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[amanda08]

Cast - myself, DH and DS - soon to be 9 years old.

Hi Everyone

Seeing as I never seem to get around to doing full tr's, I thought I would share my highs and lows instead.

Will start with the lows of which there were not many

1. Biggest low, and some of you will have seen it in a separate post was the whole issue we had with the pre-booked birthday package for DS and the subsequent "stealing' for want of a better word of some of his gifts, by the hotel I have sent an email to guest relations and will let you know when and if I get a response

2. The weather. It rained for 4 out of 5 days of our trip Having said that, we knew in advance and went prepared with wellies and rain gear. It certainly did not spoil our trip and it was probably quieter in the parks because of the rain. Did miss just sitting down near the castle and watching the world go by though.

3. Big Thunder Mountain being closed. I am happy I knew in advance this was going to be shut and we at least managed to ride it 3 times on the monday (no fast pass though as this had broken the day before) I would not say it spoilt our trip but Big T is my very very very most favourtie ride and it being shut did leave quite a big hole tbh. Especially in the evenings which is our favourtie time to ride it. I will be keeping all my fingers and toes crossed that it is open for our next trip in october.

Ok, the highs - and there were lots!

1. Just spending 5 days with DH and DS cacooned in the atmosphere of Disney - there is nothing that compares to that

2. After reading about it on here, we decided to see if my son could get to be "captain for the day"on Pirate of the Carribean. We got to the rope are of adventure land around 9.40am and asked the cm there if they still pick a child to be captain. The CM we spoke to had no idea what we were talking about. I said to my DS that it did not look like that they were still doing it, but lets try to be on the first boat instead. By the time the were about to drop the rope, there were around 40 or 50 people waiting including lots of kids who also had the same idea of being first to the ride. When the rope dropped my son ran like the wind and got to the entrance first there was here also still a rope and a then saw one of the Pirate Cm's taking a treasure chest out of the cupboard! He came up to the line and I stood behing my ds pointing and mouthing "its his birthday!"with a hopeful smile on my face (we were celebrating his Disney birthday that day) the cm said '"do you speak french?" to which I had to say no he then carried on walking saying "thats a shame - but with a big smile on his face"He then lifted the rope and invited my son, me and dh to come under it :-) He was given the treasure to protect and everyone else waiting had to stay behind the rope whilst he got to open the ride! Once of the ride he got to keep the contents of the chest (2 large choc coins, a pirate scroll for his bravery, a voucher for a free photo taken on the ride and a "captain of the day" lanyard to wear which gave him entrance all day long via the exit of the ride and all the cm's working there addressed him as Captain all day and doffed there caps to him. I think that out of all 11 visits to DLP this was the very best moment for my DS.

3.Celebrating my DS birthday in DLP and especially Cafe Mickey. We decided to celebrate his birthday early and surprised him with gifts in the room (despite what happened, he was so happy and exited) That night we ate in cafe mickey where we had also booked a cake for him. There were lots of birthdays that night and we clapped and sang along with them all. When it was his turn and the cm was walking to our table with mickey and eyeore, my son was clapping and singing as normal. As he realised the CM and characters were heading to our table, the biggest smile I have ever seen came on to his face! It was just beautiful! He was so happy! We also had good food in CM (was worried after reading some very bad reviews recently) our waiter was super friendly and there were plenty of characters too. The best thing was that as we were seating we were told friendly but firmly that the characters would come to the table and that we should stay seated. We always do this anyway, but have always seen lots of kids wandering around from table to table which has always driven us crazy. Happily CM seem to have got a grip on this situation.

4. Character Meet and Greets. Maybe thanks to you figgy!! We did not witness one single scrum or push and shove horror all week. All the cm''s with the characters or the characters themselves, were keeping everyone in check. Most of them made an impromptu line of some kind and seem to be keeping a good eye on which child was next. People trying to push in or push their kids to the front were told "no no" and made to get to the back of the line. We got loads of photos this trip. the best places were the studios in the afternoons (we got photos here with Mary Poppins, Bert, Aladin, Jasmine, Stitch, Donald, Daisy, Baloo, Mickey, Minnie, jafar, Woodie and the girl woodie (forgot her name lol) Also, round the back of Discovery Land if you exit next to Star Tours. We saw Chip and Dale, Donald, Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto, Tigger, Geppeto, Pinnochio and piglet. We got photos and autographs from all these characters in the park without hardly any wait and with in an orderly fashion. And the characters were in great form too! Lots of great interaction.

5.DS finally being tall enough for Space Mountain! He was super happy - he was like .5cm over the hight requierment :-D I think he rode this at least 10 times per day lol.

6.Stitch show. DS got picked out and was told he was the best monkey and his photo came up on the screen - made his day :-)

7. Customer service in the park. We met only friendly and helpful cm's this trip. We had a big problem when we went to the photo shop on our last day to collect our photos from the trip and our photos from Meet Mickey were not to be found on the computer! We had waited nearly and hour in line for this and it was worth the wait. Mickey was great and really took his time, showing my DS around his dressing room, letting him put his hands in his spare gloves and look through his magic chest. We (stupidly) did not take any photos ourselves with the plan of buying the professional ones. After discovering the photos were not to be found, we went in to City Hall to see if they could help (thinking maybe they could contact the photographer to see if they had photos backed up somewhere) Unfortunatly not, however cit hall gave us a pass so we could go via the exit back to visit mickey and were very appologetic and helpful. So we got to spend time with Mickey twice :-)

7.CE multiadvantages. Got my Dream Pass no problem :-)

8. We had bought one of the VIP fastpasses from Ebay and i was a bit worried about using it. No problems at all however :-) It turned out to be not so busy in the park so could have done without it - especially as Big Thunder was closed, but we went on Buzz and Space Mountain so many times using it, it was fab. :-) would definatelty buy one again if going at a busy time.

I think that about covers things! We had a brilliant 5 days and pretty much the whole trip was one big high, these are just the things that stand out the most! So, roll on October and DLH - 147 Sleeps and counting!

[carrydee38]

hi great trip report how much was the vip pass as we are going in October and this would be a great help

dee

[amanda08]

hi great trip report how much was the vip pass as we are going in October and this would be a great help

dee

Hi Carrydee. We paid 140 euros and this was good for 2 days for upto 5 people. Depending on how many of you are going and how busy the park is when you are there, it can be great value for money imho. Buying a ViP fastpass in resort is 60 euro per person per day, so quite a saving!

[carrydee38]

not bad but tried looking on ebay there for them is there a special link or seller?  PS thanks for getting back to me

[amanda08]

not bad but tried looking on ebay there for them is there a special link or seller?  PS thanks for getting back to me

Here is a link:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FASTPASS-VIP- ... 19dcd53988

I did not bid however, but sent an email asking if I could just buy one and paid via paypal.

Was all very easy and quick.

[never2old]

Sounds like you all had a great time!!

Good to hear that they seem to have the meet 'n' greets under better control, to be honest we didn't even try to meet any characters around the park because I didn't fancy putting my DD through the usual scrums, but it sounds like I didnt need to worry about that!! We'll have to try it next time...

I didn't know about the captain for the day thing!! sounds excellent, really glad your son was picked for it!! I bet that something he'll remember forever