loladelorean
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 9, 2010
- Messages
- 1,371
Day 2 – Monday 7th November
It was our first full day in the parks, and we all got up bright as buttons after an amazing sleep in those blissful HNY beds. 7.30 breakfast in the Parkside Diner which was also glitzy for Christmas.
I love the HNY breakfast – each day my sister and I filled up with sausages and potatoes, while my mum went for the lighter fare of fresh fruit, yoghurts and pastries. Ok, so I had some pastries too! After a more leisurely breakfast than we had intended, we made it to the park for about 8.30. We all went on Buzz, which my mum had never done before, she loved it and came off giggling. I got the best score, woohoo. Then my mum popped into constellations while we did Space Mountain – it was a walk on, and a rattley ride! That’ll wake you up in the mornings! We love Space Mountain though, we always come off laughing, it’s such a rush.
Into Fantasyland now, and my mums favourite ride – the Carousel! I had planned to be at TSPL for rope drop on this day so it was time to head to the studios. The Christmas theming is minimal in front lot, but we loved all the glitz and tinsel inside Studio 1! There are big band Christmas songs playing in the studios, compared to old style carols in the main park, we thought this was a great Disney touch.
When we got in at 9.50, Crush was only showing a 10 minute wait, so that was an opportunity we couldn’t miss. Sure enough, it really was only 10 minutes, and a fun ride! My mum has back problems so decided against this one, good thing too, it was a lot jerkier than we remembered.
Time for TSPL! We love this area, its smaller than we expected but loads of fun and a great splash of colour. We walked straight on to RC Racer, another surprise, and loved it! We are big thrill seekers and this really satisfied our need for excitement, your heart is really in your mouth. People have complained its too short, but I don’t think I could take much more! Then, for a laugh, we went on Slinky with my mum…a bit of a silly ride, but a good one for kids. Parachutes was shut, as it was for most of the week. Possibly not weather proof enough for Paris?
On our way to get ToT fastpasses we noticed the Tram Tour was boarding, with no queue, so we jumped on. We’ve never done this before as it’s always been shut, at first we were like hmm, is this just a tour of bits of grass with statues on? But of course, it got very exciting, and we loved it (even though you cant hear a word of the video).
We were in need of some sustenance now after a morning battling the elements (rain was on and off so far), so we popped into Blockbuster Café. Again, this is a place some people don’t like but we loved both sides of it. We just got coffee and brioche to keep us going, took some photos, and we left my mum in here for a bit while we went to RnRC – another 10 minute queue.
I was really really looking forward to this, as it was my favourite ride in WDW and I’ve never done the Paris one, but I have to say we were disappointed. Neither of us had working speakers, and although the initial blast off is great, we felt that other bits of the ride were very slow. Shame.
We still had some time before our ToT fastpasses and it was starting to rain heavily, so the 3 of us headed into Art of Animation. A lovely show, I always well up at the montage! When we came out the last room was full of very wet characters who had fled from the rain! We got some fun photos:
Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum were hilarious, they got us dancing with them, and then they kidnapped another 2 girls in a hug and wouldn't let go. They made everybody laugh!
My sister and I dashed through the rain to ToT while our mum continued to look around the animation gallery and shop. We were in and out of ToT in 15 minutes – still our very favourite ride! Gets better every time.
It was now 12.45 and we had a reservation for Walts at 1pm. I’ve always wanted to eat at Walts, and we were all really excited, but when we got there it was shut! We headed back to City Hall and they said the booking should never have been taken, and they didn’t know which days Walts would be open. We were gutted, and had to choose somewhere else for lunch. On a bit of a whim I decided on the Silver Spur – not one I’d read much about as we hadn’t been planning on going, but decided to give it a go.
We dashed round the covered walkway as the rain was pretty much torrential at this point, and were soon in the cosy warmth of the Silver Spur. Gorgeous traditional Christmas decorations and delicious smells!
We were seated near the back and again had a lovely waiter. I had the Cowboy Platter (supposed to be a side order to share but look its massive!) which was very tasty, especially the quesadillas and crispy prawns. Mmm. My sister the carnivore had a fillet steak which she wolfed down and said it was one of the best steaks she had had! My mum had roast chicken with potatoes, she quite liked it but wasn’t keen on the sauce. Told you, fussy. Then I had a crème brulee which came out all aflame, and my mum had a café gourmand. Delicious, and needless to say we were stuffed by the time we left.
My mum decided to go back to the hotel and unpack properly while my sister and I braved the rain and tried to go on a few more rides. It was really coming down, and the park seemed deserted as we trudged through Frontierland towards Pirates. We went down towards Santa’s village and there was nobody around! Popping into his grotto there was one little boy with his mum just leaving and that was it, so we took the chance to get a photo. Think Santa was pleased to see us on such a slow day.
It really was weather for ducks
I took this to try and illustrate the rain as it was bouncing off the river, but it didn't come out too well
Pirates, when we got there, was shut due to technical difficulties, boo, so we explored the caves a bit instead.
We’re pretty rain-proof, being Scottish, but even we couldn’t face BTM in such downpour. We headed back to the hotel via the castle to visit the dragon. She was pretty restless!
For a bit of refuge from the rain we also popped into the DLH lobby to take some photos of the gorgeous decorations:
This had popped up in front of HNY, it hadn't been there in the morning
When we got back mum had done the unpacking but had also fallen asleep! We were tired too, and we ended up all having a nap for a couple of hours. We got up at 6pm, got spruced up and headed to the HNY Bar for a long awaited cocktail! The bar was busy with conference goers, there was some sort of Pharmaceutical company having a conference while we were there. Good buzz about it though. I had a Havana Mai Tai (I like my rum, as you will see as the TR goes on), mum had a New York New York and sister had a Glowtini (well somebody had to!)
While we were there, the family at the next table told us the fireworks had been cancelled because of the weather. We were disappointed but not that surprised. When we headed out though, it had actually stopped raining! Disney must have been annoyed, they probably could have had the fireworks after all. We popped into almost all of the Village shops before going to Annette’s for dinner (yes, more food, it’s all the walking…) My mum hadn’t been before and loved the themeing, its one of our favourites from last year. I had the onion burger, ooo those caramelized onions! Sister had a foot long hotdog and ate every bit, don’t know how after that steak in the afternoon. And mum had 2 starters, breaded camembert and hash browns. I had another cocktail, can’t remember what it was but it had rum in it and was very tasty hic
Having been too tired for cocktails the night before, we were behind on our plan to visit all the different hotel bars! So, needs must, we had to do 2 on Monday. We strolled round to the Sequoia, where we all absolutely loved the Christmassy feel and the decorations.
We’ve decided if we come back altogether, we’d like to stay at this hotel (going to try and bring dad along next time). The bar was busy in a nice, atmospheric way, and we got a table quite near the awesome fireplace.
Another cocktail might have tipped me into drunkenness, so it was hot chocolates all round. We relaxed there for a while and planned the next day before going back to our lovely HNY to sleep.
It was our first full day in the parks, and we all got up bright as buttons after an amazing sleep in those blissful HNY beds. 7.30 breakfast in the Parkside Diner which was also glitzy for Christmas.
I love the HNY breakfast – each day my sister and I filled up with sausages and potatoes, while my mum went for the lighter fare of fresh fruit, yoghurts and pastries. Ok, so I had some pastries too! After a more leisurely breakfast than we had intended, we made it to the park for about 8.30. We all went on Buzz, which my mum had never done before, she loved it and came off giggling. I got the best score, woohoo. Then my mum popped into constellations while we did Space Mountain – it was a walk on, and a rattley ride! That’ll wake you up in the mornings! We love Space Mountain though, we always come off laughing, it’s such a rush.
Into Fantasyland now, and my mums favourite ride – the Carousel! I had planned to be at TSPL for rope drop on this day so it was time to head to the studios. The Christmas theming is minimal in front lot, but we loved all the glitz and tinsel inside Studio 1! There are big band Christmas songs playing in the studios, compared to old style carols in the main park, we thought this was a great Disney touch.
When we got in at 9.50, Crush was only showing a 10 minute wait, so that was an opportunity we couldn’t miss. Sure enough, it really was only 10 minutes, and a fun ride! My mum has back problems so decided against this one, good thing too, it was a lot jerkier than we remembered.
Time for TSPL! We love this area, its smaller than we expected but loads of fun and a great splash of colour. We walked straight on to RC Racer, another surprise, and loved it! We are big thrill seekers and this really satisfied our need for excitement, your heart is really in your mouth. People have complained its too short, but I don’t think I could take much more! Then, for a laugh, we went on Slinky with my mum…a bit of a silly ride, but a good one for kids. Parachutes was shut, as it was for most of the week. Possibly not weather proof enough for Paris?
On our way to get ToT fastpasses we noticed the Tram Tour was boarding, with no queue, so we jumped on. We’ve never done this before as it’s always been shut, at first we were like hmm, is this just a tour of bits of grass with statues on? But of course, it got very exciting, and we loved it (even though you cant hear a word of the video).
We were in need of some sustenance now after a morning battling the elements (rain was on and off so far), so we popped into Blockbuster Café. Again, this is a place some people don’t like but we loved both sides of it. We just got coffee and brioche to keep us going, took some photos, and we left my mum in here for a bit while we went to RnRC – another 10 minute queue.
I was really really looking forward to this, as it was my favourite ride in WDW and I’ve never done the Paris one, but I have to say we were disappointed. Neither of us had working speakers, and although the initial blast off is great, we felt that other bits of the ride were very slow. Shame.
We still had some time before our ToT fastpasses and it was starting to rain heavily, so the 3 of us headed into Art of Animation. A lovely show, I always well up at the montage! When we came out the last room was full of very wet characters who had fled from the rain! We got some fun photos:
Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum were hilarious, they got us dancing with them, and then they kidnapped another 2 girls in a hug and wouldn't let go. They made everybody laugh!
My sister and I dashed through the rain to ToT while our mum continued to look around the animation gallery and shop. We were in and out of ToT in 15 minutes – still our very favourite ride! Gets better every time.
It was now 12.45 and we had a reservation for Walts at 1pm. I’ve always wanted to eat at Walts, and we were all really excited, but when we got there it was shut! We headed back to City Hall and they said the booking should never have been taken, and they didn’t know which days Walts would be open. We were gutted, and had to choose somewhere else for lunch. On a bit of a whim I decided on the Silver Spur – not one I’d read much about as we hadn’t been planning on going, but decided to give it a go.
We dashed round the covered walkway as the rain was pretty much torrential at this point, and were soon in the cosy warmth of the Silver Spur. Gorgeous traditional Christmas decorations and delicious smells!
We were seated near the back and again had a lovely waiter. I had the Cowboy Platter (supposed to be a side order to share but look its massive!) which was very tasty, especially the quesadillas and crispy prawns. Mmm. My sister the carnivore had a fillet steak which she wolfed down and said it was one of the best steaks she had had! My mum had roast chicken with potatoes, she quite liked it but wasn’t keen on the sauce. Told you, fussy. Then I had a crème brulee which came out all aflame, and my mum had a café gourmand. Delicious, and needless to say we were stuffed by the time we left.
My mum decided to go back to the hotel and unpack properly while my sister and I braved the rain and tried to go on a few more rides. It was really coming down, and the park seemed deserted as we trudged through Frontierland towards Pirates. We went down towards Santa’s village and there was nobody around! Popping into his grotto there was one little boy with his mum just leaving and that was it, so we took the chance to get a photo. Think Santa was pleased to see us on such a slow day.
It really was weather for ducks
I took this to try and illustrate the rain as it was bouncing off the river, but it didn't come out too well
Pirates, when we got there, was shut due to technical difficulties, boo, so we explored the caves a bit instead.
We’re pretty rain-proof, being Scottish, but even we couldn’t face BTM in such downpour. We headed back to the hotel via the castle to visit the dragon. She was pretty restless!
For a bit of refuge from the rain we also popped into the DLH lobby to take some photos of the gorgeous decorations:
This had popped up in front of HNY, it hadn't been there in the morning
When we got back mum had done the unpacking but had also fallen asleep! We were tired too, and we ended up all having a nap for a couple of hours. We got up at 6pm, got spruced up and headed to the HNY Bar for a long awaited cocktail! The bar was busy with conference goers, there was some sort of Pharmaceutical company having a conference while we were there. Good buzz about it though. I had a Havana Mai Tai (I like my rum, as you will see as the TR goes on), mum had a New York New York and sister had a Glowtini (well somebody had to!)
While we were there, the family at the next table told us the fireworks had been cancelled because of the weather. We were disappointed but not that surprised. When we headed out though, it had actually stopped raining! Disney must have been annoyed, they probably could have had the fireworks after all. We popped into almost all of the Village shops before going to Annette’s for dinner (yes, more food, it’s all the walking…) My mum hadn’t been before and loved the themeing, its one of our favourites from last year. I had the onion burger, ooo those caramelized onions! Sister had a foot long hotdog and ate every bit, don’t know how after that steak in the afternoon. And mum had 2 starters, breaded camembert and hash browns. I had another cocktail, can’t remember what it was but it had rum in it and was very tasty hic
Having been too tired for cocktails the night before, we were behind on our plan to visit all the different hotel bars! So, needs must, we had to do 2 on Monday. We strolled round to the Sequoia, where we all absolutely loved the Christmassy feel and the decorations.
We’ve decided if we come back altogether, we’d like to stay at this hotel (going to try and bring dad along next time). The bar was busy in a nice, atmospheric way, and we got a table quite near the awesome fireplace.
Another cocktail might have tipped me into drunkenness, so it was hot chocolates all round. We relaxed there for a while and planned the next day before going back to our lovely HNY to sleep.
I would love one too! My mum said she saw some blokes putting it up oh so quickly with a crane. 
I ddint't see you there though! I remember specifically that you were going to be there at the same time
- more please!
only a very small disappointment though!
