"We've been, we've seen, we've done it" Trip Report - Day 3

[mummyal]

Day 3 - Saturday, December 20th

We woke up a bit later than previous mornings today. On the way to brekkie, we saw that Mickey was doing meet n greet. So we had to have a quick snapshot with the Mouse.

We thought we'd get into Fantasyland just before the others but we got there just at 10 am. So we entered the Castle along with everyone else lol. It was noticeably much more crowded today.

We headed straight for the Winnie the Pooh show which was at 10.15. This was really enjoyable as well. The kids loved it. What we didn't realise was there were seats/benches right at the front for the kids. By the time we knew about it, it was too late and there weren't any spaces left. Luckily, my two could peek through in between the heads in front of us.

After this, we made a quick dash to Central Plaza to grab a good spot for Minnie's Jolly Holiday show.

We started to make our way out to the Studios. On the way, we bumped into these folks.

We also saw Captain Hook (who came from behind and put Adam's hood over his head... Adam wasn't too pleased lol), Mr Smee and Timon but they were on their way out, so, they didn't stop for photos. Shame really as Adam likes Timon as well.

It was now about 11.45 am and I decided to pop in to Salon Mickey to have a look. I knew it was going to be closed as it was quite late (they close at 12) but decided to try my luck anyway. Well, it was closed lol.

So, off we went to the Studios.

First on the list was to look for Donald Duck (Adam's favourite!). We found him! And Mummy found Mr Incredible just next door

We got a FP for the Flying Carpets ride. In the meantime, we walked over to Stitch Live and saw that they were still letting people in for the next show in 10 mins. So we went to see that. We've never seen it before and we really enjoyed it. Very very clever! After this, we went on the Flying Carpets ride.

Everyone was starving at this point. We saw that the hotdog kiosk near Studio 1 (or thereabouts) had no queue, so we grabbed a couple of hotdogs and a chicken salad and sat on a bench outside the Animation gallery. Soon after, there was a queue at the kiosk. Phew!

After this, it was time to see Minnie & Daisy at the Place des Stars at 2.30 (but before that, we got FPs for ToT for 4.50pm). There was already a short queue to see Minnie & Daisy. They were 5 mins late lol. When they did turn up, they stopped at the Christmas tree just a few steps away from Place des Stars and those who were queueing up originally were not pleased as they had lost their place at the front lol. Anyway, this was quite orderly as the CMs made sure that everyone queued up properly.

Eventhough it was still quite early (about 3ish), we then decided to go back to the hotel for a rest and forget about hanging around for ToT as it was going to be a long night ahead (Mickey's Magical Dinner).

We left our room at about 5.45 as I thought Candleabration was at 6 and I wanted to catch the start of it... but when we got there, there wasn't a crowd, so I checked the time again and it was actually starting at 7.30. Oops

So, we went to look for the venue for the dinner. Got there around 6.10 and was told that they will only start letting people in at 6.30. So we popped into Videopolis and was just going to hang around the arcades bit... but then DH saw that Lion King was about to start in 5 mins and there wasn't a queue to get in. So we sat and watched Lion King and by the time we came out, the queue to get in to the dinner was sooooo long (it was 6.45ish then).

TR continued in next message.....

 

[mummyal]

The Pavillion was masssssssive. I know I've read that it was massive but I didn't think it would that massive! Wow. The place was so hot as well. We were sat somewhere in the middle of the hall (near the dessert buffet ) and they had hot buffets in every corner of the hall, so the queues weren't actually too bad. They also had 'meet and greet' characters -- Buzz, Jessie, Peter Pan, Jack Sparrow, Pinocchio, Gepetto (I think.. didn't queue up to see them as we had already seen them elsewhere) and Mickey at their 'stations' lol. There were also Donald and Chip & Dale walking around. The Princesses were on the stage - needless to say, the queues for this was quite long. We queued up to see Belle but 5 mins into the queue, they swapped to Cinderella and Louise didn't want to see Cinderella again lol.

There was a face painter walking around as well and we had to wait quite a while to get his attention. The food was quite nice eventhough I didn't get to eat much (I think the dessert buffet was quite limited in choice though). I think there was just too much going on and not enough time (it was supposed to end at 9). The waitressing staff were very good though - they kept coming round to top up our drinks. I think they would've done better to perhaps start the dinner or open the doors earlier, say at 5.30 or 6. We were sat with another family (couple and their 6 yr old son) and they were also from Surrey (Leatherhead). It was their first time to DLRP and when she found out it was our 3rd time, she was quite shocked and asked what it was that made us come back for the 2nd & 3rd time So, I told her that judging from her question, they won't be going back again and she said 'no, we won't'. She did say it was mainly due to the crowds (they arrived on Friday) and also, it just wasn't as nice as she was expecting.

Here are a few pics..

At about 8.45, I told Peter that we should start making a move as Fantillusion was due to start at 9 pm and I didn't want to get caught in the 'people jam' leaving the hall. Just as we were getting our coats on, an announcement came on to remind everyone that Fantillusion was due to start soon... so we moved doubly quick lol. We made it for the parade on time but obviously didn't get a good spot. Grabbed a chair for Louise to stand on and I could just about see the floats but not the CMs on the ground level. It was a beautiful parade though and I'm glad we managed to see it in the end.

Ooops, some of the pics have turned out bigger than others.

So, yes, another late night once again Kids weren't complaining, so all was good. They even wanted to go and watch telly in the kids' corner when we got back to the hotel .

 

[tennisfan]

Another great day

 

[ema74]

Fantastic day!

 

[Ware Bears]

Lovely photos at your dinner ~ I suppose it was new this year so they will be able to work on improvements if they hold it next year.

Glad you got to see Fantillusion ~ it's one of my favourite parades.

 

[cap'njack.]

I'm glad you had a nice time.

I'm sorry to say that the dinner that you went to fills me with dread. That to me is everything that DLRP shouldn't be and I am so glad that we decided against booking it.