Summer Sparkle at HNY - Day 4

Ms Poppins

I'm sure I'm very affected by all this Disney talk
Joined
Mar 14, 2009
The Cast
Me – Julie – 42
DH – John – 46
DD - Abbey - 20
DS – Lewis – 12

Pre-trippie
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3

Day 4

Wednesday 26 July
Alarm went off at 8am and we woke and got ready for the day ahead. Fully prepared for more rain/brolly’s etc I was surprised to see sunshine when I opened the curtains. Happy but slightly annoyed with myself for not setting my alarm earlier to check – no EMH today and it was perfect weather for it. Oh well..

Off we went through the Village

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Soon we were at the gates for the Studios just after 9:30. It took some time to get through the crowds

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Soon we were in the queue for Crush. It’s always hard to tell how long the queue is because you can’t see if the main queue is actually open. We were all the way back to the partner’s statue but the line started to move and then we saw that the ride was running. It was around 9:45 by now. The queue moved quickly enough and we really enjoyed the ride. It’s always much faster than I remember!

Next up was some breakfast. I had 3 vouchers with the plan I’d booked and thought we’d see if there was anywhere in the Studios we could use them. So we looked at the menu outside Restaurant en Coulisse and there was a breakfast option. It was really quiet here, I think around 10:30ish – the voucher needs to be used before 11am. We have plus vouchers and on them it stated to eat in the main park in Café Hyperion or Bella Notte. I think that’s because with the plus voucher you get a hot option in there. Using the voucher in the Studios meant there wasn’t a hot option but we weren’t bothered.

Each voucher gives you: a hot drink (tea,coffee,hot choc), a bread roll with jam and butter, choice of either pan au chocolat or croissiant and a cold drink, water/orange juice.

We easily shared the 3 meals between us.

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Filled up we left and went for a stroll and then got some fast passes for Tower of Terror for DH and Abbey.

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We made our way to Ratatoullie. It was lovely and warm.

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The main queue was already over an hour wait so we went for single rider line showing a 15 minute wait – it was much quicker than this. Abbey and I were in the same rat and DH and Lewis were together too. It’s such a time saver. The ride was great and I got soaked on this today!

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We came out of here and wandered through Toy Storyland. RC racer was busy as was Slinky and the Parachutes so we didn’t stop.

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Traditional picture of Lewis beside Guido and Luigi – we take these every time, lol.

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We could hear the Star Wars show on so made our way over and watched this. It was the French version but Lewis was still captivated and Abbey really enjoyed seeing this for the first time.

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Abbey wanted to try for Aerosmith so on our way we stopped to say hello to Lightning McQueen – this is a really lovely photo point.

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We sat outside the Blockbuster café to wait for Abbey but she soon text to say she wasn’t waiting in the queue as it was much longer than it said.
A wee cool down at the brolly
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On our way back round the Studios we could see the stromtroopers. Lots of people were in a semi-circle around them so we stood and watched as they pointed at people to pick from the crowd.

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Lewis loves everything Star Wars so I hoped he’d be picked. There is no point pushing in here, the Stormtoopers will simply shove you back and then ignore those who are pushy.

Abbey was selected and asked if she was authorised to be in the area!

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Then I was picked – lots of talk about not being authorised to be here etc, then I got the fright of my life when the second Stormtrooper came over too and they were both pointing their guns at me saying I was the decoy and they had their eyes on me. It was so funny.

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I asked if Lewis could get his picture too – he just started at me and then said ‘affirmative’.

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It was a great interaction, more so because we hadn’t planned it. Our days of character hunting are long over and now we just enjoy it if we happen to come across it.

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DH and Abbey went off for their Tower of Terror fast pass and Lewis and I went for a wander. We would usually do Carpets or Cars or both but they were both really busy, in excess of 30 minutes. So we tried for Ratatoullie single rider again but it too was showing 30 minutes so we didn’t bother.

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We took a seat on the bench in front of Cinemagique and could see the Captain Jack meeting spot but he wasn’t there. I really think it’s a shame they’ve closed Cinemagique. With this closed you can really see the crowds build up in the Studios. We all said we missed it this year.

The others were finished with TOT so we popped into Art of Animation which we enjoyed.

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Then it was time for lunch. The kids wanted chicken nuggets of all things…..so we went back to Restaurant en Coulisse and got nuggets for the kids and DH and I shared a chicken burger. It was a nice meal actually, lovely and warm and we were served quite quickly. I don't know why, but I don't have any photos of this :confused:

Now it was time for the stunt show. We’ve not seen this for a few years, last time Lightning McQueen was there. He’s not in it anymore which doesn’t bother us really.

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The show is great, stunts with the cars/bikes really amazing. But….why do they not just do the original show? When they show the movie at the end it doesn’t make sense anymore. A small bug of mine because the original was so good with the jet ski, guy falling off the building, extras running around etc – such a shame.

It was around 3pm now and we were all lagging a bit so headed back to the hotel for a rest. To our surprise our room hadn’t been cleaned so I called housekeeping and they apologised and said they’d send someone up – which was a bit of a pain as we wanted to go swimming and then chill for a bit.

Abbey didn’t come swimming and ended up sitting outside as she didn’t want to be in the room if someone came in. DH, Lewis and I had a great time in the pool which was really quiet. We enjoyed the Jacuzzi too and really benefited from an hour away to relax.

Back in the room some towels had been delivered but the room wasn’t cleaned. No matter, we text Abbey to say we were back and then relaxed for a bit before getting ready to go out for our meal.

It was raining again so the sandals were dumped again. Socks for the evening:

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I ditched the ears, they were giving me a sore head..

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I called housekeeping again before we left to say our room still hadn’t been serviced and they said they’d send someone up asap. That was fine with us as we were just about to leave.

Our reservation for the Steakhouse in the Village was 7pm but it was only 6:30 – we went in and were seated no problem. Our table however was so wonky that if you leant on it at all it tipped almost over, lol. So we asked to be moved as I knew with us all having steak there would be some serious wobbling going on!

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We all had the Angus Sirloin – it was lovely. I like mine well done and this time is wasn’t as well done as I like so they took it away and cooked it a bit more. Everyone else said their meal was delicious too.

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Finished here at about 7:30, we headed towards the park. The fountains are lovely in Fantasia Gardens and they had music from Enchanted playing each time we passed.

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We hadn’t been into the Disneyland Hotel yet so had a lounge around the lobby

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It's so lovely in here

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Then a look in the shop and the lovely windows. Abbey got a Donald tsum tsum keyring.

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Into the park now we checked the app and headed for Phantom Manor with a 5 minute wait.

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BTM was showing 45 minutes and we didn’t want to wait so made our way to Pirates again, only a 15 minute wait.

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When we came out of here the rain was pelting down. Lewis wanted to try for BTM again and as we approached it was still showing 40 minutes or so. Initially the kids were going to go on themselves but changed their mind and we agreed to have an early night as we’d be up early in the morning. I’m afraid the rain did put a dampner on things tonight so we wandered the shops in Main St.

I got some nice glasses in Lilly's Boutique and a Remy bowl in the sweet shop.

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We left the park and enjoyed the fountains in Fantasia Gardens.

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Village shops

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We didn't see the balloon fly our whole trip

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Inside the hotel we visited the shop again and the kids got their picture by the taxi.

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There are definitely character meets here every morning again but I didn’t see who was there. I also noticed a sign that said Cheyenne Breakfast, pointed towards the convention centre. I know there are renovations in the restaurant area at the Cheyenne hotel so they must be using the convention centre here instead.

We settled down for the night and I packed up the room ready for the morning and our last day :sad1:
 

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