rgoble5972
Are we there yet?
- Joined
- Feb 4, 2001
- Messages
- 276
CAST
Robin 41 Trip Report writer, Bringer of Good Weather, Recently Relieved of Duties as Trip Planner
Larry - 46 - Host, Walking Compendium of Knowledge, and Trip Report god.
Jill - (no way would I betray a confidence without permission) - Keeper of the Passports, Park Navigator, and First in Line
Greg - 17 - Quiet Teenager, Purveyor of Dry Wit and Sarcastic Remarks
Ed - 14 - Runescape Addict, Chief Dog Walker, and Professional Conversationalist
Pippin/Killer - 4 months - Official Wilmot Poodle, Beggar of Table Scraps, Eater of Baked Goods
Monday, July 18, 2005
Thats not tears. Thats where little children have wet themselves in fright.
I got up a little early so I could finish up my packing. We all met up at 8:30 and went down to the lobby together. We checked our luggage with Bell Services and arranged for a taxi to pick us up from the hotel at 2:00 before we hopped on the bus and went to Disneyland for our last morning.
As soon as Greg heard that this was the morning to do rides in Fantasyland, he split off on his own (Using some lame excuse about being hungry--like hes a seventeen year old or something!) saying that hed meet back up with us around 10:30 at the Main Street bakery. (Gregory Two Breakfasts Wilmot - That's My Boy. I keep telling him, that you can eat as much as you like when you are growing upwards, but the moment you stop doing that if you dont cut down your scoffing you start to grow outwards, Sadly teenagers see older people as a race from another planet, and don't realise that they aint that far away from being them, themselves. - L)
Our first mission for the day was to get Fast Passes for Peter Pan, since that ride seems to develop mob-conditions early no matter what park youre in. Without much hope, Ed and I tried the Fast Past scam and, lo and behold, it actually worked! I was so stunned! At last, I could die happy--Id had just participated in a true Wilmot experience. I should also mention that Larry was much relieved that his King of Fast Pass reputation was still intact. (Too Right I Was. - L)
Sneaky Fast Passes in hand, our first ride was Snow White. Again, the defender and protector of children in me must state that this ride is so not for kids. I remember being absolutely terrified on the Snow White at DLR in California when I was but a young and impressionable child of four. Of course, that didnt seem to stop me from taking my nephew on and scaring the pants off of him when he was four now did it?
As we exited the ride, there were some puddles of what looked to be water on the pavement. I pointed them out to Larry and mentioned that those were the tears of small children that were taken on this ride. Larry said that the puddles werent tears but rather where the poor kids had wet themselves in abject terror!
Next up was a ride for all of us on Lancelots Carrousel. (I know its been several days now since you began reading this tome. Did you finally get the dermatology joke?) (No one ever gets my jokes; they just laugh because I'm bigger than them - L.) And then a spin on the Tea Cups (though Jill sat that one out). Larry, Ed and I got our cup spinning quite fast, first one direction and then the other. I hadnt ridden the tea cups in a long time and it didnt make me nearly as sick as Id remembered.
After we regained our equilibrium, we went to the Storyland Boat ride. This ride loaded differently than the one at DLR. The one in France loads on a continually moving platform, kind of like Kali River Rapids in WDW or Grizzly River Run in DLR. There was no Monstro (the whale from Pinocchio) to go through like in DLR and there was no CM tour guide. Still, the scenes were all very pretty and there was the addition of a Wizard of Oz display. Im not sure why Disney has the rights to that in Paris and not in America, but it was neat to see. (They do have Wizard of OZ on the Great Movie Ride though. - L)
After the boats, we rode the Casey, Jr. train ride (twice actually, and we rode in the cages both times--not that were childish or anything) before heading toward the bakery to meet up with Greg. We walked back via Discoveryland however so we could pick up Fast Passes for Space Mountain. After all, theres no use in getting scammed Fast Passes if youre not going to go ahead and get your legitimate ones as well. (Good Point, well made if you don't mind me saying so. - L)
We met Greg at the bakery and had some breakfast and then did a bit of last-chance shopping in some of the stores on Main Street. We figured we deserved some shopping since wed accomplished so much in just an hour and a half since the park opened. Actually, now that I think about it, I think we did some shopping because wed all decided, one at a time--like you do, that we needed to visit the restroom and so the rest of the group would shop while we waited on the various missing members of our party.
After our shopping, we returned to Space Mountain to take advantage of our Fast Passes and then went back to Fantasyland for our Peter Pan ride.
We walked to Frontierland hoping for one last ride on Big Thunder, but the stand by line was already too long. We consoled ourselves with another ride on Phantom Manor (the wait time said 30 minutes, but we were off the ride in 20). After the ride, I got some bottled water for us (another hot day!) and then Jill got some ice cream for everyone. Actually, I skipped the ice cream but Larry kindly made me a miniature cone by giving me the bottom portion of his.
We made our way back to Main Street as we ate our ice cream and then shopped a bit on the way out. Ultimately, we knew it was time to go so we exited the park (they had no hand stamps today--shame--I always like to get mine stamped as I leave on the last day) and went to the bus stop. A bus came right away and we made it back to the hotel by 1:20. We got our luggage and killed time while we waited in the lobby by downloading all my pictures from my digital camera onto Larrys laptop as a back up. Im almost ashamed to admit it but, the total number of pictures I took on this trip was over 650. Thank goodness for digital and being saved the cost of having all those developed!
Our taxi came just a little before 2:00 and took us to the airport.
Okay, I know this isnt particularly Disney to mention, but I do want to say that we had a bomb scare at Charles de Gaulle airport, which we all thought was pretty cool. Someone had left a carry-on back at the security checkpoint. The airport issued several pages for the person to return and claim their bag, but no one ever did.
We were standing in the security screening queue and could see the bag in question just a few feet away from us. We talked to one of the security screeners about the bag and asked why they just didnt run it through the x-ray equipment. Apparently thats not the correct procedure (I suppose none of the screeners were particularly thrilled with the idea of getting blown up when they picked the bag up). We asked her what would happen to the bag and she said, just as cheerful as can be, Ve vill explode it!
Well we certainly wanted to hang around and see the explosion but apparently procedures state that they have to evacuate the terminal before they can go around blowing up strange bags. (Actually considering that there had been explosions in London only about 10 days before, we were incredibly silly, because we actually went closer to the package to see what it was, I'm not sure I would have predicted such weird behaviour, we get told that it's a suspected bomb, and we go and have a look at it, rather than scarpering as fast as we could. - L.)
Everyone had to leave and wait outside while they waited on the bomb squad to arrive. Military type guys wearing camouflage and carrying big guns kept moving us farther and farther away from the terminal. The bomb squad did finally arrive and they apparently exploded the bag and we were ultimately let back in. We had to wait outside for a little over an hour and a half but they held all the flights and so we didnt have any trouble making our flight to London where we spent an enjoyable few days taking in all the sights. We returned to Scotland mid-week and had a few more days for sightseeing (Orkney Islands and Inverness) before I had to come back home to the US.
It was a wonderful trip that Ill never forget and it was made all the more special because I got to spend it with such nice people and fellow Disney fans.
Thanks for reading this.
Robin
Thanks for a great TR Robin. I enjoyed it very much, and thanks for keeping my little comments in for folks to read, - Cheers Larry From Scotland.
Robin 41 Trip Report writer, Bringer of Good Weather, Recently Relieved of Duties as Trip Planner
Larry - 46 - Host, Walking Compendium of Knowledge, and Trip Report god.
Jill - (no way would I betray a confidence without permission) - Keeper of the Passports, Park Navigator, and First in Line
Greg - 17 - Quiet Teenager, Purveyor of Dry Wit and Sarcastic Remarks
Ed - 14 - Runescape Addict, Chief Dog Walker, and Professional Conversationalist
Pippin/Killer - 4 months - Official Wilmot Poodle, Beggar of Table Scraps, Eater of Baked Goods
Monday, July 18, 2005
Thats not tears. Thats where little children have wet themselves in fright.
I got up a little early so I could finish up my packing. We all met up at 8:30 and went down to the lobby together. We checked our luggage with Bell Services and arranged for a taxi to pick us up from the hotel at 2:00 before we hopped on the bus and went to Disneyland for our last morning.
As soon as Greg heard that this was the morning to do rides in Fantasyland, he split off on his own (Using some lame excuse about being hungry--like hes a seventeen year old or something!) saying that hed meet back up with us around 10:30 at the Main Street bakery. (Gregory Two Breakfasts Wilmot - That's My Boy. I keep telling him, that you can eat as much as you like when you are growing upwards, but the moment you stop doing that if you dont cut down your scoffing you start to grow outwards, Sadly teenagers see older people as a race from another planet, and don't realise that they aint that far away from being them, themselves. - L)
Our first mission for the day was to get Fast Passes for Peter Pan, since that ride seems to develop mob-conditions early no matter what park youre in. Without much hope, Ed and I tried the Fast Past scam and, lo and behold, it actually worked! I was so stunned! At last, I could die happy--Id had just participated in a true Wilmot experience. I should also mention that Larry was much relieved that his King of Fast Pass reputation was still intact. (Too Right I Was. - L)
Sneaky Fast Passes in hand, our first ride was Snow White. Again, the defender and protector of children in me must state that this ride is so not for kids. I remember being absolutely terrified on the Snow White at DLR in California when I was but a young and impressionable child of four. Of course, that didnt seem to stop me from taking my nephew on and scaring the pants off of him when he was four now did it?
As we exited the ride, there were some puddles of what looked to be water on the pavement. I pointed them out to Larry and mentioned that those were the tears of small children that were taken on this ride. Larry said that the puddles werent tears but rather where the poor kids had wet themselves in abject terror!
Next up was a ride for all of us on Lancelots Carrousel. (I know its been several days now since you began reading this tome. Did you finally get the dermatology joke?) (No one ever gets my jokes; they just laugh because I'm bigger than them - L.) And then a spin on the Tea Cups (though Jill sat that one out). Larry, Ed and I got our cup spinning quite fast, first one direction and then the other. I hadnt ridden the tea cups in a long time and it didnt make me nearly as sick as Id remembered.
After we regained our equilibrium, we went to the Storyland Boat ride. This ride loaded differently than the one at DLR. The one in France loads on a continually moving platform, kind of like Kali River Rapids in WDW or Grizzly River Run in DLR. There was no Monstro (the whale from Pinocchio) to go through like in DLR and there was no CM tour guide. Still, the scenes were all very pretty and there was the addition of a Wizard of Oz display. Im not sure why Disney has the rights to that in Paris and not in America, but it was neat to see. (They do have Wizard of OZ on the Great Movie Ride though. - L)
After the boats, we rode the Casey, Jr. train ride (twice actually, and we rode in the cages both times--not that were childish or anything) before heading toward the bakery to meet up with Greg. We walked back via Discoveryland however so we could pick up Fast Passes for Space Mountain. After all, theres no use in getting scammed Fast Passes if youre not going to go ahead and get your legitimate ones as well. (Good Point, well made if you don't mind me saying so. - L)
We met Greg at the bakery and had some breakfast and then did a bit of last-chance shopping in some of the stores on Main Street. We figured we deserved some shopping since wed accomplished so much in just an hour and a half since the park opened. Actually, now that I think about it, I think we did some shopping because wed all decided, one at a time--like you do, that we needed to visit the restroom and so the rest of the group would shop while we waited on the various missing members of our party.
After our shopping, we returned to Space Mountain to take advantage of our Fast Passes and then went back to Fantasyland for our Peter Pan ride.
We walked to Frontierland hoping for one last ride on Big Thunder, but the stand by line was already too long. We consoled ourselves with another ride on Phantom Manor (the wait time said 30 minutes, but we were off the ride in 20). After the ride, I got some bottled water for us (another hot day!) and then Jill got some ice cream for everyone. Actually, I skipped the ice cream but Larry kindly made me a miniature cone by giving me the bottom portion of his.
We made our way back to Main Street as we ate our ice cream and then shopped a bit on the way out. Ultimately, we knew it was time to go so we exited the park (they had no hand stamps today--shame--I always like to get mine stamped as I leave on the last day) and went to the bus stop. A bus came right away and we made it back to the hotel by 1:20. We got our luggage and killed time while we waited in the lobby by downloading all my pictures from my digital camera onto Larrys laptop as a back up. Im almost ashamed to admit it but, the total number of pictures I took on this trip was over 650. Thank goodness for digital and being saved the cost of having all those developed!
Our taxi came just a little before 2:00 and took us to the airport.
Okay, I know this isnt particularly Disney to mention, but I do want to say that we had a bomb scare at Charles de Gaulle airport, which we all thought was pretty cool. Someone had left a carry-on back at the security checkpoint. The airport issued several pages for the person to return and claim their bag, but no one ever did.
We were standing in the security screening queue and could see the bag in question just a few feet away from us. We talked to one of the security screeners about the bag and asked why they just didnt run it through the x-ray equipment. Apparently thats not the correct procedure (I suppose none of the screeners were particularly thrilled with the idea of getting blown up when they picked the bag up). We asked her what would happen to the bag and she said, just as cheerful as can be, Ve vill explode it!
Well we certainly wanted to hang around and see the explosion but apparently procedures state that they have to evacuate the terminal before they can go around blowing up strange bags. (Actually considering that there had been explosions in London only about 10 days before, we were incredibly silly, because we actually went closer to the package to see what it was, I'm not sure I would have predicted such weird behaviour, we get told that it's a suspected bomb, and we go and have a look at it, rather than scarpering as fast as we could. - L.)
Everyone had to leave and wait outside while they waited on the bomb squad to arrive. Military type guys wearing camouflage and carrying big guns kept moving us farther and farther away from the terminal. The bomb squad did finally arrive and they apparently exploded the bag and we were ultimately let back in. We had to wait outside for a little over an hour and a half but they held all the flights and so we didnt have any trouble making our flight to London where we spent an enjoyable few days taking in all the sights. We returned to Scotland mid-week and had a few more days for sightseeing (Orkney Islands and Inverness) before I had to come back home to the US.
It was a wonderful trip that Ill never forget and it was made all the more special because I got to spend it with such nice people and fellow Disney fans.
Thanks for reading this.
Robin
Thanks for a great TR Robin. I enjoyed it very much, and thanks for keeping my little comments in for folks to read, - Cheers Larry From Scotland.
