The 'we need to stay at the DLH' trip report

[Mum to Belle]

The photos of your girls are just lovely!!

I too welled up when reading about Evie - even though I already knew you found her safe & sound, just brings it all back!

Your room at DLH looks lovely!

More, more, more...

 

[HappyPanda]

It must have been so terrifying for you all when you lost Evie. Just so glad she was found safe and sound.

Your room in the DLH looks so good! We are planning our first ever stay in the Pink Palace for March, I can't wait!

 

[DLPDreams]

Great update Jo The girls just look so happy. Glad you liked Inventions - we enjoyed it again this trip, so I'm pleased I booked it as I did dither for a while.

Your room looked lovely in the DLH - bit like the ones we have had before. We had a really small room this time - no room for a sofa or anything . But I guess you only use it to sleep in when at Disney. However, we really didn't do so well with the hotel this trip at all .

 

[DLPdaft]

I'm just catching up on all the TRs posted in the last week, loving yours so far . I'd have been beside myself if I'd lost DD for 15 minutes, its one of my worst nightmares. I'm so glad she was found safe and sound so quickly.

 

[jothp]

The photos of your girls are just lovely!!

I too welled up when reading about Evie - even though I already knew you found her safe & sound, just brings it all back!

Your room at DLH looks lovely!

More, more, more...

Thanks I still keep trying to work out how we lost her but I guess we will never know. Hoping to get at least one update done this evening.

It must have been so terrifying for you all when you lost Evie. Just so glad she was found safe and sound.

Your room in the DLH looks so good! We are planning our first ever stay in the Pink Palace for March, I can't wait!

My DH calls it the pink palace (or pp for short) too It was really lovely to be able to walk out of the hotel straight to the turnstiles. We went almost 3 days without having to go through the bag check.

Great update Jo The girls just look so happy. Glad you liked Inventions - we enjoyed it again this trip, so I'm pleased I booked it as I did dither for a while.

Your room looked lovely in the DLH - bit like the ones we have had before. We had a really small room this time - no room for a sofa or anything . But I guess you only use it to sleep in when at Disney. However, we really didn't do so well with the hotel this trip at all .

We did enjoy inventions but I didn't find the characters as fun as we have had in cafe Mickey in the past. Harriet asked Tigger to bounce with her for example and he just didn't respond (maybe he didn't understand?) also chip and dale didn't seem as cheeky as usual. All the characters pointed at themselves in our books though and Mickey and Minnie both made gestures towards Evie's hat.

You certainly didn't seem to do too well with the hotel hopefully they will do better for you next time. Our room was nice and spacious but do remember we had one of their family rooms for 5 so the sofa was our 5th bed.

I'm just catching up on all the TRs posted in the last week, loving yours so far . I'd have been beside myself if I'd lost DD for 15 minutes, its one of my worst nightmares. I'm so glad she was found safe and sound so quickly.

Thank you so much, it was a bit of a nightmare for us but I was more worried about how scared she must have been. Off to do an update now.

 

[jothp]

Day 4 - Thursday 7th June 2012 Part 1

I woke before the alarm this morning despite our late night but left it to the last minute to wake the others to get ready for EMH. We made it out of the hotel and arrived at the turnstiles at 8.02 (I checked lots of times ) to see all the people from bag check heading into the park. I got in quite a mood at this point because one of the things I was most looking forward to about staying in DLLH was getting into the park before bag checkers for some great photos. (DLP Dreams has since said that she was in the park on her own for ages this morning so I think they must have opened the turnstiles early too as it was certainly quite busy at 8.02! )

We headed to discoveryland and my mood wasn't improved to see that the orbitron was closed - that was soon sorted out with two trips round Buzz - this was another family favourite for the trip. We then walked around to IASW and then Olie and the girls had their first and only go of the trip on the teacups. I just love all the hanging lanterns

By now it was gone 9.00 and we had all built up a nice appetite so we headed back for breakfast. Sadly we just missed the bus to take us back dowm mainstreet so we had to take a slow wander. We finished breakfast about 10.20 and the white rabbit was due to come out at 10.45 so we popped into the shop to spend a bit more money and to pass the time. We met the white rabbit but Evie refused to give him a cuddle and the older girls thought it was odd that he signed rabbit white!

We got back to the main park and decided there was no way we would be able to eat another meal at 2.30 so we popped into city hall and had no problem changing our reservation to 5pm. We headed over to BTM to pick up some fastpasses but the return time wasn't great so we were going to use our DLH fastpasses but even the fastpass queue was long so we decided to save them for later. Autopia was due to open at 12 so we headed in that direction and got there at 11.40 to find it was open and the queue was already an hour and we weren't going to wait that long. Harriet asked for star tours and Robyn and Evie were already a bit tired so Olie took Harriet off and I took the other girls into the videopolis to relax and watch some cartoons - the only problem was despite advertising continous showing on the information board there were none. We just sat quietly and had a drink, then the girls found a mouse (literally) to keep them amused while we waited. Next we headed over to pirates as we hadn't ridden that yet today, when we came out it was raining so we headed straight round again to keep dry. It was still raining after the second trip so we donned our raincoats and headed over to the glass shop in the castle to get Robyn the earrings she was after and then headed out to catch the 1.30 anniversary train. There was still no Clarice and no Daisy on the train today and I assume because of the rain the characters didn't get off. It was only drizzling at this point but it was showing no sign of stopping so we headed off for our nap via another shop to get Evie her Minnie buggy that she hadn't stopped talking about ever since she first saw it and nearly had a meltdown over when they hadn't had it in the hotel shop this morning.

 

[Ms Poppins]

Just catching up..

What a nightmare losing your dd in the Studios. I'm sitting here almost in tears, no wonder you were frantic. You'll probably find that she did exactly what you've taught her and went to 'someone who works there and has a uniform on' who took her to the lost child centre. That's what I've always taught my kids if they get lost....I'm going off track here, but stick with it:

Whilst I was shopping in my local supermarket, years ago, Mark disappeared. As I started to look for him I heard my name being said over the loudspeaker and was asked to go the checkout number 5....there was Mark with a huge grin. He was only about 5 at the time and said he'd decided to test out what I'd taught him to see if it worked.........

Anyway, thank goodness all ended up ok with your dd

Love the DLH room and all your dd's faces at Inventions. They look like they had fun I love the lanterns on the teacups too, even better when it's dark

Annoying that Autopia is always busy isn't it

Look forward to more

 

[Ware Bears]

I found myself welling up too because it's so scary losing a child (I lost middle DD on a beach once) then I read this

You'll probably find that she did exactly what you've taught her and went to 'someone who works there and has a uniform on' who took her to the lost child centre. That's what I've always taught my kids if they get lost....I'm going off track here, but stick with it:

Whilst I was shopping in my local supermarket, years ago, Mark disappeared. As I started to look for him I heard my name being said over the loudspeaker and was asked to go the checkout number 5....there was Mark with a huge grin. He was only about 5 at the time and said he'd decided to test out what I'd taught him to see if it worked.........

that's put a HUGE smile on my face!

Loving your report so far. Your DDs are so sweet and so photogenic - I've got 3 DDs too although mine are a bit older at 20, 17 and 15.

Hope you manage to get a copy of the 20th book later on in the trip.

 

[DLPDreams]

Great update Jo .

I forgot you had a family room in the DLH, I think we must have had one the times we've been there in the past then as our room size was almost identical to yours on those trips and we also had a sofa?

I didn't realise about the Thursday morning - I didn't really check my watch so can't be sure of the time. Funny how we were the first ones in then if they had opened the bag check early I must say, it made DH's day as most of the time we never made the beginning of EMH. He said it made staying at the DLH worthwhile after all .

I know what you mean about Inventions and the characters - I've always found they are up for some fun and mischief but this time they did seem a little more restrained, in particular Goofy was quite lethargic as he is normally into having great fun, he just seemed to lollop about . Having said that Minnie & Pinnochio were on top form and quite funny! Donald took a huff as I had Mickey on my t-shirt .

It's funny reading your TR as we too visited Orbitron that morning and saw it was closed so went on Buzz (twice I think??) - we must have literally been there the same time!

You've done so well with your TR - I've only managed to put Day 2 on last night! Will try and do Day 3 tomorrow.

 

[jothp]

I found myself welling up too because it's so scary losing a child (I lost middle DD on a beach once) then I read this that's put a HUGE smile on my face!

Made me laugh too.

Loving your report so far. Your DDs are so sweet and so photogenic - I've got 3 DDs too although mine are a bit older at 20, 17 and 15.

Thank you so much. My girls have a similar age gap to yours, not sure how I will cope when they are all grown up though.

Hope you manage to get a copy of the 20th book later on in the trip.

Yes I did get one on Thursday morning on the way back for breakfast but forgot to put it in. They had several copies behind the till that morning so they had obviously restocked. We never saw it in any of the other shops though.

Just catching up..

What a nightmare losing your dd in the Studios. I'm sitting here almost in tears, no wonder you were frantic. You'll probably find that she did exactly what you've taught her and went to 'someone who works there and has a uniform on' who took her to the lost child centre. That's what I've always taught my kids if they get lost....I'm going off track here, but stick with it:

Whilst I was shopping in my local supermarket, years ago, Mark disappeared. As I started to look for him I heard my name being said over the loudspeaker and was asked to go the checkout number 5....there was Mark with a huge grin. He was only about 5 at the time and said he'd decided to test out what I'd taught him to see if it worked.........

Anyway, thank goodness all ended up ok with your dd

Love the DLH room and all your dd's faces at Inventions. They look like they had fun I love the lanterns on the teacups too, even better when it's dark

Annoying that Autopia is always busy isn't it

Look forward to more

at your ds. I don't ever remember telling her directly what to do as she has always seemed so little but I tell the older 2 all the time so it must have rubbed off.

I love the lanterns in the dark too but we didn't get to see them with fantasyland closing early for dreams.

Autopia was a nightmare. Last trip we managed to do it by queuing before opening but this time we didn't manage it because it was supposed to be opening at 12 each day but actually opened earlier.

Great update Jo .

I forgot you had a family room in the DLH, I think we must have had one the times we've been there in the past then as our room size was almost identical to yours on those trips and we also had a sofa?

I didn't realise about the Thursday morning - I didn't really check my watch so can't be sure of the time. Funny how we were the first ones in then if they had opened the bag check early I must say, it made DH's day as most of the time we never made the beginning of EMH. He said it made staying at the DLH worthwhile after all .

I know what you mean about Inventions and the characters - I've always found they are up for some fun and mischief but this time they did seem a little more restrained, in particular Goofy was quite lethargic as he is normally into having great fun, he just seemed to lollop about . Having said that Minnie & Pinnochio were on top form and quite funny! Donald took a huff as I had Mickey on my t-shirt .

It's funny reading your TR as we too visited Orbitron that morning and saw it was closed so went on Buzz (twice I think??) - we must have literally been there the same time!

You've done so well with your TR - I've only managed to put Day 2 on last night! Will try and do Day 3 tomorrow.

Even on the Wednesday and Friday when we were at the turnstiles before opening there were three or four other families about too so I think the person in charge of opening Thursday must have had his watch a bit fast. Great for you to be able to take some photos though. I wonder how many other days we were really close to each other without knowing?

Our room was great - the sofa was quite clever we just unzipped the seat cover and took it off to leave the mattress all made up. I was pleasantly surprised about the amount of space we had too. I expect with these being the bigger rooms they would give them to other guests if they weren't full. They certainly had no family rooms left for some nights last week though so that might explain why your room was smaller.

Not sure what we would do about restaurants next time. I would be tempted to say we would do cafe mickey too but the characters tend to be so similar I'm not sure it is worth it.

 

[jothp]

Day 4 Thursday 7th June - Part 2

After our nap we were pleased to wake up to bright blue sky and sunshine. It was still quite wet underfoot though so it had obviously rained for quite some time. By the time we freshened up and made it into the park it was about 4.15, we hadn't made it on casey jr or the story boats yet so we decided to head there. On the way we saw the mad hatter down the side of IASW so we went to wait. There weren't many people around but sadly he had to go before he got to us. Annoyingly he was taking lots of people who got there after us .

We made it over and rode les payes de contes de fee before our 5.00 reservation at the Agrabah but sadly had no time for casey.

We finished up on the story boats and headed straight over to the Agrabah where we were seated straight away. DH and I enjoyed the food but the girls were a bit reluctant to try new things - they ate plenty of salad and bread and desserts though I thought the restaurant was really very pretty inside.

It was gone 6 by the time we came out and it had clearly rained quite hard while we had been eating as there were puddles everywhere. We decided we didn't really have time for a ride and were all quite full so we headed over to pizzeria belle notte to grab a spot for the parade. We had a really nice spot just after the corner from IASW so we got a great view of all the floats coming.
I enjoyed the parade and found the music put a smile on my face but it was just over so quickly and we really had no interaction from the characters at all even though we were right at the front. We had been chatting to another English family who had come for the day from Paris and just as the parade was starting another mum tried to shove her two boys to the front between us and them - now there was probably room for them and if they had asked I would have let them in but their rudeness annoyed me so I got my elbows out and made sure they had to go elsewhere. Then another woman tried to shove her daughter between me and DH who were stood holding hands behind our girls I wasn't having any of that either. The trouble is I then spent the rest of the day and the next day too worrying that I might have ruined their experience . I guess in the future that leaves me the choice of standing my ground and worrying about upsetting people or letting them in and being angry about the rudeness.

After the parade we decided none of us were up for another late night which is what we had planned so we got a ride on IASW - it seemed rude not to as we were so close. Then we took a stroll around the maze

We finished our rides for the day by using our hotel fastpasses for BTM. Hattie, Robyn and I rode first and then Olie took Hattie again as Robyn had already earmarked tomorrow for another go on RC and RRC. We grabbed a drink and cake in the cookie kitchen on our way back and were ready to climb into bed by 9pm.

 

[DLPdaft]

Loving seeing all your photos - the ones of the parade are brilliant ! Your certainly had lovely sunny weather today.

 

[jothp]

Loving seeing all your photos - the ones of the parade are brilliant ! Your certainly had lovely sunny weather today.

Thanks, it was a lovely late afternoon evening - we managed to dodge the rain taking a nap and eating dinner. We were very lucky like that through the whole trip.

 

[jothp]

Day 5 - Friday 8th June part 1

Before starting today I forgot to put in yesterday morning that I managed to buy my copy of the anniversary book on the way back to the hotel for breakfast.

Feeling refreshed after a relatively early night we easily made it up and were first at the turnstiles for EMH. By the time they opened there were another few families there too but mainstreet was still very quiet.

We went straight over to the orbitron and managed to get the whole ride to ourselves.

We wanted to get to the studios early this morning so we had chosen just three rides for EMH - one for each girl. Next it was Buzz. When we came off it was raining so instead of IASW we rode Buzz again to stay dry before heading back for breakfast arriving at about 8.30. We finished up about 9.30 and headed out meeting Friar Tuck on the way.

Today Eeyore was due to be outside breakfast at 10.45 but seeing as we were going to the studios for opening we didn't really want to come back. I wish now we had as Robyn was quite upset that we never met him this time.

By the time we made it in to the studios (9.45) some of the rides including crush were already running, the girls weren't really interested in crush - we wanted the parachutes and RC racer but as they weren't open yet Olie took them all on the cars ride. By the time they came off 5 minutes later TSPL was open so we hot footed over there. Olie took Robyn off for RC and Harriet, Evie and I joined the parachute queue. We waited about 20 minutes and just made it to the front of the queue when the ride was stopped because of high winds. We decided to wait and five minutes later the ride started up again and we got on.

It turns out Robyn had managed to ride RC twice in that time much to DHs delight .

We were going to head over to the tram tours but for some reason it was closed (in fact I don't remember seeing it open the other day we were in the studios either ) At this point DH managed to persuade Robyn that she wanted to try TOT again and somehow managed to convince me that I would be fine because it was just like the parachutes. He was not in my good books to say the least. We both hated it. While waiting he had taken the other 2 back on the cars ride.

I think DH thought it was a good idea to get away from me next as he actually suggested taking Robyn on RRC so he did that while I took the younger two on the magic carpets. By the time we met up again it was time to switch back to the disneyland park for the dismeet. We chatted for a while and took a lovely photo before going our separate ways.

We had left the dismeet saying we were off to casey jr as we hadn't ridden it yet this trip but sadly we got distracted on the way by pinocchio. The queue said 30 minutes but it looked a lot shorter so we joined and were on the ride within 10. Unfortunately that is where we stayed for the next 25 minutes

We stopped about half way around and the announcement said to stay seated we would be going soon, then the lights came on, then we sat a bit more, then a CM came around and explained that they had a problem with some other guests and were waiting for a superior to come and sort it out. Well we sat patiently and eventually we got moving again and got off. By now it was 1.15 and we still hadn't managed to see Clarice on the anniversary train so we headed through to central plaza and this time she was there and we were lucky enough to get to meet her.

Having had breakfast a little earlier today we were feeling a little peckish and decided to share some meals at Toad Hall because we wouldn't be eating tonight until BBWWS. We shared two double fish and chips meals between the five of us. The food was hot and tasty but finding somewhere to sit was a nightmare.

Feeling quite full we headed back to DLH for a nap. They were only just doing the rooms on our corridor so we popped the do not disturb sign on the door before settling down for a sleep.

 

[scampbunny]

oh fin will b so jealous ur girls met clarice - she was the only one we didnt get to see as she wasnt on the train on the monday!!

i love tot but the boys.......... not so impressed lol

love ur first pic on friday - ur girls r so gorgeous!!

 

[DLPDreams]

More fab updates Jo and lovely photos!

I had to laugh as you saying DH wasn't in your good books for getting you on ToT!

You managed lots of rides on the Friday Oh, and glad you got your book - I got one too from the Storybook Store and love it - I haven't read it all but a fair bit of it.

We met Clarice a few trips ago in the Studios - it was when they used to have the little 'lights camera action' train thing that came out into the front area (not a v good description!). We met Chip n Dale, Clarice, Lilo & Stitch altogether with no queue or scrum - it was bliss - those days seem over though! Clarice was good fun though!

 

[jothp]

oh fin will b so jealous ur girls met clarice - she was the only one we didnt get to see as she wasnt on the train on the monday!!

i love tot but the boys.......... not so impressed lol

love ur first pic on friday - ur girls r so gorgeous!!

I think we were lucky with Clarice, we had tried several times and that was the first time she had been on the train. I thought all the characters were supposed to be on the train every time but obviously not.

More fab updates Jo and lovely photos!

I had to laugh as you saying DH wasn't in your good books for getting you on ToT!

You managed lots of rides on the Friday Oh, and glad you got your book - I got one too from the Storybook Store and love it - I haven't read it all but a fair bit of it.

We met Clarice a few trips ago in the Studios - it was when they used to have the little 'lights camera action' train thing that came out into the front area (not a v good description!). We met Chip n Dale, Clarice, Lilo & Stitch altogether with no queue or scrum - it was bliss - those days seem over though! Clarice was good fun though!

I love the book - it is really interesting to see how the park developed. That birthday cake castle for the first anniversary was pretty shocking though.

 

[jothp]

before we start the next update I have to add that on the way from the train round to toad hall we saw pinocchio and gepetto out in fantasyland. We had already seen pinocchio and gepetto hardly had any queue so we met him.

Day 5 Friday 8th June part 2

I had set the alarm to get us up in time for the character meet and greet at DLH. We all woke up and just about made it in time. The characters were pinocchio, gepetto, mickey and gideon. We met gideon and the girls had a quick cuddle with mickey.

After the meet we headed straight out to the village to do some last minute shopping before making our way to BBWWS. We were in the green team and seated right in the back row. We enjoyed the show but Olie was ill later that night. Having done it two years in a row now I think we would leave it a while before we went again.

We headed back into the disneyland park and the first stop was to hire a buggy for Evie - we had made it this far without but she was starting to get tired and we wanted to watch dreams tonight. Once we had the buggy we used up todays hotel fps on BTM for me, Robyn and Harriet. We then took a trip on phantom manor followed by Pirates and IASW. Next the big girls fancied a trip on star tours so Olie took them and I took Evie on the orbitron. We met up again as we came off orbitron at about 10.40 only to find that someone had taken our buggy It may of course have been by accident but Evie was really upset and it took a while to calm her down. We walked round to find a spot for dreams. It was much busier this evening and we didn't end up with a very good spot as we were round behind the control building. I ended up having Evie on my shoulders for the whole show so stood back a bit so I wasn't in everyones way. The show was still amazing Very tired we headed back to bed.

 

[Ms Poppins]

Lovely update Glad you got your book. I love mine, but I end up having to put it away as it makes be want to book up again

That's a shame about the buggy going missing, just when you needed it. That happened to us years ago with Abbey. I think i've heard that the rented buggys tend to get 'tidied up' by the CM's. But they shouldn't be removing them

I'm quite tired now from reading all that

 

[HappyPanda]

Another lovely update! Your three girls look so happy in every photo!

That must have been really annoying having your buggy stolen! At least it was a rental one and not your own!