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the pool was closed for Renovation during my visit. *but there was a LOT of stuff undergoing construction/updates/renovation, so didn't really impact us. we had a "parking lot view". . but the truth is we were barely in the room, so the view didn't matter all that much. but a lot of greenery, was kinda nice. lemme look and see if i have any pics from the window. . . here ya go. . I think these are from the hotel room window.

Day 11: Evening. . . after a quick stop at the Airport to drop off those leaving (I think it was only a couple of folks). . we continued on the bus to Disney. and before we knew it, we were being dropped off in front of Sequoia Lodge (the DLP version of Wilderness Lodge, from what I gather). not everyone was staying at this hotel. . some were at Hotel New York (newly remodeled with a Marvel Superheroes overlay) and other hotels nearby. checking in was surprisingly easy, and as we were there just after 8pm, and the park was open until after 11? we asked if tonight counted as admission for our multiple day tickets. Upon being told "yes". . we went to the room, dropped off our stuff, and immediately headed out to the park. but first some pics of the room - among the largest of the rooms we had on this trip - only slightly bigger than that room at Europa Parc that started off the trip. very "earthy" / "Widerness" / "Sequoia Trees" colors but the room DID have a slight "Bambi" theme thruout: look how beautiful it is. . and after 8pm too. here's the backside of Sequoia Lodge, as we exited towards the parks.(tho only Disneyland was still open, the other park closed I think at 7) the view to the left - another of the Disney Resort Hotels (tho can't recall the name. . "Harbor Bay" maybe?) and looking straight across the Lagoon, the Disney Village (with Balloon ride) and behind them the parks. no way to cut across the lagoon tho. . had to walk around, either left, or to the right. . . so we headed right, to pass in front of Hotel New York - as that seemed to be the main entrance to the Disney Village area. I'm here! (yes, I'm a Disney nerd) Hotel New York really leaned into the Marvel Superheroes theme (Avengers Campus was opening soon - we missed it by a couple of weeks, but hey, reason to go back!). out front of the hotel were these life-size statues that were quite cool: the hotel itself: coming fully around the lagoon and ready to enter into Disney Village. that's our hotel in the back across the water. . I was a little confused by the theming over here. . it doesn't seem to be related to any Disney IP (at least not one I could think of). . but it certainly was "whimsical" Overview map of Disney Village ah. THERE'S some Disney branding! I don't recall if I ever went into this store. . .perhaps a quick stop on the way out on the final night? (there was so much merchandise inside the parks, that I didn't feel a real need to go in here and purchase anything more) several "street" entertainers were out performing. these folks were really good, but only stopped for a moment to watch. based on his nametag? I think this was a Disney Studios employee (probably the guy who mans the "Face painting" booths). Makes sense, as that park was closed already . . . but I liked his Captain America face paint, so snapped a pic as we passed him. and the heavens opened up. . and we were faced with massive construction walls (that I mostly managed to frame outside of picture) and we were facing the Disneyland Hotel. which is the entrance to Disneyland Paris. the hotel was in the middle of a years long rennovation, so was not open to the public (boo. . would have loved to peek inside), but still pretty neat that you walk under the hotel to enter the park. we made it! It had been a long day. . but Disney perked me up. James too, I think. (that look is "Ecstatic" for a Brit ) thru the entry gates, and under the "train station". . . all decked out for the 30th anniversary celebration. Can't really recall, but I think those "flags" spun around the circular pictures? Main Street USA. . not very busy as we were coming in towards the end of the day. first view of the castle. ooooo. . so pretty. surrounding the Castle Courtyard, on the Main Street USA side, are all these really amazing Metal Kinetic Sculptures. I *loved* these, and asked if the park sold miniature models of them only to be told, sadly, no. I'd absolutely buy a few of these. . they were so cool. Dumbo & Tigger Baymax! Ariel & Moana Tinkerbell Timon & Pumbaa snake from Jungle Book. . blanking on his name. . people were lined up for a parade, I believe. (dont' think this was for the fireworks, as it was still a couple of hours away, but COULD have been for that). James and I detoured around the crowd - we were here for 3 more days, so was more focused on getting on a few classic Disney attractions: The Paris Version of Haunted Mansion (called Phantom Manor here), Big Thunder Mountain (super unique here at DLP and my favorite version of the ride now), and Pirates of the Caribbean. going around the crowd gave some awesome opportunities for pics of the castle tho. Some of my favorites from the Disney parks visit. guess what we're headed for 1st. . . ooooo. . but nope. very pretty tho. here's where we were headed: Phantom Manor. Molly Brown was already "parked" for the night. . . so we'd ride that later in the visit. this late in the day on a Friday? really almost a walk on. Less than 10 minute wait. view towards Big Thunder Mountain from the front doors of Phantom Manor no real pics from inside on this 1st night, as was really enjoying the experience. And knew I'd ride it multiple times during the visit (so the sub par blurry ones I did have, not sharing now). I THINK we might have ridden it twice, since it was a walk on? this pic is from the ride exit path. I mean I HAD to take a pic of a Mickey balloon. . . before we headed around the corner for BTM: 20 minute standby line. . . hmmmm. . . didn't look TOO crowded, and the line did appear to be moving quickly. and 20 minutes isn't too bad. so we hopped in line. well, hello! yeah. .my Selfie camera decides to brighten things up. but me, Phantom Manor, and Big Thunder Mountain at DLP. . I adore this picture. no Jungle Cruise Ride here at DLP. . so the best you're gonna get is: "the Back Side of the Castle" Just gorgeous as the sun starts to set. Chicken exit. . but we were so close to load station, no way were we gonna use it Lucky row 13 tho 20 minutes isn't bad at all. . . the wait was long enough that we just rode once tonight (knowing we'd be able to purchase ride bypass tickets on other days). . and headed over towards Pirates of the Caribbean at least we THOUGHT we were headed there. . .we didn't look at any park maps, and just headed where we thought we should go by following the signs in the park. and ended up in a "dead end" area, close to Pirates, but not actually there. Instead, we found ourselves in front of THIS. yeah. . Was *not* looking forwards to this. I not only knew it's reputation, but had ridden in in TDL, so I knew it was a rough mess. BUT. . we were right there in front of it, and it was Walk On. Like 0 minutes wait. So we sucked it up, and got in line. it wasn't AWFUL. . but I really do think that's only because we had ridden Goudruix a few hours earlier. . so the memory of that pain remained. LOL. . so there's your trick for riding Indiana Jones at DLP. I think I asked a cast member where Pirates was, and she gave us the correct turn and we headed that direction. Very cool. .walkthru not open still due to Covid restrictions (or staffing). . but still some great theming over here. (and the cave system WAS back open) Yay! it was getting fairly close to 10:20 at this point, so the back part of the Park had started to get deserted. So Pirates was a walk on as well (tho the queue is quite lengthy) restaurant in this version too. . . we'd eat here as a guest of John & Chris the next day. . really well done. and as you can see. . we pretty much were the only ones riding at this point. . . so when the cast members at the exit asked us if we wanted to stay on the boat and ride thru again (apparently something fairly rare?). . we said "heck yes!" so got to ride it back to back. We figured we'd catch the Fireworks, since were here. . but parts of the park pathways had been closed off at this point for safety, so we had to take a really long path back towards the front of the park. Didn't stop me from snapping pics as we walked tho. . we eventually came back to the front of the castle shortly before the show started. ended up way on the left, so this first night didn't get a GREAT view (we could barely see the drones). . but some pics came out nice enough that I wanted to share. Disneyland Paris Fireworks - THRU THE TREES !!!!! when the show ends, there's a stampede to the exits. Rather than get caught in that, we hovered around, and can get some nice pics of the castle lit up at night. . as the crowd started to thin, the cast members start closing the stores one section at a time, moving the crowd towards the front exits. I had been asked by a friend to please try to get her a DLP 30th anniversary Backpack (at the time, very hard to find) and had been told this store carried them. of course, Cruella. .. they were JUST about to close off this section. . when I spotted over her rope she was pulling across. . one of the backpacks. they had just restocked them for the morning. I asked her could I please just go in and grab a backpack? and she said "absolutely. . but I'd have to pay for it at one of the other registers, as she wanted to close off this area" I thanked her profusely, and noted that I hadn't seen these at all since we'd been in the park, and she told me they sell out immediately with people buying multiples, but since my timing was good, I caught it just as they had put them out for the display. them? yup. .they had both versions: I messaged Amy, to ask if she wanted both (but didn't get a response right away). . and I said, I guess i can come back in the morning once I know which she wanted. And the Castmember shook her head no, and said, "oh, they'll be gone 5 minutes after we open"! So I gritted my teeth and just bought the one I thought she'd want (didn't want to buy both as these suckers are expensive!!). Lucked out, in that the one I bought was the one she was missing, and already had the other one. I thanked the cast member profusely, and we headed out. it had been a very long day, but I was so satisfied and happy, and Nick had messaged me saying he was doing well and we'd talk in the morning. So we slowly made our way back to the hotel and crashed hard. Tomorrow was gonna be a big day as well.. . not only Saturday, so the parks would be crowded, but I had made arrangements to go with Robb, Elissa, Kristen, and a few others to the Eiffel Tower! So plan was to be in Studios, head out to Paris, then back and meet up with James in DLP that evening. was gonna be another exhausting day, but well worth it.

I'm with you on those sculptures, I'd be broke if they had versions for sale. I LOVE that sort of thing. Kaa is the snake's name.

Confirmed?

It has been announced that Rogers: The Musical, a one-act musical inspired by the show of the same name in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, is coming to Disney California Adventure for a limited run this summer! https://www.marvel.com/articles/culture-lifestyle/rogers-the-musical-disneyland-resort-summer-2023 For anyone out there who has long dreamed of seeing a real-life production of Rogers: The Musical, your dreams are about to come true. Starting this summer for a limited-time engagement, a short one-act version of Rogers: The Musical will debut on the Hyperion Stage inside California Adventure Park. More details will be announced at a later date, but Disney Parks shared a small tease of what’s to come when the Avengers step into the spotlight. The fictitious musical all about the life of Steve Rogers, the first Captain America, first debuted in the Disney+ original series, Hawkeye. In the show, all the Avengers are invited to New York for the premiere of the brand new, showstopping musical but only Clint Barton, aka Hawkeye, shows up. The MIA Avengers don’t know what they’re missing, though, as viewers are treated to a musical number based on The Battle of New York…though a few creative liberties have been taken here and there. More details regarding the storyline, music, and debut date will be shared in the future and it’s sure to be a SMASH. SMASH. SMAAAAASH.