Disneyland Paris July - trip report
For my 30th birthday Bert and I had booked a night in the Sequoia Lodge hotel (one of the on-sites) so we could celebrate my birthday in the park and then go to Amiens the next day :)
We got up at 2am because we wanted to leave at 3 at the latest to be in the Disneyland Park at 8 to make sure we could profit of the extra magical hours.
Miraculously we even managed to leave around 2.30!
We only took one stop on the way to Disneyland Paris to get more gas for the car, at one of the last roadstations in Belgium and then from there on it was straight to the Sequoia Lodge hotel to check in before hitting the Disneyland Park.
There was no wait (ok no there was about 3 minutes wait ‘till someone showed up at the desk) to check in, so that was good. The girl checking us in told us there’d be a surprise in our room, but she wasn’t going to spoil it by telling us what it was, and that we’d be able to pick up the key at the front desk and get into our room from 3pm onwards. She handed us the documents we needed to get our key later and the hotel easy-pass which had VIP breakfast stickers!
Normally you have to choose a time to eat breakfast and you get a card with that hour and the amount of people in your party, but with a VIP card you can have breakfast any time as long as it’s being served! You can just walk in :D
She also let us know that we’d be able to get Bert’s ticket at the concierge desk.
Sadly, the concierge desk was only manned (or better womanned) by one CM who couldn’t leave the desk to go make a copy of my AP so we couldn’t get a ticket there.
Well we could, but we’d have to wait half an hour and by that time it was already 7.30 so we decided to just have a stroll to the park through Disney Village and get Bert’s ticket at Guest Relations instead.
We took a small detour via Hotel New York to see if Launchpad was out, and a helpful CM told me that characters would be rotating that day from 8am forward but that he didn’t know which ones.
So off we went again through Disney Village, where I took some pictures. There was hardly anyone out at that point so it was excellent for taking pictures, no people in the way :D
We arrived at the bag check area at 7.48 (Bert remembered the exact time) and found it closed with a small crowd in front of it. They ended up opening AFTER 8 after doing some totally retarded spiel forcing everyone in the front of the crowd (thankfully I wasn’t in there) to clap their hands and cheer. Seriously DLP just open the bloody gates in time without a fuss, I think that only about 5 people appreciated the entire rubbish spiel and none of them was over 6 years old. And no one appreciated the extra wait.
Guest relations was _just_ opening. The only CM manning that was just sorting out the ropes as we got there and there was only one person in front of us, who was helped fast. And then we hit another snag. Normally you can just get a ticket at GR, no problem. Only this time, the CM wasn’t allowed to handle money that wasn’t the exact amount.
Bert’s ticket was with special AP discount (so only € 19 for both parks) and we either had to give her € 19 exact or pay with card. Thankfully Bert had his visa handy so he could pay with that. Of course the CM tried to shove us off on the normal ticket booths, but 90% of the time they refuse to sell AP holder discounted tickets there and just send you back to GR. So I wasn’t about to fall for that as it would likely be a total waste of time. Huzzah for Visa is what I say. Sea_cucumber, bring your Visa to DLP in October just in case!
Also, Bert’s ticket was STILL a 15th anniversary one! They are still handing out entry tickets from a celebration that has been over for YEARS. Heck, that one was _before_ the previous one (Mickey’s Magical Party)! My friend Sam went in June and he did get New Generation tickets so he was luckier than us. On one hand I’m glad they’re making good use of left over paper, but on the other hand I really would have liked to get at least _one_ New Generation ticket.
We wandered over Main Street where I took some photos
Main Street Gazette photo for ottens ^__^
before going over to Discoveryland to ride Buzz Lightyear. Because it was still so early the queue line said “5 minutes”. In reality it was shorter, even with me stopping to take a couple of snaps of Buzz doing his little talk because it was a straight walk-through to the ride vehicles ^__^
And Buzz didn’t stop because of some kind of break-down for once! Much to Bert’s chagrin because that’s how he usually gets his super high scores :D
We both managed to get level 3 and as usual Bert won :)
After Buzz we headed into Fantasyland and I managed to get some snaps of the castle without or with barely any people in them!
First we wandered around for a bit, I took some photos and we had a look in Ménagerie du Royaume. I wanted to take some photos there of the pretty décor but got distracted by merchandise after 1 shot, oops.
little_ribbon, I took a picture of the Lady plushies for you.
I noticed that the queue for Peter Pan’s Flight was super short, only 5 minutes, so I asked Bert if we could go ride it and he said yes (he’s really not keen on Pan), huzzah. Just like with Buzz, it was a straight walk-through so the wait was more about 2 minutes instead of 5, most excellent :)
Then we went to the teacups, and seeing there was hardly anyone about, I took some photos of the labyrinth
and March Hare’s Refreshments first.
I did try to take a photo of the Dormouse when I saw it peek out, but some retard child was hanging off the teapot (of course his parents said nothing). And as I rather not have retard in my photos I decided to wait. Of course it took forever before the Dormouse reappeared so we decided to leave it for what it was and go to the teacups. Of course when we entered Mad Hatter’s teacups, we saw it peek out. Typical!
Teacups was only about 2 minutes wait too, and I made sure not to get one of the “mach 5” teacups. Sam calls them that, some of them (one of the blue ones and one of the pink ones for sure) go REALLY FAST. I kid you not. Some are definitely faster than others. Bert said he didn’t want to make it spin, so I decided I would. Of course, I had picked one of the really slooooooooooooooooooooooooow cups which is hard to spin so there wasn’t much spinning going on bar the ride itself.
Bert wanted to go look at the historical documents in the Liberty Arcade so we went back to Main Street USA.
When we got out we noticed that Mickey Mouse was doing his meet and greet already, so we went into the queue, which only took somewhere between 5 and 10 minutes before it was my turn :)
After meeting Mickey Bert went into Discovery Arcade already and I went off to City Hall to see about Soirée Halloween tickets. My friend Dan had told me that they were on sale in the park already but I got told they were only on sale via the internet or phone. So sea_cucumber we need to see if we can sort that out. The CMs in city hall even checked if I could get them somewhere else in the park but apparently not. Very peculiar.
So Soirée Halloween ticketless I wandered off to the Discovery Arcade to find Bert looking at the stuff on display there.
Seeing it was my birthday we thought cake was in order, but neither of use felt like indigestion from eating an 8 person official DLP birthday cake so we went into the Cable Car Bake shop and got cake there. I got a strawberry pie and Bert a slice of chocolate mousse cake. Very nom :)
And look at the awesome teapots they have in Cable Car as part of the decor!
After that it was nearly 10am so we decided to join the crowd waiting for Frontierland to open.
Obviously this photo was taken before the crowd showed up :D
It was quite the crowd when it opened and sadly most of that crowd went straight for Big Thunder Mountain, just like us. It was about 20 minutes, but it wasn’t one of those super slow unmoving queues so it didn’t feel that long. It felt like we had queued for about 10 minutes when we boarded the rollercoaster so all was well ^__^
After Thunder, which remains AWESOME (I’m baffled I forgot to take pictures in my haste to beat queues X_x) we went to Adventureland to ride Pirates of the Caribbean, which was no queue either, just walking straight to the boats :)
Before we went on Pirates I had stopped to take photos of the Jolly Roger and after riding Pirates we had a look in Le Coffre du Capitaine. That’s the shop in between Pirates and the Blue Lagoon restaurant.
Bert made me pose with this ridiculous hat, out of revenge for me making him pose with one back in June 2006 O_o
After that we went to have a look at Agrabah Café. On the way we stopped at Le Giraffe Curieuze where I bought a shopper bag and a hat from the organic cotton range, both at seriously discounted prices.
I pondered getting a green cardigan short sleeved vest but in the end decided against it. It was on sale but I really have vest of that type (albeit in black, brown and with long sleeves) enough.
We made reservations at Agrabah and then went back to Discoveryland for Star Tours, which, like most rides, also opened up at 10.
Star Tours had build up quite the queue and seeing that standing that long would surely not work out, we used my handicapped card and were able to walk straight through to the star speeder. We had to wait about 3 minutes before we were able to get in. I’m telling you now, I’m really going to mix good old Rex the rubbish pilot droid when they end up installing version 2. To be honest, I DREAD it. I’ve never been a pod racing fan so I doubt that Star Tours will remain one of my favourite rides after its rehash. Hopefully the remake is still a long way off *fingers crossed*.
We then went to do some shopping on Main Street (mainly to look at shops) where I picked up the lanyards Dan & Jon wanted (you can pay me back in October guys) and got some presents for friends and family.
Bert goofing around in some shops, yes he is wearing a Mickey Mouse t-shirt, shocking I know [I got it for him during H&M sales as a gag gift and was certain he'd never wear it, goes to show I was wrong ^__^]
Pluto plushies photo made in the Emporium for disneyglitter
pictures of the Boardwalk Candy Palace, one of my favorite shops because it looks so damn AWESOME
sea_cucumber that Minnie teapot is € 25, just so you know in case you want one in October (I do have 20% discount on it, but you'll have to calculate the total price yourself :P). I was tempted to get it but didn't in the end as I don't need another teapot that barely gets any use. I do have the giant tea cup from that series though, Merlijn uses it as a drinking bowl :D
After that it was time to go meet Tiana & Naveen.
We were lucky enough to end up in the queue just before it got closed but it turned out to be a 40 minute wait. So I asked the nice CM about the disability entrance and they put us in there, which was only a 5 minute wait.
I really liked meeting Tiana and Naveen, they were very interactive with guests and super friendly. Normally I’m not much of a princess person, but I ADORE the skirt part of Tiana’s dress, so I just HAD to have a picture with them. Mind you, had it been Louis the trumpet playing alligator or Dr Facillier out there, I’d be sitting in front of the meet and greet area well in time :D (instead of 10 minutes before it starts like this time).
Jazz band playing outside the meet and greet area. They were just between songs when I took this picture.
I had held off looking at the photographer’s photos from the Mickey Mouse meet and greet because I thought I’d get some coupons to go look at the Tiana & Naveen one too. But that didn’t have an official photographer, so I went to Town Square Photography afterwards and ended up getting two Mickey photos ^__^
Bert and I were a little hungry by that point, so we went back to Frontierland, where we had a light lunch at Fuente del Oro. We got a pack of churros and a box of Mexican chips/fries and a bottle of Ice Tea white peach and shared that. Very nom ^__^
Then I bought some more stuff at the Thunder Mesa store. A bowl for both Merlijn and Shinto, a tin of candy for my dad and a present for Peter & Eva (my brother and sister in law [I'm obviously NOT going to say what it is on here in case they read it, I don't want to spoil the surprise]).
It was around 3am by then, so we went to the hotel to pick up the key and have a bit of a rest.
But first we stopped by Hotel New York again in the hope Launchpad would be out. No Launchpad alas, but we did find the Tweedles and the White Rabbit. I had been trying to get my picture taken with all the wonderland chars, and the only ones I was missing were Tweedle Dum and the White Rabbit, so I profited of the occasion to get them all.
There was a little girl SO overenthoused to see the rabbit that she clung to him when it was my turn, and even though her dad (it wasn’t a case of badly raised little mutt with moron parents, it was just a little kid getting super enthoused) so she’s in my photos. Her dad did apologise, several times. Frankly I didn’t have the hart to shove her out, and I didn’t want to step back either because there were a lot of parents trying to shove there kids in and I didn’t want to miss out on a picture either.
Pretty greenery & lake on the walkway to the hotel, just before the Sequoia Lodge
Detail on the fencing
Getting the room key was only a matter of a small wait at the check-in desk (which was more crowded than in the morning). And the CM handed me some more documents like the map/information sheet.
Now the room we had booked was a standard one, but it turned out that we had gotten upgraded to a room with view over Lake Disney!
And that wasn’t the only surprise, when we got into the room we found a bottle of still water AND a bottle of champaign! And there was a super pretty rose in the bathroom too. I have to have a birthday more often!
Of course I can’t drink alcohol due to my meds, so Bert had to finish off the champaign on his own. Of course he wasn’t complaining as he loves the stuff ^__^
I ended up taking the empty bottle and the rose home, and the rose is standing in the bottle on the kitchen currently ^__^ Seriously, it smells SOOOOOOOOOOOO good!
I took some pictures of the view from our hotel room (we could even see Tower of Terror and the castle!) and then we had a nap.
We got up again around 6ish to go back to the park for dinner at Agrabah.
We did some shopping in Disney Village first, where Bert bought me a little plushie Pluto keychain for my birthday, which is now on my bag ^__^
Agrabah café wasn’t too crowded, which is good, and the buffet is pretty diverse so definitely value for money. Sadly they used a lot of spices I’m allergic too so my choice was alas rather limited, but I still found plenty I could eat. I do think that as far as buffet goes in the park, I’ll try Plaza Garden next as that’s less likely to have an abundency of stuff I’m allergic too. Bert LOVED it though.
After Agrabah we went back to the hotel, because Bert had overeaten himself (he always does that when there’s that much of food he loves around) and needed a bit of a lie down.
So we stayed in our room, where Bert drank a lot of water, ‘till it was time to go back to Main Street for the fireworks.
Blub, my compact camera, has a fireworks setting but that was sadly not as good as I had hoped. Thankfully Blub also has a movie setting, so I mainly made little fireworks films :)
After fireworks I got a big chocolate chip cookie from the Cookie Kitchen and we went back to the hotel to sleep.
The next morning we got up around 7 and had a shower. We packed up all our things and went downstairs. I had checked the hours for meet and greets the day before, and it listed Seqoia Lodge/park ranger Goofy at 8 and Pluto at 8.30
Sadly for me, they had changed the characters and the special hotel ones were all set for the next day :(
I did go queue for Mickey and Minnie, because you seldom see them together and then we went down for breakfast in Hunter’s Grill.
After breakfast, we went back up to meet Pluto.
Seeing I was still on the hunt for Launchpad McQuack, we went back to Hotel New York to see if he was there. Pluto was out, and Bert found the character times (which weren’t up the day before) and I went to queue for Goofy (who came straight after Pluto).
Dan & Jon have once met Launchpad in the Disneyland Hotel, and we were told the day before (by two different CMs) that the hotel pool didn’t open before 10 so we decided to go have a look in the Main Street Lobby on the second floor. No luck there either, and we were told that the best time to find him there was in the evenings *face palm*.
If only I had known that the day before!
We did find Mickey, TIGGER and Robin Hood though :)
After those characters we went back to the hotel to dump all our stuff in the car and go for a swim. Sadly swimming failed because the pool, inspite of it being summer AND 2 CMs telling us it would open at 10am, was closed ‘till 3pm!!!!!!! So far for booking a more expensive hotel to get a pool to go swimming on my birthday trip :’(
So we grumbled, went to drop off the hotel key (they’re keycards and you just have to dump them in a designated box, which counts as your check-out if you’ve not used the mini bar etc) and have a look in the store. I bought some more postcards and a tin of mints with a cool vintage Mickey design.
And after that we drove off to Amiens where we spend the afternoon before going home ^__^
As usual I played scavenger hunt again, you can see those photos here.
And all of the photos of the trip can be seen here.
Obligatory outfit shots:
Shrug: Hema
Top: my own design, made it myself
Bag: H&M
Teddybear bag: Duffy the Disney Bear, Tokyo Disney Sea
Skirt: made it myself
Flip flops: customised Puma
Shrug: Vero Moda (it has leg o' mutton sleeves!!!!)
Top: my own design, made it myself
Bag: H&M
Teddybear bag: Duffy the Disney Bear, Tokyo Disney Sea
Skirt: made it myself
Flip flops: customised Puma
We got up at 2am because we wanted to leave at 3 at the latest to be in the Disneyland Park at 8 to make sure we could profit of the extra magical hours.
Miraculously we even managed to leave around 2.30!
We only took one stop on the way to Disneyland Paris to get more gas for the car, at one of the last roadstations in Belgium and then from there on it was straight to the Sequoia Lodge hotel to check in before hitting the Disneyland Park.
There was no wait (ok no there was about 3 minutes wait ‘till someone showed up at the desk) to check in, so that was good. The girl checking us in told us there’d be a surprise in our room, but she wasn’t going to spoil it by telling us what it was, and that we’d be able to pick up the key at the front desk and get into our room from 3pm onwards. She handed us the documents we needed to get our key later and the hotel easy-pass which had VIP breakfast stickers!
Normally you have to choose a time to eat breakfast and you get a card with that hour and the amount of people in your party, but with a VIP card you can have breakfast any time as long as it’s being served! You can just walk in :D
She also let us know that we’d be able to get Bert’s ticket at the concierge desk.
Sadly, the concierge desk was only manned (or better womanned) by one CM who couldn’t leave the desk to go make a copy of my AP so we couldn’t get a ticket there.
Well we could, but we’d have to wait half an hour and by that time it was already 7.30 so we decided to just have a stroll to the park through Disney Village and get Bert’s ticket at Guest Relations instead.
We took a small detour via Hotel New York to see if Launchpad was out, and a helpful CM told me that characters would be rotating that day from 8am forward but that he didn’t know which ones.
So off we went again through Disney Village, where I took some pictures. There was hardly anyone out at that point so it was excellent for taking pictures, no people in the way :D
We arrived at the bag check area at 7.48 (Bert remembered the exact time) and found it closed with a small crowd in front of it. They ended up opening AFTER 8 after doing some totally retarded spiel forcing everyone in the front of the crowd (thankfully I wasn’t in there) to clap their hands and cheer. Seriously DLP just open the bloody gates in time without a fuss, I think that only about 5 people appreciated the entire rubbish spiel and none of them was over 6 years old. And no one appreciated the extra wait.
Guest relations was _just_ opening. The only CM manning that was just sorting out the ropes as we got there and there was only one person in front of us, who was helped fast. And then we hit another snag. Normally you can just get a ticket at GR, no problem. Only this time, the CM wasn’t allowed to handle money that wasn’t the exact amount.
Bert’s ticket was with special AP discount (so only € 19 for both parks) and we either had to give her € 19 exact or pay with card. Thankfully Bert had his visa handy so he could pay with that. Of course the CM tried to shove us off on the normal ticket booths, but 90% of the time they refuse to sell AP holder discounted tickets there and just send you back to GR. So I wasn’t about to fall for that as it would likely be a total waste of time. Huzzah for Visa is what I say. Sea_cucumber, bring your Visa to DLP in October just in case!
Also, Bert’s ticket was STILL a 15th anniversary one! They are still handing out entry tickets from a celebration that has been over for YEARS. Heck, that one was _before_ the previous one (Mickey’s Magical Party)! My friend Sam went in June and he did get New Generation tickets so he was luckier than us. On one hand I’m glad they’re making good use of left over paper, but on the other hand I really would have liked to get at least _one_ New Generation ticket.
We wandered over Main Street where I took some photos
Main Street Gazette photo for ottens ^__^
before going over to Discoveryland to ride Buzz Lightyear. Because it was still so early the queue line said “5 minutes”. In reality it was shorter, even with me stopping to take a couple of snaps of Buzz doing his little talk because it was a straight walk-through to the ride vehicles ^__^
And Buzz didn’t stop because of some kind of break-down for once! Much to Bert’s chagrin because that’s how he usually gets his super high scores :D
We both managed to get level 3 and as usual Bert won :)
After Buzz we headed into Fantasyland and I managed to get some snaps of the castle without or with barely any people in them!
First we wandered around for a bit, I took some photos and we had a look in Ménagerie du Royaume. I wanted to take some photos there of the pretty décor but got distracted by merchandise after 1 shot, oops.
little_ribbon, I took a picture of the Lady plushies for you.
I noticed that the queue for Peter Pan’s Flight was super short, only 5 minutes, so I asked Bert if we could go ride it and he said yes (he’s really not keen on Pan), huzzah. Just like with Buzz, it was a straight walk-through so the wait was more about 2 minutes instead of 5, most excellent :)
Then we went to the teacups, and seeing there was hardly anyone about, I took some photos of the labyrinth
and March Hare’s Refreshments first.
I did try to take a photo of the Dormouse when I saw it peek out, but some retard child was hanging off the teapot (of course his parents said nothing). And as I rather not have retard in my photos I decided to wait. Of course it took forever before the Dormouse reappeared so we decided to leave it for what it was and go to the teacups. Of course when we entered Mad Hatter’s teacups, we saw it peek out. Typical!
Teacups was only about 2 minutes wait too, and I made sure not to get one of the “mach 5” teacups. Sam calls them that, some of them (one of the blue ones and one of the pink ones for sure) go REALLY FAST. I kid you not. Some are definitely faster than others. Bert said he didn’t want to make it spin, so I decided I would. Of course, I had picked one of the really slooooooooooooooooooooooooow cups which is hard to spin so there wasn’t much spinning going on bar the ride itself.
Bert wanted to go look at the historical documents in the Liberty Arcade so we went back to Main Street USA.
When we got out we noticed that Mickey Mouse was doing his meet and greet already, so we went into the queue, which only took somewhere between 5 and 10 minutes before it was my turn :)
After meeting Mickey Bert went into Discovery Arcade already and I went off to City Hall to see about Soirée Halloween tickets. My friend Dan had told me that they were on sale in the park already but I got told they were only on sale via the internet or phone. So sea_cucumber we need to see if we can sort that out. The CMs in city hall even checked if I could get them somewhere else in the park but apparently not. Very peculiar.
So Soirée Halloween ticketless I wandered off to the Discovery Arcade to find Bert looking at the stuff on display there.
Seeing it was my birthday we thought cake was in order, but neither of use felt like indigestion from eating an 8 person official DLP birthday cake so we went into the Cable Car Bake shop and got cake there. I got a strawberry pie and Bert a slice of chocolate mousse cake. Very nom :)
And look at the awesome teapots they have in Cable Car as part of the decor!
After that it was nearly 10am so we decided to join the crowd waiting for Frontierland to open.
Obviously this photo was taken before the crowd showed up :D
It was quite the crowd when it opened and sadly most of that crowd went straight for Big Thunder Mountain, just like us. It was about 20 minutes, but it wasn’t one of those super slow unmoving queues so it didn’t feel that long. It felt like we had queued for about 10 minutes when we boarded the rollercoaster so all was well ^__^
After Thunder, which remains AWESOME (I’m baffled I forgot to take pictures in my haste to beat queues X_x) we went to Adventureland to ride Pirates of the Caribbean, which was no queue either, just walking straight to the boats :)
Before we went on Pirates I had stopped to take photos of the Jolly Roger and after riding Pirates we had a look in Le Coffre du Capitaine. That’s the shop in between Pirates and the Blue Lagoon restaurant.
Bert made me pose with this ridiculous hat, out of revenge for me making him pose with one back in June 2006 O_o
After that we went to have a look at Agrabah Café. On the way we stopped at Le Giraffe Curieuze where I bought a shopper bag and a hat from the organic cotton range, both at seriously discounted prices.
I pondered getting a green cardigan short sleeved vest but in the end decided against it. It was on sale but I really have vest of that type (albeit in black, brown and with long sleeves) enough.
We made reservations at Agrabah and then went back to Discoveryland for Star Tours, which, like most rides, also opened up at 10.
Star Tours had build up quite the queue and seeing that standing that long would surely not work out, we used my handicapped card and were able to walk straight through to the star speeder. We had to wait about 3 minutes before we were able to get in. I’m telling you now, I’m really going to mix good old Rex the rubbish pilot droid when they end up installing version 2. To be honest, I DREAD it. I’ve never been a pod racing fan so I doubt that Star Tours will remain one of my favourite rides after its rehash. Hopefully the remake is still a long way off *fingers crossed*.
We then went to do some shopping on Main Street (mainly to look at shops) where I picked up the lanyards Dan & Jon wanted (you can pay me back in October guys) and got some presents for friends and family.
Bert goofing around in some shops, yes he is wearing a Mickey Mouse t-shirt, shocking I know [I got it for him during H&M sales as a gag gift and was certain he'd never wear it, goes to show I was wrong ^__^]
Pluto plushies photo made in the Emporium for disneyglitter
pictures of the Boardwalk Candy Palace, one of my favorite shops because it looks so damn AWESOME
sea_cucumber that Minnie teapot is € 25, just so you know in case you want one in October (I do have 20% discount on it, but you'll have to calculate the total price yourself :P). I was tempted to get it but didn't in the end as I don't need another teapot that barely gets any use. I do have the giant tea cup from that series though, Merlijn uses it as a drinking bowl :D
After that it was time to go meet Tiana & Naveen.
We were lucky enough to end up in the queue just before it got closed but it turned out to be a 40 minute wait. So I asked the nice CM about the disability entrance and they put us in there, which was only a 5 minute wait.
I really liked meeting Tiana and Naveen, they were very interactive with guests and super friendly. Normally I’m not much of a princess person, but I ADORE the skirt part of Tiana’s dress, so I just HAD to have a picture with them. Mind you, had it been Louis the trumpet playing alligator or Dr Facillier out there, I’d be sitting in front of the meet and greet area well in time :D (instead of 10 minutes before it starts like this time).
Jazz band playing outside the meet and greet area. They were just between songs when I took this picture.
I had held off looking at the photographer’s photos from the Mickey Mouse meet and greet because I thought I’d get some coupons to go look at the Tiana & Naveen one too. But that didn’t have an official photographer, so I went to Town Square Photography afterwards and ended up getting two Mickey photos ^__^
Bert and I were a little hungry by that point, so we went back to Frontierland, where we had a light lunch at Fuente del Oro. We got a pack of churros and a box of Mexican chips/fries and a bottle of Ice Tea white peach and shared that. Very nom ^__^
Then I bought some more stuff at the Thunder Mesa store. A bowl for both Merlijn and Shinto, a tin of candy for my dad and a present for Peter & Eva (my brother and sister in law [I'm obviously NOT going to say what it is on here in case they read it, I don't want to spoil the surprise]).
It was around 3am by then, so we went to the hotel to pick up the key and have a bit of a rest.
But first we stopped by Hotel New York again in the hope Launchpad would be out. No Launchpad alas, but we did find the Tweedles and the White Rabbit. I had been trying to get my picture taken with all the wonderland chars, and the only ones I was missing were Tweedle Dum and the White Rabbit, so I profited of the occasion to get them all.
There was a little girl SO overenthoused to see the rabbit that she clung to him when it was my turn, and even though her dad (it wasn’t a case of badly raised little mutt with moron parents, it was just a little kid getting super enthoused) so she’s in my photos. Her dad did apologise, several times. Frankly I didn’t have the hart to shove her out, and I didn’t want to step back either because there were a lot of parents trying to shove there kids in and I didn’t want to miss out on a picture either.
Pretty greenery & lake on the walkway to the hotel, just before the Sequoia Lodge
Detail on the fencing
Getting the room key was only a matter of a small wait at the check-in desk (which was more crowded than in the morning). And the CM handed me some more documents like the map/information sheet.
Now the room we had booked was a standard one, but it turned out that we had gotten upgraded to a room with view over Lake Disney!
And that wasn’t the only surprise, when we got into the room we found a bottle of still water AND a bottle of champaign! And there was a super pretty rose in the bathroom too. I have to have a birthday more often!
Of course I can’t drink alcohol due to my meds, so Bert had to finish off the champaign on his own. Of course he wasn’t complaining as he loves the stuff ^__^
I ended up taking the empty bottle and the rose home, and the rose is standing in the bottle on the kitchen currently ^__^ Seriously, it smells SOOOOOOOOOOOO good!
I took some pictures of the view from our hotel room (we could even see Tower of Terror and the castle!) and then we had a nap.
We got up again around 6ish to go back to the park for dinner at Agrabah.
We did some shopping in Disney Village first, where Bert bought me a little plushie Pluto keychain for my birthday, which is now on my bag ^__^
Agrabah café wasn’t too crowded, which is good, and the buffet is pretty diverse so definitely value for money. Sadly they used a lot of spices I’m allergic too so my choice was alas rather limited, but I still found plenty I could eat. I do think that as far as buffet goes in the park, I’ll try Plaza Garden next as that’s less likely to have an abundency of stuff I’m allergic too. Bert LOVED it though.
After Agrabah we went back to the hotel, because Bert had overeaten himself (he always does that when there’s that much of food he loves around) and needed a bit of a lie down.
So we stayed in our room, where Bert drank a lot of water, ‘till it was time to go back to Main Street for the fireworks.
Blub, my compact camera, has a fireworks setting but that was sadly not as good as I had hoped. Thankfully Blub also has a movie setting, so I mainly made little fireworks films :)
After fireworks I got a big chocolate chip cookie from the Cookie Kitchen and we went back to the hotel to sleep.
The next morning we got up around 7 and had a shower. We packed up all our things and went downstairs. I had checked the hours for meet and greets the day before, and it listed Seqoia Lodge/park ranger Goofy at 8 and Pluto at 8.30
Sadly for me, they had changed the characters and the special hotel ones were all set for the next day :(
I did go queue for Mickey and Minnie, because you seldom see them together and then we went down for breakfast in Hunter’s Grill.
After breakfast, we went back up to meet Pluto.
Seeing I was still on the hunt for Launchpad McQuack, we went back to Hotel New York to see if he was there. Pluto was out, and Bert found the character times (which weren’t up the day before) and I went to queue for Goofy (who came straight after Pluto).
Dan & Jon have once met Launchpad in the Disneyland Hotel, and we were told the day before (by two different CMs) that the hotel pool didn’t open before 10 so we decided to go have a look in the Main Street Lobby on the second floor. No luck there either, and we were told that the best time to find him there was in the evenings *face palm*.
If only I had known that the day before!
We did find Mickey, TIGGER and Robin Hood though :)
After those characters we went back to the hotel to dump all our stuff in the car and go for a swim. Sadly swimming failed because the pool, inspite of it being summer AND 2 CMs telling us it would open at 10am, was closed ‘till 3pm!!!!!!! So far for booking a more expensive hotel to get a pool to go swimming on my birthday trip :’(
So we grumbled, went to drop off the hotel key (they’re keycards and you just have to dump them in a designated box, which counts as your check-out if you’ve not used the mini bar etc) and have a look in the store. I bought some more postcards and a tin of mints with a cool vintage Mickey design.
And after that we drove off to Amiens where we spend the afternoon before going home ^__^
As usual I played scavenger hunt again, you can see those photos here.
And all of the photos of the trip can be seen here.
Obligatory outfit shots:
Shrug: Hema
Top: my own design, made it myself
Bag: H&M
Teddybear bag: Duffy the Disney Bear, Tokyo Disney Sea
Skirt: made it myself
Flip flops: customised Puma
Shrug: Vero Moda (it has leg o' mutton sleeves!!!!)
Top: my own design, made it myself
Bag: H&M
Teddybear bag: Duffy the Disney Bear, Tokyo Disney Sea
Skirt: made it myself
Flip flops: customised Puma