Trip Report DAY 3, a.k.a. Disasters 5 & 6

[bonhoga]

DAY 3

Hurrah! Our first full day in the park.....as it turns out our only full day .

Breakfast was in Hunter's grill this morning and was very relaxed. It was the same breakfast we were used to at DLRP, but I have to say I really like the fruit salad now I think it has improved, anyone else notice a difference? Also I prefer the Sego fredo coffee machines, or is it just that i now know the best coffee is to combine an espresso with hot milk in those machines?

Now after an annoying wait for everyone to get ready [come on you lot, we're missing EMH ] we finally all set off for the parks

We made straight for POTC, which we always do first, there was already a queue starting at the entrance to the bridge just passed Peter Pan so we joined and the minute Adventureland opened at 10 we were making our way to our favourite ride. This might be the only ride we all agreed on [still not sure if Liz enjoyed this one] and the rest of the morning was spent negotiating where to go next....between very long queues and balancing 7 peoples different requests for toilets, drinks, rides....we only got Star Tours and casey's corner done, before deciding it was more sensible to split into groups

This was the best idea yet! Erin and Liz went shopping , Dh and Rex went to queue for Big Thunder Mountain and Toby, Jonny and me headed for the Studios, with a slight detour through the village to find out about Lake Disney.

the village was very busy and Toby was getting quite annoyed with people bumping into him It turns out he had good reason to be. Once we got to the Studios he put his hand in his pocket to get his ticket and it was gone ....along with his brand new Samsung galaxy . The ticket was no problem to replace a quick visit to Guest relations, but the phone was very annoying DISASTER 5 [if you're keeping up ?]

Ticket replaced , the heaven's opened and we dashed into Cinemagique for cover. I am so glad we did this as it has been updated since we last went and we really, really enjoyed it. When we came out Toby wanted to report his phone as missing at City Hall [just in case it wasn't a pickpocket] and after that we headed to Lake Disney.

This was the best fun ever!!!!!! we hired a peddle boat, the sun came out and it was just WONDERFUL I did offer to peddle too [honest] but the boys were having too much fun

Although once we'd been right round the lake , they did start to look a bit tired

I couldn't beleive it, it was now 4:30pm and we had all agreed to meet at the HNY for afternoon cocktails, we grudgingly left the lake and headed to regroup.

The Manhatten bar [hope that's what it is called?] was lovely. I had a Bellini, Liz had a kir royale, Toby had coffee, Erin had a manhatten and i can't remember what the others had but the service is very good in here. Made a mental note to come back again next year

Liz and Toby in the HNY .

Toby seemed to be taking the missing phone very well, the rest of the group wanted to go back and get ready for dinner but Toby, me and Jonny [probably because we wasted so much time with the phone/ticket incident] weren't ready too. The queues were now very long in the park, so we opted to visit our old haunt Hotel Cheyenne instead.

We all had another cocktail [lot cheaper than HNY, but no extras like nibbles] and sat outside The Red Garter Saloon watching the Zorbing [which looked like a lot of fun]

Sorry not the best photo, but this also now on my list of "to dos" next time.

Next up dinner at Walts.

 

[bonhoga]

We headed back to the Sequoia to pick up the rest of the group for our 7pm reservation at Walts, and found them all seated on the balcony

Jonny was quick to join them

I said I would go upstairs and get our meal vouchers, and Liz and Erin wanted to come and fetch their bags, so we left the boys to enjoy the sunshine. However we could not get into our room?? I went back down to reception and they said they would send up a technician

Ten minutes later he appeared and yes there was a problem with our door, he went away to fetch somebody else to help......I couldn't go without the vouchers, so Erin went down stairs to tell the boys to go ahead and hold the table, we would catch up as soon as we could. They fixed our door at 6:55, we literally grabbed our things and made a dash for walts....moving through the crowds was difficult and we were grateful for the Arcade

Walts
We made it only 5 mins late . Only for Jennifer on the desk to refuse us entry . I could even see our little print out from City hall which I had given Dh to hand over [thankfully picked that up while Toby was reporting his phone] and i pointed to it and explained that the rest of our party were here. She just kept saying we didn't have a booking, Erin phoned Dh on his mobile and they were seated and getting quite agitated that we still hadn't arrived as they were now very, very hungry...........I tried Jennifer again! Wow she was stubborn and our only encounter all holiday with a non friendly cast member.

look even still smiling while waiting!

It was now 7:20, Walts is getting busier and busier there seem to be people waiting everywhere goodness knows who is just waiting for a cancellation, and who Jennifer has just decided she doesn't like the look of and won't let upstairs. I made one last forceful attempt, I produced my shareholder's card so she could see the name on it matched the name on her reservation screen. I pointed to both [semi hoping the card might even have some sway ] and then I said the rest of our party are upstairs, seated and getting very ANGRY, at which point she said we could go up..........the staff up the stairs were expecting us and said they wondered where we had been, as the boys said we were just behind them????? I wish they had told jennifer

It was worth the wait, Walts has never let us down the food was amazing and we got a window seat in Frontierland with paintings of my beloved Molly Brown....it was perfect

Sorry really rubbish photo of our window table, we were just in time for the parade. i was so happy and enjoyed it so much I forgot about photos.
Our waitress was called Zoa and she was very funny. She had quite a fun with Dh over wines as he couldn't decide which wine to choose.....so she opened two bottles and got him to try both. I presume they could use the one we didn't choose for wine by the glass but she was lovely.

Just as well everything was so perfect as DISASTER 6 [hope I haven't lost count here, still with me?] was about to strike. I asked for the bill and handed over our meal vouchers for Zoa to reappear and announce that there were only 5 vouchers..........? We still haven't figured out what went wrong? i don't know if maybe they were missing at check in [it was so rushed and the cast member so confused, and I didn't have time to check that everything was there???] or whether it was a mistake at the Blue lagoon the night before, as the young waiter had been equally confused. All we knew was that we didn't have all meal vouchers. Rather than spoil a nice evening we paid the difference and decided to sort it out later. I have emailed since i got home, as I am sure all vouchers are numbered so they must know if we didn't use them or have them issued and I kept the receipts too just in case they needed them.

After such a lovely meal [will do separate meal review] we headed for BTM, Liz and I watched and then we all went on Phantom Manor. It was now time to go and find a spot for Dreams. We couldn't get any further in than just at the side of casey's corner, but the view was Ok....just between the biggest of the tress and the new control booth. We waited patiently for it to start, but then just as it began suddenly all these swarms of people starting pouring in, many of them with children on their shoulders. We couldn't see a thing, Liz was appalled [this being her first trip] at people's behaviour. We tried to edge along and get a better view but then Toby pointed out that by doing that we were behaving exactly the same as the people who pushed in front of us. I felt so terrible....very guilty indeed. We moved back to our original space but to be honest couldn't see it all. I could just make out the middle bit of the tower....what I could see looked spectacular though

We decided to try and see the Bastille fireworks that followed from up in the village and get a night cap at the Sequioa, probably a sensible move considering the mass exodus from the park

 

[julie 'o']

Loving you trip report , food in Blue lagoon looked amazing. Can't believe that your view of Dreams was obscured we are going in November so hope we have more luck.

 

[mommy2ash]

really enjoying your trip report. it so nice to see you had a good time despite all the things that went wrong.

 

[Ware Bears]

Oh no, more disasters!

I hope Toby had good news about his phone, and that you've had same about the meal vouchers. Can't believe the difficulty you had joining the others upstairs!

Such a shame about Dreams - I suppose Bastille Day must be the worst day of the year apart from New Years Eve for crowds so hoping you get more joy tomorrow.

I love the way you all keep on smiling throughout it's a shame not everyone in the world has your attitude..