So here it is: my first trip report of 2011 from my Christmas/New Years Trip in Disneyland from 29th of December to 31st of December..
The report will have 10 parts and an extra part later with the trip video. We were:
Me - 20 years (11th trip)
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My mom - 55 years (10th trip)
My dad - 55 years (7th trip)
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Without further ado - here we go:
Part 1 (28.12.2010-29.12.2010)
Waiting in a winter horrorland...
So it was time to begin the first trip ever at New Years to DLP - my Christmas present for my parents. We would leave Denmark early morning on the 28th of December and arrive in Paris for a night in Montmartre at app. 11 PM the same evening - at least that was the plan. But as one or two of you might have encountered, Northern Europe has been hit by a little snow, so the travel would end up being even more crazy than the one I experienced with Eurolines in August.
We were travelling by train and had ordered all travel papers through the Danish National Railroad Services Travel Agency. We were supposed to change once in Denmark, then in Hamburg and then finally we were going with the Thalys train from Cologne to Paris (only 3h14m - impressive!) As we were getting closer to the 28th we agreed that train actually had to be the safest and most precise travel option in the snow - we were to be proven wrong or at least it wasn't precise.
On the 27th, we had actually already realized that the train from Hamburg to Cologne had been changed and were now going to arrive in Cologne 6.50 PM with the last train leaving for Paris 6.43 PM from Cologne. However, we had found several other options to reach Cologne in time.
We left Denmark at 6 AM on tuesday to change in Vejle at 8.43 AM for the train to Hamburg. Mission 1 completed. We called the travel agency to confirm the alternative options for going to Cologne from Hamburg and they approved. Yes, everything was going according to plan and we actually arrived 4 minutes earlier in Hamburg than we were supposed to - we were very optimistic. Mission 2 completed. Little did we know that the upcoming mission 3 (Hamburg -> Cologne) and 4 (Cologne -> Paris) would be so hard that not even Ethan Hunt or Jack Bauer could have solved them in time - yes, we did not arrive in Paris on tuesday evening and here is why:
The first train option from Hamburg (leaving 12.46) was suddenly delayed with more than 60 minutes. Option 1 removed. The next option was a train leaving Hamburg at 2.01 for Munich, which included a change in Hannover. The Mission Impossible had now been given a third part mission (Hamburg -> Hannover) - we had this option cleared with the Travel Agency and DB at the station in Hamburg - they promised it would be on time and we would reach Cologne in time for our Paris train. Yes! But...
... 3 minutes before departure it was suddenly announced that this train had been cancelled due to unforeseen technical issues. Oh, d*mn! Suddenly it seemed like an unrealistic mission to solve in time. We decided just to take the next train from Hamburg (Dammtor) to Hamburg Central Station as the opportunities might be better from there. As it turned out the train we took was going to Hannover and we would arrive 15 minutes before the train for Cologne would arrive. Yes, once again we were optimistic and when we arrived in Hannover in time we were even more optimistic but we had only experienced minor issues up until then compared to what we would encounter during the next 3 hours in Hannover.
The train to Cologne was suddenly delayed for a unkown time and all other trains to Cologne was cancelled! Paris was slowly getting further and further away from us. Me and my dad went to the Service Point at Hannover station and after app. 40 minutes of waiting time we got some help. We now had 2 options:
Go to Cologne and get a hotel (paid by DB) and change our 6.43 PM Paris ticket to a 6.44 AM ticket for wednesday.
Take a City Night Line train from Hannover to Paris over the night and arrive in Paris at 9.43 AM on wednesday.
After some discussions and many thoughts we agreed to try the CNL as we were very sceptical about the possibility of going to Cologne on tuesday. We were starting to get a bit tired, hence us getting emotional too. Me and my mom quickly checked out the Hannover Christmas market before getting the CNL tickets. At least to think about something else than trains for just a couple of minutes.
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It wasn't over yet! The service point had told us that it would be easy to get a ticket for the CNL train - they would fill out a form and the ticket office would give us the tickets. WE got the form, but the ticket office could - kindly - inform us that the CNL train was full!!! We were now seeing Paris arrival times as late as 5 PM on the screen. I was seconds from giving up - until they told us that there was a few tickets left for the early morning train from Cologne to Paris - all other trains on wednesday was full! We could only get the tickets changed in Cologne Central Station and still all trains for Cologne was delayed or cancelled. Things were falling apart - you could say that the dream was slowly collapsing.
1 hour later we finally was on a train to Stuttgart over Cologne, but we were still unsure when we would leave for Paris due to the message saying that they only had few seats left on the morning train to Paris. 3 hours and some very undelicious train food later we finally arrived in Cologne - the city we had searched for in more than 8 hours, the time being past 9 PM now. Mission 3 and 4 completed at last - Hunt and Bauer would have been proud.
At the ticket center we got the tickets changed with no difficulties and we also received a voucher for a 3 star Hotel right next to Cologne Central Station. An explosion of relief and regained energy filled our bodies. We knew for sure that we would be on the train for Paris the next morning and arrive app. 3.5 hours later (10.15 AM). We got our rooms and with the new found energy we wanted to check out the area around the station, to grab a Starbucks hot beverage and perhaps something to eat. We had a great hour in the area and I got to shoot some pictures of Cologne Central Station and Cathedral by night.
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We went to bed only and got every possible alarm to ring at 5.15 AM in order for us to not sleep the train away. I'm writing this from the Thalys TGV-train in Belgium so we got on the train and we are now on our way to Paris. I don't think I have been in need of magic as much as I am right now - I cannot wait to get "home" to Fantasia Gardens and enter the park for our first Christmas ever in Disney.
To be continued...
I'm so sorry for your delays. It must have been terrible.
I can't wait to read about your New Year's Eve experiences in the parks, since we didn't like it that much. But if I'm not mistaken, WDS was also open this year and Disney offered a third fireworks on Lake Disney. When we have been there, only DLP offered a fireworks.
Well now after the trip I can smile about our tuesday, because we actually came to DLP earlier than planned (more in next update), but it was not that funny on tuesday.
I can say that we really enjoyed New Years Eve - it was a special feeling and the atmosphere was great, as were 99,99% of the people in the Park. I am sure that the 3 options was part of this, but the main dj-event was still in Disneyland Park, but much more about this in part 8 of my report :-)
Part 2 will be coming tonight :)
Wow, what an experience with the rail networks !!
Glad you finally reached DLP (earlier than scheduled). lol Looking forward to reading the rest of your report and can only hope it wasn't as eventful as the travelling.
Trip Report - Part 2
Coming Home for Christmas
Well, finally we had arrived in Paris Gare du Nord with the Thalys train. If we had arrived in Paris the night before as planned we would have visited Paris this morning/afternoon and left for DLP at around 2 PM. We decided to take an evening in Paris in stead and went straight for Marne La Vallée with the RER train. We arrived in DLP just around noon - finally we was home for Christmas! :-)
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We took the bus to Santa Fe and got our room already - great! We was in building 20 room 021 - almost as close to the reception as possible, which was great in the cold mornings walking for breakfast. I took a quick look at the Cars makeover and while I despise the fact that Clint has been replaced and partly the new bedsheets, I am happy that the makeover has given us flatscreens in the rooms - it is a nice modern touch and the new TV system is very nice. The welcome screen is in particular cool and gives that extra touch that makes you feel welcome from the first step into the room. We were given a baby bed along with the other beds - weird, but we ended up using at storage room during the next 3 nights :-)
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As we were walking towards the park we were suprised by the "mild" weather - I guess it didn't feel as cold as it was due to our long day on the freezing German stations the day before. There was almost no snow left, but the Rio Grande had a layer of ice on top in the places with no bridges or stream. There was an extreme fog - I have always wanted to see and especially photograph Disneyland in fog and as it turned out I would get more fog than I could have ever dreamed of on this trip. (Actually too much :lol:)
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Look, you couldn't even see Tower of Terror!
At 1.15 PM we entered the park - finally, the magic we had searched for in more than a day was now right in front of us. We took our time absorbing the Christmas spirit and looking on the beautifully decorated Town Square. However, we was extremely hungry so we went straight towards Toad Hall Restaurant to get our beloved Fish'n'Chips. The park was very busy and especially the restaurants were packed with people. When we arrived at Toad Hall a manager was there to welcome us and the other guests informing us that it would be very hard to find a seat. People were actually sitting outside eating, although it was around 0 degrees!
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We got our Fish'n'Chips 30 minutes later and had to stand up by a bar table inside the restaurant. Filled with the energy of the food and the childish need of trying your first attraction, we decided to go for It's a Small World (Celebration) through Belle's Christmas Village - just to get in the true Christmas Spirit. I was a bit disappointed by the Christmas Village - most of the shops were closed even though the place was packed. I guess they were all open before Christmas? You could still feel the Christmas spirit and when we arrived at IASW we met our first long queue - it has been a long time since I have seen such a long queue for this attraction. We were quickly to get the sad cause though...
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App. 10 characters were out in this corner of the park at the time.
... we had just got in the queue when people starting leaving the queue, and a few seconds later fire rescuers arrived rushing towards the loading duck. They kept coming, so we were starting to get a bit worried as to what had happened and when they a few moments later closed the attraction you could feel the worries that people had. We left the queue leaving the nosy people behind who stood there watching the loading duck - it is a mystery to me how people can line up by the fence to look at this - there was no doubt that someone was hurt, shocking!
We were discussing what to do in stead as they re-opened the queue just a couple minutes after closing it. The first fire rescuers left and soon after they were walking right along the queue with an old lady in a wheel chair. I guess she most have slipped and got in between a boat or something. It cheered people up to see this and when it wasn't more serious I think it was the best thing they could do; comforting the queue by "showing" that everyone was alright. We got on a few minutes later and noticed to managers who were there to check everything - they were not boarding people into the last row of any boats.
The Christmas overlay was beautiful and the alternative soundtrack was lovely - we got into the Christmas spirit in no time after this ride. Great!
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We headed towards another favorite of ours (Pirates of the Caribbean) through Frontierland to get a fastpass for me and my dad for BTM. On our way we noticed some beautiful "ice sculptures" in fountains caused by the cold weather and also the Rivers of the Far West was filled with brash with Mark Twain docked. However, they were preparing it for the upcoming days. We got our fastpasses for 6.55 and went towards Pirates - the green area in Adventureland was a bit grey in the european winter weather, but it was still a fun sight to see the snow in between palms and other exotic looking plants.
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The queue for Pirates said 60 minutes and we did once again start outside. It gave me a chance to take photos of this lovely queue line - just as other WDI masterpieces as BTM, PM and ToT you start the experience when you enter the line. Magnificent! Most effects was working with the fencing Pirates actually touching eachothers swords at one point (they were unsyncronized with sound though) - the swinging pirate was the only main effect not working this time.
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We had decided that we would go back to the hotel to pick up my tripad for an evening of night time photography, but as we went out of Discovery Arcade just seconds before the parade started and we could get amazing spots right at the beginning we took the opportunity to stay and watch it. I am sorry that they have cut out the show stops, but otherwise I noticed that especially the smells were working much better this time than on the previous times. However, they were having trouble with the smoke and the foggy weather. The smoke would simply not disappear as quickly as normal, which in addition to the poor light conditions (5 PM) made it a bit hard to take photos of the parade without using flash, which I do not like to do. I managed to get a couple of shots.
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The Dreams of Christmas post-parade was great and I especially loved the tin toys - they were really great! We changed our plans so only I would go back to the hotel, while my parents got a cup of tea and coffee.
To be continued later today with lots of night time photos....
Great pics Nicolay :-)
Lets hope the lady wasn't to much injured.
Trip Report Part 3
O, Christmas Tree
After a quick to Hotel Santa Fe and back I was back in the park around 6 PM with my tripod. The plan was to take some night time photos and in particular Fantillusion (would not use tripod for that part). However, as I waited for my parents I spotted a great place on the Railroad Station Panorama for taking photos of Town Square and Main Street U.S.A in all its Christmas glory. When I got up there I decided to watch the Christmas Tree Lightning Ceremony from up there too. This would mean that I would have to give up on my BTM fastpass for 6.55. It is one of my favorites, but I decided to save it for after Fantillusion, when the queues hopefully was a lot shorter.
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I knew that the Christmas Tree Lightning Ceremony was in front of the tree, but this place gave a good birds view of the area and an option to get some shots from a different angle. The Ceremony itself was good fun with the many christmas songs played before the beautiful illumination of the tree. Everybody was excited at three points in particular: when the illumination began, when all the light posts were lit up down Main Street and most of all when all the lights went on in Main Street coreographed perfectly with the music and the scene started driving off. I you aren't in the christmas spirit after this, then you will never be!
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We headed straight towards Col. Hathi in order to get our dinner at once, so we could get a good spot for Fantillusion. My dad and I got the Pizza Royale, whereas my mom got the pasta bolognaise. Once again filled with new energy we headed towards the Castle hub to get a spot.
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We got a spot right in front of the castle facing Main Street from where the parade came. We used the waiting time to take photos of our lovely castle, which had been lit up in the meantime - it looks beautiful with these lights, but I still like it the most when it is as it was in summer; no Mickey, no ice-lights - just pure night time beauty.
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The parade was coming, people were gathering together and the lights went out - it was time for the magic of Disney's Fantillusion. My parents hadn't seen it since 2006 and I had only seen it once in the summer, so it was nice to see it again for all of us. Everything seemed to be working and the first show stop was held, but then no more show stops - the floats just drove by to the music which was just looped causing the background music no longer to be in sync with the on-float-music. A shame but still a lovely parade. I do not know why they only had one showstop, but after the first one I could see that Main Street and Town Square was covered by smoke, so I guess it was the same problem as in the afternoon; the smoke would not disappear as quickly as was needed. But that is just a guess and the parade was still magical as always.
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After this we still had an hour until the park closed (10 PM), so I decided to go for the ride on BTM that I missed out on earlier this evening. Me and my dad went on it with just 10 minutes of waiting time. It is always funnier at night and with the fog still laying low it was even more fun and beautiful. At one point you drove through the fog, which was very special and of course a bit cold!
We got off in time for a ride on Phantom Manor which was looking wicked in the dark foggy weather. I like how dark Frontierland is at night, I am sure it isn't always that safe, especially when it is this cold, but it is natural result of the story being more important than the "usability" - what western town from that time would be more lit up than this? I feel even more absorbed into the Frontierland atmosphere at night - at times you forget that you are in a theme park.
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After a pleasant ride with all major effects working we slowly headed towards the exit with me taking my time to photograph Main Street U.S.A, Town Square and other Christmas decorated places. After all it was the only night that I would bring my tripod. So as usual; lots of night time photos for you:
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Since I was there in August they have made a security check before entering Disney Village too. Anyone know why? Of course to keep a high security, but I think if it was because of New Years and the possibility of people smuggling in alcohol or fireworks? Well, nonetheless we took our usual stroll around the shops of the Village looking at what to buy later. I had got a "voucher" for a WDCC figurine from my Parents as a Christmas present, so i was looking at those too. Before leaving for our hotel room we visited Starbucks for a cop of hot chocolate for me, tea for my mom and coffee of the day for my dad. Lovely!
My mom had made a box with some of our favorite home made christmas bakery and some christmas sweets, so she made a little "christmas bar" in our room. It just gave that extra spark of Christmas spirit, as we were going to bed a bit tired after a complete and busy day after the stressful events in Germany on tuesday. We were having breakfast at 7 AM, so once again it would be a short (but good) night of sleep :-)
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To be continued...
thanks for posting! i'm really enjoying reading your report, i look forward to the next part! :thumbs:
great trip report, makes me look foward to my trip even more:)
Thanks very much Nicolais for this wonderful review. I wish you and your family my very best for 2011.
Part 4
The first drop...
Up for breakfast as early as 7 AM we headed towards La Cantina and the opportunity to take advantage of almost all 1.5 hours of Extra Magic in Disneyland Park (the park opened 9.30). It was another foggy morning when we arrived in Disneyland Park around 8.15 - you couldn't see the castle clearly when you were standing in front of the hub scene.
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We went towards Discoveryland for the trips first encounter with Zurg on Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast - it wasn't the best round for me (151.000), whereas my parents were more out of shape with 28.000 for my dad and 7.800 for my mum. For the first ride in a long time for me we were not stopped at any time and every major effect seemed to work. You could see that only a few people used the early parts of EMH in the cold weather. 5 minutes for the whole morning for both Buzz and Space Mountain Mission 2, which was my next target. Having "learned" to try this attraction in the summer I was looking forward to the ride and lucky as one can be, I was placed in the optimal position in my opinion - app. 6-7 rows from the back. The ride as far less bumpy and rough from this position than other spots - we noticed it in summer (riding the ride 7 times) and I noticed it once again this morning. A great ride! However, there were some problems with the on-ride photo, which would only take photos of the first row in a car, hence, half of the train not getting a picture. I wondered if this was on purpose due to the morning-closed photo shop. :-k
On our way towards Fantasyland and Peter Pan's Flight we went through the castle on the way we noticed a dead seagull on the grass field right next to the castle. Unless had just fell dead seconds before that, this is the sort of stuff they should remove before opening time. It ruins the magic a bit and could be quite shocking for some minors.
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We went towards Peter Pan and finally we could see that it was high season (also during EMH) - a full queue line. I haven't experienced this during EMH on any of my 3 visits since 2008, but the wait was still no more than 20 minutes. The ride was good and at the brightest I have seen since 2006 - you could really see London this time, one of the scenes that put this ride on top of Snow White and Pinocchio. A pleasant fly over Neverland later and we were slowly on our way to the Studios (noticed that the seagull had not been removed yet - this was with the spot filled with guests waiting to enter Fantasyland minutes from 9.30) - visiting the Cookie Factory on our way out.
The queue for the Studios was huge 30 minutes before opening time - they opened the gates 15 minutes before and as in the summer some people were running crazy towards there destinations and of course the queue for Crush' Coaster was already extremely long going all the way to Studio 1. This was our first destination so we queued up and I told my parents about the ride as none of them had tried it before. My mom isn't the biggest fan of heights and my dad does not like spinning rides, but I convinced them and after an hour of waiting time we were seated in our shell - me and my mom in the back. The dark ride part is extremely short and I would prefer it to be twice the size - it seems a bit half done, it being so short. The rollercoaster part was beginning and while I enjoyed as much as in the summer I could feel that my mom was a bit scared, but I succeeded in calming her down and she actually ended up enjoying it. However none of them would try it again on this trip and they both felt a bit dizzy (my dad more than my mom) - but the main conlusion was that it was good fun! :-)
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We went towards Tower of Terror and I went for a fast pass - my dad took one too, but wouldn't promise me to go on it - fair enough. We got tickets for 12.55, so we had 1 hour and 45 minutes to spent. Of course we went for one of my favorites; Cinémagique. It is one the marvels of WDS in my opinion and an absolute must-do for me, when I go. We all enjoyed it, even though my dad was still a bit dizzy from Crush :p
More time to spend = our very first visit to Toy Story Playland. I had said that I would like to try RC and maybe Toy Soldier Parachute Drop - but only if the queues were reasonable and with waiting times of more than 75 minutes for both, I decided just to take a walk around. I must say that although I can see it working in the hot and bright summer months it did feel very grey and flat in the dull winter weather. For me the feeling of being the size of a toy was only really convincing at one spot between Slinky and RC and around the ball. The place was packed and was without a doubt a hit by the kids though - but not by me. We agreed that we felt more in Legoland than in Disneyland - a shame....
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Here the size-of-a-toy-feeling was immersive and quite convincing
... I also noticed the amount of time between an attraction ended and it started again. Oh, my it took ages for them to get a new "team" of guests in place and make sure they were secured. No wonder the attractions have such small capacities with these loading times! The result was a way to packed land with no time to enjoy the small and nice touches and details that it undoubtely has - (e.g. Andy's footprint).
You exit through the biggest illusion breaker of them all - the Barrel of Monkeys (real size = 5 inches), which houses a store and it is way bigger than both Rex and Buzz (the latter being bigger than Rex here in contradiction to the movies). It is details like this I miss for it to be a true Disneyland experience. I'm sorry to say it, but it doesn't work for me! However, I am very optimistic for the Ratatouille attraction if the quality of the Parisian walkway is the standard for this addition - it has all the details I would expect and it looks extremely Parisian and makes me think of when we got Toilettes of Terror. The main attraction here turned out pretty awesome! And also I cannot wait to see the head of Gusteau back in all its glory - the "permanent" scaffolding looks quite cheap and terrible.
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Back to the positives - Tower of Terror. It was time for the first drop of the trip and my dad decided to go on it - we quickly got into the left library in french and was almost immediately escorted to our service elevator. I could sense that my dad wasn't all that sure about going on, so I kept asking him if he was sure, knowing that he could get out right up until we were seated. Stubborn as he is, he refused that anything was wrong and we were seated in the left shaft on the back row. Our cm was quite boring, but the ride and drop was just as fun and amazing as I remembered from my first 7 drops in the summer. My father however, kept saying it was rather harmless, but was clearly not feeling that well. Finally he admitted that he was still dizzy from Crush and that ToT hadn't helped him. He suffers from motion sickness (especially from sea motion, so Crush had surely not been good for him.)
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We went for the Restaurant des Stars to get a good lunch before catching the 3.30 showing of Mickey's Winter Wonderland and an evening in Paris. However they had 40 minutes of waiting time, so instead we made a reservation for Saturday before leaving the parks. We went back to Disneyland Park for lunch in Café Hyperion.
It was crazy the amount of people in there and it took me and my mom more than 45 minutes to get to the oredering point and make our order of two double cheeseburger menues and a nuggets menu for me. We could now pass the guards making sure that no one would enter the seating area without food and got a spot and enjoyed some well deserved lunch. After this, my dad felt way better and we even took our second ride on Pirates of the Caribbean before heading towards the Chapparal Theater.
As for Mickey's Winter Wonderland, none of us had seen it before and I have dreamed of watching it for a long time and I wasn't disappointed. It was a blast back to the good entertainment days with shows like Pocahontas, Mulan, Tarzan and even the old show from the Royal Castle Stage. A true Disney show with the beloved characters, a storyline and some great music - not just another, sorry to say, come dance along show with a few seasonal tweeks with some dance star thrown in to it ;) This was proper entertainment and made me wish for more of this again. Give us back a summer show in Chaparral and a great broadway style show in Videopolis - it would be amazing!
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We went back to the hotel, but was we really keen on "throwing the night and lots of transport euros away" by going to Paris. It was clear that both me and my mum had our doubts....
To be continued...
Finally I could catch up a bit while enjoying breakfast, because I'm skiing at the moment and in a few minutes I'm back on the slope. It's not that easy to read and write on my smartphone.
Nicolai, your pictures are great like always. I like the tilt shift picture. Disneyland is so beautiful when covered in snow and ice. We liked that a lot back in February.
Waiting for more to come.
Part 5
Oh, little hotel of Christmas!
On our way back to the hotel I noticed that the "do-not-swim-in-the-lake-signs" along Rio Grande from the summer had been changed with signs warning about walking on the ice. A nice little touch and definitely in place with the most of Lake Disney and Rio Grande still covered by ice.
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As said we planned to go to Paris, but once in the hotel room I made a list of what we still had left to do in the parks and boy, was it long. With the 31st a pretty unknown factor (how busy would it be?) we could see that we would be quite busy and we ended up agreeing that not only would the last two days in the parks be a bit stressful but the short trip to Paris would be aswell. One more night in the parks would probably be the best and so after 20 minutes or so we were back on the road to discover the foyer of Disneyland Hotel first of all. My mom and I had a dream of visiting all the hotels to see the different decorations and today we started off with our own Santa Fe...
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... and continued to the great Disneyland Hotel. Having stayed there only once (2001 summer) we were familiar with the foyer, but I - for one - had forgotten just how big and beautiful it is. And with the Christmas decorations it was no less than magical. How I would love to stay here again some time, but the prices ain't worth it. After all you do not visit Disneyland to stay in the hotel. But it would still be nice :lol:
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We entered the quite busy park and decided to rewatch the Christmas Tree Lightning Ceremony - this time in front of Emporium, so we could see the little show. We got a great spot and once again I must admit that this show is great. It puts you right in the mood and the little boy/girl chosen to light the tree must have the time of his/her life! The boy this day was way more shy than the girl on wednesday - Minnie almost had to force him to wave ;)
[spoiler:3e1k5zqa]Quite a magic ruiner could have happened at this show - I quickly spotted that Goofy's special friend had some problems with his head and he kept "putting it on place" during the show. Luckily he got it fixed and Goofy enjoyed the show as one of the true party starters :D[/spoiler:3e1k5zqa]
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After the show we were a bit hungry and we knew that we would skip Fantillusion, so we had whatever time would be left after dinner to try as much as possible from our list of to-dos :)
We had dinner in Au Chalet de la Marionette and whereas my mom got the double cheeseburger for lunch, I took this now and she got the nuckets I had for lunch. My dad had the 1/2 Chicken which he loved. I must say that even though the cheeseburger was okay I still think the burgers as being the "baddest" food of the 3 fast food types in the parks (burgers, pizza/pasta, specialities like Fish'n'Chips, kebab and fajita). But still a good meal and my dad succeded in breaking his falk the second evening in a row - quite impressive even considering the poor quality of the plastic service ;)
After this we used the opportunity to try two of the classics based on the very first of Walt Disney Classics - Snow White and Pinocchio. Lovely attractions and even though I didn't ride them in the summer I actually do not consider a DLP-trip accomplished until these have been tried at least once. Afterwards we visited our favorite store Les Chaumiére des Sept Nains - this shop is so beautiful and well themed that it is almost an attraction for it self. I succeded in capturing the great detail where the queen looks in the mirror and Snow Whites face appears :-) It is details like this that make a real Disney shop!
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The park was getting ready for Fantillusion, but we headed towards Discoveryland to catch Michael in Captain EO. As fantastic as I still consider the film, as boring and long is the "prelude", I'm sorry to say. The Kodak commercial is beautiful, but boring and a bit out-of-place, whereas the original "pre-show" is more like special features as my mom said. The 80's music, however, is quite enjoyable ;) For now I would have no problem with this attraction staying - unless they have something amazing up their sleeves which would cooperate with the original Discoveryland theme and atmosphere. I would at any time prefer this to an attraction like Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor or Stitch' Great Escape - this has WDI imagination combined with George Lucas and some great music and most of all a message, which is still very important to spread! Thanks for bringing it back! :D (The floor was not working, but it almost made me enjoy it even more as I find the floor effects the most dated in this attraction)
On a side note we had a great CM experience in the queue for Cpt. EO as it was 15 minutes before Fantillusion began. She went to every person in the queue (app. 20-30 people) and informed them that the next show would end after Fantillusion and that they could come back afterwards to catch a showing of EO. Some took this advice and I found it very good service as some people, who may have no knowledge about the pre-show could think that they could do this attraction and catch the Fantillusion by IASW. Once again that spark of extra service that makes a Disney CM :-)
When EO ended Fantillusion was over (as the CM had said) and 70 % of the Guests were heading for the exit. We however was heading towards Frontierland for a night ride on Big Thunder Mountain for me - on our way I photographed the Adventureland entrance. The torches was working - as were the ones on the Frontierland entrance (well 3 out of 4) - :D yay even more Disney details working - a good and magical evening :)
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Once again the queue was short and the ride very funny in the dark :) A great end to a great evening - I'm happy that we dropped Paris to spend one more evening in the parks and we had done 4 things on our to-do-list already, so the next two days would be way less stressful :-)
When we left Frontierland we noticed a camera crew had closed off the part of Central Hub in front of the control house. They had big crane cameras on rails and stuff and seemed quite ready to shoot - what they were shooting, I do not know, but I guess it had something to do with the New Years Celebration.
We went through Disney Village I got my first WDCC figurine (the one from my parents in Christmas Present) - I ended up getting Mushu from Mulan :-)
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We were getting to bed ready for an early 7.30 breakfast on the very last day of 2010 :D/
To be continued...
Really enjoying your report! Totally agree with you 'sometimes you forget you're in a theme park'. Frontierland at night is by far my fave :)
Guards making sure you had food to sit? Never experienced that, and we also go in the summer! New year sounds uncomfortably busy!
another trip with an interesting journey to start with.
Love the pictures Nicolais
Quote from: "tinker_fairy"Really enjoying your report! Totally agree with you 'sometimes you forget you're in a theme park'. Frontierland at night is by far my fave :)
Guards making sure you had food to sit? Never experienced that, and we also go in the summer! New year sounds uncomfortably busy!
It was busy, but it was never uncomfortably busy - it added to the atmosphere of it being a giant party leading up to New Years Eve :)
I have been many times during the summer where "guards" in the restaurants would have been a good idea, but I guess it is a bigger problem in the colder months where people might tend to use the restaurants as shelters from the cold :-)
Quote from: "GaryL"another trip with an interesting journey to start with.
Love the pictures Nicolais
Thank you very much - more to come tonight or at least tomorrow :D
Part 6
And the countdown begins...
We were up for breakfast in La Cantina at 7.30 on this, the very last day of 2010. In some parts of the world they were getting close to entering 2011, while we still had a whole day of magic ahead of us until the big party would go down on the mother street of magic; Main Street U.S.A.
We were in Disneyland Park around 9 AM in time to spend one hour of EMH in the park. As on thursday we kicked off with a blast on planet Z with Buzz and Zurg. I was in my own space cruiser and I would think that something was wrong with both guns - I got 300 on the first one and 59.000 on the second :? :lol:
After this I went for a new Mission to outer space on Space Mountain Mission 2 - I was once again placed in the middle of the train, giving me a nice pleasant ride through the dark corridors of outer space. The park was almost empty, but still had that special buzz which told you that something special was going to happen later that day. Of course the park was a bit empty - people staying in the hotels would take the opportunity to get some extra sleep whereas the one day tourists would not arrive until later that day. After all the parks were open until 1 AM!
We were only happy about the lack of guests - we could achieve more in a shorter time knowing that it would be almost impossible to ride any attractions later the very same day due to massice attendance. We took a stroll in the gallery - I love walking through this during EMH with almost no people.It gives you the time and freedom to enjoy the beautiful windows and gobelins. I actually think we were the only in the gallery at the time - nice :-)
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We walked towards Peter Pan's Flight and even here the queue wasn't as big as the morning before even though we were arrived later at the attraction. Well after another lovely flight with Peter and friends we walked towards Frontierland - it was time for the first time on BTM for my mom (on this trip)...
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For the first time we got a taste of the big attendance waiting in the evening. Apparently every guest had decided to start their magical day in Frontierland and yes, they were also heading for BTM - every single one. My mom and I decided to get a fastpass which would be valid from 10.35. We wanted to try as much in the early hours of this day and this seemed as the most effective choice - it proofed to be right observation :-)
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I wanted to try Indiana Jones for the first and single time of this trip, but although the attraction had only been open for 10 minutes or so it had already broken down with a train on top of the ruin - the queue was closed and I couldn't get a fast pass until after 10.35, but happy and excited as I was, I already had the next plan ready. Off we went to Adventure Isle to walk through the green scenery, which was still quite bright on this grey and cold ending day of 2010 and almost no people were roaming the bridges and "forests" - most of the caves were closed due to ice and snow...
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... Pirates of the Caribbean seemed an obvious choice after this and it was almost a walk through. The few guests here could still not see a swinging pirate, some great fencing or the hat-steeling pirate. All three major effects still missing - the hat-steeling Pirate was there but without one single hat on. He most have felt quite naked :P But the water effects were still working very much - after the final drop my one arm almost was soaked ;)
With Indiana Jones up and running and the clock past 10.35 I went for a fastpass - the queue was not that long, but we needed to use our BTM fastpasses first :) A great ride with the wildest ride in the west - yehaaaww! And great for my mom who finally got to try this attraction on this trip after missing out on the two night rides due to her fear of heights - she is cool!
Filled with the emotions and feeling of Frontierland we wanted to visit Phantom Manor, which turned out to be closed (technical issues) causing everyone to gather in the queue line for Mark Twain. Why not take a nice and easy ride along the Rivers of the Far West? So we did - one of the most atmospheric and "true" attractions of the park. Always a pleasure to ride - it puts you right in the mood...
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... and the views of Big Thunder Mountain and the back of Frontierland are simply amazing - imagineering park planning at its best!! :D
Phantom Manor had reopened and with everyone storming to the dark and cold queue line of the once so mighty Ravenswood Manor we headed towards the far away and forgotten ruins of Adventureland for a wild, uncomfortable and not-to-be-missed ride with Indiana Jones ;) I was the only one riding and I don't understand my need for trying this every trip, because it is extremely uncomfortable - especially when you are 2m+ tall :)
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My Parents laughed that I took it so calm when some of the others seemed downright scared of what they had gone into :lol:
As with the amount of guests, so did our hunger begin to grow bigger and Toad Hall Restaurants Fish'n'Chips were calling for us. That call is irresistible for especially me and my mom, so after paying Sleeping Beauty a quick visit outside her castle we was taken to England and the nice restaurant of Mr. Toad himself. Yummy, yummy, yummy!! :D/
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We had apparently been put in the mood by Mark Twain, because more water rides were coming up. They had reopened Les Pays des Contes des Fees, which had been closed on wednesday and thursday when we were there, so even though it was a bit chilly we rode this lovely little attraction hidden away behind Belle's Christmas Village. I really liked that they had replaced the old Rapunzel tower with the one from Tangles - a very nice (and obvious) touch to make to an otherwise sometimes forgotten attraction. It is a little masterpiece in its own :)
The other water ride was of course It's a Small World - this time without fire rescuers and camera - just pure enjoyment and a far shorter waiting time (<5 mins). Once again I have to admit that the Christmas overlay is a great seasonal change - boy, if we could get the Phantom Manor seasonal change also, it would be very cool! I really adore these seasonal changes keeping the WDI magic - only with another overlay :-)
The New Years buzz were filling the park as we left for a quick pause in the Hotel to change clothes and get ready for a long and exciting evening/night. On the way out my dad was put under the spell of the Sleeping Beauty show in the courtyard - he was completely paralyzed by this great little show ;)
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Before getting to our own Santa Fe, we visited two hotels more to check out their Christmas decorations. First on the list: Hotel New York.
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We had never stayed here before and actually never even been in the lobby before! What a nice smell - everyone who mention this is so right, it is fantastic! Is it apple? I quickly fell in love with this hotel, having always considered it boring and business minded. Boy, was I wrong! It is filled with atmosphere and a welcoming feeling. I would hope to stay there on one of my coming trips :-)
Next up: Sequoia Lodge:
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We entered through the restaurant entrance, where they were making everything ready for the nights New Years buffet. The hall way leading to the entrance of the two restaurants was covered with some white plastic and lots of white Christmas trees - a bit tacky I have to admit! The rest of the hotel on the other hand was decorated beautifully and I can only imagine how cozy it must have been when it was snowing :-)
Next update containing a late afternoon in WDS and dinner at Café Mickey - it will be uploaded during tomorrow along with the 8th update telling about the simple but magical New Years Celebration of Disneyland Park and a general view on the New Years Celebration in the resort. To be continued....
Loving your trip report, you take some awesome pics, cant wait to see the night time new years eve xx :belle:
Quote from: "stacey-claire"Loving your trip report, you take some awesome pics, cant wait to see the night time new years eve xx :belle:
Completely agree
Thank you very much - unfortunately there won't be that many night time pictures from New Years Eve, because I didn't want to bring my tripod :-)
Very good trip report, looking forward to the rest. I love the Hotel New York, it's very comfortable, you should try it . The cocktails in the New Yory City Bar are a must (I'd rather have a drink there than in Disney Village) and so is breakfat in the Manhatten restaurant.
Part 7
The New Years Dinner
We changed clothes and got ready for the last 7 hours of 2010 - starting in Walt Disney Studios Park until we had a reservation at Café Mickey at 7 PM. It was actually our first opportunity to see the Studios after dark - in the summer it is impossible and during Halloween you can only see it at dusk, so I for one wouldn't let this opportunity down and my parents agreed with me.
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I checked the information board - the park wasn't that busy - 65 minutes for Crush and RC was the longest wait. Tower of Terror had 25 minutes, so I queued up for the final drop of 2010, while my parents went for Studio Tram Tour. Although I do enjoy Catastrophe Canyon I didn't try it this time, because of the lack of sights on the rest of the route. While standing in the queue for ToT, I suddenly heard a loud squeaky voice saying: "Pardon, Excuse moi VOUS" with a highpitched vous at the end. It was without a doubt the great CM so I turned and yes with the same surreal distance to guests and weird characteristics it was Cedric - a CM my friend and I enjoyed in the summer and as I understood many on here had enjoyed too. :lol: This man is just so great and funny!
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You could see that it was New Years Eve - a lot of locals were in the queue and many of them was dressed up for a party. Every where you looked there was this special atmosphere that something big was going down in a short amount of time. The drop itself was as lovely and funny as always and I quickly met up with my parents, who had had a rather "boring" ride on STT. The route was almost dark, the video track wasn't working and the London scene wasn't working either - as I had said the only good thing was Catastrophe Canyon, which had been wicked in the dark though :)
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My parents shared a glass of the warm wine (they didn't like it - too sour) and I got a hot chocolate as we just took a stroll around the studios to look at it by night. To our disappointment the Christmas lightning in Hollywood Boulevard wasn't alight - as weren't the stars around the statue :( Toon Studios however were lighten up and a great sight...
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Toy Story Playland was in fact quite dark - actually helping the feeling of being in the garden with the Christmas lights the only true light source (a few lights from the ground, but still). It could be the grey and dull winter colours of the day time, but for me it was way closer to being a true Disney "land" by night!
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We slowly exited through Studio 1, which was packed as I have never experienced it before - people were really coming to the parks now. Once again a small disappointment as only some of the Christmas Lights in Front Lot were a light - it just seemed like a result of poor maintenance with no noticeable system in what lights were on and not.
The first two times me and my mom had been to Café Mickey had been in the middle of october and even though we have had reservations it had been absolute chaos outside as I have mentioned in previous reports. With this in mind we wanted to arrive early as we did expect no less than complete chaos on New Years Eve then. We entered Disney Village and it was almost empty and when we arrived at Café Mickey we were quite astounded to see no one (!?!) in the queues - it was empty! We were now a bit ahead of schedule, but we decided to see if we could get our table anyway...
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... we were quickly seated upstairs and the restaurant was also quite empty. We quickly figured out that we were having dinner way earlier than almost everybody else. The cast members in the restaurant were in special clothes for the evening and at this time they were way to many! :lol: The characters were already out though with Rabbit roaming the first floor as we arrived. Having only seen this character once or twice before in the parks it was great to see :-)
We took our time ordering, because of our early arrival and they didn't hurry to get our orders either. We studied the menu while enjoying the view over Lake Disney where they had already turned on some of the lights for the resorts newest and third fireworks show of the evening.
My father had a Café Mickey menu with: Fantasia Mushrooms, Pluto's Steak and Mandarine/Lemon sorbet and half a bottle of red wine.
My mom had a Mickey's Garlic Bread (partly shared with me), Luigi's Lasagna Classico and Captain Hook's Crème Brûlée and half a bottle of white wine.
I had a delicious pizza with ham, chicken and pineapple (not that festive, but I can't think of something much better than a great pizza) and Baloo's Chocolate Tutti Frutti and coke.
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The dinner was as enjoyable as ever and through out the 2.5 hours we were there more and more people were coming and eventually the cast members went from looking quite relaxed to looking extremely stressed. Lots of great characters were out, although it was the usual bunch: Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Stitch, Tigger, Smee, Captain Hook, Goofy and Rabbit.
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One of the CM's taking care of the characters was extremely eerie - he just kept staring at us and everybody else with eyes that would have made him suitable of working in ToT. Even though he was scary, he was great and we figured out that he knew that we knew how much he would love to be one of the characters special friend in stead of just standing there checking his watch :)
We were getting ready for the last hours of 2010 and left the restaurant close to 10 PM. Now the queue was as long as we would have expected - and I guess it would have been quite magical too to have your New Years dinner in Café Mickey (especially on the 1st floor) watching the midnight fireworks at Lake Disney. However we went for Disneyland Park and as you can see, I was all ready!
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To be continued very soon....
Another fantastic part of your trip report!!
WDS looks really great in the dark when the buildings are illuminated. The park looks in general a lot better during night, it just doesn't have the cold feeling. I can't wait for the Production Courtyard placemaking.
Cafe Mickey is one of our favorite restaurants. We had always a great time there and the food was delicious as well. Now it is always on our list.
Can't wait for the rest.
Part 8
A spectacular New Years Eve
The programme for the evening:
Disneyland Park & Walt Disney Studios Park offered DJ parties from 10 PM and a fireworks display at 00:00 with both parks closing at 1 AM.
Add to this an extra fireworks display along with a disco party in Disney Village (Lake Disney) and special New Years celebrations on each Hotel.
So a lot of offers for a LOT of guests. When we entered Disneyland Park a few minutes before 10 we expected an almost packed to the borders park, but in stead we was met by a normally day time packed park and lots of Champagne stands at every corner selling glasses of Champagne for 9€. However, the main guests were different from usual. 9 out of 10 were adults/teens, but they had succesfully held any bad types out of the park. Perhaps the special offers in DV were more attractive to these people that could have ruined some of the magic in Disneyland Park - in stead we enjoyed 3 hours of unforgettable magic and special atmosphere!
We decided to try Phantom Manor before heading to the Castle Hub for the celebrations. A lot others had the same idea so we was in the queue when the DJ party started enjoying the light show on the Castle. There is always a special and great atmosphere in a Disney queue, but this night was something special - everyone was in their best mood and everyone contributed to a special evening.
The ride on Phantom Manor was great - however, it made me think how "special" it must be for the CMs inside at 00:00 - I guess not that many guests are riding attractions then :)
We went towards the Castle Hub where some of the biggest pop hits were coming out of the loud speekers - people were starting to gather and we decided to find a spot for the rest of the evening. We ended up by the fountain in front of Plaza Gardens - a great spot. No one behind us, so I didn't have to worry about blocking the view for someone - after all I was almost 2.30m with the New Years Hat on :lol:. It turned out that the CMs would want this kept as a walkway meaning that we could stay but noone could stand in front of us... They didn't succeed ;)
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It was getting more and more packed and before we were completely locked up my dad got two glasses of champagne. I am not that fond of champagne so I didn't have one - got a taste though... With 30 minutes left of 2010 the CMs gave up and people were filling up the room between the fountain and us - this was the amount of guests we would have expected for a much bigger part of the day - the atmosphere was special with everyone either singing, dancing or humming along to the hits, which was just getting bigger and bigger with the DJ now playing songs like "Telephone" by Lady Gaga, "Waka Waka" and "Loca" by Shakira and one of the older ones which had everyone (especially the french) partying "Love Generation" by Bob Sinclar. Even the castle was dancing along with the lights flashing along to the music!
People were checking their watches more and more frequent and the mobile network must have been on fire with all the texts that were send in time for New Years. Suddenly the DJ stopped and soon after the lights went out - people knew what was close! Without further a do, small firework balls hit the air around the castle; the countdown had started and people were counting out loud (and that was LOUD! :lol:). After a mix of dix, nine, acht, syv, six, five, vier, tre, deux, one:
[dailymotion:1d04xmou]xgh9sv[/dailymotion:1d04xmou]
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The fireworks lasted for app. 7 minutes and a few minutes after the massive applause and mix of "Happy New Year", "Bonne Année", "Feliz año nuevo", "Frohes neues Jahr" and "Godt nytår" the DJ started the party once again and now people were partying while heading for the exits. A few people tried to fight their way towards Discoveryland - eventually ending up going over the barriers through plants, over trees and flower beds to get forward - even though it was New Years Eve that was sad to see. People had no respect for the landscaping around Plaza Gardens. We, on the other hand, decided to stay put for 5-10 minutes just to absorb the atmosphere and because we actually couldn't move :lol:
When we reached Main Street U.S.A the DJ played "Gotta Feeling" with Black Eyed Peas and people just went crazy - one giant party with guests aged 1 to 90, one giant party with people of all religions, one giant party for EVERY ONE. A party you wouldn't miss out on and a party that I will never forget. You combine the magic and safe feeling of a Disney Park with the giant party with modern pop music and a DJ in the heart of the magic. I would recommend this experience to everyone who loved Disneyland - it was something special!
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Exiting the park went quite easy. Getting on the busses to the hotels was a completely different task :lol: I have never seen so many people waiting to get on the busses - Santa Fe was by far the busiest of the Disney Hotels, but the amount of people waiting here was nothing compared to the other side of the road where people were waiting for the busses towards the associated hotels. People were pushing and crushing to get on the next bus - the police and security guards were there and they was overlooking every loading of the busses. When two busses for Santa Fe had left and we were still far from getting on the next couple of busses we decided to walk through Disney Village, which wasn't as packed as one could have expected. I guess the people staying in a hotel went back in order to get something out of Saturday, while the locals continued the party in central Paris. I had seen earlier that evening that Sports Bar didn't sell any alcohol (only champagne) this night - not even beers. If that was similar in all DV restaurants that could be an answer to the lack of guests here.
We got back to the hotel having left it in another year. Tired but in the good way and ready to wake up for the last day of magic with breakfast at 7.30.
To be continued...
Great report and pictures so far. Don't seem so fun with the buses...
Loved this trip report, so many great pictures and the fireworks look absolutely awesome.
Quote from: "norhel"Great report and pictures so far. Don't seem so fun with the buses...
Thanks - no the busses were quite the party killers :lol:
Quote from: "Dolph7800"Loved this trip report, so many great pictures and the fireworks look absolutely awesome.
Thank you very much - still more to come though... The fireworks was magnificent and I am close to agreeing with the child in the end of the movie :D
Great report and great pictures!!!
We were there also from 30-12 till 2-1 :thumbs:
We had a fantastic trip :D
Yeah see what you mean about restaurant shelter.. we have hidden there many times in the rain to dry off :)
and absolutely love your most recent pictures, looks so magical :)
Part 9
The last day of magic
7.30 AM, 1st of January 2011 - a bit tired from New Years Eve we were in La Cantina. We were greeted with a true Disney smile and a Bonne Année and we were entering the almost empty restaurant. Even though we were a bit tired, we were ready to enjoy every single second of the last half day of magic. So after the last breakfast of the trip but the first of 2011 we went back to the room. My mom and I went to the park for EMH, while my dad stayed behind (his own choice) to pack up.
This was EMH as I remember them from October - almost no people at all. It was quite easy to see that it was the 1st of January - not many people were up and in the park at this time (before 9). This morning we took our time to enjoy the Christmas decorations in Main Street U.S.A and I used N20's trick to get a self portrait using the Christmas balls :)
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Even though it was the clearest morning of them all, it was still rather grey... As we arrived at the spot, in which we had stood just 9 hours ago celebrating New Years we noticed that not all champagne glasses had been removed - these actually being quite easy to see and remove:
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As we did every morning, we started off in Discoveryland trying Buzz Lightyear Laserblast - I got 297.000, although we stopped twice in good places :lol: I went for a quick blast-off to outer space in Space Mountain Mission 2, however I was placed in the very last row = a very rough, bumpy and quite unpleasant ride. Your seating position is very important to your overall experience of this ride! We went back to Buzz and this time I got 340.000 without any stops - I was finally getting in form and then it was our last try on the trip :( I couldn't let my bumpy Space Mountain ride be the last, so off I went again and YES, I was seated in the middle giving me a nice and pleasant ride, during which I could enjoy the thrills and sights without worrying about my back/neck :D
All this was done in less than 30 minutes telling you how few people were in the parks this morning. We walked around a bit and decided to queue up for Frontierland and Big Thunder Mountain (fastpasses) - the amount of guests was still not overwhelming in any way, although more people we coming as we were getting nearer to opening time (10 AM). We finally got to experience the actual opening of a land (something you tend not to see that offen when using EMH) - the speak was coming out of the loud speakers and people were doing the exact opposite of what they was just told (of course) and ran straight towards their first destination. We even noticed a dad running with a child on his shoulders - brave and perhaps a little too much ;)
We got fastpasses for BTM and met up with my dad who was done packing way faster than we had expected - great, we were all together for the last hours of magic :)
We went towards Adventure Isle and Pirates of the Caribbean to spend the time until we could use our fastpass for Big Thunder Mountain - once again the only attraction people were running for at opening. As we got closer and closer to Pirates we saw fewer and fewer fellow guests ;)
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We wanted to breathe in every bit of Disney air during the last hours so took our time walking around Adventure Isle. We had some laughs about my height - restricting me at some points in Adventureland :lol:
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Pirates was a walk-on - actually so much of a walk-on, that they were waiting for guests in order to send a boat through the caribbean seas. I have never seen this before. If you were lucky you could easily have had a boat to yourself!
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When we arrived back at Big Thunder Mountain the queue was quite long, so we were happy with our fastpasses as we were the only ones in the FP queue. It is a great feeling walking past everyone and straight onto a train without one single person in front of you and without doing anything wrong - I love fastpass, although I do have to do an attraction like Big Thunder Mountain at least once without using FP to experience the lovely queue. But this was a great feeling and my dad was quite astounded when he saw us coming out of the tunnel almost before he had wished us "good luck" :P A great way to get the most out of your last day ;) On our way back to Main Street and some final shopping we saw Winnie in his Christmas outfit - quite cute I have to admit...
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To this point we had not experienced the snow on Main Street and hadn't seen it mentioned or people with "snow" on their jackets. But as if the many attractions in no time wasn't enough, we could suddenly hear the bells and storm coming when we reached Main Street U.S.A and then it was snowing. The magical christmas holiday was completed and we imagined how magical it would have been had it been real snow slowly falling from the sky :D/ :D/
We exited Disneyland Park for the last time of this trip - sad, but think about all the new magic we had experienced during these 4 days and it was hard to be sad. Also, we had still some hours in WDS to spend until the magic really ended. The evening before we had wondered why the Christmas lights in WDS weren't alight and now we had to wonder even more - now, in the middle of the day, they were turned on :s Quite weird...
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Here you got a proof of the low attendance numbers this morning/afternoon - Crush "only" had 65 minutes! ;) The information board said that ToT had 50 minutes, but as far as I could see the queue was no longer than the night before (it took only 25 minutes then), so I went into the queue with 1h15m to our reservations at Restaurant des Stars. In the meantime my parents went for another ride on STT.
I quickly realized that only one or at most two of the shafts were in use and the queue didn't move at all and when the clock said 12.40 (we had reservations at 1.00) and I still hadn't entered the library I was getting nervous... All of a sudden things started to move and before I knew, I had been fired towards the ground faster than gravity and was in front of Restaurant des Stars - the only place in which you couldn't see the low attendance numbers. People were in a 45 minute queue - luckily we had our reservatins and were seated right away. The next 1.5 hours we had a lovely lunch with lots of great food - I got some duck which was so dry and fat that it almost made me sick (I am not that fond of duck and actually do not know why I took it haha :lol:), but with lots of jelly I was ready for dessert ;) My dad had the lunch of "his life" with 2 times of starters, 3 times of "main courses" (could have gone way more times, I'm sure) and 1 time of desserts ending it all with a cup of coffee. Of course our dear head chef made an appearance too - I just love this character, so lifelike and so little - impressive!
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Mmmmmmmm, jelly =P~ (Imagine a Homer Simpson voice)
Before ending the magic for this time we watched the cars arrive for Stars'n'Cars. The arrival seemed like surprising all guests and people just gathered together along the route when they heard the announcement. I didn't think the christmas soundtrack suited the "parade", but I still like the idea and the beautiful and funny cars. The "new" Ratatouille one was great!
We left Studio 1 and soon we left WDS and went back to the hotel to get our stuff. No more magic this time... Before leaving I had to make a last buy - a WDCC figurine more for my own money this time... I had seen a big one in the HNY shop from The Rescuers witht the albatros, but when I saw it again I had to admit it was too big - after all I didn't know how much space we would have in the City Night Line train taking us from Cologne to Denmark in the night (it turned out we had NO space so I made a clever choice ;)) I ended up buying the grandmother of Mulan in stead - a lovely piece!
We were on the RER A back to Chatelet les Halles and eventually on the train towards Cologne. No more magic but what a trip we had had!!
With no major delays we arrived at home at app. 1 PM on sunday the 2nd of January.
Trip conclusion to follow later tonight :)
Love your first photo on the last post - very creative!
really have enjoyed your report and your photos. XX
Thanks for the comments :-)
I've decided to save the conclusion, so I could include the Trip Video with it - it will be up in the weekend :)
Here is a little Sneak Peek:
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Absolutely amazing trip report!! And gorgeous pictures, as always... Sooo beautiful!!
Really sounds like you had a great time, despite the impressive crowds!!! I'll have to show your report to by DH, his birthday it's on the 31st so he can choose what we do then, and for some reason he never wants to spend it in Disneyland... But the party sounds really good!
You should definitely try the Hotel New York, it took us years to stay there for the same reasons you have, it didn't look very special compared to the others, but now we try to always stay there!!
Nice pictures with the christmas balls, by the way! :thumbs:
Thank you for sharing your trip with us!!
Quote from: "never2old"Absolutely amazing trip report!! And gorgeous pictures, as always... Sooo beautiful!!
Really sounds like you had a great time, despite the impressive crowds!!! I'll have to show your report to by DH, his birthday it's on the 31st so he can choose what we do then, and for some reason he never wants to spend it in Disneyland... But the party sounds really good!
You should definitely try the Hotel New York, it took us years to stay there for the same reasons you have, it didn't look very special compared to the others, but now we try to always stay there!!
Nice pictures with the christmas balls, by the way! :thumbs:
Thank you for sharing your trip with us!!
Thank you very much - you should definitely convince him to go at New Years - it just adds that extra magic to everything with buzzing all day long until the great uniting party in the evening/night. The crowds were quite impressive, BUT I did not at anytime find them uncomfortable and not that bigger than summer.
I am going in July again and would have loved to stay at the New York - especially with the 30 % early booker discount. As it turned out they had made almost 30 % of price increase so not that much cheaper than it used to be :P So me and my friend decided to take Santa Fe due to the very short amount of time we spent in the hotel last summer - it wouldn't be worth it.
However, I would still love to stay in New York, but guess I will wait until another hotel is added eventually - I have always seen it as "ending the circle" to stay in New York as I would have then stayed in all the hotels ;)
So I'm back for the conclusion, which will mainly be the trip video - YES, believe it or not for once I have succeded in creating the trip video in immediate continuation of the trip :D/
Besides the snowy chaos of Germany on the journey towards DLP, I find it hard to say anything negative about the trip as such. Everything was so magical like the lovely Christmas decorations and entertainment, the special Christmas/New Years atmosphere that filled the parks during the entire visit, the lovely recapturing of family memories along with my parents and the incredible New Years Eve which proofed that you can get along with each other and have a blast no matter what religion, race or age you are!
So without further a do I will end my trip report with my Trip Video "Believe... In a Spectacular Holiday":
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Great stuff Nicolais!
We were there also with the new years eve celebraring, we had a fantastic time! :thumbs:
Great trip report :thumbs:
The pictures were brilliant :)
Great report, love your photos, I have the same camera as you. They're excellent, aren't they?