The "Disney in a day" Two parks, 12 hours, birthday treat TR!

[EmmabaRose]

Hey guys! Now I finally have my pictures in order, I can finally get on with posting my short TR from my day trip to DLP!

WHEN?
Sunday 2nd March 2014

WHO WE ARE:

^That's us at the Paris Opera House (geeking out over Phantom of The Opera) the day before Disney.

Me, Emma (L) turned 22 this week, Princess at heart.
Lia (R) 20, Pirate at heart.

Lia and I have been best friends for 8 years now. We literally met mid-song during a rehearsal. She is the closest thing I have to a sister. So when I was planning a spontaneous trip to France who else was I going to invite? XD

WHY DISNEY?
Because we were staying in Paris for the weekend, for an early birthday celebration, we decided we were too close to let the opportunity to visit pass by. It's also due mostly to my parents who when I told them our plan said "Happy birthday, let us pay for your park tickets!"

Now, Disney was very much my suggestion, I love all the parks, and have done for as long as I can remember. Lia on the other hand, hadn't been to a Disney Park since she was 3, and was able to go to Florida without visiting WDW (how people do that is beyond me. )

So without further ado, on with the report!

 

[EmmabaRose]

PART 1

Alarm went off at 6:45am. Very tired, neither of us had slept for more than three hours that night. I think we'd wound ourselves up too much. Showered and dressed by 7:45. Breakfast was pain au chocolat from the 24 hour bakery by our hotel which we ate waiting for the metro. It took us 20 mins to get to Chatlet Les Halles, where we picked up the RER A line to Marne la Vallee. Trains run every 10-15 mins, and honestly it's so easy to navigate.

By 9:15 we had arrived!!

Much squealing ensued, before we went through security. Our first stop was World of Disney- I had some important business to attend to.

I would not dare to enter a Disney Park without ears!! Now, Lia and I will freely admit how much we geeked out in this store. Lia is obsessed with Tangled, and my new obsession is Frozen. So guess what the first displays we catch sight of are? XD Yep. More squealing. I adored this store, I think it's beautifully decorated and at that time of day, it wasn't that busy so we had time to take everything in. Anyway, I found some winter themed ears in the colours of Frozen, fell in love, purchased ears, unsuccessfully tried to convince Lia that a pirate gun was a great thing for a 20 year old to buy (I'm a wonderful influence ) and we were off to our first park, Walt Disney Studios!

We were one of the only people I could see using the print at home tickets (which I chose because I bought them at such short notice) which I thought would make things more difficult for us. But at no point in the day did we struggle with them. We were in the park queueing for Crush by 9:40, and we were almost into Studio 1. Lia's face at this point was very much "what have you got me into?" and I had to explain to her that this was perfectly normal. As we queued I thought I'd get some pictures of the Studios.

At this point the opening announcement started up, and I got very excited. I have never managed to make it to a park opening anywhere, so that was the first of many things I ticked off my Disney bucket list that day. Then thye played When you Wish Upon a Star and I may have cried... That song really gets to me!! We continued to queue for Crush.

After queueing for an hour we suddenly come to a complete standstill. We are waiting right by the shack where turnstiles are and we see them frantically on the phone. Oh no... my fears are confirmed when the announcement is made that Crush has broken down. After a few minutes we decide, because of our limited time, to cut our losses and exit the queue. Crush will have to wait until next trip!

PART 2 coming soon!

 

[Disneyfanswicklow]

Great start.....can't Wait to read more! Gutted for you regarding crush breakdown!!!

 

[EmmabaRose]

Great start.....can't Wait to read more! Gutted for you regarding crush breakdown!!!

Haha Thank you!! Well, it's not the first time this happens that day, as you will see! XD

Oh well, just means we'll have to go back to DLP.

 

[Cee']

I'm enjoying your trip report so much, since I'm going to a daytrip to DLP very soon too

I had no idead we could enter the parks before 10am!

 

[EmmabaRose]

I'm enjoying your trip report so much, since I'm going to a daytrip to DLP very soon too

I had no idead we could enter the parks before 10am!

Oooh have fun! It is definitely doable and you'll have a fab time.

I think its just studios that let you in early because they weren't have ng EMH but its definitely handy to know, would have saved us much time if it weren't for the breakdowns!

Part 2 on the way this evening!

 

[EmmabaRose]

PART 2!

So after leaving Crush behind, we headed over to Toy Story playland.

We headed over to RC Coaster. I loved the theming in this area, probably my favourite area of the Studios! We spotted that this attraction had a single rider line and jumped on it. The posted wait was 60 mins but we were on the ride in 30. And with seats one behind the other. My big tip is if you don't mind being separated, single rider line is definitely the way to go.

RC Coaster was way more thrilling than it looks! Definitely worth a ride! After that we scouted out a few rids we wanted to do, and checked out the details of the park on the way round. Both of us are huge musical fans, so we had to stop for this Singin in the Rain moment!

We decided that Rock n Rollercoaster had the shortest wait at 40 minutes and got in line.

When we finally reach the loading area, we notice that the cars seem very stationary. Suddenly the lights all come on and the mechanics appear. Not again... Yep, another coaster had broken down on us. This time we were so close to boarding that we decided to stick it out. After a long 50 minutes, a 90 minute wait in total we finally rode.

It was actually worth the wait, screamed the whole way around, that launch is really something! After that, we realised if we wanted to do everything we planned in Disneyland Parc we would have to head over there now.

All in all, Walt Disney Studios is a lovely park, it's just a shame we didn't get to do as much as we wanted in it because of rides breaking down. Next up, we have a date with a castle!

 

[EmmabaRose]

PART 3!

We were on our way to Parc Disneyland!

We entered the park and then we caught our first sight of the castle!

There was some hysteria- I filmed our reaction and I might post it at some point because it's truly ridiculous. XD

After we'd had a moment we headed over to City Hall to get my birthday badge... for my 22nd birthday.... don't judge me. At first we were told they had one left, but the lovely CM had a better look and found me one! Yay!

At this point we were starving, so we stopped in at Casey's Corner for lunch. I had a hot dog and Lia had chicken nuggets. Really tasty, Casey's is one of favourite places to eat. We ate at one of the tables in liberty arcade, with a great view of the castle. After lunch we browsed some of the stores on Main St. At some point in this process Lia bought a sword. She tells me it makes her feel like a pirate. XD

Back to the castle for some pictures!

And then we headed into frontierland.

Our first stop was Phantom Manor. The wait time was 45 minutes and that was about accurate. This ride used to really scare me, but now I've learnt so much about it, I was actually excited! Lia jumped at one point and said a very un-Disney word very loudly.

We looked at the wait time for Thunder Mountain, and then I remembered that we could get fastpasses. Our return time was 7pm, so we continued on Adventureland, where a pirate crew was waiting for us...

 

[Disneyfanswicklow]

Brilliant update! Not liking the ride breakdowns!!!!

 

[cdsmiler81]

Fab TR - looking forward to reading more!

C x

 

[kizzabel]

Oooh great so far, cant wait for more

 

[EmmabaRose]

Sorry for the delay in this, folks, has been a crazy week! But glad you are enjoying my report, so without further ado...

PART 4!

Adventureland was somewhere Lia had been really looking forward to. She is an unashamed Captain Hook fan. She had been talking about going on board the Jolly Roger since we started planning this whole trip, so of course we headed straight there.

This was the point where the sword came out. This was also the point where Lia really got into the Disney Magic. It was fantastic to see. So onboard the Jolly Roger we did go. Lia went running around the ship with the rest of the children, while I stood with the adults taking photos. I felt wierdly like a proud parent watch how much she enjoyed this part.

^This is why I'm friends with her. XD

After exploring the ship, it was time to introduce Lia to some of my favourite pirates...

I adore this ride. It's a favourite of my parents' and they've passed that love down to me. It just has an atmosphere about it, even as you start queueing it's a completely immersive experience. Plus how can you not love the song?

Oh! Random queue observation: There were so many girls wearing Elsa dresses! Both my Frozen and musicals heart were happy to see this. I've been a fan of Idina Menzel (voice of Elsa) since 2006, I even got to meet her in 2008. It's so great that people are getting to hear how awesome she is in Frozen!

Anyway, back to POTC, the ride was awesome as always. Lia loved it, but I didn't doubt that she would. She went round the whole ride with her sword out, as the picture shows. XD

So after saying YO HO to the Pirates we were off to Fantasyland!

 

[loladelorean]

Loving your trip report - always great to see other twenty somethings acting like children in DLP just like I do with my sister, cousins, friends....whoever I can drag along with me!
Your Crush story is so familiar, that's happened to me on just about every trip, grr. Still, you definitely made the most of the day, looking forward to reading more - great photos too!

 

[Disneyfanswicklow]

Another great update! It's not just twenty somethings that become children again in Disneyland parks...... ;-)

 

[Isila]

Great TR! You're enjoying your time so much. I like your photos

 

[EmmabaRose]

Loving your trip report - always great to see other twenty somethings acting like children in DLP just like I do with my sister, cousins, friends....whoever I can drag along with me!
Your Crush story is so familiar, that's happened to me on just about every trip, grr. Still, you definitely made the most of the day, looking forward to reading more - great photos too!

Haha thank you! Us acting like children is a regular occurrence. The only difference is in Disney nobody judged us. When I asked her to come to Paris I straight up told her we were doing a day at Disney, end of. XD

Oh Crush... Well at least someone else feels our pain. I am already making plans to go back for a whole weekend this year, so I will get it next time! TBH, I was surprised at how much we managed to do that day! Glad you're enjoying and thanks for reading!

 

[EmmabaRose]

Another great update! It's not just twenty somethings that become children again in Disneyland parks...... ;-)

Thanks for reading! Glad you're still enjoying! You're only as old as you feel in Disney.

 

[EmmabaRose]

Great TR! You're enjoying your time so much. I like your photos

Thanks for reading, glad you're enjoying. We had a really fab day!

Glad you like the photos, Lia brought her proper camera with her (the one I'm holding in the first post) and yet for some reason she left most of the pictures to me! (though she did take some photos of the parade) I took as many as I could in between recording stuff for the youtube channel I'm starting, so if anyone wants to see that, I'm almost done editing.

More on the way!

 

[EmmabaRose]

Wow second page!

PART 5!

Our next stop was Fantasyland! At this point it was about 4:30, and running pretty much to schedule. I had wanted to be in FL in time for the parade because (thanks to this board) I knew that we could get a great spot to watch it as it came out of the gates by Small World. But more on that later.

In the mean time we had a quick scan of wait times to find something we could fit in beforehand. At 10 minutes, Mad Hatter's tea cups had the shortest wait time, so off we went! Now, this is something I have never done in any Disney Park before, so another major tick on the Disney bucket list! Much fun was had on this ride. Lia was spinning the tea cup stupidly fast, so we probably made it more of a thrill ride than it actually is.

We were off the ride by 4:45, so we legged it over to the FL gate just as the ropes started to g up, and had great luck in finding a fab spot just as the floats turn the corner out of the gates.

Note the birthday badge. I'm so cool it hurts.

And then it was time! I'm pretty sure the first float was out of action, because mickey and the gang all came out on foot, but we got some great interaction with goofy out of it, so I didn't miss it much. Now, at this point we got a bit hysterical again and started screaming out character names and dancing and waving. Even the small children in front of us were mildly concerned. Our favourite float was definitely Frozen/Tangled, as it's our two favourite movies together! However, the greatest moment has to be awarded to the Lion King float for TIMON DOING THE MACARENA! I laughed so much.

Anyway, I was busy filming at this point, so Lia got her proper camera out and took some pictures. There are a lot so I will pick out the highlightrs. Brace yourselves ladies and gents!

 

[EmmabaRose]

PART 6!

More parade photos!

All in all, I adore this parade. I think the music is fab (obviously I knew all the words. My video has me singing along in the background! Cringe!) the floats a gorgeous and, well, Snow White's Prince said hello to me so... I was a very happy girl.

After the parade, we pushed through the crowd of strollers with one destination in mind: It's a Small World. Lia had never ridden this before, and had heard only negative things about it, but she wanted to decide for herself. meanwhile, I love this ride and I don't care what anyone says (of course I know the song). I'm in a long distance relationship, so the message of it means something special to me. When it gets to the part about "Thought the mountains divide and the oceans are wide its a small world after all." I well up, every time without fail.

Anyway, turns out Lia loved it. She thought it was really cute and didn't get why no-one likes it! Disney 1, haters 0.

The pictures are a little sparce here, because Lia put her camera away, and I was recording a lot for my video blog. I'm probably going to post a link in this thread when I'm done editing it soon.

After Small World we headed over to the Carousel which had about a 10 minute wait, and rode that because Carousels are kind of a running theme in our time together. If we see one, at least one of us has to get on it. This time we both rode our very noble steeds, who we named Snowdrop and Orchid. XD

We then attempted to pull the sword from the stone.

Sadly it was not our day. Next time we will conquer excaliber!

At this point we found the wait time at Dumbo to be 30 minutes, the shortest we had found it. So we decided to get in line. This was the point the temperature plummeted, the sun was setting and the wind was bitter. We started to really feel the cold for the first time that day. But finally we got to fly with dumbo. Sorry no photos here again as I vlogged the ride, but they were turning on all the lights in FL as we rode so it was really beautiful to watch as we went round.

Our Thunder Mountain Fastpasses were up soon, so we decided that was it for rides in FL. However, we were still over due for a face -off with a dragon...