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[pialykke]

As I have only just joined this forum, my trip report is a year old I'm affraid... But as it was our first trip ever, it's all I have to put on here...  

Day 1:
We were lucky to get some great flight times, so we left Denmark on Monday morning at 8.20, landed at Charles de Gaulle at 10.20, and went straight to the VEA bus.

We were the last family on, as it left shortly after we had taken our seats, so not much waiting around, which was great. The boys (Joshua 5½ and Tobias 4) promtly fell asleep on the bus, and didn't wake up until we had just left Sequoia, meaning that we were the next stop at Santa Fe - the boys love Cars, so as we didn't wanna spend loads on our hotel, that hotel worked out fine for us.
When we got into the reception area, there were noone there, so we could go straight to the desk and check in!!
We were given a room on the ground floor of block 45, so were right next to the River Grande, which was great. We chose to walk to the parks every morning, along the river, to Lake Disney, through the village, and it only took about 15 mins.
We dropped our bags off in the room, and realised we had all afternoon to check out the soroundings. We had planned just to have a look through the village, but it didn't take long, and after a lovely lunch at Earl of Sandwich, we decided to go to WDS, as we wanted to save the actual DLP till the Tuesday.
When we got in, we had a look at the show-times, and realised, that Playhouse Disney was just about to start in English, so we decided to join in. The boys have practically grown up on Mickeys Clubhouse, so they loved it.
After that we went on the Flying Carpets over Agrabah, and as we got out, who should be waiting for us at the exit but Jafar... He looked fantastic, but the boys didn't want to have their photo taken with him, as he was being really mean.... (Whoever plays him really stays in character - it was great to watch as an adult, but the boys were angry with him... haha....  )
After that we bumped into Sully, who was being harassed by a load of kids. I was very surprised to see the parents pushing the kids in front of others I must admit, and in the end Sully got so annoyed by it, that he called it a day and walked off! Some of the parents were told off by the CM, but there were so many of them, she had no hope of controlling it... Such a shame! So we never managed to get photos with him either...
Instead of just waiting their turn, they ruined it for all the rest of us too, who were waiting patiently... Hrmf!
We spent the rest of the day just looking around the studios, just taking in the atmosphere.

Day 2:
After having breakfast at the hotel, we met Minnie in the lobby, and the boys finally had their first photo with a character, but they weren't really sure what to do, so they ended up just standing next to her... Bless...

After a lovely walk to the parks it was finally time to enter the magic of DLP for real! Now I knew I would be excited to be walking up Main Street towards the castle, but this was unreal!!
We started off in Fantasyland, making good use of EMH! We went on Lancelots Carousel first, and then went up to Peter Pan, as the queue was minimal. The boys loved it, and this would become our daily ride to start the day (plus a few times more during the day if the queue was reasonable)...
Then we queued for Dumbo, which took forever! And after that we went on the Mad Hatters Tea Cups, which had next to no line at all!
After this we went on Its A Small World - which the boys really loved - Le Pays de Contes de Fées, and Casey Junior in quick succession of eachother. There were hardly any queues for either of them! Result!
After this we went down to Discoveryland and queued for Buzz Lightyear. It wasn't too bad, though we had missed the EMH's on this one. The boys loved the whole hallway display, and the ride itself was brilliant! Tobias - the youngest - won!! (Honestly - he did!! We weren't even being kind or anything!)...
After Buzz we went on Orbitron which was also a walk on. Brilliant!
Then we went back to The Village for another late lunch at Earl of Sandwich before heading back to the park for a good spot to watch the parade. We ended up just outside City Hall which was a great spot, as all the floats stopped just in front of us, so we got a great view of them all.
After enjoying the parade (and getting a little emotional again), we walked up to Au Chalet de la Marionette for an easy dinner - the kids could have easily just shared a meal, as there was so much of it, and they were still quite full after the sandwich earlier. Something to keep in mind for our next visit in general really.

Day 3:
Half way through the week, and we were booked in for breakfast at Cafe Mickey this morning! I was so excited, as we hadn't told the boys what we were doing, and they were quite puzzled, when we walked towards the park instead of heading up to have breakfast.
We were given a table facing the door which the characters come out of, so were almost first in line for them all to come to our table. First out were Pluto, Gepetto and Goofy. They were great, very entertaining, and the boys were so surprised to see them!

I love the way Tobias is looking up at Gepetto in this photo as if to say "is it really you?" Bless him!
The next lot out were Mickey, Smee and the fabulous Captain Hook!! Mickey and Smee came to our table almost at the same time, so the boys had a joint photo with the two of them.
And then came Hook!! He was amazing! The boys were sat on the chairs on the isle, and when he walked up behind them, he banged on the back of Josh's chair really hard, which gave him a bit of a fright, and he sat up straight like I've never seen before!! It was so funny!! He laughed, but then Hook put his hook around his neck!! Haha...

The look on Tobias's face is priceless - "Thank God that's not me!" haha....
This is definitely something we will be doing again next visit! The breakfast here was also slightly more interesting than at the hotel, where we didn't get scrambled eggs, bacon etc. Also the little yoghurts were a hit with the boys.
After a lovely experience, we went for EMH in the park, Peter Pan top of the list naturally, and then went over to the WDS again to do everything we didn't get to do on the first day.
We went on the Cars Rally, which didn't have a massive queue even though it was Wednessday (apparently the schools are shut in France on Wednessdays...?!). Then we queued up to meet Buzz Lightyear by the Toon Plaza, and it wasn't long before the big guy came out! Toy Story had been a firm favourite with the boys for a while, so it was great to see him, and for them to get a photo with him!

After this it was a natural succession to go and explore Toy Story Playland. The boys didn't fancy the Parachute drop though, so that just left Slinky Dog, as they weren't tall enough for RC... Slinky had about an hours wait! Crazy, as the rest of the park was so quiet! :/
We then went back through to the other side and went on the Studio Tram Tour, while we waited for Animagique.
Crush was 50 min+ wait throughout the day, so we never managed to go on that.
We saw Stitch, and then it was time to line up for the Stars 'n Cars parade. It was great to see the other characters, that weren't in the parade in DLP, esp. Muchu from Mulan, who has always been a favourite of mine.

Day 4:
After another early breakfast, it was off to DLP again for some more EMH action, with Peter Pan and Buzz first and foremost. Then we went over to Frontierland and Adventureland, which was on the schedule for today. Most things were shut however, so we couldn't go on many rides, but just walk around and explore everything.

One of my many favourite photos from the week. I love how it's mirrored in the lake!
After first walking around Frontierland we doubled back to be first in line to meet Winnie the Pooh by Caseys Corner, and then back over to Adventureland to meet Aladdin, before exploring Adventureland.

We had just sat down for a little rest down by Colonel Hathi's when we were ambushed by Baloo and King Louie!! Baloo grabbed hold of Tobias and dragged him along, to his great amusement. Then he spotted an easier victim - a baby - which he grabbed and "ran off with"....

Hilarious! The boys had warmed up to character meetings by now, so had photos with both lovable animals...

In the afternoon we had booked a late lunch/early dinner at the Cowboy Cookout BBQ, and this was no disappointment either! It was fantastic!
We had Goofy, Pluto, Chip and Dale, Woody and caught a glimpse of "the real" Minnie - who sadly was surrounded by kids, so never made it round to the tables, to our great disappointment!! Why do some people find this concept so hard to understand - stay at your table, and they WILL come round to see you!! All in good time to those who wait!!
Still, Chip and Dale more than made up for it, they came to our table about 3 times each! In the end, Dale sat down between Joshua and Tobias and had a jolly good time, playing around with them.

Unfortunately, just after I took this photo, he rubbed both their heads, and somehow pulled Tobias's hair - or rubbed him too hard, I don't know, but he burst out in tears. Bless. Dale was a star though, and cuddled him, rocked him and was genuinely sorry! You could really tell through all the fur...
He kept coming back to apologize as well, but Tobias wasn't sure about him after that. When he came over again, when we were packing up to leave, he wanted one last chance to apologize, but Tobias wouldn't let him near him... I felt sorry for Dale too really...
I am really upset they have stopped doing character dining at the Cowboy Cookout. It's a great place to have character dining I thought, and not that expensive either.
Anyway, after that experience, we decided to ride the railroad back to Main Street, but for some reason there was over an hours wait - from Adventureland! There were hardly any people there waiting, so I don't know if the train had broken down or what caused the delay, but we decided to walk back anyway. The boys asked to go back to WDS for another couple of rides on Cars Rally, so that's what we did, before watching Once Upon a Dream once more.

Day 5:
So the last day has come - way too soon!! After breakfast we finaly met the main duck in the lobby. Donald had been evading us all week, so we were pleased to see him on the board for our final day.
We finished packing up our stuff and went to check out. We stored our luggage in the room across from reception, and as our flight wasn't till the evening, went back to the parks for one last visit.
We really took our time, walking slowly through, taking lots of photos (filling up my SD-card!!) and having one last ride on everything we could get to... And getting really emotional when it came to finally leave!


We are currently planning to book up in April 2014 (sadly we missed the offer this january of full board included, or we would have gone in March/April this year). But hopefully we will be able go get it for next year, and hopefully we will be staying at the Sequoia Lodge instead. Though the Santa Fe was nice, for what we needed, the full board restaurants included in the Sequoia package are better than the Santa Fe package.
We didn't try that many restaurants last year, so would like to try a lot of different ones next time. And would also like to meet more characters next time - there didn't seem to be that many just walking around the parks as I have read about in other trip reports.
What ever happens, I am sure that our next visit will be just as magical as this one!  /

[Rafael]

Great report! Thanks for sharing!

[pialykke]

Great report! Thanks for sharing!

Thanx Rafael - been a long time coming, but better late than never, right?!

[Rafael]

Great report! Thanks for sharing!

Thanx Rafael - been a long time coming, but better late than never, right?!

It was worth the wait, Pialykke!

[AnnieMouse]

Great report!  It was fun to see how your boys warmed up to the characters.  They will really know what to expect when you go back next year!  :mrgreen:

[norhel]

Sounds like you had a nice trip :-)

[pialykke]

Great report!  It was fun to see how your boys warmed up to the characters.  They will really know what to expect when you go back next year!  :mrgreen:

Thanx AnnieMouse! Yes, it was great to see them get used to it all. I was a bit worried during the first day, when they didn't wanna know Jafar, and then seeing how difficult it was to get anywhere near Sully... But it went alright in the end - still only got half an autographbook done though... So nowhere near as many as I had hoped for...
Still we know who to go for next time then...

[pialykke]

Sounds like you had a nice trip :-)

Thanx Norhel, yes it was a fantastic trip! So much more than we expected!

[TigerLily]

Great report and lovely pictures (the Captain Hook one is great lol!)  Sounds like you had a great time

[pialykke]

Great report and lovely pictures (the Captain Hook one is great lol!)  Sounds like you had a great time

Thanx TigerLily! I had a hard time picking which photos to put on here, as there are so many lovely ones... But yes, the Cpt. Hook one is a particular favourite! Can't wait to go again!

[jeakat24]

Great trip report, love the pictures  

[Aurora1]

Thanks for sharing your trip! It was lovley!
I wonder too, everytime I`m in Cafe Mickey: why can`t they stay at the tables?!?! :roll:  I already tried to tell some of them, but they just looked at me like I lost it!
Loved the pic of your boys and King Louie, it`s adorable!
Aurora1

[BlackPearl]

Thanks for sharing your report and pictures.
I like the one with King Louie and your boys. And of course the one with Captain Hook  :mrgreen:

[pialykke]

Great trip report, love the pictures  

Thanx so much! Had great fun writing it - reliving every moment.

[pialykke]

Thanks for sharing your trip! It was lovley!
I wonder too, everytime I`m in Cafe Mickey: why can`t they stay at the tables?!?! :roll:  I already tried to tell some of them, but they just looked at me like I lost it!
Loved the pic of your boys and King Louie, it`s adorable!
Aurora1

Thanx Aurora1, I couldn't believe what some people were like down there. The CM's do their best to keep on top of things, but some people just don't realise...
I thought, that at places like Cafe Mickey etc. with character dining, it should be pointed out very clearly that you should stay at your table and wait for them to come round to you - and really make a point of making sure people have understood fully before they are let in... They might already do - but we were never told so, at Cafe Mickey or the Cowboy Cookout...