Well I back and totally exhausted ! I have just under 1500 photos to sort through and then I'll start my report. Only 1500? I know, I took it easy this year.
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Day 1, 10th Sept. "Tell Everybody I'm on my way....." :-"
Right, get the boring day out of the way. Left the house at 10.30am for the airport, got the flight at 1.30pm and landed in CDG at 4pm. Got the bags - eventually - at nearly 5pm. Luckily our TGV wasnt until 5.50pm. So by 6pm we were at Disneyland ! No problmes. Treated ourselves to a taxi ride to Val D'Europe (€10) and got to Adagio Aparthotels.
A View from Room 175 - facing the Place De Toscana
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The receptionist said they had our booking but we hadn't paid as the credit card we'd used had been declined. I was a bit suspicious so we told her we'd need to double check our bank accounts, which she was ok with and gave us the room anyway.
Dropped off our bags and headed to Auchan. OMG that place is huge and a bit scary the first time. We spent 15mins trying to find a shopping trolly. Stocked up on sandwich-making ingredients, crisps, apples, biscuits, coffee, tea and Coke.
Tip #1 : Take the shopping trolly back to the apartment and leave it outside the main door. It will save your arms and feet. This seems like a common practise, so much so that they send a van to collect all the trollies every morning :thumbs:
By the time we got back it was 9pm an decided to eat inside the shopping centre at the Chinese restaurant. Talk about fast service. No sooner had we ordered that the food arrived. McDonalds isn't even that quick ( or tasty ! ). Headed back to the room afterwards to find the TV channels sucked - BBC World Service, Eurosport (in German but watchable) and the Disney Info Channel was stuck in a 30sec loop All Week ! Ah well, time for sleep and an action-packed day tomorrow !!
Bon Nuit
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Cool, glad you liked the Chinese, always a must do for us - quick, good service, good food, and affordable. I love Val de Europe pretty much. Can't wait to read the rest.
Yay you started!
Did you sort our your booking?
looking forward to reading more!! =]
BTW - fab Brother Bear quote in there buddy!
Good start - I'm really looking forward to this report! :-)
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Day 2, 11th Sept. - "Got no time to dilly-dally, We gotta get a-goin'" :-"
Go to the park at around 9.30am. Tried to get 5 Fantasy Passports and the Family discount, but the grumpy cashier wasn't having it. She said Same Address and Same Family Name. I tried to explain my wife's Italian passport will always have her maiden name, but here's our marriage certificate ...... no good.
Woo-Hoo
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Headed into the park, and it felt like being home :D Sadly the Passport office didn't open till 10am so we had to wait. The whole process was relatively smooth and it didn't take long before we were fully fledged Annual Passport Holders !!
Now off to the Park !!!
Even on an overcast day the Castle looks stunning
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As it was a Sunday I was a lot of queuing. But the was weather forecast was for a lot of showers so I guess the crowds stayed away. In no time at all we had done The Carousel.....
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The teacups.....
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and The Maze.
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We had a quick bite to eat at Pinocchio's Marioette cafe place (you know where I mean), while we waited for our Peter Pan Fastpasses. After PP it was our first Walk-On at Pirates of the Caribbean. Then Pinocchio's Voyage ride and then over to Frontierland. (didnt take any photos on the dark-ish rides)
As we were walking to Phantom Manor, the heavens opened. It had threatened all day and when it finally came it didn't waste any time. Luckily we were right at the entrance to the riverboat, and Molly Brown had just docked. So we quickly ducked out of the rain and got a seat on the middle deck.
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Ater the Molly Brown the rain had cleared to beautiful, blue skies. Back on track to Phantom Manor - I think they are trying to save money by dimming the lights Sooooooo much I couldnt see a thing until the Floatly-head in a glass ball part.
Next it was time for Elisha's first ever rollercoaster, and what a coaster to start with - Big Thunder Mountain. We were kinda worried because Joshua is the No Fear Adventurous one, and Elisha is the quite shy-ish one. I think the next photo answers all questions..........
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We decided we'd all had enough for the day and headed to La Grange for the buffet before the hoards decended on the Village.
Again, Wow.
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Fab report, looking forward to the next instalment.
I remember my poor 5 year old went on BTM with his dad. Poor thing didn't know it was going to be a roller coaster as he had never been on one. He was sliding around the seat so the hubby had to hold onto him. lol
Lol, sounds like good times! Look forward to reading the rest.
Fancy trying chinese at val d europe worried about language barrier.
Fab report so far! You have a beautiful family! :)
Great report, looking forward to reading some more :)
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Day 3, 12th Sept - "We'll never find a supreme leader without a map. "
Time for Discoverland. Joshua (the Fearless) had been dying to go on Space Mountain ever since he found out he was tall enough. Somehow I managed to drag Sujit - my brother-in-law - onto the ride as well (the Chicken). Walk-On number 2, which was a bit annoying considering the length of the walk through Space Mountain to begin with. Could have saved 5mins if they had a side entrance for quiet times. Ah well, Joshua loved it, I enjoyed it even though it was as bumpy as usual, Sujit needed to sit down :roll:
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On the way out the queue for Autopia didn't look too bad
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Once again Joshua had reached the height of independance, so off he went driving his own car for the first time.
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Next Buzz Lightyear's Laser Blast. Sujit had been looking forward to this, and had even started doing a little trash talking about teching me a thing or too even though he was a noob ( I think all those loney hours playing FPS on his PC had gone to his head). Needless to say he was very quiet aterwards, because even the kids beat his score.
My score and Joshua's, oh yeah !
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Headed around to Pizza Planet for lunch. Sujit and I def. got our money's worth at the buffet eating about 10-15 slices each, and then attacking the desserts. Afterwards we decided to give Captain EO I try .............. oh dear, what a terrible show. Even allowing for the hilarious 80s dancing and costumes it was truly comical in a bad way. It didn't help that the 3D glasses looked like they were from the 80s too - so badly scratched and def. need replacing.
Star Tour followed, great as always but would love to see it updated !
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What followed was a quick blast through Fantasland
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Experiment with slow shutter speed
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Then Adventureland
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Decided to give Indy a go. Had only even been on it once, and that was backwards. Its a good ride, if a little basic compared to the other coasters. But you can't complain when you get Walk-On 3 and 4 back to back. :D/
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A last go on BTM to end the day, then off to Annette's Diner for Chilli Hotdogs and milkshakes.
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So, in 2 days we'd managed to do almost every ride in the Park which I though was pretty good going. The only one's we missed were Snow White, Dumbo and Orbitron. They would have to wait as tomorrow it was time for Walt Disney Studios !
Thanks for the report so far. A lovley family you have. I had to smile looking at the picture wite sword. We always do that. It`s become a tradition sine our first visit in 2007.
Aurora1
Throughly enjoying your tr Pete. Your family are adorable!
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Day 4, Sept 13th - "Farewell, my friends. I go on to a better place."
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Now for the most disappointing part of the holiday - Cafe Mickey. Yes you read correctly. My favourite restaurant for so many reasons was a stone's throw away from being a complete nightmare.
First of all, the lady at the desk charged for 5 adults. I pointed out that the 2 short members of our group were not dwarfs or people walking on their knees, but she charged us full price for them anyway.
We got our table and I went up for some yummy sausages, bacon and eggs. Hmmmmmmm :-). Wait a minute, where are the sausages? And why is the bacon cold and slimey? And why dont the staff seem to be doing anything about it? I could see the *cough* chefs in the kitchen and they were doing absolutely nothing. I'm sure that if they had been allowed to smoke, they'd have been smoking. So a grabbed a croissant to keep me going. Went to get some orange juice and Both machines were nearly empty.
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr! Hakuna Matata. Sat down and waited for the sausages. 30mins it took them, and they weren't even properlly cooked. There better be some characters soon.
First up was a rare appearance from Rabbit
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Then all hell broke loose. Mickey Mouse appeared and Every Single Table rushed him. Poor Mickey tried his best to ignore them and continued from table to table, even with all the customers contantly tugging at his arm. The crowd got so bad that people returning from the buffet with their undercooked pork products couldn't get to their seats. Eventually a CM sauntered over and got most of them to sit down. I say most because the Spanish families stayed.
N.B. Time-Out. Up until now I've been trying to show the positive side of our holiday. But while I'm venting about the poor quality of Cafe Mickey I might as well get this all off my chest. Firstly I dont' mean to group all Spanish visitors together, I'm sure that most are well-mannered and generally pleasant people. But for the 3rd trip in 4 years - everytime there has been someone pushing in, or shouting, or smoking in the queues, or being completely ignorant to every single other visitor - they've been Spanish. Even my brother-in-law pointed this out to me, and this was his first ever visit. As I've never been to Spain I don't know if this is common behaviour or if they leave their manners at the main gate. To all Spanish members of the Forum I apologise for bad-mouthing your fellow countrymen, but it's happened to often to me to be a coincidence.
Anyway, Mickey finally got to our table. When he saw Elisha in her new Princess Tiana dress he bowed. Elisha loved this and giggled. It was nice to see that in the midst of all this, that the CM playing Mickey was as professional as they come. He was brilliant, really involving with the kids and parents alike.
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Shame the same couldn't be said for Geppetto. Hello, where's the camera, cheese, bye.
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Somehow I managed to get Sujit up for a photo
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By now we've finished our sad excuse for a breakfast (and they'd only managed to fill 1 OJ machine) but we couldnt leave until Tigger made his way around. In Elisha's autograph book he wrote 'Nice Dress, Tigger' which again made Elisha really happy (especially as she almost blew her entire spending money on the dress, tiara and gloves)
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We left and thought about going on Panaramagique but quickly decided against it. The balloon was swaying back and forward really violently and it took a good 10 minutes to land.
Tip #2 : Never complain if it says it too windy to fly. OMG, at one point the balloon cord had tilted more than 45 degrees
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Time for Wal Disney Studios !! Animagique was just starting so we ducked in. as good as always. The Cm patrolling the crowd was really strict, the slightest glow from a cell phone and he was over like a shot.
After a quick go on the Flying Carpets it was time to try out the new rides in ...
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Slinky Dog is alright, that's about all I gotta say about that.
RC Racer was great fun, sadly only Joshua and I went on it and everyone else chickened out (what would turn out to be a running theme throughout the holiday).
We skipped the Parachute drop for now as the queue was 50mins!!
I can understand the reason behind the theme of TSPL, but it looks wrong in the flesh. It's a theme suited for indoors i.e. a kids bedroom. But having it outside in the middle of trees and bamboo make it look a mess
Next it was time to check-in ......... to the Twilight Zone. Again, it was only Joshua and I who were brave enough to enter. Joshua got really nervous, mainly because the themeing is so well done. While everyone else was screaming and whoopingafter the first big drop, Joshua had a really, puzzled look on his face. I asked him if he was ok, and he turned to me and said 'Is this it?' OMG, 8 years old and ToT is too tame for him :?
Headed around for the stunt show only to run into our first Characters, and my biggest dilema ever - Stitch, or Chip and Dale. Ahhhhh dont make me choose. Luckily the kids had already bolted for Stitch.
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Stitch was great. The kids kep crowding him, so he stopped and made them stand in a big circle. Then made a gesture that he would go around the circle in a nice orderly fashion. Of course one kid kep tugging at him. Stitch spun quickly and growled at him - scared everyone - and after that everyone waited their turn.
Grabbed the kids and ran for Chip and Dale (or Tic and Tac ??) and tried not to go too crazy.
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Lights, action, Lightening McQueen :? It's so obvious he's there to promote Cars 2 as he brings nothing to the show. Forward a bit, back a bit, drive round, spot enemy car, drive a bit more. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
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Perfect condition for high speed shooting. Loved having the x30 superzoom
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As the show finished, once again Me and Joshua raced off to Rock and Rollercoaster before the crowd landed. Joshua loved it more than Space Mountain 2. Met back up with everone and headed to Tram Tour (which it a weird double-backing mess, but still fun). The a quick stop with Stitch. A total of 4 kids in the showing, so Elisha got picked out to be Stitch's girlfriend and Joshua got the best monkey!
Time for one last ride. Gave the Parachute Drop a go. Elisha liked it to start with, but soon changed her mind. It's a good way of testing whether or not you're ready for Tower of Terror. Didn't see the point of heading to the Park for an hour so we got the bus back to the Val D'Europe and had a great meal in the Italian restaurant Prego in the Place De Toscana.
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The kids asked for a go on the Carousel. I think after the thrill rides they were a bit bored with this.
Boring
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Time for bed and an early night. Joshua, Sujit and I were starting to complain about the onset of Man-Flu. Decided to head back to the Studio tomorrow, which is a testiment to how far the 2nd park has come on. The first time I went 1/2 a day was enough, and now we were going back for a second day. Although I think the 40-50min queues have more to do with it than anything.
Really enjoying this report!
Keep it coming!! :0)
great report! Really sad to hear about cafe mickey , although I didnt find the service there that great either , its as if they know they`re gonna get the crowds in because of the characters so they just dont bother about anything else. Love your daughters Tiana costume , its so pretty!
Thanks for your great trip report so far.
I'm very sorry for your bad experience at Cafe Mickey. We have been there twice but only for a late lunch i the afternoon aroound 2pm. Then there aren't so many people in the restaurant, the food is always hot and you get enough time with Mickey & Co. Friends of ours dicribed exactly the same like you did. They also didn't get warm breakfast items. I think you should write a complaint, because it seems to happen very often and Disney should be aware about their bad service, even when the restaurant is operated by Group Flo.
I'm also sorry for your bad experiences with the behaviour of certain citizens.
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Day 5, 14th Sept - "This is so much fun, it's freaky! "
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Left the camera in the apartment, so all photos were taken either on my phone (Galaxy S2) or by Sujit. Back to finish off the Studio, just as soon as the kids got their faces painted.
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Got to Crush only to find it broken :-( Had a quick go on Cars instead. Luckily Crush was fixed by the time we got out and the queue was only 30mins ! Mine. Mine. Mine !
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I was worried that Elisha wouldn't like the sharp drops, but surprising she really enjoyed it. Sadly, once again I had to sit backwards. Made a point that next time I was sitting on the front of the shell.
Next we went to the Art of Animation. Seriously, if they are gonna make you wear headphones then kill the other noise. So annoying trying to listen to the English translation when the normal sound is louder. Bumped into Peter Pan and Wendy whilst the kids were exploring the interactive drawing part. One weird thing was that Peter was 100% American, accent and all, and couldn't speak a word of French. This lead to a sureal conversation were 4 French tourists tried to ask him were Tinkerbell was.
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Decided to let Joshua have another go on RnRC, but we bumped into the characters again. Luckily it was the exact same ones as yesterday so there were only a few we had to queue for.
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Minnie was smacking me in the face. It wasn't until after this photo I realised she wanted a kiss
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No autograph? Why not, she has fingers??
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Went from RnRC to Armageddon to Stitch ( spoilt because the 3 kids he chose didn't understand English, which lead to long silences. Shame they cant do it in 4 languages ). With the Studio finished we did a whirlwind tour of the main park. Carousel, Snow White, Big Thunder Mountain (twice), Pirates of the Caribbean (Elisha and Sujit's favourite), Peter Pan and finally round to Dumbo.
I dont know what the policy was for hiring this year, but I think being a little crazy actually helps your chances. This CM below tried to get 2 people to come over. When they didnt move, he climbed in himself and waved to the queue all the way round. Brilliant.
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6.30pm : time to leave and get a seat at Rainforest Cafe. Headed back to the Val D'Europe as we needed more supplies from Auchan. We had promised Elisha that she could meet a Princess tomorrow. Joshua had been promised another go on Space Mountain. And Sujit had been promised a long sleep in (noob !).
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Loving your trip report.
Great report! I am really enjoying it! :)
love the trip report!! looks like the park was pretty quiet when you were there!!
How was the rainforest cafe??, thinking of going when we visit in 2 weeks and 5 days (so excited, more so than my 2 kids)!!!
Fab report, lovely pictures.
I am enjoying reading it and it is making me get more excited for my trip.
Quote from: "jackieann"love the trip report!! looks like the park was pretty quiet when you were there!!
How was the rainforest cafe??, thinking of going when we visit in 2 weeks and 5 days (so excited, more so than my 2 kids)!!!
It's good. Has a nice selection and the staff are always very helpful. Prices on par with the other table service retaurants.
Great, great, great trip report!
Everyone seems so happy and your comments are short but very describing - they almost make me feel like I was there with you in the moments you tell about :)
Quote from: "forza_united"Great, great, great trip report!
Everyone seems so happy and your comments are short but very describing - they almost make me feel like I was there with you in the moments you tell about :)
The comments are short cause I've said it all before, glad you are enjoying it though :thumbs:
glad you had a great time brian . how many times have you been to disney in total i bet its around 6
Quote from: "big disney kid"glad you had a great time brian . how many times have you been to disney in total i bet its around 6
5 times to DLP and 1 to WDW = 6. Nice =D>
where abouts in northern ireland are you from brian anywhere near a wee town called coleraine by any chance i have friends who live there and go to disney a lot as well
Quote from: "big disney kid"where abouts in northern ireland are you from brian anywhere near a wee town called coleraine by any chance i have friends who live there and go to disney a lot as well
yes from Coleraine. :-k
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Day 6, 15th Sept - "Oh, I'm not a princess. I'm a waitress."
Soryy, but I'm gonna have to rush through this. I started back at university today and I'm not gonna have to time to write an expansive report.
Left Sujit in the apartment, and went to queue to meet the Princess. Subi and Elisha waited while me and Joshua headed for Space Mountain. Just as we were about to go on the ride, I realised I had Elisha autograph book. Eeekkk !!!! Did the ride and raced back to the make-shift Princess Pavillion to find that Elisha was 3rd in the queue. Phew ! And the luck didn't end there because just at that moment the Princesses changed from Cinderella to Princess Tiana.
Elisha Went Nuts :D/ =D> :D :thumbs:
Now the girls in front of Elisha got a hello, a cuddle and a photograph. Elisha got a full blown 10min conversation. I think this is one of the nicest touches they do in the park: if you've spent €60+ on an outfit you deserve a little bit more attention from that character. Joshua got it last visit from Jack Sparrow (completely bypassed a massive queue and got) and now it was Elsiha's turn.
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Of course I was never one to pass up an opportunity to meet a waitress, I mean Princess ;)
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Met up with Sujit at Noon, went to Snow White and then on to BTM. Then off to the Pocahauntas Park for 30mins of peace
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Then off to Woody Round Up
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To continue our lazy day we hoped onto the Train and done 1 1/2 loops all the way round and then on the Discoveryland.
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Star Tours, Buzz Lightyear's Laser Blast and then the final unriden ride - Orbitron. So that's that, all the rides done (except for the closed Cinemagique :-( )
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Headed off to Le Grange but it hadnt opened yet. Then the 4 most unbelievable words ever to come out of my mouth were spoken. After nearly a week of trying to drink to swill they called coffee in the park I turned to my wife and said 'I fancy a Starbucks' :shock: Yip, a Starbucks. And after a week of muck, it tasted ...... not half bad.
Took a little walk around the lake, to discover teh ice rink was being used for those giant blow up balls. What a great laugh. Me and Sujit had to 'help' the kids incase they got stuck, when in fact I spent the whole time trying to push the kids into Sujit. The best bit was when I sandwichwed him between both kids and I keeled over laughing.
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Time for a well deserved rest, time for a Tex-Mex buffet.
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Day 7, 16th Sept - ""Here you leave today and enter the world of yesterday, tomorrow, and fantasy."
Last full day :-( Before we left the apartment, everyone picked their favourite rides. Elisha had to pick a second one, as we'd been on IASM 3 times already. So they plan was Big Thunder Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean, Crush's Coaster, Rock and Roller Coaster, and Autopia. Plus whatever rides had small queues in between.
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Straight to Frontierland and Fastpassed BTM. Then headed to Phantom Manor, followed by a walk around the graveyard whick freaked Elisha out slightly (weird, she loved it last time). Joined the Fastpass queue for BTM and discovered the strangest sight ever. The regular queue was complete empty, yet the Fastpass line stretched to the end of the bridge. And not one person had the courage to jump the barrier into the other lane. I don't think I've ever been in a queue like it.
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Afterwards we walked to Au Chalet de la Marionnette for some tasty hotdogs, and got stuck in the queue behind the most ignornamt, ill mannered, obnoxious guest I've ever come across. She was rude to the poor CM taking the order, never once did it enter her head to say please or thank you, and then she walked off to the hatch before the CM had a chance to give her a receipt or change. She came back 2 mins later and snapped "where's my ticket" to whick the CM said "it's here you old hag. now take it, go away and I hope you choke on your fries !" Okay that's what I would have said. The CM was polite and said "here you are madam". I gave him my money and then said to Subi, "now wait for your receipt" which got a cheeky smirk from the CM. I knew that he knew that I knew that he got what I knew, you know?
I took the fries down to the table and left Subi to fetch the hotdogs. 5mins late, no hotdogs. Some bright spark had forgot to cook any. So I brought the half-eaten fries back and waited. Unlike Cafe Mickeys the other day the staff were very apologetic and were notcieable annoyed at the lack of service. Plus the dogs were cooked when they arrived.
POTC, followed by Peter Pan. Checked the time and realised that the Stunt show was finishing in 30mins, so now would be the best time to hit The Sudio. Joshua and I went straight for Rock and Roller Coaster and it was perfect ! The best light show of the visit, the music was pumping the whole way around AND the smoke was working too. By far the best ride of the week of any attraction !
Suggested Tower of Terror, but even Joshua gave it a bored thumbs down (really !?!?) so we queued for Crush instead, and I fianlly got to sit forwards at the start. Now that I've ridden it both ways I actually prefer it backwards to begin with. The queu for Cars was Non-existant ..... Walk On ! I have a video I must upload.
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Then it was back to the Park. Quick go on the Carousel and off to Discoverland. Experienced the bumpiest ever Space Mountain ride ever. Sujit posted another really pitiful score at BLYLB. It was so bad I nearly bought him a toy blaster to take home so he could practice (decided against it when I saw the price). It was just after 6 and the queue for Autopia said 30mins, sweet! No sooner had we joined the queue that they stopped other guests joining it.
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Time for one last go on Buzz. I'll save Sujit any further embarrassment. Now none of us are fond of parades, but it was our last night so we decided to watch Mickey Magical Farewell.
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And so we waved farewell to the Park for the last time.
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Treated ourselves to a taxi to Val D'Europe and had dinner in Pregos in the Place De Toscana. Headed back to the apartment and packed as much as we could. Our train wasn't until 2pm so we had a few hours left tomorrow
love your report so well written (typed really) and the you know what the cm knew etc quote, friends fan???
[youtube:17zwqv2q]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFG6W_a5x50[/youtube:17zwqv2q]
Great report as always PD, and gorgeous pictures! What camera do you have?
You have a lovely family, glad you all had such a great time! (despite a couple of less pleasant experiences...)
You know I'm Spanish myself, and it saddens me to have to totally agree with your comments... We're not all that bad, you know... But I don't know what happens to so many of them when they go to DLP, the way they behave sometimes!! I've gotten into arguments with some Spanish guests in the parks before...I don't live in Spain and I don't go back often enough to know if they ar just as bad back home, I hope not...
Anyway, great report, thank you for sharing it with us! Reading it really makes me feel like I'm there with you all!
N2O I have the Panasonic fz45 superzoom bridge camera. Great camera except in low light as the flash sucks
Great Pictures and a great report, really getting me in the mood for my trip....... :thumbs: