(FULL TRIP VIDEO ADDED) Nicolai's Magical Summer Trip 2011

Started by DLP-Photos.com, July 21, 2011, 03:36:32 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Angel_Ariel

#45
Quote from: "forza_united"@Angel_Ariel: So glad to hear that! :) Please tell me which photo it is and I will send you a high resolution edition for you to use. The photos in this report have a very low resolution...

Thanks so much Nicolai! It was this photo, I absolutely love it! :)

~*~ Newport Bay ~*~ March 2008
~*~Sequoia Lodge ~*~ January 2009
~*~Santa Fe ~*~ January 2010
~*~Hotel New York ~*~ January 2011
~*~Explorer's Hotel ~*~ October 2011
~*~Newport Bay ~*~ August 2012
~*~Kyriad Hotel ~*~ August 2013
~*~Cheyenne Hotel ~*~ December 2014



Martin B

#46
A great installment once again!!
@DisneyMart - Follow me on twitter and I\'ll tweet live from Disneyland Paris and other Disney locations on our magical adventures... www.twitter.com/DisneyMart

burntsienna

#47
Quote from: "forza_united"Unfortunately, there will not be an update tonight - I have been busy relaunching my website (//http://www.nka-photo.com)...


BUT, I have been able to get the time to make a little teaser for the video that will follow after the Trip Report. In fact I just used this to explore the new iMovie trailers... Enjoy! ;)

[youtube:22rlz6zo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOvTdmINZSU[/youtube:22rlz6zo]
That's brilliant! =D
What music did you use? It's beautiful.
"I could be the Alice to your Wonderland"


DLP-Photos.com

#48
Quote from: "burntsienna"
Quote from: "forza_united"Unfortunately, there will not be an update tonight - I have been busy relaunching my website (//http://www.nka-photo.com)...


BUT, I have been able to get the time to make a little teaser for the video that will follow after the Trip Report. In fact I just used this to explore the new iMovie trailers... Enjoy! ;)

That's brilliant! =D
What music did you use? It's beautiful.

Thanks, Laura...

The music was made specifically to iMovie '11 and is performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of Prague. Unfortunately I do not know more about it other than it was made for the "Documentary"-trailer-template of iMovie.
/Nicolai

Please visit my DLP website: www.dlp-photos.com

[size=150]Trip report from August 2014[/size]

DLP-Photos.com

#49
Part 7 - 29th of July 2011:

The morning routine was the same as the first two mornings except I didn't do my exercises due to my neck, which was a bit "tired". After the breakfast we left for EMH - I didn't bring my camera this morning as I wanted to bring it in the afternoon/evening. The weather was looking good when we had breakfast so I went for the summer outfit with a light t-shirt and a pair of knickers.

In Disney Village we noticed the new facade of Planet Hollywood featuring the newest "stars" of Hollywood: The Jonas Brothers, Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart and also characters from Avatar and Iron Man. The only real stars remaining are the founders Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis - Sylvester and Bruce also with new character shots from The Expendables and Die Hard 4.0 respectively. This is a real shame although it real didn't shock me... You could call it the "toonification" of Planet Hollywood ;)

During the EMH you know the drill:

Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast (196k score)
Space Mountain: Mission 2
Peter Pan's Flight

I have two things to add regarding PPF - it was much brighter this morning and for the first time London was clearly visible and you could see the cars moving. Great! The other thing was that the woman on the row behind us was screaming! And not for fun - she was literally screaming each time the ship turned or went downwards. I had never experienced this and do not expect to experience again any time soon either :lol:

We decided to try Space Mountain once again and didn't regret. In front of us were 4 danes (two fathers with their sons), who clearly had never tried it before - let's just say the were very enthusiastic and it is always fun when they are of the same nationality as yourself. Inside the mountain the fathers were screaming like little girls and when we stepped out of the train they simply couldn't stop laughing - their very first comment was: "Where are we? I think we were turned upside down!" And when the sons asked if they should try it again they got a short answer: "no, not now" followed by "or ever again"... :D

On our way to WDS I once again visited the Cable Car Bake Shop for one of their lovely chocolate cookies - YUMMY!

We once again started the day in WDS by queueing up for Crush and while standing in line I noticed how desperate Studio 3 (Animagique) needs a repaint and refurb - it seems like the facade is falling apart. Not very nice to see...

... The same thing can be said about a situation we witnessed in the Crush queue. Just inside the building by the stairs leading you over the track there is a spot from which wheelchairs can get out of the queue. Here a woman moved into to take some photos - moving past one family. This caused the father of the family to go crazy on this woman - he was yelling at her, gesturing and at one point threatening to hit her!!! I had never seen such behaviour in Disneyland and it was caused by a woman who had moved 2-3 metres ahead of her spot in order to photograph - the rest of her family was still in their spot, so she was in no way queue jumping. And this father... How can you behave like that in front of your children - they were frightened by their dad who threatened another guest. The CM on the unloading side of the station tried to calm him down and he almost threatened her too before heading up the stairs... When we reached the end of the stairs on the other side 3 security guards were in place taking the father to one side - he was furious and quickly pointed out the woman, who too was taken aside. Three security guards and 3 CMs had to use their time on this idiot.. We didn't get to see the end, but I really hope that he was sent out of the park and asked not to come back! Crazy behaviour in every place, but especially in Disneyland in front of your family and lots of kids!

After getting out of Crush and forgetting about this situation we went to get fastpass tickets for Tower of Terror - done! We went to Toy Story Playland in order to try RC Racer before we had to use 45 minutes or more in the queue line - success! We only queued for 15 minutes and enjoyed the ride although we agreed it would be great if it had a longer duration, which of course would be impossible as it would create an even longer waiting time... It was time for Tower of Terror, which was as enjoyable as ever...

We went to Rock'n'RollerCoaster to take Fastpass tickets - I had never tried it before and considered fastpass to be the right way to avoid overthinking it in the queue causing me to doubt whether I dared to try or not. We headed for Cinemagique - our WDS favorite - which we had yet to try due to bad timing on wednesday! However it was closed due to tech issues - we wondered what that could be and ended up agreeing it must have been the movie projector as we would expect it to run even without the special effects, should they have been out of order.

We were then a bit unsure of what to do as it was to early for our fastpasses, all the other queues were too long to match our fastpasses and we didn't want to eat just before RnRC. So, we ended up just queueing up for RnRC although it was 35 minutes. I liked the start of the inside queue with all the guitars, droms and other signed artifacts - nice to see them span from hard rock over The Beatles to modern punk - celebrating all kinds of rock as the queue for Rock'n'RollerCoaster should do. I was a bit disappointed about the recording studio - I do not know why, I just think I expected something more than this... Inside the loading room everything just went so fast that I didn't get to think more about it before we were seated in the very last row of a train - my restraint was pushed just one tick to far and didn't have any breathing space or moving space for my shoulders - bad start!

I feared the acceleration the most and I have to admit that I didn't fancy it that much - I guess sitting in the last row and too tightly restrainted didn't help. As for the coaster part itself we had no music, no smoke effects and the lights were quite bright allowing you to see the track clearly - so it was just a regular roller coaster and I must say that I wasn't that impressed! I am sure that it would have been better with working effects - although I do not quite get the story in our version. [spoiler:36aiqnkm]I didn't see any street signs or anything related to the Los Angeles highway as I've seen in the US versions. Is our story different?[/spoiler:36aiqnkm]... I do not think I will try it again - mostly due to the lack of space in the train though!

We once again went to check on Cinémagique, but once again it was closed. This was the second cancelled show of the day and more people was outside this time. But nothing to do of course...

We went for a quick lunch in Blockbuster Café - a very confused restaurant. What does it want to be? Pirates of the Caribbean and High School Musical - they couldn't have picked two movie series more conflicting with each other... The bright, sterile high school room and the dark, wooden Pirates-room - it is a very weird experience eating in here :P The sandwiches were pretty ordinary but provided us with a nice and quick meal...



The weather was no where as good as in the morning and we decided to take our hotel break early in order to get more clothes on and pick up my camera as I was starting to feel abstinences :lol: We joked that now the weather would probably be extremely good when we returned to the parks...

To be continued with 2nd part of our last full day in the parks including a very special Jack Sparrow encounter, the most crazy and reprehensible guest behaviour I have ever seen and much much more ;)

/Nicolai

Please visit my DLP website: www.dlp-photos.com

[size=150]Trip report from August 2014[/size]

Martin B

#50
:thumbs:
@DisneyMart - Follow me on twitter and I\'ll tweet live from Disneyland Paris and other Disney locations on our magical adventures... www.twitter.com/DisneyMart

minnieme

#51
Again - very enjoyable read!! and again...waiting for the next bit!!!  Brill  :thumbs:



April 2011 & June 2012 Hotel New York
May 2013 Disneyland Hotel
Aug 2014 Disney Magic Med cruise
Aug 2014 Disneyland Hotel
May 2015 Disneyland Hotel

DLP-Photos.com

#52
Part 8 - 29th of July 2011:

We left off with us taking an early afternoon break in order for us to change clothes (due to cold weather) and me to collect my cameras.

We were back in the parks in time to get a BTM fastpass just before catching the 2 PM Tarzan show on the Chaparral Stage. The waiting time to get fastpasses were much longer than the actual FP queue for the attraction and the clock was 01.58 PM as we got our tickets - we were walking as fast as possible to the Chaparral Stage and luckily the CMs had opened the exits in order to fill the theatre even though the main entrance was closed. We sat down on the very last row just seconds before the amazing acrobats arrived on stage - perfect timing!

This time I didn't film it and didn't take any photos - I simply wanted to enjoy this show one more time - it could well be my last time seeing it ever, unless it is back for good now. My hopes are they create a brand new show of Tarzan quality for the Chaparral Stage, but I am realistic and with that in mind I hope they stick with this for a couple of years - it is way better than no show or the Goofy show a couple of years ago (from what I've seen of that one on video). Tarzan once again blew our minds with its daring stunts, beautiful coreography, catchy soundtrack and pure quality. Easily one of the highlights of the entire trip!

When exiting the theatre our joke about the weather becoming good when we changed clothes was coming closer to reality as the sun started to show itself! We went into Adventureland and Indiana Jones, which surprisingly only had 15 minutes of waiting time - it quickly showed however that this was way more. As a matter of fact I had never queued so long for this attraction - great as it gave me a lot of time to photograph all the great details along the queue line, which many people sadly seemed to ignore. I also saw a little rabbit for the first on many visits - I remember old times when they were all over the place! The ride itself was once again as smooth as the other times.































Having tried all attractions and our favorites many times we now had the luxury of taking the time to really absorb the Disneyland atmosphere - first stop the caves of Adventureland and to be more precise a check-up on the roots of La Cabane de Robinson in La Ventre de la Terre. This place is actually way more a maze than Alice' Curious Labyrinth is and you could spend aged exploring all the caves of Adventure Isle. This time we only visited this one - very big - cave :)











And now it was time for yet another great experience with special attention towards disabled people. We were in queue for Pirates of the Caribbean and just before reaching the loading dock a buzzing hit the station and I heard what sounded like someone sliding into a boat - when I looked I - much to my surprise - saw Jack Sparrow entering a boat very much in character. He sat down on the first row and a disabled lady got into the row next to him and he started to point and tell. This lady and her family were all shining of joy and excitement and I cannot say how they met up with Jack Sparrow as it was nowhere near his meet'n'great times, but seeing him on an attraction was a sight to behold and once again a great example of the magnificent care and attention disabled people get in DLP. Great to see! On our way to Fantasyland we headed through the Agrabar part of Adventureland which was very bright and shiny following the repaint just a little amount of time before our trip. On our way to Fantasyland I of course couldn't resist to get more photos of the castle as weather was now getting even nicer - I started to regret changing to my jeans!











Next stop on our enjoying-the-Disneyland-atmosphere was Fantasia Gelati, where I got an ice cream while Kristian collected one of the free coffees you get when buying food and drinks throughout the day. I had 3 scoops - raspberry sorbet, lemon sorbet and some vanilla-cookie flavored ice. Y-U-M-M-Y - wow, it was delicious and the setting couldn't be better. A great summer day, the sun was shining, we could look back on an amazing trip so far and still know that we had one day left. Amazing!



After taking our time we left for Discoveryland through the "backdoor" by It's a Small World and after easily deciding against Star Tours (:lol:) we just as easily decided for Captain EO - just as with Tarzan it is hard to say whether this trip was the last possibilty to see it or not, so we just opted for a chance to "change the world" for the second (and last) time of the trip. Once again a great ride and it does not feel nearly as dated as Star Tours!

It was time for our BTM FP and we headed to Frontierland only to discover the most horrible and reprehensible guest behavoir I have ever experienced in Disneyland (and any other theme park for that matter!) as we walked past Space Mountain. On the grass fields standing near a light post were two asian children and their father. The boys (probably aged around 8) had their pants around the ancles and they peed up against the light post with the father doing a very bad job of hiding it. SERIOUSLY!!! People was staring and looked disgusted as each other as they passed by - for the second time in one day I hoped some guests would be sent out of the park! A good example of the fact that it not always is very easy to keep the park clean when people actually uses the grass fields as urinals.. SO SO SO SO BAD!

While getting to BTM one attraction was still hunting our minds as we hadn't been able to try it yet; Cinémagique - one of our top two favorite WDS attractions, which had been closed for the first two planned shows that we had wanted to attend today. We then decided to head over to WDS after BTM in hope that it no longer had techical difficulties! After another wildest ride in the wilderness sitting in the very first row, we were heading over to WDS with just two Cinémagique shows left of the day with the first just 10 minutes away at 5.45. We entered WDS and to our joy we saw that people were getting in to the theater still - finally it was time to celebrate the movies as edited by WDI and performed by the great Martin Short. We simply love this show and I for one could watch it over and over again. I'm sure that the fact that both of us are huge fan of movies in general just makes our love for this show bigger. It is also always nice to see and hear the expressions of first timers through out the movie. Just great!

After our quick - compulsory - just-before-closing-time drop into another dimension we were back in Disneyland Park and Adventureland as we were getting hungry. We went into Col. Hathis Pizza outpost and I had the Pizza Royal and Kristian the Pasta Napolitaine - just like tuesday evening in Pizzeria Bella Notte. The remaining Explorers Club themening inside is very nice but also quite conflicting with the Jungle Book theme. As stated in an earlier update for me it would be perfect to bring back the Explorers Club and have Hakuna Matata as the only character based restaurant in this area. *Snapping out of that dream*



We walked by the Rhythms of the Jungle photo location and eventhough I see no reason for adding Kaa and Zazu I have to say that they fit in rather well and doesn't ruin anything as they are placed far away from the main road and I would guess that quite a lot miss out on them.







We were still doing some kind of absorbing-disneyland-atmosphere theme this evening as we headed to Fantasyland and I convinced Kristian to go on IaSW once more. Another checked box on the classics list that have to be part of an evening with this overall theme. We wanted to continue with another go on POC but it was closed due to tech. issues - I wonder if Jack Sparrow had gotten loose during his time inside as mentioned earlier?? :lol:

In stead we went to Indy, which now was down to a maximum of 15 minutes of waiting time - and this time this was the case too. We then decided to go for two of the three remaining walk-through attractions while La Cabane des Robinson is down for refurb: Fort Comstock (Legends of the Wild West) and Les Mystères du Nautilus.

I actually think I have never really taken the time to explore Fort Comstock fully so this was a 50 % new for me! Unfortunately it was during dusk, which made it quite difficult to see much through the windows to the "show rooms". From what I could see however, it looked like this very much could and should be the next walk through attraction to receive a long refurbishment following La Cabane des Robinson - the figures looked dated and very much in need of attention. Besides that I think the attraction do a good thing combining entertainment and education in to one attraction - this being one of the great capabilities of Disneyland attractions.







The exact same thing can be said about Les Mystères du Nautilus - unfortunately this attraction is very little, BUT the amount of details inside is mindblowing when thinking about it. Without a doubt one of the most detailed if not the most detailed attraction of DLP. Unfortunately this time the star - the octopus - wasn't working and the water wasn't very clear. [spoiler:m30nscb5]So when it was supposed to attack you could only glimpse it far off. Too bad as it is an impressive AA and the lack of it takes away the climax of the attraction![/spoiler:m30nscb5] On our way to Les Mystères du Nautilus we - of course - had to go past the castle and - of course - I had to take a couple of photos as the sun was setting ;)









After the Nautilus we just walked around Discoveryland a bit buying a drink and waiting for the dark to come to once again see the beautiful Discoveryland by night and for me to take a couple of night time photos although I didn't bring my tripod and I had used all of the battery in my remote on tuesday night. I succeded however in finding a couple of plain surfaces to put the camera and then use the timed shutter mode to get these shots:







We headed back towards Frontierland with this being our last chance of watching the fireworks from aboard BTM. A magnificent sight which we had the pleasure to have on three nights last summer, but still had to have on this trip. When we entered Frontierland it was not looking good as all the spotlights were turned on on the BTM island :( Once again it was closed - we headed into Phantom Manor hoping to see BTM up and running when coming out of the Ravenswood Manor - this however wasn't the case. As a matter of fact when we got out of PM I noticed an ambulance backstage. For a second I feared another accident had happened, but luckily the paramedics then came slowly towards the backstage area with an unused wheelchair looking to take it quite easily. As we walked up to the entrance it was clear however, that the attraction wouldn't reopen this evening as the entire cast was assembled outside and the queue line was completely closed off. (I overheard a family, who received special fastpasses, saying that they hoped to see them again the on saturday, so I was then sure that no serious accident had happened, when they handed out FPs for the day after.)



The Fantillusion hadn't started on Central Plaza yet, so we decided to walk out and finish our last night in the parks by viewing this parade, which is great, but just as Nautilus is a bit too short. Once again I didn't knew whether this was the last summer season of this or not, so I did everything possible to enjoy it and store any memories of it. One very good thing was to see Maleficent now being a face character - it always seemed weird to me why she would have to wear that ugly green mask and I thought about this as recent as my New Years trip. We weren't able to see all floats that good, but it was good enough to absorb the atmosphere of night time parade time! When we couldn't finish our last night by watching the fireworks from BTM this seemed like a fitting finale :D











We walked halfway down Main Street to see the fireworks and while waiting a little boy was clearly getting a bit too tired as he kept using his Bolt plushie to kiss both me and Kristian :lol: - I remember how I ran on the very last reserves on these late summer evenings when I was his age, so I couldn't bother although his parents kept trying to make him stop :) The fireworks themselves were just as magical as always, but once again the ending was partly ruined by the large amount of smoke which wouldn't emerge into the humid night sky! I had clearly chosen the right night for my night time photos (tuesday) as all other nights had been as humid as this one!

We finished the evening in Disney Village doing a very little bit of shopping and enjoying a refreshment in Starbucks. I had an amazingly refreshing Frappucino Citron The Vert and Kristian had a plain coffee, which of course is of high quality in Starbucks! :)



We were back on the hotel and the sadness of leaving was starting to appear - we had no more evenings left in the parks and this would be the last sleep in the great room 25115 of Hotel Santa Fe. :(

To be continued with the final day of the trip, which included amazing summer weather, a collection of all our favorite attractions and a dramatic train tour from Marne-la-vallée to Paris including lots of police, security and chaos!

/Nicolai

Please visit my DLP website: www.dlp-photos.com

[size=150]Trip report from August 2014[/size]

Martin B

#53
Was hoping to find the next installment tonight!

Keep up the good work!!

Martin :0)
@DisneyMart - Follow me on twitter and I\'ll tweet live from Disneyland Paris and other Disney locations on our magical adventures... www.twitter.com/DisneyMart

DLP-Photos.com

#54
Thanks Martin!

So a little update:

Tomorrow will see the update of the last day being uploaded with a trip conclusion following on sunday (incl. a complete photo album with ALL photos)

Then hopefully next weekend I will be able to upload the trip video, but that is very unsure...
/Nicolai

Please visit my DLP website: www.dlp-photos.com

[size=150]Trip report from August 2014[/size]

DLP-Photos.com

#55
Part 9 - Saturday the 30th of July 2011:

Time for the very last part of the trip report before a final part 10 tomorrow including a trip conclusion featuring souvenirs, highlights, negative experiences and a complete photo album with all photos from the trip...



You know the morning routine so let's skip to after having breakfast. We went back to our room and sadly we had to pack and store the luggage in the Baggagerie before leaving for EMH - it was leaving day :( After storing the luggage and leaving my MacBook in the concierge we were heading straight to Disneyland Park in the most lovely sunny weather - by far the best weather on the trip and it was clear that it was going to be very hot today! We got to Disneyland Park even faster as they were playing Justin Bieber in Disney Village making us want to run as fast as possible to get to the lovely tunes of Fantasia Gardens and Main Street U.S.A. :lol:





Of course we started the day in Discoveryland with Buzz Lightyear Laserblast and this morning I got the score of 772.300 - however, this was mainly due to a stop which caused us to stay by a very good and easy target for a couple of minutes.... Goodbye to Buzz... Afterwards it was time for Space Mountain: Mission 2 and after another quite good journey to outer space it was goodbye to the Columbiad Cannon too... Before leaving for Central Plaza I took some photos of the beautiful Discoveryland in the sunny morning light! A truly stunning place :)





In stead of heading for Fantasyland and Peter Pans Flight we ended up using quite some time in Central Plaza and Main Street U.S.A enjoying the weather and capturing the magic of a Main Street U.S.A. awakening. This morning had everything - even horse drawn vehicles down Main Street. A magical morning and a great way to spend the very last morning in the parks for this trip. I will not do anything but letting the pictures tell the story of this gorgeous place  :D/









































Heading towards WDS - of course with a cookie in hand - we noticed that almost nobody was queueing up to the left, was this to be our lucky morning regarding the WDS queues? It sure was as we got to a queue and found just two people in front of us - from here we could see the opening ceremony with a child from the crowd, who opens the park using a clapper. A great little ceremony, which we hadn't been able to see the other mornings. Within the park it was clear that it was a saturday and they expected many people as all attractions were being tested already at 9.30 allowing us to queue for Crush immediately and get off at 9.50 already - 10 minutes before the official opening time of the park! We even got to take a ToT FP too before queueing up for TSPL and a last go on RC Racer - all before the park opened :mrgreen:





When they opened TSPL it was clear that not only does the attractions within have a long loading time, so does the land ;) However we got to RC Racer and at 10.15 we were off for a last playing around in Andy's garden aboard the only attraction that made us return. That being said it was clear that the weather of this morning, was the type of weather in which TSPL is peaking. The bright colours of the over-sized toys and the greenery was very fresh in the corner of the otherwise concrete dominated Studios. However, as I have mentioned within the previous updates the land just has too many flaws in order for me to really be happy about it. BUT enjoy some of the fresh and sunny pictures of it - after all this made it a completely different place from when I saw it the first time in december!















With everything going so fast we had to deal with quite some waiting time before our ToT FP tickets were valid. With the attraction queues being too big by now it was obvious to once again take advantage of the weather and take some lovely photos of Hollywood Boulevardand La Terrasse. Two of my three favorite locations in WDS (the last being Front Lot - Place des Frères Lumière) - they have the quality I would expect of Disney themening - only a shame Hollywood Boulevard isn't any longer!









We also took the time to go back to Toon Studio for some photos...













Heading into ToT for one final drop of the trip we planned to visit Cinémagique at 11.45 as the farewell attraction of WDS. It being our favorite it was the only let down attraction wise on the trip that we only got to try it two times! Before the last viewing we went to Front Lot to take some pictures of this beautiful place in the sunlight. This really is the spot in WDS where I feel at a Studio the most - the old fashioned studios with a big, beautiful and prestigious front lot to welcome its guests into it's working world.















Before heading into Cinémagique we went to the final corner - being Backlot - to get some photos there too and when we arrived at Cinémagique the Hit Daddies were playing so of course we took the time to listen to them playing a couple of tunes before queueing up for Cinémagique. A shame the hit daddies didn't have many viewers - I think this sort of entertainment is important for the parks - especially WDS - but I also think it could have been better placed inside Studio 1, where you already have a buzz going around. Production Courtyard is a prette "dead" place with three show attractions which means that most people simply walk through it disappearing into a show. A nice rethemening á la Hollywood Boulevard would be nice with the obvious choice being the old rumour of a theatre district!





Cinémagique was once again magnificent and a great way to say goodbye to the studios for us!

Back in Disneyland Park for the very last hours of the trip and it was time for lunch with Toad Hall being our destination. At first however we stopped in Town Square to listen to some of the tunes from the Disney Marching Band (well at least some of the members) who was there for scheduled Disney Fanfare. Always great to have them there and a pleasure for your ears!

Collecting BTM FPs on our way we got to Toad Hall for a great lunch - the Fish'n'Chips here are probably the best and most satisfying fast food meal available, which makes it perfect for leaving day when you don't really know when you will be getting your next meal. It was now time for the very last round of favorites - starting with Pirates of the Caribbean. Just as with Fantillusion, EO and definetely Enchanted Fireworks, I didn't know whether this would be the last opportunity to enjoy the original POC in our park. Taking in any detail from the attraction I was more sure than ever about how much I hope they will not add Johnny Depp and other characters from the movie franchise. Not because of the quality of the AA's which are perfect, but simply due to the change of story that has been given to all other updated versions of POC. Please don't let this happen  [-o<





We decided to actually squeeze in a new attraction on the afternoon of favorites - the newly refurbished Molly Brown. Unfortunately she wasn't open due to some technical difficulties, so we only got to enjoy the sight of her from the dock. It was quite a sight - what a beautiful refurb and rethemening! It has been under development for a loong time but it was well worth the wait I must say - a proof that some rethemenings can be quite good ;)













We went for a walk on Boot Hill which really is an attraction in itself, before heading into Phantom Manor for the very last time. Looking at the geysers or the remains of them, I always get a bit sad - one of the greatest "live" details of the park and it has been out of order for so long and it also looks more and more forgotten for each trip. For my sake they could use the entire 20th budget to fix this ;) (Well, maybe not, but it would be an absolutely AMAZING fix-up if they did fix it to next year)









It was time for our fastpasses for BTM, which would also be the very last attraction of the trip. A fitting finale in the wonderful weather even getting a bit wet during the on-ride photo drop. We went to Bella Notte to use our last free drinks tickets for a cold soda and simply sat there enjoying the atmosphere and looking back at a terrific trip for the second year in a row. This was also the first time we talked about retuning next year :P

Slowly heading towards the exits we did the final shopping and enjoyed the final minutes of the Disneyland atmosphere before standing in New York Style Sandwiches ordering our meal for the bus trip - a simple baguette sandwich. In one of the Disney Village shops I noticed that they had an all knew box of Star Wars Vinylnation, which had been completely sold out during the entire trip. I simply had to get one! Kristian had to buy a couple of t-shirts for his brothers, but they didn't have them in the right sizes in any of the DV shops. He had seen them earlier this day in WDS however, so after collecting the luggage he quickly headed into WDS and got the t-shirts! :D

And now for the very dramatic finale! We were sitting on the RER train from Marne-la-Vallée to Nation when we (app. 7 stations from Nation) was given a brief yet alarming message in french - all we could understand was the words accident and police and then we could see the locals reacting with both shocked and irritated gestures. Everyone was taken out of the train at the next station causing complete chaos - there were no information people on the platform and still no information in english. We decided to walk up on the upper level hoping to get some information and/or find a quick way to Gallieni (this was app. 90 minutes before the bus leaving and we were a long way away from Gallieni). We talked to a british family who had gotten the same two words from the message as we had. On the upper level the chaos was even bigger with lots of security and police and only a few metro workers, who could just inform us to go outside an take a special bus. We were waiting outside for app. 20 minutes seeing 4 busses leaving after the police had had to use their batons in order for people to stop boarding the busses - complete CHAOS! None of the busses was going to the end station we had been told, so we decided to ask another informer, who could give us the great news that we could now use the RER train again. This was great to hear as it would give us enough time to catch the bus and also meant that no serious incident had caused the sudden closing of the RER line.

We catched the bus and had a mysterious encounter with the driver regarding my lost iPad, but I will save this story for tomorrows trip conclusion...

The END :)
/Nicolai

Please visit my DLP website: www.dlp-photos.com

[size=150]Trip report from August 2014[/size]

norhel

#56
Great report and pictures as always :-)
Sounds weird with the accident you talked about.
4 trips to DLP, 3 to WDW, 1 to Disneyland California



alternativerock123

#57
WOW! Awesome trip report - lots of amazing details, I also LOVE your photography. I'm jealous! =P  Glad you had a good time.  :thumbs:
31st Aug - 1st Sept 2010 = Kyriad Torcy (First Time <3)
11th - 14th July 2011 = New York Hotel
2nd - 4th Aug 2011 = Kyriad Torcy
31st Oct 2011 = Day Trip
13th March 2012 (Disneyland Cal)
10th - 13th April 2012= Hotel L'Elysée
30th May - 1st June 2012 = Hotel L'Elysée
31st Oct - 1st Nov 2012 = Residence Prestige
18th - 20th July 2013 - Residence Prestige
9th -11th Nov 2013 = Hotel L'Elysée (First Christmas Trip!)
Coming soon:
29th April - 1st May = Hipark Serris.

DLP-Photos.com

#58
Trip Conclusion

So time for the trip conclusion... As you all probably have been able to see from the report we had an absolutely amazing time and 5 days packed with magic. I will try and sum up the positive and negative aspects:

Positive:

- Being back at Disney and all that comes along with that.

- Seeing the beautiful finished and ongoing refurbishments. It really looks like most of the park will be back in the visual glory from the early days when the 20th anniversary is kicked off. That would be a very fitting celebration and considering the state some of these attractions and places has been in for many years it is better than using the budget on attractions.

- Seeing more streetmosphere (Hillbilly trio, Disney Band, Hit Daddies) and more vehicles out on Main Street. With the comeback of a REAL show like Tarzan the entertainment has too taken a step into the right direction and I am intrigued about the new upcoming night time show for the 20th.

- Great CM experiences like the ones we had in Phantom Manor on wednesday evening.

- Reliving the memories of all my previous trips.

- Taking complete advantage of each and every day being in the parks from 8 AM to 11 PM with no more than a 30 minute break.

- Seeing the great special treatment for disables guests.

- A delightful afternoon in Paris visting the lovely Montmartre area and getting a good walk down Champs Elysses.

- The atmosphere, the joy and everything else that isn't mentioned below ;)


Negative:

- Guest behaviour. The two incidents from friday with the furious, threatening dad in Crush and the peeing-in-the-park-boys in Discoveryland as the major examples. But also other inconsiderate behaviour from the guests including smoking inside queue buildings and ashing in the plants, on wooden panels, etc.

- The oversensitive reaction from guest safety following the BTM accident. It has taken away some of the very good effects on attractions like BTM and POC and has closed La Cabane des Robinson completely until december :(

- Us missing out on Molly Brown - I really would have loved to end the trip by taking a relaxing journey on the Rivers of the Far West.

- My first time on RnRC being without music, light and smoke effects ...

- The lack of english information on the RER train going from Disneyland to central Paris (one would think many tourists used this exact line)

- Me losing my iPad and especially the fact that I am sure the driver took (read: stole) it.
On our way home we had the same driver as on the trip from Hamburg to Paris on monday/tuesday. So I decided to ask him if he had found it as we were some of the very last people who had left the bus and I would think he should have found it when cleaning the bus. However, he denied having been the driver on our way out although both me and friend were more than 500% sure that it was the same guy... This in itself doesn't proof anything but is very mysterious in my opinion!

As you can see the positive aspects are waaay bigger than the negative and all in all the trip was amazing!

As promised I have made a complete photo album containing all photos from the trip.. It can be seen here:

//http://gallery.me.com/nicolaika#100057&view=null&bgcolor=black&sel=4

Tomorrow I will post pictures of my souvenirs and hopefully the trip video will be up next weekend, but I will not promise it ;)
/Nicolai

Please visit my DLP website: www.dlp-photos.com

[size=150]Trip report from August 2014[/size]

CafeFantasia

@Nicolai

There are some very unique photos in there. You did a great job. Here are the ones that I think are the best.