Hi
Now I will begin my trip report which will tell the story of my trip with my mom from october the 10th - october the 14th with three days in the parks.
I will start with a little pre-report, then I will make 3-4 big installments from the three days in the park before ending the story with my trip video in a couple of weeks. The main report I will expect to finish during the weekend with the first day post coming tomorrow.
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Pre Report
19 hours in a bus + 2 meters tall = bad combination? Not in first row!
We were leaving Aalborg on 2 pm saturday the 10th of october, so we started packing on friday night in order to be able to relax on saturday morning without the packing stress. Everything was nicely packed, all batteries were fully loaded and we went to bed all ready for three days of Disney magic beginning on sunday morning :)
I began saturday morning by watching the DVD I made after our trip last autumn with my sister and it put me in the right mood instantly - I was already for the magic to come. After having finished lunch my mum and I jumped in to the taxi and off to the freeway where the bus would pick us up. I had grown even more since last year being more than 2 meter tall now, so I had had my fears about the 19 hour bus drive which included the night.
Last year we had the back seat (5 seats for three persons) which was great regarding our shopping possibilities but it was a bit cramped for my long legs. When handing over our luggage to the driver we was told that the people on the 5 day trip (us) had to stay in this bus and the people on the 7 day Paris/Disney combi bus had to chance busses in the middle of Jutland - YES, great start as it is always nice to stay in the bus. The good news kept coming: my mom and I was placed in the front row on the upper deck of the double decker bus.
This meant that we had almost no place for shopping ( :cry: ), but on the other hand there was no people in front of us and the stairs were behind us, so we didn't have to think about other people when we wanted the position of the chairs. After homemade pizza for dinner, a couple of movies on the bus(no great selection: some weird Garfield animation and Beethoven), some PSP and a single drawing we were ready to sleep and although i woke up every 30 minutes (mainly because I kept banging my head against the window :lol: ) I had a pretty good sleep.
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The quick Donald sketch I made on the bus - not the easiest circumstances under which to draw
When we woke up in the morning we were just 65 km outside Paris, so after some nice cheap french breakfast (croissants and pain au chocolaits) we were ready for the final drive to the hotels. A long the route under Charles de Gaulle and through the outer parts of Paris/Marne la Vallee we kept seing the old 1992 Disneyland Park signs which didn't seem to have been colored since back in 1992 (not very nice)!
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The old 1992 Disneyland Park signs - very off-color! (Photo taken with Sony Ericsson K660i)
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The view from the front row was great - especially in Hamburg, the Ruhr District and Charles de Gaulle
Now we could see the Hotel Disneyland, Tower of Terror, Big Thunder Mountain, Hotel Newport Bay Club and of Course Sleeping Beauty's Castle - the magic was here! :D :D/
To be continued...
Here are some of the photos - just so you have something to see what is to come after this rather boring beginning ;) The best pictures are still to come though (I took 1490 and after going through them I am now down to 1202 :P)
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Hey Nicolai,
Good start to your trip report, I can't wait to read the rest!
Your pictures are great, I especially like the one of Remy. You are a much better photographer than I am.
Quote from: "loladelorean"Hey Nicolai,
Good start to your trip report, I can't wait to read the rest!
Your pictures are great, I especially like the one of Remy. You are a much better photographer than I am.
Thank you very much...
The main report will be much bigger and filled with photos - I'm going to start writing on it tomorrow after work, so hopefully day 1 will be uploaded before midnight tomorrow :)
I don't know why you don't seem to like your photos that much - they are really great as I have said multiple times in your report.
Well what a snippit in the form of a Pre-Report.. :wink: Great thinking Nicolai.. :D
I enjoyed reading that. I even got to see my Disney idol before your Main Report has even started.. :mrgreen:
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Looking forward to the next main instalment.. :wink: :D
Quote from: "Javey74"Well what a snippit in the form of a Pre-Report.. :wink: Great thinking Nicolai.. :D
I enjoyed reading that. I even got to see my Disney idol before your Main Report has even started.. :mrgreen:
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Looking forward to the next main instalment.. :wink: :D
I thought you would like that sketch Mr. Javey Sir ;) I actually had my thoughts on you choosing between drawing a sketch of Donald or Goofy :)
Ha haaa, I'm pleased you chose the one you did then, not that I've got anything against Goofy mind.. :mrgreen:
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Yay can't wait to read your full report and see more great photos!! :D/ :D/
I don't know how you stick 19 hours on a bus :shock: . My first trip to DLP I did with a coach trip which involved many hours on buses and boats...in total about 30 hours traveling and that was just one way! I would never do it again! lol :P :P :P Not when a plane gets me from ireland to france in about 1 hr 15 mins and then a 40 minute trip by bus and i'm there! =D> Fair play to you (which is the irish way of saying your great for being able to do it! hehe) =D>
1490 photo's????!!!! And people call me crazy, I usually take about 600/700 photos :lol:
Great start, it's already getting me in the mood for my upcoming trip.
Looking forward to the rest of it!
We were there at the same time!! And I didn't see you!! :(
Looking forward to your full report and more of those great pictures!! (I've only just finished transferring all the pics to the computer, we only took 1300 :roll: , so mine may be a while)!.
Quote from: "Aveen2008"I don't know how you stick 19 hours on a bus :shock: . My first trip to DLP I did with a coach trip which involved many hours on buses and boats...in total about 30 hours traveling and that was just one way! I would never do it again! lol :P :P :P Not when a plane gets me from ireland to france in about 1 hr 15 mins and then a 40 minute trip by bus and i'm there! =D> Fair play to you (which is the irish way of saying your great for being able to do it! hehe) =D>
I kind of have to stick these hours on the bus due to my fear of flying - but because of this long bus trips have grown on me. I almost always travel by bus no matter if I'm going to Paris, Berlin, Italy or even London once.
A friend and I are planning to visit DLP next year and we are currently researching the possibility of going by train in stead, but don't know whether that is easier or not :)
Quote from: "Annet"1490 photo's????!!!! And people call me crazy, I usually take about 600/700 photos :lol:
Great start, it's already getting me in the mood for my upcoming trip.
Looking forward to the rest of it!
Yeah I went a bit crazy with the camera - to comparison my mum took 170 photos during the 3 day stay :P I sure hope my report will put you in the right mood for your trip. I loved the reports that did this to me before my trip :)
Quote from: "never2old"We were there at the same time!! And I didn't see you!! :(
Looking forward to your full report and more of those great pictures!! (I've only just finished transferring all the pics to the computer, we only took 1300 :roll: , so mine may be a while)!.
On monday morning before leaving for studios I actually saw someone who looked a bit like you by the information board on Central Plaza - can this have been you? I wasn't too sure so didn't want to go up and say hi.
I transfered the photos during my trip, so I didn't have that much importing to do when I came back. However to sort, edit and keywording 1490 photos in Aperture is not a quick thing to do, so I know how you feel :)
Quote from: "forza_united"Quote from: "never2old"We were there at the same time!! And I didn't see you!! :(
Looking forward to your full report and more of those great pictures!! (I've only just finished transferring all the pics to the computer, we only took 1300 :roll: , so mine may be a while)!.
On monday morning before leaving for studios I actually saw someone who looked a bit like you by the information board on Central Plaza - can this have been you? I wasn't too sure so didn't want to go up and say hi.
YES! That was me! Around 10:00? We were waiting for some people in our group, who were leaving later and had to check out from the hotel. Then we went all to the Studios...
Quote from: "never2old"Quote from: "forza_united"Quote from: "never2old"We were there at the same time!! And I didn't see you!! :(
Looking forward to your full report and more of those great pictures!! (I've only just finished transferring all the pics to the computer, we only took 1300 :roll: , so mine may be a while)!.
On monday morning before leaving for studios I actually saw someone who looked a bit like you by the information board on Central Plaza - can this have been you? I wasn't too sure so didn't want to go up and say hi.
YES! That was me! Around 10:00? We were waiting for some people in our group, who were leaving later and had to check out from the hotel. Then we went all to the Studios...
Yes - it would have been just before 10:00, as this was the time we were leaving for the studios as well. Then I should have said hi :)
Great report so far, looking forward to the rest.
Love the Donald Duck pic too. :D
Fatastic photo of the Evil Queen. cant wait to see more
An interesting lead into the main course :) That was some bus trip, I get etchy after 2 and a bit hours on eurostar :lol:
And I loved this....
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looking forward to the other 1000+ photos :lol: :lol:
Quote from: "Epcot_Boy"An interesting lead into the main course :) That was some bus trip, I get etchy after 2 and a bit hours on eurostar :lol:
And I loved this....
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looking forward to the other 1000+ photos :lol: :lol:
Thanks - I will be updating my fotki-album and publish links as the albums will be finished, so you can see all 1202 photos - should you want to ;)
Great pre trip report Nicolai! :mrgreen: =D>
I can't wait until the main part!
Great photos also!
11th of October - Day 1
Finally back at the magic!
So we arrived in the Disneyland area just before 9.30 am and our very boring Norwegian driver told us that the first stop was Hotel Newport Bay Club where only four people would be staying. After they had left the bus he grabbed the microphone and said: "Next hotel is the one ending on Lodge - I don't know how to pronounce the first part - do that yourself!" I know that Sequoia isn't the easiest thing to pronounce, but when you are driving people to Disneyland I think you should be able to pronounce it :P We arrived at app. 9.45 am in cold but sunny weather.
But most of the guests were getting off here including me and my mum - after receiving our check-in vouchers from the second driver and our luggage from Håvard the Norwegian driver we went to the Hotel Lobby to check in. We hadn't stayed here since 1998 and frankly I had forgotten almost everything about the the hotel, but what a nice lobby area. The wooden theme and nothern american lodge atmosphere fitted perfectly with the french autumn wheather and you were grabbed by the atmosphere from the first step inside the lobby.
The queue for the check in was pretty long so I started queing thinking that it might take a while, but no - the check-in system on the hotels are very smart and clever in my opinion. We were given the check-in vouchers by our driver, we gave this to the CM and were given the small check-in form to fill while queing. After 10 minutes I was at the desk, where of course I was told that the room wasn't ready before 3 pm, I was given the park tickets, the Hotel-Easypass and booked breakfast for 7.30 am. However, the CM had no more tickets for this time for Monday morning and asked us if we wanted to have breakfast at the Plaza Gardens in the park at 8.15 on Monday. We had never had breakfast in the parks before so of course we said yes :) After dropping our luggage in the luggage storage, changing clothes and preparing my camera we were now ready to leave for Disneyland Park - but first stop: Disney Village!
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We always start our trip by wandering down Disney Village to catch the first magic by entering all the shops, so we started from the beginning with World of Toys, Hollywood Pictures and Disney Fashion, which were all filled with random merchandise and we couldn't quite figure out what to buy yet, but that was not the goal of the walkthrough either. We came out by Starbucks and we decided to pay them a visit on Sunday evening for a cup of something nice.
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On my last couple of visits it has been a tradition for me to buy a figurine from the Walt Disney Classics Collection, so I entered Disney Gallery to see their range of figurines this time and boy, what a decision I would have to make :) I quickly spotted figurines of Mickey (from a Christmas Carol), Shere Khan, Judge Frollo and Jiminy Cricket that I would love to own - so now I knew from what I had to choose. After discovering the merchandise and Christmas decorations of the Disney Store we were now ready to enter Disneyland Park at around 10.45 am. Now the magical feeling really caught up with us - we were finally here again.
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When we reached the entrance my mom entered the park with no problems, but my ticket didn't work. The friendly CM tried again and again, but ended up typing in the complete code on the back (man, did she do that insanely quickly!). This would be a returning problem for us on the trip, but the CM's were always very friendly and we saw them help many other people with similar problems - perhaps they should take a look at this at some point?
Anyway, we entered the park and the first glimpse of the characteristic Halloween decorations were to be seen on the Main Street U.S.A Railroad station - It's Halloween-Lo-Ween Everybody!
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We slowly strolled down Main Street U.S.A catching the most magical atmosphere in the world - Main Street U.S.A was at its most beautiful state in the subtle autumn sunshine. We had a walk through all the shops to see even more merchandise (some of it very buyable and some it a bit cheap) - I was especially sadden by the sight of cheap latex monster masks in Lilly's Boutique, but otherwise the Halloween merchandise were subtle and actually quite nice. The shops already offered way more Christmas souvenirs than Halloween, which I find nice but also a bit odd. Here are some pictures of the beautiful Main Street U.S.A:
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Unfortunately the great atmosphere was ruined a bit after exiting The Emporium, when we oversaw a Spanish mum going absolutely crazy on her poor little girl, who just stood there crying, while her mum kept yelling and shaking her. We both looked at each other and got a bit sad - this is not how a Disney vacation should be for a little child. Unfortunately we saw other incidents similar to this with mainly mothers losing their temper and letting it hit the children. Not very nice :(
We also rounded the last bit of Discovery Arcade...
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... before reaching Central Plaza with Sleeping Beauty Castle in all its glory. The Mickeys Party C**p at the front is very huge, ugly and out of place, but hopefully we will get the Castle back to it's original beauty by next year [-o< .
We decided to start the day in Frontierland in order to try Big Thunder Mountain, which is one of my favorite rides. My mom usually has to consider whether she dares to try it or not, but she said that she would try it right away to get all the worries away, so we jumped in to the 40 min. queue, which should prove to be the longest queue of the whole trip. Although I tend to use fast pass for BTM, I have to try it once without fastpass because I simply love the atmosphere of this waiting area so much. Everything from the wood to the themening and the music fits perfectly together and you are just hit by the true atmosphere of the Wildest Ride in the Wilderness. While queueing we spotted the Keelboats and said to ourselves that we would rush to them straight after BTM, since we had never tried the Keelboats before, nor had we seen them opened before - we were extremely excited.
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I loved the ride as always and so did my mom - she always does when she tries it :) But what did we forget? Yes, the Keelboats :( After BTM we went to the Lucky Nugget to watch the witch from Snow White (one of my mom's favorite characters) and after this we had forgotten the keelboats, but we kept our hopes high that they would be open Monday or Tuesday as well....
The Witch interacted great with the audience and her make-up was pretty impressive - she even offered a nice, tasty apple, but we turned the poor old lady's offer down ;) After our encounter with her, it was almost lunch time and we wanted to go to Toad Hall as we simply love the Fish'n'Chips they serve. On the way to Toad Hall our ear drums were almost splitted by Minnie's very squirky voice aboard her Party Train. I actually quite like the song and the characters were great, but her voice made it almost impossible to enjoy the rest :( They should send her over to Monsters Inc. Scream Acadamy ;)
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We went through the Castle and the Dragon's Lair on our way to Toad Hall...
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When we reached Toad Hall we noticed the new menu choices and we chose a "Menu Mr. Moustache" because we wanted a double Fish'n'Chips this meant that I had an extra box of french fries and 3 mini muffins, while my mum had a side salad and a bag of sliced apples. All for 24.60€ with drinks included. Disney has never been cheap with food, but with the quality of the Fish'n'Chips in mind we actually found this quite reasonable...
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... and we were certainly full after the lunch, so we were now ready to explore more of the parks - starting with one of Mr. Toad's close neighbors: Pirates of the Caribbean. This is without a doubt my favorite attraction and this ride made me so happy this time. It almost felt like I tried it for the first time: I didn't spot any effects missing (the fighting pirates could be more in sync, but they were way better than last year), the lightning seemed much better and everything just seemed to work perfect and when this is the fact on Pirates, this attraction is a piece of pure imagineering BRILLIANCE! Later on I tried to take photos (no flash of course) and some of the results will be posted in a later installment :)
After Pirates we strolled around Adventure Isle, bumping in to Captain Jack himself in the caves and ended up by Pont Suspendu, which we had deliberataly ignored in the past due to our fear of heights. But being there we just walked over it as if it didn't bother us at all - a nice feeling and especially my mom was very proud of it :)
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After this we went back to Fantasyland past Skull Rock and Captain Hook's ship, which is shocking to see in it's current state. It is so faded that you doubt whether it has ever been red - they have to refurbish this as quick as possible!
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In Fantasyland we tried Pinocchio and Snow White - the two classic attractions that you HAVE to try when you are in Disneyland - otherwise it is not a real trip. Having said this I remember that I didn't try them until my third trip in 1998, because I had been too affraid in '94 and '96 :lol:
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You can take good photos on these rides without using flash and ruin the attraction for the other visitors :)
Both attractions seemed in very good conditions and as I have written in the Snow White topic you could see that this attraction had just reopened from a longer refurbishment - mainly due to the very bright colors and the whole feel of the attraction.
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After this we grabbed fastpasses for Peter Pan which fitted so we could go there after watching the parade at 4.50 pm :) It was time to go back to the hotel and get our room before coming back to watch the parade. On the way out of the park we bumped into It's Party Time ... with Mickey and Friends. We didn't watch the whole show this time, but agreed to watch it on Monday evening. We did discover one thing though just by walking past the scene - almost no one was dancing along! More on this show will follow in day 2.
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We looked at our watches - it was 2.50 pm and after a quick glance at the information board seeing that Phantom Manor had 5 minutes waiting time we decided to visit the old manor for the first time on this trip before leaving for the hotel. Everything worked almost perfectly on the ride, which (just as Pirates) seemed brighter in the right places compared to last year.
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I wanted to try Big Thunder Mountain in the evening and went to get fast passes, but when I tried to get a fast pass I got a plain ticket from the machine with the text: "Non valid fastpass ticket - You already have one active fastpass ticket for Peter Pan's Flight. Come Back after 18.05." I was a bit surprised as I hadn't noticed the notice in the Park Guide about these restrictions that certainly wasn't there last year at this time. But nothing to do, I just had to wait for my fastpass until we had visited Neverland with good old Peter later Sunday afternoon :)
Day 1 to be continued...
Great first part!! And amazing pictures! The one of the Discovery Arcade, and the one of the dragon, are stunning!
Looking forward to more :D
Great so far Nicolai! :)
brilliant read and photos so far! :D/ I also noticed no one really dances alot to MMPT which is sad because I really wanted to dance hehehe :P
Day 1 - continued
"I'm taking photos in the rain all night long"
When we came back to the hotel we got our room right away. It was room 3166 in the south wing just a 1.5 hallways away from the elevators, so it was very close to the lobby, restaurants and the boutique. It was a single-bed room, but it was no problem as I had never seen such a huge bed before :P The room had a nice view of Newport Bay Club and outer southern strings of Rio Grande (is it actually called this in this position?). Well, after app. 30 minutes in the room we were ready to leave again. I brought my tripod for the camera this evening in order to take some night time photos of the park. We wanted a good spot for the parade on Main Street U.S.A, because this would be the only time we would get to see the parade during the trip.
After trouble with my park ticket once again we got in and got a great spot right outside the Emporium opposite Town Square Photography. With 40 minutes until the Halloween Parade began I went to the Cookie Kitchen to get some delicious chocolate cookies to enjoy before the parade. This is a tradition for us and it is not a real Disney holiday for us, if we don't get one of their yummy cookies while waiting for the parade. Queueing for cookies on Main Street is a nightmare however with people walking through the queue all the time, but I got our cookies in time for the parade and returned to our spot in time for the lovely Halloween Pre Parade, which was great to see again having seen it last year.
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The music and acting is great in this little parade although it could be a bit bigger and it is a bit disturbing to see Judge Claude Frollo go completely dancing-crazy to a modern remix of Cruella DeVille :lol: This year the parade was lead by the witch from Snow White in stead of Gruzella, which was nice as it made the parade even more Disney :) The pumpkin men and women are the highlight of the parade though... On the Villain's float we joked about the resemblance between Gaston and former Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen :lol: We had quite a good laugh out of that...
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After the Pre Parade there was a little break (10 minutes) before Disney's Once Upon a Dream Parade began. I absolutely love this parade; the floats are creative and very beautiful and filled with details. The Characters interact greatly with the audience as do the dancers and this time we captured the show stop of the Dreams of Fantasy float, which was really great and funny with lots of acting and audience interaction. Unfortunately the Dreams of Adventure float wasn't part of the parade - I assume it was out for refurbishment. Last year this was the case with the Dreams of Romance Part 2, which was back this year and boy, this float is filled! I cannot imagine how they can fit Princess Tiana onto this float next year! (Wondering smiley)
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:lol: Look how happy this little Tigger was when Tigger came jumping by :D
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All photos of the parade will be available from my fotki album soon...
After the parade we wandered towards Peter Pan's Flight to use our fastpasses - we stopped in Sleeping Beauty's Castle to take photos on the first floor. However, I took some better photos up here on Monday morning, so I will be posting those in that update, but here are two photos that I did not retake on Monday:
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Now it was time for Peter Pan - 1 minute of waiting time with our fast passes = GREAT, when the normal queue was running at 40 minutes :) This ride was in a way better state this year in comparison to last year, when it was so dark, that you were unable to see the details in London like the driving cars, Neverland was very dark too. This year all details were bright and clear and when they are this it isn't hard to understand why this attraction outbeats Pinocchio and Snow White. When you fly over London it is just breathtaking and I love this attraction. Great!
We wanted to have dinner at Colonel Hathi's Pizza Outpost, as we really like the Pizza Royale and the restaurant had been closed on our last visit. Once again we were met by the new menu choices and we ended up with two Menu Baloo with Pizza Royale, side salad, fruit salad and Cola Zero. I like the themening of this restaurant and how it somehow still feels like the old Explorers Club, although you hear the Elephants' March every once in a while :)
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After leaving I went to get the fast pass for Big Thunder Mountain that I was unable to get earlier in the evening. The time table said 20.30-21.00, so I barely got a ticket as all the machines were closed. The CM had 3 fast pass tickets left and he gave all three to me :) We went to check if the Keelboats were open but they had closed for the day, so we took a ride on Molly Brown in stead in the early twilight which was a beautiful ride and very relaxing as always. I extended the legs on my tripod and used it as support on the deck and got some video footage and some good photos of which some of them can be seen here:
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Funny timing with this photo secured me some great assistant flash from the on-ride photo flash :mrgreen:
After this it was almost time for my night time photo trip around the park, but we went to It's a Small World at first. Unfortunately I cannot say the same thing about this lovely attraction as I have been able to say about attractions like Pirates, Phantom Manor and Snow White. IASM could really use a refurbishment - it seems a bit "used" and some of the dolls aren't working probably - although still a lovely attraction this ruined a bit of the experience and I hope the main problems will be solved during the big refurbishment in November :D
As we came out of It's a Small World and I was all ready for my night time photo tour the rain started falling :( I was very irritated by this as this meant that my lens/filter would be covered in rain drops and the camera had to be protected against the rain, so unfortunately I didn't get as quite as many shots as I had dreamed about, but with wonderful help from my mum and an umbrella I ended up getting a good set of photos which I am really proud of :-) The best can be seen here and the rest will be available to see in the fotki album to which I will link to in my final report installment.
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The night ended with another ride at Phantom Manor before I ended with my fast pass ride on Big Thunder Mountain which is extremely fun by night :) Although I had 3 fast passes I only had the time to try it once, so I had to give the CM all three fast passes. Upon exiting Frontierland we passed Lucky Nugget and saw what seemed to be a rat outside, which wasn't very nice. But we said to ourselves that it was probably just Remy who used his night off from Restaurant des Stars to check out the beautifully lit up Halloween decorated Frontierland :P
We ended the lovely day on Starbucks where my mom got a tall Cappucino and I got a Strawberry and Cream frappucino (very fat, but very delicious). I actually ordered a Frappucino Framboise, but during their 3-way-ordering system it got changed to a strawberry and cream frappucino, which irritated the CM that had made the Frappucino Framboise so much that he threw the glass into the sink so there was frappucino all over the kitchen :P
We did a little shopping in the village before going back to our room to look back at an amazing first day in the park and be ready for another magical day that would include breakfast in the park, Walt Disney Studios, Café Mickey and our huge shopping evening.
Day 2 will arrive tomorrow :)
Day 1 statistics:
Rides: Big Thunder Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean, Adventure Isle, Pinocchio, Snow White, Phantom Manor, Peter Pan's Flight, Molly Brown, It's a Small World, Phantom Manor and Big Thunder Mountain.
Shopping: Mickey's Magical Party Pin, Sequoia Lodge Pin, Disneyland Magnet for my work, Zero plushie
Photo count: 525 photos
wow your photos are beautiful! =D> =D> I love reasing your report it makes me feel all excited hehehe! :P Can't wait to read and see more! :D/
:( Oh my, why does Gaston look so old? Do not want.
:D Pics are awesome! Just wish my eyes could un-see the scary old Gaston.
What a great first day!! And another set of stunning pictures - the night ones are pure magic!! Thank you for sharing with us!
We must have crossed each other again in BTM, we went in one of the last trains of the day!
=D> Great report and some lovely pictures! Looking forward for the next day.... :D
I am really enjoying the pics and report (even though I only just got back myself).
Looking forward to day 2's report and pics.
You've done a lot in one day, and your pictures are great!
Especially the ones taken at night, that always makes a magical sight.
Quote from: "never2old"What a great first day!! And another set of stunning pictures - the night ones are pure magic!! Thank you for sharing with us!
We must have crossed each other again in BTM, we went in one of the last trains of the day!
Thank you so much. I was so annoyed that the only during our trip had to come on THAT evening, so I am very happy that I got some good night photos and that you like them. In my Fotki album there will be many more to see :)
Funny how we crossed each others way almost all the time :)
Quote from: "Annet"You've done a lot in one day, and your pictures are great!
Especially the ones taken at night, that always makes a magical sight.
Yes - it's great to go in low season as you can manage to do a lot more in one day :)
That's absolutely true. I'm afraid it'll be a lot busier next week.
But unfortunately we were bound to the kids school vacations for our trip.
Day 2 - part 1
This is the morning report, gives you the long and the short...
The clock said 7.00 am and my mum woke me - it is never a problem to wake up early when you are in Disneyland! After a quick shower and preparation of the camera we were ready to leave the hotel 7.45 am. We headed to Disneyland Park where we would get our breakfast in Plaza Gardens at 8.15 am, but first I took some morning pictures around Lake Disney.
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We arrived at the security check at 7.55 and we were app. 20 people waiting for them to open. Some of the very impatient couldn't stand to watch the cast members entering the park before 8, so they kept asking the security people why they were letting them in, when we had to wait - D'oh, how stupid can you be?
At 8.00 am sharp the security check was opened and we were asked to come forward - as always the security check was very quick and smooth and of course my park ticket didn't work this morning either. The CM was just opposite the CM on Sunday - it took her almost 3 minutes to type in my code, but I finally got through and contrary to Sunday I was given a special fastpass ticket so I could get fast passes without problems - this was very nice :)
The breakfast at Plaza Gardens was just like the hotel breakfast (croissants, pain au chocolaits, yoghurts, etc.), which is really nice - I love this breakfast and it certainly beats most hotel breakfast I have tried. The atmosphere of this restaurant just gave a perfect morning the finishing touch - we had never been in here before so the beautiful themening and paintings really impressed us. What a nice start to the day and I think it is great idea that they give people the opportunity to get their breakfast here as I think it gets more people in during EMH too!
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After breakfast we went for our favorite EMH attraction - Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast. I always need a couple of ride-throughs to get in form and my mum had until this trip not concentrated that much on her score - that would change though! The waiting time was just 5 minutes - YES! Now for the first "problem" with my height - when I went through the counter just before entering the indoor queue the bar was caught between my legs and I was stuck for some seconds :lol: the CM and I had a big laugh out of this, but the girl behind me seemed a bit scared and kept staring at me for the entire time in the waiting area :P I got 102.200 and my mum got app. 5.000 so we decided for another ride straight after this! It was the same CM and he just looked at me and said with a cheeky grin: "Be careful this time". I didn't get stuck this time and I improved my score a bit (124.400). After this ride-through the waiting time was 20 minutes and we decided to move along to absorb the Discoveryland atmosphere, although we weren't going to try any more attractions here.
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I love the atmosphere of Discoveryland even though I am not going on many of the rides, so we strolled around the land going on the right side of Space Mountain, where we went in to take a look at the station and a great view of the Columbiad Cannon. After this we went to check the very back of Discoveryland amazed by the sight of the open doors leading to Pizza Planet - this area had been closed off on our last 3-4 visits and the area did seem very faded and "hidden" - I find it hard to believe that many people find this spot during opening hours... When heading back towards Hyperion we saw the "scene" for "It's Dance Time..." and I was very happy that this didn't show during our trip - the floor looked really tacky and with the lack of audience activity we experienced with "It's Party Time" I could imagine how akward "It's Dance Time..." could be.
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With the clock saying 9.30 am we headed towards Sleeping Beauty Castle where I wanted to take some more pictures in the Gallery:
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The Castle is not made for tall people, but I just fitted in the door ;)
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After strolling around Fantasyland, learning the staggering opening hours for the labyrinth (11am-3pm) we slowly headed towards Walt Disney Studios Park.
Day 2 to be continued...
Fantastic report so far. And LOL, Gaston sooo looks like Anders Fogh. He must be his evil twin haha. Loved the night photography. I wish I had the patience to bring a tripod. I'd have no idea where to put it and what to do with it. Well, very enjoyable report. Glæder mig til næste del! :D
EDIT: Loved the second part as well. The last photo was really fun. And great you got to experience Plaza Gardens. Hope you had dinner there too. It's amazing and I go there on every single trip.
Quote from: "MizzRabbit"Fantastic report so far. And LOL, Gaston sooo looks like Anders Fogh. He must be his evil twin haha. Loved the night photography. I wish I had the patience to bring a tripod. I'd have no idea where to put it and what to do with it. Well, very enjoyable report. Glæder mig til næste del! :D
Don't know who would be the most evil in that family :P
I only brought the tripod to the parks on Sunday evening - it was in the hotel on the rest of the holiday. It was not very handy to walk around with and would have been a problem during a whole day - espcecially on attractions :)
You missed the bit where you completely ignored me and didn't say hi :wink: :P
Great start to your second day! And another great set of pictures - I love the ones in the Castle, and you've really captured Discoveryland in all its glory!!
The last picture there is brilliant :lol: !
Day 2 - part 2
"Excuse me, waiter - there is a rat at my table!" - "Yes, that is your head chef, sir."
We left Disneyland Park and entered Walt Disney Studios Park 10 minutes past 10 - it wasn't that crowded yet. First thing I have to say: I love this park, but I have to admit that you simply don't get absorbed into the magic in the same way as you do in Disneyland Park - in my opinion the park is still too cold, open and "unfinished" - hopefully the positive development from lately will continue with the addition of Toy Story Playland (I'm still optimistic, although the attractions could be way better) and especially the long awaited Ratatouille E-Ticket Dark Ride!
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My mum and I weren't going on that many attractions with Animagique, Cinémagique, Studio Tram Tour and Flying Carpets on our plans from the beginning. We had planned to eat at Restaurant des Stars and finish our day by watching Disneys Stars'n'Cars. This meant that we had time enough to enjoy the atmosphere around especially Toon Studio and Hollywood Boulevard. When we entered the park the Tram Tour was closed so we started wandering around just to get the feeling and take some photos.
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We went into the Art of Animation store, where I would check their selection of WDCC figurines and we continued into the Art of Disney Animation post show area, where we especially enjoyed the Character Concepts display. Thinking about it I actually do not know why we didn't go on the entire attraction - I actually use to love it, but perhaps we thought that nothing new had happened in there. We continued into Toon Studio...
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... and (of course) Crush' Coaster was temporarily closed due to technical issues. This meant that Toon Studio was almost deserted and although both me and my mum actually wanted to try Cars we ended up agreeing that I probably wouldn't fit into the small vehicles with my long legs and the attraction might be a bit too much kids-orientated for two adults to go on it alone. (See this is imo a sign of the lack of "magic" in WDS - in DP you do not think about the fact that you are an adult, you are part of the magic where everybody is on the same level no matter age. I don't get this feeling quite as strong, when I am in WDS).
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But we like Toon Studio although we weren't trying any of the attractions. After this we took the back way past the Toy Story Playland Construction Site...
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... and ended up by Studio Tram Tour. We saw a train arriving with guests, so we thought that it was now open, but at the entrance 4 (!!) CMs were telling us that they still weren't open. Hmmm, then we went for a nice walk in the other direction towards ToT and Backlot. Going by Tower of Terror we both really wished that we dared trying this attraction as it seems to be a true imagineering gem - and that is just from the outside. But neither of us dared trying in the end, so we just enjoyed the looks of it and the great shop, which contrary to almost every other shop in the resort still is very exclusive in its range of merchandise - however, I do not understand what Jack Skellington has to do with Tower of Terror?
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Hereafter we went in to explore the new Blockbuster Café - what a mess! Backlot Express wasn't that great either, but at least it had the true studio atmosphere with all the props. This is really "blockbuster" - trying to make money out of cheap sets and some really bad prop replicas. Seriously who believes that the Pirates props are real - most of them don't even look that much like the things from the movie! Very disappointing and definetely not the way to go for Disney. By the way, me and my mum were there for 5 minutes and no one else came in there during this, so it doesn't even drag people in as you would think the new theme was meant to do. The only positive thing was the beautiful light in the Pirates room, although I would personally hate to eat in this light :)
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Now the final negative thing in this report (I promise) - the Armageddon billboard. This is so faded that you cannot believe it. Now that the rumours about the replacement of this attraction has disappeared a bit I think they should use a week or so to give this facade a immersive refurbishment so the background could be black again. Take a look:
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Studio Tram Tour had now opened so we strolled down Hollywood Boulevard...
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... when Cruella suddenly paid the boulevard a glamorous visit in her huge car. It was great to see how her arrival lit up the life around her with people wanting autographs and photos with the glamorous villain. Also nice to have these little extra character Meet'n'Greet in places where you don't ahve to queue for an hour or so to meet the characters - Thumbs Up!
Now Studio Tram Tour Behind the Magic. I always love going on this, but it is mainly(only) because of Catastrophe Canyon, which always impresses me. The re-routing seemed very rough and made the ride pretty dull as you went by the exact same spot with the rather boring props from Pearl Habour, Dinosaur and Dinotopia two times within 5 minutes. Perhaps they should have closed the attraction for a couple of months in order to produce a more permanent solution with new props or so? Catastrophe Canyon was impressive as always and it is always great fun to see people who ride the attraciton for the first time getting shocked, excited and amazed by the great effects.
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I was sorry that they have had to drop the costuming building as it use to lighten up the most boring part of the route, which got even more boring without this and it did seem a bit odd, when Jeremy Irons all of a sudden asked for his costume in the movie - completely out of context when it is not part of the route! After this it is the Reign of Fire set, which always amazes me with its great resemblance with London, but it is just such an anti-climax when the only effect is some fire from below :) But all in all still an enjoyable attraction and certainly a must-see everytime.
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After this we went to Animagique, which we really love - it is just so sweet and has a great soundtrack. We especially love the children voices making the pre-show announcements - they are so cute :lol:... In here I had a very funny and good experience with a fellow guest. Over the first 1.5 day we had become a bit tired with mainly southern European parents who had treated their kids very badly, jumped in the queues and shown lack of respect towards the CMs (especially during the parade on Sunday), but here I sat next to a very nice Spanish man and we had a little chat before the show. He had actually visited my home town of Aalborg once with his wife, so we talked a bit about Aalborg and the Danish language and we after the show we wished each other a nice stay. What a great experience and it certainly is a small world after all :)
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After Animagique we ran into ToT Goofy outside Tower of Terror. What a nice character and he was very popular too. However, I didn't want a picture with him, when I hadn't been on the attraction itself.
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After this it was time for a first timer for me and my mum: Restaurant des Stars and we were certainly not disappointed. The restaurant was very nice, the service was great, the food was very delicious, the range of food was impressive and of course the appearence by Remy himself was absolutely unforgettable. Remy was so great and the AA was very impressive and it was very hard to remove your eyes from him, when he was there. The restaurant wasn't that busy so he took good time to entertain small parts of the restaurant at a time - we went over to see him at another table in the middle, but after that he just came over to us to do a little photo posing in the far left corner of the restaurant. The only "negative" thing was the fact that a little sparrow had made its way inside the restaurant - but on the other hand, when some of the guests inside deliberately gives it bread you cannot blame the poor bird for its action ;)
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My mums plate of starters
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My starters
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My first plate of main courses
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Mums first plate of main courses
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My first plate of desserts
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Mums first plate of desserts
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After one plate of starters, two plates of main courses and two plates of desserts we were ready to leave the restaurant in order to catch Cinémagique before Disney's Stars'n'Cars. We both love Cinémagique which we think is a true masterpiece. However, last year my sister thought it was some of the most stupid and vulgar things she had seen and my father is of the same conviction :o The audience wasn't that big either - I don't know what, but they should really do something in order to get more people into this show - it is absolutely AMAZING!
After Cinémagique there was 25 minutes until Disneys Stars'n'Cars and they had roped off Place des Stars. We got a brilliant spot just outside Cinémagique right out to the route - wonderful. Next to us was a roped off area for handicapped guests, which was really nice - I like how the parks do everything to make a trip more magical if you are disabled in any way - Thumbs up! Opposite this area was a similar area, but without the sign for disabled guests. We wondered what the purpose of this area would be - nobody was allowed inside until a CM came with 4 children (no VIP passes, special papers or anything) and placed them inside the area. It seemed like they were related in a way, but surely this cannot be an area for CM relatives, could it? Nobody else was allowed inside, which resulted in a lot of sad kids unable to understand why these four children were allowed so close to the characters... Anybody know the deal about this area? I think it was loladelorean, who had noticed it too...
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The show/parade itself was very lovely, the cars were beautiful and it was a great way to combine parade, show and Meet'n'Greet in one big happening, which surely was a hit by the audience too. It was to nice to see some other characters too - especially Mulan and Mushu who seems to be a bit forgotten in other places of the resort.
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All my photos from Stars'n'Cars will be available in my soon-to-come Fotki Album.
After Stars'n'Cars we went for a quick ride on Flying Carpets, which was very enjoyable as always, although we cramped ourselves into one seat in order to help the CM fill the attraction. She didn't want to fill it that much and just had a good laugh with us :)
Last stop was the Walt Disney Studios Store to make some shopping. I had already bought 4 pins in the Pin Shop on Hollywood Boulevard, but in here I had seen a new numbered limited edition Stars'n'Cars pin, which I just had to own. It said that it was released on the 10th of October, but he CM told me that I was the first one to buy this pin in the store (and the park), as they had just received it a couple of hours earlier. Very nice detail, when you are collecting pins :mrgreen:
We waved goodbye to WDS and said hello to the Disneyland Park and Frontierland for BTM fast passes for the evening. This gave us some time to stroll around the park and during this time we went on Pirates, Snow White and Pinocchio one more time. Behind us in Snow White and Pinocchio was a boy with his family and this almost brought a tear to our eyes. This boy was very sick and had to be held all the time by his dad, but the boy and family just seemed to have the time of their lives and the CMs were great stopping the attraction and making sure everything was perfect before starting it again. It is true Disney magic to see such a troubled family having the time of their lives and it really made you think an extra time of your life - a very strong experience!
Here are some photos we took during our stroll around the park:
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We came back to BTM for another very enjoyable ride on our favorite ride. After this we wanted to catch "It's Party Time ... With Mickey and Friends" on 6 pm - we wanted to catch the Villains' appearence on 7 pm, but with an 8 pm reservation at Café Mickey and the fact that we wanted to go to the hotel before, we decided to take the 6 pm show. Before this however we went for a walk in Aladdins Passage:
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Now it was time for "It's Party Time .. With Mickey and Friends" - I enjoyed the show more than I had expected, but me and my mum agreed that they should have put a little less focus on the audience dance along part (isn't this what we have Stitch doing in Discoveryland?). It didn't quite work with the audience and was a High School Musical in our opinion :lol: However, the show was enjoyable, the music was pretty good and the amount of performers were very impressive.
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We headed out of the park all ready for a nice evening in Disney Village with Café Mickey and a lot of shopping :)
Last Day 2 update coming soon...
hehe another great installment! I have to say we also noticed the turnstiles at Buzz being really hard to get through, very narrow and low or something! I felt like an elephant sliding in sideways because I couldn't be bothered lifting my bags of purchases high in the air also! :oops: :oops: :P
I have to say I agree with many of your comments about the studios, I don't find it has the magic of the park either there is something cold and empty about the park, as though it's just never been finished. On my last visit in september I really noticed it. I felt that its a park that needed a lot more done to it and that it was opened when it was never really finished or something.. (just my opinion).
I also went to restraunt des stars for the first time in sept and thought it was great too! =D>
Thanks for another great part to ur TR! :D
A brilliant DLRP report start Nicolai, really interesting read with those all important and well snapped photos.. =D> =D> =D>
I await your next instalment.. :wink: :D
Great report so far Nicolai! :D
I can see you're not one for thrill rides? :wink:
Just read through everything you've wrote up so far. Great two days so far Nicolai :D
I think that new rule about the fastpasses was introduced last year but i'm not 100% sure, i remember we noticed it too when my mum tried to fastpass RnRC for me and my dad and Tower or Terror at the same time.
The thing about the 4 children is very odd. I'm trying to think myself why they were allowed in there :-k
Looking forward to the further installments :D
Quote from: "CentralPlazaPerson"Great report so far Nicolai! :D
I can see you're not one for thrill rides? :wink:
:lol: no, not the biggest thrill rides - I don't know why, it is just not me :)
wow looks like an amazing trip and i love your photos there amazingly fantastic
I also agree on your opinion about WDS. It's a lovely park, but it doesn't have the same magical feeling you get in DLP.
It's too bad you didn't ride the ToT though, it's really great! I always feel sick and nervous everytime before I go on a thrill ride, but afterwards I always want to go again and again :lol:
Quote from: "forza_united"Quote from: "CentralPlazaPerson"Great report so far Nicolai! :D
I can see you're not one for thrill rides? :wink:
:lol: no, not the biggest thrill rides - I don't know why, it is just not me :)
:lol: You should really try out Indiana Jones..It's not that bad..it only has one loop which is class when you go round it. :lol: Thrill rides or not I bet you're stay was still magicial anyway! :)
Great trip report Nicolai!
Your pictures are very nice, especially the food pics. They make me hungry!!
Day 2 - Part 3
"Hmmm, which WDCC figurine to buy?"
We had reservations at Café Mickey for 8 pm and after a quick visit to the hotel to drop off my camera ( I wanted to be camera free this evening) we walked towards Café Mickey so we would be there at 7.45 in order to be able to get in at time - but no...
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... when we came to Café Mickey the queue was huge and there didn't seem to be any movement at all. We checked our reservation receipt and it said that our table would only be held for 15 minutes, so we were getting a bit nervous. All people in the queue for reservations were getting a bit impatient by the lack of action in the queue, so when the clock turned 8 pm my mum and a couple of other people from the queue went to the desk through the exit to hear what was happening.
The CM had told my mum that we just had to stay in the queue, but when my mum showed her the receipt and the fact that according to their own rules there was absolutely no chance we would get our table in time the CM told my mum to wait 2 seconds. My mum called me in from the queue and we got our table. Actually we didn't feel that good by doing it this way, but they should really change this system as soon as possible - it CANNOT be true that they advice people to make reservations everywhere (website, hotel, in front of restaurants, rooms, etc.) and then treat the people with reservations like this. It must be possible to make a smarter system - they could start by stopping double booking ;)
But we got seated up against the kitchen and right next to one of the character entrances which was a perfect place to be. When we were seated Mickey and Captain Hook were out and soon they would be joined by Stitch and Gideon (a weird character in Café Mickey in my opinion - a bit like Gepetto...). A German couple were seated next to us and at first they looked very annoyed by the noise, the characters and especially the lovely birthday celebrations - this would change however. After a couple of character visits the husband jumped off his chair every time a character came near our tables - I don't think anyone can be in this place without finding their inner child!
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After encounters with Mickey Mouse himself and Stitch we were ready for our main courses: A pizza with ham, bacon and pineapple for me and Lasagne for my mum. It was very delicious and the fact it was fresh pineapple on the pizza was just awesome - I have never seen anything but canned pineapple on a pizza before!
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In between our main courses and desserts we were grabbed by the true Café Mickey experience with lots of Characters, birthday parties and waiters dancing on the tables with the kids - LOVELY!
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For dessert we both ordered the dessert that I got last year - Baloos Chocolate Tutti Frutti. This is perhaps the best dessert ever! It is so yummy, the fruit is really fresh and the chocolate sauce is creamy and very tasty - perfection! The German man next to us was so impressed with our dessert that he made a noise, which prompted the waiter to ask if something was wrong - the man just answered: "No not all, we are just ready for dessert now!" :lol:
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We still had one Character to go - Chip and he was in his playful corner. Both me and my mum had finished our dessert but there was some chocolate sauce left in the pineapples. Chip grabbed a spoon, filled it with chocolate sauce and tried to feed both me and my mum with pure chocolate sauce :lol: we both denied him causing him to leave. However, he came back to seconds later, grabbed the same spoon and tried again. Although it was a bit too much it is still nice to see that the characters don't just interact with the kids. In Café Mickey everyone is a child again!
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After a nice meal we were ready for our shopping night. It was expensive - very expensive. We bought a lot of stuff and I finished the night in Disney Gallery where I would buy the traditional WDCC figurine. I had chosen to buy Shere Khan, but due to the lack of space we had on the bus I ended up going for a smaller figurine, which meant that I bought the Donald Duck figurine from A Christmas Carol - a very nice figurine for the price of 99 €! (Pictures of our souvenirs will be uploaded with the Trip report summary)
When we walked towards the hotel I noticed the beautiful surroundings around Lake Disney and how beautiful they looked in the dark. Due to the rain I hadn't taken any night photos here on Sunday, so I decided to grab my camera and tripod and take 15 minutes around Lake Disney to get some shots :)
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When I came back to the room, we started packing so we could leave for the park as early as possible on Tuesday morning. We needed to secure my figurine, a Disney Traditions figurine we got for my sister and a lot of delicate merchandise, so it was some task we had given ourselves here. When the clock said 0.30 am we went to bed and were ready for the next day, which would start before 7 am.
Day 3 coming soon....
Day 2 statistics:
Rides: Buzz (2), Tram Tour, Animagique, Cinémagique, Flying Carpets, Pirates, Snow White, Pinocchio, Big Thunder Mountain, Aladdins Passage.
Photo count: 493 photos
aw sounds like a great cafe mickey experience, thankfully i have never had to queue for it as we always make early reservations at 6pm. Its awful that people make reservations and then have to stand in a queue!! :roll:
I am surprised but really glad they have started to use stitch in cafe mickey, I wonder if it just because of halloween season though. I have seen gideon in there twice before, he is a random character in general hehe!
Day 3
"How come it has to end now?"
We woke early on Tuesday Morning in order to be ready for breakfast at 7.30 am and EMH, during which we wanted to have a go or two on Buzz and Peter Pan. This morning we had breakfast in Beaver Creek Tavern and as always the breakfast was delicious and very satisfying. After the breakfast we went back to our room in order to get our luggage which would be stored in the Luggage Storage until we left the hotel at 6.20 pm. We had been very happy about the hotel and this is already a sad part of the trip as you know that this day ends on the bus in Belgium and not in the middle of the magic :(
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We walked towards Disneyland Park at 8.20 am...
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... and after the usual trouble with our park tickets we were both given new fast pass tickets and we were ready for the last 9 hours in the park. When we entered Main Street U.S.A the Omnibus was taking on passengers and with just a few spots left we jumped on for a lovely atmospheric journey down Main Street U.S.A - if this doesn't get you in the mood for a day in the magic, what will?
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After this we went to Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast which had just 5 minutes of waiting time - GREAT! We took three rides in a row and I kept breaking my record of the trip and my mum actually found out what to do, so she started collecting bigger scores too. I started off getting 169.200 before scoring 364.700 on the second ride, but this was with quite a long lasting stop in the first room, so it didn't really count. I finished off with 283.900 without any stops, which I was quite pleased with. My mum was extremely proud of her score which had reached 16.300 with no stops :)
Hereafter we went to Peter Pan's Flight via It's a Small World, where we catched the 9.15 celebration - lovely little "show" and this gave us the fix of IASM-magic that the attraction in a way failed to give us due to its bad state on this trip.
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We now went to Peter Pan's Flight, which as I have already said, was in a very good state on this trip and I wanted to try to take some photos on the ride, as I had done on Pinocchio and Snow White on Sunday. Due to the small waiting times we did the ride twice in a row and I got a couple of shots which I am pretty happy with :)
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After this we wanted to take a train ride around the park, as this is a tradition for us - although we normally start the trip by taking this journey. On the way to Main Street Station we took some time to look at all the windows at Main Street U.S.A and the many tributes. It is some truly lovely details and a great way to pay tribute to some of the main people behind Disneyland - some guests seemed to wonder why I kept taking pictures of the windows though ;-)
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We arrived at Main Street Station at 9.45 am, so the station wasn't open yet and we had to queue on the pavement, which caused a lot of queue jumping, but luckily the train had no problems containing all the people waiting, which made the queue jumping very unnecessary. The journey around the park was very enjoyable as always - though a bit cold! It will play some part in my Trip Video, but I will not spring the surprise yet ;) The only complaint about the ride was that they played the wrong music when we left Discoveryland - they had started the Fantasyland Soundtrack once again, so when we left DL Station it played It's a Small World and when we arrived at Main Street Station they welcomed us to Discoveryland, but hey those thing happen it certainly didn't ruin a nice and nostalgic trip. I remember being so affraid of the Grand Canyon part on our first trip that I started crying and my nose began bleeding - luckily this didn't happen this time ;)
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Now we decided to go for the first BTM fastpasses of the day. We got Fast Passes for 45 minutes later - perfect. This meant that I could take a quick ride on Indiana Jones and we could get a Meet'n'Greet with the Pumpkin King himself. We headed for Indiana Jones, which had 5 minutes waiting time. I don't have a problem with this thrill ride as I can see what is coming, but when after riding this and finding it a bit boring I think that I would have dared Space Mountain if I had someone with me who dared it too. Maybe next time I will try Space Mountain then :)
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It was time for our Meet'n'Greet with Jack Skellington - we were a bit surprised that everyone in the queue was adults, but then on the other hand, how many smaller children would recognize him? He was 5-10 minutes late, but we were 4th in line and the BTM FP entrance was right next to the spot, so it wouldn't be a problem with our fast passes. Jack arrived and he interacted greatly with the guests, joking, chatting and agreeing how to pose. I got a pretty regular photo with him, while he and my mum agreed to do scary faces :lol:
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After our ride on BTM, which was funny as always, I grabbed another fast pass for it - my mum had never tried it twice in a day before, so it would just be me :) It gave me access 30 minutes later, so we decided to stay in Frontierland and pay Phantom Manor and Boot Hill a visit. Outside Phantom Manor we bumped into Goofy, Donald and Chip'n'Dale in their Halloween costumes. Luckily we got in queue right before they left, as this gave a huge queue for Phantom Manor and probably doubled the waiting time many times.
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On Sunday almost everything had worked perfectly on this ride, but it was completely different now. The three biggest effects that didn't work was: app. 50 % of the dancers weren't moving, so you would just see the ghosts standing still on the dance floor, the dog in the graveyard was moved completely out of the attraction although it still barked and finally the wagon wasn't working. It was a shame to see how quickly three big effects had broken, but the ride is still very atmospheric and will always be one of my favorites - broken effects or not.
After this we went for a nice walk around Boot Hill - a very atmospheric place to walk and once again a great and funny way to pay tribute to some of the people behind this attraction. Some of the tombstones are really funny to read and of course the heart was beating heavily from its grave :)
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After this we went to get lunch in Toad Hall Restaurant - once again we got a double Fish'n'Chips as part of a Mr. Moustache Menu with additional fries and a yoghurt dessert - just as delicious as it was on Sunday. On the way we wandered through Adventureland and we even met Hook, Smee, Peter and Wendy outside Peter Pan's Flight. They interacted greatly with the people in the queue line, while Hook was hunting the autograph hunters and not the usual other way around - great fun :)
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After lunch we took 25 minutes to walk around the Labyrinth, which was only open between 11am and 3pm with this being our last chance to get a walk in it. The main state of this attraction was pretty good, with pretty bright colors on most of the figures (a few exceptions) - the Labyrinth was well visited and especially photographers seemed to appreciate its many motives and the beautiful green bushes. I got a couple of shots myself, which can all be seen in my Fotki Album. While walking around the labyrinth we saw a worker putting on some snow on one of the Christmas Village cottages - this did seem to be some "funny" work placing snow on all the roofs :)
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After the labyrinth we went for our second and last ride on It's a Small World, which wasn't as magical as always due to many broken dolls, which I already have said. I managed to get some good photos though and the ride was still great - just not as great as it can be - please refurbish it soon :)
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An example of one of the broken dolls
We knew now that everytime we left a land it would be for the last time on this trip, so this meant that it was now goodbye to Fantasyland and we continued into Adventureland, where Pirates would be our last ride in this land. This ride was probably the ride in the complete resort that was in best state - every ride it felt new and (almost) every effect worked perfectly. I tried taking some photos, but it was difficult. I got a couple of good ones though:
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When we came out we bumped into Captain Jack Sparrow who was out for autographs - people were going crazy and the CM had to almost yell at them telling that Jack had to leave for 15 minutes only to come back then. Jack certainly didn't help the CM telling him that he wanted to stay :P
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Goodbye to another land and as we headed into Frontierland I decided to grab one last set of fastpasses for Big Thunder Mountain. My mum was still unsure whether she wanted another go on it or not, so in the meantime we ran over to Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast for one last go on this great and funny ride :)
Now hold on, this time I got a score of 686.800!!! [spoiler:qjs8lmim]But yes, as you've probably guessed we stopped - a lot! First we were asked to leave the Space Cruiser we had just boarded, because it was "dead" then we stopped 3 times just in the first room and further 3 times throughout the ride. Although I got a lot of points it took away a bit of the fun, but it is still a very funny attraction and definetely a favorite of ours![/spoiler:qjs8lmim]
With 15 minutes until our BTM Fastpasses we decided to visit Les Mysteres du Nautilus - an attraction we hadn't been on for ages, because frankly it doesn't interest us that much. The storyline still doesn't interest me that much, but this is a true Imagineering wonder filled with details and immersive themening. The squid attack was coming just as we entered the main scene and it freaked out a little boy who kept moving further and further away from the building, while his parents just stood lauging - I felt a bit sorry for the boy, thinking that I probably reacted the same way the first time I experienced this quite scary AA :)
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Bye to yet another land with only Frontierland and Main Street U.S.A left for us to visit. When we entered Frontierland my mum said she didn't want to wait for me trying BTM, so she would use the second fast pass. First time ever she has done this ride on all days of the vacation and first time she's done it twice in the same day - awesome, the best way to end an amazing trip on the attraction we started with on Sunday and the attraction we both love so much: Big Thunder Mountain.
Sad to leave we strolled around Main Street U.S.A for app. an hour, doing the last bit of shopping, catching the last bits of atmosphere and buying some delicious cookies and muffins for the bus drive from the Cookie Kitchen. I wanted to try their Blueberry Muffin and I was not disappointed - extremely delicious! On the way out we noticed a CM in ToT dress helping out wiht the parade route - she couldn't have bothered changing her clothes or was she trying to capture some guests to the Studios? :lol:
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We left the park at around 5 pm and on the way back to the hotel we stopped in Village to buy sandwiches in New York Style Sandwiches and I paid the Disney Gallery another visit, because I wanted another WDCC figurine besides the Donald Duck (as Nephew Fred) I brought on Monday. I ended up buying the Pinocchio figurine titled "Look Out, World!". I was now all out of money, but it didn't matter as it was the last stop before the bus drive.
The day ended with this beautiful sunset and we were back at home at 1 pm on Wednesday.
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Trip Report Summary coming soon along with souvenir pictures and Fotki Album.
Trip video coming in a week or two.
Day 3 Statistics:
Rides: Omnibus, Buzz (3), Peter Pan's Flight (2), Disneyland Railroad, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril, Big Thunder Mountain (3), Phantom Manor, Alice's Curious Labyrinth, It's a Small World, Pirates of the Caribbean and Les Mysteres du Nautilus
Photo Count: 242 photos.
Wonderful report Nicolai! Looking forward to your gallery! Again, you have some amazing pictures!
Quote from: "forza_united"The only complaint about the ride was that they played the wrong music when we left Discoveryland - they had started the Fantasyland Soundtrack once again, so when we left DL Station it played It's a Small World and when we arrived at Main Street Station they welcomed us to Discoveryland, but hey those thing happen it certainly didn't ruin a nice and nostalgic trip.
The exact same thing happened to us!! I thought it was a one off error, but maybe not... Or maybe we were in the same train!
Quote from: "forza_united"On Sunday almost everything had worked perfectly on this ride, but it was completely different now. The three biggest effects that didn't work was: app. 50 % of the dancers weren't moving, so you would just see the ghosts standing still on the dance floor, the dog in the graveyard was moved completely out of the attraction although it still barked and finally the wagon wasn't working. It was a shame to see how quickly three big effects had broken, but the ride is still very atmospheric and will always be one of my favorites - broken effects or not.
Yep, we also noticed that... Where did they take the dog??
Aw what a brilliant few days you had! Loved your trip report, can't wait to see your photos of the things you bought and all the others! :D
Well done - a fantastic trip report. My daughter and I really enjoyed reading it. Your photos are just amazing. Well done to your Mom two rides same day on Big Thunder mountain - excellent.
:D/ :D/ :D/ :D/ :D/ :D/ :D/ :D/ :D/ :D/ :D/ :D/ :D/ :D/ :D/
Hey Nicolai - I have just read through your whole trip report, I enjoyed it immensely and you have some truly beautiful photos.
Yes it was me who fell victim to the weird roped off corner at stars n cars, although nobody was even in it when we were there so it was even more annoying! Goofy did jump the rope and come in to see us though.
You should definitely try the thrill rides, once you have done them once you will love them! Especially ToT it provides a great overall experience and the CMs are the best anywhere at DLP. Well done for trying Indiana Jones, I agree it is a wee bit boring but we still did it a few times as there was never any queue.
The lack of booking system at Cafe Mickey is infuriating, I had a wee rant about this in my trip report as well. Sort it out DLP!
Thanks for sharing your fantastic trip report :)
Great report =D> And awsome pictures too!
It has definitely brought me in the mood for my Halloween-trip next week!
Thanks for your lovely report and lovely pictures. :D
Great report Nicolai =D> ! I just came back from the magic as well and I will be posting my trip report soon.
Thanks for sharing your vacation with us Nicolai :) Looks like your enjoying playing with your camera.......some nice pics =D>
Thanks for the lovely comments anyone - I am happy that my report has been to your enjoyment. That is the best way to pay back for all the great report I have enjoyed from you guys.
Summary and Fotki Album with all 1200 pictures will be available later this evening.
Quote from: "loladelorean"You should definitely try the thrill rides, once you have done them once you will love them! Especially ToT it provides a great overall experience and the CMs are the best anywhere at DLP. Well done for trying Indiana Jones, I agree it is a wee bit boring but we still did it a few times as there was never any queue.
With TOT it probably is the height issue that keeps me away from it the most and with Rock'n'Rollercoaster and Space Mountain it is the acceleration and lack of knowledge of what is to come if you understand.
I simply cannot stand things that turn around too fast, which is why Crush is a no-go for me too :p
Luckily enough DLP has lots to offer even if you aren't the biggest fan of thrill rides :)
Quote from: "brenjo"Well done - a fantastic trip report. My daughter and I really enjoyed reading it. Your photos are just amazing. Well done to your Mom two rides same day on Big Thunder mountain - excellent.
Yes my mum was very proud and I was proud of her. She was very happy about it.
Quote from: "The Helmsman"Great report Nicolai =D> ! I just came back from the magic as well and I will be posting my trip report soon.
Cool, I will be looking forward to reading your report later :)
Post Report - The Merchandise
I think I already have summarized our trip pretty good - magical as always!
As always you want to keep the magic running when you arrive back at home and one of the best (and most expensive) ways to do this is to buy some merchandise on the trip and we so did we ... we bought some very expensive merchandise:
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This is everything that my mum brought...
And now to my items:
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A lovely t-shirt and a nice scarf to use here in fall until the big scarf is needed :)
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A big mug, some hot chocolate mix and the most wonderful cookie canister with the old Pinocchio poster as motive.
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A Zero plushie, which my mum got me (she gave me Santa Jack last year, so she almost had to give me Zero this year ;)) and some MMP Playing Cards (I collect playing cards from places I have been).
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A Mickey Mouse portfolio for my many drawings
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... and some nice wooden Christmas ornaments
And now to the more expensive shopping items:
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My 8 pins of which 3 is limited edition pins with the numbered Stars'n'Cars pin being the most special as I was the first ever to buy it :mrgreen:
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"Festive Fellow" - The first of the two WDCC figurines I bought on the trip.
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And last but not least my second WDCC figurine - "Look Out, World" from the WDCC Spotlight collection.
That was the end of the report for now - BUT look out for an update in the coming weeks, where I will post my edited Trip Video. (I will update the topic title as well, so you will know when the video is added).
Until then you can enjoy my 1200+ photos in my Fotki Album, which can be found here: //http://public.fotki.com/NicolaiKA/disneyland-paris-2009/!
=D> =D> =D> =D> Aw yay great trip report on a whole!
Love your purchases!! :D/ I have the stitch mobile phone holder and the pinocchio tin book as well hehe! You bought some lovely things! I have to say I adore the WDCC donald, he is so cute! :D
I am going to take a nosey at all your photos now hehe! :wink:
even more great pics and see they already getting DLP decorations ready for xmas hmm
All your photos are brilliant! there are soo many!! :o :D/
I love the one of lilo and stitch coming of minnies party train in their little halloween costumes, they are so cute hehe! :D
Oeh I love the merchandise!!! I won't be able to buy that much, but I'm definitely going to buy some new Christmas ornaments. My christmas tree is colorfull and very Disney, but I can always use more :P
WOW - you bought really much merchandise!
Amazing!
I bought some really nice dishes ;-)
absolutly fab trip report =D> =D> =D> loved looking at all yor photos,its really got me in the mood for our trip now....im just doing the last bits of paking now, we go tomorrow :D/ :D :D/ ,as our little boy is autistic driving is the only way for us at the min,we pack the car up leave our house at 6pm and usually get to disney for 6am so totally understand your long drive, but hey its worth it .....
Hey, great trip report. Amazing pics, you made there!! Will definitly take a look at the rest.
Looking at them, came to my mind, I forgot to take pics inside th e castle this year... and some other things.
Thanks, Aurora
Excellent report and pics. :D that dessert at Cafe Mickey's looked devine and both my kids would love one of those....maybe next time.
Nice to see nautilus was open as we tried everyday when we were there and it was always shut!!!
The shops at Disney could bankrupt a person. lol I was meant to buy a pack of playing cards but forgot to and I was really gutted when I realised I hadn't got them.
Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for the lovely comments everyone - they are really appreciated! :mrgreen:
Quote from: "kiki_304"Nice to see nautilus was open as we tried everyday when we were there and it was always shut!!!
Yes, It was only open between 13.30 and 17.30 I think it was - it was one of the few attractions that had staggering opening hours during our trip (the others being Indiana Jones, Labyrinth and Snow White/Pinocchio).
Fantastic trip report Nicolai, I've really enjoyed reading through it. I'm glad that you and your mum had another amazing trip to DLP :)
It really has to be said that your photos are amazing. Those night-time shots are just breathtakingly good. Ont op of those, here are some of my other favourites:
This one made me smile :)
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This one made me laugh :lol:
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And this one made me go wow! :o
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But I didn't like this one though:
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That's not the Disney way [-X
Thanks again Nicolai =D>
Thank you very much TBB :) :)
And I completely agree with your last photo comment - it was the last thing we saw in the Park and what an un-disney way to say goodbye :(
Great end to your trip report Nicolai :D Very much looking forward to the videos :D/
Also i agree about that photo of the ToT CM, very un-disney :roll:
Nicolai, thank you very much for the trip report. I enjoyed it very much.
Looks like you had a wonderful stay!
Didn't think they already had some christmas stuff. Seems a litter early for it.
How much doe's your mum like Disney?
And "velkommen hjem" as we say in Norwegian, since it is very similar to Danish.
It's "velcome home" for those of you who dosn't understood it :)
Quote from: "norhel"Looks like you had a wonderful stay!
Didn't think they already had some christmas stuff. Seems a litter early for it.
How much doe's your mum like Disney?
And "velkommen hjem" as we say in Norwegian, since it is very similar to Danish.
It's "velcome home" for those of you who dosn't understood it :)
Mange tak (thank you very much)
A bit early for Christmas? Perhaps, but not when it's Disney Christmas :)
My mum is absolutely crazy about Disney and I guess I have her to thank for my Disney fascination having been brought to the cinema since I was a very little child (2 years) to see Disney and taken to DLP for the first time in 1994 and then 6 times since then until I invited her for the first time last year and then again this year - the least I can do to pay her back :mrgreen:
I'm just going through your fotki album, you've got really beautiful pictures!
You know I've never noticed Tinkerbell on the Photo Point in Fantasyland?
Quote from: "never2old"I'm just going through your fotki album, you've got really beautiful pictures!
You know I've never noticed Tinkerbell on the Photo Point in Fantasyland?
Me neither - it was my mum who spotted her and of course I had to grab the camera :P That is what Disney is all about that you can notice such a lovely detail for the first time on your 9th trip :)
Quote from: "forza_united"Quote from: "never2old"I'm just going through your fotki album, you've got really beautiful pictures!
You know I've never noticed Tinkerbell on the Photo Point in Fantasyland?
Me neither - it was my mum who spotted her and of course I had to grab the camera :P That is what Disney is all about that you can notice such a lovely detail for the first time on your 9th trip :)
Or on your 20th... (actually, I don't know how many times I've been, but it must be around the 20-30 times...)
I've finished going through your pictures. They're stunning =D> . Thank you very much for sharing them!
Only just finished reading, excellent photos and TR and some good detail spotting.. Don't envy you the coach trip though.
*EDIT* DOUBLE POST *EDIT*
Here it is - my Trip Video "Time for Magic".
When you start the DVD you watch this introduction video:
[dailymotion:7mev4t2d]xbdyrd[/dailymotion:7mev4t2d]
After this you see this DVD Menu:
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Then choose "Disneyland Park":
[dailymotion:7mev4t2d]xbdyxu[/dailymotion:7mev4t2d]
[dailymotion:7mev4t2d]xbdzr4[/dailymotion:7mev4t2d]
[dailymotion:7mev4t2d]xbe26t[/dailymotion:7mev4t2d]
[dailymotion:7mev4t2d]xbew60[/dailymotion:7mev4t2d]
[dailymotion:7mev4t2d]xbfpkg[/dailymotion:7mev4t2d]
[dailymotion:7mev4t2d]xbfrm0[/dailymotion:7mev4t2d]
And then you return to the menu and choose "Walt Disney Studios Park":
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[dailymotion:7mev4t2d]xbi924[/dailymotion:7mev4t2d]
The videos are very big, so it might take some time for them to start showing, so I will recommend pressing play on every video before you want to watch it :)
Well worth the wait Nicolai !! ;) :) This is truly magical!!!
I finally got a chance to watch it today, and I have to say I'm very impressed with it Nicolai. The whole thing is edited together beautifully, and I love how its been structured (with the DVD menu, etc). The one thing I particularly loved was the way you structured the Disnyland Park video around the train trip around the park; it's absolutely brilliant =D>
Well done and thanks for posting it :)
Thank you very much TBB and CPP - it is extra nice to receive praise for this movie on this forum :D
you deserve it Nicolai! :mrgreen: