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[nathalie]

Maybe some of you have read my Halloween report, then you may have read I've been diagnosed with a severe case of anxiety & panic disorder.

All this started back in August 2012, and I really thought that after more then 6 months I'd be doing so much better.  Not  -_-
I've had more panic attacks from November till now, about 9 or so, then I had from August till beginning of November (I think I had 3 in that period).
Well, things haven't been going great, so I guess that explains the high number of attacks.

The closer it got to February 15th, the more anxious I was starting to get.
Also, I notice that when being on the train/bus, I'm more comfortable then when I'm in the car.
When being on the train/bus I have no contact with the driver, and I just look outside the window.
When being in the car, my boyfriend gets annoyed at other drivers, which makes me annoyed and anxious, lol.

So, I take 2 kinds of medication.
Xanax, to stay calm.
Sulpiride, to depress my way of thinking / psychosis, so that I don't get a stomach-ache, nausea whenever I feel an anxiety or panic attack coming.

Sulpiride I take 3 times a day, and I already started taking it 5 days in advance, hoping it would already work by the time we needed to leave on Friday.
Without these 2 medications, it's impossible for me to go somewhere.
(I have been to the city one time without medication, by bus, but I know I can get off any minute, and there's a bus back home every 15 minutes, so that reassures me).

Anyways ...

It wasn't my intention to actually go with my boyfriend.
After my Halloween trip my sister was kind of annoying all the time "you didn't ask me ?".
So, OK, I'll ask her next time then.  I'll check some prices during a school holiday in February (the week of Valentine's day).
79 € for the Kyriad hotel, 2 persons / 1 night, pretty good deal.
So I ask her if she wants to come, and she tells me: no, there's nothing to do there now.
OK ...
I tell all this to my boyfriend, and he's like: oh, this can be your Valentine!
Alright, so my boyfriend is going!  Hehe.
(he won't ever again go though ... long story short ... babies make him cry, because I don't want any kids and he does, and it was apparently really hard for him to be in Disneyland surrounded by him).

About 2 weeks ago, word got out Marie might be at the park, which I texted my sister.
She texted me a not so friendly text back  
Well, she didn't wanna come  

When I putted the picture of me and Marie on my FB that same evening while being in the hotel, she replied with "I hate you", haha, not my problem really  

My sister is mad about Marie ever since she was a little kid.
(my sister will be 18 in June)

The day before we left I went to the doctor to get my letter so I could go and ask for an Easy Acces Card (EAC).
He writes it in French, reads it to me, and I'm like  o_O  "I don't know, I don't understand any French" lol.
Well, I do, but not such medical terms.
I also already had a letter from my psychologist, but turns out they aren't really doctor's and in some cases might not be exepted if they write a letter like that.


February 15th

I was going to get a special ticket you can order from the official website (Belgian users) a few days before we leave for 54 €.
But wow, were we lucky when the "bring-a-friend" tickets were back from January till March, for only 20 € if you have an annual pass, which I do  ^^

The night before, emptying my boyfriends van, it was LOADED !!  When it's empty, it's a much nicer drive obviously.

Was planning on leaving at 5am.
So at 4am the alarm went off.  Quick shower, dry my hair, take my medication, pack all clothes / certain stuff we needed, make sandwiches, and also not really realizing what I'm actually doing or where I'm heading.
I think the Sulpiride really did it's job by taking it 5 days in advance, because during the entire ride up there, I was perfecatly fine !!!
All animals (chickens and rabbits) needed food and drinks, and we finally managed to leave at 5.45am.
I'd rather go to the hotel first, hoping we'd already be able to get to our room and put our stuff away, or if we couldn't yet, I always just like to let them know we are here and we won't be back till late in the evening.

In France you have to pay toll to drive on their highways.
First time you need a ticket, second time after an hour or so, you need to pay.
I can't remember we ever didn't had a traffic jam for both toll booths!
It all went so fast, awesome!

The GPS said we'd be at the hotel by 10am.
But once driving, the time limit just went down until 9h35, great!  Hehe.
We did stop 2 times, to strecht our legs, get something to drink, and got to the hotel at 10am!
We needed to go off the highway 1 exit before the parks exit.
So we drove by the park from the back, nice, seeing it from the other side for a change.
Go inside the hotel, our room wasn't ready yet.
At first, I wanted to take the bus to the park, because I was scared there'd be a huge traffic jam to get on the parking lot, as I've never experienced anything else.
But we did end up going by car, haha, because I didn't knew at what time the last bus would leave back to the hotel, and I didn't wanna rush out of the park like a maniac to catch the bus.
Good thing, as I was exhausted by the end of the day   :/

Driving up there my boyfriend mentioned we didn't bring any cookies and stuff for on the road (besides sandwiches), and it would be nice for the next day to have something to eat on the way home, and asking if there is like a grocery store nearby.
There is a complete mall closeby!!  Val d'Europe.  I've been there in 2007, and I remembered they have a huge warehouse in there, and a toy store, hehe.
Which was nice, as I am looking for a 3D Lion King puzzle, which was being sold in French toy stores.

On our way to the parks, we drove around a bit, we followed the wrong signs, lol.
We followed "parking Disneyland hotel" and we needed "parking Disneyland parks".
At 10.20am we arrived at the parking lot, no traffic jam  o_O  Only 4 cars in front of us in our lane, sweet!
Row 10.  At the point I'm thinking: wow, we have never been parked this closeby!  (until the next day, we had row 7, haha).

Bag checks!
Again, noticeable that the 1 x-ray line does not move along very fast!
Odd check for me ... I open my bag, but in front there's another zipper with compartment, and my cell phone is in there.  The security is touching it because he felt something, I offered to open the zipper, and he's like: no, it's alright.
It could have been God knows what ...  These Disney check-ups are so laughable really ...

While waiting in line to get a ticket for my boyfriend, I got so annoyed -_-
It's almost our turn, 4 people in front of us.
We were in line and they curve a lot, next to us is a curve, and there's a couple standing "next to us", while actually being about 20 people behind us.
That couple just started talking to the couple that was in front of us, asking what kind of tickets they were going to buy.
They responded with a 1 day / 2 parks ticket.
(my French at times can be so good, if I want too, haha)
So the people "next to us" are like: oh, but we both have an annual pass, so if you want, we can come down and stand with you, and you can get a ticket for 20 € each!

Ummm ... OK ??  What if everyone started to address strangers, so you can skip 20 people in front of you??
I would be so embarresed to do so!
People might disagree with me, but I personally don't think this is something you do.
If everybody is going to do this, and not you, everyone will get in front of you and you'll get pushed at the back of the line.
Not cool -_-

I have to say though, I don't know what takes some people that long to get their tickets.
1 couple stood there for like 10 minutes.
There were only about 4-5 people in front of us, and we had to wait 20 minutes for the 1 ticket we needed  :/

I was going to bring something for a friend, 2 Valentine pins, and because it already got released a few days before we arrived, and it's a limited edition of 600, so I wanted to go look for it first on the way to the passport bureau to get my EAC.
I got lucky, and they still had them!

I didn't really make a lot of pictures, as there were no decorations at this time of year, and I was like: I already have so many pictures of these things ...
And I get annoyed getting my camera out of my bag all the time, sometimes I had it around my neck, and even then ...

We arrive at the passport bureau and the regular door is closed.
Instead there's a CM in front of it, and a rope making 2 lines for people to walk through.
Everyone needed to tell this CM what you were there for, so I tell him I'd like an EAC.
The line was on the right of the rope, but he let me through on the left, where there's no other people waiting, while on the right there was quite a line already.
We get to the other door to where the ropes leads us, there's another CM stopping everying, asking them again what you where there for.
I also tell this CM I'm coming for an EAC, he says "1 moment ..." leaves, comes back, and immidiatly lets us through, brings us to a booth and says "when this person is done, it's your turn".
Already there we got a little privilege to not having to wait so long to get the pass.
I only got the pass for our 2 days, I asked if I could get it for as long as my AP was valid, but she told me I could only do that if I had a handicap-card (the girl that was with us for Halloween last year doesn't have one eather, and did get her EAC for the term of her AP).
Oh well, just get a new one on the next trip.

So, alright, let the fun begin!
The 20th anniversary train had just left with all the characters, so we started with Buzz Lightyear!
We get there, a 45-minute wait.
So I tell my boyfriend: OK, let's go through the exit, I can't wait that long inside.
Then suddenly he tells me: no, I don't feel right using the card, you go, I'd rather just wait in line.
Umm, what?  o_O
Did I just went through all that trouble, payed an extra doctor's visit to get that letter, for nothing??
It's not that I can't wait in line, but a max for 15-20 minutes, because when waiting inside somewhere it gets too much, I'm OK while waiting outside, as there's fresh air.
He totally refused to come with me, and I just got so mad and upset  :sad:
I sat on a bench for 10 minutes or so, being mad and trying to calm down.

I finally gave him his way, as I wanted to do something, and I just wasn't in the mood to actually have a huge fight at Disneyland!
And indeed ... while waiting outside, I was OK, but I could just feel the tension rise, and started to feel sick to my stomach!
And then I get to here about 10 times "I'm proud of you" and "I'm here with you", but at that time, I wasn't proud at myself at all!  Waiting for 45 minutes, with cramps, nausea and a closed throat.  I'm not proud of that  
Once the waiting line went inside the building, it just got so hard, it was warm in there, no fresh air, and starting to have trouble breathing because I couldn't get any fresh air.
Luckily, once inside, the line moved pretty fast.



I was quite relieved when getting off the ride outside again in the fresh air.
Also, we were lucky about the weather!
It was quite sunny, there wasn' t much wind, so it wasn't really cold at all.

Next thing we see is Star Tours.  Also a 45 minute wait.  I did not want to go through what I just went through, and my boyfriend also said "we did this last time", so we skipped it.
He's not much Disney minded, so he's more like, if he gets to do every ride just once, it's enough for him, unlike us, we can do every ride 100 times, lol.



I wanted to go to BTM next, and again we see a 20th anniversary train leave.
It's supposed to leave at the hour, not .30, but apparently that day it did leave at .30 each time.
So we just move on towards the castle, and suddenly Robin Hood and Co. walks by us!  I wanted to follow them, but then I see they stop somewhere, and ropes are being used for some reason.
(apparently, these were private sets for "the prince" who was there for Valentine, ordered heaps of characters, and paraded around the park to do these private meet & greets, while other regular guests could only watch and be sad they couldn't take a picture with certain characters).
It all looked weird, so we just moved along.





By the Peter Pan ride we see Peter, Wendy, Smee and Hook.
I wanted a picture with someone, didn't care who, haha, but just as I'm standing between the crowds, a CM comes to take them away :sad:

Peter was cute though ...





So, we were trying to get to BTM, but apparently I kind of lost my way a little, lol, and suddenly we pass Jack Sparrow.
It's nice having a picture with a face character, because there's no pushing, and he picks you out himself.
I had to explain a man what was going on, lot of Belgian people there that day!  He was Flemish, and he was "yelling" at the CM what's going on, and how it works, but apparently he didn't understand what the CM said, so I told him that Jack goes from the left to right, picks you out himself, so everybody gets a turn.

I didn't quite like this Jack.  He had the accent right, but he didn't move very much, and he didn't say very much eather.
At least not at this point.  A friend told me she had the same person as Jack 2 years ago, and he was great, she said.
I liked the one we got at Halloween much better.
This one asked me where I was from, so I say "Belgium".
I think you all know, Belgium is directly located next to France (Belgium is in the middle of France, Germany and The Netherlands), and he says to me: oh wauw, that must have been a long trip from Belgium by boat??
Umm ... maybe geography wasn't his best subject in school  :p  haha!



So, around 1.30pm we pass BTM, but it was awefully quiet while walking up there, turned out it wasn't running
(it did open again later in the afternoon, but we didn't go back there the rest of the day)
While walking to Phantom Manor, we here an announcement about it, but couldn't really understand what it said.
Only a 5 minute wait at PM!
Each time this attraction stops while I'm in there at least twice "evil spirits have entered the room ..." maybe they should close it for a full check-up sometime.







I wanted to go back to the castle, to see if we could catch the last train that was supposed to be at 2pm, but nothing  :sad:

Also, I noticed at my 4 previous trips the park was CROWDED beyond believe!  And today, it's very quiet.  There's loads of people obviously, but it's not really that crowded, which was nice!  Being able to walk around piecefully and not bumping into someone else every second.

Around 2pm we were starting to get a bit hungry.  My boyfriend is so used to at eating at 12, so his biological clock was ticking, lol.
We just went to get a burger, and then later that day we'd get a pizza.
Videopolis does not know what "fast-food" means  *sigh*.
We stood in line for 20 minutes, and there were only like, 6 people in front of us.  Thing is, there is 1 cash-register for 2 lines, I don't think it really works, as it holds up both lines when they can't follow the orders quickly in the kitchen.
Luckily it wasn't all that crowded, so we immidiatly find a place to sit.
I have to say though, whenever going to McDonalds I always take 2 burgers.  At Disney, 1 is already enough.



At 4pm I wanted to see the "descent of the stairs" at the Disneyland Hotel.  Had heard about, now wanted to see it, since I've been bitten a little bit by the character-pictures, lol.
By the time we had eaten it was about 3pm, so had to be really carefull if we wanted to do something.
There was a 50 minute line for Peter Pan, so if we would wait in line, we wouldn't make it to the Disneyland Hotel.
And also, I couldn't stand 50 minutes in line again, things didn't went so great while being in line at Buzz's, and I was feeling pretty good, so didn't wanna do anything to make me feel sick again.
So this time, I did use the EAC!
After about 5 minutes we were allowed onto the ride.
While waiting, my boyfriend is standing behind me, rubbing my back/shoulders, and I could just tell, that he was anxious!
Isn't this card for me?  Aren't I the one who has to use it?  Meaning, aren't I the one who needs to have the guts to use it?  Because I was kind of scared about that, being to shy to even go to the exit and use it.

When getting of the ride, we headed over to the Disneyland Hotel.
Boyfriend wanted to warm up first, so we went looking for a place on Main Street that has coffee.
While waiting to be served his coffee, he sees this piece of cake that kind of looks OK, lol.
Turns out to be carrot cake with cream cheese topping, oh man, it was GOOD!
I don't like raisons at all, but the cake had some, and I ate it all!  Haha!  So good!

Moving along ... we get to the exit of the park, I had to ask a CM where the entrance to the hotel was, as I'd never been inside, so didn't knew where to go, hehe.

We get inside, I see someone familiar already sitting on the sofa with her boyfriend.
I asked her if she saw someone interesting today, and she says they had just seen Marie!
She had just did a 30-minute set, and would be back at 4pm for another 30 minutes.
Darn ... the show in the lobby starts at 4pm  

Well, we waited until the show started, watched which characters came out, and then quickly go back outside into the park to catch Marie!  

















I have to say, I expected a lot more from the hotel, I wasn't really impressed by the lobby.
I thought it would all be much more fancy.
And even though I've been wanting to see what that little show is all about for so long, Marie meant just a little more, as she only comes out on Valantine's day apparently, so after a few photo's from the characters coming down the stairs, we left.
Just have to do that another time  ^^

And yes, there she is!
She was behind a rope with a CM who helped taking pictures and putting down autographs.
(no people allowed behind the rope on her side)
It was very quiet.  I thought loads of people would be there, pushing each other out of the way (like they normally do in DLRP), but none of that, it was nice!

She was so cute!  Haha!
You could tell the person doing this was having so much fun!
When it was my turn, she totally hugged me, and I wished I could her home with me!  Haha  



When I putted this picture on my FB while being at the hotel, I tagged my sister in it, and she replied with "I hate you" and something like "amgirjgariaohfajrlkejgkeajgi", whaha  





Because we were probably only going to be at the parks for this 1 day, I suggested we'd go to the other park for a bit until that one closes after the show in the hotel.
Since we were seeing Marie now, we went straight from there to the other park.

First, the 2 big shops.  Off course, lol.  Where we purchased some things while leaving the park.

Cursh Coaster was only 45 minutes!  I had never seen the waiting time this low  o_O
We stood there for a few seconds, watching the line move, but it didn't seem to move very quickly.
There's no fast-pass for this thing, which is stupid.
And I didn't knew where the exit was, or if you could even enter with the EAC, so unfortunetly we skipped it.

The flying carpets, boyfriend didn't like that, is for little kids  :p
Cars ... which is kind of like the teacups, but they switch plates, so the little Car you're in also moves from one turning plate to another, it's very spinning ...
He didn't quite like that, as he doesn't do well in such things that spin that hard, so that's understandable.

I look behind me, and there's Pluto on his photo-location!
Only 10 people in line, so I wanted a picture, hehe.
Suddenly the CM comes behind us and closes the line, by closing the little gates.
People didn't seem to understand, and just jumped over  -_-  suddenly there's another 10 people behind us.
Since the CM was willing to take everybody's picture, it was a perfect time to have a picture with the both of us.



Then we went into Slinky!  It's just a little coaster thing that makes circles, lol.
No line, awesome, we went through and got to go straight onto the ride.

We heard the CM at Pluto tell people that the park would close at 6pm, and therefor most rides would close at 5pm, we took his word for this, lol, and just walked around the Studio's for a bit, taking some pictures.
Tram Tours was closed, I knew this, still a shame, I like that one.









We headed back to the main park, and I needed to get some things for a few people who asked me if I could bring them something.
So we went on looking for those things, find another thing to eat, and then it'd be almost time to watch Dreams.



Boyfriend again wanted something to heat up, so we went back to the same place we went before for coffee and another lovely piece of carrot cake!
The cake was quite heavy, after 5 bites I was full, lol.









After I bought everything I needed we went to Colonel Hathi's pizza hut.
It appeared to be closed??  





Then I remembered "Bella Notte" also a place for pizza and pasta.  But I never take a map of the parks, and I should have done this today, because we were walking all over the place, but just couldn't find the restaurant.
I was hungry, my feet were like they were on fire, they hurt so much (definatly was wearing the wrong shoes), so I was getting quite annoyed, lol.
We made the choice then to go back to Videopolis for a burger.

While walking up there, I was thinking we could maybe do Autopia, but turned out that was closed aswell.  Can't remember if it was planned or not.

At Videopolis, again, same story ... this time we waited a bit longer, about 25 minutes.
It was 7.15pm by the time we had find a spot and we could eat.
While passing the castle around 6.40pm we would already see loads of people sitting down on the street, waiting for Dreams!

About 7.45pm we got back to the castle, and looked for a place to sit down for a bit and wait till Dreams started.
We found a spot, looking down on Main Street.


   


My pictures this time aren't as good as they were with Halloween





























































My feet were really killing me  -_-
I will never wear those shoes again, lol (my Mustang booties).
Around 9pm we got to the hotel, and I was eager to try their internet, hehe.
It totally worked, I thought it was going to be very slow, but it was a very fast connection.
I checked my FB, putted the picture of Marie on there, hehe, and went to bed!



Saturday, February 16th

Day 1 we did only 4 rides, but my boyfriend was like: we did the other rides last time.
So it was OK for him.  Not so much for me, haha.

My boyfriend can't start the day without having breakfast, and apparently I booked without, so had to pay extra for his breakfast the previous day when we were at the hotel on arrival.
The bed was quite bigger then we were used to, I think another 3 people could have fitted, lol.

We both got awake at about 8am, so my boyfriend could go to breakfast between 8-8.20am.
I don't usually eat in the morning, never have, but since I'm on these meds which are pretty heavy I should eat something before taking them.
Though, I would only eat like 1 or 2 croissants, which wasn't worth spending 11 € on, so I asked my boyfriend if he could bring back a croissant for me.
When he got back he told me all the things he ate ... 11 € well spend!  Haha.
While eating my stomach seemed to turn against me ... luckily by the time we arrived back at The Village I was feeling better again.



Ugly curtains  :sick:




About 9.15am we checked out of the hotel.
Again, I thought it was easier to go by bus to the parks again, but then again, when going by car, we could immidiatly leave, instead of the bus taking us back to the hotel first, so we went by car.

At 9.25am we arrive at the parking lot, again, only 3 cars in front of us in our line, wow, these 2 days were great, lol!
Row 7, nice and close!

So, we weren't going into the parks today, but just explore The Village a little bit.
I also wanted to go and check out Hotel New York.

Before entering The Village, bag-check again.  It makes me laugh everytime how they do this.  They hardly look sometimes, it's a waiste of time with some securities.

We started with the World of Disney store.
Mainly looking, lol, and if I wanted something, we'd get it on our way back.
The Disney Store was closed, would open at 3pm  
But they did have posters on their doors saying which other shops there were open right now, and which way they were, hehe.

We went inside the Disney Galery, store where they have Traditions, Snowglobes, Paintings, vinyls, etc ... and the Fashion store, they have mainly clothes you can't find in the park itself, a bit more fancy.
A few months ago I had seen a Princess Hoodie on the Disneystore.com website, but they didn't had my size anymore.
I found out they also sell it in Paris, was hoping to get it, but also not my size.
My boyfriend asked a CM if they had an XL, and he said "not anymore" ... so it made us understand they have it, but not right now, so I'll just look again another time.



We got to the "end of the street" and took some pictures.





We ended up not going to Hotel New York, because with coming back there was also a bag-check, and the line was pretty long to get back inside.











While being at The Rainforest Café boutique, I notice drinks are much cheaper then at the park!  There's a nice tip!

I do think Rainforest Café in London looks much nicer.













Jeremy Irons' hand-prints.
As a true Lion King fan, must have a picture of these, lol.





On the way back to the World of Disney store, I got a black Marie pillow for my sister, for when she turns 18 in June, got myself 2 pins at the WOD store, and then we headed back to the car, off to the mall of Val d'Europe!





At Val d'Europe we only went inside the toy store where I bought a Lion King puzzle, and the grocery store, where I bought another Lion King puzzle, and some cookies and stuff for on the road, and coco-pads for my Senseo machine (it's a coffee machine with pads, and they make hot-coco pads, but not being sold in Belgium anymore).
We got something to drink and a little thing to eat at McDonalds.



On the way home we stopped twice.  Once in France 'cause I was hungry again, once in Belgium to get gass.
Also the toll on the way back, no traffic jam!
These 2 rides were just awesome, I've been by car/bus a few times to DLRP now, and none of the trips went so smooth as did one did!

At 5pm we were home again!
After about 5 hours being in the car, my boyfriend wasn't even completely out of the car, and he already starts pulling out weeds in the front yard  o_O
So I guess his yard is still much more fun then Disneyland is, haha!

Apart from the Buzz-incident, we had a great time together, well deserved!
And loads and loads of Belgians we saw/heard, which was cool, hehe.


My goods!!!
- Simba musical plush
- pin Stitch & Angel, Valentine
- pin Ariel chibi jewel



And I had to bring stuff for 5 other people.
Apperently the princess pins are very popular amongs US-traders, so I had to bring them a few.

[Robert97]

Amazing pictures and great report.

[julesk]

Great Report and pictures.  

[nathalie]

Thanks both  

Wasn't so happy with the Dreams pics, but glad some did turn out alright.

[ed-uk]

Good photos thanks for posting. I always enjoy looking at photos of Dreams,  DLP is at its most magical after dark.

[TigerLily]

Great report and pictures! Lovely ones of Marie - my daughter LOVES that character :-)

[nathalie]

Thanks!

My sister was really bummed, haha, can't say I didn't ask her to come, lol.

I wish they'd put the Aristocats in the park a bit more now, they got the costumes.

[Aurora1]

I`m glad you enjoyed your trip!Thanks for posting TR and pics! They are great!
Me too, I would love to see the Ariatocats in the parc! I stil love the movie!
Aurora1

[ulak]

Nice report - i read it all. Thank you!

[cinderslg]

Thanks for sharing  
I love your musical Simba did you buy it in disney or val de europe? Was there a ce selection of toy at val ??

[nathalie]

Thanks all!  

Thanks for sharing  
I love your musical Simba did you buy it in disney or val de europe? Was there a ce selection of toy at val ??

I bought him at the park  
They didn't have him in all stores though, mainly the ones in Adventureland.

There's quite a big toy store at Val d'Europe.
I got 2 Lion King puzzles there, hehe.
And there's also an Auchan, which is a huge grocerystore, but they also have clothes, and toys.

[cinderslg]

Thanks again

[Rafael]

Thanks for sharing. I loved reading your report.