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[stormflm595]

Hi everyone!

So I came back from my latest DLP trip on Friday afternoon and my god, my heart aches already. Post Disney blues have kicked in majorly this weekend and so I thought settling down and starting my trip report would keep some of the magic alive for that little bit longer. I had a fantastic time and so did Molly; there was A LOT of tears of joy (and sadness on the last night), laughter, excitement, walking (seriously, my legs already look more firm than they did last week!), food, magic and dreams becoming a reality!

I purchased a lot of merchandise including: a photo from the Princess Pavilion, an on-ride Big Thunder Mountain photo, fridge magnets, the official book on the story of DLP (which is a fantastic read already), a Rapunzel canvas, a Tangled snow globe which plays I See The Light in a musical box note kind of way when wound up, a smaller Rapunzel snow globe with Pascal in the middle, a princess crown which I wore on the last day and got some fantastic character interaction with (look out for day 4), a Disney Princess cup to add to my Disney cup collection and 3 figurines (you may have seen them sold in various shops, with the glitter on the dresses) of Rapunzel, Belle and Aurora. Can you tell I'm a huge Disney Princess, particularly Rapunzel/Tangled fan girl? I'll post a picture of these on the days that I purchased them. I also bought some cute little presents for my family, some things from the parks as well as from Duty Free at Charles De Gaulle!

Anyway, I shall begin...

DAY ONE:

We didn't get as much sleep as we intended to the night before, too excited for the start of our trip! I was awake at 5:30am, playing around on my phone just wishing that 7am (time our alarm was set) would come along asap. Molly was the same as me and we ended up getting up at around 6:30am, allowing us time to get ready at our own pace. We had booked a train to Birmingham International the day before, to leave at 8:41am and so with our Minnie ears adorned as well as Disney outfits, we took couple of photos just before we left and then started the walk to the train station!

We didn't have to wait long for our train to Birmingham New Street to come, and the train ride over was smooth and quick. We got into Birmingham for around 9:15am and hurried along to our platform to catch our second train to the airport. We were slight panicky at this point, as a train had broken down on the line we needed, meaning that a delay of train, including ours, was inevitable. We waited 15 minutes before a platform swap told us we needed to run to the platform our train was now departing from. Luckily we managed to get on the train before it departed, but then this one stood at the station for 15 minutes. We planned to go to Frankie and Benny's for a breakfast at the airport, a tradition I always do when I fly somewhere, and the longer we sat in the station, the closer it got to the closing of check in. We were bummed out, since we hadn't eaten that morning and it was looking like we'd have to wait until we got to Disney to have a meal. Luckily, our train finally pulled out and we made it with 45 minutes to spare to the closure of check in. Frankie and Benny's was quiet and when we explained to the waitress she made sure that our breakfasts were served asap and that we got the check quickly. Our breakfasts were yummy; I got the Traditional Full Breakfast, without sausage, whilst Molly went for the Bacon and Maple Syrup Pancakes.

Finally we managed to check in and get through security relatively quickly. By the time we got through Duty Free our gate had been announced and so we went straightaway to wait. We only had to wait for 10 minutes before the gate was opened and we were one of the first to go through. Whilst waiting in the waiting area though, an announcement told us that our plane had been delayed by up to one hour. Precious Disney time was being lost! Luckily, we ended up boarding half hour after the announcement. Apparently someone had been sick in one of the seats and it had to have a good clean down before anyone could sit in it! Finally we took off; we were away!!

We finally landed only 55 minutes after take off and as soon as we got through border control and baggage reclaim, our VEA shuttle transfer was waiting! I completely recommend using it; the driver was very pleasant and wished us a great trip and helped put our luggage on and got us to our resorts as fast as possible. Do you ever look out for familiar landmarks on the way? As it was Molly's first time I sat by the window so I could look out..I didn't want anything ruined for her. As soon as I saw the Tower of Terror, I told her to just watch the TV. We dropped people of at their various hotels (the Sequoia looks beautiful! Staying there next I think!) before we were dropped at the Santa Fe. Molly fell in love with it at first sight. We checked in quickly and made it to our room!

We had Buffalo Bills booked for tonight but as we had a few hours to spare, we quickly changed and made our way excitedly to the Disney Village and then to the Studios. We rode the Tower of Terror in absolute fear (but a good fear!) and then headed straight for the Rock and Roller Coaster! It was in this queue that I realised...I HAD LEFT THE BUFFALO BILL TICKETS IN THE HOTEL!!! Since we were pretty much at the end of the queue we decided to ride it anyway, before frantically making our way to the shuttle pick up point. Sods law meant that something was happening at the station. There were army people armed with guns and the stations had been cordoned off (I still don't know why) and no shuttles were coming!! As I knew the way back quickly, I left Molly with my backpack in the Village and sprinted all the way back to the hotel to get the tickets. Usually its about a 15 minute walk from the Santa Fe to the Park gates I made the return trip in 20 minutes so safe to say I was knackered! Luckily we got into BB's just in time ready for the pre-show entertainments!

It was my first time seeing the show and wow...it was fabulous! Putting a load of adults and children in the same room and encouraging them to make noise with their cutlery, as well as shouting and hollering and providing fantastic entertainment is a win win! I cheered so much seeing Mickey and the gang and Annie Oakley was fabulous! The food was also delicious and the never ending supply of drinks kept everyone going for the evening! I would definitely recommend it to anyone going and would give it a solid 10/10!

It was around 11:30pm when we got out and knowing that we had an early start and a long day ahead of us in the Disneyland park we decided to head straight back to the hotel and to bed. We took the scenic route along the river back and went straight to sleep, excited for our first full day at Disney!

[DisneyRon]

What code were you copying?
If you use the IMG-codes I would assume it would constrain the image to the forum-width.

Lovely report though, looking forward to the other days.

[stormflm595]

yes, I uploaded the pictures to tinypic and used IMG coding for it, so I'm not sure what happened =(

Thanks! Already looking into booking for March, this time for the Sequoia lodge!

[DisneyRon]

yes, I uploaded the pictures to tinypic and used IMG coding for it, so I'm not sure what happened =(

Thanks! Already looking into booking for March, this time for the Sequoia lodge!

lets see if this one works...


yup, it does.

Code Select Expand

[img width=xxx height=xxx] yourimageurl.jpg [/img]

if you use the first half of the above code rather than the normal IMG tag, it will work. Replace the xxx with the size you want. 800 and 600 seems to work ok for the most part, this forum is set up with a fairly narrow frame, normally I'd constrain to 1280x960, but that just doesn't fit on this forum.

Note, this assumes your photos are 4:3, but that's the normal aspect ratio for most cameras.

I have no idea why normal image constraint rules are turned off, but this works too.

[stormflm595]

yes, I uploaded the pictures to tinypic and used IMG coding for it, so I'm not sure what happened =(

Thanks! Already looking into booking for March, this time for the Sequoia lodge!

lets see if this one works...


yup, it does.

Code Select Expand

[img width=xxx height=xxx] yourimageurl.jpg [/img]

if you use the first half of the above code rather than the normal IMG tag, it will work. Replace the xxx with the size you want. 800 and 600 seems to work ok for the most part, this forum is set up with a fairly narrow frame, normally I'd constrain to 1280x960, but that just doesn't fit on this forum.

Note, this assumes your photos are 4:3, but that's the normal aspect ratio for most cameras.

I have no idea why normal image constraint rules are turned off, but this works too.

thank you!!

[DisneyRon]

thank you!!

Happy to help. The photos look a lot better now.

[BlackPearl]

Great trip report! Waiting for the next day 

[stormflm595]

Great trip report! Waiting for the next day 

thank you BlackPearl! I have nothing to do all of this week so I'm sure I'll get day 2 done and up tomorrow at some point =)

[gemma2806]

Brilliant start to the trip report! I love the fact you went prepared with Minnie ears, I keep meaning to buy some.

Looking forward to reading the rest 

[littlebitofpixiedust]

Great trip report how much and where did you buy the book about DLP? Would definatley love a read of that!
We're also staying Santa fe feb lovely photos too looks like you had an amazing time!

[stormflm595]

Great trip report how much and where did you buy the book about DLP? Would definatley love a read of that!
We're also staying Santa fe feb lovely photos too looks like you had an amazing time!

thanks!

I bought the book on Main Street USA, in the porcelain shop though I saw it in plenty of other shops! It cost me 49.99 euros but i think it was well worth it! it's such an interesting read so far with rare photos of the parks throughout the years since opening.

Santa Fe is great! I always feel that there isn't much point in paying loads for a hotel room when all you'll be using it for is to sleep and get ready in! Unless it's a special occasion of course. However, I'm going in March if funds allow me and i'm going to try the Sequoia as we dropped people of there on the shuttle and it looks amazing! Also we found a great offer for it (£540 for 2 adults, park tickets for 4 nights and 5 days with the 2 nights/2 days free offer) so we can't resist in booking it! Otherwise we'd be straight back at the Santa Fe or the Cheyenne xD

[Disneypluto]

Can you remember what the prices are for the Disney princesses dresses stormflm595?

[littlebitofpixiedust]

Thanks storm! Yes I agree hotel doesn't really matter aslong as you get to go right!?

We've stayed at all on-site and enjoyed them all we often stay Cheyenne or sequioa mostly. Love both.
The Disneyland hotel is amazing but pricey done it once just so can say we've done it. And it was only a good deal at the time.

I'll be looking for that book!!!!

[stormflm595]

Can you remember what the prices are for the Disney princesses dresses stormflm595?

I didn't get to have a look I'm afraid, which is strange because I love to check out the new dress designs and imagine what I'd dress my own children in xD from what I remember they were at least 50 euros each, possibly more. I don't see them being more than 70. it's quite a hefty price but they'll get a lot of wear from them each day and will be able to play dress up at home as well...also it's just a nice memorabilia for when they are older I'm sorry I can't be of more help for prices though.

Thanks storm! Yes I agree hotel doesn't really matter aslong as you get to go right!?

We've stayed at all on-site and enjoyed them all we often stay Cheyenne or sequioa mostly. Love both.
The Disneyland hotel is amazing but pricey done it once just so can say we've done it. And it was only a good deal at the time.

I'll be looking for that book!!!!

definitely but I am looking forward to seeing what the upgraded hotels are like xD

the Disneyland hotel is the dream! I plan to spend Christmas there one day, fingers crossed it will happen!!!

[seraphelle]

Loving the report so far, sounds like we're not far from each other too in the UK, we fly from Brum and have F&B's too before we fly