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[tubbsy]

I cant believe how long its taking to upload my photos! My internet is on a go slow today, ah well we'll get there!
Day 3 started off with Cafe Mickey-yes we did have a character experience every day! :lol:

Then off to EMH for a few rides before heading Studios. First visit was TSPL. This was interesting as I walked behind Mark and the kids and listened to their points of views.
The bamboo was seen as a good addition, adding greenery to the park and it will fill out. Buzz at the entrance, Slinky dog (although their was concern over how his ears will weather. Parachute drop was deemed as good, Mark said he felt like he was in Andys garden, he loved the toys like RC and Rex being there for photos
RC was deemed as a silly ride-but not because it didnt fit, but because of the height issue-as a family its not something we fancied riding anyway but I can see there being tears because little people want to ride and they cant
I then showed the family the new Paris Walk and this got lots of "Oh Wows!" and "We'll certainly be back to go on the Ratatoulie ride"
Then off to do Crushes Coaster-I couldnt ride this last time just after it had opened, but I was dragged-yes dragged onto it..... and loved every minute!
Then it was off to see Play House Disney-this for me was sad as Rob suddenly realised how much bigger he was than the other children watching
I forgot to say I love Hollywood Blvd-it looks amazing. Why oh why we still have studio tours? It used to be a favourite with our family, but our bus didnt have the screens working so we just had commentary which didnt make any sense. I still love the canyon tho-wish they could do something else with it.
A quick drink

before heading off to Stitch Live. And this registers high as one of the highlights of our holiday. We were sat in the disability section to the right. Children were sat on the floor, but Rob wanted to sit where we were-fair dos. What a brilliant show and the audience loved it. Rob was crying with laughter! Then we had to pretend to be lions and monkeys and guess who was chosen as the best monkey??? Yep Rob! I didnt know what he'd make of having a microphone in front of him but he was brilliant! It really made his day.
What order rides came after that I am not sure! I need to say the CMs were brilliant with Rob on Armageddon and positioned us in a way if it got too much for him we'd be OK, but he loved it.

Now dear friends I know a few of you tried to persaude me to do ToT but Steph and I did something really silly-we ate a croque monsieur! So you might not think such a biggy, but we dont eat things like that and with the nerves of riding ToT we both felt suddenly very sick! So sorry guys no ToT this time! (Yes yes, cluck, cluck!   ) We did however, investigate the Toilets of Terror and discovered no queue!  

Then onto Moteurs Action which was a real bun fight to get into and scared Rob quite badly with people pushing and shoving trying to get in! Brilliant stunt show as always tho'.
We also didnt manage Cinemagique-by the time we had an opportunity to watch it Rob was asking to go for a swim. So off we went-I know people have complained the pool was cold but I found it as warm as our local pool. Mark went in the jacuzzi! Wimp! :lol:
It was only a quick dip as we had dinner reservations at Walts. The croque monsieur was still making itself known so I didnt know if I'd be able to eat-Well what can I say except YUM!
I'd love to have known what my prawns were like but Rob ate them!
Everything else was perfect! Steph had a small burger.....


We werent rushed but took our time and had a lovely view of Main Street. Fab! :thumbs:

Then off to get ready for the parade. Again this is where Robs pass was a God send. Robert had a complete melt down (we're still not sure why) and because Mark was in the disability section and I was with Steph just next door I was able to go in with Steph and me n Mark calmed Rob down with the wonderful assistance of Bram the CM-hats off to him-he was brilliant. Poor lad, I wish we knew what causes him to have these meltdowns but it could have been a look from someone across the street cos he was wearing his ear deenders for all we know.
Anyhoo-Bram said we could all stay put as the area wasnt full. Rob stood on the bench with us standing next to him and near Bram.
Rob and the rest of us thoroughly enjoyed the parade, especially as the Princesses stopped nearby  :thumbs:


Once the parade was over we headed off to get some rides under our belts
I am still wondering if we'll ever make it Endor -I mean after nearly 50 flights we have made we've never made it!
I have no doubt that my family are space rangers but I am a complete space cadet! I scored my highest score on Buzz of the holidays! Whoop me! Of 66000 (Hangs head in shame  :oops: ) And somehow Rob managed to scare Steph on Orbitron!  :shock:  :lol:

Right I am going to get on my high horse a little here-why oh why do people have to constantly smoke? We felt that we were walking through a cloud of smoke constantly from Discoveryland to Fantasyland and onto Adventureland! URGH! And I think the worst moment was when a man manged to palm his cigarette on Casey Junior and have it with him on the ride!  :twisted: People have the right to smoke, fine, but it felt like there was a haze of it that evening and our clothes stank of stale cigarette smoke!! Sorry I'll calm down now-it wasnt constant but we did have a few times when it got like this. Not pleasant.
An attempt to ride BTM was prevented by a breakdown but a trip to swashbuckle the pirates on POTC made everything OK again.
Then we went back to our parade spot to wait for fantillusion and the fireworks. Bram was there to welcome us back and we met up with some other familiar faces in families we had seen around the park including Andrew and his sister-Andrew couldnt wait to see Jafar change into the snake!  

Fantillusion, for us who have never seen it before, was beautiful. Rob loved the lights his eyes were enormous!
The fireworks-now I know we dont compare parks, but we have seen the fireworks at Legoland for the last 3 years and they are amazing. Enchanted fireworks-OK not as loud or as flashy but they had their own very special charm about them which we all fell in love with-it felt like real Disney magic.

Then we made a very slow walk back to the hotel and were in bed for midnight, Zzzzzzzzz

[kelly.dylan]

It sounds like you had such an amazing time Sam. Can't wait for your next instalment! And as for Tot well I am dissappointed in you ha ha! I'm sure I won't be doing it on our next trip either!!!

[Laura678]

Oh wow I cannot wait for the rest!!!

[tubbsy]

Thanks guys
OK Day 4-We couldnt believe it had come around already

We ordered breakfast to arrive an hour later, but Stephh and I were up and ready for it when it arrived-we ticked for 8:00-8:30 and it arrived at just gone 8:00. Both Mark and Rob were still fast asleep.
Breakfast was eaten slowly but unbelievably we were still in  for the last half hour of EMH  :thumbs:
So off to be humiliated on Buzz again  :cry:  before queueing to get on Star Tours. Rob then asked to go back and see Stitch again-we said that was fine but that he wouldnt get to speak to Stitch as he had spoken to him and other children need to have a turn.
So we headed back to Studios. We booked Rob in for Stitch then had a quick flight round Agrabah.(Who gave Mark and Rob the controls?  :sick: ) and a race round Radiator Springs-Rob doing well queueing for everything
We hopped off in time to join the queue to meet Buuuuuuuuuuzz and Suuuuuully!

(I'm thinking we squeezed Animagique in between all this too!)

So then it was time to go and see Stitch. We sat just along from where we had been the day before.
Stitch was on form this morning and saying things Nicholas wasnt ready for!  :lol:  :thumbs: Sooooo clever, love it. But Nicholas was having a hard time as all the children he spoke to on the carpet had minimum English or were shy! He tried very hard, but I guess you get shows like that every now and again.
Lilo phones up and we all pretend to be lions and monkeys, Stitch hangs up and asks Nicholas who the best monkey was and Nicholas says
"I recognise my friend from yesterday!" and came straight over to Rob!!!!
And Rob was brilliant, even doing a couple of Nicholas' lines for him (the joy of having aspergers-photographic memory!)
I am thinking Nicholas came to Rob because he was guaranteed a response for the monkey photo, but lucky lucky Rob.    

Robert and Nicholas
Then with Rob floating on air we made our way over back over to Dinsey Park to queue for Tiana and Belle.
We ate lunch then Mark and rob left Tianas queue to go and fetch Ben and Jerries  :thumbs:
Ice cream eaten and Robs hands wiped we went off to search for a CD with Fantillusion on and I came back with my purchase-wish they'd do a CD with the Showcase on.
Then it was time to meet Tiana, Steph almost bursting with excitement but trying to be the coolest teenager you can imagine!

Then off to the Princess meet n greet hoping to meet Belle.
So we queued up (very impressed with Rob, it was very busy. Rob leant his hand on the wall and let out the Biggest scream I have ever heard him make! Everyone turned round as he pulled his hand away from the wall and a wasp falls to the floor. Poor kid is sobbing his heart out. One of the CMs dashes over to see whats happened, we explain hes been stung and I am taking him off to First Aid and she says "When you come back, you come round and he can go straight on and see Belle"
We shoot out of the queue to the First Aid (Mark thanking he has got a Disney Geek wife who knows where it is) Unfortunately Rob reacts to stings - not anaphalactyc but he has adverse reactions which means he swells up in the area hes been stung so his hand is looking big.  But the nurse at the first aid sorts him out and we administer his meds and his hand starts to come down. Phew!
After a little more sobbing and woe is me, Rob is ready to go back to see Belle.
We walk round the corner and there she is! And Rob is invited up to see his Princess! And Steph was very happy too!

Can you see Rob holding his right hand close to his side? He didnt want Belle to touch it!

Then Rob declared he was ready to swashbuckle some Pirates, so round we went and who did we run into?
Every time Steph tried to get close somebody pushed her out of the way-so dear me--I waded in with my big feet n sticky out elbows as Robs comment of "Everybody be patient" fell on deaf ears too.

We found BTM down Oh well
 We then decided that as it had just gone 3:30pm a dip in the pool would cool us all down-it was getting ridiculously hot!
So a dip in the pool, we got out and dressed and as we were leaving the pool was shut as a storm came and dumped a load of rain on Disney! How very rude! But very very welcome! :lol:
So off we went to get sorted for dinner at Inventions.
Now three years ago when we went we were met by Mickey and Eeyore who took us to our table and Isaid to Mark the chances of something like that happening again were slim to none
See now the magic was defiantely with us this holiday

Mary and Bert!
We also got to see Mickey Tigger Gideon and Goofy

Now we had loads of character experiences this holiday- two trips to Cafe Mickey and one at L'Auberge and we had no experiences of other kids pushing their ways in when the characters came to our tables-OK so we're being greedy because this was our fourth experience but it was very annoying as two families kept sending their kids over to everyone elses tables and butting in. Mark finally turned round and said "Can you get your kids to sit down? The characters will come to you!"
I do wish Disney would come up with a courtesy card explaining this cos its very annoying to see poor Tigger being pulled and prodded by a lad of about 10 whilst Tigger was with another family getting their autographs and photos. :roll:
Mickey was brilliant as there was a baby crying and he went over and sat on the table with the family, the baby was entranced by him, when the kid came over and was poking him, Mickey ushered him away, pointing at his table. the baby settled, Mickey and the baby got a big "Aw!" from everyone else and Mickey continued on his way round the tables  :thumbs:
After dinner we made our way back into park and caught the end of the parade and I managed to get a photo of Peter and Wendy!

Then we took advantage of the short queues for me to get right royally beaten on Buzz and we made another attempt to get to Endor! :roll:  :lol:
Then back for an "early" night and for Mark and I to start packing

Day 4-The magic comes to an end  
Breakfast in the room again,we get showered and dressed and pack our bags. We call concierge to organise bag collection then it was off for our last rides during EMH, queued up for Star Tours, then off to swashbuckle and an attempt to ride BTM to find it not working (Honestly! Bad timing again! Oh well )
A quick trip on Peter Pan, Casey Junior and then a last request to try and get to Endor before we make our way back through Main Street and the village with the children picking up gifts for themselves and their friends.

We got in our car, switched on the TomTom and took our journey back through Paris  :lol: and up to Le Havre.
Travelling back was great. Rob was exhausted and sat quietly playing his DS whilst Mark, Steph and I chatted
We arrived back in Portsmouth but there was nearly an hour delay to disembarkment but as we were sat in the solent we were pointing out landmarks (Spinnaker tower, HMS Warrior) we see nearly every day to the family we had got friendly with on the next table! :lol:

Then we had the 20 minutes drive home before popping a very tired Rob and Steph into bed!

[tubbsy]

And thats it! Our magical trip is over for a couple of more years.
Mark is now pretty much away doing his job until November next year, so we'll keep our memories going until we can organise our next trip

[Dwrighty]

Hi Tubbsy

We were there exactly the same time as you! BTM did seem to be down a lot (certainly more than last year it seemed) and the weather was strange. Going out everyday with Pac a Macs, cardis and suncream!

I see you mentioned trying to get the music from the parades. I assume you got the Fantillusion music but if you or yours use iTunes then they are available on there!

Last year I got the Dream Parade and It's a Small World music and after we got back I downloaded the Fantillusion music. I'm glad we bought the Mickeys Magical Party Time CD while we were there last year as that isn't on.

Thanks again for your posts. You have inspired me to blog our holiday!!

- D

[tubbsy]

Dwrighty-I think I've got muscles from the rucsacks carrying raincoats and sweaters and suncream! Very strange weather!  :lol: BTW Welcome to the forum
So it wasnt bad timing with BTM? It was genuinely not feeling very well, poor BTM, in need of TLC
I got Fantillusion and Once Upon a Dream Parade and IASW but I would have loved the showcase music-I'll get Steph to search and see if she can find it later - thanks for the tip And I'm glad I inspired you to do your report. I cant wait to read it

[kelly.dylan]

Such a fantastic trip report Sam, just reading it all gives me goosebumps!!! Am soooo looking forward to our trip in October now :thumbs:
Kelly xx

[Dwrighty]

Dwrighty-I think I've got muscles from the rucsacks carrying raincoats and sweaters and suncream! Very strange weather!  :lol: BTW Welcome to the forum
So it wasnt bad timing with BTM? It was genuinely not feeling very well, poor BTM, in need of TLC
I got Fantillusion and Once Upon a Dream Parade and IASW but I would have loved the showcase music-I'll get Steph to search and see if she can find it later - thanks for the tip And I'm glad I inspired you to do your report. I cant wait to read it

Thanks! Long time reader first time poster, as they say!

We went on the Eurostar and had Friday planned as BTM is my daughters favourite ride and our train left around 8pm. I'd planned to be out of Disneyland by 6 and had got us in to the queue for BTM for 4pm. We'd just got through the turnstiles (always go left!) and guess what happened? Yep, it stopped again!

Not knowing how long it would take to get going we had to leave the queue because I didn't want to miss our train home so she didn't get to go on it one final time.

That also meant we had to kick our heels a bit because all the other rides were long queues and then there was the daily 5pm downpour so we had to shelter next to the Tiana/Naveen cut outs down Main Street!

I might be being daft but what's the showcase music?

Have you heard/seen this website: //http://www.soundofmagic.com/menu.htm ?

It has the music they play around the parks!

Will post my blog entry when it's done!

- D

[tubbsy]

The showcase is the music played for the show at Central Plaza I think its called Showcase ....  :?
Hadnt seen that website! Thank you for the link. That is a brilliant website xx

[gothprincess]

I'm glad you had a good trip it sounds wonderful.

[davewasbaloo]

Oh Tubsy, thanks for sharing, it sounds like you had a wonderful time (we did too). It was a real pleasure to read your report, and I love the Stitch story - REAL Disney magic!

Great room too, seeing the fireworks from your room is a real treat, we have done this from the HNY in the past, and it is an unforgetable memory huh?

I am so glad it went so well for you guys. And I am glad you are able to spread a little pixie dust too.

[tubbsy]

Glad you had a great time too
It truly was a magical trip

[Elaine]

Oooh I've just read all this tubbsy - fantastic, so pleased almost everything went so well for you!

Elaine

[Terkina]

Thank you for a great trip report.  It sounds like you had a lovely time