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So here it is: my first trip report of 2011 from my Christmas/New Years Trip in Disneyland from 29th of December to 31st of December..

The report will have 10 parts and an extra part later with the trip video. We were:

Me - 20 years (11th trip)



My mom - 55 years (10th trip)
My dad - 55 years (7th trip)



Without further ado - here we go:

Part 1 (28.12.2010-29.12.2010)

Waiting in a winter horrorland...

So it was time to begin the first trip ever at New Years to DLP - my Christmas present for my parents. We would leave Denmark early morning on the 28th of December and arrive in Paris for a night in Montmartre at app. 11 PM the same evening - at least that was the plan. But as one or two of you might have encountered, Northern Europe has been hit by a little snow, so the travel would end up being even more crazy than the one I experienced with Eurolines in August.

We were travelling by train and had ordered all travel papers through the Danish National Railroad Services Travel Agency. We were supposed to change once in Denmark, then in Hamburg and then finally we were going with the Thalys train from Cologne to Paris (only 3h14m - impressive!) As we were getting closer to the 28th we agreed that train actually had to be the safest and most precise travel option in the snow - we were to be proven wrong or at least it wasn't precise.

On the 27th, we had actually already realized that the train from Hamburg to Cologne had been changed and were now going to arrive in Cologne 6.50 PM with the last train leaving for Paris 6.43 PM from Cologne. However, we had found several other options to reach Cologne in time.

We left Denmark at 6 AM on tuesday to change in Vejle at 8.43 AM for the train to Hamburg. Mission 1 completed. We called the travel agency to confirm the alternative options for going to Cologne from Hamburg and they approved. Yes, everything was going according to plan and we actually arrived 4 minutes earlier in Hamburg than we were supposed to - we were very optimistic. Mission 2 completed. Little did we know that the upcoming mission 3 (Hamburg -> Cologne) and 4 (Cologne -> Paris) would be so hard that not even Ethan Hunt or Jack Bauer could have solved them in time - yes, we did not arrive in Paris on tuesday evening and here is why:

The first train option from Hamburg (leaving 12.46) was suddenly delayed with more than 60 minutes. Option 1 removed. The next option was a train leaving Hamburg at 2.01 for Munich, which included a change in Hannover. The Mission Impossible had now been given a third part mission (Hamburg -> Hannover) - we had this option cleared with the Travel Agency and DB at the station in Hamburg - they promised it would be on time and we would reach Cologne in time for our Paris train. Yes! But...

... 3 minutes before departure it was suddenly announced that this train had been cancelled due to unforeseen technical issues. Oh, d*mn! Suddenly it seemed like an unrealistic mission to solve in time. We decided just to take the next train from Hamburg (Dammtor) to Hamburg Central Station as the opportunities might be better from there. As it turned out the train we took was going to Hannover and we would arrive 15 minutes before the train for Cologne would arrive. Yes, once again we were optimistic and when we arrived in Hannover in time we were even more optimistic but we had only experienced minor issues up until then compared to what we would encounter during the next 3 hours in Hannover.

The train to Cologne was suddenly delayed for a unkown time and all other trains to Cologne was cancelled! Paris was slowly getting further and further away from us. Me and my dad went to the Service Point at Hannover station and after app. 40 minutes of waiting time we got some help. We now had 2 options:

Go to Cologne and get a hotel (paid by DB) and change our 6.43 PM Paris ticket to a 6.44 AM ticket for wednesday.

Take a City Night Line train from Hannover to Paris over the night and arrive in Paris at 9.43 AM on wednesday.

After some discussions and many thoughts we agreed to try the CNL as we were very sceptical about the possibility of going to Cologne on tuesday. We were starting to get a bit tired, hence us getting emotional too. Me and my mom quickly checked out the Hannover Christmas market before getting the CNL tickets. At least to think about something else than trains for just a couple of minutes.







It wasn't over yet! The service point had told us that it would be easy to get a ticket for the CNL train - they would fill out a form and the ticket office would give us the tickets. WE got the form, but the ticket office could - kindly - inform us that the CNL train was full!!! We were now seeing Paris arrival times as late as 5 PM on the screen. I was seconds from giving up - until they told us that there was a few tickets left for the early morning train from Cologne to Paris - all other trains on wednesday was full! We could only get the tickets changed in Cologne Central Station and still all trains for Cologne was delayed or cancelled. Things were falling apart - you could say that the dream was slowly collapsing.

1 hour later we finally was on a train to Stuttgart over Cologne, but we were still unsure when we would leave for Paris due to the message saying that they only had few seats left on the morning train to Paris. 3 hours and some very undelicious train food later we finally arrived in Cologne - the city we had searched for in more than 8 hours, the time being past 9 PM now. Mission 3 and 4 completed at last - Hunt and Bauer would have been proud.

At the ticket center we got the tickets changed with no difficulties and we also received a voucher for a 3 star Hotel right next to Cologne Central Station. An explosion of relief and regained energy filled our bodies. We knew for sure that we would be on the train for Paris the next morning and arrive app. 3.5 hours later (10.15 AM). We got our rooms and with the new found energy we wanted to check out the area around the station, to grab a Starbucks hot beverage and perhaps something to eat. We had a great hour in the area and I got to shoot some pictures of Cologne Central Station and Cathedral by night.













We went to bed only and got every possible alarm to ring at 5.15 AM in order for us to not sleep the train away. I'm writing this from the Thalys TGV-train in Belgium so we got on the train and we are now on our way to Paris. I don't think I have been in need of magic as much as I am right now - I cannot wait to get "home" to Fantasia Gardens and enter the park for our first Christmas ever in Disney.

To be continued...

[dagobert]

I'm so sorry for your delays. It must have been terrible.

I can't wait to read about your New Year's Eve experiences in the parks, since we didn't like it that much. But if I'm not mistaken, WDS was also open this year and Disney offered a third fireworks on Lake Disney. When we have been there, only DLP offered a fireworks.

[DLP-Photos.com]

Well now after the trip I can smile about our tuesday, because we actually came to DLP earlier than planned (more in next update), but it was not that funny on tuesday.

I can say that we really enjoyed New Years Eve - it was a special feeling and the atmosphere was great, as were 99,99% of the people in the Park. I am sure that the 3 options was part of this, but the main dj-event was still in Disneyland Park, but much more about this in part 8 of my report :-)

Part 2 will be coming tonight

[kiki_304]

Wow, what an experience with the rail networks !!

Glad you finally reached DLP (earlier than scheduled). lol  Looking forward to reading the rest of your report and can only hope it wasn't as eventful as the travelling.

[DLP-Photos.com]

Trip Report - Part 2

Coming Home for Christmas

Well, finally we had arrived in Paris Gare du Nord with the Thalys train. If we had arrived in Paris the night before as planned we would have visited Paris this morning/afternoon and left for DLP at around 2 PM. We decided to take an evening in Paris in stead and went straight for Marne La Vallée with the RER train. We arrived in DLP just around noon - finally we was home for Christmas! :-)



We took the bus to Santa Fe and got our room already - great! We was in building 20 room 021 - almost as close to the reception as possible, which was great in the cold mornings walking for breakfast. I took a quick look at the Cars makeover and while I despise the fact that Clint has been replaced and partly the new bedsheets, I am happy that the makeover has given us flatscreens in the rooms - it is a nice modern touch and the new TV system is very nice. The welcome screen is in particular cool and gives that extra touch that makes you feel welcome from the first step into the room. We were given a baby bed along with the other beds - weird, but we ended up using at storage room during the next 3 nights :-)







As we were walking towards the park we were suprised by the "mild" weather - I guess it didn't feel as cold as it was due to our long day on the freezing German stations the day before. There was almost no snow left, but the Rio Grande had a layer of ice on top in the places with no bridges or stream. There was an extreme fog - I have always wanted to see and especially photograph Disneyland in fog and as it turned out I would get more fog than I could have ever dreamed of on this trip. (Actually too much :lol:)






Look, you couldn't even see Tower of Terror!

At 1.15 PM we entered the park - finally, the magic we had searched for in more than a day was now right in front of us. We took our time absorbing the Christmas spirit and looking on the beautifully decorated Town Square. However, we was extremely hungry so we went straight towards Toad Hall Restaurant to get our beloved Fish'n'Chips. The park was  very busy and especially the restaurants were packed with people. When we arrived at Toad Hall a manager was there to welcome us and the other guests informing us that it would be very hard to find a seat. People were actually sitting outside eating, although it was around 0 degrees!





We got our Fish'n'Chips 30 minutes later and had to stand up by a bar table inside the restaurant. Filled with the energy of the food and the childish need of trying your first attraction, we decided to go for It's a Small World (Celebration) through Belle's Christmas Village - just to get in the true Christmas Spirit. I was a bit disappointed by the Christmas Village - most of the shops were closed even though the place was packed. I guess they were all open before Christmas? You could still feel the Christmas spirit and when we arrived at IASW we met our first long queue - it has been a long time since I have seen such a long queue for this attraction. We were quickly to get the sad cause though...








App. 10 characters were out in this corner of the park at the time.

... we had just got in the queue when people starting leaving the queue, and a few seconds later fire rescuers arrived rushing towards the loading duck. They kept coming, so we were starting to get a bit worried as to what had happened and when they a few moments later closed the attraction you could feel the worries that people had. We left the queue leaving the nosy people behind who stood there watching the loading duck - it is a mystery to me how people can line up by the fence to look at this - there was no doubt that someone was hurt, shocking!

We were discussing what to do in stead as they re-opened the queue just a couple minutes after closing it. The first fire rescuers left and soon after they were walking right along the queue with an old lady in a wheel chair. I guess she most have slipped and got in between a boat or something. It cheered people up to see this and when it wasn't more serious I think it was the best thing they could do; comforting the queue by "showing" that everyone was alright. We got on a few minutes later and noticed to managers who were there to check everything - they were not boarding people into the last row of any boats.

The Christmas overlay was beautiful and the alternative soundtrack was lovely - we got into the Christmas spirit in no time after this ride. Great!





We headed towards another favorite of ours (Pirates of the Caribbean) through Frontierland to get a fastpass for me and my dad for BTM. On our way we noticed some beautiful "ice sculptures" in fountains caused by the cold weather and also the Rivers of the Far West was filled with brash with Mark Twain docked. However, they were preparing it for the upcoming days. We got our fastpasses for 6.55 and went towards Pirates - the green area in Adventureland was a bit grey in the european winter weather, but it was still a fun sight to see the snow in between palms and other exotic looking plants.









The queue for Pirates said 60 minutes and we did once again start outside. It gave me a chance to take photos of this lovely queue line - just as other WDI masterpieces as BTM, PM and ToT you start the experience when you enter the line. Magnificent! Most effects was working with the fencing Pirates actually touching eachothers swords at one point (they were unsyncronized with sound though) - the swinging pirate was the only main effect not working this time.







We had decided that we would go back to the hotel to pick up my tripad for an evening of night time photography, but as we went out of Discovery Arcade just seconds before the parade started and we could get amazing spots right at the beginning we took the opportunity to stay and watch it. I am sorry that they have cut out the show stops, but otherwise I noticed that especially the smells were working much better this time than on the previous times. However, they were having trouble with the smoke and the foggy weather. The smoke would simply not disappear as quickly as normal, which in addition to the poor light conditions (5 PM) made it a bit hard to take photos of the parade without using flash, which I do not like to do. I managed to get a couple of shots.









The Dreams of Christmas post-parade was great and I especially loved the tin toys - they were really great! We changed our plans so only I would go back to the hotel, while my parents got a cup of tea and coffee.

To be continued later today with lots of night time photos....

[norhel]

Great pics Nicolay :-)
Lets hope the lady wasn't to much injured.

[DLP-Photos.com]

Trip Report Part 3

O, Christmas Tree

After a quick to Hotel Santa Fe and back I was back in the park around 6 PM with my tripod. The plan was to take some night time photos and in particular Fantillusion (would not use tripod for that part). However, as I waited for my parents I spotted a great place on the Railroad Station Panorama for taking photos of Town Square and Main Street U.S.A in all its Christmas glory. When I got up there I decided to watch the Christmas Tree Lightning Ceremony from up there too. This would mean that I would have to give up on my BTM fastpass for 6.55. It is one of my favorites, but I decided to save it for after Fantillusion, when the queues hopefully was a lot shorter.



I knew that the Christmas Tree Lightning Ceremony was in front of the tree, but this place gave a good birds view of the area and an option to get some shots from a different angle. The Ceremony itself was good fun with the many christmas songs played before the beautiful illumination of the tree. Everybody was excited at three points in particular: when the illumination began, when all the light posts were lit up down Main Street and most of all when all the lights went on in Main Street coreographed perfectly with the music and the scene started driving off. I you aren't in the christmas spirit after this, then you will never be!





We headed straight towards Col. Hathi in order to get our dinner at once, so we could get a good spot for Fantillusion. My dad and I got the Pizza Royale, whereas my mom got the pasta bolognaise. Once again filled with new energy we headed towards the Castle hub to get a spot.







We got a spot right in front of the castle facing Main Street from where the parade came. We used the waiting time to take photos of our lovely castle, which had been lit up in the meantime - it looks beautiful with these lights, but I still like it the most when it is as it was in summer; no Mickey, no ice-lights - just pure night time beauty.







The parade was coming, people were gathering together and the lights went out - it was time for the magic of Disney's Fantillusion. My parents hadn't seen it since 2006 and I had only seen it once in the summer, so it was nice to see it again for all of us. Everything seemed to be working and the first show stop was held, but then no more show stops - the floats just drove by to the music which was just looped causing the background music no longer to be in sync with the on-float-music. A shame but still a lovely parade. I do not know why they only had one showstop, but after the first one I could see that Main Street and Town Square was covered by smoke, so I guess it was the same problem as in the afternoon; the smoke would not disappear as quickly as was needed. But that is just a guess and the parade was still magical as always.













After this we still had an hour until the park closed (10 PM), so I decided to go for the ride on BTM that I missed out on earlier this evening. Me and my dad went on it with just 10 minutes of waiting time. It is always funnier at night and with the fog still laying low it was even more fun and beautiful. At one point you drove through the fog, which was very special and of course a bit cold!

We got off in time for a ride on Phantom Manor which was looking wicked in the dark foggy weather. I like how dark Frontierland is at night, I am sure it isn't always that safe, especially when it is this cold, but it is natural result of the story being more important than the "usability" - what western town from that time would be more lit up than this? I feel even more absorbed into the Frontierland atmosphere at night - at times you forget that you are in a theme park.



After a pleasant ride with all major effects working we slowly headed towards the exit with me taking my time to photograph Main Street U.S.A, Town Square and other Christmas decorated places. After all it was the only night that I would bring my tripod. So as usual; lots of night time photos for you:





















Since I was there in August they have made a security check before entering Disney Village too. Anyone know why? Of course to keep a high security, but I think if it was because of New Years and the possibility of people smuggling in alcohol or fireworks? Well, nonetheless we took our usual stroll around the shops of the Village looking at what to buy later. I had got a "voucher" for a WDCC figurine from my Parents as a Christmas present, so i was looking at those too. Before leaving for our hotel room we visited Starbucks for a cop of hot chocolate for me, tea for my mom and coffee of the day for my dad. Lovely!

My mom had made a box with some of our favorite home made christmas bakery and some christmas sweets, so she made a little "christmas bar" in our room. It just gave that extra spark of Christmas spirit, as we were going to bed a bit tired after a complete and busy day after the stressful events in Germany on tuesday. We were having breakfast at 7 AM, so once again it would be a short (but good) night of sleep :-)



To be continued...

[ben mcqueen]

thanks for posting! i'm really enjoying reading your report, i look forward to the next part!   :thumbs:

[disneyloverjessie]

great trip report, makes me look foward to my trip even more:)

[traveller]

Thanks very much Nicolais for this wonderful review.  I wish you and your family my very best for 2011.

[DLP-Photos.com]

Part 4

The first drop...

Up for breakfast as early as 7 AM we headed towards La Cantina and the opportunity to take advantage of almost all 1.5 hours of Extra Magic in Disneyland Park (the park opened 9.30). It was another foggy morning when we arrived in Disneyland Park around 8.15 - you couldn't see the castle clearly when you were standing in front of the hub scene.



We went towards Discoveryland for the trips first encounter with Zurg on Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast - it wasn't the best round for me (151.000), whereas my parents were more out of shape with 28.000 for my dad and 7.800 for my mum. For the first ride in a long time for me we were not stopped at any time and every major effect seemed to work. You could see that only a few people used the early parts of EMH in the cold weather. 5 minutes for the whole morning for both Buzz and Space Mountain Mission 2, which was my next target. Having "learned" to try this attraction in the summer I was looking forward to the ride and lucky as one can be, I was placed in the optimal position in my opinion - app. 6-7 rows from the back. The ride as far less bumpy and rough from this position than other spots - we noticed it in summer (riding the ride 7 times) and I noticed it once again this morning. A great ride! However, there were some problems with the on-ride photo, which would only take photos of the first row in a car, hence, half of the train not getting a picture. I wondered if this was on purpose due to the morning-closed photo shop.   :-k

On our way towards Fantasyland and Peter Pan's Flight we went through the castle on the way we noticed a dead seagull on the grass field right next to the castle. Unless had just fell dead seconds before that, this is the sort of stuff they should remove before opening time. It ruins the magic a bit and could be quite shocking for some minors.



We went towards Peter Pan and finally we could see that it was high season (also during EMH) - a full queue line. I haven't experienced this during EMH on any of my 3 visits since 2008, but the wait was still no more than 20 minutes. The ride was good and at the brightest I have seen since 2006 - you could really see London this time, one of the scenes that put this ride on top of Snow White and Pinocchio. A pleasant fly over Neverland later and we were slowly on our way to the Studios (noticed that the seagull had not been removed yet - this was with the spot filled with guests waiting to enter Fantasyland minutes from 9.30) - visiting the Cookie Factory on our way out.

The queue for the Studios was huge 30 minutes before opening time - they opened the gates 15 minutes before and as in the summer some people were running crazy towards there destinations and of course the queue for Crush' Coaster was already extremely long going all the way to Studio 1. This was our first destination so we queued up and I told my parents about the ride as none of them had tried it before. My mom isn't the biggest fan of heights and my dad does not like spinning rides, but I convinced them and after an hour of waiting time we were seated in our shell - me and my mom in the back. The dark ride part is extremely short and I would prefer it to be twice the size - it seems a bit half done, it being so short. The rollercoaster part was beginning and while I enjoyed as much as in the summer I could feel that my mom was a bit scared, but I succeeded in calming her down and she actually ended up enjoying it. However none of them would try it again on this trip and they both felt a bit dizzy (my dad more than my mom) - but the main conlusion was that it was good fun! :-)



We went towards Tower of Terror and I went for a fast pass - my dad took one too, but wouldn't promise me to go on it - fair enough. We got tickets for 12.55, so we had 1 hour and 45 minutes to spent. Of course we went for one of my favorites; Cinémagique. It is one the marvels of WDS in my opinion and an absolute must-do for me, when I go. We all enjoyed it, even though my dad was still a bit dizzy from Crush :p

More time to spend = our very first visit to Toy Story Playland. I had said that I would like to try RC and maybe Toy Soldier Parachute Drop - but only if the queues were reasonable and with waiting times of more than 75 minutes for both, I decided just to take a walk around. I must say that although I can see it working in the hot and bright summer months it did feel very grey and flat in the dull winter weather. For me the feeling of being the size of a toy was only really convincing at one spot between Slinky and RC and around the ball. The place was packed and was without a doubt a hit by the kids though - but not by me. We agreed that we felt more in Legoland than in Disneyland - a shame....




Here the size-of-a-toy-feeling was immersive and quite convincing

... I also noticed the amount of time between an attraction ended and it started again. Oh, my it took ages for them to get a new "team" of guests in place and make sure they were secured. No wonder the attractions have such small capacities with these loading times! The result was a way to packed land with no time to enjoy the small and nice touches and details that it undoubtely has - (e.g. Andy's footprint).

You exit through the biggest illusion breaker of them all - the Barrel of Monkeys (real size = 5 inches), which houses a store and it is way bigger than both Rex and Buzz (the latter being bigger than Rex here in contradiction to the movies). It is details like this I miss for it to be a true Disneyland experience. I'm sorry to say it, but it doesn't work for me! However, I am very optimistic for the Ratatouille attraction if the quality of the Parisian walkway is the standard for this addition - it has all the details I would expect and it looks extremely Parisian and makes me think of when we got Toilettes of Terror. The main attraction here turned out pretty awesome! And also I cannot wait to see the head of Gusteau back in all its glory - the "permanent" scaffolding looks quite cheap and terrible.



Back to the positives - Tower of Terror. It was time for the first drop of the trip and my dad decided to go on it - we quickly got into the left library in french and was almost immediately escorted to our service elevator. I could sense that my dad wasn't all that sure about going on, so I kept asking him if he was sure, knowing that he could get out right up until we were seated. Stubborn as he is, he refused that anything was wrong and we were seated in the left shaft on the back row. Our cm was quite boring, but the ride and drop was just as fun and amazing as I remembered from my first 7 drops in the summer. My father however, kept saying it was rather harmless, but was clearly not feeling that well. Finally he admitted that he was still dizzy from Crush and that ToT hadn't helped him. He suffers from motion sickness (especially from sea motion, so Crush had surely not been good for him.)





We went for the Restaurant des Stars to get a good lunch before catching the 3.30 showing of Mickey's Winter Wonderland and an evening in Paris. However they had 40 minutes of waiting time, so instead we made a reservation for Saturday before leaving the parks. We went back to Disneyland Park for lunch in Café Hyperion.

It was crazy the amount of people in there and it took me and my mom more than 45 minutes to get to the oredering point and make our order of two double cheeseburger menues and a nuggets menu for me. We could now pass the guards making sure that no one would enter the seating area without food and got a spot and enjoyed some well deserved lunch. After this, my dad felt way better and we even took our second ride on Pirates of the Caribbean before heading towards the Chapparal Theater.

As for Mickey's Winter Wonderland, none of us had seen it before and I have dreamed of watching it for a long time and I wasn't disappointed. It was a blast back to the good entertainment days with shows like Pocahontas, Mulan, Tarzan and even the old show from the Royal Castle Stage. A true Disney show with the beloved characters, a storyline and some great music - not just another, sorry to say, come dance along show with a few seasonal tweeks with some dance star thrown in to it This was proper entertainment and made me wish for more of this again. Give us back a summer show in Chaparral and a great broadway style show in Videopolis - it would be amazing!









We went back to the hotel, but was we really keen on "throwing the night and lots of transport euros away" by going to Paris. It was clear that both me and my mum had our doubts....

To be continued...

[dagobert]

Finally I could catch up a bit while enjoying breakfast, because I'm skiing at the moment and in a few minutes I'm back on the slope. It's not that easy to read and write on my smartphone.

Nicolai, your pictures are great like always. I like the tilt shift picture. Disneyland is so beautiful when covered in snow and ice. We liked that a lot back in February.

Waiting for more to come.

[DLP-Photos.com]

Part 5
Oh, little hotel of Christmas!

On our way back to the hotel I noticed that the "do-not-swim-in-the-lake-signs" along Rio Grande from the summer had been changed with signs warning about walking on the ice. A nice little touch and definitely in place with the most of Lake Disney and Rio Grande still covered by ice.



As said we planned to go to Paris, but once in the hotel room I made a list of what we still had left to do in the parks and boy, was it long. With the 31st a pretty unknown factor (how busy would it be?) we could see that we would be quite busy and we ended up agreeing that not only would the last two days in the parks be a bit stressful but the short trip to Paris would be aswell. One more night in the parks would probably be the best and so after 20 minutes or so we were back on the road to discover the foyer of Disneyland Hotel first of all. My mom and I had a dream of visiting all the hotels to see the different decorations and today we started off with our own Santa Fe...





... and continued to the great Disneyland Hotel. Having stayed there only once (2001 summer) we were familiar with the foyer, but I - for one - had forgotten just how big and beautiful it is. And with the Christmas decorations it was no less than magical. How I would love to stay here again some time, but the prices ain't worth it. After all you do not visit Disneyland to stay in the hotel. But it would still be nice :lol:





We entered the quite busy park and decided to rewatch the Christmas Tree Lightning Ceremony - this time in front of Emporium, so we could see the little show. We got a great spot and once again I must admit that this show is great. It puts you right in the mood and the little boy/girl chosen to light the tree must have the time of his/her life! The boy this day was way more shy than the girl on wednesday - Minnie almost had to force him to wave

[spoiler:3e1k5zqa]Quite a magic ruiner could have happened at this show - I quickly spotted that Goofy's special friend had some problems with his head and he kept "putting it on place" during the show. Luckily he got it fixed and Goofy enjoyed the show as one of the true party starters [/spoiler:3e1k5zqa]







After the show we were a bit hungry and we knew that we would skip Fantillusion, so we had whatever time would be left after dinner to try as much as possible from our list of to-dos

We had dinner in Au Chalet de la Marionette and whereas my mom got the double cheeseburger for lunch, I took this now and she got the nuckets I had for lunch. My dad had the 1/2 Chicken which he loved. I must say that even though the cheeseburger was okay I still think the burgers as being the "baddest" food of the 3 fast food types in the parks (burgers, pizza/pasta, specialities like Fish'n'Chips, kebab and fajita). But still a good meal and my dad succeded in breaking his falk the second evening in a row - quite impressive even considering the poor quality of the plastic service

After this we used the opportunity to try two of the classics based on the very first of Walt Disney Classics - Snow White and Pinocchio. Lovely attractions and even though I didn't ride them in the summer I actually do not consider a DLP-trip accomplished until these have been tried at least once. Afterwards we visited our favorite store Les Chaumiére des Sept Nains - this shop is so beautiful and well themed that it is almost an attraction for it self. I succeded in capturing the great detail where the queen looks in the mirror and Snow Whites face appears :-) It is details like this that make a real Disney shop!





The park was getting ready for Fantillusion, but we headed towards Discoveryland to catch Michael in Captain EO. As fantastic as I still consider the film, as boring and long is the "prelude", I'm sorry to say. The Kodak commercial is beautiful, but boring and a bit out-of-place, whereas the original "pre-show" is more like special features as my mom said. The 80's music, however, is quite enjoyable For now I would have no problem with this attraction staying - unless they have something amazing up their sleeves which would cooperate with the original Discoveryland theme and atmosphere. I would at any time prefer this to an attraction like Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor or Stitch' Great Escape - this has WDI imagination combined with George Lucas and some great music and most of all a message, which is still very important to spread! Thanks for bringing it back! (The floor was not working, but it almost made me enjoy it even more as I find the floor effects the most dated in this attraction)

On a side note we had a great CM experience in the queue for Cpt. EO as it was 15 minutes before Fantillusion began. She went to every person in the queue (app. 20-30 people) and informed them that the next show would end after Fantillusion and that they could come back afterwards to catch a showing of EO. Some took this advice and I found it very good service as some people, who may have no knowledge about the pre-show could think that they could do this attraction and catch the Fantillusion by IASW. Once again that spark of extra service that makes a Disney CM :-)

When EO ended Fantillusion was over (as the CM had said) and 70 % of the Guests were heading for the exit. We however was heading towards Frontierland for a night ride on Big Thunder Mountain for me - on our way I photographed the Adventureland entrance. The torches was working - as were the ones on the Frontierland entrance (well 3 out of 4) - yay even more Disney details working - a good and magical evening





Once again the queue was short and the ride very funny in the dark A great end to a great evening - I'm happy that we dropped Paris to spend one more evening in the parks and we had done 4 things on our to-do-list already, so the next two days would be way less stressful :-)

When we left Frontierland we noticed a camera crew had closed off the part of Central Hub in front of the control house. They had big crane cameras on rails and stuff and seemed quite ready to shoot - what they were shooting, I do not know, but I guess it had something to do with the New Years Celebration.

We went through Disney Village I got my first WDCC figurine (the one from my parents in Christmas Present) - I ended up getting Mushu from Mulan :-)



We were getting to bed ready for an early 7.30 breakfast on the very last day of 2010  /

To be continued...

[tinker_fairy]

Really enjoying your report! Totally agree with you 'sometimes you forget you're in a theme park'. Frontierland at night is by far my fave
Guards making sure you had food to sit? Never experienced that, and we also go in the summer! New year sounds uncomfortably busy!

[GaryL]

another trip with an interesting journey to start with.

Love the pictures Nicolais