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[Javey74]

Howdy folks, I'm back from the Wild West's Hotel Cheyenne..  

My report will be available soon, but I need to sort out my photos (1000+) and pick out the ones I need as well as editing them..  :mrgreen:  

What I can say for now is that our trip started badly and it nearly turned out to be a catastrophy. But on a really good note we saw quite a few of the Halloween decorations that were still left up in Frontierland, noticing a large fence around Town Square covering the new Christmas layout ready for the 7th Nov, only to be revealed on the 6th Nov which was a suprise. Also on the 7th seeing the Christmas season in with the first showing of 'Mickey's Winter Wonderland 2010' and the Christmas Parade just before we left..  

I was pleasantly suprised with the improved changes in the standard rooms in the Hotel Cheyenne which I will mention in the report aswell as things which I never thought or noticed about particular rides and attractions, also the weather conditions throughout..  

Finally being part of the first meet and greet with Disney's new Princess 'Rapunzel' and Flynn Rider..  /

Watch this Space..  :mrgreen:

[kelly.dylan]

oooooh I cant wait!!!!

[dagobert]

Welcome back!

I'm sorry that your trip started badly. Hopefully you still had a great time.

I can't wait to hear your thoughts about the Hotel Cheyenne, since it is our second choice, besides the Vienna International hotels, for our trip next year.

[Festival Disney]

Sounds like you had an exciting time! I'm itching to read this report

[SwipatronSparks]

cant wait to read your report =]

[lauramumof3]

oooooo cant wait! my daughter is desperate to meet rapunzel she wants the outfit for christmas........... which im hoping will be out in time!

[Laura678]

Cannot wait to read your report! Especially about the changes in the standard rooms in the Cheyenne as I hop to book there for January in the next few days! Cant wait to see your photos too!

[ed-uk]

Looking forward to your trip report because we were there at the same time as you. 3-7 november for Disneys Bonfire night which we had never been to before. The first night we saw it from NY hotel side of Lake Disney where we were staying. I loved the first section with Mickey in the boat and the music from Fantasmic, but I didn't like the music in the second part although I thought the firework display was very good. On the second night (5th) we saw it from the SL hotel side, and I think this was the best place to view it from I even liked the music more and we had a better view of the laser show and fire effects. We were very lucky with the good weather on these nights because as you know on Saturday it rained all day. We were surprised to see the Halloween decorations still up in Frontierland and we enjoyed walking around at night taking some pictures of the Pumpkin Men. We also went to the first performance of Mickey's Winter Wonderland show, it was great to see the theatre in use. Really enjoyed it. We just caught the tree lighting ceremony in Town Square on Sunday before we had to drag ourselves away to the station to catch the EuroStar.

[figaro]

im soo excited to read your trip report! i go on monday evening so i hope you start it soon so i can read all about it and get even more excited!!

[dagobert]

Looking forward to your trip report because we were there at the same time as you. 3-7 november for Disneys Bonfire night which we had never been to before. The first night we saw it from NY hotel side of Lake Disney where we were staying. I loved the first section with Mickey in the boat and the music from Fantasmic, but I didn't like the music in the second part although I thought the firework display was very good. On the second night (5th) we saw it from the SL hotel side, and I think this was the best place to view it from I even liked the music more and we had a better view of the laser show and fire effects. We were very lucky with the good weather on these nights because as you know on Saturday it rained all day. We were surprised to see the Halloween decorations still up in Frontierland and we enjoyed walking around at night taking some pictures of the Pumpkin Men. We also went to the first performance of Mickey's Winter Wonderland show, it was great to see the theatre in use. Really enjoyed it. We just caught the tree lighting ceremony in Town Square on Sunday before we had to drag ourselves away to the station to catch the EuroStar.

Did you make pictures of the Bonfire? I've never seen it, so I would be interested to see some pictures. Are you going to do a trip report?

[ed-uk]

I wasn't going to do a trip report. I did take some pictures. We'll wait and see Javey's trip report first he'll probably cover it all.

[Javey74]

Day 1- Wednesday 3rd November 2010

Weather>> Dry and bright but cold and quite windy [UK]

Part 1..The Departure

Well after waking up on Wenesday morning it was a case of preparing for what was to come. We weren't flying till 4.40pm but needed to be at the airport by about 2.00pm to be on the safe side. I had already booked the taxi to pick us up from CDG on arrival, which we expected to be about 7.30pm French time..  

Some of you may remember on my last trip report for February 2009 I mentioned a guy called Mark who was our taxi driver, well I'd kept his business card "Majestic Transfers" from that trip, so I decided to give his mobile a ring on the Tuesday night and low and behold he answered, after a bit discussion I agreed a price of €50.00 for Jen and Vanessa and myself, €1 cheaper than the VEA bus, but mainly because he was a lot faster in getting us to DLP than the VEA bus would, it only took him about 40 minutes in February rather than 1 hour 30 minutes on the bus after pickups..  

As the day wore on we always have the same ritual of checking last minute things then re-checking them. We had to drop the dog off at Vanessa's parents house who would be looking after him whilst we were away, then we were on our way to Newcastle International Airport. Once there the usual thing happened, I remembered one item which I always forget before travelling, on this occasion it was my ear plugs, luckily not passports or money. At least earplugs I can buy in the duty free shops, although at extortionate prices..  :roll:

Anyway we did the usual wander around the duty free shops after we'd passed through security. Saying duty free shops looking at the prices you wouldn't think so. We saw the departure monitor counting the shopping time down before call time to the departure gate. At 4.15pm we went down to departure gate 24. Whilst sitting in there I noticed the plane we would be flying on out of the window with the gantry platforms up at the front and back doors ready to board. The check in guy came into the departure lounge and got onto the intercom for passengers to announce that there would be a 10 minute delay to depart due to aircraft operational problems, I thought ok I can cope with that, then 10 minutes later he announced there was a further 20 minute delay due to technical difficulties..  :shock:

I was starting to worry at this point as I couldn't help hearing the word 'Cancellation' in my mind. I decided to have a word with the guy on the intercom on the likely hood of the flight being cancelled, he said the flight would definitely be going ahead. Our main concern was that if the flight was cancelled EasyJet only fly once a day to Paris, which means the next flight would be Thursday at roughly the same time, but we had booked our meal at the 'Auberge de Cendrillon' for the Thursday afternoon, our plans would be ruined aswell as losing a whole day in the park..  :shock:  :cry:  

Then we were hit with another bombshell, there was another announcement saying the flight would be delayed till 9.30pm as they could not resolve the problem with the plane. By this point we were all sick and annoyed, the time now was 5.10pm, we'd been in the airport since 2.00pm so that's 7 ½ hours in the airport and as you all know there's only so much you can do in an airport..  :roll:

There was a further announcement saying that due to the delay they would be offering refreshment vouchers, we were still so annoyed that we walked back up to the departure lounge and started to wander aimlessly. It was then we noticed that the monitor came up with a new departure time of 9.00pm not 9.30pm..  :?   I decided to head back down to the departure gate to clarify the new time, whilst there I ended up getting the refreshment vouchers which were £3.00 per person, which as you can appreciate doesn't go far in an airport. On meeting back up with Vanessa she had heard an announcement just a few minutes after I left to go back down saying they were flying a plane up from Bristol, I started to think that it seemed a long time to get a plane up from Bristol which should have only been about a 30 minute flight. On the monitors we noticed that there was a flight leaving Newcastle for Bristol, which was also delayed by 15 minutes. We got thinking that they must be sending this plane down to Bristol turning it round and then sending it back to us and then prepare it for us to board.. :-k

Anyway we had now another 3 hours to kill and to be honest I didn't feel hungry but thought that we might as well use the vouchers towards getting something to eat as we were in for a long night, now knowing we were going to arrive at DLP after midnight instead of about 8.30pm French time. It was at this point I got thinking I'd better ring Mark to let him know, he couldn't believe the delay and said that he would not be able to pick us up that late but would send his friend Nabil to collect us instead, which I thought was really nice of him under the circumstances..  

As time approached departure everyone headed down to wait at the last monitor near the departure gate corridors to see which departure gate was going to be displayed this time. Everyone I think was feeling the same, we all just wanted to get on a plane and get flying. Then we saw what we had been waiting for at last... Gate 23 flashed up..  [-o<

After another 5 minute wait they announced the roll call starting with the 'Speedy Boarding' passengers to get on the plane first, there was a sudden mad rush for the doors and once the first few passengers had gone through everybody started to rush out the doors regardless of what boarding group they were in, us included..  

I must at this point commend the pilot who once on board had continued to apologise for the long delay. I think they must have realised that there was a lot of couples and children onboard all heading to the same location as us. We eventually took off at 9.23pm; he did the whole flight in approximately 1 hour instead of 1 hour 25 mins. I wondered why he said he needed a bit more diesel in the plane just as we were getting ready to fly, it must have been down to requiring more thrust..  :mrgreen:  

At last we were airbourne..  :thumbs:

We arrived at CDG airport at 11.25pm French time, we were lucky in the way of picking our cases up quite quickly and making our way to Gate 12 -Terminal 2D which was within walking distance from our position in Terminal 2B. We always use that gate; it's actually where the VEA bus stops, but awaiting for Nabil instead. I give Mark a quick ring as Nabil wasn't there when I reached Gate 12, but he said he was 5 minutes away which he was, later he explained that he had an hour to play with in the airport and found another family to take to Paris and still get back for us..  

We arrived at the Hotel Cheyenne at 12.10am, after a lot of fast driving totally 35 minutes, record timing..  

On getting out of the taxi I noticed that the sky looked clear as you could see the stars and it felt a lot warmer than in the UK. We wandered up to the reception which had no queues, surprise surprise..  :mrgreen:  We got checked in and asked for 7.00am breakfasts for the entire stay, which we got..  /  Our room was located in the Geronimo Building / No 2565. On arrival at the room it was warm and inviting. We knew our plan of dumping the cases, nipping into the park then onto the Village and catching the bonfire on the 3rd was up in smoke (pardon the pun)..  :mrgreen:  So we just focused on emptying the cases and trying to get some sleep since we would have to be up at 6.30am that same morning to get ready and head to the 'Chuck Wagon' to get breakfast..  

It was while I was unpacking my case I'd noticed the new flat screen TV with an ethernet internet connection cable in a holder next to it. After switching it on it seemed to be connected to a Disney Network System, on the main page screen at the top it showed your name and room number with other function buttons to do with info on the parks and a few other channels. Also Vanessa had noticed a digital safe in the room. On our trip in February 2009 if you wanted to lock your valuables away you had to pay a deposit for a security box in the reception area. The safe was really simple to use, the door was left open from the last person as you are supposed to leave it, then you just insert a new 4 digit code using it to lock and unlock the safe and what's more it was free..  /

For those who have been in the Hotel Cheyenne before, you may remember a cupboard you could store items in, it was positioned near the adjoining door that leads to another room for larger families. Well they've now added a pull out swivel tray in the top to store small items, I'm not exactly sure what this cupboard supposed to store but we put our refreshments in the tray, standing the travel kettle on the top of the cabinet, it came in real handy throughout our stay..    

Anyway after unpacking our cases I did a little bit of rummaging around the room, looking at these new items and picking up the soaps as we always do, our heads finally hit the pillows at 1.45am with only 4 ¾ hours sleep before we would be up again ready for the start of our already delayed magical trip..  

Well that's the near catastrophe part of my report out the way with; I hope you kept up with it ok..      

Get ready for my next instalment where the magic really starts with the all-important photos.  As I've always said, every Disney story isn't complete without pictures and this one will be no different..    

[dagobert]

Great start Javey!

Delays are always bad, especially when you want to go to Disney. At least the flight wasn't cancelled and you made it to Paris.

Can't wait for the pictures!

[never2old]

Terrible start to your trip!! There's nothing worse than a big delay like that in an airport... And if you're on the way to Disney, it must feel even longer!!

Can't wait for more

[DLP-Photos.com]

What a terrible start to your trip but good that the plane wasn't cancelled - how sad it would have been to lose the Auberge de Cendrillon booking and almost a complete day in the parks.

Hoping (knowing  [-o< ) that the park would cheer up with all the magic, so I look forward to your next installment