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[never2old]

After the Villains promenade, it was time to get started with some rides.

First stop of the day, Buzz. Alicia run straight for it, we really had to keep up!! It was very quiet so we could go 3 times in a row. My husband was delighted because twice in a row he got the maximum score of 999,999. I told him he should try to do the same thing while his daughter spins and spins and spins non stop... He didn't take up the challenge though...

After Buzz it was almost time for the Halloween parade; we got a couple of coffees and a chocolate cookie and went to the Castle Stage to wait for it... After last year, this was the bit I was most looking forward to!! It's simply perfect. Great catchy music, beautiful and colorful floats, great dancers and costumes, and plenty of characters. I love it  Plus this year there's a whole new float, with brand new characters!! I know the Three Little Pigs had been in Paris before, but I had never seen them; and Horace has always been one of my favourite characters, so it was really good to finally see him!

Now if only they would sell the music for the parade...

Time for more rides. It's a Small World was closed (Alicia didn't believe us until she show the green fences...), we'll have to wait until next month for that  So we went for the Mad Hatter's Teacups, always a favourite for Alicia, before going to the back of the Castle to check the dark rides.

With that area closing early for Dreams, we hadn't been able to see it the night before. Now for the first time we could admire the amazing new decorations, they are really stunning. Perfect Halloween addition to Fantasyland

We were admiring it when the balcony in the Castle filled with smoke, and Maleficent appeared... Then the Villains came and took their positions in the Courtyard. It quickly became very crowded and messy in there!! Alicia was a bit scared of the Villains, but she said she was OK meeting Gaston, so I went with her to see him; when I had seen him earlier on I thought he was a terrible Gaston who didn't look the part, but now that I saw him up close, and that I heard him talking... I had to admit that I had been wrong, he was brilliant!! He had a great voice, and a great attitude... He also kept asking people if they had seen Belle, saying that he was going to ask her to marry him. He was arrogant, and bosy, and a perfect Gaston  Unfortunately was we were getting closer to him I could feel Alicia starting to push back against me... She was quite scared of him poor thing!! So we left Gaston with his ladies and decided to find something to eat instead...

We decided to try Hakuna Matata, and were not dissapointed. It was nice and quiet and didn't need to wait long to order our food; we easily found a table, and the food was really tasty!! Will go back again 

Here are the photos!

[BlackPearl]

Wow, the new parade looks great and the courtyard behind the castle! Thanks again for sharing your pictures.
I enjoy reading your report and watching the photos. 

[norhel]

Nice report 

Looks like your daughter is eager to get on her way 

[never2old]

Looks like your daughter is eager to get on her way 

I think Buzz is her favourite ride.... 

Finally, here's the next update!

After our yummy lunch in Hakuna Matata we went towards Casey's Corner to meet Minnie. She was not due to come for 20 minutes or so but there was already a line, so we joined it. Most people were simply waiting sitting in the floor, it was quite relaxed, and not a bad wait!! Alicia was of course delighted to see Minnie and give her a big hug... Though myself I got quite annoyed with the couple before us, after they had their pictures taken with Minnie they stayed looking at the photos in their cameras and taking their bags, just in front of Minnie, I had to ask them to move so that I could take one picture of Alicia!!

After meeting Minnie it was almost time for the Halloween parade again, so we decided to try seeing in at the start in Fantasyland - definitely best spot for it, there was almost no one there! Parade was great, and when it finished Alicia wanted to follow it (she had seen other children going behind the parade....) As soon as I said OK she run to join them, she was soooo excited to be part of the parade!!

We had a little walk around Fantasyland afterwards and went on the Carousel and Pinocchio, before starting to head out towards the Disney Village. The idea was that we would leave Alicia in her pushchair so that she could have a little nap... After a quick detour by Flora's Boutique (it's OK, it's no TSP, but it's not too bad...) we walked past Goofy's bonbon's machine, where there was almost no queue, so of course Alicia wanted to meet him... She gave him a huge hug, danced with him... Happy girl

Here are the photos!

[never2old]

Finally have a bit of time to continue with this!!

After meeting Goofy, we went towards the Disney Village; we had a look around some shops, had a lovely coffee in Starbucks, and realising that Alicia was not going to sleep at all, we decided to simply head back to the park. As soon as we crossed the doors Alicia was off running again...

We had a little look around Main Street and the Halloween decorations there, before going to Fantasyland to wait for the parade. It was still quite grey but quite a nice temperature, and it was dry, so we could simply sit in the floor and have a little rest...

The parade was really good; the Peter Pan/Mary Poppins float was missing, so they were coming on foot; Alicia was very happy to get a wave from Peter Pan

Afterwards it was time to head to Fantasyland again, we went on Snow White, Pinocchio and Dumbo, before heading to the Labyrinth. It's one of my daughter's favourite things in the park I think, first because it's Alice's (Alicia of course is Alice in Spanish), so it's a bit her ride, and then because she can really run ahead of us and tell us where to go...

I have to say, the Labyrinth is in a terrible, shameful state. Paint coming off, missing or broken props, it looks really bad. Very sad to see it like that....

Anyway... After that, since Alicia seemed in such a good mood, we thought we would try Pirates of the Caribbean. She had done it during our first  stay with her when she was 2 and liked it, but earlier this year in February we went with some friends, their daughter got scared and suddenly Alicia got scared too... So already during our last visit in May Alicia said she didn't want to do it. This time we thought we would try it, we only said we were going on a boat, and she was totally fine until we got to the end of the queue and she saw the boats... Then she remembered. She started crying saying she didn't want to go on it, that it went down, that she didn't like it... We tried to tell her that it was OK, that it was just like a slide, that we were there with her, but no good... No point in traumatising her either, so we got to the end of the queue, told the CM that we couldn't do the ride, so they let us walk straight through the boat towards the exit.... We were not thinking straight of course, we should have taken turns to go on it while the other stayed with Alicia... Next time!

So instead we had a quick wander around the shop (one of my favourites), before heading out. We had first thought we would leave the park now and get back to the hotel (and give Alicia a chance for a good night sleep), but of course as soon as she was sitting in her chair and we started moving... She felt asleep. So to give her time for a little nap we took our time to leave the park, enjoying the start of the evening... After a bit of shopping in Main Street, we left and got back to our hotel...

Day 3 coming soon!!

[never2old]

Day 3!

Today was our last day, and a Saturday. Plan was to simply do what we could, before lunch (we had booked Agrabah at 13:00), and to leave shortly after lunch.

The weather first thing in the morning was not great, it was raining slightly, though by the time we go to the park it seemed to stop - though it was still very grey...

We ended up getting to the park at 10:00, not the best time to get there, there were a lot of people trying to get in!!

We still hadn't gone on any of the Main Street vehicles, which is always one of my favourite things! We missed the limusine but saw the horse drawn tram was getting ready to go; it was almost full but they found a couple of spots for my daughter and me, so while my dear husband went to get some fastpasses for Buzz, Alicia and I went up towards Central Plaza in the tram:D We were both very excited  And me even more so when I saw coming towards us a SECOND horse drawn tram!! I think this was the FIRST time ever that I had seen both of them working 





Of course the tram (and horse) were fully decorated for Halloween - including the hoofs!!



Lovely start to the day 

Time for Buzz; we had a bit of time before our fastpasses, and the queue didn't look too bad, so we thought we would do it first via the standby queue - and we came out just in time to do it withh our fastpasses!! (and by then the queue was even shorter, we didn't actually save any time with the FP....) Still, we got to do Buzz twice, and Alicia got to spin and spin and spin.... 



We thought we would try going up to the Castle gallery (Alicia was wearing a Sleeping Beauty dress so she wanted to go...) unfortunately with the Halloween celebrations the gallery was closed... We explained to Alicia that Maleficent was staying up in the Castle and so we couldn't go, hopefully she'll be gone next time we visit 

Instead we had a little wander around Fantasyland





My favourite spot in Fantasyland







Queues everywhere were quite long, so we decided to try Frontierland and the Molly Brown, which was re-opening today.



Frontierland was packed as usual, but fortunately crowds were either trying to get to BTM, or to meet Jack and Sally.





For the Molly Brown, it wasn't too bad; she was just coming in, so we didn't have long to wait.

I don't know if it was because it had been raining, but they had closed off the top floor (it was dry now and the sun was starting to come out); but it meant that there was a very full boat with one whole floor less to be in - so everywhere it was packed  Not the most pleasant experience we've had, I have to say. We ended up staying in the bottom floor









The Molly Brown wasn't looking too bad, but I wish I could have said the same about some of the residents in the area...



Unless it was for Halloween?? 

I wish I could have taken a better picture of this, but with the lamps it was impossible not to get a reflection... Beautiful drawing of Thunder Mesa in 1851







Here lies Mark Twain...





Blue skies!



Live music







It was almost time for the first Halloween Celebration parade, so we said goodbye to Frontierland and headed towards Fantasyland to see it 

By now although the sun was still on and off, it was starting to feel quite warm, amazing weather for October!!





























Still my favourite thing in the Halloween season 

Continues soon

[DLRP Roundup!]

Fantastic photos and trip report.

I love the Dreams! pictures, what exposure are you using, a 2/3 seconds capture?

[never2old]

Fantastic photos and trip report.

I love the Dreams! pictures, what exposure are you using, a 2/3 seconds capture?

Thanks Trekkie101

I confess for the Dreams pictures I used the automatic setting in my hubby's camera, it works great for hand held photos with low light, it can take quite good pictures with a relatively short exposure.

I get lost in the technical details but maybe these will speak to you:

Focal Length   14 mm
Exposure   1/50
F Number   f/3.5
ISO   1600

[DLRP Roundup!]

A 1/50 is relatively quick! Impressive shots, I struggle with those sort of shots on such a fast exposure.

[lovindisney87]

What a great trip report and fab pics. your little girl is such a cutie xx

[AislingM]

Lovely report, your little girl is adorable! Sounds like we will just miss you on our next trip, we go 17-21st November

[never2old]

Thanks for the comments 

A 1/50 is relatively quick! Impressive shots, I struggle with those sort of shots on such a fast exposure.

It's all in the camera, really, it handles Dreams beautifully  It's a Panasonic, DMC-GF5

Here's the next and final update!

After the parade, we still had a bit of time before lunch. We went back towards Fantasyland



Despite those clouds looming in the back, it was actually getting quite warm - and sunny   

Even though there was a little queue to go in, we decided to try Alice's Curious Labyrinth again (well, a very bossy 3 year old made it very clear that we didn't have much of a choice...)

As usual she led the way...

























Beautiful day!!



Unfortunately the sunshine just made terrible state of the Labyrinth even more visible, it was quite upsetting (for me) to see it looking like that. Hope they sort it out (again) soon...

We followed the Labyrinth with a cup of tea... Again, we did not get a vote in this... 

I don't think I had ever noticed before, that is a very freaky looking Alice...



Really freaky!!



I love these...







A very happy little princess 



We actually all had a lot of fun... Alicia just kept laughing and laughing, and she has a very contagious laugh!!

Hard to believe this is October...



It was finally lunchime... Time for our favourite buffet in the park, Agrabah!!





And we got to sit in a new area! We usually end up in the tent at the end of the restaurant (I think only once in the last few visits we haven't been sitting there), and today we got a table in an area I hadn't even noticed before, near the entrance of the restaurant (to the left of the main door). I'm sure you will understand how exciting that was for me... 



Lunch was delicious as always; there was a new dish I hadn't tried before, chicken in a lemon sauce, really yummy. Unfortunately they run out of the delicious chocolate and green tea cake, and although I went a couple of times they hadn't brought out any more... But everything else was simply perfect 

Our plan was to leave pretty much straight after lunch... We stopped for some pictures  - but one thing my daughter does not do is pose for photos.... instead this time she decided to dance:



And then started to take some pictures herself. A lack of camera of course was not going to stop her... She simply took the program and started saying "click" "click" and "say mickey mouse!!" (which is what we tell her when we're trying to get her to smile... )



On the way out we stopped to buy a present for Alicia (she chose a Sleeping Beauty doll), and of course to take a few more pictures...



















Close up







By the time we got to Time Square, it was almost time for the Halloween parade. My dear husband was not particularly happy to delay our departure a bit longer (once he's set his mind to leaving, that's it.... )  but I managed to convince him that it would be a great way to end our trip 

We actually ended up in a perfect spot 

























And time to go 



One last dance?



And that was it... Overall a really good trip, weather was excellent, queues were pretty reasonable (would have liked to do Peter Pan at least once more but can't have it all....), and my daughter had an amazing time. She's still talking about it, and every now and then asks if we're going again to Mickey's park... (haven't told her she only has a few more weeks to wait  ) It really is something else to go with your kids!!



Next time, Christmas 

Thank you all for following!!

[Uragano Tati]

Never2old, I really love your trip report! Your pictures are so beautiful and your little daughter is so lovely!!! Thank you very much for sharing!!!

[never2old]

Never2old, I really love your trip report! Your pictures are so beautiful and your little daughter is so lovely!!! Thank you very much for sharing!!!

Oh, thank you 

[RockNRoller]

I love photo's in trip reports, and you have some crackers there, because despite the 1000's of my own I've taken you always see something new. From a different view point, a different angle or something you've never even taken a picture of before. Thanks for the inspiration