"Its oh so quiet ...." trip report, all 4 days finished

[IsobelJackmummy]

Greta report and lovely pictures. thanks for sharing!

 

[Disneyfanswicklow]

Another great day - your little girl looks like she is in Heaven in your photos which are great by the way. Really enjoying reading and looking forward to more!

 

[DLPdaft]

Day 3, Tuesday, continued

We were at the lamp-post on the corner of the bottom of Main Street (Emporium side) just at the right time for the CMs to come out and start roping off the tree area for the tree-lighting ceremony. This was great fun - and I would have loved to have been the little girl chosen from the audience to help switch on the lights -

We were getting weary now, neither of us particularly wanted to stay and watch the castle-lighting or Fantillusion tonight, so we left the park and went off about an hour early to Cafe Mickey, where we were seated straightaway, upstairs (a first for us). It was around 6.30, and very quiet upstairs at first, but within about half an hour most of the tables had been filled. That first half hour was brilliant though - Pinocchio was having a ball, play-fighting with 2 little boys who'd brought their lazer guns with them. He was running about, hiding behind our chairs, peeking through his fingers, pretending to get shot and writhe about the floor etc etc - it was just hilarious . The characters were only coming out in 2s or 3s, but there were a lot of them -

We got Mickey's autograph and pic as well. Captain Hook was freaking people out - leaning and climbing over the backs of the booths, and touching the backs of necks with his hook - it was funny watching everyone else's reaction, but I'm glad he didn't do it to me!!!

We had pizza and some desserts to share, to be honest, the pizza and one dessert would have been enough. Our waiter wasn't great here, he seemed quite bored and indifferent. Never mind, the characters made up for that. By 8pm we had met all the characters, and were on our way back to the Santa Fe. We picked up our souvenirs from the gift shop, bought a few more, then went back to our room to relax. Today has been quite chilled out, no rushing about anywhere, but we still seemed to do and see quite a bit .

 

[DLPdaft]

Oh, I meant to post this - this is the information boards in the main park, at around 3pm on Tuesday afternoon -

Indie, POTC, and Phantom Manor 5 minutes, BTM 10 minutes

IASW 5 mins, Peter Pan 10 mins (remember they weren't using FPs for this ride, Star Tours or Buzz all the time we were there), Dumbo 25 mins, Star Tours 5 mins, Space Mountain 5 mins, Buzz 10 mins.

 

[DLPdaft]

Day 4, Wednesday, last day

No alarm to wake us up again today, on our chilled-out trip . We both woke after 8, got ourselves organised and all packed up, and left our lovely room at around 8.30. We braved breakfast at the Santa Fe, but surprisingly, again, it was pretty scrum-free, even at what I would have thought would have been the busiest time. We were on the shuttle to the parks with our luggage by 9.15. The CM at the bag check area opened the x-ray machine line for us, so no opening the cases . We shoved our bags in at Guest Storage for the day, and DD surprised me by saying she wanted the first ride of the day to be BTM. We had about 10 minutes to wait until rope-drop, and then off we went - even with quite a few people ahead of us (and we just ambled along), BTM was a walk-on, then we picked up FPs to go again. Off to POTC for us, then back to BTM - by this time (around 11am) they weren't even using the main queue line, just the fastpass line - this is how quiet it was -

We rode BTM so many times this trip, we had time to discover where we preferred to ride - found the front of the train to feel much slower than right at the back - but 3 rides in a row on the back of the train made me feel a bit queasy !

We left the main park for a while then, and headed for the Studios. It was only around 11.15. We saw Goofy and Pluto doing their meet n greet on the stage at the Place des Stars, and joined the short queue, as I knew Minnie and Daisy would be along in a few minutes - and they were

We joined another Stitch show just as it was beginning - we were monsters this time for the first time . We came out of there and were on our way to the Flying Carpets when we saw Sully with about 4 people in his line -

and then more characters over by Animagique -

Gepetto, Eeyore, Pinocchio were also there (in fact, we seemed to see Pinocchio a lot in both parks this time round). After Carpets, it was time for our lunch reservation at Restaurant des Stars. I love this place, I know others have said it has no theme, no character etc, but to me, its cool, airy, and subtle - and the food is great .

By just after 1pm, we'd seen little Remy (and been treated to a hearfelt rendition of "La Vie en Rose" from his chef friend ), and filled ourselves to bursting from the buffet. I loved the help-yourself hot drinks machine here too. We had time to ride Cars and Flying Carpets, before getting a spot near the entrance to Cinemagique, for Stars n Cars. We had lots of fun with the characters here, I think this is my favourite place to be for this parade -

Gaston was very funny - when he saw me with my camera, he posed while I took a pic, then said "another, and another" and struck another 3 or 4 poses for me. He was blowing kisses in our direction as he waited to go on stage too, he made us both giggle .

Cruella pinched DD's pluto before signing her autograph book, and was not at all happy when DD asked for him back !

Just as Cars n Stars was finishing, an icy rain started, so we dashed into the next showing of Animagique, to stay warm and dry. Then out of the Studios and back to the main park, walked straight onto BTM, then rode it again right away. Off to POTC again, then back to BTM to pick up FPs for after the OUAD. It really was raining steadily now, so we watched the OUAD from the Main St rail station platform, where we could stay dry.
DD mentioned, as we were watching OUAD, that she thought she was brave enough to try a go on Phantom Manor. I've never managed to get her anywhere near this before, so after OUAD, I grabbed her and legged it to Phantom Manor before she could change her mind . There were only about 8 of us there, I really liked it, but DD didn't - the final straw for her was seeing the ghost on top of our car in the mirror . She was crying when we came out, I felt horrible for her - but after praising her for being brave enough to go on it, we headed off to BTM for our last ride of the trip. This is soooo cool in the dark, and when we got off, DD had recovered from her Phantom Manor ordeal .

We went to our Castle-lighting ceremony bench near Frontierland, and watched the ceremony again. Still brought a lump to my throat watching the castle changing colour and then lighting up - maybe even a bigger lump than first time, as I knew we were leaving in less than an hour . A bit more retail therapy on our way down Main St, and then it was time to say Goodbye Christmassy DLP.

 

[DLPdaft]

Conclusion

I honestly think this was our best trip yet !

Yes, it was colder than we've been used to, but it was mostly dry, which made it completely bearable, with the help of scarves, gloves and hats/earmuffs. The Etap hotel blankets weren't thick enough for me, but I'm sure I could have got extra ones if I'd asked.

Everything else was just perfect - parks the quietest I've ever seen them, CMs with lots of time for their guests, characters all over the shop, the Christmas theme all around, and of course the lovely treatment we received at the Santa Fe .

We still don't have Ariel's autograph - so according to DD (and who am I to argue?) we'll have to go back to get it .

 

[thelittlemermaid83]

Fantastic report Elaine, so jealous you saw little chef again. I really need to eat there, i just want to pat his little head

 

[Ms Poppins]

Sounds like you had an absolutely fabulous trip! We also have many reasons for having to go back - I can always think of something!

Thanks for sharing - your photos are excellent

 

[Disneyfanswicklow]

Ha Ha it does not take a crystal ball to see you will be booking again! Really enjoyed your trip report and photos. It is making me sooo impatient to get there! Well done and thanks for sharing!

 

[mummybear]

I really enjoyed reading your TR. Thanks for taking the time and sharing your trip with us. Sounds like you had a fab time

 

[Ware Bears]

Really enjoyed reading this ~ I love the way you surprised your DD with your trip and well done Disney for sprinkling you with

 

[wmoon]

Hi Elaine

Just found your trip report and really enjoyed reading it and looking at your pictures. We are going on 29th November this year for 4 nights and after reading all that I am even more looking forward to it (if thats possible). Your daughter looks like she had a great time, my wee boy is 3 and will never have seen anything so Christmasy.....

Wendy x

 

[DisneyMomma81]

How fun! Lovely fotos! I'm glad the 2 of you had a great time. I hope I get to visit DL Paris this November!

 

[Kazzabelle]

WOW what a great TR, we are going this November, i have just phoned my mum to tell her about your trip and tell her to get on here and have a look she was asleep i woke her up all excited lol.
i hope we get as much interaction with the characters as you did and have as little waiting times as you got, the whole trip from when you arrived to the moment you left sounded amazing and im sure you still have lots of happy memories.
I can not wait for my dd and ds to see Disney all christmassy, Im so excited im not sure if i will be able to sleep tonight now he he

 

[ExpatDisneyLover]

So nice to see all the lovely Christmastime goodies again!!

 

[DLPdaft]

LOL Kazzabelle your poor Mum !!!

We did have a fabulous time, and I really enjoyed writing this trip report - its great to do them and have them recorded here so you can go back and re-live the experience (especially if you don't have a trip coming up soon).

 

[Skala]

What a magical visit! Your trip report has got me even more excited-if that's possible. Thanks for sharing