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[Anonymous]

As you all know, this was a bit of an emotional trip for me this time. Events at home took over and they had a major impact on the trip.

I set off on the 16th September at about 9:30pm from home for the drive to Dover. My mother had been admitted into hospital a few days before, and at that time we didn't know for certain what was wrong with her. In retrospect, looking back, I think we all suspected there could be a real risk of her cancer having come back, and my Dad had told me she was really ill and to be prepared if anything should happen.

I'd been to see her on the Saturday and her last wish / request she'd made of me was that I still go on holiday and enjoy myself. I went, praying that she would get better, but unfortunately we now know that wasn't to be.

I didn't see anything on the forum in the days prior to going because, it was a personal matter, and, several other people were getting excited about going to the resort last week, and I didn't want to dampen anyone's enthusiasm with my bad news. I was trying really hard that last day before departure to keep my mind off of things too, and to work up some enthusiasm for the trip.

It was a difficult drive down at times, on my own, with my thoughts and worries about what might happen. I finally got to Dover about an hour or so before the ferry was due to leave. Got onboard reasonably quickly, and I must have dozed off and had a half hour to an hour or so of sleep on the ferry. I arrived in Calais at about 5:50. I found it a bit disorientating at first driving off, I think the problem was there was a fine drizzle which reduced visibility and it was dark, and so it was a bit of a pain at first joining the motorway.

Eventually settled down for the drive to Disney, and I managed to the drive straight through. The weather brightened up, but the roads were very busy, first thing Monday morning. I hadn't experienced this in March because it was a Sunday morning I'd gone.

Anyway, I finally arrived without incident at the Santa Fe Hotel just before 9 am. I got checked in, collected my pass, and then attempted to ring home. Had a little trouble ringing home, I wasn't sure of the exact codes to ring - I knew you had to ring 44 - but I didn't realise you dialled 0044 to get a UK line. I spoke to a girl in reception at Santa Fe and she helped me out, and I managed to get a call through to my Dad and let him know I'd arrived. Obviously we didn't have any further news at this point about my Mum, as I'd only just seen him the night before when I set off.

I had a quick look around the hotel, checked the shop and noticed they had the two Princess float snowglobes, and made a mental note to get those from the shop during the week. Then I headed down to Disneyland.

The Santa Fe was much further out than I'd realised, it's a lot further than Sequoia Lodge, even though it's only just past that hotel. I ended up by the end of the day, after two trips back and forth to the hotel, and other walking I'd done, with bad blisters on my feet, and I'm still suffering a bit with those. I tend to expect this with Disney, and I thought I was going to be better prepared this time, but I'd had several weeks of inactivity with the car accident, and I found it quite a struggle at times getting around.

First port of call was to stop in at Disney Village and check out a few shops. I looked in the Disney Gallery shop and saw they still had the framed Belle pin sets I'd seen in March. There were three pictures, one of which I got in March, the others were large pins of Belle (in her blue dress) and the sheep, mounted on a sketch of the fountain. The other was a print of Belle from 'Be Our Guest' with large pins of Lumiere, Cogsworth, Mrs. Potts and other objects mounted as if they are dancing on the table in front of her. They are gorgeous pictures, and I'd been quite keen to get these this time.

I got down to the Park and had a leisurely stroll down Main Street, and walked down by the castle stage to see who was out doing meet and greets. I was amazed to see that it was Belle out, and I hung around and took quite a few pictures, but it never really occurred to me to go and meet her. She did come out to see some disabled guests at one point, and I got very close up to her, but didn't push myself forward, and just took some pictures from the side. Aurora and Phillip were also out, and I got some photo's of them too.

I then headed into Discoveryland and did Star Tours and Buzz Lightyear. I thought it was best to start with some gentler rides to see how my back and neck would cope.

I did find I was in some terrible pain later on with my back, but that was more from walking around, and the physiotherapist had said that might be an issue before I went, moreso than going on the rides.

I ended up doing quite a few rides that day, I can't remember now the order I did everything, but I did Big Thunder Mountain, Space Mountain 2, Pirates of the Caribbean and Indiana Jones. I had a walk to the Studio's at around 1:30 to see what the Toon Studios were like, and have a look at Crush's Coaster. Waiting times were something like 90 minutes in the afternoon, so I discounted that, and had a walk over to Rock N' Rollercoaster to do that.

Then disaster struck. I got off Rock N' Rollercoaster, took my camera out of my pocket to take some more pictures, and it was broken. It looked as though the LCD screen had gone, and although it wasn't broken, it looked like it was all cracked beneath the glass. All I can think is that it must have got bashed against the side of the seat in the rollercoaster.

I was really split then as to what to do. I had my mobile, with a camera, but it didn't take a very good picture at only 2mp. I could buy a camera in the park, but they're not very good quality camera's. Or I could go to the Val D'Europe and see if I could get a new digital camera for a reasonable price.

I ended up getting one for about 180 euro's, with a 10 x Optical Zoom on it, and at 7 mp resolution. It took the same memory card as the one I had, so I could just take that card out and carry on. I just made it back to Disneyland for about 3:30 and managed to get settled down on Main Street in time for the parade. Then just as the parade was due to start, it started to rain.

I was a bit less than impressed by the parade on the first day, but I think there were several factors. I didn't get to see my favourite floats stop near me, and I ended up getting very few pictures of the Princess floats that first day. I was really disappointed because I was on the wrong side for Belle, and you couldn't really get a good view from where I was standing.

It also rained, and I was struggling with the new camera, having not much time to get to grips with it, so it was a difficult first day to view the parade really - although things did get much better later in the week - and I think some of the later pictures I took were breathtaking.

After the parade I collected a wrist band for the extra magic hours and then headed off to get settled into my hotel room. Just before this though, I decided to go and get some of the Princess prints they were selling reduced in the park. I'd bought Belle and Ariel in March, and wanted the other 3 to go with them. Had a bit of a disaster with my credit card, which continued all week - the machines at DLRP kept refusing my card, and I'd made sure it was paid before going, and ended up ringing the card company in the shop, and they said they weren't getting a request for payment through. Very strange and more than a bit embarassing. Although I did have a couple of other cards, and I was able to draw out some cash on that particular card, so I got by without too many problems. I just seemed to have problems keep being thrown at me all week.

I thought the Santa Fe was quite a nice hotel, the rooms are very nice, a little smaller than Sequoia Lodge, but it's not an issue when you're on your own. It's a shame there isn't a pool, as I love a swim in the morning when I stay at Sequoia, and the walk is a bit of an issue, much further than Sequoia, and I ended up using the shuttle buses.

I went back into Disneyland and did some more rides before coming back to the hotel, absolutely shattered and feet in a very bad way. I'd rung home and got an update on my Mum, but at this point, we still hadn't got a diagnosis, and although she wasn't well, they were starting to get her comfortable.

I sorted out my feet as best I could with the blister plasters and after looking at my pics on my laptop, I settled down for sleep.

The gorgeous Belle and Aurora - though not my Belle, not yet!









I love this Pluto shot!



I thought the expression on Burt's face here was so comical!



One of the problems with the new parade, is depending which side you're on, you don't necessarily see everything. I was on the right hand side (their left) on the first day only, and didn't see Scar, but got the Evil Queen, but the rest of the week I was on the other side, and you miss the characters on that side. It's a parade you really have to watch several times over the week to get the best of it.






The Lion King float is majestic, even in the rain.



This has got to be one of my favourite spots to photograph Sleeping Beauty's Castle.

[RnRCj]

Brilliant report so far Dark Prince :wink: I know what you mean about standing on the right side of Main Street for the parade. We had the same problem. You can't cross the street when the parade is on as well, so that was very annoying :? I have to say though, you took much better photos of the parade than me :lol:

[tubbsy]

I echo that. you've got some beautiful shots of the parade and of the princesses.

[Crush_Love]

nice report +pics

[mtt]

good report and pics

[Anonymous]

Well, the best stuff is yet to come. I'm just printing out some large A4 prints of some of my pics, and I'm really pleased with them. It was a bit of a mixed bag on the first day, but some of the later pictures are so beautiful, and the colours are so vibrant.

I wonder if anyone will spot themselves on any of the photo's.  

I was wondering all week if someone would stop me because of the Belle lanyard. I had so many people commenting on how lovely my pins were, both castmembers and members of the public.

So many people stopping me and commenting about Belle being my favourite.

I'm jumping ahead a bit but when I went into City Hall on Thursday to thank them for Wednesday, and I commented about meeting Belle and said how beautiful and enchanting she was, the castmember I spoke to just said, but of course, it is Belle!  :lol:

[Owain]

Sorry To hear about your mum, you camera and your back problems !  

But great photos and sound sliek you had a good time !  

[Crush_Love]

wow Cm's asked you about your belle pins :!:  :!:  :!:
i'v never been asked about my tink pins  

[Anonymous]

Belle and Cinderella asked me about my Belle pins.

[Crush_Love]

oh :lol:
Nevertheless, it's cool^^

[Crush_Love]

(wendy also asked me if i like tink)

[The Butlin Boy]

So far, so good prince :wink:

[smurfy74]

the carrd machines kept breaking in the whole resort that week, we were asked to get cash for our dinne rin cafe mickey on wednesday because of the problem - they must have lost loads of business

[Disneyana]

wonderful pics and a very nice trip report so far.  :wink:

[sydney71]

We had problems with our cards as well.  The Disneyland hotel couldn't take them.  Luckily we always take cash as well.  I am sure they did loose a lot of business

Em