Florididdypop Volume 2 - Day 20 Part 2: Crystal Palace, Be Our Guest, Dessert Party

[moosha]

Continued from Part 1 which is here

And stopped on the bridge to watch some of the show on the castle stage:









We had just enough time to pop down to Town Square, stopping again to watch the Dapper Dans for a minute:



We had come to Town Square to pick up some Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom cards. This was new to us but something I knew the girls would love to do. We were able to collect one set of cards per Magic Band. The CM set it all up and it looked great but we didn't have time to do any today as we needed to get to our 12.15 pm ADR at Crystal Palace.

We checked in a few minutes early and the CM confirmed with us that we were celebrating and had an allergy. Two out of two for Seren. We were called pretty much on time and almost as soon as we were seated, Eeyore came round.





Mat took Freya to the buffet while I waited with Seren for the chef. When he came over, he said Seren was pretty much good apart from the cookies and some 'factory issues' with the bread (I guess some potential cross contamination with nuts.)

I had a delicious plate of salmon, salads and vegetables. Not sure what anyone else had as I didn't write it down or take photos.

Piglet was in an especially jolly mood when he came round and danced with the girls which was very cute.







Seren almost missed Winnie The Pooh as he sprang from nowhere while she was making a return trip to the buffet with Mat. I had to whizz over and drag her back to the table so she wouldn't miss him.









When we were all done, our server Samy brought out a birthday 'allergy brownie' for Seren and a card signed by the characters. Seren was over the moon with this but only picked at her brownie as she'd already eaten loads of lunch including ice cream.





It was a really good meal (our second very good lunch here) and a great birthday lunch for Seren. We wrote on our receipt that the total would have been $91.55 if we hadn't been on the dining plan, I think including the 20% tip we left ($17.19.)

It was coming up to 2 pm at this point so we went back to Fantasyland to use our 2 pm - 3 pm Peter Pan's Flight FastPass+ (another of Seren's favourite rides.) When we came out, it was time to stake out our spot for the 3 pm Festival of Fantasy parade. We hadn't seen the new parade yet and as today wasn't really about rides, it seemed like a good thing to do while we were celebrating. I had read that Frontierland is usually quieter than Main Street for parade viewing. When I used to visit WDW with my parents in the 90s, we always used to watch the parade in Frontierland for that reason, and because you can move on elsewhere once the parade has passed you while it heads down Main Street.

There were a few families already staking out spots to watch the parade, but it wasn't crowded so we grabbed some space just before the bridge to Splash Mountain. From here we would see the floats as soon as they came out from the big gates to the left of the ride (as you look at it.) Now, having visited Disney World lots of times since I was eight years old, and having a theme park Drill Sergeant for a father (a trait I have very much inherited), I of course am accustomed to the business of waiting and standing our ground in the extreme heat, so I got on with it, as did the girls.

Mat did a bit of moaning and protesting, saying he wasn't prepared to wait the 40 minutes or so we needed to stand here before the parade started. He went off to get some drinks which were much appreciated, we reapplied the sunscreen, and then he went to stand in a bit of shade by the Splash Mountain bridge for a bit.

It was very hot but the wait and the heat didn't get too bad and before we knew it, we were watching one of those school marching bands that preempts the parade, and then it was time for the main event to start. (Again I have been restrained here with the photos as I have so many parade photos.)





What can I say? I love a good parade but this one exceeded my expectations. I had tried not to watch any 'spoiler' videos (I watched the first 30 seconds or so when the parade was brand new but tore myself away thinking it would be much better to see it first time in real life.) I had also seen photos and knew what the floats were going to look like, so Festival of Fantasy certainly wasn't a surprise to me. And yet it still blew me away and was most definitely one of my absolute holiday highlights. I loved all of it and ended up in tears when Princess Tiana waved to Seren and shouted 'Happy Birthday Princess!' Seren was over the moon. My absolute favourite moment of the whole holiday.





















When the parade finished we went to sit down at a table to regroup and were all speechless and still on a high from what had just happened. We had all absolutely loved it and it took a few minutes to recover and move on. We decided to do the Adventureland Pirate Adventure next. I snapped a photo of Jack Sparrow on stage as we walked past as he was such a good likeness (and rather hot too.)



We approached the little kiosk thing to collect our maps and when we walked up to the CM there, she said gruffly, 'it's a treasure hunt around Adventureland...takes an hour', as though she was trying to deter us. We said this was fine and she grumpily did what she needed to do inside (can't remember) to give us one of the maps.

The treasure hunt was really good, the girls loved it and we did two different maps (you have to go back to the kiosk to collect another one once you've finished one.) I don't think completing one map did actually take an hour in the end, but it was lots of fun and we noticed lots of little details around Adventureland that we hadn't spotted before. And completing the challenges set of some little surprises. I won't say any more than that as I don't want to spoil it for anyone planning to do it, but the Adventureland Pirate Adventure comes highly recommended by us.









It was now time to go to the Pirates of the Caribbean stage for the Pirates League parade at 4.10. I remember while we were waiting here that it was flippin' hot and we felt like we were going to melt. In the end only about 10 people turned up for the parade, but the girls enjoyed walking around Adventureland with the other pirates, holding onto a rope and chanting. They even went through the busy Pirates of the Caribbean shop.







Continued below...

[moosha]

...continued

At the end of the parade, the pirates ended up lined up in front of the Captain Jack Sparrow stage with the rope they had been carrying laid down on the floor in front of them as a marker for the front of the audience.



The idea was that they would watch and participate in the 4.30 pm Jack Sparrow show. Seren got picked out as one of the four pirates to fight and trick the other guy on stage, which she enjoyed. Freya also volunteered at the end when they invited anyone else who wanted to come up on stage to do so. A PhotoPass photographer was there documenting it all so we got some good shots of the girls. All of the photos he took of the show had to be added to our account so we had to go through and delete the unwanted ones which didn't feature the girls.















We thought the show was fun and Seren loved being involved. It was ridiculously hot stood there, I remember thinking this was the hottest part of the day (around 4 - 5 pm) rather than midday / mid-afternoon as you would expect.

When the show was over, we had time to do one more Pirate Adventure in Adventureland before our dinner ADR at Be Our Guest. We arrived just before 6 (I think our ADR was 6.10 pm) and found an inch of shade to hover in while we waited to check in. The CM had a different, special name badge and we asked him why. He said it was for 15 years of service which we were very impressed with and congratulated him. The CM gave us a buzzer and told us to wait on the bridge. We watched the empty Mine Train going round in testing, and we were gutted that it didn't seem likely we would get to ride it this trip.

There was a water station set up in front of the gates to the castle with water and lemon water and we all helped ourselves. We saw this a few times at table service restaurants this trip, and I thought it was a good idea. Well done Disney. A few other parties were waiting and everyone was wandering through the gates into the courtyard area only to be told to move back onto the bridge by a CM. I did wonder why the CM with 15 years service hadn't explained the procedure very well. He could have told everyone not to go past the gates when we were all checking in, which would have avoided everyone getting told off.

After about five minutes and eight cups of water between us, our buzzer went off and we were collected by a hostess CM and taken into the castle. We were given a table in the corner of the Ballroom right by a window with 'snow' falling. It was a good table, but Seren had been hoping we would be seated in the West Wing. I had read that the Garden Room wasn't used during dinner but it was pretty full tonight so I was just pleased we weren't seated in there as we had already sat in that room during lunch the week before.

As soon as we sat down I asked the girls if they wanted to get out of their pirate / mermaid costumes which they did so I took them both to the restrooms to change into shorts and t-shirts which we'd had in the bag all day.

Our server was Scooter and he was ok. He did almost spoil Seren's birthday cake surprise by saying early on in the meal 'We have something special for you at the end of the meal' but at least it reassured me that the cake was there ready to be brought out. I ordered a glass of Lassiter family red wine, $16, which was one of the more expensive wines available by the glass but it had to be done - it's John Lassiter wine!

It was a nice meal. I think I have some food photos somewhere which were taken on my phone which I'll add in when I find them. The camera battery was on its last legs by this point as we'd taken so many photos today. I had garden salad followed by ratatouille. Mat had French onion soup and then the ratatouille too. The girls had the fruit cup followed by fish, rice and I think green beans. They weren't really hungry and had only picked at their food so we decided to skip dessert and discreetly asked Scooter to bring out the 'something special.'

The cake came out and it looked fab, Seren was beaming as you can see here.





I was a little confused that they had added in a beach theme with palm trees and sand when what I had asked for had been a simple white cake with blue iced Mickey heads as little decorations and a painted blue chocolate Stitch. I had even emailed them a sketch. As I said, it looked great, and Seren did love it, but I would have been happier without the theming. I had ordered a mini cake knowing that we would each only want a little piece and didn't want any left over after the meal. The mini cake was perfect for this. You can see the size of the cake compared to Seren's head in this photo:



The cake cost $80 which I thought was reasonable (again, this is Disney after all) and I was really impressed with the cake experience overall.

Seren ate all of the chocolate Stitch (I thought she would have felt bad about eating the head off her favourite character but she didn't appear to be bothered at all.)



We all had a slice of cake, and were feeling pretty full after three table service meals today. The cake was really tasty. I had ordered a vanilla sponge with vanilla frosting and it was all delicious. Despite how full we were, there wasn't much cake left when we'd finished so I'd definitely ordered the right size. We declined taking the leftovers away in a box and settled up.





While we had been eating, every time the Beast had walked through the restaurant to go between the area in which he meets and backstage for breaks, there was a lot of cheering and clapping as he passed. The girls met him on the way out of the castle.



We had an 8 pm - 9 pm Big Thunder Mountain Fastpass+ and wanted to wait until towards the end of the window to use it so it would be dark. In my notes from a few days afterwards, I questioned whether we did another ride here before heading to the Little Mermaid ride. If I couldn't remember a few days after, there's no chance of me remembering nearly a year later. So we possibly rode another Fantasyland ride before visiting Ariel and co.

We had walked on the ride in the evenings before, but today there was a 20 minute wait. This meant we got to see some of the interactive elements of the queue which were pretty cute. The line wasn't moving and it was pretty stuffy in the queue. A few people were giving up and leaving the line so we assumed the ride must have broken even though we couldn't hear an announcement from back where we were. There was a teenage girl in front with her mother and she wished Seren a happy birthday and asked Freya if Ariel was her favourite princess. Her speaking to them made the girls' nights and she was such a lovely girl, bless her.

After 15 minutes or so of standstill, the ride must have started working again as the line was suddenly moving quickly. When we got to the proper indoor queue, a power hungry CM was shouting at everyone to keep moving and keep up to the party in front. Er, hello? The line is long because your ride broke, not because of anything the guests have done. Ggrrr.

I really like the Little Mermaid ride, it's so cute and I'm looking forward to riding it again this year after the updates which I understand have improved the lighting etc to make some of the scenes look a bit more impressive.

It was now time to use our Thunder Mountain FastPass+s. We were able to get the back of the train - yay! In the dark and at the back is by far the best way to ride it.

We needed to get to Tomorrowland Terrace afterwards for the Dessert Party and unfortunately we had to cross a very busy Main Street where loads of people were waiting for the Electrical Parade. We got there about 9.10 (I'm pretty sure the reservation was for 9 o'clock.) Luckily arriving a bit late doesn't affect where your table is situated as they are allocated based on how early you booked. So we got a good table in the second row. I took Freya up to the buffet which was a real bunfight. They were running out of some of the desserts, although they were definitely replenishing things at that point. We got a few bits but of course we were still stuffed so we just picked at it. I had some fruit and chocolate covered strawberries which are always a hit with me.


The CMs weren't sure about what Seren could and couldn't eat with her allergy so they brought her out a massive Mickey shaped plate of treats which was so sweet of them but she barely dented it because of how much we'd eaten today.



I knew we were going to be faced with a lot of food today, but I booked the four ADRs for the experiences rather than the food. We were on the deluxe plan anyway so we were used to facing more food than we could eat each day and luckily I only had to pay for the dessert party which was about $85 in total.

The girls got talking to an American girl at the railings which was sweet, and then Mat and I joined them at the railings around 9.30 pm. Our view of the castle from the terrace:



Confession time: we had never seen Celebrate the Magic before or even Wishes (properly, the only time we had seen it was from the California Grill balcony in 2012.) Two years before Freya had been too little to keep up so late so it was great this time to have these new experiences with the later nights. I loved Celebrate the Magic, it was just awesome. The girls and I had seen Dreams (is it called that?) at Disneyland Paris which was also fantastic, but we'd watched that from within the crowds and with me having to hold a seven year old Seren throughout so she could see it all. Watching CTM tonight was much more comfortable from our great viewing spot on the terrace. Wishes was lovely too, but I must admit I did prefer the castle projection show to the fireworks. It was possibly something to do with watching it from there as it's off centre and there are trees in the way. This year I'm going to make sure we watch it from in front of the castle to see if a better view just makes it perfect for me.

Mat was keen to head back to the hotel once Wishes was over but Seren wanted to ride Thunder Mountain again. Freya and I were of course up for it too so Mr Spoilsport was outvoted. Unfortunately we had to go against the tide to get there, but managed to fight our way across the hub and into Adventureland towards Frontierland.

Another fun ride on Thunder Mountain in the dark under our belts, we walked up Main Street towards the exit at 10.55 pm. It was great to be able to take a fairly quiet, chilled out boat ride back to the Wilderness Lodge. This was one time when I really did appreciate the transport at the hotel. Disney tunes were playing on the boat, Freya fell asleep as we sailed back and Seren seemed pretty chuffed with her day. A not too shabby way to spend your eighth birthday in my book .

[Guest]

Wow! What a blummin amazing day!

[Jessika]

Wow what a fantastic day. My daughter has been lucky enough to experience both the pirate and the mermaid makeovers and agree the pirates league is fab! Thank you so much for sharing.

[gartland87]

Sounds like a fairytale birthday to me xx

[dixonsontour]

Wow what a jam packed day of fun and food

She wont forget that birthday

[ILoveDaveLamb]

What a special day! I love Seren's cake. Did you have to carry the remainder around with you, or did they send it back to the resort? X

[Leia77]

What an amazing day . That was some birthday celebration

[Dissie]

What a fantastic day. A brilliant way to spend your birthday x

[collybird]

What an amazing birthday.

It looks terribly hot today; Seren looks like she's going to melt in the pictures from the pirate show!