Trip Report - 8th - 12th June *day 2 added*

Started by emmaoneill89, July 20, 2015, 04:51:02 PM

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emmaoneill89

So my Disney trip was five days long, from the 8th - 12th of June. It's the first time I've been back to DLP in 10 years, so you can imagine how excited I was!
It started by having to leave a flat in London at 3:45am to get to Gatwick in time for the 9am flight. 5 hours seems crazy but that's just how long it took us to get from one side of London to the other at that time in the morning!
We had the usual airport breakfast, as we knew we wouldn't be at the hotel before 1pm.
The flight was quick and painless and we arrived at CDG by 10:30am. We then had to wait at the big check-in board for two friends who were on a different flight from Edinburgh, before buying tickets for the train to Disney. We debated the shuttle bus, but with only 10 mins on the train and an hour and a half on the bus, we chose the former. However due to the sporadic nature of the trains, part of me thought we would've been better with the bus (as the journey back to the airport confirmed). The train was 17.50 Euros and busy as heck! We stood the whole journey, but it was only 10 minutes so not as bad as it could've been.
We finally arrived at Disney and got on the park shuttle bus to Cheyenne, where we were staying.
Cheyenne was busy - crazy busy! We had to wait over an hour to get checked in, and it was so hot in Disney - not that I'm complaining, the weather was perfect all week. We were checked in to the Sundance building - number 10. The furthest away from the main facilities you could get, but also the closest to the park, so it wasn't all bad. We quickly dumped our cases in the room and headed towards the park, not wanting to waste a minute.
After a short walk along the river, we got into Disney Village and headed for Annette's Diner - one of my favourite food places in the park. I just got a cheeseburger, which was more than enough for me! Talk about massive portions! Our server was so friendly and funny and everything you'd expect from service at Disney.
We finally finished and walked over to the main park.
It's truly a magical moment when you walk through the tunnel and it opens up onto Main Street. After months of planning and reading tips and advice I was finally there! It was probably helped by there not being a single cloud in the sky!

We took the obligatory "in front of the castle" photos before checking out some ride times - the app is amazing for that. You don't have to wander into each area to find out ride times.
PotC was only sitting at 15 minutes, so we headed over there first - mostly to be out of the sun, which was 29c and was burning our poor Scottish skin!
This is one of the few rides I have vivid memories of being on from the first trip 10 years before, so making this the first one we went on was something special.

After that, we headed along to Buzz Lightyear which was also around 15 minutes. I think I came third, which was probably a terrible score!
After we came out, we realised all the ropes had been set up for the parade, so we found an empty spot and sat down to watch that.

We were getting a bit hungry but not enough for a full on sit down meal, so we went back to the Village to check out Earl of Sandwiches.Apart from having amazing air con and free wifi, the food was really good! Reasonably priced and a good pick me up. Plus upstairs has some amazing views of the lake.
After a bit of a rest, we headed back into the park and did a loop of Adventure Land and Frontier Land.

But after having been up since 3am, we were all pretty exhausted, so headed back to the hotel around 9pm to get a god night sleep before day 2's adventures.

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BlackPearl

Great first day - waiting for more  :D

DisneyRon

yay ;D the pictures work now! :) Glad I could help.

DisneyChris11

We found the app very useful too, its good to find the short queues :)
Look forward to the rest  :D

DisneyGagaChick

29c?! Seriously?!  :o

Looking forward to the rest of your trip report!

emmaoneill89

Quote from: DisneyGagaChick on July 22, 2015, 08:06:58 PM
29c?! Seriously?!  :o

It was so hot all week! It's nice to begin, but standing in hour long queues in that sun outside Tower of Terror was a nightmare!

grovesie

We went the week before, The lowest temperature we had for our week was 33c with a maximum of 40c. Was just too hot to do anything.

emmaoneill89

Day 2:

Another early start as our breakfast time was between 8-9am. The Chuck Wagon was packed! We had to queue for 20 minutes just to be let into the room. After that, we had to find a table way in the back - complete with dive bombing birds in the rafters.
It wasn't too bad though - plenty of breakfast still to go round. I discovered I was in love with whatever the honey cereal balls were, and you can't go wrong with Nutella in a croissant.
The original plan was to get over to Disney Studios early to get into Crushes Coaster, but the queue at breakfast held us back quite a bit. So we decided to take a leisurely walk along the river instead to the Studios.
The queue wasn't too bad to get in - less than 15 minutes, getting us into the park for 10:30 - but there was already a 70 minute queue for Crush, so decided to make use of Fast Pass for Ratatouille.
It was another sun splitting the sky day, although still quite a chilly wind.

The area around Ratatouille is absolutely beautiful. You can tell how much planning went into this area, really making it stand out from quite a lot of the rest of the two parks.
Even though it was still quite early, the Fast Pass allowance for the ride was going quick - they were already on 1:30-2pm. By 12pm all the allocations were gone. If you plan on Fast Passing this, I'd get there early.
After realising all the wait times were quite long, we decided to check out the Stunt Show Spectacular, which was about to start letting people in.
Even though it was a warm day, the wind was high and cold and by the end of the hour, I was shivering.
The show, of course, was amazing. My heart was in my throat at some points, even though I knew they had done these stunts a hundred times before.

However, the cold was rather distracting during the set up between stunts.
After that it was time for Rock 'N Rollercoaster - probably one of my favourites in the park. There's something about the combination of music and the in the dark ride that just makes it hard to top for me - that, and the 15 minute queue times!
After this, we headed round the shops in the Studio 1. You quickly realise how much of the merchandise is repeated around the parks, which is a shame. I still think it would be better to have exclusive things in each areas.
After that, we headed for the Studio Tram Tour. Knowing now that they are doing a massive overhaul in the coming years, I'm quite glad. While the first attraction on the tour was amazing (the water one), the others were quite lacklustre.
This was followed by a rather disappointing Armageddon : les Effets Spéciaux. If any of the rides need a major overhaul, it would be this one.
We then decided to hit up Toy Story Land and possibly the second scariest ride in the park - the RC Racer. I can do fast roller coasters with all the works - but I really hate heights. When you're on a roller coaster you don't notice the initial hight so much - you did on Racer. I was petrified and had my eyes shut for pretty much all of it, praying for death. But I survived to tell the tale.
After we queued for what seemed an age for the Slinky Spinner, which was probably not worth it, but after the previous ride it was nice to settle my stomach.
By now it was around 4pm and we headed back into the main park, to take advantage of the short queues in the park - presumably with most people away for early dinner.
We walked on to Mad Hatter's Tea Cups, which was enjoyable, even if it was for kids.

After, we took a walk around the  Alice's Curious Labyrinth, which I have to admit, was much bigger than it looked!

Although it was pretty empty, so felt like a good escape from the busy park. The leaping water is my favourite part of the maze. Although the views from the top of the tower were amazing!



Next up was the classic It's a Small World! No trip to any Disney park would be compete without a spin on this ride. I'm anxious about the colour update - those pastels are what make IaSM classic.
I got a couple of postcards to send home, from the shop next to the City Hall from a lovely CM who asked did I need stamps before I could ask for them.
By now it was around 6pm and we decided it was time for dinner. We went to the Rainforest Cafe as my friend really wanted to eat here.
Inside was nice, if not a little dated. We were sat by the massive aquarium in the back. That was where the fun ended. The server didn't listen to our order and brought the wrong drinks out. When the meals came out, we had all asked for medium steaks bar one. However, two were well done and two were medium. Not that you'd know as all the streaks were tough and more like what we'd call grill steaks than actual steak. But the desert was good, so it wasn't a total loss.
After that, two out of four wanted to go back to the hotel to freshen up, and to rest their feet. So I went with another friend back into the main park to take a few more photos.
We also went on the Dumbo ride. My friend couldn't remember the story so I was explaining it to him in the queue. There's something about Dumbo that is heartbreaking - when he's separated from his mother. I always get sad at that part and want to go hug my mum.
But we got on the ride and managed a mid-flight selfie with the castle - and also managed to break the ride! After we took the flyer to the very top, the control stick stopped working and we couldn't adjust the height for the rest of the ride! Luckily when it finished, we came back down with everyone else.
]
We met back up with friends and decided to take advantage of the almost non-existent queues of Indiana Jones. I think we only waited five minutes at most.
After that, we looped back round to the castle and decided to just sit and wait for the fireworks. Sometimes the best part of Disney is just enjoying the park.
I know they've banned selfie sticks now, but I have to admit, I had much less frustration with them than I did people holding up iPads to take photos / videos. They block out the entire view behind them, and I was getting really frustrated with them during the fireworks. There is just no need for them.
But the firework show was outstanding - as you'd expect. I purposely didn't watch any videos of the show before going so it would all be a surprise and man was it worth it!

After that we headed back to the hotel, getting in just before 12am. It was a long day, with another early start and we all passed out almost instantly.

emmaoneill89

Quote from: grovesie on July 23, 2015, 08:58:48 AM
We went the week before, The lowest temperature we had for our week was 33c with a maximum of 40c. Was just too hot to do anything.

40?! That would have been awful! I doubt I'd have handled anything in that heat!