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[Aurora1]

I love that piture of Alicia looking for Mickey! The look on her face, even sideways, is priceless!
No wonder you almost burst out in tears. She`s too sweet with the characters!
Aurora1

Can`t wait for more!!!

[never2old]

I love that piture of Alicia looking for Mickey! The look on her face, even sideways, is priceless!
No wonder you almost burst out in tears. She`s too sweet with the characters!
Aurora1

Can`t wait for more!!!

Thanks Aurora

[tubbsy]

I have got goose bumps reading your report! Alicia hugging Minnie and Mickey-Adorable!
And Dreams looks amazing!

[gemmasteele84]

Awww such adorable photos it's amazing when the kids meet the characters isn't it. I was close to tears more than once on our trip lol

[never2old]

Day 2!!

On Friday we had a couple of friends coming to spend the day with us. They live in Australia and are travelling around Europe, and they were in Paris at the same time we were in Disneyland... So perfect opportunity to see each other again! Plus a great chance for them to visit DLP!

Forecast for the day was also pretty grim, cold and wet. So we decided to relax in the morning, forget about EMH, and just go into the park when our friends got there, around 10:30 in the morning.

So, breakfast in the Empire State Club lounge! First, the setting. As you saw in previous pics, the place is quite nice, it feels quite relaxed, and definitely a place that invites a long breakfast. It wasn't empty, there were families at almost all the tables, but it didn't feel crowded. Then the food, great selection! You can have a cooked breakfast (I thought the scrambled eggs were really good) with sausages, bacon, potatoes... There were croissants and pains au chocolat, different types of bread, cereals, yogurts, and fruit. Oh, and some very yummy crepes, and churros (no Mickey waffles though, like they had in the Castle Club). You can also choose from a selection of fresh juices, including a very yummy orange juice The only negative point for me was the coffee: it was not great. Standard Disney hotel coffee, I guess. We did have a Nespresso machine in the bedroom, and I think they had an expresso machine behind the counter, but no one offered us any coffee other than the one you could get for yourself in the standard machine. But that's a small detail; one does not go to Disneyland for their coffee, right? And overall breakfast was really good.

Then of course you have the characters!

First we had Launchpad!



I was very happy because I had only seen him from a distance in the past. So I was quite happy to have a picture with him!!

Fortunately he was followed by Mickey Mouse.... And my little princess was very very happy!! (even though she kept calling him Minnie....  :oops: )







Alicia shares her Minnie with Mickey




Great start to the day isn't it?

And time to go!



Around 10:45 we were all in the park!







Not the best day.... At least it was dry (for now)


First ride of the day, IASW



When we got out, it was pouring. We took turns with our VIP fast passes (we only had 2 for 4 adults) to go on Peter Pan with Alicia, while the others took cover in the passage between Fantasyland and Adventureland.



Followed by one of my favourite rides, Pirates of the Caribbean! And we pretty much walked straight in, I love it when that happens!

Other than the swinging pirate not swinging, I though the ride looked great. And Alicia seemed to enjoy it. Not her favourite ride I don't think, but she wasn't scared, which was my main worry...



I had booked lunch at Plaza Gardens, so we headed there through the covered walkway leaving from Peter Pan. As we crossed to the restaurant we saw there was something going on in the hub (we later found out there were some football players), but it was raining so heavily we didn't stay to watch....

My DH and his friend Nigel


Alicia enjoying her dessert


Great lunch as always. I really like the buffet here, there's a great choice (and a wonderful dessert selection) and the setting is really nice

After lunch, a little break from the rain!! First it was time to use our fastpasses again and try Buzz Lightyear... The guys also wanted to do Star Tours, but the fastpass line wasn't working so while we took Alicia to watch some cartoons in the Videopolis, they went on Buzz again!

We left Discoveryland just in time for the 20th anniversary train











Alicia enjoyed it so much that I thought it would be a good idea to race down the Discovery arcade to see the train again at the other end...







While we were debating whether I should go back to the room with Alicia so that she could have a proper nap, she very kindly fell asleep in her pushchair... So next stop: Frontierland and Phantom Manor (unfortunately, BTM was closed  :cry: )





Again we took turns to go on the ride so that someone could stay with Alicia. I was particularly happy to go on PM because it had been closed on our last visit to DLP, and it's one of my favourite rides.

After PM the rain was back... We took cover and did a bit of shopping in the big Frontierland shop (one of my favourites in the park) And it was pleasantly quiet, it was really nice to be able to browse with the shop almost to ourselves!

Feeling the cold (and after Alicia woke up), it was time to another favourite: the Cable Car Bake Shop for some hot chocolate and cakes



Alicia with our friend Lisa




I had a yummy cheesecake... Hmmmm!!

It was still raining  :roll:  so we thought it was a good time to on the train... We headed towards the Discoveryland station where fortunately the line was short enough to give us some cover from the rain!







Another of my favourite things in the park is simply sitting in the train and going round... It did feel a bit cold, but still, we were dry, and it's just so pleasant!! They had done some changes since our last visit: first there are new gates on each carriage, which they lock before the train leaves the station, so it feels a lot safer. And second, instead of leaving everyone on the platform to find a place for themselves, they were directing people to particular carriages. It was a lot easier! Nice to see that even after 20 years they're still seeing how to improve things...

We went around and got down at the Fantasyland station. There was a very small queue for the Carousel, so we thought we would give that a try with Alicia.



When she saw the carriage there she inmidiately wanted to go on it... Another family took it before us though, so we tried putting her on one of the horses... And she was having none of it! She could have been scared, I guess... In any case, there's no point in doing a ride if you're going to be traumatised by it... So we asked the people in the carriage if we could join them (and another woman and her daughter came to sit with us as well just before it started...)



See? Everyone happy

By now it was close to 7 and we were all a bit cold and tired of the rain. After a quick stop to visit the dragon under the Castle (Alicia wasn't too sure about him....) we thought we'd go and get some shopping done on Main Street. However once we got to the Hub the parade was coming and the rain wasn't too bad... We did not have a great spot but it wasn't too crowded so we could still see it quite well, and so we stayed to see the parade

























And time to go....



Originally we were all going to go for dinner at the Steakhouse in the DV, but Alicia was rather tired, so we thought it would be better to get her to bed sooner rather than later... So after a bit of shopping in the Emporium (and a quick stop in Starbucks to grab a sandwich and cake for my dinner) Alicia and I went back to the room while the others went for dinner.

They were all quite tired and didn't stay to watch Dreams (and by the time my husband came back to the room I was all ready in my pyjamas so I didn't really have the strength to go back out. I did try watching a bit from the room (we could see part of the Castle from our window), but it wasnt a great view and without the music it wasn't quite so great... So after a few minutes I gave up and we went for a relatively early night...

Day 3 (our last day   ) coming next!

[BlackPearl]

Great report. I love the pictures of Alicia with the characters  
I'm glad you had a great time despite the weather.

[Angel_Ariel]

Wow! Lovely photo's! Your daughter looks like she was having a ball! It's so nice seeing little kids interacting with the characters so well.

[Shannon]

Lovely report and great photos - especially the ones with the characters! It's nice to see that you had a good time despite the rainy weather

[never2old]

Thank you all

It really was the best thing, seeing my little girl with all the characters... And it was also one of the few times when I took take lots of pictures...  I've noticed that if you're pushing a push chair or running after a little girl trying to get her to hold you hand when there are people around, it's not easy to admire the view, let alone take pictures of it!! Plus the bad weather didn't help most of the time... Ah, I remember when I could take the time to look at the window displays in Main Street, or admire the flowers around Fantasyland... Not too much of that during this trip!!

Apologies for delay, but it seems that summer finally made a small appearance here in Luxembourg so we were out most of the time over the weekend...

Here's the first update for day 3!

Our last day was a Saturday; knowing it would be a busier day we weren't planning on doing too much, and we would be going back home after lunch.

The only ride I still wanted to get done with Alicia was Dumbo, but other than that, we were just going to enjoy our last few hours in the parks...

So the idea was to make it to the parks during the EMH, for Dumbo. We set the alarm so that we would have time for a calm breakfast, checking out and head out by 9:00.

We ended up going for breakfast a little after 8, and there were already quite a few people there. We got our table and fortunately we didn't need to wait long until Mickey came by...

Waiting for her turn.,..


All worth it!!






Once more Alicia shows Mickey her Minnie




Where's Alicia??


After another yummy breakfast (I wish I could have a buffet like that every day... I still miss those pancakes!!) we went back to get ready, before going out for our last day in the park. The sun seemed to be shining so I was quite eager to get going!!

On the way from our room to the lifts we ran into Launchpad... As soon as he saw us he came directly to see us (well, Alicia mostly...) and gave Alicia a big hug!



After checking out (which was very quick, since we could even leave our bags in the room and they would pick them up to take to the luggage room, great service!) we were on our way!!

Tinkerbell on top of the world


(the globe was spinning every day!!)

Already quite a few people around....



In Main Street. The horse carriage was just coming out!





No time to waste though, we went straight towards Dumbo... Which turned out to be closed (despite it being in the list of rides that should open during EMH) and already had a little queue... Still, we wanted to get that done so better a little queue now that a longer one later...



At least our view was quite pleasant...







For the first time it felt like spring was near!!



Fortunately Dumbo opened a bit before 10 so we didn't need to wait too long, and once they opened the queue moved quite quickly









I love these...








Dumbo is one of the rides we've done the least often (to be honest I think this could have been my 2nd or 3rd go on it), we always thought it was more for little kids, but I've always thought it's one of the most beautiful in Fantasyland, the theming is gorgeous... Particularly on a beautiful sunny morning!!

Ready to go!











Alicia loved flying!! I think this was one of her favourite rides

And we followed it with another favourite, Peter Pan





Thank you VIP fastpass...



Still way too dark inside, but well... Hopefully by our next visit it will be fixed!

Oops...



Next update to follow soon!

[gemmasteele84]

Great report, I've never seen launch pad at dlp before! Someone let go of a big bunch of balloons when we were there too lol

[never2old]

Next and final update!

After Peter Pan, time for Alice's Curious Labyrinth... I think this was one of Alicia's favourites (by the way yes she is partly named after Alice - Alicia is Alice in Spanish) mostly because she could run around more freely than in other parts of the park...



















To be honest we hardly had time to see much of it, Alicia was having too much fun running ahead of us!!

Time for something quieter...















I wonder why you never see the ducks inside the ride... There are always some outside, I've never seen one inside!! Maybe they don't like the music....

Beautiful day at last!!





Who needs rides when you can just go round and round and round a cover on the ground...


Bella Notte


With a weather like this, on a Saturday, you can imagine the crowds... It was busy!



So time for our fastpasses again, this time with Buzz!!



Today, Buzz wasn't moving... At all. He was working 2 days out of 3, I guess it could be worse....  :roll:








This time Alicia and I went together, and Cris by himself (so that he could concentrate on getting his top score....) As soon as we were sitting in our spaceship Alicia was asking for her gun (which she couldn't really reach until the shields were lowered...). She even got 2000 points on the first go!! In fact we all liked it so much we went on it again, and this time Alicia got 2300 points! We were very proud of her....



A few people around...



We had booked for lunch Agrabah Cafe, so we started heading that way... Hard to believe it was almost time to go already!! Just time for a few more pictures...







Almost there







Agrabah Cafe







We were seated at the back, under the big tent (we always end up sitting there!! Next time I need to ask if we can sit somewhere else....).

Remember when no one seemed to know about this wonderful restaurant? Well that's over now. It was busy, and there was quite a long queue to get the food!! Particularly because most people seemed to start queueing at the start (so by the salads) when in fact they wanted to go for the hot food!! I was getting food for Alicia so I ignored them and started waiting just before the hot food, ignoring the line for the salads, and fortunately a few people followed my example so that there were two separate lines. And then they also opened another buffet, in a litte stand in front of the salads, so that people could get their food from 2 different places. It helped a bit, but it did feel a bit chaotic...

Still, the food is so good, it's all worth it!! I had lots of starters, the lentils salad, chickpeas, hummus, taboulé.... Yummy. Then couscous, mousaka... Great great meal.

Hmm chocolate pudding...


After a really delicious lunch, it was time so go back....    Of course one cannot go past Main Street without going into at least one or two shops (particularly when they're nice and quiet). And while I was showing to my DH what I wanted for my birthday (it's coming up this weekend, same day as Donald Duck   ) the character train came by, time to see Mickey, Minnie and Pluto one more time!! (the one character I regret not seeing in either Inventions or breakfast was Pluto, Alicia loves him almost as much as Mickey and Minnie...)

Here they come (together with a bit of rain, I might add...)








Do we really need to say goodbye?



Springtime



By the time we were actually ready to leave, after shopping, changing nappies and all that, the train was coming back towards Main Street... And once Alicia heard the music and knew what was coming, we couldnt leave without seeing it for the last time!!







Waving goodbye




Time to go... One last picture by the Mickey flower bed (thank you lady for not being able to wait 1 minute to take your picture...  :evil: )



Back in the hotel, Cris went to get the car while I got the bags, and soon we were on our way...



We had a really great time, despite the weather being much cooler (and wet) than we would have liked, this time of the year... But this trip was really to give Alicia a first proper taste of the Disney magic, and I think she got it  It was very different to other visits, without any thrill rides (BTM was closed, but it did feel a bit strange not doing TOT, or RNRC, or Space Mountain...), and with a very different rhythm. We used to go from park opening to park closing, non stop, getting lots done. This time it felt a lot more relaxed, we concentrated on fewer rides (though we still did some quite a few times). It did feel too short (like it always does) and I would have liked to get some more things done, like going around Adventure Isle, visiting the Castle Gallery, getting some shopping done in World of Disney... And meeting Pluto, I would have loved to meet Pluto. But well, there's always next time... And I can't wait!

Hope you enjoyed the TR, thank you for reading!!

[Aurora1]

Thank you for writing a TR! Loved reading it!
 For me too, it always feels too short! While there it feels like beeing in another world. I seldom follow news or newspapers.
Aurora1

[tubbsy]

Your trip report was fantastic
Tempted to see if I can persuade my family to do a lunch at Agrabah ...
Its funny how life changes - to think that you have slowed right down on this trip, whereas we will be going back with a 10 year old and 18 year old who are going for the fast rides, whereas previously, we were very much the more gentle rides and characters on previous visits when the kids were younger.
But whatever the reason, you cant beat the magic of a Disney Holiday

[DisneyDonna]

Amazing report! Thanks for sharing

[Epcot_Boy]

Very special report N2O, loved every bit, especially the lovely pictures =D>

I think the little one is well on the way to a life of Disney Magic. I envy her :thumbs: