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[Snow_White_Girl]

Oh my goodness guys, I'm SO sorry this has taken such a long time! I've been so busy the past couple of months with moving out and starting a new job that I've just not found time to write this! I've just found my notes in one of my boxes that still isn't fully unpacked, so I can carry on now, and apologies for the extreme delay... so 2 months later, here's Day 2!  :roll:


Day 2
So we had a bright and early start again, we were up at 7.45am as we had an 8.15 breakfast slot booked. Having said that, I'd only had about 4 hours sleep anyway – there were some VERY weird noises in our room keeping me awake! It was almost like knocking on the walls, scared me a little bit!... I didn't really notice the lack of sleep, I was still running on adrenaline and was far too excited about the day ahead. We decided to head to the Studios, and as we walked in, it was just so much of a relief to finally see Studio 1 as it was meant to be seen, without that horrible Cars billboard This photo has already been up once but it makes me so happy it deserves a second airing!



Anyway, the first thing I wanted to catch was Good Morning Walt Disney Studios as I'd never seen it before, and it was a nice little parade to start the day with... I took this opportunity to grab my first character photos of the trip – I managed to get pics with Mickey and a VERY English Cruella, who kept calling everyone "darling"! She was so funny, I went up with my camera and she said "You want my picture? Oh how fabulous darling!" It amused me for hours afterwards!

Then we decided it was time to do Art of Animation, which I love, I just love seeing all the old classics on that big screen in the pre-show.. and I especially love the Animation Academy, I'll quite often sit there for half an hour or more happily drawing away. However, I didn't do that this time as my Mum would have been bored just stood there watching me!.. I then suggested Animagique for our next show, which Mum readily agreed to. She wasn't sure what to expect at all but she loved the Little Mermaid section, and I just loved it all, especially the pink elephants!

We then did the Studio Tram Tour, and I have to say that I was REALLY impressed with Hollywood Blvd. – it wasn't there during my first trip so it was the first time I'd seen it. It really does look great, and makes a much more fitting walk up to the attraction I think.. Anyway, I made the daft mistake of sitting on the left side of the tram, which made for a slightly damp time when we got to Catastrophe Canyon!

Wandering back through the park, I then decided I wanted to try the Flying Carpets as I'd never been on them. However the queue was huge so we got a Fastpass, and decided to go and eat lunch while we waited. We went to Backlot Express, which we enjoyed, and the cheesecake there is amazing! It was Flying Carpets time then so we headed back, and after that we decided to go on Cars Race Rally (I'd never done this before either!). Well, we loved Cars – the pair of us giggled like a couple of little kids the entire way round, it was such fun!

We decided to try and catch Stitch Live next, but on checking the board we found out that the next available English show wasn't for an hour. I decided to take the opportunity to go on a character hunt, and wandered out to the Front Lot for a quick photo with Minnie. Anyway, I was just about to wend my way back when the Toon Train came round the corner, so I decided to try and grab a pic with Stitch, who was on there with Lilo and Chip & Dale. I should have known that it would be a bit of a mission – rather predictably, when Stitch got off the train, he was mobbed, so I gave that up as a lost cause and went after Chip & Dale instead! They seemed to be slightly more interested in running away from all the kids than actually having pictures with them though, and most people got annoyed and gave up in the end, including myself.

Then it was time for what we considered to be the highlight of our day – Stitch Live. This is such a great little show, and a wonderful addition to the Studios. The first little girl Stitch picked on was a scream – he couldn't understand her name so he kept saying "What?!" and the more he said it the louder she shouted it at him; it was hilarious!... Then, with the girl he named the planet after, when he spelled her name wrong, people started sniggering and Stitch looked straight at the audience and said "WHY'S SOMEONE LAUGHING?!?!" We were in complete hysterics, and I was just like a little kid, saying to my mum "How do they DO that?!"

After Stitch, we headed for Cinemagique. My mum loved this too, although she didn't like getting wet during the Titanic bit, and I swear I still jump a mile when that sword "comes through" the screen!

Our day at the Studios is nearly concluded... But wait, I hear you cry, you haven't been on some of the best rides!.. Well that may very well be true, Mum and I aren't rollercoaster people – I actually hate that feeling you get in your stomach! – so we avoided Crush's Coaster, the Tower of Terror and Rock N Roller Coaster. We didn't bother with either of the High School Musical shows either – mainly because I can't stand it!

Some of you may remember me telling you about my mum spraining her ankle a week before we left.. It was at this point that her ankle started to act up, so we reluctantly decided to go back to the hotel for a few hours for a rest, and head back in the direction of the parks later for dinner.  On the walk back through Disney Village I saw something very ironic that amused me greatly – this sign, I think, would have put an entirely different spin on Mary Poppins! How ironic!



Of course this prompted Mum and I to start singing "Don't Feed The Birds" like a couple of fools... Well it amused us anyway!

After a quick lie-down at the hotel, we decided to wend our way back for food. I was expecting to go somewhere in Disney Village, but Mum suddenly started dragging me in the direction of Disneyland Park... I kept asking where we were going and she wouldn't tell me – it was only when we got inside the park that I realised I was finally going for dinner at L'Auberge de Cendrillon!! My mum had booked it to say congratulations on my new job and kept it as a surprise – I was SO excited!! It was such an amazing experience – we had Suzy, Perla, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and.........SNOW WHITE! I nearly exploded with excitement at that point!









The food at the Auberge was lovely, especially the desserts!

We then took some pictures on La Terrasse before going for a wander around Fantasyland, and paying another visit to our dragon friend, who we found to be much more awake this time!











Then we had a quick walk around La Galerie de la Belle au Bois Dormant, where I took some proper time to fully appreciate the effects, like the snoring suits and the red-eyed raven, and got some bird's-eye view pics of the park

















We then went to Main Street to grab a spot for Fantillusion, which was the full version complete with show stops as the rain held off! I absolutely LOVED it, even though I was pushed to the back yet again by unruly kids I still managed to get a lot of very good pics though! (I'll put them all up tomorrow as there's tons of them!)
By this time, we were so tired I could barely keep my eyes open, so we decided not to stay for Candleabration and the Enchanted Fireworks and beat the crowds for the shuttle bus, so it was back to the Santa Fe for a good night's sleep.

Day 3 coming soon!

[The Butlin Boy]

Thanks for posting part 2 of your report SWG, it's fantastic. I've never seen the bird sign before, that is so ironic, i was laughing so much :lol: I can't wait for the rest (hopefully we won't have to wait another 2 months for it ) :wink:

[never2old]

Thanks for sharing that, Snow White Girl! Loved it, and great pictures!! Dinner in L'Auberge looked brilliant, I really need to do that sometime...

Looking forward to your Fantillusion pictures and day 3!!!

[da987]

Great trip report Snow White Girl. I love the sarcasm, absolutely brilliant.

[Javey74]

Well as they say Snow White Girl, better late than never with the second part of your Trip Report... :mrgreen:

And may I add, well worth the wait... =D>  =D>

Looking forward to the next installment with more piccies, thanks again for sharing.. :wink:  

[Snow_White_Girl]

Fantillusion pictures from Day 2 as promised. Some of them aren't that great Never mind!

[ColdSun]

I'm so happy you are contiuing your trip report / ! Great update and lovely pics. The one where the Dragon "looks" into the camera kinda made me laugh :lol: .

[dagobert]

Thanks for sharing the rest of your trip report with us. I enjoyed the report very much. Great pictures by the way.

[SophieD]

great trip report Snow White Girl!! loving all the pics!!

[Snow_White_Girl]

Day 3
Fully rested, we awoke bright and early yet again for our second full day at Disneyland Park. However, we were to be unlucky with the weather yet again, and during breakfast, it started to rain! This prompted us to take the shuttle bus to the park, rather than walking through Disney Village as we had the previous two mornings. After a leisurely wander into the park, with stops for a few quick photos along the way, we went straight to a land we'd overlooked on our first day – Discoveryland.




From there, it was straight on to Star Tours, which still remains one of my favourite rides to this day even if it is looking a little dated now. We then decided to get a Fastpass for Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast and simply soak up the park atmosphere till it was time to ride... So a wander back in the direction of Central Plaza was in order, and imagine how happy I was when I spotted this:


I didn't try to get any pictures with characters as the Express had already been there a while and there was a mob around even the "unpopular" characters... However, on her way back to the train, Jessie noticed me standing with my camera and posed for a very sweet pic!

It was then time for one of my favourite rides – Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast. I am absolutely useless at it and I never hit the targets, but it's always such fun to go round. We had lunch at the Cable Car Bake Shop on Main Street, I had the cheesecake I'm so very fond of, which was delicious as usual. It was around this point that I got sick of being rained on, as it had been steadily drizzling all day, so I bought one of those rather sexy yellow ponchos to keep out the rain!
We then decided we wanted to try and see the Tarzan show, so we headed in the direction of Frontierland. Well, this is where I showed myself up horribly, got totally lost and couldn't find the Chaparral Theater (don't ask me how I managed it because even I'm not sure!). The result was we finally got there 5 minutes after the start of the show, so that was a lost cause We then wandered back in the direction of Fantasyland to recap some of our all-time favourite rides – namely Blanche Neige et les Sept Nains, It's A Small World and the Mad Hatter's Tea Party. I also managed to snap a quick photo of Cinderella and her Prince on the stage by the castle.


We then decided we wanted to see the Mary Poppins show at 4, but we had some time to kill before then, so we decided to recap another two favourites, Casey Jr. and Le Pays des Contes de Fees. Well we grossly underestimated the queue for Casey Jr., and ended up in that for 50 minutes, therefore missing Mary Poppins! Undeterred, we decided to try and see Sleeping Beauty at 5, but to pass the next hour we decided that a quick ride on the Disneyland Railroad was in order. We had such a lovely little ride round the park, despite the family from hell in the carriage next to us! However, we were enjoying the scenery so much, we failed to notice we'd missed the Fantasyland stop and it was 4.50! We then had to make an unscheduled exit from the train in Discoveryland, and try and run back to the castle through the crowds to catch Sleeping Beauty, which we then missed anyway! It was at this point that the steady drizzle that had been plaguing us all day finally stopped for a while and the sun came out, but by this time we were hungry so we decided to wander to Disney Village for food. I talked my mum into Cafe Mickey, and I can honestly say we had the best meal of our holiday there – I had the cannelloni and Mum had Pinocchio's Pasta and they were both delicious! I also think it really is the best place to go for character interaction – in the short space of an hour and a half we had Mickey, Baloo, Goofy, Minnie, Smee, Genie and Tigger! I didn't get pictures with all of them unfortunately, some of them seemed reluctant to come to our table, and obviously they were making sure they got round all the children first, which is only fair. Mickey, Baloo and Goofy came however, and Baloo seemed to think it was funny to stand behind my mum doing a little dance, with her completely oblivious – it was hilarious actually! Mickey was the most cheerful I had EVER encountered him, he was skipping all round the place, came over and just plonked himself down next to me for a pic. He even kissed my Mum's hand after she'd taken it! However, I was SO upset when Minnie came to my table, sat down and hugged me... and my Mum had gone to the loo so I had no one to take the picture! It would have been a good pic too, never mind!



We then headed back to the park to catch the Once Upon A Dream parade. After I spent my first watch of this on the first day just soaking it all in, I decided that today was the day for pictures – and I got lots of good ones, including a fair few of my own personal heroine, who was standing right in front of me during the Princess float stop!











This one always makes me laugh!












"Vous etes aussi une princesse? Enchantee de te rencontrer!" (I love that bit of the OUADP!)







After the parade, we decided to try Dumbo, as the queue had always been huge when we'd tried before! We had to wait 20 minutes, which was a huge improvement on the other days. We then found ourselves thirsty, so wandered back in the direction of Discovery Arcade for a drink, with a stop for a photo along the way!

Then it was time for a wander round the Main Street shops, and after a good browse and buying some presents for my cousin's children, we decided to stake out our place for Fantillusion. We got a great spot on Main Street, and some woman even told her kids to move up so I could sit on the pavement, which was a pleasant surprise. I then realised that it was the "family from hell" from our earlier trip on the Disneyland Railroad. My opinion of them changed slightly then! Anyway, they brought some characters out before Fantillusion – Phoebus, Esmeralda and Governor Ratcliffe! I've never seen them in the parks so I was majorly excited!
Another funny pic!

Then it was time for Fantillusion again, and my pics were much better this time, due to the great view I had. Many thanks to that family!
















Then it was Candleabration and the Enchanted Fireworks again, I tried to film it but there were too many people .
And so concludes Day 3. Day 4 (last day ) coming soon!

[ColdSun]

great update though I'm sorry you missed so much stuff. Your pics are amazing!!!

[Snow_White_Girl]

We caught most stuff we missed on the last day anyway Only Tarzan fell by the wayside unfortunately!!

[Snow_White_Girl]

Right, I'm still writing up Day 4, but here are the photos in the meantime!!




One for Javey...with me in my very fetching yellow poncho!!






























 :mrgreen:

[The Butlin Boy]

I love your pictures SWG, thanks for sharing them

[ColdSun]

great pictures, looking forward to the report