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Old 19 Apr 12, 11:46 AM  
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oh_darling
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Main Street Fraaaançaaaiiiis! - Day 4

Wednesday 14th March

Our last full day today! We were on a mission! We got up about 8am, got ready and were ready for breakfast at about quarter to 9 again – much more prepared this time with our super duper VIP passes!

Ben wanted to avoid the crowds and slip around the side, can you believe that!? After all we went through yesterday! I was like nooooo I want people to KNOW we are VIP’s and see their annoyed little faces when they realise they should have got up at 7am mwahhahaha. Ben pointed out that we were cruising in at 9 so doesn’t that go against everything I have learnt on the Dibb BUT I reminded him that we wouldn’t be doing this if we didn’t have VIP passes and could skip the queues!

Off we trotted downstairs and we went back to the restaurant we had been in the day before. We sauntered up the middle between the 2 queues, I was absolutely loving life! We got soooo many evil looks. Heh, suckaaahhhhhhssss.We walked up through the exit and waited a couple of minutes before a lovely lady beckoned us over and down to a table, the exact one we had the day before like I said! Spooky times. Breakfast was the now standard cheese, ham and croissants and a croissant stuffed with Nutella with the road. Mmm!

We couldn’t resist the pull of Crush again this morning so headed over to the Studios once again for the morning rush.

Tickets - prepped



Queue – crazy



Very similar to the day before…and the day before that! A great ride as ever.

While we were in the Studios we wanted to do some of the rides we hadn’t managed to yet and also see some characters!

We went to Toy Story Playland first as I wanted to recreate the photos we had taken on Monday There was a bit of a queue for Rex however so we only managed to get photos of me and Ben said we’d take his later but we never did!

Love my photos though although my extensions were soooo much longer in 2010! *sob





We then took photos in the RC Racer box! Best photo op ever!

Although I relised you can’t go super close to take the photo cause then it totally ruins the illusion! This photo cracks me up so much for that exact reason!





I do think I look like I’m genuinely driving here, ha



Obviously we couldn’t not go on RC Racer again because it is his favourite ride in all of DLP so we wandered on in for a couple of quick go’s. Such a fun ride!







We walked out of TSPL and over to an absolute gem of a ride that we discovered really late on our 2010 trip. Cars Race Rally!













Such a good ride, it’s reallllyyyyy fast and almost aggressive! The cars whizz around so fast and SO CLOSE to each other it’s actually terrifying, if you had a finger out the car it’d be off! I made sure to keep all finger inside
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Old 19 Apr 12, 11:48 AM  
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Me and Benji shared a car and he let me sit in the driving seat wooo! (very reminiscent of our real life haha) although the bench was so narrow my legs were too long and I had to sit sideways.

Preeeetttyyyyy uncomfortable!





Took some photos while we were whiizzzziiiinnngg around but then I was afraid I was going to drop my phone due to the speed!



We took some photos outside, we love this one I look like I’m heaven-sent hahhahha!





Took some general photos of the fabulous Toy Story PL.





Ben then wanted to check out the area where the Ratatoille ride and restaurant is being built so we sauntered through the monkey bin and up along the path that runs parallel to TSPL. It all looks really lovely round here and you can see all the French touches coming through already! We had a little sit down on a bench because it was lovely and quiet with no-one else around.







It was getting on for 10am at this point and we wanted to meet the main mouse in the Studios at 10.30 as we’d noticed the meet n greet area the day before. As we had a bit of time to kill we decided to go for a little wander out of the park and over to the Gaumont cinema to see what the haps was with the bowling alley that we’d read about. Because we knew there was going to be another power cut in the SL that afternoon we were really fancying a little game of bowling before we went out for dinner that night.







Unfortunately, as we walked up to the building it became clear that it was very much….closed Oh dear. It was like Sports Dominator all over again!



Slightly disheartened we wandered back to the Studios where there was already a queue to meet Mickey! Eek, we were slacking! We joined the queue hurridly.



There was a lovely lady behind us with two little boys who we chatted to for a bit and as we got near the front I asked her if she wouldn’t mind taking our photo. She said she’d love to! Then we had a joint moment of arghhhhhh when Mickey’s stint finished as we were next in line! What a faff. We didn’t mind though and I can see why they’d stop it in front of a couple rather than little kiddles who may be irrationally angry! Mickey must have had a really quick break as he was out within a few minutes and we stepped up for our turn.

Obviously he loved my ears and we got some really nice photos with him as the lady was awesome and took loaaads with my iPhone – pet peeve is when someone just takes ONE photo and it’s really blurred and you walk away thinking they RUINED your once in a lifetime opportunity to meet Mickey/a princess/Justin Bieber etc.





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Old 19 Apr 12, 11:50 AM  
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We then had to nip over to the Monsters Inc area as we had a hot date with Sulley at 11! This queue was in the shade and it was a bit chilly, brrrr! We only queued about 10 minutes though which was good.

When we got to the front there was a CM there and I held out my phone and said ‘would you mind taking a photo of us?’ and he was like ‘sure!’ took the camera and took a photo of us there and then! I was so surprised I burst out laughing and you can see how much we were cracking up in the photo and I am like chins galore. What a joker!



He was kind enough to take another of us actually with Sulley hehe Sulley was such a babe he gave me a MASSIVE bear hug and it was pretty much the best thing ever.



A photo with Roz is essential, check out our best Roz faces! ‘I’m watching you Wazowski, aaalllwwwayyysss wwaaattchhhinnnggggg”



Ben’s mouth is absolutely spot-on here



And the little cleaning guys!



Next up was ToT and RNRC again in quick succession, the queues were soooo short!



Next up was Animagique <3 what an absolute beauty, I love this show! It has songs from all my favourites obviously most importantly The Little Mermaid and we were bopping and singing away to all of them! Love all the effects in here and I am biased but the fish during Under the Sea are amazing! Even if it is all in French which cracks us up, “sous la merrrr” I didn’t even fall asleep during this which proves its better than Cinemagique :p



We then went on R’n’R coaster again and while we were over there we took the opportunity to show our disdain for the fact that Moteurs, Action was closed for a refurb, grrrr!





And I couldn’t resist getting a photo in this awesome photo spot! SIIIINGINNN’ IN THE RAAIIIIN



hehe



We were getting a little bit peckish by this point and even though it was only just gone midday we decided to head on over to the DLP for lunch at somewhere we hadn’t been before and where I was VERY excited about going – Market House Deli. Mmmmmmm the croque monsieur was calling my name!



Preettyyy!







A poster for Florida! We got so excited ha

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Old 19 Apr 12, 11:51 AM  
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Obviously I knew exactly what I wanted so I grabbed a table outside in the sunshine whilst Benji went inside to order our lunch. I was exciiitteddd!



There was a bit of a queue as obviously it was peak lunch time but he was back out within about 10 minutes, carrying this plethora of goodies!



Benji went for the roasted vegetable sandwich which looked delicious and he was really happy with!



But MINE was just the absolute bee’s knees! It was HUGE for a start, toasted bread with thick ham and cheese and a delicious creamy, cheesy béchamel/crème fraiche. Soooo good!



The all important innards!



I realllyyyy enjoyed my sandwich and even though it was super rich and sickly I did NOT let it defeat me and I finished it with a triumphant scrunch of my napkin

Obviously I still had a tiny bit of space left for dessert. I had really wanted to try a Mickey head shaped brioche but we couldn’t find them aanyyyywhere – does anyone know if they’ve got rid of them? All we could see was round brioches with mickey sugar stickers on top just not the same! It also looked really dry and kinda old-looking so my hopes were not high for this item.



But, I was unbelievably proved wrong! It was AWESOME. There was soooooo much of the nutella filling, I was actually struggling to get through it all! It was all sticky and thick like peanut butter and proper glued my mouth up for a bit which gave Benj a few minutes of much needed peace, bless him. Eventually it beat me and I had to eat only the sections that had nutella in (which was most of it! ) and leave the not-so-enjoyable plain sections. Really recommend getting one if you need a sugar hit, it will send your levels sky high, perfect for getting you through the rest of the day!

Yummers!



It was really pleasant sat outside in the sunshine, the weather was absolutely gorgeous and although it was a little chilly if you stood in the shade we had put our hoodies away and were only wearing t-shirts! In fact I was super hot in my uggs and couldn’t wait to take them off!

After lunch we went to take some photos of the castle as I’m incapable of not taking photos of the castle





And then went for a browse in some shops! We went to the crystal shop where I tried not to get upset over the fact that we couldn’t go upstairs in the castle *sob as it was blocked off! No looking at all the gorgeous windows and no lovely photos from the balcony! Never mind, there was always August And we did have our own balcony actually



We then went over to Adventureland for a little browse. We had never walked through the Aladdin passage so we decided to do that. There was only one other family in there at the same time as us so it was nice and quiet. We enjoyed this, being big fans of the film, but it’s not exactly a headliner attraction is it…









We decided to go over to the Treehouse and do some exploring!



Benj did some darn good exploring in 2010 and was keen to repeat the experience. But, it was crazzzyyy busy! There were loads people queuing in front of the turnstile! Nononono, we will not queue to go up in the treehouse! We said we’d do it the following day, earlier in the morning when hopefully it wouldn’t be busy. Ben took the news very well I must say.
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Old 19 Apr 12, 11:52 AM  
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Lovely scenery around these parts, we took some snaps! These are taken with Benji’s video camera.





Seeing as we were in the neighbourhood we headed over to Boot Hill again to re-take photos from our first afternoon, some of which I have shared with you but these I haven’t!



We used the secret passage afterwards, check out this awesome set of photos I took of Benj declaring his love for the DL park haha!







Zip a dee doo dahhh!

Pretty castle on the way



We were getting tired by this point having done a ton of walking so we ambled slowly out of the park and we’d nearrlllyyy made it out of Main Street when I remembered the Liberty Tableaux and how much I loved it, ‘can we just go in there babe quickly pllleeeaaasseeeeee’ he was unable to put up a fight so we nipped in and watched the animatronic men for a little while.





Then they went dark and the sound went off and we weren’t sure if it was broken or if it was just very brief!? We hastily made our way out and I took some photos.





Doesn’t he looking dashing in this one? Brought back memories of MNSSHP when we camped out outside Casey’s to watch the parade and I could smell mustard for days afterwards, vom!







We walked back to the SL via a few shops and headed straight to Concierge as we wanted to book a couple of meals. This was super easy to do, she just asked for our names and room number, tapped a few buttons and next thing we knew we had two reservations! Super easy and not a problem getting them at short notice – one was for dinner at the Manhattan later that night and the other was for lunch at Inventions the next day. Sorted!



We went back to the room and we had a couple of hours before we wanted to go out for pre-dinner drinks. I really fancied a swim and we were both keen to see the SL swimming pool. BUT then Ben realised it probably wouldn’t be open as there was no power! They probably can’t open it with no lights/filter or stuff? We didn’t really know but we just didn’t think it would be a goer. THEN I realised I wouldn’t be able to use my hairdryer or straighteners anyway! So a swim really was out, unless we did it quite a lot later on, say 5ish, then got back to the room at 6 and I could be ready by 7 but our ressie was at 8 and we wanted to go back to the Fantasia Café for a drink before. It was very sad. I could have handled not having a hairdryer or not having straighteners but not having both?! Back me up here girls, it would not have been good times! And obviously the pool was probably closed. Not ideal.

So we decided to just chill out on the balcony for an hour or so and then go off for drinks a bit earlier than we had originally planned.

We were ready to go about 5pm and strolled aallll the way back through Disney Village and up to the DLH for our final drinks in my favourite bar. It was a bit busier this time than on our last visit but we were able to get a table within the bar area which was lovely.



Lovely fruity cocktail for me and a beer for Benj!



We sat enjoying our drinks and listening to the piano music trickling in. I really wanted to request a song from him but I wasn’t sure if it was the done thing. The manager was walking around so I stopped and asked him and he was like ‘sure, he’d love that!’ so after gathering some courage I walked out and into the main bit and over to the pianist when there was a break in his playing. He looked a bit annoyed haha but I pressed on and I said ‘do you take requests? Do you have anything from the Little Mermaid?’ He looked even more miffed and said ‘I only have Under the Sea’ and I got the impression he didn’t want to play it…so I said ‘oh…what about Beauty and the Beast?’ kinda wishing I’d never asked…and he looked even MORE miffed and was like ‘I played that a little while ago big sigh but I’ll play it again if you want’ ! I was a little taken aback by his reluctance, perhaps he is not a fan of the animated classics? :p but I thanked him profusely and then ran back to Ben with my tail between my legs. What an odd experience! I understand if he doesn’t like taking requests but then why did the manager tell me it was coolio!? Ha! Never mind. He grudgingly played Tale As Old As Time which I really enjoyed

We lingered over our drinks for a little while and were enjoying the atmosphere so much that we decided to forgo our Manhattan drink and have another one at the DLH. We got more nibbles too, yum!

About 7.30 we said our goodbyes to the Fantasia Bar and made our way over to the New York Hotel. We were both now really looking forward to this meal having seen the menu and were hoping for good things.
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Old 19 Apr 12, 11:54 AM  
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We walked down to the restaurant and were greeted by a CM and led through into the dining area where there was another pianist who gave me the BIGGEST smile as we walked in which immediately cheered me up and I turned to Ben and said ‘THAT is how a pianist should behave! ” ha! We were led to a lovely little table for 2 in front of the pianist which I was really happy with. It was a really gorgeous restaurant, big and airy with a really cool lit up ceiling.







Our view of the lovely pianist!



Our server came over and introduced himself and he was just FABULOUS! I hate to diss the DLH as obviously it is my dream destination but I fear it is in danger of coming across as too upmarket and almost snobby – the service was much friendlier in the NYH (and the pianist obviously!) compared to the Fantasia Bar and Inventions and I think we both just felt more relaxed and at home. Not sure if anyone else feels like this? Maybe the pianist just put me off but I did feel the manager wasn’t quite as gushing and friendly with us as he was to older guests who perhaps looked like they had more money? Not sure, may have been imagining it but it’s just the vibe I got. Still love the DLH though but now I would LOVE to stay in the NYH!

If you can believe this, I only ordered a diet coke in here! Not sure if it was the anticipation of the eye-watering prices or that I just felt like a long drink but it went down a treat.

Cutie matootie!



Always nice to see the cutlery …



First of all we were brought some looooveeellly bread and butter Yummers! Then our starters were brought out and they looked amazing!

I can’t find our starters anywhere online The menu was completely different to anything I saw online before we went so I was very unprepared but there was lots on there that I fancied! I believe I went for the 3 course set menu whilst Ben went for the 2 course and we planned to share my dessert – I just preferred the options on the 3 course even though I didn’t even need dessert!

I had Carpaccio of scallop which we spoke extensively about what it might be/look like when we first saw the menu the day before – I knew carpaccio is raw but we couldn’t really imagine raw scallops!

Anyway, this is what came out!





It was gorgeous! It was indeed raw, super thinly sliced scallops in a little tian with chopped cold tomatoes and herbs, with artichokes on the side. Yum! So good and a lovely light way to start my meal.

Benj received this:



An amazing salad with asparagus, radish and chicory, olive bread and a shot of dressing! A really fun starter and he really enjoyed it and ate it all.

Before we knew it our main courses were being delivered! Ooooohh I was excited! I’d pulled a bit of a wildcard here and ordered FISH which I literally don’t think I have ever ordered in a restaurant before I know I always order seafood/shellfish but never just fish! I had enjoyed my steak the night before but I think I was a bit steak-ed out and impulsively chose the sea bream! It was funny though (well, not at the time) because I had a sudden panic it was going to come whole, as in not de-boned, with face etc like at a restaurant I used to work out who served a whole sea bass in salt and it was filleted at the table…couldn’t be doing with that! The main reason I don’t enjoy fish is because I always seem to get a bone and I’m really sensitive about them and it puts me off soooo much. Once I pulled out every single bone from a tin of salmon because I didn’t realise they were soft and quite safe to eat…ew.

ANYWAY. We had a few moments of frenzied panic and discussion about what I’d do but LUCKILY I was then presented with this:



Perfectly filleted, not a bone in sight and the sole reason I am now happy to try fish in restaurants! Seriously, this was delicious!



The sea bream was amazing but the accompaniments were just above and beyond! I had 2 perfect spoonfulls of this gorgeous, creamy cheese risotto, topped with 3 plump prawns, MMM!



The long brown thing was almost biscuit-like…we aren’t sure what it was but I ate it! Hahah! A delicious main course and I ate everrryyy last bit!

Ben had….yep you guessed it, mushroom pasta! Some variation of mushroom pasta was always the veggie option at DLP restaurants we found. Lucky he loves it! I believe this was tortellini but I'm going to check with him and will edit it if it wasn't!



Finally it was dessert which we shared. Look how impressive this was!



On the right we had crème brulee which they lit on fire and was just incredible! It was really funny cause we blew it out in order to tuck in but when our server came back round he tutted and lit it again and said we had to wait for it to caramlise! Duhh, we should have known that! So we let it blow itself out before eating. Yum, soooo good! Perfect size to share as well seeing as we were both disgustingly full!

In the middle was a rich melting middle chocolate cake with a sweet crème anglaise sauce – my favourite and although it was small it hit the spot! This was gone in approx. 2 bites.

Finally on the left was a toffee mousse which was delicious too.

All in all, a fabulous dessert and perfect ending to our wonderful meal

We really enjoyed our dinner at the Manhattan and will definitely be returning, maybe not in August though as it is a lot of money and that is meant to be a budget trip kind of and there isn’t really anything I’d say I’m desperate to try again? Not sure what we’ll be doing in August, Walts has been bandied about by both of us but that is for the next pre-trippie!

I’m really sorry but I can’t for the life of me remember how much dinner was…It was less than we expected, partly because of my diet coke and Ben’s solitary beer…but it was a lot of money! I think the 3 course set meal was at least 50 euros. Eek! So it was probably just under 100 euros. Only money innit!

We tipped our server generously as he had been fab and had really enhanced the experience for us. We gathered up our stuff, waved to the stunning pianist and strolled out of the NYH and back to our ‘home’ Sequioa Lodge for our last night in our lovely big bed
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Old 19 Apr 12, 12:26 PM  
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another great read Libby!

will be sad to read your last day but looking forward to it nonetheless xx
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Old 19 Apr 12, 12:38 PM  
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Ooh, there wasn't a pianist in the Manhattan when we ate there. I'm jealous now (yeah, I have pianist envy...!)
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Old 19 Apr 12, 12:52 PM  
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Hi Libby, your day was certainly a full one, a lovely read. Thanks for sharing.
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Old 19 Apr 12, 12:55 PM  
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Ahhh I LOVE this day to pieces, meeting Mickey and Sulley and your meal looks INCREDIBLE! I am such a fish lover it is making my mouth water! You two are so great, love your report! Can't wait for Day Five.
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