On Saturday, February the 15th, Bert and I got up at stupid o' clock (and just reading that should tell you exactly where we were going) to drive to Disneyland Paris for the day.
The cats were bribed with a delicious treat, so they wouldn't try to stop us from leaving (they have a lot of fear of abandonment) and we managed to leave the house at 4.15 AM.
We actually made REALLY good time in getting there, but sadly, there was only one ticket booth open to get carer tickets and the queu was massive.
The CM at the front was also not that helpful. I tried to ask if I could go sit on the bench at the other side of the queue as I couldn't stand, and before I could even finish my query he snapped at me that everyone in the queue was disabled and it was how it was. When I explained I didn't want to skip it, I just wanted to sit, he wouldn't let me go to the bench either, he told me to go to Disneyland Hotel and wait inside and Bert would just have to text me when it was our turn. Erm... no.
His argument was that I'd be warm there, and I'd be cold sitting on the bench. And standing in a queue I wouldn't be?
Needless to say, I just walked around the building, explained the matter to the CM on the other side and he was very kind, understanding and more than happy to let me sit on the bench and wait.
The wait took quite a while, because like I said, only one (out of 4) windows was open, and the CM was far too tolerant of people's BS.
You're only allowed ONE carer (which is VERY generous of DLP as is! I for one am grateful!) but a lot of people don't seem to get this. And start an argument. Very much not on.
There's also other people that decide that the rest of their party needs to buy tickets there.
And all pay in different ways (carte blue, Mastercard, Visa, cash) meaning they all have to be charged separately.
I strongly feel that CMs need to draw the damn line and say “this booth is for carer tickets ONLY, you need tickets, go to the regular register”. Because these people are holding up the queue for no reason other than their own negligence (buy tickets online beforehand folks, it's cheaper, too!).
Eventually, a second window opened, and the queue moved a tiny bit faster. It took us like 2 minutes at the window because as usual I had all my documents ready and just cheerfully and politely asked if I could please have a carer ticket for my husband. And that was that for us to get in :).
We got in at about 8.45ish, and after a small detour in the Emporium on Main Street USA to grab the new Rapunzel pin for Bert,
we went straight to the Princess Pavillion to see if Rapunzel was out. Not wanting a repeat of the January trip.
Lo and Behold, she was!
So I asked the CM at the regular entrance what to do as someone disabled. He talked way too fast, spoke no English, but pointed us to the exit, so we figured we'd go have a look there.
Thankfully the CM there spoke both slower French and English so I could actually understand her. She was also very kind, and explained we could either wait to the side and get a return ticket for Rapunzel at 9.30AM, or be second in line to meet Snow White in 5 minutes time.
We figured that Bert, who had his mind set on shooting princesses in the pavillion to practise studio photography, could test the light with Snow and then have better settings meeting Rapunzel in the afternoon.
After meeting Snow, we went back into the queue, which was quite a bit longer. I just used my seat, because it was rather wider than the one for the carer ticket, and everyone was very jolly whilst waiting (we were in between Dutch people so yay our language too).
We were literally there for a return ticket, so we were all shades of unbothered. But we did feel massively bad for the group in front of us, with two little girls who were ever so well behaved whilst waiting for Snow with proverbial baited breath because they were TWO minutes too late and had to get a return ticket. Good on the CM for enforcing the rules, but you know, TWO minutes?
Especially considering that if she hadn't had to waste time on fools trying to skip the queue (not talking about people coming up for enquiries because they got no sense out of the CM at front) they would have been on time.
But yeah, she was all “so you guys want to meet Rapunzel, right? Pick a time!” so we picked a time :).
Bert had managed to get a proverbial golden ticket on Lineberty: a first 10 – 10AM slot for pin buying so we wandered, taking our sweet sweet time, over to Peublo Trading.
We were early, so I spent my time looking at the traders having set up “shop” in the area. One trader right by the exit was super friendly, talking to people and I noticed he had the Rapunzel and Pascal best friends pin from the month before. Which I told Bert about.
Meaning that after pin buying, we went and asked him if maybe he wanted to trade one of today's pins for that one for Bert's collection. Even though he didn't collect either Cinderella nor Mulan, he was still happy to help Bert out because to him an equal trader was an equal trader.
Much appreciated kind sir!
I still have both my traders, I'm sitting on them because I want to trade them for LE monsters pins.
If you want either the Cinderella or Mulan & Mushu February release, feel free to leave me a comment and show me your Monsters (Mike and/or Sulley only) or Rapunzel and Elsa pins (because I will trade for Bert) :).
But please be mindful that Bert will only trade for another LE700.
Me, I don't care about the numbers, an LE's an LE in my book (but I will only swap an LE for another LE) :).
So yeah, feel free to poke me! :) (but not about last month's Mike Wazowski because I have that ^^).
Pins in our pocket, we went on a wander before the first showing of Frozen Celebration's show on Central Plaza. We didn't find anything we liked in the main store in Frontierland, so we went to Constellations in Discoveryland instead. Where I found the Big Feet Sulley plush I wanted
AND found a Boo pin on a CM's trader lanyard! I normally don't collect Boo, but this one was pretty cute. Plus it also said February and it was February, so yeah :).
Bert pointed out there was another Sulley, and kinda talked me in getting this weird cellphone holder thing. Its kinda cute, it sits in my display case. (I should really take a photo).
At Harrington's on Main Street I went to get the Ariel and Flounder pin my friend Jessi liked, so we could trade (she has Boxlunch pins).
We were early for the Frozen show, so we went and sat down. Which, of course, meant that the people behind Bert got BUTTHURT the second he stood up. This is a massive pet peeve of both of us. Yes, he is very tall. No, this is not his fault. You want that first row spot? Get there in time.
Screaming at us in Italian to switch places, making demands instead of polite will really not change our minds.
I did try to explain, in English, that I was happy to let the screaming banshee lady's daughter stand in front of me (she was half as tall as I was) and she could let another person with limited visibiity stand in front of her.
But OF COURSE, she didn't want to give up her spot, no no she was one of those “tall people have no business being in front” kind of assholes. So all of them collectively pretended not to speak English.
I did sit down again, because otherwise the very friendly and sweet Japanese girl behind me couldn't see, and she was clearly very enthusiastic about taking photos.
Halfway through I was so bothered by my anxiety because of the rude Italians that I let her have my spot. I think she thanked me about 15 times, so at least something good came from the ordeal: the friendly girl got to take some nice pics :).
Totally seeing the silver lining here!
Sadly, that wasn't the end of the ordeal.
We went to Hyperion to have lunch, because pretty much nothing was open before noon. Hyperion was, as usual, mega busy.
We go in the priority lane, which is mega inconvenient because it's also the exit lane, meaning I can't sit on my seat as there's no space.
I was pretty much about to feint when we got our food (we still had to wait quite a whilst before the CM at the register would let us order, and then it took ages to get our food).
And then it happened.
This near frantic Dutch douchebag starts shouting at me about how I came from the side, and should have been in the queue like everyone else. So I explain to him that I was in the priority queue for people with a disability. He flips out at me. Because clearly, I don't look disabled so I must just be making it up right? WRONG dude, WRONG!
Let me assure you, it is sheer and utter HELL to get to get recognised as disabled in Belgium, so if a Belgian has that EU disability card (which I do) meaning they are government recognised disabled, you can fucking bet on it they ARE DISABLED.
So I shouted back at him saying not every disability is visible and walked off with Bert.
But by that point I nearly had a full blown panic attack, could barely eat, and my food was heavy on my stomach for the entire day.
If it weren't for the fact that we were sitting down in a relatively quiet corner of the restaurant, I think I seriously would have asked Bert if we could just go home. Or at least go to a hotel café/bar for a little bit.
Note how DLP has done away with lids and straws, but are still giving out plastic cutlery. Those cups aren't recyclable either btw.
#greenwashing
There was a show going on in Hyperion just after we finished eating, and Bert did go down to look (after asking about 10 times if it was ok to leave me there on my own, which it totally was, especially because I had my friend Craig on insta DM to keep me company – thanks Craig!- and talk me through the anxiety).
He was back pretty quickly though, because the show was a junior's dance school and he did NOT want to be that creep shooting young girls with a big telelens. Well, he wouldn't be because he'd just be “yes, cool dance photos!” but try explaining that to the rest of the crowd, of course.
Because I wanted to see First Order Recruits, we decided to go to the Studios Park. Where I bought another Ariel pin for Jessi (because we are totally trading! Huzzah!).
We also went to have a look at the stuff in Tower Gifts, where I got some of the new Tower of Terror pins. Stitch for Jessi, and Chip and Dale for Marie (who picked up a Monsters University pin for me when she was in Disney World).
And obviously outfit photo taking at the Monsters Inc section had to happen. But sadly this time it was very crowded, and people were being super obnoxious at the scream cans and trying to also get photos with Mike so it was a quick snap. Better than nothing!
This time we made it to the front of Ratatouille, but then we looked at the time and went to find a spot for First Order Recruits. Turned a corner and saw Vader wander around the corner followed by a bunch of Stormtroopers for the Imperial March.
After that we really found a spot for the First Order Recruits.
It's a fun show for sure, but I'm confused as to the set-up.
It starts on the “main” Star Wars stage, and then flows over to a smaller stage on the other side of the square.
It took us a little while to realise we were at the wrong stage, so we wandered over to the other one. By that time Kylo Ren and his luitenant had already started picking out people for a meet and greet, and whilst I did manage to get to first row (because a lot of people gave up really quickly when they saw the character would choose people), I was not lucky enough to get picked.
Oh well!
I did do my best though, but no luck.
I did get some nice portrait shots so I am pleased :).
And you know, I can always go meet Vader some other time.
By the time we got back from the Studios and returned to the Disneyland Park, it was about time to meet Rapunzel.
When will the railway open again? Your guys is as good as mine!
The amount of additional maps was pretty astounding, especially considering these are printed on non-recyclable paper. What a waste!
But as there was enough time left, we parked ourselves by the side of the street in Fantasyland, at Bella Notte near Small World, so we could see the float come out. That way Bert could take some more photos.
Before meeting Rapunzel! FINALLY! VICTORY IS OURS!
(well, mostly Bert's).
Huzzah, a location where the colour of my skirt actually shows up. Usually it just reflects light like crazy ><.
We didn't meet Vader this trip, but we did go in Star Tours and saw the new, temporary, segments. Much to Bert's chagrin because he doesn't like Rise of Skywalker, AT ALL.
We won't ride Star Tours again 'till after Legends of the Force I suppose, but that's ok.
In Star Traders we noticed that the dieselpunk Star Wars art we both liked was in stock, so we decided to come back nearer home time and just buy it there. Because we didn't really feel like going to the Village, and possibly find out it was out of stock there and having to return to Discoveryland.
Plus it's only A3 in size, so easy to carry anyway :).
No Star Wars photos but here’s one of Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast’s refurb! Apparently it reopens August 1st, I’ll believe it when I’ll see it.
First we went to see the Frozen show one last time though.
After running into Naomi.
We were talking on insta, and I said I'd bring her chocolate. And we TRIED, honestly tried, to properly meet up, and then we realised we ALWAYS bump into each other anyway and just went with that. Totes worked out!
We picked out a different location for An Enchanted Journey this time, and whilst we were a little late for that, Bert still managed to take some nice photos that are on his instagram :).
I mostly got some street shots, which was also fine.
Then we just had a few more things to buy. First of all the art, which apparently involved getting a manager.
Also telling said manager and the CM who I had asked about buying it that NO we did, in fact, NOT want to buy a bag.
Which they didn't understand.
Bert pointed out that it was wrapped in plastic (a lot of plastic) and portable.
I pointed out I could easily move things from my own giant cotton totebag to my backpack and put it in there.
They gave up trying to push the bag at that point.
Frankly, I feel that if they are so worried about the art people buy, and seeing it's generally expensive, they should just give a free bag with purchases €150 and upwards, but nope, DLP wants everyone to BUY THE BAD BAGS!
(Just follow Craig on twitter, or read his eco column in the last two editions of BCM to find out why this kind of bag isn't as eco-friendly as Disney wants you to believe it is).
Our last stop, well mine mostly as Bert waited on a bench inside the Discovery Arcade, was the Boardwalk Candy Palace. Which has a massively slow queue because there were only 2 CMs at first who had to service the outside window, the inside of the shop, AND make fresh cotton candy. So understandably the queue didn't move very fast.
Thankfully after 5 minutes a 3rd CM arrived and it started moving pretty fast. If it had just been for me, I probably wouldn't have bothered, but I wanted to get chocolate & mint fudge for Bert's nan, so in the queue I went!
The CM serving me was super friendly, and pointed out it was 3 + 1 free so I ended up getting 3 for Rosa and a lemon and meringue one for myself. It was alright, but a little too much sugar for my taste, so I think next time they have that deal on I'll just get 4 for Rosa. She freezes them anyway so she has quite the organised fudge stash :D.
And that was our trip to Disney.
Aside from those few anxiety inducing rude people, we had a really fun time.
Initially we were going to go back this month for 3 days, but because of covid19/coronavirus and my already pretty shoddy health, we've decided against it.
I'm not saying, by no means, that everyone should go and cancel their trip.
I'm just saying that because of my particular health situation, it was prudent for us to do so.
So hopefully the situation will stabilise so we can at least go for one day before Seasons of the Force ends.
Because I would quite like another wookie hugs photo with Chewbacca like I did last year. But if that doesn't work out, I will always have last years!
Fingers crossed, though!
All my photos are here.
And if you want to read even more about Legends of the Force and Frozen Celebration, check out my January trip post :).
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