This is my first trip report so please be kind, I've left my camera at my boyfriend's house so I will upload the pcitures from day one later on today. The cast consisted of my boyfriend (Drew, 29) and myself (Laura, 22). I'd also like to add that I don't usually sleep so much at Disneyland Paris but I am just recovering from glandular fever and I'm still feeling tired a lot of the time so we had a couple of afternoon sleeps that we wouldn't usually have.
Laura87's Trip Report Day 1- 27th January
My alarm went off at 6.15am and for once I didn't snooze it, instead I jumped out of bed and started to get ready. After dragging my lazy boyfriend out of bed we set off for Glasgow airport. Our flight left on time at around 9.30am and arrived a CDG around one and a half hours later. We went to catch the VEA shuttle and after some confusion we found it. We'd arrived a Terminal 2B so we got a shuttle to Terminal 2E where we boarded the bus. We sat for about half an hour on the bus before we left and I was just beginning to get a bit bored when we finally set off for DLP! I had a nice wee chat on the bus with a young mum who was visiting with her two children for the first time, giving her some tips and advice I'd have found useful on my first visit. It wasn't long before we made it to the resort and our hotel, Newport Bay Club, was the first drop off.
We were first off the bus and were pleased to walk into reception to find no queue at check-in! :) It was around 2.30pm at this point and I was hoping that our room would be ready but unfortunately it wasn't so we grabbed our tickets and headed outside to put our luggage in the luggage room and then it was time to head to the parks! We had just walked outside the hotel when my mobile phone rang, I had attended a job interview the day before and the call was to inform me that I had got the job! This added to my excitement and after the phonecall I skipped round Lake Disney and soon we were walking into Disneyland Parc. We walked in and were amazed at how quiet the park was and we decided to head straight for BTM. The queue was around 15 minutes and this was the longest we waited in a queue our whole trip! It was Drew's first time on BTM as it was closed for refurbishment when we visited in Nov 2008 and I couldn't wait to show him one of my favourite rides. He enjoyed it as much as I hoped he would and after our ride we headed over to Phantom Manor for some warmth (We'd forgotten to lift our hats and gloves from our luggage when we'd checked it in and we were both beginning to feel the cold by now). Phantom Manor was fun as always but it seemed really dark and I felt like I was missing out on some of the theming because of this! After PM we took a wander round Boot Hill and had a wee listen to the beating heart grave.
We were feeling a bit hungry at this point but decided just to grab a hotdog on the go as we didn't want to waste valuable time in a restaurant on our first day. As we ate our hotdog we headed round to Indiana Jones as Drew was desperate for a thrill fix. We walked straight on to this ride which pleased me as I don't think its worthy of waiting in a queue for! After this we headed round to POTC and only had to wait about 5 minutes and then we were boarding our ship. POTC was amazing as ever, though the sword fighting scene was completely out of time! After POTC it was around 4.30pm and we were undecided about whether to see the parade or not. Drew overuled me and we decided to leave the parade for another day (this was a mistake but I'll tell you about that later!) We then headed over to Fantasyland where Peter Pan's Flight was all boarded up, I was gutted about this as Peter Pan is my favourite Disney film, however I tried to forget about it as I've been on it lots in the past and I knew it was going to be closed during our visit. We then headed to It's a Small World where again we walked straight on and I sang along the whole way round! After this we had a ride on the Teacups, our cup was really difficult to spin but we had a good ride anyway, my only complaint was that the ride seemed really short, I can understand this when the park is busy but there was literally no queue at all, infact half the teacups were empty!
We decided to head round to Discoveryland after the Teacups as Drew couldn't wait a minute longer to go on Space Mountain. We went straight for Space Mountain and there was only a 5 minute queue. It was fun as always, though its not one of my favourites and it seemed even more rough than usual! My head was thumping by the time we came off. After Space Mountain we joined the 5 minute queue for Buzz Lightyear however we were only in the queue for a few seconds when they announced that the ride was having technical difficulties. So we left the queue and went for another ride on Space Mountain (Drew's choice, not mine). After Space Mountain we went back to Buzz which was working again and had no queue at all! We literally walked straight into our buggy. I am terrible at Buzz and its a standing joke that Drew beats me by 100,000's of points and I go in a huff like a child when we get off. This time my luck changed! We stopped half way round for about 30 seconds and when we stopped I was right next to one of the triangle targets which are worth lots of points. I took advantage and when we finished I had beat Drew for the first time ever with a score of around 400,000 points. I know this isn't amazing compared to some people on here but I usually score around 20,000 points so it was a huge improvement for me!
We left Buzz and were going to have a shot on Autopia but the queue was about a mile long despite the fact that the park was deserted. We had a lesiurely stroll through main street and it was now 5.45pm so we decided to call it a night as the park was closing at 6pm anyway. We went to Annette's for dinner and I had an onion burger which was amazing! Annette's burgers are my favourite in the world! For dessert we both had the Brownie a la mode which was also great. It was about 7pm by now and we decided to head back to the hotel and get our key and settle in. Our room was 2333 which was about 5 minutes walk from reception, we got settled in and we both went for a wee sleep to freshen up. After that we just chilled out in the room and had a shower and got organised for the next day. It had been a long and tiring day and we were both sleeping for around 10pm.
Part Two and the pictures from part one should be added later on tonight :) Thanks for reading so far.
Great start. I can't wait to see some pictures. By the way we have been to Scotland and Glasgow in September.
Looking forward to the rest of the report. I'm staying in the Newport Bay in March so looking forward to hearing what you thought of it. =D>
Great start to the trip report, I can't wait to read more. We were there at the same time (I was there 25-29th) so it will be interesting to see if we crossed each other's paths during our stay. We did some of the same rides that day but at different times of the day.
My trip report is a work in progress at the moment, hopefully I'll get the first part uploaded in a few days.
It was soooo cold, you must have been freezing without your hat and gloves! :shock:
Can't wait for more, and some pictures too :D
Thanks for the comments! I'm going to get the next part and some pictures finished later on today so should get them uploaded tonight! I'll add some general thoughts and comments about the hotel etc. at the end of the report.
Yes we were freezing without our hats and gloves! It was definitely a mistake we only made once!
Nice tr!
Here are some pictures from our first day. This is the first time I've uploaded pictures to a forum so fingers crossed that they work!
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This is me heading out the hotel towards Disney Village
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This is me outside Newport Bay Club, finding out I've got a new job! :)
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Just stepped onto Main Street USA, this shows how deserted the parks were, this was around 2.30pm!
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Indiana Jones et le Temple de Peril
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Check out the icicles on the waterfall! Shows how cold is was the day we forgot our hats and gloves!
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Drew in the Autopia car, this was as close as we got to riding Autopia on this visit!
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This is us five minutes after we got into our room, Drew's side was still tidy but I'd somehow managed to trash my side of the room already.
The park looks really deserted. Can't wait to see more pictures!!
hi laura, thanks for posting your trip report and congrats on the new job! I love reading trip reports but it makes me a bit sad too that my trip is so far away.
When we went in September i found space mountain really rattley as well :S your beds look v comfy in NPBC lol
Cant wait to read the rest
Great trip report so far laura, I really enjoyed looking at your pictures - it looks like you both had a great time at DLP :)
I hope you're recovering from your gladular fever too :wink:
Laura 87's Trip Report Day 2 Part 1
Since there were no EMH on the Thursday we decided to opt for a 9am breakfast so we could have a bit of a longer lie. Usually I would avoid a late breakfast slot like the plague but since the parks were so quiet we figured that breakfast wouldn't be too busy either and luckily we were right! I got up around 8.15am and got myself ready and dragged Drew out of bed around 8.30 (he is sooo lazy its unreal, how can you sleep in at Disney??) We left the room just before 9am and tackled the maze to reception. We arrived to find no queue =D> and we sat down and got stuck in. We were shown to the Yacht Club for breakfast and it looked like only one restaurant was open which shows just how quiet the parks and hotel must have been. After our fill of pain au chocolat and croissants we left breakfast around 9.30am and took a leisurely stroll through the Village towards the parks. We had a look at the hands outside Planet Hollywood and Drew was impressed that Jane Russell had left her handprints, as this is his mother's name!
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We then stopped so I could get my picture taken outside the pink car at Annette's
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We decided to head to the Studio's first this morning because we knew that Crush build up huge queues no matter how quiet the park was. We were allowed into the park around 9.55am and we headed straight for Crush, finding ourselves around 6th in the queue. The held us at the start of the queue line until 10am and by then the queue stretched around half way back to Studio One, it seemed like everyone who had came into the Studios had went straight for Crush. It wasn't long before we were on Crush and I actually enjoyed it more than I remembered! If there wasn't always a huge queue I would definitely go on it a lot more! After Crush we decided to have a ride on Tower of Terror, the queue was only around 10 minutes so we grabbed a fastpass for later on and joined the queue. This is where I was confused about the language of the pre show. The Library was at least 75% full of British people and the pre show was in French, however when we went back on ToT later in the day the Library was around 90% full of French people and the pre show was in English! I always thought they made a decision based on the group of people but after this trip I'm beginning to think that its really just luck, perhaps they alternate between French and English? (For the record I'm not complaining, I can understand French pretty well and I fully agree with the pre shows being in French when I'm visiting France. I just found it a bit strange). The ride itself was as thrilling as ever and was made even more fun because there was a group of English teenagers in the lift who were terrifed and were screaming before the lift had even moved anywhere!
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Next we headed to the Studio Tram Tour, the queue was actually pretty long considering how quiet the park was but we had only joined the end when a CM started shouting that they needed two people to fill the tram that was about to leave so we put up our hands and we were ushered through and boarded immediately! :) The tram was soon on its way, the ride was enjoyable as usual though I have to agree with the comments on here and I am glad that it is closing for a couple of months for a refurb. When you look at catasrophe canyon on the video and you see it in real life you appreciate just how run down it has become! After this we went round to have a ride on Rock n Rollercoaster which was excellent as usual, I had forgotten how powerful the launch was. The queue was non existant so we decided to go straight round and on again when we had finished! After that we stopped at Narnia and I got my picnture taken, this has become a tradition since my first trip in 2005.
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It was now time for our pastpass for ToT so we went back to it and then we couldn't decide what to do next. The Stunt Show was about to start but it was freezing and I wasn't sure I could sit still for 45 mins to watch it, aside from that I've seen the around 6 times in Paris and in Florida so we decided to give it a miss this visit. None of the other shows were starting anytime soon and it was too cold to hang around so we decided to head to the Disneyland Parc and come back to the Studios early the next morning with some planning in place to see all the shows.
We walked out of Studio one to find characters everywhere. Stitch was doing a meet n greet and there were only around 3 people in the queue to meet him so we joined right away.
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After our meeting with Stitch we saw Goofy and Pluto, Goofy had noone waiting to see him so I grabbed my opportunity and ran over
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Mickey was also around but there was quite a bit of a queue to meet him and we knew we would meet him in Cafe Mickey later on in the holiday so we decided not to wait. (Not realising we would have met him at least another twice before then!) We left the Studios for the day after this
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Day 2 Part Two will be up later on today. :)
We entered the Disneyland Parc and had a nice stroll down a near deserted Main Street when we got further down we seen a commotion infront of the castle and realised Minnie's Party Train was out. We got there just as the characters were being ushered back onto the train, I managed to quickly grab Chip and get a quick picture, this was soon turning into a day of meeting characters by chance!
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We stood and watched the train leave and Captain Hook blew me a kiss! I blew him one back and he put it in his pocket! I mentioned earlier that Peter Pan is my favourite film so this really made my day! (Little did I know that I would be mad with Captain Hook by the end of my trip, but more about that later on). We headed to the dragon's lair next, stopping for a quick picture to show the work going on at the front of the castle.
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We went into the lair and it seemed really dark, you literally could barely see infront of yourself and I nearly fell when I tripped on a bit of uneven floor. It made me think that I would be petrified of that area if I was a child! haha, I'm a big wuss! After our visit to the dragon we headed to Fantasyland and had a ride on Snow White and Pinnochio both of which had no queue, there was just an empty row of buggies waiting to be used! After this we turned round and saw characters all around the area next to IASW. Captain Hook and Smee were out as were Alice, the Queen of Hearts and Tweedledum and Tweedledee. We were going to go over but it looked like a bit of a scrum so we decided to leave it. We went for a ride on Dumbo which again had no queue! It was my first ever ride on Dumbo as usually the queue is miles along. I enjoyed it and Drew even filmed a wee video of us going round and having fun. When we got off we seen that the characters were still about and decided to go over and see what was happening. I think my problem with unorganised meet n greets like this is that I am too polite, I would not jump in and grab a picture when other people had been there before me but other people seem to have no issue with this! I managed to grab Mr Smee but Drew's camera was still on video mode and he took a video by mistake. I wasn't too upset because I know Mr Smee is a frequent visitor at Cafe Mickey and hoped to meet him again. We decided to head towards Discoveryland now, we were both a bit hungry and decided to visit Cafe Hyperion for lunch. We were walking towards Discoveryland and they were leading the characters back towards Fantasyland we saw, Daisy Duck. Then we turned round and saw Belle! I've never seen the Princesses out for a random meet n greet before but it was a nice sight! Belle was being mobbed so we decided not to wait.
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We then turned round and saw Ariel as well, she was also surrounded by young girls so we decided just to head for some lunch, I didn't want to wait and end up being disappointed if I didn't get my picture taken with her! We got into Cafe Hyperion and we were greeted with our longest queue of the day! It did move pretty quickly though and after around 10 minutes we had our lunch, we sat for a while in Cafe Hyperion watching some cartoons and then the African Drummer's came out so we sat and watched them for a while. It was around 2pm by this point and we couldn't believe how much we'd managed to do! We went to Buzz next where normal order was restored and Drew beat my score by around 400,000 points!
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We headed for Space Mountain next and after a head banging time we went for a walk through Nautilus for some heat! We were going to head to Autopia next but again the queue was massive, and they didn't seem to be in a rush to load and unload the cars we decided to heat over to Frontierland instead. We grabbed some fastpasses for Big Thunder Mountain and decided to head to Indiana Jones. On our way there we saw Mickey doing a meet n greet outside Hakuna Matata, there was only a few people waiting so we decided to try our luck. When we got up there was only two people waiting to see Mickey, they both got their picture taken and I went to go and get mines when the CM with Mickey said that they were leaving now and another character would be back in 15 minutes. I was gutted, I understand that they have to stick to a schedule but I was the only person waiting! It would have taken an extra 10 seconds. The CM wasn't very pleasant to me and she ushered Mickey away and I was left standing there really upset. Drew said we could wait but I knew that it would probs be Goofy or someone who came to take over so we decided just to leave. We went on Indiana Jones which again was walk on and then went to explore the caves in Adventure Isle, we took a couple of pictures and noticed the amazing colours that you miss in the dark!
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After some time exploring the caves we went over the suspension bridge and had some fun jumping around like big kids. Although we were enjoying ourselves Drew could tell that I was still upset about what had happened with Mickey and he suggested we went back to see if Mickey had returned. When we got there we saw Goofy and since we'd already met him that day we were about to walk away when we saw Mickey making his return! We were second in the queue to meet him after a nice English couple and we both helped each other out taking pictures and then had a wee chat about the scrum involved in meeting characters.
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I was sooooo happy to have my picture taken with Mickey and was also so happy that Drew had suggested we went back to try and meet him :). It was almost time for our pastpasses for Big Thunder Mountain so we went back to Frontierland, we got there just in time and went straight in. The fastpass queue was really long and we ended up queueing from just inside the building and before long the queue had stretched back as far as the stairs outside. We didn't seem to be going anywhere very quickly and I worked out the seemed to be taking only a couple of people from the fastpass queue for every train. Soon the queue started moving again and we probably waited around ten minutes to get on the ride which was good considering the queue was around 30 minutes long. After BTM we decided to go round to Woody's round-up and see if anyone was about as our programme said there was meet n greets at certain times throughout the day. We got to the village and had a wee wander but the place was deserted and there were no characters about so we decided to have a trip round the park on the Railroad. There was only one train running during our visit which was not suprising considering how quiet the parks were so we were prepared for a bit of a wait but the train arrived less than 5 minutes later. The train was only half full and we got a carriage to ourselves! We just sat back and enjoyed the view. We soon pulled up in Fantasyland and a group of English people boarded, they asked if we could wait a couple of minutes as two of their party were on their way. We waited for about five minutes and they still hadn't arrived (they were still riding Dumbo at this time, yes the lady was on the phone to her husband whilst he rode Dumbo :roll: ) so the CM said that unfortunately we'd have to leave now. This was when the moaning began. The group sat in the carriage right next to us and moaned and moaned and moaned! They spent the whole train journey moaning about how the train wouldn't wait, which wasn't even true as we did wait for at least 5 minutes! I'was unbelieveably happy when the train pulled into Main Street USA and they decided to get off. Drew and i agreed that they had ruined our trip on the train so we decided to stay on for another circuit! When we went by Frontierland this time we could see Woody in the village doing some pictures, though the area was pretty much deserted with only one family there, we were happy for them as I'm sure they would have had plenty one on one time with Woody!
After our second circuit of the park we decided to get off at Main Street and go for a wander round the shops. It was now around 5pm and I was exhausted, my virus had caught up with my again so we decided to leave the parade until the next day and we headed back to the hotel for a nap before dinner. We got up around 7pm and decided to go to The Rainforest Cafe for dinner. We both had a burger, I had the chilli bacon burger and Drew had the Maui chicken burger. The burgers were fine but we both agreed the meal wasn't worth the 50 euro price tag, we also felt a bit rushed by our server to leave so we decided to leave and go for a walk. When we were booking this trip we spent a long time debating the different hotels and which one to visit, eventually only booking Newport Bay because we got a really good deal on the price. We decided to go a walk round the other hotels to get some ideas for future visits. We first headed to Hotel New York, stopping outside for a while to watch people on the ice rink. It looked strange to skate on since it is no longer real ice, we spent a few minutes watching people stumble about, then decided to go inside, we walked into reception and found ourselves face to face with Minnie Mouse! :) How unexpected! We used this opportunity to get a picture! Though not before I had a war of wills with a rude lady who tried to push in front of me by banging my legs with a buggy!
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We left the hotel after this and went a walk along the side of the Rio Grande first having a wander through hotel Cheyenne and then Santa Fe. I wasn't sure what to think to be honest. They were a bit further away than I thought they were and the walk seemed really dark! I wouldn't mind doing the walk in the Summer but i don't think I'd like to stay that far away in the cold dark Winter months. We walked round to Sequioa Lodge next which is where we usually stay when we visit, we walked through the Lodges and entered the hotel at reception, before heading downstairs and back out to Lake Disney. Drew told me he much preferred Sequioa Lodge to Newport Bay Club and that he missed staying there! We walked around Lake Disney and we were soon back at our hotel.
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We decided to go to the bar for a drink before bed and I had a Cosmopolitan.
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I look weird in this picture! I have a really strange look on my face!
Drew had a pint of Guinness
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Drew also looks strange in this picture, the light in the bar can't have been very flattering!
we sat people watching and just chilling out for about an hour or so and then we headed back to our room. I had a quick look at the programme for the shows in the Studios and we decided to head there again in the morning. We branched out from the Disney channel and watched come classic WWF on eurosport. We had a good laugh the hairstyle and clothes from the early nineties and then it was off to sleep, ready for another busy day tomorrow!
love the tip report and photos. It looks really quiet, strangle quiet in all your pics.
Thanks again for your nice trip report! I really enjoy reading it.
Laura87's Trip Report Day Three
Again we had breakfast planned for 9am so we got up around 8.15am and got ourselves ready, we looked out the window and saw it had been raining pretty heavily overnight and it was still falling steadily now. I wasn't too upset as a lot of the attractions are indoors so we got ourselves organised and headed to breakfast. We were pointed in the direction of Cape Cod for breakfast and we were sat right next to the croissants which was excellent! =D> After eating our fill at breakfast we got wrapped up warm and left for the parks. We stopped in at Cafe Mickey on our way and made a reservation for that evening. We had decided to head to the Studios again in the morning so we headed left after the bag search. We were let in at 9.55am and we headed straight for Crush we were first in the queue which wasn't surprising since Drew had grabbed my hand and practically dragged me from the entrance! Luckily we weren't held outside the queue which was nice as the rain was pretty heavy. Crush was great fun again and we seemed to spin around a lot more than we had on the previous day! It really is one of my favourite rides, its just a shame the queue is always so long. After Crush we decided to go to ToT and the CM guiding us into the elevator was spectacular his name was Alain and he was really into character and even managed to creep up behind me and give me a fright. :) After ToT we went round to Rock n Rollerocoaster where we were placed right at the front. We were half way through the ride and couldn't work out why we weren't enjoying it then we realised that there was no music playing!! We came off and agreed that the music really made the ride and decided to visit again later, not wanting our less than impressive ride to be the last one of our trip. We left RnR and decided to go and see when the next showing of Stitch Live was taking place on our way there we saw Goofy and Pluto doing a meet n greet except there was noone there for them to meet! We decided to go over even though I'd had pictures taken with both of these character numerous times before.
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After we got our picture taken we saw that Stitch was due to start in 7 minutes so we decided to head straight there. Last time we visited Drew got chosen as the bad man who escaped from Space Prison so he decided he wanted to sit in the back row again in the hope he would be chosen! Stitch was amazing as usual and Drew was chosen as the escapee from Space Prison so that was him happy for the day!! :roll: Drew wanted to go back on the Studio Tram Tour next but I put my foot down, I believe that once a visit is more than enough for this especially now that it goes back on itself. We went inside Studio One to get a bit of heat back in our bones and decide what to do next. One of my aims of our trip was to meet Sully and get my picture taken with him and during the trip we kept checking the monsters inc area at the Studios in the hope he would be there but obviously it wasn't too be. I had a wee shot of the scream machine and got a picture with the decontaminators.
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Our plan for the day was to see the shows that the studios had to offer however Animagique was closed for some reason! We headed to Cinemagic which was quite good, although I think we were more grateful at having some time inside away from the rain than anything else.
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Drew took this picture of ToT whilst in the Cinemagic queue, I like it, I think it looks nice and creepy since it was such a grey day!
It was now around midday and we were both completely soaked. Drew's camera was running out of battery and we still had both parades to do that day so we decided to head back to the hotel to charge it for a while and dry off. we decided to go and get bus instead of walking because the rain was gettin heavier by the minute and we wanted to keep some energy for later on. We waited around 10 minutes for the bus, by now I was regretting not having just walked. I soon remembered why I avoid the bus at all costs. There was only one bus servicing New York, Sequioa Lodge and Newport Bay and it was jam packed. By the time we got to Newport Bay Club we had to fight to get off the bus as it was full of people from the other hotels who were on their way to the parks. We walked into reception and we were faced with pandemonium! The place was heaving and the queue to check in was MASSIVE. It was really bizarre considering how quiet the trip had been so far, of course it was Friday afternoon so a lot of weekend visitors were arriving. We got into our room and took off our wet clothes. The floor by the bathroom was roasting as it must have been above the heating system from downstairs so we spread our clothes out there to dry! We chilled out for about an hour whilst the camera charged and left the room around 1.30pm. We debated going to Cafe Mickey for lunch instead of dinner but we wanted to have time to enjoy the experience and we only had an hour before Stars n Cars parade at the studios began so we decided to stick to the original plan. (a decision we would live to regret). We got to the Studios and grabbed a quick hotdog each for lunch, Fastpasses for ToT were for just after the parade so we grabbed a couple and then took our spot for the parade.
To be honest I didn't really rate the parade, maybe I should have reasearched it more and I could have chosen a better place to stand but I saw the markers out and we didnt think we had to stand in a particular part to see what was going on. we watched as the first batch of cars went past, though I was getting aggitated as a child who was on her father's shoulders was continually kicking me in the back. Then the next batch of cars went the opposite direction and I was a bit confused. Then the cars stopped and the characters were on and off the stage doing different dances whilst some of the other characters did some autographs, unfortunately I couldn't see a thing and none of the characters were coming anywhere near where we were standing. Eventually we just walked away before it finished as it was impossible to even see what was going on.
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After the parade we went to ToT to use our fastpasses on what was to be our last ride on the Tower of our visit. We were led to the elevator where the CM explained he had miscounted and we would have to wait to the next elevator if we wanted to sit next to each other. We weren't too bothered about where we sat so we decided just to go and sit separately. When we got off the ride Drew was in stitches of laughter and explained that the huge burley man next to him had squealed like a girl the whole was through the ride and kep grabbing Drew's arm to hold on to! We both laughed for ages about it especially because the man came off with a huge grin on his face and had obviously loved the ride. We then headed for RnR for one final ride and we were pleased to have our favourite soundtrack played which is Love in an Elevator/Walk This Way. After this we said goodbye to the Studio's for our trip and headed over to Disneyland Parc for our last few rides and the parade.
I've got to make dinner now so I will write the rest later on and hopefully manage to finish my report tonight. Still to come is the OUAD Parade and our dinner at Cafe Mickey as well as our eventful airport experience and some general thoughts about our trip.
Love the trip report so far,
and that picture of TOT is really good!
I've just got back from my trip, and I'm really enjoying reading your report! My boyfriend had the exact same experience on ToT - twice his leg was grabbed by big burly men!!
ive really enjoyed your report so far, it sounds and looks like youve had a great time :D/ :D/
Loving the trip report so far, and the pictures are great too. Mine's still a work in progress at the moment but it's interesting to see where we crossed paths. We were also in the studios on the Thursday.
Great report and nice pictures! Looks like you had a great time!
Laura 87's Trip Report Day 3 Part 2
By now it was around 4pm and we had an hour before the parade was due to begin, the park was noticably busier now as more and more weekend guests arrived. We went over to Discoveryland and planned to ride Buzz for a final time however the queue was showing around 35 minutes so we decided not to wait. I know that this is not a huge waiting time but bear in mind the majority of rides had been walk on all week so we didn't really fancy waiting for ages now. We decided to go on Space Mountain instead, the queue said 20 minutes but we were prepared to wait longer than that as we know that the Space Mountain queue times can be less than accurate at times. We got into the queue and we were pleasantly surprised as the actual waiting time was only around 10 minutes, we completed our final ride on Space Mountain for the trip and still had some time to spare before the parade. I wanted to ride POTC for a final time as I love the atmosphere and smell of the ride, I think it just sums up Disney perfectly. We got in the queue and waited around 20 mins to ride. All four lanes in the queue line were being used which I guess shows how much busier the parks were getting as there had been only 2 lanes open for the rest of our trip. After pirates it was time to get ready for the parade. By this point my feet were so wet that there were puddles inside my boots! We decided to go to Main Street USA to watch the parade so we could make our exit after the parade without getting stuck behind the masses.
Tha parade was excellent as usual, the smell from the princess float is amazing! I have to admit I had a wee tear in my eye as the princesses went past, Part Of My World always makes me cry though! I think it was beginning to sink in that this was the end of our trip and I have no idea when we will be planning our next one.
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I've not got a lot of pictures from the parade as Drew spent a lot of time filming it. After the parade finished we decided to leave the parks for the day, the parade had began a little bit late so it was now around 5.45pm so we didn't have time to do anything else. We left the park and headed back to the hotel, a bit upset because it was nearly time to go home and unbelieveably wet. We got back to the hotel and we were amazed by now busy the place was. I definitely plan to keep my trips to midweek. The weekend crowds even at quiet times of year are unbelievable. We went back and layed out our wet clothes to dry and then just chilled out for an hour or so. We got ready for our 7.45pm reservation at Cafe Mickey and left the hotel about 7.35pm we planned a leisurely stroll but got half way there and the rain started to get really heavy again so we ran the rest of the way. I'm sorry to say that our bad experience began as soon as we arrived at Cafe Mickey so I'm going to get into a bit of a negative mood here.
We got to Cafe Mickey around 2 minutes early for our reservation and saw a queue of around 30 people outside. We thought this was for people who had not made a reservation so we went inside and handed over ticket, the lady who was dealing with reservations was rude and told us it was not yet time for our reservation. She then explained that the queue we had bypassed was actually for people who had booked a table. I had read a little bit about this on here before, I wouldn't mind waiting for a while in the Summer but it was pouring with rain and absolutely freezing outside so I was less than happy to be told I had to wait outside. Drew intervened here and without being rude explained that we had made a reservation and we were not standing out in the rain. The lady huffed and puffed but took our receipt and allowed us to wait the the bottom of the stairs. As the rain got worse more and more people decided to come inside and wait and the entrance are became unbelieveably crowded. It was awful especially because there was a steady stream of people from the restaurant trying to get past to access the toilets. Our wait was made worse when someone was sick on the floor which obviously wasn't very pleasant. Around 25 minutes later Drew managed to fight his way to the reception area to see when we were going to be called and they said our table was now ready. How much longer would we have been there if he hadn't approached them and asked? We were told to go upstairs where we joined another small queue to be shown to our table. We were finally sat down and were pleased to see Eeyore and Tigger were both at the other side of the restaurant and were making their way round. We waited a while for our order to be taken but by then had chilled out a bit and we were enjoying the atmosphere. I had Aurora's Choice for dinner which was lovely, it was breaded turkey with ham and melted cheese on it and it was served with a baked potato which was stuffed with sour cream and blue cheese, it was delicious! Drew got a pepperoni pizza which had only around 5 pieces of pepperoni on it which we had a good laugh about. The characters were making their way round now and Mr Smee and Captain Hook appeared as well as Mickey. There were children running around everywhere which irritated me slightly as they were stopping the characters from making their way round the tables. Mr Smee was first to come to our table and he gave me a kiss and we got some pictures.
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Next up was Captain Hook, you may remember I mentioned how much I love Captain Hook earlier in my report so I was really excited at the prospect of finally getting my picture with him. He made his way round all the tables in our area and began to walk away without visiting our table. Drew motioned for him to come over and he looked right at us and turned and walked away! I was upset about this, I felt that because there were no children at our table some of the characters didn't seem to bother with us. Next came Mickey himself :) He took ages to get to us but this was to be expected and he happily posed for some pictures
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When Mickey left our table he began to walk towards the other end of the restaurant when two children ran up behind him and started punching him in the back! Both myself and the lady at the table next to me let out exclamations, we couldn't believe what was happening! The childrens parents didn't even bat an eyelid as Mickey rushed away from them. Tigger and Eeyore came next and we got some more pictures
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After Eeyore had gone my dessert arrived, I got the huge profiterole and it was lovely!
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It was too much for me though and I gave half of it to Drew. He decided to take a picture of my finishing it so I looked like a greedy pig who had ate it all myself!
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We settled the bill next and left the restaurant. I have to say I was really diappointed in my Cafe Mickey experience, it may have been different if we had visited on an evening earlier on in our trip but it just seemed to be unorganised chaos. They are obviously taking far too many reservations and they cannot handle the volume of people who visit! They had a don't care attitude and the poor waiting staff were completely stressed trying to undertake 3 different tasks at once. I was also wondering if there was a system where they check the validity of birthdays? During our visit there were five different birthdays, I can't help but think people might make this up simply to get some more time with the characters. Something needs to be done about children running around, it is only a matter of time before a child is burned by some hot food as they constantly run into the waiters whilst they carry huge trays full of food. Also the children running around continually distracted the characters, the children at the table next to us sat patiently waiting to meet Eeyore but before he got to their table a rude child ran up and dragged him away. The poor wee boy next to us was devestated. I'm sorry to get into a massive rant about it but Cafe Mickey was a huge disappointment to me, when I was expecting it to be one of the highlights of our trip!
After dinner we walked round Lake Disney back to the hotel and treated ourselves to another cocktail before heading back to our room to pack.
Laura87's Trip Report Journey Home and General Thoughts
We had originally planned to do EMH on Saturday before we left for the airport but since the park had been so quiet we had already done all of the EMH rides so we decided just to have a longer lie and head to the airport after breakfast. When we woke up there was snow outside so we weren't too sad to be leaving as it seemed even colder than the already freezing weather we had experienced. We had booked breakfast originally for 7am but headed down just after 9am instead. The greeter at the restaurant didn't seem to mind that we were outside our time. We had to queue for a couple of minutes but it was nothing major. After we got our fill we went back to the room and packed up the last of our things before we checked out and went outside to wait for the VEA back to the airport. The bus arrived after about 10 minutes and we were soon at CDG. We had a bit of a scary experience when we arrived at the airport. Our flight home was hassle free although I do get annoyed when its time to board. We flew Easyjet and the lady clearly announced that we had not to queue as they had a boarding system in place, as soon as she announced this everyone got up and formed a queue! It drives me mad, you can't people follow simple instructions? Anyway a short flight later we were back in Glasgow where my dad picked us up and we were home for around 2pm. :)
I just wanted to add a couple of thoughts about the resort in general at the end. It was our first visit to Newport Bay Club as we usually opt for Sequoia Lodge. I definitely think this would be a nicer hotel in the Summer, it was freezing during our visit and I missed the warm and cosy atmosphere that Sequoia offers. Drew said he simply did not understand why Newport Bay costs more than Sequoia, the rooms were the same size and he said the long walk to the room from reception was torture after a long day in the parks! He also thought it was a little bit further away from the parks than Sequoia. The hotel could also be doing with a paint, it was turning a greeny colour which was more obvious after the rain as well. I'd like to make it clear that the holiday was lovely, the rooms had a nice nautical theme and it was nice to sit at the window in the restaurants and watch the world go by.
Highs of the Trip
* The resort was as magical as ever, I will never get tired of visiting.
* There seemed to be a lot of characters walking around randomly, we kept bumping into characters by chance which we've never experienced before.
* The parks were lovely and quiet, it was great to take our trip at a lesiurely pace, not worrying about getting everything done in time.
* Drew got his first ride of the Parisian Big Thunder Mountain, he loved the right as much as I'd hoped he would.
* It was great to get away and have some time just for the two of us in my favourite place in the world, we've been working contrasting shifts for a while now and its hard to actually spend some quality time together.
Lows of the Trip
* Our trip to Cafe Mickey did not live up to my expectations.
* Peter Pan's Flight being shut, not a major issue because we obviously knew before we went but I was still said to miss out.
* The CM who dragged Mickey away when I was the only person waiting to see him, her attitude was horrible.
All in all we both had a great time in Disneyland Paris! Drew doesn't share my Disney obsession but he is happy to go along with it to keep me happy. We also had such a great time that we are planning a trip to WDW later on in the year together! Thanks for reading my trip report and I hope you've enjoyed it! :) I've enjoyed writing it as it helped me re-live our trip and organise all our pictures! :) I thought I'd finish my report with a wee picture of me enjoying Disneyland Paris.
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Hi laura87,
thanks a lot for the report and the pics. I always love reading snd seeing from DLP.
Now I am a little worried about Cafe Mickey, we booked a meal there in april for the five of us. We hae it on a monday, so my hope is that the crowds are not that heavy. :)
Any way, I`m glad you enjoyed your trip overall.
Aurora
Thanks for posting laura. We are just back from Newport Bay Club and agree with your comments. We also had a mixed experience at Cafe Mickey. Loved the photos, glad you had a good time. =D>
Great trip report, Laura. We are heading to the NPB in March so I'm a bit apprehensive :? . Hopefully it will work out ok. We also had the very same experience at Cafe Mickey as you. I will never go back to it. Annette Diner is the one for me and looking forward to going back.
Carberry
Quoteby carberry » Tue Feb 09, 2010 10:38 pm
Great trip report, Laura. We are heading to the NPB in March so I'm a bit apprehensive . Hopefully it will work out ok. We also had the very same experience at Cafe Mickey as you. I will never go back to it. Annette Diner is the one for me and looking forward to going back.
Carberry, there is no need to apprehensive about Newport Bay Club, it is a beautiful hotel! I love the decor in the rooms and they are definitely a lot brighter and more up to date than the rooms in Sequoia. I was just stating that I don't understand why it costs more than SL. The only thing I would recommend is you could e-mail them just before you visit and ask for a room near reception as some rooms can be a good five minute walk from there! Have a great trip, I'm sure you will love Newport Bay, we did.
Also I fully agree that Annette's is the best place to eat in the resort. It is good value for money and the staff are alsways really friendly!
hi Laura, reading your cafe mickey report was like reading my own from september their booking system is outrageous!
Glad you still had a good holiday but it's a shame cafe mickey wasnt a good experience for you either, it was definitely the low point of our last trip.
Thanks for writing such a detailed report and sharing your photos :)
Hi Laura
Loved your photos, and i do agree with you for the mickey cafe thing, i know kids get excited but when there are so many people of ALL ages that have paid good money to eat there, people should wait their turn. My kids are 4 and 2 and we went in Sept and Dec last year and they were so so well behaved! i was proud.
In the sept we went to the lucky nugget and my 2 were waiting for pluto they wanted to ran up to him but as other kids were having there pics taken and i didnt want mine to spoil it for them, i WISH other parents would do the same. Plusto came to my Daughter and was dancing with her and my Husband was filiming it then this horrible brat of a kid came running up and was right in the way b4 i could say anything pluto had stoped and the moment was gone i was gutted.
GRRRRR
Quote from: "laura87"Quoteby carberry » Tue Feb 09, 2010 10:38 pm
Great trip report, Laura. We are heading to the NPB in March so I'm a bit apprehensive . Hopefully it will work out ok. We also had the very same experience at Cafe Mickey as you. I will never go back to it. Annette Diner is the one for me and looking forward to going back.
Carberry, there is no need to apprehensive about Newport Bay Club, it is a beautiful hotel! I love the decor in the rooms and they are definitely a lot brighter and more up to date than the rooms in Sequoia. I was just stating that I don't understand why it costs more than SL. The only thing I would recommend is you could e-mail them just before you visit and ask for a room near reception as some rooms can be a good five minute walk from there! Have a great trip, I'm sure you will love Newport Bay, we did.
Also I fully agree that Annette's is the best place to eat in the resort. It is good value for money and the staff are alsways really friendly!
thanks for the reassurance, Laura. 2 years ago we stayed in the Explorers and when we dropped people off at the NPB, I fell in love with the look of the hotel. Not worried about the walk to the room, its not a problem. Just one question, is there an ATM at the hotel?
Audrey x (carberry!)
Quote from: "carberry"thanks for the reassurance, Laura. 2 years ago we stayed in the Explorers and when we dropped people off at the NPB, I fell in love with the look of the hotel. Not worried about the walk to the room, its not a problem. Just one question, is there an ATM at the hotel?
Audrey x (carberry!)
Yeah I was so excited when the bus drew up outside, the hotel looks really grand! I'm not actually sure if there is an ATM at the hotel. I only used an ATM once when we were away and I used the one in Discovery Arcade. If there is not one at the hotel then there are quite a few dotted around the park and there is at least one in Disney Village as well.
Great report! Love the photos!
Im sorry about your Cafe Mickey experience :( I've been there about 5 times and i've had nothing but great service every time. Also, Peter Pan is my favourite Disney film and i had a great experience with Captain Hook. He came over to mine and my fiance Lukes table and Hook took my hand and went to kiss it, and Luke said (in reference to POTC ride) "We wants the red head" (i am a red head lol) and Hook nodded, got down on one knee and proposed to me! I will remember that moment cos he's one of my fave characters ever! I hope next time he's nicer to you tho :(