Stitch's Girl's Trip Report 21-26th Sep- Day 5

[Stitch's Girl]

Day 5 - last full day.

I say final full day but I had to leave the park early as I was planning on going to the pin trading night at Davy crockett ranch before 6pm so I didn't really have a full day.

Today I mainly wanted to try and do the things that I hadn't managed to do during the week!

First stop was the Studios..

I wanted to do 2 things, one being see who the "new characters" were in toon studio out of curiousity (even though I pretty much knew it was going to be remy/emile) and more importantly try again to catch Playhouse Disney.

Again the time for playhouse disney said something like 50-60mins, so we headed over to toon studio to see who was about and seen it was Remy and buzz. We hadn't met Remy before and decided to join the small queue. The minder girl was saying that Remy was leaving in 10 minutes. as we walked into the queue a woman pushed her daughter aged about 2-3 infront of us and told her to walk forward, then the woman herself jumped over the barrier to join her daughter and tried to skip another family. The other family were not impressed and there was a big argument in french going on infront of me. From what I could see the lady who caused the trouble was arguing that she had to do it because of her child, which was total crap as she had pushed her child in infront of us and others! I just couldn't believe the cheek of her arguing back! It really does make me angry. Anyway I was just wanting the queue to move because I didn't want to meet emile again!!

Next thing a woman and her little boy started saying something to the minder from the opposite end of the waiting area, where you would normally exit. She was shoving an autograph book at her saying Remy didn't sign it properly. I hadn't seen the woman and boy in the queue before us so I don't know when she had met him....lets just say Remy was not impressed and refused to sign it again!! It was a whole big commotion!! Remy walked over to one side and was folding his arms, tapping his feet and pointing to his stomach saying he was hungry...

This whole thing went on for quite a few minutes with the woman telling the minder again that she wanted the autograph, then the minder had to go over to Remy and have a chat, where it looked as though he was still refusing...

In the end Remy took the book and signed something with his back turned to the crowd and gave the book back. He was not impressed and I didn't really think the situation was handled well as the little boy (about 7 or seemed upset too by the whole thing. I think she should have been told to queue again or wait till remy came back out in about 30 mins and she would get it then but the whole thing was disruptive.

I have to say though Remy was very friendly to mum and I when we met him and he was hugging me and wouldn't let me go, I thought he was extremely cute.....

I wasn't fussed on meeting buzz, I had met him before but mum wanted to because she had enjoyed the buzz ride so much on this trip so we both got pictures with him anyway as again there was a small queue which meant no scrum, heres mums pic...

Walking back over to Playhouse disney the time had gone up again and I just decided to give up on it for this trip unfortunately , However the english version of stitch Live said it was starting in 8 minutes so we gave it another go...

It wasn't as funny as the day before but i still love it!

we grabbed something small in en coulisse in Studio one! Mum had chicken nuggets and I had Mickey broiche, neither of us were hungry really. There was a band playing disney jazz tunes in studio one which was great to hear and see...

It was then time to say goodbye to the studios and head over to Disneyland Park! At the entrance we admired the topairy (sorry cant get spelling) work...

what was really funny was mum said " its beautiful, it's like art in itself.....what is it supposed to be!!" ... I nearly died laughing!

on the way to mainstreet we seen Mary poppins out for her little show. I filmed little bits of it even though I had filmed it before but I love it and the music.

After the show I knew there would be a scrum for meeting mary and bert sO i just stood and watched them walk under the main street railroad entrance. no one followed them so i decided to walk over, and one woman jumped infront of me, I stood there and just thought to myself - if they ignore me or I get pushed and shoved I am leaving. A few people had gathered by the time the first woman got her autograph and photos etc. Then Bert kindly pulled me in for a photo...

I forgot to mention on one of the days I tried to meet rabbit from winnie the pooh off Minnies party train. I was the first one standing were he normally went when he got off the train. Then a massive crowd followed him. He had seen me standing there and instead focused on the million children who arrived much later than me. I asked him for a photo and he raised his hand to me as if to say " you will have to wait, I am here for the children" I waited a few minutes and gave up. Lets just say I was very close in going to the city hall to make a complaint... not because of the photo but the fact that he had overridden and adults right to enjoy the disney experience like any child...lets just say I was angry

anyway back to day 5...

I can't remeber exactly what we did next but we did buzz again and sat near the castle stage for a break. We also did a few shops via walking down the arcades to keep in the shade and I had to photograph this sign as I have always loved it.....
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a277/aveen4eva/Disneyland%20sep%2009/S1052412.jpg[img]

We decided to catch a final show of Mickey's magical party...mum again hoping to get tiggers attention...heres afew photos...
Mickey..
[img]http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a277/aveen4eva/Disneyland%20sep%2009/S1052435.jpg
pluto

Baloo

Donald..

and tigger..

Our feet were killing us and I knew it would be hard to even walk back to the hotel get sorted and head for teh free bus at the train station for Pin trading night, so we started to leave the park... I felt awful knowing I was leaving when I could actually stay but I was caught between that and possibily regretting not going to PTN so I very sadly left Disneyland park....spotting one or two more great window display figures before I did...

then I took my last glances at the most beautiful sight in the world as minnies party train did another run down mainstreet...

I was so sad the trip was over, I hate the feeling of knowing you won't be going back to the park the next day

However the only thing keeping me going was I still had breakfast to look forward to with cafe mickey the next morning as a goodbye to DLP!

I will continue this thread by posting my experience of Pin trading night....

 

[Stitch's Girl]

My Pin trading night report Sep 25th 2009- Davy Crockett Ranch.

Ok so it started at 6pm and mum and I were planning to catch the 4pm free bus from the station but by the time we left disneyland park and had walked back to our hotel we had missed it and our feet were killing us so I rang down to reception to ask the approximate price of a taxi and was told approx 15 euros. We decided to split the price and ask reception to order us a taxi. By the time we had left our room and got to the front door the taxi was already there.... now that's what I call fast service..

So we got into the car which was very comfortable and headed to davy crockett ranch was about 5-10 minutes drive... as we pulled into it the driver asked " where do you want dropped off, reception?", so I said yes..thinking that was the obvious place...oh how wrong could I be!

We walked into reception which was literately a small wooden cabin with a reception desk, about 4 people behind the counter, one lady who seemed to be making a compliant and toilets! We went over to the man at reception and I said " I am here for the pin trading night, can you tell me where it is?"... He looked at me and said "do you have a car? I suppose you got here by taxi and its away is it?" we looked confused and said yes he pulled out a map and said " well you are here (pointing at the map) and you need to be at the shop which is about 4km's away!".....mum and I couldn't believe it....he said it would take a good while to walk and our feet were killing us.. I could have cried at that moment .
The man looked annoyed at us and disappeared behind a door.. he came back and said " i will see if one of my coleeges can take you but we are busy at the moment and you will just have to wait!" I didn't find him very nice and I could have burst out laughing at him saying they were busy !!! So we sat in the little log cabin feeling like lost puppies for about 30-40 mins. Then a girl behind the counter asked us what we were doing and mum explained it to her, she was very nice and tried to see what was going on! About 15minutes later a woman came out and said that a guy from the pin trading night event (staff member) was going to take his own car and come down to get us! Thank goodness!!!! I have to say appart from the first man we encountered the other two women were very nice, as was the guy who took us to the shop!

I was just so shocked how far reception was from the shop and other amentities and I never seen any loge cabins so I don't know where they were ! in fact we were told it was even further that 4kms that we travelled from the reception so thank god we didn't try to walk! When we got dropped off we walked up this dirt track type road to what looked like a barn and picnic tables! At the tables there was people with their pins laid out and then a large queue up to the shop...which I immediately took to be those queuing for the PTN pins! It was after 5pm by the time I got there, so I wasn't even sure if by queuing i would get anything!
I was just shocked by everything, it looked like the outback of no where!

I was also surprised at the age of the people involved nearly everyone was middle aged or elderly and they all seemed to know each other! People in the pin trading night queue were looking at my lanyard of limited edition uk pins and just smirking almost, looking down on me, esp two women who were english speaking... lets say by that stage I wanted to go home!

Here's picture I took looking out at the picnic tables, I have blured out people's faces...

I was a little excited to see loads of pins but little did I know what was infront of me.

Anyway as we stood in the queue Baloo the bear showed up, showing everyone the 2 pins being released that night in a black glass case. I was delighted to see the copper pin esp as I love fox and the hound and the other pin was of baloo..

was glad to see baloo because at least I was reminded this place was disney owned and not just a farm in the middle of no where! Mickey also made an appearance (sorry bad photo)...

Anyway after about an hour and 20-30 mins of queueing we finally got to buy the PTN night pins they were 10.90 each, you get ared ticket which allows you to buy a max of 2 of each pin...

I only have 1 spare Baloo pin left if anyone wants to make an offer.

I didn't realise how nervous I would be about the next bit, I realised I really didn't have a clue what I was doing and most people were french and didn't speak good english. I just tried to be brave and went around looking at pins and offering to trade for any of my limited editions.. I swear I spent about an hour getting told "no" and having to say " that's ok no problem"....the people were not friendly and made me feel like dirt basically, I felt belitted and wanted to cry.. this was not a friendly trading area. After about an hour my mum came over to me and said she was freezing and had bought a coat in the shop and asked had I traded most of my pins.. I had to tell her no, that infact I nearly had everything I came with and that I was hating the whole experience because of the way the people were going on! The only thing people wanted were my PTN pins off me! I did trade some for other pin trading night pins or with a man for 3 of his limited edition pins! He was a nice enough guy but the few nice people sadly didn't make up for the whole thing!

I can only describe it as like being in a cult of people who feel they are brilliant because of their disney pin collection and are not there to trade at all but show off to each other...and they do all know each other, so it's just like a scary cult of very weird people! I know that doesn't sound nice and I will say there are one or two nice people but very very few!! It wasn't the fact they said no to trading with me but their attitude as a whole!

I met an english woman and her daughter who I had actually seen in the park the day before trading with a cast member, I was honestly so glad to meet people who I could talk to because no one was being friendly! I had a good chat with them and they agreed it was just extremely hard to trade and most of them don't even want to anyway! I did one or two trades with them and felt like taking all my pins and handing them over because I didn't want to be associated with this group or pins, it just was all holding such bad feeling for me!

So I was basically about to leave with most of the pins I came with and mum and I walked down to get the bus back to the hotel but it was 50 mins until it came and it was cold, so I suggested to mum we walk back and spend time in the shop! I bought a stitch hoodie to keep me warm.

As I was walking around the shop when one of the official guys that runs the pin trading who was very nice (as was most of the cast member guys) was talking to someone when he stopped me and said to the lady that I had nice uk pins. She seemed nice and a quiet person. She had a bag full of pins with her, but said she hadn't traded either because she finds the people "scary" (and this person actually works in DLP)! I just found the whole concept of it all ridiculous, I thought it was meant to be a friendly thing. Anyway we stood there and traded pins for about 15 mins and it was the easiest trading ever and she even gave me a free Giselle (Enchanted) pin I liked! She was lovely and I really feel that is the way pin trading should be! Yes she said no to trading a few different pins but I think that is fine, I don't mind people saying no but I think being friendly is important! Anyway it was lovely to meet her and only for her I would have left with most of my own pins. I was happy with the trades I did with her and she was a lovely person but I still just wanted to get away from davy crockett ranch and back to the hotel!

I swore that night I would never go back to a pin trading night, even if it was only across the road from my house because the same people trade at them and I just don't like being treated like dirt for something so stupid as disney pins!! The people are condesending and if they are reading this I am sorry but I honestly cannot take back what I am saying as I believe it and I have highlighted anyone I thought was nice...which was few and far between!

I have never been as glad to get back to disneyland and my hotel and I will never go off- site again during my stay because nowhere is as good as DLP!

I don't fully regret going because at least now I know what it's like but if I knew it was going to be the way it was I wouldn't have gone. I still find it hard to even look at my pins at all even ones not from that night as it makes me feel bad...stupid I know

I just want to say that this is only my account of my experience and what other people I met there said etc I know other people may have experienced better things at thier PTN but unfortunately It wasnt good in my opinion

anyway here's pictures of what I got that night...mainly all from the one person I accidently met in the shop...

sorry the photos aren't great! just incase you are wondering the first one has parts blocked out as I only wanted to show the pins I got on PTN not others that i traded in the parks which I will show though in another post.

Thanks for reading day 6 -final day coming asap!

 

[FiFi Rose]

Loving reading your trip report, looks like you had a great time. Sorry to here about your awful experience at the PTN

I have to agree with you though having experienced one in the park I found the people on the stalls very rude and condescending. I think it is awkward enough approaching people you don't know without being made to feel like an outsider. I am surprised Disney endorse such behaviour and allow their guests to be subjected to it.

I now only trade with cast members

 

[Stitch's Girl]

Loving reading your trip report, looks like you had a great time. Sorry to here about your awful experience at the PTN

I have to agree with you though having experienced one in the park I found the people on the stalls very rude and condescending. I think it is awkward enough approaching people you don't know without being made to feel like an outsider. I am surprised Disney endorse such behaviour and allow their guests to be subjected to it.

I now only trade with cast members

wow I am in a round a bout way glad to hear someone else feels the same way.. I was starting to think it was just me being silly or something!

I agree that Disney should not endorse it! Also traders are not allowed to sell pins but they do! I just think it's really got out of hand and should be a friendly and fun experience - not like a bussiness meeting where you are made feel belittled.

I will only be trading with cast members now too - and even some of them don't seem to know the rules!

 

[poppyolivia]

you got a cool mum!!!! xx

 

[disney_princess_85]

Aww, I'm so sorry you had such a bad experience at the PTN. At least you ended up getting some lovely pins in the end.