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[jeakat24]

I only came back on Tuesday but it's already difficult to remember exactly what we did on what day, so this report might be a bit of a mish mash!  :?  

We went from the 30/10/08 – 04/11/08. combining Halloween and the first Bonfire show in one trip.

I'd like to kick off the report by saying that this was a trip of firsts for us (me and my partner Kane). This was my sixth visit, Kane's fifth, but there were a few things we hadn't done before.

DAY 1    30/10/08

We didn't even bother going to sleep on Tuesday night as we had to leave Kane's house at 2.30am to get to the Coach station in Bournemouth. The coach went at 3.05 and arrived at Victoria coach station at 6.05 giving us enough time to catch the circle line to St. Pancras. This was our first time travelling from St. Pancras and I was quite impressed with it, apart from how busy it was but that was down to the fire, so it couldn't be helped.
Why is it you always end up with a really annoying family near you?! I don't mind kids being loud etc it's expected, they're going to Disneyland! The family in front of us were real show offs talking about "all the times we've been before" etc really loud and blatantly making it so that everyone could hear. Grrr you just want to turn round and say "yes dear, we've all been before, get over it" Now my rant is over, I'll continue!  :lol:

The Eurostar was fine as always (I still think they need new trains though), I looked out for CJNorth who was meant to be in the same carriage as us but I didn't see him.  

At 12.30 local time we arrived in Disneyland and headed straight for Annettes, a bit of a tradition for us. I had the cheese burger and Kane had the Mega burger, he's still not tried the ultimate. We skipped dessest as we just want to go into the park.
So off to the park we went. It was our first time going for Halloween so we wondered around Main Street for ages then into Frontierland taking lots of photos as we went. We loved all the decorations and the pumpkin men and ladies were fantastic.

I knew it would be incredibly busy but wow, Phantom Manor was the busiest I'd ever seen it, no surprises there though. Then we headed for Alice's Curious Labyrinth because I'd read about the refurb on here. I was disappointed to see that not everything had been done, like the painting and some of the doors didn't work.

On our way out of fantasyland we caught part of the Halloween showtime with the villains which I thought was great.

I don't think we did much else after this because we headed to the New York hotel to check in (this was also our first time in the New York). We we're given a lake side view room even though we hadn't paid for it. You couldn't really see the lake because of the trees but I was still pleased as punch!

That night we ate in Café Mickey for the first time. We used our half board meal vouchers to pay towards some of the meal. Unfortunately where we were sat the characters didn't come to very often, but our waiter called Mickey over for us as he walked past.

Then we headed back to the hotel where we made reservations for Walts for lunch the next day. We then fell almost straight to sleep after a very long, very tiring day.

I'll upload some photos from day one shortly and day 2 will be coming soon.

[jeakat24]

Here are some photos from day one. I've linked them as I've forgotten how to get them to appear plus they may be too big for the site.

This is me looking very tired as we go into Annette's:

http://public.fotki.com/jeakat24/disney08/sdc10144.html

One of the Pumpkin Men:

http://public.fotki.com/jeakat24/disney08/sdc10158.html

Me in one of the only doors that worked:

http://public.fotki.com/jeakat24/disney08/sdc10210.html

Me and Kane outside the hotel on a very cold night:

http://public.fotki.com/jeakat24/disney08/sdc10240.html

[Lilmiss]

Great report!
Can't wait to read the rest of it  :mrgreen:

Must have been lovely  to enjoy both the Halloween celebrations and Bonfire show!  

[Javey74]

Yeah great report jeakat24, like the photos... /  /

Looking forward to the next instalment... =D>  =D>

[jeakat24]

Thanks guys! I'm trying to do both the trip report and some uni work, so far the trip report has won every time!


DAY 2       31/10/08


We decided that we weren't going to wake up too early as we needed to stay awake for the soiree. So we headed down to breakfast in the Parkside diner at about 8.15. It was really busy, which was to be expected at the time we went, but the food was lovely, there's so much more choice than in the Santa Fe and Cheyenne (the two hotels we've stayed in before).

After wolfing down breakfast and going back up to the room to get ready we then headed to the park and arrived at 10, missing the extra magic hours. We walked around Main Street and Frontierland again, taking everything in and caught Goofy's cooking show. I enjoyed it but it was a bit random and repetitive.
We them went on pirates which broke down half way through. What was really weird was that it had been a really busy queue and all the boats were full, but when we had stopped there was an empty boat floating ahead of us which wasn't on the track, really creepy, especially on Halloween! We waited for about 10 minutes in the end before enjoying the rest of the ride.

We then queued up for our photo with Jack and Sally. We knew they would be really popular but the queue was huge! We had decided before we came that we would definitely have to have our photo taken with them, so after an hour and a half queuing we finally got to meet them. Some people did try to cut the queue, especially when Jack and Sally had their well earned break, but thankfully the people up ahead were having none of it. I absolutely hate queue jumpers, if you didn't want to queue then don't come to a theme park simple as!

A note on smoking: I was going to adhere to the no smoking rules and just use the areas but when I went into the park on the first day I noticed lots of people smoking everywhere, including the queues.  :evil: So I decided that I would smoke as I had always done, considerately. When Jack and Sally went for their half hour break we were near the front and I hadn't had a cigarette in well over two hours, so Kane held our place while I walked to a quiet area of Boothill to have a cigarette. When I looked over, the mother of the family behind us smiled and mouthed thank you for the fact that I'd stepped out, which I thought was lovely but it's not a lot of effort for people to do that.
During the whole six days only once was I asked to put my cigarette out which I was quite happy to do. I was really surprised that most cast members paid no attention to it. As it happened if I was walking past a smoking area I'd go in there for a cigarette instead of carrying on, I was normally the only one in there. We actually turned it into a game of taking photos at all the different smoking areas, but we didn't manage to get them all!

Here's one of the photos we took: http://public.fotki.com/jeakat24/disney08/sdc10465.html


Anyway, back to day two. After our great photos with Jack and Sally we headed to Adventure Isle to go exploring, this was also a first as we've just never got around to it. Loved it but spent most of the time looking for the throne because I'd seen it on here. I didn't find it that day but more on that later in the report.

When then headed to Main Street for some shopping before heading into Walts for lunch. We used the meal vouchers again and chose from the half board menu. The food was lovely, we both had the Caesar salad, the chicken breast and I can't remember what the dessert was! It was good but I found the half board vouchers a bit restrictive and I probably wouldn't book them again, although they did save money in some places.

After our lunch, we were in Walts for an hour and a half, we did a few rides in fantasyland before heading back to the hotel to get ready for the soiree.  

After a bit of a nap and a long time getting ready we looked like this:

This is me trying to perfect my mean face but I just look miserable!
http://public.fotki.com/jeakat24/disney08/sdc10339.html

Kane was in his element!
http://public.fotki.com/jeakat24/disney08/sdc10341.html

We arrived at about six and after getting our bracelets we headed back to fantasyland where we went on it's a small world, Snow White, Pinochicco (my spell checker has no suggestions so I'm sorry for the misspelling!)

We then queued up for Space Mountain and thought we had time before meeting everyone from the forum. We didn't! I hadn't been on the forum properly for a while before going so I didn't see any Halloween stuff and spoil the surprise so I didn't know what everyone was dressed up as and we'd arrived quite late and I couldn't see anyone I recognized.

When then got fastpasses for Big Thunder Mountain, and notices that Fuente Del Oro restaurant was open, so headed in there for dinner. We had never seen it open before so this was another first for us. The food was great and a nice change for a fast food place.

When we left there it was time for Big Thunder. We had so much fun dressed up and in the dark with Jack Skellingtons face projected onto the Mountain. We bought the photo and when I can work out how to use my scanner I'll add it!

Here's Jack:
http://public.fotki.com/jeakat24/disney08/sdc10371.html

When we were finished we waited on Main Street for the Fantillusion parade, also another first! It was amazing and we absolutely loved it, although by the end my feet were in complete and utter agony as I'd made the horrendous choice of wearing heels. I'm fine when I'm walking around but standing still is a killer.

When then headed towards Caseys Corner as Kane's favourite character, Donald, was there for photos dressed up as a devil:

http://public.fotki.com/jeakat24/disney08/sdc10391.html

After all this I needed a good sit down, so we rested before buying some popcorn and watching the fireworks. Unfortunately we were to the side of the stage; we got a great view of the castle and fireworks but missed most of fantasia Mickey etc.

Afterwards we waited until the crowds had died down a bit before leaving the park at 1am to a much needed sleep

[jeakat24]

@ lilmiss- bonfire was fantastic, that's coming on day five  

@ Javey- I mainly uploaded the Donald photo for you!  

I also forgot to say that upon entering the park for the soirée we were greeted by the start of the candleabration and it was the first time I'd seen it in the dark!  /  All I can say is WOW! We were in Disneyland for the very first candleabration 01/04/07 and were left very disappointed by the fact we couldn't see anything, and the same happened when we went back in September 07.

I also forgot to say (see I said this would be a mish mash!) that we had our gibson girl ice creams in the afternoon of day two, something of a tradition for us.

[Aveen2008]

Great report so far, can't wait to read and see more! Your halloween outfits were brilliant! I love your photo with donald too:)

Aveen xxx

[ColdSun]

great report and photos, I'm looking forward to the next part ! The pic with Donald is sweet and you look gorgeous as Evil Queen. But where is your pic with Jack & Sally?
And do you remember how many Half Board choices there were in Walt's and what they were? I am thinking about going there myself using the vouchers...

[jeakat24]

great report and photos, I'm looking forward to the next part ! The pic with Donald is sweet and you look gorgeous as Evil Queen. But where is your pic with Jack & Sally?
And do you remember how many Half Board choices there were in Walt's and what they were? I am thinking about going there myself using the vouchers...

I can't believe I forgot the Jack and Sally photo! Here it is: http://public.fotki.com/jeakat24/disney08/sdc10277.html

They were really nice and we got three photos of them, one of all of us, one of just me and them, and one of just them for Kanes little sister who loves them.

The choices in Walt's were two starters, Caesar salad and sorry I can't remember what else, two main courses, chicken breast and I think it was Tuna steak, and for dessert it was lemon cheesecake or a mix of different things including ice cream, chocolate cake and mint chocolate.
Thinking back on it we should have probably ordered from the normal menu and used our vouchers towards it. Half board plus vouchers are worth 25 euros if the helps.

I'm just writing part 3 now so it should be on here this afternoon at some point

[jeakat24]

DAY 3    01/11/08

We decided that today would be our studios day for a couple of reasons. One, there's no extra magic hours at the studios and after the late night we'd had before we quite fancied a 10am start in the parks.
The other reason is that Kane decided years ago before he'd been on a roller coaster that he didn't like them. I'd managed to get him to go on Space Mountain, he hated the first one and liked mission 2, Indiana Jones which he now likes, Big Thunder Mountain
and Crushes Coaster. Each time we've gone I've managed to convince him to go on a different one but never Rock N' Rollercoaster, which I'd never been on as the only I've gone without Kane was before studios had opened.
Anyway, this time he'd promised me we would do both Rock N' Rollercoaster and ToT, and I didn't want to leave them until the last day in case we wanted to do them again.

So we got up at 8am and headed to breakfast in the convention centre, where Kane ate far too much. He normally eats too much for a normal person anyway but this was too much for him and he felt a bit poorly. So when we got into the park we decided we would do stitch first to give him a chance to recover. We both absolutely adored Stitch Live; it was so much fun and so unlike anything else. We aren't big stitch fans but this certainly converted us!

This is me looking very tired from the night before:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3 ... 1149965136

I just love this photo:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3 ... 1149965136

After a quick stop in the smoking area we headed towards Rock N' Rollercoaster as Kane had said his stomach had settled in Stitch and got worse when he came out, so he put it down to nerves! :roll:  :roll:

I was nice and gave him the choice whether to do it or not but he said he'd made a promise and was sticking to it. This was all well and good until we walked towards the start where he heard the one before us shooting off and was then saying "I can't do it, I'm not going to do it Jen." My response was "tough!"  :twisted:  
So we climbed into the seats with him still terrified but I could tell from the moment we shot off that he utterly loved it, he even said thank you afterwards!

Kane looking very pleased with himself:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3 ... 1149965136

After this we met a few characters and headed into the Art of Disney Animation. We've only done this once before and we didn't stay too long at the end, so it was nice to discover everything. We then we into the shop where we bought me two new Disney Traditions figures after about half an hour of me deciding what I wanted.

We weren't that hungry so we chose to just grab some burgers from the place in front lot. After a long queue and phone call to my mum we were finally served and the food wasn't too bad.

After lunch we checked the queue for ToT, 120 minutes!! It was a Saturday so we knew it would be popular. The fastpasses had almost all gone too so we decided we would do it another day.

We also looked at the queue for Crush, my favourite ride and it was mad! We'd looked when we first came into the park and queue was back to front lot, but they hadn't opened the actual queue line yet.
We decided to give it a miss this time and after a bit more wondering around we headed back to the hotel at 3pm because we were so tired. After a nap we got ready to go to the steakhouse at 7pm as had booked it when we got back to the hotel.

Again, this was a first for us, and again, we used our meal vouchers. The selection wasn't too bad, still two options for each course, but I had the Caesar salad, Kane the mushrooms for starters, we both had rump steak for main, and Kane had the apple pie and I had the ice cream for dessert.
The food was delicious but unfortunately our waiter was rubbish. He was very nice but incredibly slow and kept forgetting our drinks. Our table was also very close to the two tables on either side, making it feel like a big group meal. We were looking forward to a romantic private meal, but it wasn't to be!
After some much needed retail therapy we went back to hotel to sleep in preparation for day 4.

[jeakat24]

DAY 4    02/11/08

I forgot to mention that the night before, during our retail therapy we bought our new jackets/ hoodies, which we do every trip. You'll see those later, in the photos.

We got up early, intending to take advantage of EMH. We ate breakfast in the
Manhattan restaurant, which was lovely and I spotted the hidden Mickey in the chairs, this is after I think it was Davewasbaloo's trip report where he took a photo and I couldn't find them.

Anyway, after a bit less breakfast from the day before we managed to get into the park at around 9.15am, so we still didn't get the full advantage of EMH's. We headed to Buzz, which I forgot to mention we had also been on during the soiree. Unfortunately the photo's weren't working and Kane got his highest score yet, just over 100,000, which isn't a lot compared to some people on the forum, but it was a major achievement for us!
We then wound our way round to Fantasyland where we went on Dumbo, Kane's first time and he let me take it to the top, he's scared of heights and is such a girl about it!
We also did Peter Pan and the Carousel. Have they changed the ships on Peter Pan? They squeaked the whole way round, not impressed!  :evil:
We then went back to adventure Isle to do the Robinsons tree house.
It was now around 11am and we'd made reservations for the lucky nugget at 1.30pm so we headed to Woody's Round Up to have our photo with Woody before lunch. We were disappointed that Woody wasn't in the Round Up Village and it looked closed.
We had the photo then took a seat on a bench nearby after Woody had gone.
After having a cigarette and flick through our many, many photos we noticed that loads more characters had appeared. We got photos with all of them which were: Brother Bear, Pluto, Meeko, Robin Hood, Chip and Dale and cowboy Goofy (I had my photo taken with three different Goofy's during our stay and I'll upload those at the end)

Us with Woody:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3 ... 1149965136

Me and bullseye:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3 ... 1149965136

Great photo:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3 ... 1149965136

Kane doing god know's what with Meeko:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3 ... 1149965136


After our impressive haul we went to the Lucky Nugget. We'd eaten here on our last stay and had a fantastic time but I was very disappointed with it this time. We were sat on the second bar up at the end, with a family next to me. When the man sat down next to me his whole leg was pressed up against mine, it wasn't his fault, we were just too crowded in. I was sat right up against Kane and we were both struggling to eat. This combined with the fact that we hadn't been given knives and no one had come over and taken our drinks order, made me a very unhappy, and slightly angry bunny. When someone eventually came over we asked to move, and asked for more cutlery! This made it a bit more pleasant but we had already been put in a bad mood. Thankfully the characters brightened our day and Goofy decided to play with our pudding! Sorry about the quality of these photos, Kane had bought a new camera as mine is pretty outdated now, but it couldn't cope with the light for some reason.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3 ... 1149965136

After lunch we went back to the Round Up Village for a photo with Jessie. Afterwards, the village still looked closed so we asked a cast member who said it was open so we went straight in and had the place to ourselves! When we came out more characters had arrived and were walking into Frontierland.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3 ... 1149965136
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3 ... 1149965136

Kane trying to get his money bag, he's not pulling as hard as it looks   :
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3 ... 1149965136

 After the photos we went on the Keelboats for the very first time (it's the first time I've seen them running). And thanks to the forum I knew exactly where the queue for them was! It was a great way to travel around the river and the cast member was fantastic and really funny.

From the keelboat:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3 ... 1149965136

After the keelboats we headed to central plaza to wait for the parade. Again the forum helped me here as I picked out the spot where the toy story (for Kane) and the princess (for me) floats stop.

We waited from 3pm and the parade started at 4pm, but it was nice to have a sit down. When it got nearer to the time we had lots of people trying to push in, as usual. One man decided to try and get his family to stand in between me and Kane, after some not so polite words from Kane (I'm still surprised he managed to not to swear, which is a big no-no in Disneyland in my opinion) the guy eventually moved.  
The parade was, as always, fantastically amazing. I still couldn't smell anything, but then again I was far too busy taking near 150 photos!

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3 ... 1149965136
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3 ... 1149965136

The princess float wasn't working, but I really enjoyed them walking along. This is the parade stop, Kane took these as I just wanted to watch:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3 ... 1149965136
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3 ... 1149965136
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3 ... 1149965136

After the parade we headed back to the hotel for a rest. We didn't fancy going out for dinner so Kane bought McDonalds back to the room. I said I was really hungry so he decided to bring back four big mac meals for the two us! I did manage it but I was so stuffed! When we let dinner go down we decided to go ice skating as we'd watched everyone skating from our room night after night.
I would like to note here that I used to be a very good ice skater, I started having lessons when I was four because my  sister had lessons but they closed down the Ice rink where I live when I was about 9. Since then I've found it incredibly painful when I skate, which of course, I forget every time. Kane had never been ice skating so we got our skates and I did about ¼ of a lap before my feet were in agony! We ended up doing one lap before we gave up!

Following that disaster we went to bed determined that we were going to be up for EMH's the next morning!

[Lilmiss]

Good fun reading your report  
Thanks for sharing your wonderful trip  

[jeakat24]

Thanks, it's been really fun writing it actually.  
Days five and six should hopefully be on here soon!

[Aveen2008]

still loving the report! I have your Disneyland Paris hoodie, I got it on my last trip in July  I have to say I am so jealous of you meeting Meeko I have never seen him in the parks when I have been

can't wait to read more! =D>

Aveen xxx

[ColdSun]

same here, I would love to meet Meeko as well. Really nice updates and great pictures, looking forward to the rest. And thanks for answering my questions, it was really helpful   !