Day 2 Monday 22nd January: Part 1
Hotel Santa Fe is Cars themed with cute roadways and scenery between the several buildings laid out in four groups.
Disney's Hotel Santa Fe by
wdw1998, on Flickr
We did want to stay in Hotel Cheyenne as our older daughter had stayed there before Christmas but unfortunately the food area Chuck Wagon Cafe was closed for refurb so we opted for Santa Fe. We were put in building 42 room 14, very handy for the shop and food area, particularly in the rain and adjacent to the entrance door. BUT...........
Remember our Princess had remarked about the intermittent throbbing noise. Well when all is quiet you notice things more don't you. I have to say we had probably the worst nights sleep in living memory. The noise which seemed ever louder woke us on numerous occasions, not to mention the noisy doorway. I really cannot say how much actual sleep I had but rose to a banging headache and quite honestly felt like ****!
I could not sleep here for two more nights.
We stepped outside to, yes you guessed, more heavy rain!
Breakfast was at "La Cantina". It was at this point that we discovered our dining package only covered Breakfast at Restaurant Des Stars in Studios Park and 0830 only. Alternatively we could get 12 Euro each off the 16 Euro breakfast at La Cantina. Ok that didn't sound too bad until you discover that the French don't eat in the morning. 16 Euro for some cold croissants, bread, cheese, and ham. I found some cereal and a toaster but honestly Disney this was a pretty poor show and certainly not good value. People were taking piles of bread, butter and ham or jam(jelly) and making their lunchtime sandwiches at the table.
Next stop the front desk to request a room change, which to be fair they did without question. Sorted and awake at last we headed off to the Park.
Princess was working this day so we were waiting to hear what she was doing. She texted to say that she would be Chip in the Main Park but due to the bad weather did not know where yet.
So cue Disneyland Paris at 0940 in the rain !!!!
Disneyland Paris by
wdw1998, on Flickr
We started looking around the shops to keep dry only to receive a text to say that she was going to be in Studios Park from 1100 by one of the theatres. Back into the rain across to Studios, it is lucky that the parks are closer together than at WDW
The way our luck was going we chose what turned out to be the wrong theatre where we spoke to a CM who confirmed that Chip & Dale would be out at 1100, however at about 1110 she checked again and told us that they were at the other theatre
The problem now - Was that our Chip? We hung around til 1130 when we got the simple text "What are you doing?" We were able to agree with her that we would get back in the line for her coming back out at 1200
We timed it perfect, third in line for our Chip and a VERY, VERY, excited one too. Lots of hugs off Chip (& Dale too). Dale was running off with my camera and getting the CM's, who knew who we were, to take photos, it was such good fun which must have looked a bit odd to those watching in the queue.
Meeting Chip & Dale by
wdw1998, on Flickr
We now had 15 minutes to get back into the main Disneyland Park for our lunch which was booked for 1230 at Plaza Gardens. Splashing our way through the relentless rain we made it with seconds to spare.
Time to relax, recharge our batteries and reflect that maybe our luck so far was starting to turn around after meeting Chip.
