I woke up before everyone else and was very eager to get up because we were GOING TO
DISNEYLAND...Beth and charl were not so keen!
We got ready for 8:15, though it was more like 8:20 by the time I'd got all my layers on...whilst getting ready we had a bit of an issue with the mirrors because the main bathroom one was all weird and smudgy. However, as this was the only issue we encountered in our £30 a night room we didnt mind too much!
Left the Travelodge with no issues and decided to walk to the train station.
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Considered getting a taxi but we didn't really need to. It was a bit difficult pulling the cases but we werent in a rush and made it to the station in plenty of time. We walked all the way down to Boots in the station to buy dry shampoo and eyebrow pencils two items that we thought were missing from our luggage
only to find in Disneyland that we did have them after all! I waited outside with the bags and then we had a cereal bar as a kind of pre-breakfast because all that walking had provoked hunger. By this time I think it was 9 o'clock and Charl saw that we could check in...yay!
Joined a queue for check in, it was not very long and were pleased to see that the conveyor to scan the bags was sloped so we wouldn't have to lift the heavy cases up. However, much to our dismay, when we reached the front of the queue, the attendant lady motioned for us to move down to a different queue. This was confusing because a) she didn't say it in English and b) it looked like we were pushing in to other people's lines!
Getting the cases on to the scanner was not actually too bad and none of us bleeped going through the scanners which was a relief, so then it was just a case of getting all coats and bags together and heading for a seat. We found a nice section near platform 7 and Charl and Beth went to get a proper breakfast from Cafe Nero. They returned with two pots of fruit, two teas, two pastries and an apple juice. £13!!!! We ate and enjoyed, then just sat for a little while and it was soon time to board.
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Getting on the train was as stressful as it usually is, but because we rushed we were ok for luggage room. Once we were sat down, a very annoying man and his family proceeded to board the train. He was so loud! Also smelly! His children turned out to be quite annoying and when I started to watch Tangled on my iPod, the boy, aged approx 4 years, stood and watched it over my shoulder! Needless to say that I promptly turned it off! All his mum said to him was "don't get too close" - so annoying! There was also an issue because the Brussels trains were all cancelled due to a strike, so Eurostar had double booked the seats behind us.
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We were both wearing stripes! (Unintentionally!!)
The journey proceeded to be quite loud and unpleasant to be honest. One family had Frozen playing at what seemed like 100 decibels and we had the annoying smelly family opposite us. Maybe it is unreasonable to expect a semi-quiet journey so close to Christmas, so I hope it doesnt seem rude that we felt that way. We just really felt that people were letting their kids do whatever they wanted to because it was a train to Disneyland, when their behaviour on any other train would not really have been acceptable. I know I dont have kids so it is easy for me to say but I really think theres a difference between excited kids and badly behaved ones. Rant over!
The journey did feel quite long but I suppose it wasn't too bad. Soon enough we were in Disneyland! It felt so surreal going through Fantasia Gardens with our suitcases instead of into the village to the hotels around the lake.
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Filled with wonderment, we went in to the hotel and joined the queue for check in. Minutes later it had grown immensely so we timed it right!
It took quite a while to check in, I think because we had to add two people to the booking. It only cost 13 in local taxes!! The lady gave us some fast passes and said we had to go back when they run out because she hadnt been able to get them all? We later discovered that they have dates on which is a bit concerning because we didn't know and had used the wrong ones
I was so excited/anxious when the lady gave us the room number and got my hopes up when she showed me it was on the a East Wing (room 1316). I knew that the East Wing is supposed to be the one with the nice views! This excitement grew when a CM in the lift said "that's a lovely room because it has a partial view of the park entrance" !!!!!!!!! He proceeded to show us to the door of our room! Only in the DLH!
In our room we discovered a beautiful platter of macarons that I had sent payment for but hadn't received confirmation so wasn't sure if they'd put them in or not. Opening the curtains revealed a view of the entrance, BTM, and the Christmas tree!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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We also had a window seat! All that excitement caused me to have a nosebleed, which was over quite quickly (thankfully), so then I opened my suitcase to get ready to go out, and we just kind of rested for a few minutes.
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Charlotte then produced PRESENTS! She had told me that she wasnt doing anything like that! She gave us a bag each, a dragonfly necklace, a Tangled postcard, pretty tin mug, Santa chocolates, posh popcorn and two little Disney figures!
THEN we finally went out. Walked on to Main Street and loved the Christmas music. Not to mention the decorations! We all couldn't believe we were actually in Disneyland at Christmas. It was also surprisingly busy.
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As per tradition we made our way to Small World. Despite the busy park, the queue didn't take too long and we enjoyed the Christmas overlay but did not enjoy the ceiling (never look at the ceiling in Small World!).
Our plans went a bit wrong here because we wanted to go to Hakuna Matata and then Pirates. It transpired that Hakuna was closed and Pirates had been temporarily stopped! Instead we explored some caves that we haven't seen before which was very fun indeed.
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Next we used our hotel FP to do BTM. Never having had hotel FPs before, we weren't sure what to do with them as the normal FP entrance was closed. A lady and her daughter were having the same predicament as us, so we all kind of stood around after asking the man at the normal entrance what to do and receiving a very vague answer. Eventually he told us to "take them round to the left", which, thankfully, we realised he meant the disabled entrance. A few minutes later and were on the ride!
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We really like BTM...not sure you can say the same for the poor person in the bottom left!
We then decided to go to the village to have Earl Of Sandwich and look in World of Disney. It was raining but it was ok (not torrential!) Walking out was weird knowing that the DLH is our hotel!
in EoS, I had steak, cheese and green peppers and it was delicious (in fact I am dreaming about it now as I write this
) We sat upstairs which was also nice as we could see the Sequoia.
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Refuelled and ready to go, we decided not to go to World of Disney and just made our way back to wait for Dreams. We made a quick stop to our room to make some hot chocolate, only to find that the milk pods we'd put in the flasks for safe keeping had leaked and gone a bit congealed and mouldy so we had to resolve that issue by washing the flasks before we could leave! We also hadn't been given any spoons (or, er, mugs) with the kettle so had to guess the amount of hot chocolate we put in and stir it with the end of a toothbrush!
A hop skip and a boat ride away (name that film!) and we were back in the park for about 6:10pm. We decided to stand behind the hub, which turned out to be a great decision as the view was good and no one could stand in front of us. Well, apart from the (very!) small child that wedged itself between me and Beth, and also the people who thought it was ok to keep standing on the grass even when they'd been told not to.
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I had a lovely experience in which I burned my tongue being a bit eager with the hot chocolate drinking.
Disney Dreams of Christmas was bit of a letdown really and has been renamed Disney Dreams of Frozen by Charlotte. When it had finished we waited for a few minutes then made our way through the arcade.
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Had to cut across everyone so that we could get in to the hotel, which was quite the awkward experience. Not sure why it didnt occur to use to just use the west entrance. Went for a quick look in the hotel shop but didn't buy anything.
We were soon back in our room to decorate and get ready for bed. Facetimed mum quickly then we put all the Christmas and birthday things up. It looked great and we loved it. We listened to the audiobooks for Peter Pan and Beauty and the Beast, which was a lovely experience!
Then it was time for showers x3, diary writing and a bit of posh birthday chocolate eating before bed.
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