Originally Posted By u k fan Ok, so I’m not good at trip reports for two reasons, first, I don’t know if anyone actually cares that I had the salmon at the Beaver Creek Tavern – so how much detail do I go into? And secondly, my memory is not that great when it comes to remembering what I did when so if this meanders I apologise. Anyway with no further ado here’s my trip report… Recruits: u k fan and his nephew Emerson, 9 Date of Operation: 6-10 of April 2006 Mission: To ride Buzz Lightyear’s Laser Blast and to do Boy’s Stuff Ok, so we arrived in Paris at the Gare Du Nord on Thursday evening. After being warned that the ticket booths would be packed (they were) I opted to go to one of the self-service booths and paid by card. I basically opted for the first ticket I found that covered zones 1-5 and hoped for the best. The journey to Marne La Vallee/Chessy was quite easy, but I say that as someone who has used the underground quite a lot. The biggest hassle was carrying the luggage, Emerson helped as much as he could, but I had to tackle all of the stairs myself. Anyway we got to the station to find that Emerson’s child ticket wouldn’t let him through the barriers. As luck would have it someone on our train worked at the station and let us through so that was good! We checked in at the Holiday Inn, watched a bit of telly and went to bed ready for the next day’s adventures! We awoke on Friday bright and early and headed to the parks, sadly we were a bit too bright and early as we couldn’t get in to the park for another 20 mins so I took Emerson into the DLP Hotel for a mooch around. Emerson, like every kid who had just been given 115 Euros found it was burning a hole and wanted to hit the shops (I don’t know where he got that from!) so we looked around for a bit and then headed to the park. At this point in the trip Emerson’s favourite ride was BTM, so we headed to Frontierland stopping briefly for breakfast at The Cable Car Bake Shop (gotta love those healthy breakfasts!). Anyway, at rope drop we went straight to BTM and made it out first attraction of the trip. We basically then spent the rest of the morning looking round shops and taking in the atmosphere. I honestly can’t remember what else we went on that day at DLP, but we had Mickey Pizza for lunch and then headed over to WDS because Emerson really wanted to try Cyber Space Mountain. We went all through the TV tour and finally got to make our coaster only for Emerson to pretty much choose a straight track at the slowest speed, needless to say it was not the most exciting coaster ever created and even Emerson decided he could do better so we vowed to come back again another time. We toured the Animation Tour and then rode The Flying Carpets and I made Emerson go up high so I could peer over the construction fence, sadly it just looked like a construction site on the other side! On the subject, TOT is now coming along nicely and there is a cool little billboard in front of it. You really can see it from everywhere though, even in DL Park itself from certain points. Also that Cars poster really is huge in real life and is actually a bit off putting when you’re close to it. The colours match really nicely with it’s surroundings though so it has that going for it. We also rode the Tram Tour, which is one of Em’s faves, and then as the day was so nice we decided to give Panoramagique a go. The weather really was gorgeous, not a cloud in sight. I really enjoyed Panoramagique (though I hate the name). The view is great and it was nice to see some backstage areas. You got just long enough up there to see everything, but not be bored. I would recommend it to anyone and it will be on my list of things to do again next time. We then went back to DLP to kill time before our dinner reservation at Walt’s. We had a wonder through Fantasyland because Em wanted to ride IASW, it was also one of the things on his wish list before we left, but the queue was one of the longest I’ve seen for IASW so we left it and went on the Canal Boats instead. We then rode POTC another Em fave and then had a slow walk to Walt’s. Emerson had wanted to eat at Walt’s for a while now so it was cool for him to finally eat there. We got a cool seat in the Frontierland room by the Phantom Manor painting and we were able to look out of the window and people watch. Emerson had the Gourmet Burger followed by Mickey’s Gourmet Puzzle, which he loved, and I had the Clam Chowder followed by the Chicken Supreme with Sorbet for dessert (do any of you care?) and it was all very nice. Emerson got one of those plastic toothpick things with Jiminy on which he proceeded to call Geppetti for the rest of the meal! I don’t know why - he’s seen Pinocchio! Anyway, by this time Emerson had decided where his money was going so we went to Disney Village to spend it. He did really well; on top of gifts for his family he bought a Star Speeder from Star Tours (I think it may be a bit of one-upmanship on his friend who always seems to get slightly better Star Wars toys just after Em’s had a new one. He also got a Spandex Donald; if you haven’t seen these they’re very cool. They do Mickey, Minnie and Pluto as well and they’re kind of like those travel pillows you can get that are squishy. They’re done in the cutie style that’s popular now. We ended up bringing them all home bar Minnie! He also got a Buzz laser gun ready for tomorrow, but that’s a whole new chapter so with reservations for the character breakfast at the Plaza Gardens in hand and dreams of Buzz in our minds I’ll sign off for now…!!!
Originally Posted By irishfan Keep it coming....sounds like you two had a lot of fun. So the park was pretty busy yeah? Well, IASW was anyway.
Originally Posted By u k fan It was reasonably busy but not as bad as I've seen it before. POTC was a walk on as was pretty much everything else we went on. Our longest wait on Friday was for The Tram Tour which was about 10 minutes. I would say it was mid to high attendance with Saturday being the peak day we just worked the crowds well hitting the biggies early or late. I was surprised to see IASW busy as the line there is never very long but was long compared to how busy the rest of the attractions were that day. I hope that makes sense!!!
Originally Posted By irishfan I hear the Mark Twain is finally back in action, did you go for a trip?
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo Great stuff UKFAN, and yes, I am keen to hear on menu choices! But I want to really know about Buzz and how the opening went. Also, was Tim Allen there? He was at DL, WDW and Tokyo.
Originally Posted By u k fan Didn't go for a trip on the Mark Twain - Em didn't seem that bothered. And no Tim Allen wasn't there at least if he was I didn't see him!!!
Originally Posted By chickendumpling <<Emerson had the Gourmet Burger followed by Mickey’s Gourmet Puzzle, which he loved, and I had the Clam Chowder followed by the Chicken Supreme with Sorbet for dessert (do any of you care?)>> I care dang it! But, forgive my ignorance, what is a Mickey's Gourmet Puzzle? Boy do I feel stupid asking that but I really don't know. (I am tired though so I'll use that as an excuse. And, btw, there is a StarSpeeder at my house too. LOL.
Originally Posted By TALL Disney Guy <We checked in at the Holiday Inn, watched a bit of telly > I love British folk! <Emerson had wanted to eat at Walt’s for a while now so it was cool for him to finally eat there. We got a cool seat in the Frontierland room by the Phantom Manor painting and we were able to look out of the window and people watch.> Aw man, I wish y'all'd had a TDG with ya! And I'm with chicky, I care too! Lol!
Originally Posted By u k fan Thanks for caring guys! Mickey's Gourmet Puzzle is a white chocolate jigsaw puzzle with a picture of Mickey on it. Once you've assembled your puzzle you can then paint it using different sauces, chocolate, raspberry and banana I think. You even get a little paint brush to decorate it with! I'll try and get part 2 up later today!!!
Originally Posted By u k fan Just wanted to let you guys know that there will be a delay in getting part 2 up as I've had a bit of a family emergency!!!
Originally Posted By MissCandice Yikes, I hope everything is ok. Great trip reprt so far. I DO care that you had the sorbet!
Originally Posted By TALL Disney Guy We care about it all u k fan, you're trip's fun to read about! And please, don't worry about pleasein' us right now---we just hope you're family's okay!
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo All our best bear wishes Ukfan. I've got a tummy bug right now, but I'll give you a call as soon as I can speak.
Originally Posted By u k fan Thanks Guys! To explain my younger sister has epilepsy and had quite a bad fit last night. We were out in the car when it happened so our main concern was getting her home and OK. She's fine now! I'll get cracking on part 2!!!
Originally Posted By chickendumpling So glad to hear everything is okay and your sissy is fine. Now get crackin' on that report boy! LOL.
Originally Posted By TALL Disney Guy Lol...I agree, I'm glad she's okay, and look forward to more reportin'!
Originally Posted By u k fan Ok, here it is! Ok, where was I? If it’s 7:45 am and it’s Saturday the 8th then I must be at The Holiday Inn! I had no trouble getting Em out of bed this morning, this was the big day! The day that the whole trip was about! We’d had Buzz Lightyear T Shirts made with a logo that had been designed especially for us (I’m hoping to get pics up sometime – also thanks to karbonkopi.com for the design) with the slogan “Not Today, Zurg!†on them thanks to Fe Maiden’s suggestion in a thread I’d started on the boards. We got up and out fairly sharpish and headed to the Park for our Character Breakfast reservation at the Plaza Gardens. The Character Breakfast was quite busy and filled up quite a lot as we ate. When we arrived, Mr Smee, Goofy and Baloo were out. Baloo quickly got hold of Em’s Buzz gun and went to shoot Goofy, which Emerson loved. He also loved the fact that when Goofy came to our table he remembered the gun that was lying on the table by this time. Since people do seem to care what we ate: I had very little as I don’t eat much in the morning, but Em had Cereal, 2 Cookies, an Apple, a Doughnut and Curly Fries – the breakfast of a Space Ranger! Anyway, meeting Baloo and co in no way prepared me for what happened next. As the characters switched who should come out but Minnie Mouse, Friar Tuck and…….. Wait for it……. Can you stand the tension?….. OK, here goes……. A Penguin Waiter from Mary Poppins! Ok, not that exciting I know, but Em near on wet himself! He’s just got in to House of Mouse in a big way and to see a Penguin Waiter I swear he was gonna die! Despite wanting to get up and accost the poor guy I told Em to be patient and he would get to us eventually. He was so patient, but park opening was getting closer and we wanted to get on Buzz early so I allowed him to break protocol and go over. I’m so glad I did, about 2 minutes after Em went to meet him he unexpectedly went back in and didn’t return having visited less than a third of the tables being used! You know what’s funny? Em didn’t even know the waiters came from Mary Poppins! I don’t know why, we’ve both watched it together! Anyway, so we left the Plaza Gardens and headed straight for the mass of people waiting for the rope to drop at the entrance to Discoveryland. It was quite a crowd! At 10 o clock the rope dropped and the throng lurched towards Buzz. A rope was up outside as a small opening ceremony was about to begin. Firstly, small is actually making it sound bigger than it was and secondly, badly planned also comes to mind. There was no kind of elevation. Nothing happened on stage so no one beyond the front row could see a thing and even children at the front were unable to see what was happening. Thankfully it wasn’t much even though Guest Relations had told us that there would more than likely be a “Mystery Celebrityâ€. Considering that there was a stage right across the way left over from the previous night’s press event I thought it was bad show not to hold the ceremony there so we could all see it. Anyway, the opening consisted of DLP’s ambassador introducing in turn Karl Holz, Buzz Lightyear and the family who would open the ride. I’d like to say exactly what they did, but I don’t know! I was really disappointed about this not so much for me, but for Em who at 9 is too big to hold up for any length of time and after being so excited saw nothing. Anyway, the ceremony lasted about 3-4 minutes and then we were fighting the crowd to actually get in to the attraction. Once through the barriers it was fairly plain sailing. I had read that APers who had attended previews were unhappy about the amount of unsheltered queue area. There is quite a lot, but in a fast loading attraction like Buzz it shouldn’t be too bad. When the queue said 40 mins we were unprotected for maybe 5 of that. Anyway, Em has become a fine tuned Hidden Mickey spotter over the years and found several in the queue, including one that I would never have found. The queue area inside the building is awesome. It’s so well themed that you can happily believe you are at Star Command HQ. I hope future queues are as good. The Buzz AA is excellent - in the style of the others and it’s not uncommon for the queue to be held up by someone filming him! I noticed that lots of the planets on the star charts had names that sounded like actual names. I assume they’re the names of Imagineers, but I didn’t recognise any of them. Anyway, the actual ride is great. Lots of targets to hit and on repeated rides I kept finding more. There are plenty of out of the way ones to help boost your score. I also wonder if there may be some kind of Timekeeper tribute in the ride, but I didn’t see it! I had also read reports about there being a lack of targets in the last portion of the ride. I agree, but suspect there are hidden targets in that room. What does make it hard is that because everyone is aiming for that one target it’s hard to see which laser beam is yours to adjust your aim. Anyway we both made level 3 which I think is Interplanetary Pilot. I can’t tell you our scores because Em has the picture, but I beat him! It’s a great feature that the photos have your scores on because it means that when you get a great score you kinda have to get the picture to prove it. Give whoever came up with that idea an extra coconut in his pay packet! As soon as we’d purchased our photos we were off for Fast Passes for another ride later and then off to the Pin Cart to check out today’s releases, but that’s a whole other story… COMING SOON: PART 3 EM’S - PIN TRADING ADVENTURE!!!
Originally Posted By TALL Disney Guy < Since people do seem to care what we ate:> Yes u k fan, we do! And don't feel bad at all, my trip report was over 20 pages long total (I posted "day by day" reports)---I put down every dern detail I could remember, lol! <A Penguin Waiter from Mary Poppins! Ok, not that exciting I know, but Em near on wet himself!> LOL! Great penguin-sighting story! I'm so glad you let him "break protocol" too! <COMING SOON: PART 3 EM’S - PIN TRADING ADVENTURE!!!> LOL! I love readin' about you and Em!
