jillrobinson
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 30, 2005
- Messages
- 6,953
I know I won't get around to a full trippie so here's a condensed verison.
Hotel Santa Fe, no problems, check in was easy which was appreciated as we arrived very very late evening and they had tied in our Expedia booking and DLP package, so we got to stay in the same rooms and had our park tickets given to us on arrival. CM Heide even got us a GMF breakfast slot at Plaza Gardens for our first morning even though she initially didn't have any available
Breakfast at SF, 7.00 - 7.30 fine no problems by 7.45 people are queuing outside the building, not for me when it's minus 1,2,3, we opted for McD's instead.
Meals - Had some lovely ones at RFC Annette's and Planet Hollywood. Cafe Mickey had run out of Birthday Cakes
regardless of whether you'd reserved or paid for 1 in advance, which was a bit of a disappointment, but instead they brought the child's dessert over with a candle in and none of the children seemed bother about the lack of cake. We had Mickey, Pluto, Chip and Dale and Goofy at our table with the dessert but the Sherriff of Nottingham stole the show with his dancing skills. Also got to try 2 new (to me) restaurants Hakuna Matata and Fuente del Oro, enjoyed our meals at both.
I have a new Disney buddy, Jack absolutely loved it and just like his Auntie Jill didn't want to come home.
CharactersThe Princess pavilion is lovely and I got to meet 2 princesses Snow White and Belle, I'd never had my photo taken with a princess before, miss out on things like that when you have 2 boys. Although I do think there must be an awful lot of disappointed little princesses who don't get to meet their favourite, I didn't really understand why they can't say which Princesses are there, Jessie queued 3 times in the hope of getting Tianna, without success.
Not many characters around the park, but that might have been due to the extreme cold, we did meet Jack Sparrow, Aladdin and Baloo, but as previously mentioned on DIS best place to go was the Disneyland hotel at 4.00pm. Hats off to all Cast Members and characters involved in the parades, they must have been freezing but didn't let it show.
So how cold was it ? Well - OH was laughing when I unpacked the case last night found 1 of Liam's sets of day clothes that he had taken off in 1 go - long sleeved thermal tshirt, short sleeved thermal tshirt , normal tshirt, long sleeved tshirt, normal tshirt. On top of that he was wearing a hoody, a snowboarding jacket, we had disposable hand warmers, thermal gloves, scarves and hats, bottom layer usually consisted of 2 x thermal long johns under joggers, jeans etc.
Effects of the extreme cold weather Yesterday Fantasyland was down to 4 rides open, PP was closed for refurb anyway, but IASW and Dumbo both out of action, IASW was up and running when we left late PM.
Big Thunder Mountain, we rode several times but there were long periods when it wasn't running, Fast Passes could be used anytime when your slot coincides with a breakdown, this was the same with ToT which was also out of action due to the cold as was Indianna Jones.
Think every visiotr will have a picture of someone standing on the frozen water of the fountain outside Plaza Gardens and the poor ducks seemed resigned to having to walk on the ice, there was very little running water anywhere.
On the plus side me and Liam agreed we had the best rides ever on POTC, the sword fighters are still missing but the pirate was swinging and I think just about every other effect was working well, the boat seemed slower yesterday and the lighting dimmer which made it 10 times better (if that's possible) and in Phantom Manor in the stretching room, we could clearly see the Phantom and his unfortunate victim and I have never seen the Dragon work so well, the effects are stunning.
Horse drawn vehicles were out early in the week and we rode on the Paddy Wagon and the bus, there didn't seem to be an alternative to the Character train this week. All the pipe work seems to be in place for the water screens and overnight mid week a massive marquee sprung up on Central Plaza behind the green hoardings.
All in all a great trip, here's to the next one.
Hotel Santa Fe, no problems, check in was easy which was appreciated as we arrived very very late evening and they had tied in our Expedia booking and DLP package, so we got to stay in the same rooms and had our park tickets given to us on arrival. CM Heide even got us a GMF breakfast slot at Plaza Gardens for our first morning even though she initially didn't have any available
Breakfast at SF, 7.00 - 7.30 fine no problems by 7.45 people are queuing outside the building, not for me when it's minus 1,2,3, we opted for McD's instead.
Meals - Had some lovely ones at RFC Annette's and Planet Hollywood. Cafe Mickey had run out of Birthday Cakes
regardless of whether you'd reserved or paid for 1 in advance, which was a bit of a disappointment, but instead they brought the child's dessert over with a candle in and none of the children seemed bother about the lack of cake. We had Mickey, Pluto, Chip and Dale and Goofy at our table with the dessert but the Sherriff of Nottingham stole the show with his dancing skills. Also got to try 2 new (to me) restaurants Hakuna Matata and Fuente del Oro, enjoyed our meals at both.I have a new Disney buddy, Jack absolutely loved it and just like his Auntie Jill didn't want to come home.
CharactersThe Princess pavilion is lovely and I got to meet 2 princesses Snow White and Belle, I'd never had my photo taken with a princess before, miss out on things like that when you have 2 boys. Although I do think there must be an awful lot of disappointed little princesses who don't get to meet their favourite, I didn't really understand why they can't say which Princesses are there, Jessie queued 3 times in the hope of getting Tianna, without success.
Not many characters around the park, but that might have been due to the extreme cold, we did meet Jack Sparrow, Aladdin and Baloo, but as previously mentioned on DIS best place to go was the Disneyland hotel at 4.00pm. Hats off to all Cast Members and characters involved in the parades, they must have been freezing but didn't let it show.
So how cold was it ? Well - OH was laughing when I unpacked the case last night found 1 of Liam's sets of day clothes that he had taken off in 1 go - long sleeved thermal tshirt, short sleeved thermal tshirt , normal tshirt, long sleeved tshirt, normal tshirt. On top of that he was wearing a hoody, a snowboarding jacket, we had disposable hand warmers, thermal gloves, scarves and hats, bottom layer usually consisted of 2 x thermal long johns under joggers, jeans etc.
Effects of the extreme cold weather Yesterday Fantasyland was down to 4 rides open, PP was closed for refurb anyway, but IASW and Dumbo both out of action, IASW was up and running when we left late PM.
Big Thunder Mountain, we rode several times but there were long periods when it wasn't running, Fast Passes could be used anytime when your slot coincides with a breakdown, this was the same with ToT which was also out of action due to the cold as was Indianna Jones.
Think every visiotr will have a picture of someone standing on the frozen water of the fountain outside Plaza Gardens and the poor ducks seemed resigned to having to walk on the ice, there was very little running water anywhere.
On the plus side me and Liam agreed we had the best rides ever on POTC, the sword fighters are still missing but the pirate was swinging and I think just about every other effect was working well, the boat seemed slower yesterday and the lighting dimmer which made it 10 times better (if that's possible) and in Phantom Manor in the stretching room, we could clearly see the Phantom and his unfortunate victim and I have never seen the Dragon work so well, the effects are stunning.
Horse drawn vehicles were out early in the week and we rode on the Paddy Wagon and the bus, there didn't seem to be an alternative to the Character train this week. All the pipe work seems to be in place for the water screens and overnight mid week a massive marquee sprung up on Central Plaza behind the green hoardings.
All in all a great trip, here's to the next one.
?
hope you're thawed out 
