jubileegirl
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jan 23, 2004
oh yes, I remember it well..DLP January 2003
The cast of this 'no expenses spared extravaganza......'
Me - Alison, 50'ish, been to WDW and DL and always said that Disney 'just isn't France'.
DD - Chloe, 15, youngest of our tribe and AT LAST enjoying getting all the treats 'cause older brother and sister have left home!
My sis - Sally, approaching 50 herself but actually she's my little sister who needs taking care of and sorting out!
Nephew/cousin son - Thomas, just 8, knows the dialogue of most disney films but has never visited the Mouse!
So we've arrived and this is when I got my first shock!
One of the things I'd been worrying about was arriving at our hotel very late and whether we'd have to ring a door bell for a grouchy night porter, who was having a sneaky doze in the kitchen, to let us in.
We arrived just before midnight and you would have thought it was the middle of the day as the place was teeming with people. There were children everywhere, the bars and restaurants were heaving, the shop was doing a roaring trade - and all on a midweek night in January! I couldn't begin to imagine what it must be like on a summer weekend night!
Next big surprise - wow!!!! what a gorgeous hotel!! I know it's not the swankiest hotel at DLP but our first reaction was that it couldn't get much better than this!
We checked in quickly, told Chloe and Thomas that 'yes, they could take some sweets from the bowl' but 'no, not all of them' (poor deprived kids who never get to eat sweets back home!).
Then we set off to find our room and hit the next episode of uncontrollable giggles. We kept following the signs, lugging our heavy cases, and each time we reached a corner expecting to reach our destination, there was another corridor stretching into the distance! It reminded me of the hotel in The Shining when the little boy goes peddling off on his bike and you know he's going to go into THAT room with the lady in the bathtub. Any minute Jack Nicholson would pop up from somewhere saying 'here's Johnny!!'. By the time we found our room we'd lost all sense of where we were in relation to anywhere else!
Anyway, we were very glad to have arrived as we were really tired. Then, as I got ready for bed I discovered that the long mirror facing you as you came out of the bathroom, coupled with the vertically striped wallpaper, gave a very pleasing illusion of thin-ness. I'd been on a diet for a few months and had lost a bit of weight so I really enjoyed surprising myself by coming out of the bathroom and admiring my slimness in the mirror. Sally then wanted to play the game too, but Chloe found it so gross (two middle-aged ladies in the 'next-to-nothings' popping in and out of the bathroom and cackling away like two fish wives) that in the name of restoring some decorum we decided to go to bed.
There then followed a night of undisturbed sleep for three of us, but poor Chloe had to stick pillows over her head as we all made various nightime noises!!
Morning dawned nice and early (that's a bit obvious!) and we were able to see where our room was at last. Or we should have been able to, except there was a thick fog outside! All we could see was some greenhouse-like building, which we later discovered was the indoor pool. We went down to breakfast which was plentiful and good job too as we needed sustanance for the long trek back to our room to get wrapped up for the day. We decided to REALLY check that we had everything before we left the room as it just wasn't going to be an option to get to the front door and say 'oops, I've forgotten a hankie. I'll just pop back to the room to get it. Won't be a moment!'
I'd borrowed a ski jacket from a friend and she'd also lent me thermal undies, neckwarmer, hat, gloves etc and boy, was I glad. It was absolutely freezing outside. I don't normally 'do' hats as they just look stupid on me, but within two minutes of being outside bare headed I had forgotten any thought of glamour and was more than happy to be known as the lady with a tea cosy on her head!
We decided to walk to Disneyland along the edge of the lake which was frozen apart from odd places here and there where the ice had been broken for the ducks. In the distance we could just see the New York hotel and across on the other side of the lake the Sequoia Lodge was just visible. The fog was lifting a little, but it was quite attractive really and gave everywhere a look of unreality. When we got to the entrance to the Disney Village and looked back to the Newport Bay Club we could see the lights gleaming and it was like a sea mist rolling around. You really felt as though you were on the coast somewhere (rather than in a field in Northern France!)
We wandered through the Village where most places were shut and later Sally and I both said we thought it all looked a bit tacky in the early morning light. We had our bags searched by the security people ( a bit scarey they were too!) and then walked down towards the Disneyland Hotel and the Park entrance. It was just after 10 o'clock so the gates had just opened and we seemed to be the only people about.
As we approached Main Street a gate to the right of us swung open and out came the double decker bus, full of Mickey and all the best characters, and it drove right by us. We were the only people there in that exact spot so we know they were waving to us!! I would love to have had a photo of Thomas as his face was a picture!! Then I looked at Sally and she was crying. She told me that whilst we were walking through the Village she'd had a sudden feeling of anti-climax and thought that she'd over estimated the magic and in fact Disney was just going to be like a Haven camp in the UK with Rory the Tiger who everyone knows is just someone in a furry outfit. Then she saw the bus and Thomas' face and suddenly it was all fine.
(Actually I secretly sprinkled some pixie dust over her head when she wasn't looking, but please don't ever tell her!
)
The cast of this 'no expenses spared extravaganza......'
Me - Alison, 50'ish, been to WDW and DL and always said that Disney 'just isn't France'.
DD - Chloe, 15, youngest of our tribe and AT LAST enjoying getting all the treats 'cause older brother and sister have left home!
My sis - Sally, approaching 50 herself but actually she's my little sister who needs taking care of and sorting out!
Nephew/cousin son - Thomas, just 8, knows the dialogue of most disney films but has never visited the Mouse!
So we've arrived and this is when I got my first shock!
One of the things I'd been worrying about was arriving at our hotel very late and whether we'd have to ring a door bell for a grouchy night porter, who was having a sneaky doze in the kitchen, to let us in.
We arrived just before midnight and you would have thought it was the middle of the day as the place was teeming with people. There were children everywhere, the bars and restaurants were heaving, the shop was doing a roaring trade - and all on a midweek night in January! I couldn't begin to imagine what it must be like on a summer weekend night!
Next big surprise - wow!!!! what a gorgeous hotel!! I know it's not the swankiest hotel at DLP but our first reaction was that it couldn't get much better than this!
We checked in quickly, told Chloe and Thomas that 'yes, they could take some sweets from the bowl' but 'no, not all of them' (poor deprived kids who never get to eat sweets back home!).
Then we set off to find our room and hit the next episode of uncontrollable giggles. We kept following the signs, lugging our heavy cases, and each time we reached a corner expecting to reach our destination, there was another corridor stretching into the distance! It reminded me of the hotel in The Shining when the little boy goes peddling off on his bike and you know he's going to go into THAT room with the lady in the bathtub. Any minute Jack Nicholson would pop up from somewhere saying 'here's Johnny!!'. By the time we found our room we'd lost all sense of where we were in relation to anywhere else!
Anyway, we were very glad to have arrived as we were really tired. Then, as I got ready for bed I discovered that the long mirror facing you as you came out of the bathroom, coupled with the vertically striped wallpaper, gave a very pleasing illusion of thin-ness. I'd been on a diet for a few months and had lost a bit of weight so I really enjoyed surprising myself by coming out of the bathroom and admiring my slimness in the mirror. Sally then wanted to play the game too, but Chloe found it so gross (two middle-aged ladies in the 'next-to-nothings' popping in and out of the bathroom and cackling away like two fish wives) that in the name of restoring some decorum we decided to go to bed.
There then followed a night of undisturbed sleep for three of us, but poor Chloe had to stick pillows over her head as we all made various nightime noises!!
Morning dawned nice and early (that's a bit obvious!) and we were able to see where our room was at last. Or we should have been able to, except there was a thick fog outside! All we could see was some greenhouse-like building, which we later discovered was the indoor pool. We went down to breakfast which was plentiful and good job too as we needed sustanance for the long trek back to our room to get wrapped up for the day. We decided to REALLY check that we had everything before we left the room as it just wasn't going to be an option to get to the front door and say 'oops, I've forgotten a hankie. I'll just pop back to the room to get it. Won't be a moment!'
I'd borrowed a ski jacket from a friend and she'd also lent me thermal undies, neckwarmer, hat, gloves etc and boy, was I glad. It was absolutely freezing outside. I don't normally 'do' hats as they just look stupid on me, but within two minutes of being outside bare headed I had forgotten any thought of glamour and was more than happy to be known as the lady with a tea cosy on her head!
We decided to walk to Disneyland along the edge of the lake which was frozen apart from odd places here and there where the ice had been broken for the ducks. In the distance we could just see the New York hotel and across on the other side of the lake the Sequoia Lodge was just visible. The fog was lifting a little, but it was quite attractive really and gave everywhere a look of unreality. When we got to the entrance to the Disney Village and looked back to the Newport Bay Club we could see the lights gleaming and it was like a sea mist rolling around. You really felt as though you were on the coast somewhere (rather than in a field in Northern France!)
We wandered through the Village where most places were shut and later Sally and I both said we thought it all looked a bit tacky in the early morning light. We had our bags searched by the security people ( a bit scarey they were too!) and then walked down towards the Disneyland Hotel and the Park entrance. It was just after 10 o'clock so the gates had just opened and we seemed to be the only people about.
As we approached Main Street a gate to the right of us swung open and out came the double decker bus, full of Mickey and all the best characters, and it drove right by us. We were the only people there in that exact spot so we know they were waving to us!! I would love to have had a photo of Thomas as his face was a picture!! Then I looked at Sally and she was crying. She told me that whilst we were walking through the Village she'd had a sudden feeling of anti-climax and thought that she'd over estimated the magic and in fact Disney was just going to be like a Haven camp in the UK with Rory the Tiger who everyone knows is just someone in a furry outfit. Then she saw the bus and Thomas' face and suddenly it was all fine.
(Actually I secretly sprinkled some pixie dust over her head when she wasn't looking, but please don't ever tell her!
)
