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[bekiboo26]

Have already tried to post this once, and then got kicked off before i pressed the button  :mad: I'd been uploading/adding pics for about half an hour in all the right places (ie; pics for the parades under where i'd written about the parades etc...) but have now given up!

The writing's at the top.. pics at the bottom   :roll:

We had a fab fab faaaabbbbbb time! Really was as magical as last year  

So here we go.....

When we got into the park, at around 1pm on the Sunday, we decided not to go to see many attractions on that day, as we wanted to soak up the atmosphere and wander around at our leisure for the afternoon, as we'd had a very early start, and it seemed extremely crowded at the park being the last day of their Christmas season. We also didn't want to be waiting in hour long queues all day!

We had a lovely relaxing day on Sunday, full of Disney magic and lovely Christmassy stuff! We got back to the hotel quite late – I'd say around 9pm-ish – and checked in. We then went to our hotel room and had a nice relaxing evening and woke the next morning refreshed, and raring to go!

Sunday

* Character's Express Mini Parade

* Sleeping Beauty's Castle

* Lancelot's Carousel

* Once Upon A Dream Parade – With Santa & Real Reindeer

* Fantillusion Parade                

Monday

* Le Pays Des Contes De Fees

* Mad Hatter's Tea Party x 2

* Armegeddon

* Art Of Disney Animation

* Studio 1

* Studio Tram Tours

Tuesday

* It's a small world

* Snow White

* Pinnochio

* Peter Pan's Flight

* Skull Rock (Yeah! We looked out from the inside!)

* Adventure Isle

* Aladdin's Passage

* Swiss Family Robinson's Treehouse

* Pirates Of The Caribbean

* Once Upon A Dream Parade

Wednesday

* Legends Of The Wild West Fort

* Phantom Manor

* Thunder Mesa Riverboat Landing

* Critter Corral – Woody's Roundup Village

* Character's Express Mini Parade

* Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast

* Orbitron

* Honey I Shrunk The Audience

* Autopia

* Mad Hatter's Tea Cups

* Pirates Of The Caribbean x 2 (allowed to stay on the ride for the second time around, as hardly any queue, and we got the whole boat to ourselves!)

* We then went ice skating outside Hotel New York for about half an hour. I stayed ringside to look after our 2 year old son, while Al and DD skated. Al fell over twice - was hilarious to watch!)


Right... now some pics... can't be bothered to put them in any sort of order, so will add them as i uploaded to photobucket  :wink:

Christmassy pics & pics from the first couple of days we were there













Al on a bucking bronco in Disney Village  :yeah:






The Fantillusion Parade - was only on the first night we were there.... pics don't show how amazing it was.. the music that went with it made it even more magical... the whole thing made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.. was faaaantastic!



















A few nice pics...









Me and the kids standing next to Lake Disney



A couple of pics of the Once Upon A Dream Parade





Al and the kids



The Characters Express Mini Parade





Al and Bailey on Buzz Lightyear's Laser Blast



Part 2 coming up!  :yeah:

[bekiboo26]

Thursday

* Character Breakfast at Café Mickey

* Cinemagique

* Moteurs Action Stunt Show

* Crush's Coaster x 2

* Cars Race Rally x 2

* Aladdin's/Genie's Flying Carpet

* Buzz Lightyear's Laser Blast

* Mad Hatter's Tea Party

* It's A Small World

* Peter Pan's Flight

* Pirates Of The Caribbean x 3 in a row – stayed on again as no queue for the ride!

* Saw the end of Candleabration

* At about 10pm in the restaurant, music started blaring from the speakers, and Minnie and Pluto came bursting in from the back doors, and started dancing around with everyone! People came running in from the Red Garter Saloon (which is attached to the restaurant), and within about 5-10 minutes everyone was doing the Conga round the restaurant with Minnie and Pluto! It was great fun. Bailey and Shola loved it! They stayed for about 15 minutes in total, and Bailey and Shola got to have a cuddle with each of them. Bailey even gave Minnie a kiss! We didn't have the camera on us though, which was a bit disappointing. We'll be taking it with us tomorrow though!

Friday

It was raining on and off all day, and the park was more crowded than it had been the rest of the week, so the pace wasn't as fast as the other days – hence not going on as many rides. We stopped more than once for something to eat and drink (mainly to get out of the weather) and that slowed us up too.

* Character's Express Mini Parade

* Pirates of the Caribbean x 2 (stayed on yet again!)

* Mickey's Winter Wonderland

* Buzz Lightyear's Laser Blast

* Honey I Shrunk The Audience

* Pinnochio

* Snow White

* Once Upon A Dream Parade

* Lancelot's Carousel

* Candleabration

* Characters showed up at the restaurant at about 10pm again. Didn't do the conga round the room like last night, but stayed a good 20 minutes, just hugging kids and having photos taken. Cheerful music played throughout. Goofy gave DS (who's 2 years old) a few 'high-five's', nose-rubs, and hugs. He gave DD a kiss on the top of her head. And as he was going out of the restaurant, he said goodbye to the kids, and took a shine to DS and said goodbye to him 3 times! Lol. Taped it this time – I was prepared tonight! It was a lovely end to the evening again.

Saturday

We didn't go on anything today! The whole place was pretty crowded, and the minimum wait for anything was around 20 minutes (and that was being conservative, judging by the look of the queues!). Most rides were a 45 – 60 minute wait – not ideal with a 2 year old in tow. So today was spent wandering around, taking in the magic yet again. I'll never tire of doing that!

We went to the studios first, to see Animagique. But we didn't quite get there until a lot later... as you're about to see!

When we got to the studios, at about 1pm, DD wanted her face painted... so we waited around for about half an hour while she had that done (it looked beautiful! See pics). Then we went to the information board to see the waiting times for the rides. A cast member was there handing out park guides. He took a look at DD's face and said that they were looking for children to ride with Mickey on the last float in the parade, and because her face looked so lovely, would me and her like to do it? Of course we said YES!!!

So at 1.15pm we had to wait at the parade's start gate, along with the other families that had been chosen (there were 14 of us altogether – 7 adults and 7 children). Then the cast member came along and gave us the bad news. There was a 'technical problem' with Mickey's float (in other words it had broken down!) and so we wouldn't be able to take part in the parade. However, they said that instead, we could wait at the end of the parade and meet all the characters if we'd like? Of course... again, we said YES! Lol

By now, the whole of the parade route was cordoned off with the ropes - with the public behind them. So what did the cast member do? He led us straight down the middle of the parade route, like we were royalty! Lol.. At least that's what it felt like. Everyone was looking at us (probably wondering if we were in trouble, being led away by a member of staff! Lol) and I felt a little bit self conscious!

Anyway, he stood us next to the gate at the end of the parade route, and cordoned us off from the rest of the public. A few people tried to get under the ropes, but he sent them back out straight away.

Then as the parade was ending, and the characters got off their floats, they all came over to see us! DD and DS got a hug and a kiss from Pluto, Minnie and Mickey, Rafiki, Cruella DeVille, Goofy, Chip and Dale, Bert (from mary poppins), Jeppeto, and DD danced with Minnie! She twirled her round then gave her a hug, kiss and waved goodbye. Mary Poppins came over, but only had a couple of minutes to see all 7 children so DD and DS didn't get to say hi to her as she had to get back to the end of the parade quite quickly.

But anyway... it was FAN-TAS-TIC! Even though we didn't get to actually be IN the parade like we expected, this was definitely the next best thing! We felt like V.I.P's! It really made today brilliant, and made our whole holiday feel extra special!

Anyway, back to what we did today – which wasn't much!

* Studios Parade – fab, as got to meet all the stars as V.I.P's!

* Animagique

* Train around the Disney park, from Main Street station

* Candleabration

We stayed and watched the Candleabration, then left the park straight away, even though it didn't close til 9pm, and Candleabration was on at 6pm. We had to get back and do our packing, and stop off at Disney Village to buy souvenirs for family on the way back to the hotel.

We ended up going to dinner at about 9pm. And sat down to dinner at 10.15pm. Yes, that's right. We queued for dinner for 1hr 15m! Even people who had reservations (we didn't) were queueing for around 30 minutes! It was madness!

Next time we come, given the length of the queues on the rides today, and the restaurant queue, we'll be staying Monday – Thursday!


Al, after he fell over ice skating! lol



Character Breakfast











Moteurs













A few more bits of the Once Upon A Dream Parade











DD going down the waterfall on Pirates Of The Caribbean - she loved it! lol



Mickey's Winter Wonderland









Some of the Candleabration













And some of our hotel - The Cheyenne - which was FANTASTIC! Couldn't have wished for a better themed hotel for us or the kids! Al bought a cowboy hat on our 2nd day there and wore it everywhere while we were there! Only time he took it off was for bed! lol :lol:



Our Bunk house - Sitting Bull





Will upload some pics of when we met all the characters at the end of the parade in a little while.. probably be later this evening.

xxxx

EDITED TO ADD - Every ride we went on, with exception to POTC on sunday afternoon which had a 10 min queue, was a walk on. We chose not to go on the rides with queues, not that there were any queues for ANYTHING monday-thursday!

[The Butlin Boy]

Fantastic report and photos Bekiboo, it sounds like you had an amazing trip and you were all very lucky to get into the parade. Aaawwww, the Pooh Bear costume :lol:

[Soap]

Fantastic report and photos Bekiboo, it sounds like you had an amazing trip and you were all very lucky to get into the parade. Aaawwww, the Pooh Bear costume :lol:

I totally agree!! And the Pooh bear costume is fantastic!!!  

[bekiboo26]

Thanks guys!    I must admit we did have an amazing time! Already looking forward to planning next years trip!   Oh, and i just HAD to buy the pooh costume! He looked so adorable in it  :lol:  Almost everyone who walked past us looked at him, and either smiled, laughed or shouted "Winnie!!!"  :lol:

Here are the photos from the parade, and a couple of others  :wink:

DS watching the charaters' express mini parade and loving it!



A couple of character meet/greet photos







DD getting her face painted in Studio 1







Meeting the characters at the end of the parade  /





















Minnie had a little dance with DD and another little girl



DD on the train at one of the stations (i think frontierland station)



So there you go! Trip report all done now! I forgot to write what we did on the last day (sunday), but i can't remember now! lol.. It wasn't loads.. i think we did POTC again twice... i know we did it 10 times in total, as DD loved it so much!  :roll:   :lol:

All in all, a brill time!  /

xxxx

[Crush_Love]

nice report and pics, you really can see, that your kids liked it there!!  :wink:

[bekiboo26]

just thought i'd bump this up for anyone who's going within the christmas season, or even in january. these are my pics, and trip report, from january this year, including the last day of their xmas season  /

i can't wait to go again on 4th january - 3 days of their xmas season this time!!!  

[Epcot_Boy]

Have already tried to post this once, and then got kicked off before i pressed the button  :mad: I'd been uploading/adding pics for about half an hour in all the right places (ie; pics for the parades under where i'd written about the parades etc...) but have now given up!

I'll give you a tip..or at least tell you what I do when posting a long trip report

I normally write a little, add a few pics and then post. Then I click on the edit button and post a litle bit more (Writing and Pics) then post again. Then I click on edit again and so on and so on. That way if I do get kicked off then I've only lost that little bit I was working on at that time. It works a treat. :wink:

Anyhow, great report with great pics =D>   Thanks for sharing =D>  

Epcot_Boy :santa:

[The Butlin Boy]

just thought i'd bump this up for anyone who's going within the christmas season, or even in january. these are my pics, and trip report, from january this year, including the last day of their xmas season  /

i can't wait to go again on 4th january - 3 days of their xmas season this time!!!  

I hope you have a great time

[ColdSun]

great photos, thanks for sharing. Sounds and looks like an amazing time for everyone. And like others have already mentioned: your little one looks so very cute as Winnie Pooh!!!