Disnerdy

Todays the day, Beans and I are off to Disneyland Paris, however we aren’t alone on the trip. We are taking my mum Pat and my nephew Mikey for their first visit. Mum and Mikey live in Exmouth in Devon so are getting the train from Exeter St Davids to Salisbury, where we will pick them up.

At just after 2pm I got sent a picture of Mikey sat at Exeter St Davids station waiting for their train, we didn’t have to leave home till around 3:30pm to go and meet them. I sent a message when we had left and got a selfie of Mikey and mum from Mikey, so I sent one back of me and Beans.

Beans and I got to Salisbury at the time their train was meant to arrive so we put our Disney ears on and quickly went into the ticket office to wait. After 10 minutes I phoned mum as they hadn’t appeared, to find out they had a slight delay but would be with us soon.
We saw their train arrive, then pull away from the station so we knew they would be with us soon. Sure enough we soon saw them walking up the slope towards us.

With quick regig of the packing in the car, we all piled in ready for the next leg of the journey.

Knowing we had plenty of time until our ferry we drove to Chichester where we stopped and got McDonalds for tea, and to give our legs a bit of a stretch before the rest of the car journey.

We arrived at Newhaven just before 8pm, mum, Mikey and I took a walk to the terminal building to stretch our legs, then it was back in the car to wait to be allowed to check in and get our passports checked. We were able to check in just after 9pm, where were we given our tickets and directed to our lane to queue.

Boarding started around 10:20pm, and we were quickly on board the ferry, parked up getting out the car. We grabbed our bags for the night then made our way to the stairs and up to deck 6 where our room was located. We checked in at the reception desk and were given the key card to our cabin, we thought by getting a cabin it meant we could get some sleep on the journey.

We found our cabin, and pulled the top bunks into position, got into pajamas (which having four people share one small bathroom took a few minutes), added the ladders for the top bunks then all got into bed.

We departed Newhaven at 11pm.

We were scheduled to arrived at Dieppe at 5am, so I woke everyone up at 4:30am so we could all get ready. I surprised mum and Mikey with personalised tees, so we all got dressed and put them on. We were in the car with the ferry docked at 4:50am, and were soon allowed off the ferry. Thankfully our stop at the French passport and customs hut was quick. And we were soon on our way.

We arrived at Sequoia Lodge, our hotel, just after 8am, we parked the car and headed to reception. We were given our Magic passes, which act as your park ticket, room key, and meal vouchers and told we would get a text when our room was ready. Beans and I also had access cards so we went to the concierge desk to collect them.

We had purchased the Photopass, and knowing we could collect it at the shop at the hotel we headed there. It was now 8:15am and on exiting the shop we joined the queue to meet the hotels visiting character, which today was Donald Duck. Mikey got his autograph book out while we were in the queue ready for when we got to Donald.

When it was our turn we let Mikey have some pictures of just him and Donald, then the rest of us piled in for a group picture.

Once we had finished with Donald we were all feeling a bit peckish, so we headed out of the hotel and towards Disney Village. Mikey stopped for pictures in front of Captain Marvel, Iron Man and Black Panther, who are in front of Hotel New York: The Art of Marvel, which was on our route to Disney Village.

Once through security we were in the Village and pointed out our breakfast location to Mikey – McDonalds, we did warn him it may not be the same as the ones in England. Thankfully he found a sugar doughnut which took his fancy. The rest of us had something from the breakfast menu, for mum she got her important morning cup of tea.

Once breakfast was eaten we headed through Disney Village towards Disneyland Park. We took pictures of Mikey outside the park and then joined the queue to get inside.

Seeing mum and Mikey’s faces on entering the park was amazing, the joy on both their faces was brilliant. You could see them both struggling to take it all in.

We made a quick pit stop to the nearest restroom, when I came out I saw mum stood staring up at the train station, where Mickey and Minnie were stood waving at everyone. Mikey had gone closer to get a better view.

We then walked up Main Street, I made a quick stop in Flora’s to get the celebration ears I wanted, we walked past one of the horse drawn streetcars, which Mikey thought was very cool. He then spotted Baymax in the new Gardens of Wonder so we made sure to take a picture. Baymax is currently Mikey’s favourite character.

Once at the top of Main Street I realised they were getting ready for Dream and Shine Brighter so we went to the area for people with access passes and got ready to watch. Unfortunately this showing was modified so it was just the floats, they didn’t stop at the central hub and dance, so we watched the floats come up Main Street, go around the central hub then go back down Main Street.

We waited for the crowds to disperse a bit then suggested we head to Discoveryland, where we joined the queue for Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast. We decided the boys could go together, being that they are both competitive, and mum and I would go behind them.

In the battle of the boys Beans came out the victor, while I lost to mum. For me I’m used to losing on Buzz, so wasn’t surprised.

We then suggested Star Tours to Mikey, and Beans explained what it was like. Mikey agreed that it sounded fun so we went and joined the queue.
Mikey was trying to work out what was being said, as it is one of the rides that is in French, while we were waiting to be let into our transporter. Once inside we took our seats, and got the go for the ride to start.

Beans has ridden Star Tours, in both Paris and Florida, multiple times and has never been picked as the rebel spy. Mikey on his first ride got picked, which was priceless. Mikey was so pleased his picture was shown to everyone in our transporter, and he loved the fact Beans had never been picked.

We walked to Fantasyland to our next ride stop – It’s a Small World. We explained to Mikey and mum it was a really relaxing boat ride that showed you the world. We did not mention the song that gets stuck in your head. They both loved it, both were amazed at the colourfulness and at just how much the ride contained.

We were all starting to flag a bit, but decided we would go on one more ride, so headed over to Pirates of the Caribbean. We explained it was another boat ride, with a very little drop.
Sadly in our ride photo Mikey is mostly hidden by the person in front of him.

We still hadn’t had our room number text, but decided we would start to head back to the hotel, I suggested we stop at Skyline bar in Hotel New York as it has great theming. Unfortunately on getting into the hotel we found out Skyliner bar didn’t open until 5pm. We did find out Bleeker Street Lounge was open so we went there, and were shown to a table.
The cast member serving us was really nice, mum and I had Orange Ring cocktails, Beans had a Mystic (non-alcoholic), Mikey didn’t fancy anything but the cast member brought him a glass of water just in case. I also had roast potato quarters with herbs and tartare sauce, Beans had crunchy baby vegetables with hummus as we fancied a snack, mum and Mikey weren’t hungry.

While enjoying the sit down I finally got the text with our room allocation, and it turned out we were in one of the lodges rather than the main hotel building, which we thought would be fun. We walked to the room and Beans went to the car to start unloading our bags. Once I’d let mum and Mikey in I went to help.

We got everything unpacked, took turns to have an shower, and relaxed until 6pm when it was time for dinner.

Dinner was at Hunters Grill, one of the restaurants at Sequoia Lodge, as I thought it was be easier to eat at the hotel being that we would be tired, and also it was a buffet so it was easier to find something everyone would eat.

Once we were finished with dinner, it was back to our room where we all soon crashed out.

TTFN, Titch