Now that the year is slowing down a little and I’ve had a crazy year with trips here there and everywhere, I think it’s finally time to try and document just what I’ve got up to this year and share it with you! You’ll have to bear with me as there’s a lot of trips and very little time!
The older reports will probably be quite a bit shorter than the more recent ones, but I’m going to try and get as much as I can in there!
To break it down, here’s the list of what to expect in the coming months:
February: Disneyland Paris
March: Thorpe Park
April: Alton Towers, Essex Creds, Alton Towers
May: Parque de Atracciones, Parque Warner, Alton Towers
June: Alton Towers, Denmark (Malmo Folkets, Tivoli Gardens, Djurs Sommerland, BonBon Land, Bakken, Legoland Billund) America and Canada (Niagara Falls, Waldameer, Cedar Point (x2 days) Canada’s Wonderland (x2 days)
July: Blackpool, Belgium and France (Walibi Belgium, Plopsaland, Bellewaerde Park, Les Poussins, Dennlys Parc, Epic Brussels Fair)
August: Finland (Funpark, Powerpark, Sarakanemmi, Linnanmaki), Wales Creds
September: Flamingoland, Alton Towers (21st bday), Slovakia, Hungary (VidamPark and Budapest), Austira (Familypark neusiedlersee, Bohmicsher Park, Wiener Prater), Bratlislava
Lets start back in February then!
Disneyland Paris – 23rd – 25th February
One very cold, snowy Saturday morning me and Peter arrived at St Pancreas International for a trip over to delightful old Disney! We got a steal of a deal on the Eurostar at £90 return and a cheap hotel, so we made the most of it!
After 3 hours of lovely warm, slightly boring and tedious Eurostar, we arrived at Marne La Valleé where it was a bitterly cold -3 degrees! We hoped on to the shuttle bus to head over to the hotel where we quickly checked in, warmed up a bit and headed back over to the park via the shuttle bus!
Peter hadn’t been in a while, where as I’d been last year and 2 years prior to that so I was quite familiar with the new stuff around the park! We headed first to the Studios! We somehow managed to pick half term, so it was bloody busy!
We wondered around for a while if I remember rightly before settling on some Armaggedon action! Just as I remembered it really! One of the blessings of Disney is that most things are indoors, so when it is -3 outside, it’s nice to be able to hide inside!
We wondered around with RC Racer in mind, but saw the queue, so decided to do Slinky Dog’s ZigZag spin! Which was pretty fab, but bitterly cold with the fluttering of snow in the air!
Favouring some more warmth, we headed to see Cinemagique as it was just about to start! It was so warm and toasty in there compared to outside! It seems the rest of the Studios had the same idea and had warmth in there as it was significantly busy!
When we emerged from that, the snow had got heavier and made Disney feel that extra bit special with the snow lightly covering the whole park!
We naturally headed over to ToT which was still supporting a fairly vile queue considering it was pretty close to park closing! And it was outside, so it was even more bitter!
Still, we got on it in about half an hour and it was just as fab as I remember it! ToT <3
With Studios now closed for the evening, we headed over to the main park via Disney Village to obtain some noms! We ended up in Rainforest Café which was awful as always! Clearly we needed the Volcano dessert in our life and it would’ve been amazing!
On the way back to the main park, I got distracted by the vast amount of tat shops! I love Disney merchandise and must’ve dragged Peter through every tat shop more than once! Finding some stuff I wanted, I noted it and headed over to the park!
It was as magical as always, if not more with the smattering of snow on the floor! We faffed around taking some photos along main street and going in and out of more tat shops in a search for shot glasses!
We only visited the main park that night to see Disney Dreams because it’s awesome! We still had an hour and a bit to go, so we went and had a couple of rides!
First up was Space Mountain which holds some sentimental value to Peter as it was the cred that first got him interested in riding creds! I knew it had got rough in the last couple of years, and sure enough, this ride was no exception, even when sitting in the front row!
We decided to do Buzz’s lazerblast as neither of us had done it before and it was supporting a queue that moved all the time! We were soon on and just another standard omnimover shooter ride!
We had another half hour or so before Dreams started, so headed into the tat shops again for more looking at tat and warmth!
It was soon Dreams time, we were quite near the back of the crowd, but still had an amazing view and it really is a superb light show!
After Dreams we left the park with the rest of the masses, deciding that it was better to leave the buses for a while whilst the crowds died down, we went and spent a good half hour in the new World of Disney store and spending entirely too much money on tat!
So onto the next day!
We were staying in the Kyraid hotel so had the shuttle bus pleasure every morning! We opened the curtains that morning and saw this!
It had snowed a considerably amount more during the night and had settled!
Still, armed with more winter woollies, we headed over to the park for the full day we had! 12 hours and still -3 temperatures! Yeah, it was **** cold!
We spent the morning in the Studios park obtaining the creds for Peter! I can’t remember the exact order we done things in, but I think we started with Crush which had a pretty obscene queue at the start of the day! Still it moved and on we went!
Pretty standard spinner as always!
I think we single ridered RC Racer because once again it had an obscene queue. I don’t think we waited longer than 20 minutes to get on it which was lucky! It does suffer that typical half pipe syndrome! It just starts to get good, then stops!
The queue line looked magical with all the snow, but by god was it slippery!
My memory fails me, but I think we got Fasttrack for RnR and then headed onto ToT again because it’s just awesome at life!
We headed over to RnR for our time slot and got more or less straight on! I absolutely love RnR, it’s such a gem of a little coaster and having the music and lighting really makes it a pretty special ride! I had to make sure we done it again before we left!
I think we came out, saw that ToT’s queue had subsided a little so joined that for some more action! Absolutely love the ride to bits!
When we came out, I saw a huddle of people, so went and got my first ever Disney character photo with Goofy!
We headed over to the main park after that to spend the rest of the day there! We first headed over to BTM to get a fasttrack then ended up back at the front of the park for the Celebration Train!
The Celebration train being full of very warm characters! Hmmph! Jealous!
We headed back over to BTM and had a short wait in the fasttrack queue before getting on! It was as brilliant as always. BTM also looked amazing in the snow! So so pretty!
Indianna would be our next port of call, which thankfully was pretty much walk on. It’s such a forceful little ride and I love it when people don’t realise it inverts and when they see it in the queue they start screaming! Still, nothing much else to say on that one!
Disney Dreams on Parade would be starting shortly, so we headed back over to the main entrance to get in position. But as it was far too cold to stand about, we faffed a little in the castle and then in tat shops along Main Street!
Then at about 10 to 5 we decided to brave the cold and took up a position on main street for the parade which started at 5! I enjoy the parades, but usually do just see them through the viewfinder of my camera!
My memory really fails me here, but considering this was 7 months ago, I’m doing pretty well at remembering what we done! I think we got some noms then had a warm and more tat shops before having another go on Space Mountain, Buzz Lightyears Lazerblast which were just as they were the night before! We also decided to do Star Tours as it was there and walk on!
Before we knew it, it was Dreams time again and this time we took up a position at the front of the crowd for a near perfect view of the show! Once again it was phenomenal!
Once again, we let the crowds die down before heading for the buses! Again ending up in World of Disney and spending a good €200 between us on tat! Me having spent the most and had to invest in a new bag to get the lot home! Whoops!
Next morning was a pretty similar situation, we opened the curtains to find that snow had fallen even thicker and faster overnight, so now there was a good covering on everything!
Studios was up first again so we could make the most out of our time on RnR and ToT! The Mickey statue in the entrance was feeling quite snowy too!
We started off this time at RnR where we were on one of the first trains of the day! Once that was done,
we grabbed a fast track for it for a little bit later! Having enough time, we went and rode ToT for one last time which as always was just fantastic!
Returning then for one last ride on RnR after a little stop for some noms just outside as we were a little early! When we were done with the rides, we had a little wander around the park to see what it was like in the snow!
I also had my photo taken with Minnie before heading over to the main park for one last time!
As we got over to the main park, Duffy (Mickey’s bear) was on character duty, so I jumped in the queue and had a little photo with him!
We headed over to BTM which had a reasonable fasttrack return time, so we picked up one of those then had some noms on main street whilst watching the Celebration train! We also finished off our tat shopping (well, I did, I think I spent a good €350 on tat that trip) and headed back over to BTM for our turn!
BTM as I mentioned on the previous day looked incredible in the snow!
We were cold, feeling a bit down, so we headed over to It’s a Small World, because lets face it, who doesn’t like listening to the song at least once on a trip to Disney?!
It had a small queue, but at least it was warm when we got on!
We didn’t have much time left before our Eurostar home, so we went and got our glass tat and headed back to the hotel where we had left our bags! Once we had got them, we waited for the next shuttle bus before heading into Marne La Valleé station! It was even colder in there than it was outside! Luckily, they opened check in for the Eurostar a little early, went through the screening, watched a police officer put some drugs in someone’s bag and then let a sniffer dog have a sniff! Luckily, the Eurostar was actually already in, so we could just go and sit on it even with an hour to go before departure! It was warm and we ate lots of biscuits!
Before long, we had arrived in London after a brief stop IN the Channel Tunnel because another Eurostar was having problems so we got held back in the tunnel – very strange!
We bid our farewells and headed off home! It was a lovely way to start of what at the time was looking to be a pretty quiet season, oh how things soon changed!
Next up will be Thorpe and then the full month of April! Because lets face it, everyone has read multiple reports of Thorpe and Alton!
The older reports will probably be quite a bit shorter than the more recent ones, but I’m going to try and get as much as I can in there!
To break it down, here’s the list of what to expect in the coming months:
February: Disneyland Paris
March: Thorpe Park
April: Alton Towers, Essex Creds, Alton Towers
May: Parque de Atracciones, Parque Warner, Alton Towers
June: Alton Towers, Denmark (Malmo Folkets, Tivoli Gardens, Djurs Sommerland, BonBon Land, Bakken, Legoland Billund) America and Canada (Niagara Falls, Waldameer, Cedar Point (x2 days) Canada’s Wonderland (x2 days)
July: Blackpool, Belgium and France (Walibi Belgium, Plopsaland, Bellewaerde Park, Les Poussins, Dennlys Parc, Epic Brussels Fair)
August: Finland (Funpark, Powerpark, Sarakanemmi, Linnanmaki), Wales Creds
September: Flamingoland, Alton Towers (21st bday), Slovakia, Hungary (VidamPark and Budapest), Austira (Familypark neusiedlersee, Bohmicsher Park, Wiener Prater), Bratlislava
Lets start back in February then!
Disneyland Paris – 23rd – 25th February
One very cold, snowy Saturday morning me and Peter arrived at St Pancreas International for a trip over to delightful old Disney! We got a steal of a deal on the Eurostar at £90 return and a cheap hotel, so we made the most of it!
After 3 hours of lovely warm, slightly boring and tedious Eurostar, we arrived at Marne La Valleé where it was a bitterly cold -3 degrees! We hoped on to the shuttle bus to head over to the hotel where we quickly checked in, warmed up a bit and headed back over to the park via the shuttle bus!
Peter hadn’t been in a while, where as I’d been last year and 2 years prior to that so I was quite familiar with the new stuff around the park! We headed first to the Studios! We somehow managed to pick half term, so it was bloody busy!
We wondered around for a while if I remember rightly before settling on some Armaggedon action! Just as I remembered it really! One of the blessings of Disney is that most things are indoors, so when it is -3 outside, it’s nice to be able to hide inside!
We wondered around with RC Racer in mind, but saw the queue, so decided to do Slinky Dog’s ZigZag spin! Which was pretty fab, but bitterly cold with the fluttering of snow in the air!
Favouring some more warmth, we headed to see Cinemagique as it was just about to start! It was so warm and toasty in there compared to outside! It seems the rest of the Studios had the same idea and had warmth in there as it was significantly busy!
When we emerged from that, the snow had got heavier and made Disney feel that extra bit special with the snow lightly covering the whole park!
We naturally headed over to ToT which was still supporting a fairly vile queue considering it was pretty close to park closing! And it was outside, so it was even more bitter!
Still, we got on it in about half an hour and it was just as fab as I remember it! ToT <3
With Studios now closed for the evening, we headed over to the main park via Disney Village to obtain some noms! We ended up in Rainforest Café which was awful as always! Clearly we needed the Volcano dessert in our life and it would’ve been amazing!
On the way back to the main park, I got distracted by the vast amount of tat shops! I love Disney merchandise and must’ve dragged Peter through every tat shop more than once! Finding some stuff I wanted, I noted it and headed over to the park!
It was as magical as always, if not more with the smattering of snow on the floor! We faffed around taking some photos along main street and going in and out of more tat shops in a search for shot glasses!
We only visited the main park that night to see Disney Dreams because it’s awesome! We still had an hour and a bit to go, so we went and had a couple of rides!
First up was Space Mountain which holds some sentimental value to Peter as it was the cred that first got him interested in riding creds! I knew it had got rough in the last couple of years, and sure enough, this ride was no exception, even when sitting in the front row!
We decided to do Buzz’s lazerblast as neither of us had done it before and it was supporting a queue that moved all the time! We were soon on and just another standard omnimover shooter ride!
We had another half hour or so before Dreams started, so headed into the tat shops again for more looking at tat and warmth!
It was soon Dreams time, we were quite near the back of the crowd, but still had an amazing view and it really is a superb light show!
After Dreams we left the park with the rest of the masses, deciding that it was better to leave the buses for a while whilst the crowds died down, we went and spent a good half hour in the new World of Disney store and spending entirely too much money on tat!
So onto the next day!
We were staying in the Kyraid hotel so had the shuttle bus pleasure every morning! We opened the curtains that morning and saw this!
It had snowed a considerably amount more during the night and had settled!
Still, armed with more winter woollies, we headed over to the park for the full day we had! 12 hours and still -3 temperatures! Yeah, it was **** cold!
We spent the morning in the Studios park obtaining the creds for Peter! I can’t remember the exact order we done things in, but I think we started with Crush which had a pretty obscene queue at the start of the day! Still it moved and on we went!
Pretty standard spinner as always!
I think we single ridered RC Racer because once again it had an obscene queue. I don’t think we waited longer than 20 minutes to get on it which was lucky! It does suffer that typical half pipe syndrome! It just starts to get good, then stops!
The queue line looked magical with all the snow, but by god was it slippery!
My memory fails me, but I think we got Fasttrack for RnR and then headed onto ToT again because it’s just awesome at life!
We headed over to RnR for our time slot and got more or less straight on! I absolutely love RnR, it’s such a gem of a little coaster and having the music and lighting really makes it a pretty special ride! I had to make sure we done it again before we left!
I think we came out, saw that ToT’s queue had subsided a little so joined that for some more action! Absolutely love the ride to bits!
When we came out, I saw a huddle of people, so went and got my first ever Disney character photo with Goofy!
We headed over to the main park after that to spend the rest of the day there! We first headed over to BTM to get a fasttrack then ended up back at the front of the park for the Celebration Train!
The Celebration train being full of very warm characters! Hmmph! Jealous!
We headed back over to BTM and had a short wait in the fasttrack queue before getting on! It was as brilliant as always. BTM also looked amazing in the snow! So so pretty!
Indianna would be our next port of call, which thankfully was pretty much walk on. It’s such a forceful little ride and I love it when people don’t realise it inverts and when they see it in the queue they start screaming! Still, nothing much else to say on that one!
Disney Dreams on Parade would be starting shortly, so we headed back over to the main entrance to get in position. But as it was far too cold to stand about, we faffed a little in the castle and then in tat shops along Main Street!
Then at about 10 to 5 we decided to brave the cold and took up a position on main street for the parade which started at 5! I enjoy the parades, but usually do just see them through the viewfinder of my camera!
My memory really fails me here, but considering this was 7 months ago, I’m doing pretty well at remembering what we done! I think we got some noms then had a warm and more tat shops before having another go on Space Mountain, Buzz Lightyears Lazerblast which were just as they were the night before! We also decided to do Star Tours as it was there and walk on!
Before we knew it, it was Dreams time again and this time we took up a position at the front of the crowd for a near perfect view of the show! Once again it was phenomenal!
Once again, we let the crowds die down before heading for the buses! Again ending up in World of Disney and spending a good €200 between us on tat! Me having spent the most and had to invest in a new bag to get the lot home! Whoops!
Next morning was a pretty similar situation, we opened the curtains to find that snow had fallen even thicker and faster overnight, so now there was a good covering on everything!
Studios was up first again so we could make the most out of our time on RnR and ToT! The Mickey statue in the entrance was feeling quite snowy too!
We started off this time at RnR where we were on one of the first trains of the day! Once that was done,
we grabbed a fast track for it for a little bit later! Having enough time, we went and rode ToT for one last time which as always was just fantastic!
Returning then for one last ride on RnR after a little stop for some noms just outside as we were a little early! When we were done with the rides, we had a little wander around the park to see what it was like in the snow!
I also had my photo taken with Minnie before heading over to the main park for one last time!
As we got over to the main park, Duffy (Mickey’s bear) was on character duty, so I jumped in the queue and had a little photo with him!
We headed over to BTM which had a reasonable fasttrack return time, so we picked up one of those then had some noms on main street whilst watching the Celebration train! We also finished off our tat shopping (well, I did, I think I spent a good €350 on tat that trip) and headed back over to BTM for our turn!
BTM as I mentioned on the previous day looked incredible in the snow!
We were cold, feeling a bit down, so we headed over to It’s a Small World, because lets face it, who doesn’t like listening to the song at least once on a trip to Disney?!
It had a small queue, but at least it was warm when we got on!
We didn’t have much time left before our Eurostar home, so we went and got our glass tat and headed back to the hotel where we had left our bags! Once we had got them, we waited for the next shuttle bus before heading into Marne La Valleé station! It was even colder in there than it was outside! Luckily, they opened check in for the Eurostar a little early, went through the screening, watched a police officer put some drugs in someone’s bag and then let a sniffer dog have a sniff! Luckily, the Eurostar was actually already in, so we could just go and sit on it even with an hour to go before departure! It was warm and we ate lots of biscuits!
Before long, we had arrived in London after a brief stop IN the Channel Tunnel because another Eurostar was having problems so we got held back in the tunnel – very strange!
We bid our farewells and headed off home! It was a lovely way to start of what at the time was looking to be a pretty quiet season, oh how things soon changed!
Next up will be Thorpe and then the full month of April! Because lets face it, everyone has read multiple reports of Thorpe and Alton!
