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[Catalina]

Hey Guys!

I'm not even sure if you want another trip report for these Dates, (seems half the Forum goes to Disneyland in October :-) ), and since I am still new at the Forum and you all don't know me very well... But here I go anyway.
I love reading all your reports, so I decided to share. And i think it might be theraputic for my post-Disneyland-Blues. :-)

I'll try to keep it short and speak thorugh Pictures mostly.
We were a Group of three: myself, my best friend Martina and my Sister Isabell. And Frank, my Camera.

Our Trip started on Saturday evening, when we went for a Sleepover at Martinas Place. We had to get up early in the Morning and take a cab to the Train Station. To save Money, we decided to share a Cab in the Monring.
So we took a Taxi to the Train Station and then two Trains from Bern to Basel EuroAirport.
It was Sunday Morning, 4:30 and the Train was full with young people on their way home from a night out. On the train next to us sat a young man, across from two girls, who he desperately tried to flirt with. He was wearing a cowboy hat and at one stage, wanted one of the girls try it on. So he said "try it on, you'll be a Cowboy Girl!" I burst out laughing, it was so funny! The Guy turned bright red once he realized what he said. Great start to the day anyway.

Day One, 11th of October 2009

So we took the plane from Basel to CDG and then the TGV to Marne la Vallée. We arrived at the Hotel New York around 9:30. Our room wasn't ready yet, so we left our bags at the baggagerie and headed to the Park. It was much more crowded then I thought it would be. But it was Sunday. We headed straight for our most beloved ride, Pirates of the Caribbean. The ride is in good shape, pretty much everything was working, so I loved it. The Flag is fixed as well...

After Pirates, we went to Frontierland and had a look around all the Halloween Decorations. I especially liked these:







I took houndreds of Pumpkin Pictures, but most of them have already been postet, so I won't post any.

We had Lunchreservations for 12:00, so after a Tour around Disneyland we headed towards


We had made reservations beforehand and found out that Walts was closed Monday/Tuesday and Sunday evening, so this was our only chance to eat there.
The Resturant is very nice, rather big (you wouldn't think from below).

Our waiter was lovely, and the food was ok. Not really a lot for the cost of it.


My Meal was called Oscar, Martina had the same, my Sister had Walt's Gourmetburger (I have pictures, if you want...)
While we were eating, Minnie's Party Train passed at least twice and after a while Minnies Voice can get very annoying ("attention! attention!" I can still hear it!)

After Lunch, we met an old friend of mine and his Girlfriend. He lives in Paris but has never been to Disneyland (can you believe it!?). We were supposed to meet them at 10, but they didn't make it out of bed in time. He immediately wanted to go on all the coasters but since we just ate, I didn't think it would be a good Idea.  So instead, we took them to the Pirates! :-)
After that, they went on Space Mountain, while we went on Phantom Manor (all in great shape), took a Ride with Molly Brown (very relaxing) and then on Indiana Jones (my sister didn't go, but took pictures of us on the ride, at the little stop it makes before going up. There she stood yelling "good luck!". Ehm... thanks?!) I'm pretty sure we also went on Pirates again...







While walking around the Park, we more or less walked into Pizza Planet accidentaly, right on time for a cup of tea and a gorgeous mickey-brioche.






Then it was already time to sit and wait for the Once upon a Time Parade. We had our usual spot last year and went back there this year. At the very end of the Parade on the front of Main Street, just bevore the Floats go through the gate is a great spot to watch. Of course, you have to wait a bit for the parade to come that way. I loved the Halloween Part of it (I am a Burton/Elfman Fanatic, so Jack and Sally were awesome!). The Rest of the Parade was the same, still nice, but I think I got an overdose last year! :-) Funny thing, when we saw the Toy Story Float, Martina and I both yelled "look, it's a Cowboy Girl!". People next to us were not amused! :-)



After the Parade, we met up with my friend again and took a ride on Space Mountain together. The Ride was awesome, totally smooth, I loved it! Best I've ever experienced it!

Then my Friend headed home and we wanted to head towards the Hotel but got stopped by Mickey's Magical Party time, which was about to begin. So since we were already there, we decided to watch it. I wasn't expecting much but I actually liked it. The Party Time Song isn't half bad.

(my Sister took this Picture and I think it's cool cause the Hand in it is actually mine...)

I loved the Villains taking part, though it didn't make much sense storywise and it was very funny seeing some of them dance. After the Show, the Villains came down to the audience to give away candy. That was pretty cool and we got to see the costumes up close.





By then it was about 20:00 and I was exhausted. We headed back to the Hotel (went on another Pirates first) and checked in in a matter of Minutes. We had room 4208 with lake view.


(Pic from the Next Morning)

The room was great. Though we didn't stay in it very long, just dropped our bags and were off to "Ney Village" (the "DIS" in the Sign is broken) for some shopping and Dinner.


Unfortunately, everywhere was full and we ended up bringing McDonalds Food back to the Hotel Room.
The only negative thing I have to say about the room is, that you can't open the windows, not even tilt them. It was extremly warm in the room, even with the AC running, while it was freezing outside.
We were in Bed around 10pm and the second my head hit the pillows, I was out.

[dagobert]

I can't get enough of trip reports, so keep posting!!! Great trip report so far and I'm looking forward to the other days.

[Catalina]

OK then, here's Day Two:

Day Two, October 12th 2009

We got up at 7, since we had breakfast reservations at Café Mickey for 8 (we had the choice between eating at the Hotel or at Café Mickeys for one Breakfast...)
We got a very nice table, the buffet was nice as well. We had visits from Mickey, Goofy, Pluto, Prince John, Captain Hook and Chip n Dale, who were tickeling my sister until she was literally on the floor laughing.




I was pushing for a quick breakfast (EMH everyone?! :-)) but Martina loved the Coffee and went to get 3 refills!

We finally made it to the Park about 9:30. Not sure what exactly we did, but I guess we went on Pirates (it's a pretty save bet!)
Soon after, we headed for the studios. I wanted to go on Crush's Coaster as soon as possible from what I've read in the forum. Waiting time was 40 Minutes. This was at about 10:30. So we decided not to go on it. Martina and I wanted to see Cinemagique (we're both Cinema Lovers, so this is perfect for us) Isabell didn't go with us, since she doesn't speak French or English, so the Show isn't much fun for her. Instread, she went to Animation. We went via Toon Town, where we met Emile. He was all alone, so we took a couple of Photos with him. He got us to stand next to him holding our hands like paws, just like he does and it tourned out to be a great photo. Unfortunately, it's on Martinas Camera, so I don't have a Copy of it yet.

On our way to Cinemagique, we also did RnRC. I really wanted to do ToT, but Martina couldn't be convinced and I didn't bother going alone (by the end of the trip she promised me she'd go next time!)

We met back up with my Sister and went on the flying Carpets next. Don't ask me why, I love this ride. It's not a thrill ride nor very long or exciting, but I think it's great.
We went three times, so each of us could have a go "driving".
We also went on Studio Tram Tour, which was the same as last year, nice but not spectacular. At the waiting area was a CastMember named Doudou who was very funny and entertained the crowd by trying to make me lough by making vaious faces. After we were back from the Tour, he lifted first myself, then my sister and Martina out of the Tram. Even though I was about twice his size. The People in the que were very amused and "whoo"-ing...He even tried to convince me to start working in Disneyland (sure, where do I sign up?!)
We each had a Hot Dog for Lunch, and while q-ing, a Man came up to Martina, grabbed her jacked and started shaking her. I was schocked, and was about to grab him, when it turned out that a bee had flown inside Martinas Collar and the Man was trying to get it out. That was very nice of him, tough a bit of a weird approach.
We ate outside on a Bench because the sun was shining and while we were eating, the Cast Members started preparing the Place with Ropes for the Stars 'n' Cars Parade, so we chose a spot pretty much facing the stage and sat down. Soon after, a Family of about 6 came with trays of food and drinks and sat on the floor next to us, starting to have lunch. After the Show was over, their trash and trays were still lying on the floor. I was not impressed! To my right was a family with a little girl in a Pram, about 3 or 4 who, during the 30minutes we waited, ate an entire bar of chocolate. I'm sure her dentist is pleased! :-)

I loved the Show, I though the Cars were great (especially the little Mermaid one) and really well done.

 
Did anyone notice? Most of the Drivers, the ones on the Floats as well, are women! So much for Women and Driving! :-)

I was thrilled to see some Characters that I hadn't seen before, especially Mushu and Mulan, who are some of my favourites.


As I said, the Show, Cars and Music was great, the Autograph Part afterwards wasn't. Mayhem! And since we were at the very front, we couldn't move. We did however get to take a few really cool Pictures. Sully came over and squeezed myself and my Sister into a big hug with his huge Arms, that was fun!

And Woody came over to sign some Autographs. My Sister has been collecting for ages and her Autographbook is a really old one, so the Characters who sign it sometimes look at it quite surprised. She also has a few Photos in the front of herself in Disneyland when she was little. Woody took his time looking through it. There is also a Picture of Isabell wearing one of the evil Masks you can buy in the shops. Woody was laughing and pointing at Martina, trying to say "is this you?" So funny! At least I thought so, Martina wasn't too impressed!
 


Unfortunately mid-Show my dear Frank (aka my Camera) died of low battery. OK, it's my fault, I didn't charge it and didn't bring a charger. So for the rest of the trip, I got to share my sisters camera (my "i wanna take pictures!" moaning was obviously annoying her and she decided to give me a lend of hers...)

After we survived Stars n Cars, we wanted to head back to the Park (more Pirates maybe?) but somehow got stuck in the big store on Place des Frères Lumière (how did that happen?!) and decided to get our shopping done, so we also stopped by the Disney Store and Disney Fashion in the Village.

We headed back to the Hotel to drop off our Shoppings and immediately headed back out, since we had 5pm reservations at


We were really late and had to hurry through the Village and the entire park (why aren't the pirates right by the entrance?! :-)) against the Parade... took us about 20 minutes and we were 15 Minutes late for our reservation. Thankfully, they didn't notice and we got a great table right next to the river. I've heard loads of good things about the Swordfish, so I ordered that without looking at the menue. I wasn't dissapointed, it was lovely. I even had Crème Brulée for Desert (I'm not a Desert person usually).
The Service was nice though very slow. They brought us the two bottles of water we asked for but forgot to bring glasses. They finally remembered when we started drinking out of the bottles...  The Ride was relatively empty at the beginning but the boats filled more and more, you could tell the Parade was over. Quite a few people yelled "bon appetit!" to which we yelled "Merci!" back. Was fun at the beginning but got really annoying in the end.


After dinner, since we were already there, we went on the ride ourselves and then headed back to the hotel, stopping by Mickeys Magical Party once again to grab some candy (Jafar was literally throwing the little bags at me and hit me in the guts... about a second later I had loads of Kids crawl all over me!) We also stopped at the Snow White Shop.


Back at the Hotel, Isabell and Martina went for a Swim in the New York Pool. I went along to check it out and take some pictures (I'm allergic to Chlorine, so no swimming for me...)
I wasn't too dissapointed I didn't get to swim, the pool didn't look inviting at all. It was tiny and crowded. After a few minutes I split and went upstairs to start packing.
By the time the other two were back and packed and in bed, I was already fast asleep.

[never2old]

Very enjoyable trip report! And beautiful pictures!

I was there on the same days - and also spent Monday in the Studios! I was a bit disappointed that the queues for Crush were never below the 40 minutes (except when it was closed ie broken down), because we didn't do it either...

Next time you MUST go on ToT - it's really worth it (and I'm a real coward when it comes to rides!)!!

Also very jealous of your restaurants so far... Walts & Blue Lagoon are two of my favourites!! (and I couldn't do either on our last trip...)

Looking forward to more!

[Catalina]

And Day Three:

Tuesday, October 13th 2009

We got up at 6am to make the most of our last day, were at lunch at 7 sharp (we were the first ones there), dropped off our luggage at 7:45 and were at the park at 8am.




We were amongst about 10 People, most of them boarded one of the busses for a ride around Main Street, while we walked and followed the orange foodprints on the floor all along Main Street. It was deserted and I got to make some really lovely pictures.
 

We hadn't been on Peter Pan and headed there first, because we knew it was a crowd favorite. When we arrived, it was deserted. At first, we thought it was still closed, but then we saw the cast member waving. So we got on. The Ride is lovely, I enjoyed it.
When we got off, there was still noone around. So we decided to go again. (we got off, walked around, through the waiting area) The Cast Member was amused and asked me "encore une fois?" So we went again and since there was noone around, I decided to take some Flash Pictures. It's very difficult, since the ride takes rather abrupt turns and it doesn't give your camera enough time to focus)


When we got off, there was still absolutly noone around. So we went around again. When we came back to the loading area, the Cast Member was laughing. This time, I got a boat to myself, in front of Isabell and Martina, which made for some cool Photos.
 

We got off and decided, three times were enough. But still, everything seemed deserted.
We went on the Tea Cups, then Buzz (my first time, my Score is not worth mentioning! :-)) the Carusell, Dumbo and Pinocchio. All with 0 waitingtime.



(preparing Belle's Village for Winter)

Then we went up to check the first floor of the castle, that had been closed the last time we were there. It is lovely. So well done. And I didn't know you could go outside. I loved it. We also checked out the yard of L'Auberge de Cendrillion, since it was open and noone was around.
 




We also had another look around Adventureland, incl. the Pirate Ship, Scull Rock,and the Treehouse.





Then we split up once again, My Sister went for Snow White, while Martina and I headed back to he Pirates (yes, again! :-)) Isabell was still in the Q for Snow White when we were done, so we went for another go on Space Mountain. Bad Idea! I have a Neckproblem, so yes, I shouldn't ride rollercoasters at all. I tried to limit it to one ride on Indy, RnRC and SM:M2. But since the ride on Sunday was so smooth, I thought it would be ok. It was awful. Extremly bumpy, the Music wasn't working, the Countdown at the beginning wasn't working. All in all a bad experience.
It only takes a few seconds but I was glad it was over.
To calm down, we went on "it's a small world", where we had a boat to ourselves, then Pirates (how many times now?) and then Phantom Manor. The ride was also perfect on Sunday, this time it broke down at least five times. I figured while we were standing, it wouldn't bother anyone and shot some Pics with Flash.

Instead of about 10 Minutes, the whole thing took about 20. At some stage we stopped when i was facing uphill for about 5 Minutes. A few seconds later and I would have been asleep. The Doombuggies are very comfortable. We also had our only go at Big Thunder Mountain.

Then we headed to the Studios for Lunch at the Restaurant de Stars. The Food was good but I hate everything buffet style because most people don't know how to behave. I hate people reaching over my plate to grab something. Other then that you get a lot of food for your money, especially Desert. The "Petit Chef" was also extremly cute.


Martina was once again on a coffee trip and got one cup after another (each cup accompanied by chocolate cake or something similar... :-)) but I didn't want to hang around, so I went to see Stars n Cars for the Second time. I stood a bit to the side, since I didn't want autographs or Pictures, but actually wanted to have a closer look at the Cars. I didn't want to be in anybodys way. So I stood next to the rope where the cars would drive by when leaving. I still saw some of the show. When it was Autograph time, SnowWhite and Dopey, Daisy, Mulan, Mushu, Minnie and Mickey all headed straight towards me.  When we saw the show the day before, they went in a totally different direction! It was insane! A rock concert was nothing compared to the mayhem that happened. Parents in total Panic that their Child might not get to see a Character or get a Characters Autograph. I was immediately run over and surrounded so I couldn't back up. I was stuck! And sure enough, this mother elbowed me in the side so she and her Daughter could be at the front. She stodd right in front of me and she had some really big hair! (anybody know Fran Fine in "the Nanny"?) Since I couldn't back up, I literally had my Nose in her hair! Man, was I glad when it was all over!


From this Mob Scene, we went back to the hotel to collect our bags. Then back to the Park for the Parade one last time. Since we didn't have time for the whole Parade we looked for a spot in front of the Castle. We only got to see the Halloween part of the Parade, but the Villains Float stopped right in front of us and the villains got out once again to give out candy. Gaston was great, he posed for Pictures and kept checking his hair. It wasn't the same guy as the one in the Stars n Cars Parade and I have to say, this one did a much better job. Also sang along really, really loud, it was very funny.




We headed back to CDG with the TGV. We checked in, then had to take the Bus to board our plane. I kid you not, it took 15 Minutes of driving around the Airport to find our Flight. I was starting to think the Driver had gotten lost. The Airport is huge!
Landed in Basel, then train back to Bern and the Bus home.


All in all, it was a great trip. I had been to Disneyland Paris last year after about 15 years in any Disneyland and everything seemed more magical the last trip than it did this time. But I guess this is because I knew what to expect. I still loved it and Halloween is my favorite Holiday, so I loved that. We will definitely go back next year, but probably during Christmas Time. I think the Resort will still be a bit more magical during that time.

[DLP-Photos.com]

You can never get enough trip reports - so thanks for sharing! It is great so far and the pictures too :-)

I was also there on the same days and it does seem like we have been very close to one another at some times (ex. Parade on Sunday).

It seems like everyone is staying at Hotel New York and I haven't even tried it although I have been there 9 times now :lol: - I just feel like it would be ending the circle having stayed in all other hotels

[Catalina]

I've read your trip report, Nicolai...  Seems like we had very similar three days! :-) I'm sure we must have crossed paths at some stage.
I was scanning your pictures, thinking that we might pop up in one. Especially during the Stars n Cars Show you must have been pretty much across from us...

[Epcot_Boy]

A super super trip report =D>  =D>

And I loved these......







A big thanks for sharing your vacation with us =D>  

[Annet]

I agree, you can never have too many trip reports! Although I think it's funny that there are now 3 reports of 11-13th october They're all very different, and all entertaining!

[Aveen2008]

Great trip report.. as everyone has said you can never get enough trip reports hehe! :wink:

You must love the pirates of the caribbean ride you went on it so much hehe!

I had to say I laughed at the man shaking your sister (or was it your friend) because of the bee hehehe! I'm sure it scared the life out of her hehe!

Glad you had a great trip, thanks for sharing your photos and story!

 

[kiki_304]

Excellent pics and report.

[never2old]

Excellent trip report! And another set of beautiful pictures!!

I'm very jealous of your 3x on Peter Pan... I would love to have that ride all to myself!!

It's a shame that there were so many of us on the parks at the same time and we didn't meet see each other!

[loladelorean]

Great trip report! Thanks for deciding to write one, like everyone else I just can't get enough of them. It keeps you going when you're wishing you could be there yourself...
Make sure you try ToT next time - as I say to everyone, it's not just an amazing thrill ride, but the CMs are also the best anywhere in the parks. The atmosphere is sooo creepy!
That's weird about your HNY windows, our's opened when we were there in September - thank goodness because the room was always roasting!

[The Butlin Boy]

Great trip report Catalina, I really enjoyed it. I'm glad that you all had a great time

[brenjo]

Glad you decided to post a trip report as I really enjoyed it and your photos were excellent.  glad you had a good time.