Day 4, Wednesday, last day
No alarm to wake us up again today, on our chilled-out trip
. We both woke after 8, got ourselves organised and all packed up, and left our lovely room at around 8.30. We braved breakfast at the Santa Fe, but surprisingly, again, it was pretty scrum-free, even at what I would have thought would have been the busiest time. We were on the shuttle to the parks with our luggage by 9.15. The CM at the bag check area opened the x-ray machine line for us, so no opening the cases
. We shoved our bags in at Guest Storage for the day, and DD surprised me by saying she wanted the first ride of the day to be BTM. We had about 10 minutes to wait until rope-drop, and then off we went - even with quite a few people ahead of us (and we just ambled along), BTM was a walk-on, then we picked up FPs to go again. Off to POTC for us, then back to BTM - by this time (around 11am) they weren't even using the main queue line, just the fastpass line - this is how quiet it was -
We rode BTM so many times this trip, we had time to discover where we preferred to ride - found the front of the train to feel much slower than right at the back - but 3 rides in a row on the back of the train made me feel a bit queasy
!
We left the main park for a while then, and headed for the Studios. It was only around 11.15. We saw Goofy and Pluto doing their meet n greet on the stage at the Place des Stars, and joined the short queue, as I knew Minnie and Daisy would be along in a few minutes - and they were
We joined another Stitch show just as it was beginning - we were monsters this time for the first time
. We came out of there and were on our way to the Flying Carpets when we saw Sully with about 4 people in his line -
and then more characters over by Animagique -
Gepetto, Eeyore, Pinocchio were also there (in fact, we seemed to see Pinocchio a lot in both parks this time round). After Carpets, it was time for our lunch reservation at Restaurant des Stars. I love this place, I know others have said it has no theme, no character etc, but to me, its cool, airy, and subtle - and the food is great
.
By just after 1pm, we'd seen little Remy (and been treated to a hearfelt rendition of "La Vie en Rose" from his chef friend
), and filled ourselves to bursting from the buffet. I loved the help-yourself hot drinks machine here too. We had time to ride Cars and Flying Carpets, before getting a spot near the entrance to Cinemagique, for Stars n Cars. We had lots of fun with the characters here, I think this is my favourite place to be for this parade -
Gaston was very funny - when he saw me with my camera, he posed while I took a pic, then said "another, and another" and struck another 3 or 4 poses for me. He was blowing kisses in our direction as he waited to go on stage too, he made us both giggle
.
Cruella pinched DD's pluto before signing her autograph book, and was not at all happy when DD asked for him back
!
Just as Cars n Stars was finishing, an icy rain started, so we dashed into the next showing of Animagique, to stay warm and dry. Then out of the Studios and back to the main park, walked straight onto BTM, then rode it again right away. Off to POTC again, then back to BTM to pick up FPs for after the OUAD. It really was raining steadily now, so we watched the OUAD from the Main St rail station platform, where we could stay dry.
DD mentioned, as we were watching OUAD, that she thought she was brave enough to try a go on Phantom Manor. I've never managed to get her anywhere near this before, so after OUAD, I grabbed her and legged it to Phantom Manor before she could change her mind
. There were only about 8 of us there, I really liked it, but DD didn't - the final straw for her was seeing the ghost on top of our car in the mirror
. She was crying when we came out, I felt horrible for her - but after praising her for being brave enough to go on it, we headed off to BTM for our last ride of the trip. This is soooo cool in the dark, and when we got off, DD had recovered from her Phantom Manor ordeal
.
We went to our Castle-lighting ceremony bench near Frontierland, and watched the ceremony again. Still brought a lump to my throat watching the castle changing colour and then lighting up - maybe even a bigger lump than first time, as I knew we were leaving in less than an hour
. A bit more retail therapy on our way down Main St, and then it was time to say Goodbye Christmassy DLP.