In search of dragons and princesses - day 3

[xeni72]

Wednesday 11th June

Turned off the alarm, went back to sleep and missed our breakfast slot by over two hours, by which time it was fairly quiet again and they let us in. Phew! Spent the rest of the morning swimming.

Went up in Panoramagique before lunch – an interesting view of the park; it looks very small from up there. Lunch in Annette’s – café gourmand (coffee, mini vanilla milkshake, mini doughnut and chocolate brownies) was pretty good.

For a change after lunch we went into the Studios. Crush was a 45 minute wait (plus we weren’t sure if DD was tall enough) and Flying Carpets 20, which seemed long for a Dumbo-alike, so we went into Animagique instead. That was good fun, again very slick. After that the Flying Carpet queue was a little shorter, so we went on that, even getting DD the pink carpet she wanted (which nearly cost us getting a carpet at all, we were faffing about so much).

Then we <i>meant</i> to go to the Studio Tram Tour, via Tower of Terror to get FastPasses for DH and me – but the queue was only 10 minutes, so we all went on it! I was terrified – not of the ride, but that DH might be sick (he only read the motion sickness warnings when it was really too late) and that DD might be terrified. Well, DH wasn’t sick (although he wouldn’t go on it again) and DD LOVED it. She thought it was hilarious, and had to go on again.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/natalie_central/2579853971/" title="CIMG5154 by Jane Munro Roberts, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3183/2579853971_2fef30b594_m.jpg" width="180" height="240" alt="CIMG5154" /></a>

After that, we finally got to the tram. I thought this was a bit disappointing – Catastrophe Canyon is great, but the rest is rather dull. I thought there would be more of those kind of ‘set pieces’, and I can’t believe that the Brits’ Guide thought children might be scared of the ‘dragon’, it’s just a jet of fire, nothing menacing at all.

After discovering the Crush queue was still 45 minutes we went in The Art of Disney Animation instead. The film in the first area wasn’t good quality and kept going out of focus, but was otherwise a lovely collection of classic Disney clips (including *sob* Bambi’s mummy *weeps*). In the next area DD disgraced herself by going on about Shrek and Donkey at the top of her voice, having correctly identified that the voice of Mushu on the English soundtrack is Eddie Murphy. Excellent voice recognition skills, kid, but wrong film company, ssh! At the end we all had a go at drawing Mickey!

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/natalie_central/2580681626/" title="CIMG5148 by Jane Munro Roberts, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3020/2580681626_8174065483_m.jpg" width="240" height="180" alt="CIMG5148" /></a>

It was 6.00 or so by then, and the wait for Crush still 45 minutes, so we decided to go for it. DD fitted exactly under the height gauge, so she was okay, and we waited, waited, waited … I’d read that this was quite an intense ride, and she was only <i>just</i> big enough, so again I was scared. Again, she loved it, I was the one who yelled ‘don’t like it!’ at one point (I did though, really).

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/natalie_central/2579854629/" title="CIMG5236 by Jane Munro Roberts, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3132/2579854629_f40e7f73f7_m.jpg" width="240" height="180" alt="CIMG5236" /></a>

 

[torsie24]

Hee, that's so funny that she loved it so much! Gives me (20 years her senior) a little more hope!!

Great report!!

Thought I'd comment on this thread to bump it up and keep it wiht its brothers and sisters!!

Your drawing is great by the way!!

 

[Bolanette87]

Sounds good! I want a Cafe Gourmand from Annettes.....

Bob xoxoxox

 

[Demonica]

I have to agree about the tram tour. We queued for aaaages and I thought it would be like the Universal Studios tour but me and hubby found it rather boring. You'd have thought with all the films they've done they could find more props or even things like animatronic characters "painting" sets or something!

 

[Fiona35]

I too thought the studio tram tour a bit boring in places, I was expecting it to be along the lines of Universals!!

I really hated Tower of Terror, in fact everyone in our lift got off looking rather white and no matter what language it looked like we all did not enjoy it!!!

 

[ruthiebabie]

I remember the first time we went on the Studio Tram Tour and just before we got to Catastrophe Canyon (which we didn't know was there) I said "is that it... a bit of tat (it's a Northern word) in the woods" and it stuck ever since so for us it's now "Tat in the Woods" ride.

Been on it since to kill some time if its raining for example but I still think old bits of film set from Dinotopia are hardly the most interesting.

 

[Ware Bears]

Your DD (bless her she looks so sweet) is obviously fearless!!

I loved the bit about Shrek and the Donkey!!

 

[xeni72]

Your DD (bless her she looks so sweet) is obviously fearless!!

I loved the bit about Shrek and the Donkey!!

Fearless - I wish, now if there had been a miniscule spider on ToT, she wouldn't have gone on it!

I was genuinely impressed that she recognised the voice - I hadn't spotted that it was Eddie Murphy, and she's not one of these children that's seen all the Shrek films 20 times over! Strange fears and hidden talents, just your everday 4yo.