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[DLP-Photos.com]

Very good report and pics at always :-)
My favorite pics are those from Frontierland and Main Street :-)

Thank you - I could spend an entire trip taking photos in these lands!

Great report and pictures!!

(peoples on benches and gras...grrr...)

Thanks. And grrrrrr indeed - I was so disappointed!

why would anyone think it's ok to climb into a fenced off flower bed and stand on the flowers or let their children play in there! Some people have so little respect it's unreal!

Love all your photos btw

It's really quite impressive that people can behave so bad, isn't it? And thank you.

Great report as expected!!  
 I will also try Lucky Nugget for the 1st time this year. I would have loved to watch the Show that was running years ago... Did you have dinner there? At what time approx.?
I'm also always very annoyed by people climbing over fences or on things and destroying flowers etc!  :evil:  I'm glad to read i'm not the only one!! Nevertheless i can't wait till my trip, which is coming closer... /
Will you let us now what souvenirs you exactly  bought??

Haha, thanks!

Yeah we did have dinner there (the fish'n'chips) - it was around 6-6.30 and there was only a few other tables in use!

When are you going?

Yes, after the final update tomorrow I will do a trip conclusion including my shopping list

[ilovedisneylandparis]

Great Dreams photos! Again they have made me SO excited for my trip (even though it is 11 months away  :oops: ) I agree about the people standing on benches and grass etc, there were lots of people doing it when we were there and it's a shame when you've been waiting for ages

[minnieme]

Brilliant trip report as always, and stunning pictures. Brought back all the magical memories of my trip last month, and also some ideas for next years...especially of where to eat.
I completely agree with you about Hunchback and Tangled in Dreams - when the music starts for Hunchback, I get goosebumps. With the kids tucked up in bed, the rest of the family relaxing in the adjoining rooms, (having seen it the night before), I sneaked out of the Hotel New York with my brother, sprinted through Disney Village, straight to PoC

[minnieme]

oops....for a sneaky ride at 1045pm, and then a last viewing of Dreams....2 "grown-ups" enchanted and awe-struck, we just stood there at the end, unable to move, and I swear my "tough and manly" brother had tears in his eyes!!!

Looking forward to the rest   =D>

[Epcot_Boy]

I loved this Nicolai..........




...........the perfect silhouette, just enough light to make the main subject unmistakable =D>

Also, I'm afraid the trashing of the flowerbeds by adult and child alike has been a growing problem for some years now  Why people think it's fine to jump over fences to get a better view is beyond me............I hope no one on this forum would do such a thing :x  :thumbs:

[DLP-Photos.com]

Great Dreams photos! Again they have made me SO excited for my trip (even though it is 11 months away  :oops: ) I agree about the people standing on benches and grass etc, there were lots of people doing it when we were there and it's a shame when you've been waiting for ages

Thanks - well I am sure that these 11 months will pass by quicker than ever!

oops....for a sneaky ride at 1045pm, and then a last viewing of Dreams....2 "grown-ups" enchanted and awe-struck, we just stood there at the end, unable to move, and I swear my "tough and manly" brother had tears in his eyes!!!

Looking forward to the rest   =D>

What specific restaurants are you now thinking of visiting?

YES! I think Dreams is just the essence of the visions of Walt Disney and Disneyland in general and that is why it hits so hard. It really is a beautiful show!

I loved this Nicolai..........

...........the perfect silhouette, just enough light to make the main subject unmistakable =D>

Also, I'm afraid the trashing of the flowerbeds by adult and child alike has been a growing problem for some years now  Why people think it's fine to jump over fences to get a better view is beyond me............I hope no one on this forum would do such a thing :x  :thumbs:

Thank you - I really like that shot too. It is my FB cover photo at the moment too

Indeed - me and my friend noticed last year too... I don't know how they can prevent it - it seems like a general mismatch of overestimating the guests' ability to behave! I certainly don't hope so either!! Would be quite disappointing...

[pinkboxers]

Thanks for sharing, especially loved the water movement photos! )

[DLP-Photos.com]

Dreams of Memories - Part 5

Rise and shine, Manhattan is waking up! A little after 6 in the morning we were up and getting ready for breakfast at 7 before doing the last packing before EMH... Having enjoyed a delicious, fulfilling breakfast where I decided to enjoy some eggs, potatoes and bacon too, I took some time to walk the corridors by the restaurants. They are filled with world's fair posters, but also luxurious wine cabinets:



THE DELICIOUS FRESHLY PRESSED ORANGE JUICE














In the hotel lobby they were setting up a new photo location for Lilo & Stitch... To be honest it seemed a bit out of place to have a hawaiian beach in the middle of this classy lobby. Also to have workers working on it while guests walk by seemed to ruin the magic a bit too:



We had a quick walk by the ice rink to check on the weather... It was a sunny morning and quite warm too, so I quickly decided to opt for my shorts! Having packed the last things and left the luggage with the hotel, we headed for EMH only 15 minutes past 8 or so... As said it was a beautiful sunny morning:



Taking the last morning stroll through Disney Village we walked around enjoying the silence and peace of an almost empty Village - but the real joy to behold awaited us inside the park...



As we walked under Main Street Station we quickly realized that Main Street was filled with the cars - they were almost all of them out with the sad exception of the horse-drawn vehicles! We decided to hop onboard one of them and take this magical drive down Main Street U.S.A - maybe we didn't behave very good, because we ended up in the back of the Paddy Wagon behind bars:

[youtube:3tvu7u6n]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4z__L9gioA[/youtube:3tvu7u6n]

Luckily we were asked to exit to the most beautiful view one could imagine: our beautiful castle in the morning sunshine! She is a beauty to behold in every weather, but a sunny morning is one of the best... Which why I find it weird I apparently didn't take one of my 1300 photos at this time!

Well it must have been because we wanted to take full advantage of EMH before queueing up for Big Thunder Mountain! We quickly headed for Buzz, which was a complete walk on... To my BIG disappointment I performed worse than monday and ended up with the mediocre score of 187.000 - though it was still quite enough to beat my mum, who only got 7.500 points. To escape from my disappointment I planned on travelling to outer space shot out of the Columbiad Cannon... Apparently nobody else had this plan, so I walked straight on and without any queueing I suddenly found myself soaring through meteors until I finally saw that beautifully exploding supernova! I got a seat in the middle of the train which is my favourite part by far - the ride is nowhere near as rough here as it is in the front or especially the back rows!

Afterwards we decided to walk around the back of Discoveryland - a corner of the park that is being desserted now with the closure of Captain EO and the often closed Pizza Planet... Made me think that the propoed Star Wars mini land could be a good choice if done with the needed amount of detail and respect to the films... The area around Star Tours is now the only thing to see here:





Besides Wall-E and EVE who despite the quality of the figures really feels out of place!!





We jumped into Buzz again, but we could just as easily have decided not to... For the second time (out of four) on this trip I got a gun that didn't work! You could clearly see that the gun was broken as the front was multicoloured all the time looking burned or something. I wonder why they didn't cover this space cruiser up, so people couldn't use it?

Well, we finished monday with still two essential classics to try before the trip would be perfect: Peter Pan's Flight and Big Thunder Mountain! Peter is luckily part of the EMH and even though the queue was pretty full this morning, we only queued up for 15 minutes before we boarded the magical pirate ship and flew over London and Neverland! A pleasant flight in light conditions allowing for a good view of Londons traffic and the details of Neverland... I also noticed in the queue line that a large amount of the ugly writing had been removed!

One classic down - only one to go! With BTM as our next goal, but still 30 minutes until the opening of Frontierland we took our time walking around the Fantasyland awakening:





When we exited the castle it was clear to us that this would be a busy day and that we might not get to try that many rides:



With the queue for Frontierland (and of course mainly BTM) already being quite big we decided to simply just queue up.. A family of ducks quickly learned that the grass fields outside the Frontierland entrance was the place to be as an entire group of children went completely crazy feeding the ducks with massive amounts of bread. I swear to Walt that Donald would have been very jealous of his family had he seen this!





10.00 came closer and people started to push their way forward and when the single CM responsible for this queue opened the land she was nearly run over by children, parents and adults in general rushing towards their first destination: BTM. Unfortunately for all this Olympics running team of guests they were stopped abruptly by the CM opening BTM - he took his time slowly walking through the queue line with the guests behind him - it was so funny to see how cold he was in setting the pace and how he enjoyed it!!

When entering the house both queue lines were open but almost everyone took the right line. I saw this and decided to take the left line and that was a good choice as we almost walked straight through the house! When we arrived at the stairs this queue line was filled too and the entire house was just the way we know it: full! But we ended up only queueing for 10 minutes, so MORNING TIP FOR BTM: be sure to use BOTH queue lines! They are open for a reason but often people just take the one everybody else is taking!

As said we ended up only waiting for 10 minutes, but the ride was as always worth every wait. This really is one of the best rides in both parks and the atmosphere in the queue line and on the ride itself... I LOVE IT!

When exiting the waiting time was already 50 minutes, so we knew that this would be the only time we tried it. At this time I found it reassuring that I was returning in August, but I felt bad for my mum who has really learned to love this ride and now she only got to try it once. I have to take her again some time, so she can try it again (Yeah, I know you are reading along, mum)

Now it was time for the quintessential ride for our trip down memory lane.. The very first attraction we had tried on our first visit in '94... An attraction that we haven't been on during out latest visits: DISNEYLAND RAILROAD! WE fondly remembered our very first ride where I ended up getting a nosebleed in the Grand Canyon Tunnel... To this day I swear this was due to pure excitement of actually being in Disneyland  :lol:

I have not been on this attraction since '09, so took my time to enjoy the atmosphere of the beautiful Main Street Station and we had some time to enjoy it as we queued up for 75 minutes...









We talked about that it took up quite some time on a very busy day and we realized that if we still wanted to catch the 1.30 Tarzan show this would be the last ride of the trip... But as I said: "If we shouldn't ride this on this trip, when should we?" This was our first Disneyland ride ever, so we simply had to and in this atmosphere one should think that it would be no problem waiting...







... however, it can be quite a test of your patience when you have the family in front of you that we had... It was one woman with 8 children and she didn't have any control of them! Wow... Really... just wow.. Add to that a stroller in the queue line - handled by the children! They hit people with the stroller, they didn't move and when the celebration train came out on Main Street all the children suddenly left the queue to have a look - even though our queue was moving along! The worst part, however, was when the third train had left the station without us boarding... We were now very close to the end of the queue line, but suddenly they wanted to get out of the queue (having spent 60 minutes in it!!). The took the stroller out of the queue and left it looking for an exit.. We were just happy, because we were now closer on getting onboard the next train! Little did we know that this group couldn't find an exit and for that reason all of a sudden wanted to enter the queue again - of course in the same spot as they had left! A spot that was now gone - but not to them... The stroller was suddenly pushed into the queue and boom! seconds later so was all of them...  :twisted:

Soon after we saw this sight and knew it "was over" and it was time for the most enchanting train ride in Europe:





When we arrived back at Main Street Station it was already 12.30 = one hour until the beginning of Tarzan and we needed some lunch too! Time to turn on the efficiency - we decided that Col. Hathi was probably the best choice as it was close to Tarzan and also they always serve pretty quick! We were right and without really knowing how we succeeded we sat in the Chaparral Theatre as the gorillas emerged from the rainforest and performed a show of pure class! Some of the acrobatics are truly amazing and also the multilingual soundtrack in a way feels so dated it still cannot ruin the wonder of Phil Collins' catchy tunes! When the children gathered during Trashin' the Camp both me and my mum got goosebumps - clearly remembering the time I had this wonderful experience... I remember it clearly and to see new kids being able to join the magic in this way is always amazing! We were very happy that we got to see it in the end

It was waaaay to early to leave the park already, but we also quickly realized that the waiting times were too long to try any attractions with even Phantom Manor and Pirates of the Caribbean being 60 minutes and 75 minutes respectively!!

In stead we opted for more atmosphere:







Arriving at the shores of Adventureland we noticed that Hook had been so kind to open up his ship for visitors, so we took our time exploring this awesome refurb! This is the state we all want to see our ship in:

















it was funny to see this cast member placed on the ship to secure guests behaviour.. He really became a guest favourite as he acted along and he even ended up writing quite a few autographs!



We continued our journey round the park through Skull Rock to the back of Fantasyland:















Until we found ourselves in the castle courtyard greated by classic Disney tunes played by the Disneyland Marching Band! Sunny afternoon, live music and filled with people - this is Disneyland! This is what we still remember from the first trips - the memories that we go back to relive. A perfect end to a perfect trip:









And just as you think it cannot be more perfect, you exit the castle and you are able to take this 360 spin:









This is the view we should always have from Central Plaza!!

Doing the last bit of shopping in Harrington's I overheard an elderly american woman telling the CM about her and her husband who lived in New York and was used to visit both american parks each year. They were now in Paris and had to visit our park - even just for one day. They had fallen in love with our park - the most beautiful of them all and with many attractions better than the american counterparts. Lovely to hear and the perfect picture of who Disneyland attracts: EVERYONE.

We enjoyed the last walk trough Fantasia Gardens...









... before ending up at the Hotel once again collecting our bags and preparing for the 20 hour bus drive, which would see lots of unattended luggage at the bus station, our driver nearly getting in a fight with some passengers and finally a young man arrested by the german police as he wasn't allowed to leave France. Another nightmare of a bus trip surrounding the most wonderful DREAM we had both had for years. A dream of a stay reminding us why we both fell in love with Disneyland back in '94. This truly was a dream of memories!

[Disneymumof2]

WOW - Thank you so much, your trip report is such an amazing read, you really put across how you feel about the place!  Your pictures are brilliant, gives me lots of inspiration for when i go!  I am already pretty excited about my trip next week, and you have just made me even more so with all your enthusiasm!  Thank you!!!

[amanda08]

Nicolai, what a great trip report and fantastic photo's! I would love to bump into you one day in DLP as your enthusiasm and appreciation is contagious! Also have to say - 20 hour bus ride to get there??? wow, that is true dedication!
 
Amanda

[Epcot_Boy]

... before ending up at the Hotel once again collecting our bags and preparing for the 20 hour bus drive, which would see lots of unattended luggage at the bus station, our driver nearly getting in a fight with some passengers and finally a young man arrested by the german police as he wasn't allowed to leave France. Another nightmare of a bus trip surrounding the most wonderful DREAM we had both had for years. A dream of a stay reminding us why we both fell in love with Disneyland back in '94. This truly was a dream of memories!

I think if I were you I'd fly, or get the train, next time you visit :lol:  :thumbs:

Great report Nicolai, with some excellent photos. You've really wetted my apetite for my forthcoming visit. Thanks for sharing your hols with us and most importantly, sparing the time to post this extensive report =D>  =D>  :thumbs:

[never2old]

Oh, thank you so much for sharing your trip with us!! It's just a pleasure to read. And the pictures... Well, what can I say? Amazing. It's wonderful to see the park looking so beautiful, seeing it through your eyes.

And I particularly liked the one with the orange juice... It's the one thing I always look forward to when we go to the HNY, their orange juice for breakfast!!

And now I think I'll go and read your report again from the start, while we wait for your next trip!!

PS Don't take the bus next time, you seem to have a bit of bad luck when it comes to bus rides!!

[mickeymouse]

Amazing report (as always) ! x

[DLP-Photos.com]

WOW - Thank you so much, your trip report is such an amazing read, you really put across how you feel about the place!  Your pictures are brilliant, gives me lots of inspiration for when i go!  I am already pretty excited about my trip next week, and you have just made me even more so with all your enthusiasm!  Thank you!!!

I'm the one thanking you - I am very happy, because that is exactly what I want with my trip reports. To share my thoughts about the place and inspiring others with my photos. That is always what I look for in other users' trip reports

Nicolai, what a great trip report and fantastic photo's! I would love to bump into you one day in DLP as your enthusiasm and appreciation is contagious! Also have to say - 20 hour bus ride to get there??? wow, that is true dedication!
 
Amanda

Thank you - I have only ever bumped into one forum member before and I forgot to say hi  :oops: That is dedication and I am going through all of it one more time in just a little more than two weeks

I think if I were you I'd fly, or get the train, next time you visit :lol:  :thumbs:

Great report Nicolai, with some excellent photos. You've really wetted my apetite for my forthcoming visit. Thanks for sharing your hols with us and most importantly, sparing the time to post this extensive report =D>  =D>  :thumbs:

Haha, yeah... If it wasn't for my fear of flying I would fly for sure - much easier, much quicker and much safer too.

Thank you - and you know now I am now eagerly anticipating at least a lot of photos from you when you get back!  / Have a fab time!!

Oh, thank you so much for sharing your trip with us!! It's just a pleasure to read. And the pictures... Well, what can I say? Amazing. It's wonderful to see the park looking so beautiful, seeing it through your eyes.

And I particularly liked the one with the orange juice... It's the one thing I always look forward to when we go to the HNY, their orange juice for breakfast!!

And now I think I'll go and read your report again from the start, while we wait for your next trip!!

PS Don't take the bus next time, you seem to have a bit of bad luck when it comes to bus rides!!

Aww, thanks - that really means a lot.. I'm always looking for new ways to portray our beautiful park and I really think I found some new ways this time... Now what to do next time? Any suggestions on themes or anything?

That orange juice was priceless! Amazing - I'm going to sneak into Manhattan Club on my way from Santa Fe in August.... Because, honestly, their juice will be quite boring now

Well I hope the read was as pleasant the second time as it was the first time

Amazing report (as always) ! x

Thank you very much - and then you can happily wait just three more weeks and my next report will be starting!

[DLP-Photos.com]

I also promised to post all my shopping... So here we go:

4 Vinylmation - 3 of them are from the Alice in Wonderland series, while the Alice itself is from the Animation series:





A World of Disney exclusive "Disney by Britto" cup:



A Minnie christmas ornament - I had the Mickey counterpart already:



7 pins - 3 of them limited edition 20th Anniversary pins:



Some Kitchen stuff for my new apartment (moving out on the 1st of August):



And finally my World of Disney exclusive lithography: