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[Javey74]

Fantastic reads jeakat24, thanks for the picture with Donald.. =D>  

Kane has a good choice of favourite character there... :wink:  

Brilliant pictures aswell, looking forward now to the last few installments... /

[The Butlin Boy]

Thanks for sharing a great trip report, I've really enjoyed seeing it

[jeakat24]

Hi guys, really sorry for not posting the last two days yet, but I've just gone back to uni and have a mad level of work to do, so they'll be up here asap!

Thanks for all the kind comments, I've been really looking forward to writing the report and have enjoyed it so much so far!

Hopefully I'll have day five soon on here soon  

[jeakat24]

DAY 5 -     03/04/08

Today was much warmer than it had been the previous days, still not quite tropical, but pleasant enough!
We had breakfast in the Parkside Diner and made it to the park at 8am. I really wanted a photo of an empty Main Street but unfortunately we were too late.
Our first stop was, of course, Buzz, where I am very pleased to say we both scored over 100,000 and I beat Kane by a good 3000 points. I can't remember whether the photos still weren't working or if I looked really bad in it but we didn't end up getting one, probably a good thing considering how many photos we actually have on Buzz!
Then we made or way over to the bone jangler (SM2) which was still a walk on at this point.


As I hadn't had a big breakfast I was getting hungry, and Kane can always eat so we headed down to the cable car shop on Main Street where we enjoyed a lovely baguette and some doughnuts before we headed to fantasyland.

We then went on all the rides that were open, I was gutted that It's a Small World wasn't open! We also managed to get some of our gifts in Sir Mickeys shop, where I spotted a hidden Mickey:

http://public.fotki.com/jeakat24/disney08/1001279.html

Actually today was to be our gift buying day, so as the day goes on you might notice that our ride count starts to drop, saying that we did take this holiday a bit slower and probably did about half the number of rides we normally do.

Anyway we waited for the rope to drop at Belle's Christmas village and headed over to do Le Pays des Contes de Fees, which I always love, it's just so cute and the queue over the bridge is almost as good as the ride. Plus it's nice to relax on a nice, calming kiddie ride, which is good when you get fed of the It's a Small World music as it's been stuck in your head for days!
We then went on Casey Jnr, which is so good. If I was six it would definitely be the coolest ride to go on!  

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

We then decided it would be a good idea to try Phantom Manor, and when we arrived the queue was much smaller. We still had to wait about 15 minutes, which is the longest I've ever waited for it. I was very disappointed I have to say. I love this ride but half of the phantom dancers weren't working and were just stood still (which is worse than not being there in my opinion), it broke down on the fairground section, which seems to be a theme developing on the forum, and the ghouls that are meant to be shown in the mirrors at the end were obviously on their lunch break. The end is one of the best parts of the ride and I was gutted it wasn't working. I also forgot to mention that on Pirates the two people sword fighting weren't in sync (with the sound effects or each other) and also seemed to be further away from each other than before, making it look really stupid!

We didn't have a proper lunch this day as we'd had or baguette mid morning so we bought some more Gibson girl ice creams to keep us going while we shopped on Main Street for the rest of people's presents. We had twelve people to buy for including our 4 month old nephew, it was his first Disneyland present and I was sooo excited! I'll list some of the things we bought at the end.

We then saw Halloween Mickey at his photo point and we queued up to meet him. When we got near the front of the queue a girl had just had her photo taken when a boy ran up to Mickey and dad went to take a photo. They hadn't been queuing and it was obvious that the dad had walked into the exit. The cast member didn't let him take the photo and told him to queue but I wondered how a father could do that to their child? His poor son's moment of meeting Mickey was ruined all because he couldn't be bothered to queue. I agree that the cast member can't let them take the photo, if one person did it, they'd all be doing it and surely this guy knew it too. After that the dad laughed with his friends and just walked off, the boy looked so upset.
But on a positive note, meeting Halloween Mickey was fab and we got a couple of good photos.

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

After this we went to the Blue Lagoon to meet Jack Sparrow. He was no Johnny Depp (a fact that I had come to terms with a few months ago lol) but it was good nonetheless!
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3 ... 1149965136

Kane and I have also devised an ingenious but fair way to ensure we get character photos without pushing in and without waiting for hours. Basically when we get there we look to see all the people already there, once they've finished we ask the cast member with the character (if they have one) to take a photo of us and they usually get the attention of the character, if not at first they get a bit impatient holding your camera and will eventually! This means we get a great photo but we aren't jumping ahead of the people who were there before us!

After a bit of milling around the park, just seeing the sights, for the millionth time  :roll:    we went back to the hotel to relax and have a little nap (I'm seriously turning into such an old woman!). Outside the hotel we were greeted by New York style Pluto and Goofy and after Goofy was done entertaining everyone who was ice skating (by dancing on the edge of the fountain) I had my photo with them:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3 ... 1149965136
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3 ... 1149965136
(note: if you look to the left of me and look on the first red section of the hotel, our room was the one above the long window at the bottom!)

The fireworks were due to start at 9.30 so we left the room and picked our spot at 9pm. The crowd was only one person deep when we arrived and it didn't get much busier where we were (on the lakes edge outside the New York). Due to my height issues I decided to stand behind a young girl and I got an amazing view. The fireworks were absolutely amazing, all co-ordinated and perfectly timed with the music. The bonfire was also great but they put it out quite quickly afterwards (presumably for the other two displays). That in itself was quite amusing as all these fire fighters were holding one hose and they looked, from a distance, somewhat like clowns from a circus!

The village was packed afterwards so we just went back to the hotel and packed our suitcases, which was really difficult considering mine had been practically full when we arrived!

I would also like to note here that I completely fell in love with my hoodie (wise choice Aveen!), and I am wearing it for the last few days, and although it looks like I'm wearing the same thing, it's only the hoodie that's the same!

Day six will hopefully follow tomorrow but please do bear with me!

[ColdSun]

great update, and lovely pics of course. Thanks for the tip on how to get pictures with characters, I might just try that the next time

[jeakat24]

DAY 6 – 04/11/08

Day 6, our last day and the day that I had been dreading since we arrived! We've only been for 6 days once before and on the last day we were so tired we barely did anything so we made sure we took it a little slower this time so we could really enjoy the last day.

We woke up a bit later than planned as we'd stayed up late to pack. We skipped breakfast, checked out and walked straight to the studios park.

After I put my ticket through the studios turnstile for the last time we went straight to ToT. The queue said 45 minutes but it was actually more like 15. We had the French pre ride thingy and then walked to the lift doors. By this point we were both quite nervous but I wanted to hide my nerves from Kane so that I didn't put him off. He felt a bit better about going on it after watching the annoying woman on "10 things to do before you go" in the hotel.

I must say, ToT was everything I expected it to be and so much more. It's scary without being terrifying and just amazing! My favourite part was the bit in the middle where you're not sure whether you're going up of down! We were also sat right at the back to the side giving us an amazing view over the Disneyland Park. Kane really loved it too.

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

We then bought our breakfast consisting of a wrap and a doughnut each while we waited for the English version of Stitch, which was, as before, really enjoyable. I think I preferred our first time for a couple of reasons. One, it was all new to us and although I'd read some stuff about it, I wasn't entirely sure what to expect, and two the first one was really sarcastic and there was good banter between Stitch and the cast member.

We again took a look at the queue for Crush and again we didn't bother. Then we got in the queue for the stunt show. This was our first time going to see the stunt show as before we'd never been in the studios at the right time, or simply forgotten when it was on. I'm so glad we did though as it was so entertaining and really good performance from everyone. Does anyone know how many people the stunt show can seat, because the whole time I was wondering? When the stunt show's on it must be a really good time the visit the park, it must be so quiet with everyone in there!

After the show we had lunch at Rendez-Vous des Stars, and used the last of our meal vouchers. I also forgot to mention that we had pizzas from Pizzeria Bella Notte the day before (which was another first).
Anyway Rendez-Vous des Stars was lovely and had some great food on offer. I had some Ratatouille, just because it seemed fitting! It was very nice too! We then watched as Chef Remy appeared and it was so lovely to all the children's faces light up when they saw him!

After a much needed fill up I was desperate to go back on ToT so we queued again. Kane then said he didn't feel up to going on it as he'd eaten a lot for lunch (it's a theme with him!) so he left the queue when it started to go indoors and I stayed. I then had two girls constantly trying to get past me but I didn't let them. I thought about it as it was only two of them but then I thought that the people behind might try as well so I wasn't having any of it. I was subtle about it though, just making sure I was on the inside corner each time the queue turned. They looked a bit embarrassed when I went through the turnstile ahead of them! This time the queue took us left and we also had an English showing. In that room the two girls headed straight for the door and people went in. After the showing we had to go up the stairs and wait at the doors above the other (which I didn't even know they had until I was there). I was placed right at the front of queue one and a couple were behind me. I looked around and saw the two girls from earlier at the back of queue six, so I was still ahead of them, Hoorah!    

Afterwards Kane met me in the shop, where he'd been laughing at all the photos. We then said goodbye to the studios park and headed in the Disneyland Park to be greeted by the sudden arrival of a Christmas tree!

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

We them went to Star Tours and Kane had wanted to do it all week as it's his favourite ride, but the queue had always been over an hour. It said 35 minutes so we waited and loved it as always. Apart from the fact that it was boiling hot in the simulator, almost unbearable and I'm quite surprised they let people ride it like that.

Anyway, we did a few more rides again but mainly just walked around the park, just soaking it up before we had to leave. We walked around the fort in Frontierland and went to visit the dragon.

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

We caught the end of the parade as we came out of Discoveryland and we took photos in front of the castle before we made a slow walk down Main Street and said goodbye to the park, I was looking back until I could no longer see the castle.

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

We'd decided earlier in the day that we were going to have dinner in Annette's before we had to go to the station. We've always wanted to eat upstairs and our wish was granted! We enjoyed our last meal in Disney, great food and it was wonderful to see so many of the staff on skates, although we did wonder how our waiter managed to come up the stairs on skates with two drinks in his hand!

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

I sat outside having my cigarette while looking at ToT before we boarded and set off for London. We decided that due to the size and heaviness of our cases we would get a taxi from St. Pancras to Victoria Coach station and I was glad we did. For anyone who wants to know it cost just under £20. I managed to sleep through most of the coach journey and woke up as we arrived at Bournemouth, where Kane's dad was waiting to take us home.

For presents we bought a tin of biscuits for my dad and brother in law, Christmas decorations for my mum and my sister and some craft stuff for my mum(she makes cards), a glass for my brother as he'd broken his other one we got him, High School Musical Mickey and Minnie for my niece and nephew, tons of pez dispensers for Kanes brother, a mug for his other brother, a Jack Skellington blanket for his sister, mugs for his parents and a baby Simba for our baby nephew.

All in all, we both had an absolutely fantastically, amazingly wonderful trip. We had agreed that this would our last until at least 2010 as we need to save to move in together and for our wedding that year, but we've decided that we're definitely going for next Halloween, but we might need to cut costs and go for less days, and we definitely won't be staying in the New York next time.

Thanks so much for reading, I've really enjoyed writing it and if anyone wants to see more photos click on the links on my signature. Not all of them are on there so if you want, you can send a friend request on facebook to see them all, just let me know you're from the forum.

[Lilmiss]

Really nice continuation  :mrgreen:
Can't wait till the next one... oh wait... two years to go huh ^^ :-"
Lovely pics too  /

[ColdSun]

great conclusion, thanks so much ...

[TowMater]

Very great trip report!  =D>

although we did wonder how our waiter managed to come up the stairs on skates with two drinks in his hand!

He might of used the lift for employees!  

[littlemermaid83]

What a great report.

I really enjoyed reading