Trip Report Day 2 - 22nd December 2007 (first day in the park)
Warning/Apology-I write lots…and am a firm believer you can never have too many pics!
Had booked 7am breakfast slots so was up at 6.30am (whose stupid idea????) crawled to breakfast, surmised I couldn’t possibly eat so I nibbled some fruit and then crawled back to our room. I had however had the worst nights sleep, my niece had gone down with serious diarrhoa...however you spell it, during the night so as both hubby and her dad slept like logs i was awoke by here every movement and spent most of the night dealing with her, then when i settled down to sleep it was really hot and so hubby had opened the window... which was fine but approx 3am the Disney street sweeping time kicked into life and I don't know if anyone else has ever noticed this but the Disney Villages music is playing all night looooooooooong so no rest for the wicked and i was too excited anyway despite that lot!!! so basically sleep was always going to be a no no -however back to breakfast which was a very nice spread and it has changed, they have loads more meats available now as well as boiled eggs and tomatoes etc, laid out very nicely. But still lots of meat, cheeses, cereals, fruits, yoghurt, pastries and your usual drinks and condiments selection-lovely if your digestive system is awake!!!
On our way back to our room Pluto had just arrived at the photo point in the hotel-This was our nieces first character meeting and this is when the magic started-I think before she was a little unsure about it all as she didn’t know what to expect then suddenly there was Pluto and she was giggling and completely swept up by the whole thing! Sadly our cameras were in our room so we later bought the official photographers one!
Well we left the hotel about 7.50am and by god was it cold!!! (see ‘tips for how to keep warm in Disney’ thread for my weapons of choice clothing that kept me happy in my skin for the duration!) We wondered to the park, showed our hotel passes and in we went easy as!
Frozen Lake Disney:
Of course it looked totally amazing and pics never do it justice.
It was already starting to get busy (even at 8am) so off we went, first stop was the carousel, then the Flying Elephants (frozen Dumbos!)
followed by Peter Pan and Buzz, my hubby was gutted and demanding a re-match as I beat him 51,000 to his 49,000 points however my 7 year old niece somehow beat everyone by getting 107,000 points. With all the stopping to take photos this is all we managed to get on and with ten minutes to rope drop we sent my husband and brother off to Space Mountain which they managed to do twice…then it happened…..the STAMPEDE!!! We were stood by Space Mountain and obviously at rope drop people leg it to their nearest ride-it was madness, it resembled the wildebeast scene in Lion King-this mass stream of people, before we knew it they were waiting past the entrance and there was a hefty line for the fast passes. Madness. We figured that this is what the rest of the park would look like so we bumbled off to see Santa and stopped for more pics on the way as we bumped into an Indian chief Chip (or Dale!) one of the crazy country and western bears and also the 2 bears from brother bear..
Santa didn’t have a massive line but because they spend good time with each family you wait quite a while. Whilst we were waiting we saw Jessie so my brother and niece skipped off for photos and we held their place. Just before we got into see Santa, he disappeared for 10 minutes and no one seemed to know what was happening till he reappeared, slightly thinner and with a bigger nose….ahem! But soon it was our turn and we had a wonderful picture taken with all of us, he spoke to our niece and was lovely-really made my holiday a real highlight! They spend lots of time with each family and it was well worth the wait.
Next we had some piccies taken with the bullseye and Stinky Pete set up at Woodys Round up.
We had grabbed some BTM fastpasses on the way to santa so we used them
meanwhile mum and dad took my niece to kit herself out princess stylee!
After the transformation into “Princess Caitlin” we made our way to Mickey’s Winter Wonderland which I must say was as magical as always!
After this the others went on Phantom Manor and as it said waiting time was 45 minutes I went off with the princess to check out the dragon
Caught the delightful Minnie’s Jolly Holiday show (we had just seen Minnie in the winter wonderland show so I had to do some serious quick thinking and explain about how busy she was especially with those costume changes) then saw the character express (fun train but not the most exciting characters I must say) so we went to the dragon and I purchased my ears for the holiday and bought my hubby some. Meanwhile turned out Phantom Manor had only taken 30 minutes so we met back up in time for our reservations at the Lucky Nugget for 2pm (will add report on that to appropriate thread) but it was a fab experience and well recommend it, great food great fun, another real highlight.
Met Tigger, Radcliffe, Suzy & Perla, Chip & Dale, Goofy, Sheriff of Nottingham, Smee and Minnie.
After dinner was over (we spent about an hour in there) we mooched across the park to catch the Lion King Show whilst my brother and husband went off to Star Tours, love the Lion King show as wonderful as always, then when we finished my husband had got spare fast passes for Star Tours so my mum and I went on it whilst the others had a quick loo stop. Worth noting though, whilst fastpass is handy for Star Tours you miss out on the little fun bits on the way round the waiting system we got this photo of C-3P0 and R2 from the balcony but didn't get to see any of the other little robots! which was a shame but hey at least we didn't have to wait.
By this time it was getting close to parade time, so we ambled off to get a place via the dragon again! We went to near Bella Notte to wach the parade as this is usually a quiet spot and with 45 minutes to go to parade time, it was already a 2 deep crowd in the thinnest of places. There was the usual pushing, shoving and relatively ignorant people, plus it nearly kicked off big time when a CM told several people they couldn’t stay where they had put themselves (on the road IN FRONT of the rope) and in whatever language they spoke they were refusing to move, they eventually did but it was getting ugly so I pointed my niece the other way and we discussed other more pressing issues like which Princess she wanted to meet! Sadly not many photos turned out because th parade was on at 17.30 so the light wasn’t good! Can’t understand why so late Disney??? You already have one night time parade…(see pic below...it was nightime?!)
the parade was however amazing, damn that tune but my favourite bit was still seeing Father Christmas at the end and for this bit they played "Chante C'est Noel" It was like greeting an old friend and I wasn't the only one thinking this, loads of people cheered and started singing along...
After the parade which I have to say was beautiful (although we didn’t have the best position) we were fffffreezing not to mention my arthritis doesn’t agree with me standing still like that for so long so off we went to Caseys for hot chocolate and munchies. I always find Caseys good for quick service, it doesn’t totally break the bank and it’s standard quick food. So after refuelling we got our spot in front of the Plaza stage and watched the enchanted light ceremony. This as always was totally magical and made my mum cry…. The candlebration just added to it and the castle looked amazing. Definite extra “OOOOOOOOH” factor this year.
After this we decided that was quite enough for a princess for one day and Fantillusion wasn’t on till 9pm so we decided we would catch it tomorrow - so mum and dad took my niece to bed (Brother had already gone back to the hotel as he did not like Disneyland at all so wanted to plan for doing Paris instead the next day which suited us Disney crazy people fine!) My husband and I went for a mooch in the Christmas markets-which I didn’t think were up to much, so we did some shopping in the village before having dinner (and a cocktail) at the rainforest café.
Then we decided cocktails were the way to go, so we went to the Hotel New York for another cocktail and treated ourself to the lovely Disneyland souvenir glasses-very nice in the New York City Bar very relaxing. After this it was 11pm(ish) so we decided to head for the hills ready for day 2….
Warning/Apology-I write lots…and am a firm believer you can never have too many pics!
Had booked 7am breakfast slots so was up at 6.30am (whose stupid idea????) crawled to breakfast, surmised I couldn’t possibly eat so I nibbled some fruit and then crawled back to our room. I had however had the worst nights sleep, my niece had gone down with serious diarrhoa...however you spell it, during the night so as both hubby and her dad slept like logs i was awoke by here every movement and spent most of the night dealing with her, then when i settled down to sleep it was really hot and so hubby had opened the window... which was fine but approx 3am the Disney street sweeping time kicked into life and I don't know if anyone else has ever noticed this but the Disney Villages music is playing all night looooooooooong so no rest for the wicked and i was too excited anyway despite that lot!!! so basically sleep was always going to be a no no -however back to breakfast which was a very nice spread and it has changed, they have loads more meats available now as well as boiled eggs and tomatoes etc, laid out very nicely. But still lots of meat, cheeses, cereals, fruits, yoghurt, pastries and your usual drinks and condiments selection-lovely if your digestive system is awake!!!
On our way back to our room Pluto had just arrived at the photo point in the hotel-This was our nieces first character meeting and this is when the magic started-I think before she was a little unsure about it all as she didn’t know what to expect then suddenly there was Pluto and she was giggling and completely swept up by the whole thing! Sadly our cameras were in our room so we later bought the official photographers one!
Well we left the hotel about 7.50am and by god was it cold!!! (see ‘tips for how to keep warm in Disney’ thread for my weapons of choice clothing that kept me happy in my skin for the duration!) We wondered to the park, showed our hotel passes and in we went easy as!
Frozen Lake Disney:
Of course it looked totally amazing and pics never do it justice.
It was already starting to get busy (even at 8am) so off we went, first stop was the carousel, then the Flying Elephants (frozen Dumbos!)
followed by Peter Pan and Buzz, my hubby was gutted and demanding a re-match as I beat him 51,000 to his 49,000 points however my 7 year old niece somehow beat everyone by getting 107,000 points. With all the stopping to take photos this is all we managed to get on and with ten minutes to rope drop we sent my husband and brother off to Space Mountain which they managed to do twice…then it happened…..the STAMPEDE!!! We were stood by Space Mountain and obviously at rope drop people leg it to their nearest ride-it was madness, it resembled the wildebeast scene in Lion King-this mass stream of people, before we knew it they were waiting past the entrance and there was a hefty line for the fast passes. Madness. We figured that this is what the rest of the park would look like so we bumbled off to see Santa and stopped for more pics on the way as we bumped into an Indian chief Chip (or Dale!) one of the crazy country and western bears and also the 2 bears from brother bear..
Santa didn’t have a massive line but because they spend good time with each family you wait quite a while. Whilst we were waiting we saw Jessie so my brother and niece skipped off for photos and we held their place. Just before we got into see Santa, he disappeared for 10 minutes and no one seemed to know what was happening till he reappeared, slightly thinner and with a bigger nose….ahem! But soon it was our turn and we had a wonderful picture taken with all of us, he spoke to our niece and was lovely-really made my holiday a real highlight! They spend lots of time with each family and it was well worth the wait.
Next we had some piccies taken with the bullseye and Stinky Pete set up at Woodys Round up.
We had grabbed some BTM fastpasses on the way to santa so we used them
meanwhile mum and dad took my niece to kit herself out princess stylee!
After the transformation into “Princess Caitlin” we made our way to Mickey’s Winter Wonderland which I must say was as magical as always!
After this the others went on Phantom Manor and as it said waiting time was 45 minutes I went off with the princess to check out the dragon
Caught the delightful Minnie’s Jolly Holiday show (we had just seen Minnie in the winter wonderland show so I had to do some serious quick thinking and explain about how busy she was especially with those costume changes) then saw the character express (fun train but not the most exciting characters I must say) so we went to the dragon and I purchased my ears for the holiday and bought my hubby some. Meanwhile turned out Phantom Manor had only taken 30 minutes so we met back up in time for our reservations at the Lucky Nugget for 2pm (will add report on that to appropriate thread) but it was a fab experience and well recommend it, great food great fun, another real highlight.
Met Tigger, Radcliffe, Suzy & Perla, Chip & Dale, Goofy, Sheriff of Nottingham, Smee and Minnie.
After dinner was over (we spent about an hour in there) we mooched across the park to catch the Lion King Show whilst my brother and husband went off to Star Tours, love the Lion King show as wonderful as always, then when we finished my husband had got spare fast passes for Star Tours so my mum and I went on it whilst the others had a quick loo stop. Worth noting though, whilst fastpass is handy for Star Tours you miss out on the little fun bits on the way round the waiting system we got this photo of C-3P0 and R2 from the balcony but didn't get to see any of the other little robots! which was a shame but hey at least we didn't have to wait.
By this time it was getting close to parade time, so we ambled off to get a place via the dragon again! We went to near Bella Notte to wach the parade as this is usually a quiet spot and with 45 minutes to go to parade time, it was already a 2 deep crowd in the thinnest of places. There was the usual pushing, shoving and relatively ignorant people, plus it nearly kicked off big time when a CM told several people they couldn’t stay where they had put themselves (on the road IN FRONT of the rope) and in whatever language they spoke they were refusing to move, they eventually did but it was getting ugly so I pointed my niece the other way and we discussed other more pressing issues like which Princess she wanted to meet! Sadly not many photos turned out because th parade was on at 17.30 so the light wasn’t good! Can’t understand why so late Disney??? You already have one night time parade…(see pic below...it was nightime?!)
the parade was however amazing, damn that tune but my favourite bit was still seeing Father Christmas at the end and for this bit they played "Chante C'est Noel" It was like greeting an old friend and I wasn't the only one thinking this, loads of people cheered and started singing along...
After the parade which I have to say was beautiful (although we didn’t have the best position) we were fffffreezing not to mention my arthritis doesn’t agree with me standing still like that for so long so off we went to Caseys for hot chocolate and munchies. I always find Caseys good for quick service, it doesn’t totally break the bank and it’s standard quick food. So after refuelling we got our spot in front of the Plaza stage and watched the enchanted light ceremony. This as always was totally magical and made my mum cry…. The candlebration just added to it and the castle looked amazing. Definite extra “OOOOOOOOH” factor this year.
After this we decided that was quite enough for a princess for one day and Fantillusion wasn’t on till 9pm so we decided we would catch it tomorrow - so mum and dad took my niece to bed (Brother had already gone back to the hotel as he did not like Disneyland at all so wanted to plan for doing Paris instead the next day which suited us Disney crazy people fine!) My husband and I went for a mooch in the Christmas markets-which I didn’t think were up to much, so we did some shopping in the village before having dinner (and a cocktail) at the rainforest café.
Then we decided cocktails were the way to go, so we went to the Hotel New York for another cocktail and treated ourself to the lovely Disneyland souvenir glasses-very nice in the New York City Bar very relaxing. After this it was 11pm(ish) so we decided to head for the hills ready for day 2….
How cold was it???
