Summer at NPB - Day 1

Ms Poppins

I'm sure I'm very affected by all this Disney talk
Joined
Mar 14, 2009
The Cast
Me – Julie – 44
DH – John – 48
DD - Abbey - 22
DS – Lewis – 14

Pre-trippie

Day 1

Sunday 4 August 2019

We were up and organised early and left home around 7:15am for our drive to Manchester Airport. The weather was good and after a short stop for some breakfast we arrived at Manchester in around 4 hours. After parking the car we dropped our bag in the airport and wandered around the shops for a bit before heading to Starbucks for some drinks. I found Terminal 1 of the airport to be very busy and not many seating areas about unless you wanted to sit in a cafe/restaurant. Maybe we missed the general waiting area.

Our flight was a bit late leaving but we made up time and arrived on time in Paris, where John from Ezyshuttle was waiting for us. Perfect service once again from Ezyshuttle. Soon we were on our way and arrived at the Newport Bay Hotel.

The reception area is beautiful. (this photo taken later that night when it was quiet)

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Reception wasn't very busy, only 1 couple in front of us and we were seen to right away. I'd emailed the hotel prior to arrival to please ask for a centrally located room, near the lifts if possible. I asked about this and the CM looked at the room and said it was in a good location and showed us the map. Happy with this we completed check in easily.

We also arranged for Abbey to get a priority pass with the CM which I believe used to only be given by guest services at City Hall etc. This is a very good way to have this arranged, saving so much time in the park as the queues for Guest Services is always busy. It's the first time Abbey has had a pass, having been diagnosed with a permanent health condition last year, she has really struggled on previous visits but took nearly 2 years to be diagnosed. The pass proved to be very helpful to us, but of of course I'd much rather stand in a queue like we usually do if it meant Abbey wasn't affected as she is.

Anyway, we had our room in the West Wing, 4th floor, 4183. We'd booked room only via Expedia as we all have annual passes and the only room available was a Lake View.

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The room looked nice, nice dressing table by the window with ample plug sockets, unit with TV, glasses & ice bucket and very large drawers.

Our view

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I'll put a full review on the hotel review thread later - we did like the hotel, but there were a few niggles. Nothing major, probably just personal taste.

All hungry now we left the hotel and made our way to the Village. First hotel niggle.....the walkway to the left of the hotel is currently under refurbishment. The CM when we checked in made us aware of this and said it would take us longer to get to the parks, approx 15-20 minute walk.

I've read numerous posts about the walkway being closed and lots of comments about how it's only 'a few minutes more'. I will politely disagree with that. We timed the walk from the exit of the NPB to the front of the Hotel New York (our usual choice of hotel) and it was a good 8 minutes every time. Now, 8 minutes isn't the end of the world, but as the days wore on this became a real annoyance, especially if you wanted to pop back to the hotel for a rest or after a very long day. Anyway, it is what it is and I'd always rather do the extra walk than use the shuttle busses.

I love the lake and wish they'd bring the boats back.

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The Hotel New York refurb is in full swing and we took some time looking at the art work here.

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I noticed that the walkway to the Cheyenne is also closed - think you must now need to go down the path at Sequoia Lodge towards Santa Fe and cross the bridge?

Into the Village and Annette's was our destination. It was lovely to be back in the Village. Expecting a queue, we were pleasantly surprised that it was quiet, with only 1 family in front of us! It was around 7pm now. We were all very happy to be back here :)

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We ordered our usual, Rock 'n' Roll Burgers and a drink each.

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Service was quick, food was very hot, large portion and we all enjoyed our meal here again. Total bill with shareholders discount was 79.83.

The Studios was closing soon so we headed towards the Disneyland Park.

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Our annual passes had blockout days this week but because we were staying at a Disney hotel, we were still able to enter the parks ok. At the entrance we just showed our hotel pass along with the annual pass and were quickly inside the parks.

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It was a lovey warm evening, overcast but perfect for wandering around the parks without being too hot.

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The parks didn't feel too busy which was a nice surprise. It was around 8pm now.

We all agreed that our first ride should be Phantom Manor as it seems like so long since we'd been on it. Off we went through Liberty Arcade to Frontierland.

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They did a great job with this outside
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The ride was fantastic, loved all the new touches. Well done Disneyland Paris!

We had a quick toilet stop and then headed towards Big Thunder Mountain via the mist

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BTM was fantastic as always. Almost all the effects were working, with the exception of the bats eyes in the very end tunnel. Just love this ride so much!

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We left here and made our way to Adventureland for Pirates - some hats on the way

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We'd been stopping at all the shops along the way to try and find the Aladdin ears Abbey wanted, but they were nowhere to be seen.

Into Pirates we went showing a 5 minute wait but was actually a walk on.

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Fantastic as always with the pirate swinging as he should be, lol

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We made our way into Fantasyland and had a wee trip to Neverland with Peter Pan :) I still adore this ride after all these years, something about the nursery at the beginning and then the music just makes me smile every time :)

I'd seen some photos of the Dumbo refurbishment on Twitter a few days before so was keen to take a look. It really looked wonderful! So vibrant, really pretty.

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The teacups looks spectacular too :)

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Over now to Discoveryland via the walkway at the back of Fantasyland.

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The kids went off to do Star Tours and we had a wander around Discoveryland.

The kids also went off to do Space Mountain so we grabbed a drink and had a seat whilst we waited.

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It was around 10:35 now and we decided to head out of the park before it got too busy. Off through the village and Abbey got some chocolate strawberries from one of the carts. She said it was delicious.

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Back at the hotel we had a look around the lobby and hotel shop

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Everyone was tired now....

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Soon we were settling down in our room, exhausted but happy that we were back in our favourite place :)
 
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Sounds like a great start. We're off next weekend for our first visit during the summer holidays and I'm a bit worried about it being super busy. How did you find the wait times overall? From the above it sounds like the evenings were good for short queues.
 
Great start. Is the pass like the disability pass thing, if so great tip on being able to get it at the hotel
 
Sounds like a great start. We're off next weekend for our first visit during the summer holidays and I'm a bit worried about it being super busy. How did you find the wait times overall? From the above it sounds like the evenings were good for short queues.

Sorry I've missed your comment before now, you'll probably be away by now. It was busy but some of the wait times weren't actually any different than I've seen in October. However, we did benefit by having a priority pass for my daughter who has a health condition, so didn't really experience normal queues on this visit. Hope you have a lovely time :)

Great start. Is the pass like the disability pass thing, if so great tip on being able to get it at the hotel

Yes, Abbey has a health condition which is eligible for the pass. Thankfully we've never needed it on previous visits, but it was very helpful being able to get this from the hotel instead of in the parks. There were really long queues at City Hall every time we passed.
 



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