First but not Last, Day 2

spencem · 5 Aug 17, 02:48 PM

Day 2 Friday June 23rd 2017

Time for a confession, there were no notes made on this trip so I am working from my fading memories and photo time stamps to bring you today’s activities. With this in mind I can’t tell you about breakfast, busses or security queues. What I can tell you was that we were just outside the Studios park at 10:41 AM.

There wasn’t much of a queue to get in as you can see and so we were soon inside and photographing the fountain.

They could arrange a better contrasting background instead of brown trees behind a brown fountain.

Fountain photographed we queued up to hire a manual wheelchair for Julia. After yesterday it was apparent that even with the smaller parks there was no way she was going to be able to walk around them. The chair was not expensive, €20 with a further €50 deposit. Sandra did say that we should also go to guest services to get a disabled pass, but we didn’t think we would need one….

Into the park properly now, which means going through the ‘sound stage'. This seems like a very odd entrance to me, I can kind of see what they were trying to do with having you ‘inside the movies’ but with all the shops in there it just doesn’t feel backstage to me and it creates quite the bottleneck.

Back outside and a really great looking park is revealed, all be it a rather small one. It has the feeling of Hollywood Studios to me, but on a much smaller scale. Where Hollywood Studios has whole rows of buildings Paris has one or two. They are to the same high standard, there are just a lot fewer of them.

Looking good in the sunshine.

Sandra pointed out the Partners statue and so I went over to take their photo.

First stop of the day was to get some Fastpasses for Tower of Terror, just three of the old-fashioned paper ones as Brian doesn’t ride.

Paper safely in hand it was off to ride the backlot tour and we ran into the first problem of the day. We hadn’t bothered with a disabled pass as Julia is quite happy to wait in the normal queue so long as she can sit and doesn’t have to stand for ages. Also we would normally make good use of Fastpass to avoid spending all day in queues. Well it turns out you can’t take a wheelchair into most of the regular lines in Disneyland Paris and you can’t use the accessible lines without a pass to go with your chair. We just about got the chair through the queue, but we did get moaned at when we arrived at the front and needed to get it past the turnstile. They also didn’t really know what to do with us once we were in the boarding area, we didn’t and indeed couldn’t take the chair on the tram but without the pass we also couldn’t leave it in the disabled waiting area. In the end we just left it to one side in the boarding area and got on the tram.

The tram tour is quite good with some very clever bi-lingual narration so you don’t feel you are missing anything when the language changes but at the same time you don’t feel like the two presenters are simply repeating each other. There are two set pieces, Catastrophe Canyon and Reign of Fire which is apparently new plus the normal drive by of props.

Ooh look the tanker is on fire, that never happened before.

Good job all this water was stored upstairs to put that fire out.

This was apparently something called Dinotopia, it was on TV, apparently.

Not sure which film these trees were in?

Another normal day in London

Another delayed train.

I thought we might get an actual dragon, but no just fire and some roaring.

Soon, soon my Fastpass will be active.

We decided to go back to guest services and see if Julia could get a disabled pass to make life easier with the wheelchair next, which meant going back through the sound stage. This time I took a quick picture.

Kind of works.

Getting the pass was no problem at all, we just showed a photo of Julia’s blue badge to prove she is disabled. The real thing was of course on the dashboard of the car back at the hotel car park, luckily Sandra had got me to photograph both sides with my phone this morning having read this was acceptable online before we came out. They also asked what Julia could and couldn’t manage as well as how many of us were with her before ticking some boxes on the pass and stamping it with ‘party of 4’.

Back into the park and we thought we would try to get into Mickey and the Magician, the new show replacing Animagic for the 25th anniversary. We were immediately shown to the disabled holding area on arrival and taken into the theatre first when it opened, letting Julia roll up to one of the parking spots without running over hoards of kids.

The show itself is amazing, simply a wonderful piece of theatre. The loose plot revolves around Mickey being the cleaner for a magician and wanting to learn to become a magician himself. With the aid of the magician’s hat and a whole cast of Disney favourites summoned in sequence he does so. There are some clever illusions in the show, some simple and others that you cannot see how they are done. Once again the show is bi-lingual with the cast effortlessly switching back and forth between French and English so everyone knows what is going on. The acting, singing and dance is top notch and supported by some great lighting. The show is very repeatable and indeed we watched a couple of more times over the trip.

Genie’s turn to teach Mickey.

Everyone take a bow.

Show over our Fastpasses were just still active for Tower of Terror and so leaving Brian to guard the wheelchair Sandra, Julia and I took a ride to the Twilight Zone. This ToT is a copy of the old California ride and so doesn’t have the separate show and drop shafts. It is still an excellent ride and as we discovered later they have added random drop profiles to it so each ride is different.

Why is there no gold member check-in at this hotel? I’m not used to waiting for reception.

Like its Californian cousin the loading area is double decked, if you go in the library to the left you’ll end up waiting for your elevator upstairs in the boiler room. The ride is identical from either level, but the extra height of the boiler room is used to great effect to help build the atmosphere.

I don’t like to look of this old boiler.

There is a lunch sized hole in in the photos after Tower of Terror, before the next pictures around by the Armageddon show, so I presume this is when we had lunch. I seem to remember having a bit of a search for anywhere open that didn’t just sell burgers or hot dogs. We ended up in the Blockbuster Café I think where after quite a lot of faffing we ended up with some excellent food. This was a pattern that would continue the whole trip, we would struggle to find somewhere open, with many places only open for a few hours around lunchtime, opening at noon and closing late afternoon. Then when they were open ordering or getting the food always seemed to take an age, but once we got it the food itself was great, high quality and not bad value for money. Most places did ‘menus’ of a main, side dish, desert and a drink which are good value for money. However, they are totally ridged and you cannot substitute items. Brian in particularly struggled as he doesn’t drink soft drinks much and prefers coffee. He couldn’t swap the included soft drink for coffee and the cashiers often didn’t grasp that he was ‘happy’ to pay extra for the coffee. Also the coffee itself was of a uniformly low quality everywhere except the Starbucks shops.

I think today I had a salad before finishing Julia’s huge ham and cheese sandwich. There was also a lovely special anniversary apple crumble desert on offer that we shared as it was very rich.

Lunch over we thought we would go into the Armageddon show to let it settle and as it is an attraction unique to Paris. The Cast Members in here were very good at getting people to make way for Julia’s wheelchair, so she could see what was going on.

A very similar setup to Stich, but without the nasty chairs and smells.

The show itself is cleverly done, but a bit corny to be honest. I don’t think we’ll be rushing back except to let Edward experience it. That said the fire effects are very well done, not to mention very hot!

From the pictures it looks like we took the (not very) long walk right across the park to Ratatouille next. This took us through the excellently themed Cars area. We’ve not seen the California one in person, but from the pictures I’ve seen this is as good, if a lot smaller and without the signature ride.

Straight from the film, what do you mean it was a cartoon?

Looking great.

Around the corner and we were in a Parisian square looking for the disabled entrance to the ride.

If Imagineering couldn’t have gotten this right here then there would have been no hope.

Coming soon to an Epcot near you.

Now about that disabled entrance, as I said we were almost forced to go and get a disabled pass that effectively lets you jump any queue. Personally this makes me very uncomfortable as there is actually no reason at all why Julia needs to jump a queue, she just can’t stand in one. If you’ve read any of my Florida trip reports you’ll know we have never gotten a disabled pass there as all the queues are accessible and Julia can sit in them on her ECV or we make use of Fastpass+ and so don’t queue for long. Here in Paris neither are possible and so queue jumping it was.

Sisterly love, all be it sisters-in-law

Sandra often struggles with a painful hip and while not quite ready for a Zimmer frame made good use of the wheelchair to lean on while walking around the park.

Ratatouille is an excellent ride, using a trackless car system, physical sets and 3D screens to give a fantastic impression of being a rat running around the kitchen and restaurant. The chase through the walls is particularly clever and well done.

By the time we came off of the ride our afternoon nap was long overdue and so we made our way out of the park via the Toy Story area. This again is very well done and hopefully a taster of what is coming to WDW next year. I wouldn’t mind trying the RC Racer ride, but it didn’t appeal to the others. I’m sure Edward will ride it with me in December…

Apparently that is a kids ride in the back with the orange track.

Just excellently done theming, they really are huge toys.

Back at the ranch I decided it was time Julia pushed me for once, she was ok with this until we got onto the flat where I was told I was too heavy

My turn.

It was nearly 6pm by the time we got back to our rooms and so afternoon nap turned into evening rest before we went back out just to see the evening show in Disneyland park. Julia was feeling rough which delayed me and her going back to the parks, while Sandra and Brian went over before us. I think this was the evening I was grumpy as I didn’t get any dinner until very late. By the time we got into Disneyland most places were closed and those few that were open had huge queues. I should have gotten something at the hotel from the Starbucks while relaxing waiting for Julia’s medication to do its thing.

Back into the park at nearly 10pm.

Tinkerbelle is cleverly backlit on top of the Town Square bandstand.

We made our way up Main Street to the disabled viewing area for the show. I did look to get some food from the bakery on Main Street, but the queue was nearly back to Town Square. The same was true of Cassey’s Corner, I’d still be in that queue now I think. While Disney did an excellent job of keeping a disabled area for show viewing, not even letting Sandra and Brian in despite them being on the pass, they don’t make any effort at keeping a path open to that disabled area. I ended up running a few people over trying to push Julia between them. This was even more of a problem when she decided she had to go and find a restroom only half an hour before the show started, I might have been very grumpy by this point. We did make it out to the restroom and back and settled into our spot for the show. I sat myself down next to the chair so as to not block the view of those behind. This does mean that Goofy stars in all of my pictures from this night.

Nearly show time.

Even at gone 11pm it was not fully dark.

Love the way the pyro extends the fountains, almost appearing to flow out of them.

Letting one go.

Star Wars.

One of the after show images that come on as people walk out.

Sandra and Brian joined us after the show and after waiting a while we made our way out via one of the arcades. One the way down we visited the restroom and a couple of shops, I was looking for tee shirts and Brian needed a hoodie. Brian got his hoodie, but my search for a tee shirt continued.

One of the special anniversary meet and greet areas.

When we got to Town Square the bandstand was deserted and so I took the opportunity to get some pictures.

The bandstand makes a great frame for the castle, not by accident I’m sure.

Almost a deserted Main Street.

Romance time, all say ahhh.

I was looking for food, but everything in the park was now closed. We were heading for Annett’s in the Village as Sandra insisted that stayed open all night, but it was closed as well when we got there. We took a walk through Disney Village, but most places were closed. I was going to one of the huts, but in the time it had taken to walk up the village they too closed. I made it as far as the balloon ride before turning back.

We didn’t see this go up all holiday.

Finally just as I’d given up and was thinking of breakfast bars back in our room I saw the pizza place right by the exit was still open, well actually they had just closed but took pity on me. Again this came as a ‘menu’ and included fries. With me being the last customer of the night I got almost a whole basket of fries to go with my pizza slice.

Fed at last we made our way back to the bus stop and the hotel.

Link back to the index.

hawki · 6 Aug 17, 06:28 PM

A good day apart from the lack of food, something to remember - eat before you get hungry! Your pictures are amazing, what camera do you have?

spencem · 6 Aug 17, 06:33 PM

Originally Posted by hawki

A good day apart from the lack of food, something to remember - eat before you get hungry! Your pictures are amazing, what camera do you have?

Getting food does indeed seem to be something of an issue at DLRP.

These pictures were taken on a mixture of our Olympus Stylus Tough TG‑4 and my Samsung Galaxy S8 phone.

hawki · 6 Aug 17, 06:51 PM

Thank you, I don't think I'll bother with the dining plan - would probably be waste if they seem to only open for a short time.

clochette · 14 Aug 17, 07:22 AM

What great photos. You seem to have achieved a lot today. I'm glad you got the pass for Julia. You're right, DLP don't cater as well for people with disabilities as WDW. They don't cater as well to the stomach either, as you found out to your cost!

spencem · 14 Aug 17, 08:46 PM

Originally Posted by hawki

Thank you, I don't think I'll bother with the dining plan - would probably be waste if they seem to only open for a short time.

I don't know anything about the dining plans, but I think you'd need to plan your meals well to get the most out of it.

Originally Posted by clochette

What great photos. You seem to have achieved a lot today. I'm glad you got the pass for Julia. You're right, DLP don't cater as well for people with disabilities as WDW. They don't cater as well to the stomach either, as you found out to your cost!

Once we had the disabled pass the service was excellent, but without one I can see you'd have big problems.

The food itself was excellent on the whole, just getting it is an issue.

**Gill H** · 17 Aug 17, 10:55 PM

Great day. Your comments about Studios are the most positive I've ever seen! Much as I love DLP, the Studios could really do with some re-theming. The left hand area really does look pretty dull.

Well done also on finding something nice to say about Backlot Tour (which is a pale shadow of its former self these days). Reign of Fire is not new, it's original, and frankly is one of the best bits, along with Catastrophe Canyon, but so much more is needed.

And Armageddon? Wow, you were gluttons for punishment! The only ride which is more boring than Twister was at Universal Studios, IMO.

However, I do love Ratatouille, and the shows. It's a shame Cinemagique is now closed because that was wonderful. Stitch Live is also great.

As for the food - two words. Table Service.

Fast food at DLP is not fast, often not hot and usually not great. By contrast the table service restaurants are mostly excellent. A couple of hours spent relaxing over lunch at Bistrot Chez Remy would have given you a good chance to rest.

I'm also wondering - I presume you ate at the New York Pizza place in the Village? So did you go back out to the bus stop after that? If so, you made a lot of extra walking for yourself. From the Village it's only another 10 minutes to Cheyenne, past Hotel New York and along the river. By the time you got to the bus stop you could have been at the Cheyenne.

Glad you managed to see the show again - can't wait to see it.

spencem · 18 Aug 17, 10:25 PM

Great day. Your comments about Studios are the most positive I've ever seen! Much as I love DLP, the Studios could really do with some re-theming. The left hand area really does look pretty dull.

Yes that left and side does remind me of the vast featureless concrete plains of Epcot's Future World.

Well done also on finding something nice to say about Backlot Tour (which is a pale shadow of its former self these days). Reign of Fire is not new, it's original, and frankly is one of the best bits, along with Catastrophe Canyon, but so much more is needed.

I was going off dud information provided by my sister. Having ridden the backlot tour at Universal Studios Hollywood nothing Disney has ever put together in terms of a backlot tour has ever come close.

And Armageddon? Wow, you were gluttons for punishment! The only ride which is more boring than Twister was at Universal Studios, IMO.

I liked Twister.

However, I do love Ratatouille, and the shows. It's a shame Cinemagique is now closed because that was wonderful. Stitch Live is also great.

I've read great things about Cinemagique, shame they replaced it with a meet and greet.

As for the food - two words. Table Service.

Fast food at DLP is not fast, often not hot and usually not great. By contrast the table service restaurants are mostly excellent. A couple of hours spent relaxing over lunch at Bistrot Chez Remy would have given you a good chance to rest.

I found the 'fast' food really good, all be it really slow. with her abdominal condition Julia finds eating a chore, not something to be enjoyed. A full meal see her in pain for a few hours, so not something to do mid park.

I'm also wondering - I presume you ate at the New York Pizza place in the Village? So did you go back out to the bus stop after that? If so, you made a lot of extra walking for yourself. From the Village it's only another 10 minutes to Cheyenne, past Hotel New York and along the river. By the time you got to the bus stop you could have been at the Cheyenne.

No I got the pizza from the cart thing right by the security exit by the bus stops, so much quicker to go back that way.

Glad you managed to see the show again - can't wait to see it.

I think you'll love it, it is an amazing show. I thought I had more pictures of it than I did, I'll try to get more at Christmas.

**Gill H** · 22 Aug 17, 05:57 PM

Originally Posted by hawki

Thank you, I don't think I'll bother with the dining plan - would probably be waste if they seem to only open for a short time.

The dining plan is for table service restauranfs. The ones in the Village and hotels are open all evening. In-park table service restaurants may close early off season.

The table service restaurants are mostly very good and some are superb.

5 Aug 17, 02:48 PM	#1
	5 Aug 17, 02:48 PM spencem Apprentice Imagineer
spencem Apprentice Imagineer Join Date: Sep 07	First but not Last, Day 2 Day 2 Friday June 23rd 2017 Time for a confession, there were no notes made on this trip so I am working from my fading memories and photo time stamps to bring you today’s activities. With this in mind I can’t tell you about breakfast, busses or security queues. What I can tell you was that we were just outside the Studios park at 10:41 AM. There wasn’t much of a queue to get in as you can see and so we were soon inside and photographing the fountain. They could arrange a better contrasting background instead of brown trees behind a brown fountain. Fountain photographed we queued up to hire a manual wheelchair for Julia. After yesterday it was apparent that even with the smaller parks there was no way she was going to be able to walk around them. The chair was not expensive, €20 with a further €50 deposit. Sandra did say that we should also go to guest services to get a disabled pass, but we didn’t think we would need one…. Into the park properly now, which means going through the ‘sound stage'. This seems like a very odd entrance to me, I can kind of see what they were trying to do with having you ‘inside the movies’ but with all the shops in there it just doesn’t feel backstage to me and it creates quite the bottleneck. Back outside and a really great looking park is revealed, all be it a rather small one. It has the feeling of Hollywood Studios to me, but on a much smaller scale. Where Hollywood Studios has whole rows of buildings Paris has one or two. They are to the same high standard, there are just a lot fewer of them. Looking good in the sunshine. Sandra pointed out the Partners statue and so I went over to take their photo. First stop of the day was to get some Fastpasses for Tower of Terror, just three of the old-fashioned paper ones as Brian doesn’t ride. Paper safely in hand it was off to ride the backlot tour and we ran into the first problem of the day. We hadn’t bothered with a disabled pass as Julia is quite happy to wait in the normal queue so long as she can sit and doesn’t have to stand for ages. Also we would normally make good use of Fastpass to avoid spending all day in queues. Well it turns out you can’t take a wheelchair into most of the regular lines in Disneyland Paris and you can’t use the accessible lines without a pass to go with your chair. We just about got the chair through the queue, but we did get moaned at when we arrived at the front and needed to get it past the turnstile. They also didn’t really know what to do with us once we were in the boarding area, we didn’t and indeed couldn’t take the chair on the tram but without the pass we also couldn’t leave it in the disabled waiting area. In the end we just left it to one side in the boarding area and got on the tram. The tram tour is quite good with some very clever bi-lingual narration so you don’t feel you are missing anything when the language changes but at the same time you don’t feel like the two presenters are simply repeating each other. There are two set pieces, Catastrophe Canyon and Reign of Fire which is apparently new plus the normal drive by of props. Ooh look the tanker is on fire, that never happened before. Good job all this water was stored upstairs to put that fire out. This was apparently something called Dinotopia, it was on TV, apparently. Not sure which film these trees were in? Another normal day in London Another delayed train. I thought we might get an actual dragon, but no just fire and some roaring. Soon, soon my Fastpass will be active. We decided to go back to guest services and see if Julia could get a disabled pass to make life easier with the wheelchair next, which meant going back through the sound stage. This time I took a quick picture. Kind of works. Getting the pass was no problem at all, we just showed a photo of Julia’s blue badge to prove she is disabled. The real thing was of course on the dashboard of the car back at the hotel car park, luckily Sandra had got me to photograph both sides with my phone this morning having read this was acceptable online before we came out. They also asked what Julia could and couldn’t manage as well as how many of us were with her before ticking some boxes on the pass and stamping it with ‘party of 4’. Back into the park and we thought we would try to get into Mickey and the Magician, the new show replacing Animagic for the 25th anniversary. We were immediately shown to the disabled holding area on arrival and taken into the theatre first when it opened, letting Julia roll up to one of the parking spots without running over hoards of kids. The show itself is amazing, simply a wonderful piece of theatre. The loose plot revolves around Mickey being the cleaner for a magician and wanting to learn to become a magician himself. With the aid of the magician’s hat and a whole cast of Disney favourites summoned in sequence he does so. There are some clever illusions in the show, some simple and others that you cannot see how they are done. Once again the show is bi-lingual with the cast effortlessly switching back and forth between French and English so everyone knows what is going on. The acting, singing and dance is top notch and supported by some great lighting. The show is very repeatable and indeed we watched a couple of more times over the trip. Genie’s turn to teach Mickey. Everyone take a bow. Show over our Fastpasses were just still active for Tower of Terror and so leaving Brian to guard the wheelchair Sandra, Julia and I took a ride to the Twilight Zone. This ToT is a copy of the old California ride and so doesn’t have the separate show and drop shafts. It is still an excellent ride and as we discovered later they have added random drop profiles to it so each ride is different. Why is there no gold member check-in at this hotel? I’m not used to waiting for reception. Like its Californian cousin the loading area is double decked, if you go in the library to the left you’ll end up waiting for your elevator upstairs in the boiler room. The ride is identical from either level, but the extra height of the boiler room is used to great effect to help build the atmosphere. I don’t like to look of this old boiler. There is a lunch sized hole in in the photos after Tower of Terror, before the next pictures around by the Armageddon show, so I presume this is when we had lunch. I seem to remember having a bit of a search for anywhere open that didn’t just sell burgers or hot dogs. We ended up in the Blockbuster Café I think where after quite a lot of faffing we ended up with some excellent food. This was a pattern that would continue the whole trip, we would struggle to find somewhere open, with many places only open for a few hours around lunchtime, opening at noon and closing late afternoon. Then when they were open ordering or getting the food always seemed to take an age, but once we got it the food itself was great, high quality and not bad value for money. Most places did ‘menus’ of a main, side dish, desert and a drink which are good value for money. However, they are totally ridged and you cannot substitute items. Brian in particularly struggled as he doesn’t drink soft drinks much and prefers coffee. He couldn’t swap the included soft drink for coffee and the cashiers often didn’t grasp that he was ‘happy’ to pay extra for the coffee. Also the coffee itself was of a uniformly low quality everywhere except the Starbucks shops. I think today I had a salad before finishing Julia’s huge ham and cheese sandwich. There was also a lovely special anniversary apple crumble desert on offer that we shared as it was very rich. Lunch over we thought we would go into the Armageddon show to let it settle and as it is an attraction unique to Paris. The Cast Members in here were very good at getting people to make way for Julia’s wheelchair, so she could see what was going on. A very similar setup to Stich, but without the nasty chairs and smells. The show itself is cleverly done, but a bit corny to be honest. I don’t think we’ll be rushing back except to let Edward experience it. That said the fire effects are very well done, not to mention very hot! From the pictures it looks like we took the (not very) long walk right across the park to Ratatouille next. This took us through the excellently themed Cars area. We’ve not seen the California one in person, but from the pictures I’ve seen this is as good, if a lot smaller and without the signature ride. Straight from the film, what do you mean it was a cartoon? Looking great. Around the corner and we were in a Parisian square looking for the disabled entrance to the ride. If Imagineering couldn’t have gotten this right here then there would have been no hope. Coming soon to an Epcot near you. Now about that disabled entrance, as I said we were almost forced to go and get a disabled pass that effectively lets you jump any queue. Personally this makes me very uncomfortable as there is actually no reason at all why Julia needs to jump a queue, she just can’t stand in one. If you’ve read any of my Florida trip reports you’ll know we have never gotten a disabled pass there as all the queues are accessible and Julia can sit in them on her ECV or we make use of Fastpass+ and so don’t queue for long. Here in Paris neither are possible and so queue jumping it was. Sisterly love, all be it sisters-in-law Sandra often struggles with a painful hip and while not quite ready for a Zimmer frame made good use of the wheelchair to lean on while walking around the park. Ratatouille is an excellent ride, using a trackless car system, physical sets and 3D screens to give a fantastic impression of being a rat running around the kitchen and restaurant. The chase through the walls is particularly clever and well done. By the time we came off of the ride our afternoon nap was long overdue and so we made our way out of the park via the Toy Story area. This again is very well done and hopefully a taster of what is coming to WDW next year. I wouldn’t mind trying the RC Racer ride, but it didn’t appeal to the others. I’m sure Edward will ride it with me in December… Apparently that is a kids ride in the back with the orange track. Just excellently done theming, they really are huge toys. Back at the ranch I decided it was time Julia pushed me for once, she was ok with this until we got onto the flat where I was told I was too heavy My turn. It was nearly 6pm by the time we got back to our rooms and so afternoon nap turned into evening rest before we went back out just to see the evening show in Disneyland park. Julia was feeling rough which delayed me and her going back to the parks, while Sandra and Brian went over before us. I think this was the evening I was grumpy as I didn’t get any dinner until very late. By the time we got into Disneyland most places were closed and those few that were open had huge queues. I should have gotten something at the hotel from the Starbucks while relaxing waiting for Julia’s medication to do its thing. Back into the park at nearly 10pm. Tinkerbelle is cleverly backlit on top of the Town Square bandstand. We made our way up Main Street to the disabled viewing area for the show. I did look to get some food from the bakery on Main Street, but the queue was nearly back to Town Square. The same was true of Cassey’s Corner, I’d still be in that queue now I think. While Disney did an excellent job of keeping a disabled area for show viewing, not even letting Sandra and Brian in despite them being on the pass, they don’t make any effort at keeping a path open to that disabled area. I ended up running a few people over trying to push Julia between them. This was even more of a problem when she decided she had to go and find a restroom only half an hour before the show started, I might have been very grumpy by this point. We did make it out to the restroom and back and settled into our spot for the show. I sat myself down next to the chair so as to not block the view of those behind. This does mean that Goofy stars in all of my pictures from this night. Nearly show time. Even at gone 11pm it was not fully dark. Love the way the pyro extends the fountains, almost appearing to flow out of them. Letting one go. Star Wars. One of the after show images that come on as people walk out. Sandra and Brian joined us after the show and after waiting a while we made our way out via one of the arcades. One the way down we visited the restroom and a couple of shops, I was looking for tee shirts and Brian needed a hoodie. Brian got his hoodie, but my search for a tee shirt continued. One of the special anniversary meet and greet areas. When we got to Town Square the bandstand was deserted and so I took the opportunity to get some pictures. The bandstand makes a great frame for the castle, not by accident I’m sure. Almost a deserted Main Street. Romance time, all say ahhh. I was looking for food, but everything in the park was now closed. We were heading for Annett’s in the Village as Sandra insisted that stayed open all night, but it was closed as well when we got there. We took a walk through Disney Village, but most places were closed. I was going to one of the huts, but in the time it had taken to walk up the village they too closed. I made it as far as the balloon ride before turning back. We didn’t see this go up all holiday. Finally just as I’d given up and was thinking of breakfast bars back in our room I saw the pizza place right by the exit was still open, well actually they had just closed but took pity on me. Again this came as a ‘menu’ and included fries. With me being the last customer of the night I got almost a whole basket of fries to go with my pizza slice. Fed at last we made our way back to the bus stop and the hotel. Link back to the index. __________________ All of my trip reports can be found here, Florida, Paris and LA. Edited at 06:44 PM.