The Year We Froze....2005................................... ........Final Day added

[hildasmuriel]

We had decided as we left last time that we would be returning to DLRP. We had been home only about 2 weeks before we got an email from Disney, offering some really good deals for Easter. Can you believe it was Husband who wanted to go for it, and it was I who was sensible and said we really couldn’t afford it? Amazing to think of now. I loved the idea of going in February - kids went free for starters. Also I love Christmas so much that I find January a really difficult month. With a trip to Disney to look forward to, it becomes a little easier.

We knew our next trip would be more expensive, as Son was now 12 and counted as an adult. We waited until about October to book. The travel agent said that she had to tell us that Space Mountain would be closed during our trip – did we still want to go? Well, of course we did – that’s only one ride (and I don’t even do it!). As she started putting stuff in the computer I said to Husband “shall we ask about the price of 3 nights, not 2” and he said “why not, can’t hurt”. Well that was it – having got that much approval, there was no way I was backing out, so we were booked in from 14 Feb for 3 nights at Santa Fe.
This time we told the children straight away, as they enjoyed the planning as much as we did. Dtr is a list writer – she soon had reams of paper detailing exactly what she wanted to do and when. Son was disappointed that SM was to be closed but he was still looking forward to the trip. We decided in advance where we would eat: first night at Annette’s then we wanted Tuesday in the Blue Lagoon, after our abortive attempt to eat there the year before, then lastly in the Silver Spur. We had learnt that we needed to book, so we intended to do that at concierge as soon as we got there.
I found out that one of the teachers in work was going with her family on the same flight as us, although as there were 5 of them they were staying offsite at Explorers. It was their first time there and they were staying for 3 days.

At long last Valentines Day arrived and this year my BIL was taking us to the airport and even better – the flight went on time. We waved at teacher and her family but weren’t sitting near them. We took one look at the queue for the VEA and decided to go for the TGV – our experience the year before had frightened us a bit. We checked in at Santa Fe and then went to the Park. We were just as excited as the previous year – maybe more so as we knew how good it was now.

Ohmigosh – it was even better than we remembered. How could that be? This year the Kids Carnival had taken over the area outside City Hall and everywhere, even the litter bins, was decorated in the bright carnival colours and the music soon stuck in your head. (La Di Da Carnival).

We went through the bottom of the Castle to say hello to the dragon and through into Fantasyland.
On our list of things we hadn’t managed to do last time was Alice’s Labyrinth, so we went into that and had a good explore, ending high up in the castle in the middle. It was lovely up there, having a look around at the place I had been dreaming of for a whole year since our last visit.

No doubt about where we would go next – POTC to find out if the tune was as catchy as I thought, yo ho yo ho yes it was.

We wandered through Adventure Isle and over towards Indiana Jones, although the ‘boys’ didn’t feel up to riding this, having bad memories of the previous year when it ran backwards.

We were all feeling peckish by now, so went out to Annette’s and were seated right away. Husband and I had bacon cheeseburgers, while Son had a foot long hot dog and Dtr had mini hotdogs.

We were all much more refreshed as we went back into the Park. Back on POTC – it was a cold cold day and the warmth in there was very welcome. Going into Frontierland we went on Phantom Manor and then the other 3 went off to BTM while I went to watch Fantillusion. Then came the announcement we all dread “Ladies and gentleman, boys and girls, Disneyland Park is now closing....” so we had to wend our way down Main Street and into the Village.

Oh, how thick were we? All of the last year we had walked along the road back to Santa Fe and here was another way! We had never realised that if you walk through the Village you can get to all the Hotels that way. So for the first time we walked round Lake Disney, past the people ice-skating outside Hotel New York, marvelled at how Newport Bay looks all lit up, strolled along the canal, over the bridge and back to Santa Fe that way. We went to the garage for water and essentials (sweeties!) and then back to our room to crash out for the night.

 

[DLPdaft]

Yey! You've started another trip report

 

[Dianetigger]

Yeah, fabulous! Really love your trippies.

 

[hildasmuriel]

And look....... the Mickey hat (the one we told Dtr that she would never wear) is back at its home, proving us wrong.

 

[scampbunny]

yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay another one and lol@ the mickey hat - thought it looked familiar.....

 

[torsie24]

And look....... the Mickey hat (the one we told Dtr that she would never wear) is back at its home, proving us wrong.

Yaay, for the hat! And a great TR so far!!

Looove how happy your little girl looks in every picture!!

 

[cap'njack.]

Loving the blast from the past trip report!

 

[hildasmuriel]

Tuesday
COLD COLD COLD! It had been snowing and little bits lay on the ground....and just in case I didn’t mention it – it was COLD!

We had breakfast booked for 7.00 am and then walked along next to the partly frozen canal, over the bridge to Hotel Cheyenne (which was very slippery) and we got to the Park by about 9.15am. Unlike the previous year they didn’t rope-drop early and we had to wait until 10.00 am.

We decided to get on the Fantasyland rides first, so started with Peter Pan, Snow White and IASW, without too much waiting. The queues were not building up too quickly today. We walked round into Discoveryland and the boys went on Star Tours while Dtr and I huddled up on a bench, then all 4 of us went into watch Honey I Shrunk the Audience.

We decided to go for an earlyish lunch and went into Pizzeria Belle Notte – our first time in there. We liked the pizza and pasta that we had and especially the hot drinks as it was still snowing on and off.

We saw some characters outside after lunch, strolling around, then we made our way through Aladdin’s passage and into Frontierland. The children both bought themselves enormous boxes of popcorn and we went to the Chapparal Theatre for another thing that we hadn’t had time for the previous year – Mickey’s Winter Wonderland. It was a clever show, in that it was wintery without being Christmassy. We loved all the singing, dancing and skating...well all of it, actually.
We went on Phantom Manor

Then on the Molly Brown, which gave a great view of BTM.

We decided we needed a repetitive tune to go round our head, so it was time to go back on IASW. The bravest 3 of our party then went right back across the park to go on BTM while I nursed a cup of hot chocolate in my freezing cold hands while I watched the Princess Parade and did a bit of Arcade shopping. We didn’t have tons of money to spend, but there was a bit more than there had been on the previous year, hence the extra night and the nicer meals.

I met up with the others and we went to explore Adventure Isle a bit. We hadn’t tried the Robinsons Tree House before but it was closed as it was soooooooo icy. The waterfalls on Adventure Isle were not working and there were huge icicles hanging from Skull Rock. They were so big, I thought at first they were all part of the Imagineering!

Dtr played a while on La Plage de Pirates

then we went up to Indiana Jones – Son and Husband were feeling brave enough to try it today.

We went for a ride on POTC before going into the Blue Lagoon for our meal. The atmosphere was great in there, as we were sitting right by the ride and waved to every single boat that went past.
The food was certainly different from other places we had tried : Husband had Caribbean Salad, Blue Lagoon Kebab and lime cheesecake; I had Caribbean Salad and banana in rum; Son had hamburger and chips and Dtr had meatball and chips and Mickey ice-cream.
While Husband and I were finishing off, the children went round and went on the ride itself, so they shouted Bon Appetit at us. When we finished eating, all 4 of us went on but then it was Park closing time. We went for a little look around the Village and then walked back (hurray - along the canal!) to Santa Fe and our lovely warm hotel room.

 

[thelittlemermaid83]

Great trippy!!

Did you scan all your pics in?

 

[hildasmuriel]

Yes, and a lot of them are stills from camcorder footage - that's why the quality is a bit naff.

 

[hildasmuriel]

Wednesday

We had a 7.30 breakfast booked today. We discovered that it was every bit as cold as the previous morning, so we added an extra layer of clothing - putting yesterdays t-shirts back on and putting today’s clean ones on top and then adding fleeces and coats to that.
The shocking news today…….Dtr bought a new hat! She hadn’t abandoned Mickey completely but wanted a Pirates hat as well.

We also bumped into my colleague from work, for I think the 3rd time - it’s a small word after all.

Anyway, this morning we went to the Studios, as we had missed a lot of it last year. We were there for ….well it’s not really rope drop, is it? More like … we were there for lights, camera, action. We headed straight for RnRCoaster and discovered Dtr was tall enough to ride it this year. She was thrilled with this - and loved the ride.

Next we all went to see Animagique…great fun and awfully catchy tune and then on the Tram Tour. I took a bit of camcorder footage this time and when the dragon did it’s thing, you can hear us going “Oooooh the warmth” - the blast of hot air was lovely! We decided to eat in Restaurant en Coulisse - yummy burgers all round. After lunch we went on the Flying Carpets and then into Disney Art of Animation.

We went outside next to watch the Cinema Parade, which we hadn’t seen before. It wasn’t as spectacular as the Princess Parade but was well worth watching.

Another indoor show was next - Cinemagique - so well done and pretty funny too.

We wanted to watch the afternoon stunt show (remember Dtr had slept through it last year) but it was cancelled due to the icy weather, so we looked in on Armageddon instead. The other 3 went back on RnR Coaster before Son and I flew the Carpets over Agrabah.

We had a little look in the shop before exiting the Studios, having spent most of the day there, but seeing all we wanted to (apart from the Stunt Show).

Back In the Park the Carnival was in full swing so we had a little dance to the music, saw a few characters then went to queue for Pinocchio (ride, not the character!).

Now it was time for our first ever meal in the Silver Spur. Having been so very very cold all day, it was wonderful to eat in this delightfully warm restaurant. On the camcorder film you can see that all of us have BRIGHT RED glowing cheeks, where we have started to defrost. Apart from all that, the food was nice. Husband had smoked salmon, sirloin with barbecue sauce and chocolate cake; I had prawn cocktail, sirloin steak with béarnaise sauce and vanilla crème brulee; Son had wings, tortillas, fried potatoes and onion rings as a starter followed by burger and chips; Dtr had fish and chips followed by a muffin with Mickey jigsaw.

While we had a dessert, Son decided to go out and ride BTM in the dark. The rest of us finished off and then went on PM before meeting up with Son. He had actually been round 3 times. Those 3 went round for one more ride before it was time for us all to leave the Park.

We went into the Village to shop a little more before walking back to the Hotel, where Husband even found the energy to go down to the bar for a pint.

 

[DLPdaft]

Brrrrrrrr - your couple of days there sound so, well, erm, cold . Great trippie though.

 

[hildasmuriel]

Thursday - our final day. We had booked a Good Morning FantasyLand breakfast for today. Our travel agent said you could only have one, and we didn’t know any better, otherwise we would have eaten in the Park each morning. The Park was nearly deserted as we made our way to Chalet Au Marionette. The breakfast here was actually nicer than the one at Santa Fe - just a few extra things added and atmosphere was nicer also.

By the time we finished breakfast Peter Pan was open, although the Park wasn’t open to the public, so we took great delight in riding Peter Pan twice without a queue. Although it is a lovely ride, we hadn’t bothered with it this time as the queues were just too long.
After rope drop we went round twice on Pirates of the Caribbean then went to get FPs for a final go on BTM. We went through the Castle and over to IASW and then the children decided they wanted to explore the Labyrinth some more while we waited for our FP time to open.

Husband and I got a hot drink and sat and waited for them. If anything it was even colder today. Husband had even bought himself an article of Disney clothing - a warm Disney hat. I never thought I would see the day when he would willingly wear a Disney logo.

The time for our FP came so those 3 rode while I ………shopped, of course. Time for one final ride….what would it be? No contest - POTC. The children posed first as pirates

Then we had our final ride. As we made our way reluctantly down Main Street, it wasn’t made any easier by the Carnival going on. Goofy was there and dancing, as were Tweedle Dee and Dum and Daisy Duck. It was no good - we had to leave to catch the shuttle bus to get our flight.

You can see in this pic how sore Dtr’s lips were, due to the cold. My chin was bright red and raw as well because the wind was so biting. We all took several days to get rid of the dry and sore patches on our faces.

Did we enjoy it, though? Absolutely! Four days definitely gave a bit more breathing space and we didn’t feel so rushed. My only concern now was that Husband seemed to feel “that was it”….that we had gone back a second time, done everything missed on the first trip and that we didn’t need to go back. We didn’t NEED to, but I certainly wanted to, and intended to work on him over the coming months………..

 

[PJackson]

Love reading your TRs they are fab! Another great one - boy does it look cold - brrrrr!

 

[DLPdaft]

Even colder today??? Nooooooooooo .

So - did you wait a year til the next one?

 

[hildasmuriel]

So - did you wait a year til the next one?

Almost to the day, yes. Next TR coming up...as soon as I get round to writing it.

 

[thelittlemermaid83]

I could really feel the cold! Your daughters poor lips looked soo sore bless her.

 

[Anne64]

You have such a knack with words

I am sat here shivering along with you all

Great trippie - looking forward to the next one

 

[TootieBear765]

Hiya! Great trippy! Loved reading it... especially as its probably going to be equally chilly while we're there in December! I agree with Anne, somehow you really capture the cold... although you probably didn't mean it, the way your photo shots have turned out really add to it!

And your poor daughters wee chilled lips! Bless her cotton socks! Bet it didn't dampen her enthusiasm though!

Shocked to hear that your DH thought that was 'it'... worried my DH might feel the same after our next trip - although we have a WDW trip booked for next September, I'll still need future DLP trips to compare, won't I?

Glad to read you convinced him to go back and looking forward to another great trippy in future... Who knows I might eventually pluck up the courage to do one of my own?

 

[Ware Bears]

Oooh I am enjoying reading your old trippies, thanks for posting them.

Glad to see DD's Mickey hat again although her pirate one is pretty fetching!