Moving Forward In 2017

Firstly I was like to say Happy new year to you all. I hope you have lots of fun things planned for 2017. If last year wasn’t what you were expecting and you had some bad experiences I truly hope this year will be better for you.

I love blogging regardless of whether people read my posts or not. I have really enjoyed writing my trip reports but it recently dawned on me that some people may not be that interested in reading about what I get up to on my Disneyland Paris trips.

This got me thinking… so I’m pleased to tell you that exciting things are coming to ‘Lost In The Magic’ in the year ahead. I am currently working on new Disney themed content with more regular posts that will run alongside my trip reports.

I have upped my game on social media by creating Pinterest and Instagram accounts to accompany my blog. I have also been toying with the idea of hosting live chats and giveaways on twitter. Being able to involve everyone somehow is my main focus.

I hope you will join me on my future blogging adventure by subscribing. It would make me very happy.

A Look Back On 2016

If someone had told me that I would be visiting Disneyland Paris four times, become part of the Disney community and make a bunch of awesome new friends in the space of eight months I would never have believed them. When the opportunity arrose to become an annual pass holder at DLP I decided to document my trips via this blog and create a twitter account to accompany it. I never imagined that there was a huge community dedicated to Disney and I’d be attending meet-ups and interacting with some of the most loveliest people.

I have got my friends Jess, Leanne and Louise to thank for inviting me to join them on their trips. I now regard them as some of my most closest friends and without them this blog and everything that comes with it would not exist. I have experienced many highs and a few lows in my personal life this year but my Disney trips have helped me through this. They have become a form of escapism and something for me to focus on when I didn’t want to think about the negative things that were starting to eat away at me. There have been so many memorable moments and I’m so glad I have been able to share them with you.

I have had so much fun joining in with live chats, watching periscopes (mainly Deandre’s haha!) and vlogs and listening to IMDO Podcast broadcasts which have brightened up many an evening. One of the most memorable times within the Disney community for me has to be when a group of us went to see Aladdin the Musical, it was such an amazing show made even better with good company. I would definitely like to see it again at some point.

2016 will be the year I started Disneybounding, had Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum fight over me, developed a new found love for Stitch and drank imaginary tea with Alice. Special thanks go out to Eleanor and Lizi for hosting the official Disney meet-ups and bringing the Disney community together (without them I wouldn’t have met a lot of you) and Jess for allowing me to be part of the Disneybound UK admin team in which I have had a blast taking over the twitter account and attending events.

I would also like to say a huge thank you to everyone I have been fortunate enough to meet through official and unofficial meet-ups and to those who I haven’t met yet but chat to on twitter. You understand my love for Disney when others don’t. You have all had a part in making my year a spectacular one and I can’t wait to see what 2017 has in store, I hope it’s good us all.

DLP Trip Over-View, Christmas 2016 Part 2

Sunday 27th November – We didn’t get to the park as early but we were in time for rope drop at Frontierland where our first port of call was a visit to Sandy Claws. We had a good old chat about how much I preferred Halloween to Christmas. Once we had moved on we came across Jafar in his usual spot so decided to get some photos with him. He must have got out of the wrong side of the bed because he was a lot more touchy than usual, he certainly didn’t like me stroking Iago, the big baby. That was such a great character interaction though, I loved it.

Apart from Sandy Claws and Jafar, the only other meet we had planned was Ariel at the Princess Pavillion. We grabbed a waffle and hot chocolate at the Windmill which I instantly regretted afterwards when I felt sick… but it was just so good. We watched ‘A Royal Invitation’ multiple times to try to get some good photos of the royal couples as they came off-stage.

As we were walking towards Phantom Manor we met Grace and Sophie again so it would have been rude not to pop in for a group ride. We were able to have a proper chat this time which was lovely and when we came out we bumped into Manuel so took the opportunity to have some group photos taken. Manuel is one of the nicest cast members that you can meet, and I’m sure everyone that I know that has met him would say the same.

Louise and I said goodbye to Jess and Rachel later that day and went for dinner at Plaza Gardens. It was a gratefully received recommendation from Deandre. I really enjoyed the food there and fortunately they were able to fit us in a little bit earlier. It wasn’t very busy either so all in all it was a pleasant experience.

Monday 28th November – We went into central Paris to visit some popular landmarks and get all cultured. Notre Dame Cathedral was amazing (and obviously Disney themed so we had to do it). The Louvre was interesting and we couldn’t believe how small the painting of the Mona Lisa was. We got back to DLP around 4pm where we met Leanne and her mum Sue. The first ride we decided to go on was Pirates of the Caribbean to get our traditional funny pose photo, unfortunately we didn’t get as far as the photo drop. The ride had broken down just before the first drop. Initially I began to panic until they turned all the lights on. I’d always wondered how they would get us off of the ride if they couldn’t get it started again (we’d had a few close calls before) and we were about to find out.

Cast members appeared and tried their best to explain in French and English what they were going to do. One guy got into the water in his waterproofs to push the boats back to the nearest exit and they raised the metal grate beside us so we could step out onto it and into the backstage area which wasn’t very glamorous. From the time we got on the ride to the time we were successfully evacuated it took nearly an hour. When we got out the back there was a fire rescue van sitting there. We found the whole event rather exciting.

Tuesday 29th November – We had a packed day planned and we spent the majority of it in the studio park. I don’t think I’ve ever spent a good amount of time there before. We started off with the studio tram tour which I hadn’t done in a couple of years. Some parts of it I thought could do with a serious update, starting with the cringy video footage they show on the tram which they’ve had since the 90’s. We went to see Stitch Live for the first time and laughed so much. It’s so cleverly done and its brilliant entertainment for both adults and children.

We queued for Moana, the second time meeting her this trip. It was someone different playing her and we had even better interactions this time around. I love the fact that not every character experience is the same. After moana’s meet we went (for the second time) to pay mice royalty Mickey and Minnie a visit then found Pluto.

Mickey and the Magician was next on the agenda and it was even better than when I first saw it. Probably because when I first saw it I was suffering from sleep deprivation and I had just had my head bashed about on Rock ‘n’ Rollercoaster. By the time we had done everything we wanted to do it was time for dinner at Bistro Chez Remy (booked in advance). I was very impressed with both the service and the food there. I don’t think I could actually fault it. The vegetarian dish was tasty and we were given a free fruit drink when we showed our annual passes. The theming was amazing too. I would highly recommend this restaurant to anyone but I would suggest you book in advance as it’s very popular.

DLP Trip Over-View, Christmas 2016 Part 1

When booking an eight-day trip to Disneyland Paris for the Christmas season, myself and Louise jumped into it with a ‘let’s just do it’ attitude regardless of whether we would be able to afford it or not. When we found out that Jess and Rachel were planning to be there from the Friday to the Sunday and then Leanne and her mum were staying from the Monday to the Friday, we decided to book from Friday to Friday so that we could spend time with everyone.

Eight days is the longest I’ve ever stayed at DLP for. Luckily we were able to budget it all quite well and even had some money left over at the end (which I plan to use during our next trip). Our chosen mode of transport for this trip was Ouibus which I found considerably more comfortable than the megabus, well as comfortable as it could be I guess (I still had lack of sleep). Instead of crossing on the ferry, we went via the Euro tunnel so we were able to stay on the coach and attempt to sleep. It’s cheap and I don’t think I would have been able to do as many DLP trips this year as I have done if I had to pay out Eurostar prices each time.

Due of the length of time I had spent there, this time I won’t be doing individual trip reports and will be doing it in parts with a few days in each post. Some days may be more detailed than others.

Friday 25th November – We arrived at DLP around 8am after getting the metro from the coach station in Paris. This gave us enough time to get changed, store our luggage and wander around the Disneyland hotel lobby to admire the gingerbread house (which surprisingly was made out of real gingerbread) and decorations before heading to Cafe Mickey for breakfast. This was a first for me. I thought that it was a great place for character dining but the food was standard and the queues can get quite long making it hard to work your way around and sit down without your food getting cold in the process. I don’t know about lunch and dinner but they’ll definitely have to up their food game if they are getting rid of the characters next year. We met Chip and Dale, Eeyore, Mickey, Goofy and Pluto all while I was Disneybounding as Mickey and Louise as Minnie.

Jess and Rachel wasn’t joining us until the evening so myself and Louise watched the Christmas Parade, met Baloo, Alice and the White Rabbit and Scrooge McDuck, went on some rides and browsed the shops before making our way over to Hotel Cheyenne for a pin trading event. I didn’t quite know what I was expecting to see but it was so big we didn’t know where to start, so we had a quick look around before making a swift exit. We felt a little bit out-of-place, it was obviously  for hard-core traders and as a newbie collector I was very overwhelmed. We walked back to the Disney Village wondering what had just happened and shared our experiences with Jess and Rachel when we met them at Earl of Sandwich for dinner.

Saturday 26th November – A comfortable night was had by all at the Kyriad hotel and a decent breakfast was consumed before catching the shuttle bus to the park for the last part of Extra Magic Hours. We met Donald, Goofy and Pluto and the Chipmunks in that time. As we walked towards Small World we bumped into Pearla and Suzy (the mice from cinderella) doing a random  meet. This made me so happy as I’d never met them before.

We strolled over to the Walt Disney Studio park and went straight into Art of Disney Animation to wait for the Moana (named Vaiana in France) meet to begin. We were there a good 45 minutes before she was due to appear to secure a good spot in the queue. While waiting she came out to take part in a special event and was happy to pose for a few photos by herself. As soon as we had finished we went to meet Mickey and Minnie in their Christmas gear. They looked adorable. I love meeting them in different outfits.

Back over at the Disneyland Park we bumped into Grace , Sophie and Samar while waiting for Disney Princesses: A Royal Invitation. It’s always nice to see familiar faces. Unfortunately Sam had to rush off but we were able to have a quick catch up with Grace and Sophie before going our separate ways. The Princess show itself was pleasant if not a little cheesy but it was a nice addition and I bet it went down well with the children. I had my eyes on Belle and Beast in human form most of the time being my favourite couple.

DLP Trip Report – October 2016, Day 3

Today was a lot more chilled out as we didn’t have fancy dresses and a ton of makeup to apply. Our focus was on character meets and whatever rides we could fit in. Extra Magic hours was in the Studio park so the first ride we headed to was Tower of Terror. The last couple of times I had been I’d avoided it. It’s not one of my favourite’s as I’m not that keen on drop rides and it’s something I have to be in the mood for as I suffer from back and neck problems which also bring on migraines. Fortunately I was feeling stronger than I normally would and I didn’t want to miss out on doing it as a big group. I love the theming of TOT but I don’t mind missing out on it occasionally.

The next ride we went on was Rock ‘n’ Rollercoaster which is normally my favourite ride but after it left me feeling nausious last time I went on it I was affraid that I may have to find a new favourite ride. Unfortunately I had my worst fear confirmed, it jerked my head so much that I came off feeling a little dizzy. I don’t know if it’s because I’m becoming extra sensitive or they did something to the ride when altering it back in the summer. Either way I was left disappointed.

We strolled over to the the main park once we knew it was open. It was going to be another scortcher of a day and I had chosen to wear black. I was all Halloweened up in my Jack Skellington skirt, ready for my second meet with him. The skirt proved to be a good choice as he loved it. He allowed me to take some Skelfie’s (as he called it) and we all had a group photo. As we were in the area it would have been rude not to drop in on the manor. We then moved directly on to meet Disney royalty Mickey and Minnie in their Halloween costumes. They looked adorable infront of their fun back-drop. We had entertainment in the form of a brass band while we queued which I couldn’t help humming along to.

After we’d said our goodbyes to Mickey and Minnie we went to Frontierland station to catch the train to Fantasy land. This is something I hadn’t done since my first trip to DLP nearly five years ago. I don’t think I had ever realised that you pass over Pirates of the Caribbean and you can see into the cave. It goes to show that there’s always something new to see and experience. We stopped for a waffle before attemping the scrum that was the villains meet at the ‘It’s good to be bad’ show. Our research payed off and we managed to meet the old hag and the Tremains who had me in stitches. They really immersed themselves into their character roles and played them extremely well. They were definitely my favourites from the weekend, I could have stood and watched them for ages.

It wasn’t long before the others had to leave so we had a wander around taking photos with the pumpkin people. Myself and Leanne were staying an extra night which gave us much needed time to fit in more characters that I hadn’t met. Before most of the girls left us we went to meet Daisy in her Halloween costume. Everyone was reluctant to leave as we were all having such a good time together.

We had a little bit of time left with Louise before she had to make her way home so we went to find Captain Hook as Leanne was Disneybounding as Peter Pan. Hook wasn’t impressed with my skirt as it wasn’t his face I had on it. How very self centered! We then went on Pirates of the Caribbean for the fourth or fifth time this trip. It’s one of our main go to rides.

After Louise left I was starting to feel very ill. A migrain had taken hold and I couldn’t shake it. This made for a very bad evening. I couldn’t eat half of the food I had ordered at Rain Forrest Cafe which left me sad as I actually liked it. I had been there twice before and hated the food so I didn’t know if I wanted to go in on this occasion but as it was so busy else-where this was pretty much our only option. Afterwards we got the bus back to the hotel and had an early night so that we could get up early the next day.

DLP Trip Report – October 2016, Day 2 Fall Dapper Day

We were up bright and early preparing for the day ahead before making our way down to breakfast and meeting some more friends. Scott, Kate and Jessica were joining us for my first Dapper day. Breakfast was filling and enjoyable, just what I needed to start the day. The weather forecast was looking good too, a huge contrast from the day before. I had visions of us looking like drowned rats in our lovely dresses. I was dapper bounding as Minnie Mouse, it was only natural as I was there with the majority of the Disneybound UK admin team who were also Disneybounding on Dapper day.

When all 11 of us arrived at the Park, extra magic hours was almost over but we managed to get a meet in with Goofy and Pluto before then. We hadn’t planned on meeting many characters on Dapper day because we had scheduled meet ups to attend. I didn’t really know what to expect but I decided to just go with the flow. The first meet up that we attended was located in Adventure Isle. Unfortunately it all seemed a little chaotic due to the size of the group and how busy the park was getting, however we had time to admire everyone’s outfits and gather for various sets of photos before swiftly moving off.

Not really knowing what to do to pass the time between the next meet-up, we wandered around and stumbled upon Maleficent, her queue wasn’t too long so we decided to wait. I was in and out of that photo like a flash, I didn’t want to out-stay my welcome in case she put a spell on me. She already looked like she had a mood on and I didn’t want to make it any worse.Also in-between Dapper day meets we watched the Villains show ‘It’s good to be bad’ to try to work out a plan of action to get Jess a photo with Dr. Facilier as she was dapper bounding as him. We managed it on our second attempt and she had such an amazing character interaction with him. Now we had an idea of how best to meet the characters during the show we were going to head there the next day and try and meet more villains. I have never known something so stressful though, it was basically a scrum and you were lucky if the characters picked you.We stopped to refuel on Hakuna Fries for lunch before our joint Disneybound UK and Disneybound France meet that was scheduled to take part at Phantom Manor. Unfortunately we had to scrap that plan when we saw that the queue was backed up right to the gates and the surrounding area was bustling. I don’t think I’d ever seen it like that before. We had to try to make the most of it and just grab a corner where we could take more photos.

Most of the Disneybound UK admin team

By now I was starting to wonder if Dapper day was really worth it. The park was over-crowded and it all seemed a little unorganised despite the release of the meet times prior to the event. There was a lot of standing about waiting for nothing in particular but I loved the fact that we could dress up and go all out for the day. I had always wanted to wear a 50’s style dress and this was the perfect occasion. We all felt fabulous and important as strangers stopped us for photos.

My favourite meet of all was at the carousel in Fantasy Land. There was enough Dapper day attendees to do two rotations. Everyone was very excited and it was more atmospheric. We all gave a big cheer at the end of the ride and then went off to ride the teacups which was a little difficult in such a big puffy dress. The weather had shaped up to be glorious, something I hadn’t expected in the middle of October.Hopefully one day Dapper day in Disneyland Paris will become nearly as big as california and WDW with an Expo or evening meet/party. It seems to be growing all the time so we will see what future years will bring. All in all I had a lovely day and I’m currently looking forward to Spring Dapper Day.

DLP Trip Report – October 2016, Day 1

My friends and I had had this trip booked for months. It was Dapper day weekend so planning had been slightly more intense. On the morning of Friday the 14th of October I made my way to meet Leanne at Ebbsfleet to catch the Eurostar. I normally set off from London St Pancras so I was interested to see what this station was like. Distance was roughly the same and check in was so much more relaxed and not as busy as it normally is at St Pancras. I grabbed a hot chocolate and a cookie once we had reached departures and we just chilled out until our train was called. Thankfully there were no delays and it felt like we reached our destination in no time at all due to our excitement being a distraction.

We arrived at about 3pm and went straight to left luggage to put our bags in and meet Louise who had travelled my mega bus and had already spent a good 8 hours in the park. I hadn’t been to DLP in the Halloween season before but I had experienced it at WDW last year so I was intrigued to see how it differed. I was completely blown away by the decorations and my voice became annoyingly high-pitched and squeaky while I took in the sights for the first time. After I had composed myself we had a wander around until we found our first character meet which was Goofy in his Halloween gear. I love meeting the characters in different outfits and I knew this trip would be full of them. Goofy was a complete gent despite teasing us with sweets.

After travelling, we were quite hungry so we decided to try somewhere that we hadn’t eaten before. I had heard that Au Chalet de la Marionette Restaurant did a nice veggie bagel burger which I’d found out to be true after tasting it. This is a counter service restaurant, reasonably priced and nicely themed (Pinocchio) set in Fantasy Land. It’s one that I would definitely recommend. If you like apple Strudel this is the place to be. After refuelling we were ready to meet Ariel at the Princess Pavillion who remembered us from meeting her twice on our last trip in our disneybound outfits. She was totally adorable.On our list of must see characters was Jack Skellington so we headed of to his designated spot near Phantom Manor. It was my first encounter with him and I found him to be a real charmer. As we were in the area it would be rude not to ride Phantom Manor which was rapidly becoming one of my favourite attractions at DLP.

Time was getting on and we had met up with Rachelle and Stephanie who were joining us for the weekend. There was a big group of us this time. The weather had been turning really miserable so we decided to hit the shops in Main Street to escape it and meet Sarah-Louise. I’d made a mental note of all things that I wanted to buy before leaving on Monday just to make sure I’d have enough money for the rest of the weekend.Despite the weather, we managed to stick around for Dreams before collecting our suitcases and making the conveniently short bus journey to the Kyriad hotel. Another first for me as I hadn’t stayed at this hotel before. I had only heard good things from my friends who had stayed there several times before which suited their budget trips perfectly.

Check-in was painless considering that Jess who had originally booked it hadn’t arrived yet (we had two rooms between us). It had been amusingly decorated to fit in with Disney’s Halloween season. It was nice to see that they had gone to some effort even if it did look like they had raided a pound shop. The room was clean but very basic and the bed (the most important feature in my opinion) was very comfortable.

When Jess and Amy had eventually arrived it was time for me to crash (the next day was going to be busy so I needed all the sleep I could get) but some of the girls hadn’t eaten so the Kyriad staff gave them a number to order pizza which they found very helpful as they didn’t fancy anything from the vending machine. Everyone went to sleep happy.