cherrymarzipan
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 16, 2010
This trip was great from the moment of our arrival. We were early yet were pleasantly surprised to find our room was ready for us and the friendly CM gave DS (Oliver) a voucher to choose a pin as it was his birthday the next day. I don’t know if this was planned or if she decided to do it on the spur of the moment but it was very kind. She told us we had a ground floor Gramercy Park room which I had asked for if possible. We went straight there and it was the nicest one we’ve had – south facing onto the garden square with a terrace and outdoor chairs. This terrace felt very private due to the planting on either side and as it was sheltered and the weather was great throughout our stay we often bought lunch in the Village and took it back there to eat.
Even more exciting, we had pixie dust in the form of a pretty rose in a vase in the bathroom, a large glass bottle of mineral water with wine glasses and for Oliver, a large Disney mug and bonbons beautifully wrapped. He loves this mug which has lots of his favourite characters on it. Whether this was because I had complained about a rather rude CM in the hotel when we were there earlier in the year or because we were just lucky for Oliver’s birthday I don’t know but it was such an unexpected treat and set the tone for the entire stay.
As I said, the weather was glorious with blue skies and sunshine that showed all the Halloween decorations and costumes off to their best. We were so lucky there, especially considering what the weather was like, here at least, this week. I can’t really better Carrie’s photos in her Halloween thread which look remarkably similar to mine! I always appreciate the park planting at this time of year and the trees are beautiful now too both in the park and around the HNY.
With the exception of the Villains after the show, all the meet and greets were very well managed with organised queues. I preferred having the princesses outside so we see who we wanted to meet (although I appreciate that it would get cold for them as winter comes on). From a disabled pass point of view it was better too as we didn’t have to queue up three times to get into the Princess Pavilion. We just collected a time slot from a CM accompanying the character and as crowd levels were low usually could return in around 30 minutes. We saw Snow White and Sleeping Beauty in Plaza Gardens and Merida in her spot in Frontierland. All three were really fun and patient with DS who is autistic, completely obsessed with Disney and VERY sociable. Marie was wonderful too and we loved the usual characters and those in Halloween costume. Again nice to see some new outfits.
The Halloween parade is colourful and catchy and whilst not very different from last year, I think the Villains show is a big improvement on last year and makes good use of the stage. I really like the change in décor colour away from the orange which reigns everywhere else and which we’ve had for a few years now. The purple and green is perfect for the villains and I liked the extension of the brambles in this area. The queue for Maleficent in the courtyard was again orderly but the after show meet and greets with other villains in the castle stage area were scrums. It is rather disheartening to patiently get towards the front only for the crowd to be told to step back and then find people have stood in front of you again. It is very hard to organise this differently though and Oliver was able to meet some of his favourites eventually by us sticking around and watching several shows in a row. At least the villains could be seen well during the show and I liked that each show was headed by a different character which made staying on more interesting.
Oliver had his usual fun with all the pirates, those in the Caribbean and around the park on other duties and naturally chose another POTC pin with his voucher – “A parrot’s life for me” one. One last sparkle of pixie dust was when Oliver managed to hitch himself up with a couple of CMs and march them off towards the castle. Here he did his usual thing of looking for any balloons that have escaped and are stuck on the ceiling. (He is a bit obsessed with this in the arcades too or if one escapes into the sky.) Anyway, one of these CMs gave him a voucher for a balloon of his own which again was wonderful. We used to buy the children balloons every trip but haven’t done for years (they’re a bit of a pain on the journey afterwards) but Oliver got so much pleasure out of his Mickey balloon (and Mickey’s still looking at me now, at home, if somewhat thinner in the face) that I can see we are going to start again.
So, we were incredibly lucky!
Even more exciting, we had pixie dust in the form of a pretty rose in a vase in the bathroom, a large glass bottle of mineral water with wine glasses and for Oliver, a large Disney mug and bonbons beautifully wrapped. He loves this mug which has lots of his favourite characters on it. Whether this was because I had complained about a rather rude CM in the hotel when we were there earlier in the year or because we were just lucky for Oliver’s birthday I don’t know but it was such an unexpected treat and set the tone for the entire stay.
As I said, the weather was glorious with blue skies and sunshine that showed all the Halloween decorations and costumes off to their best. We were so lucky there, especially considering what the weather was like, here at least, this week. I can’t really better Carrie’s photos in her Halloween thread which look remarkably similar to mine! I always appreciate the park planting at this time of year and the trees are beautiful now too both in the park and around the HNY.
With the exception of the Villains after the show, all the meet and greets were very well managed with organised queues. I preferred having the princesses outside so we see who we wanted to meet (although I appreciate that it would get cold for them as winter comes on). From a disabled pass point of view it was better too as we didn’t have to queue up three times to get into the Princess Pavilion. We just collected a time slot from a CM accompanying the character and as crowd levels were low usually could return in around 30 minutes. We saw Snow White and Sleeping Beauty in Plaza Gardens and Merida in her spot in Frontierland. All three were really fun and patient with DS who is autistic, completely obsessed with Disney and VERY sociable. Marie was wonderful too and we loved the usual characters and those in Halloween costume. Again nice to see some new outfits.
The Halloween parade is colourful and catchy and whilst not very different from last year, I think the Villains show is a big improvement on last year and makes good use of the stage. I really like the change in décor colour away from the orange which reigns everywhere else and which we’ve had for a few years now. The purple and green is perfect for the villains and I liked the extension of the brambles in this area. The queue for Maleficent in the courtyard was again orderly but the after show meet and greets with other villains in the castle stage area were scrums. It is rather disheartening to patiently get towards the front only for the crowd to be told to step back and then find people have stood in front of you again. It is very hard to organise this differently though and Oliver was able to meet some of his favourites eventually by us sticking around and watching several shows in a row. At least the villains could be seen well during the show and I liked that each show was headed by a different character which made staying on more interesting.
Oliver had his usual fun with all the pirates, those in the Caribbean and around the park on other duties and naturally chose another POTC pin with his voucher – “A parrot’s life for me” one. One last sparkle of pixie dust was when Oliver managed to hitch himself up with a couple of CMs and march them off towards the castle. Here he did his usual thing of looking for any balloons that have escaped and are stuck on the ceiling. (He is a bit obsessed with this in the arcades too or if one escapes into the sky.) Anyway, one of these CMs gave him a voucher for a balloon of his own which again was wonderful. We used to buy the children balloons every trip but haven’t done for years (they’re a bit of a pain on the journey afterwards) but Oliver got so much pleasure out of his Mickey balloon (and Mickey’s still looking at me now, at home, if somewhat thinner in the face) that I can see we are going to start again.
So, we were incredibly lucky!
