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[The Helmsman]

Day 1 (Thursday, October 15)

We woke up (me and my girlfriend) at 4 am :shock: to start getting ready for our trip. We took a very hot bath, cause it was one of the coldest nights in Lausanne with frost having covered everything (-4C  :shock: ). At about 5.30 am we were ready to go, so we went out into the cold to wait for the bus to take us to the station. This was one really cold experience that I'd like to forget about (the bus arrived after 15 minutes)!!!! We only waited 10 minutes for our train to come and at 7.03 exactly we departed for Paris-Gare de Lyon!
The train ride lasted four hours and it was a pleasant journey through forests and fields, lakes and rivers and frost  :lol:. However we didn't get any sleep, cause we were so excited and the time seemed still! We arrived at Gare de Lyon at 11.00, but it took us almost one hour to reach the train station due to traffic  :? . We got off the train and started looking for the RER trains. The signs were inadequate, but we managed to find them, but then we had to wait in line for the tickets, cause most cashiers were closed and only one was operating (plus we didn't have enough coins to get tickets from the machines ). One would think that a central station would be better organised, but whatever  :wink:. We were too happy to think about these minor things!
Finally we arrived at Marne la Vallee-Chessy at 13.30 and it just felt unbelievable to be in Disneyland again!!!!!!
We made our way to Newport Bay Club Hotel and the Admiral's Floor reception. We immediately checked in. The cast member was very polite and friendly and gave us all the necessary info about the resort and the Halloween events, especially about the Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party . We then procceded to our room which was ready before the check in time  =D> and our luggage was brought instantly! We had gotten the room we asked for (we asked a specific room number) and we had a lake view and a balcony. Our room was lovely as always (big fans of NBC   ). We quickly unpacked, refreshed ourselves and headed out towards the park .
We were very excited to enter the park once again ( !!!!!!!). The first thing we did though (since it was lunch time!) was to head to Adventureland and book a table at Blue Lagoon (it is our tradition to eat at Blue Lagoon the first day). They told us a table would be ready in half an hour, which was great since it was a last minute reservation. Instead of waitning, we decided to do our first ride and went to The Pirates of The Caribbean. The ride was great as always. By the time it was over we were very hungry and went to Blue Lagoon for our table. We were immediately seated at a very nice front table =D> . The cast member taking care of us was very nice and quick. I had the ostrich steak and my girlfriend had  the caribbean chicken. The food was wonderful and then it was time for dessert! We always long for the perfect Blue Lagoon vanilla creme brulee  /  and it was heaven to taste it again!
Afterwards we just wanted to get into the atmosphere of the park, so we wondered through it, taking pictures, looking over the stores and jumping on a ride once or twice, since the waiting times were short.
We loved the Halloween theme in Main Street and Frontierland  :pumpkin: . It was much better than we expected. The decorations blended nicely without interfering with the whole atmosphere.
While in Main Street we felt a sudden urge to stop by Cable Car and have some of our favorite vanilla doughnuts (yum   ).
So mainly that's how we spent our first day in the park. Just taking in the ambiance, relaxing and enjoying ourselves. As the park was closing we went back to the hotel for dinner. We ate at Yacht's Club where again we made a late reservation, but we got a very nice table in front of the big decorative helm    :wink:   ! The food was excellent and the staff friendly, quick and cheerful as always. I had the grilled swordfish and my girlfriend had the ravioli with mushrooms and spinach cream. For dessert we shared an apple pie or something like that, because I don't remember exactly. It was very nice though   !
When we finished our dinner we were exhausted and ready to sleep. But still we paid a visit to the hotel's boutique   .
Finally after a nice relaxing hot bath we went to bed and fell asleep looking at the lake.

During the first day I took only a few pictures (out of the 1,000 from all the days). Here is a sample of them.




Day 2 coming tomorrow...!

[Aveen2008]

Thanks for sharing day one! your pictures are great too!    

Can't wait to read more!!

[Annet]

Nice report. Can't wait for the rest of it :mrgreen:
I love your pictures of the castle, nice to see them from a different point of view!

[Soap]

Thanks for sharing Helm!  
Your pictures looks great.

[dagobert]

Thanks for posting a trip report that focuses on the positive things! The Blue Lagoon is a great restaurant and the creme brulee is really delicious.

I really enjoyed your first part and I'm looking forward to the rest of your trip report.

[DLP-Photos.com]

Very nice start to your report!

Your photos are great - I especially like how you've captured parts of the park from some new angles in stead of just the classic angles  =D>

[Epcot_Boy]

Wonderful report, and a great way to display your photos =D>

Thanks for sharing with us /  

[The Helmsman]

Day 2, October 16

We woke up at around 8:30, when the room service waitor knocked on our door  :shock: (we had placed a room service breakfast sign for 8:30 - 9:00). The breakfast was nice and hot, just what we needed for the cold day to come. We had a quick shower and got ready for a full day at the park.
The first thing we did was to go straight to city hall and make a reservation for lunch at Walt's. Afterwards we felt that we needed a bit of rush, so we went to Space Mountain   ! The ride was great, fast and made us feel a lot better (awake  :mrgreen: ). Then we visited Nautilus and took  lots of photos this time. We really like this sight, because we are huge Verne fans and Nautilus really depicts what Verne had in mind. Then off to Star Tours and it felt as it was the first time. I'll never get tired of this ride. It's a classic!
We used the lovely passage that connects Discoveryland with Fantasyland and went straight to Alice's Curious Labyrinth. It was all freshed up and looked wonderful just how it should be. We did the whole ride up until the castle. While strolling around Fantasyland my girlfriend felt this sudden need to have something sweet so we headed back to Cable Car to have those delicious vanilla doughnuts (two for each   ). We were also given a free hot beverage coupon. Since our lunch time was approaching, we decided to stay in Main Street and to our delight we saw the Pumpkin people and we took photos with them  / !! Before going to Walts I decided to go inside Harrington's and buy myself a Walt Disney Classics Collectible since I am a collector and I always buy one (or two   ) at Harrington's. At 13:30 we were at Walts and we were given a cozy, romantic table at Fantasyland area. Again a very friendly cast member took our order which was, an I - Bone steak and a glass of wine for me and Supreme Chicken with Marshala sause and mushrooms. Once again the food was excellent  =D> !!!! We then moved to dessert which was Apple crumble with ice cream and it was surprisingly delicious! After this lovely lunch, we went to Adventure Isle, went through the caves (got lost   ) and we did Pirates of the Caribbean again. We went to La Cabane des Robinson with all the effects working  =D>  and then we strolled through the bridges, the pathways and the caves until we decided to go to Indiana Jones. For me this ride, though being short, it's quite a thrill! Before going back to the hotel and get ourselves ready for Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party we went to Frontierland and did Big Thunder Mountain and Phantom Manor. Friday was a nice day for rides, surprisingly enough. We always encountered queues of at least 10'  / ! I guess everyone was getting ready for the party. So it was time to get going back at the hotel ( it was somewhere around 17:00 - 17:30) and on our way we picked our bracelets for Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party. Off to the hotel to refresh ourselves and back to the park!
There were extra decorations for the party and the atmosphere was really festive and exciting. We went to the castle, which was decorated with halloween banners and had lights and looked amazing . Then we went to the Mad Hatter's Tea Cups with the beautiful lights hanging from the top. They let the people do as many rounds as they wanted, so we stayed for two . Everything looked great, being all lit up in the night and it felt great despite the cold.
We headed towards Adventureland to do the Pirates Of The Caribbean once again :mrgreen: and on our way out , we met Jack Sparrow . We also visited Le Coffre Du Capitaine and bought ourselves the special lanyards they had for the party with the special event pin. To our delight the cast member gave us a free pin each / ! Then it was Frontierland of course with all its decorations for the occasion. The gate was filled with smoke and you had to go through it! Frontierland was full of characters all dressed up and we met Minnie, Goofy, Donald and Daisy and the Pumpkin Men. There also was a dancing event with Chip and Dale at Riverboat landing . We did Big Thunder Mountain, which was freezing but great!! Phantom Manor was of course a must for this Halloween night :pumpkin:   !
Then we were so hungry and decided Plaza Gardens as a nice choice for dinner. We stuffed ourselves  and headed back out in Main Street, where we strolled and took pictures with the Halloween decorations. At 23.15 it was time for the Cars Cavalcade. At this point we tired and freezing, but still having a great time. At the end of the parade we managed to get some pictures with the characters and we saw the whole thing to the very end.
Finally it was time for an extra hot bath and our warm bed with the great view.





 


Day 3 is coming tomorrow!

[Aveen2008]

Another great installment! Sounded great! =D>  I soo wish I had made arangements to go to a mnsshp!! I am so jealous    Hehe but I am very glad you both had a great time!

I love your photo of the mad hatters tea party, it looks beautiful!!      =D>

[Annet]

I love the pictures of MNSSHP, since I'm going myself next tuesday.
And ofcourse the report is very nice too.

[Masamune]

You take such beautiful pictures! Can't wait to see more!

[The Helmsman]

First of all a big thank you for your nice words. I'm glad that you all like and enjoy our trip report   ! So on to...

Day 3 - October 17 2009

Waking time 8:30...yes it was again the room service that woke us up  :lol: . Another nice hot breakfast to start our day, a warm quick shower and off to the parks. We haven't been yet to the Walt Disney Studios and we were contemplating whether we should go in the morning or leave it for the afternoon. We decided to go in the afternoon, due to the massive crowds. Instead we went to the park and decided to do all the shopping. We went through all the stores in the park and bought a lot more stuff than we expected    :shock:. We also booked a table for lunch at Silver Spur Steakhouse. So basically what we did was shopping, taking pictures and eating doughnuts (yes the yummy white ones ) till it was time for lunch.
The atmosphere at the Silver Spur was excellent and very old west like . I had the I-bone steak with baked potatoes and my girlfriend had the steak with the rocquefort sause. Both plates were delicious and afterwards it was certainly time for dessert! We shared a vanilla cheesecake with strawberry coulis. It was perfect. The service at the restaurant was again immaculate.
After lunch we had to go back to the hotel, cause we had a hundred bags with us! So we quickly made our way back to the hotel and a while later we were at the studios. Now this was exciting for us, since the last time we had been in the studios the Hollywood Tower Of Terror was still being built and there was no Hollywood Boulevard to be seen . We immediately went for the TOT as the line was only 20 minutes. Waiting was fun, since you went through the garden and the spooky reception! We then entered the library, where we saw the video of the story while there was lightning and thunder outside . Then we went downstairs to the boiler room to wait for the service elevator 8-[ . Our bellhop was scary enough and finally we took our seats! We got really anxious as we did not know what to expect! We actually were surprised with the ride! It was great and a big thrill . Getting out of the ride we went to the hotel boutique and got all the themed souvenirs ! After TOT we checked out the Hollywood Boulevard and took a whole lot of pictures. Then we strolled around the area and went back to Studio 1 for more pictures. We checked out the store in Studio 1 and on our way out we went to the Walt Disney Studios Store in the frontlot, where we bought an umbrella with Mickey's face all over it, because it was pouring hard. We had left our umbrellas in the hotel, since it was all sunny when we came out :roll: .
Then we went back to the park and headed towards Discoveryland. At this point my girlfriend was cold, so we made a stop at Videopolis, where we stayed for a while watching a few Disney classics. It was great having a chance to see them and we consider it a great addition to the park. Afterwards we went to the castle to take pictures and from there to Belle's Christmas village which had opened. In the end we decided to go to It's A Small World, which is always nice. Then it was time for dinner, so we decided to go to Casey's Corner to have those delicious hotdogs!! We had to have dessert as usual :wink: , so back to our favorite Cable Car Bake Shop we went.
The park was now nearing closing time and we decided to go to the Orbitron, which my girlfriend has never tried before. It was great, despite all the cold and very nice to see all the lights in the park! We then went through Main Street, where Mickey bid us goodbye from the Railway station. And so another beautiful day at the park was over.
On our way back to our hotel, we went to New York Hotel and Sequoia Lodge Hotel to take pictures! In the end we were so tired that we did not pack as we had planned, we just had a hot bath and straight to bed .  

[ed-uk]

Great trip report. And thanks for posting all your beautiful pictures.

[smurfy74]

Great report , I have really enjoyed it /

[SophieD]

Great trip report Helmsman! I really enjoyed reading it Great photo's too