Char joked about going back here. So we did. There were some changes this time, like we drove instead of flew, different hotel, not Christmas. Still just as magical though.
The Journey
We filled the car up. Suitcase each. Bag of food. Snacks for journey. Everything. We took much more than could have on a flight, especially food wise. One of the things with Disneyland is the food is well expensive! This is where savings can be made, and by shopping here before going over, can plan meals and snacks to take during the day.
Drove to Dover, P&O to Calais. Char got a bit sick, and blamed it on P&O, as the same thing happened last time on one! DFDS is ok, totally different motion. Drove down the motorway or whatever its called, and got to Disneyland. Cost about £20 in tolls. You can do it without tolls, but adds on about an hour and half. We were staying in Cheyenne Hotel this time. It’s one of the park’s hotels that are a short transfer bus away, or a walk. Bit cold for walking while we were there though!
We arrived on Thursday, and it was fairly quiet. It was term time, and the Christmas season had just finished, so we thought the park would be really quiet. It wasn’t. Not as busy as last time, but still quite full. Queues were no where near as long though, and most rides were a 10 to 30 minute wait.
The only difference to this was Saturday, as it got absolutely rammed!! We used an app to tell us how long queues were for rides and that. Saturday came and things were going up to 200 minutes queue time! We were so lucky having the two days of relative quietness, and we defo maximised all the things we wanted to do before the weekend.
A lot of it was seeing characters. These really do make the kids (and Char) happy, and really add to the excitement. In the hotel, each morning you’ll have Mickey, Goofy or Pluto, and then in the park they will have set times for all the characters. You’ll also just see them knocking around sometime, and these are normally the best times to catch them.
This happened with Jack Sparrow, who asked us if we wanted a picture with him, and not the other way round!
Star Wars
Another reason Saturday was so busy was that Disneyland were launching their Star Wars theme. Saturday was their grand opening, so more people were around. We got over there early, mainly to queue up to see Chewbaca! Stan loves Chewie, and Star Wars for some reason. We dressed him in a Chewbaca onesie to walk round in, which he loved. The queue took the mick, but, we did see a Stormtrooper March, and a show on a stage too, so wasn’t all bad.
We also took a Goofy onesie. The day he wore it, to get a really good picture with Goofy, he wasn’t at the hotel. When we did see him in the park, he was wearing a blinking golf outfit! What a swizz!
Lineby App
Another thing we did this time was use the Lineby app. This is a queue position app, where you book a time slot to see a character. These were Mickey, Woody, Buzz Lightyear and Spiderman. I didn’t like the idea of it last time, but it actually worked really well! No standing in a queue for an hour. You get notified that your time is coming up, and then you just turn up and see the dude. Much easier.
Something I would defo recommend is Stitch Live show. I hate Lilo and Stitch, but this was really good. It’s like a live action cartoon, which is interactive. An actor runs it, and there’s loads of audience participation. Stan got involved and it was proper funny.
We did more rides and more seeing characters. It was quieter, queues were shorter. I’d defo go out of season again, rather than half terms and holiday times! If you can. Obviously, don’t take your kids out of school etc (or do). We asked for permission to take kids out of school, but was turned down. The letter also said ‘even though you can be fined, the school doesn’t let this happen’, which is nice. If it was exam times, or important bits etc, obvs we wouldn’t. This saved us a shed load, and was quieter, so everyone’s happy.
Amelia was big enough to do some of the bigger rides this time, like Tower of Terror. This was my favourite ride I think! I won’t spoil it, but you fall through a building. I was surprised she loved it so much! The staff running it was cool too. The staff are, without exception, the best thing about Disneyland. How they can motivate and ensure they all have a smile on their face 100% of the time is beyond me. Genuinely go out of their way to help you, and improve the whole experience.
I even sent an email thanking the lady on the Tower of Terror. The second time we went on, it broke a bit, and Amelia got scared. Lady helped her off and was kind about it all, and even gave us a fast pass to come back on, beating the queues.
Fast Pass is pretty cool. You can use your normal ticket to bypass the queues once a day. Sometimes the fast pass has a queue, but much smaller than the regular queue. We did it on two of the days, on the Toy Story shooter ride, which is also very good.
Another part Stan loved was the Star Tours ride. I think I did it three times with him. Speaking of Star Wars, we stayed late one night to see the opening show for the season thing. It was alright. Not amazing. Mainly it was a lights and projection onto a building thing. There was a bit of character play, and then at the end, all of the characters came out, just to wave at the crowd pretty much! Would have been much better if it was more live action. Also saw what I assume to be France’s Big Brother winner doing some interviews for TV. Not a clue who it was.
Hotel
Accommodation was good. Cheyenne isn’t too far from the park. It’s a Western themed place, with Toy Story stuff in the room. It’s like a Travelodge room. The kids had a roll out sofa bed this time, which was decent. There was a weird smell outside though, like drains.
Food
Food wise we did buy a lot before going over for breakfasts and evening meals. Pasta pots and things, which some were quite nutritious! I know it isn’t ideal, but its only for a few days. We did take fruit and that too. A load of snacks. Lunch times we did the cheaper option of McDonalds and 5 Guys. They are just outside the park. It’s weird because we keep costs down, but then spend a fortune getting a character lunch! This was the Inventions lunch in the main hotel in the park.
Character Lunch
It’s good because you get to have some food while characters come to your table. Like reverse queuing. It’s normally a lucky dip, however, we had looked at Twitter and Instagram at the breakfast ones, and they were the same characters we had the year before! We got to see Minnie, which doesn’t happen too often apparently, so that was nice. Food wasn’t great, but I did have an endless supply of macarons, which is always a good thing.
Kids had saved up money from their Nan to spend in the shops. There was also a sale on, so win win! Got some teddies and that. Stan wanted to buy everything in the first shop we saw, and the next, and next.
One thing that I did miss from the Christmas visit was the lack of shows. These were the highlight for me last time, but there were none this time, apart from the Star Wars. The other negative thing was there was still some Christmas decorations up around the place. Every day more would come down, but was still a bit weird seeing them in mid January.
Another thing we didn’t take full advantage of, because sleep, is the extra park time in the morning. If you stay in the hotels, you get to go in at 0830, rather than the opening time of 1000. So if you want to get on a ride really quickly, or in a queue, it’s ideal. We did it once.
On the last day, we had sort of planned to go to the park for a couple of hours, leave early, and pop to Paris for a few hours on the way home. The kids were having that much fun we decided not to. Having the car was good, as I filled it up before leaving the room, then when we left the park, just headed back and drove off. Otherwise, you have to leave it all in the baggage storage facility, and that can get busy.
All in all was a great trip. The driving wasn’t too bad, apart from Stan downing a bottle of juice in the back of the car and needing to stop 4 times in an hour for wee breaks. Awesome.
There’ll probs be loads of photos under here. Oh look, there is.
