mummyal
<font color=darkorchid>Think it was too much jiggi
- Joined
- Aug 25, 2006
I can't call this TR what I called my pre-trip report as I let the secret out a couple of days before we were due to go (and I was very annoyed with myself).
Before I start, just to let you know that I can be rather long-winded, so hopefully you won't fall asleep whilst reading this
Day 1 - Thursday 18th December
Peter and I were up at 5 and we woke the kids up at about 5.30. We aimed to leave the house at 6 or 6.10 at the latest to catch the bus to the train station to catch the 6.44 train to St Pancras. Everything went smoothly and we even managed to catch the 6.32 train. So got to St Pancras just after 7. Popped into M&S to get some croissants for breakfast and sandwiches/drinks for the train journey. Checked-in okay, had breakfast, then it was time to board the train.... and off we went, dead on time at 0835 hrs!
Arrived at DLRP at 12.30 and headed straight to the hotel to drop our bags and get our park tickets & meal vouchers. Ohhh and in the meantime, Adam fell asleep more or less as soon as he got into the buggy after we got off the train. Tickets & vouchers in hand, we headed straight to the main park.
It was nice to be back in the park again. Looked around at the decorations at the start and made our way down Main Street. It was a foggy afternoon and there was light rain, which thankfully stopped after an hour or so.
This time round, I decided not to go into Fantasyland first but to go to Frontierland instead. It was a good choice coz we headed straight to Big Thunder Mountain first (all ready to use the Fastpass machine) and saw that the queue time was only 20 minutes. So, Louise & I went on the ride while Peter waited with Adam (who slept for about 1.5 hrs). It was a great ride. I put my arms round Louise so that she wouldn't 'fly about' too much. Think she was quite scared at some point but when she came off, she said that she wanted to go on it again lol. So I told her she could go on it another day with Daddy.
We went to Cowboy Cookout for lunch (DH had a walkaround while waiting for us) as it wasn't too packed. It wasn't too bad actually for a counter service meal. The kids shared a Mickey burger meal, I had the Super Bacon Cheeseburger meal (which isn't as big as it sounds lol) and DH had the chicken leg/ribs meal (he said the ribs were nicer than the one at TGI Friday's as it wasn't burnt & dry lol - note: DH is not a fan of TGI Friday's, Planet Hollywood or similar places like that).
After lunch, we were going to head to Fantasyland for the parade but I checked the timetable and saw that Mickey's Winter Wonderland show was due to start in half an hour and it was just around the corner. So, we went to that and we were the 2nd family in the queue. We really enjoyed this show. It was good fun.
Then we walked around Santa's Village (it was quite busy) and took a couple of pics with Stinky Pete & the horse (is it Bullseye?). We have never been in this part of Frontierland before.
We then headed to Fantasyland and were rather surprised that all the rides were more or less walk-ons. So we did IASW, Carousel, Teacups and Dumbo (longest queueing time of 15 mins lol).
We wanted to get out of Fantasyland but couldn't get out via the Castle as it had been roped off, so we had to go round the side. I didn't realise Candleabration was on, if not we would've just waited on the inside where it had been roped off. We might have been able to see the characters come back in then. Anyway, managed to catch the ending of Candleabration and Louise saw the Princesses dancing on stage and saw the Castle all lit up, which was just beautiful !!
We started making our way to DLH as we had a booking for 7 pm at Inventions. Had a look around downstairs and decided to just head up to the restaurant eventhough we were a bit early (6.45 pm). We were shown to our table right away and the waiters were very attentive as well (will post food pics soon). The food was nice (eventhough the fish was a bit on the dry side) - Louise loved the prawns. We saw Tigger, Eeyore, Launchpad, Mr Penguin, Pinocchio, Gepetto & Goofy Santa. We were quite lucky with Goofy - we sat at the front corner/side (in the "main" part near the steps after the buffet), Goofy came to our table first and then had to leave coz a CM came to call him away. We ordered half a bottle of wine which was 18 Euros. I called for the bill at the end and was about to give the waiter our HB Premium vouchers but he said he'll come back in a minute. When he came back, he had the bill already with him and I showed him the vouchers. He took them, went away for quite a few minutes and we expected him to come back with a new bill for us to pay the 18 Euros. He said that 'just for tonight, the wine is on the house'. Result !!! lol
Think he couldn't be bothered to change the till receipt. Told Peter we should've ordered a full bottle of wine... but then again, we might not have been that lucky then 
By the time we got back to our hotel, it was nearly 9.15. Got our keys, went to get our luggage and they told us it was already in our room . Unpacked, gave the kids a shower and they went to sleep just after 10. I think we were asleep by about 11 pm.
We had decided that because we had done most of the EMH rides that afternoon, we were just going to have a lie-in and not bother to get up extra early for EMH on Friday. The kids needed their sleep and TBH, so did we. The room was lovely. We were on the 4th floor, at the front of the hotel and had a lovely view out of the window.
I have put more pictures on Facebook. If anyone wants to see the full set, feel free to PM me and I'll send you the links.
Before I start, just to let you know that I can be rather long-winded, so hopefully you won't fall asleep whilst reading this
Day 1 - Thursday 18th December
Peter and I were up at 5 and we woke the kids up at about 5.30. We aimed to leave the house at 6 or 6.10 at the latest to catch the bus to the train station to catch the 6.44 train to St Pancras. Everything went smoothly and we even managed to catch the 6.32 train. So got to St Pancras just after 7. Popped into M&S to get some croissants for breakfast and sandwiches/drinks for the train journey. Checked-in okay, had breakfast, then it was time to board the train.... and off we went, dead on time at 0835 hrs!
Arrived at DLRP at 12.30 and headed straight to the hotel to drop our bags and get our park tickets & meal vouchers. Ohhh and in the meantime, Adam fell asleep more or less as soon as he got into the buggy after we got off the train. Tickets & vouchers in hand, we headed straight to the main park.
It was nice to be back in the park again. Looked around at the decorations at the start and made our way down Main Street. It was a foggy afternoon and there was light rain, which thankfully stopped after an hour or so.
This time round, I decided not to go into Fantasyland first but to go to Frontierland instead. It was a good choice coz we headed straight to Big Thunder Mountain first (all ready to use the Fastpass machine) and saw that the queue time was only 20 minutes. So, Louise & I went on the ride while Peter waited with Adam (who slept for about 1.5 hrs). It was a great ride. I put my arms round Louise so that she wouldn't 'fly about' too much. Think she was quite scared at some point but when she came off, she said that she wanted to go on it again lol. So I told her she could go on it another day with Daddy.
We went to Cowboy Cookout for lunch (DH had a walkaround while waiting for us) as it wasn't too packed. It wasn't too bad actually for a counter service meal. The kids shared a Mickey burger meal, I had the Super Bacon Cheeseburger meal (which isn't as big as it sounds lol) and DH had the chicken leg/ribs meal (he said the ribs were nicer than the one at TGI Friday's as it wasn't burnt & dry lol - note: DH is not a fan of TGI Friday's, Planet Hollywood or similar places like that).
After lunch, we were going to head to Fantasyland for the parade but I checked the timetable and saw that Mickey's Winter Wonderland show was due to start in half an hour and it was just around the corner. So, we went to that and we were the 2nd family in the queue. We really enjoyed this show. It was good fun.
Then we walked around Santa's Village (it was quite busy) and took a couple of pics with Stinky Pete & the horse (is it Bullseye?). We have never been in this part of Frontierland before.
We then headed to Fantasyland and were rather surprised that all the rides were more or less walk-ons. So we did IASW, Carousel, Teacups and Dumbo (longest queueing time of 15 mins lol).
We wanted to get out of Fantasyland but couldn't get out via the Castle as it had been roped off, so we had to go round the side. I didn't realise Candleabration was on, if not we would've just waited on the inside where it had been roped off. We might have been able to see the characters come back in then. Anyway, managed to catch the ending of Candleabration and Louise saw the Princesses dancing on stage and saw the Castle all lit up, which was just beautiful !!
We started making our way to DLH as we had a booking for 7 pm at Inventions. Had a look around downstairs and decided to just head up to the restaurant eventhough we were a bit early (6.45 pm). We were shown to our table right away and the waiters were very attentive as well (will post food pics soon). The food was nice (eventhough the fish was a bit on the dry side) - Louise loved the prawns. We saw Tigger, Eeyore, Launchpad, Mr Penguin, Pinocchio, Gepetto & Goofy Santa. We were quite lucky with Goofy - we sat at the front corner/side (in the "main" part near the steps after the buffet), Goofy came to our table first and then had to leave coz a CM came to call him away. We ordered half a bottle of wine which was 18 Euros. I called for the bill at the end and was about to give the waiter our HB Premium vouchers but he said he'll come back in a minute. When he came back, he had the bill already with him and I showed him the vouchers. He took them, went away for quite a few minutes and we expected him to come back with a new bill for us to pay the 18 Euros. He said that 'just for tonight, the wine is on the house'. Result !!! lol
Think he couldn't be bothered to change the till receipt. Told Peter we should've ordered a full bottle of wine... but then again, we might not have been that lucky then
By the time we got back to our hotel, it was nearly 9.15. Got our keys, went to get our luggage and they told us it was already in our room
. Unpacked, gave the kids a shower and they went to sleep just after 10. I think we were asleep by about 11 pm.We had decided that because we had done most of the EMH rides that afternoon, we were just going to have a lie-in and not bother to get up extra early for EMH on Friday. The kids needed their sleep and TBH, so did we. The room was lovely. We were on the 4th floor, at the front of the hotel and had a lovely view out of the window.
I have put more pictures on Facebook. If anyone wants to see the full set, feel free to PM me and I'll send you the links.
and a nice surprise with the wine! 
