First Trip With My Princess TR - Complete!

[A dream is a wish]

This is my first TR Hopefully it wont be too boring! We had such a wonderful trip and I wanted to share

As I put in my PTR I was taking my daughter Chloe on her first trip and was so excited! We have never been away just the two of us before so I was nervous but it turns out that there was nothing to be nervous about.

Here's a picture of the two us at christmas

Our trip was from July 26th to 30th and we were staying at Hotel Santa Fe.

On Wednesday night I put Chloe to bed and finished packing. She knew we were going to DLP but she didn’t know when. I had told her that when it was the time, I would be waking her up in the middle of the night and telling her that we were going. I kept going over things again and again in my head and making sure we had the right things so in the end I didn’t get any sleep!

I woke Chloe up just after 3am, she was so happy. At first she just kept saying “are we going now? Really? Today?”

When she had properly woken up and realised she was squealing!

I took her through to my room to come and see something, I had her new suitcase and a box of presents wrapped up for her. Originally I had wanted to get a Minnie Mouse dress and put it with a letter from her but my local Disney Store haven't had her size and I've been looking constantly from January, I had been trying online too but they never had her size so I gave up and got a Belle one.

She loved her new things and had such a big smile on her face!

After looking at her new things, she put on her new Belle dress and got ready to go. I had got other things ready to travel in but she wasn’t going to wear anything but that dress!

Then we went outside to wait for the taxi arriving at 5am to take us to the train station. I think she was a little bit excited!

We got the train at 5:50, Chloe did some colouring in and we had a couple of games of UNO, then she fell asleep for the final 20 minutes of the journey. We arrived at London Euston around 7:10am.

We walked around to St Pancras, we were going to find somewhere inside to grab some breakfast as Chloe didn’t want anything when I woke her or on the train but we saw the McDonalds opposite and went to eat there.

We went into St Pancras, it was manic! So many people and so much security! I saw where we needed to go but I couldn’t get to where you check in so I asked someone working there when we could go through and was told no earlier than 30 minutes before. I thought I’d read that you can start going through up to 75 minutes before but I didn’t mind waiting, at least we were there in plenty of time.

As we had some time to kill, we went to Costa and had a coffee and hot chocolate. When we were in there the people who were sat next to us asked if we had seen the Olympic torch pass through, I think they said it was at 7:15am, so that explained why it was so crazy when we got there. By the time we'd finished in Costa it was about 9am so I thought we should go over to wait by the area we needed to go through. It was much quieter now and when we got to the screens it said we could check in already. We went through and sat down.

The people sat by us let us know that we could pick up a Disneyland travel pack now so we went to get one and waited to be called! Not long after this it was time to go!

We were told to check seat numbers before going up the escalators, as I went to get the tickets out of the Disneyland packet one of the members of staff took it from me and said she’d help because I had two cases, my backpack and Chloe. I understand that she was doing a nice thing but I did feel a bit like a child, I wasn’t struggling at all, Chloe's case was tiny and I’d managed to get there with no problems so I wasn't worried about getting on the train.

She told me where to go, so I shoved the tickets in my bag and we quickly went and got on the train, put our things away and got into our seats. We were ready to go!

We had a little problem when we got to Ashford, some people got on and they had tickets for the seats we were in, when I checked our tickets I realised the woman had looked at our seats on the return journey. Just a little bit embarrassing when there are families trying to get to their seats and we were now holding them up! The staff on the train were lovely and said there were two seats by the luggage that were free so we could sit there to save moving our luggage to another carriage. After we had moved the rest of the journey was fine.

As we were in the wrong seats, when the person came down with everyone’s park tickets and info I called him over and explained what had happened and he sorted our tickets and the rest of our things.

When we got off, we dropped our luggage off at the Disney Express part and off we went to the magic!

As soon as we walked out of the station the heat hit us! Wow it was hot! We took off our jackets and walked over to the Disneyland Park.

The parks were really busy today, I’m not sure if this was normal for summer but on Thursday and Friday there were so many people!

We had a walk around and tried to take it all in, it’s so overwhelming!

I said we could do one ride then we needed to go over to the hotel to make sure that we were all sorted then we could come back.

After wondering around for a while Chloe decided that she wanted to go on POTC. The wait time was supposed to be 45 minutes but we only queued for about 30 minutes. Chloe really loved it!

As we were walking down Main Street U.S.A. look what we saw coming!

We went and got the shuttle bus back to the hotel – never again in summer, it was horrible! So many angry, pushing people!

When we got there we got our room key, breakfast time cards and picked up our luggage. Our room was great, I’d read poor reviews about the hotel but I found it to perfectly fine. One thing that I’d read about the rooms was that they were awful because it had no air conditioning but the fan in the room was fantastic. It was so hot this day, the room was already cool but within a few minutes of the fan being on it was lovely and chilled! I took some photos of the room after I’d unpacked that night so I’ll add those after Cafe Mickey.

Seeing how excited Chloe was about being in the park, I decided that we’d miss the parade tonight so that she could have a look at the parts that we hadn't seen yet and also go on a couple of rides if we had time.

I made my first mistake next.

When we were on the bus I couldn’t really see where we were going but I kind of got it. As we went to leave what I didn’t realise was that there was a bridge to cross over so that you walk along to the village at the block further down, I thought we had to walk back to the front of the hotel to get to the village. As we were walking it was very clear that this was not near the Disney Village and that we were going a different way. I just followed the signposts and hoped for the best as I really didn't want to have to walk back and start again. I’d ended up dragging Chloe along the bus route back! 35 minutes later in the heat we dragged ourselves into the bus station, oops!! Chloe was not impressed with me at all!

We went back into the Disneyland Park and I took Chloe for her first go on BTM. We waited for about an hour. As I mentioned in my highs and lows Chloe was brilliant in queues! She never moaned, just waited nicely for her turn. She made me a very happy Mom! She didn’t stop giggling on BTM, we’d found another ride that she loved

After this we went over to Phantom Manor as there was a very small queue. She wasn’t as fussed with this one but she still liked it.

As the park was still really busy, I was worried that we’d be cutting it fine to get to our reservation at Café Mickey if we were in a long queue so I thought it would be best to go and have a look in the shops in the village and then head over to Café Mickey a little early. As we were leaving we saw some of the parade. We stood and waved for a few minutes and went off to the village.

We had a look around the World of Disney store, Chloe bought her presents for that day, she had some lollypops and the cuddly toy of Angel. I’d got her Stitch to put in her present box and the first thing she said was could she also have Angel if they have her. Angel doesn’t seem to be very big here, all I’ve seen of her is the key ring. In DLP there are Angel things everywhere! We had a look round the other shops and walked down to Café Mickey.

 

[A dream is a wish]

We got there at 7:50pm and the queue was huge! A member of staff was coming along taking everyone’s reservation details and then you are just left to wait until someone comes out! Chloe was very good and played with Angel while we waited.

At 8:40pm it was our turn!

We had to wait about 20 minutes until someone got to us to take our food and drinks order. I’d already paid for the meal when I booked the holiday so we had tickets for the meal. I had the Lilo and Stitch soup, Pluto’s steak and Snow White’s apple pie. Chloe had the pizza Mickey and fresh fruit minestrone and a fanta.

We’d only been sitting down for a few minutes when Pluto came over. Chloe just stared at him for a bit, I think she was in shock! Then she decided to get up for a cuddle. He was lovely with her, he was very gentle with her which I think she needed. She did know we were going to see some characters but when we actually saw them I don’t think she could believe it.

Then we saw Pinnochio, he was only there for a minute, he had the photo and autograph and moved on. Minnie was right behind him.

Chloe squealed and jumped up when she saw her!

Minnie Mouse was brilliant, she was telling Chloe that she loved her dress and tiara and she was asking Chloe if she liked her dress! Chloe was so excited and for some reason did a couple of little jumps so Minnie joined in!

We saw Eeyore and Mickey in the other room but they went off upstairs I think.

The food came quite quickly after we had ordered.

I didn’t think her pizza looked that nice but Chloe said it was.

I liked my soup and garlic bread, it was good.

My steak was fine too, it wasn’t the best piece of steak but I wasn’t expecting it to be considering the price. The sauce was so good though!

Just as our desserts had been bought out, Eeyore came along!

Chloe wasn’t keen on her fruit minestrone, but my apple pie was delicious!

Finally Mickey came along! I didn't take any of Chloe with him as the professional photographer was with him so I left him to take the photos and on Saturday I bought this one:

 

[A dream is a wish]

We left around 10:15pm and walked the correct way back to the hotel. Chloe got ready for bed, with Stitch and Angel of course.

10 minutes later...

I unpacked and took these:

By the time I finished it was 12:30am

Time to get to bed, getting up at 6am!

 

[stargatebarbie]

loving reading this you arrived as we where leaving ,your bathroom is very neat we had 4 girls in our room cant wait to hear more

 

[Ms Poppins]

Lovely first day

We walked the wrong way to the parks on our first trip too

Your dd is lovely in her Belle dress

Look forward to hearing more

 

[A dream is a wish]

loving reading this you arrived as we where leaving ,your bathroom is very neat we had 4 girls in our room cant wait to hear more

There was pretty much only my stuff in there so we were just about alright wow 4! I bet at times the bathroom was really busy!! Did you enjoy your time at DLP?

Sorry! Just seen your TR!! Glad you all had fun

 

[A dream is a wish]

Lovely first day

We walked the wrong way to the parks on our first trip too

Your dd is lovely in her Belle dress

Look forward to hearing more

Thanks!

I am so glad it's not just me!!!

We actually walked round the back of SL before I realised we should have followed the signs gone down the shuttle bus route, I was too excited at first to look at the signs

 

[giuly09]

Love your trip report , your daughter is SOOOOOO pretty!!
Look forward to read more

 

[lush]

Loving your trip report, your little girl is very very cute.

I did the same thing with the walking from the hotel the first time I stayed at the NPB, didn't know where the hell I was. I kept insisting to my mother that I knew what I was doing though!

The Santa Fe looks really good. It's been a long time since I stayed there but I have nothing but fond memories of it. Never tried walking from it but that's because I'm really really lazy!

Can't wait to hear more! (Love all the pictures too.)

 

[A dream is a wish]

Love your trip report , your daughter is SOOOOOO pretty!!
Look forward to read more

Thank you very much!

 

[A dream is a wish]

Loving your trip report, your little girl is very very cute.

I did the same thing with the walking from the hotel the first time I stayed at the NPB, didn't know where the hell I was. I kept insisting to my mother that I knew what I was doing though!

The Santa Fe looks really good. It's been a long time since I stayed there but I have nothing but fond memories of it. Never tried walking from it but that's because I'm really really lazy!

Can't wait to hear more! (Love all the pictures too.)

Woooo someone else who has been the wrong way! You have to, you can't let on that you don't know, I did that too but I she didn't believe me

The walk from Santa Fe wasn't bad, it was quite nice with the good weather. I wouldn't like to do it in winter though, that would be a long cold walk!

 

[A dream is a wish]

I got up at 6 and woke Chloe at 6:30. She was still really tired, we went over to breakfast around 7:10. We were told to turn up whenever as they had run out of breakfast time cards for today! The breakfast was lovely, it was quiet when we went in and there were loads of free tables. By the time we left it was busy and people were having to queue to get in, I was really glad that we’d gone so early. When we were eating I realised I’d left the SD card for my camera in the laptop so we had to go back.

When we got back to the room, we sorted a few things and left. We had just gone under the bridge opposite the Sequoia Lodge when I realised I hadn’t picked up the SD card!! my memory really is awful!!

So back we went again, this time I actually got it!

So we had another lovely walk up to the Disneyland Park.

Although the sky was grey it was really warm already. I think it was around 8:50am by the time we got to there.

We went straight over to Buzz and ended up going on it three times! We only had to wait around 10 minutes each time.

I wanted to spend today over in the Walt Disney Studios so on the way there I wanted to go into Salon Mickey and the Disneyland Hotel to book Chloe’s surprise princess makeover. In Salon Mickey Chloe had a cookie, I’m not sure what I had, it was some kind of pastry, chocolate and nut thing, it was so good I wish I knew what it was! I only managed to take these two photos, Chloe with her mouth full of cookie then trying to sit back on the chair, bless her, when she got all the way back her legs barely reached the end! She looks so worn out but she so badly wanted to carry on!

I didn’t realise with the makeover that you had to choose the princess and have everything there and then, I thought you booked the time and came before it to get the things. In the package that I’d chosen for Chloe there were three princesses to choose from so I was just going to ask for this package but leave Chloe to choose which princess the next day. As I needed to get everything when I booked it, I had to be a little bit sneaky, I told her that I was just wondering who she liked best out of Cinderella, Aurora and Belle. She looked at me like I was crazy and told me Aurora then carried on looking at the toys! I was able to leave all of the things at the shop until the next day and was told to come up about 30 minutes before her booked time so that I can pick up her things and she can get changed

 

[A dream is a wish]

We headed over to the Studios, it was so hot now and the grey sky was now blue!

We went straight over to Crush’s Coaster, the waiting time was at 60 minutes but Chloe said she wanted to go on so we got in line.

I was expecting it to be much worse than it was but it was alright and Chloe enjoyed it. We decided to go to the Toy Story Playland next.

There was only a 15 minute wait for Slinky Dog Zigzag spin so we went on this first. Chloe was so tired by now she was started to get frustrated. While I was taking some photos of her I suggested going for a nap after this ride and coming back later and she told he that she wasn’t tired because she could still open her eyes!!

Since we were there and Chloe was determined to stay we went over to Toy Soldiers Parachute Drop.

The queue for this was 40 minutes, Chloe was almost asleep at one point and I was in a lot of pain by now so I knew we had to leave after this. It was a horrible ride! Well, not really, I just don’t like the ones that just go up and down, but Chloe does!

She didn't want to go but I said we would stop and grab something from Earl of Sandwich and take it back to our room, Chloe thought it was like having a picnic and suddenly really wanted to do it!

I had the adult meal with the full montagu, diet coke and crisps. Chloe had the turkey and emmental with the fruit cup and a fanta. I was able to get the shareholder discount with this but when we came on the last day I was told that you cannot use the shareholders discount if you've had the adult meal?? So I'm not sure really if you can or can't!

We got back and ate them and within 5 minutes of finishing Chloe was asleep!

I knew she’d be able to have 2 and half hours sleep before I'd need to get her up to get ready for that evening. I had a sort through my bag and got it ready for later, had a shower and looked through my guidebook until it was time to wake Chloe.

 

[A dream is a wish]

I woke Chloe and she got ready for the evening, she was looking much better after her sleep!

Just before we got to Walt's I realised I’d left the bigger packet of money in our room, I normally kept it at the bottom of my bag so that there was only a little bit of cash in my purse in case it was lost or stolen (you never know) but I could always get more when I needed it. I'd taken it out when I sorted my bag but I hadn't put it back and I hadn’t taken extra money out of it for the Dreams meal at Walt’s!

When we got there I explained what I’d done and they said that we could fit us in at 7:45pm if we could get back then, I was so glad!

We picked up the money and were our way back when it started raining, it carried on throughout the evening but it was never too bad. We got to Walt’s at 7:30pm, we went straight upstairs and were taken to our table.

When we sat down Chloe came out with “This is where grown ups come for their dinner”

Every time we’ve spoken about eating at Walt’s, Chloe refers to it as the grown up dinner

I ordered the carpaccio of scallops, vegetable tagliatelle with sesame oil and the sea bass with watercress and red rice. Chloe had the vegetable rillettes, breadsticks and cucumber and the kid’s burger. I had a diet coke but as we were having our ‘grown up’ dinner I wanted to try a glow-tini tonight so I had one of those aswell! As I was having a cocktail, Chloe wanted one too. She had the passion fruit juice with grenadine syrup. I know that the ones for children are a bit bigger and they get a glowing Tinkerbell on top but I was surprised that mine was 11.50 and Chloe’s was 10.70, I thought mine would be a lot more but maybe that’s just me…

Chloe didn’t like her vegetables, she didn't actually try it, she looked, then took the breadsticks and cucumber out! I tried it and it was lovely so I had some of it

She really liked her burger and ate most of it. My starter and main were perfect, all together it was one of the nicest meals I’ve ever had!

My dessert:

Chloe's dessert:

The meal meal came to 85 euros but with the shareholder discount, it ended up being 72 euros. We left and headed towards some rides. We got to Casey’s when I realised we hadn’t been given our wristbands so that we can get into the Dreams area later. So back we went to Walt’s (it really was the theme for the day) and we got them and a little leaflet with the information on it.

Chloe wanted to go over to BTM, you were able to walk straight on so we ended up coming off and going straight back on. After 4 goes I'd had enough! I managed to get Chloe away from it with the promise of Minnie Mouse ears


We went into a shop and managed to find the ones she wanted, I wanted some of the pink ones but couldn’t see them. When we were waiting for a manager to sort the discount out I asked the CM. He was really funny, he just looked at me and said “Miss, you’re in Frontierland, you’re not going to find that kind of thing around here” I hadn’t even considered that. We were waiting a while so he got Chloe and started playing cowboys with the Duffy bear cuddly toys, both of them were having lots of fun!

 

[A dream is a wish]

We decided to see what else we could do but everywhere was closing.

People we waiting for Fantilusion so we joined in, a few mins later the music started! My camera isn’t very good at night so after a few attempts I recorded the parade instead.

How beautiful is the castle at night?! I love it.

Nearly time for Dreams!!! The VIP area was brilliant for us, there was plenty of room so it meant that Chloe could stand or sit or move around to find the right place without being in the way of anyone and I was able to record it and see her at all times. People were being sneaky though, so many were trying to come in again and again, I’m not sure why, it wasn’t the closest place to stand, it was just good because there was plenty of space. It was alright though because the CM's were having none of it.

It’s time for Dreams!!!!

Amazing! I'm not sure what happened but I think the combination of the show and being there and having everyone around quietly watching did something and I felt really emotional a couple of times. Even Chloe was speechless at certain parts!

When it finished, we headed off to the shop to get my Minnie Mouse ears Chloe wanted to get some of the lollypops and tins of sweets so we got those too.

I don’t know what time it was when we got back, Chloe went straight to bed, I had a shower and got straight in my bed after!

 

[Paris Fan]

Great report. Look forward to the rest!

 

[MazdaUK]

Great report! Your photos are great!

 

[A dream is a wish]

Great report. Look forward to the rest!

Great report! Your photos are great!

Thank you very much!

 

[eeyorefanuk]

Really enjoying your report.

 

[Disneydreamsdancer]

Loving reading your TR!! Love the nighttime photos of the castle I went to DLRP a lot as a kid, now Anaheim is my park, this brings back lots of memories! Cant wait to read more!