Well, that came around quickly! We had only been planning and waiting for 406 days and now we have been and come back!
This is going to be a brutally honest blog about what we experienced on our trip. So, go get a hot drink and get settled, this will be a long one.
Travel day!!! Me and Troy collected Kirst from her house at about 3:20am and travelled to Birmingham Airport. He dropped us at the departures terminal and off he went to get some more sleep before heading to work.
Travel outfits were on point. I had my Maleficent Spirit Jersey with black jeans and my Vans high tops, while Kirst chose her Haunted Mansion Spirit Jersey, jeans and her Halloween crocs. I was sporting my Maleficent bag, While Kirst had her Mickey Halloween pumpkin.
Baggage check in was so quick and easy, we then had to head upstairs for security. Again, relatively quick and easy. We headed off into the departures lounge in hunt of food and a hot drink. We settled on Costa. We both grabbed a toastie, I had coffee, while Kirst had a hot chocolate. Once we had eaten, we headed off to look around the shops in duty free. Before we knew it our gate was announced and off we went to board.
Boarding was quick and we only waited for about 10 minutes before we were getting on the plane. We flew with Air France the seats were comfy. Our flight was scheduled for a 6:15am take off and I’m pretty sure we were getting ready to take off by 6:20am. We got to see the sunrise as we were travelling, and it was beautiful. The flight seemed to be over in no time and we landed at Terminal 2E CDG. Passport control seemed to take FOREVER, but once we were through, we got to baggage claim just as our cases were coming round the carousel, we grabbed them and headed to the TGV.
There seemed to be a huge que for the self-service tickets for the train, we got to the front only to be told we were in the wrong que. I ended up buying the tickets we needed on the trainline app, and we had 8 minutes to get to the platform. We asked a customer service representative who was super helpful and directed us to the correct platform. I couldn’t get the tickets to open in my app, but we still managed to board the train. It was crammed! but only 9 minutes later we were pulling into Marne-la-Vallee station and only a small bus journey away from our hotel.
Hotel Santa Fe! The theming here is CARS and its adorable! I love how cute this hotel is. We had checked in on the My Disney app, so our magic passes and food plan were attached to this. We were seen relatively quickly by a cast member who gave us the good news that our room was already available! We went and threw our cases into the room, did a quick little room tour, I changed my shoes as I was getting blisters, and headed down to get the shuttle bus to the park.
The shuttle bus runs every 12 minutes from 7:30am – 11:30pm I believe. It drops you off outside the train station and is just a small walk to the security stations outside the parks and village. We breezed through security and headed straight into the main park.
The entrance to the main park is under the Disneyland Hotel. Once through the ticket entrance you see the Main Street Railway all decorated in its Halloween gear. It was so pretty. Walking under there always makes me feel like I’m home. As we entered Main Street the ‘Stars on Parade’ show was happening, so we watched the end of that before heading off to Phantom Manor. The park was so busy, we were not expecting such high crowd levels.
Phantom Manor was a 5-minute wait (or a walk on iykyk). This is our tradition when going to Disneyland. We got straight through to the front door and was invited in for the ride. This is one mine & Kirst’s absolute favourites.
We went into Thunda Mesa as this shop is awesome. I managed to find my Maleficent pin, but no Hades. They also didn’t have the SJ Kirst wanted in her size either. We then decided we were hungry and wanted our first meal. We headed over to Hakuna Matata’s. We both decided on the chicken strips and curve chips. They had an amazing looking Scar cupcake, but I unfortunately couldn’t have due to it containing nuts. The food was delicious, it comes with this little dip that was so good! For that menu I think it was 17 euros, but as we were full board we just tapped our magic pass and away we went.
We looked in the shop just round from this, for the SJ that Kirst wanted but they had only got XS. We had one more shop to look in which also didn’t have it! Kirst was so annoyed!
We decided to go round to Pirates of the Caribbean after this as this was only a 10-minute wait. I always forget there is a little drop on that ride. We then headed over to Pinocchio as Kirst had never been on that ride. Its such a cute little ride, but I personally wouldn’t wait longer than about 20 minutes for it. Whilst queuing for this Gaston was outside the ride interacting with guests.
We then decided to head on down to the shops on Main Street when the heavens opened, and we got absolutely soaked. Silly me left my rain mac in the room. By this point we had also decided to go and have a little look around the village then head back to the hotel to freshen up before our reservation at Plaza Gardens. We jumped on the Santa Fe shuttle and grabbed a quick Starbucks on site to take to our room. We had to dry our Spirit Jerseys with the hair dryers in the room as we were soaked from the sudden downpour. I put some plasters on as I could feel some blisters appearing and it was starting to hurt a bit.
Once refreshed we went and had a quick look around the Santa Fe shop. They have certain items in the hotel shops that you can’t get in the park shops or the village. We jumped on the shuttle and went straight into the main park ready for our 6:45pm reservation at Plaza Gardens.
This restaurant is so elegant and is made even more impressive that it’s character dining for breakfast and dinner. It is also open as a buffet for lunch, but no characters. We were seated on our table for two, right by the buffet section. The characters were already in full swing as service had started 45 minutes before. Before we even had a chance to go and look at the buffet, we had the one and only Goofy join us and got some great pictures. The buffet was impressive, there was something for everyone. I got my first plate which included ¼ roast chicken and some little mini empanadas’. Kirst had some beef dish which he said was really good. We were interrupted whilst enjoying our first round by Tigger! He was so excited to see us. We had hugs and pictures. We went up for our second round of food, but we didn’t have too much time before we were joined by Pluto. He was so cute! Even his little nose was wet. We had hugs and photos again. We then decided it was time to try the puddings. I had macrons, a little white chocolate mousse, a mini key lime pie and a passionfruit Madame Leota treat. While we were tucking in, we were joined by Eeyore! He is so adorable!!! This was the best hug of the night! We had our photos and were hoping we could get the last two! We only managed to get Minnie. She was really nice! She looked beautiful. We decided we didn’t want to wait for Mickey as he was all the way over the other side of the restaurant.
We headed out of the restaurant and looked on the app for que times. As the evening shows were just about to begin Main Street was busy. We decided to go on Big Thunder Mountain in the dark!!! This is just the best time to go on it! It really is magical. 25-minute que time! Let’s go bestie!!! I don’t think it was quite that long, but before we knew it, we were jumping in our little carriage and off we went. It is possibly the best experience there! After this we decided we were exhausted as we’d been up since about 2am so should probably go to bed. We wanted to get up early to do the Extra Magic Hour. We both showered, my poor feet had blisters all over them. We fell asleep relatively quickly.
Day 2 – We got up a little later than we wanted to but went with it. We decided on matching Oogie Boogie SJ’s for the day. I paired this with Troy’s Hades bag. We went down to breakfast and had our very missed breakfast potatoes! We crave these regularly and always talk about them. I don’t actually know what is so special about them, it must be the magic. We also had breakfast cake! Who doesn’t love cake for breakfast? Once we were done, we went and got the shuttle to the station ready for our extra magic hour in studios. My poor feet were in so much pain. I couldn’t walk very fast.
Kirst had never been on Crushes coaster, so we decided that was our starting point. The que time said 70 minutes, but I said it would probably be quicker. Boy, was I WRONG! We got in the que; it was moving relatively quick until it wasn’t. It slowed right down and before we knew it, we’d been in the que for about 1 hr 40. We were almost at the front, by the turnstiles, when they announced the ride had broken down. They said they were fixing the issue. A few minutes later and we were being let through and up the stairs! Finally… were about to get on the ride… except we weren’t. The lights went up and the ride was officially down! We were GUTTED! 2 hours wasted waiting for a ride that broke! We were given premier access passes and told to leave. To say our moods soured would be an understatement.
We went down towards Ratatouille but decided against getting in the que for the ride. We decided we weren’t going to stay in the parks as we were too annoyed, so we decided to go to Val d’Europe shopping centre as Kirst wanted to go Primark and Undiz. I also wanted to take her to Auschen. This was so easy to get to. We went to the train station and used the machine to get our tickets. It was only 1 stop on the RER A. It cost 2,20 each one way. We went down to the platform and went our 1 stop. We walked out of the train station turned right and there was the shopping centre about 500m away. Super easy.
By this point I was nearly crying from the blisters on my feet. We headed to Undiz first as we came across this shop first. Kirst was after the Lotso Pj’s they had. We find the top but no bottoms… oh no! we asked the staff member who told us there were no bottoms… more disappointment.
We hastily headed to Primark and spotted a JD on the way and went and had a little look. They had some awesome trainers in there on offer. Primark was HUGE! We headed straight to the women’s section and that’s when Kirst saw the most amazing onesie! Scooby Doo!! He was so beautiful and of course she got him, she then also found the Pj’s and got them too! They had the B1 onesie in there as well. She also got the Lotso socks that our local store didn’t seem to have.
Once we were done there we headed out and I realised I could no longer walk in the shoes I was wearing. We headed back to JD where I extremely reluctantly bought a pair of CROCS. The disgust with myself for this purchase, if my poor feet hadn’t had been bleeding and I could have handled another 30+ hours wearing my shoes, I would never have bought them. But needs must and this was for the well being of my poor little pinkies. I popped them on and had a somewhat small amount of relief and very big thumbs from the store attendant at Auschen to say they looked good.
Auschen is always good for snacks. We headed to the chocolates and sweets and then onto the crisps. There is so much to choose from. We also grabbed a drink and some Pain au Chocolates for a little snack, as we had realised by the time we got back to the hotel it would nearly be time for our evening meal at La Cantina. So, decided we wouldn’t use our lunch voucher for this day and instead saved it for the next day as we didn’t get an evening meal on our last day.
We went to the main park and saw that Phantom Manor was a 5 min wait so off we went. We love this ride far too much! We realised we were a little bit hungry still so headed over to The Last Chance Café, where there was only 2 people in the que, but no one seemed to be moving. We decided against the little snack there and headed over to Café de la Brousse for the best chicken chunks and chips. Even though my feet were hurting, the thought of them little chicken chunks powered me through… until we got there, and it was closed! DEVASTATED! We had waited over a year and half to have them little chunks again, we had dreamed about them and counted down the days to eat them again only for that dream to be torn apart with a closed sign. Today was turning out to be a really and truly awful day.
We solemnly walked over to Casey’s corner to have our consolation nuggets from there (they are still great nuggets, just not the chicken chunks). We were served relatively quick and then seated by the wonderful cast member. We sat and ate our nuggets and chips while pondering our next move. We still had a few hours until our evening reservation, so had a little look on the app to see what our next move was. The Mad Hatters Teacups only had a 5-minute wait, so we headed over to them. Its such a fun little ride. We could then see everyone was lining up for the next showing of the Halloween parade, so que times were lower than normal. Kirst wanted to go on It’s a Small World… again the reluctance was there but I begrudgingly went along with it (just to rest my poor feet). We walked across and got have a look at the little pop-up food stands that have been added to that part of the park. They look adorable and offered some great snacks.
We walked straight onto the ride without waiting and had a well-deserved break. I don’t know what kind of magic she has, but she managed to get me in Crocs and on It’s a Small World in the same day!
Once we had finished that ride, we walked down main street heading to the shops. I decided to treat myself to the new Villains spirit jersey and bagged a free maleficent mug. I also headed over to The Emporium to exchange a pin I’d bought as I already had it. The Cast Member was super helpful and exchanged it for me straight away. We had a look round and then headed out to the village. We were both a little disappointed with the lack of merch available. We both follow a lot of socials for DLP and had seen some amazing merch that we both wanted but couldn’t find it any of the shops.
Off to La Cantina for our evening buffet. The food here is always amazing. We were both slightly disappointed there was no broccoli or mini empanadas, although they did have the chicken chunks! We also always get a bowl of Nachos to share with the vegan chilli topping! On our last trip we noticed they had a mocktail called the Fuzzy Candy, but never ended up getting it. We did this time, and it was delicious and only 9,00. They had the cutest Goofy Pudding which was so good!
While at dinner we tried to think of what to do with the rest of our evening. We decided on visiting other hotel shops to see the merch there. So, we hopped on the Santa Fe shuttle to the bus station, then hopped on the shuttle to Newport Bay ready to walk round to Sequioa and then the village.
Newport bay shop is so nice. We walked in and that’s when Kirst found it… the MUSHU shoulder pal that had sold out all over the parks. It was the LAST one! Troy was going to be so happy as this was the present he wanted. I also grabbed 3 tins of the little 1-euro sweets for the kids. Little walk over to our favourite hotel… Sequioa Lodge… this hotel is so cozy. I just love it. The shop had loads of stuff in it and I managed to find the HADES pin, which was nowhere to be found anywhere else. I was so happy!
After Sequioa, we walked round to the Village where the shops were total chaos as the parks had just closed. We had our lists of things we needed to get so off we went. I had to call Rubi as she had asked me for a BIG FEET teddy, and I needed to know which one she wanted. They are all so cute. She ended up picking Rex after scrupulous inspection from Auntie Kirst to make sure he was perfect. Ellia wanted the new Spidey Lanyard which was behind the till, and I needed to get Lucy (Rubi’s Bestie) her bag of CARS pasta. All items acquired so we went back to our hotel shop. Layton had asked for either Mickey in his Halloween outfit or a Remy BIG FEET. They cost the same so decided on Remy as this was way cuter.
We then headed back to our room so we could pack our cases and go to sleep ready for our final day.
Day 3 – Home day! We woke up about 6:30am ready to go to breakfast for 7am. We adorned our matching Mickey Pumpkin Jumpers. It was or last day of breakfast tato’s, so we wanted to make the most of it! It was rainy but nothing unmanageable. We had our breakfast then headed back to our room to pack the last of our things in our case and head to the luggage drop off. There was a small que, but we were seen to quickly. We were given our luggage cards and headed off to the main park for extra magic hour. We only queued for about 15 minutes before the parks opened. By this point the rain had become a bit heavier, but we had our rain macs on we should be fine right? We were greeted by Minnie & Mickey all dressed up for Halloween.
Originally, we were headed for Hyperspace Mountain, but this hadn’t opened yet. We checked the app and saw Big Thunder Mountain was open so headed that way first. BTM in the rain is a whole new experience. We got soaked. Peter Pans flight was next on the agenda. By this point we were soaked through and freezing cold. I asked Troy if he could investigate changing our flights as by this point, we were both miserable and wanted to go home. But unfortunately, he couldn’t change them as we had booked through a 3rd party. So, we had no choice but to stay. I always love Peter Pan but again not worth waiting more than 25 mins for.
Hyperspace Mountain was only a 10-minute wait, so we briskly walked over to get into the que. I absolutely love this ride! It has got to be my favourite in the main park. Kirst enjoyed this one too as it wasn’t one, she had been on before.
It was time for lunch, we chose Bella Notte. I love it here! The huge portions of pasta and the most amazing fresh garlic bread! This was our first quick service meal of the day. We could hear the stars on parade happening just outside. We were trying to decide what to do with our day from here as our flight wasn’t until 21:50. Once we had finished, we made tracks.
We decided on the Carousel. It was only 10-minute wait. So, we stood in the rain and waited. Cruella was stood talking to guests just at the side of us. We got to the front of the line and waited for our turn, trying to decide which horse to get on. We looked at two smaller looking ones towards the middle as these would hide if we fell off them, but that didn’t work out for me as I couldn’t climb on the horse. So, we went on two even lower horses and still managed to get stuck, this was by far the funniest part of our trip. We were belly laughing contemplating whether we were going to get stuck trying to get down off them. We managed to dismount quite gracefully…
We popped into the little sweet shop by the castle to get a hot drink and some sweet treats. We both got a mickey marshmallow and some shortbread biscuits, both annoyed at the fact that they have stopped selling the bigger packs of shortbread. We then headed off to studios as we wanted to catch one of the shows.
There were 3 shows to choose from; Frozen, Mickey and the Magician and Pixar’s Together. We chose the Pixar show as this was the closest to the park entrance. I’m glad we chose this one as it was absolutely AMAZING!! We got to see Lotso and Rex, Mr Fredrickson, Russell, Dug, Miguel and a few more. It was such as good show.
We headed back across to the main park, back to Haunted Mansion for the last time ☹. Originally, we were going to go on a few more rides but id absolutely had enough by this point. We were both soaked all the way through, my feet were absolutely killing and I just wanted to go home. We still had 1 quick service left so we went to Hakuna Matata’s and had the chicken and curve chips again.
We then got our last few purchases and headed back to the hotel to collect our cases. We were so cold and wet we made the decision to get changed into some clean dry clothes before waiting for the Magical Shuttle to get us. What a palaver that was. There were only the toilets to get changed into, so we took it in turns to go get dry clothes on. We then waited for the Magic Shuttle. It was a way to waste time as it takes about 45 minutes to get to the Airport. It was warm and dry, and we could sit. This was 24 euros each.
It dropped us off right outside terminal 2E, our departure terminal. We got our cases and tried to use the fast-track check in. I mean we kind of did it right, just forgot to get the luggage tags. We then found the check in desks and used the fast-track machines correctly this time. Off went our luggage and off to security we went.
This que was long. Why do they only have 2 people to get through all these people? Passport check done… security… again why is it taking so long? We got through quicker than our bags did.
We got through eventually and went off to find a shop for some food and a drink. We went to the little duty free where I got Grandad a bottle of whiskey ready for Christmas and a bag of Smurfs for Rubi. I did have to facetime them as I needed to see which whiskey Troy wanted me to get. Hence why I ended up getting the Smurfs.
We then waited for our gate to be announced and didn’t seem to be waiting all that long for it. The little bus was collecting us at 21:15 to take us to the plane… FINALLY… we hopped on and drove for what felt like an eternity. We stopped just opposite the plane, and it looked like a river across the tarmac. WE WERE BOTH IN CROCS! We once again got soaked, but finally were one the plane about to go home. The pilot announced we just had to wait for the 2nd bus of passengers, and we should be good. What’s an extra 10 mins, right? I wish… once the rest of the passengers were aboard, we all got settled into our seats… it’s a good job we did… the plane needed refuelling it should be 15 minutes tops… okay so a little delayed. We had 3 lots of 15 minutes announced a few 10 minutes a lot of 5 minutes before realising we had been sat for 1 hour and 40 minutes. We were now beyond annoyed. Troy was waiting to get us from the airport.
The poor steward kept apologising and stated that in his 27 years of flying it had never taken 1hr 10 mins to refuel a plane.
The pilot finally announced we were leaving and said, “I am getting you home in 50 minutes there will be turbulence”. He then announced the southern runway was now closed and we had to detour to the north runway… we all thought he was going to drive us home. Take off…. True to his word, we landed in BHX 51 minutes later. We got off the plane walked up the thousand steps (being dramatic) and went to passport control. We then headed over to collect our luggage which took an age, then went to find Troy and his car to go home.
To summarise, we had a really awful time. It was extremely crowded. The merch was awful, the weather can’t be helped but it was just miserable, and the extended plane journey was not appreciated. I had previously been in Halloween season and had the same experience so I don’t think I will be booking for that time of year again. Considering the cost of the trip, we were really dissatisfied with the lack of Halloween decorations. They were only really on Main Street and Frontierland. The lack of Villains, we saw 2 the whole trip. The complete lack of merch that had been advertised it was completely misleading. We only managed to find 2 Halloween snacks. On our 2nd day 5 rides were down. We couldn’t really see the parades as the parks were so full. There are renovations all over both parks which detracts from the experience. Overall, we both didn’t enjoy ourselves.
I said to Troy, I have never wanted to come home from Disney before and this time made me not want to go back. I really did not have a great time.
Maybe I’ll go back once the work has all been done. Until then, Let the WDW plans commence.