Returned from 1st visit

[lynchio]

Well that was a blast....... didn't start the best, was due to fly out on Wednesday 16th June but due to easyjet cancelling the flight had to lose a days holiday. Looking on the bright side, it gave us more to spend each day.

Day 1 (17th June) We had been expecting to get a couple of hours in the park before closing but due to our flight being delayed by an hour and the traffic around CDG being manic we didn't make it onto the site until just before 7pm. So we headed straight to Planet Hollywood for our tea before getting an early night.

Day 2 (18th June) - Up early (06:30) and headed for breakfast to fill up and make our packed lunch . Daughter had her first contact with a character just after breakfast meeting Minnie Mouse and that was us set for the day.
Headed into the park for our magic hours and caught our first sight of main street and sleeping beauties castle. Spent the morning exploring some of the rides including Peter Pan, Buzz Lightyear and the carousel, but not before my daughter had explored the castle.......... including giving maleficent a big boo .... Around about lunchtime we faced our longest queue of our whole stay waiting to meet the princess, but the 90 minutes of crawling was worth it when we got on stage and got our second autograph of the day. A bit of jostling later and we added to our collection with some of the characters on the hourly train. Then a nice long queue for daddy for space mountain and a far shorter one for mummy and daughter for Orbitron and finally found a seat for the parade. Unfortunately just as the parade got to us Sleeping Beauty disappeared around the other side of her float which lead to this face........ By this point we were pretty tired so after a brief miander around headed out to cafe mickey for some more interaction and tea.



Then we enjoyed a walk back to the hotel Santa Fe and retired for the evening.

Will post some more from days 3 4 and 5 later.... if in the mean time you want to check out some of my pics (I haven't posted enough to add links or images) ....... flickr.com/photos/paulhlynch/sets/72157624338400586

 

[cherrymarzipan]

Glad to hear you had such a good time, especially after the frustration (to put it mildly!) of losing a day. What a great first day you had though with a lovely mix of experiences. Looking forward to hearing the about the rest of your trip.

 

[Ware Bears]

Welcome back what a shame you lost your first day though.

You only need to do 5 more posts then you can add photos.

 

[lilacgems23]

love ur pics

 

[ExpatDisneyLover]

Welcome Back!

Oh those photos are great - what a great birthday!

 

[lynchio]

Forgot to mention on Day 2 that we squeezed in Pirates of the Carribean too, just as it opened

Day 3 (Sat 19th June) saw another early rise, our plan for the day was to do our magic hours then head over to the studio.
Off we popped for our Breakfast, (and lunch obviously) then into the foyer for the meet n greet, this time it was Mickey and once again we started the day off with a happy little girl. Off into the park we headed straight for Buzz Lightyear again, the wife heading off for her first flight on Space Mountain. Then again on Buzz Lightyear (a pattern was starting to emerge!!!). We then managed to tear the daughter away from Buzz and the lasers by heading through the castle again and onto the horses, before heading for our first spin on the teacups, something neither myself or the wife were looking forward to, but on we went, and at the instruction of the little princess we spun faster and faster and faster and faster until finally it stopped and we got off all looking a little green (other than the daughter). All this was before 9 am.

We then headed over to Its a small small world, then back to Snow White and Pinnochio, the queues by this time starting to build. By the time we had finished these it was time to head into the Studios.

Inside the studios we grabbed a fast pass for the flying carpets before taking in Animagique, which was just superb, a quick run across for cinemagique (singing in the rain!!) and then the Stitch show, before heading back to the flying carpets for a nice ride. we then headed for the studio tour picking up fast pass tickets for Towers of Terror on the way. We weren't sure the little one would enjoy the studio tour but her favourite bit was the water, a right little thrill seeker she was turning into.
Our fast passes for Tower of Terror were for 16:05 - 16:35 so we had to choose between that and the stars in cars parade, and since the daughter desperately wanted to see Daisy Duck the Parade won over. So we stood for 20 minutes in brilliant sunshine waiting for the parade and then just as the music started up the heavens opened! Fair play, the parade went on and although we didn't manage to pick up any more autograph's the daughter got to see Daisy so was happy, and the rain finished before the end of the parade too.
The skies still looked full so we headed for the Stunt show to try and get some cover. Some superb stunts and a guest appearance from Herbie make this well worth doing, the stunts kept my daughter entertained which suprised me, but she was a little upset when Herbie had an accident but we managed to get her back on track.

With that done and a very tired little girl we headed to Annettes for our dinner then back to the Santa Fe for some well earned rest and a very early night.

more to follow..............

 

[lynchio]

Day 4 (Sunday 20th- Daughters Birthday)

So the big day arrived with another early start. We asked the little one what she wanted to do to which she replied go on Buzz Lightyear 4 times because I'm 4! So all breakfasted up we headed into the park again and straight for Buzz Lightyear. We didn't do it 4 times, we did it 5 as we had to do 1 for luck, then on to do other rides. We did some of the other ones again, then at 10 headed across so mum and daddy could do Indy, which was dead! I spent the whole ride humming the indy theme music and felt it added to the whole experience. Then I went and joined the alleged 15 minute queue for Big Thunder mountain, well that is the most deceptive queue in the world, 45 minutes later I was trying to convince the wife that it was ok for the little one. And with that we got some fast past tickets for 11:35 and went for a ride on the Mark Twain.
We then headed back to Big Thunder Mountain to be told there was a technical problem so we would have to go back later on but would still be allowed to use our fast passes. Instead we went and had a miander around Aladin and then onto CJ's Circus and then down onto Le Pays de contes fees (x2).
This took us till about 13:30 so time for one more quick ride on the horses before going for Birthday Lunch.
Since we had lost a day we were able to save enough pennies to treat the daughter to lunch at Auberge, well not so much the lunch but the company.
Overall she thought it was Magical, Cinderella greeted us and spent what seemed like about 4 or 5 minutes speaking with her, then when we went in she was greeted by Perla and Suzy, cinders mice friends. Once we had sat down Belle and the beast came across and chatted again for 2 or 3 minutes before Snow White and Ze Prince came across and spent another 5 minutes with us (mainly as by this point daughter had overcome her shyness). The food wasn't really to my taste but it was on balance probably worth the expense. The main course was nice (rack of lamb) and the deserts superb but I didn't even touch the starter. If you like fancy food then you would love it, if you don't then its a tough decision. The staff were lovely but pretty clueless when we asked about how our daughter could get to meet Sleeping Beauty as she is her favourite, and we did feel slightly misled as the advertising does suggest that all princesses will be in attendance, but still overall was a good experience.
We got finished in time to head down for the new generation show in front of the castle, although we were a fair way back it was still enjoyable. And then we found some reasonable kerbspace for the parade (switching pavements from last time to make sure we saw sleeping beauty). I am still now amazed by the selfish attitudes of some of the parents who would stand in front of small kids to get a better view. I originally sat on the kerb with my daughter with my wife behind us, then I moved back (staying sat down) to allow 3 small children a better view, I just couldn't understand people standing in the way. But hey ho, each to their own. Important thing was daughter got to see sleeping beauty!
After the parade we set off to use our fast pass tickets for Big Thunder Mountain, I warned daughter about the loud noises but I needn't have bothered, she asked why some people were screaming, so I advised her it was because they were enjoying themselves, so she started shreeking! As soon as we got off she wanted back on so I grabbed some more fast pass tickets and we got ready to amuse ourselves to 7pm.

Next on the list was woody's round up which saw a delightful collection of characters without any pushing or shoving and minimal queueing, pictures were promptly taken with Scrooge McDuck, Goofy, Minnie, Mickey, Woody and Jessie.
With plenty of time to kill we headed back to the Labarynth which had earlier been a little busy and had a good miander through. We then just enjoyed the park with a nice long walk around before heading back to Big Thunder Mountain for installment 2, a perfect ending to our last full day, and the daughters birthday. On the way back to the hotel we planned our next morning and then packed the suitcases to make sure we could pack as much fun in, in the morning before leaving.

Only Day 5 to go now!

 

[DLPdaft]

That really was a packed day for the birthday girl - sounds brilliant though

 

[lynchio]

Day 5 : Monday 21st June

We got up early again and headed for breakfast with our suitcases in tow, we decided not to fill up for lunch and instead to have lunch at Cafe Mickey. We dropped the cases off at the bagage drop and headed back into the park and headed back into reception where Minnie was once again in attendance.

First on the list was Peter Pan as we noticed the day before that it tends to build a queue quite quickly, we went straight on and when we came off the daughter decided we needed to do one more for luck so we headed back around and this time spent the whole ride saying au revoir to all the characters. Next off to Buzz Lightyear which we only did the 3 times and then daddy headed over to Space Mountain for 1 last blast. Then onto the Orbitron with the little one then back to the teacups. Which was a big mistake. Mum managed to wimp out of it so daddy was left to spin the teacup and got a little excited. So much so that he nearly fell over getting off!
Next we went for one last family ride on Big Thunder Mountain, even with being one of the first ones there we ended up waiting about 25 minutes as they were only running trains from 1 side of the platform. Not to worry though as my daughter yelped all the way through the ride.
Learning from our mistake on day 1 we headed across to the princess signing stage at about 11:15 and were still about 20th in the queue. Still it was a far shorter queue than the previous time and once again Belle spent a good couple of minutes talking with my daughter. One last walk around Sleeping Beauty's Castle then out to the courtyard for the Sleeping Beauty show.
We decided this was the perfect point to leave as my daughter had a massive grin on her face.
So off to Cafe Mickey where we had lunch with the characters, this time there were Chip, Dale, Mickey, Minnie, Pluto and a pretty miserable Goofy.
With that it was time to do some quick last minute shopping then back to the hotel to wait for Ezy Shuttle to take us back to the airport.

And there ended our Disney holiday, the flight back was harmless enough (even being on time) and everything has pretty much returned to reality.

It was a fantastic holiday, will I be rushing back? No, for me because the park will only change so much I would imagine it will be at least another 6 or 7 years before I would even consider going back.

My Tips.

Make the most of your magic hours : Rides you can get on multiple times easily are Peter Pan, Carrousel, Teacups, Buzz Lightyear, Orbitron, Space Mountain. Come 10 o clock your minimum wait for most of these rides without a fast pass will be 30 minutes.
Get up early and make lunch at your buffet. The meat and bread is lovely as are the buns. Everyone does it so go on just dive in!
Use fast pass for Big Thunder Mountain as the queue is very deceptive,
Go to Woody's roundup for some great character interaction.
Eat at Cafe Mickey's at least once.
Don't eat at Auberge unless you think the princess interaction is worth it or you have "fancy" food tastes.
Save money by staying at the Santa Fe, all you are going to be doing is sleeping after all, at least thats all we did!

I hope you have enjoyed my report and enjoy your stay as much as we did.

Paul

 

[Ware Bears]

Enjoyed reading this, Paul, thanks for sharing.