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Family_Furie take on DLRP

caffeine_demon

Strata Poster
I rode the Orlando version first, and thought that the paris one would suffer a bit due to
1 - The cars not moving through the building
2 - The sequence not being random yet

Neither really detracted from the ride - It did seem to feel a little different each ride, but maybe if I rode several times that would change - and I liked it just as much, maybe more than the Orlando one. Everything about it is so close to perfect!


I'm a bit of a fan of RnRC too! Hated Space mountain though!
 

furie

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caffeine_demon said:
I'm a bit of a fan of RnRC too! Hated Space mountain though!

I always disliked the actual ride of Space Mountain, it's pretty dull (though it's never hurt me). It was the original with the "ride experience" thing that made it fantastic, but only as a dark ride, not as a coaster.

RnR I find is like Baco. It's got a brilliant start and then rapidly leads into a really boring layout that doesn't really do anything special. At least Baco tries to remove your head from your neck, RnR can't even be interesting enough to do that.

Though I'm acutely aware of how much some people do like the ride - but they're all wrong.
 

furie

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With downtime yesterday, I got a bit knocked of track doing this, but hopefully I'll get the next three days done no problems...

Day 3
It was a real struggle to get up. Prescription painkillers taken with a pint of beer perhaps wasn't the best idea. Luckily I'm a morning person and was still up and about before everyone else - kicking them out of bed.

So we missed the earlier breakfast slot and arrived at around 7:50... OMG! There was a queue coming out of the front of the hotel lobby which we thought must have been a couple of coaches of fresh check-ins... We barged in through them and then found out it was the breakfast queue!!!

30 minute queue for breakfast? Unbelievable. There seems to be a sweet spot before 7:30 and after about 8:15 where the queues vanish, but we hit the worst time.

Still it gave MMF and SSIL_Furie time to grab another photo and autograph.
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Jessie's face really, REALLY freaks me out.

Breakfast [strike]theft[/strike] time accomplished, we managed to head off into the park in a decent enough time scale, missing Magic Hours (8-10) by just ten minutes :lol:

The idea of today was to "mop up" Disneyland Parc. Spend the whole day there until we'd all done everything we could possibly have wanted to do. I had my own plans, and SSIL_Furie had hers.

SSIL_Furie wanted to get photos and autographs. We'd seen Minnie doing shots as we entered and she also wanted to meet Rapunzel (I love how my spell checker wants to auto-correct Rapunzel to Rappel - what she did with her own hair :lol: ) . There were queues for both (and she hadn't yet realised that she could use the disabled card to bypass queues for meet and greets), so I asked MMF if he wanted the autographs, or to come adventuring with me.

So he left Madame_Furie to get the autographs (I did explain that was missing the point a little) and headed off on an adventure with me.

For those who don't know, this is the kind of stuff I love doing. I like the escapism a theme park (or wandering in the local woods) offers. A chance to get away from the queues, computers and norm for a while. I love it when a theme park offers the opportunity to just "do stuff". It's why I like Alton, Tripsdrill and LWV. Disney do it best though...

First up, we head under the castle for some dragon times. Dragon times are the best times!

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I love the way it seems to be having a go at everyone standing around. It's not a superb animatronic these days, but it's still very well done. It's the quality I expect from Disney as a bare minimum...

We stopped off outside the castle for MMF to see if he was the future king of England. Instead, we just ended up with a picture that will haunt him in future years :lol:

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I'd like to point out he was supposed to be wearing trainers, but they were still wet. He's got eczema so can't wear crocks without socks - not that he should be allowed to wear them anyway. I have reported Madame_F to the police for child abuse ;)

Anyway, the adventure! Where else but... Adventureland!

I loved this area when I found it on my first visit - it's just so excessively pointless. Essentially Adventureland is just PotC, a restaurant or two, a "tree walkthrough" and Indy. Yet it takes up a massive part of the back end of DLP.

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It's things like this that are so fab. It's almost a full scale copy of Captain Hook's ship. Skull Rock is huge and underneath..?

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An excited chipmunk of a MMF desperate to explore the caves.

The caves aren't vast really, but they maze around brilliantly and have loads of exits, entrances, water features, hidden treasure spots, etc, etc, etc. It's brilliant just to get lost in for 20 minutes and enjoy being removed from it all...

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One of several waterfalls

There's a superb rope bridge over to the Swiss Family Robinson treehouse walkthrough:
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But even better, under the tree there's another set of caves and passages made up of the roots of the tree above. The entire area is superb. You are just completely immersed in a different world for that short space of time.

We headed around again and again, past Hook's ship and eventually to behind the sockets of skull rock:
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Then round again finding more things we'd missed. We spent about an hour in total just wandering the area right up to Indy and back to PotC and out again. With it being spring the foliage was all lush and in bloom, the insects and birds making noises - it was divine.

The only thing wrong was the noise of somebody cutting apart a nearby rollercoaster ;)
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Anyway, I'd had a text from Madame_Furie to say they were finally at the entrance to Adventureland... There are at least three entrances to Adventureland, so that wasn't much help.

I asked which one, she said "the one by a camel". I assumed the one from the Agrobah area then :)

We met up and headed for Pirates of the Caribbean. MMF loves Pirate Adventure at DMP, so I was looking forward to seeing what he thought of the original. I remember loving the ride too on the previous two visits, so I was also excited.

Actually, brief stop while I mention DMP. No matter what you may think of the park, I noticed that they are at least good enough to take the urine from DLRP:
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Back to PotC. We skipped the queue which was a shame and a blessing (55 minutes, but it's a nice queue and I needed photos) and got on pretty quickly.

I didn't take many photos, wanting to enjoy the ride, but I got one of the stranded kittens
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Awwwww....

The rest of the ride was abject disappointment. Like Phantom Manor, it just didn't live up to my memories at all. Don't get me wrong, it's 100 times better than the DMP version, but it's so dated and boring. I said above I expect the dragon as a minimum of what to get from an animatronic - PotC is severely lacking. I think maybe that's also what disappointed me about Phantom Manor - I've just come to expect more than poorly animated mannequins. Mannequins annoy me anyway, I find them a cheap and naff way of trying to create a theme.

So, mildly disappointed, we headed back through all the caves and rope bridges to hit Frontierland.

Stopping for a toilet break on the way of course. Then nipping into a shop while we were there... And we had to just go and have a look at the menu of a restaurant or three. But after an hour, we got to...

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Big Thunder Mountain! Another ride I really enjoyed on my previous visits. Again, this is Disney doing what it does best. Huge scale theme as a centre piece for a ride that creates the entire theme for the area you're in. It's so hard to put across the scale of the entire thing.
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Adventureland and Frontierland are an RCT players wet dream. It's exactly what you always want to produce when you're playing the games. Rides and theme that interact and look stunning. Disney have done it so well, it's glorious to just stand around and faff while not attempting to ride anything ;)

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We eventually managed to get in the disabled queue (main queue about 90 minutes) and had a 20 minute wait ahead of us. So we took the time to eat our [strike]stolen[/strike] packed lunch. Though I'm sure that it would have been just as good an idea to do it afterwards ;)

The ride is still really good. It's a good mix of forces and "dark ride". It's got a good length to it, and it's always interesting. It works really well. There seemed to be a few bits of theming missing from last time though - sure it had a water splash and opossums previously.

We got off just in time to miss the boat trip around the lake. Madame_Furie loves the boat trip, so we had to wait for the next one. The queue was horrid. It's just a mass area that everyone crams into, then when the boat docks, they all surge forward to try and get through the gates onto the boat. It's like something from Titanic only without the torture of Celine Dion - that thought and remembering the man falling onto the propeller cheered me up no end :)

The boat was boaty. Some decent shots for the park guide, a big WTF about the geysers not working and a shot of the disappointing Phantom Manor...

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As far as madame_furie was concerned, her trip to Disney was over... We should have just gone on a ferry to the Isle of White :roll:

We were now firmly in the realms of "we've done everything good and everything everyone wanted to do". It was early afternoon, so we got decided to just mooch around and see what took our fancy. We thought we'd plan ahead for dinner, and headed for Pizza Planet.

We got on the train from Frontierland (there's so much empty and unused space around the station) to the back of Star Tours. This station has always been closed before for "refurbishment". The floor tiles rocked and it felt really unsafe going down the platform - I guess they missed it last year, and the year before, and maybe the year before that? Down the exit to see what's going on at Pizza Planet.

What has happened here Disney? Captain Eo (or whatever it is) is closed and Pizza Planet looks like the kind of place urban explorers take photos of (I'm thinking Camelot...). The entire area is deserted and looks abandoned. We'd kind of expected it during the rain the previous day, but in the daylight, it looks dreadful.

So we headed in to Pizza Planet to find out what the low down was.

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It's actually quite exciting going in to Pizza Planet. It's like the film and everyth...

Now, wait... It isn't.

It used to be a vibrant, exciting place filled with games, tables, cashier desks, characters, photo points, etc, etc. It was a great place. Now you're stuck on the side of a fence separating you from the actual restaurant area. There are cashiers ahead, serving nobody. We asked when they closed... Four. It's a buffet now too, hence the restrictions in entering the restaurant area. I think it was about 3:00 at this point and we'd just had [strike]contraband[/strike] delicious lunch and didn't want anything. If it had been a normal restaurant, we'd have probably grabbed a coffee and coke just to say we'd visited.

Instead, turned to leave... Only the doors to get out are on the other side of the barrier. You have to pay for the buffet to get out of the place!!! So we stood by the entrance doors (you couldn't open them from the inside) until some other mug came along and opened them (about five minutes :roll: ).

Such a shame.

So we found a kiosk, a rude member of staff and a cup of coffee - then headed for Autopia.

I've never been on this ride as it's always been closed the previous two times we've been for "refurbishment". I find Grand Prix at Blackpool a bit dull, but MMF loved it (and we only got a quarter of the way around Grand Prix before being evacuated at Blackpool) and SSIL_Furie was also looking forward to it.

It's actually a really great little ride. I like the two tracks and it's very pretty. Remind me never to let SSIL_Furie drive a real car though ;)

Or MMF for that matter...
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MMF "enjoying" Autopia

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Max Damage from Carmageddon

With another land complete and a couple of hours until the parade (SSIL_Furie was desperate to see it from the disabled area), we headed to Fantasyland to see what else there was to do - come on, you all know what's there to do, but everyone is to be kept in suspense ;)

I loved the shaped hedges, this one in particular.
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I guess Fantasyland is the most traditional "fair" type area, but there's still some superb theming. It does remind me a lot of a "premium" Blackpool and I wonder how much inspiration the Thompson's took from the original Disney Park?

We hit up Alice's maze first. Both SSIL_Furie and I really like this. I don't know why I like it so much, but I do. I love the film, I love the book, I like mazes.

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It's got a real cartoon atmosphere about it, with some neat little bits of theming here and there

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We spent quite a while in the place (Madame_Dyspraxia strikes again), but with MMF and me waiting at the end mostly ;)

Then it was... Excitement time!!!

CRED!!!

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The infrequently caught Casey Junior coaster (not that I count it as it's powered :p ).

I couldn't remember if we rode this on our first visit. I remember the area and it does ring a bell, but at least now it's confirmed - proof!

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The pair of them wanted to be in a cage... Finally, we're on the same hymn sheet ;) Sadly, they weren't - everyone is equally as disappointed then ;)

It's actually a great little ride. It's more train ride than coaster, but it's absolutely, definitely a coaster. It's really quite long and there's lots to see. Well worth hunting out :)

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It was time then for the parade, so we faffed for a while to make sure that we had to fight through crowds to get SSIL_Furie to the disabled viewing area. For viewing things, you can only have one other person with you - so SSIL_Furie too MMF with her. Madame_Furie found somewhere to watch.

I don't want to bog this report down with medical issues and stuff, but it's wart and all - so tough (and also has some value I think). I was in agony. My back was killing me. I can't support myself standing still or sitting without a back rest - so the last two days had finally crippled me. I passed my camera to MMF and found a wall to sit down against (if my legs don't bend though, I get sciatica right down my arse and legs and my legs go numb for an hour or so, but it's better than the lower back pain).

So I spent the show on the floor wishing for food to be able to take some painkillers with (the prescription painkillers I take send me loopy if I don't take them with a meal - they do if I take them with a meal actually ,but properly loopy without :lol: ).

MMF managed to take the shot of the week though. Little sod :lol:

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Family_Furie made there way to me (it was easy, I was the beached whale the crowds were avoiding ;) ) to inform me that nobody was really hungry, and could we maybe wait a while before having dinner?

Okay, well if I'm suffering, you lot bloody can too!

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There was a breakdown*. It elicited this response from MMF:
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Hahahhahaha! And now whenever he annoys me, I play the song on my phone!!!

I love the little signs at the end showing cultures swapping things:

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I'll give you legal whore houses and legal drugs, you can give us a communist state?

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Cake or death?

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We shall bring rape and pillage with our longships. Please, accept our fans!

Still no sign of food on the horizon and suddenly everyone had a buring desire to ride Dumbo and the teacups :roll:

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Though it's hard to work out which is Dumbo (I suspect it's me) :p

There was a degree of "lost spacker card" faff for fifteen minutes (It was in SSIL_Furie's pocket all along). and then we finally headed for some dinner at about 7:30 (remember, this is two hours after I collapsed in a heap due to pain).

Most of the food places were closed and MMF was badgering about the all you can eat BBQ buffet at the hotel. I suggested somewhere closer in the Disney village. There was a slight problem though.

We seemd to have over spent by about 200€ somehow, so were feeling skint. I was hungry enough to eat a scabby dog though, so it needed to be something substantial. We headed for the village, but everything was outrageously priced (as we'd found out at Rainforest Cafe on Day 1). There was a Wild West bar though doing all you can eat BBQ. It was about the same price as the hotel, and sounded good. I'd decided to pay by card if it was a set amount.

Unfortunately, as I was finding this out, the rest of Family_Furie had discovered "SHOPS!" So I waited another 20 minutes for them to arrive. By the time they did, there was no room at the inn... So I hobbled back to the hotel with family_furie for their all you can eat BBQ buffet.

I wasn't keen. It was 28€ a head and the hotel food has a bad reputation. It was also almost 9:00 by this point and pain and hunger had given way to a desperate need to curl up into a ball like a hedgehog and sleep until next spring.

The food was actually... Not good, but "fine". There was a lot of choice and while none of it was really nice, it wasn't unpleasant either. So we ate our fill and [strike]stole[/strike] ate puddings until we were fit to burst. I finally got my pain killers and it was another late night before another early morning. I was trying to get to bed early so we could get to the breakfast before the pain of the huge queue... I'll leave you in suspense as to whether we managed it or not ;)



*Yes, I think I will sue them ;)
 

peep

CF Legend
You summed up my thoughts on Adventureland perfectly. It's just the perfect place to relax and create your own adventures. Just exploring the caves is awesome fun and trying to spot the Eiffel tower from the treehouse is always a fun game.

Shame to hear about your back woes towards the end of the day though, that proper sucks.
 

marc

CF Legend
Yes I agree with that as well. It just feels totally different from the rest of the park and the other Disney Parks.

It's very open and wide unlike the others and you can have down time there.

I like the Pan stuff there as well the ship and the rock look great and it's fun to explore.

I do wish though there was one more attraction on the way from Big Thunder to Indy.
 

nealbie

CF Legend
I feel exactly the same way about Alice's overgrown bush, furie. Controversially Ali and I spent 3 hours in there without realising! :lol:
 

peep

CF Legend
Lol, I'm as curious as Alice, how does one manage to spend 3 hours in a hedge maze?


P.S. Another fan of the maze over here, it goes on for so long!
 

Jordanovichy

Credit Whore 2016
You persuade Sanchezmran to get his/her mum to look at your report to show you're a family guy and then you go and post a pic of a urinal. Well played, Furie, well played. :lol:

But another great addition, I've said it before but it really is nice to read a family report for a change.
 

ciallkennett

Strata Poster
Really enjoying your PTR, furie! Normally all DLP reports I see are cred-dashing and parade watching. I'd always assumed the parks were quite dull and empty but you've proven otherwise - quite a lot that can be done and some really lovely, escapist areas.
 

Robbie

Hyper Poster
Enjoying the trip report too. I do really like the atmosphere of the park(s), but then that makes it all the more frustrating that some attractions have a cheap, "that'll do" air about them.
 

furie

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Glad there are so many other bush and hole fans here :)

peep said:
Lol, I'm as curious as Alice, how does one manage to spend 3 hours in a hedge maze?

There are some questions nobody wants an answer to ;)

marc said:
Yes I agree with that as well. It just feels totally different from the rest of the park and the other Disney Parks.

I did wonder if it was something all the parks had. It's essentially such a huge waste of space, it's brilliant!

marc said:
I do wish though there was one more attraction on the way from Big Thunder to Indy.

Definitely. There's a lot of room beyond the nice caves and things with very little going on. It wouldn't need to be a huge attraction either.

Though there's a chance of...

Robbie said:
some attractions have a cheap, "that'll do" air about them.

However I think the period of "stick it in because we're desperate for anything new" is over now and we're looking at properly planned, larger scale projects - well, let's hope. Ratatouille definitely looks like a proper project.

ciallkennett said:
Really enjoying your PTR, furie! Normally all DLP reports I see are cred-dashing and parade watching. I'd always assumed the parks were quite dull and empty but you've proven otherwise - quite a lot that can be done and some really lovely, escapist areas.

It's all about what you want. I'm going to try and detail things a little more in a summary, but yeah, there's so much t do - but only if you WANT to do it. Sorry, I've got plans for the trip report you see, so I'll answer a lot of this stuff and discuss it further at some point in a few days :)
 

maxi-minor_furie

Roller Poster
Day 3

Epic adventure of epicness
10/10 for damp holes, gushing, deep roots and suspenders!

Pirates of the Caribbean
Like the film, only the acting was less wooden. Also like Pirate Adventure only without the shark chasing the swimming man around which is the best thing ever. Spoke funny, but maybe that was pirate. There was a dog with a key. 7/10

Big Thunder Mountain
My farts are thunderous.

It was a bit like the Runaway Mine Train at Alton though with less CHOO CHOO and more funny speaking. 10/10

Boat Trip
I like boats - 10/10. Nobody talked funny apart from the woman, but she was apparently American.

Autopia
I rammed Dad and made Mum spill her coffee! Best ride ever!!! Apart from that one at Blackpool where I got to walk the track instead of driving it - they didn't speak funny there either 10/10

Dad's rubbish and didn't mention we went on the Snow White and Pinocchio rides. They were like Chuff Nuggets at Drayton, only with less shooting and more boredom. Nah, Dad made me say that because he hates them - 8/10!

Alice's Maze
It's brilliant. It had the Cheshire cat and everything. It was like the maze at Blackpool only with less people smoking and more people speaking funny. 8/10

Casey Juniour
I had my arms up all the way around. I don't know why, it wasn't very fast. I didn't get to go in a cage, it was very sad. 6/10

Old Mill
Dad also didn't mention we went on this. It was excellent and had that really cool demon thing from Fantasia in it. 8/10

Parade
I took the best picture ever! The song on repeat was better than Children of the Revolution which was on repeat in the parade in Bristol when I went there last year. 10/10

It's a Small World
Hideous! Worst ride ever! ARRRRGHHHHHH, now the tune is in my head!!!! 0/10

Dumbo
The original and the best? Isn't that the elephants at Chessington that these are like? 8/10

Teacups
Like the ones at Gullivers only they didn't make anybody vomit. 7/10
 

furie

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Day 4 started a little better. We were tired, but in the restaurant at about 7:40 with just a ten minute queue. Luckily, MMF and SSIL_furie got Pluto while we waited. MMF loves Pluto so was really, really chuffed - almost as chuffed as his Jack signature, but not as chuffed as he would be later on... ;)

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Today was to be about, erm, stuff. Just doing a few things really to pass time until we were to head into Paris (there's culture in this section, so you may want to hang on a day where there'll be more rides and reviews and it's more interesting ;) )

I think there was a vague plan to try and get some more signatures that we'd missed, then to take in a few shows at the studios park so we'd essentially completed everything at both parks. So once again missing magic hours (I don't know? We finished [strike]stealing[/strike] eating breakfast at about 8:15, so have no idea how it was gone 10:00 when we got to the park - please don't ask, it's beyond me!)

Luckily, Minnie Mouse was up again at DLP, so MMF got his signature authentically and a photo.
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We'd just finished with Minnie when who should appear..?
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Hurrah! The queue was vicious though. It was an uncontrolled meet and greet, so was just masses of people pushing in to those who had formed a disorderly queue. Somebody almost got smacked knocking SSIL_Furie and MMF out of the way. The attendant (about five minutes beyond having totally lost patience) saw and pushed those people back.

And that was it for DLP. We headed off to the studios again, but caught this atmospheric picture of the balloon on the way. I like balloons!

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Let's hear a cheer for mouse eared water towers!
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hurray

After a considerable amount of something faff (seriously, I've given up now even trying to remember exactly what faff caused what delay), we just about made it in for:
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I really like this show. It's not knock out wonderful, but it's a really pleasant way to not spend time on your feet :)

For those who haven't seen it, it's a mix of puppet show and characters, with rapid set changes and well known Disney tunes. It's all under ultraviolet, so bright and joyful. Probably not for the miserable amongst you :p

I can't remember how different it was form last time, but I don't think very. Family_Furie all loved it, but they had to kick us out because faff and we were the only ones there five minutes after everyone had exited :roll: :lol:

We stopped outside for a quick photoshoot with Monsters Inc. I also tried once again (about the fifth time) that just because the sign saying "photo point ->" had a picture of Sully on it didn't mean that Sully would be there all day. SSIL_Furie couldn't seem to understand and my sign language isn't good enough to try and explain the difference between "static photo point" and "meet and greet photo opportunity".

So she ended up miserably with just Mike and the Crocswonder
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Madame_furie kept an eye on them
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We headed for Stitch Live next, because "Stitch!" He's a great character and it's good that he's got decent representation in the park with the attraction, merchandise and character meets.

I didn't know what to expect with Stitch Live. I thought maybe it was a costume character show of some kind, but I was wrong. It's a computer animated cartoon where Stitch interacts with audience members. The show we had was really spot on. Stitch was on the ball, the interaction was believable and everyone had a great laugh... Apart from SSIL_Furie, because I couldn't sign fast enough and she didn't understand my signing for "Stinky Belch Face Man at the back is really Crazy Martin from The Netherlands the renowned intergalactic criminal" or understand why I would be signing that to her :lol:

As we left, there were a load of characters outside. We waited to see...
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Who wasn't signing autographs because "he's only got one hand". This confused MMF who already had Captain Hook's signature in Minor_Furie's half of the signature book we'd bundled him with. I explained that maybe in 2004, it was before the crocodile had bitten his hand off - that seemed to satisfy him ;)

We waited for the rats from Ratatouille too, but they had to go when we were about five people from the front :(

We missed loads of characters, but it's okay, we still have another day to report on yet... ;)

Just for ATTACKHAMMER - have another shot of this miserable ducker
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The only "major attraction" left now for us was the tram tour. Another long wait even for the disabled side - but better than the 90 minutes normal queue. I remember this being a lot of dull stuff, a decentish bit, then dull stuff, then MOARFIRE, then dull and end.

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It's a tram.

It's changed. It's now some dull stuff, a once decentish bit:
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The same dull stuff again, some more dull dull but
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MOARFIRE!

Dull and back. All narrated by the most bored sounding Jeremy Irons ever and some French bint.

Eugh! Half an hour of my life I'll never get back :(

What could possibly make up for that? How about?
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TWO HOUR QUEUE??? TWO HOURS??? OF MY LIFE? FOR SPIDERMAN (I've never forgive him for Spiderman 3)?

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Spacker band to the rescue!

We needed four shots to get the photo (you're not allowed to take your own photos here) because Madame_Dyspraxia couldn't do the Spiderman web shooting hand gesture thing :lol:

Anyway, it was BRILLIANT! Spiderman was American, and TALKED! He was really friendly, spent ages with us chatting before the photo and joking about madame_spackerhand. MMF was gobsmacked. Properly, in awe, starstruck gobsmacked. It was clearly the best moment in his life ever. I reckon even after a two hour queue he'd have still ranked it as one of the best experiences of his life.

That's kind of how the place gets you. You know it's an actor/employee in a suit, but after a while, you're so submersed in the worlds created around you that you do start to believe it's real.

We grabbed one final cheesy family snapshot (I'm on the right) before heading out of the park to Paris, only about 2 hours behind schedule ;)

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We'd always planned to do semi-decent amount of time in Paris. It's wrong to go to a foreign country and just stay at theme parks all the time ;)

So we got on the RER to Paris, and as we travelled, formulated a plan. Initially, it was going to be to head to Trocadero - then take the scenic walk through the the Eiffel Tower and do the top of the tower (TM and Copyright Merlin Ents. ;) ).

However, we weren't sure about the Metro route because SOMF had said something about getting off at the Opera House. We've got an 8 year old in tow though and SSIL_Furie has never struck me as the enlightened culture type - so I didn't think it was such a good idea. So we looked and spotted a route to...
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I like medieval cathedrals, and they don't get much more medieval or cathedraly than this one. Lots of photos coming up...

We joined the queue to get in (very long but constantly moving and free (we were feeling skint remember, down to our last 50€ or so by now)) and got inside - it's huge. Properly, enormous and absolutely stunning.

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I had a sudden religious moment where I felt like I'd just awoken from a wet dream about a sexy gipsy girl/goat ;)

We wanted to go up into the high walkways, so followed the signs that just lead you back outside. Madame_Furie went back to find out where to go, and the guyat the information desk just pointed at the sign saying "go outside you imbecile". The custodians of the cathedral were trying really hard to very quietly get the loud Americans to stop have very loud conversations as there was a service on :roll: People didn't like us, I think they assumed the crocs meant we were also American :(

So went outside and low and behold, around the corner..? A huge queue for people to go up the top. It's quit elate by now, we're all knackered and the queue isn't going to move quickly. We also want to get up the Eiffel Tower - so sadly made the decision to skip it and get ice cream and sit in a park instead.

I didn't take any pictures of the ice cream, but here's me dying of first and hunger waiting for it to arrive:
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Have some more pictures of Gothic epicness

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Flying Butts!!!

Was really pleased we'd decided to make the effort. Everyone was really impressed with either the architecture or the ice cream.

We tried to head straight over to the Eiffel Tower next, and after some Metro faff we got to the connecting station (Metro faff involves me rushing off in the right direction because I've memorised the map, lien and direction while Madame_Furie and SSIL_Furie study the maps to prove me wrong ;) ) only to find the trains all delayed by 50 minutes because of a person on the line. So we headed back across Paris and more Metro faff to find another way :)

We got to the original station we were supposed to be in, and MMF found the best thing of the whole trip...
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A lift... That comes out in the middle of the street??? It's such magic.
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Rly!

;)

We could finally see our destination!
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But also the reason we came up to the street level:
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Like Marble Arch really... I loved watching the traffic trying to go around it - especially the bike things. Best fun I've had in years!

Finally, finally, finally - a couple of Metro stops and an agonising short walk and our objective is in sight. If you're going to tourist, do it properly.
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I'd forgotten how impressively huge the tower is. It's absolutely incredible. So was the queue to go up it. OMG! It snaked right the way Under the centre of the tower. Thousands of people ahead of us, it was crippling (physically and mentally). So we waited and waited and had our bags checked (twice, we're Americans ;) ) and finally got to the second stop on the lift... To find that the trip to the top was lcosed due to the sheer number of people visiting that day! NO!!!!!!

So I just got lots of photos of Paris from the level we were on. First up the places we'd just been to:
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Then some other interesting sights.

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I loved the Paris skyline and I wish we'd done the scenic walk from Trocadero. We were knackered though, it was late and the Metro had screwed us up a bit.

Still, we spent almost an hour up the tower, bought over priced sweets for me to bring back to work, did the toilet thing (planning in advance here, and we all went at the same time!!!)

Then it was goodbye and back to DLRP
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**** huge!

Though we stopped at Subway for some traditional French cuisine. I'm sure that somebody has a photo of the food, but I don't ;)

We got back around late dusk (so about 9:30) after a 7 hour or so excursion to Paris. I grabbed a couple of shots of the lit up stuff and then back to the hotel room to pack for the journey home and bed...

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Now, I don't mention every detail for no reason... Way back on Day 2, I returned to the hotel early for painkillers (washed down with a beer). This isn't the best idea apparently.

Remember, we're short of money, but it's okay because tomorrow is the last day and we can have a [strike]stolen[/strike] hearty breakfast. However, these two things are connected.

It appears that after I'd had the painkillers and was a little tired and spaced out, I'd decided to organise our money. I'd hidden some away as our safe was borked and I didn't like having hundreds of Euros on us in cash at all times. Madame_Furie was packing the drawers up and found a bundle of notes. 100€ with some socks.

She wasn't overly impressed... Even less impressed when she found another bundle of 150€ with the pants :lol:

Still, it meant we'd had a great time well under budget and could have a bit of a blast on the final day (and still bring money home).

I thought it was good anyway :lol:

There we are, day 4 then and the final day left to type up. Phew. It's been a little epic...
 

peep

CF Legend
Another great report. Really enjoy reading it. Interesting to hear Spiderman speaks, wasn't aware of that. May I ask how much they're charging for the photo?

Look forward to day 4.
 

furie

SBOPD
Staff member
Administrator
Moderator
I think the photos were something like 30 euros for four if you bought them in a lump. Maybe 35?

I dunno, ssil_furie bought them all lol

The frames were an extra 4 Euros

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
 

Ian

From CoasterForce
Staff member
Administrator
Moderator
Social Media Team
Two hours to queue for a photo with a man in Spiderman costume is outrageous. What sort of people stand in line for that sort of ****...and then pay for the "memory".
 

furie

SBOPD
Staff member
Administrator
Moderator
Not us :D

Yeah, it's ridiculous - but at least the character made an effort when people finally got there.

I guess it's all part of "the Disney thing". That's what you go to experience and you suck up the queues to do it :(
 

maxi-minor_furie

Roller Poster
Day 4

Minnie Mouse
Bit girlie, but got the 'graph - 7/10

Russell
OMG! That boy from that film... I couldn't remember but it was dead exciting anyway! 8/10

Animagique
Really good, but Mickey spoke funny and some of the songs were in a funny language. I had popcorn. Mmmmmmmm, popcorn. 9/10

Stitch
I laughed until I pooped! 10/10

Tram Tours
Maybe I'll watch Reign of Fire after all... Nah! I liked the bit where we got to sit down for 20 minutes. Funny language ruined it though. 7/10

Spiderman
Really disappointing he didn't make the effort to fit in a speak funny. Other than that, 20586733904/10

Paris
I loved it! 9/10, but the glass lift that comes out in te street makes it a 10/10!

Mum finding a stash of cash so I can be spoilt tomorrow
10/10 :)
 

furie

SBOPD
Staff member
Administrator
Moderator
Day 5 - Final Day

As we'd managed to essentially "do everything" at Disney, we decided the last day should be a "things people really want to do again" day, with at least an hour (if not longer) at the end of the day for shopping.

Now, the one thing I really wanted to do was have a proper sit down lunch somewhere and eat park food I'd paid for. So we had breakfast - by this time, after four days of [strike]two[/strike]a meal[strike]s[/strike] a day of croissant, pain au chocolate and ham crusty bread had very much lost its appeal - and then headed to finish packing and get in some magic hours finally.

First we needed to write and post some postcards :roll:

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BAM! And the time is gone!

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And then we needed to go to the shop, because the promise of an hour or more shopping later in the day wasn't enough for anybody. SSIL_Furie picked up her photos from the week to get them cheap in a bundle as well as a load of other things she'd been after all week.

We also needed photos with a large Stitch
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Eventually (about 10:00 - so missed magic hours again :lol:) we walked through to the parks. Madame_Furie wanted to do the walk one last time.

We saw Mickey getting his bush trimmed
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That's a great job :lol:

The problem with walking is that you end up going through the Disney Village. Madame_Furie wanted to see what a French McDonalds was like and SSIL_Furie and MMF were drawn to the Lego store...
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I don't mind, I love Lego stores :)

They had the new Simpsons Mini-Figs which I couldn't resist buying (for MMF ;) ). We spent ten minutes fondling each blind pack to work out which ones where which. I gave all the turds to SSIL_Furie in the search for something decent.

I manged
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We took them to the counter and found the two staff doing exactly the same thing. They were feeling the packs and splitting them into piles of each character, so you could just ask for the one you wanted :roll: :lol:

Eventually we rolled into the studio park at a bout 11:30. We all wanted to go on Tower of Terror again, but Madame_Furie had some shop faff she wanted to attend to - so the three of us left headed to R'n'R which MMF still thinks is the best rollercoaster in the world.

We spakcer passed it top the back row
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It's really dull at the back. I like the launch, but find the ride really boring at the back. The lights were on too so it wasn't as fun. SSIL_F preferred it though as she could see where she was going and avoid getting her head battered by the awful restraints.

We met up with Madame_Furie and headed for Tower of Terror. The disabled access is through the shop. You can guess what's coming surely? Enter through gift shop? FFS

They had a lot of Nightmare Before Christmas merch in one place in the ToT shop. I'd seen it all in the other stores, just not in the same place. This is the thing, the merch is generally available everywhere.

Still, there were 20 minutes of shopping happening before we got to the disabled access.

It's odd waiting by the exit as all the doors are closed. Then the ride cycle finishes and the attendant comes out to find out about you and to sort you a space. Then the doors close again and you're left by the shop. So the attendant came out, found out we were four, went off and...

MMF needed to toilet.

Off he goes with Madame_Furie to find one (I always end up left with SSIL_Furie as I'm the one who can sign to/for her).

The attendant comes back out to take us in, and I have to explain that we're now waiting...

Ten minutes later, MMF and MF arrive back and five minutes after that, we get taken onto the ride. This has taken twice as long as standing in the main queue :lol:

The ride is still superb, but it does lose a little skipping the lobby, pre-show, etc. So I'm glad we sucked up the queue the first time around.

We get out (still browsing the shop on the way out of course :lol: ) and ready to leave the park. There's a crowd though and characters.

Now...

I know that I've semi-joked, semi-seriously gone on about the faff. I don't want people to think I'm some anal nightmare rushing through and missing the fun. I certainly have selfish reasons for not wanting to stand around doing nothing (mostly pain). However, I' ma great believer in if you're going to do something - do it! Then afterwards do whatever. If we're going on Tower of Terror (and in this case, we were and that's the only reason I'm at that place) then we should do it. I don't want to shop. I don't want the toilet. I want to go on the ride. After the ride, everyone can shop and toilet to their heart's content and I'll wander off and amuse myself.

I can't wander off and amuse myself however if we're meant to be going on a ride. Hence my frustration.

On top of it being annoying though, there's another purpose. If you get the ride done and I'm a free agent, I can go off and do useful things. In this case, find out that there are characters to meet.

I knew that around the time we'd be getting of ToT (without shop and toilet faff), the characters would be there. So the idea is ToT, then I coul go and see if the characters arrived and if they did, get Family_Furie to collect the sigs/photos.

However, because of all the faff, I spent half an hour standing in pain doing nothing, and we missed the characters. Then it was my fault for not mentioning this before - but I'd been getting it in the ear all week for dragging everyone around anyway so thought I'd let it slide as it's the last day :lol:

At least I got some nice photos of the Stitch merch
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SSIL_F was upset about missing the characters though, but as they would be back at between 2:45 and 3:45, I suggested coming back. However, that would eat into her "shopping time" as we had to get to the station for 4:00. So we said we'd see.

SSIL_F and MMF grabbed a quick go on Crush on the way out and we left for Disneyland Parc.

The main park was quiet as we headed over. So we got a few photo opportunities we'd missed due to pushy people crowding around things.

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MMF isn't allowed to like Frozen as he's an eight year old boy. So he shot Elsa with his Star Wars gun
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It was something to pass the time as... SSIL_Furie needed ten minutes to get a tee-shirt from this exact shop :lol:

We then got lunch in Frontierland (Texmex) which was really good actually. I think it was about 48€ for the three of us, but it filled us up, was delicious and included drinks both then, and a bonus free drink after 3:00... Erm, bonus!

SSIL_Furie wanted to wander the Sleeping Beauty castle, which I didn't, but it was "last day do what people want" day, so I did it. It was okay I guess.

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There was a tapestry depicting my epic battle wit the faffdragon (Madame_Furie ;) )
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Which was nice :p

I then took one last photo to try and show the extent of the theming and how it tries to submerge you, even from above the rooftops
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Quick dash on to Peter Pan (ooops, we did that on Day 3 actually but I forgot to mention it, don't hate me please?) and then out to see if we could meet the characters in the studios.

Madame_Furie wanted to go in a shop (quelle surprise), so we went on without her.

No characters in the park (it was 3:00 by this time). So we stood around arguing badly in sign language about if we should wait, or go shopping. By 3:10 we'd decided not to wait (I suspect they come out much closer to the end of the period they're supposed to be there) and headed out.

On the way, SSIL_Furie wanted her free drink. The queue for the drink outlet was about 30 deep and in the queue she got. I explained that if she wanted to go shopping (because obviously that was still required - I had promised after all ;) ), she probably didn't have time to queue.

So she ummed and ahhhed. Free drink against spending money on tat... It was a close call, but the tat won out.

So we rushed out of the park to the village and managed to nab (after a toilet break and an explore of a few other shops) a decent shopping spree of about five rushed minutes in the large store that sold everything everyone had spent the day buying all over the parks :roll: :lol:

Only because Madame_Furie HAD decided to get her free drink, I was suddenly left trying to get presents for friends and family in just a few minutes! ARRRRRGH! :lol:

And that's essentially it. Train journey home to Ashford, overnight stay there in a faceless lodge and an uneventful drive back to Stafford.

Phew. I'll summarise everything and put down my real opinions in a later post, but for now, I'm glad that's a report essentially complete :)

I'll just leave you with this - despite the fact things seemed rushed and negative, we ALL had a fantastic time :)

For a full load of pictures, there's about a thousand on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/furiekins/medi ... 436&type=3
 

davidm

Strata Poster
Top report there fella. The attention to [strike]detail[/strike] faff ; very impressive.
 
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