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[DLP-Photos.com]

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!

It was busy, but it was never uncomfortably busy - it added to the atmosphere of it being a giant party leading up to New Years Eve

I have been many times during the summer where "guards" in the restaurants would have been a good idea, but I guess it is a bigger problem in the colder months where people might tend to use the restaurants as shelters from the cold :-)

another trip with an interesting journey to start with.

Love the pictures Nicolais

Thank you very much - more to come tonight or at least tomorrow

[DLP-Photos.com]

Part 6
And the countdown begins...

We were up for breakfast in La Cantina at 7.30 on this, the very last day of 2010. In some parts of the world they were getting close to entering 2011, while we still had a whole day of magic ahead of us until the big party would go down on the mother street of magic; Main Street U.S.A.

We were in Disneyland Park around 9 AM in time to spend one hour of EMH in the park. As on thursday we kicked off with a blast on planet Z with Buzz and Zurg. I was in my own space cruiser and I would think that something was wrong with both guns - I got 300 on the first one and 59.000 on the second  :?  :lol:

After this I went for a new Mission to outer space on Space Mountain Mission 2 - I was once again placed in the middle of the train, giving me a nice pleasant ride through the dark corridors of outer space. The park was almost empty, but still had that special buzz which told you that something special was going to happen later that day. Of course the park was a bit empty - people staying in the hotels would take the opportunity to get some extra sleep whereas the one day tourists would not arrive until later that day. After all the parks were open until 1 AM!

We were only happy about the lack of guests - we could achieve more in a shorter time knowing that it would be almost impossible to ride any attractions later the very same day due to massice attendance. We took a stroll in the gallery - I love walking through this during EMH with almost no people.It gives you the time and freedom to enjoy the beautiful windows and gobelins. I actually think we were the only in the gallery at the time - nice :-)





We walked towards Peter Pan's Flight and even here the queue wasn't as big as the morning before even though we were arrived later at the attraction. Well after another lovely flight with Peter and friends we walked towards Frontierland - it was time for the first time on BTM for my mom (on this trip)...



For the first time we got a taste of the big attendance waiting in the evening. Apparently every guest had decided to start their magical day in Frontierland and yes, they were also heading for BTM - every single one. My mom and I decided to get a fastpass which would be valid from 10.35. We wanted to try as much in the early hours of this day and this seemed as the most effective choice - it proofed to be right observation :-)



I wanted to try Indiana Jones for the first and single time of this trip, but although the attraction had only been open for 10 minutes or so it had already broken down with a train on top of the ruin - the queue was closed and I couldn't get a fast pass until after 10.35, but happy and excited as I was, I already had the next plan ready. Off we went to Adventure Isle to walk through the green scenery, which was still quite bright on this grey and cold ending day of 2010 and almost no people were roaming the bridges and "forests" - most of the caves were closed due to ice and snow...







... Pirates of the Caribbean seemed an obvious choice after this and it was almost a walk through. The few guests here could still not see a swinging pirate, some great fencing or the hat-steeling pirate. All three major effects still missing - the hat-steeling Pirate was there but without one single hat on. He most have felt quite naked But the water effects were still working very much - after the final drop my one arm almost was soaked

With Indiana Jones up and running and the clock past 10.35 I went for a fastpass - the queue was not that long, but we needed to use our BTM fastpasses first A great ride with the wildest ride in the west - yehaaaww! And great for my mom who finally got to try this attraction on this trip after missing out on the two night rides due to her fear of heights - she is cool!

Filled with the emotions and feeling of Frontierland we wanted to visit Phantom Manor, which turned out to be closed (technical issues) causing everyone to gather in the queue line for Mark Twain. Why not take a nice and easy ride along the Rivers of the Far West? So we did - one of the most atmospheric and "true" attractions of the park. Always a pleasure to ride - it puts you right in the mood...











... and the views of Big Thunder Mountain and the back of Frontierland are simply amazing - imagineering park planning at its best!!

Phantom Manor had reopened and with everyone storming to the dark and cold queue line of the once so mighty Ravenswood Manor we headed towards the far away and forgotten ruins of Adventureland for a wild, uncomfortable and not-to-be-missed ride with Indiana Jones I was the only one riding and I don't understand my need for trying this every trip, because it is extremely uncomfortable - especially when you are 2m+ tall


My Parents laughed that I took it so calm when some of the others seemed downright scared of what they had gone into :lol:

As with the amount of guests, so did our hunger begin to grow bigger and Toad Hall Restaurants Fish'n'Chips were calling for us. That call is irresistible for especially me and my mom, so after paying Sleeping Beauty a quick visit outside her castle we was taken to England and the nice restaurant of Mr. Toad himself. Yummy, yummy, yummy!!  /





We had apparently been put in the mood by Mark Twain, because more water rides were coming up. They had reopened Les Pays des Contes des Fees, which had been closed on wednesday and thursday when we were there, so even though it was a bit chilly we rode this lovely little attraction hidden away behind Belle's Christmas Village. I really liked that they had replaced the old Rapunzel tower with the one from Tangles - a very nice (and obvious) touch to make to an otherwise sometimes forgotten attraction. It is a little masterpiece in its own

The other water ride was of course It's a Small World - this time without fire rescuers and camera - just pure enjoyment and a far shorter waiting time (<5 mins). Once again I have to admit that the Christmas overlay is a great seasonal change - boy, if we could get the Phantom Manor seasonal change also, it would be very cool! I really adore these seasonal changes keeping the WDI magic - only with another overlay :-)

The New Years buzz were filling the park as we left for a quick pause in the Hotel to change clothes and get ready for a long and exciting evening/night. On the way out my dad was put under the spell of the Sleeping Beauty show in the courtyard - he was completely paralyzed by this great little show





Before getting to our own Santa Fe, we visited two hotels more to check out their Christmas decorations. First on the list: Hotel New York.







We had never stayed here before and actually never even been in the lobby before! What a nice smell - everyone who mention this is so right, it is fantastic! Is it apple? I quickly fell in love with this hotel, having always considered it boring and business minded. Boy, was I wrong! It is filled with atmosphere and a welcoming feeling. I would hope to stay there on one of my coming trips :-)

Next up: Sequoia Lodge:







We entered through the restaurant entrance, where they were making everything ready for the nights New Years buffet. The hall way leading to the entrance of the two restaurants was covered with some white plastic and lots of white Christmas trees - a bit tacky I have to admit! The rest of the hotel on the other hand was decorated beautifully and I can only imagine how cozy it must have been when it was snowing :-)

Next update containing a late afternoon in WDS and dinner at Café Mickey - it will be uploaded during tomorrow along with the 8th update telling about the simple but magical New Years Celebration of Disneyland Park and a general view on the New Years Celebration in the resort. To be continued....

[stacey-claire]

Loving your trip report, you take some awesome pics, cant wait to see the night time new years eve xx :belle:

[GaryL]

Loving your trip report, you take some awesome pics, cant wait to see the night time new years eve xx :belle:

Completely agree

[DLP-Photos.com]

Thank you very much - unfortunately there won't be that many night time pictures from New Years Eve, because I didn't want to bring my tripod :-)

[ed-uk]

Very good trip report, looking forward to the rest. I love the Hotel New York, it's very comfortable, you should try it . The cocktails in the New Yory City Bar are a must (I'd rather have a drink there than in Disney Village) and so is breakfat in the Manhatten restaurant.

[DLP-Photos.com]

Part 7
The New Years Dinner

We changed clothes and got ready for the last 7 hours of 2010 - starting in Walt Disney Studios Park until we had a reservation at Café Mickey at 7 PM. It was actually our first opportunity to see the Studios after dark - in the summer it is impossible and during Halloween you can only see it at dusk, so I for one wouldn't let this opportunity down and my parents agreed with me.









I checked the information board - the park wasn't that busy - 65 minutes for Crush and RC was the longest wait. Tower of Terror had 25 minutes, so I queued up for the final drop of 2010, while my parents went for Studio Tram Tour. Although I do enjoy Catastrophe Canyon I didn't try it this time, because of the lack of sights on the rest of the route. While standing in the queue for ToT, I suddenly heard a loud squeaky voice saying: "Pardon, Excuse moi VOUS" with a highpitched vous at the end. It was without a doubt the great CM so I turned and yes with the same surreal distance to guests and weird characteristics it was Cedric - a CM my friend and I enjoyed in the summer and as I understood many on here had enjoyed too. :lol: This man is just so great and funny!





You could see that it was New Years Eve - a lot of locals were in the queue and many of them was dressed up for a party. Every where you looked there was this special atmosphere that something big was going down in a short amount of time. The drop itself was as lovely and funny as always and I quickly met up with my parents, who had had a rather "boring" ride on STT. The route was almost dark, the video track wasn't working and the London scene wasn't working either - as I had said the only good thing was Catastrophe Canyon, which had been wicked in the dark though



My parents shared a glass of the warm wine (they didn't like it - too sour) and I got a hot chocolate as we just took a stroll around the studios to look at it by night. To our disappointment the Christmas lightning in Hollywood Boulevard wasn't alight - as weren't the stars around the statue Toon Studios however were lighten up and a great sight...



Toy Story Playland was in fact quite dark - actually helping the feeling of being in the garden with the Christmas lights the only true light source (a few lights from the ground, but still). It could be the grey and dull winter colours of the day time, but for me it was way closer to being a true Disney "land" by night!





We slowly exited through Studio 1, which was packed as I have never experienced it before - people were really coming to the parks now. Once again a small disappointment as only some of the Christmas Lights in Front Lot were a light - it just seemed like a result of poor maintenance with no noticeable system in what lights were on and not.

The first two times me and my mom had been to Café Mickey had been in the middle of october and even though we have had reservations it had been absolute chaos outside as I have mentioned in previous reports. With this in mind we wanted to arrive early as we did expect no less than complete chaos on New Years Eve then. We entered Disney Village and it was almost empty and when we arrived at Café Mickey we were quite astounded to see no one (!?!) in the queues - it was empty! We were now a bit ahead of schedule, but we decided to see if we could get our table anyway...



... we were quickly seated upstairs and the restaurant was also quite empty. We quickly figured out that we were having dinner way earlier than almost everybody else. The cast members in the restaurant were in special clothes for the evening and at this time they were way to many! :lol: The characters were already out though with Rabbit roaming the first floor as we arrived. Having only seen this character once or twice before in the parks it was great to see :-)

We took our time ordering, because of our early arrival and they didn't hurry to get our orders either. We studied the menu while enjoying the view over Lake Disney where they had already turned on some of the lights for the resorts newest and third fireworks show of the evening.

My father had a Café Mickey menu with: Fantasia Mushrooms, Pluto's Steak and Mandarine/Lemon sorbet and half a bottle of red wine.

My mom had a Mickey's Garlic Bread (partly shared with me), Luigi's Lasagna Classico and Captain Hook's Crème Brûlée and half a bottle of white wine.

I had a delicious pizza with ham, chicken and pineapple (not that festive, but I can't think of something much better than a great pizza) and Baloo's Chocolate Tutti Frutti and coke.







The dinner was as enjoyable as ever and through out the 2.5 hours we were there more and more people were coming and eventually the cast members went from looking quite relaxed to looking extremely stressed. Lots of great characters were out, although it was the usual bunch: Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Stitch, Tigger, Smee, Captain Hook, Goofy and Rabbit.











One of the CM's taking care of the characters was extremely eerie - he just kept staring at us and everybody else with eyes that would have made him suitable of working in ToT. Even though he was scary, he was great and we figured out that he knew that we knew how much he would love to be one of the characters special friend in stead of just standing there checking his watch

We were getting ready for the last hours of 2010 and left the restaurant close to 10 PM. Now the queue was as long as we would have expected - and I guess it would have been quite magical too to have your New Years dinner in Café Mickey (especially on the 1st floor) watching the midnight fireworks at Lake Disney. However we went for Disneyland Park and as you can see, I was all ready!



To be continued very soon....

[dagobert]

Another fantastic part of your trip report!!

WDS looks really great in the dark when the buildings are illuminated. The park looks in general a lot better during night, it just doesn't have the cold feeling. I can't wait for the Production Courtyard placemaking.

Cafe Mickey is one of our favorite restaurants. We had always a great time there and the food was delicious as well. Now it is always on our list.

Can't wait for the rest.

[DLP-Photos.com]

Part 8
A spectacular New Years Eve

The programme for the evening:

Disneyland Park & Walt Disney Studios Park offered DJ parties from 10 PM and a fireworks display at 00:00 with both parks closing at 1 AM.

Add to this an extra fireworks display along with a disco party in Disney Village (Lake Disney) and special New Years celebrations on each Hotel.

So a lot of offers for a LOT of guests. When we entered Disneyland Park a few minutes before 10 we expected an almost packed to the borders park, but in stead we was met by a normally day time packed park and lots of Champagne stands at every corner selling glasses of Champagne for 9€. However, the main guests were different from usual. 9 out of 10 were adults/teens, but they had succesfully held any bad types out of the park. Perhaps the special offers in DV were more attractive to these people that could have ruined some of the magic in Disneyland Park - in stead we enjoyed 3 hours of unforgettable magic and special atmosphere!

We decided to try Phantom Manor before heading to the Castle Hub for the celebrations. A lot others had the same idea so we was in the queue when the DJ party started enjoying the light show on the Castle. There is always a special and great atmosphere in a Disney queue, but this night was something special - everyone was in their best mood and everyone contributed to a special evening.

The ride on Phantom Manor was great - however, it made me think how "special" it must be for the CMs inside at 00:00 - I guess not that many guests are riding attractions then

We went towards the Castle Hub where some of the biggest pop hits were coming out of the loud speekers - people were starting to gather and we decided to find a spot for the rest of the evening. We ended up by the fountain in front of Plaza Gardens - a great spot. No one behind us, so I didn't have to worry about blocking the view for someone - after all I was almost 2.30m with the New Years Hat on :lol:. It turned out that the CMs would want this kept as a walkway meaning that we could stay but noone could stand in front of us... They didn't succeed







It was getting more and more packed and before we were completely locked up my dad got two glasses of champagne. I am not that fond of champagne so I didn't have one - got a taste though... With 30 minutes left of 2010 the CMs gave up and people were filling up the room between the fountain and us - this was the amount of guests we would have expected for a much bigger part of the day - the atmosphere was special with everyone either singing, dancing or humming along to the hits, which was just getting bigger and bigger with the DJ now playing songs like "Telephone" by Lady Gaga, "Waka Waka" and "Loca" by Shakira and one of the older ones which had everyone (especially the french) partying "Love Generation" by Bob Sinclar. Even the castle was dancing along with the lights flashing along to the music!

People were checking their watches more and more frequent and the mobile network must have been on fire with all the texts that were send in time for New Years. Suddenly the DJ stopped and soon after the lights went out - people knew what was close! Without further a do, small firework balls hit the air around the castle; the countdown had started and people were counting out loud (and that was LOUD! :lol:). After a mix of dix, nine, acht, syv, six, five, vier, tre, deux, one:

[dailymotion:1d04xmou]xgh9sv[/dailymotion:1d04xmou]









The fireworks lasted for app. 7 minutes and a few minutes after the massive applause and mix of "Happy New Year", "Bonne Année", "Feliz año nuevo", "Frohes neues Jahr" and "Godt nytår" the DJ started the party once again and now people were partying while heading for the exits. A few people tried to fight their way towards Discoveryland - eventually ending up going over the barriers through plants, over trees and flower beds to get forward - even though it was New Years Eve that was sad to see. People had no respect for the landscaping around Plaza Gardens. We, on the other hand, decided to stay put for 5-10 minutes just to absorb the atmosphere and because we actually couldn't move :lol:

When we reached Main Street U.S.A the DJ played "Gotta Feeling" with Black Eyed Peas and people just went crazy - one giant party with guests aged 1 to 90, one giant party with people of all religions, one giant party for EVERY ONE. A party you wouldn't miss out on and a party that I will never forget. You combine the magic and safe feeling of a Disney Park with the giant party with modern pop music and a DJ in the heart of the magic. I would recommend this experience to everyone who loved Disneyland - it was something special!



Exiting the park went quite easy. Getting on the busses to the hotels was a completely different task :lol: I have never seen so many people waiting to get on the busses - Santa Fe was by far the busiest of the Disney Hotels, but the amount of people waiting here was nothing compared to the other side of the road where people were waiting for the busses towards the associated hotels. People were pushing and crushing to get on the next bus - the police and security guards were there and they was overlooking every loading of the busses. When two busses for Santa Fe had left and we were still far from getting on the next couple of busses we decided to walk through Disney Village, which wasn't as packed as one could have expected. I guess the people staying in a hotel went back in order to get something out of Saturday, while the locals continued the party in central Paris. I had seen earlier that evening that Sports Bar didn't sell any alcohol (only champagne) this night - not even beers. If that was similar in all DV restaurants that could be an answer to the lack of guests here.

We got back to the hotel having left it in another year. Tired but in the good way and ready to wake up for the last day of magic with breakfast at 7.30.

To be continued...

[norhel]

Great report and pictures so far. Don't seem so fun with the buses...

[Dolph7800]

Loved this trip report, so many great pictures and the fireworks look absolutely awesome.

[DLP-Photos.com]

Great report and pictures so far. Don't seem so fun with the buses...

Thanks - no the busses were quite the party killers :lol:

Loved this trip report, so many great pictures and the fireworks look absolutely awesome.

Thank you very much - still more to come though... The fireworks was magnificent and I am close to agreeing with the child in the end of the movie

[Soap]

Great report and great pictures!!!
We were there also from 30-12 till 2-1  :thumbs:

We had a fantastic trip  

[tinker_fairy]

Yeah see what you mean about restaurant shelter.. we have hidden there many times in the rain to dry off
and absolutely love your most recent pictures, looks so magical

[DLP-Photos.com]

Part 9
The last day of magic

7.30 AM, 1st of January 2011 - a bit tired from New Years Eve we were in La Cantina. We were greeted with a true Disney smile and a Bonne Année and we were entering the almost empty restaurant. Even though we were a bit tired, we were ready to enjoy every single second of the last half day of magic. So after the last breakfast of the trip but the first of 2011 we went back to the room. My mom and I went to the park for EMH, while my dad stayed behind (his own choice) to pack up.

This was EMH as I remember them from October - almost no people at all. It was quite easy to see that it was the 1st of January - not many people were up and in the park at this time (before 9). This morning we took our time to enjoy the Christmas decorations in Main Street U.S.A and I used N20's trick to get a self portrait using the Christmas balls







Even though it was the clearest morning of them all, it was still rather grey... As we arrived at the spot, in which we had stood just 9 hours ago celebrating New Years we noticed that not all champagne glasses had been removed - these actually being quite easy to see and remove:



As we did every morning, we started off in Discoveryland trying Buzz Lightyear Laserblast - I got 297.000, although we stopped twice in good places :lol: I went for a quick blast-off to outer space in Space Mountain Mission 2, however I was placed in the very last row = a very rough, bumpy and quite unpleasant ride. Your seating position is very important to your overall experience of this ride! We went back to Buzz and this time I got 340.000 without any stops - I was finally getting in form and then it was our last try on the trip I couldn't let my bumpy Space Mountain ride be the last, so off I went again and YES, I was seated in the middle giving me a nice and pleasant ride, during which I could enjoy the thrills and sights without worrying about my back/neck

All this was done in less than 30 minutes telling you how few people were in the parks this morning. We walked around a bit and decided to queue up for Frontierland and Big Thunder Mountain (fastpasses) - the amount of guests was still not overwhelming in any way, although more people we coming as we were getting nearer to opening time (10 AM). We finally got to experience the actual opening of a land (something you tend not to see that offen when using EMH) - the speak was coming out of the loud speakers and people were doing the exact opposite of what they was just told (of course) and ran straight towards their first destination. We even noticed a dad running with a child on his shoulders - brave and perhaps a little too much

We got fastpasses for BTM and met up with my dad who was done packing way faster than we had expected - great, we were all together for the last hours of magic

We went towards Adventure Isle and Pirates of the Caribbean to spend the time until we could use our fastpass for Big Thunder Mountain - once again the only attraction people were running for at opening. As we got closer and closer to Pirates we saw fewer and fewer fellow guests



We wanted to breathe in every bit of Disney air during the last hours so took our time walking around Adventure Isle. We had some laughs about my height - restricting me at some points in Adventureland :lol:



Pirates was a walk-on - actually so much of a walk-on, that they were waiting for guests in order to send a boat through the caribbean seas. I have never seen this before. If you were lucky you could easily have had a boat to yourself!







When we arrived back at Big Thunder Mountain the queue was quite long, so we were happy with our fastpasses as we were the only ones in the FP queue. It is a great feeling walking past everyone and straight onto a train without one single person in front of you and without doing anything wrong - I love fastpass, although I do have to do an attraction like Big Thunder Mountain at least once without using FP to experience the lovely queue. But this was a great feeling and my dad was quite astounded when he saw us coming out of the tunnel almost before he had wished us "good luck" A great way to get the most out of your last day On our way back to Main Street and some final shopping we saw Winnie in his Christmas outfit - quite cute I have to admit...





To this point we had not experienced the snow on Main Street and hadn't seen it mentioned or people with "snow" on their jackets. But as if the many attractions in no time wasn't enough, we could suddenly hear the bells and storm coming when we reached Main Street U.S.A and then it was snowing. The magical christmas holiday was completed and we imagined how magical it would have been had it been real snow slowly falling from the sky  /  /

We exited Disneyland Park for the last time of this trip - sad, but think about all the new magic we had experienced during these 4 days and it was hard to be sad. Also, we had still some hours in WDS to spend until the magic really ended. The evening before we had wondered why the Christmas lights in WDS weren't alight and now we had to wonder even more - now, in the middle of the day, they were turned on :s Quite weird...



Here you got a proof of the low attendance numbers this morning/afternoon - Crush "only" had 65 minutes! The information board said that ToT had 50 minutes, but as far as I could see the queue was no longer than the night before (it took only 25 minutes then), so I went into the queue with 1h15m to our reservations at Restaurant des Stars. In the meantime my parents went for another ride on STT.

I quickly realized that only one or at most two of the shafts were in use and the queue didn't move at all and when the clock said 12.40 (we had reservations at 1.00) and I still hadn't entered the library I was getting nervous... All of a sudden things started to move and before I knew, I had been fired towards the ground faster than gravity and was in front of Restaurant des Stars - the only place in which you couldn't see the low attendance numbers. People were in a 45 minute queue - luckily we had our reservatins and were seated right away. The next 1.5 hours we had a lovely lunch with lots of great food - I got some duck which was so dry and fat that it almost made me sick (I am not that fond of duck and actually do not know why I took it haha :lol:), but with lots of jelly I was ready for dessert My dad had the lunch of "his life" with 2 times of starters, 3 times of "main courses" (could have gone way more times, I'm sure) and 1 time of desserts ending it all with a cup of coffee. Of course our dear head chef made an appearance too - I just love this character, so lifelike and so little - impressive!








Mmmmmmmm, jelly   =P~ (Imagine a Homer Simpson voice)

Before ending the magic for this time we watched the cars arrive for Stars'n'Cars. The arrival seemed like surprising all guests and people just gathered together along the route when they heard the announcement. I didn't think the christmas soundtrack suited the "parade", but I still like the idea and the beautiful and funny cars. The "new" Ratatouille one was great!

We left Studio 1 and soon we left WDS and went back to the hotel to get our stuff. No more magic this time... Before leaving I had to make a last buy - a WDCC figurine more for my own money this time... I had seen a big one in the HNY shop from The Rescuers witht the albatros, but when I saw it again I had to admit it was too big - after all I didn't know how much space we would have in the City Night Line train taking us from Cologne to Denmark in the night (it turned out we had NO space so I made a clever choice ) I ended up buying the grandmother of Mulan in stead - a lovely piece!

We were on the RER A back to Chatelet les Halles and eventually on the train towards Cologne. No more magic but what a trip we had had!!

With no major delays we arrived at home at app. 1 PM on sunday the 2nd of January.

Trip conclusion to follow later tonight