Happy Happy Happy Happy Halloween ~ Day 1

[Ware Bears]

Monday October 22nd only 6 months late

We had chosen early breakfast slots so that we could take advantage of EMH but as we had yet to get our tickets we didn’t hurry this morning.

It was a beautiful sunny day so we walked in ready for 10am opening. The ticket booth on the right had a humongous queue so rather than wait forever we just bought day tickets to get us into the park.

Wow!!! The park looked amazing ~ loads and loads of orange everywhere!!!
After doing some oohing and aahing, we headed straight to our favourite DLRP ride, Big Thunder Mountain, and got fastpasses for later.

We went to the AP Bureau to sort out our Annual Passes. Now, this should have been just a quick process, seeing as we had taken our old expired ones with us, but it took us a long time to convince the CM that yes, you could combine shareholders and family discounts. Luckily, I had taken a print-out of the rules from the shareholders website with me, even then he doubted this, and if his manager hadn’t come back from her break when she did I think I would have frogmarched him down to Salon Mickey with me!! Thank goodness she knew the rules better than he did!! Then the girls needed new photos for their passes as they are now older, and the computer kept breaking down. Aaaarrrggghhhhhh!!!!

 

[Ware Bears]

We eventually escaped and went off to ride Big Thunder Mountain. Now whether it’s because this had been shut down for major refurbishment for most of our last holiday or whether it’s because the last BTM we had been riding had been at WDW and we do prefer the DLRP version ~ well, for whatever reason the ride seemed faster, longer, wilder, the best ever!!

We took loads of photos of the Pumpkin Men and all the Halloween theming in Frontierland or Halloweenland as it’s now called!

We went for lunch at the Cowboy Cookout and shared an assortment of burgers, chicken, spare ribs, wedge potatoes and fries. This is the first time we’ve been in here and it’s a lovely relaxing place, I’d definitely come here again.

 

[Ware Bears]

We then went to ride Buzz, then we watched the Character Express train,

the Stitch parade and taped the Once Upon a Dream parade. Wow, what a lovely parade, I think it’s got to be the best one I’ve seen.

The Castle looked absolutely fantastic with its 15th Celebration decorations.

We then went in the Christmas shop and stocked up with tree decorations, then wandered up to Pirates of the Caribbean where it was a walk-on. We then left the park to go to Planet Hollywood ~ we got there just after 6pm ~ a big mistake as I think everyone else had the same idea. We had to wait nearly an hour for a table but we only had ourselves to blame ~ we knew we should have left the park earlier but couldn’t drag ourselves away!!

Well, all the waiting was well worth it. I have read some dire reviews of Planet Hollywood but the food was absolutely delicious and our server was a great laugh!!

Francesca had the chicken tenders and fries,

Danielle had the classic cheeseburger and fries (forgot to photograph),
Samantha had LA Lasagne,

and both Bryan and I had the pineapple orange chicken served with jasmine rice.

For dessert, Bryan had the white chocolate bread pudding,

Danielle had lemon sorbet (again no photo ), Francesca had profiteroles,

and Samantha and I shared the dessert sampler.

The strawberry shortcake was to die for ~ but unfortunately we couldn’t do it justice, I think there was enough there for all five of us to share!!

We really enjoyed it here (don’t forget your Brits Guide to get 20% off) and will definitely come again.

We had a browse through the shops in the Village ~ with three girls anyone would think they came to Disney purely to go shopping LOL.

We walked back to the hotel in order to walk the meal off, stopping at the Santa Fe garage en route to purchase bottled water ~ and milk so we could have a nice cuppa in our room to finish off a perfect day.

 

[Danauk]

Fab report. A few questions! Was this during school half term time and if so how busy was it? Secondly did you get 2008 christmas decorations in the shops or was it still the 2007 merchandise still out?

 

[Ware Bears]

Thanks, it was during our half-term but not all the schools in the UK were off that week, some were off the following week. We found it extremely quiet but then we're used to going in August or Christmas!! By Thursday it was getting busier and it was even more noticeable by our last day, Friday, but we still manage to do whatever we want with EMH and fastpass.

I take photos of the Christmas deccies so that I don't duplicate them I'll check tomorrow to see if there are any 2008.

 

[Cyrano]

Great report

 

[Ware Bears]

Secondly did you get 2008 christmas decorations in the shops or was it still the 2007 merchandise still out?

No, there weren't any 2008 decorations, only 2007.

 

[di$neyf@n]

Great report! Halloween is one of my favorite times to go and take pictures of the decorations. After reading this board I now know that I should take pictures of my food to share with everyone! (and a notebooke to write down all we do)

I'm glad PH was good. We loved it last time we were there and I was getting worried with some of the poor reviews lately.

Is there a day 2 coming?

 

[julie 'o']

Really enjoyed your report, We're going for Halloween this year and seeing your photos makes me sooooo excited.We also love Planet Hollywood but have never had the sharing desert it looks so scrummy,we'll definately be trying this

 

[Ware Bears]

Thank you after doing summer, Christmas and Halloween we're all agreed that Halloween was visually the best, even beating the Christmas decorations.

Yes, there will be Days 2, 3, 4 and 5 to follow ~ with an unexpected bonus of Day 6.

 

[bumblebeez]

Brilliant report and photos. I really want to go at Halloween now!