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[Disneyland Paris Treasures]

We were at Disneyland last week (Wednesday 30.03. to Saturday 02.04.), staying at the Sequoia Lodge for 3 nights and 4 days. We had a great time, and because the Park was in full preparation for the Saturday launch of the "Disney Magical Moments Festival" we saw a lot of changes and interesting stuff. Because the few Tweets I "tweeted" at Twitter during our January stay had such a positive resonance I decided to extend this a bit and this time tweeted A LOT, the whole time during our stay, every time I saw something I found worth mentioning. My wife was not very happy about this though :oops:

As surely not everyone here uses Twitter (or even follows ME there) I thought it would be nice to post some of the more interesting stuff here. Please excuse the very short texts, that's how Twitter works and I left most of the texts unchanged  


WEDNESDAY 30.3.


Just arrived, love the Sequoia Lodge! They spoil us every time. Got upgraded to Lake View!!




I was SO happy to find this 2001 Sequoia Lodge postcard in our hotel room, as I believed it to be long extinct:

:-)


Oh no, Sequoia Lodge now also use those "water pressure reducers" in the shower! This must be the most annoying way to save energy! They had this too in Hotel New York. I actually called maintenance back then cause I thought it's a technical problem (almost no water pressure!!). When he showed me the reducer thing and told me that it's on purpose I couldn't believe it! I gave him a tip to remove it while we're there :-) This is how it looks:




On the first evening I noticed that I forgot my bag with all my cables (phone chargers, camera chargers, notebook power adapter, audio & video recording cables etc. To at least be able to continue to use my phone I went to the Concierge and asked if someone could borrow me a phone charger. Imagine my surprise when he told me they actually have a phone charging station!! It is called a "ChargeBox®", and allows you to charge your phone for money (30 min. = 2 €, 60 = 3€, 90 = 4€). What a brilliant idea, a true Life saver if you forgot your charger!




The Sequoia Lodge is getting 3 new trees




Oh, how I missed the Annette's Diner ...




Lots of press event preparations on Central Plaza




One of the trains of Big Thunder Mountain had been equipped with a rather strange looking slip-out protection:




They practiced the new show and I managed to get a Close-up shot of the great new Genie face character (had to run as they walk so fast!):




I was surprised to see the organ is still there!




New, very detailed Rapunzel photo location, featuring a life size Pascal






THURSDAY 31.3.2011

New, very cool Aladdin photo location, with Magic Lamp that smokes and a "Fakir bed" (?)




New photo location for the "Following the Leader with Peter Pan" thingy





New photo & play location for the "Rhythms of the Jungle" thingy:




New Alice in Wonderland "Tea Party" photo location. Crowded all the time, people love it!




There is one more new photo location! The one for the new "Disney Magical Moments Festival" Princess Meet'n'Greet, located just opposite of It's a Small World!
I guess it is temporary until the former post-show of IASW has finished it's transformation. Anyway, the little girls loved it!




Cool souvenir: TRON Clu action figure with animated (!) face projection





Going to bed now, Walt Disney Studio Park day tomorrow. Can see the castle out the window.





FRIDAY 1.4.2011

Next morning, the view out of our window right now:




Disney Magical Moments Festival decorations now everywhere:





World Of Disney store work progresses fast:




Guess the wait time at Crush's Coaster..




Parachute Drop: photo location gone & Jeep from waiting line moved !?




Parachute Drop had a 45 minutes wait time, but it was a walk-on using the Single Rider line :-)


New, very strict anti-"photograb" measurements at Tower Of Terror




New Tower Of Terror souvenir! Love attraction based merchandise! Can't resist ... must buy!




Was sooo happy to see Café des Cascadeurs is open today!! Best restaurant at WDSP (by far!)




Getting the best burger you can get in any of the two Parks there, right now!!




If I had a girl, I totally would have to get this "Rapunzel - Glow in the Dark Wig" :-)




The view from our window right now. Disneyland Park is testing the big light-show for tomorrow.





SATURDAY 2.4.2011

Good Morning, Disneyland! Beautiful weather it is. Love the sunrise over Lake Buena Vista!




The New "Magic Moments Festival" logo has arrived on Main Street Station!!




they have extended the painted Castle tarp to the right side!!




Expensive on-board cameras attached to Dumbo and Teacups vehicles!





Standing in line for POTC being opened after almost a month of closure. My son REALLY wants to be first to ride, so we made sure to get here early!

Yay, we were the first at the attraction's entrance and we rode in the first row of the first "regular" boat. Sadly upon opening of the attraction there was a family - which was standing behind us - picked by the CM, obviously because they were French. They did a little ceremony with them and they officially opened the attraction and they got their own boat. As you can imagine my son (11yr.) was very disappointed and could not understand why they chose them over him, as he was first.



Anyway, it was a great ride! No Jack Sparrow has been added, just in case you wondered ;-) Strangely - although the attraction was closed for almost a month - the cat on the box, the duelling pirates and the pirate on the bridge with the hairy leg were missing. The swinging pirate was back, but not swinging. Aside from that everything looked perfect! Very clean, and all audio-animatronics moved perfectly.


At "Le Comptoir du Capitaine", the food kiosk on the pathway from Fantasyland/Adventureland border to Pirates, the first Mickeys Magical Moments merchandise arrived! I'm now wondering if it was for sale there by mistake, as this actually was the ONLY merchandise of the Disney Magical Moments Festival that I could find on that day (and I looked hard). My guess is they hadn't rolled out the "Disney Magical Moments Festival" merchanidse by then because festival wasn't officially "opened" yet.




The park was incredibly crowded! I'm glad that day was our last and not our first day! I am glad the other days were very quiet and not at all like that.


One or two days before Kristof asked if we could meet up. He said he'd be at Town Square at 13:00, so went there, but sadly couldn't find him. Where were you Kristof?  


The Cast Members at the Emporium are in a great mood and are playing with the toys!?





Sadly then the phone went empty, so I could not post any more for that day.

[davewasbaloo]

Thanks for sharing Nicholai. I am worried about Big Thunder now. I wonder if I will fit. Never used to be a problem, but with those new things on the seat, I am not sure now.

Also, a real shame about PotC, I would have expected it to be in perfect working order after being down for a month. Fingers crossed for next week. Thanks for sharing.

[dagobert]

Thanks a lot for your trip report!!

The charging station is really cool. Now you don't have to worry about the charger. I'm sure you can use it with all major manufacturers like SonyEricsson, Apple, Samsung or Nokia. Nowadays nearly all use the small USB to charge.

These water pressure reducer are so annoying. We also try to live acological but that's going too far.

[Disneyland Paris Treasures]

Thanks for sharing Nicholai. I am worried about Big Thunder now. I wonder if I will fit. Never used to be a problem, but with those new things on the seat, I am not sure now.

Also, a real shame about PotC, I would have expected it to be in perfect working order after being down for a month. Fingers crossed for next week. Thanks for sharing.

Reg. BTM: I think it was just a test, as only one of the trains had it.

Thanks a lot for your trip report!!

The charging station is really cool. Now you don't have to worry about the charger. I'm sure you can use it with all major manufacturers like SonyEricsson, Apple, Samsung or Nokia. Nowadays nearly all use the small USB to charge.

These water pressure reducer are so annoying. We also try to live acological but that's going too far.

Reg. the "ChargeBox": the supported brands are Nokia, iPod/iPhone, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, Blackberry, LG, Nokia

Reg. the water pressure reducer: this is a really stupid move. I'm all for conserving energy and behaving ecological, but this is ridiculous and unbelievably annoying! You can not imagine how weak the pressure is! As I said, at HNY I even called maintenance, thinking it was a technical problem!!

[gingajen]

I absolutley HATE, the face character Genie. I may have ,missed some important information regarding it, but why on earth have they done this?  :shock:
My kids would be terrified of that face, it looks nothing like the character of the film.
Horrible, just horrible.
Please tell me this is temporary  [-o<

[Disneyland Paris Treasures]

I absolutley HATE, the face character Genie. I may have ,missed some important information regarding it, but why on earth have they done this?  :shock:
My kids would be terrified of that face, it looks nothing like the character of the film.
Horrible, just horrible.
Please tell me this is temporary  [-o<

Don't worry, he is only for the new show on Central Plaza, probably because the show requires face interaction. The "normal" Genie is still being used for the Meet'n'Greets. I don't know why, but I kind of like him. Also I find him much better than the new Hook and Smee face characters used in that new Peter Pan "show":

[gingajen]

I absolutley HATE, the face character Genie. I may have ,missed some important information regarding it, but why on earth have they done this?  :shock:
My kids would be terrified of that face, it looks nothing like the character of the film.
Horrible, just horrible.
Please tell me this is temporary  [-o<

Don't worry, he is only for the new show on Central Plaza, probably because the show requires face interaction. The "normal" Genie is still being used for the Meet'n'Greets. I don't know why, but I kind of like him. Also I find him much better than the new Hook and Smee face characters used in that new Peter Pan "show":

Smee doesn't look quite right to me either, he looks as though he has recently lost a lot of weight from his face, and is sort of carrying the lose skin that people end up with after rapid weight loss, around his middle. I haven't seen Hook yet, so I will reserve judgement there

[dagobert]

Smee looks terrible! In my opinion the new face characters destroy more than they add to the magic. If you can't use the characters in show, then don't do a show with them. They don't look like the ones most people know and love from movies.

I know Disney uses a Genie face character for the musical in DCA, but there you are in a theatre and a lot further away from the character than at such a small show. And according to the Travel Channel production about DL Anaheim, for that musical Disney tries a lot harder to make the actor look like Genie, but I imagine that's too expensive for such small shows.

In my opinion it would have really been better not to do shows with face characters.

[traveller]

What a fantastic trip report Nicolai, you make me feel I was there too  
Thank you very much for that.  
Waiting for more notes from your trip /

[kiki_304]

Great report, thanks for the info.

It's a shame your son got overlooked at the POTC launch!  Obviously the person who chose the child doesn't have kids and understand how upsetting their decision can be for kids.

[gingajen]

Smee looks terrible! In my opinion the new face characters destroy more than they add to the magic. If you can't use the characters in show, then don't do a show with them. They don't look like the ones most people know and love from movies.

I know Disney uses a Genie face character for the musical in DCA, but there you are in a theatre and a lot further away from the character than at such a small show. And according to the Travel Channel production about DL Anaheim, for that musical Disney tries a lot harder to make the actor look like Genie, but I imagine that's too expensive for such small shows.

In my opinion it would have really been better not to do shows with face characters.

I agree. I very much doubt my daughter would even recognise that Genie, and she loves Aladdin! They -hopefully- wouldn't dream of doing a face character Mickey, so why do it to any of the characters? Personally I think the shows should be for original face characters such as Peter Pan.

[Terkina]

Thank you for the nice trip report
Both Smee and Genie face caracters looks afull.  I hope we won't see them often in the park.

[Festival Disney]

Smee probably couldn't me the ruuber head this time due to the fact the show is performed live, i.e. it's not pre recorded or anything, and the voice you hear is the voice of the actor, somthing not achievable when wearing the big head. I don't think he looks that bad though, at least you can tell he's Smee!
Genie on the other hand... looks very bizzare :shock:

[captain rocket]

The Genie character looks like Darth Maul when he gets up in the morning!

[littlemermaid83]

Smee doesn't look quite right to me either, he looks as though he has recently lost a lot of weight from his face, and is sort of carrying the lose skin that people end up with after rapid weight loss, around his middle. I haven't seen Hook yet, so I will reserve judgement there

 :lol:  :lol: