Our Super Duper Bargain Trip Report

[MickeysFavouriteGirl]

So, we'd booked the Ebookers deal (5 nights, 6 days at Hotel Santa Fe for a grand total of £221 for 2 adults, 1 child and 1 infant including park tickets!) so this is where the trip report title comes from as it was a super duper bargain!

Saturday 15th March:

We'd finally reached number 1 on the Disneyland countdown chart



The plan was to get up early (having loaded the car up the night before), travel to Chessington World of Adventures for their annual pass holders event then drive on to Rochester Premier Inn. Well..... dh ended up working very late on the Friday so the car would have to be loaded Saturday morning. Saturday morning came, alarm went off at 6am and the children were still asleep. Not being ones to turn down a lie in, dh and I snoozed the alarm and fell back asleep until 8.30am! We then got breakfast, got dressed, loaded the car and set off at 9.30am. Dh then announced he still needed to get fuel and check the tyres (supposed to be done on Friday grrr!!) So by the time we joined the M1 it was nearly 10am as I also had to drop 2 parcels of at our local Collect+. Chessington is a 3hr drive from us, traffic was okay until Bedford then we hit a 4 mile tailback due to an accident between a car and lorry this delayed us by 40 minutes. I made myself comfortable





Ds got very excited as we approached Heathrow, lots of planes landed over us. We were all a bit fed up of being in the car so decided to give up on Chessington and pop into Legoland instead. This was a big mistake. The crowds were huge - worse than last August bank holiday. I kept thinking to myself I really hoped DLP wouldn't be this busy! We didn't manage to get on a single ride, so we looked around Miniland instead and ds bought himself another pen with his name on (seems to be a bit of a tradition while visiting Legoland!!)



We left around 3pm and drove on to Rochester. We popped to an Asda en route to get me some sunglasses (I'd forgotten mine!) and some drinks for the hotel room and train tomorrow. I also stocked up on tissues and tablets as I knew I was coming down with something We arrived at the Premier Inn at 5.30pm, once checked in we added the meal deal - 3 course meal, drink and breakfast for £25 per adult (kids had free breakfast and the childrens meal deal was £5.95) We settled in to our room and went to meet the others who had arrived after us. Rochester Premier Inn is set on the banks of a river, we had a nice stroll alongside it to see all the posh yacht's parked up! This was the view from our window.



There is also a cinema, McDonald's, bowling alley and numerous other restaurants on the same site. It was certainly the most modern Premier Inn we'd stayed at. We went for dinner around 7pm, I had garlic breaded mushrooms, dh had duck parcels, we both had a mixed grill for mains and ice cream sundaes for dessert. The kids had dough sticks, sausage and mash and ice cream. Dh had a pint and I had a glass of wine. All in all the food was good, service very slow but we felt the food was good value for money with the meal deal (the mixed grill was £14.95 alone) We got to bed at 10pm, I pottered a little to ensure tomorrow morning would be smooth running, though by now I was feeling awful. I set the alarm for 6am, I could hardly believe we would be at DLP tomorrow after planning it for so long!

 

[Isila]

I just love the way you made yourself comfortable

My DH is just the same... If something had to be done for the trip, be sure he'll do just before we depart and we'll be delayed. Maybe it's in their blood?

 

[adr2.8i]

Lovely detailed start to your report! And i see your a candy crusher as well then. This game has ruined my love life. My wife would rather play matching the colours than spend quality enjoyable time with the hubster!

 

[dhidra]

Following along!

 

[MickeysFavouriteGirl]

Sunday 16th March

Travel day!

I'd been awake since 4.30am with bad earache previous to that I heard doors banging, heavy footed people upstairs and trains through the night. Add this to DHs snoring - I'd had an awful nights sleep! We went for breakfast at 7am, I'd really been looking forward to the Premier Inn breakfast (especially the sausages, yum!) But I couldn't face it today, I settled for a small bowl of fresh fruit salad and I picked at it while the others ate. We left the hotel at 9am and travelled to Ebbsfleet. It was around a 10 minute journey, really easy. We'd booked premier parking which was immediately next to the station, £47 for up to 7 days. Within a few minutes we'd checked in and was going through passport control. We had to take dd out of her buggy so she could walk through the metal detector alone, the buggy also went through the metal detector (not the same machine as the cases) Once through we made ourselves comfortable near the windows and watched the trains speeding through the station.

Ds spent most of his time on his tablet and he bought a (overpriced) book from WHSmith (David Walliams, Ratburger - he's really into DW books at the moment!) Dd played in the little toddler corner with megabloks and those beads on metal threads. Before we knew it we were called to board. There was a huge queue for the lift so we decided to carry dds buggy down the stairs. We made our way up the platform to where carriage 14 would be. Boarding was easy, there was plenty of us to juggle kids, bags and buggy! We left on time and arrived at Ashford promptly, not as many people boarded as I thought would. Within minutes we were in the tunnel. I was feeling awful and dh thought some food may make me feel better so he went to get me a cheese toastie and a cup of tea, the toastie was £4 and pleasant (from what I could taste!) We stopped at Lille, though I didn't see anyone disembarking or boarding here! Ds made use of his tablet and new book, dd watched Peppa Pig on my tablet and enjoyed her Peppa sticker book. Before we knew it Space Mountain appeared over to our right and we were arriving at Marne La Vallee.

We made our way out of the station and was greeted by warmth and sunshine! We caught the shuttle bus to Santa Fe as we had a lot of luggage, we waited around 10m for the shuttle and managed to get on despite a big queue. Check in was easy, all I was interested in was being handed our park tickets (as much as the ebookers deal was a baragin, it caused me a few sleepless night worrying that tickets wouldnt be included!!). We got a ground floor room in Mater 32, room 15 and was given a VIP breakfast pass. My parents and our friends were in the same block but on the 1st floor. We made our way to our room and found this waiting for us....







After dumping the bags we walked along the Rio Grande to the village (convincing my mum to keep on walking - she wanted to shop, shop, shop!!) and on to the Disneyland Park. The first thing we realised was that it was busy. It was around 4pm on a beautifully sunny day - of course it was going to be busy! We walked up Main Street with beaming smiles - the noises, the smells, the excitement! This was our first photo of the castle, look at the colour of the sky!




We looked at the information board, most queue times were 50 minutes+ We made our way to Big Thunder Mountain but it was down with technical problems. Phantom Manor had a big queue so we decided to grab some food before it got too busy. Our original plan for tonight was Annettes, but now we were in the park we didn't want to leave again so we decided to try The Lucky Nugget. The staff in the till were a bit abrupt, we were finally seated in the main area. Dh had the burger meal, I had the ribs meal and we had 2 childrens chicken nugget meals for 55€. The adults also got an ice cream sundae - this was the best part of the meal, it really helped my sore throat! We felt it was overpriced for what we got, it may have been nice if the childrens meals came with an ice cream too and the atmosphere would have been nicer if the band was playing.

Just as we were leaving the Lucky Nugget we heard BTM running, dh ran over to get FPs for later. We walked over to Discoveryland and the adults went on SM while I bought 2 light up spinny round toy things from the Buzz shop, 18€ each. We met back up with the others and rode BTM on our fastpasses then over to POTC, SM again, Buzz Lightyear (which kept stopping and starting while we were queueing - 15 minute wait time turned into 45!) SM again!! We made our way back over to Main Street ready for Dreams! I got the children a ham and cheese sandwich from the Cable Car Bake Shop - 6€, it was very dry neither of them ate much. We watched Dreams! - amazing as ever and decided to sit on the metal tables and chairs opposite Victorias for the crowds to clear. This is where DS decided to be sick - thankfully he wasn't poorly, I think it was the excitement and tiredness. We walked back to SF, I tried to unpack a little but gave up as I wasn't feeling great. I think we got to bed around midnight and I slept through until 3.30am, had some more tablets then slept until the alarm went off at 6.30am.

Total spends for today was 97€ at DLP and around £13 on the eurostar.

 

[Isila]

I was thinking of trying Lucky nugget. Your review doesn't seem good at all. Would you come back?

 

[MickeysFavouriteGirl]

I was thinking of trying Lucky nugget. Your review doesn't seem good at all. Would you come back?

No, I don't think we would. For a few more Euros we could have gone to Plaza Gardens or Agrabah which would have been much better value for money. LN food is pretty much the same you'd find at other counter services but its more expensive at LN.

 

[adr2.8i]

and theres me thinking that the bottled water and the tea and biscuits was standard for arrivals in the santa fe? Now i find out its more pixie dustl!!!

im gonna keep an eye on your photos and see if my ugly mug is in any of them!

 

[ILOVEDLP]

Flowing along great start

 

[Isila]

No, I don't think we would. For a few more Euros we could have gone to Plaza Gardens or Agrabah which would have been much better value for money. LN food is pretty much the same you'd find at other counter services but its more expensive at LN.

Thank you. I think we'll skip LN.

 

[MickeysFavouriteGirl]

and theres me thinking that the bottled water and the tea and biscuits was standard for arrivals in the santa fe? Now i find out its more pixie dustl!!!

im gonna keep an eye on your photos and see if my ugly mug is in any of them!

Definitely extra pixie dust. Ds had eaten all the biscuits before I had chance to try one! I think there was only 4 in the pack.

 

[kizzabel]

Following along.

Great start although I hope you weren't poorly for the whole trip. Lovely bit of pixie dust

Looking forward to the next installment

 

[MickeysFavouriteGirl]

Following along.

Great start although I hope you weren't poorly for the whole trip. Lovely bit of pixie dust

Looking forward to the next installment

I was ill all holiday :'( still not 100% better now! The worst cold/sinusitis I've had for years.

 

[kizzabel]

I was ill all holiday :'( still not 100% better now! The worst cold/sinusitis I've had for years.

Oh no that's terrible bad luck. Sinutab are my weapon of choice for sinusitis. Hope it didn't hold you back too much

 

[MickeysFavouriteGirl]

Oh no that's terrible bad luck. Sinutab are my weapon of choice for sinusitis. Hope it didn't hold you back too much

No, thankfully I kept going. I said to dh I am NOT letting this ruin my holiday lol.I couldnt taste any food all week and I used a fair amount of disney loo roll for my nose lol

 

[MickeysFavouriteGirl]

17th March - St Patricks Day!

The alarm was set for 6am, I woke at 6.30am confused as to why the alarm hadn't gone off! Turned out I'd set the alarm on my mobile after changing the clock 1 hour ahead which must have confused my mobile. The alarm did go off at 7am! We were planning a 7am breakfast and EMH, but the kids were still asleep and I'd lost my voice so when my parents knocked at the door we said we'd delay breakfast and meet them at WDS gates. It was this point I realised I'd packed the American plug adaptor - d'oh! This was not good news, I NEEDED to use my straighteners!! I threw my hair in a bobble and went for breakfast around 8am, it was ok, not too busy. After breakfast we popped to the Santa Fe shop, bought a EU travel adapter 9.99€, a postcard and stamp for DLPDaft's niece, autograph book and pen. When back at the room we wrote the postcard, dh popped back to reception to post it while I straightened my birds nest hair!

We then walked to WDS. We found it really inconvenient that the walkway past Cars/Crush was closed, wish they'd signposted this before we actually got to it! We walked back round past the tram tour to TSPL for RC which was a 5m wait. We picked up FPs for ToT on our way back. RnR was a 25m wait. Our friends, their son, my parents and dh went to queue for RnR, ds, dd and I went character hunting and we came across Daisy Duck with barely no queue. Daisy absolutely loved my dd, she was kissing her and stroking her hair - she made a huge fuss of her After this we walked to the exit of RnR to wait for the others, ds bought a clapperboard (we'd meant to buy one last year and forgot to go back for it!) By now it was time for our reservation at Restaurant Des Stars.

I've done a review for RDS on the restaurant reviews thread. We really enjoyed it here, there was a good variety of food and the atmosphere was light and airy. We met the little man himself:




After RDS we watched Stars in Cars, dd was mesmerised. We were slightly disappointed that some villains were missing from their car



We had good interaction with Pluto who came over and cuddled ds. Dd got super excited when Daisy and Donald came past at the end, this has sparked a real love of Daisy Duck for my dd. Next up was the studio tram tour, 25m wait. We'd planned on taking dd on this but she needed her nappy changing, oops! So I left the queue and headed for the baby change. After this she fell asleep in her buggy and I sat besides the tram tour writing up my trip notes, enjoying the sunshine!

After this we headed to the DLP as it was St Patricks Day and we wanted to see the pre parade. We managed to get a space on Main Street. The pre parade had pipers, drummers, dancers, Mickey & Minnie in their special SPD costumes. We had some ice cream while watching. After this we moved over towards the side of the castle to watch Magic On Parade. We loved the new Frozen float, I still have the song in my head now. Dd again was mesmerised, my mum had tears in her eyes, it was lovely






As we were near Discoveryland we decided to see what the wait time for Autopia was, 10 minutes - great! While the boys were on that I grabbed some FPs for SM. We then did Star Tours and ds bought these Vinylmation from the Star Wars shop. 25€ seemed a bargain to me! We then did SM with FPs and left the park to go to EoS.



Again, I've done a review on the restaurant reviews for EoS. We were a bit disappointed this time. The sandwiches seem smaller to us, the price has increased and they had NO bread pudding ALL week. This was a travesty, I'd been so looking forward to bread pudding! After I'd finished sulking, we returned to the park for SPD fireworks and Dreams! In awe as ever, we left and returned to SF bar for cocktails. I had a non alcoholic pina colada (due to tablets!) Dh had a long island ice tea. Ds had an apple juice in a take home cup with glowing McQueen. After this we went back to the room, had baths and collapsed in bed!

Todays spends:

Lunch 68.49
Dinner 21.00
Souvenirs 36.00
Cocktails 28.49
Ice cream 9.00
= 162

 

[Isila]

I'm so getting those McQueens for my DS! He'll be so happy! Can I order those drinks in La cantina or it has to be the bar?

 

[MickeysFavouriteGirl]

I'm so getting those McQueens for my DS! He'll be so happy! Can I order those drinks in La cantina or it has to be the bar?

I'm not sure as we didn't eat dinner at La Cantina. My dd drank more than ds, he was too interested in playing air hockey in the games room with our friend and his ds!

 

[BabyAriel]

Great trip report so far! Looking forward to the next instalment

 

[cdsmiler81]

Yeay, reading along! WIll also be keeping an eye out in case our ugly mugs are in your pictures in the background too!

C x