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[Ohana]

I didn't think I'd feel like writing a trip report this time around; I wrote one last time and found it a bit stressful trying to get down all of my experiences whilst they were still fresh in my memory, and uploading photos was a nightmare. However I had such a fun trip again this time I can't resist documenting it in a report, so here goes!

I'll just start with a few of the cons of this trip - I was no longer seeing it through the rose-tinted glasses I had on my first ever visit, whilst I still adored it, I was a lot more aware of some of the shortfalls of the park, and my experience overall:

1. Toilet cleanliness - with the exception of the toilets on Main Street which always smell lovely, most of the other toilets scattered around the park were pretty grim, they stunk strongly of wee, there was wee on the floor, clogged up toilets, suspicious stains on the walls. It was definitely not up to the Disney standard and I found it quite off putting visiting most of the toilets - Planet Hollywood in particular, eurgh!

2. Lack of photographers at meet and greets - Now this one I thought was pretty abysmal. I didn't plan on buying a photopass this time, but I felt for folk who had, imagine dropping 60 euros on the photopass plus only to find that half the scheduled meet and greets didn't have a photopass photographer? Queuing forr 40+ minutes to not get a photo on your card, I thought that was pretty poor. Fair enough for characters just wandering around the park, but for those advertised on the progamme? Not good.

3. General rudeness of people - just the usual, people pushing into you, bashing your head with their arms/cameras whilst trying to film a parade - if you've got clunky technology/really want to get a good view of a parade/show on your camera, turn up before it begins and get a spot rather than bashing people infront of you on the head. Not Disney's fault but something that really irked me and Tom.

4. Big thunder alert causing all of the outdoor rides to be shut on our last evening - gutted wasn't the word, I wanted to spend a solid hour riding RC Racer over and again. And then all the queues for indoor attractions rocketed - Princess Pavillion was 90 minutes. No one's fault of course, just bad luck.

So with all of that out of the way let's crack on with this trip report!

We started our day on Monday 9th May at 0300 having had only a few hours of sleep. We'd gone to bed with the best of intentions at 8pm, intending to fall asleep and get a solid 7 hours of sleep.. obviously with all of the excitement we didn't fall asleep until after midnight haha. I felt fairly tired but I was too excited to care. I quickly had a wash and did my make up, we packed our final bits and were in the car by just after 4am to drive to Manchester Airport. The drive was uneventful, and it was daylight by the time we parked up in the jet park at around 0520. During check-in, the very kind woman asked if we'd like to board an earlier flight at 0710 with Flybe - our flight was originally booked for 0845 with AirFrance. We took her up on the offer but felt a bit stressed as we had to make it through security etc before we boarded. We were good kids and packed our bags correctly - I put all my liquids into a clear bag and had all of our wires and cables elastic banded together to keep them all together. I separated all of my things out into the trays and awaited my bag, only to find it kept behind! We were behind someone who had loads of liquids in their bags which hadn't been put into a clear bag so it took ages for mine to finally get sorted, and it turns out that it was just one of my make-up brushes which had been identified by the scanner as some kind of illegal contraband. And at this point we needed to board, so we couldn't even take advantage of our lounge passes for unlimited free drinks! I was pretty pee'd off by this point but decided to keep a cool head as we'd soon be in Disneyland =)

The flight itself was fine, I actually experienced no ear pain this time and we got free food - I chose a ham and cheese croissant whilst Tom had a pain au chocolat. Tom then listened to some music on spotify whilst I settled down with my Disneylife app. I'd downloaded Toy Story to watch offline on the flight. As we got nearer to landing we saw the Eiffel Tower out of the window which was lovely as I've never actually seen it in person before - even though it did only look like a toothpick from our height haha! We disembarked around 0930, swiftly got through border control, collected our bags off the carousel and made our way to the Magic Shuttle stop which actually arrived just after we did - awesome timing! We were in Disney around an hour later and checked in - the bus was very busy but thankfully we sat at the very front, ergo were the first off and the first in line to check-in. Our room was ready straight away and this was before 11am so we were impressed. We stayed in the Santa Fe block 46 on the first floor. When we arrived to our room it absolutely stunk of weed, you could almost taste it. Naturally we were pretty annoyed and immediately called reception, and a CM swiftly came to our block to transfer us to a fresher room, which was better, but we couldn't help thinking how on earth did the cleaners not notice that in the morning?! Awful.

Day 1 part 2 (finally getting to the parks) to be written up later!

[NCC1701Q]

Seems like you got a lot of excitement before even getting into the parks! Look forward to reading the rest and ofcourse: a belated happy birthday!

[billy]

thank you for such a detailed report looks like you had a bit of a stressful start and i completely agree with you regarding the photographers for meet and greets we had bought a photo pass and we were really disappointed. to be fair when there was a photographer they did take loads of pics for us but i really dont think it was worth the money, but that is only my personal opinion.
looking forward to hearing the rest of your report!

[daddyof2]

Wow, you did well with the flight and bus - it's not often that sort of thing happens. The toilets and photographer issues aren't acceptable as far as I'm concerned, nor saying any room is "ready" when it isn't. Glad the room got sorted quickly though

[jeakat24]

Great start to the report, looking forward to reading more.

We had awful cigarette stink in our DLH room on our last visit (and I'd taken a big inhale of breath as we entered the room to capture that DLH smell!) and the smoke alarm had been covered with a plastic bag. Not impressed, but we did get moved to a family room which was huge!

[Ohana]

Yeah we've been fairly lucky both times with flight and bus times, and thankfully this time getting through border control was a very fast process this time around, we didn't really do any waiting around at all, so it was all quite swift. I can't believe that about the DLH that's outrageous! You'd kind of expect it from the Santa Fe but not the pink palace :O

Anyway back onto part 2, I'm typing this on my shiny new laptop so I'll probably enjoy writing it a bit more than last time haha!

We settled ourselves into our room, Tom chilled out for a bit whilst I unpacked and called my mum on whatsapp for a chat. Sorted my hair and make-up out a bit and caught up on my social media accounts.. it was about 1300ish by the time we finally left the hotel. We took a leisurely stroll to the parks, and stopped off in a couple of shops in the Village along the way. There was some scaffolding around Fantasia Gardens which did suck a bit, but it occurred to me whilst we were there that the scaffolding and green fences look worse on photos than they do in person... not sure if that's just me but the fencing wasn't much of a problem (bar one piece, which I'll discuss later). I think its because you're actually there in the magic so it's less of a big deal. Anyway, we walked through the park gates in an excited hurry and forgot our map and guide, just like the last time we were there. The reason this time is we heard Minnie's Spring Train music and I had to run towards it. Thankfully the train was coming from the Fantasyland side of the parade route down to the Main Street exit so we hadn't missed it. That was the first thing we saw in DLP that trip and it was so lovely to be welcomed into the park with such a happy parade.

After this we went to Cable Car to wait for Goofy's Garden Party - it was important we saw it as it was only shown on certain days of the week and we didn't want to end up missing it. I had a cheesecake and Tom had carrot cake, and we shared a nestea (a drink I would soon develop quite the addiction to). The cakes were absolutely amazing, we really enjoyed them. We them went off to watch the parade, which I actually really enjoyed, it was nice and long and lots to see, I LOVED seeing Clarabelle Cow and Horace Horsecollar, characters from the old shorts are great to see out and about in the parks, I just wished they did meet and greets! The only downside to the parade was that some guy came over half way through with a huge professional camera and kept hitting Tom on the head with it trying to get footage - I've said it before and I'll say it again, if you want to take photos on stupidly big equipment that's fine, but get a spot before the show starts, there's nothing more annoying than having your good time interrupted by someone bashing you on the head with heavy equipment. Plus there were so many people edging to the side of the pavement I accidentally stepped off and got told to move out of the parade route which really irked me as it wasn't my fault I was being bombarded haha. I got quite upset actually, but that was more down to immense tiredness than anything. In all the parade was fun and we enjoyed it

After that we meandered down Main Street and had a look at all of the spring scenery, we were impressed with how big the eggs were! I then noticed Scrooge McDuck was meeting, and the queue wasn't all that long (being hidden by Plaza Gardens seems to hide them well so the queues are a bit shorter). During my wait, I realised I didn't yet have an autograph book with me so obviously I'd have to meet him twice, hehe. I wasn't initially going to get another autograph book but with all the different characters to meet this time I thought I would. Plus I like to put photographs next to the autographs and turn them into a proper nice little photo album. Anyway, my meet with Scrooge was fun, and after this we took ourselves off to Buzz Lightyear - one of only three rides we did that day, and it broke down in a rather epic fashion as we all had to walk off the ride, quite an amusing experience although Tom was a bit gutted that he lost his high score.

We then went over to Le Pays des Contes de Fees, a ride we'd not done last time due to it being so hidden away and just basically forgetting it was there until it was too late. I'm so glad we found it this time around, this is probably one of the most underrated rides at DLP, it's so magical and I love the inclusion of loads of great Disney films. Although the Peter and the Wolf section really really creeped me out and I have no idea why, haha. The ride stopped a couple of times, judging by the announcements it was due to people standing up on the ride -.- but I could think of worse places to be stuck!

After we exited the boats, our next stop was IASW. This ride was closed for refurbs when we came in November, and I was really gutted about this, so to be able to go on it this time was just excellent, I was so excited to finally experience this Disney parks classic, and I was not disappointed. It's such a cute, relaxing, fun ride. I loved seeing all of the dolls and especially loved the final part of the ride (won't spoil it for anyone who's never been on it before). I wish you could buy some of the dolls, I'd definitely take one!

It's really bad but I've had such a busy week I can't remember exactly what we did after this - nothing significant like shows, character meets or rides, more like just ambling around the shops (what I do best). We were just far too tired to do anything, really. I did get a birthday sticker and a call from Mickey though

We decided to go to Annette's for tea around 5pm-ish. We were greeted by the entire staff singing me happy birthday, which was nice, and we happened to be seated in the exact same seats we'd had on our first visit! For food I chose the euro chick and Tom the rockabilly burger, with hashbrown sticks as a side. Tom had a beer and me a cherry coke (I love Annette's cherry cokes, they add the syrup to normal coke so it's nicer than the pre-made stuff). We were far too full to consider desserts so we just paid our bill after we ate. Unfortunately the burger seemed to give me a very bad tummy and felt quite poorly for a while afterwards. I was feeling sorry for myself so went to World of Disney to find a soft toy friend to cheer me up. Perry the Platypus pillow pet was half off so I got him, but my stomach just wasn't in it to carry on shopping so we just went back to the hotel.

By the time we were back I was feeling up to a glowtini, so we went to the hotel bar. I thoroughly enjoyed my first glowtini of the trip and even ate some crisps, but my tummy didn't really forgive me for that act. We got back to our hotel and had a relatively early night ready for our first full day in the parks!

I will continue later

[rebecca20]

If I'd have had a huge camera hitting me I would have had to but my head or hand in front of the lense just to prove a point, or accidentally knock it (I sound like such an angry person but it winds me up something rotten when people push in - I've even been known to shove children [ones old enough to know better] out of the way because it's so bloody rude, just ask and I'll happily let people shorter stand in front!).

I also love the Cherry flavoured drinks in Annettes, whenever I go I always order one and tell whoever I'm with they are so good, they never believe me until they taste it! I always wish they did them on the takeaway menu so I could walk and drink one in the parks

Ps I think I follow you on Instagram - Duffy backpack by any chance?

[Ohana]

Haha omg yes! Repeatedly posting pics of it, that'd be me :p what's your username?

Also yes I'm glad I'm not the only person who thinks that, I deffo agree it'd be fine to ruin their footage haha!

[rebecca20]

Haha omg yes! Repeatedly posting pics of it, that'd be me :p what's your username?

Also yes I'm glad I'm not the only person who thinks that, I deffo agree it'd be fine to ruin their footage haha!

Mines rlgough20 - it twigged when you mentioned Perry!

[Ohana]

Ahh yes, cool! I've started following you back ^__^ well the request is sent haha! You'll have seen much of my trip from the off then ;p

[Ohana]

Day 1 Photos

[moopmoop93]

Love the plushie cushion. I have Sully and I treated my other half to Stitch ... I love them I really
Love that mickey head as well, is it a cushion?? Looks sooo cool! X

[fairymom]

Ah lovely trip report so far. Great photos too, nice to put a face to the name

Very annoying about the crowds pushing. We actually didn't even see Goofy's Garden Party at all on our trip. We kind of saw bits of it walking by but it was always too crowded to stop and watch. I didn't really realise it was a "thing" until the last couple of days anyway.

[Ohana]

Oh my gosh, so since I last did anything on this trip report, I've been a very busy bee - our rent got put up an insane amount in our old flat so we had less than a month to find and move into a new place. Thankfully we found somewhere, a very very lovely flat which we are happy with, and handed our keys in to our old place a few days ago, so everything is now in the new place - it's just a really big mess of boxes in the spare room at present! But I digress, I'm basically here to post some photos of my trip, and write a trip report when I have a bit more time I'll annotate photos to make it a bit more trip report-y. Enjoy!


Showing off my a-Ha tour t-shirt in the Village.


Meeting the cheeky chipmunks!


Using my birthday cup haha.


Meeting Mickey and Donald - I had happy birthday sung to me, it was incredible. My two favourite characters, I ended up buying a photo.


Apt - it was my unbirthday but was still celebrating from the day before


The two best eggs


I really wanted this mask, haha!


Trying on hats.


Lunch in Hyperion Cafe. I think this was my favourite quick service meal.


On our way to the Studios, a very lovely CM asked me what attraction I wanted to go on without a queue - obviously I chose the notoriously busy and fast pass-less attraction, Crush!


Cute refurb sign - 'please pardon our dust'.


Meeting Woody - dunno why he was behind a fence, disappointing. I wasn't planning on stealing him haha!


Our creepty potato heads!


We headed to Sequoia Lodge for my coveted giant cocktail - it was so yummy! And so heavy haha. We really appreciated the snacks, too!


We went for tea at Rainforest Cafe, it was yummy!


Queen of Main Street


Almost looked like I was touching the tip of the castle haha.


Went on Phantom Manor and the CM sang happy birthday to me, 'it's your last' haha, loved it so much, everyone in the lift also sung to me, I really appreciated it!


Plushies galore!


Waiting for the parade in my new Donald hat

[Ohana]

Day 3 - today we started with breakfast at Cafe Mickey


Cuddles with Chip!


Love this photo with The Boss


After breakfast we decided to make the most of the remainder of EMH by wandering around a virtually empty Main Street and take in all the detail and the lovely music, which I'm actually currently listening to as I make this post.


Had a peak inside Dapper Dan's


Today I decided to wear my Kingdom Hearts t-shirt


On teacups with Duffy!


Tom loving the train.


Had a quiet moment by the castle just contemplating how lucky and happy I was, and how much I LOVE nestea haha!


Toystory Playland - one of my absolute favourite parts of DLP




The seemingly neverending wait for our sandwiches at EOS, they always take so long haha, so good though! After this we went back to the hotel for a bit to recharge our physical and mental batteries and just spruce up a bit. Tonight was to be our first night watching dreams so we wanted to make sure we'd had enough rest to stay up that long (a full day in the park in high season is tiring!)