Trip Report Aug 3-7 2009, days 3,4,5 PHOTOS ADDED

[Suzanne1979]

Hello again,

Here are days 3-5 of our trip:

Wednesday Aug 5, 2009 (day 3)
As we did all EMH attractions yesterday (to our surprise), there was no reason to be in the parks by 8am today. This was good, because Fantillusion and the fireworks kept us up late.
- We were in DLP at 9am, strolled around, and went on Orbitron again (25 mins wait). It surprised us how much difference there is between the 1st Extra Magic Hour (8am-9am) and the 2nd (9am-10am) – the latter is so much busier! I took some great quiet pictures the 1st hour yesterday (I hope I’ll be able to post some pics in this report), but today, no way.
- Then breakfast at Au Chalet de la Marionette (9.45am). Although this restaurant doesn’t have the appeal of Plaza Gardens, the breakfast was fine also, and here they had trays for your food here, which was very handy….
- After breakfast, off to WDS, with idle hope of a short queue for Crush… forget it, 120 mins. So we did Animagique instead, a 20min wait. This was one of my favorite shows, the puppet work is beautiful, especially in the underwater/Little Mermaid scene. The pre show was most annoying, though, with very bright light shining in our eyes and terrible background noise. My advice: go see it, but arrive at the last minute – there’s always a seat available.
- And now we get to my new favorite attraction: STITCH LIVE! We were on our way to get a FP for ToT, but Stitch was just about to start, so we thought, oh, let’s do that first. It was so great, I really could’ve spent all day there. The description of the show that I read, “children get the chance to talk with Stitch”, sounded quite dull, but it’s such an incredibly funny show! Stitch is animated, but the animation interacts with the audience. I don’t know how they do this, because I’ve seen the show 3 times, and every time it was different, amazing. Stitch’s funny voice and impromptu jokes (he gets chased by his enemy, who almost catches him and yells “Surprise!” Stitch says “it’s not my birthday…”) make me laugh even now. GO SEE THIS SHOW!!! (but make sure you go to the English version)
- After Stitch, a CM pointed us towards the Playhouse Disney show, which is right next door. This was the only show in the parks that we found is really just for children under the age of 6 or so, for us it was quite boring. And everyone had to sit on the floor, which was very uncomfortable (and smelly too, with all these sweaty feet, it was hot outside already, haha).
- After picking up FP for ToT, we waited 10 mins for Cinemagique to start. This was a well made film, very ingenious, nice.
- We also saw the High School Musical Show around this time. I didn’t really know what that was (it’s a bunch of movies, right?), but the show was a pleasant surprise! Very energetic and catchy. It was lovely to see the dancers first picking out the kids with the HSM costumes to dance with them – those kids were eager to join them! The “What time is it-the time of our lives” song is still in my head (and I had never heard it before).
- Then off to Studio Tram Tours. There was a 40min queue, but as we’d already done most attractions in WDS, we decided to go for it. My BF had already done this ride, and enjoyed it, but I found it a little disappointing. I thought it would be more, I don’t know, inspired I guess. The part with the ruins of London was good looking though, nice details.
- Then another Moteurs Action! Stunt Show (20mins wait) at 3:45pm. I liked seeing this show again, because I had the feeling I missed a lot the 1st time, because some things go very fast in the show, and now I knew what to expect. The show was a little different this time around, also. I can recommend seeing it twice.
- ToT with FP. Also great to do for the 2nd time – I found it a lot less scary now that I (roughly!) knew what to expect, and I enjoyed it more. I think it’s a beautiful attraction, a real gem for the parks, one of our fav rides.
- Then we decided to queue for Crush. It was 70 mins, which I didn’t really want to wait for, but the chances of short queues here were virtually non-existent. Also, by now it was very very very burning hot, and queueing for Crush is mostly indoors (apart from the outside section if the queue is 120 mins). I’m sad to say that I found the queueing the most interesting part of the ride… inside they have Animatronic seagulls - the ones that yell “mine, mine!” in the film, and also here, and a great “poster” of Jacques’ boat cleaning (Jacques is the little animal from the film who’s always cleaning the fish tank). I had expected the ride to be taking us through scenes of the film, or at least past the characters or something, but I can tell you this: the ride has nothing to do with the Finding Nemo film. It resembles Space Mountain more, as it’s a dark rollercoaster. It was also “heavier” than I expected. My BF really enjoyed it, so I guess it’s personal. I’m glad we decided to queue, because it IS a ride you’ll want to do, but … oh well.

I now remember that on Monday, we also did the Aerosmith Rock ‘n Rollercoaster. My BF and his brother had done this one before – in 2003, they were in WDS early one morning, and the brother (my brother-in-law) rode it 25 times!! My BF stuck to 7 times. I now stuck to 1 time, as it turned out to be too scary for me. I asked my BF in advance if the ride was comparable to Indiana Jones and Space Mountain, and he said yes. I never should’ve believed him! I’m not a daredevil, but in general I can do “all” rollercoasters, but this one was a bit much…
- After Crush, we had dinner at Annette’s. It was great. I had the Green Piece veggie burger, which was delicious, and I was VERY full too. My BF had the “Big One” burger (I’ll try to post the pic), which consists of 6 hamburgers! He finished it, and got a free milkshake (which he shared with me, yum!).

- Dear BF was quite tired (and full) after dinner and went to the hotel, while I did some shopping in the Village and called it a day at 9.10pm.

Thursday
- Alas, no park breakfast available, so we headed for our first “breakfast scrum” at Santa Fe Hotel for 8.15am breakfast. Well, it wasn’t so much of a scum, more of a queue. We were 10mins early, but the lady at the door said “no problem, by the time you actually get to the buffet it’s 8.15” (which was true). There was a table for us, though, so we had a comfortable breakfast after all.
- At 9.30am, we stood waiting for the train in DLP, which we still hadn’t done. At 9:58 (!!) a CM came to tell us that the train didn’t go. AAAAAAAAAH! Second time this happened to us on this trip!! I’m afraid I got a little mad at the CM, I knew it wasn’t her fault, but another CM had been walking around us for at least 20 mins, he could’ve told us a bit sooner.
- We then decided to wait for the 10.15am Good Morning Main St Parade, which is a lovely little parade that gets ppl in the mood for another day of the magic. After this, we picked up a FP for BTM.
- Now what? Autopia was on our list – it’s not the finest ride there is, but we had it on our list (I felt it was time to take BF’s wishes into account). A 70min wait (for THIS ride), but we decided to queue. We didn’t want to run the risk of running through the park and not getting to do anything at all (especially after the disaster with the train). And we had a nice ride, despite my steering, hehe
- Because of the long queue at Autopia, and the car in front of us having some technical trouble, we were too late for our FP time at BTM, but the CM let us in anyway – he seemed a bit “heated” from all these ppl who stood in the FP queue without a FP ticket (again!). BTM was as great as ever, can’t get enough of it. I suggested to get another FP for it, just in case everywhere else the queues were long. That way we’d have this queue-less ride to go anyhow. The park was really crowded and very hot this day – it was still morning, but already burning hot and very busy. The FP return time was 4.30pm, and imagine it was only 11.15am!
- We queued for Goofy’s Summer Camp for 30mins. This wasn’t really necessary, but we were in the neighborhood and we were leaving Friday at noon-ish, so this afternoon was our only chance for it. Some ppl thought it necessary to push forward even in this queue – terribly rude! The show, despite the reviews I read on the forum, was nice. It was a bit too much in French to my taste, but the live band was good, and the characters and dancers were enthusiastic.
- We then did some walk through / walk on attractions, due to long queues everywhere – and we had done most other rides. We did the Cabane des Robinsons (I loved it!), le Passage d’Aladdin and Alice’s Labyrinth. Don’t let the queue in the burning sun in front of the labyrinth fool you – the queue was there during our whole stay, but the wait was less than 5 mins. Standing on the castle in the labyrinth and taking in the view was unbelievably hot, though! I can stand the heat very well, I worked in Israel so got used to it, but even for me this was too much (it was around 3.30pm or so and 32C). BF had retreated to the shade a long time before that. All around us you could see families “giving up” and finding a place in the shade.
- We park hopped to WDS and watched my new fav attraction STITCH LIVE! again. We believe it was a different Stitch today (a different person doing the voice interaction)– but equally funny .
- Another park hop do DLP for Fort Comstock (brilliant – Frontierland is my favorite land) and BTM with FP (nice and breezy, haha). A tip for a nice and quiet place to sit: go around the Shooting Gallery near BTM, there’s a bench there that looks out onto the water – you can see the riverboat go by)
- …and back to WDS (I don’t remember why we hopped so much, probably because it was so easy and because we’d already done most attractions, so the “choice” was limited). We watched the Stars ‘n Cars Parade (10 min wait), which was a great parade, because a) the cars and characters are very nice, and b) it wasn’t crowded so we had a good view.

- I persuaded BF to see Stitch live! one last time (I tried that again on Friday, for one VERY last time, but he –understandably- said “three times is enough”) – Stitch was as brilliant as before
- Bought a Stitch cap in the Village and we had dinner at Mickey D’s again at 6.30pm. After that, we were totally exhausted and went back to the hotel. I fell asleep while drinking my coffee (we always bring our coffee maker with us, it’s so nice to have a quiet cup in the morning and evening in your own hotel room) at 8.30pm….zzzz….

Friday
- Checkout from hotel (which meant: throwing the key cards in a box at reception) and putting luggage in car
- Park breakfast at Plaza Gardens at 9.45am, a little quieter than last time, lovely.
- Running to WDS for the Good Morning WDS parade at 10.30 (quite a long wait at the entrance to the park – some ppl have home printed tickets, those always seem to give problems and it takes ages!)
- Buzz photo shoot, I’m a big Toy Story fan, so I was very happy

- Animagique show again, and guess what? It broke down halfway through – after technical problems at the train twice, now this! But our fav underwater scene had just finished, so it was alright.
- Off to DLP to try the River Rogue Keelboats. There was a 40min wait, so we decided against it, we’d already done the Riverboat and we didn’t have much time left in the parks before departure. Went on PotC again instead, only a 10min wait, and a great ride to end our visit with.
- At 1pm sharp “en route” back home. Not a very smooth journey, as there was a 70min traffic jam near Antwerp, but at 9pm, back home safe and sound. What a trip!

 

[mummybear]

You sound like you had a great time. I too really like the Stitch Live Show. You are very lucky that you do not know High School Musical too well. I know most of the words to most of the songs from ALL 3 movies - I have 8yr and 3yr old daughters I have said the last 2 times we went that I want to try the Aerosmith Coaster, but have chickened out. I like Indy (a lot) and Space Mountain (a bit) so not too sure what I'd make of the Aerosmith one We'll see, maybe next time

I really enjoyed reading your report, so thanks for spending the time writing it up and sharing it with us

 

[hildasmuriel]

Aww that was great to read. Thanks for the report.

 

[Ware Bears]

I really enjoyed reading this

Our favourite land is Frontierland too and we enoy sitting on that bench too!

 

[Ljay]

Great report i enjoyed reading it

i think i will def be doing stitch in dec!.......i was hoping to do RnR coaster when i go, but im not to fond of "big" coasters either. i like crush and BTM, is RnR alot scarier than crush?

i went on spacemountain years ago, i didnt really enjoy that i remember my head banging around abit to much.i thought RnR would be a bit tamer (so im hoping)

 

[DLPdaft]

Great trip report, thanks for posting it .

 

[liberty]

Great trip report!!

 

[angel girl]

What a great trip report! I think you are definitely right that you get a lot more done on an adults only trip, I bet there aren't as many toilet trips for starters

Am with you on the Stitch Live show, I absolutely love it, and seeing Stitch dressed as Elvis in the Stars and Cars parade made my day!!

So like the rest of us are you now an official DLRP addict, secretly already pricing up your next trip?

 

[Suzanne1979]

So like the rest of us are you now an official DLRP addict, secretly already pricing up your next trip?

Oh, don't get me started - my BF already responds to my whining "we're NOT! going next year" . So I guess I'll have to talk my parents into going