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Old 12 Aug 17, 07:08 PM  
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clochette
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Is it Ever Warm at DLP? 8th-11th August Day 1

IS IT EVER WARM AT DLP? 8th-11th August 2017

A bit of background

Cast
Me, Sarah (49), DD1, Rebecca (19) and DD2, Elinor (14)

We have been to DLP six times before I think (I have lost count) but never in summer. We usually go October or February half term, hence the title, but that didn’t fit in with our plans this year. We weren’t going to go at all this year but I really wanted to be there for the 25th celebrations so I took the plunge at the end of May and booked 3 nights/4 days at the Hotel Cheyenne with free dining and 35% off. I also booked Eurostar through Disney as I had left it quite late and the prices going direct with Eurostar were very expensive. I can’t remember the details but it was definitely cheaper to book with Disney, which came as quite a surprise. We were travelling via Lille both ways this time which we haven’t done before; we have done the outward journey via Lille but I have always come back direct, although Rebecca did a girly trip with her friends for her 18th last year and came back indirect. I was a bit worried about the return journey as there was only about 35-40 minutes to change but DD managed it, so how hard can it be? (Spoiler – you might want to remember that comment!)
We know that this will be a very different trip, as we are expecting the parks to be extremely busy and hot, but with them being open much later, we think we will still achieve lots.

Day 1 -Tuesday 8th August. What can you lose this time?

With the alarm set for 5.20, I was awake at 12.15, 2.30, 3.45 and at 5 am, I gave up trying to go back to sleep and got up. I got the girls up at 5.30 and dragged DH out of bed to give us a lift to the station. I don't know why he was moaning; he was only up about 10 minutes earlier than he usually is on a weekday. When I was planning this trip, I envisioned us sitting in the sunshine sipping our drinks whilst waiting for the 6.20 train to St Pancras, which would have been lovely as all our previous trips have been in winter when it’s always been dark when we set off, always freezing and quite often snowing as well. I should have known better and we shivered in the pouring rain, huddled round our brand new travel mugs for warmth. (Remember those mugs - they will feature later).


"Chilling" at the station

We had table seats reserved on the train and when we got on, there was a chap sitting on the fourth seat round the table, so I asked him politely to move so I could get to my seat and he was really huffy and stormed off to another seat. I really don't know what his problem was as I certainly wasn't rude and the train was practically empty at that point anyway, although it had certainly filled up by the time we got to London. I would hate to have to commute every day; I know how lucky I am living just 10 minutes’ walk from where I work.
After that, it was an uneventful journey and we arrived in London just after 7.30 and went to print off out Eurostar tickets straight away. As I had booked these through Disney, I just had an email with a reference number. Last time we did this, I typed in the wrong number and had a slight panic when it wasn’t recognised but all was well this time and off we went to M &S to get food for the train. I find the shop in St Pancras to be quite cramped, so I left Rebecca with the cases and new travel mugs, which Elinor had refused to put in her bag in case they leaked (inspite of the fact that they were empty by now) and went with Elinor to choose her sandwiches etc then sent her out so Rebecca could come and choose hers. All sorted, we headed off to the toilets before we went through security. If any of you read my trippie from our October trip (Just the Two of Us at DLP), you will know that Elinor left her bag in the toilets and didn't realise until we had got to security, so this year we left it with Rebecca who wasn't using the facilities and generally gave her a hard time about having a memory like a seive - as you do in a loving family, right - and she managed to remember it! Result! Unfortunately not! As she was smugly walking away from the toilets, with her bag proudly displayed over her shoulder, I said "Elinor, where are the mugs?" Remember those? Well Elinor didn't! "They are on the floor" she said. "Where?" I asked, not unnaturally looking down to where Rebecca had been waiting for us. "I can't see them". " Well, no you wouldnt , because I left them on the floor outside M&S", was her unconcerned reply. In a bizarre rerun of last October's trip, she dashed across St Pancras with me bringing up the rear, only to find that - yes, the cups had gone! To say I was unimpressed is to put it mildly! All she had to look after was two mugs and if she had put them in her bag as I had asked in the first place, she wouldn't have been able to leave them on the floor. Luckily they weren't expensive ones but they were the cups we would be using in our room once we got to DLP so we would have to buy some more or die of thirst. I decided that it would probably be cheaper (slightly!) to buy them in St Pancras rather than Disney, so off to Cath Kidston we went, where I made Elinor spend £10 of her money on two rather cute beakers. I may give it back to her if she manages to get through the trip without losing anything/annoying me further but at the time I felt she was totally unconcerned about losing them and that it’s about time she started to accept responsibility for her actions. Reading back what I have written, I do seem to be harping on about these blessed mugs but her attitude really annoyed me at the time and I hadn't had a lot of sleep. What if it had been her passport?
By this time it was after 8. We were going to have a quick look in Paperchase as Rebecca is after a notebook with dots in it (don't ask!) but the queue was quite long for the Eurostar so we decided we had better head over there instead. I have never had to queue to get through the ticket barriers for a Eurostar before; it just goes to show that August is busier than February or October (something we would have to get used to in the parks too, no doubt!) It was 8.25 before we got through passport control so we didn't have long to wait before we boarded our train, which left promptly at 9am. Even though it was indirect, it was packed and groups had obviously been split up as there was lots of toing and froing between carriages - not that it was a problem, as I closed my eyes and had a quick nap, whilst I despaired over Elinor's geographical knowledge. Anyone who can ask "Are we in France now?" when we emerge from the tunnel needs help, in my opinion. It’s not as if she hasn't done the journey umpteen times before. Her excuse is that the trip through the tunnel hadn't taken very long so she didn't think we could be there yet. I'm not sure where ,exactly, she thought we were. An island in the middle of the Channel maybe?
We were in Lille before 11.30 so we had an hour and a half to wait which is a long time in Lille. There is a big supermarket and a Primark nearby that we were going to go and browse around but it was absolutely pouring down so we didn't bother. We just people watched and ate our lunch. It was absolutely freezing in the station and quite depressing really but we managed to cheer ourselves up with talk of what we were going to do once we arrived at DLP.


Passing time at Lille

We arrived at Marne la Vallee without incident and got the bus to Hotel Cheyenne, along with a huge dance troupe. This meant there were a lot of people trying to check in at the same time and so it was quite chaotic. The dance people kicked up quite a fuss, one family in particular, about how slow the check in staff were being and how they knew what time they were arriving so should have enough staff available. They had a point but they were quite rude about it, saying it wasn't good enough for Disney how it wouldn't happen in America (I wonder how many times they hear that?)and how they couldn't be proud of the work they were doing. In the end they took the dance people to one side and checked them in separately but they didn't have any more staff, so I don't think it would have been much quicker for them as most of the people checking in were dance people anyway. We were in our room by 3.10 and we didn't get on a bus until 2.30 so it didn't take masses of time really. We were in Jesse James which is the same block Elinor and I were in last October but now it has been refurbished. I think it looks really nice now with all the Woody touches and wooden floors are such a good idea as they are much easier to keep clean than carpets. There is also air conditioning though it won't turn below 23° which we still found to be a bit warm but not unpleasantly so.
We didn't bother with any unpacking nonsense but headed straight to the park.








We were walking under the lovely 25th decorations by 3.45. A kind lady offered to take our photo, so we struck a pose and then returned the favour before breaking a family tradition by not heading straight to Phantom Manor. We decided to go and see if there were any FP left for Star Tours as we were all keen to see the new version. Success! We managed to get them for 18.15-18.45, which would fit in nicely with our dinner reservation at Plaza Gardens at 7pm. We then went on an old favourite, IASW. I really do like this ride and so do the girls, although they try to say they don't!
It was 4.30 when we came off IASW and we had to decide whether to stake out a place for the parade at 5.30 or go and watch Forest of Enchantment. Taking a look at the sky, we opted for the show. This turned out to be the right choice as the heavens opened just before we got to the Chapparal Theatre. In fact, I think it rained so hard that they delayed the parade, as when we walked back in front of the castle at 6pm, people were still waiting for it to start. We walked straight into the theatre (good timing there) where the CMs had just discovered that there was a girl in a wheelchair whose birthday it was, so they brought her out to the front and we all sang happy birthday to her which was nice.
The show was very good. I think they have a new cast since we last saw it (not surprising as that was over 12 months ago). There was a lot more tumbling and the Tarzan would have been at home in a Cirque du Soleil show.






The Forest of Enchantment Show



After the show we went on Phantom Manor which had no wait. The girls made me ride on my own - a common theme as the week progressed. We then headed to Fantasyland where we went on Snow White, again with no wait, called in to see the dragon and visited the Christmas shop in the castle so Elinor could suss out the Tinkerbell decorations, as she gets one every trip. They had a lovely 25th one but she decided to have a look around first. It was then time for our Star Tours FP so we made our way to Discovery land, where I had a senior moment and tried to get onto Buzz! Luckily, the girls made me aware of my mistake before I tried to hand the FP to a CM. We all really enjoyed the new Star Tours; it's much smoother than the old one.
It was pouring down again by the time we came out but we were heading to dinner so it didn't really matter. When we got to Plaza Gardens, there was a huge queue. There was a CM going down the line advising people that there would be an hour wait for those without a reservation. We, of course bypassed the queue and went straight in. It's a bit like the smug feeling you get when you bypass a huge line when you have a FP. There was still a bit of a wait inside until a table became available, but entertainment was provided by a lady who was trying to convince the CM to let her in even though her reserve ation was for 6pm and it was now 7. He was having none of it telling her there wasn't the space. I was feeling a bit sorry for her until a manager came over and she was really rude to him for not holding their table and he responded by saying they were too busy to keep a table for 22 people! Apparently, the next available table(s) they had were for 10.30. I don't know if she took them or not! Dinner was the usual buffet fare but there were no dolphin potatoes (dauphinoise in any other family but due to a misreading when Elinor was young, they will always be dolphin potatoes in our house!). There seemed to be a few different desserts this time which we all enjoyed sampling (forget the diet, holidays are for enjoying!)
We went over to Adventure land after dinner where we managed back to back rides on Pirates of the Caribbean with no wait, which surprised me as it has only just reopened. I'm not sure the inclusion of Jack Sparrow really adds anything to the ride but maybe it will encourage younger people to ride. We really liked the projections as you go up the first slope though, and the music is really creepy there now, whereas it was quite jolly before. We then had a good old explore of Skull Rock and the suspension bridge as it had stopped raining by now.







Then Elinor wanted to explore the fort which we haven't done for years so we did that and I tried to get some arty photos - with very little success!




Arty photo?


Can you spot the girls?







The park at sunset

We were all getting quite tired by now so we had a quick look in the shops and tried some more arty photos by the fountains in Fantasia Gardens



Mood photos


and then walked back to the hotel, where we got our stuff ready for the next day and had hot chocolate before bed at about 10.30. A long day but we achieved a lot!
Steps taken - 21 806
Distance walked - 8.8 miles

Edited at 03:01 PM.
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Old 12 Aug 17, 09:28 PM  
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Emma1987BTL
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My sister is like your daughter leaving things on the floor then forgetting it... we almost lost a bag of shopping yesterday 🙄 Lol

Looks amazing tho can't wait to go xx
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Old 14 Aug 17, 06:44 PM  
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clochette
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Yes, she's very forgetful at the moment - I blame it on her hormones! I'm so jealous that you still have your trip to look forward to. Hope you have a great time!
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Old 14 Aug 17, 10:12 PM  
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I can't wait! Xx
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Old 17 Aug 17, 01:20 PM  
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Sounds like a great first day. Good to hear about the new Pirates, it was still down when we were there in June.
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Old 19 Aug 17, 09:28 PM  
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clochette
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Originally Posted by spencem View Post
Sounds like a great first day. Good to hear about the new Pirates, it was still down when we were there in June.
Yes, we really enjoyed it and it seemed longer, although I know it isn't. I hope you get to ride it next time you go.
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