Saturday November 10th.
The wake-up call comes far too soon, but Katie has spent the night in her own bed, the top bunk, which is quite a surprise, so we cant complain too much. We are up and out eventually by 8.15. We enter the park about 8.30 and it is deserted the walk up main street and through the castle is brilliant, there is not a soul in sight, really magical. We make it to breakfast in Fantasyland for about 8.40. Breakfast is not too impressive, croissants, bread rolls, cereal, but it was included in the price and when we had finished breakfast we walked into a completely empty fantasyland. We rode Its a Small World, Peter Pan, and the Carousel walking straight onto all the rides. Katie was the only person on the Carousel. Its a small world had changed overnight, there were more Christmas decorations on the scenes, and some of the rooms sang Christmas Carols rather than Its a small world. It wasnt a dramatic difference, but it was different. Also, they had removed the hoardings around the Christmas trees in the central plaza and there was a huge tree that you can walk through the center of, and a number of smaller trees and presents, all covered in snow. Xmas tree Peter Pan was great as Katie had been on it in Florida, so she wasnt at all nervous we saw long lines for this (well over 30 minutes) later in the weekend, so we felt quite pleased with ourselves for walking straight on.
As we were walking back through the park we spotted Pooh Bear, so we stopped for a photo with Pooh, we had a short wait here, less than 10 minutes and just after Katie had her picture taken Pooh disappeared, hopefully the people behind us didnt have a long wait for him to return. Pooh Bear
After Pooh, we crossed to the central plaza where a character greeting was scheduled on the map. Right on queue a Bus pulled up and out poured loads of characters. Unfortunately at this point, chaos descended. We had seen a character bus at Epcot which was wonderfully organized with each character moving to a separate spot and CMs forming kids into lines, but this was just a scrum. We did manage to see a few characters but just as we were heading to see Minnie things started to get ugly with kids pushing and shoving, Katie tried to get out of her pushchair to get a bit closer and tripped and banged her knee. It wasnt really a bad trip, but combined with the cold and not getting to see Minnie it sent her into floods of tears. We abandoned the characters and headed into the Arcade behind Main Street. We sat down and tried to calm her down and decided she was too cold so we went into the bathroom to put some extra layers on. When she took off her shoes, her feet were freezing and bright red with the cold, so we sat and tried to warm them up poor thing, they were so cold that rubbing them must have been really painful. I think she was much colder than we were because she spent too much time sitting in her pushchair rather than walking. We decided to look around the shops and try and warm up, but Katie was very fragile and burst into tears every few minutes, so eventually we gave up and headed into the Main Street bakery for hot chocolate and muffins. Katie took off her shoes and socks and warmed her feet in a hat for a while, and she also wrapped herself up in all her dads hat, scarf and gloves Katie getting warm I went into one of the stores and tried to buy thicker socks, but they didnt seem to have any warm socks in little sizes so we didnt manage to get any. After the hot chocolate she seemed much warmer and happier, so we did a spot more shopping (since its warm no other reason you understand) and bought the picture of Katie and Pooh Bear. I love these official photos, we buy loads of them because they turn out so well. As we were at the bottom of Main Street at this point, it made sense to take the train around the park. We had to wait a while for the next train to arrive, and when it did it didnt look like we were going to get on (they closed the gate right in front of us) then suddenly a CM came running up and told us there was space at the very front of the train, so we got into the first carriage, talk about luck! The trip around the park is great, although the Grand Canyon Di O Rama is a bit silly, but the announcements are fantastic.
I cant quite remember what we did after the train ride, but at some point we walked through Adventureland and Frontierland we didnt do any rides, but we took a look at the Pirates playarea, Katie was still a little weepy and wouldnt even play in an empty play area, so trying hard not to get annoyed with her, we decided to stop for lunch. I had fancied the Blue Lagoon, but we had a look at the menu and nothing really appealed, and it wasnt cheap. So we didnt bother, instead we walked back through Adventureland and Fantasyland and ate at the Hakuna Matata café. This was pretty good, I had some chicken, I think Phil had a burger and Katie had chicken nuggets. No idea the cost but it wasnt too bad, I think about £10-£15. After lunch we walked back through fantasyland and took a look at Discoveryland and ended up at the plaza near the top of main street just as the parade was passing by. It was very crowded and the parade was close, so we ran down the arcade and came out near the Kodak shop, the crowds were a little thinner here and we managed to find a spot on the corner with a pretty good view. A lovely English family gave Katie a seat on the curb near them and we were all settled just as the parade started. The Christmas parade is lovely, the music is superb and we really enjoyed it. Katie was dancing in the street and just had a super time, which was a relief!
After the parade, we decided to head out of the park, as Katies mood was fragile and we were cold. We walked back through the Disney Village and stopped to buy some tickets to the Buffalo Bill Wild West show for the following night. I was just running through the plan in my head trying to make sure that we could make the following night, when I realized we were supposed to be having tea in the Lucky Nugget saloon at 4pm and it was 4.15 already. If we hadnt already paid for tea I dont think we would have bothered as we were cold and tired, but we had paid, so we headed back into the park, up through the arcade, along Robs secret pathway and into the Lucky Nugget Saloon for 4.30. This was pretty good, they had cakes and deserts laid out, and a waitress brought you drinks. You could have one hot drink and one cold drink each which I thought was strange, as it was so cold we would have preferred two hot drinks. There were quite a few characters, and some of them managed to make their way through the seats to us (we were right at the back sitting at a counter) but Mickey and Minnie were mobbed as soon as they entered the restaurant and they didnt make it more than a few feet into the room. Eventually we joined the mob and took Katie down to Mickey for a photo. I didnt particularly want to do this, as I felt the characters should be left to come to us, but when in Rome (or France ). The Character tea was pretty good, and it was only £7 I think, but the Ice Cream Social in Epcot is better organized. I dont think there is any need to pre-book this, at least not in November, there were plenty of people who were just walking in and paying on the door.
Tea over, we head back out of the park and walk back to our room Katie slept in her pushchair, and so I had a good browse of the shops in the Disney Village, its very cunning making you walk past all the shops to get home each evening! We are all shattered so we collapse on the bed and watch the telly for a while. Tarzan was on the Disney channel and I didnt particularly want to watch it, but it was very good this is not a film I would have made any effort to see, but we all really enjoyed it. About 10 oclock we decided that we ought to have something to eat, so we went over to the Chuck Wagen Café and Phil had a salad while Katie and I shared a Mickey Ears Pizza. While we were eating an Indian came over to our table, and Cowboy Goofy went running through the restaurant with a crowd of kids following him. In the lobby of the hotel there were all sorts of activities going on, face painting, coloring, videos etc, which all looked great. Katie was more interested in playing on the stage coach in the kids play area she has the video Calamity Jane and she loved playing the Deadwood Stage She even had the other kids playing it, although I dont think they knew what she was talking about. We eventually fell into bed about 11 and no alarm call was set, we decided a lie in was much more important .
The wake-up call comes far too soon, but Katie has spent the night in her own bed, the top bunk, which is quite a surprise, so we cant complain too much. We are up and out eventually by 8.15. We enter the park about 8.30 and it is deserted the walk up main street and through the castle is brilliant, there is not a soul in sight, really magical. We make it to breakfast in Fantasyland for about 8.40. Breakfast is not too impressive, croissants, bread rolls, cereal, but it was included in the price and when we had finished breakfast we walked into a completely empty fantasyland. We rode Its a Small World, Peter Pan, and the Carousel walking straight onto all the rides. Katie was the only person on the Carousel. Its a small world had changed overnight, there were more Christmas decorations on the scenes, and some of the rooms sang Christmas Carols rather than Its a small world. It wasnt a dramatic difference, but it was different. Also, they had removed the hoardings around the Christmas trees in the central plaza and there was a huge tree that you can walk through the center of, and a number of smaller trees and presents, all covered in snow. Xmas tree Peter Pan was great as Katie had been on it in Florida, so she wasnt at all nervous we saw long lines for this (well over 30 minutes) later in the weekend, so we felt quite pleased with ourselves for walking straight on.
As we were walking back through the park we spotted Pooh Bear, so we stopped for a photo with Pooh, we had a short wait here, less than 10 minutes and just after Katie had her picture taken Pooh disappeared, hopefully the people behind us didnt have a long wait for him to return. Pooh Bear
After Pooh, we crossed to the central plaza where a character greeting was scheduled on the map. Right on queue a Bus pulled up and out poured loads of characters. Unfortunately at this point, chaos descended. We had seen a character bus at Epcot which was wonderfully organized with each character moving to a separate spot and CMs forming kids into lines, but this was just a scrum. We did manage to see a few characters but just as we were heading to see Minnie things started to get ugly with kids pushing and shoving, Katie tried to get out of her pushchair to get a bit closer and tripped and banged her knee. It wasnt really a bad trip, but combined with the cold and not getting to see Minnie it sent her into floods of tears. We abandoned the characters and headed into the Arcade behind Main Street. We sat down and tried to calm her down and decided she was too cold so we went into the bathroom to put some extra layers on. When she took off her shoes, her feet were freezing and bright red with the cold, so we sat and tried to warm them up poor thing, they were so cold that rubbing them must have been really painful. I think she was much colder than we were because she spent too much time sitting in her pushchair rather than walking. We decided to look around the shops and try and warm up, but Katie was very fragile and burst into tears every few minutes, so eventually we gave up and headed into the Main Street bakery for hot chocolate and muffins. Katie took off her shoes and socks and warmed her feet in a hat for a while, and she also wrapped herself up in all her dads hat, scarf and gloves Katie getting warm I went into one of the stores and tried to buy thicker socks, but they didnt seem to have any warm socks in little sizes so we didnt manage to get any. After the hot chocolate she seemed much warmer and happier, so we did a spot more shopping (since its warm no other reason you understand) and bought the picture of Katie and Pooh Bear. I love these official photos, we buy loads of them because they turn out so well. As we were at the bottom of Main Street at this point, it made sense to take the train around the park. We had to wait a while for the next train to arrive, and when it did it didnt look like we were going to get on (they closed the gate right in front of us) then suddenly a CM came running up and told us there was space at the very front of the train, so we got into the first carriage, talk about luck! The trip around the park is great, although the Grand Canyon Di O Rama is a bit silly, but the announcements are fantastic.
I cant quite remember what we did after the train ride, but at some point we walked through Adventureland and Frontierland we didnt do any rides, but we took a look at the Pirates playarea, Katie was still a little weepy and wouldnt even play in an empty play area, so trying hard not to get annoyed with her, we decided to stop for lunch. I had fancied the Blue Lagoon, but we had a look at the menu and nothing really appealed, and it wasnt cheap. So we didnt bother, instead we walked back through Adventureland and Fantasyland and ate at the Hakuna Matata café. This was pretty good, I had some chicken, I think Phil had a burger and Katie had chicken nuggets. No idea the cost but it wasnt too bad, I think about £10-£15. After lunch we walked back through fantasyland and took a look at Discoveryland and ended up at the plaza near the top of main street just as the parade was passing by. It was very crowded and the parade was close, so we ran down the arcade and came out near the Kodak shop, the crowds were a little thinner here and we managed to find a spot on the corner with a pretty good view. A lovely English family gave Katie a seat on the curb near them and we were all settled just as the parade started. The Christmas parade is lovely, the music is superb and we really enjoyed it. Katie was dancing in the street and just had a super time, which was a relief!
After the parade, we decided to head out of the park, as Katies mood was fragile and we were cold. We walked back through the Disney Village and stopped to buy some tickets to the Buffalo Bill Wild West show for the following night. I was just running through the plan in my head trying to make sure that we could make the following night, when I realized we were supposed to be having tea in the Lucky Nugget saloon at 4pm and it was 4.15 already. If we hadnt already paid for tea I dont think we would have bothered as we were cold and tired, but we had paid, so we headed back into the park, up through the arcade, along Robs secret pathway and into the Lucky Nugget Saloon for 4.30. This was pretty good, they had cakes and deserts laid out, and a waitress brought you drinks. You could have one hot drink and one cold drink each which I thought was strange, as it was so cold we would have preferred two hot drinks. There were quite a few characters, and some of them managed to make their way through the seats to us (we were right at the back sitting at a counter) but Mickey and Minnie were mobbed as soon as they entered the restaurant and they didnt make it more than a few feet into the room. Eventually we joined the mob and took Katie down to Mickey for a photo. I didnt particularly want to do this, as I felt the characters should be left to come to us, but when in Rome (or France ). The Character tea was pretty good, and it was only £7 I think, but the Ice Cream Social in Epcot is better organized. I dont think there is any need to pre-book this, at least not in November, there were plenty of people who were just walking in and paying on the door.
Tea over, we head back out of the park and walk back to our room Katie slept in her pushchair, and so I had a good browse of the shops in the Disney Village, its very cunning making you walk past all the shops to get home each evening! We are all shattered so we collapse on the bed and watch the telly for a while. Tarzan was on the Disney channel and I didnt particularly want to watch it, but it was very good this is not a film I would have made any effort to see, but we all really enjoyed it. About 10 oclock we decided that we ought to have something to eat, so we went over to the Chuck Wagen Café and Phil had a salad while Katie and I shared a Mickey Ears Pizza. While we were eating an Indian came over to our table, and Cowboy Goofy went running through the restaurant with a crowd of kids following him. In the lobby of the hotel there were all sorts of activities going on, face painting, coloring, videos etc, which all looked great. Katie was more interested in playing on the stage coach in the kids play area she has the video Calamity Jane and she loved playing the Deadwood Stage She even had the other kids playing it, although I dont think they knew what she was talking about. We eventually fell into bed about 11 and no alarm call was set, we decided a lie in was much more important .
