Home

[madzilla]

Day 2 – Friday 13rd October 2006 - Part 1

Notes: This is split into sections because there are so many pics!

I'd like to say we were up bright and early with the lark the next day, ready for the day ahead. I'd like to, but I can't, because we had a lovely long lie in. Wasn't too bothered, we had Good Morning Fantasyland reserved for the next 2 days and we were tired after long weeks at our respective jobs and the early morning/late night the day before.

When we woke up the curtains were drawn so it was dark in the room. I went to open the curtains, expecting to look out on a grey, rainy day. "Oh, my!" I said as I peeked out.
"What?" said my friend. "Is it pouring down?"
"No," I said, flinging the curtains open. "It's gorgeous!"

And it was! A beautiful sunny morning. Bit chilly, but not too bad for October. It got pretty grey by the time we reached the park, but never actually rained.

So we dressed, donned mouse ears/cowboy hats and set off for the park. The walk was once again lovely, and brighter this morning, and soon enough we were at the gates of the park.

The Disneyland Hotel was partially under some plastic as the front was being cleaned up/repainted, but that didn't really mar our enjoyment. It didn't seem like any time at all until we were standing in Main St's Town Square.



My friend was just trying to take it all in, I was looking around at all the new Halloween decorations. There were pumpkin men and their orange paint everywhere!







The biggest was a huge pumpkin in front of the castle (which turned out to also be a face painting area for kids).



Also, if you listened carefully, you could hear screams and howls mixed in among the usual Main St music. We made our way up Main St and stopped for hot dogs at Casey's Corner. While sitting eating those we saw Mickey just next to the entrance to Liberty Arcade, in his photo spot! And just as we finished the hot dogs, the Halloween Cavalcade was starting. A bit different to the main daily parade, this was a procession of pumpkinmen (and pumpkinladies), Pink Witches and various Disney characters in Halloween costumes (mostly bedsheets, which was rather adorable).





One pumpkinwoman was dressed as a suffragette and had a 'Votes for Pumpkins' banner on.



There was also a horse-drawn carriage with characters on, pulled by horses with Halloween decorations on, too. And then at the end, Stitch (the star of Halloween 2006 at DLP) appeared in his orange car.







We were delighted to have caught this by chance, it was a great start to the day.

continued below...

[madzilla]

Part 2

We headed to Le Taniere Du Dragon next as my friend is mad on dragons...



and through there into Fantasyland. Our first ride was Peter Pan's Flight, and then I accidentally led us into Adventureland through the side entrance and ended up right in front of Pirates of the Caribbean. It was an honest mistake, guv'nor, honest!  :wink:



So of course we had to go on that – the queues were pretty short and we only queued for about 10 minutes. My friend had never been on it before and loved it, and I had a brilliant time too, as usual. Pointed out the Blue Lagoon to my friend as we passed. The camera isn't in the skull rock anymore, it's now at the beginning of the second drop, so you look like a nutter in your pic! I'm hoping they'll add Jack et al to the ride some time. Had to buy the photo, even though my friend looks a bit bizarre in it.  :lol:  Bought a few bits in the shop, including a Captain Mickey Sparrow and a lovely POTC snowglobe with Mickey, Donald and Goofy as pirates.

We next decided to head off to Frontierland, so my friend could get his western geek on.

The first thing you notice is that Frontierland has been transformed into Halloweenland! I took loads of photos of the decorations – and WHAT had they done to the Lucky Nugget??  :lol:























We went to the Trading Post shop there and my friend bought various cowboy bits, including a pistol and holder and a bolo tie. He also picked up a cowboy Mickey.

Our next ride was Phantom Manor, which was excellent as ever.





My favourite parts are still the lift ride, the ballroom and the singing heads in the graveyard. After that we took a trip to Boot Hill, where I had fun pointing out all the funny gravestones.


('Here Lies
Leadfoot Fred
Danced Too Slow
And Now He's Dead')







continued below...

[madzilla]

Part 3

We made our way out of Frontierland in search of ice cream after that, and stumbled into the 4pm Halloween Parade! We didn't have the best view, as it was already about 15 mins in, but we saw bits. We'd already planned to come and see it some other day, but we stopped to watch for a bit.





It consisted of the standard parade floats, but with the Disney heroes taken off and the villains put on instead. Jafar was on the Aladdin float, and Gaston was on the Beauty and the Beast one, preening and flexing his muscles. :lol: We watched for a little while and then wandered off for ice cream. We made our way round to the Gibson Girl, which was empty because of the parade, and got ice creams, which we went and sat in Liberty Arcade to eat, as it looked like it was going to rain. (It didn't.)

We headed back to Adventureland, this time through the front door...




(Under the archway of the entrance.)

and had a look round in La Girafe Curieuse. We also went though Le Passage Enchante D'Aladdin.







We then headed to Adventure Isle,









where we explored the Pirate caves, Captain Hook's galleon and inside Skull Rock.














(Looking out of the eyes of Skull Rock!)

We then rode POTC again and when we came out, to my delight, Jack Sparrow, my very favourite character and the one I'd been most anxious to see, was up on the photo point just in front of the ride! I excitedly got my friend to hold my bag for a minute while I got myself ready to head on up – only to turn around and see Jack leaving.  :cry: I was a little disappointed, but thought, oh well, we're here for 3 more days, I'll catch him at some point! (Little did I know I'd be starting a big ongoing manhunt...)


continued below...

[madzilla]

Part 4 (Last part!)

We decided to head back to the front, as it was getting late and the park closed at 7 (this was about quarter past six). We took the scenic route back, looking at all the detail on the way and making sure to find the 'Pont suspendu' (rope bridge). It being the end of the day and a reasonably quiet day it was empty, so we charged across it, jumping up and down. We even found another, smaller rope bridge elsewhere, which I bounced on so violently that my friend went flying about 3 feet into the air!  :stitch_bounce:  

We left the park just as it was getting dark and the lights were coming on:















...and ambled through Disney Village on our way back to the hotel.





We decided that would be a good time to go on Panoramagique, so we got in the queue.





While waiting to board I took a picture looking back towards Disney Village:



The amount of people allowed on each 'flight' depends on the wind level – at this time it was about 10-15 people each time. So we were on quite soon and up we went!

It was absolutely gorgeous. It goes really high, you can see it from all over the park! And from that height, you could see all of Disney Village like a little toy town beneath you, and all of the two parks, too, all lit up. Discoveryland looked the most beautiful, with all its coloured lights, and the DLH looked amazing too.






(A bit blurry as the no-flash setting on my camera isn't very good, but you can see the Studios and their searchlights.)

Touchdown in the balloon wasn't as bad as it looked from the outside – it has lots of wheels which are magnetic and hold the balloon down steady when it's on land. Odd sensation, but really fun. Definitely worth a trip!

We headed back to the Cheyenne for a cup of coffee (in my case) and a chillout before heading back in to Disney Village for dinner. We ended up at Planet Hollywood, and had a really nice meal (and another Desperados for me  ). We briefly hit the shops again, didn't buy anything, and then headed back to the hotel, exhausted.


Captain Mickey Sparrow and 'dog-with-the-keys' Pluto were exhausted too.


So was Cowboy Mickey.

Couple of shots of the hotel by night:





My friend went down to the Red Garter to watch the Thrifts as he'd become quite the fan, which I had a shower and scribbled more notes about the day's events. Once he was back it was lights out - next morning would be an early start.

[Disneyana]

Wonderful photos. They make me feel much better, now after being just home from my last trip to DLp. And they got me already excited for my next trip. The pics from your Panoramagique flight by night are wonderful, maybe I will try it out by night too.

[mtt]

great report, great photos

[RnRCj]

Wow! So many photos!  You must carry your camera round all day taking a shot every few seconds!

Great report!

[tubbsy]

I wasnt sure of doing Panoramagique, bu thaving seen your night photos, I am really tempted! Lovely photos

[Soap]

great read and even better pictures

[Javey74]

Yes brilliant photo's, especially like the night shots.  

[Jayne]

Great Pictures!     what i'd give to go at halloween time.. x