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[Shannon]

Day 4 - Thursday
This morning we had breakfast in the park at Plaza Gardens. We were going to do it on more than one day but we got the last slot for the week! The breakfast was so nice there - it was much calmer than at the Cheyenne and the food was nicer (there was fresh fruit salad, fresh fruit juice, yoghurt and a few other different things). It was also good to be in the park once we had finished! I would definitely recommend doing this, especially if you're staying in the cheaper hotels.

Once we had eaten breakfast, we went to Discoveryland. It wasn't very busy but the queue for Orbitron was really long and after queueing for Dumbo the night before we didn't want to wait! Instead we went on Buzz again and then after the token photograph in front of the castle we decided to split up - my sister, my mum and I went one way and our neighbours went the other way (they wanted to shop!).



We headed to the Casey Jr. train as this was closed yesterday. It is quite a nice little ride as you can see the storybook boats well and the queue wasn't long. Ava loved it! We then went round Alice's Labyrinth which my sister loves too.



When we came out, we saw Captain Hook wandering around. He was super hyper! He ran up to a family sitting down reading a map and scared them, then he went in the exit of Peter Pan and ran out with a little boy, then he went up to a sign (the one about fantasyland closing early for dreams) read it, and nearly knocked it over! We decided against following him around as he wouldn't stay still, so we went on Pirates instead.

We didn't really know what to do with ourselves then, so we had a walk through Fantasyland and sat on a bench for a while. After going on a couple more rides, we were again a little lost. Little did we know what was going to happen next! As you can see in the picture, Ava was wearing her Alice costume (and we hadn't seen anyone else wearing one) and she had her Duffy in a Mad Hatter's outfit. Just as we were walking past the teacups, the Mad Hatter jumped out of nowhere shouting "Alice! Alice! I've found Alice!" - he scared me to death! Then he called the Queen of Hearts and the Tweedles over (who came from nowhere too) and they all came to meet Ava. She was amazed! They admired Duffy in his outfit and had a little chat with Ava, then posed for a photo.



By this time, loads of people were crowding around us, but when they had done with Ava they left again. We headed straight to Central Plaza to meet Donald from the Celebration Train.



Then we headed to the Disneyland Railroad station in Discoveryland. We didn't know until it was our turn that there was only 1 train running (I think) so you had to wait 30 minutes until you can get on, and we had already waited about 15. It was trying to snow at this point so we decided to just sit and wait for it in the shelter. It was a pleasant journey and there was one conductor (not sure if that's the right term!) called Yassin (i think) who was making a fuss of Ava, singing the Unbirthday Song to her and chatting to her every time he walked past. We got off at Frontierland, hoping to eat at the Cowboy Cookout but it was closed. So we went to the Lucky Nugget, but the only vegetarian option was cherry tomatoes (!) so we ended up at Casey's Corner again. It was really really busy but we queued anyway.

I had wanted to eat in Agrabah Café but it had been closed all holiday, so we had a look inside. It looked nice but we weren't sure what the others wanted to do yet so we headed to Pirates (again!). Once our lunch had gone down, we bought Ava some candy floss as she had been going on and on about having some since we arrived. We had to wait a while but it was worth it!


Making a wish...



I had read about the 'Descent of the Stairs' in the Disneyland Hotel, and I was intrigued about it so we headed over to see it. We got there just in time and there wasn't a lot of people there at all. It was actually a nice little show with Tigger, Mickey, Pinocchio, Gideon and Gepetto dancing down the stairs. We met all of the Pinocchio characters and then  sat down for a while to look at the Disneyland Hotel. It is really beautiful! (I've promised myself that I'll stay there one day!!)







I can't believe how civilised the meet and greets were in there. There was no pushing and people actually took turns! It was amazing compared to what we had experienced in the parks.

Then we met up with the others so that we could watch the parade. We went right up near to it's a small world and we sat on a bench as we were a little early and exchanged stories from the day. Our neighbours were queueing for Pirates and they had to be evacuated as there was a technical problem! We stood up next to the rope when it got busier and we were just a few metres away from the gates where the floats come out. Just before the parade started, Cinderella and Aurora walked past and then a few minutes later Cinderella (isn't that a bit naughty, Disney?!), Rapunzel and Flynn went by.



It was so nice to see the look on Ava's face when the princesses waved to her! And then, who should come running up to us but the Hatter from earlier! This time he was with the White Rabbit and the Hatter explained to him that he had met Ava earlier. He then tried to shout the Queen but she couldn't hear him so he ran over to her, stopped her doing the routine and dragged her over. It was so funny! The Hatter stood for a while and chatted to Ava some more. They had to stop the floats behind him because he was talking for so long! They finally left and the parade commenced again. Ava was really excited when Duffy noticed her Duffy and was really happy and then at the end Tink "gave her some magic".



I really like that they've put Tink on the back of the parade rather than Donald. I was expecting to see Belle on the princess float but it seems that they haven't made that replacement yet? Never mind.

I had to wait with Ava whilst the others went on Phantom Manor, and just as they came off it began to rain. We were supposed to be staying up for Dreams that night so we were hoping that it would pass. We headed to the Disney Village and went to Earl of Sandwich for dinner (meaning that I wouldn't get a chance to go to Agrabah Café ) which was really nice and it was quiet there. I had the Hawaiian one (not sure what it's full name is) and it was lovely.

It was still raining outside so we stayed in the Village and did some shopping. There were a few different things in the shops there and they were quieter than the shops in the park. I bought a few things (a Dumbo plush, a cushion with Thumper on one side and his girlfriend on the other, a pencil and a few gifts) from the Disney Store and then it was time for Dreams! Thankfully it had stopped raining although it was still quite cold. We got to Central Plaza with about 15-20 minutes to spare  and it was rather busy. I'm small so I couldn't really see a lot but I had already seen it so I wasn't too fussed about having a perfect view. My sister was really tired too and was complaining a bit so as soon as the show was finished we walked straight back to the hotel.





The last day to follow soon!

[mdw]

Wow ur mad hatter experiences sound amazing, I had a tear in my eye!   Is the descent stairs still on just thurs-sun?

[Shannon]

Wow ur mad hatter experiences sound amazing, I had a tear in my eye!   Is the descent stairs still on just thurs-sun?

Yes it was fantastic, he was so lovely and he really made my sister feel special! I think so, we went on the Thursday and the Friday although we didn't check the other days.

[julesk]

Amazing trip report, taken lots of notes ready for our trip. Cant wait to read last day.

[Shannon]

Day 5 - Friday
After packing (luckily I brought an extra bag that folds flat for souvenirs!) and saying goodbye to the room   we put our luggage in the baggage room at the Cheyenne, had breakfast and then went to the park. It was really bright and sunny today and we planned to make the most out of the last day.



Ava wanted a photo outside of 'Duffy's house' and a last look in the Storybook Store.. (she's truly obsessed with Duffy now!)



We then had another look round the top of the castle as I think that it's really pretty in there and you can get a really nice view over Fantasyland from the balcony. I like how you can see the details of the castle close up too (like the snails on the roofs and the owls).





We went on a few rides again (Pirates, Casey Jr. and Buzz) and then we decided that we had done everything that we had wanted to do apart from the only thing that I wanted, which was the Princess Pavilion. The queue had been out of the door all week and the wait time at around 120 minutes. We headed over there and to my delight the queue wasn't out of the door, even if the sign said it was still 120 minutes. Ava really didn't want to wait that long, but after some gentle persuasion we finally got her through the door. Our neighbours didn't want to queue so they went to do something else.

Unfortunately we were stuck between 2 families who didn't know what personal space was, and the family behind us kept trying to push in front of us (at one point the Spanish lady behind us asked me about the autograph books in French and I replied, and straight after she proceeded to overtake us again!). However, we stood our ground and kept our space. The queue was much more pleasant than when we went in June (we queued for 3 and a half hours to meet Tiana - the only princess who Ava didn't know!) and went pretty quickly, although it was super hot inside (when we finally got to the princess she even commented on how hot Ava looked!).




I like the windows and the little light up objects around the Pavilion, but they do get boring after a while unlike the cartoons when you go to meet Mickey, so whilst we were queueing we had a little snack and Ava played on my iPod. Near to the end of the queue there we started talking to an English family a couple of spaces behind us and the lady told us that if you're dressed as a character from a ride (e.g. Snow White) you can skip the queue for the ride (so Blanche-Neige et les Sept Nains) although I've never heard of that before!

We finally arrived at the front of the queue (after about 1 hour 15 minutes) and we asked if Tiana was there as we had seen her before. The lady was really nice and subtly told us that Tiana wasn't here and asked Ava who her favourite princess was, but Rapunzel wasn't there. Luckily her second favourite, Cinderella, was there so we got to meet her! The other one was Belle and I was hoping for Snow White. Maybe next time! Cinderella was lovely and had a nice chat to Ava about the Mad Hatter.




Just before we left, Cinderella told Ava that she'd seen Alice today, and that you might see her if you take a walk past the tea cups. Ava thought that this was amazing and was on a mission as soon as we left the Pavilion. The photographer took a lovely photo of Cinderella kissing Ava, but to buy the photo it was SO expensive! I think it was €18.50 for one which is totally overpriced in my opinion, so we left and went on a hunt for Alice.

We were looking super hard for her (she's hard to find because she's small!) but we couldn't see her. As we were just walking past the tea cups (the exact same place as where the Mad Hatter came out) there Alice was, running up to Ava! She ran up and then hugged her and signed Ava's book. Alice wasn't as talkative as the other characters that we'd seen but she was still lovely and gave Ava a kiss before she skipped off.




We went on Pirates for the tenth (!) and final time followed by Buzz before having lunch in Café Hyperion.



We had to queue for a long time there even though the queue wasn't huge. Ava and I wanted to see the Descent of the Stairs again before we left, especially because there was only one space left in her autograph book! We were pushing for time though so we left the others to drink their hot chocolate whilst Ava and I speed-walked down Main Street. We got there just in time, and it was Mickey, Pinocchio, Gepetto, Chip and Dale. We went to meet Chip, who was messing around quite a bit! He got Ava's pen and threw it in the air but didn't catch it properly and ended up drawing on himself, much to Ava's amusement!



The others came to us and we decided that it was time to leave as it was past 4pm  :cry: we went back to the Cheyenne to collect our bags and then headed to the train station.




When we arrived there was hardly anyone there! We were so shocked because when we went to check in last time we had to queue for ages. Because of this we checked straight in and made it to the Eurostar train with an hour to spare and nothing else to do! We had given ourselves far too much time and ended up having to sit on the train for an hour whilst it stood still. You could tell that Ava was getting upset because she was really quiet and she looked really sad, which just made me feel even more sad too! There were no problems with the Eurostar though, just with the trains from London (typical!).

When we got there, there was a super long queue at customs and then there was a problem with my passport (apparently the chip wouldn't open  :? ) so we had to wait for an extra 10 minutes to sort that out. We were cutting it really fine to get on our train home and ended up sprinting down the platform with seconds to spare! It was so scary and Ava was crying, it was just an awful experience. To make it worse, when we got on the train we went to our reserved seats to find people in them! Apparently all of the reservations were voided as the 9 carriage train had been shortened to 4 carriages. We were all so annoyed and angry but there was nothing that we could do and we ended up sitting/standing in the end of the carriage with our suitcases, having to manoeuvre everything when people wanted to get off. We had also wanted to buy something to eat from M&S when we got to St Pancras but due to the delays we couldn't, so we were all starving. It was such a terrible end to a wonderful holiday!

I'm now in the process of persuading my mum to take us back again!  [-o< Thank you everyone for reading and commenting I hope it wasn't too long!

[norhel]

NIce report :-)

[Martin B]

Nice report with great character photos!!

[TigerLily]

Wow, what a fantastic trip report. Sounds like your sister had amazing interaction with the Alice in wonderland characters - that's so lovely! (Sorry to hear of your troubles on the journey home though.)

And it wasn't too long! I could of kept on reading lol. I'm all excited for our trip in June now thanks for sharing such a lovely report!

[mdw]

Great trip report! Advice on buses plz? When did you use them? We're they busy? Is it best to walk?

[jeakat24]

What a shame about your journey home. I've had a bit of a time like that myself and you end up thinking it's all you're going to remember from your trip- but it really isn't.

We're really hoping to meet Alice when we go as that's my daughters name  

Fantastic trip report and great pictures. Thanks for sharing.

Great trip report! Advice on buses plz? When did you use them? We're they busy? Is it best to walk?

They can be very, very busy at peak times (the morning 8-10 and at park closing etc). The walk from the Cheyenne is very pleasant- though after a tiring day in the park it can seem long even though it isn't. We've always found it a lot less hassle to walk

[julesk]

Great report, we loved it and found it really helpful. Was the desend of the stairs only thu/fri of your trip and what time was it? We are like you and cant wait to fill our autograth book.

Sorry one last question, my daughter is 5 yrs old. Would you say pirates ride would be to scary for her? She likes dumbo, small world etc. Bit unsure about pinaccio but that was a year ago. Thanks

[Shannon]

Great trip report! Advice on buses plz? When did you use them? We're they busy? Is it best to walk?

Thank you! We only used them in the morning, and they were quite busy then but we always got a place and they were pretty regular so if you did just miss one you wouldn't have to wait long for the next one. In the evening, especially after dreams, they were really really busy so we just walked back. The walk is quite nice and we were right at the far end of the site but it only took us 15 minutes or so and it was a lot less hassle than trying to cram on a bus.

Great report, we loved it and found it really helpful. Was the desend of the stairs only thu/fri of your trip and what time was it? We are like you and cant wait to fill our autograth book.

Sorry one last question, my daughter is 5 yrs old. Would you say pirates ride would be to scary for her? She likes dumbo, small world etc. Bit unsure about pinaccio but that was a year ago. Thanks

Thanks! As far as I know it was only on the Thursday and the Friday, although we didn't bother to check the other days. It was on at 4pm and we only got there 5 minutes before and there was still plenty of space (although if you get there a bit earlier you will get a better view - they tell all of the children to sit on the floor at the bottom of the stairs as the characters come down).

As for Pirates, it depends really. Ava is 7 and she refuses to go on Pinocchio/Snow White (and these are scarier in my opinion!), but loves Pirates. The queue line  is quite a bit darker than the actual ride and I think that this would put off a lot of children. Also, towards the end of the ride there are skeletons so I'm not sure if she'd be ok with those? Nothing comes really close to you though. There are small drops too, but you don't get wet. There are a lot of things to look at so she might love it! You can see a small part of if from the railroad so maybe if you took her on that and look at it from there? Quite a lot of small children were on it when we went, so I wouldn't dismiss it totally!

[Shannon]

What a shame about your journey home. I've had a bit of a time like that myself and you end up thinking it's all you're going to remember from your trip- but it really isn't.

We're really hoping to meet Alice when we go as that's my daughters name  

Fantastic trip report and great pictures. Thanks for sharing.

Thank you! And I know, I'm determined not to let the mishaps ruin the memories of such a lovely trip I hope that you find Alice then I'd recommend asking a character attendant or maybe at the City Hall if you can't find her!

[BlackPearl]

Wonderful trip report and beautiful pictures! Thanks for sharing  

[mdw]

Great trip report! Advice on buses plz? When did you use them? We're they busy? Is it best to walk?

Thank you! We only used them in the morning, and they were quite busy then but we always got a place and they were pretty regular so if you did just miss one you wouldn't have to wait long for the next one. In the evening, especially after dreams, they were really really busy so we just walked back. The walk is quite nice and we were right at the far end of the site but it only took us 15 minutes or so and it was a lot less hassle than trying to cram on a bus.



Thank you, is it 15min from the beginning of the lake village end or 15min from Disneyland park?