TotallyAngelic
Disney Addict
- Joined
- Aug 14, 2005
- Messages
- 6,687
Disney Christmas 2005 Day 3
This morning I had made sure we were awake by setting Tonys watch alarm and DSs Nintendo DS alarm and had them both on my side of the bed. Our plan was to be up by 07:00, ready to hit the park at 08:00 and take advantage of our annual pass extra hour. We also planned to have the Good morning fantasyland Breakfast (now some of the more observant of our readers may spot the obvious mistake at this point .a fact we were to become embarrassingly aware of as the morning progressed!)
So far so good, we were up, showered, suitably Michelin-man wrapped against the weather and downstairs waiting for the shuttle by 08:00, and it was still dark. Sticking our noses beyond the revolving door indicated that it was indeed a lot colder than the previous day, but then again it was quite a bit earlier. A quick shuttle ride to the park and we were walking down Main Street by 08:30. We reached the rope drop in front of the castle, where quite a crowd had gathered waiting for 09:00am, but we flashed our annual passes and were allowed into Fantasyland (I love that bit!). Fantasyland was deserted, but for those heading towards the Chalet au Marionette for breakfast, and this is where we headed.
We entered the restaurant, optimistically anticipating our breakfast, and were greeted by a cast member at the door. The following exchange of words then ensued
CM: do you have your voucher?
Me : we are annual pass holders?
CM: you still need a voucher.
Me : I dont think we do .we have annual passes.
CM: Are you staying in Disney hotel.
Me: No, but we are annual pass holders and therefore very important people and we have been told we can have breakfast here. (ok, I didnt say the very important people bit!)
CM: No, to eat here you need to stay in Disney property and you need a voucher.
Me: I am sure we dont, please can you go and check this out as we were definitely told we could have breakfast here as AP holders.
CM disappears into distance.
CM reappears. Now which of the following do you think happened .
Option 1: CM: I am very sorry, of course you can come in for breakfast, my mistake etc etc.
Option 2: CM: I am very sorry. This restaurant is for hotel guests only. Having an annual pass does not permit you to have breakfast here (but having an annual pass plus duff information does permit you to feel very silly and embarrassed when you try to gain illegal admission and fail miserably in front of hordes of people and your hungry family!)
YES! To my complete horror it was Option 2! I thus admitted defeat and sloped off in a highly embarrassed state. Thank goodness for my bright red Mickey santa hat which took the edge of my bright red face!
There was only one way I could redeem myself .so we hot-footed it down to The Cable Car Bake Shop for coffees, hot chocolates, muffins and cookies! and I finally regained my shattered self esteem. The park was rapidly filling up already, and as we had already wasted a lot of time with the aforementioned breakfast fiasco, we headed over to Big Thunder to blow away the cobwebs. Just as it was yesterday, the ride was closed and we worked out that this must be a temperature issue, as it opened about 10:30 each morning when the temperature had warmed slightly (though warmed may be the wrong word). There was already a 30 minute wait for Phantom Manor, so we headed for Pirates to take advantage of the relatively warm queuing area. We then rode Pirates, which was as good as ever!
After Pirates we decided to head over to Disney Studios, where our first port of call was Rock and Roller Coaster. Despite riding Space Mountain yesterday, the kids refused point blank to give it a whirl on R & R. , and we ended up with the old faithful next time routine. So DH and I rode it alone, and grabbed a set of fastpasses for later! Near the exit to R&R was a newly installed photo opportunity for Narnia, so the kids had to line up for a couple of poses!
The next objective was to see Animagique, as this had stopped mid show on our last visit, and so we had only seen half of it. This is quite cute, and more importantly warm, but not something I would rush back to see, and I would be more than happy if they replaced it with Philharmagic! We then wandered around the Animation aftershow area and had a look at all the concept sketches etc, and had a go on the things where they add your voices to the songs its a pity you cant get these on CD as my DHs rendition of Heigh Ho has to be heard to be believed! By now it was time for our R and R fastpasses, so DH and I whizzed over there and had another whirl with Aerosmith!
It was now soooooo cold I was losing the will to live, and no way was I doing anything that involved lingering outside, so Moteurs Action and the Backlot Tour were off the agenda! Instead we went into Studio One for some lunch. We grabbed something from the fast food place and sat watching the acting show which was taking place, where they get some people from the audience and humiliate them slightly! Following lunch we did a bit of shopping: more pins, POTC film postcards etc. before it was time for Cinemagique. Now it is always our objective to get to sit near the mobile phone guy, but we always end up getting there too late and have to sit up the back somewhere so instead we played the who can spot the mobile phone guy first game the wig is a bit of a giveaway! This show never seems to tire, and we enjoyed it as per usual!
It was by now about 2:30 pm, and our afternoon objective was to watch the Christmas parade which we missed yesterday before our reservation at the Blue Lagoon at 5pm. We wandered slowly over to Disneyland Park, and walked down Main Street, which was heaving! We called in to see our friends at Phantom Manor, and rode Pirates again (too much of a wait for BTMR and NO fastpasses left!) before heading across Fantasyland with great difficulty due to the crowds, to grab a decent parade viewing spot outside the Fantasia Gelateria. As per usual this little spot was quite thinly populated, so we sat down (inside) with a hot chocolate until time for the Parade to start. The parade was good, but not as good as the Halloween one in my opinion, but watching it wasnt the most pleasant experience due to the extreme cold! I couldnt wait to get over to The Blue Lagoon for some serious thawing out!
The meal at the Blue Lagoon was as good as ever! The annual pass holder aperitif went a long way to thawing me out and the bottle of wine helped as well! (I always come out of here a bit tiddly!) DH and I had the divine Colonial Chicken Curry, DD had the Black Pearl Burger and DS had the kids meal sausage kebab. Dessert for us was the selection of all the desserts in miniature, and this is out of this world! DD had the chocolate cake and DS had the surprise, which was truly surprising! Lots of people on the ride were in the mood for waving, and we had a lot of bon appetits shouted across at us. We lingered over our meal for as long as we decently could, before leaving the restaurant to have one last ride on Pirates. This turned into three or four rides as the cast members just let us stay on, until we were actually the last ones on the ride and virtually got thrown out!
When we left POTC the park was virtually deserted in this area so we wandered over to Main Street, where it was still heaving, and browsed about in the shops on the way out of the Park., bought a few Christmas bits and probably some more pins. A quick shuttle ride back to the hotel and we once again able to thaw out! I managed to do a bit of packing before turning in, as we were catching the early VEA shuttle in the morning.
So it had been another wonderful Disney weekend, spoiled slightly by the enormous crowds and the freezing weather, but not so much as it bothered us beyond redemption. However, I wouldnt return at this time of year because of the cold, and because I dont think the Christmas experience lived up to our expectations.
This morning I had made sure we were awake by setting Tonys watch alarm and DSs Nintendo DS alarm and had them both on my side of the bed. Our plan was to be up by 07:00, ready to hit the park at 08:00 and take advantage of our annual pass extra hour. We also planned to have the Good morning fantasyland Breakfast (now some of the more observant of our readers may spot the obvious mistake at this point .a fact we were to become embarrassingly aware of as the morning progressed!)
So far so good, we were up, showered, suitably Michelin-man wrapped against the weather and downstairs waiting for the shuttle by 08:00, and it was still dark. Sticking our noses beyond the revolving door indicated that it was indeed a lot colder than the previous day, but then again it was quite a bit earlier. A quick shuttle ride to the park and we were walking down Main Street by 08:30. We reached the rope drop in front of the castle, where quite a crowd had gathered waiting for 09:00am, but we flashed our annual passes and were allowed into Fantasyland (I love that bit!). Fantasyland was deserted, but for those heading towards the Chalet au Marionette for breakfast, and this is where we headed.
We entered the restaurant, optimistically anticipating our breakfast, and were greeted by a cast member at the door. The following exchange of words then ensued
CM: do you have your voucher?
Me : we are annual pass holders?
CM: you still need a voucher.
Me : I dont think we do .we have annual passes.
CM: Are you staying in Disney hotel.
Me: No, but we are annual pass holders and therefore very important people and we have been told we can have breakfast here. (ok, I didnt say the very important people bit!)
CM: No, to eat here you need to stay in Disney property and you need a voucher.
Me: I am sure we dont, please can you go and check this out as we were definitely told we could have breakfast here as AP holders.
CM disappears into distance.
CM reappears. Now which of the following do you think happened .
Option 1: CM: I am very sorry, of course you can come in for breakfast, my mistake etc etc.
Option 2: CM: I am very sorry. This restaurant is for hotel guests only. Having an annual pass does not permit you to have breakfast here (but having an annual pass plus duff information does permit you to feel very silly and embarrassed when you try to gain illegal admission and fail miserably in front of hordes of people and your hungry family!)
YES! To my complete horror it was Option 2! I thus admitted defeat and sloped off in a highly embarrassed state. Thank goodness for my bright red Mickey santa hat which took the edge of my bright red face!
There was only one way I could redeem myself .so we hot-footed it down to The Cable Car Bake Shop for coffees, hot chocolates, muffins and cookies! and I finally regained my shattered self esteem. The park was rapidly filling up already, and as we had already wasted a lot of time with the aforementioned breakfast fiasco, we headed over to Big Thunder to blow away the cobwebs. Just as it was yesterday, the ride was closed and we worked out that this must be a temperature issue, as it opened about 10:30 each morning when the temperature had warmed slightly (though warmed may be the wrong word). There was already a 30 minute wait for Phantom Manor, so we headed for Pirates to take advantage of the relatively warm queuing area. We then rode Pirates, which was as good as ever!
After Pirates we decided to head over to Disney Studios, where our first port of call was Rock and Roller Coaster. Despite riding Space Mountain yesterday, the kids refused point blank to give it a whirl on R & R. , and we ended up with the old faithful next time routine. So DH and I rode it alone, and grabbed a set of fastpasses for later! Near the exit to R&R was a newly installed photo opportunity for Narnia, so the kids had to line up for a couple of poses!
The next objective was to see Animagique, as this had stopped mid show on our last visit, and so we had only seen half of it. This is quite cute, and more importantly warm, but not something I would rush back to see, and I would be more than happy if they replaced it with Philharmagic! We then wandered around the Animation aftershow area and had a look at all the concept sketches etc, and had a go on the things where they add your voices to the songs its a pity you cant get these on CD as my DHs rendition of Heigh Ho has to be heard to be believed! By now it was time for our R and R fastpasses, so DH and I whizzed over there and had another whirl with Aerosmith!
It was now soooooo cold I was losing the will to live, and no way was I doing anything that involved lingering outside, so Moteurs Action and the Backlot Tour were off the agenda! Instead we went into Studio One for some lunch. We grabbed something from the fast food place and sat watching the acting show which was taking place, where they get some people from the audience and humiliate them slightly! Following lunch we did a bit of shopping: more pins, POTC film postcards etc. before it was time for Cinemagique. Now it is always our objective to get to sit near the mobile phone guy, but we always end up getting there too late and have to sit up the back somewhere so instead we played the who can spot the mobile phone guy first game the wig is a bit of a giveaway! This show never seems to tire, and we enjoyed it as per usual!
It was by now about 2:30 pm, and our afternoon objective was to watch the Christmas parade which we missed yesterday before our reservation at the Blue Lagoon at 5pm. We wandered slowly over to Disneyland Park, and walked down Main Street, which was heaving! We called in to see our friends at Phantom Manor, and rode Pirates again (too much of a wait for BTMR and NO fastpasses left!) before heading across Fantasyland with great difficulty due to the crowds, to grab a decent parade viewing spot outside the Fantasia Gelateria. As per usual this little spot was quite thinly populated, so we sat down (inside) with a hot chocolate until time for the Parade to start. The parade was good, but not as good as the Halloween one in my opinion, but watching it wasnt the most pleasant experience due to the extreme cold! I couldnt wait to get over to The Blue Lagoon for some serious thawing out!
The meal at the Blue Lagoon was as good as ever! The annual pass holder aperitif went a long way to thawing me out and the bottle of wine helped as well! (I always come out of here a bit tiddly!) DH and I had the divine Colonial Chicken Curry, DD had the Black Pearl Burger and DS had the kids meal sausage kebab. Dessert for us was the selection of all the desserts in miniature, and this is out of this world! DD had the chocolate cake and DS had the surprise, which was truly surprising! Lots of people on the ride were in the mood for waving, and we had a lot of bon appetits shouted across at us. We lingered over our meal for as long as we decently could, before leaving the restaurant to have one last ride on Pirates. This turned into three or four rides as the cast members just let us stay on, until we were actually the last ones on the ride and virtually got thrown out!
When we left POTC the park was virtually deserted in this area so we wandered over to Main Street, where it was still heaving, and browsed about in the shops on the way out of the Park., bought a few Christmas bits and probably some more pins. A quick shuttle ride back to the hotel and we once again able to thaw out! I managed to do a bit of packing before turning in, as we were catching the early VEA shuttle in the morning.
So it had been another wonderful Disney weekend, spoiled slightly by the enormous crowds and the freezing weather, but not so much as it bothered us beyond redemption. However, I wouldnt return at this time of year because of the cold, and because I dont think the Christmas experience lived up to our expectations.
One of those times that is hilarious afterwards but mortifying at the time! 
