Time of Year: Spring
Travel Method: Plane, Rental Car
Resort: HC
Accommodations: Standard Room
Ages Represented in Group: Adult
DLP Experience Represented in Group: Elementary, Teen, Adult
Comments: Larry and his family make their third trip to Disneyland Paris. A French air traffic controller's strike throws some kinks in their plans, but as Larry says, no one is going to come between him and Disney.

Larry Wilmot -- April 2003 -- Disneyland Paris (HC)

Larrys European Weekend at Disneyland Paris Resort, or Eurodisney if you prefer.

Maintenant beaucoup de vous se demandent exactement ce que ceci dit en franais, vous le pensent probablement est quelque chose qui amuse tout fait mais rellement il est vraiment tout fait ennuyeux. S'il y a des Franais - Canadians lisant ceci, peut des excuses de I pour mon Franais trs mauvais, j'a employ un programme machine pour le traduire.

Ayez un jour de Disney.

Well welcome to my Trip Report. This is the third trip the Wilmot Gang have made to the Disneyland Paris Report. Who are we?

  • Larry Wilmot, Big Clan Chief, 43 And Social Work Manager.
  • Jill Wilmot, The Real Power behind the Throne, 42. And Inspector of Nursing Homes.
  • Gregory Wilmot, The tall one, 15 and chief family scientist.
  • Edward Wilmot, The smallest one, 11 and chief porridge eater.


Ok some of you may have read my trip reports before ( 9 trips, 7 Trip Reports and an Unfinished one), this is our ninth visit to a Disney Resort, there have been 6 visits to Walt Disney World since 1998 and this is as I said my third visit to Disneyland Paris. The first was in 1998/9 for new year we stayed at the Sequoia Lodge, very posh and very nice, we loved the Park, it was great seeing it at Christmas, and I would recommend it over the WDW parks at Christmas because, it is cold, I mean what is the point in wandering around, looking at thousands of Christmas trees, and drowning in an avalanche of Poinsettias, when it is 75 degrees. You are supposed to shiver at Christmas, - you are supposed to breathe foggy breath at Christmas - and you are supposed to be drinking mulled wine to take your mind off the nasty flu you have developed, not to be wearing shorts. You can guarantee that it will be freezing at Disneyland Paris, so that is where you should go - stick to traditions, Christmas is Cold.

The second trip was in 2001, and we stayed at the less impressive Hotel Santa Fe, the most expensive student accommodation in Europe. But hey we had a nice time, apart from me doing in my neck on Space Mountain, the least smooth roller coaster journey of my short but intensive life.

Ok now, I realise that the bulk of my readership is American, now you probably dont know about Tescos. Now this is a very nice British Supermarket, a bit like Publix in Florida. Now they have this loyalty deal called Clubcard, and you get points. You get one point for every good British Pound spent, (None of that new fangled Euros for us. We leave that to Old Europe.) and for every pound you get one pence in bonus, which is not much at all, hardly worth bothering withbut you can spend them at four times there face value on holiday vouchers getting a bit better.

But they do special offers for example buy Organic Sausages and get 100 extra points. Now, its getting complicated and Ive tried to do this more simply, but my readership deserves, a full explanation. So that means for the cost of a pack of sausages, say 3 pounds in cost you get 100 points, which can be traded for four pounds in holiday vouchers I know crazy, but its true. So you can see it as FREE FOOD or FREE HOLIDAYS, depending on how you look at it. The offers usually last for about a month, so that means you if you live off the things you can rack up some serious amounts of vouchers. Once they had Ben and Jerrys Ice Cream with points whooooo hoooooo. Mind you there was the month I lived on Taiwanese Crab Cakes for a month. I never want to see one again Hence the wise prophesy, Man Cannot live on Taiwanese Crab Cakes alone

Now what can you do with the vouchers, well they are with certain companies that Tescos have struck a deal with, and one of them is the Paris Travel Service who specialise in Disneyland Paris Holidays, so you see There is method in our madness.

Well regular readers will know that we live in the North of Scotland, so the costs of trips to Paris aint cheap, but I managed to save 480 towards the cost of the trip, which is heading for half the cost, not too bad at all. So we booked flights from Edinburgh and we are flying with British Airways, no doubt on a squitty little aeroplane. Remember however, that second class flying beats the pants off first class driving. You transatlantic chappies with your ever so underdeveloped knowledge of geography, might think that Britain and France are but next door neighbours with a small yet highly significant strip of water between them, but take it from me, Inverness to Paris, is one long car journey of around a 1000 miles. (See later for update.)

So what are we looking forward to.. Well the big obvious one is the new Disney Studios Paris, note they have dropped the MGM, so I will of course refer to the park as the MGM Studios Paris just to be difficult. I have the feeling that it is the European version of the Disneys Californian Adventure, in that it is about half a park. But we shall see.

We are staying in the Hotel Cheyenne, this is the second cheapest hotel and you probably wont be too shocked having read the name to find out that it is a cowboy town. Yeee Haaaar. In Florida my favourite land in all the parks is Tommorrowland, but at Disneyland Paris it is Frontierland, great Phantom Manor and even better Big Thunder Mountain - both dare I suggest better than the Florida Versions of the Genre. So it will be cool to stay in the Wild West and then spend time in the Rugged Frontier in the Park..

Well thats my thousand word limit used up which I set myself, to write on before trip activities

Mind you one of my friends Sheri, Writes a 1000 words on her car keys, in her trip reports

So here we go

Wednesday 2nd April

Errrrrrrror do we?

I had a very busy day at work, you know the kinda day, you are due to fly on holiday the next morning and you have to leave for the airport at midnight, so your only priority is to take it easy and not get too tired. The reality being that you have over a 100 unread emails, there at the meetings that you havent done and as you are away you think you should sort em out for when you comeback so it isnt embarrassing you have left them so long, etcetera etcetera etcetera So the day turns out to be a right pain in the bottom class one. (Prefect of class one in my case on this particular day.)

Still you finally get to leave at about six pm, having told yourself you are going to leave at three..

You get home at half past six to find your wife on the telephone talking about Heathrow, strange coz we are flying from Edinburgh. Then it dawns on you, you are not flying from Edinburgh, because wait for it, wait for it. The freaking French Air Traffic Controllers have gone on a 24 hour strike and your flight has been cancelled. (Old European bastards.)

Jill valiantly tried to find alternative flights but it was grim the choice was fly a day later from Heathrow 600 miles away and come back earlier or not fly at all.. So it looked that my 1000 words of trip report may be wasted, something which I would have been very miffed about, you might think that this stuff rolls of the keyboard, but I agonise over it and it takes days of meditation to get ready to type. Im going grey and I put it down to suffering for my art (what a pompous arrogant idiot I should be a French Air Traffic Controller, I would fit in well.)

Anyway, no one is going to get in the way of me and my date with Disney.. So we changed plan We would get tickets for the Channel Tunnel and Drive the 857 miles, (as it turned out) and sod the French You cant keep us out of Baghdad and you cant keep us out of Disney either.. so there.. (Rant mode OFF)

We set off about 1 hour later. And we drove, and we drove and when we got bored with driving we drove some more. Then just for a bit of a change we drove just a little further. Then a minor 16 hours later we were at Disneyland Paris Resort, checking into the Hotel Cheyenne.

Thursday 3rd April

The funny thing is we were supposed to arrive at around 11am, and we didnt make it there until 12-30pm Ha Ha. Nar Nar, Nar Na. Who Yer gunner call STRIKEBUSTERS.

I had grabbed a couple of hours sleep between Carlyle and Coventry, when Jill did a shift at the wheel, which wasnt bad going coz we drove there in a Fiat Punto. Which for my vast legions of Americans Chumz isnt that big, think of a Lincoln Town Car, take the boot, (Trunk), its about as big as that, with Four Wheels does a lot to the gallon though. It has air conditioning, when you wind down all the four windows..err woops, make that when you wind down the front 2 windows, the back ones dont wind.

Anyway, we checked in to the HC with a nice cast member who spent most of the time apologising for the cheap entry tickets which arent plastic any longer. We explained that we were on our 3rd trip, and we had been to WDW 6 times, so she didnt need to do all the spiel. She then explained that WDW was probably worth visiting as it had lots to do there, with the implication that there wasnt that much to do at DLP made me smile, which was cool, coz nothing else was, I was Cream Crackered.

Anyway, Jill and the boyz had had a bit more, albeit cramped kip than me. The boys had slept a lot, so were raring to go. So we went to the room, which was quite nice, reminded me of the rooms at the Animal Kingdom Lodge, in terms of layout not theme, though they were quite dark, though not as gloomy as the AKL ones, that would be impossible, Ive been down better lit coal mines well one anyway, Glasshoughton Colliery to be precise, its closed down now so you will have to take my word for it, so no point in buying a light meter just to check if I am right, which I am, naturally. Anyway the point is, I decided to have a wee sleep for a bit, so we arranged for the Jill and the boys to go to the new park for a couple of hours, and then to meet me at the Disneyland Park for four oclock.

So, I drifted into blissful sleep, dreaming of throttling a French Person with a placard outside Charles De Gaul

I woke up a bit sooner than I thought and then stirred myself into action, and strolled slightly wobbly towards the park, going through Disney Village, I saw three armed soldiers and two armed policemen. It occurred to me that people I know at RAF Kinloss are in the gulf sitting idly by there Nimrods waiting for gas attacks and the odd Scud doing very little, whist these brave guys are fearlessly tackling all that Disney Village might throw at them And we say the French are not doing there bit.. shame on us. (Actually I had mixed feelings about the war, and was on balance against it I just want to pick on the French big time.)

I went to the park and go there a little early, so I wandered up main street, I was a bit grumpy due to not feeling that superb, and that is why I didnt go to the new park first, I wanted to give it a fair shot and when you have driven 850 miles to anywhere in one go, you think the place is crap and you dont know why you went there. So I sat on a curb and waited for Jill to come, she came and told me bits about the new park, they had enjoyed themselves especially at the Moteurs Action Show, and on Rock and Roller Coaster, the boys telling me something about the differences with the one in MGM.

We then watched the parade for a little bit, and I perked up a bit during that. I think it is the same as the one I saw 2 years ago, but Im not sure. The music was reminiscent of Beautiful Souths hit Dont marry her F&$K me. During bits of it, It seemed a bit of a short parade, but I high fived Goofy (it might have been Pluto- I was tired I dont know, it definitely wasnt Mickey or Woody) so thats all right then.

We then went for a Hot Dog at Caseys, which was crap. I really have a downer on DLP fast food, it is really rubbish and very expensive, I dont know why I keep buying it, perhaps there being no alternative might be a little explanation. Mine was a cold dog, with crisp edged bread and freezing fries. (Cant call them Freedom Fries, which is just being too silly.) Anyway they were invented in Scotland, everyone knows that!! Alongside Golf, Haggis and the Automobile. Did you know that the Scottish sent the first man to the moon? They kept fairly quiet about it, but if you look at old NASA footage, you can see Buzz Aldrin, secretly ripping up this tartan flag behind his back and grinding it into the lunar soil under his astroboot.

So then, malnourished, we went to Frontierland and did Phantom Manor and Big Thundermountian. (No Railroad in the title note.) Some people pushed into the Fastpass line and were allowed on by the cast members which annoyed me, and I being a tired grumpy old moaner at that point in time, had to point it out to the cast member, who couldnt give a freedom fry about it, either that or she didnt speak English and didnt know what I was grunting about.

We came out of the park and decided that we were too tired for a big meal at the restaurants in the hotels, so we went back to the HC and went to the cafeteria there, and had some fairly expensive and obligitary cold food and shock of all shocks I had a beer my first this year. I only drink about five a year, Im kinda teetotal, I dont have a beer gut, I have a melted cheese gut (Too much information even for me, I know..)

We then went to sleep, for 12 hours zzzzzzzz zzzzzzzz Still strangling the French in my dreams..zzzzzzzz (Only airline staff, and then only Trade Unionists.. Im a trade unionist too, so if you are a socialist or anything dont send me hate mail, I just had a long drive and I should have been 30,000 ft at the time!!) zzzzzzzz

Friday 4th April

Got up feeling much, much better. Ah Im in Disney, relax Stiff British Upper lip and allow a little twitch of excitement, as long as no one sees of course. One thing about Disneyland Paris Resort is that you get breakfast included in the hotel fees, which is nice it is always Ham, Cheese, Yoghurt, pain au chocolate, croissants and drinks. They have microwaves you can use, so I stuff a croissant with Cheese and Ham and melt it up big time and they are fandabadosy. Scoff a couple of them and three glasses of orange juice a Hot Chock and a coffee and you are raring to go Where to is another question, I shall not answer, but we made do with the new park.yippee Can you imagine the unbridled joy of having a new park to visit, its great

Ive still got to do, DL, DCA, TDL and TTLS. (Oh and Hong Kong.)

Of course Jill and the boyz have done the Studios, so I savour the new park feeling on my own. First impressions is that it is very bland to look at from the outside, non of that art dcor of MGM. The recreate the feeling of Hollywood Boulevard in Film Studio 1, (Industrial Shed more like, no they are obviously Aircraft Hangar designs bought cheap by Walt Disney Imagineering from the Aeroclub pour le petite Aeros de Paris) It is very small and very cardboard cut-out, the familiar names are there The Brown Derby, Hollywood and Vine etc, but they are just fronts to a food court and shops. You step out into what was a bright sunny day and see the real park.

Well Parkhmmmmmmmmmmmm, more like a big land really. Mind you was there much more there at the start of MGM, probably not. Anyway, There and then, a spark of adventurous trip reporting hit me..

OK Im not the first on the block at reporting this park, you can get the details on Mouseplanet. So I thought, what can I do to reward my loyal readers for reading of all things a trip report set in France. A petite experiment I think I will see how long it takes to do the whole park and report back to the faithful.

Now some rules, what does doing the Whole Park mean. Right well it doesnt mean visiting every shop, restaurant and loo. No it means doing every attraction and seeing the parade. Yes but what is an attraction, good point, just about anything on the map, except Kiddies Playgrounds, I would look a right dipstick in one of those Can you imagine 17 stones on the top of a Dumbo Climbing Frame. Nope But apart from those, all bets are on!

Jill has just brought me the two park maps to help with writing this up and she wants to know what I would do without her. Not that great I suspect.

Now for the new park, I thought it would be helpful to give you my impressions of each of the attractions, now they might not be in chronological order of when I did them, because, I dont have that great a memory. I usually gloss over the actual events when I write these trip reports up, partly because when I make notes, I cant read the hand writing or worse as in the Christmas 2001 TR I lose them. So a joke or a downright lie serves to paper over the cracks. But for this scientific expedition, (You know I should have got one of those Mickey Jungle Hard Hats to wear like you can get at the Animal Kingdom. Dr Wilmot. I presume ) I need to be much more accurate..

Lets make an hypothesis to test.. The Disney Studios Paris is not a full theme park.

How do we test this. Can an average Guest complete this in less than a day. The theory being that an actual theme park will not be completed in a day of average opening hours and leave you with more to do.

So we entered at Park Opening which was 9am on that day, or 10am hey I didnt get a research grant for all this science it aint going to be that accurate. The point being that the clock was ticking. We dodged through Hanger One, noting that the brass band observed by the advance party yesterday was not playing, no time to stop anyway. Then we went to activity number une.

Rock and Roller Coaster, (Staring Areosmith) Outside is a big tour bus with thier larger than life photos on the bus. It is probably an ex Paris tour bus used to taking elderly Germans on trips to Notre Dame in reality. Old Europe Tours, and has never seen a rocker inside it in its life. I was chatting to my friend Sue Holland yesterday about MGM at Christmas, and I was thinking that with the Osbournes so popular at the moment, they should get them do something with the Osborne lights this year, you could combine the two Osbourne lights and have Ozzy and his daughter playing Jingle Bells on stage and biting the heads of bats at the same time. (They have a few spare ones at the AK Gorilla Trek.) A sort of MGM version of the Alien Encounter.

Anyway I digress, not like me, back to the RnRC (Gay Paris version.) Well they aint spent much on the outside of the building.. No big Guitar, no upside down car on the frets. Nope just a bit of old MDF painted up and stuck on the outside. (MDF I think its banned in America. It is fibreboard and when you cut it, the fibres gets into your lungs and kills you instantly, very popular with Handy Andy on Changing Rooms, see your local BBC outlet for details on screening times in the less civilised countries.)

Inside it looks like it is going to be disappointing, because the marbles are missing from the doors, you know in MGM you get to swish them as you go past, surely the greatest treat at WDW. Not in Paris, just cheap doors from the Le Dcor Hyperbrickolage

The layout is much the same as at MGM, but the pre show is very short, OK but short and they are seriously cheap with the lava lamps. No Lisa Minnellie look alike either, you know the wag finger make it a Stretch Limo. I like her. But thing start to look up in the departure chamber. It is themed differently not the whiz across Hollywood, no more of a whiz around the concert venue. There are tons of gantries and lights like you would see on a stage of a rock concert and the room is flooded with dry ice. (see more later.) And it is a pretty cool experience. So good, despite the rush to time the park I did it twice. And it is quite smooth, so for a meatyish coaster it is fine for the relatively squeamish, unlike the Paris Space Mountain, which is a neck killer. Good un. Inside experience 9/10 Outside 4/10. No need for Fastpass the place is quite quiet at this time in the morning.

Armageddon Special Effects. This has had a bit of a panning in the Disney Press, but it was OK, it didnt do much for Ed the day before so he decided to do RnRC a couple more times. The pre show is about as exciting as watching Croissants bake, but without the nice smells. Inside you kinda hang around not doing much whilst the Mir Space Station gets splatted by a meteor. Hey everyone knows that when the Russians Engineer they build stuff out of chunky stuff, remember Lada Cars Mir would have batted back a meteor no problem. They chuck lots a fire and stuff at Yer, dont lean forward or you might not have any eyebrows. Its OK. 6/10.

Moteurs Action Stunt Show.

Ok this holds 10,000 people they need half a dozen guests to take part in the show. Do I get pickedOf course you know the answer I get picked. Now I have been a member of the cast, not a cast member in two continents. Beat that, eccentrics everywhere.

It is a great outdoor show on a vast set similar if not bigger to Indy at MGM, there are the goodies, Red Car and the Baddies, Black Cars and bikes.. The bikes are great, I have 2, but I dont ride like these guys, tons of Wheelies, Stopples and falling off on oil slicks and bursting into flames.. I try not to do that on my bike, do you know how much BMW panels cost to replace, its not worth thinking about. (BMW 650GS in the unlikely event that someone reading is actually interested.) Anyway I asked one of the actors, remember I was in the show about the bikes, and he said tyres last for 2 days or 6 shows Just think the admission fees of about 12 guests each days goes on tyres for the bikes.

Great show, and my part in this epic of entertainment.. I have to pretend to look at some material samples, (True even I cant make this up.) Then get shot at by some bad guys and run frightened 50 yards to the safety of a French caf. I was wonderful darling, a true pro, and I got my face blown up to 20ft on a giant screen like some pop star. Jill took a photo so I have proof

Great show, even when Im not in it. 9/10.

We didnt have time to stop for lunch in the interests of science we carried on.

Next up was the parade. This is cinema based funnily enough and it was a pleasant if not over exciting experience, and it gave our little hairy legs, Well more Jills than mine a rest. You know the kinda thing Goofy with a Megaphone shouting Action etc. I dont think the music was that memorable, in fact I cant remember it at all, so I suppose that technically that counts as not being memorable. 5/10 mainly for the performers turning up and looking enthusiastic.

Next up (Though not necessarily in the order we did it in the park) is CineMagique. This is really quite fun. It starts off as a bog standard trawl through cinema history with quite some emphasis on European films, though it beats me why Bollywood is never recognised, as it is the biggest film studio system in the world. Then a member of the audience gets a phone call, tut tut. And things start to happen. There is a rumour that CineMagique is heading for WDW like the Visionarium (Timekeeper) did. And that would be a good thing, except that Ive seen it of course. Anyway just in case it does I wont spoil the plot, see its just one act of kindness after another with me.. I give this one 8/10.

Onwards and upwards to the Studio Tram Tour at the other end of the park. Well the other side really, its all quite small. This is pretty much a recreation of the Catastrophe Canyon Tour at MGM, though rather than get a car you choose one with a video tape on plasma screens in your language. We share with the French Oh is that safe putting the French in with Americans this Summer? Perhaps those armed troops might be needed after all for peace keeping missions. Crack open a case of UN blue berets.

Anyway, as they dont make any films there at all, there is just imported junk and a couple of sets until you get to Catastrophe Canyon, which is the same as in Florida, just physically a little less deep and wide. On the way back you go through a set set in London, where some Dragons have eaten half the tube station, and I hope it was tasty. They make great use of a Train Carriage, must have cost a bob or two thinks I, when I see the framework which is holding it up. Anyway its an OK tour. I give it 6/10.

We then do the flying Carpets of Agraba, which is not much of a camels spit different to the one in the MK in Florida. I give it 2/10 and if I was five I would give it 7/10.

Disney bounces back then with Anamagique, which is essentially a puppet and character show, similar in scope and technique to The Little Mermaid in MGM, without the laser show. It starts of slow, with Mickey and Donald doing not much but picks up and ends with a terribly catchy tune at the end to rival Its a small world.. ok that impossible but it is catchy

La La Laaa La Anamagique I give it a 7/10

We then get to the Art of Disney Animation, which is like the similar one in Florida with out the animation actually happening, it isnt really a studio at all. No Walter and or Robin either, though the format is similar, I would call it Disney Animation Lite. You get a couple of sit-downs though, so I give it 5/10.

Last and certainly Least is the Television Production Tour, its rubbish and I wouldnt bother except they have a cyber space mountain at the end, just sneak in the back door and do that. Without Cyber Space Mountain I give it 1/10 and with it 3/10.

And that my friends is that. One park done in 6 hours, probably 5 hours 58 minutes to be precise. Sound like a full park to you.. nah me either. Having said that it is good. Just small and Good. Is it worth a trip over the pond to see. Yes coz you get the Disneyland Paris Park, time to go to Paris itself, and if you are clever a trip to Scotland on the way there or back. Dont bother with London its full of muggers and expensive ice cream.

Go on admit it, youve spotted it havent you. Dont be coy, you have the problem with the maths (math for my loyal US readers) here. We dont know what proportion of a park is it, it feels like a half but is that true. I decided much to Jills groaning that I was going to sacrifice myself for my readers and work it out. Tomorrow I am going to do every attraction at Disneyland Paris and see how long that takes and work out the proportion. Also I can say I have done everything. (Except Kiddie Playgrounds see above rules if you have jumped ahead.)

Even though we had done everything, we were finished by four oclock. I didnt want to go to the other park as I was going to do everything tomorrow so no point. So we went to the big shopping centre nearby in the Punto and filled up on cheap booze, not that we had any room in the boot (Trunk), not for me to drink as you know I like milk better, but for our housewarming party on the 10th May and you are all invited.

We ate at that specialist in French Food at the shopping Mall called le Macdonalds. Actually we were stuffed afterwards because I had taken the first tray away to find a table and the people didnt notice so we got all the stuff on the first tray twice. So I made a Big Mac Tower with mine, and washed it down with two oranginas. Thats nice orange juice, tinkles on Fanta from a great height. Bit naughty not telling em, but I had missed lunch and lets face it I aint seen that they have gone bankrupt yet. I really need to work on my morals.

That evening we went for a walk around all the hotels and booked a meal at Beaver Creek at the Sequoia Lodge for the next night. Saw one or two characters and watched people on a mechanical bull in the Village. YE HA.

Then we went to bed fairly early like the good cowboys and cowgirls we are..zzzzzzzz

Saturday 6th April

Ok Im a man with a mission, I wake up keen, Im going to do every thing in the park, I dont know anyone who has done that, its a first as far as my peers go and I know that they will be seriously unimpressed when I tell them, Why? Will be the question, but you know the answer, its because I care about you good reader.. you need to know that it can be done. (You know I surprise myself with the insincere tripe I write sometimes!)

Anyway what ever the motivation, I am motivated, so we nip in for the obligatory breakfast. And I rather stupidly eat a lot.

I cant remember if we walked or got the bus, I think we got the bus to the park. Big yellow bendy bus, I like them. You can stand on the bend and imagine yourself surfing. Just get someone to spray you with a Squeeze N Breeze at the time and you get the full X Games effect.

We had a plan, Do the worst rides for queues first (Lines). Space, Dumbo and Peter Pan.. I know Peter Pan What for some obscure reason Peter Pan is mobbed in France. I think it is coz the Germans are back in 1940 and they are pretending they are bombing London. (I cant just pick on the French now can I.)

Anyway, autopia is closed, (good that has terrible lines.) and so we do Space first, I want to get it over with and it gets bad lines. We were in the second car and it wasnt too bad, I had been doing neck exercises for a few days before and I think it helped. We then ran through the Submarine on the way out, just to stop backtracking. Then we did Star Wars just because it was nearby. Then we headed to fantasyland, and got a Fastpass for Peter Pan, just after doing Dumbo. Ok there are 10 rides in fantasyland and I think it took about 1 hour 45 minutes to polish them off, of course I enjoyed them all, especially my favourite, (Leanne I hope you are reading) Its a small world. Such a delightful tune, you can enjoy it all day, EVEN IF YOU WANT TO OR NOT! Still in a small boy sorta way I quite enjoyed it. Dumbo was fun. I let Ed whiz up and down of course.

By the end of fantasyland only Ed and Me were still on target, because Jill missed Space Mountain out and Greg missed Peter Pan, in favour of queuing up for a crepe. (A French pancake with a flavoured sauce on it, a sorta beavers tail without the fat.)

We then picked off the rides we hadnt done in Discoveryland. Honey I shrunk, in French with headphones and Visionarium (Timekeeper) in French with headphones, with out Robin Williams and with Mr Durepaardue and Concorde.

We then went to combine Lunch with the Disney Show at the Theatre in Discoveryland, which was dire never have I seen a worse Disney show and if that is what they are going to do with characters I dread to think what they are going to do to my favourite Diamond Horseshoe at MK. Anyway it was pants as was the food.

We then had done over half of the things so we, went for a ride around the park on the train. Nice rest. Then we went for a ride on Disney Transportation up Main Street and soon after that caught the parade and did a character encounter with Pluto. (See we are doing EVERYTHING). After this it was getting late and we had Adventureland to do. Did the silly Aladdins Thingy and Pirates and the big Scull adventure thingy, walked over the suspension bridge. Then it was Indy Backwards on Fastpass a tight little coaster, Im a bit big for the carriages on this, but needs must.

Then it was to pick off everything including the petting zoo at Frontierland, including Big T and Phantom Manor, last but not least the Paddleboat, though I laid down in a cabin for most of it and tried to get forty winks. At the end of this we were finished except for the Statue of Liberty display, which isnt an attraction and I wasnt failing just for that. I checked the map and I had done EVERYTHING. Big Gold Star for me.

How long had it taken, I hear you call from your distant parts Well a Cream Crackering Nine Hours. Which had us finished at six oclock. Three hours before park closing. I could have picked off the highlights as seconds. So the maths is a proper park takes nine hours and the Studios takes six. The conclusion being The Disney Studios is two thirds of a park. Though it has only a third of the number of attractions, its attractions take a lot longer to do, as most are shows etc.

Or to express it further.

X+Y = P-Q/MC This obviously take into account that the park had only 32.76% Occupancy and there was a following wind. But I took some medication for that.

That evening we went to the Sequoia Lodge and had the posh buffet, which was OK ish, thought the puddings were far too rich and I was a bit pogged. (Cant think of a translation for that one, try very full.) It wasnt a fantastic experience but it was not too bad. Though there was a baby crying nearby and I can think of a reader who wouldnt like that very much.

Ed and I went for a triumphal walk around the Disney Village as there was no comedy warehouse to attend whist the people who hadnt managed our feat sloped off for an early bath. We watched the Mechanical Bull again, not that we were desperate for entertainment or anything. Ed was more interested in the controls than anything. We then walked back to the HC and my legs were a little bit wobbly by then, so no mechanical bulls for me.

Sunday 7th April

We had our fast braked at the restaurant as usual, I avoided the ham and cheese and just had the bread stuff and cereal, otherwise it gets a bit samey. We took our time, then packed the car, no mean feat as it is very small and we had picked up a bottle or two for our party. (At least the strike had one benefit.) We went to the Studios for three hours before we left for the long drive home. Funnily enough we did quite a lot of the park before we left. The park was so empty I managed a ride on the coaster totally on my own. I felt like Michael Jackson in his own theme park, has anyone got a baby I can borrow for a spot of dangling??

We went to CineMagique and spoke to the guy who comes out of the audience and I spent most of the time figuring out how they do the clever stuff, and without giving the plot away they have a movie screen on rollers which can allow doors to appear magically and then disappear again so you cant see the joins, I thought it was very clever. Unfortunately I had an asthma attack, brought on I think by the dry ice there and in Rock and Roller Coaster. But I lived so what the eck.

Anyway, after a cappuccino in the Backlot Express Canteen, we were off on our way home... Got home at 1am in the morning, went to bed, and then had to drive 400 miles the next day... To go to my home town of Yorkshire... Another story all together. Thanks for reading this far. Next Trip WDW July 29th.

Till then Have Fun.

Oh and thanks to Brian Bennett for running his site for all these years, I got into reading trip reports thanks to his site, and if some of you have enjoyed reading this you can thank him too.

Larry Wilmot

larrywilmot747@aol.com