My first-ever trip to DLP and a birthday celebration! Now a TR!! March 2015

[RrCoAsTeR]

Cont.... We then walked back over in front of the castle for Goofy’s Garden Party at 12:30. I asked a CM where the best place to stand was and he explained where the parade would go and told us the best spot… right to the right of where Main Street intersects the roundabout. Perfect!

Goofy’s Garden Party was a highlight of our day! The parade and show were really well done and took a substantial amount of time. It wasn’t crowded at all and there were TONS of characters. Lots of them came up during the parade and interacted with us a little bit, which was so fun! It was a great way to see a lot of characters we wouldn’t have otherwise, and their costumes were adorable. The song was cute and fun too and it was just an overall great time!


The first dancers came out of the castle while the characters came up the other direction from Main Street


Pooh & Co were all there, even Rabbit, who I don't feel like I see a lot!



Love the fun spring outfits and especially Daisy's hat!


I'm not sure I've ever seen Clarabelle Cow before, but her and Horace Horsecollar were joking around and having a great time!


Pluto is my fave! You can't see it too well here, but Paige and I were discussing how Clarice's outfit was a little bit risque... as risque as a chipmunk can get, that is!

Saving the best for last...


I LOVED their outfits and was even tempted to buy the stuffed animals... I'm bummed I didn't get better pics of Minnie, but I was too busy watching!

The parade came all around the circle, so everyone got a great view of all of the characters, which was an added bonus!

We popped in a few shops and then waited for the 13:15 Minnie’s Little Spring Train, which was farther down Main Street and also a very cute way to see the characters. It wasn’t nearly as involved as the Garden Party, but still worth seeing! It only took a few minutes. The downside was you could only see one side of the train, so if you wanted to see all of the characters, I guess you could do it twice!





A quick costume change for Minnie as well as Clarabelle! I'm pretty sure Clarice had the same outfit from the Garden Party and Daisy had the same dress but changed to a different fabulous hat

I love how the bunnies are all popular for Swing into Spring since you don't see them much otherwise!




We then walked through Adeventureland and did Aladdin and then went to the dragon’s cave (it was way more crowded now and hard to get any good pictures!), which I think is an awesome detail and really enjoyed. We looked at the shops in Fantasy Land a bit and went up into the castle. I love, love, love that this is an option since you can’t really interact with the castle at WDW much. I loved being able to walk around and look at the stained glass, which was super pretty and walk out on the balcony and overlook Fantasy Land. The details are so beautiful and never end!



She couldn't get it to work...


I had much better luck... birthday magic?!


I thought this ship was neat. I also liked how there are more themed walk throughs in DLP for when you want a slower pace, especially since the theming of all of them is so great




I attempted a panorama inside the castle, but the lighting was bad


Fantasy Land!



I guess I was going for some pictures of the stained glass? We were getting annoyed because the couples kept standing in front of the windows holding up their iPads to take a thousand selfies and blocking the view for everyone else the whole time...

After the castle, we were thoroughly in a princess mood just in time for our 14:30 Auberge de Cendrillon reservation. We were also thoroughly starved. While our meal was certainly great, there definitely some interesting stories that came of it that will be coming up… in my next post, since this one is long enough. I hope I'm not boring you all already!

 

[RrCoAsTeR]

Uh oh! I just realized the edited versions of my photos aren't showing up, which is a bummer because they looked much nicer. I'll tinker with photobucket and hopefully get it to work, but if not, I apologize.

Sorry your travel day was so stressful! But at least you both made it! I can't wait to hear about your first day!!

Oh my goodness, what a nightmare you both had! I'd have been so annoyed to take so long to get from CDG to Disney. I have to say, I've heard a few horror stories about RS transports, whilst others have had good experiences. I always use ezyshuttle which is a private transfer, rather than shared and the service has always been excellent.

Look forward to seeing our happy faces when you finally hit the parks

Eeeek, what a nightmare journey for you both!!

Glad you arrived safely and look forward to some Disney updates. X

It certainly wasn't the greatest start to our trip, but at least we both made it eventually! Besides, it just made it so things could only get better, right?!

I had seen reviews of I believe ezyshuttle on TripAdvisor which were iffy, so I went looking for another service on the dis and found RS, which seemed like a better option, but who knows. I'm just happy I got there! Things would have been a lot less stressful if my phone had been working, of course.

Great report so far Emily! Can't wait to hear more. Love hearing the American perspective and Paige's train mishap has convinced me to schedule transfers from the airport instead of taking the train. I am also anxious to hear your perspective on the construction at the hotel. We are waffling between the cheaper rate at Newport Bay or booking Sequoia Lodge for a little more but with no construction.

I think if she had maybe known specifically what she needed to do it would have been slightly better, though still stressful. When I'm traveling with luggage and everything involved, I usually wind up opting for taxis/private transfers if there are more than two people because the price difference is so little in the end that a few more dollars is worth it to me!

The construction at Newport Bay was certainly noticeable from the outside... the building was almost completely covered in scaffolding, especially around the back side. However, from the inside, I didn't notice anything at all. Our window didn't open all the way to begin with, only tipped in, and had a frosty covering on it so you couldn't see out (I don't know if this is normal??). Personally, I would say that the construction was noticeable from an aesthetic standpoint but not at all disruptive in any way and really didn't lessen what we were looking for in the hotel. Maybe if we had been staying longer or planned to spend more time at the hotel I would have cared more, but it was totally fine for me.

I forgot to mention that when Paige went to check in, they didn't have her name on any information! I thought my TA had added it, and it was on all of the confirmation stuff I had gotten, but apparently not for the front desk! The CM who checked her in was a goofy younger guy and Paige can be quite charming , but he just made her promise she knew me. Her phone was dead so she couldn't show him the confirmation email or anything, but she did write the number down on her arm before her phone died, so that was a good thing I guess?! Luckily she didn't really have an issue and was able to get into the room after her ordeal instead of sitting in the lobby waiting for me to get there.

 

[cdsmiler81]

Following along!! Great TR so far!! Can't wait to find out what happened in Auberge!

C x

 

[missangelalexis]

The entrance of the park looks gorgeous!! And the castle, so perfect!

You got a lot of rides done this morning! So cute that you got a happy birthday call!

The Garden Party and Spring Train both look adorable!! Those costumes are so great.

Gorgeous shot of the Maleficent stained glass.

 

[Ms Poppins]

Lovely start - your photos are so nice of the Swing into Spring elements - love seeing the castle in the sun

 

[RrCoAsTeR]

Guys... I am sorry that I write SO MUCH... I start off thinking I'm being concise and then I'm horrified to see how much I've written!

Friday March 6- Auberge de Cendrillon

We checked in for our 14:30 reservation at about 14:25. The restaurant was practically empty! We waited in the lobby just a few seconds before they fetched us and led us to our table, which was unfortunately off in the back in a little nook with only two other tables. One had a large party that was just receiving their entrees and the other was a two top that wasn’t seated. We were feeling pretty lonely back there (but we should have been happy for the privacy with what was to come...)!



Our waiter came over right away and brought our welcome “cocktails” (Mango juice maybe? And grenadine... I don't quite remember but I knew at the time) and amuse bouche (cheese puffs pastries) while we looked over the menu… He wasn’t very talkative, but I think his English wasn’t too great. Of everyone we encountered, our two waiters spoke the poorest English (I’m not complaining at all! Their English is thousands of times better than my French, and we were in France, after all!) Does anyone know if that’s usually a trend? Most other CMs we encountered seemed to speak both flawless French and English and usually another language or two scattered in, but the waiters were both a little worse it seemed like. Maybe it was just the ones we got!



Both the cocktail and amuse bouche were tasty, but I think it looks pretty tacky to serve the drink in a half empty glass! It would seem to me that they should either fill the glass or get smaller cups so it doesn’t just look like they’re shorting you. Maybe I’m missing some intended charm or something?? The table next to us was seated with a cute little girl and her dad (dun dun dun…)

Anyway, we finished those (and some bread of course) all promptly (like I said, we were starving!) and the waiter came to take our order. We asked him what the day’s special was, and he started trying to explain the meat… He tried everything, saying it was a chicken, but bigger… I offered all the poultry names I could think of in French, but between the three of us we were struggling to figure out the name of this meat. I swore I heard him describe it as “A chicken with no balls” but this was Disney, so there was no way, right?! The waiter wouldn’t have just said that… He called to another waiter who came up with the right word, capon. Since neither of us were going to have the special, we moved on and ordered.

As soon as our waiter left Paige and I googled “capon” since we hadn’t really heard of it before and almost fell out of our chairs laughing, because the waiter had indeed just said what we thought we had heard. Obviously he didn’t realize that’s a slightly crude term and not terribly Disney-friendly! We were almost crying we were laughing so hard.

Suzy and Perla (I never know which is which) started making their rounds, and when the first one came into our little corner, the little girl next to us started yelling and running around trying to hide under the table from her… evidently she was scared! Our waiter was really sweet and talked to her all about how Suzy was a nice mouse and they wound up having a really cute interaction with lots of hugs and kisses. We took our photos with Suzy, who was very nice, and our appetizers came out.




I had ordered some sort of fish tartare duo (kicking myself for forgetting to take a pic of the menu!) and Paige ordered the pumpkin soup. When they came out, the waiter set everything down and dashed off, and we practically had to chase him because he had given us both the fish! It was pretty tasty overall and we were both happy with our choices, though I wish I had tried the ham and fig salad.


I thought I took a picture of the fish too, but it's MIA

At this point the little girl next to us (maybe 5 or 6, we guessed) was pacing all around our nook while her dad looked at his phone. Oh well, we thought, she’s not being too disruptive. She ran across the restaurant and dragged Suzy back with her again to give her a picture she had drawn. Perla then came by and she repeated her whole act of being scared but much louder, practically knocking over the table this time while trying to hide. Since the waiter wasn’t nearby, no one calmed her down since her dad was too busy on his phone. Perla was fine for out interaction, but not nearly as friendly as Suzy had been.


(Apparently I enjoyed my appetizer though if you'll notice my empty plate)


We weren’t too concerned with our neighbors yet because you expect kids in Disney and they’re not always perfectly behaved. Then Snow White walked out of the curtain and she dashed on over and dragged her away from another table, interrupting their interaction until the table relented and said good-bye. Her dad stood up for a second to maybe intervene but then gave up and just watched while she pulled Snow White over.

Snow White was fairly pleasant but very basic (the worst of the princesses we saw that day) and didn’t really make any small talk or anything. She just took pictures with us and moved on. Our little neighbor retrieved Aurora, who was a doll! She was super sweet and in character and talked to us quite a bit despite the fact that we’re obviously older. She was very nice about my birthday! The little girl next to us, who had had her turn, kept grabbing her and trying to pull her away while we were having our turn and Aurora was very gentle and sweet with her. I was impressed at how fluidly she could transition between French with the little girl and English with us in the same sentence. We got our pictures but were a little distracted by the girl, whose dad didn’t say a word to her or tell her to sit down and stop yelling.




(Too bad I didn't notice my shirt needed adjusting in all of these...)


The entrees were very good! I had the veal with roasted potatoes and pureed… something orange? Maybe carrot? I can’t remember… Paige had the chicken with veggies (straight out of a can… ) and three different purees. She liked one, said one was interesting, and the other not so good. She liked the dish overall despite a minor panic because the chicken had bones (she used to be a vegetarian) I also had a birthday glowtini in celebration! Mmmm… When I finished, I set the glow cube on the table and our neighbor came over and tried to steal it!



Tip: The tomatoes were fun to pop!


She spent her entire meal standing about half a meter from our table and staring directly. We mostly ignored her because at this point, she wasn’t cute and was very aggressive to try and interact with, so it really wasn’t worth it. Her dad continued to sit on his phone. She was so busy staring at us eating that she didn’t touch any of her food… she seriously stood and stared for like 20 minutes straight. It was uncomfortable. I understand kids not being perfectly behaved, but she was very disruptive yelling, staring, climbing on things, and her dad didn’t say a word!

We both had the Cinderella’s Slipper dessert, because how could we not. It was pretty nice, but neither of us finished the slipper because the white chocolate is just so rich!



We watched the dance and waited for Cinderella, who our neighbor also kindly delivered to our nook (she was good for something!) Cinderella and Prince Charming were nice and we got nice pictures with them. Our neighbor wouldn’t let us keep them too long though, because she wanted a second turn and had no discipline of course.


I can't find pics of me in my album... maybe I missed some when I shared them from my phone? I don't know where else these disappearing photos would be!

Finally, Aurora walked by again. The restaurant was basically empty and Paige didn't love her pics, so we asked her if she could take a few more and she was more than happy to! She had a CM walking with her, so we handed him my phone and he took the photos.



If you all have been following along, you saw that my dog Max died a week before my trip… He’s my phone background, and the CM (20-something guy) commented about what a cute dog I had, and somehow my first response was “He died last week.” Whoops! The poor CM was MORTIFIED. His mouth hung open and he clearly had no idea what to say. Paige and I were DYING laughing (again) and Aurora came super close to breaking character and cracking up too… she had her lips all pushed together and was clearly trying not to laugh with us. Poor guy! I hadn't meant to be morbid, it just came out! He stayed and we chatted for a good 20 minutes about his love for Poptarts… I felt super bad for making him feel awkward, but it turned out to be a fun chat and he was super nice.

At this point our little friend decided she needed to tug on my sleeve and YELL at me in French… I’m decent at French but have a MISERABLE time trying to understand kids, so I just kept telling her we didn’t understand, but she would NOT let up. Finally her dad got involved… only because he wanted to go outside and smoke. I’m surprised he didn’t leave her with us as babysitters, honestly!

Overall, the meal exceeded our expectations in regards to food quality. We had read some iffy reviews. Nothing was FANTASTIC or super memorable, but it was all solid quality. I wish the waiter had let me order my veal a bit rarer, but that’s my main complaint.

I know our table neighbor didn't do anything major, but her interruptions were ongoing throughout the meal and her dad did NOTHING at all.. she was really a terror and just so disruptive the entire time... Her and her dad both also talked on the phone loudly for about 20 mins during lunch... it was SO loud and close to us, especially with her standing right next to our table! It turns out it was her 6th birthday... I don't understand why her dad would go through the effort of planning and making reservations to then ignore her the entire time... it's not like a day in Disney and a Princess lunch involved no foresight or planning, so he obviously had to have put a decent amount of effort in which just really seemed like a waste.

The princesses were good (especially Aurora) and it was definitely a fun experience with some hilarious interactions, despite our uncomfortable neighbor experience. It was a great birthday lunch! The decor was only OK, the service was decent, food good, characters good as well, and we spent close to 2 hours eating I believe. The experience was significantly more positive than negative!



After lunch-- absolutely stuffed and definitely satisfied!

 

[ShellB8585]

great update!! Meal sounds yum sorry about the neighbours though. Unfortunately the nature of people is that we're all different, That's probably normal for those 2 and I am so glad you didn't let it ruin your experience! Great looking day so far Looking forward to reading more.

 

[adr2.8i]

fantastic reading your trip report! Its nice to see that your aurora is the same "aurora" we saw in the princess pavilion in march 2014. (maybe there is only one aurora in DLP??) she was wonderful with my 4 year old daughter, who wears aurora glasses. She spent ages cuddling my daughter and saying how cute she was. We have some fantastic photos of that meeting.

I look forward to the rest of your report!

 

[dhidra]

Great TR so far! You got a lot in in only half a day. Looking forward to the rest.

We've met two different Auroras and both were lovely. My DS1 is absolutely mad about her.

 

[ExpatDisneyLover]

Oh my goodness what an adventure! So glad you've started your trip report!

 

[missangelalexis]

Sorry lunch was so hectic! But I'm glad the meal exceeded your expectations. And you got some great character pictures!

 

[RrCoAsTeR]

Thank you all so much for your comments! Sorry to be bad about posting... The weather has been awesome so I've been at the beach and darn school is in the way of everything and I went to Marseille for the weekend and that turned out to be a much longer trip than expected with a few late trains of course. I've also managed to lose my phone so this week has been quite a headache so far...

I did just treat myself and went and saw Cinderella (by myself eek! It's only out in French here and barely anyone from my study abroad program speaks French at all so they didn't want to go but I really did so I sucked it up!) and LOVED it... I cried like 5 times (whoops!) I also loved loved loved the Frozen short! SO cute. Can't wait for the second movie... I am so excited for these other live action movies to come out now too after seeing how well done Cinderella was, especially since Emma Watson is perfect for Belle and Mulan just seems like it will be awesome with all the action and such.

I leave for essentially 15 days on Friday so I will do my best to get another update tomorrow evening before I go, but who knows with packing and all... I'm a mess. Whew! Thanks for bearing with me.


March 6- Afternoon

After lunch we were super full and sleepy, but our Buzz FPs were ready, so we went over and did that. I normally am terrible, but I liked these lasers better! I still didn’t do very well though… Paige and I were for some reason cracking up about the Buzz Lightyear in the line speaking French and I had to stop and take a video to send to everyone back home, which they thought was pretty hilarious too.


Had to sneak a photo because we were so hilariously concentrated... can you tell we're both just a bit competitive?! (For the record I won)

We popped over for BTMR FPs and then it was parade time! We went about 30 minutes early and were behind one row of people. Since we’re both super short we made sure to stand behind some strollers so our view wasn’t too blocked.

I can't get the edited versions of the pictures to post from photobucket so I apologize for the bad lighting and such!!



We loved seeing all the cloaks and such on the princesses since we don't get that in FL. Also loved all of them for sale with the princess dresses... so cute!


Was apparently too excited to see Anna and Elsa to get a good pic whoops







Just as we were saying "where was Tink?!"



I liked the parade even though I’m not generally a big fan of them… of course we had to see it since it was our first time though! I liked how each of the stories were their own little piece.

There was quite a bit of drama across the way with a group of teenage girls getting yelled at by a family nearby and then their families yelling back… It got pretty aggressive. Some CMs came by briefly but just walked away while it was still heated. Luckily it calmed down!

We did BTMR after with our FPs (which didn’t seem to help the wait much! This line was super pushy and it seemed odd that there was no one regulating flow from the FP line into the regular one) and Pinocchio before they started shutting Fantasyland down for the fireworks. I had seen automatic toothbrushes in one of the stores there earlier that Paige really wanted because she had forgotten hers (and they had Rapunzel!) so we snuck in super quick as they were wheeling in all the outside displays and got it.

At that point it was about 7 and we had done plenty of shopping and walking so we just decided to find a spot for Dreams and sit until 8. We were RIGHT in front of the castle on the edge of the garden area and waited on the curb. Unfortunately after sitting down for that long we were freezing… whoops! We heard some people next to us with American accents so of course we had to chat… they were the sweetest couple from Georgia, so that was a great way to pass the time!

Ok, I’ll admit I didn’t do research on Dreams, so I was surprised it wasn’t as much of a fireworks show as a light show. I liked it and thought it was neat and unique, but I am really glad that we were close up to the castle to be able to see everything. I thought it was funny how Wendy and Peter were essentially repeating each other in French and English. Overall I enjoyed the show but would have preferred just fireworks. I probably would also have liked it more if I had known what to expect, so that’s my fault! I also didn't take any pictures because I didn't want to miss anything... sorry!

At this point we were freezing and exhausted, but Paige was getting hungry so we wandered around Disney Village, which was packed with people eating after leaving the park, until she finally decided on the sandwich shop, where she got some sort of garlic pasta that sounded really good but turned out to be bland overcooked noodles when we got it back to the room. Oh well. I got a tea because my throat had been hurting me all week and was especially bad since I had had two late nights and had not been behaving exactly healthily with my birthday festivities and all. I also got a muffin because I knew I would probably get hungry and didn’t want to be left with nothing… I got apple or something but definitely should have gone with chocolate because it was not very flavorful.

We headed straight back to the room since we were exhausted after a late night and 12 hours at the park. I looked around the hotel a bit more and went to look at the pool, which was quite muggy and turned out to be a perfect room to stand and warm up in! Then off to bed.

The only things we hadn’t gotten done at Disneyland Park that were still on our must do list were Snow White, It’s a Small World and the teacups as well as Alice’s Curious Labyrinth since Paige is an Alice in Wonderland fan!

The next morning our plan was to do EMH at Disneyland Park for the characters and then off to the Studios for opening! Unfortunately this is where our lack of real planning shows up a bit…

 

[torsie24]

Loving your report so far.

Thanks for the updates. You fitted so much in one day!!!

Sorry you lost your phone. How stressful. But sounds like you're having a great time so don't apologise for slow updates. Enjoy your time in Europe!! X

 

[missangelalexis]

The parade looks so cute!!

 

[Imagineer5]

Following along! Glad your stay at Newport Bay was wonderful, and love seeing the detailed reviews such as Auberge. We are going for the first time in September. Oh my, that little girl would have driven me crazy. I can't believe a CM didn't intervene though. At WDW there is always a handler CM making sure the characters get to each table and they'll stop any sort of extra interaction like that. What a BRAT, and sad that her dad was paying no attention to her.

Excited to hear about Walt's and other new rides you get on!

 

[RrCoAsTeR]

OK I'm back after being gone for practically ever! My apologies for abandoning... I was in 4 countries in less than a week so at least I have a decent excuse!!!

Loving your report so far.

Thanks for the updates. You fitted so much in one day!!!

Sorry you lost your phone. How stressful. But sounds like you're having a great time so don't apologise for slow updates. Enjoy your time in Europe!! X

We were so pleased to be able to get so much done without planning tons and tons ahead of time. Europe's been just amazing! I was in Munich and then my mom and aunt flew in the day I got back and we spent some time here in Nice before heading to Venice, Florence, and Rome, so I'm not sure how I couldn't be enjoying it! The weather here is also superb and I've been at the beach way too much.

The parade looks so cute!!

It was adorable, and like I said, I'm not a huge parade fan! This one was straightfoward and well done.

Following along! Glad your stay at Newport Bay was wonderful, and love seeing the detailed reviews such as Auberge. We are going for the first time in September. Oh my, that little girl would have driven me crazy. I can't believe a CM didn't intervene though. At WDW there is always a handler CM making sure the characters get to each table and they'll stop any sort of extra interaction like that. What a BRAT, and sad that her dad was paying no attention to her.

Excited to hear about Walt's and other new rides you get on!

You have to be so excited for your trip! I take it you've been to WDW before?? I love WDW, but I really loved being able to have a different experience too.

I was surprised too, since the handlers are WDW are always right there and quite involved. I was worried we were going to get skipped, but they obviously have some sort of organization that they know way better than me. I think the CM I embarrassed that we wound up chatting with may have been some type of handler, but he was the only one I saw during the lunch. The whole situation was quite interesting to say the least! My description really didn't even do it justice.

 

[RrCoAsTeR]

I can’t believe it’s been so long since my trip! I have no Disney Park trips planned, which is a depressing thought! I also slacked on taking pics after the first day, so you'll have to forgive me!

Saturday, March 7

Saturday we again got up as early as possible and hoofed it over to Disneyland Park after a lovely breakfast of some tea and croissant sandwiches. We were there before the park opened and had to wait a few minutes at the turnstiles. Unfortunately I started to not feel so great, but I was determined wasn’t going to miss Minnie and Mickey, which was our plan.

The gates opened and we were thrilled that we had waited to do character pics until today because Minnie and Mickey were standing together at Minnie’s spot and Pluto was out in Mickey’s spot from yesterday. Bonus! We hurried on over and were third in line for Mickey and Minnie. It still seemed to take awhile though because we had a large group in front of us where one person had gotten in line and others kept coming around the exit while they were having their turn and joining them. Maybe I was just extra sensitive because I wasn’t sure I was going to make it… Luckily I did and felt much better in time for Pluto because he’s my favorite classic character! Minnie and Mickey and Pluto were all so fun and cute even though we’re older and pointed out my birthday sticker and took lots of cute pictures with us, so it was super fun to get to see them!



Struggling slightly with my poor tummy





Feeling much better!




Obligatory when the crowds aren't bad

We still had plenty of time and went and rode Buzz again as well as the teacups and Pinocchio, neither of which we had done yet, before we popped over to the Studios around 9:15.


Trying so hard (I still won)




Much better at not looking awkward in pics than me since 2005



The lines weren’t bad when we got there and they started letting us in around 9:35 or so for the 10am opening. We thought it was kind of weird how everyone entering and leaving the park had to go through the narrow indoor section to get in, which doesn’t seem like it would make sense in high-traffic periods.

We booked it to Ratatouille, but unfortunately we weren’t confident where it was and that wasted some time. We hit what we thought the line was and I ran ahead to check. Yep! Within 5 minutes of the gates opening the line was all the way back at the Buzz Lightyear figure. However, since no one had been let into the building yet and it wasn’t wrapped around anywhere, we decided it couldn’t be too long and decided to wait it out instead of doing single rider. WRONG CHOICE.



Slightly long considering the park just opened... but really can you even tell where the line is? So chaotic.


At least the line is cute inside! I was translating the French commentary for Paige until finally she told me they were saying the same things in English... apparently I don't listen very well

People just kept jumping further up in the line under the guise of not realizing that that was it, and what was frustrating was that the CMs saw and did nothing. I am normally super angry about butting in line, but this was so ridiculous I couldn’t let myself be bothered because it would have ruined the day.

The FP line looked nearly as long as the one we were in! The line moved forward quickly when they let people inside, but we were stuck in the wrap-around section outside for what seemed like forever barely moving. Once we got inside the wait was nice, but by that time we were freezing and regretting our choice not to do single rider. We waited 1.5 hours, and by coincidence the single rider who road with us was one of our American friends from the couple at Dreams the night before! She said they had waited about 30 minutes in single rider, which means it would have been a MUCH better choice for us since they didn't even get there until an hour after opening and got on at the same time as us.

Loved the ride and the theming, but the waiting experience really takes away from it. The CMs seemed apathetic to the whole thing, which is frustrating because it seems like the same thing happens every single day and this wasn’t even a particularly crowded one. I think Disney really needs to find a solution because right now they aren't doing a fantastic ride justice due to the abysmal waiting.

By the time we were done with that madhouse (11:45 or so) all the FPs were gone. We looked at Crush’s Coaster, but what we hadn’t realized with the Studios was how few attractions had FPs. Since barely anything had FPs, we felt like all the wait times were super long and the rides that did have FPs were pretty much out of them, which was frustrating but mostly due to a lack of foresight on our part. Still, I don’t think we would have been able to do much better than we did.

We looked on our phones at the wait times and got a late afternoon FP for TOT before heading over to Rockin Roller Coaster, where we waited around 40-45 minutes (longer than the wait time said) and had some really annoying 14 or 15 year old girls behind us who talked super loudly so we could all hear how cool they were and shoved us constantly. Oh well. We were probably like that at some point too

RNR was fun and Paige loved it! I missed the pre-show from WDW and all the fluorescent street signs during the ride, but that’s just because I’m used to them. I still love that ride no matter what.

We then went to Art of Animation which I LOVE and insist on seeing every time I go to WDW. There, they don’t have the clips of all the films beforehand, which I felt like was a great way to start off and really enjoyed! Paige used the headphones to listen in English but I was grossed out by them and listened in French. It’s so weird to have the characters have different voices, especially the ones whose voices are really iconic like Mushu.

We looked around for any more reasonable wait times and wound up doing Flying Carpets and shopping a bit before we headed on over to Walt’s for our lunch, which I’ll write about separately. Does anyone feel like the location of the flying carpets is odd since there’s other Aladdin stuff in Disneyland Park but none in the Studios?! It felt like it was just plopped on in there! We also got a chance to listen to the Swing into Spring band, but since they were in the narrow little shopping area, there were tons of people going back and forth and we kept getting run over so it wasn’t terribly enjoyable.


Back to Disneyland Park

After lunch we headed back over to the Studios and valiantly fought our way back through the shops area with some time to spare before our TOT FP was ready, but not enough to risk one of the long lines (everything was 70+ minutes), so we saw Cinemagique was about to start but would be cutting it close to the end of our FP time. We went for it anyway and sat really close to the exit in case we needed to duck out. It’s nice that in DLP you get to sit wherever you want to in the show instead of being herded down to the end of the row. I was confused by the show at first, but it wound up being really neat and fun and Paige and I both enjoyed it quite a bit. I was a bit nervous when the show started late, but we wound up having the perfect amount of time to make it over to TOT just in time for our FPs!

TOT used to be my favorite ride, but recently every time I ride it my eyes water terribly and I’m super uncomfortable the entire ride and don’t feel great afterwards. It’s not that I’m scared or anything, but it’s a purely physical reaction. Normally I ride once and let everyone else keep going if they want to.

We did a bit more shopping (of course) and debated our plan of action. By this time it was pretty late in the day and we accepted there was no way we were going to even come close to doing all the things we wanted to.

We waited about an hour or a bit more for RC Racer (again, longer than the wait time said), which we really really enjoyed. It was one of our favorites, especially since it was brand-new for us. The CM wouldn’t even let us try to fit our bags in the holder in the car though, even though they definitely would have fit. We were a little nervous about them sitting out in the locker while we were on the ride since they had a lot of important things in them (AKA our passports and credit cards eek!) but they remained untouched. Shocking, I know!


Love the Toy Story area!

The park was closing in about 5 minutes, but we walked by the Parachutes and no one stopped us from getting in line. We waited a few minutes and road them. Super cute! Even the slow drop there made me feel a little off and my eyes water like TOT despite being totally tame, so maybe just the rides that drop straight down I have trouble with in general?



Closing down the park!


Back (again) with a nighttime view!

By now the park was definitely closed, so we went back over to Disneyland Park in hopes of having some fish and chips, but Toad Hall was closed. We had the hardest time even finding it since it was dark and everything looked different, especially since it didn’t really seem like there was a lot of outdoor lighting on. We had to have wandered around Fantasyland for a good 15 minutes going in circles. Whoops!

We wound up having Casey’s in hopes of getting a juicy American-style dog (hot dogs are like my favorite food and they’re just not the same in France). Unfortunately the delicious-looking hot dog displayed on the menu smothered in cheese sauce and crispy fried onions was pretty pathetic and cold in person with barely any cheese (I still devoured it because hot dogs ). We gave up looking for a seat and ate these on the floor of the alleyway that runs behind the shops.


We're from St. Louis and you never see it anywhere! Except our baseball team these days is the Cardinals. There were two teams when the Browns were there from 1901-1953 but now the Browns are the Baltimore Orioles (Huge baseball fan!)

Naturally, we shopped more after that (the stores were a madhouse!! Sooo crowded it was hard to walk). I did most of my damage then, buying tons of pins for myself and my brother (they say Paris on them, I HAD to ) and a cute little DLP shot glass to commemorate my 21st birthday there. After that I was done, Paige shopped some more in Disney Village, where it took approximately 20 minutes for the CMs to locate a pen so she could sign her receipt and she forgot her wallet which luckily someone reminded her of.


Desperately wanted these pins but they didn't come out until the next weekend

We had a drink at the hotel bar (creepy CM working ) and then went off to bed absolutely exhausted. We were slightly disappointed because we felt like we hadn’t been as productive as we hoped that day with super-long lines we hadn’t anticipated and a lack of FP availability. Especially since we had a lunch reservation mid-day, we felt like we had been limited. We were very glad we had done the characters and EMH in the morning so we felt like we got more done during our day than had we just gone to the Studios.


We can definitely afford 15 euro cocktails, right?! (We'll pretend)


Our plan for the next day was to sleep in and skip EMH and get to Studios at opening and finish up what we missed before heading over to Disneyland Park to wrap up our loose ends there!

 

[missangelalexis]

Fun updates! Love the character pictures. Meeting Mickey & Minnie together must have been so fun!

 

[ShellB8585]

Great update

 

[Neeny17]

Love this TR so far! I always end up not feeling like I've accomplished enough at Studios - I think its because of the lack of FP rides too. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but I read/heard somewhere that the reason Flying Carpets is there in Studios is that the Genie was originally supposed to be in Animagique but then they changed their mind. So the building is blue and the carpet ride is next door because its meant to be that he escaped from the show.