Home

[Handy Andy]

Hi All

When 12 April 2012 - DLRP's 20th Birthday

Who:- My wife Julie, My son Thomas and myself Andy (and a cast of thousands).

We left home at a very early time of 2am on the 12th to catch the 3.30am shuttle from Folkstone to Calais.

After an uneventful drive through the early hours we arrived at the DLRP car park at around 8am and made our way to the park.





We made our way past the 20 or 30 strikers just outside the train station. To be fair they were in good spirits and not bothering anyone.

We were routed to the turnstyles to right hand side near Salon Mickey.

It was a long wait and people were getting agitated by people trying to push in to get to the front.

Around 9.30 we made our way into town square and watched the opening ceremony. I couldn't really see much so moved back to watch the events unfold on the giant screen.

The flashmob dance by the castmembers was amazing.



I then made made my way up Main Street with the Castmembers lined up each side cheering and clapping. The most incredible atmosphere that I can not even begin to describe.




During the chaos I found myself seperated from Julie and Thomas. It was then that I realised that I had left my mobile phone at home.

We eventually met up and made our way to Advetureland for Adventureland celebrates. We were there quite early but were quite near the front and a nice French family asked if Thomas would like to stand with their children right at the front.

The show was incredible with live music and vocals from The Jungle Book, which just happens to be our favourite Disney film.









After the show things got even better as they allowed about 10 children onto the stage for a meet and greet. Guess who got lucky.

A rare Mowgli autograph









More to follow

[BlackPearl]

Great pictures, I guess your son will never ever forget that day  

[Martin B]

How amazing! Meeting Mowgli too! :0)

[MissDisneyisMagical]

How fabulous. Looks like the start of a fantastic trip.

[norhel]

Nice report so far :-)

[ecila]

Lovely photos and report so far! Looking forward to reading the rest  :thumbs:

[Rafael]

Great trip report. Thanks for sharing!

[15MagicalYears]

Awesome pictures, how lucky to get picked for that special meet & greet. Looking forward to the next update.

[dagobert]

Nice trip report Andy!!

[lauralouisemidwinter]

Oh goodness you got to meet some fabby characters and this is only the first part, I along with many others can't wait to see the other parts

[Handy Andy]

Thank you all for the nice comments.  

Part 2

We had a slow walk to Fantasyland and stopped to have a look at the refurb on Captain Hook's pirate ship which is now looking extremely smart and back to how it should look.



On our way we bumped into Peter Pan outside his ride. Another autograph opportunity taken!



We arrived at Castle Courtyard and took up front row spots for the next show at 12.00 noon with Snow White, her prince, all 7 dwarves and Micky and Minnie.

















At the end of the show we managed to get both Minnie and Mickey's autograph.





Our personal opinion is that the Fantasyland show was the weakest of the four we saw but that may be down to personal preference, it was however still a good show and on the plus side we got to see all the dwarves, not so fortunate in getting any of their autographs though. Grumpy certainly stayed in character!

After the show we headed for Discoveryland. On passing through the parade entrance gate we noticed an additional stage off to the left and next to the entrance to Discoveryland station which at first we thought was the stage for the 1.00pm show. A cast member told us that "something special" would be happening at 7.00pm that evening but wouldn't elaborate any further. Mental note - come back at 7.00pm! We continued on round to Orbitron where the show was due to take place.

More to follow....

[Handy Andy]

We arrived at Orbitron for the 1.00pm show and managed to secure front row places again. After a 30 minute wait the cast arrived which included Stitch, Angel, Chip, Dale and Clarice. The show was a dance show to pre-recorded music, very fast moving with some cast members on skates. Personally this wasn't my cup of tea but Julie and Thomas loved it.



















We headed off to Frontierland for the 2.00pm show but unfortunately although we were there early so were many others and we were unable to secure front row spots. I much preferred the live music with this show and it was perfect theming for the land. The cast for the show were a live country band with Big Al, Wendell, Shaker and Liverlips, Goofy and Max with additional cast members dancing.































I can't stress enough how good this show was, though why it was it put on here, when there is a perfectly good theatre a short walk away, I'll never know.

We were now starting to feel the effects of our 1.00am start, we therefore decided to take a break and try to see if we could find the Adagio Apartments which we were staying at for the first time.

[alternativerock123]

Wonderful report so far - I may or may not have tired to spot myself in the Fantasyland photos.    I failed.

Nice to see some photos from another perspective! Looking good.  

[Becksy]

We were inside eating at Cowboy Cookout - quite frustrated, as the band were outside, and so we lots of characters!

[Othersider36]

I have been searching for max everytime i go to i go to a disney park and some cast members don't even know who he is!
you are so lucky! :thumbs: