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[Clarebelle]

I think he means the Dragon under the Castle  :wink:

[tinkerbell5]

how do you get to the dragon under the castle?

[Clarebelle]

:offtopic: Sorry PD :oops:

The front entrance is here


You can also enter through a side entrance or via Merlin's Shop inside the castle

[The Butlin Boy]

Welcome back PD, I'm glad you had a great trip

Great start to your trip report PD, I really enjoyed reading it and seeing your photos. The letter at NPB is a really nice touch; makes it more Disney to me :wink:

I'm looking forward to the rest

[Pete's Dragon]

I think he means the Dragon under the Castle  :wink:

Oh no, we had our own private Dragon which picked us up at Main Street and flew us to Fantasyland  

[Clarebelle]

ooooo I want one of those!

[Disney Fanatic]

Wow what  view you had from your room.
The letter was a lovely touch.

Great report so far PD =D> ....looking forward to reading the rest

[Pete's Dragon]

Monday 14th September
"Heigh-Ho, Heigh-Ho, it's off to work we go .... :-"

As much as I wanted to hit the park for the Extra Magic Hours, the earliest I could convince everyone to get breakfast at was 8am. Ah well. Headed down to the restaurant and stuffed myself with croissants until I was fit to burst. Now my mum, Jasmine and I all had empty shoulder bags with us when we sat down. When we left we had approx. 20 ham-filled croissants between us hidden away for later.

My mum really wanted to go on the balloon, but apparently it was too windy today. And according the the BBC Weather report before we left, this could be our only dry day of the week ( so much for buying new shorts )

Made it to the park shortly after 9am and posed for the customary "hoo-ray we're back!" pose.


Then it was on to the castle. Both previous times Joshua has been, Arthur's sword was fenced off. So when he saw it, he ran straight to it, unconcerned with the group of Japanese tourist trying to take photos.


And of course Elisha needed a go


After a quick go on the Carrousel de Lancelot it was back onto Dumbo. There was a 5min queue, but my mum decided against waiting. This didn't bode well for the rest of the vacation. Then we headed over to Alice's Curious Labyrinth. When we got there I saw a dreadful sight. The infamous staggered opening times board. Apparently the Labyrinth was only opn between 11am - 5pm. This is the first time I've ever encountered this, and it was really annoying. As we started to walk away, the CM removed to board and opened the gates. Hoo-ray !!!!




As It's a Small World didn't open till 10am, we decided to take a little walk down to Buzz's Laser Blast, the one ride my mother had been itching to go on (I think she fancies herself as a mean shot). But we didn't get to far, as the area was teaming with characters !!!!! Joshua wasn't too bothered, Elisha had to be restrained !! So first off she raced to Timon (first time I've seen him in the Park)


Then on to King Louie. My mum posed too as the Jungle Book is her favourite


Next up Tigger, who got an extra big hug from Elisha. Honestly my daughter is very shy and won't talk to people she doesn't know. Yet dress them up in a suit and they become her best friend !!!


Elisha didn't go near Ratcliff, and the queue around Robin Hood was unbelievable. By this time it was after 10am, so we backtracked to IASW.


As we were close by, we decided to do Pirates and Peter Pan before heading to Discoveryland. Casey Jnr. and Le Pays des Contes de Fées were closed. I remember them doing this last year, and only opening them Fri-Sun . Anyway we got our Fastpass tickets for Peter Pan and headed to Pirates. When we got there Elisha remembered the ride and started to cry (dosn't like it because it's too dark), but being the evil parents we are we took her on it anyway. Afterwards Elisha said she really liked it, but she wouldn't go on Peter Pan (to her, another ride that's too dark)


So while we hung around waiting for the Fastpass time to come, I noticed that some sort of show was about to take place at the Fantasy Festival Stage. Elsiha thought it was going to be Winnie the Pooh, oh how wrong could you be. It turned out to be a bunch of local school children dancing to pop-tastic hits  :?


But Elisha was quite happy to wait ther with my mum and Sam. Well, she did have a giant lollipop to suck on


Time for Discoveryland !!!! After another go on Buzz (again Elisha beat Joshua, Joshua not happy. I got 450,000 ish, must do better), we headed over to Star Tours. We thought that Elisha would get scared, but she absolutely loved it. Her eyes were like saucers the whole time, and she kept saying "ooooh" and "ahhhhh" and "that was close". Needless to say she couldn't wait to get back on it for another go !!!




It was getting near lunchtime now, so we headed to Videopolis, but they didn't do Hotdogs (Joshua's choice). Well in my opinion, if you wanna Hotdog there's only one place to go, Casy's Corner !!


While me and the kids had our scrummy hotdogs, everyone else got tucked into the croissants Stolen from breakfast. As we were finishing, we got our first ear-bashing from Minnie's Party train Music. The tunes all right, but Minnie's screechy voice really would want you to rip off her hair bow and gag her with it


After 5 1/2 hours in the park, the kids, my mum and Sam wasnted to go back to the hotel for a little rest. I didn't realise at the time that we wouldn't get back to the park today. Kinda gutted, half a day wasted. Ah well, plently of time left in the week.
At around 6pm we headed down to the Village for something to eat in Billy Bob's Buffet. Food was good, but the choice of desserts was poor. No Black Forest Gateau or even a sniff of cheesecake. After dinner we bought outfits for the kids. Jack Sparrow for Joshua, and Belle for Elisha (the same Belle we bought her last year, and cried until we changed it for Cinderella after 5mins of wearing it !!)






Headed back to the room for a couple of hours of Disney Channel. Along the way I took one of my favourite photos (its actually my desktop wallpaper at the minute



As my mum and Sam were a bit shellshocked from all the walking, we decided that tomorrow would be Walt Disney Studios turn as they could sit down a lot during the shows. Of course this woul be after breakfast, if we ever managed to get into the restaurant ..............

[Annet]

Haha your son really makes a convincing pirate!
Your daughter also makes quite the fashionmodel there.
Another great report and lovely pictures!

[em]

Great report. Can't wait to read more. Fab photos!

[SophieD]

I'm loving your trip report so far, Joshua and Elisha look gorgeous in their outfits
I can't wait to read more

[DLP-Photos.com]

Fantastic report, lovely story-telling, terrific photos and some funny comments once in a while

That picture is absolutely amazing! I can understand why it is your desktop background  =D>

And btw your kids are adorable and just make all the photos even better

[Pete's Dragon]

Tuesday 15th September
"Lights, Camera, Action !!"

Had the alarm set for 7am, but I woke up at 6.43am. I actually woke up about 15min before the alarm everyday, no matter what time I set it for.
We headed down for breakfast just after 8am. I remember on Monday that the queue when we left the restaurant was almost to the top of the stairs, so I was a bit nervous about leaving so late. And my fears soon became a reality, but not for the reason I thought. This wasn't the normal mad scrum for croissants.
Some bright spark in management had closed off one of the restaurants. Why, I hear you ask. Well for only €6 you could treat yourself to a full hot American style buffet breakfast. Pretty good deal. But it meant closing a restaurant for a full hour between 7.30 and 8.30am to accomodate !!! This led to a massive tailback, and a lot of queue jumping. Now I don't want to create an International Incident on this Forum, but the vast,vast majority(99.9995%) of queue jumpers were Spanish. ( I'm no linguist, but I do understand and recognise the word 'Vamonos').
After another 1000 croissants, some really duff coffee and more stocking-up by my mother, we went back to the room to put the kids dressups on. Now the weather for today was supposed to be rainy, but the information board at reception said cloudy but dry. We crossed our fingers.



Joshua - 'Not another photo'
Elisha - 'I want fabulous, that is my simple request....'


Off to the Walt Disney Studios. Now before we left home, Jasmine warned me not to plan out every step of our holiday. So I didn't tell her that I had most of the day planned out. Last year in WDS we must have wasted over an hour walking from show to show, missing the start times for everything.
So today plan was
* WDS @ 10am
* Quick go on Cars Rally
* Animagique @10.45
* Cinemagique @ 11.30
* High School Musical @ 12.00
* Stitch Live approx 12.30
* Motors Stunt Show @ 1pm

And that's pretty much how it went. Slight sidetrack before Cars Rally, as I spoted Buzz Lightyear posing for photos






Everyone really loved the stunt show, especially Sam and Elisha


Elisha was really absorbed in the whole show, but you can probably tell from the photo




After the show, my mum headed back to the hotel, and took the kids with her. Freedom !!!!!!! I tried to drag Jasmine onto Tower of Terror, but she said her tummy was a bit rough (i.e. Chicken !!!), so we headed over to Big Thunder Mountain. As we had 4 park tickets with us, we got 4 Fastpasses. The it was over to Hakuna Matata for a coffee and a Mickey Cake.

Big Thunder Mountain was fantastic. Its the first time in 5 years that we were able to go on it together, and not have to worry about Babyswitch. After it was over, we ran back to the Fastpass entrance and went on it again.
Then Jasmine gave me a choice. She would go on One of the followng rides next, And Only One : Indy, Space Mountain or ToT ..........
....... back to WDS it was then.






The CM's must love working here, cause they put soo much effort into being creepy. One guy in particular deserved an award. He seated the group in front of us, then stared at us for ages from the service elevator with one eybrow raised and the fingers twitching on one hand. Everyone was in stitched, but he kept a straight face thoughout.
Anyway, nobody on the ride could hear themselves scream because I was laughing so loudly. I truely love this ride, and I have the hoody to prove it. Oh yes ! I said I wanted it before I left, and when I tried it on it was really soft and comfy. The best thing about it that it doesn't scream 'Disney'. Unless you know about the ride, it could be from anywhere.


I tried to convince Jasmine to go on it again, but I was pushing my luck. It was near 5pm so we headed to the Village for some peaceful shopping. Honestly there's nothing more annoying than trying to stop 2 hyperactive children touching and asking for everything their little eyes happen to stumble upon. I managed to buy another shooter glass to add to the collection, while Jasmine bought a large handbag with I 'insert red MM logo here' MK on the side. I spied a watch I liked the look of, but I'm not one for wearing watches so I left it for now.

Met up with everyone at the room. Mum and Sam had been looking at the hotel restaurant menu and decided to go there for dinner (I wasn't for arguing, after all they were paying !!!). The buffet was beautiful. I had 2 helpings of baby roast potatoes and Pork Casserole, without doubt the nicest thing I have EVER eaten at DLP. Even nicer that Annette's Burger Challenge, or the €45 steak from the Disney Hotel restaurant.
I went up with Elisha to get dessert and she was nearly knocked clean across the room by a Spanish couple trying to grab the last of the Cream Caramel ('Vamonos, vamonos!!')
 After dinner, my mum filled a bag with various sweets, 6 apples, 2 yogurts, and a kiwi. I managed to take 8 doughnuts with me. After the fiasco at breakfast I was now taking what I could. Even the kids were getting in on the act and walked out with 2 ice lollies each.

Back to the hotel for a beautiful sunset.


Well, the entire day was dry. But at 11pm, the heavens opened for about 30mins. Again, it was supposed to rain all day tomorrow, and this was the day my mum was heading into Paris on the bustrip leaving from Hotel New York. So it was time for our customary visit to Cafe Mickeys. After 2 days of croissant for breakfast and lunch, my tummy was yearning for some sausages and bacon.

To be continued....................




NB If you are reading this, and are Spanish I do apologise for portraying your fellow countrymen in such a bad light. If what I've written has annoyed you, then I suggest you don't read the rest of my report, as my encounters only get worse from here on out (especially come Friday).

[davewasbaloo]

Great trip report, and you have such a beautiful family. What did your mom and Sam think of DLP?

[Pete's Dragon]

Great trip report, and you have such a beautiful family. What did your mom and Sam think of DLP?

First off, they loved the hotel and the view. We walked to the Esso station one night to get some drinkies, and you should have heard to complaining they did about Santa Fe. I believe they likened it to a refugee camp.
They loved the food, after they got used to the inflated prices. Sam wasn't too keen on all he walking, and I don't think they spent more than 5-6 hours a day in the Parks.
But they loved seeing Joshua and Elisha having fun for an entire week, and tried to spoil them rotten at every opportunity.

That reminds me. During dinner on Tuesday Joshua had gone to get some watermelon, and my mum had followed. When I went up they were both standing at the end of the buffet. I peered over my mum's shoulder just in time to see her lift little red sweeties down and give them to Joshua.
"Quick" she said to him "get that in your mouth"
To which I replied "Yeah, before your father sees you"
My mum jumped about 3 feet and Joshua started sniggering. Ah grandparents, what can you do  :lol:

As far as the rideds went, my mum loved Buzz's Laser Blast, Pirates and Big Thunder Mountain. Sam absolutely loved Cinemagique (who doesn't) and kept asking when we were going back into WDS. But neither of them enjoyed Star Tours, bit too bumpy for the old timers  

EDIT : Oh and Davewasbaloo - I bumped into a couple of people you might appreciate .......