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-   -   At Last I See The Light - DLP August 2020 Day 4 Thursday 13th August 2020 (https://www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=1179324)

Goldia 29 Aug 20 05:11 PM

At Last I See The Light - DLP August 2020 Day 4 Thursday 13th August 2020
 
Day 4 – Thursday 13th August 2020

Our last full day today, but we weren’t sad as we knew we’d done so much and didn’t feel like we’d missed out on anything. To be honest 3 nights would easily have been enough, but I’d wanted to stretch it out and the extra day was fun just doing what we wanted.

A bit of a tossing and turning in the night as it felt really hot in the hotel room and consequently I didn’t sleep that well. Still I managed to drop off eventually and then the 7 o’clock alarm woke me.

We had a chat about what we wanted to do today. We agreed to do one last extra magic this morning and then have a lie in on our last day. I felt like this was a good plan as our train home wasn’t until late afternoon so once we left the hotel room the following day that would be it and given how hot it had been neither of us fancied all day out in the sun wearing masks without a break.

So, it was agreed that there would be one last extra magic morning, but which park? I was happy to head to either park for extra magic time. Kate chose to go back to Disneyland as she felt like we’d done everything enough at the Studios. She was right, it would have been nice to go on Crush again as we’d only done that once but Tower of Terror and Ratatouille had both been done multiple times and there aren’t any other rides in Studios that were on our must do list. We actually decided we wouldn’t bother going back to the Studios at all.

We got ourselves ready and made it out the room just after 8am. We stopped at the Starbucks in the hotel and I snagged a photo today.

Kate had a caramel Frappuccino and a caramel muffin. They didn’t have any cold brew so I went for an iced Americano. It was really bitter and a perfect wake up.





We were feeling pretty tired out today so as the bus stop was empty and there were seats over there we decided to catch the bus. There was just enough time for Kate to eat her breakfast.

By the time the bus came there was quite a queue of people. There was a cast member organising everyone to stand in their designated area. I was surprised how many people made it on the bus, more than I had guessed. There were spaces for people to stand and the floor had markings on it to show where should be left free to allow for distancing which people did abide by.

At the bus station the Santa Fe stop is the last bus stop, I guess that’s because it’s a value hotel. So, the walk through the bus station, which was completely empty, felt a little unnecessary :nonono:. Even so it didn’t take long to get to the park and then through the turnstiles.

The Starbucks photo was taken at 8.09am and this photo of Kate was taken at 8.42am so the waiting for the bus, catching the bus and getting into the park had taken just over 30 minutes.



As we walked up Main Street the Coming home to Disneyland song was playing :). I loved it “Jump on in, join the fun, there’s a place for everyone, where we laugh and play all day, Coming home to Disneyland” :d: I won’t type it all out, but it was just fab to hear it. Well one of us was enjoying it ;). Kate was finding it was starting to grate a little as it seemed to always be playing on Main Street. On our previous trip it had been the Are you a princess or a pirate song that was the song of the trip and we seemed to hear it everywhere.

Kate knew what she wanted to do though and funnily enough it wasn’t hanging around to listen to the song :tongue:. Off to Frontierland and it must mean only one thing.








Yes you’ve got it, we were going to ride Big Thunder Mountain Railroad again.





We were on and off the ride in 7 minutes as there was no wait at all.

Next Kate wanted to head over to Hyperspace Mountain.









This was another ride what we were on and off again in next to no time, less than 10 minutes here.





I was really keen to give Star Tours another go and Kate agreed.



This is one of the few rides that the wait time had been a little unpredictable.



But we got pretty lucky as we were sitting in our seats within 12 minutes of joining the queue so that’s not bad at all.



I took a quick photo of the ride to show how many people they were allowing in. Every other row was empty and we had to leave a space of at least 2 seats between each group.



It was a great mission with Lando Calrissian and the first order.

It had started to get a bit chilly, well it was 22 rather than 32 but as you can see it’s a bit cloudy and Kate decided she needed to have her rain jacket on.



It was 9.30 now and we’d already done 3 rides so we were feeling pretty good about things.







We wandered through the castle to have a look at what the wait times of all the rides in Fantasyland were to see what took our fancy. We wanted to go on Pinocchio, but it didn’t open until 10am so we carried on.

We couldn’t resist Peter Pan with just a 10 minute wait posted. It was barely 3 minutes until we were on the ride though.









And as the exit is so close to Pirate’s we decided to have a look and see what the wait was.



Well it was another that was basically a walk on with a posted wait of 10 minutes that ended up being about 3 minutes. As we walked through the queue Kate decided she wanted to go on Phantom Manor next and wanted to remind herself of all the back story she’d read about previously.

Again, Pirate’s really doesn’t disappoint. I can never seem to correctly anticipate where the big drop is going to come. I say big drop, it’s small in comparison to the coasters, but there are a few fake outs and it always surprised me when it came to the real one. I actually squealed on the drop.







We made our way over to Phantom Manor and enjoyed pointing out to each other everything we could remember reading about in each scene.

The sky was looking a lot bluer as we came out and we went through the hub and through the castle again, it never gets old does it?







I’m sure there are quicker routes to Fantasyland, but walking through the castle is such a treat. Each time we checked to see if we could go upstairs but it was always blocked off.

Kate wanted to walk through Alice’s labyrinth again as she really likes getting lost in here. So, that’s what we did.









Lots of photos here of Kate trying to find the right way.





















There is a wonderful freedom when you’re not watching the clock because you’ve got a FP or ADR to get to. We both loved being able to just do what we wanted when we wanted. We were very lucky the crowds were so low that we could just pick what we fancied. I suppose there was a bit of strategy involved as we knew BTMR would get busy later so if we wanted to ride with a short or no wait then first thing was the best option, but it didn’t feel like we were on a mission every day.



Next up we both fancied a bit of a sit down and of course Small World is just round the corner.



The wait was posted as 5 minutes and it actually was 5 minutes. As usual we had fun naming all the countries.







A bit of a rest was due and we sat on a bench and tried to decide what we wanted to do next.





We both decided that an early lunch was what we fancied. We were opposite the entrance to the Lady and the Tramp QS called Pizzeria Bella Notte and we liked the idea of pizza, but it didn’t open until 11.30. We decided we didn’t want to go on anymore rides. Kate wanted to have a look in the shops so we headed back around to the hub and through the castle once again!









I should do a tally of how many times we walked through here :D.



Still not open :(.

We headed into the shops, which were pretty quiet.











Then we slowly wandered back around to the restaurant.





Have I mentioned how busy it was today yet? I don't think so, here's a photo of the crowds coming up for noon.





It’s pretty cute inside the restaurant.







Busy too :tongue: We both liked the theming a lot.

Kate went for ham and olives.



I decided to have three cheese.



The pizzas come with a drink, a choice of salad or garlic bread for the side and a choice of yoghurt for the dessert. Kate fancied the tiramisu and so I asked if this could be swapped but there was no swapping desserts in this restaurant. I ordered the tiramisu and explained we didn’t want the yoghurts, but apparently you can’t exclude them.



There was still one thing I really wanted to do that Kate wasn’t that fussed about. The train around the park. I’d read that we were better off getting the train from either Fantasyland or Discoveryland as the front of the park has long waits.

After our big lunch I managed to persuade Kate it was a good idea to go to the Fantasyland station and she finally agreed to go on the train.

Here she is really looking forward to it :pgig:



There wasn’t enough space on the first train that came along, so we ended up waiting 20 minutes.









Kate wasn’t overly impressed with me for making her wait! Oh well, I was happy :).

First up we spotted Tigger.



Well I say ‘we’ Kate was playing on her phone pretending she didn’t want to be there and I was pointing things out :nonono:.





She wanted to get off at the front of the park :mad:. But I wanted to do a whole loop, so we stayed on.







Eventually she stopped sulking!







I hadn’t realised that the train went through Pirate’s.

When we got back to Fantasyland we got off and headed to Main Street to look in the shops.









We slowly wandered around and then headed back to the hotel. At the park exit there is an announcement that says “if you wish to leave and re-enter the park you will need your ticket and your hand stamped”. Kate heard this as “your ticket and handstand” :omg: she assumed it wasn't a literal handstand and that it must be a joke that she didn’t get. She asked me what was funny about it and I told her that he wasn’t saying hand stand. My version made more sense to her!



Back in the room I decided to demo that while the cones are decorative they are not conducive to sitting on the bed as you have to make sure your head is perfectly in the middle of them.





We had a chat about plans for the last day and decided that we wanted to try out a buffet so I booked up the Plaza for our lunch tomorrow. We knew it would be a serve yourself buffet but we thought it was a good choice to break up the day a bit too.

After our normal shower and rest we headed back to the park at 5pm.









First up was Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. This was posted as a 10 minute wait but it was actually barely 5 minutes. Next door is Pinocchio which had a 20 minute wait posted, but we went ahead anyway as the line didn’t look too long and we hadn’t been able to ride it this morning.



We’d been in the line for about 5 minutes when there was an announcement that the ride had temporarily closed. We had a quick chat and rather than wait we chose to leave the line and head elsewhere.



Pirates was showing as a 30 minute wait and as we’d already done it this morning we carried on as Kate fancied riding Indiana Jones. The app said it was a 15 minute wait, but when we got to the entrance the cast member was holding up a sign saying it was 30 minutes, even though the posted wait still said 15 minutes.



The queue looked really bad as there were people waiting just inside the entrance, which we had never seen before. But this ride is so far from anywhere else that we decided it was now or never so we got in line.



I was convinced it was going to be a 45 minute wait, but the queue was moving pretty constantly so while we did have a bit of a wait we were slowly moving forward.





I checked the app just as we were approaching the tent and it had now changed to a 45 minute wait. I think it must be really hard for them to judge the waits by the length of the line as there are so many variables now.



The photo of the entrance was time stamped at 6.03pm and this photo of the ride from the bridge was taken at 6.26pm so in the end it was just over 20 minutes, so not too bad at all.



We both enjoyed the ride and were glad we’d ridden it.



We checked the app again and saw that Pinocchio was back up and running so we headed back over there.












We decided to head over to Discoveryland and check out the wait times over there. And how do you get to Discoveryland from Pinocchio, yep, you guessed correctly. It's through the castle :D.







Next up we went to an attraction neither of us had done before, Nautilus. This was actually really good as a walk through attraction and we both found it interesting inside.











As we came out there was a shower of rain so we popped into the Toy Story shop next to Buzz to have a look around and put our rain jackets on. But the rain stopped pretty much as straight away.



We headed over to the Tea Cups and rode on them.



Then as far as I was concerned it was time for the Carousel.







Time for a Carousel selfie :)



And for some castle selfies :D





It was coming up for park close now as it was around 7.50pm.



We could have raced to another ride to get in line but we decided we had done enough and headed back down Main Street to have a look in the Emporium.











Neither of us were very hungry so we stopped off at Billy Bob’s and sat out front on the terrace. We didn’t have to wait for a table as there were plenty free. I had a beer and Kate had a coke.



We ordered nachos and tapas. The nachos actually came plain with some salsa on the side, but the tapas comes with cheese and guacamole so we made our own nachos.



We figured we still had enough room for dessert though and so we stopped off at the Ben and Jerry’s ice cream stand on our way back. We only went for two scoops each today though. I had peanut butter cup and vanilla pecan and Kate had peanut butter cup and cookie dough.



Just as we started eating there was a shower of rain so we sat with our hoods up eating the ice cream and watching the rain on the water. It wasn’t too heavy though and again the shower passed pretty quickly.

And that’s our last full day. It was another fab day. Once again I can’t quite believe how many rides we actually did as it didn’t feel like we were rushing around or on a mission. Our chilled out evening tapas were just perfect and it would have been nice to stay for a couple of drinks or a cocktail or two, but it’s not quite the same drinking alone.

We were both pretty tired and looking forward to having a lazy start the next day. I didn’t bother doing any packing tonight as we had so little with us with only having one small carry on case it didn’t seem worth it. So, we just chilled out watching Disney Channel.

It was while watching the TV we got the news that France had been added to the quarantine list and anyone who came back home after 4am Saturday morning would have to quarantine for 14 days. Phew, we were relieved that we were coming home tomorrow. I wondered if the train would be busy and I was pretty relieved to not be driving and have to battle with everyone else for the ferry or the tunnel. We were very lucky with our timing and I went to bed pretty relieved.

Attractions: 15
Step Count: 29,298

mrsstitch 30 Aug 20 10:02 AM

Another Fantastic day! Love your photos and evening tapas is a great idea! Something to put on the must do list for next time!

Goldia 30 Aug 20 07:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrsstitch (Post 14629991)
Another Fantastic day! Love your photos and evening tapas is a great idea! Something to put on the must do list for next time!

I couldn't resist taking lots and lots and lots of photos :) the evening meal I think would have been more fun with the four of us as it would have been fun to have a couple of drinks and we would have enjoyed chatting and watching the world go by all together. It was very inexpensive and definitely I'd go for that option again after a big lunch.

Buggles94 30 Aug 20 08:56 PM

Another fab day - it really does look so quiet and perfect Floridian weather:)

Goldia 31 Aug 20 10:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Buggles94 (Post 14630735)
Another fab day - it really does look so quiet and perfect Floridian weather:)

It really was a fab day. Weather was perfect, although it would have been nice to have a blast of Floridian aircon in the hotel room.

OB1LukeLucas 31 Aug 20 04:30 PM

Another fab day, it’s lovely that you and Kate managed to have a mini Disney adventure but I bet you were missing Dave and Max in the evening especially as a few cocktails would have been perfect with your nibbles!
DLP was definitely a meant to be spontaneous adventure everything has just fallen into place beautifully especially making it home before you had to quarantine...someone was sprinkling pixie dust so that you got some Disney fun this year😊

Goldia 31 Aug 20 07:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OB1LukeLucas (Post 14631429)
Another fab day, it’s lovely that you and Kate managed to have a mini Disney adventure but I bet you were missing Dave and Max in the evening especially as a few cocktails would have been perfect with your nibbles!
DLP was definitely a meant to be spontaneous adventure everything has just fallen into place beautifully especially making it home before you had to quarantine...someone was sprinkling pixie dust so that you got some Disney fun this year😊

Yes it would have been lovely if the boys could have come too, but it was fun to do another girls only trip. Kate talked a lot about wanting to go to Disney in Japan, so that's on the list for one day. Who knows when that could happen though?

I think you're right, it was meant to be as the timing of it couldn't have been better we were incredibly lucky. It was a special trip :) I'm going to try and remember that last minute trips can work out brilliantly. The only other one we've done was Boston and that was also a great trip.

MrsSilverStar 5 Sep 20 06:23 PM

What a wonderful day, really brought back lovely memories of our trip too so thank you for that! I’m so pleased the last minute trip turned out so well.

That dinner of nachos and ice cream looks heavenly!

mrsdjh 5 Sep 20 07:24 PM

What a lovely day - so much done at a gentle pace. Tapas tea was a great idea.

Goldia 6 Sep 20 07:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrsSilverStar (Post 14636017)
What a wonderful day, really brought back lovely memories of our trip too so thank you for that! I’m so pleased the last minute trip turned out so well.

That dinner of nachos and ice cream looks heavenly!

That's the best thing about trip reports, the bringing back of memories :) the dinner of nachos followed by ice cream was perfect. Kate was happy as there wasn't a vegetable in sight.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrsdjh (Post 14636091)
What a lovely day - so much done at a gentle pace. Tapas tea was a great idea.

I'm glad that Kate is still happy to do the slower rides and not just the thrill rides as they were rarely more than a 5 minute wait which really helped to make it feel like we weren't rushing everywhere.


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