Tripodjw does Paris - Day 4 (Long and picture heavy)

[tripodjw]

Pretrip report here http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1960054
Day 1 report here http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1978973
Day 2 report here http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1979514
Day 3 report here http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1982592

After a day off we got up to hit the parks early again. Thursday started out beautiful, the sun was coming up and making the Disneyland Hotel and Castle almost glow. Afew dirty grey clouds around but that makes it more dramatic.

We got to the gates for EMH but there must have been some kind of problem as we had to queue and wait until about 10 past 8. I was convinced my watch was wrong, so set it to 8 when they opened up, so we ended up on the wrong time for the rest of the day. You know how it is with a lack of clocks in the park. Good job we didn’t have any dining reservations today.







Anyway, it was off to Discoveryland again to see Buzz. Helpfully, Star Tours was opne for EMH today as Orbitron was closed for a couple of days. Much better idea.

We got on a Starspeeder on our own which was ace. Still didn’t make it to Endor though. Sigh.

We headed on to Fantasyland and did the normal of Peter Pan, Pinocchio and the outdoor rides. And wandered through the Beanstalk shop playing with all the kiddie toys. We decided that the police car with Goofy as a cop was a really bad idea. I mean, Goofy as a police officer? You have to be kidding me. Plus the car said to protect and serve. Not sure poor old Goofy could protect anything.

The Sword in the Stone had been closed all week, and i deicided to take a picture of the “Closed for Refurbishment” sign. I’m planning on printing it up and hanging it outside any room that we are decorating or doing DIY on here at home. To the same end I took a picture of a Fresh Paint sign from a Pumpkin-man later on. Should make DIY a little more fun.





As 10am was approaching we decided to head to get a drink at Salon Mickey before going to the Studios. It was pretty quiet in Salon Mickey, teo German fellas having a coffee, and as we were leaving a Dutch family came in. I had a Mickey brioche so I then was set up for the day.





After the quick refreshment stop we headed over to the Studios. I was adamant i was going to see Groom Goofy and have my picture taken so the day was tor evolve around his schedule. His first visit wasn’t for a while so we went on TOT and then the Tram Tour.







I like the Tram tour, I’ve always found it interesting but I really wish they’d put some new stuff in. The costumes are still from Lion Witch and Wardrobe. They could have at least go some Caspian ones. I also wonder every time if they regret putting in the “Reign of Fire” London bit. The film was a flop (i thought it was ok but nothing special) and lets face it, all this area is, is some big flames which is “kind of” similar to the Catastrophe Canyon section.



This one reminds me of Jungle Cruise in the US – The 8th wonder of the world – The Back side of Water.



Then it ws almost time for Groom Goofy. The programme just said Production Courtyard –TOT. Not much help. SO we hung around on the corner by the TOT fountain. Goofy’s time came and went, so I went and asked a CM. According to him, Goofy doesn’t know how to tell the time. Well, Duh!

Anyway, we hung around a bit longer, but by now the sun had gone in and it was getting pretty cold and it looked like raining. So we decided to head back to Studio 1 to get warm and have some lunch.

Just as we were walking across Production Courtyard, I said: I bet he’ll be turn up as soon as we go out of sight.

Well, i wasn’t far wrong. As we went into Studio 1, i turned round – and who was striding across Production Courtyard towards TOT? Groom, blooming, Goofy. SO ijust yelled at DH to come on and i legged it after him.

Goofy went and hid round by the TOT shop/exit area and I finally got my picture with him, and in my TOT T-shirt too. Mission accomplished.



By now all the excitement had left us pretty hungry and we really wanted a nice cup of tea. So we thought we’d go back to the hotel, pick up a sandwich on the way and have a cuppa. I sent Dh to go buy sandwiches while I picked up the Hollywood Tower Hotel Towels we had decided to buy. (As i type, we have a set of these towels in our bathroom – I’m sure non-Disney savvy guests will think we’ve nicked them from a hotel).

I also snook into the Studio 1 shop and got a Buzz blaster for DH for his b’day. I figured I could hide it amongstthe towels so he wouldn’t see it til the next day (it worked too).

On the way from the Studios to the Village I noticed for the first time in 5 yrs of visiting the studios the plaques pointing the directions and distances to the other Disney parks.(Unless they’re new and then i’ll feel less stoopid)






I love the way the original Disneyland happens to be dead on with the Disneyland Hotel


Back at the hotel, DH had bought Coronation Chicken Baguettes and Chips. So we dined overlooking the lake and had that cuppa i so desperately needed.

After lunch we went back to DL Park and went over to Frontierland to hit Phantom Manor, Big Thunder and across to Indy. Well hitting all those just left me with a sore hand so we headed down Main Street to get a hot chocolate (with more sunken smarties) and wait for the parade.

While waiting i noticed that the sign outside City Hall said there would be a Tour in English the following day. Hurrah. After the disappointment (see pretrip thread) of trying to book a tour and not being to do so, i was thrilled. We went in and booked for the tour and i was buzzing.

Took plenty of pics again, but was quite surprised when the Princesses came through. The main Princess float was not there – instead, they were all walking along with just the Aladdin/Jasmine part bringing up the rear of the parade. It was also Belle and her Prince, not Belle and the Beast like it normally is on the float.

The princesses walking caused carnage as kids kept rushing into the road to hug them etc. Now bear in mind, there was still a float behind them this was mental and the poor CM’s were overwhelmed by the kids. You got a better view of them, and nobody got hurt, but i’d suggest they perhaps need to take the princesses out if the float is broke, for safety reasons.

Oh and The Evil Queen did some nice posing for the camera – she tried to jump at me while i was taking shots so got quite a creepy one, shame its off centre.









After the parade, we went back to Adventureland and went to visit the Pirates. They were still as jolly as ever, and we thought we’d go on Indy again. Well why not?



After Indy it was back to the Castle to see the Dragon via the Aladdin walkthrough. The Dragon was feeling feisty and was roaring a lot, probably too many people disturbing him. So we let him go back to sleep and went to get on the train from Fantasyland station.



We often don’t go on the train because we concentrate on the rides. It’s always a good rest when you’re feet hurt. We got on the train and managed to secure the back carriage (the caboose isn’t it?) for ourselves and rode a full circle of the park in our private carriage. And v nice it was too.



After the train we decided to call it a day. My feet hurt and we had a busy day the next day as it was DH’s birthday. We went back and had a rest then popped out to McDonalds to get a Salad each as takeout for dinner. While DH queued and bought the food i turned the laptop on and go onto the internet to log into our sky account. We wanted to set some programmes to record on the Sky+ box using remote record (by the time they were on, on Sunday afternoon we’d been away longer than a week so couldn’t set them while still at home.

The McDonalds free wifi internet worked a treat and was much better than forking out for the wifi in the hotel.

Sky+ remote record set and salads in hand we headed to the hotel and had a light supper before watching some Disney channel and going to bed.

More pics from Day 4 on flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/tripodj...121870/detail/

Day 5 - http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1985274

[Cyrano]

I love Goofy Bell-hop too

Looks like you had the perfect park day

[DLPdaft]

Isn't it amazing how we see the same thing from a different view? I love the princesses walking the parade route, and think its such an improvement to the Parade. I saw the Parade from near the bandstand, from the very end of the route, and from near IASW, and didn't see any children running into the route at all - but I would have been alarmed for all concerned if I had .

Loving all your photos .

[tennisfan]

Another great day

[Anne64]

We are decorating at the moment and could do with a couple of refurbishment signs

Bring on day 5

[Dianetigger]

Another great report, we managed to see Bell-hop Goofy as well, he was brilliant.

[karenmoloney]

Lovely day & brilliant photos. Reading your report has me thinking I must go on the train next week, I haven't been on it since Sept 2004.

[Ware Bears]

Fantastic day ~ your photos are brilliant and those plaques showing the distances to the other Disney parks were only installed last year, so no, you haven't been walking around with your eyes shut!