Leah’s diary says we left the bar at 8pm so it was a slow meal and you could see it got busier as people were arriving back from the parks.

Once we were done eating and the football was finished (with a disappointing score - I knew we should have skipped it and headed into Disney Village ) We decided to head back for an early night ready for our long day tomorrow. Once back in our room we bathed the kids and settled them in bed. It didn’t take them long to fall asleep after our early start.

Tomorrow is Disney Day
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Edited at 12:03 PM. Reason: change title
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Old 14 Nov 19, 03:19 PM  
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Lisa_Lollipop
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What a great travel day! This all felt so familiar as we also drive when going to DLP and stay at the Folkestone Premier Inn the night before too

The hotel looks lovely! Excited to read more!
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Old 15 Nov 19, 12:19 PM  
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minnie52
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Originally Posted by Lisa_Lollipop View Post
What a great travel day! This all felt so familiar as we also drive when going to DLP and stay at the Folkestone Premier Inn the night before too

The hotel looks lovely! Excited to read more!
Thank you for reading

Ah really - I was so impressed with how easy it all seemed! would definitely do it that way again!
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Old 16 Nov 19, 12:23 AM  
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florida girl
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A good journey.The hotel looks nice.
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Old 16 Nov 19, 11:04 AM  
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minnie52
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Originally Posted by florida girl View Post
A good journey.The hotel looks nice.
Thank you for reading It was lovely - I was really impressed.
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Old 28 Dec 19, 08:23 PM  
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caitlinsmummy
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Can't believe I haven't seen these before now! Fab travel day, the hotel looks amazing xx
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Old 29 Dec 19, 07:03 PM  
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minnie52
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Thankyou for reading the hotel was really lovely would defintley stay again xx
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Old 18 Oct 20, 08:04 AM  
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Great travel day! Everything went so smoothly 😊
I wish we lived close enough to drive, would be so much easier with 2 little people.
Hotel looks really lovely and I love your sweatshirt! Xx
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Old 19 Oct 20, 06:34 PM  
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minnie52
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Originally Posted by Enchanted View Post
Great travel day! Everything went so smoothly 😊
I wish we lived close enough to drive, would be so much easier with 2 little people.
Hotel looks really lovely and I love your sweatshirt! Xx
Thank you so much for reading

Ah we are really lucky to be close enough to drive, whereabouts are you? xx
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Old 20 Oct 20, 01:47 PM  
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Originally Posted by minnie52 View Post
Thank you so much for reading

Ah we are really lucky to be close enough to drive, whereabouts are you? xx
We live in Durham in the North East so a really long drive for us! Might try it one day though xx
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