Hi everyone! We got back from DLP last night after an absolutely magical four days :D I have a LOT of photos and even more to discuss with you guys, so I am going to try and get all of my pictures in order today and then start the report tomorrow or Sunday.
HIGHLIGHTS: Meeting Duffy again (this time with Minnie in their adorable spring outfits), finally meeting Stitch (and completely at random too which made it even better), being back at the Cheyenne, the lovely weather, being able to see (and buy!) the new Phantom Manor merch, going on BTM for the first time in years, re-visiting all our favourite rides, meeting my pal Mickey again.
LOW POINTS: Some of the guest/CM behaviour at times, occasional refurbishment- or dirt-related problems around the park, aspects of Blue Lagoon (more to come!).
Well then...time to go unpack and get back to reality :'( I've got washing and the boring bits and bobs to do BUT we've also got all of our merch and souvenirs to look through, plus we're having a photo day today - we made a pact that we wouldn't look through any of the photos we took until we got home, so that's something to keep me going today. I also bought a few different DLP snacks (you know those Haribo bags they do, and the Mickey cookies?) so fingers crossed that they will help to drag the magic out for a little longer, too ;)
Thanks for reading! I'll change the title of the topic each time I update, so anyone who's interested can see as and when I add a new day :) Day 1, coming soon!
Welcome home geekyjo can't wait for your report I'm getting serious Disney withdrawals :D
Hi everyone! Time to get going with the report :D Just a little pre-report summary for those who didn't read my pre-trip report – my name's Sophie, and me and my boyfriend Russell go to DLP every June. We've just got back from our latest visit, which was from 9th to 12th June, at our favourite hotel, the Cheyenne, and we had an absolutely amazing time! Truthfully I'm feeling quite sad now I'm back - I keep waking up and thinking I'm in DLP and then realising I'm not, haha :'(
Right then... onto Day 1 (Monday)!
We'd had a fun day on the Sunday - we'd spent the day in our usual pre-Disney fashion, which involves last-minute packing, fajitas and Lilo & Stitch. We knew we had to be up early so we didn't want to go to bed too late - we were in our pyjamas and ready to sleep by about 10.30pm. We set our alarms for 4.15am and before we knew it, it was time to get up. I didn't even feel that tired when we woke up (which is really unusual for me!), just excited to get going :D
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We got to the airport (we live really close to Birmingham airport in the UK so it always makes more sense to fly than to use other forms of transport) for 5.15am-ish, ready for our 6.30am flight, and Russ got his annual airport Burger King (I can never handle junk food that early in the morning but he was very excited for his Bacon Double Cheeseburger haha ;) ). We arrived in Paris during some stormy weather, which was actually quite scary, as the turbulence made the plane really shaky and we both ended up grabbing the sick bags – I felt weirdly travel sick, which I haven't felt like since I was about 15?!
So after our flight and a quick walk through Terminal 2, we found the VEA shuttle bus area. Getting this coach is always one of my favourite parts of travelling to DLP, because EVERY time without fail you have that wonderful shivery moment where you see the Tower of Terror in the distance. Then after that you realise you can see the Disneyland Hotel and you start to spot other things and you just want to get off the coach NOW so you can go and see everything right that second! :-[
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That said, I do really enjoy driving to each hotel to drop people off – the Cheyenne is one of the last drop-offs, so you'll see the Sequoia, the NBC and the Santa Fe on the way, which I always think is really nice. The Newport Bay was looking good – I saw that nasty BBC Watchdog segment about it a few weeks ago and I really do think it was exaggerated (as per usual, don't you feel like DLP gets all the negative press?! >:( ). There's still scaffolding in areas but in general the hotel looked great, and think how amazing it'll look when it's done! We were considering staying at the NBC this year (this was way back in September '13 when we booked) but decided against it in the end, and I'm glad we did, as we were keen to use the swimming pool and obviously it wouldn't have been open. Looking at the refurbished rooms, though, I reckon it's something we might try next year, just as a change, as we've been in the Cheyenne every year since 2011 now. I've stayed in the NBC before too, but not for a long time, and I think it'd be nice to give it a go.
But I digress ;) We arrived at the Cheyenne and EEK, I could see the bank and the gift shop and I just felt ridiculously happy to be back in the magic! It seemed like a lot of other people had had the same thought because the hotel reception was PACKED; quite literally the busiest I have EVER seen it. Russ stayed outside with the bags while I went to check in and I was in the queue for just over half an hour, which felt like even longer because I was so desperate to just get our room and get into the parks!
The man who checked us in asked "One bed or two?" which confused me because we've never been asked that before (and obviously there's just the double bed and the bunk beds at the Cheyenne?), but I said "One, please" thinking he was checking whether we were a couple or not. However when we arrived at our room, we'd been given a room with just one double bed and no bunk bed, which I've never seen before at the Cheyenne! It was fine as it was all we needed, but truth be told we quite missed the bunk bed – it makes a good suitcase/clothes area, and we always take a few plushes with us who like to sleep in the bunk bed while we're out in the parks... :-[
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But despite this, we were really chuffed with the room. We were in Billy The Kid (a new block for us, we've always been put in Wyatt Earp, but we'd requested a Rio Grande room this time) and it gave us a beautiful view – we could see the bank and the gift shop from our window, which was perfect. We unpacked for a few minutes and I got my Minnie Ears on ;) Although I couldn't wait to get out into the parks, something had to be done first - we turned on the TV and the familiar sounds of the Top 10 Things To Know Before You Go came blasting out. I don't know if you guys have seen Sophie (the cheesy guide for the hotel TVs) but she is hilarious and (in my opinion) a vital part of any Disneyland Paris holiday. Me and my friend Brittany can pretty much recite Sophie's lines word-for-word ("It's that fun overload again! Gotta watch that!" ;) ) so seeing Sophie pop up on the screen made me so so happy.
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After we'd watched Top 10... to our hearts' content, we walked out of the Cheyenne, straight through Disney Village and into the area just before the Disneyland Park. Seeing the Disneyland Hotel was so magical and pretty moving. As a couple we've had a very sad and challenging year, and to know that we were actually IN Disneyland was a bit overwhelming and so special :')
We walked through and put our cards through the turnstiles (I forgot to say, I got Mickey on my card! Which was just too much, I've always secretly wanted a Mickey one) and heard "Welcome" and I could feel that the tears were about to make an appearance, haha. As we walked out onto Main Street USA I started tearing up (as usual) and Russ was there ready with the camera as he knows this is always where I get emotional :-[
As the check-in had taken a while it was about 1.30pm by this point and we were getting pretty hungry, but it felt plain wrong not to go on a ride first ;) It was absolutely packed in the parks (again, probably more than I've seen in a good six or seven years!) but it was a public holiday in France, which made sense. It was pretty busy for the rest of the week too, so I reckon people were clever and took a couple of days off to make use of the public holiday, or something along those lines?
We had walked straight to Fantasyland, so we made a beeline for It's a Small World, which was only at 10 minutes. It was a perfect first ride to start our holiday – it's one of my favourites, and hearing the music and the clock ticking made my heart hurt (in a good way, of course!) :D You know when you're on it and you get into the boat and you think "Eek, here we go" and then you move round to the entrance and go through the little blue area and you know that ANY SECOND NOW you're going to come out into the ride and it will be amazing? :') That was exactly how it felt, and it was so magical.
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After IASW we decided our first meal would be at Cafe Hyperion, which we did go to last year but only on the last day, at which point I had really bad stomach ache and wasn't really in the mood for eating anything. We'd really liked it as a restaurant though, so we thought we'd try it again! Russ had the chicken burger and I had the nuggets (yum) and Russ was just finishing off his meal when I popped to the toilets. On my way back, I walked up the ramps at the side of the restaurant and as I looked down who did I see but STITCH, standing outside the Hyperion with only 3 or 4 people around him! I ran back up to Russ and we dashed outside to see if he was still there.
He was! He met a couple of people and then the CM with him said he needed a break and that he'd be back in 10 minutes. Everyone dispersed at this point so we thought we'd be first in line for when he returned, but when he came back out he wasn't in the same area, so we were waiting around while he was round the corner from us! When we worked this out we ran over to where he was and joined the crowd. There were quite a few more people around him now and I always feel so awkward just being like OKAY ME NOW and pushing past 5 year-old children, you know? But it's one of those grey areas because it's not nice to be pushy but at the same time if you're NOT pushy, you'll never get to meet the character :-\ So I was feeling a bit tense, haha.
After a while Stitch started pointing at children who were a bit shyer and hadn't felt able to come forward and meet him, especially the ones who'd been waiting a long time, and after a few minutes he pointed at me :') Waa! I went forward and hugged him and he made little kissing noises at me while we posed for the pictures, haha. My day was made after that, it was such a cute moment and I've wanted to meet Stitch for a long time now, so it was perfect.
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After all that excitement we had a little walk around the park and got re-acquainted with it :) The queues for everything were quite long which was fine, as we're always happy to just have a sit and take everything in on that first day. I have found for the last couple of years now that it takes me a day to get 'settled in' and to actually adjust to being in Disneyland so that I can fully enjoy myself. I don't know if this will make sense to anyone else and I really hope it doesn't make me come across like a 'bad' fan or similar, but I find that I spend so much of my year obsessing over DLP that I do actually start to think of it as another world or a magical land, and then when I actually arrive, sometimes I get a sad sort of feeling (I'm not sure if 'sad' is the right word, though?) as I come to terms with the fact that it's not actually going to solve all of my life's problems and it too has litter and grumpy people and all those things you forget it actually has when you're not there.
I run a Disneyland Paris blog, too, and sometimes I don't think that helps, because a lot of the photos I post are naturally of the park looking as beautiful and empty as possible, and of course when you're there in real life you do see all sides to the resort. I don't know if that makes sense, but I hope so. I often feel a similar way just before we go (as in 9pm the night before), because in the same way I spend so much time thinking about Disneyland Paris (it is one of THE main parts of my life) that I can feel a massive amount of anxiety, worrying about whether I will feel the same way this year. I think because it does mean so very much to me, there's always that worry in the back of my mind – what if I don't feel the magic this year? What if I don't enjoy it like I used to? How will I cope then? I find that Disney and Disneyland Paris are the main ways for me to physically deal with life, and I think as a result I have this crippling fear that one day I may not feel that way anymore and I will be inconsolable :-[ We sat in Adventureland for a little while and had a mini heart-to-heart until I felt better (Russ is very good at cheering me up in these situations) and then walked towards Main Street.
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Russ had some of his much-loved DLP popcorn when we reached Town Square, and I had a very important decision to make – which balloon to buy this year ;) I was tempted by a princess one but in the end I went for Minnie. I think the Mickey and Minnie balloons are iconic, there's no other word for them :') We walked back to the Cheyenne (I know this might seem crazy to some people but we normally just take it easy on the first day and have a really early night, ready for some serious DLP time on day 2 ;) ) and had just walked in to our room when it started to absolutely pour down. There was thunder and lightning too which was quite exciting :D
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We watched some Disney Channel (Austin & Ally, Jessie etc) which is SUCH a Disneyland treat for me as we don't have Sky at home. After a while, we got showered, unpacked a bit more and had a trip over to the Cheyenne store and a walk around the hotel, before having an early bedtime, ready for Tuesday...
Quote from: gemma2806 on June 14, 2014, 11:42:15 AM
Welcome home geekyjo can't wait for your report I'm getting serious Disney withdrawals :D
Thanks so much Gemma! Hope this helps your withdrawals - more pics coming on Days 2, 3 and 4 :D
Thunder and lightning eh? Did you think of the Tower of Terror by chance?
Quote from: DisneyManiac on June 14, 2014, 06:55:59 PM
Thunder and lightning eh? Did you think of the Tower of Terror by chance?
Sure did! We've never been in DLP for thunder and lightning before so it was very interesting to see :D
It sounds like a real special time, I can't wait to read the rest :)
Quote from: babe ruth on June 15, 2014, 11:38:29 AM
It sounds like a real special time, I can't wait to read the rest :)
Thank you so much babe ruth :D It really was a special time, I'm already ready to go back :-[
"The man who checked us in asked "One bed or two?"
LOL - we had similar when we arrived. I was asked how many rooms were required!!
For some reason our booking had us down as 10 people, even though only 4 of us.
what kind of phantom manor merchandise did they have geekyjo amd excellent report so far i too enjoy 5 am airport burger kings:)
Day 2 (Tuesday)
After a lovely long night's sleep, we were ready to get up nice and early the next day! We'd hoped to set our hotel room alarm, so we could hear the familiar "Hiya pal..." wake-up call from Mickey, but for some reason our phone wasn't working at all, so we decided to drop in to the hotel reception later to ask about it. I have got to congratulate the Cheyenne staff for this - I think it was about 8pm we dropped in and the phone was fixed by 8.20pm! The man who fixed it was so polite, too. But back to the morning :D We got up and dressed (both feeling very excited) and made our way towards the Chuck Wagon for breakfast.
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I don't know about you guys, as I know a lot of people find the breakfasts at Disney hotels stressful or 'too much' (I think it was my parents' worst part of our past trips) but I LOVE them. I love the whole process of getting in, picking up one of those funny little wet trays and the colourful bowls and plates, then starting the food-search and picking up WAY more croissants and bread rolls than I ever would at home, haha. I don't know why I love it so much, it just is one of the first things I think of when I consider DLP, and it makes me very nostalgic.
After breakfast we ran back to the hotel room so I could wash my hair as quickly as humanly possible, and after that we began the walk to the parks. I love the route you take from the Cheyenne; when you're walking along the Rio Grande on a sunny day it really does feel like nothing bad could ever happen ever again :D It was a nice sunny day at this point (thunder and lightning returned later!) and we got into the Disneyland Park for about 9.30am. Not wanting to miss the rope drop, we walked over to Frontierland and saw there was a big crowd of people ready to go in. I remembered seeing a much smaller group of people next to the Frontierland covered walkway (you know, by Liberty Arcade?) so we dashed over to there, ready to wait in a smaller group.
This was an example of Cast Members really not having the Disney spirit – the two CMs who were waiting to let us in were so stoney-faced :'( I smiled at them a few times and they just looked at me blankly. One was standing with her arms crossed and another was literally kicking a bit of wood on the floor like a bored 12 year-old :( I understand that it was early in the morning and that everyone has days where they'd rather be at home or whatever, but stuff like this does make me sad because I think that in any customer-facing role, you shouldn't really let that show, if you can help it, because you're there to make this a better experience for the customers you're dealing with. I don't think DLP is any different – actually, I think there's even more of a need to be that way, because you're working at a magical place! I know that it might not always feel that way, but that's what you're projecting to guests, no matter your own personal feelings. I used to work at the Disney Store and I always felt like it was important to keep a magical 'front' to things in-store, even when I was feeling horrible myself. So this was something I felt a little sad about in DLP at this point. However, later in the week, we spoke to a really lovely CM, who gave us a little insight into why certain CMs' behaviour might not always be exactly as we hope for.
At bang-on 10am, the music started to play and we got ready to RUN! For some reason, as we hit the fork in the walkway, everyone turned left, so I grabbed Russ and turned right. We came out right in Thunder Mesa, whereas the other guests came out more positioned to find Phantom Manor, so we ran faster than we've ever ran before! We made it to Big Thunder Mountain as the SECOND GUESTS OF THE DAY which felt like a massive achievement for me, haha :D A CM came down and took us up the ride walkway/queue, and ready to get on the ride. As we walked into the area where you see the numbers on the floor and you prepare to get on, I felt SO excited! It'd been years since I'd been on BTM, and I couldn't wait. It definitely didn't disappoint – it was such a lovely morning and it was a great feeling to be back on the ride. I felt 100% care-free at that point :')
We got off and went to have a look at the photos, which made us laugh cos my face is always the same on every ride photo for some reason, haha, all squinty and smiley. It was still fairly early, so we decided we'd head over to Phantom Manor while we were in the Thunder Mesa area! It was only about 10 minutes wait, if that, so we were on really fast. I absolutely love the first few minutes and the stretching room part – I have a ring with Melanie's face on it (the painting you see from the mirror in the first room) so seeing that picture for the first time in a year made my heart ache <3 And then when you go down and you see Melanie in all these portraits and how they're actually more sinister than they seem...wow. I LOVE Phantom Manor, even more so now my knowledge of the backstory has improved. We walked through and got into our doombuggy and I literally just sat back in it and got ready to take it all in...eek :D
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After a magical ride (still no phantom effect at the end but oh well!) we decided it was definitely time for a trip to the Caribbean, as POTC is one of our favourites and it felt odd being on the second day and not having been on it yet! We took a little walk over to Adventureland and saw that the queue was 15 minutes, which was perfect as it gave us a bit of time to experience the queue line too, which you don't always get to do when you rush straight on and off.
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One of my favourite parts of Pirates is when you walk through into the start of the queue line and you can suddenly smell the unique POTC smell – I think that is one of my favourite smells in the world. POTC was as magical as ever, too. You know that bit where you're being pulled up to the next level and the music suddenly starts to play even louder and you can feel the water spraying on your face? That is genuine happiness for me :')
After POTC we had a little browse around Le Coffre... which I always think is such a lovely and well-themed gift shop. I love the music they play in there too – they have a nice accordion-y version of Under The Sea. Being in LCDC reminded us that we hadn't actually done a huge amount of shopping yet, so we dropped back into Frontierland for a look at the Phantom Manor merch selection. I think this is such a good move for DLP: any ride-specific merchandise is just perfect, and as a big PM fan I can't get enough of it all. I already had the music box and the little ear-hat but I wanted to see what else they had, and ended up buying the coasters (they're amazing, they have the rhymes from the gravestones on Boot Hill engraved on them!) and a lovely little Melanie tee. I also really wanted the Tomb Sweet Tomb frame, and I saw when we got to it that you could get it for 13 euros if you spent over 25! Best offer ever. The CM here was on her first day and she was really sweet, I think if you get a friendly CM it makes such a difference.
After Frontierland we dropped over to Fantasyland for an extra bit of shopping – this time in Sir Mickey's and La Chaumiere... I adore these shops, again I think the theming is absolutely perfect and so immersive! As we came out, the thunder and lightning made a return and the rain came down by the bucketload, I don't think I've ever seen rain as heavy! We waited in the shelter near the Auberge for a few minutes and then made a dash over to the Disneyland Hotel, where we waited inside and made the most of that magical smell ;) We only planned to be in there for a couple of minutes, but the rain was so strong in the end that we were in there a good 20 minutes, until it finally died down and we made our way to Disney Village, for our second lunch. This time – the Rainforest Cafe!
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We had a lovely meal at the RC – Russ had the double burger and I had the fajitas, which I had last year and loved. The service here is always so quick, despite it being table service, so I always recommend it as one to try if you're in a hurry. Also, because it's a little way out in Disney Village, we always find it's fairly easy to get a table, even at peak times. And most importantly, it's got a great theme :)
We stuck around here and had a look in the cute little shop next to it (Russ had a dessert too, peanut butter ice cream sundae!) before having a quick look around the Disney Village shops. I was really keen to drop into the Disney Gallery, as this is the first year that we've been there while the Art on Demand service has been up and running. All I can say is WOW – I will report more on this on Day 4, as this was when we ordered them in the end (I needed time to think!), but I just wanted to say while I remembered today that it's such a special idea and that if you're thinking of ordering one of the posters or canvases, I really don't think you'll be disappointed.
Back to the Disneyland Park (via Liberty Arcade!) and this time into Discoveryland for Star Tours!
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Again, another magical ride – I felt so happy to be reunited with all my favourites this year. I've been saying things like "FORTY-FIVE, YOU'RE GOING THE WRONG WAY" to Russ at random or inappropriate times for a good 10 or 11 months now so it was nice to actually be there, on the ride, and finally feel at home :') Since we got back I've had the ding-dong sound from Star Tours in my head, too, and I've also ordered the Starspeeder off the Disney Store site. I saw it in Star Traders and knew it'd be too big/fragile to bring home on the plane but added it to my mental list of goodies to buy upon returning to the UK ;)
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A quick walk over to Frontierland and we were queuing for the Disneyland Railroad :D I'd definitely recommend catching the train from here, as the queues do always seem to be a lot shorter - I think we got on in 10 minutes, whereas people waiting at Main Street station were waiting for a good hour or so. We stayed on the train for the whole loop, and just used it as a chance to appreciate the park and how beautiful it is. I love the music and sound effects they play on the train so much, especially the start of the Pirates music as you enter Adventureland...shivers every time!
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After a magical train ride, we made our way to Fantasyland and got ready to celebrate our unbirthdays with the Mad Hatter's Teacups. I know this is such a simple ride but in my eyes it's one of the best. Russ is a big fan of rides where you can physically do something (Teacups, Buzz, etc) so this is one of his faves too. The song is a classic, too – we were humming it for hours afterwards. I think DLP is the reason I love Alice in Wonderland so much, actually, as the final scene when Alice runs away from everyone uses almost identical music to the teacups, so it reminds me of them a lot <3
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By this point it was about 4pm and we were getting a bit tired, so we decided we'd head back to the hotel room for a bit, have a rest, and then come out again to eat. We dropped back for a shower and a spot of Austin & Ally (gotta be done) and then played some of our Disney card games for a bit.
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At 7ish we got the bus to Disney Village, as we were in the mood for a cherry coke and a burger at Annette's, which is one of our very favourite places to eat in the resort. While we were there the waiters and waitresses started singing Greased Lightning and did a proper song and dance session for us all! I was in the toilets as it started, haha, so I had to race back out to see what was going on. I know they used to do this back in the '90s and would literally stand on the bar, but that was also when they used to all wear rollerskates, so I reckon that health & safety might have got rid of that one?! But it was SO nice to see, it felt very Euro Disney-ish :D I was also wearing my Euro Disney sweater that night, which made me feel even more nostalgic.
Seeing as we were in Disney Village, we thought we'd do a bit more of shopping at this stage, so we visited World of Disney and a few others, before walking back to the hotel to collect our shopping from earlier in the day and have another quick rest before Dreams. We managed to get a fairly good spot for Dreams – just to the left of the control booth! It was just as magical as ever and we both absolutely loved it – I could watch that show every night and never get bored. I noticed that they'd added a couple of little lighting features at the start, it almost looked like fairy lights projected onto the castle? I think they were new anyway, but either way, a very cute addition. We walked back and got into bed, ready for Day 3. Don't you find that time goes TOO fast when you're in DLP? It feels like you've only just arrived yet you're already about to leave :'( You've got to focus on the positives, though, and we were very excited for using our Extra Magic Hours on Day 3...
Quote from: amee on June 16, 2014, 07:00:28 PM
what kind of phantom manor merchandise did they have geekyjo amd excellent report so far i too enjoy 5 am airport burger kings:)
Thank you very much! The 5am airport Burger Kings are a vital part of the holiday we reckon ;) They have a great selection of Phantom Manor merchandise - mostly in the Frontierland shops, but also in the 'collectable' shops like Harrington's and Disney Gallery. We saw a photo frame, a Leota snowglobe, a candlestick (shaped like the gargoyles from the start of the ride!), a music box, a throw, a cushion, and a lot of t-shirts :)
Quote from: WalkerboyUK on June 16, 2014, 10:58:25 AM
"The man who checked us in asked "One bed or two?"
LOL - we had similar when we arrived. I was asked how many rooms were required!!
For some reason our booking had us down as 10 people, even though only 4 of us.
Haha, oh dear! I'm glad it wasn't just us ;)
Sorry it's taking me a couple of days to get Day 3 sorted - I'm back at work now and very busy. Hopefully over the weekend if not Friday :)
Loving this report so far :) Can't wait to read the rest. We live quite close to Brum airport too so fly out, but we do Frankie & Bennys first not Burger King ;D (I usually have to get my hubby a bit tipsy on cocktails as he hates flying, even if only for an hour!) ;)
Brilliant trip report like last time! Will russ be doing a mirror one again?
Day 3
It was time for another magical morning, as we woke up to the sounds of my pal Mickey telling us we were gonna have a "great day!" and the sun shining through the curtains. How lovely is it to wake up to a sunny day, especially at Disneyland Paris?! I kept peeking out through the curtains in the morning and seeing the Cheyenne all pretty and sunny and just wanting to cry with happiness. It felt funny knowing this was our last-but-one breakfast at the Cheyenne, though :'( Like I said, time flies by too quickly while you're in DLP!
While we had breakfast we were talking about Dreams, and how surprised we were that so few people actually used the Light 'Ear hats. You know when you see the videos or promo photos of them, it looks like a sea of people are wearing them, which was what I expected to see in person. But I think we counted four people amongst the entire crowd? I was considering buying some for myself but decided against it - I was quite excited to buy some but then I realised that the actual experience of Dreams would be no better or worse for me if I did because I can't actually see my own ears flashing! And then I realised that I might just ruin someone else's view :-[ I do think it's a cute idea, and it would be a lovely experience if everyone bought into it and had their own pair of ears, but it doesn't seem to have taken off quite like I expected it to have done.
We rushed back to the hotel room as quickly as possible after breakfast and zoomed around showering and grabbing our things, so that we could make the most of the Extra Magic Hours that morning. Although we'd been in early on the Tuesday, to make the rope-drop for Big Thunder Mountain, we hadn't actually made use of the Extra Magic Hours – and that's a vital part of staying in the Disney hotels!
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We walked/ran into the parks and went straight over to one of my all-time faves, Buzz Lightyear's Laser Blast. What a ride, I just can't deal with how much I love it. One of my favourite parts of it is when you go through the hyper-speed (? I don't know my space lingo :-[ ) bit (you know the tunnel where it's all dark and there are lots of little lights?) cos Russ always spins the buggy at that stage and I always happy-cry. I am also a big fan of the end where the aliens say "Yes! We will return Zurg to the store...he is a bad toy" AW :')
We rushed off Buzz, laughed at our on-ride photo and then decided what we'd do next. We were itching for a look round Constellations but we knew this was something we should do later, when we had more time.
Onto Fantasyland, for Peter Pan! This was a 20 minute wait, which is quite long for Extra Magic Hours, but we figured if it was at 20 minutes now, it'd be even longer later. It wasn't quite 20 mins in the end, more like 10, so we were glad we'd given it a go. Great news – the graffiti on the wall in PPF has completely gone! It looks as if DLP have painted over it (the wood is now a Disney shade of green) and it blends in really nicely :D I was so chuffed to see that this had gone – I hope people start to show a bit more respect to the queue area now! The ride was amazing, as expected. Is there anything more magical than when you fly over London?! :)
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It was about 9.30am now, so we dropped over to the Mad Hatter's Teacups for another quick go on there before 10am opening. We dashed on and off, and then headed over to Meet Mickey Mouse, as we wanted to make the most of the shorter queue and stake our space in it before the parks opened and the queue became huge! We definitely went over at a good time, because by 10.15am there were a good 50 people behind us. At 10.30am we were led into the attraction and we all had a look at the cartoons and the lovely way it's all laid out in there. I really do think this is an absolute gem of a meet 'n' greet, it's perfect. I love how they put the cartoons on and how they completely link with the theme of the attraction but also serve a purpose too.
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At about 10.50am we were called through into the little corridor area and were then led through into the main room. I love how you can only see little glimpses of Mickey at first, and then when you are called to go round you suddenly see him and everything bad in the world just gets washed away. My pal :') We had a big hug and I showed him my Mickey t-shirt, which of course he loved! Russ came over for a hug too which made me very happy, and we had a few photos together as well as some separate ones. What I liked the most was that the photographer took a picture of me and Mickey as we went to hug, and we ended up with this:
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My mum doesn't like this cos you can't see my face but I think it's lovely! Look how happy we both are to see each other :D I think it sums up the entire spirit of Disneyland in one photo.
So after a wonderful morning meeting Mickey and buying some of the lovely photos we'd had taken, we had a think about what we wanted to do next. It was BOILING at this stage (about 28 degrees I think?) so we decided we'd take a little break and do some shopping over on Main Street. We didn't buy much, but it's just such a special place to mill around in, and we took some photos on the walk there and over the next few hours, too :D
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At that point we were feeling a bit hungry, so we decided we'd take the plunge and see if there was a free table at Blue Lagoon. Sadly they were all booked up, but the Cast Member we spoke to said that if we came back at about 3pm, we might be able to get a table for that evening. We decided we'd do that, and instead chose Plaza Gardens for lunch, which was absolutely great. There was a man playing the piano in there as we went in, and I wish I'd taken some photos or videos of him, as he left after about 10 minutes but he was really good, it made me feel very Disneyland/Dapper Dan-esque :')
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After lunch Russ asked me what I'd really like to go on, to make the most of the time we had left. Phantom Manor was an obvious choice ;) So we walked over to Thunder Mesa...
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We joined the queue, before re-entering the manor. Again, how magical. We managed to be first on but for some reason there wasn't anyone on about three or four doom buggies behind us, so we spent the entire ride with no-one in front of or behind us, which really added to the spooky feel! When we got to the singing busts I sang Grim Grinning Ghosts along with them without even realising it and then cried I was so happy (have you noticed a reccurring theme of me crying haha), I love that song so much. And when you get off the ride and hear "Hurry back...hurry baaaack!"...it makes my heart ache <3 Phantom Manor means so much to me :-[
Next up was another trip around the Caribbean, before a 3pm return to the Blue Lagoon, where we were able to book a table for that evening – hooray! We dropped back to the hotel to have a quick break and shower, before heading back to the parks a couple of hours later for our meal. On the way, we watched Magic on Parade :D I still love this parade a lot - I was excited to see the Anna and Elsa float, and to hear the familiar song and see all the characters on their floats was magical.
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I have got to be honest and say our experience at Blue Lagoon was a very mixed one. The actual atmosphere is AMAZING, there's no doubt about it, and to be sitting so close to Pirates was magical - I really enjoyed that side of it. Our chairs were shaped like giant leaves which I found quite exciting, and the fact that the restaurant is so dimly lit and there's a big shipwreck at the side and that sort of thing made me love it even more. You could practically smell the ride water! :D We both ordered the swordfish, which we'd decided on some months before after pouring over the menus on DLP Guide (DLRP Magic) and thus spent a long time getting excited for.
But our waiter was, for want of a better phrase, a real grump :'( He didn't smile at all the entire time he spoke to us, he just wrote down what we asked for and left, then came back and plonked the plates down, that was all. It was only when he gave us the bill and was obviously expecting some sort of tip that he said a blunt "Thank you" and walked off. This put a bit of a downer on the experience – of course you never know someone's language skills, so I would never expect someone to come over and speak perfect English with us, especially when you consider that it should be the other way round, really, and we should be the ones who've made the effort to learn the language of the country we're going to. But I just can't stand it when people don't even smile or show any kind of positive body language. Again, it's bad in any customer-facing role, but for Disneyland? I just don't think it's good :'(
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Our meals arrived pretty quickly and looked okay, but my swordfish was cold in the middle and only lukewarm around the edges :'( The rice was okay but only very average, and the vegetables around the sides were lovely, but that didn't really make up for the rest. We felt so uncomfortable with the waiter that I didn't really want to say anything about my swordfish so I ate what I could and after about an hour in the restaurant we paid the bill and went on our way.
It was a shame, really - I did really love the BL for the experience, and I'd definitely go back, but maybe only for a drink or something this time. I've heard some mixed reviews about it but have only really paid attention to the positive ones – maybe the standard here just slips a little from time to time? I'm not sure. It wasn't abysmal, but it just wasn't what you'd expect from a restaurant where the final bill for one course and a drink each was 80 euros, you know? :'(
We dropped by POTC on our way out (with a 5 minute wait we figured it'd be stupid not to! ;) ) and it was just as special on the second ride of the day :) After this we realised we needed to get some packing done, as we were keen to use the EMH on the Thursday and not waste the morning packing, so we headed back to the Cheyenne again. It was really lovely and hot still by this point – the weather really improved as the week went on, and we didn't see any storms again. At some points it felt a tad too hot, as it's hard to be outside and physically DOING things all day in very warm weather, but I felt really lucky that we'd had such lovely sunshine and not been in constant rain all week or anything. Plus, it made for some really special pictures – I love seeing our chateau and the Disneyland Hotel with the beautiful blue sky against them.
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We got back to the hotel room and started doing a bit of packing, but halfway through I started to feel really ill :( My stomach hurt a lot and I ended up in bed feeling very poorly, which didn't bode well for Dreams that evening! In the end we (very reluctantly) said we'd give Dreams a miss, as I kept having to run to the bathroom (sorry! :-X ) and it's horrible feeling that way when you're out and about. We were both really sad about not going back to see Dreams again, and I felt like a bit of an idiot for eating the undercooked swordfish and not bringing it up with the waiter. Lesson learned for next time!
To cheer us up, we got the packing done as quickly as possible, and then put our pyjamas on and had an evening of Jessie, Austin & Ally and Disney card games, which was a lot of fun. We missed Dreams a lot and it felt like the worst luck feeling poorly on a night where we really WANTED to do something and were in the most magical place on earth, but it was my own fault I guess :'(
We got snuggled up in bed and thought about what rides we'd go on tomorrow and what we wanted to get done on our last day. It felt quite sad knowing it was our last night in DLP, but we wanted to make the most of the time we had left, so it was exciting thinking about Thursday and all the things we wanted to do. We set our Mickey Mouse alarm and fell asleep straight away :D
Quote from: seraphelle on June 19, 2014, 01:50:14 PM
Loving this report so far :) Can't wait to read the rest. We live quite close to Brum airport too so fly out, but we do Frankie & Bennys first not Burger King ;D (I usually have to get my hubby a bit tipsy on cocktails as he hates flying, even if only for an hour!) ;)
Quote from: Trekkie101 on June 19, 2014, 10:47:45 PM
Brilliant trip report like last time! Will russ be doing a mirror one again?
Thanks both! We are big Frankie & Benny's fans too so that could be an idea for next year ;) Ooh Russ hasn't done a mirroring report before but that would be a lot of fun! :D
Apologies for the lack of Day 4, everyone. My laptop has seen better days (much better days) and has crashed on me twice whilst writing Day 4 >:( So I'm going to restart it on Word and then copy and paste when I'm finished!
Quote from: geekyjo on June 28, 2014, 03:32:01 PM
Apologies for the lack of Day 4, everyone. My laptop has seen better days (much better days) and has crashed on me twice whilst writing Day 4 >:( So I'm going to restart it on Word and then copy and paste when I'm finished!
That's exactly what I did for my trip report, watch the formatting when you paste it in though
Day 4
And onto the final day! We were up early again - we had some last minute packing to do but we wanted to be out and about as quickly as possible :D Off to breakfast... We had our usual mountain of croissants and bread rolls (I really tried to savour them, knowing this was our last day!) and waved goodbye to the Chuck Wagon, before heading back to our room to grab our things.
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We always leave our balloon for someone to find on the last day - cos we fly, we can't take it back with us, and it seems a shame to pop it for no reason to throw it away! So we like to tie it to a bench and leave it for someone else who'd like it :')
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Then after dropping our room-key back to reception and storing our luggage in the allocated area, we ran to the parks! It was an absolutely gorgeous day again, SO sunny :D
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We were in time for Extra Magic Hours, so of course we wanted to take full advantage of this while we still could! We dashed over to Buzz and had another magical time fighting Zurg - and then because we were already in Discoveryland, we wondered whether Star Tours would be worth trying again. It had about 15 minutes queue-time which was fine with us :D I think the queue for Star Tours is actually one of my favourites in some ways, it really does help to get you in the mood for the ride.
We got seated in our Starspeeder and I have got to say that the Cast Member working this day (Thursday, 12th June, AM) was absolutely spot-on in terms of his Disney magic. You know when the doors sweep shut? He used his hands to do a jedi-style movement which made him look like he was shutting the doors using the force :') And then when he said goodbye to us all and wished us a good space-trip, he said "May the force be with you" before closing the doors. HOW GOOD IS THAT?! I was so happy :D I love it so much when CMs go the extra mile and make your DLP trip even more special.
I was itching to meet Duffy and Minnie by this stage - as I'm sure you guys know, for the last few years Duffy has been out for meet 'n' greets on his own, which haven't been hugely popular. This year for Swing into Spring they'd put him in a joint meet 'n' greet with Minnie, which had made the queuelines a lot longer, as you'd expect! As a result, we'd kept saying "We'll come back when it's quieter" but it got to the point where we realised it may not get any quieter, and we'd just have to go for it!
We joined the queue at about 10.30am I think. It was so warm by this point and I felt bad for poor Duffy and Minnie - they must have been boiling! They kept going for regular drinks breaks though - it was so cute, Duffy would point at the door and tap his wrist as if it was a watch, and Minnie would pretend she was drinking a cup of tea, then off they'd go <3 Eventually we reached the front of the queue! I'd felt bad for Duffy because so many people were running up to Minnie but then ignoring Duffy (probably because they don't know him? He definitely doesn't have a presence over here like he does in Japan, for example) but I was 80% there for Duffy, so I was so excited to see him and cheer him up :')
(http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b106/sophie97/2014-06-12111043_zps3c1f88e6.jpg) (http://s18.photobucket.com/user/sophie97/media/2014-06-12111043_zps3c1f88e6.jpg.html)
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It was probably about 11.45am by this stage, and we had a think about what we wanted to do, and decided it'd be nice to go and spend some time in the castle :D We went in via La Taniere du Dragon (always one of our favourite aspects of the castle, eek!) and then dropped into Merlin and the lovely little Christmas shop. They had a few Christmassy bits and bobs (obviously!) but it does always seem that the majority (or at least the new stuff) comes in around July/August time, so there wasn't a huge selection. Fun to look regardless, though, and of course Merlin is always a magical shop.
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As always, the castle was beautiful, and we spent quite a while exploring the galerie. What a magical place :') After that, we realised we were getting pretty hungy, and we had a think about where to eat. After a whole day of no burgers on Wednesday we felt rather proud of ourselves for being so healthy (healthy for Disneyland anyway, haha) so we decided we fancied stopping off at Au Chalet de la Marionnette - especially because it's one of our favourite restaurants, and it seemed a shame not to visit it this year :)
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After lunch we went for a little walk around Frontierland and sat on the bench outside the shops - again, always a favourite haunt of ours while we're in DLP. When the weather's nice there's something so relaxing about just sitting there watching BTM and looking at the water, it's perfect to me. We had a little look around the shops again and bought a few things before walking back over to Fantasyland for one last ride on It's a Small World :D
(http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b106/sophie97/2014-06-12130130_zps9dd9fa7d.jpg) (http://s18.photobucket.com/user/sophie97/media/2014-06-12130130_zps9dd9fa7d.jpg.html)
Sorry for the blurry photo - I still haven't mastered the art of taking clear pictures on IASW! As we came out and walked back through Fantasyland, we came across the Swing into Spring celebrations - I say "came across" because I had seen videos online and had thought it looked okay but only okay, you know? I hadn't been itching to watch it or anything, so we hadn't actively sought it out. But we stood and watched it and I have got to admit that I was wrong - I thought it was SO cute. The song is addictive too, I keep listening to it now we're home and singing "Spriiiiiing fe-veeeer" haha :-[
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We took a little stroll over to Adventureland and took some photos whilst exploring Adventure Isle - we even spotted Carl and Russell, which Russ was keen to do (for obvious reasons ;) )
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After a walk back over to Discovery Arcade and a quick rest, we realised it was more or less time to say goodbye to the Disneyland Park :'( We walked through the arcade (very slowly!) but dropped into one shop as we left, as I spotted a really cute tee that I wanted to see if they had in my size. When we bought the t-shirt, the Cast Member was chatting to us, asking us if we'd had a good day, what our favourite bit of our trip had been, and so on. We really enjoyed talking to him for a few minutes, and as we left he said "Thank you, it's been so nice to talk to you. Most guests just don't want to know". He looked SO sad and it made me want to give him a big hug, me and Russ both felt so bad for him.
Then we started to think about how difficult it must be for the CMs when they're there trying to create magic and chat to guests and what-have-you, and they don't get anything from the guests in response. Me and Russ were chatty with this CM but it wasn't anything out of the ordinary, I would talk like that with anyone in any shop, just to be polite and make both of our days a little bit better. So that just was quite poignant for me, because I thought "If that was the best conversation with a guest he has had in a while, surely that just goes to show how un-chatty and antisocial the guests can be". Poor Cast Member :( I don't want to put his name on here just in case, but he was so kind and definitely someone Walt would be proud of :') It made me think back to the 'moodier' CMs we'd encountered, too - maybe it does get disheartening after a while, if you're trying to create this magical atmosphere and the guests you're dealing with just don't care? I don't know :(
We said a teary goodbye to the Disneyland Park. I hate this moment so much and I always start to dread it from about halfway through the trip, do you find you do the same? :-[ I always wave at the castle and at the Disneyland Hotel, I'm not sure why haha. We stopped off at Walt Disney Studios on the way out but literally only made it into Frontlot and then came out again - we're not WDS fans at all and as soon as we walked in it was just so packed and noisy that we didn't really see the point. So instead we walked back over to Disney Village and had a sit outside Billy Bob's whilst listening to the Disney Village Radio :D
We'd never been to the Earl of Sandwich before - I didn't view it as very magical (and to be honest it's not), but it does do some amazing sandwiches, as we discovered. We just fancied something small and not too burger-esque, and TEoS definitely delivered - Russ is very excited to return :D
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I was in a bit of a hurry to finish my sandwich because I knew that as soon as we did, we'd be straight over to the Disney Gallery, to order our prints! EEK :D This was something I'd looked forward to for most of the year, and I'd been having a think about which prints or canvases to buy over the last couple of days.
For those who haven't ordered, I'll explain a little on here :) It's quite a straightforward process - you walk into the Gallery and on your left are a couple of touch-screen computers on the wall, with a list (and pictures) of all the pictures you could potentially buy. There are also a few examples on the wall - different pictures, but also different sizes, with/without frames, canvases vs prints, and so on. I absolutely adored the canvases, as I thought that the colours really popped out on them more so than with the prints, but the starting price for the canvases were 70 euros, which I thought was hugely expensive. I also considered how we'd move them about - I have memories of working with canvases in GCSE Art and accidentally holding one too hard and sort of loosening the canvas where my fingers had been, if that makes sense? So I figured it might be best to get something frame-able, so they'd be more easily moved and kept neat.
The prints, it turned out, were about 18 euros each for the smallest size, which I thought was much more reasonable :D I wanted to buy one from each land, too, so I was glad to go for something a bit cheaper which meant I could get more! I decided not to get them framed - I think the delivery was quicker as a result of that, plus it's so easy and cheap to get them Ikea frames or similar that I just thought it'd be silly to spend the money in DLP. I ended up going for The Gibson Girl (Main Street USA), Phantom Manor (Frontierland), Adventure Isle (Adventureland), Le Chateau (Fantasyland) and Buzz (Discoveryland). I was torn between Star Tours and Buzz because Star Tours is more 'classic' in my eyes, but the colours in Buzz were just so beautiful I couldn't say no.
After you select the ones you'd like on-screen, you type in your address, confirm your order, and then head over to the tills. You can pay by cash or card, but I used cash, as I had all my euros with me. They then give you a receipt and tell you the postage will be 2-3 weeks, but you're also provided with a number to call if your order doesn't arrive, which I thought was good. Mine arrived more or less exactly a week after we got home from DLP, which I thought was fantastic service :D They came rolled up in a poster-style tube, and I am yet to frame them (we've not got enough room here so I am having to wait until we move to put them up) but when I do, I'll post a picture on here!
(http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b106/sophie97/2014-06-12153115_zpsab55026b.jpg) (http://s18.photobucket.com/user/sophie97/media/2014-06-12153115_zpsab55026b.jpg.html)
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After selecting our posters and walking back through Disney Village, it was time to say our goodbyes to the trusty Cheyenne :'( We had a last peek in the shop and then a very sorrowful sit on the bench outside. I literally do LOVE this hotel, it means so much to me. Looking back on my photos already makes me cry, I am so excited to be back in the Disney magic next year <3
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We headed over to collect our luggage and a VEA shuttle arrived more or less straight away, so we hopped on that and away we went :'( We got to the airport in plenty of time, and arrived back in Birmingham, UK at about 9.15pm. I find that after other holidays I am just happy to be back in my own bed, but after DLP I am always devastated I'm not in my Cheyenne bed, haha :-[ The next day Russ came round and we had a look through our lovely merch, as well as doing some planning for our 2015 trip (it always makes us feel that little bit better!).
So all in all, an amazing trip :D I genuinely think it was the best trip yet, and people who don't like DLP keep saying "BUT WHY, YOU'VE BEEN THERE BEFORE SO MANY TIMES, THERE'S NOTHING NEW" to me and it's getting very irritating ;) But to me it really was the best time, I can't even explain why except for suggesting that maybe DLP trips just get better and better every year? I reckon that's it, because I've only been back for three weeks and I already get heartache just thinking about it; we're planning to book to go back next June over the next few weeks.
To finish, I've posted a few of my merch photos (in another reply, as this one went over the word limit, which is only too typical of me haha) as well as some disposable camera photos I've had developed :) Thanks for reading my report, everyone! See you next year :D
(http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b106/sophie97/shot_1402649931551_zpsb37462dc.jpg) (http://s18.photobucket.com/user/sophie97/media/shot_1402649931551_zpsb37462dc.jpg.html)
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(https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3899/14256291358_c93e076b79_s.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/nHMdJS)main street residents (https://flic.kr/p/nHMdJS) by i love disneyland paris (https://www.flickr.com/people//), on Flickr
(https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5474/14256291858_f568518610_s.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/nHMdTu)disney village (https://flic.kr/p/nHMdTu) by i love disneyland paris (https://www.flickr.com/people//), on Flickr
(https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3858/14256252799_5ce8d7288e_s.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/nHM2h4)view from the castle (https://flic.kr/p/nHM2h4) by i love disneyland paris (https://www.flickr.com/people//), on Flickr
(https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3907/14256253079_9fed8eedb9_s.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/nHM2mT)me at home (https://flic.kr/p/nHM2mT) by i love disneyland paris (https://www.flickr.com/people//), on Flickr
(https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3836/14256292508_3fc847b3da_s.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/nHMe5G)le chateau (https://flic.kr/p/nHMe5G) by i love disneyland paris (https://www.flickr.com/people//), on Flickr
(https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3856/14439543041_ce5fc1c210_s.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/nZYr5D)duffy and minnie (https://flic.kr/p/nZYr5D) by i love disneyland paris (https://www.flickr.com/people//), on Flickr
(https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3865/14439543131_1cee59391b_s.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/nZYr7c)forty five, you're going the wrong way (https://flic.kr/p/nZYr7c) by i love disneyland paris (https://www.flickr.com/people//), on Flickr
(https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2938/14256280340_efcab730e8_s.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/nHMasU)cheyenne bank (https://flic.kr/p/nHMasU) by i love disneyland paris (https://www.flickr.com/people//), on Flickr
(https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3851/14419772096_22899c982d_s.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/nYe6Sh)maintenance mickey (https://flic.kr/p/nYe6Sh) by i love disneyland paris (https://www.flickr.com/people//), on Flickr
(https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5571/14256453447_1a7b90c515_s.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/nHN3Vv)dolls at the IASW cart (https://flic.kr/p/nHN3Vv) by i love disneyland paris (https://www.flickr.com/people//), on Flickr
(https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3874/14463067573_155516a1c3_s.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/o34172)the happiest cruise (https://flic.kr/p/o34172) by i love disneyland paris (https://www.flickr.com/people//), on Flickr
(https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3895/14441549562_0f6a0fed2a_s.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/o19HxQ)adventureland (https://flic.kr/p/o19HxQ) by i love disneyland paris (https://www.flickr.com/people//), on Flickr
(https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3870/14256254789_781de62615_s.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/nHM2Sn)view from the castle x 2 (https://flic.kr/p/nHM2Sn) by i love disneyland paris (https://www.flickr.com/people//), on Flickr
(https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3900/14256454257_624217a1a0_s.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/nHN4at)la galerie (https://flic.kr/p/nHN4at) by i love disneyland paris (https://www.flickr.com/people//), on Flickr
(https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3903/14419773506_c055fdc192_s.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/nYe7hA)minnie + boot (https://flic.kr/p/nYe7hA) by i love disneyland paris (https://www.flickr.com/people//), on Flickr
(https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2907/14256295008_749a01446e_s.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/nHMePN)thunder mesa (https://flic.kr/p/nHMePN) by i love disneyland paris (https://www.flickr.com/people//), on Flickr
(https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2901/14463069083_448f87331c_s.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/o341y4)view from phantom manor porch (https://flic.kr/p/o341y4) by i love disneyland paris (https://www.flickr.com/people//), on Flickr
(https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3893/14441551282_005bb27a44_s.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/o19J4u)liberty arcade (https://flic.kr/p/o19J4u) by i love disneyland paris (https://www.flickr.com/people//), on Flickr
(https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2934/14419774716_c04c9c96a8_s.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/nYe7Ds)sunny day in DLP (https://flic.kr/p/nYe7Ds) by i love disneyland paris (https://www.flickr.com/people//), on Flickr
(https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3837/14256456067_9df107b859_s.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/nHN4GF)residents dancing (https://flic.kr/p/nHN4GF) by i love disneyland paris (https://www.flickr.com/people//), on Flickr
(https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3859/14439546611_a235e9945b_s.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/nZYs9c)disneyland hotel (https://flic.kr/p/nZYs9c) by i love disneyland paris (https://www.flickr.com/people//), on Flickr
(https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3863/14256296788_613f6008bf_s.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/nHMfmu)teacups (https://flic.kr/p/nHMfmu) by i love disneyland paris (https://www.flickr.com/people//), on Flickr
(https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5477/14256457397_2c613e01a1_s.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/nHN56B)ears (https://flic.kr/p/nHN56B) by i love disneyland paris (https://www.flickr.com/people//), on Flickr
(https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3896/14439547491_6568ea07d3_s.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/nZYspn)disneyland hotel (https://flic.kr/p/nZYspn) by i love disneyland paris (https://www.flickr.com/people//), on Flickr
Thank you for the lovely trip report and pics geekyjo! :D
Quote from: geekyjo on July 05, 2014, 05:10:25 PM
We said a teary goodbye to the Disneyland Park. I hate this moment so much and I always start to dread it from about halfway through the trip, do you find you do the same?
I know exactly what you mean! We still have 2 months before our next visit and I'm already thinking about the dreadful last day! :'(
Nice report and nice pictures :-)
Sounds like you had a nice stay, despite a few "setbacks"
Some nice pics and some nice merch too :)
Great report! Thank You for sharing it. :D
Thanks very much for your replies, everyone :D I'm really glad you enjoyed the report. Ms Ravenswood, I'm glad it's not just me who feels this way! :-[
Really enjoyed reading that, great photos too :) Thank you
Quote from: andrewuk on August 26, 2014, 10:02:58 PM
Really enjoyed reading that, great photos too :) Thank you
I'm so sorry andrewuk I only just saw this! I haven't been on much recently but just wanted to say thanks for your comment, that's really kind of you to say :D
Such a great trip report. Took a lot of reading lol but it was worth it!! ;D
Great pics too & so in-depth! :)
Quote from: Mathierson24 on April 03, 2015, 07:16:46 PM
Such a great trip report. Took a lot of reading lol but it was worth it!! ;D
Great pics too & so in-depth! :)
Thank you so much! :D Haha I think next year I will have to keep it to a minimum on the writing, I like to reflect on everything and chat through my thoughts on different aspects of the trip but I just end up rambling :-[ I'm really glad you found it in-depth though, thank you! Only 2-and-a-bit months until I can do my next report, I can't wait :)
Quote from: geekyjo on April 03, 2015, 11:28:14 PM
Quote from: Mathierson24 on April 03, 2015, 07:16:46 PM
Such a great trip report. Took a lot of reading lol but it was worth it!! ;D
Great pics too & so in-depth! :)
Thank you so much! :D Haha I think next year I will have to keep it to a minimum on the writing, I like to reflect on everything and chat through my thoughts on different aspects of the trip but I just end up rambling :-[ I'm really glad you found it in-depth though, thank you! Only 2-and-a-bit months until I can do my next report, I can't wait :)
I like the rambling lol!
Ooo, you staying in the Cheyenne again?
I have to wait till Feb next year, think i'm going for Newport Bay as hoepfully it will be all shiny & new by then ;D
Quote from: Mathierson24 on April 04, 2015, 12:42:18 AM
Quote from: geekyjo on April 03, 2015, 11:28:14 PM
Quote from: Mathierson24 on April 03, 2015, 07:16:46 PM
Such a great trip report. Took a lot of reading lol but it was worth it!! ;D
Great pics too & so in-depth! :)
Thank you so much! :D Haha I think next year I will have to keep it to a minimum on the writing, I like to reflect on everything and chat through my thoughts on different aspects of the trip but I just end up rambling :-[ I'm really glad you found it in-depth though, thank you! Only 2-and-a-bit months until I can do my next report, I can't wait :)
I like the rambling lol!
Ooo, you staying in the Cheyenne again?
I have to wait till Feb next year, think i'm going for Newport Bay as hoepfully it will be all shiny & new by then ;D
I'm glad! :) Yeah we're gonna go for the Cheyenne again - we always consider NBC/HNY but I love the Cheyenne so much that I worry I would pine for it while we were there if I wasn't staying there, haha :-[ NBC next Feb would be lovely though, I hope you have fun! It will be so nice to see all the sparkly new rooms, they look amazing :D
Quote from: geekyjo on April 04, 2015, 09:48:11 AM
Quote from: Mathierson24 on April 04, 2015, 12:42:18 AM
Quote from: geekyjo on April 03, 2015, 11:28:14 PM
Quote from: Mathierson24 on April 03, 2015, 07:16:46 PM
Such a great trip report. Took a lot of reading lol but it was worth it!! ;D
Great pics too & so in-depth! :)
Thank you so much! :D Haha I think next year I will have to keep it to a minimum on the writing, I like to reflect on everything and chat through my thoughts on different aspects of the trip but I just end up rambling :-[ I'm really glad you found it in-depth though, thank you! Only 2-and-a-bit months until I can do my next report, I can't wait :)
I like the rambling lol!
Ooo, you staying in the Cheyenne again?
I have to wait till Feb next year, think i'm going for Newport Bay as hoepfully it will be all shiny & new by then ;D
I'm glad! :) Yeah we're gonna go for the Cheyenne again - we always consider NBC/HNY but I love the Cheyenne so much that I worry I would pine for it while we were there if I wasn't staying there, haha :-[ NBC next Feb would be lovely though, I hope you have fun! It will be so nice to see all the sparkly new rooms, they look amazing :D
Yeah they look great :D But so does HNY!!
Can I ask what it is about the Cheyenne you live so much?!
Quote from: Mathierson24 on April 04, 2015, 12:50:39 PM
Quote from: geekyjo on April 04, 2015, 09:48:11 AM
Quote from: Mathierson24 on April 04, 2015, 12:42:18 AM
Quote from: geekyjo on April 03, 2015, 11:28:14 PM
Quote from: Mathierson24 on April 03, 2015, 07:16:46 PM
Such a great trip report. Took a lot of reading lol but it was worth it!! ;D
Great pics too & so in-depth! :)
Thank you so much! :D Haha I think next year I will have to keep it to a minimum on the writing, I like to reflect on everything and chat through my thoughts on different aspects of the trip but I just end up rambling :-[ I'm really glad you found it in-depth though, thank you! Only 2-and-a-bit months until I can do my next report, I can't wait :)
I like the rambling lol!
Ooo, you staying in the Cheyenne again?
I have to wait till Feb next year, think i'm going for Newport Bay as hoepfully it will be all shiny & new by then ;D
I'm glad! :) Yeah we're gonna go for the Cheyenne again - we always consider NBC/HNY but I love the Cheyenne so much that I worry I would pine for it while we were there if I wasn't staying there, haha :-[ NBC next Feb would be lovely though, I hope you have fun! It will be so nice to see all the sparkly new rooms, they look amazing :D
Yeah they look great :D But so does HNY!!
Can I ask what it is about the Cheyenne you live so much?!
Definitely! I'm not sure which hotel is next on the refurb list but when Cheyenne is having a refurb we will definitely try a more expensive/different hotel :D
Ooh that's a tough one - I guess I love the Western theme which reminds me of Frontierland, it makes me feel like I am still in Parc Disneyland because the theme is so immersive! :)
Quote from: geekyjo on April 06, 2015, 01:04:55 PM
Quote from: Mathierson24 on April 04, 2015, 12:50:39 PM
Quote from: geekyjo on April 04, 2015, 09:48:11 AM
Quote from: Mathierson24 on April 04, 2015, 12:42:18 AM
Quote from: geekyjo on April 03, 2015, 11:28:14 PM
Quote from: Mathierson24 on April 03, 2015, 07:16:46 PM
Such a great trip report. Took a lot of reading lol but it was worth it!! ;D
Great pics too & so in-depth! :)
Thank you so much! :D Haha I think next year I will have to keep it to a minimum on the writing, I like to reflect on everything and chat through my thoughts on different aspects of the trip but I just end up rambling :-[ I'm really glad you found it in-depth though, thank you! Only 2-and-a-bit months until I can do my next report, I can't wait :)
I like the rambling lol!
Ooo, you staying in the Cheyenne again?
I have to wait till Feb next year, think i'm going for Newport Bay as hoepfully it will be all shiny & new by then ;D
I'm glad! :) Yeah we're gonna go for the Cheyenne again - we always consider NBC/HNY but I love the Cheyenne so much that I worry I would pine for it while we were there if I wasn't staying there, haha :-[ NBC next Feb would be lovely though, I hope you have fun! It will be so nice to see all the sparkly new rooms, they look amazing :D
Yeah they look great :D But so does HNY!!
Can I ask what it is about the Cheyenne you live so much?!
Definitely! I'm not sure which hotel is next on the refurb list but when Cheyenne is having a refurb we will definitely try a more expensive/different hotel :D
Ooh that's a tough one - I guess I love the Western theme which reminds me of Frontierland, it makes me feel like I am still in Parc Disneyland because the theme is so immersive! :)
Good answer :) I love Sequoia Lodge...the smell in reception, the themings really good too :D
Loved reading your report, but it makes me wish I was back even more now lol we too dread saying good bye to DLP but we know it's not for ever and will be returning soon :)
Quote from: disneynutter on April 06, 2015, 07:41:23 PM
Loved reading your report, but it makes me wish I was back even more now lol we too dread saying good bye to DLP but we know it's not for ever and will be returning soon :)
Aww, thank you disneynutter! It is making me wish I was back there too, we always go in the summer and this nice weather makes me think of DLP so much :') When are you guys going back? :)