It's been a while...

Well it's been a while but guess where I'm heading in just a couple of days?

Disney here I come!

So with my good friend and podcast co-host Michelle I am about to head off to my closest Disney resort...Disneyland Paris!! EEK!!

Now as those that have read my blog will know it has been over 2 years since my last visit to Disneyland Paris and almost 4 years since we last ventured across the pond to Walt Disney World. Personal circumstances have meant a vacation stateside for the four of us just hasn't been financially viable. And even a visit across the channel isn't cheap and memories of our last trip are tinged with sadness as the trip was so close to when my amazing mum passed away.

So how come I'm going? Well I have to give all the credit to Michelle who has done all the organising along with hubby Simon who has encouraged me to go. I think they both realised just how much I needed a little Disney in my life and so they got together and hatched a plan!

Now this will also be the first time that I have visited a Disney resort without Simon and the kids; which in itself is a strange prospect! Disney and family to me have always gone hand in hand and I have never given any thought before to visiting without them. So whilst I am super excited about this trip I have to confess to being a little sad that I won't have Simon and the kids with me - Michelle I hope you know what you're letting yourself in for!

And other firsts for this trip include staying in a non-Disney hotel as well as booking all aspects of the trip separately. Now as I said Michelle has done all the organising (bless her soul) but this will be the first time I have ever made a trip that has not been a 'package' booking. It will also be a trip with the most varied forms of transport I think! So I am really interested to see how it all pans out as it may give me the confidence to look at future trips differently.

So we fly out very early on Wednesday morning to arrive in Paris ready to catch a bus to Disneyland Paris. Park tickets have been bought and we will be taking advantage of Michelle's 'annual pass' to make use of bag storage facilities so that we can head straight into the parks when we get there. We will have 3 full days and nights to explore both Disneyland Park and Walt Disney Studios Park as well as the Disney Village. On our return we will be taking the high speed train back to the airport before flying home.

We are lucky in that our trip coincides with the 25th Anniversary of Disneyland Paris so we get to see new parades, fireworks and shows! There is also the new Star Tours ride; as Paris has now had the upgrade seen in the other parks. Plus Space Mountain has also been transformed into Hyper Space Mountain; not that I shall be riding but I am more than happy to look after the bags while Michelle takes a spin!! And the only attraction that is closed is Pirates of the Caribbean which is sad but as it's only one attraction I can live with that. I am really looking forward to riding Big Thunder Mountain and Phantom Manor especially...oh and Casey Jr, and Snow White and It's A Small World and...OK this could be a very long list!

I am probably most excited about Disneyland Park as this for me is what Disney is all about. But I am looking forward to riding Ratatouille a few times over at Walt Disney Studios Park as well as eating at Bistrot Chez Remy! There is also the chance to ride the Studio Tram Tour; Behind the Magic and experience Catastrophe Canyon which is no longer available in Disney Hollywood Studios over in Walt Disney World. As well as see the much loved Mickey and the Magician show. And of course there will be shopping, not only in the parks but also in Disney Village; looking forward to a stroll around Disney Fashion!!And while we're in Disney Village I will be very surprised if we don't make our way over to Earl of Sandwich for a bite!

So at the moment it is all about the packing...we've decided to just take hand luggage so packing skills will have to be on point! My nails are painted, t-shirts have been chosen, Euros about to be purchased and final packing to be done and then it's away we go!

Disney Dream Girls are on tour, watch out Disneyland Paris here we come!

Disney's Sequoia Lodge Hotel Review - Part One

It's been a little while since I wrote a blog post and with no Disney trip happening, or planned, I have been debating what to write about. So I thought I would look back to my last Disney trip which was to Disneyland Paris in February and give you an overview of our hotel experience.

For this trip we stayed at Disney's Sequoia Lodge hotel, which Disney give a rating of 'three keys'; or what I would call a moderate resort. So for those of you with experience of staying at Walt Disney World I would compare this resort to the likes of Port Orleans, Coronado Springs and similar.

When we arrived we approached the hotel from the Disney Village as we had travelled by Eurostar and the train station is located next to the Disney Village. This meant that we effectively entered the hotel by the 'back door' and had to find our way to the Reception area.

Sign post to let you know you're in the right place!

Approaching the entrance at the rear of the hotel

The rear of the main building which is the main access point when going to and from Disney Village and  parks

When we first arrived we had to make our way upstairs to find the Reception area. Thankfully our luggage had already made it's way to the hotel by way of the 'Magical Express' service. Checking-in was very straight forward and we were greeted by probably one of the best cast members that we encountered on our visit. We were given our room keys (plastic credit card type) along with our Resort ID card (paper) and a card for charging purposes (paper) plus a map of our hotel (in French!). To be honest I hadn't realised the map was in French until we got home...most of the map is very self explanatory, my basic level french was obviously enough for me to be able to translate without realising I was doing it and the use of traditional symbols on the map also helped. Although I would guess that as the back of the map has 'Mickey ears' with the french flag colours that maps in other languages were available...so not the best service giving an English speaking guest a French version of the map!!

Hotel map

Resort ID, charging card and park ticket - a lot of pieces of paper!

Before we could make our way to our room we had to visit the Left Luggage Office to retrieve our luggage which had been sent over from the train station. Our room was away from the main building in one of five 'lodges'; ours was called 'Big Sur' and was less than a five minute walk from the main building.

Let's talk about theming! So as the name would suggest the Sequoia Lodge is styled along the lines of a 'mountain lodge retreat'.  So lots of natural wood, earthy colours, fantastic landscaping with an abundance of trees, natural materials and the feel of an American National Park.

Some of the walkways between the main building and our 'lodge'.

Our 'lodge'

Entry into our 'lodge' - 'Big Sur'

Once entering into the lodge you walk into an entry hall which has no real signage and looks a bit strange; basically a blank room with stairs off to the right and a pair of very plain, unattractive doors straight in front of you with no guidance on where to go. But suffice to stay if you have a ground floor room (which we had) then you go through these doors and enter a typical hotel corridor, as seen below.

From the photos you can see the palette of colours that has been adopted for the resort; natural colours, reds, oranges, yellows, browns etc. As well as wall coverings and carpets that incorporate images of trees and leaves.

 The theming is then continued inside the hotel rooms.

Just arrived!!

When you enter the room there is a small entry way with the bathroom off to your left, before entering the main room which has two double beds, TV and a small desk and chairs.

The above photo shows the space as you enter the room; this view is looking towards the hotel room door and shows the entry to the bathroom/vanity area on the right of the photo. You can also see a full length mirror which was very handy - after all it's important that you look good!!

In the vanity area there was space for hanging coats and storing luggage plus a very handy safe that worked on a combination lock where you were able to set the code yourself.

Opposite the safe was a sink area with hairdryer.

The bathroom had all the usual facilities including a shower over the bath, and as you can see the natural earth colours and decorating theme were continued into the bathroom.

The wall coverings and pictures in the room all depicted characters from Bambi...not sure if this is the same for all rooms as we obviously only experienced this one room!

Light features also continued the animal vibe;

Now whilst the rooms looked well maintained I was not overly impressed by the level of cleanliness that we experienced over our four nights there. Initially everything looked fine but on day two I noticed that there was a french fry on the floor next to the edge of a unit!! As we had not brought any food back to the room by that point I knew that the offending article had to have been there for some time. I deliberately left it to see if it would get cleaned away during our stay - unfortunately it did not :( Now the trouble is once you notice something like this you start to look for, or perhaps just notice, other inconsistencies and having been used to the very high standards in Disney property in the US our expectations were perhaps set too high?!

So whilst our beds were made each day I do not think the bed linen was changed during our stay. Pillows that we had removed off the beds while sleeping were left where we had placed them on the floor. Glasses that had been used were left where we had left them (some with water in) and not replaced. There were no towel animals and no little notes from 'mousekeeping'. The toiletries were only replenished once during our stay and when I purposefully removed all the toiletries to give the appearance of them all having been used (just to see what would happen) no replacements were left for us.

The room was of a decent size, a good layout and with good basic facilities but was let down by the poor cleanliness. One point to note is that the rooms do not have tea/coffee making facilities; these are however available but you have to ask for them at reception (they are not offered) we on this occasion did not bother asking. On a positive note all the hotel rooms have access to free Wi-Fi which we found worked pretty well for all four of us, and which we took great advantage of as free Wi-Fi has not yet reached the parks or Disney Village. However, we found that the Wi-Fi did not work in the hotel's restaurants. If you're looking for free Wi-Fi outside of the hotels then try the Earl of Sandwich in Disney Village!

The view from our room was lovely and completely within keeping of the layout and theming of the resort;

 And here to finish part one off are a few more shots of the beautiful outside areas of the hotel;

Covered walk ways linking the lodges, the indoor pool, gym and main building.

A lovely bright and sunny day (if rather cold) to catch a few more shots of the landscaping around our lodge;

The walk away from our lodge getting ready to embark on a day in the parks.

Disneyland Paris - February 2015 - Day 5 - The Last Day

Well here we are, the last day of our short trip to Disneyland Paris.

It was yet another early start for us, breakfast was booked for 7.00am and we made it for 7.30am...we had the usual breakfast selections which I have to say we were all a little bored with by now. Not quite the same as staying at a Disney hotel in the US where the breakfast choices are wide and varied.

We then had to finish off our packing...I did feel a little mean squashing Sulley into the bags though...

Don't worry he made it home all safe and sound!

Because we had booked our trip direct with Disneyland Paris we automatically qualified for the Disney Express service. We took our cases down to the Left Luggage Office in the hotel and were then free to enjoy the parks on our last day knowing that the cases would be waiting for us at the train station later on.

We all decided that we'd really like to ride Ratatouille once more so off to Walt Disney Studios we went. Both Simon and I went through the turnstiles without a problem but neither of the kids tickets would work...so we were left with us one side of the gate and the kids on the other and a cast member who didn't speak enough English to be able to tell us what the problem was. The next thing we know is the cast member saying something to us in mainly French and then walking away...luckily they returned with two new tickets for the kids which got them through the turnstiles. Now the new tickets the kids got were basically one day park tickets which was fine for what we needed, but I was a little disappointed that they didn't give us back the original tickets that had stopped working. You see I'm a bit sentimental and like to keep things like tickets as mementos of trips but on this occasion I couldn't :(

The original park tickets we received (well the two we had left!)

The day tickets that replaced the ones that stopped working!

Now we were inside the Studios we headed to the right to ride Ratatouille. As we approached the Toon Studio area of the park it became very busy; on passing Crush's Coaster the queue was out into the pavement area, and in fact the Stand-By line hadn't even opened.

Then as we rounded the corner we were met with a sea of people and what looked like a very long queue. So we jumped on the end of the queue suspecting it was for Ratatouille and Simon went off to investigate.

Joining the queue...

Sure enough Ratatouille was not yet open, even the Stand-By line was not yet open and this large queue had formed. But there was also a lot of people simply congregating in the 'Place de Remy' the town square like area in front of the ride - there seemed to be no organisation as to what was happening. There were no cast members about, no-one giving out information, no-one organising the waiting guests...it just seemed terribly disorganised.

The queue on the way to Place de Remy

Almost in Place de Remy - just a tad busy!! 

We are not amused!

There was also an equally large queue for the Fastpass booths, which were already issuing tickets for midday and beyond. But as the ride was not yet operational, and showed no signs of being operational any time soon getting a Fastpass seemed a little pointless!

So we left the area and walked back round past Crush's Coaster which now displayed a 60 minute wait. Both the Stand-By line and the Single Rider line were taking up a lot of space in the thoroughfare and were making navigating this area rather tiresome.

We took this time to get a photo with the Partners statue, which is just beyond Disney Studio 1.

So what to do now?

We decided to look at the 'wait times board' as that might gives us an idea. Well the board confirmed that both Ratatouille and Crush's Coaster were closed. The shortest wait times were for the Tower of Terror and Rock 'n' Roller Coaster, neither of which we were interested in riding. So we looked at some of the shows; Animagique and CineMagique both of which were scheduled to start at either 11.00am or 11.30am and most of the showings were in French...the first English presentations weren't until the early afternoon! So after a 20 minute visit to Walt Disney Studios we found ourselves leaving the park and heading to Disneyland Park.

The Studios for us on this visit had been rather disappointing; I'm hoping for others visiting that we were just unlucky with our timings and that perhaps at busier times of the year this park has more to offer. There is so much potential here that I hope Disneyland Paris recognise that and continue to give this park the expansion it deserves and needs.

Arriving in Disneyland Park we headed for probably our favourite ride; Big Thunder Mountain. The wait time was 40 minutes but that was fine we were all happy to wait that long, so we joined the queue which seemed longer than on previous 40 minute waits but that didn't put us off. We'd been in the very slow moving queue about 10 minutes when both Simon and I noticed at almost the same time that we'd not seen any trains come through since joining the queue. Then I realised that the background music had stopped playing and on looking down to the entrance to the queue the cast members were turning guests away...this wasn't going to be our day! So we decided to turn around and leave the queue and as we headed away from the ride we looked back and could see that there was a train stopped on the track right at the top of one of the lift hills - oops!

By this time we needed cheering up and warming up so we popped into the Cable Car Bake Shop and had coffee, hot chocolates and muffins!

Re-charged we headed over to Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast and even this ride didn't run completely smoothly...although a couple of stops as we went round did mean we could rack up our scores...or at least try to! Molly did manage to get over 100,000 for the first time ever!!

Next we jumped onto the Disneyland Railroad at the Discoveryland station to take a tour around the park to Fantasyland. There is the lovely Grand Canyon diorama that you travel through on your way between Main Street USA and Frontierland which is a highlight of taking the train journey. Strangely we stopped at the station in Frontierland despite the station being closed and this was the view from the train...

This was once a 'petting zoo' type area

It was such a shame to see a whole area just left to ruin...there was literally nothing there but empty buildings and paddocks. If my memory serves me right this had once been a small petting zoo/farm type area populated with animals that children could get up close and personal with. Now there is nothing except empty space - what a waste :(

Once in Fantasyland the kids rode the Mad Hatters Tea Cups, followed by a quick stop over into Adventureland to ride Pirates of the Caribbean one last time. Back into Fantasyland to ride 'it's a small world' before we headed down Main Street USA...

Last photo in the park!

We did some last minute shopping as we left the park and then headed into the Disney Village in search of food and there could only be one place to go...yes it had to be Earl of Sandwich!

The infamous gold brick!

I think Molly might be a bit happy to be here!!

As we'd got a long journey ahead of us we made sure we ate well...I had Thai chicken soup followed by a Philly cheese steak sandwich and then my favourite - bread pudding!

Fully fuelled we wandered through the Disney Village to make our way to the train station. On the way we stopped at the Disney Store where me and Molly bought our first Tsum Tsum's; I opted for the classic Mickey & Minnie while Molly bought Perry the Platypus from Phineas & Ferb. We also took a stroll around the World of Disney store where I bought myself a new Mickey mug for work.

We got to the train station around 3.30pm and simply visited the Disney Express desk to fetch our luggage and whilst we had a small wait it wasn't too long and the desk operated very efficiently. Next we checked in for our Eurostar train which again was very straight forward and then found ourselves with about an hour to wait for the train. Unfortunately once through check-in there was nothing to do...no where to sit, no where to grab a coffee...nothing! Thankfully after about 35 minutes we were let through to the platform where our train was waiting so we had plenty of time to get on board and get settled ready for our journey home.

We arrived back at Ebbsfleet on time and were in our car and on our way home, in heavy rain, in no time at all.

And that was Disneyland Paris...a short visit and whilst not the same calibre as the parks in the US it did mean that I got my fix of Disney at a time that I really needed it. Will we be going back to Paris any time soon? I don't think so...from our families point of view whilst we enjoyed the trip we all agreed that we would rather save up for a trip to Walt Disney World or even Disneyland. Now this may be some way off but we will get there one day and until then I have plenty of Disney memories to keep me going!