Me, Smurfy, MadameLeota,DisneyDonutter Trip Feb 09

Started by PetiteSirene, February 12, 2009, 12:25:07 PM

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PetiteSirene

Looooong title hehe :) Smurfy wanted my to post my trip report on here for everyone, since he didnt take any photos and I did, I will start with Day 1 and then add day 2 and 3 a bit later, since there are a lot of photos on day 2 I dont want to overload 1 page :?

On Sunday 1st of Feb after packing and having a hair cut Seb and I headed over to Eastbourne where we met up with Sergio and went for a little tour around the shopping centre lol. We popped in to see David (Smurfy), which was such a shock to see him all dressed up in a suit... and being nice to all his highly annoying customers ;).

After lunch we headed back to Davids place and it started to snow... The start of all our worries! By the time David got back from work it was settling and all of us were getting seriously worried about our trip. After watching it snow and snow and snow we decided to leave earlier than planned, at 1 instead of 2am, which only meant we got 3 hours sleep since it was 9 before we had pumped up the bed :?
Thankfully when we woke up at 12:15 there was no extra snow, but still a couple of inches.

Davids House in the Snow

Yay! Hidden Mickey in the Snow!

So at 1am with the car packed we started our slow journey to the tunnel... going a steady 27 miles per hour the whole way we arrived there finally an hour early. The crossing went smoothly and the worst part of the journey was on the French side where it was snowing really heavily!


Yay I found a hidden mickey in Sergios car!

We arrived at Disney just after 10 dispite the bad weather, poor Sergio had hung in there through the journey. We went to reception to get our pack, spoke to a lovely girl called Isabel and was told to return at 3 to check in. As Sergio and Seb were returning to the car to grab some stuff for the parks Mickey Mouse came out and so I queued up to have my first character photo of the year.


As we headed down through the hotel to the park we took in the hotel, it was so nice, it had a lovely 'warm' feeling to it :D

Beaver Creek Restaurant

And the Hunters Grill opposite

One of the lodges

We decided to head into the Studios first as we all wanted to go on the ToT... It would be our first ride of the year!!! As we were heading through we got a glimpse of a character... Daisy!



Before we went on ToT we decided to swing by the Art of Animation since I had never been through it... And to Davids delight we found one of his fav characters on the wall!



David challenging Donald

David found her again!

So we then went on the ToT (brilliant as usual!) made even better by the girls behind us screaming their heads off ;). We then headed off and rode RnR before having a bit to eat in the Backlot Restaurant. It was really nice in there with loads of things to look at.

We then headed off to Crushes and as we queued we wondered why loads of big white signs had appeared throughout the ride telling us that people with certain body shapes couldnt ride... That was until we got to the loading station and realised they were being much much stricter on how far the bar had to go down before they sent the cars off!  :shock: We managed to get on though and survived the ride ;)

After Crushes it was nearly 3 so we headed off to the hotel, we had recieved a text from Caz and Lisa (Madame_leota and Disney_donutter) saying their Train had been delayed 2 hours and that they were only just getting into the hotel now! Everyone (apart from me lol) was starting to feel the strain of the day, especially poor Sergio so we were glad to be checking in. Whilst Seb and Sergio got the stuff from the car we checked in and had the same girl as we spoke to in the morning! As we were talking David slipped in a request to not have a lodge room due to the snow, we had booked a lodge room because it was cheaper lol. The lovely lady smiled and said she had a nice suprise for us and told us we were located in the south wing of the main building. We were so happy, and wondered what the suprise was, I told David that maybe she had given us a Lake View room... She did better than that and the room was filled with screams as we entered our Suite!!! A bargain for £96!
We called Lisa and Caz and told them to come visit us when they were ready to go into the park... and to show off our room of course ;)


The view from our window





Everyone was so tired though that I was the only one that went into the park with Lisa and Caz... I still wasnt feeling tired dispite the lack of sleep!
We decided to go into the main park and we suprised how short Main Street looked without the Banners! We had to stop and take a photo by the central Plaza stage fences...



We then went on Thunder Mountain, followed by pirates where we had a boat to ourselves and went round twice because the park was soooo quiet! On our second time round we were messing around a bit with our cameras ;)





We then did Peter Pan (walked straight on!) and the Carousel for the last ride as by this time it was coming up to closing.




After the Carousel we noticed the castle lighting up and ran around to the front to catch mickey and minnie on the balcony



We were so suprised that there were only max 100 people watching the show, it was that quiet! We headed out of the park and to McDonalds to pick up our budget dinner (6 big mac meals with coke lol) and took them to the hotel where we took advantage of having a dining table :D it had been such a long day but we were glad to be there, we hoped that the weather would keep the crowds away for the rest of the trip, we were sure however that no matter what happened the trip would be fab :)


I don\'t know when, I don\'t know how, but I know something is starting right now.
Watch and you\'ll see, someday I\'ll be Part of Your World.




Feb 2001 - Paris
Sept 2008 - Santa Fe
Dec 2008 - Cheyenne
Feb 2009 - Sequoia
September 2009 - Disneyland Hotel

MizzRabbit

#1
Love your report. Can't wait to read more. So lucky you got a suite! Sounds like a really cool and fun trip! :D

My Disneypics gallery]http://public.fotki.com/MizzRabbit/[/url]
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never2old

#2
Great report so far!

You were so lucky! Quiet park AND upgrade to suite! Can I come with you next time  :wink: ?

Nice pictures too (the ones in POTC are very funny  :lol: ), looking forward to the rest!

The Butlin Boy

#3
Great report, I'm looking forward to the rest :)

Javey74

#4
Loving your report, it's acting as a build up to 8 days time for mine.. :D/  :D/

Looking forward to more.. :wink:  :D


SophieD

#5
Great trip report and pics! can't wait to read the rest!
I love all the hidden Mickeys  :ears:  :ears:
Sophie \":nemo:\"
xxxxx
follow me on Twitter!!



All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.- Walt Disney


Epcot_Boy

#6
Enjoyable

Epcot_Boy :ears:


David

RnRCj

#7
Wow, what an incredible upgrade! A wonderful view too.

Hey, if I knew you were coming by Eastbourne I could have said hi. :lol: Oh well!

Magicalmouse125

#8
Great report so far. Very Entertaining. Glad you enjoyed yourselves
[size=150]Long Live MagicForum![/size]

Love From Magical Mouse 125

PetiteSirene

#9
Thanks guys, the Suite really was Fab! it was such a great suprise, and it really made up for the tiring journey! So heres day 2:

Day 2

We woke up nice and early (6:45am) to get ready for our 7am breakfast, after stumbling across the room and eventually finding the bathroom in the dark lol. We had a choice of eating in the Hunters Grill or Beaver Creek and chose Hunters Grill. It was really quiet but lovely, we were shown to our seats and there was a slightly better choice of things to eat, such as potted yogurt and fromage frais... Oh and fresh fruit!

After breakfast went back to our room as there were no morning hours that day (Only on the Wednesday) and I must admitI was still so tired from the day before I slept for most of it lol. Just before 10 we headed down to the park to meet the girls and start our day!

When we got to the Disneyland Hotel Lisa and I decided to check out the lobby to see what it was like... The answer is very posh! But so lovely!







As we headed into the park we took a look at the programme to see that Pooh and Friends were doing a meet and greet at the Castle Stage at 10:15, Seb wanted to get Poohs signature for his manager so we told the rest of the gang we would meet them later as we went off to meet characters. The character express had just arrived as well and to our pleasant suprise there was hardly anyone around! So we managed to get a few characters done!





After watching Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum running into each other for a bit Seb tugged on my arm and pointed to the satge, Winnie and friends were heading to the stage! We ran over (dispite the icy conditions lol) and were first in line to see them!



We were so happy to have the signature that Sebs manager wanted, and knew we could relax a little now ;). We stopped to take some photos of the train as the characters got on, and of Goofy, Chip and the White Rabbit tickling Dale!





We then phoned the guys and they were just about to get onto Thunder Mountain and so we told them we would meet them at the exit. Spotting them on the ride was so easy because Lisa was wearing a bright blue jumper! Managed to get a snap of them as they went past!



Thats David and Lisa you can see waving like lunatics ;)

After BTM we headed round to go on Indy, once again it was obvious that due to the weather it would be a quiet day, we walked on Indy! We then headed over to Pirates, but took a detour across the barrel bridge and stopped by the rock :D







After having a laugh and watching everyone trying not to fall off the rock we headed over to pirates. When we got there I got taken hostage by a pirate!



Once again it was really quiet and walked straight on the ride, much our dismay the photos werent working *sniff* but it was fun anyway! We then headed to Peter Pan, which had hardly any queue and then did Dumbo because David had never been on it before!!! You could tell how cold it was by this time because the water underneath dumbo had frozen!





David was having problems as they were fighting for the control stick and Sergio didnt want to go up ;)

We then did more of the small rides, Snow White, Pinocchio and the tea cups.




And then because I hadnt been on it since 2006 we decided to brave the bizarre land of IASW :D



It was here that we all split up for a bit, Lisa and seb went off to meet Lisas friend Emily, David and Sergio went on Buzz, and Caz and I stopped to get more autographs from the Character Express :D






We then met up again with David, Sergio and Seb and went on Peter Pan again before heading off for some late lunch. We went to Belle Nottes for some yummy pizza and pasta before heading off to BTM and Woodys Round-up to see if there was anyone there... but there wasnt :( but we had fun taking pictures anyway!







Found where Goofy dries his trousers!


By this time it was 3:45pm and Mickeys Winter Wonderland was about to start, since I had never seen it we decided to pop in and watch it. It was so magical :) even though the pony was missing!


Goofy makes his entrance




Pluto stopped to say hi to the kids during one of the songs ;)




As the show finished we decided it was time to head to the Cowboy cookout to claim our free Hot Drinks :D as we got there , thanks to Davids Keen Eye we noticed that the characters were coming out... Best of all no one else was around!!!






Whilst having our photo taken with Mickey Dale popped onto the end of the picture and Seb made a joking comment saying that he would have to take the shot again because a stupid chipmunk had hopped into the shot... Needless to say Dale was very upset!


I tried to console him but he wouldnt stop crying :(

In the end Mickey helped convince Dale to have a photo with us all, but he still wasnt happy...

Until Seb apologised properly ;)

It was all in good fun and Dale gave Seb a hand shake and hug after, it was all so funny though!




We then headed over to Discoveryland where we wanted to do Space Mountain, because David had told us earlier that the reall nice cast member that I mentioned in my september report (Marius) was working there. Before we went on we did Buzz and Autopia (which was so much fun!)



And so after riding Space Mountain to my great suprise Marius saw me and instantly recognised me! I was so shocked! We spent some time talking about being back and how it was good to see him again, and we all traded loads of pins with all the guys on the Space Mountain Photo team and promised we would stop by to see them the next day :D

Now whilst we were on Autopia David bumped into someone he knew from work, so we split again, letting him spend time with them as we rushed off to watch Candlebration and get some photos :D. Once again there wer not many people there!




It was lovely watching Mickey and Minnie on the Balcony :D. After the show we all met up again and headed off to McDonalds to get our food again.

After we had eaten Caz and I headed out to the Village to do some shopping :) where I managed to get a new mug, a top for Freddie and a watch for Seb! I didnt get back until 11pm! Everyone was already in bed for the early start. I had already booked a Cafe Mickey Breakfast for Seb, Caz, Lisa and I the next day as we were all so keen to see more characters!

So there is day 2, sorry about the amount of photos! Day 3 has hardly any though :?


I don\'t know when, I don\'t know how, but I know something is starting right now.
Watch and you\'ll see, someday I\'ll be Part of Your World.




Feb 2001 - Paris
Sept 2008 - Santa Fe
Dec 2008 - Cheyenne
Feb 2009 - Sequoia
September 2009 - Disneyland Hotel

The Butlin Boy

#10
Another great report, I'm glad you all had a great time. I'm looking forward to reading the rest :mrgreen:

SophieD

#11
I loved all the photos...there definitely wasn't too many!! you can never take to many Disney pics!!

Poor Dale :( but at least he cheered up at the end :)
Sophie \":nemo:\"
xxxxx
follow me on Twitter!!



All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.- Walt Disney


tiddles

#12
:D
Your pics are great, I'm off 2moro night with hubby and 2 girls (11 & 7) driving down to Dover. Stopping at Newport Bay.

I recently signed so my post's gonna be dull compared to everyone elses' - must learn to do some fancy stuff.

Have you posted day 3 - I haven't looked yet.

TTFN
Tiddles

Javey74

#13
Another great instalment, with those all important photies to go with the running commentaries.. =D>  =D>  =D>

Poor Dale..  :(  

Still Seb made up for the comment.. :mrgreen:  By the way was Seb licking Dales foot or kissing it.. :lol:  :mrgreen:

Here stands the rule: "Never Upset A ChipMunk".. :lol:  :lol:  :mrgreen:

Looking forward to the next instalment.. :wink:  :D

Thanks again for sharing.. :D


smurfy74

#14
Seb had to kiss his foot it was sooo funny to watch  =D>