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Disneyland Paris => Disneyland Paris Trip Reports => Topic started by: Shannon on March 30, 2013, 12:40:13 PM

Title: Trip Report: 25th - 29th March *Complete!*
Post by: Shannon on March 30, 2013, 12:40:13 PM
Hello everyone  :)
I've been reading some posts on here for a while now but never decided to sign up, but after returning from Disneyland yesterday I wanted to write a trip report so here we are! I'm Shannon and I'm 17 :)

This was our second visit to DLP, with the first being in June last year. Although my mum said she'd never take us back, my 7 year old sister and I worked our magic and convinced her to take us again, yay! We booked last August for 4 nights in the Cheyenne with our friend Claire and her son, Aaron.

Day 1 - Monday
We woke up at 6 am to catch the train to St. Pancras at 7.40. We looked out of the window to see that everywhere was covered in snow - not good when you want to go on holiday! However, it didn't cause much of a problem and we got to the station with plenty of time. When we arrived in the outskirts of London, the train manager told us that there was a signal failure and they didn't know how long it was going to take, and we only had 15 minutes before the check-in closed! Thankfully, we made it just in time and the journey on the Eurostar went well.

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We checked in quickly and went to our room, which was in the Butch Cassidy block. There wasn't a hairdryer nor any tea/coffee making facilities in our room which we were disappointed about. Other than this, the room was nice and suited our needs well as we didn't spend much time there anyway.

Once we had unpacked and sorted ourselves out after the journey there, we headed to the Disneyland Park. We decided to walk through the village as my mum and sister hadn't done this before.

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The weather was lovely and sunny although it was a little cold sometimes, but I think we were lucky considering the weather back in the UK! It was nearly 5 when we got into the park and there were people all around waiting for the parade, although it wasn't very busy at all. We were going to skip the parade and head straight to it's a small world (on my sister's request!), but we there was still a lot of room across from Bella Notte so we watched the parade.

After the parade we went on IASW and a couple of other rides including Pirates of the Caribbean which was my sister's first time. She loved it and we ended up going on it 10 times over the holiday!

For dinner we went to Hakuna Matata which was very nice and there was something for everyone. I love looking at all of the decorations in the shops and restaurants and it was quite nice in there. The service was quick and there wasn't a long queue!

In the evening we stopped up and watched Dreams with the new Lion King and Brave parts in it. It was still amazing to watch the second time  and the new segments used the fountains more which was nice. We had got there around 30 minutes before the show and it was really busy. There were people climbing over the fences to stand on the grassy hills so that they could see better, and I was quite shocked to see that no one came to tell them to come off!

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After Dreams we walked back to the hotel as everyone wanted to use the bus and it was super busy. It was really nice to walk through the village with all of the lights on, as in June it was too late to walk back when it was dark with my little sister.

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As soon as we got in we went straight to sleep as we had had a long day and a busy one ahead of us. The beds were surprisingly comfortable!

Thanks for reading!  :D I shall post day 2 shortly!
Title: Re: Trip Report: 25th - 29th March
Post by: ilovedisneylandparis on April 01, 2013, 10:09:35 PM
Hello lovely, it's ilovedisneylandparis - just saw your Tumblr post so thought I'd come over and have a look :D I loved your trip report and can't wait for day 2! It always bugs me too when people don't get told to move during Dreams, when we watched it last year we were a bit surprised by how many people just climb all over the flowerbeds and stuff, it makes me sad :(
Title: Re: Trip Report: 25th - 29th March
Post by: Rafael on April 01, 2013, 10:39:15 PM
Great report. I can't wait for day 2. Thanks for sharing.  :)
Title: Re: Trip Report: 25th - 29th March
Post by: Shannon on April 01, 2013, 10:47:56 PM
Day 2 - Tuesday
We had a slightly later breakfast today at 9am as we didn't want to tire ourselves out too quickly! When we walked through the lobby we saw that there was a meet and greet with Jessie, but the queue was quite long and we were just in time for breakfast so we decided to leave it, hoping that she'd be there on the way out. Sadly, she wasn't and it was Mickey Mouse! Once we had eaten breakfast, we hopped on the bus and headed to the parks. Today we wanted to go to the studios and we arrived a little before opening time so we had a look round World of Disney.

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It was lovely in there! I loved all of the little touches, especially how they have incorporated Mickey Mouse into just about everything! We bought an autograph book there and then set off to the studios.

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We headed straight for the Studio Tram Tour as this was closed on our last visit. The queue line wasn't open yet so we had to wait for around 10 minutes to be let in, and then slightly longer to get onto the ride. Once we were on, we realised that we were put on to the tram where the TV was broken, so we couldn't see or hear the commentary properly which ruined the ride! We told the cast member when we got off but she didn't seem do anything about it.

After the tram tour, we went for a walk around the park and see what we wanted to do. The next showing for Cinémagique  was at 12:15 so we had quite a lot of time to kill before we could see it, so we headed to Toy Story Playland. My sister couldn't wait to go on Slinky Dog Zigzag Spin, but once we got there all the rides had been closed and we had no idea why! We had another walk round the park to see if there was anywhere that we wanted to go for lunch after the show and to take some photos of the surroundings.

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It was nearly time for Cinémagique so we headed there and noticed that Minnie, Mickey and Goofy were out right next to it! We didn't have enough time to see them and we had booked Café Mickey for dinner (which was a surprise for my sister) so we skipped them. I really enjoyed Cinémagique, the effects were really good! It was a little too old for my sister though and she found it quite boring and too scary in some parts.

When we came out of the show, Pluto had replaced Mickey and he was my sister's favourite character to meet. Although we were going to Café Mickey later, we didn't want to ruin the surprise for her so we let her meet him. He loved the fact that she had a little Pluto plush with her and he made a real fuss of her!

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After this, we headed back to the Disneyland Park because my sister would not stop talking about buying a Duffy cuddly! We went straight to the Storybook Store, but noticed that Duffy was out with hardly any queue so we couldn't resist!

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Ava got her Duffy bear complete with the French outfit, just in time to meet Daisy from the celebration train! (There was too many people pushing to get her autograph so she forgot to pose for a photograph  :( this was the best that we got)

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We went on Autopia next as the queue was only 15 minutes and went to Market House Deli for lunch, which was quite nice but there wasn't a lot of choice for children, especially as everything was so big! Then we had another wander around, visiting some shops and going up into the castle along the way. We managed to get on buzz, the carousel, it's a small world and Pirates before paying Captain Jack Sparrow a visit! He was really funny and made an effort to talk to everyone which was nice :)

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We didn't have long until our reservation at Café Mickey but we just had enough time to go on Big Thunder Mountain. My sister hated it and she said that she's never going on it again! Oops! She wasn't very happy at all but we promised her that where we were heading to next would make up for it! We joined the queue outside (and she still hadn't realised where we were!) at 6 and our reservation was at 6:15, but we only had to wait 5-10 minutes to be seated. Ava finally noticed the sign and she was over the moon!

Our meal was really enjoyable and it was much more relaxed there than we had expected, especially because we were told twice (once quite sternly!) to stay seated and not leave our table! All of the characters spent a good amount of time at the table and were really energetic! Minnie embarrassed our neighbour's son by making him kiss her hand on two separate occasions and then swooning! It was hilarious!

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I would definitely recommend Café Mickey! The food was ok although there wasn't a great deal of choice but everyone enjoyed it and really you're there to see the characters rather than the food. We only had a main course each but that was enough for us (I had a calzone and it was very big!). It would have been nice to see a couple more characters but we were told that the same ones just rotate round. Once we had eaten, we headed back to the hotel as the park had closed and Café Mickey had worn us out!
Title: Re: Trip Report: 25th - 29th March
Post by: Shannon on April 01, 2013, 10:51:37 PM
Quote from: "geekyjo"Hello lovely, it's ilovedisneylandparis - just saw your Tumblr post so thought I'd come over and have a look :D I loved your trip report and can't wait for day 2! It always bugs me too when people don't get told to move during Dreams, when we watched it last year we were a bit surprised by how many people just climb all over the flowerbeds and stuff, it makes me sad :(
Thank you!
I know, the grass and flower beds always look so well kept and I wouldn't dream of trampling all over them! There was plenty of space around Central Plaza anyway, so it wasn't like there was no room for them! :(
Title: Re: Trip Report: 25th - 29th March
Post by: Shannon on April 01, 2013, 10:52:27 PM
Quote from: "Rafael"Great report. I can't wait for day 2. Thanks for sharing.  :)
Thank you! :)
Title: Re: Trip Report: 25th - 29th March
Post by: TigerLily on April 01, 2013, 11:46:47 PM
Lovely report! I'm really enjoying reading it :D
Title: Re: Trip Report: 25th - 29th March
Post by: Shannon on April 02, 2013, 12:07:40 AM
Quote from: "TigerLily"Lovely report! I'm really enjoying reading it :D
Thank you! :) I'm glad to hear that; I'm enjoying writing it!
Title: Re: Trip Report: 25th - 29th March
Post by: minnieme on April 02, 2013, 09:36:10 AM
Great trip report!! Im really enjoying it.....getting me very excited for my trip next month. I love your photos too!! x
Title: Re: Trip Report: 25th - 29th March
Post by: Shannon on April 02, 2013, 05:09:47 PM
Day 3 - Wednesday
We got up and had breakfast earlier today, at around 8.15. Pluto was doing meet and greets this morning and we'd already met him twice so we went to eat. We found a table straight away every morning at the Cheyenne which was really good, especially because there was 5 of us.

We arrived at Fantasia gardens at just before 9am and I noticed that there were signs saying 'Journée de Solidarité' and it was super busy. On the information board in Central Plaza it said that the queue time for Peter Pan's Flight was 45 minutes and it was still the Extra Magic hours! We had a walk round and decided to queue for Buzz as this queue is always moving and it isn't as boring as some of the others. When we came out of Buzz we headed to it's a small world and bumped into Suzy and Perla along the way! (Again, a character forgot to pose for a photo so we only got Perla! :( ) They were really sweet though and there wasn't a lot people around so they spent a lot of time with each person. They stood admiring Ava's hair for a while!

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Then we headed to the Casey Jr. train, but this was closed and the cast member didn't know what time it was going to be opened, so we went on Le pays des contes de fées instead. There was no queue and we walked straight on (I think people must forget about that little area in Fantasyland!). Just as we were walking back up towards the Princess Pavilion, we saw Peter and Wendy so we followed them up to Peter Pan's Flight where they stopped for a meet and greet. Despite the fact that we were one of the first people there with them, we had to wait for ages until it was our turn as people were pushing in. At one point my sister wanted to leave, but I wouldn't let her; we had been waiting for too long! I think Wendy had realised that we had been waiting a while so she spent quite a lot of time with Ava, asking her if she was a princess and they were discussing their favourite colours (blue!) and rides.

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After they had posed for a photo, Wendy told my sister to kiss Peter! She got really embarrassed and held the autograph book in front of her face, but in the end she did it! It was so cute.

We went on a few more rides, but it was really busy in the Disneyland Park (there was A LOT of groups of disabled people there with lanyards and wristbands with the 'Voluntears' - we realised later that it was the first day of the summer season too) so we decided to grab some lunch from Casey's Corner and then head to the Studios. It was really busy there (no surprise!) but the food was really nice. My sister and I shared a hot dog and some fries between us as neither of us were super hungry, and this filled us up. Just as we were about to leave, the Celebration Train went by. Ava had wanted to meet Clarice for ages now so we met her! It was a good job we did as well because she wasn't on the train on the other days.

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The parade in the studios was going to start in 30 minutes so we went over there. It was quite quiet there compared to the Disneyland Park and we got a really good spot for Stars n' Cars.

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We had a while to wait until the next showing of Animagique so we went on Slinky Dog Zigzag Spin (which was surprisingly fun!). I was also quite surprised at how much of the Ratatouille construction you can see from Toy Story Playland as Disney usually hides this quite well!

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Then we had a walk round the shops until it was time for the show, much to Ava's disappointment! All of us enjoyed Animagique as the music and effects were good and it was nice to have a sit down. Ava enjoyed this more than Cinémagique as it is aimed at a younger audience but I would recommend it if you haven't seen it before :)

There wasn't anything else that we wanted to do in the Studios so we went back to the Disneyland Park and bought Ava's Duffy another outfit (the Mad Hatter's outfit this time!) and browsed some more shops. I was quite disappointed with the things that you can buy there, as all the shops seem to sell the same thing and it's mainly toys. I bought a pin and a vinylmation before we went on a few more rides and stopping off at Au Chalet de la Marionnette to use our hot drink voucher. (we got this from Casey's Corner at lunch time when we bought a hot drink, and the voucher gave you another for free between 3 and 6 pm). The service was extremely slow there and I had a brioche pretzel which was dry and bland :(

It was only around 6.30 and we were going to head back, but I felt like we hadn't done enough that day so I encouraged my mum to stay in the park for a little longer. We hadn't done Dumbo yet so we queued for that, which was a big mistake! We stood for what seemed like hours in the cold, and Ava wanted to turned around. However, we finally made it through and then went on Pirates for a warm up!

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We were really hungry by this point and so we went to McDonalds. It was 8pm and it was so so busy in there, it was awful. We were so tired though that we got in the queue. My mum is vegetarian so when we found out that they only had salad for her (unlike over here) she was super disappointed. When we went to eat upstairs we realised that they had forgotten to give us the hot chocolate that we paid for! We ate first and then went back to get it, and the person in front of us in the queue told us that they had forgotten to give her one too! It was an awful experience and I don't think we'll be going there again. We were really tired by this point so we went back to our hotel and went straight to bed.
Title: Re: Trip Report: 25th - 29th March
Post by: Shannon on April 02, 2013, 08:47:47 PM
Quote from: "minnieme"Great trip report!! Im really enjoying it.....getting me very excited for my trip next month. I love your photos too!! x
Thank you! Luckily it was nice and bright so the photos turned out well :) I hope you have a good time next month (I'm very jealous!)  :D
Title: Re: Trip Report: 25th - 29th March
Post by: orsie on April 03, 2013, 05:18:08 PM
Great trip report! Am I right in saying that there seems to be a lotmore characters out and about this year as last year when we went there weren't an awful lot!
Title: Re: Trip Report: 25th - 29th March
Post by: Shannon on April 03, 2013, 09:06:26 PM
Quote from: "orsie"Great trip report! Am I right in saying that there seems to be a lotmore characters out and about this year as last year when we went there weren't an awful lot!
There seemed to be a lot out, although I'm not sure if we were just lucky. There was quite a few around the gates next to it's a small world :) at one point there was 4 out at once there!
Title: Re: Trip Report: 25th - 29th March
Post by: mdw on April 03, 2013, 09:32:54 PM
Great trip report. We are staying at the Cheyenne in 6 weeks. What times were characters in the lobby everyday? Any advice for Cheyenne please?
Title: Re: Trip Report: 25th - 29th March
Post by: Shannon on April 03, 2013, 10:30:05 PM
Quote from: "mdw"Great trip report. We are staying at the Cheyenne in 6 weeks. What times were characters in the lobby everyday? Any advice for Cheyenne please?
Thank you! :) I think they were out from around 8 ish until 10 ish, maybe slightly earlier. There were characters out every morning when we went for breakfast which was from 8-9am. There are two characters and they swap around about every half hour, (e.g. one day it was Jessie when we went for breakfast and when we came out it was Pluto).

As for tips, I would definitely recommend having breakfast in the park on one (or more) morning.  We didn't get asked about this when we checked in, but luckily we already knew so we asked them for a time and we got the last time slot of the week. Also, when we stayed up for Dreams, we always walked back to the hotel as it seemed like the whole world was trying to catch the bus back. It doesn't actually take that long to walk back and it is quite pleasant. We didn't get a hair dryer or a kettle in our room, but other people did so I would just keep this in mind as you may want to take these.

I'm sure you'll have a lovely time there and I hope that you have fun! :)
Title: Re: Trip Report: 25th - 29th March
Post by: Shannon on April 03, 2013, 11:12:56 PM
Day 4 - Thursday
This morning we had breakfast in the park at Plaza Gardens. We were going to do it on more than one day but we got the last slot for the week! The breakfast was so nice there - it was much calmer than at the Cheyenne and the food was nicer (there was fresh fruit salad, fresh fruit juice, yoghurt and a few other different things). It was also good to be in the park once we had finished! I would definitely recommend doing this, especially if you're staying in the cheaper hotels.

Once we had eaten breakfast, we went to Discoveryland. It wasn't very busy but the queue for Orbitron was really long and after queueing for Dumbo the night before we didn't want to wait! Instead we went on Buzz again and then after the token photograph in front of the castle we decided to split up - my sister, my mum and I went one way and our neighbours went the other way (they wanted to shop!).

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We headed to the Casey Jr. train as this was closed yesterday. It is quite a nice little ride as you can see the storybook boats well and the queue wasn't long. Ava loved it! We then went round Alice's Labyrinth which my sister loves too.

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When we came out, we saw Captain Hook wandering around. He was super hyper! He ran up to a family sitting down reading a map and scared them, then he went in the exit of Peter Pan and ran out with a little boy, then he went up to a sign (the one about fantasyland closing early for dreams) read it, and nearly knocked it over! We decided against following him around as he wouldn't stay still, so we went on Pirates instead.

We didn't really know what to do with ourselves then, so we had a walk through Fantasyland and sat on a bench for a while. After going on a couple more rides, we were again a little lost. Little did we know what was going to happen next! As you can see in the picture, Ava was wearing her Alice costume (and we hadn't seen anyone else wearing one) and she had her Duffy in a Mad Hatter's outfit. Just as we were walking past the teacups, the Mad Hatter jumped out of nowhere shouting "Alice! Alice! I've found Alice!" - he scared me to death! Then he called the Queen of Hearts and the Tweedles over (who came from nowhere too) and they all came to meet Ava. She was amazed! They admired Duffy in his outfit and had a little chat with Ava, then posed for a photo.

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By this time, loads of people were crowding around us, but when they had done with Ava they left again. We headed straight to Central Plaza to meet Donald from the Celebration Train.

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Then we headed to the Disneyland Railroad station in Discoveryland. We didn't know until it was our turn that there was only 1 train running (I think) so you had to wait 30 minutes until you can get on, and we had already waited about 15. It was trying to snow at this point so we decided to just sit and wait for it in the shelter. It was a pleasant journey and there was one conductor (not sure if that's the right term!) called Yassin (i think) who was making a fuss of Ava, singing the Unbirthday Song to her and chatting to her every time he walked past. We got off at Frontierland, hoping to eat at the Cowboy Cookout but it was closed. So we went to the Lucky Nugget, but the only vegetarian option was cherry tomatoes (!) so we ended up at Casey's Corner again. It was really really busy but we queued anyway.

I had wanted to eat in Agrabah Café but it had been closed all holiday, so we had a look inside. It looked nice but we weren't sure what the others wanted to do yet so we headed to Pirates (again!). Once our lunch had gone down, we bought Ava some candy floss as she had been going on and on about having some since we arrived. We had to wait a while but it was worth it!

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Making a wish...

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I had read about the 'Descent of the Stairs' in the Disneyland Hotel, and I was intrigued about it so we headed over to see it. We got there just in time and there wasn't a lot of people there at all. It was actually a nice little show with Tigger, Mickey, Pinocchio, Gideon and Gepetto dancing down the stairs. We met all of the Pinocchio characters and then  sat down for a while to look at the Disneyland Hotel. It is really beautiful! (I've promised myself that I'll stay there one day!!)

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I can't believe how civilised the meet and greets were in there. There was no pushing and people actually took turns! It was amazing compared to what we had experienced in the parks.

Then we met up with the others so that we could watch the parade. We went right up near to it's a small world and we sat on a bench as we were a little early and exchanged stories from the day. Our neighbours were queueing for Pirates and they had to be evacuated as there was a technical problem! We stood up next to the rope when it got busier and we were just a few metres away from the gates where the floats come out. Just before the parade started, Cinderella and Aurora walked past and then a few minutes later Cinderella (isn't that a bit naughty, Disney?!), Rapunzel and Flynn went by.

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It was so nice to see the look on Ava's face when the princesses waved to her! And then, who should come running up to us but the Hatter from earlier! This time he was with the White Rabbit and the Hatter explained to him that he had met Ava earlier. He then tried to shout the Queen but she couldn't hear him so he ran over to her, stopped her doing the routine and dragged her over. It was so funny! The Hatter stood for a while and chatted to Ava some more. They had to stop the floats behind him because he was talking for so long! They finally left and the parade commenced again. Ava was really excited when Duffy noticed her Duffy and was really happy and then at the end Tink "gave her some magic".

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I really like that they've put Tink on the back of the parade rather than Donald. I was expecting to see Belle on the princess float but it seems that they haven't made that replacement yet? Never mind.

I had to wait with Ava whilst the others went on Phantom Manor, and just as they came off it began to rain. We were supposed to be staying up for Dreams that night so we were hoping that it would pass. We headed to the Disney Village and went to Earl of Sandwich for dinner (meaning that I wouldn't get a chance to go to Agrabah Café :( ) which was really nice and it was quiet there. I had the Hawaiian one (not sure what it's full name is) and it was lovely.

It was still raining outside so we stayed in the Village and did some shopping. There were a few different things in the shops there and they were quieter than the shops in the park. I bought a few things (a Dumbo plush, a cushion with Thumper on one side and his girlfriend on the other, a pencil and a few gifts) from the Disney Store and then it was time for Dreams! Thankfully it had stopped raining although it was still quite cold. We got to Central Plaza with about 15-20 minutes to spare  and it was rather busy. I'm small so I couldn't really see a lot but I had already seen it so I wasn't too fussed about having a perfect view. My sister was really tired too and was complaining a bit so as soon as the show was finished we walked straight back to the hotel.

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The last day to follow soon!
Title: Re: Trip Report: 25th - 29th March
Post by: mdw on April 04, 2013, 09:36:20 AM
Wow ur mad hatter experiences sound amazing, I had a tear in my eye!   Is the descent stairs still on just thurs-sun?
Title: Re: Trip Report: 25th - 29th March
Post by: Shannon on April 04, 2013, 01:03:46 PM
Quote from: "mdw"Wow ur mad hatter experiences sound amazing, I had a tear in my eye!   Is the descent stairs still on just thurs-sun?
Yes it was fantastic, he was so lovely and he really made my sister feel special! I think so, we went on the Thursday and the Friday although we didn't check the other days.
Title: Re: Trip Report: 25th - 29th March
Post by: julesk on April 04, 2013, 01:50:05 PM
Amazing trip report, taken lots of notes ready for our trip. Cant wait to read last day.
Title: Re: Trip Report: 25th - 29th March
Post by: Shannon on April 04, 2013, 05:45:46 PM
Day 5 - Friday
After packing (luckily I brought an extra bag that folds flat for souvenirs!) and saying goodbye to the room  :( we put our luggage in the baggage room at the Cheyenne, had breakfast and then went to the park. It was really bright and sunny today and we planned to make the most out of the last day.

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Ava wanted a photo outside of 'Duffy's house' and a last look in the Storybook Store.. (she's truly obsessed with Duffy now!)

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We then had another look round the top of the castle as I think that it's really pretty in there and you can get a really nice view over Fantasyland from the balcony. I like how you can see the details of the castle close up too (like the snails on the roofs and the owls).

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We went on a few rides again (Pirates, Casey Jr. and Buzz) and then we decided that we had done everything that we had wanted to do apart from the only thing that I wanted, which was the Princess Pavilion. The queue had been out of the door all week and the wait time at around 120 minutes. We headed over there and to my delight the queue wasn't out of the door, even if the sign said it was still 120 minutes. Ava really didn't want to wait that long, but after some gentle persuasion we finally got her through the door. Our neighbours didn't want to queue so they went to do something else.

Unfortunately we were stuck between 2 families who didn't know what personal space was, and the family behind us kept trying to push in front of us (at one point the Spanish lady behind us asked me about the autograph books in French and I replied, and straight after she proceeded to overtake us again!). However, we stood our ground and kept our space. The queue was much more pleasant than when we went in June (we queued for 3 and a half hours to meet Tiana - the only princess who Ava didn't know!) and went pretty quickly, although it was super hot inside (when we finally got to the princess she even commented on how hot Ava looked!).

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I like the windows and the little light up objects around the Pavilion, but they do get boring after a while unlike the cartoons when you go to meet Mickey, so whilst we were queueing we had a little snack and Ava played on my iPod. Near to the end of the queue there we started talking to an English family a couple of spaces behind us and the lady told us that if you're dressed as a character from a ride (e.g. Snow White) you can skip the queue for the ride (so Blanche-Neige et les Sept Nains) although I've never heard of that before!

We finally arrived at the front of the queue (after about 1 hour 15 minutes) and we asked if Tiana was there as we had seen her before. The lady was really nice and subtly told us that Tiana wasn't here and asked Ava who her favourite princess was, but Rapunzel wasn't there. Luckily her second favourite, Cinderella, was there so we got to meet her! The other one was Belle and I was hoping for Snow White. Maybe next time! Cinderella was lovely and had a nice chat to Ava about the Mad Hatter.

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Just before we left, Cinderella told Ava that she'd seen Alice today, and that you might see her if you take a walk past the tea cups. Ava thought that this was amazing and was on a mission as soon as we left the Pavilion. The photographer took a lovely photo of Cinderella kissing Ava, but to buy the photo it was SO expensive! I think it was €18.50 for one which is totally overpriced in my opinion, so we left and went on a hunt for Alice.

We were looking super hard for her (she's hard to find because she's small!) but we couldn't see her. As we were just walking past the tea cups (the exact same place as where the Mad Hatter came out) there Alice was, running up to Ava! She ran up and then hugged her and signed Ava's book. Alice wasn't as talkative as the other characters that we'd seen but she was still lovely and gave Ava a kiss before she skipped off.

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We went on Pirates for the tenth (!) and final time followed by Buzz before having lunch in Café Hyperion.

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We had to queue for a long time there even though the queue wasn't huge. Ava and I wanted to see the Descent of the Stairs again before we left, especially because there was only one space left in her autograph book! We were pushing for time though so we left the others to drink their hot chocolate whilst Ava and I speed-walked down Main Street. We got there just in time, and it was Mickey, Pinocchio, Gepetto, Chip and Dale. We went to meet Chip, who was messing around quite a bit! He got Ava's pen and threw it in the air but didn't catch it properly and ended up drawing on himself, much to Ava's amusement!

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The others came to us and we decided that it was time to leave as it was past 4pm  :cry: we went back to the Cheyenne to collect our bags and then headed to the train station.

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When we arrived there was hardly anyone there! We were so shocked because when we went to check in last time we had to queue for ages. Because of this we checked straight in and made it to the Eurostar train with an hour to spare and nothing else to do! We had given ourselves far too much time and ended up having to sit on the train for an hour whilst it stood still. You could tell that Ava was getting upset because she was really quiet and she looked really sad, which just made me feel even more sad too! There were no problems with the Eurostar though, just with the trains from London (typical!).

When we got there, there was a super long queue at customs and then there was a problem with my passport (apparently the chip wouldn't open  :? ) so we had to wait for an extra 10 minutes to sort that out. We were cutting it really fine to get on our train home and ended up sprinting down the platform with seconds to spare! It was so scary and Ava was crying, it was just an awful experience. To make it worse, when we got on the train we went to our reserved seats to find people in them! Apparently all of the reservations were voided as the 9 carriage train had been shortened to 4 carriages. We were all so annoyed and angry but there was nothing that we could do and we ended up sitting/standing in the end of the carriage with our suitcases, having to manoeuvre everything when people wanted to get off. We had also wanted to buy something to eat from M&S when we got to St Pancras but due to the delays we couldn't, so we were all starving. It was such a terrible end to a wonderful holiday!

I'm now in the process of persuading my mum to take us back again!  [-o< Thank you everyone for reading and commenting :) I hope it wasn't too long!
Title: Re: Trip Report: 25th - 29th March
Post by: norhel on April 04, 2013, 06:02:59 PM
NIce report :-)
Title: Re: Trip Report: 25th - 29th March *Complete!*
Post by: Martin B on April 04, 2013, 11:02:31 PM
Nice report with great character photos!! :)
Title: Re: Trip Report: 25th - 29th March *Complete!*
Post by: TigerLily on April 04, 2013, 11:24:24 PM
Wow, what a fantastic trip report. Sounds like your sister had amazing interaction with the Alice in wonderland characters - that's so lovely! (Sorry to hear of your troubles on the journey home though.)

And it wasn't too long! I could of kept on reading lol. I'm all excited for our trip in June now :D thanks for sharing such a lovely report!
Title: Re: Trip Report: 25th - 29th March *Complete!*
Post by: mdw on April 05, 2013, 09:18:30 AM
Great trip report! Advice on buses plz? When did you use them? We're they busy? Is it best to walk?
Title: Re: Trip Report: 25th - 29th March *Complete!*
Post by: jeakat24 on April 05, 2013, 11:43:40 AM
What a shame about your journey home. I've had a bit of a time like that myself and you end up thinking it's all you're going to remember from your trip- but it really isn't.

We're really hoping to meet Alice when we go as that's my daughters name  :D

Fantastic trip report and great pictures. Thanks for sharing.

Quote from: "mdw"Great trip report! Advice on buses plz? When did you use them? We're they busy? Is it best to walk?

They can be very, very busy at peak times (the morning 8-10 and at park closing etc). The walk from the Cheyenne is very pleasant- though after a tiring day in the park it can seem long even though it isn't. We've always found it a lot less hassle to walk
Title: Re: Trip Report: 25th - 29th March *Complete!*
Post by: julesk on April 05, 2013, 12:12:43 PM
Great report, we loved it and found it really helpful. Was the desend of the stairs only thu/fri of your trip and what time was it? We are like you and cant wait to fill our autograth book.

Sorry one last question, my daughter is 5 yrs old. Would you say pirates ride would be to scary for her? She likes dumbo, small world etc. Bit unsure about pinaccio but that was a year ago. Thanks
Title: Re: Trip Report: 25th - 29th March *Complete!*
Post by: Shannon on April 05, 2013, 01:16:24 PM
Quote from: "mdw"Great trip report! Advice on buses plz? When did you use them? We're they busy? Is it best to walk?
Thank you! :) We only used them in the morning, and they were quite busy then but we always got a place and they were pretty regular so if you did just miss one you wouldn't have to wait long for the next one. In the evening, especially after dreams, they were really really busy so we just walked back. The walk is quite nice and we were right at the far end of the site but it only took us 15 minutes or so and it was a lot less hassle than trying to cram on a bus.

Quote from: "julesk"Great report, we loved it and found it really helpful. Was the desend of the stairs only thu/fri of your trip and what time was it? We are like you and cant wait to fill our autograth book.

Sorry one last question, my daughter is 5 yrs old. Would you say pirates ride would be to scary for her? She likes dumbo, small world etc. Bit unsure about pinaccio but that was a year ago. Thanks
Thanks! As far as I know it was only on the Thursday and the Friday, although we didn't bother to check the other days. It was on at 4pm and we only got there 5 minutes before and there was still plenty of space (although if you get there a bit earlier you will get a better view - they tell all of the children to sit on the floor at the bottom of the stairs as the characters come down).

As for Pirates, it depends really. Ava is 7 and she refuses to go on Pinocchio/Snow White (and these are scarier in my opinion!), but loves Pirates. The queue line  is quite a bit darker than the actual ride and I think that this would put off a lot of children. Also, towards the end of the ride there are skeletons so I'm not sure if she'd be ok with those? Nothing comes really close to you though. There are small drops too, but you don't get wet. There are a lot of things to look at so she might love it! You can see a small part of if from the railroad so maybe if you took her on that and look at it from there? Quite a lot of small children were on it when we went, so I wouldn't dismiss it totally!
Title: Re: Trip Report: 25th - 29th March *Complete!*
Post by: Shannon on April 05, 2013, 01:29:19 PM
Quote from: "jeakat24"What a shame about your journey home. I've had a bit of a time like that myself and you end up thinking it's all you're going to remember from your trip- but it really isn't.

We're really hoping to meet Alice when we go as that's my daughters name  :D

Fantastic trip report and great pictures. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you! :) And I know, I'm determined not to let the mishaps ruin the memories of such a lovely trip :) I hope that you find Alice then :D I'd recommend asking a character attendant or maybe at the City Hall if you can't find her!
Title: Re: Trip Report: 25th - 29th March *Complete!*
Post by: BlackPearl on April 05, 2013, 06:36:52 PM
Wonderful trip report and beautiful pictures! Thanks for sharing  :D
Title: Re: Trip Report: 25th - 29th March *Complete!*
Post by: mdw on April 05, 2013, 07:36:15 PM
Quote from: "Shannon"
Quote from: "mdw"Great trip report! Advice on buses plz? When did you use them? We're they busy? Is it best to walk?
Thank you! :) We only used them in the morning, and they were quite busy then but we always got a place and they were pretty regular so if you did just miss one you wouldn't have to wait long for the next one. In the evening, especially after dreams, they were really really busy so we just walked back. The walk is quite nice and we were right at the far end of the site but it only took us 15 minutes or so and it was a lot less hassle than trying to cram on a bus.



Thank you, is it 15min from the beginning of the lake village end or 15min from Disneyland park?
Title: Re: Trip Report: 25th - 29th March *Complete!*
Post by: Aurora1 on April 05, 2013, 08:20:32 PM
Thank you for postimg you r TR! I loved reading it.
You made great pictures!
Aurora1
Title: Re: Trip Report: 25th - 29th March *Complete!*
Post by: Shannon on April 05, 2013, 11:46:02 PM
Quote from: "mdw"
Quote from: "Shannon"
Quote from: "mdw"Great trip report! Advice on buses plz? When did you use them? We're they busy? Is it best to walk?
Thank you! :) We only used them in the morning, and they were quite busy then but we always got a place and they were pretty regular so if you did just miss one you wouldn't have to wait long for the next one. In the evening, especially after dreams, they were really really busy so we just walked back. The walk is quite nice and we were right at the far end of the site but it only took us 15 minutes or so and it was a lot less hassle than trying to cram on a bus.


Thank you, is it 15min from the beginning of the lake village end or 15min from Disneyland park?
Hmm, I'd probably say it takes 15 from Fantasia gardens to get to the main facilities in the Cheyenne :)
Title: Re: Trip Report: 25th - 29th March *Complete!*
Post by: mdw on April 06, 2013, 10:08:21 AM
thank you!!!!
Title: Re: Trip Report: 25th - 29th March *Complete!*
Post by: cinderslg on April 06, 2013, 06:33:31 PM
Lovely tr and great pics, thanks for sharing  :D
Title: Re: Trip Report: 25th - 29th March *Complete!*
Post by: Shannon on April 07, 2013, 01:24:11 PM
Thank you to everyone for your comments :D I'm glad that you enjoyed reading it!

I forgot to mention that on the last day (Friday) at around 3pm, there were some characters out by the gates next to it's a small world for quite a while! It was Eeyore, Rabbit (from Winnie the Pooh) and then Minnie and Daisy were together. Eeyore and Rabbit were quite quiet but Minnie and Daisy were being mobbed :(
Title: Re: Trip Report: 25th - 29th March *Complete!*
Post by: Din97 on April 07, 2013, 05:18:02 PM
I think that its really sweet that the Mad Hatter ran over to Ava when he saw her the second time!
Nice trip report! Really enjoyed reading, I actually scrolled back up to re-read! Amazing!
Title: Re: Trip Report: 25th - 29th March *Complete!*
Post by: julesk on April 08, 2013, 10:42:49 AM
Thanks so much for the advise Shannon. Its a great help. Hope you manage to talk your Mum into another trip again soon!
Title: Re: Trip Report: 25th - 29th March *Complete!*
Post by: Shannon on April 09, 2013, 10:24:41 PM
Quote from: "julesk"Thanks so much for the advise Shannon. Its a great help. Hope you manage to talk your Mum into another trip again soon!
No problem, I'm glad that I could help! :) and I'm getting there, she seems like she's thinking about it, hurray! :D
Title: Re: Trip Report: 25th - 29th March
Post by: pialykke on April 18, 2013, 11:22:19 PM
Quote from: "Shannon"
Quote from: "mdw"We didn't get a hair dryer or a kettle in our room, but other people did so I would just keep this in mind as you may want to take these.

Just a quick note - when we went in March last year, we stayed in the Santa Fe (but I'm sure it's the same at the Cheyenne). We had already found out before leaving home, that there are no coffee/tea making facilities in any of the rooms. We hired a kettle from reception - 30 euro full refundable deposit - and then just brought our own instant coffee/tea bags from home. The only problem is milk, if you take milk - but I guess coffee mate would make do for the length of a trip (or maybe buy a small carton of milk and pop in the minibar?)

Apart from that, thanx for an amazing trip report! I really enjoyed reading it!!
Pia. xx
Title: Re: Trip Report: 25th - 29th March
Post by: Shannon on April 22, 2013, 09:57:17 PM
Quote from: "pialykke"
Quote from: "Shannon"
Quote from: "mdw"We didn't get a hair dryer or a kettle in our room, but other people did so I would just keep this in mind as you may want to take these.

Just a quick note - when we went in March last year, we stayed in the Santa Fe (but I'm sure it's the same at the Cheyenne). We had already found out before leaving home, that there are no coffee/tea making facilities in any of the rooms. We hired a kettle from reception - 30 euro full refundable deposit - and then just brought our own instant coffee/tea bags from home. The only problem is milk, if you take milk - but I guess coffee mate would make do for the length of a trip (or maybe buy a small carton of milk and pop in the minibar?)

Apart from that, thanx for an amazing trip report! I really enjoyed reading it!!
Pia. xx
Thank you! That's a good tip - I'll remember it for next time :)