Trip Report Big Thunder Mountain Pin Event Trip Report - May 2 to May 6

[Vala]

So this is a trip that was technically about the Big Thunder Mountain Pin Event. Note the “technically” here. Will all be explained when we reach Saturday.

Thursday, May 2: Living la Vida Loca

Due to us being on the early train we head for the second hand out for Princess Pavillion tickets.

That is if we would try to locate it. There’s one big line going around Fantasyland. I start asking the first CM who seems to handle the line where to get tickets, show my Disabled Access Pass. Doesn’t speak English. Signs for us to go to the end of the line. Same “luck” with CMs two and three. No English and going from the other woman wildly discussing with CM 3 in what sounds like Italian no other language but French. Fabulous. While I agree that they had to do something with the Pavillion: if you implement a new system in a theme park with international visitors, wouldn’t it make more sense to have someone working the line who understands more than French?

The fourth CM I approach finally tells us to follow, there is a special area for disabled tickets after all. We end up getting a 3.05 return time. At 11.45 AM. Whoa.



If you have a handicapped pass you will need to look for this sign:



Ticket Hand Out Times are as follows:



The lines do form WAY earlier than that, be warned. Saturday they even ran out of tickets before the last hand out time.

After that little drama it is time to feed boyfriend. Boyfriend up since 5.45 AM means hungry boyfriend and hungry boyfriends get cranky.

He really wants to do Colonel Hathis. But the line is not moving at all and Hakuna Matata has a line out of the door, so we decide on Fuente Del Oro. Haven’t been there since a friend saw a rat running around in the kitchen (and we are not talking the cute Ratatouille kind) – but going from the rather tiny size of the line it seems that story is making its rounds. Short lines means less time for boyfriend to get cranky, so Fuente del Oro it is.

We get Fajitas, rice and Churros. Nothing to write home about, but the meal is warm and it fills our stomachs. I would have liked the Fajitas a little more flavorful though. They were hot and that was the main thing they tasted of.







Random shot from Fuente del Oro restaurant:



Going back to Fantasyland we decide to pay a quick visit to Captain Jack – who again likes my booty and gets me out of the crowd for the pin lanyard.



Pardon the look on my face - he wanted me to look "piratey" and as you can tell I failed miserable.

We’re aiming for the Small World gates when something catches my eye. “TWEEEEEEEEEEDLES!” I squeal and run off. Boyfriend yells after me “But you just had churros!” (Forgive him, he’s normally not like that. ) After figuring out I am not running for the nearby food cart but following a character he runs after me.

It’s the Tweedles with the Queen of Hearts in tow. Now that’s what I call a good start.





We end up catching the second twin near that little food place across from the labyrinth where as you can see he was busy serving tea.





The Queen is quite happy about both drawings and my manners - has me showing to several kids how to bow in front of her.

I walk back to check out Town Square while boyfriend visits Space Mountain. The train is just coming past.



Coming back Peter Pan is hiding near Chalet des Marionettes. How cool! Granted I am seeing him for brunch on Sunday, but you can never have enough Peter Pan meets.



Getting to Fantasyland again the Wonderland crew has changed and it’s now Alice and the Hatter who really like their drawings.

The Hatter is absolutely fabulous, even starts singing a couple of times. He especially likes "loco" and "loca". Maybe we should have tried Locomotion too.



I find boyfriend again and he tells me Baloo just went on a break. Baloo. In Fantasyland?! That reaction gets me a huffed: “I know my Jungle Book, it was Baloo.” Honey, it’s not that I doubt you, but he used to meet in Adventureland.

We quickly make our way to the train during the bear’s break and meet the chipmunks.







Near the carousel we find Baloo who also really likes his drawings. Now I know where the expression "bear hug" comes from.

 

[Vala]

After a ride on Buzz I finally remember we haven’t checked the Small World gates. Meanwhile Auberge lunch service seems to be over, Suzy and Perla are out.





Along the way we must have met Mickey at some point cause boyfriend has photos on his camera. Again apologies if something gets in the wrong order... four cameras to deal with including one having a wrong time setting plus several photopass guys not giving us tickets muddled things up a lot.





It’s time for the Pavillion slot. I end up going alone as I hadn't paid attention to the ticket saying "1" and not 2 people. I can’t remember anymore who the second princess was, but I am offered straight away: “Would you like to meet Rapunzel?” I guess seeing the other princess is not Tiana I would like to, thank you.



She doesn't want to sign over her drawing but ends up signing over Maximus anyway instead of using the space I left at the bottom. Princesses.



I know, I'm kind of rivaling her with the hair there, don't I? I had surgery on Easter and the wound on the neck is giving me trouble. So yeah, an appointment to get my hair cut was way overdue at that pount.

On the way to Magical Moment boyfriend suddenly cowers. Huh? Then I hear the screeching. The Stepsisters are out! Oh yes! Granted I didn’t bring a picture or drawing this time – the Stepsisters in May came too much out of the blue – but thank god I bought a book in DLH. So they get the first page and a shiny princess-y golden pen and I get my picture.



Back to DLH for the Magical Moment. Once more the cast isn’t that impressive: Eeyore, Chip, Dale, Mickey and Minnie. We meet Minnie, Eeyore and the munks before toddling back to Fantasyland respectively Space Mountain. (In case you haven't noticed: boyfriend likes that ride a lot.)



















I love my chipmunks, but why do I always miss the rare characters there?

Random shot from Main Street:



Boyfriend decides that we should try for the Pavillion again and we get tickets, nicely enough after our Auberge reservation.

We go and cash our drinks vouchers at Chalet - if you eat at counter service sometimes you get a voucher for a free drink during certain hours. How come I never noticed that kitty before?



Due to above mentioned surgery I’m only cleared for a couple of rides. We go on Small World and Buzz before dinner.

Some may remember from my last comments that I wasn’t sure if we’d do Auberge again due to us hitting the same combination of characters a couple of times in a row. But meanwhile they changed the menu plus we got the chance for a dinner reservation this time. We didn’t have dinner there in years. Also lately people eating there did see a lot of different characters that we hadn’t seen in a long time. That made us decide to give it another chance.

I must say dinner is quite relaxed. The restaurant is nowhere near full, and we have Suzy and Perla coming to us right away. They are quite enthusiastic and even seem to remember my pictures from when we met them earlier.





Unfortunately the rest of the cast are the same characters we’ve met on the last visits: Cinderella, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty and Philip. Someone must really try to make up to me that I was hunting Philip forever.





Character interaction is flawless though, despite us being an all adult table.

One change I noticed is that Sleeping Beauty now signs Aurora, Aurore or Princess Aurora. So far all my Paris autographs of her say Sleeping Beauty.

 

[Vala]

We decide to try some of the new menu items. Pumpkin soup and chicken casserole.

Starter cocktail and cheese pastry:





More characters visiting:





Pumpkin soup… well… I guess disappointment would describe it best.





It is pretty much colored water with two mushrooms. Maybe there’s different recipes. But all versions I had before were kind of creamy and had some sort of texture. Even the pumpkin soup I was served last year in Auberge was a lot better. No idea what changed.

The chicken casserole is okay. I liked the sauce it came with a lot. Boyfriend stopped me from eating all though because apparently the part near the bone wasn’t fully cooked through.



Dessert is the same as it has been since the last menu change.



Random shot taken from Auberge exit:



We just make it back on time for the end of our Princess Pavillion slot. We get the choice between Sleeping Beauty and Rapunzel. Now is that timing or what? I like to draw too, but normally I consider one visit with Rapunzel enough. We still end up seeing Rapunzel again. Sometimes CMs ask. This one didn't - not that it mattered much as we had just met Sleeping Beauty.



Some rides and a quick pin check in the village later we are off to bed.

 

[HFJohnson]

Great trip report.

I've been meaning to find that cat in La Chalet. Did you know there's an imagineering story behind him? Have a look here (scroll down a bit).

 

[Vala]

Thank you.

Yes, I knew that story. Like you I just never had the chance to look for Figaro... I was quite amused when I finally realized where he was. And it's not that he was hiding.

 

[Vala]

Friday May 3: On the road again

I do my usual morning round alone. Boyfriend is no early riser unless you threaten him with death.

Farmer Mickey is at the Cheyenne. All other hotels just have the usual suspects. Funny enough Hotel New York has characters on every hour for a half hour though – huh? (Same thing happened at Sequoia Lodge too one morning.)



Breakfast at Earls.





After checking the Small World gates and signing in for the Princess Pavillion tickets I sit down on Town Square to wait for boyfriend.

The second "rat" window display:



Surprise! Chip and Dale appear, followed by Hook.







When we make it to the Pavillion the screens are off. Okay then. The CM tells us we are going to meet Sleeping Beauty. What was that about bad timing again? >< We wait a little and when we walk around the corner we’re both quite startled. Boyfriend mumbles “I thought Sleeping Beauty wears pink or blue? Since when is yellow on the rotation?” It’s not Sleeping Beauty, it’s Belle. And it’s Belle completely out of character. I should add, I’m wearing a football jersey of my favorite team that morning. (If you like football you can probably tell from the pictures.) Said jersey gets me a “good morning, sir! Would you like a picture?” from Belle. Boyfriend tries to save the situation by going: “and a lovely morning to you too. But it’s actually the lady who wants a picture.” Said response prompts Belle to go: “Sorry, I’ve never seen a girl in a football jersey before.” I could tell from the look on boyfriend’s face that this reaction even made him go “ouch”. Maybe something like “my friend Mulan likes to disguise herself as a boy too, you are both really good at it” would have worked better. Something like that. I don't know... that comment just so wasn't princess-y.



We spend the next hour going back and forth between Main Street and Fantasyland with detours through the other lands to check for characters. Goofy is apparently now at Duffy’s Meet in the morning:



For lunch boyfriend gets his wish granted and we visit Colonel Hathi’s. It's not that I am hungry already... but as boyfriend put it "there's no line yet, we got to eat now." He likes it, I am not impressed. At least we manage to hit the performance of the drumming group that used to be at the Jamming Jungle Meet.









After lunch boyfriend tries to go for ice cream. Now Hook and Smee are out near Chalet des Marionettes, but the set is over before I am through.

I try to find boyfriend when I hear a little boy say Donald is meeting at the Small World gates. Now after that Halloween drama I am pretty sure that whatever character he saw is most certainly not Donald. We race out to find that the character flood gates have opened. Pinocchio, Gepetto, Tigger, Cinderella’s mice and Scrooge McDuck are all out meeting. If you were in that area that day and heard a very delighted squeal: yes, that was me. Boyfriend is a little surprised why I go that mad about Scrooge. He's on the pin event pins and they always have the characters from the pins out. Lesson 1: if you see a character, go for it. Don't wait. You never know what may happen.

I get to meet Scrooge (who really digs my gold pen)



and Tigger.



When the characters change Baloo and King Louie also join the fun.



We get another set of Pavillion tickets. All I want is Tiana and I’m told she’s not popular anyway. Why oh why is there no schedule?

Running back to the Chalet Hook and Smee are back again. They try to select people going from one end of the circle to the other, but it doesn’t really help when people push in. We have a mom trying to tell her daughter to “just squeeze through”. Boyfriend turns around and tells her: “You know, we are not standing here because of the nice weather.” Granted that makes her leave, but she tries at the other end and actually gets seen before it’s my turn. Not impressed.



Frollo appears out of nowhere and starts walking around. Some people try to stop him, but he just walks on, shoo'ing them. I run after him, drawing in hand, and pretty much throw myself to his feet, mimicking a bow and asking for an autograph from "his highness". That makes the appropriate impression. I'm granted autograph and photo.



Walking back to the Small World gates Gideon, Gepetto and Pinocchio are playing hide and seek.

Our special friend had a slight wardrobe malfunction.



Hmm… seeing Fantasyland is literally full of characters maybe the Stars N Cars set is out now too… Honey, didn’t you want to go and do Tower of Terror anyway? *flutters eyelashes* Off to the Studios we are. We make it at 2.20 PM and first thing I spot is… MULAN! Yay!!!

It is an absolutely lovely and adorable Mulan too. She asks me what I am up to and I tell her I’ll go and find Mushu next – I know he isn’t always out, but it seemed the most logical reply. She tells me where he might have been, but to be in a certain place if I don’t find him, she’ll take my drawing and hunt him down backstage. Bless you Mulan.



Of course Mushu is not in that area, but Aladdin and Jasmine are. So let’s try that again, I haven’t meet Prince Ali for ages anyway.





Funny enough Aladdin remembers me although last time I’ve met him was in 2011!

I do trail around the Evil Queen signing area, but unfortunately the set is over before I get through.

Gaston:



We rush back to find Mulan who takes the drawing, then sees I have others and takes them too. A CM brings them back and asks “do you have any of Cruella? She’s jealous.” *giggles* Of course I have. Some of you have seen my folder. She goes backstage to get more signatures while her co-workers look at my folder. They ask who I want to meet most and I find out that the next set is tomorrow at 1.15 PM, and it has Remy and Emile. Boyfriend almost barges in “but we’re at the pin event then!”, but a swift kick stops him.

While boyfriend goes on TOT I meet Pluto in Toon Plaza.

 

[Vala]

Back to the Magical Moment which has a very familiar cast: Tigger, Pinocchio, Minnie, Mickey and Eeyore.











No one we haven't met yet, so it's back to the princesses. At the Pavillion it’s Ariel. She's the one I am always missing somehow, so that's a nice surprise.



Boyfriend always wanted to do parade from that little balcony outside the castle. Thing is, I am scared of heights. As he must have walked several miles that day to make sure I wasn’t missing Marie somewhere I agree to do it. Longest hour of my life. And then the rain starts. We still get some nice shots though.



























Off to Phantom Manor and Buzz before going back to the hotel. Tomorrow will be a long day.

Random shot taken from Phantom Manor entrance:

 

[marcus.ka]

Thank you for this great report. I love your pictures.

 

[Ms Poppins]

Wow, so many character meets

I agree with your comments re the Princess Pavillion. If they're now doing ticketing then it would make absolute sense to let you know who will be there at those times. Don't they realise that so many people have favourites and that many are probably inflating the queue waiting for someone that they're not even that bothered about meeting? I just don't get it

Sorry, rant over....

Anyway, thanks for posting - look forward to more

 

[Disneyfanswicklow]

Brilliant trip report! Fabulous photos - thanks for sharing

 

[Vala]

I agree with your comments re the Princess Pavillion. If they're now doing ticketing then it would make absolute sense to let you know who will be there at those times. Don't they realise that so many people have favourites and that many are probably inflating the queue waiting for someone that they're not even that bothered about meeting? I just don't get it

Sorry, rant over....

Rant any time you want, I hear you.

I was in Paris again over the weekend and the ticket system is going the way I was afraid it would be going. Now people just line up for ages to get the tickets. I have a Disabled Priority Pass and arrived 25 minutes before hand out time. Two people after me made it in, then they cut off the line. Way to go. That tantrum some that were refused were throwing rivaled some kindergarten kids.

 

[Vala]

Saturday, May 4: I go ape

Cheyenne has Mickey in his farmer outfit again, but Sequoia has Minnie in her re-done outdoor clothing.



On to Hotel New York where I am greeted by the first sign for the pin event.



When I get closer to the character photo stop I can already tell from the pictures that there is one character out that's not that common... I can't tell straight away from the silhouette who it is. They paired Goofy with.... LAUNCHPAD MCQUACK!!! *insert high pitched squeal of pure joy here* I have no idea who thought that this pairing makes sense. But after years of faithfully trodding to Hotel New York and Disneyland Hotel in the vain hope of catching Launchpad I so do not care.



Funny enough the only one who seems to understand my excitement is Goofy who hugs me several times trying to calm me down.

Now on to the bad news: They took just the one photo above with my camera. When I tried to buy the photopass shots on Monday (and trust me on that, after all that time I would probably have bought them all!) all Launchpad shots and half of my princess pictures showed as "picture not available." We discussed with CMs in the Kodak Shop for over an hour without result. In the US if pictures are missing from your Photopass they'll search for you, and they've always found our shots. In Paris? "We're sorry, you're out of luck." And the first three people we spoke to didn't even give us the "we're sorry!" part.

Breakfast at Earls - who knows what the pin event brings food wise.





Disneyland Hotel has Donald. Quick photo before departing to the Pavillion to get another ticket and meet up with boyfriend.



Registration for the pin event goes smooth, this time we even have a table straight away. However, again the whole thing isn't too impressive. Very little decoration. Some barrels and posters. CMs in BTM costumes occasionally yelling "yeehaw" are not exactly what I expected.







We're getting even more annoyed when it turns out that there is a pin board out with Limited Edition Stitch pins from Tokyo - however, no announcement is made. So when we notice the other traders already pretty much tore the board apart. We did get some nice Hong Kong pins for friends who collect Mickey, but I am sure you get my point. As they allowed you to trade anything to the board the whole thing can be described as "how to ruin a perfectly good pin board within 3 minutes."

I'm not quite sure who selected the food either.







Boyfriend says the ribs he had were delicious. But DUCK at a cowboy themed event?

My plate:



I perk up when the characters are announced. As said above, they normally have the characters who are on the pins out. The pins had the Three Little Pigs, Roger Rabbit and Jessica, the Big Bad Wolf, Grumpy and Dopey, Scrooge and the chipmunks as cowboys. Does sound very intriguing, right? I was so sure we'd at least meet the Pigs and had hopes we might even be lucky to meet Roger seeing he was just out in California.

However, when the characters come in my face pretty much falls. Mickey and Minnie, in their outfits from Buffalo Bill Wild West show. WHAT?!?! No offense to Mickey and Minnie. And yes, I was delighted to get a new shot with Mickey in that outfit - I didn't have one with Minnie at all. But with the above mentioned list of possibles I am sure you understand while I was majorly disappointed. They didn't even add the chipmunks in the show costumes, it was just those two characters. No second set either.





We do hang around until Mickey and Minnie are coming back to make sure we don't miss a rare character. The time meanwhile is spent running around in circles at the pin boards and buying our pins.

After about 1.5 hours boyfriend says "come on, let's go and meet the rats." If anything will cheer me up now it's the Stars N Cars set. We hand in our bags at Bag Storage and go off to the Studios.

The first character we see is Ariel though. By instinct I go after her, which prompts boyfriend to yell: "We're looking for fur, not fins!" And how right he is. *retreats fast*

Remy and Emile are playing near the Cinemagique entrance. Yay!!





I like it that Remy holds his head down a bit now. On older photos with him his snout was always hiding the eyes.

Donald and Daisy are waiting close by. Daisy is utterly excited when she sees her drawing. Her jumping and waving attracts Donald who very stealthily photobombs us.



An extremely good Gaston is around too. Very funny, very flirty. He keeps using a little kid's head to put autograph books on. Damn, I wish I had kept that drawing now. But at least I have a photo for him to sign.





If you look at him closely he may look familiar to you... took me a little while before I realized.

Mary Poppins and Bert are positively mobbed and when boyfriend runs off Stitch is nowhere to be seen either, so we join the circle around the Evil Queen. It's the same one I have taken a stunning photo of in October and I'd love to have her sign it. Works out fine in the end, although there's the same pushing problem as mentioned with Hook and Smee again.



Now that was cool. *beams*

Boyfriend checks his watch - it would almost be time to go back for second chance at the event. There wasn't any Mushu in the first set and we didn't see Stitch either. So he offers "want to hang around?" Yes, I want to hang around!!!

Take 2 brings us more rats



Rats who are really hamming it up for the camera.

 

[Vala]

Emile sticks his finger up his nose and holds it out to me. When I pretend to taste I get applause and a double photo as reward.



Snow White



and Mulan who invites us to come back tomorrow.



You know I'd love to, but there's the Neverland Brunch in Disneyland Hotel.

We do a quick check in the other park. Adventureland is empty, but Fantasyland has Alice and the Hatter again. There's some little accidents though... Hatter calls Alice "Wendy" repeatedly.



The Magical Moment at Disneyland Hotel has a slight variation of cast with Pinocchio, Goofy, Donald, Mickey and Minnie.



I realize that while I have seen Pinocchio I skipped a photo with him and Gepetto in favor of King Louie, so I get my Pinocchio shot. (Figures... we never saw Gepetto again that trip.)













Back in Fantasyland boyfriend goes on the Teacups while I wait. This is definitely not one of the rides I was cleared for. Suddenly my phone rings. "The monkey is standing at the Teacups exit." Oh cool, nice to see Louie out more. But we already met him, remember? "No, not him. The one you were wailing about." The one I was wailing about? ABU!?!?! I met Abu once. After the Christmas pin event 2011. As this was a last minute two nights trip I had not taken all my drawings and want to guess which one got left behind? Yes, Abu.

Cue major panic. I end up more or less running through the Teacup exit - I so forgot about the little bridge to the area. I'm also pretty sure I almost ran over the White Rabbit. He and Gideon are in the area too. *clears throat*

BUT: I am the second to last person to meet Abu before they go. *does decent sized happy dance*





Abu is very impressed about his drawing, keeps hugging me and even dances with me.

Boyfriend decides: "You need food" and goes to get me a crepe with Nutella. Yes, sure - sugar in my hyper state sure does sound like a splendid idea.

He tells me to sit down while he goes on patrol for the rest of the park.

I've about munched down my snack when I see something with a pink feather leaving a cast door. Pink fe.... THE SHERIFF. THE SHERIFF OF NOTTINGHAM!!! If I had had any doubts that it was the right thing to leave the pin event early they'd be gone now.



You can even tell from those pictures what snack I had, can't you?

I've just about calmed down when Friar Tuck walks out. Honey, I warn you, if Robin Hood shows next I am not guaranteeing for anything. *runs after Friar Tuck*

The good Friar sat down at the carousel and hardly gets any attention. He seems quite delighted when I agree to pose with him.



The Abu group comes back and I meet White Rabbit and Gideon. Thankfully the White Rabbit forgives me for my earlier stunt - he knows the feeling of being late.





We sit down to discuss dinner. "Furball from behind." What? Now where did the munkies sneak in fr... Too late. I am tackled to the ground by a very enthusiastic Abu who showers me with kisses. Someone really liked his drawing.

It's getting close to our Pavillion reservation time. We go on Buzz and eat at Hyperion. Chicken Nuggets, standard theme park food. Again I am not hungry, but boyfriend doesn't look like he's about to brave the post parade crowds.



At the Pavillion it is... Snow White. Boyfriend is insanely amused, especially after I told him we'd go for Snow instead of Mary Poppins seeing I was always missing her and Ariel at the Pavillion.



We get our usual spot near Bella Notte for the parade. No rain this time.

 

[Vala]

 

[Vala]

Boyfriend asks "Can we go on Phantom Manor now? The characters must all be asleep!" when we're leaving through Fantasyland because I want to pin trade. Just then I spot the jacket of a character handler. "Characters never sleep, honey!" I run off and find... Rabbit. Yay! I was still a little sad for missing out on meeting him at Halloween.

Rabbit's trying to get people to do bunny poses, but with very little success. That is until he meets me. Boyfriend calls this shot "give me the carrots and no one gets hurt."



Rabbit is happy that someone played along, so I get a special bunny happy dance.



We go on Buzz and Phantom Manor again, check the Village for more pins and then get our bags to go back to the hotel.