My Birthday Trip With My Mammy And The Mouse ! DLP Aug 15 ! Day 1

[princess lola]

Day 1 - Travel, Disney Village and Cafe Mickey

Today was travel day and I was up with the joys of spring at 4.55am !
My parents shower wasn't working so I had a bath and washed my hair, a long and boring duty that I HATE DOING!
I was ready to leave by 5.55am with travel mugs of tea ready for us in the car with a pain au chocolat and the sat nav all programmed.
We stopped at Oxford services on the way for a quick toilet break but apart from that we plowed right on to Luton until we reached our Hotel to park the car at Hilton Garden Inn North at 10.10am.
I checked at reception and he gave me a pass to park the car, I'd booked here so we would get the parking for free.
I ordered an Uber £8 and before we knew it we were on our way to the airport.
We had a strange experience at security the place was heaving we ended up waiting about 40 minutes in line before getting to the scanners, the guards insisted that we took our trainers off, bracelets, rings, and even my piercings ! I have a few in my ears that don't come out (including one I have to open and close with pliers) I tried to explain but the lady at the front started shouting at me and insisting we have to strip of all metal ! I've never had such a bad experience and as I am a wary flier and get quite anxious before flights I started to worry !
After a lot of huffing and complaining she let me through insisting my earrings would set off the metal detectors but ofc they didn't!
Never mind we were through soon enough and we headed for a bit of shopping and some lunch.
It was my birthday coming up (this was my birthday treat) and I had some money to spend so I treated myself to some Mac foundation, some Victoria secret travel spray and my Mam kindly offered to get me the most awesome bag in Accessorize!

We popped to Frankie and Bennies next, the only place to sit down for food in Luton. The airport was packed and there was no room to sit while we waited, I know they are renovating departures but it really was like a cattle pen!
The staff in FnB were lovely but the food not so great! I ordered some tomato pasta but my nerves were kicking in so I didn't eat a lot, my mam had seafood pasta which wasn't great. The guy behind us sent his salmon back 3 times and it was stone cold each tim, even the waiter was soooo apologetic and looked embarrassed serving it!
We headed for boarding after a coffee and a sit down, and were soon on the plane ready for take off.
We were sat next to a lovely lady who hadn't flown before and had promised to get on a plane to get her kids to Disney but she was white as a sheet and she spent the whole time panicking!
I talked to Mam the whole flight to distract my self, and as we were descending we got a lovely view of the Eiffel Tower. The flight only took 55 mins so it was bearable and very smooth ! It was a good start to our holiday and we were excited for our adventure.
Passport control was a long 30 minute wait so I'm glad I hadn't booked the TGV in advance but there was no wait for bags so we were off to the rail office following the signs to be off on our way!
Tickets were €37 and the next train was at 6.48pm so it was only a ten minute wait!
The journey was fast and smooth and we hopped in an uber again the other side to get to the hotel fast ! It cost us €11.
We arrived at the hotel at 7.20pm we were staying at the Park and Suites Presteige Val'D Europe and were shown to a top floor suite.
I must admit for a cheapy little weekend get away these rooms were perfect ! We had a small kitchen and a small balcony and a separate living room and bedroom joined with sliding doors ! Perfect !


The hotel supply's a shuttle service its €2 for the whole day hop on and off as much as you like and it drops you off just behind World of Disney which is perfect so we made use of this after unpacking and were soon in Disney Village to do a but shopping before our 9pm Cafe Mickey reservation.

We crammed all our shopping into one night so we didn't waste any time in the park these next two days, but first stop was Starbucks for a hot chocolate, we were really peckish now and needed a pick me up !
We sat and people watched while drinking and it was lovely to soak up the atmosphere I could of sat there all night chatting and watching all the happy faces pass!

We started with the shops closest to Annette's Diner and worked out way down the line. My mam picked up some cars pasta, a Star Wars pez, and an iron man key ring for my OH James as he had kindly paid for her to be my 'chaperone' on this trip and she wanted to thank him!
And I bought myself some Disney princess pasta and some lollies for the kids at home!
Some shopping snaps!


We had spoken before the trip about my birthday and my Mam and Dad had offered to buy me some treats, this was a great idea as I saw some lovely things while we were away and I am so pleased with my little hoard and how lucky I am !

Time was ticking now so we headed to Cafe Mickey to join the long queue snaking outside!

We were checked in by 9.15pm and headed upstairs to a table, I sat down on my side and realised my chair was broken, I nearly fell off it so I was so glad I hadn't sat down fully ! LOL !
It took a while to get someone's attention so I was just standing in the middle of the place looking like a fool, when someone came over they told me the chair was fine but there was a hole right down the middle of the cushion I mean I could see the floor !
Next the table was filthy hadn't been cleaned and with no cutlery so we waited about 10 minutes before anybody came over to wipe it down! Wow not a great start!


We met some characters but it was tough as there were hyped up kids just running in between the waiters and round the characters legs and the minders were just in the corner chatting not paying any attention !
We ordered drinks soft drinks and starters and mains from the set menu.
It took about an hour for our starters to arrive and still no drinks, our waitress kept apologising profoundly and kept saying she was stressed and rushed off her feet!
I had mushrooms to start and Mam had chicken ceaser salad.
My starter was soooooo salty and hardly had any taste, my Mam however loved her salad.


Next was our mains, they came quite quickly after our starters, I choose the burger and Mam had the seafood pasta. Neither of us liked our mains mine was dry and my burger had came without any of the salad, I also waited about half an hour for the sauces I had asked for, Mam had no seafood in her Pasta and we had no idea what the crispy thing on the top was !


We met the main man himself which was great ! But was a quick wiz round though and a lot of the characters weren't sticking around which was a shame !


We waited half hour for the bill and when we got up to try and pay at the counter we were told little naughty school kids to 'sit back down' !
We were tired now and this whole restaurant experience had taken its toll, the food wasn't great and the staff were grumpy and rude and far to busy ! Although we loved meeting the characters because we would have had no chance doing that in the parks, I won't be rushing back, I had a really bad experience here back in 2012 with a friend, I ended up ill after the pink chicken I ate but I decided I had to give it a second chance but their wont be a third. I think next time we might try the buffet at the Disneyland Hotel.

It was 11.30pm when we left and we headed back to the train station to catch a taxi with all our shopping, we had missed the last bus back to the hotel so we caught a cab for €18.
All ready for bed we finally turned in after phone calls to Dad and James and it was lights out at 1am !

[collybird]

Such a shame you had such a bad experience at Cafe Mickey's. We had rotten luck with restaurants on our trip this year but we loved Cafe Mickey's.

The salad really is nice. The table next to us had the burger and they were brought sauces out with it. Rotten luck that the kitchen wasn't on form for you.

[princess lola]

It's such a shame I don't think the restaraunts at DLP are too consistent, on our third day we had the most fantastic meal at Chez Remy but if heard nothing but bad reviews about it!
It's a shame there's no consistency but it was great for the characters I must admit.
Xxx

[Guest]

Looks like you had the best time xxx