jillrobinson
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 30, 2005
Sunday Day 2
I got up before everyone else so while they came around I went for a wander around the hotel - Pluto was all alone and posed for a photograph.
(Thankfully although DH's back had stiffened up during the night, once he was up and moving about he was reasonably painfree), we made our way down to the Captain's Quarters for breakfast. It was lovely knowing that we didn't
have to be there at a specific time.
We arrived to be told "Sorry this is a private breakfast area, you need to go downstairs", I flashed the invites to the CM to which the response came "Bonjour Mrs. Robinson, how are you this morning, take a seat and your hostess will be with you shortly", I don't know if we didn't look posh enough to be in there or if she was a little fed up with constantly turning people away as I noticed her explaining the same thing several times over to other guests who came into the bar.
The Captain's Quarters turned out to be a very elegant bar area with a mixture of leather seats and comfy sofas and the view out over the lake was fabulous.
The breakfast was the usual buffet style, with the addition of some exquisite danish pastries, if you ever see them try the ones with 4 red cherries on the top - they are delicious, but try and get the cherries in whole otherwise the juice squirts out everywhere and makes a terrible mess, we also had fresh fruit salad, a platter of fresh fruit and the tables were laid out with little pots of finest jams, marmalades and honey. It was all very high class with proper knives and forks and linen napkins. Our hostess made sure we had all the drinks we wanted, fruit juices, coffee, chocolate, tea.
There were only a few tables occupied when Donald Duck came in and no other children, so we had him all to ourselves. On the way out I noticed the queues for breakfast down in the other restaurants and was very glad we'd paid the little bit extra for the Admiral's Floor.
Despite it being cold the sun was shining, we wandered past the lake and through Disney Village, and already I could see by the crowds that it was going to be a very busy day in the park.
We had lunch booked at the Lucky Nugget at 2.00 so decided the best bet would be to hang around Frontierland until it was time, this is also both my DS's favourite land. We got fastpasses for BTM and then headed over to Phantom Manor, which was developing a large queue - Jessie was very brave but she didn't like it and was adamant that she wasn't going on again. We'd been so long in PM it was time to ride BTM, Jessie wasn't quite tall enough, so everyone else rode it while we sat and watched the Mark Twain, the CM did offer baby switch, but I thought I'd feel a bit silly riding it by myself.
It was about 12.30 and I desperately wanted to go on the paddle steamer to get some photos and also because previously we'd only been on the Molly Brown. We joined the queue, she came in unloaded/loaded and was off again, but we were at the front of the queue so we'd get on the next one. She docked and everyone got off but the CM's didn't open the gates, then one proceeded to drag a large hose over whilst another explained that she was out of water and needed refilling. Now I've no idea how much water she holds, but it seemed to be taking forever, I had one eye on my watch and the other on the various people arriving talking to the CMs, going aboard, coming off - quite a crowd was gathering. My heart sank when some obvious engineers arrived, but still no-one explained what was happening. Eventually a french guy called one of the CM's over I didn't understand was said but at this point many of those waiting started walking away, presumably those who understood French - Ann went to ask and was told it was "broken", but that the engineers were working on the problem, we hung around as long as we could, but I didn't want to miss our lunch booking.
Lucky Nugget
We'd never been in here before and again I was awestruck at the themeing inside.
We were seated at one of the circular bar type tables which gave us a great view of the restaurant. It was a buffet style meal, with a large selection of starters, none of us bothered with these as we were saving ourselves for the desserts. The Main course choice consisted of Chilli, Chicken Fahitas - which you made yourself and were absolutely delicious, beef, which was a little to rare for my taste, lemon chicken, barbecue pork ribs, chicken nuggets, chips, vegetables, pasta, pizza and possibly more.
For dessert DH and I decided to share, we took 2 plates and got one of everything - there were meringues, crepes, rice pudding, cheesecake, lots of fancy tarts, etc.
During the meal there were constantly characters milling about - Pinocchio & Gepetto, Chip and Dale - much to Jessie's delight, Tigger, and as in Cafe Mickey, one by one they all came around to visit ensuring everyone got a chance for a photo or autograph. On and off there was a band on stage and again there were quite a few birthdays being celebrated with cakes and the usual singing and clapping, great fun.
Our hostess was very attentive, checking we had drinks, asking if the food was OK and clearing away our dishes, we had quite a few as between us we tried almost everything, but she didn't seem bothered.
After checking whether Mark Twain was sailing - it wasn't and we didn't see it sail again during our visit, we made our way over to the Winnie the Pooh stage to watch the Wonderful World of Disney parade and then over to POTC, we joined a long queue but this is a favourite and well worth the wait, when we got off we discovered the queue had disappeared so we want back on again and when that ride finished the CM asked if we wanted to stay on - well why not ? When we came out I checked my watch 5.45, this explained why the ride had been so quiet, the last Carnaval Finale parade had just finished, so much for me bringing the hol. dates forward to catch the Carnaval we didn't get to watch any of the parades, we headed over to Fantasyland for Blanche Neige, Pinocchio and Peter Pan and before we knew it, it was coming up to Park closing time - I can't believe how quickly the day goes by when you have to queue for each ride.
Mickey was at Main Street Station waving and shouting "So Long" to everyone, that was a lovely moment knowing that we still had another 4 days left.
We headed back through Disney Village, stopping to buy some hotdogs to take back to the hotel. We'd been given complimentary vouchers for coffee and tea, so we decided to use them and phoned room service, not really knowing what to expect, but we got a kettle each and a little hamper containing 4 sachets of coffee, 4 teabags, sugar and milk. (This normally costs 8 euros) We finally got to start Liam's Birthday Cake, it was a chocolate, fudgey cake - very nice but very rich, it had been cut into 8 portions but we halved these again as nobody could eat a whole slice. The kids played for a while, having the interconnecting doors was great it meant they could let off steam in one room and we could talk in the other, if only the TV had better choices.
The view from our room was lovely at night with the lights around the NPB building and the lake and in the distance those from Sequoia Lodge, unfortunately it was impossible to photograph. After a long soak in the complimentary Mickey Mouse bubble bath, I joined the others who were already fast asleep.
BTW - sorry the pics are so large I have resized them, it seems they take a while to update on photobucket.
I got up before everyone else so while they came around I went for a wander around the hotel - Pluto was all alone and posed for a photograph.
(Thankfully although DH's back had stiffened up during the night, once he was up and moving about he was reasonably painfree), we made our way down to the Captain's Quarters for breakfast. It was lovely knowing that we didn't
have to be there at a specific time.
We arrived to be told "Sorry this is a private breakfast area, you need to go downstairs", I flashed the invites to the CM to which the response came "Bonjour Mrs. Robinson, how are you this morning, take a seat and your hostess will be with you shortly", I don't know if we didn't look posh enough to be in there or if she was a little fed up with constantly turning people away as I noticed her explaining the same thing several times over to other guests who came into the bar.
The Captain's Quarters turned out to be a very elegant bar area with a mixture of leather seats and comfy sofas and the view out over the lake was fabulous.
The breakfast was the usual buffet style, with the addition of some exquisite danish pastries, if you ever see them try the ones with 4 red cherries on the top - they are delicious, but try and get the cherries in whole otherwise the juice squirts out everywhere and makes a terrible mess, we also had fresh fruit salad, a platter of fresh fruit and the tables were laid out with little pots of finest jams, marmalades and honey. It was all very high class with proper knives and forks and linen napkins. Our hostess made sure we had all the drinks we wanted, fruit juices, coffee, chocolate, tea.
There were only a few tables occupied when Donald Duck came in and no other children, so we had him all to ourselves. On the way out I noticed the queues for breakfast down in the other restaurants and was very glad we'd paid the little bit extra for the Admiral's Floor.
Despite it being cold the sun was shining, we wandered past the lake and through Disney Village, and already I could see by the crowds that it was going to be a very busy day in the park.
We had lunch booked at the Lucky Nugget at 2.00 so decided the best bet would be to hang around Frontierland until it was time, this is also both my DS's favourite land. We got fastpasses for BTM and then headed over to Phantom Manor, which was developing a large queue - Jessie was very brave but she didn't like it and was adamant that she wasn't going on again. We'd been so long in PM it was time to ride BTM, Jessie wasn't quite tall enough, so everyone else rode it while we sat and watched the Mark Twain, the CM did offer baby switch, but I thought I'd feel a bit silly riding it by myself.
It was about 12.30 and I desperately wanted to go on the paddle steamer to get some photos and also because previously we'd only been on the Molly Brown. We joined the queue, she came in unloaded/loaded and was off again, but we were at the front of the queue so we'd get on the next one. She docked and everyone got off but the CM's didn't open the gates, then one proceeded to drag a large hose over whilst another explained that she was out of water and needed refilling. Now I've no idea how much water she holds, but it seemed to be taking forever, I had one eye on my watch and the other on the various people arriving talking to the CMs, going aboard, coming off - quite a crowd was gathering. My heart sank when some obvious engineers arrived, but still no-one explained what was happening. Eventually a french guy called one of the CM's over I didn't understand was said but at this point many of those waiting started walking away, presumably those who understood French - Ann went to ask and was told it was "broken", but that the engineers were working on the problem, we hung around as long as we could, but I didn't want to miss our lunch booking.
Lucky Nugget
We'd never been in here before and again I was awestruck at the themeing inside.
We were seated at one of the circular bar type tables which gave us a great view of the restaurant. It was a buffet style meal, with a large selection of starters, none of us bothered with these as we were saving ourselves for the desserts. The Main course choice consisted of Chilli, Chicken Fahitas - which you made yourself and were absolutely delicious, beef, which was a little to rare for my taste, lemon chicken, barbecue pork ribs, chicken nuggets, chips, vegetables, pasta, pizza and possibly more.
For dessert DH and I decided to share, we took 2 plates and got one of everything - there were meringues, crepes, rice pudding, cheesecake, lots of fancy tarts, etc.
During the meal there were constantly characters milling about - Pinocchio & Gepetto, Chip and Dale - much to Jessie's delight, Tigger, and as in Cafe Mickey, one by one they all came around to visit ensuring everyone got a chance for a photo or autograph. On and off there was a band on stage and again there were quite a few birthdays being celebrated with cakes and the usual singing and clapping, great fun.
Our hostess was very attentive, checking we had drinks, asking if the food was OK and clearing away our dishes, we had quite a few as between us we tried almost everything, but she didn't seem bothered.
After checking whether Mark Twain was sailing - it wasn't and we didn't see it sail again during our visit, we made our way over to the Winnie the Pooh stage to watch the Wonderful World of Disney parade and then over to POTC, we joined a long queue but this is a favourite and well worth the wait, when we got off we discovered the queue had disappeared so we want back on again and when that ride finished the CM asked if we wanted to stay on - well why not ? When we came out I checked my watch 5.45, this explained why the ride had been so quiet, the last Carnaval Finale parade had just finished, so much for me bringing the hol. dates forward to catch the Carnaval we didn't get to watch any of the parades, we headed over to Fantasyland for Blanche Neige, Pinocchio and Peter Pan and before we knew it, it was coming up to Park closing time - I can't believe how quickly the day goes by when you have to queue for each ride.
Mickey was at Main Street Station waving and shouting "So Long" to everyone, that was a lovely moment knowing that we still had another 4 days left.
We headed back through Disney Village, stopping to buy some hotdogs to take back to the hotel. We'd been given complimentary vouchers for coffee and tea, so we decided to use them and phoned room service, not really knowing what to expect, but we got a kettle each and a little hamper containing 4 sachets of coffee, 4 teabags, sugar and milk. (This normally costs 8 euros) We finally got to start Liam's Birthday Cake, it was a chocolate, fudgey cake - very nice but very rich, it had been cut into 8 portions but we halved these again as nobody could eat a whole slice. The kids played for a while, having the interconnecting doors was great it meant they could let off steam in one room and we could talk in the other, if only the TV had better choices.
The view from our room was lovely at night with the lights around the NPB building and the lake and in the distance those from Sequoia Lodge, unfortunately it was impossible to photograph. After a long soak in the complimentary Mickey Mouse bubble bath, I joined the others who were already fast asleep.
BTW - sorry the pics are so large I have resized them, it seems they take a while to update on photobucket.