Anemone
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 29, 2013
Ok, so my big sister when asked around Christmas last year what she wanted to do for her special birthday said without hesitation "A trip to Disney to see the Princesses and to be a Princess" so what were we to do? I have to admit here to being a little cynical about the Disney money making machine, and that I have never been a Big Thrills Roller Coaster sort of girl, but as my sister wanted the trip I was happy to go with her. It was my first visit and her 2nd. She'd been with another sister and her child more than 10 years ago for a couple of days and couldn't remember very much about it.
We booked the Disneyland Hotel for convenience [her mobility isn't great - she has Down's Syndrome, chronic arthritis and early onset dementia and in recent months has very little stamina] and of course because she's "worth it". Then because there was a big party organised at the end of the month for the actual birthday, we booked for the second week in June.
Day 1 - Sunday 9th June
Flights were Aer Lingus from Dublin and were fine. Our luggage took an age to come onto the carousel though and I was worried our RSTransports transfer would have gone without us but our driver was waiting patiently and was very pleasant. We had the car to ourselves that journey.
Check in took for ever - we arrived at 3pm so maybe it was the time of day but I couldn't believe how long we had to queue. At first we were given a room in the East wing on the 2nd floor but I said I had mentioned sister's mobility problems when booking and we were changed to a ground floor room quite close to reception without any difficulty. The room was lovely and I loved the little terrace though we made no use of it all week. I took these photos on my mobile phone to show my girlfriends and when my sister's memory card broke on the Tuesday they were the only photos we had of Sunday and Monday.
We had to wait for luggage but I was keen to get into the park before dinner - we had booked a table in Inventions at 6pm - so off we went. It was pouring and sister was none too pleased so I had the bright idea of getting on the train round the park. We had left sister's blue badge in our luggage so couldn't go to City Hall to get the disability pass but we were allowed on the train at the disabled entrance anyway. The rain had eased by the time we got to Discoveryland so we jumped off there and used our fastpasses on Buzz Lightyear which got the thumbs up from sister. After a wander around we walked back to the hotel and changed for dinner. Our luggage had arrived and our beds had been turned down - sister couldn't get over the chocolate coins.
We called into the shop on the way over to dinner to buy an autograph book and pen and I enquired about the princess makeover for Tuesday when we had booked lunch at the Auberge. I pointed out sister and asked discreetly if they would allow her to have a makeover and the CM went and got the diary. Foolishly I took that as a "yes" and then included sister in the discussion that followed. The assistant asked what time we wanted the makeover - pointed out the price list and I chose the package we needed then she asked what age sister was. I said she was almost 50 and the CM closed the diary and said they couldn't do a makeover for an over 12. I was really taken aback that she would have let us get that far before saying so and I asked her if she had really thought sister might be under 12. I didn't want to make a fuss though so we went on to dinner.
Sister loved the characters but ate very little - I loved it all and ate far too much! We had a lovely window table in front of the buffet and our server, Marie-Claude, was lovely - looked after us really well. We had 5 different characters who all gave sister loads of attention - Mickey, Gepetto, Chip, Eeyore and Goofy. We got lots of fab photos with them too but sadly these all went with the broken memory card as did the video I took of Chip linking arms with sister and gently dancing her down the dining room and back again. It was very special and sister was enchanted with it all.
After dinner sister was exhausted but I persuaded her to come with me over to City Hall to get the disabled pass sorted. We were looked after by Jan who was great and he gave us lots of advice about where to go to see the parades and Dreams show and how to avoid some of the queues. He gave her a Happy Birthday sticker and put her on the phone to Mickey for a Happy Birthday phone call even though we said this was a birthday trip in advance of the actual birthday. I couldn't keep her awake any longer so we were good little girls in bed by 9pm that evening.
s on 
We booked the Disneyland Hotel for convenience [her mobility isn't great - she has Down's Syndrome, chronic arthritis and early onset dementia and in recent months has very little stamina] and of course because she's "worth it". Then because there was a big party organised at the end of the month for the actual birthday, we booked for the second week in June.
Day 1 - Sunday 9th June
Flights were Aer Lingus from Dublin and were fine. Our luggage took an age to come onto the carousel though and I was worried our RSTransports transfer would have gone without us but our driver was waiting patiently and was very pleasant. We had the car to ourselves that journey.
Check in took for ever - we arrived at 3pm so maybe it was the time of day but I couldn't believe how long we had to queue. At first we were given a room in the East wing on the 2nd floor but I said I had mentioned sister's mobility problems when booking and we were changed to a ground floor room quite close to reception without any difficulty. The room was lovely and I loved the little terrace though we made no use of it all week. I took these photos on my mobile phone to show my girlfriends and when my sister's memory card broke on the Tuesday they were the only photos we had of Sunday and Monday.
We had to wait for luggage but I was keen to get into the park before dinner - we had booked a table in Inventions at 6pm - so off we went. It was pouring and sister was none too pleased so I had the bright idea of getting on the train round the park. We had left sister's blue badge in our luggage so couldn't go to City Hall to get the disability pass but we were allowed on the train at the disabled entrance anyway. The rain had eased by the time we got to Discoveryland so we jumped off there and used our fastpasses on Buzz Lightyear which got the thumbs up from sister. After a wander around we walked back to the hotel and changed for dinner. Our luggage had arrived and our beds had been turned down - sister couldn't get over the chocolate coins.
We called into the shop on the way over to dinner to buy an autograph book and pen and I enquired about the princess makeover for Tuesday when we had booked lunch at the Auberge. I pointed out sister and asked discreetly if they would allow her to have a makeover and the CM went and got the diary. Foolishly I took that as a "yes" and then included sister in the discussion that followed. The assistant asked what time we wanted the makeover - pointed out the price list and I chose the package we needed then she asked what age sister was. I said she was almost 50 and the CM closed the diary and said they couldn't do a makeover for an over 12. I was really taken aback that she would have let us get that far before saying so and I asked her if she had really thought sister might be under 12. I didn't want to make a fuss though so we went on to dinner.
Sister loved the characters but ate very little - I loved it all and ate far too much! We had a lovely window table in front of the buffet and our server, Marie-Claude, was lovely - looked after us really well. We had 5 different characters who all gave sister loads of attention - Mickey, Gepetto, Chip, Eeyore and Goofy. We got lots of fab photos with them too but sadly these all went with the broken memory card as did the video I took of Chip linking arms with sister and gently dancing her down the dining room and back again. It was very special and sister was enchanted with it all.
After dinner sister was exhausted but I persuaded her to come with me over to City Hall to get the disabled pass sorted. We were looked after by Jan who was great and he gave us lots of advice about where to go to see the parades and Dreams show and how to avoid some of the queues. He gave her a Happy Birthday sticker and put her on the phone to Mickey for a Happy Birthday phone call even though we said this was a birthday trip in advance of the actual birthday. I couldn't keep her awake any longer so we were good little girls in bed by 9pm that evening.
s on 
I saw your photos of your sister in another thread, which made me stop lurking and start posting!
- so we put them on and headed out. We got a ticket to come back and see a princess which I knew would please sister and then we went to Frontierland where we'd not yet spent any time. Most of the attractions there aren't in sister's line - no Phantom Manor or BTM for her - but we waited for the next River Boat cruise and did it. 
