Saturday 30th October
I somehow managed to get myself out of bed, ready and out of the house on time, I know, I was surprised too. I got to the station with time to spare, hurray. I bet the neighbours loathe me by now though, early in the morning me walking fast down their road with a loud suitcase going rah as it gets bashed up by the lovely tarmac and paving. Oh wells.
Before I knew it I was at London St Pancras station. I had to go print off my tickets and for some reason went to the random dedicated booking area that isn't near the check in area. As I was printing my tickets the machine went berserk and decided I wasn't allowed tickets. The woman working there looked at it as if this was a regular occurrence, took me to her desk and she printed the tickets out there instead. She was helpful and polite and I approved of her efficiency of giving me my tickets
I then walked straight through check-in and security (it was very quiet, which was odd as the train was packed?) and grabbed myself a hot chocolate from Cafe Nero (I had time to waste). Once on the train I found out I had a window seat, yay. I approve of window seats as if I fall asleep I fall towards the window and not to whoever is sitting next to me I spent the first part of the journey reading the Ian Fleming novel, From Russia with love. I've been reading it for ages and was happy to find myself getting to the end of it (great book btw). I had more books to read but I was feeling a bit tired so I opted for sleep for the rest of the journey. I occasionally got awoken by the curious child of curiosity which I thought was amusing.
The train got into the station early which was nice and I decided to catch the RER train straight to my hotel. I was staying at the Ibis in Val d'Europe. I've only ever stayed in the ETAP which is actually in the same building, both cheap but the Ibis is just that tiny bit nicer. It was also the first time I'd stayed at a hotel by myself, it felt weird. Anyways, I freshened up and headed back to the parks by foot. I like walking from Val d'Europe to the parks, it's quite a nice quiet walk, some would say I'm crazy and they're probably right but I don't care, I find it very relaxing.
The room
One of the views from the walk to the parks from the hotel
Upon arrival at the resort I decided to go into the Disneyland Parc first. The queue to get through security was silly but eventually I got through.
Yay for obligatory DLP photo
It took no time at all to get through the gates to the park though, hurrah for arriving half-way through the day with an annual pass. I could tell straight away that the park was very busy but I was feeling hungry so I went to Caseys to grab some food. I ended up ordering my food nearly all in French but the woman put me off with a random question I didn't understand I ended up buying some very expensive chicken nuggets, I was hoping they would taste awesome.
Exhibit A: photo of a busy day at DLP
As I exited Caseys with my expensive chicken nuggets the show on the main stage was starting so I watched that while I ate my food. It was the same New Generation Festival show that I saw several times back in July. Still fun though and I love the Incredibles section and the way the characters and props join and exit the show.
After the show I checked out the queue time board to see if it was worth sticking around and doing some of the rides. It would appear that the park was uber busy as all the rides had silly times, even Phantom Manor had a 60 minute wait. I'm aware that 60 minutes in nothing in comparison to queues at other parks but you clearly haven't seen the length of a 60 minute queue for Phantom Manor, it's terrifying, it makes a full length Rita queue look empty.
Due to the sheer busyness of the park I decided to go over to the Studios. I knew it wasn't going to be quieter but I wanted to check out Toy Story Playland as it wasn't open on my last visit.
As I was walking through the Studio 1 building a caught a band playing some cool music, shame I only caught the end part of their set though as they were really good. Glad to see the band back in the Studios too, always brings a smile to my face.
Just as a natural reaction I checked the time board and noticed that everything in the park had a silly queue. Oh wells. I stuck with my plan and headed straight over to the new Toy Story Playland area. I still don't approve of giant Buzz but it's cool that he has sound and light effects.
The main walkway into the area is really cool, I just love the attention to detail. The massive garden lights, the K'nex fencing (I never thought I'd have a favourite fence in a theme park) and the foilage to make you feel like you've shrunken down with everything towering over you (like Honey I've shrunk the kids but in Andy from Toy Story's garden).
I really do think every guy is going to find something in this area that reminds them of their childhood, I mean they have just thought of everything, it's so cool. I didn't really care about the queues in this area, just wanted to see what they were like. Slinky dogs zigzag spin had the shortest wait at 30 mins so I went for that.
This looks like an over-themed version of any spinny ride and I was expecting something quite fun as the theming is actually awesome. The queue didn't actually feel like it took that long and the music was cool. When I sat down I realised just how huge the seats were, you could probably get about 4 kids in there, just so roomy. The ride itself though was epically disappointing, such a let down to such a good looking ride. It was really slow, not even just a little slow so kids don't panic, I mean, it felt like it was almost struggling to get round, was painful. I also found the reason for the queue not taking too long, the ride time is really short, probably about 6 rotations. It's a shame, but it also lowered my expectations of the other two rides.
Next up was RC Racer. Yep, a new COASTER! The time at the entrance was 60 minutes but as soon as I saw the theming for the queueline I didn't care what so ever. Scaletrix-themed queueline!!!!!!!!!! OMG, it was so epic. Not only did they theme the ride to Hot Wheels and RC cars but they themed the queue to the best boys toy EVER! As you can tell, it made me very very happy.
Because that didn't make me happy enough Disney went to the trouble of adding a single rider queue :O What made this really awesome was that they actually pay attention to the single ride queue and use it a LOT. This meant 60 minute queue for me was 20 minutes
Once again the music in the queue and station was really cool and the seating was huge with added Intamin-style restraint annoyance. This bad thing was counter-balanced by the genius bag and loose articles box. Each row has two boxes and they are so small yet the way you open them means that its more like a Mary Poppins bag and you fit loads in. Excellent.
However to the ride experience. Well the first launch is a bit slow and random and them whoosh, you just fly backwards and the power seems to just come from nowhere. It's really cool but it is a bit short, however I think this strangely benefits the ride in the way that you don't get bored or ill, you're just left with the excitement and the need to ride again and again.
I then checked out the rest of the area and the Ratatouille/Paris street for the future attraction. It's cool and I love the attention to detail. I then wanted a go on Crush's coaster and despite the 100 min queue I still joined it. After a really long wait I was finally on the ride. It was me on one side and two girls on the other so I was expecting epic spinage but I was let down with the occasional awesome spin and lack of spin in other areas. Oh well, still a fun ride.
I then went back to Toy Story Playland for the Toy Soldiers parachute drop. I've never been on one of these rides before and I don't think I've ever seen one at a park before, especially on this scale. The ride is just huge, everything about it is just big. Each parachute takes 6 peeps, 3 on each side. As with the other two rides the seats are big and spacious and are great for everyone. Oh and did I mention they had single rider on this too? It's awesome. Turns out most peeps go to the Studios in groups of 4 so a ride where the seats are in rows of 3 meant lots of single riders for every ride which meant a 15 min queue for me instead of 60 minutes. YAY!
The ride is really fun and smooth, the lights and sounds are an awesome addition and it is just great for the park.
I decided that my luck was going well with these single rider queues so I went to do RC Racer again. On the way to the ride I noticed the Pixar ball which is awesome...
Anyway, onwards to the ride. The queue was a bit longer this time which meant there was a bit of a queue before I got to the single rider queue which was ok. I somehow ended up getting exactly the same seat as I did earlier which was amusing to me. The seat on the right in the front row, great seat. I still loved the ride, its just so cool.
I then decided it was time for some Tower of Terror times. The queue was quite long but it's ToT which meant the queue shifts quickly. I love the tower, it's so amazingly themed and I love riding with peeps that have never ridden before, their reactions are always fun. Even though I know where all the drops are etc I still find them exciting and thrilling.
I loved this poster they had in the shop for Halloween
After the ride the sun was starting to set and the park was now closed. I had to leave the park and I wasn't too sure what to do, I had just under two hours to waste before the special event. I felt hungry so opted to go into the Disneyland Parc for food at one of the fast food joints. I had a random craving for pasta and I knew that the one in Adventureland would be closed by this time so I went to Fantastyland for their pizza/pasta place. I got myself some pasta which came with a drink and some garlic bread. It was tasty and filling, just what I needed to keep going for the rest of the night.
I then left the park and headed over to the security area for the Studios. Yeah, so I just went in to the park for food and nothing else, so what? There was already a huge crowd of peeps going through security for the Studios which was strange as I'd got there so early. First thing I noticed was the sheer number of peeps dressed up, was so cool and most of them put so much detail in their costumes too. There was a guy wandering round as Jason (from Friday the 13th films) and loads of zombies. I saw one small group of mates all dressed up as zombies, they had really gone to town with the whole ripping up old clothes and make-up etc and they even decided to walk round like zombies, now that's commitment
At one point to get everyone excited the park turned off all the lights in the front lot which created some awesome eerie atmosphere, especially with the sound effects they were playing really loud. You could actually cut through the excitement being built up by everyone, it was great.
After a while my friends from Belgium arrived. They came dressed up as Sam Neill and Jeff Goldblum's characters from Jurassic Park which is their (well, Kristofs) favourite film. It was pretty cool and there will be pictures later. Soon after their arrival we headed through to the park which was now open. Terrorific Night 2 here we come!
The Studio 1 building was playing lots of horror film soundtracks and they had a mass of zombies who were not afraid to touch you etc. The lighting was really cool and eerie too. We'd only just entered and I already approved
The first thing I spotted once in the park was masses of smoke covering the Hollywood Boulevard, it looked so cool and the lighting on ToT was just an amazing backdrop. Here, have a blurry photo courtesy of peep's night time hating camera.
We walked over to the time board hoping to pick up some event guides. We did, we also noticed that the rides that were open had silly queues. Well, this is what happens when an event sells out at a Disney park lol. Reading the guide made us just very curious as to what they had planned. We opted to just wander round Toy Story Playland for a bit. Well, that and Kristof desperately wanted his picture taken with Rex in his Jurassic park outfit lol.
To get there we walked up Hollywood Boulevard. There was a grudge-like girl and a mental doctor walking around who were really creepy and cool.
At the top of the Boulevard an American policeman was holding back a bloke in Hannibal Lectar style stuff. Every now and then the policeman would 'loose control' of the guy who would be running after peeps and that, was awesome and I really wasn't expecting it.
As we walked past we noticed and laughed at the fact they changed the tram tour wait time to 666. This was probably the ride I was really hoping we'd get a chance to do the most, but you'll have to keep reading on to find out if we do or not.
Along the path between the Boulevard and Toy Story Playland there were several peeps dressed in cool evil-pumpkin men outfits. They were all just walking along and then jumping and touching unsuspecting victims, one girl was running round screaming for ages lol. There was also one sitting on a bin for ages who was sitting so still I couldn't tell in the random light if it was a guy or a statue, turned out soon after this following picture that it was a guy in a suit lol.
When we finally got to Toy Story Playland there were more characters running wild including a Freddie Krueger. I was heavily distracted by the epic lighting in the area though, it makes the new area look even more awesome. It was also the only area for the evening that hadn't been touched for the event.
It was then time for Kristof to get very happy. Rex times happened!
Stupid camera going all blurry again
There was a special show starting outside Cinemagique so we went to check that out. Basically think Stomp meets Rammstein with lots of fire. It was amazing for me, I loved the drum beats they created and the fire, well, I love fire me, it looks so cool. They all seemed really nuts and cool and they put on a great 20 minute show that put a big smile on my face.
Davy filmed the show so once he uploads it I'll post a link here.
Kristof pointed out that they were doing something special in the buildings in front of ToT. Basically they filled the area with intense fog and had random Victorian style scare actors running through it. Was the most bizarre thing ever, fantastic and cool but so strange. You just enter going "I can't see anything" and then someone just randomly appears next to you, was really cool.
We knew that Armageddon had a very short wait so we went to do that. Wow, the queue board wasn't lying. We just missed out on a group going through so we only had to wait a few mins. We wondered how we were going to get in and what was going to happen inside.
How do we get in?
It was then our turn to go through, they were letting say 20-30 peeps through at a time. We had to walk round to the side of the building where random staff just looked at us really strangely, was quite odd. The pre show room had a guy in a decontamination suit on the stage who was inspecting something on the wall. This is when I knew I wasn't going to understand anything said in the attractions. He went on some long spiel in French and everyone else looked terrified lol. I was the second person to go through and as soon as the doors opened I was wary of what was going to happen. The guy in front just seemed to storm off ahead lol, maybe it was his way of coping Flashing lights everywhere and random walls with aliens and infected space crews hiding everywhere and in the main room at the end of the corridor. I reckon there was a good 20 actors in there. Annoyingly because I was at the front and I spotted them so easily they decided not to act and try and scare me, however I heard loads of screams from behind me. I was amused though by the lady in the end corridor who didn't take her eyes off me, just did a creepy smile and waved, hehe, that was cool.
Who knew Disney could do scare attractions so well?
We wanted to do Rock 'n' Rollercoaster but the queue was unpleasant. We then got heavily distracted by the best character ever, they had some hench guy dressed up as the Texas Chainsaw Massacre guy who was walking round with a chainsaw. He was just so tall and epic and there was a huge radius of peeps following him not getting too close and taking pictures. It was epic, occasionally he would spot someone trying to avoid him big time so he walked fast after them, was excellent.
We wandered round for a while not knowing what to do. We walked up past Crush (which had a really long queue) and we met more zombies on our way. Their make-up was amazing and one of them had picked up a chair and was chasing people with it, another was on the floor grabbing peeps legs as they walked by and everything, was pretty cool.
We then got back to Toy Story Playland where we were distracted by actors again. I found one that liked his photo taken
They also had two of these cool alien stilt peeps.
We then moved into the area and randomly opted to ride Slinky dog. I know I said I don't like it but sometimes I like to give rides a second chance (not you though Kanonen, go hide in Sweden, oh wait, you have)
It was still too slow for me and the ride wasn't enhanced at all by night riding. Oh wells.
Oh and this is why Toy Story Playland should be opened at night more <3
We then got a text to let us know one of our friends was on his way to the park. So we went to Studio 1 to meet him. The others grabbed a drink while we waited for him to arrive.
Once our friend arrived we headed over to the Tram Tour
It was actually very late, probably about quarter past midnight (the event finished at 1am). So this was also going to be our last ride of the night and I was strangely looking forward despite hating the tram tour. The queue was horrifically long but we waited, and waited and spotted teletubbies lol. Just before 1am we got on the ride. I had no idea what was going to happen and annoyingly it took ages for the tram to get started and out of the loading area.
We started off as normal with the TVs not working, nothing unusual there then. We went past the Dinotopia set which was empty but it looked awesome with the lights. We then went round to the canyon which was the same as always. Doesn't feel any different between day and night. We then go round back past the Dinotopia set but hang on, we stop outside it. What's that!? A huge devil guy and loads of minions were standing there waiting for us. Something loud was said in French and the minions starting coming towards the tram, oh cool. Some were jumping into the trams and touching peeps and everything, was amazing. They were doing it for some time and there were loads of them.
The minions all ran away and we moved on. After the long journey we arrived at the Reign of Fire set which was well lit and had cool music. There were also random smoke effects in the area. When we stopped loads of actors came from the rubble and were doing the same as the minions, scaring everyone in the tram and generally looking creepy. Then after a while some sounds went off and loads of peeps in boiler suits came running towards the rubble peoples with bright lights. Was all random and cool. They all started to cheer because they scared off the rubble peeps and then the devil voiced sounded, the boiler peeps took off their masks and they were covered in boils and that, they turned evil and started hitting the tram and scaring peeps, was really cool.
The tram then swiftly moved back to the entrance. Wow, that was worth the wait. Shocked at the amount of effort put in and it was done really well.
Davy filmed it and you can watch the video below:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCcY8z7KpxE[/youtube]
Well, it was closing time now so we made our way to the exit. Kristof and Davy were staying at a nice new hotel round the corner from mine so they offered me a lift. We said goodnight to the others and we headed to the car. Once they dropped me off we organised our meeting arrangements for the next day and said goodnight. Once back in the hotel I headed straight to bed. I think after all the faffing and that and the travel back to the hotel it was gone 2am once I got to the room. I was absolutely dead, didn't take me long to get off to sleep I can assure you.
Thanks for reading and day 2 to follow soon!
I somehow managed to get myself out of bed, ready and out of the house on time, I know, I was surprised too. I got to the station with time to spare, hurray. I bet the neighbours loathe me by now though, early in the morning me walking fast down their road with a loud suitcase going rah as it gets bashed up by the lovely tarmac and paving. Oh wells.
Before I knew it I was at London St Pancras station. I had to go print off my tickets and for some reason went to the random dedicated booking area that isn't near the check in area. As I was printing my tickets the machine went berserk and decided I wasn't allowed tickets. The woman working there looked at it as if this was a regular occurrence, took me to her desk and she printed the tickets out there instead. She was helpful and polite and I approved of her efficiency of giving me my tickets
I then walked straight through check-in and security (it was very quiet, which was odd as the train was packed?) and grabbed myself a hot chocolate from Cafe Nero (I had time to waste). Once on the train I found out I had a window seat, yay. I approve of window seats as if I fall asleep I fall towards the window and not to whoever is sitting next to me
I spent the first part of the journey reading the Ian Fleming novel, From Russia with love. I've been reading it for ages and was happy to find myself getting to the end of it (great book btw). I had more books to read but I was feeling a bit tired so I opted for sleep for the rest of the journey. I occasionally got awoken by the curious child of curiosity which I thought was amusing.The train got into the station early which was nice and I decided to catch the RER train straight to my hotel. I was staying at the Ibis in Val d'Europe. I've only ever stayed in the ETAP which is actually in the same building, both cheap but the Ibis is just that tiny bit nicer. It was also the first time I'd stayed at a hotel by myself, it felt weird. Anyways, I freshened up and headed back to the parks by foot. I like walking from Val d'Europe to the parks, it's quite a nice quiet walk, some would say I'm crazy and they're probably right but I don't care, I find it very relaxing.
The room
One of the views from the walk to the parks from the hotel
Upon arrival at the resort I decided to go into the Disneyland Parc first. The queue to get through security was silly but eventually I got through.
Yay for obligatory DLP photo
It took no time at all to get through the gates to the park though, hurrah for arriving half-way through the day with an annual pass. I could tell straight away that the park was very busy but I was feeling hungry so I went to Caseys to grab some food. I ended up ordering my food nearly all in French but the woman put me off with a random question I didn't understand
I ended up buying some very expensive chicken nuggets, I was hoping they would taste awesome.Exhibit A: photo of a busy day at DLP
As I exited Caseys with my expensive chicken nuggets the show on the main stage was starting so I watched that while I ate my food. It was the same New Generation Festival show that I saw several times back in July. Still fun though and I love the Incredibles section and the way the characters and props join and exit the show.
After the show I checked out the queue time board to see if it was worth sticking around and doing some of the rides. It would appear that the park was uber busy as all the rides had silly times, even Phantom Manor had a 60 minute wait. I'm aware that 60 minutes in nothing in comparison to queues at other parks but you clearly haven't seen the length of a 60 minute queue for Phantom Manor, it's terrifying, it makes a full length Rita queue look empty.
Due to the sheer busyness of the park I decided to go over to the Studios. I knew it wasn't going to be quieter but I wanted to check out Toy Story Playland as it wasn't open on my last visit.
As I was walking through the Studio 1 building a caught a band playing some cool music, shame I only caught the end part of their set though as they were really good. Glad to see the band back in the Studios too, always brings a smile to my face.
Just as a natural reaction I checked the time board and noticed that everything in the park had a silly queue. Oh wells. I stuck with my plan and headed straight over to the new Toy Story Playland area. I still don't approve of giant Buzz but it's cool that he has sound and light effects.
The main walkway into the area is really cool, I just love the attention to detail. The massive garden lights, the K'nex fencing (I never thought I'd have a favourite fence in a theme park
) and the foilage to make you feel like you've shrunken down with everything towering over you (like Honey I've shrunk the kids but in Andy from Toy Story's garden).
I really do think every guy is going to find something in this area that reminds them of their childhood, I mean they have just thought of everything, it's so cool. I didn't really care about the queues in this area, just wanted to see what they were like. Slinky dogs zigzag spin had the shortest wait at 30 mins so I went for that.
This looks like an over-themed version of any spinny ride and I was expecting something quite fun as the theming is actually awesome. The queue didn't actually feel like it took that long and the music was cool. When I sat down I realised just how huge the seats were, you could probably get about 4 kids in there, just so roomy. The ride itself though was epically disappointing, such a let down to such a good looking ride. It was really slow, not even just a little slow so kids don't panic, I mean, it felt like it was almost struggling to get round, was painful. I also found the reason for the queue not taking too long, the ride time is really short, probably about 6 rotations. It's a shame, but it also lowered my expectations of the other two rides.
Next up was RC Racer. Yep, a new COASTER! The time at the entrance was 60 minutes but as soon as I saw the theming for the queueline I didn't care what so ever. Scaletrix-themed queueline!!!!!!!!!! OMG, it was so epic. Not only did they theme the ride to Hot Wheels and RC cars but they themed the queue to the best boys toy EVER! As you can tell, it made me very very happy.
Because that didn't make me happy enough Disney went to the trouble of adding a single rider queue :O What made this really awesome was that they actually pay attention to the single ride queue and use it a LOT. This meant 60 minute queue for me was 20 minutes
Once again the music in the queue and station was really cool and the seating was huge with added Intamin-style restraint annoyance. This bad thing was counter-balanced by the genius bag and loose articles box. Each row has two boxes and they are so small yet the way you open them means that its more like a Mary Poppins bag and you fit loads in. Excellent.
However to the ride experience. Well the first launch is a bit slow and random and them whoosh, you just fly backwards and the power seems to just come from nowhere. It's really cool but it is a bit short, however I think this strangely benefits the ride in the way that you don't get bored or ill, you're just left with the excitement and the need to ride again and again.
I then checked out the rest of the area and the Ratatouille/Paris street for the future attraction. It's cool and I love the attention to detail. I then wanted a go on Crush's coaster and despite the 100 min queue I still joined it. After a really long wait I was finally on the ride. It was me on one side and two girls on the other so I was expecting epic spinage but I was let down with the occasional awesome spin and lack of spin in other areas. Oh well, still a fun ride.
I then went back to Toy Story Playland for the Toy Soldiers parachute drop. I've never been on one of these rides before and I don't think I've ever seen one at a park before, especially on this scale. The ride is just huge, everything about it is just big. Each parachute takes 6 peeps, 3 on each side. As with the other two rides the seats are big and spacious and are great for everyone. Oh and did I mention they had single rider on this too? It's awesome. Turns out most peeps go to the Studios in groups of 4 so a ride where the seats are in rows of 3 meant lots of single riders for every ride which meant a 15 min queue for me instead of 60 minutes. YAY!
The ride is really fun and smooth, the lights and sounds are an awesome addition and it is just great for the park.
I decided that my luck was going well with these single rider queues so I went to do RC Racer again. On the way to the ride I noticed the Pixar ball which is awesome...
Anyway, onwards to the ride. The queue was a bit longer this time which meant there was a bit of a queue before I got to the single rider queue which was ok. I somehow ended up getting exactly the same seat as I did earlier which was amusing to me. The seat on the right in the front row, great seat. I still loved the ride, its just so cool.
I then decided it was time for some Tower of Terror times. The queue was quite long but it's ToT which meant the queue shifts quickly. I love the tower, it's so amazingly themed and I love riding with peeps that have never ridden before, their reactions are always fun. Even though I know where all the drops are etc I still find them exciting and thrilling.
I loved this poster they had in the shop for Halloween
After the ride the sun was starting to set and the park was now closed. I had to leave the park and I wasn't too sure what to do, I had just under two hours to waste before the special event. I felt hungry so opted to go into the Disneyland Parc for food at one of the fast food joints. I had a random craving for pasta and I knew that the one in Adventureland would be closed by this time so I went to Fantastyland for their pizza/pasta place. I got myself some pasta which came with a drink and some garlic bread. It was tasty and filling, just what I needed to keep going for the rest of the night.
I then left the park and headed over to the security area for the Studios. Yeah, so I just went in to the park for food and nothing else, so what?
There was already a huge crowd of peeps going through security for the Studios which was strange as I'd got there so early. First thing I noticed was the sheer number of peeps dressed up, was so cool and most of them put so much detail in their costumes too. There was a guy wandering round as Jason (from Friday the 13th films) and loads of zombies. I saw one small group of mates all dressed up as zombies, they had really gone to town with the whole ripping up old clothes and make-up etc and they even decided to walk round like zombies, now that's commitment At one point to get everyone excited the park turned off all the lights in the front lot which created some awesome eerie atmosphere, especially with the sound effects they were playing really loud. You could actually cut through the excitement being built up by everyone, it was great.
After a while my friends from Belgium arrived. They came dressed up as Sam Neill and Jeff Goldblum's characters from Jurassic Park which is their (well, Kristofs) favourite film. It was pretty cool and there will be pictures later. Soon after their arrival we headed through to the park which was now open. Terrorific Night 2 here we come!
The Studio 1 building was playing lots of horror film soundtracks and they had a mass of zombies who were not afraid to touch you etc. The lighting was really cool and eerie too. We'd only just entered and I already approved
The first thing I spotted once in the park was masses of smoke covering the Hollywood Boulevard, it looked so cool and the lighting on ToT was just an amazing backdrop. Here, have a blurry photo courtesy of peep's night time hating camera.
We walked over to the time board hoping to pick up some event guides. We did, we also noticed that the rides that were open had silly queues. Well, this is what happens when an event sells out at a Disney park lol. Reading the guide made us just very curious as to what they had planned. We opted to just wander round Toy Story Playland for a bit. Well, that and Kristof desperately wanted his picture taken with Rex in his Jurassic park outfit lol.
To get there we walked up Hollywood Boulevard. There was a grudge-like girl and a mental doctor walking around who were really creepy and cool.
At the top of the Boulevard an American policeman was holding back a bloke in Hannibal Lectar style stuff. Every now and then the policeman would 'loose control' of the guy who would be running after peeps and that, was awesome and I really wasn't expecting it.
As we walked past we noticed and laughed at the fact they changed the tram tour wait time to 666. This was probably the ride I was really hoping we'd get a chance to do the most, but you'll have to keep reading on to find out if we do or not.
Along the path between the Boulevard and Toy Story Playland there were several peeps dressed in cool evil-pumpkin men outfits. They were all just walking along and then jumping and touching unsuspecting victims, one girl was running round screaming for ages lol. There was also one sitting on a bin for ages who was sitting so still I couldn't tell in the random light if it was a guy or a statue, turned out soon after this following picture that it was a guy in a suit lol.
When we finally got to Toy Story Playland there were more characters running wild including a Freddie Krueger. I was heavily distracted by the epic lighting in the area though, it makes the new area look even more awesome. It was also the only area for the evening that hadn't been touched for the event.
It was then time for Kristof to get very happy. Rex times happened!
Stupid camera going all blurry again
There was a special show starting outside Cinemagique so we went to check that out. Basically think Stomp meets Rammstein with lots of fire. It was amazing for me, I loved the drum beats they created and the fire, well, I love fire me, it looks so cool. They all seemed really nuts and cool and they put on a great 20 minute show that put a big smile on my face.
Davy filmed the show so once he uploads it I'll post a link here.
Kristof pointed out that they were doing something special in the buildings in front of ToT. Basically they filled the area with intense fog and had random Victorian style scare actors running through it. Was the most bizarre thing ever, fantastic and cool but so strange. You just enter going "I can't see anything" and then someone just randomly appears next to you, was really cool.
We knew that Armageddon had a very short wait so we went to do that. Wow, the queue board wasn't lying. We just missed out on a group going through so we only had to wait a few mins. We wondered how we were going to get in and what was going to happen inside.
How do we get in?
It was then our turn to go through, they were letting say 20-30 peeps through at a time. We had to walk round to the side of the building where random staff just looked at us really strangely, was quite odd. The pre show room had a guy in a decontamination suit on the stage who was inspecting something on the wall. This is when I knew I wasn't going to understand anything said in the attractions. He went on some long spiel in French and everyone else looked terrified lol. I was the second person to go through and as soon as the doors opened I was wary of what was going to happen. The guy in front just seemed to storm off ahead lol, maybe it was his way of coping
Flashing lights everywhere and random walls with aliens and infected space crews hiding everywhere and in the main room at the end of the corridor. I reckon there was a good 20 actors in there. Annoyingly because I was at the front and I spotted them so easily they decided not to act and try and scare me, however I heard loads of screams from behind me. I was amused though by the lady in the end corridor who didn't take her eyes off me, just did a creepy smile and waved, hehe, that was cool.Who knew Disney could do scare attractions so well?
We wanted to do Rock 'n' Rollercoaster but the queue was unpleasant. We then got heavily distracted by the best character ever, they had some hench guy dressed up as the Texas Chainsaw Massacre guy who was walking round with a chainsaw. He was just so tall and epic and there was a huge radius of peeps following him not getting too close and taking pictures. It was epic, occasionally he would spot someone trying to avoid him big time so he walked fast after them, was excellent.
We wandered round for a while not knowing what to do. We walked up past Crush (which had a really long queue) and we met more zombies on our way. Their make-up was amazing and one of them had picked up a chair and was chasing people with it, another was on the floor grabbing peeps legs as they walked by and everything, was pretty cool.
We then got back to Toy Story Playland where we were distracted by actors again. I found one that liked his photo taken
They also had two of these cool alien stilt peeps.
We then moved into the area and randomly opted to ride Slinky dog. I know I said I don't like it but sometimes I like to give rides a second chance (not you though Kanonen, go hide in Sweden, oh wait, you have
)
It was still too slow for me and the ride wasn't enhanced at all by night riding. Oh wells.
Oh and this is why Toy Story Playland should be opened at night more <3
We then got a text to let us know one of our friends was on his way to the park. So we went to Studio 1 to meet him. The others grabbed a drink while we waited for him to arrive.
Once our friend arrived we headed over to the Tram Tour
It was actually very late, probably about quarter past midnight (the event finished at 1am). So this was also going to be our last ride of the night and I was strangely looking forward despite hating the tram tour. The queue was horrifically long but we waited, and waited and spotted teletubbies lol. Just before 1am we got on the ride. I had no idea what was going to happen and annoyingly it took ages for the tram to get started and out of the loading area.We started off as normal with the TVs not working, nothing unusual there then
. We went past the Dinotopia set which was empty but it looked awesome with the lights. We then went round to the canyon which was the same as always. Doesn't feel any different between day and night. We then go round back past the Dinotopia set but hang on, we stop outside it. What's that!? A huge devil guy and loads of minions were standing there waiting for us. Something loud was said in French and the minions starting coming towards the tram, oh cool. Some were jumping into the trams and touching peeps and everything, was amazing. They were doing it for some time and there were loads of them. The minions all ran away and we moved on. After the long journey we arrived at the Reign of Fire set which was well lit and had cool music. There were also random smoke effects in the area. When we stopped loads of actors came from the rubble and were doing the same as the minions, scaring everyone in the tram and generally looking creepy. Then after a while some sounds went off and loads of peeps in boiler suits came running towards the rubble peoples with bright lights. Was all random and cool. They all started to cheer because they scared off the rubble peeps and then the devil voiced sounded, the boiler peeps took off their masks and they were covered in boils and that, they turned evil and started hitting the tram and scaring peeps, was really cool.
The tram then swiftly moved back to the entrance. Wow, that was worth the wait. Shocked at the amount of effort put in and it was done really well.
Davy filmed it and you can watch the video below:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCcY8z7KpxE[/youtube]
Well, it was closing time now so we made our way to the exit. Kristof and Davy were staying at a nice new hotel round the corner from mine so they offered me a lift. We said goodnight to the others and we headed to the car. Once they dropped me off we organised our meeting arrangements for the next day and said goodnight. Once back in the hotel I headed straight to bed. I think after all the faffing and that and the travel back to the hotel it was gone 2am once I got to the room. I was absolutely dead, didn't take me long to get off to sleep I can assure you.
Thanks for reading and day 2 to follow soon!
