Beans
Hyper Poster
Disneyland Paris 18th to 21st February 2013
Day 1
We left home at 04:00 hours early Monday morning, headed for Folkestone to catch the 07:50 Shuttle crossing, this journey was clear and no probs, in fact we arrived a bit early for our crossing, and in error ended up in wrong queue for 07:20 crossing boarding at 06:50, but they let us on anyway. I was well pleased as this would mean getting to Disney a bit earlier. I must admit to being a bit nervous of the thought of driving in France and the time on the train went quickly and then we were off. I drove a bit slow until I got used to it, then quite happily cruised at Main 110kmph, not wanting to push my baby too hard. It took around 3 and half hours with one stop for the essentials, and we arrived at around 12:30 French time, we went to reception collected our park tickets and luckily the room was ready so we got bags too room and headed for the park. We took Shuttle as we initially thought it would be quicker which after a day of this worked out it was quicker to walk down the Rio Grande only taking 10 mins max.
We did Studios first, Leigh cheekily lead us to Tower of Terror, his favourite know I was nervous of drop towers, but what a surprise, I actually thoroughly enjoyed it, in fact too much. We next went to the ride I was most looking forward too, Rock ‘N’ Roller Coaster, having about a 20 min queue, although a little bumpy I thoroughly enjoyed this one. We then realised our timing meant we could go for an explore and ended up at R C Racers, this had about 20 min queue so we went on, very bland ride really not much to be said. After this we went to Motor Stunt show (whatever it is really called). Thought this was a bit boring but hey all part of the experience. We then wandered about a bit going in a few shops, getting a feel for the place, then realising we felt a bit hungry went to Planet Hollywood for my belated Valentines dinner.
This timed right to then wander into the main Park as we wanted to see Disney Dreams, we did this slowly as we had over an hour 20 mins for the start. I was quite excited to see in the distance the Disney Castle, yes I am a big kid, but this was my first Disney Park. We stood at the bandstand taking it all in, then wandered down Main Street to pick our place for show still with 20 mins to run. It was very crowded, but we had picked a good spot. The show didn’t disappoint, it was 20 mins of pure show with the Castle being lit up with graphics lasers and fireworks. Standing watching was very cold but well worth it, the only problem was when it ended was the mass exodus from the area, you had to hold on to each other so not to get parted. We walked back to coach area and just got on the Shuttle and back to Hotel for a well needed sleep. It had been a long day and we all fell off to sleep quickly.
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Day 2
Up bright and early we went down for breakfast for the 7am sitting which was very busy, we later realised there were 7 coaches waiting to leave so they all wanted there breakfast before leaving. We got the shuttle to the park early to make the most of our ERT with hotel pass’s. We were doing Main Park today. The weather was very bright and sunny the Castle looked amazing with the blue sky being it, we took our time in wandering around just taking it all in, we went inside the castle then made our way to Buzz which Leigh was eager to go on, he managed an amazing 295,900 to my 4,400, he said you have to look for certain symbols, well he must have found them all. We then went to Space Mountain, and boy I was not expecting the roughness of this ride, gave me a right brain shake, then it is a Vekhoma. I was pleased to leave that one behind, but we didn’t go far as we went in the submarine thingy beside it. We now went to Star Tours, and I wish we hadn’t, didn’t realise it was a simulator, omg did I feel sick, I couldn’t watch the screen for long and couldn’t wait for it to be over, I had to rush for the fresh air and on the way out totally forgot I felt sick as I was bumped into by Darth Vadar, took photo of Phill and Leigh with him and Chewbacca run past, he was too fast for us and we didn’t catch him.
We now headed to Phantom Manor, not rushing as we had plenty of time, this was another of Leigh’s favourites but this time it wasn’t running well and the ride kept stalling and some of the effects were not running, apparently it was due for its maintenance period. We decided to stop for food in Luck Nugget, which wasn’t too bad, then as it was sitting in front of time for Big Thunder Mountain. The queue was quite long but moved surprisingly quickly. Now this one I thoroughly enjoyed, it was fun, didn’t bash you to bits and put a big smile on my face, and knew I would be back for another ride on this before we left.
Next we headed for Indian Jones, now Leigh had said this was a bit rough, and it had the longest queue by far, took us an hour to get through, now all I can say is OUCH, but was fun all the same. We then went for a bit of a wander, pass Pirates which was down for maintenance, but we know this before we went, at least all the coasters were working. We wandered on and eventually got to Small world, Leigh had told me this one would drive you nuts with its music, but I actually thoroughly enjoyed it. It was relaxing full of colour, nothing like I had experience before in this kind of ride, well impressed.
Now we had walked around got right back to Space Mountain and as it had no queue we jumped back on this one again. We wanted to slow things down a bit but had quite a wait for Dreams again so we went for a bit of retail therapy, well only window shopping really. As we reached Main Street, the Parade was about to start so we stopped to watch. Now we were quite cold and had a couple of hours to kill so we left the park and went to Starbuck in Disney Village, where we stayed until around 7pm to wait until Dreams started again. Went through the Arcades this time to beat the crush then as queue was very long for Shuttle decided to explore the walk back to Santa Fe, doing this made us realise it was quicker than the shuttle so this is the way we went from now on.
http://s294.beta.photobucket.com/user/B ... 3358969268
http://s294.beta.photobucket.com/user/B ... 3358969268
Day 3
Breakfast at 7am again. Walked to the Park, and it is Studios day today for first part. We had to wait for it to open at 9:30 then headed straight for Crush, this already had a long queue as most ran to be in it, took about 45 mins to get through as it didn’t open on time. I quite liked Crush, it was a fun Coaster, would have loved a second go but not with that queue. We walked back to Tower and had a go on that, , queue only took 20 mins to get into building and away we went, we got front row this time, Phill held on tight as Tower had hurt his back the first time we went on. This is such a “good fun” ride, could have done this lots of times. We then went too Rock ‘N’Roller Coaster again nice short queue, did back row, throws you about a bit here but still fun. On way out we got Fast Track to go back at 12.35, half an hour, so we went to get a coffee, Phill decided to sit Fastrack Out so Leigh and I went back round again, this time back row again. We then went back to find Phill and decided time to warm up and do some shows, we did Cinemagique first as it was about to start, not overly impressed but it was wet and warm. When we came out the Parade was going through so we stopped to watch that, then went over to Anamagique, this one was better, could still see the “invisible cast” behind the main characters and would have been more enjoyable if it wasn’t for a small brat behind me kept kicking my seat, even after I had given the evils, she seemed to do it even more….Grrr.
We had done what we needed to do in Studios, so now went back to Main Park, where we wanted food and Leigh wanted to get another ride on Phantom Manor and BTM in the dark. Also a 360 of BTM on Molly Bown. When we got down there BTM was closed, not a good sign so we did Phantom first hoping to see signs of life after but no….We did the Molly Brown next, I was just curious to see all round BTM, in fact there were engineers crawling all over it running beside the track, but it still wasn’t running, we decided to go for food and stretched this out, and luckily we heard the familiar clonking sound of BTM running again around 6pm, we got up and got 3 rides in the dark, the queue was a lot shorter than it looked, only because nobody was doing the left side of the divide, so technically we queue jumped. Who cares the 3 rides were much fun.
It was really cold by time we had been round so we made our way down to Main Street for show, we were a bit early so hung about in one of the restaurants’ until 15 mins to go, I attempted to video the last night we would see Dreams, it came out ok but not brilliant. We then beat the rush by going up through arcades at the side and quickly got back to hotel for sadly our last night
Day 4
We once again did the early breakfast run, and went back to room, did final packing, put stuff in car and took the room key back, very sad…..We walked down to Main Park as Leigh wanted one last go on Buzz to see if he could better his score(which he didn’t) then a last ride on Space Mountain, and this one was yes the one I injured my leg on, miss judge the step into car and instead of putting foot in gap caught the edge of the seat and smacked my shin a cracker as I fell into the gap, my shin was killing me, but the host wasn’t sympathetic, he just pushed me down and slammed the harness down. The lady they had put beside me was French so she didn’t understand the agony I was in, let alone the agony of the ride itself. Anyway I survived but couldn’t walk very well, the pain was immense and the dark red lines on my shin with a big lump starting to rise didn’t bode well for the drive home. We however said goodbye to Main Park and went over to Studios to get last rides on Tower and Rock ‘N’ Rollercoaster, Phill was too cold and decided he had had enough already so Leigh and I headed for Tower, Leigh was given the “end of queue lanyard” by a staff member, he was chuffed, they chap seemed to wait for him in amongst the others walking towards the entrance, we went upstairs and back row, was really good ride so as queue was short we jumped back on again and same, upstairs, back row different Tower though. We now decided to go for Rock ‘N’ Roller coaster, queue was nice and short, but this was short lived as the Motor Show kicked out and behind us it became an hour’s queue, so this was to be our last ride at Disneyland Paris.
We had a thoroughly enjoyable time cold but nice and sunny, the last day was the coldest and because of this we made a speedy walk to get something to eat at The Earl of Sandwich, and then back to car for the long drive back. We left at 2:30pm the drive was good by 6pm we were pulled up at Le Shuttle waiting for boarding at 7:50pm, the time went fast but we still had a 95 mile drive back home and we got there by 9:30 with one stop at Clacket Lane. Journey total 289.1 Miles(one way)holiday total 578.2 miles.
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I am please we made the effort to go and my favourite Coasters were Rockin ‘N’ Roller Coaster and Big Thunder Mountain, Tower was the favourite ride, didn’t really gel with Space Mountain, and Indy was much of a muchness. The Dreams was amazing and the whole atmosphere was lovely and relaxed especially riding Small World which I really liked. Wasn’t too worried about meeting characters, learned to look for cheaper food venues and got my Mickey, didn’t do the usually t-shirts as they were too expensive, got a few Pins instead. Disney is lovely but expensive, would now like to try Florida or California for World of Colour.
Day 1
We left home at 04:00 hours early Monday morning, headed for Folkestone to catch the 07:50 Shuttle crossing, this journey was clear and no probs, in fact we arrived a bit early for our crossing, and in error ended up in wrong queue for 07:20 crossing boarding at 06:50, but they let us on anyway. I was well pleased as this would mean getting to Disney a bit earlier. I must admit to being a bit nervous of the thought of driving in France and the time on the train went quickly and then we were off. I drove a bit slow until I got used to it, then quite happily cruised at Main 110kmph, not wanting to push my baby too hard. It took around 3 and half hours with one stop for the essentials, and we arrived at around 12:30 French time, we went to reception collected our park tickets and luckily the room was ready so we got bags too room and headed for the park. We took Shuttle as we initially thought it would be quicker which after a day of this worked out it was quicker to walk down the Rio Grande only taking 10 mins max.
We did Studios first, Leigh cheekily lead us to Tower of Terror, his favourite know I was nervous of drop towers, but what a surprise, I actually thoroughly enjoyed it, in fact too much. We next went to the ride I was most looking forward too, Rock ‘N’ Roller Coaster, having about a 20 min queue, although a little bumpy I thoroughly enjoyed this one. We then realised our timing meant we could go for an explore and ended up at R C Racers, this had about 20 min queue so we went on, very bland ride really not much to be said. After this we went to Motor Stunt show (whatever it is really called). Thought this was a bit boring but hey all part of the experience. We then wandered about a bit going in a few shops, getting a feel for the place, then realising we felt a bit hungry went to Planet Hollywood for my belated Valentines dinner.
This timed right to then wander into the main Park as we wanted to see Disney Dreams, we did this slowly as we had over an hour 20 mins for the start. I was quite excited to see in the distance the Disney Castle, yes I am a big kid, but this was my first Disney Park. We stood at the bandstand taking it all in, then wandered down Main Street to pick our place for show still with 20 mins to run. It was very crowded, but we had picked a good spot. The show didn’t disappoint, it was 20 mins of pure show with the Castle being lit up with graphics lasers and fireworks. Standing watching was very cold but well worth it, the only problem was when it ended was the mass exodus from the area, you had to hold on to each other so not to get parted. We walked back to coach area and just got on the Shuttle and back to Hotel for a well needed sleep. It had been a long day and we all fell off to sleep quickly.
http://s294.beta.photobucket.com/user/B ... 3358969268
Day 2
Up bright and early we went down for breakfast for the 7am sitting which was very busy, we later realised there were 7 coaches waiting to leave so they all wanted there breakfast before leaving. We got the shuttle to the park early to make the most of our ERT with hotel pass’s. We were doing Main Park today. The weather was very bright and sunny the Castle looked amazing with the blue sky being it, we took our time in wandering around just taking it all in, we went inside the castle then made our way to Buzz which Leigh was eager to go on, he managed an amazing 295,900 to my 4,400, he said you have to look for certain symbols, well he must have found them all. We then went to Space Mountain, and boy I was not expecting the roughness of this ride, gave me a right brain shake, then it is a Vekhoma. I was pleased to leave that one behind, but we didn’t go far as we went in the submarine thingy beside it. We now went to Star Tours, and I wish we hadn’t, didn’t realise it was a simulator, omg did I feel sick, I couldn’t watch the screen for long and couldn’t wait for it to be over, I had to rush for the fresh air and on the way out totally forgot I felt sick as I was bumped into by Darth Vadar, took photo of Phill and Leigh with him and Chewbacca run past, he was too fast for us and we didn’t catch him.
We now headed to Phantom Manor, not rushing as we had plenty of time, this was another of Leigh’s favourites but this time it wasn’t running well and the ride kept stalling and some of the effects were not running, apparently it was due for its maintenance period. We decided to stop for food in Luck Nugget, which wasn’t too bad, then as it was sitting in front of time for Big Thunder Mountain. The queue was quite long but moved surprisingly quickly. Now this one I thoroughly enjoyed, it was fun, didn’t bash you to bits and put a big smile on my face, and knew I would be back for another ride on this before we left.
Next we headed for Indian Jones, now Leigh had said this was a bit rough, and it had the longest queue by far, took us an hour to get through, now all I can say is OUCH, but was fun all the same. We then went for a bit of a wander, pass Pirates which was down for maintenance, but we know this before we went, at least all the coasters were working. We wandered on and eventually got to Small world, Leigh had told me this one would drive you nuts with its music, but I actually thoroughly enjoyed it. It was relaxing full of colour, nothing like I had experience before in this kind of ride, well impressed.
Now we had walked around got right back to Space Mountain and as it had no queue we jumped back on this one again. We wanted to slow things down a bit but had quite a wait for Dreams again so we went for a bit of retail therapy, well only window shopping really. As we reached Main Street, the Parade was about to start so we stopped to watch. Now we were quite cold and had a couple of hours to kill so we left the park and went to Starbuck in Disney Village, where we stayed until around 7pm to wait until Dreams started again. Went through the Arcades this time to beat the crush then as queue was very long for Shuttle decided to explore the walk back to Santa Fe, doing this made us realise it was quicker than the shuttle so this is the way we went from now on.
http://s294.beta.photobucket.com/user/B ... 3358969268
http://s294.beta.photobucket.com/user/B ... 3358969268
Day 3
Breakfast at 7am again. Walked to the Park, and it is Studios day today for first part. We had to wait for it to open at 9:30 then headed straight for Crush, this already had a long queue as most ran to be in it, took about 45 mins to get through as it didn’t open on time. I quite liked Crush, it was a fun Coaster, would have loved a second go but not with that queue. We walked back to Tower and had a go on that, , queue only took 20 mins to get into building and away we went, we got front row this time, Phill held on tight as Tower had hurt his back the first time we went on. This is such a “good fun” ride, could have done this lots of times. We then went too Rock ‘N’Roller Coaster again nice short queue, did back row, throws you about a bit here but still fun. On way out we got Fast Track to go back at 12.35, half an hour, so we went to get a coffee, Phill decided to sit Fastrack Out so Leigh and I went back round again, this time back row again. We then went back to find Phill and decided time to warm up and do some shows, we did Cinemagique first as it was about to start, not overly impressed but it was wet and warm. When we came out the Parade was going through so we stopped to watch that, then went over to Anamagique, this one was better, could still see the “invisible cast” behind the main characters and would have been more enjoyable if it wasn’t for a small brat behind me kept kicking my seat, even after I had given the evils, she seemed to do it even more….Grrr.
We had done what we needed to do in Studios, so now went back to Main Park, where we wanted food and Leigh wanted to get another ride on Phantom Manor and BTM in the dark. Also a 360 of BTM on Molly Bown. When we got down there BTM was closed, not a good sign so we did Phantom first hoping to see signs of life after but no….We did the Molly Brown next, I was just curious to see all round BTM, in fact there were engineers crawling all over it running beside the track, but it still wasn’t running, we decided to go for food and stretched this out, and luckily we heard the familiar clonking sound of BTM running again around 6pm, we got up and got 3 rides in the dark, the queue was a lot shorter than it looked, only because nobody was doing the left side of the divide, so technically we queue jumped. Who cares the 3 rides were much fun.
It was really cold by time we had been round so we made our way down to Main Street for show, we were a bit early so hung about in one of the restaurants’ until 15 mins to go, I attempted to video the last night we would see Dreams, it came out ok but not brilliant. We then beat the rush by going up through arcades at the side and quickly got back to hotel for sadly our last night
Day 4
We once again did the early breakfast run, and went back to room, did final packing, put stuff in car and took the room key back, very sad…..We walked down to Main Park as Leigh wanted one last go on Buzz to see if he could better his score(which he didn’t) then a last ride on Space Mountain, and this one was yes the one I injured my leg on, miss judge the step into car and instead of putting foot in gap caught the edge of the seat and smacked my shin a cracker as I fell into the gap, my shin was killing me, but the host wasn’t sympathetic, he just pushed me down and slammed the harness down. The lady they had put beside me was French so she didn’t understand the agony I was in, let alone the agony of the ride itself. Anyway I survived but couldn’t walk very well, the pain was immense and the dark red lines on my shin with a big lump starting to rise didn’t bode well for the drive home. We however said goodbye to Main Park and went over to Studios to get last rides on Tower and Rock ‘N’ Rollercoaster, Phill was too cold and decided he had had enough already so Leigh and I headed for Tower, Leigh was given the “end of queue lanyard” by a staff member, he was chuffed, they chap seemed to wait for him in amongst the others walking towards the entrance, we went upstairs and back row, was really good ride so as queue was short we jumped back on again and same, upstairs, back row different Tower though. We now decided to go for Rock ‘N’ Roller coaster, queue was nice and short, but this was short lived as the Motor Show kicked out and behind us it became an hour’s queue, so this was to be our last ride at Disneyland Paris.
We had a thoroughly enjoyable time cold but nice and sunny, the last day was the coldest and because of this we made a speedy walk to get something to eat at The Earl of Sandwich, and then back to car for the long drive back. We left at 2:30pm the drive was good by 6pm we were pulled up at Le Shuttle waiting for boarding at 7:50pm, the time went fast but we still had a 95 mile drive back home and we got there by 9:30 with one stop at Clacket Lane. Journey total 289.1 Miles(one way)holiday total 578.2 miles.
http://s294.beta.photobucket.com/user/B ... 3358969268
I am please we made the effort to go and my favourite Coasters were Rockin ‘N’ Roller Coaster and Big Thunder Mountain, Tower was the favourite ride, didn’t really gel with Space Mountain, and Indy was much of a muchness. The Dreams was amazing and the whole atmosphere was lovely and relaxed especially riding Small World which I really liked. Wasn’t too worried about meeting characters, learned to look for cheaper food venues and got my Mickey, didn’t do the usually t-shirts as they were too expensive, got a few Pins instead. Disney is lovely but expensive, would now like to try Florida or California for World of Colour.
