Trip Report Aug 3-7 2009, day 1&2 PHOTOS ADDED

[Suzanne1979]

DLRP Trip Report 3-7 Aug 2009

Hi everyone,

We just got back from our 5-day DLRP trip – and it was FANTASTIC! Quite hot (especially Thursday), but wonderful. I thought I’d write a quick trip report, hope you like it…

First, an introduction of the travelling
1. Me, 29, 2 previous visits in 2000 and 2001 (only Disneyland Park)
2. Boyfriend, 41, 1 previous visit in 2003 (both parks)

Day 1, Mon Aug 3 2009
Departure at 6 am, quick and uneventful drive from the north of the Netherlands to the parks, arrival at Hotel Santa Fe at 12.45 pm. Queue in front of reception, but it all went pretty quickly and efficiently, staff were very friendly – they were wonderful during our whole stay. Although check in time is 3pm, they gave us the room key straight away. We hauled our luggage in, freshened up, and were “en route” at 2pm. Then we did:

- Panoramagique at 2.15pm – we took a voucher from the hotel for “2nd person for free”, so we saved 12 euros. It’s a great ride, great to start the holiday with an overview.
- off to WDS, got FP for ToT
- Art of Disney Animation, 10min waiting time, very nice show
- Moteurs, Action! Stunt Show at 3:45pm, we walked on 5 mins before it started and had front seats. Fabulous show! I was a bit skeptical, but it’s really worthwhile.

- Armageddon, walk on, not so special IMHO
- ToT with FP, CM was very fussy when we arrived 3 minutes earlier than our FP time, she wouldn’t let us in… grrr. But other than that, this was one of our favorite attractions: very exciting, but also beautifully made, with great eye for details. The “lift boy” CM was terrific, eyeing everyone very spookily, really added to the experience.
- dinner at Mickey D’s, my BF decided he didn’t want to spend a lot of money on food, so all my buffet plans went down the drain – but oh well, I don’t come to Disney for a fancy meal anyway.
- OUAD Parade at 7.15pm. Lovely! We arrived at 7.05pm or so, but still got a decent spot at Central Plaza. My pics of that day’s parade aren’t great, but the view was fine.
- After the parade, straight to PotC, 15 mins waiting time (I don’t remember who on the forum gave the tip to go to the Pirates straight after the Parade, but: THANKS!). I had been to the Disneyland Park (the main park) before (2000/2001), so I had done this ride before, but it was great again – although I still find the queuing quite claustrophobic.
- Indiana Jones, 10 mins waiting time. Excellent rollercoaster, last time I went it was backwards, now going forwards I found it a little less scary
- back to hotel

As you can see by the waiting times, the parks weren’t all that busy (this would change later on in the week!). But also, at this point in our trip we could choose the attractions with the short waits- later on, as we crossed off what we’d already done, this changed of course.

Day 2, Tuesday
Benefited from the EMH, at the DLP at 8am.

We booked a Good Morning Fantasyland Breakfast for 9.45am the previous day – which was actually not in Fantasyland, but in Plaza Gardens. We did:

- Peter Pan, walk on. Nice ride, but NOT worth queuing for for at least an hour, which was usually the case during our stay
- Mad Hatter’s Tea Cups. My BF passed on this one (I don’t understand why!!), I was almost the only one riding, it was great.

- Buzz, we did this twice, walk on. This one was new since my last visit. The 2nd ride I didn’t “shoot” (I was rubbish at it the 1st time anyway), so I could take in the surroundings. I recommend the “not shooting”, because it all looks very nice (and very new/fresh).
- Space Mountain, walk on. Was a lot more extreme than I remembered! Our heads bonked against the seats, gave me a headache. But maybe 9am and an empty stomach is not the best combination for this ride…
- Orbitron, 20 mins waiting time. This ride was surprisingly fun! I didn’t expect much, but it really is a nice ride, wind through your hair, hmmm. BUT: my BF and I sat in 1 plane, which was a mistake, as the planes are not built for 2 adults, haha. We’re not very big, but it was tight!
- Breakfast at Plaza Gardens, 9.45am. I highly recommend park breakfasts, we had breakfast in the park 3 out of 4 times, twice in Plaza Gardens, once in Au chalet de la Marionette. Once, we had the “breakfast scum” at Santa Fe, which was a real scrum! The breakfast in the park consisted of exactly the same food, but in a much quieter atmosphere.
- Get FP fot BTM
- Phantom Manor, 10 mins waiting time. Great ride, I had forgotten completely what it was like.
- Riverboat, 15 mins waiting time. I wanted to go on the River Rogue Keelboats, as they were out of order on my earlier visits, but on Monday, they didn’t go. I don’t remember if it was the same on this Tuesday, but anyway, we did the always lovely riverboat.
- BTM with FP. I have a new favorite attraction (I’ll tell you about it later!), but this is a sure runner up. Actually quite a tame rollercoaster, and VERY loud in the tunnels, when going upwards, but lovely surroundings, and a lot to see. Excellent as always, and FP works well here (although there are always ppl who don’t seem to understand that the FP queue is for FP only).
- We wanted to ride the train, but we checked all stations and it was very busy, so we went to the Winnie the Pooh and friends, too! Show. I thought it was at the Castle Stage, but the Princesses were signing there, and they made no attempt to leave, so I re-checked the show programme… and we rushed to the Fantasy Festival Stage instead, hehe. By then it was like two minutes before the show started (12.30pm), but there were still some seats available. I liked this show, because a) I was quite hot now (mid day) and you could sit in the shade), and b) the show is partly in English, partly in French – this doesn’t always work, but here it did. For instance, Pooh would ask a question in English, and Tigger would answer in French, and because it’s not a very complicated “play”, everyone could follow the story. It was too childish for my BF, I must say though.
- Then up to Star Tours, 10 mins waiting time. Alright, but not so special for me this time around.
- Honey, I shrunk the audience show, 15 mins waiting time. I had seen this twice before, and loved it, but it seemed to us that the technique isn’t really holding up: vision through the 3D-glasses was bad, and of the two “special effects” (I won’t spoil it in case anyone hasn’t seen the show yet) I only got one, and my BF got none! Hmmm.
- Mysteres du Nautilus, walk on. On later days, the park was so crowded that even this walk through exhibition had a queue, but not now. I had never seen this one before, but it’s worth visiting. You walk through The Jules Verne submarine, which is –as always with Disney of course- decorated as it was in those times (late 19th century?).
- To my great pleasure, Le pays des contes the Fees and Casey jr were open! I had expected them to be closed Tue-Thu, as ppl on the forum had experienced that, but they were open. Le pays is one of my favorite rides, and it was lovely as ever (5 min wait), whereas in Casey, we sat in the last cabin and took some lovely pics from the back of the train (25mins wait – park was getting crowded).
- We then walked up to Adventure Isle, and I researched Skull Rock, Pirate ship, Pont Suspendu and caves (BF was tired and hot and sat in the shade). I had never really explored Adventureland, and now I know why: it’s pretty hard to navigate! But the surroundings are lovely and there is some shade
- Then we saw Dance Time in Discoveryland with Stitch. Another nice place in the shade to watch this one. We enjoyed the show, although I was careful not to mention to my BF beforehand that the show was described on the forum as “a gay club gone wrong”, or he wouldn’t have come, hehe.
- it’s a small world had been busy all the time, but just as we were going to Bella Notte Pizzeria for dinner, the queue seemed very small, so off we went. The sign said “30 mins waiting time”, but it was 5 minutes! This was good, because I’m not particularly fond of this ride and wouldn’t want to queue for it really (it’s so sweet, it hurts my teeth).
- Then Bella Notte at 5.45pm. Enough place to sit and eat, and 24 euros for two meals is not expensive (review in restaurant thread). The Mickey pizzas (3 cheeses) were a bit tasteless, but the side salad, garlic bread, fruit salad and tiramisu were good.
- We picked a nice spot on Main St to watch the OUAD parade again. We were 40 mins early, so we’d have a good spot to make photos (and again, a shady place to sit). With the scrum that came just before and during the parade, I sat most uncomfortably: some ppl are incredibly rude in their pushing and shoving, it’s unbelievable.
- Not feeling so great from my cramped sitting position, we went to Main St Railroad Station to catch the train. After 45 mins of waiting, there was a technical problem and no more trains! Grrrrrr.
- We then went to Fantasyland to do Snow White (5 mins wait) and Pinocchio (10 mins). When we went on Snow White, I thought there was something wrong – the carts went so fast, we didn’t have time to take it all in! But then we went on Pinocchio, and it was the same! So that was probably the way it was supposed to be. They are nice rides, don’t get me wrong, but I’d like a little more time to SEE it all.
- We then went to the Castle, to check the stained glass and tapestries upstairs. Lovely. We also went downstairs to the Dragon’s Lair. Last time I was down there(2001), I fell down the stairs, which were wet, and I sprained my ankle, so I was very careful now! Now that I had the opportunity to take in the detail, I really liked it.

- Then off to Central Plaza, 30 mins of waiting before the Fantillusion parade began. It was fantastic (apart from the scrumming). My BF, who is a mechanic, kept trying to check out how it was done with the lighting and all, haha (I don’t care about that, I just watch&enjoy). After that, the Fireworks. They started off a bit dull, but the finale was beautiful, especially the rockets with “pixie dust” coming out.
- Back to the hotel. To my surprise I was able to book a park breakfast for Au chalet de la Marionette for Wednesday. Off to bed at midnight.

--to be continued--

 

[Dianetigger]

Fabulous start to your trip report, loving all the details - you seemed to get a lot done as well.

 

[tennisfan]

Great start, you managed to fit in loads

 

[Suzanne1979]

thank you ! As our trip progressed, though, we seemed to get less done, partly due to the weather conditions (32C!). Plus, I think it makes a huge difference that it's just us two, and no children - as adorable as they are, kids do slow you down. I hope to write down days 3-5 asap

 

[A Small World]

Great start.We were there at the same time (Fri - Wed) and found the parks extremely busy from Monday onwards and very hot as well. You did well with those waiting times.

I agree with the comment about people not realising the fastpass queue at BTM is just for that. It amuses me the number of people who have obviously seen the sign Entrance with ticket and go up showing their park entrance ticket.

 

[Ware Bears]

Great start, Suzanne.

 

[Mrsweasley]

I was wondering what time we should get to the parade area for so this is great info You got to do lots !

 

[Ware Bears]

Great photos.