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[never2old]

Thank you all  

Before I continue with my TR (finally got round to uploading all the remaining pictures!!), bit of news on our little baby... It's a little girl  :minnie:  A little princess   We're very very very happy  

And I continue with the report!

Monday 8th November, our last day in the parks! We had breakfast again at 7am; my sister in law and family were leaving later that day so they had to pack their bags and check-out, and at the end we made it to the park a bit after 8:30. And the best part was, it was not raining! Even more, there were bits of blue sky in between the clouds!!!  /  Incredible. Was this going to be a good day weather-wise???

The park was very quiet this morning, and we spent some time taking pictures around Town Square







While everyone went ahead towards Fantasyland (they were starting with Peter Pan), I again stayed behind to take more pictures and absorb all the magical Christmas atmosphere... Again one of my favourite bits of the trip, just taking the time to admire the park and the decorations, without someone rushing me to get to a ride, and without having to wait for the crowds to move out of the picture....

Group picture... kind of    You can see me taking the picture and the others leaving, I didn't think until it was too late to get everyone to pose for a picture with the reflection. Next time!!




See the blue sky??












More window displays








And good morning Castle!







And just when I was crossing the bridge, I felt it... The first rain drop   Nothing too bad yet, just a few light drops. So still hoping for a good day...

Looking busy around Pinocchio





In the meantime the others were heading into Dumbo, which they hadn't been able to do the day before with the rain, so they wanted to get that done while they could... I found them there.



Cris is not too keen on Dumbo, so he stayed outside with me



When we were in Disneyland in June Dumbo was being closed for a full refurb, and I have to say that they did a great job, it was looking good!!!









Continues soon!

[dagobert]

First congratulations to your little girl!!

Thanks for another great update. Your pictures, especially the illuminated castle, are wonderful, as always.

This huge snow globe and the ugly arch in front of Bixby Brothers look so out of place on Main Street.

[never2old]

First congratulations to your little girl!!

Thanks for another great update. Your pictures, especially the illuminated castle, are wonderful, as always.

This huge snow globe and the ugly arch in front of Bixby Brothers look so out of place on Main Street.

Thanks  

I didn't like that arch thing either... But it looked even worse outside the shop in Frontierland...  (I didn't even take a picture of that!)

[norhel]

Congratulations with the baby!!!! :-D
And a great report. :-)

[DLP-Photos.com]

FIrst of all - congratulations, great news

Once again your pictures are top quality and I must say that your trip report more than a lot of other things makes me ready for my soon-to-come trip

[never2old]

Thanks  

Personally I can't wait for your trip report, Nicolai!!! Your pictures are always amazing!!

Here's another update! Sorry a rather short one, but I don't have much time today, I'll aim for a longer one next time!

After doing Dumbo, they all headed towards Peter Pan. It was still very quiet and they walked straight in, so I didn't have to wait too long for them outside, in the cold, under the (still light) rain...  :roll: Though I still had time to take some pictures...











We then went towards the Castle; we hadn't visited the gallery yet, and personally I love going there during EMH, when it's quiet and you can really take your time to visit it properly.



Shop wasn't open yet














Cris and Gavin were quite keen on getting Crush done, so we figured we should get to the Studios soon, to be there for the park opening (at 10:00). So we started making our way down to the exit. On the way however we saw Winnie, and almost no one queuing... An opportunity we couldn't miss!

Group picture!


We made it into WDS around 9:45; we went straight for Crush Coaster, where they were already letting people in; the waiting time was 10 minutes, so they all went in while I stayed out with little Maisie.



There's not much to do while you wait around there, so after seeing the Cars ride for a bit (she liked it so I told her we could do that once they all came out), we went and waited for the others to come out in their turtle...

We saw them and waved at them (they didnt see us though), and of course completely missed the picture....


When they came out (bit smiles all around except for my niece, she didn't enjoy it too much...) it was time for Cars. Again Cris is not a big fan (plus the ride is not designed for people with long legs in mind...) so he stayed out with me while the others went straight in (love it when there are no queues!)









The girls loved it, and I think the parents were both surprised, the ride is quite fast, and a lot of fun!

By now it was 10:20. Next stop: Toy Story Playland!



Continues soon!

[gothprincess]

Great trip report I'm really enjoying it. I promise to do a good one for you after my first trip in Feb even if it does state the obvious to people who have made lots of visits.

Congrats on the pink bump xxxx.

[kmara]

thank you so much for this great trip report! I love looking at your beautiful pictures and reading about your experiences!

and congratulations on the great news! I am so happy for you both that your longtime dream is finally coming true!
I personally can't wait until we will visit dlp with our children (or at least two of four) for the first time! I am sure that seeing those shiny faces will top it all and experiencing dlp through the eyes of our kids will be wonderful!

[DisneyMAD..Woops]

Hey, great trip report (:

Congrats on the bump no dobt she will be brought up around disney (:

Sorry to hear about the bad weather, when we went in August for my birthday, on the 15th and 16th we had terrenchal (Cannot spell :-" )  rain. It was horrible ):

[never2old]

Thanks

Apologies for the huge delay in the update, with the holidays and all I've been quite busy... I've finished uploading all the pictures, and hopefully I'll get a bit more free time soon to continue with the report!!

[never2old]

So, finally.... Here I go!

Quick summary, this was Monday, our last day in the parks  :cry:  but still a good few hours ahead of us    We were in WDS, and after everyone (except my little niece and myself) had a go on Crush Coaster (just after park opening so the queues were not too bad), we headed to Toy Story Playland!



It was about 10:30, and the queues were not too bad. First stop, the Parachutes! Waiting time was advertised as 20 minutes.

+






My and my bump couldn't ride this, but I wanted to see the queue line, so I went in with everyone. This was the one ride I was most looking forward to. Not just the ride itself, but also all the details, after seeing for months all the concept art work... And it did not disappoint me! I really loved all the green soldiers everywhere!!









Even my little niece was enjoying it...










20 minutes after joining the queue, it was our turn... Definitely the biggest problem of this ride is the loading time, it took forever!!



Maisie was just big enough to ride. she was delighted!


Finally, up the went!





And down... As you can see, my little niece was loving it, I'd never seen her laugh so much!


I did feel quite jealous, not being able to ride... But it's all for a good cause, I'll just have to wait a few more months!! And my hubby was kind enough to take some pictures from the top for me...





It turns out they were quite lucky to ride the Parachutes at all... By now it was raining quite a bit, and as soon as they came down, they shut the ride down because of the weather!! Imagine being next... I would have been sooo upset!!!

With the rain no one particularly fancied doing RC Racer or Slinky (and they both had more serious queues by now), so instead we all went to the Studio Tram Tour, where we only had to wait about 10 minutes before being seated in a tram.





Wonder if this ride will be updated some day so that there's more to it than Catastrophe Canyon...








By then we were starting to feel the cold... So while the men went for a ride in RnRC and ToT (walked straight into both), we ladies went for a hot drink and a chocolate brownie in Cafe Cafe



Cinemagique was unfortunately closed, so it meant we had to miss one of the best things about WDS... So we decided to start our way back to Disneyland. We had booked our lunch in the Lucky Nugget (since Maisie had been asleep when we had lunch with the characters in Cafe Mickey), so time to make a move! Though not before meeting Daisy, Chip and Dale!!





Lunch at the Lucky Nugget next!!

[DisneyMAD..Woops]

I'm so glad they've put fencing around the army truck in the queue line for parachute drop, when I was there on opening day (17th August) there were small children climbing all over it and ruining it. We told the CMs but they didn't seem to care so that was annoying

Glad you still got pictures from up at the top (:

[never2old]

Ah, I would have been the same, if I'd seen people climbing on the truck!! It's a bit sad how they need to put fences up around everything to prevent people from ruining things...

Anyway, here's the last update!

By lunchtime, it was serisouly raining. Pouring. I'm usually totally against umbrellas in Disney (because you can't easily take pictures with an umbrella in your hands, and it blocks everyone else's view as well), but with the weather like that, we had no choice! We had booked our table for 12:30; we got in just on time and were seated straight away. It was nice and warm and dry inside, wonderful!



We hadn't even taken our coats off and Goofy was already there to greet us





I hadn't eaten here for a few years, and it was a nice surprise to see that they had moved the buffet to the top area of the restaurant, leaving the center just for tables. It worked a lot better, the buffet area never seemed too crowded, and you never had to keep an eye out for kids running after a character... Plus we were seating really close to it, so for us it was perfect!

The food selection was great, there was a great choice for salads, and the warm food was really yummy... Agrabah Cafe remains my favourite buffet, but I would definitely consider coming here again, particularly for a character meal.





After Goofy, it was Pluto's turn. He went first to see Maisie, but she wanted to see Mickey, and only Mickey (she hadn't met him yet, only seen him from a distance), so she was completely ignoring Pluto!! It was actually quite funny, she kept turning her back to him no matter what he did, or what we told her... Stubborn little thing!!



Fortunately her sister then came back from the buffet and was delighted to see Pluto. And Pluto was delighted to get some attention! They gave each other a big hug



Fortunately for my little niece, Mickey was next...





Me too I was happy to meet him


Then came Captain Hook... I had never meet him before, I was really happy!! Though he was a bit creepy...  :lol:



And after him, Smee of course!





Finally when we were finishing, Goofy came to see us again...





Overall, we had a great time. I would have prefered to be seating on one of the tables, so that we could more easily talk between us, but that's the only negative about the meal. Everyone enjoyed the food and meeding the characters (particularly Mickey...), and that's the main thing!

Plus the Lucky Nugget is a beautiful restaurant...

The gold nugget:






When we came out after lunch, it was still raining quite heavily. We were feeling refreshed (and dry) after our meal, so we made our way (under the never ending pouring rain) towards Woody's Roundup, aka Santa's workshop, to meet Santa - last to-do in our list...

When we got there, Maisie had fallen asleep, so Cris stayed with her while we went inside. It was extremely quiet, there was only one family in front of us!!! And to be honest, for once I wouldn't have minded having maybe two or three people in front of us, so that I could take more time to admire the workshop and take some pictures...





My niece and Santa...


And me too!!






After meeting Santa, we decided to take the train back to Main Street. My sister-in-law and family had to leave soon, and it was time for them to head back... And at least in the train, we'd be dry!!


Though we ended up getting off in Discoveryland, and heading towards IASW one last time...





After that we got to Main Street, did some last minute shopping, and said our goodbyes    The girls particularly were sad to leave (I totally understand them!!). We had a great time together! We don't see each other much (they live in the UK, we in Luxembourg), so it was really special to spend a few days together like that, and in the most magical place there is!!



But all good things come to an end...

After they left, Cris and I stayed behind a bit more. To be honest, I really wanted to get some rides done!! I hadn't been on many rides that day, and although I was happy just soaking in the Christmas magic, I wanted to go on some of my favourite rides again before leaving!

So we went to Discoveryland for a couple of goes on Buzz, then to Frontierland for one last go on Phantom Manor (with a stop on the way to take yet another picture of the castle... but it's hard to walk past it and not take a picture!!! oh, and that is rain, not snow...)



After that, we were both tired, and particularly, tired of the rain. If it hadn't been raining I would have considered staying a bit longer just to take some pictures, particularly at night, but it was too much!

So we went back towards the hotel (and I just took a couple of pictures on the way...)





Said goodbye to the Castle...


And out we were  

We got to the room and have a nice rest... We were both exhausted!!

Normally there should have been the bonfire night fireworks that night, but they were cancelled because of the weather (we were sooo happy we'd seen them on Friday night!!). Shame because from our room we would have had a great view...  Instead, we went for dinner at King Ludwig's, and had an early night!

The next day, after a yummy breakfast in the Manhattan restaurant, we went for a bit of shopping in the Val d'Europe shopping center, but didn't stay too long (I was feeling a bit ill), so we quickly started on our way home...

Overall it was a great trip (as usual), though the weather did get a bit in the way sometimes... But even with the rain and the wind, there was plenty of magic around!! And our family had a really magical time, which is always the most important thing!!  

Thank you all for reading!!!

[kmara]

thanks so much! great end of a great report about a great trip (except the weather) !
I can't wait to go to dlp with my kids! your report has made me even more anxious!

[disneyrules]

Really great trip report
Fantastic photos :thumbs: