[Lisa29]

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We walked over to Ariel's Grotto and the wait time said 15 minutes so we got in line. (It was 9.23am at this point.) It actually took just over 20 minutes until we were seeing Ariel but she was really good fun so we were glad we had seen her.

Signing their autograph books

She was chattering away to them the whole time

She hid the books behind her back before they took the posed photo

Then played about switching them over before she gave them back

Madison and Kaley both really enjoyed meeting Ariel, she was a lot of fun, asked loads of questions and was really good.

We walked round to Under the Sea with the Little Mermaid from here and the wait time said 5 minutes so we joined the line, which turned out to be another walk on.

This is a fun, cute ride. Not a lot more to say really.

We went over to Princess Fairytale Hall next for our FP to meet Rapunzel and Tiana. It was 10.02am now and we were well into our FP time slot. This was pretty much another walk on, being in and out in 10 minutes.

We saw Tiana first

I like it when the PP photographers get photos of the girls looking at the character

I have no idea what they were talking about at this point

And then Rapunzel

If I remember correctly, we didn't have anyone behind us so had a bit longer than you would normally get when there are people waiting.

Pretty castle pics while we walked to Crystal Palace

Based on this picture, I guess that the Move It Shake It(?) thing was happening as we went past

Casey's Corner

We all got to Crystal Palace at the same time so went to check in. We had two reservations, one for 4 and one for 9, and asked if they could be joined so that we could sit together, as we were celebrating three family birthdays together. The check in host said that allowing the usual time they allow for meals, the table of 6 and 7 they had next to each other would be free in about 50 minutes if we wanted to wait for them. We said that we had 5 kids with us, two of whom were a baby and a 2-year old and that was too long to wait and did they have tables of 4 and 9 near each other. She said she would see what she could do and checked us all in. We were surprised when less than a minute later, the others were all called and taken in, to the left of the restaurant, and about 2 minutes after that, we were called and taken to the far side of the right side of the restaurant. They honestly could not have put us further apart if they had tried.

What was especially frustrating about this was that lots of tables came free on our side, before we had seen all the characters, which were then re-set for the lunch seating and were not used the whole of the remaining time we were there. Mum came over a bit later and said that it was the same on their side and they even had a table of 4 about three tables up from them that was empty. We had all already had our drinks and some food at this point so it wasn't worth saying anything.

I didn't let it bother me too much on the day, though not getting the AP or DVC discount we would have got being sat with Mum, Dad, Dan and Dave was annoying, especially with how expensive it is in there. I did email a complaint when we got home about this and some other little niggles and I have just realised that I never had a response.

Anyway, getting on with the breakfast, we hadn't been sat for long when Piglet came round

We could see none of the other characters were nearby so went to get some food. I had some breakfast potatoes, cheesy breakfast potatoes, sausage, bacon, steak omelette and Pooh toast

This was all really good, especially the cheesy potatoes

Madison's plate

Kaley's plate, I don't know why she didn't toast the bread!

Madison, Kaley and I all had apple juice, Phil had orange juice and coffee.

My second plate

This cinnamon pull apart looks tiny but I'm sure I wouldn't have only had this as it was so good!

Tigger and Winnie the Pooh came by in quick succession

It was about 11.10am by now and the restaurant around us emptied. We didn't see our server again, other than to drop our bill off and tell us to pay when we were ready. One of the reasons for booking at this time was to try and get some of the lunch food too but it was quite clear that wasn't going to be an option for us.

Phil, Madison and Kaley all had ice cream with sprinkles

At some point, Piglet came round again and then, about half an hour after Tigger and Winnie the Pooh had gone, Eyeore came round

At least the characters and food in here were good, it makes up a bit for the disappointment of not all being together and having an uninterested server who seemed to rush us. I suppose lunch is more expensive than breakfast so bigger tips to be made by the people coming in after us.

As I mentioned, if we had been sitting together we would have been able to get a 20% discount so not having this made the total $156.56 plus $26.46 for an 18% tip. Thankfully we had the $200 gift card we got with our booking to use, there is no way I could pay for this with actual money.

Reading this back, it sounds like we should have said something on the day or gone to Guest Services but it really didn't bother me as much at the time, it is since we've been home and remembering the day that it bugged me more. Even though we weren't sat together, we did enjoy it, Madison and Kaley absolutely love Winnie the Pooh, and as long as they are happy, that's all that matters.

At some point they did seem to remember that we were there to celebrate birthdays so brought out cards and a cupcake each

The girls didn't want the cakes as they had ice cream so these got left. We got our stuff together and went to the other side of the restaurant to wait for the others to finish.

They were also about done and we were soon back outside.

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