First family trip to DLP - Feb 2017 - Day 2

[Milpston]

It's taken me a while to get round to doing this second day as I have been busy at work etc but thought it was about time I got wriggle on!

Pre-trip report is here https://www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/sho... php?t=1003624

Pre travel day is here https://www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/sho... php?t=1006986

Day 1 is here
https://www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/sho... php?t=1007045

We planned to be up and down for breakfast at about 07:00 this morning but I think by the time we surfaced we arrived at the compass club lounge around 07:30

On entry to the lounge we just showed our easy pass and we were straight in. There were only another couple of families in there and a nice selection oh hot and cold items were available on the buffet. I have to say it was of good quality and in a very relaxed atmosphere. Apparently breakfast will still be included in Compass Club rooms when the new changes take effect.

A brief sample of what we ate but I'm sure there was more than one visit to the buffet.

We actually too small boxes of cereal with us for Emma as she can be quite fussy and likes her Coco pops in the morning. There was no need as there was a good selection of cereals available.

Before leaving for the parks I nipped out to the car to grab a few bits. I think it was a few cans of drink and my thermal gloves.

Below is where luggage is scanned on arrival at the hotel. The one I managed to walk straight past yesterday.

Our plan this morning was to head to the Disneyland Parc for early magic hours and then head into the Studios when it opened at 10:00 to meet up with Sally's Sister and family. We had a steady stroll over and arrived allowing enough time for me to nip into the train station and buy some cigarettes. I rarely smoke any more as I just use my electronic cigarette. However, we hadn't managed to bring enough charger leads with us so it was my e-cigarette that missed out. I got a couple of packets as a treat seeing as they were about half the price of home We arrived at the entrance at about 08:15. Not too much of a queue and in we went.

As we walked in we noticed that there was a Mini Mouse meet on the left hand side just after entry. The queue looked reasonably short so we thought we would join. We obviously had no idea just how slow the queue would move. The most frustrating part were families ahead of us in the queue where half the family and kids would disappear, queue up to meet Goofy and Pluto nearby and then return to resume their places in the queue. The CM even lifted the rope for them so they could get back into the queue. Anyway, the queue was 1 hour and 50 mins in total. Emma and Chloe did enjoy meeting Minnie though.

As we killed the early entry into the Disneyland Parc queuing for Minnie we headed out towards Disney Studios at about 10:15.
The queues were pretty long for everything so we headed down towards Slinky for Emma's first ride of the day.

I think the queue timer jumped from about 20 mins to 35mins just after we entered the queue. Expectant Mothers could not ride this either so it was just Chloe Emma and I whilst Sally stocked up with another coffee. It was cold this morning.

Emma wasn't overly happy queueing for this one and although she was ok when she first got on she didn't enjoy it she got progressively grumpier as it went on. Chloe appeared happy enough with it though.

We had wander around with Sally's sister and family just taking in the atmosphere. I think the queue for the parachute drop was about an hour at this point so we gave it a miss. Emma had been doing really world on the rides but thought the height of this one may be a bit much for her. She had already done better than we expected after her screaming from start to finish on every ride at Pepper Pig world last summer.

I think we saw a part of the March of the 1st order (or whatever it's called) and then decided to head over to Stitch Live. As we got there we saw an English showing of Disney Junior was about to start so we headed in. As we walked in A CM asked Sally if she had a pregnancy card (which she didn't) but offered her one of the reserved chairs as she could see she was clearly pregnant. Everyone else was just in rows on the floor. As we arrived just before the start we were sitting fairly near the back but it was no problem.

We never made it back to Stitch live which was a bit of a shame. Emma enjoyed the show and think it's definitely aimed towards her kind of age group. It got warm in here quickly what with the thermals I had on so soon had mine and Emma's coats off.

We had a bit of indecision next. Sally Sister headed back to there hotel for a rest. I couldn't talk Chloe into going on Tower Of Terror so eventually I used one of our Hotel Fastpasses to go on it alone. Sally wouldn't be able to make use of it anyway so figured it would still leave one each for Chloe and I for today.

I was intrigued to give it a try as I had read a lot about Tower of Terror both here and in Florida and had never been on. Even with the fastpass I was still queueing for about half an hour and I think the standby queue was showing at 70 minutes when I entered. Not overly surprising with it being half term week.

Not going to be a popular view but I think this is a bit overrated really. I liked the view over the park when the doors opened at the top but just didn't find it particularly scary. Maybe it's just that I'm more of a coaster fan really. Glad I went on it but no way I would queue for an hour+ for it.

On exiting I called Sally as I had been longer than expected. She had been in a few shops. She had try to my a Minnie Mouse toy for Emma but had got fed up with people pushing in the queue in front of her so left. Emma then had a bit of a melt down because she didn't get her Minnie so Chloe went back in and got it. They'd also grabbed a hot drink each in my absence.

We decided to go on Rock n Rollercoaster as the standby queue wasn't too bad. About 25 mins from memory.

Chloe has only just started to go on rollercoasters et in the last year or two. She was even more nervous this time than she was when we went on yesterday, It doesn't help when I say things like, "Your belt's not done up" as we were moving away"!

It was pretty much a walk on with the fast pass but by the time we came out Emma was fast asleep in her push chair, We headed back down to the Disney Village and arranged to meet friends that were arriving today at the Rainforest Café for lunch. It was originally planned for dinner tonight but we decided we wanted to try and see the parade and Dreams later on.

On exiting we saw there was a very small queue to meet Mary poppins (oh... and a penguin and some other bloke ) Sorry of the ignorance!

Emma met them too but didn't know much about it.

So we walked through Disney springs to Rain Forest Café and popped into ask how long the wait was likely to be for a table for 7. The reply was something along the lines of "It depends when you ask". We began to explain that if there was a bit of a wait we would put our names down for a table but if there were lots of tables available now we would just wait for our friends to arrive first. Anyway, after a few blank looks I wandered in and found it to be pretty much empty so we just went back outside to wait.

From my photos we must have popped into World Of Disney on the way through.

I really liked the theming of Rainforest Café. I can't recall ever having ate in one before. There's lots to look at and although it was pretty empty so, no doubt, lacking in a bit of atmosphere I liked it. They provided some colouring in to keep the kids amused. Emma also enjoyed looking around at the different animals.

Emma was surprised to find Sally already sitting in there

We all skipped the starters and just went for a main, a dessert and drinks.

As I'd already perused menus on line I had already decided that Sally and I would share a volcano. Had looked at a few pictures online and this was our version

Essentially it was about three scoops of vanilla icecream stacked up in the middle, three pieces of chocolate brownie stood up on the outside then a load of squirty cream filling the gaps. The slices of chocolate brownie were no more than a cm thick. For about 15 Euros it was a bit disappointing.
Overall I enjoyed the Rainforest Café and would probably go back if I was here. Overpriced obviously but the food was OK and the theming was really good.

We decided now that there was no pint in heading back to the hotel which had been the original plan. As by the time we got there we wouldn't have long before we had to head back if we were to catch the parade. We took a slow walk back to the Disneyland Parc.

Emma was happy to get some time to spend with her little friend Sophie

On arrival it was almost time for the parade to staff so we got a spot at the bottom of Main Street on the little roundabout,. Luckily the people on the kerb in front of us stayed sat down so we stood behind and even Emma could see over the top of them when standing.

We enjoyed the parade and Emma was transfixed. Glad we caught it as if we hadn't have changed our dinner plans for today we knew there was a good chance we'd have struggled to catch it.

After the crowds had thinned a little we went for a bit of a wander. I think we had a browse in a few of the Main Street Shops.
We then decided to use our remaining two fastpasses on Big Thunder Mountain. I had been on the one in Florida one before but this was back in 2001. I have to say I really enjoyed this ride. It was better than I expected it to be and I especially enjoyed it in the dark. Not sure I could do the 90 min queues we saw at times this week but thoroughly enjoyed it. We eventually found ourselves near to Phantom Manor. I assured our friends it would be fine for the kids. Again expectant Mothers could not ride.
It was only about a 10 minute queue. We did all give each other a few looks when we went in the first room and I knew they were thinking this was a bad idea for Emma and Sophie. (I knew it was a gamble ) As it turned out once we were onto the main ride they were both fine. Emma did say, "Mummy", a couple of time on the way round but when Sally asked her when we exited she said, "Fun", so it can't have been all bad.

After this we had a bit of a mooch and then decided to go and find a spot for Dreams. We got a spot on not far from Caseys and fairly central. Sally sat on some railings for a bit of a rest. At one point I went off to get her a coffee and decided to find a toilet and pretty much ended up at the other end of main street at one point. She just wanted a Latte/coffee with milk but strangely they didn't do a large one. You could have a large black coffee but only did one with milk in the smaller size. I was a bit perplexed by this but eventually found my way back with her coffee.

I thought Dream was fantastic. The mix of music, lights and fireworks was superb. Emma loved it and even though it was cold it was a lovely way to end our first full day. Our friends had headed back prior to the show. My pictures aren't great as I had pretty much ditched my Sony camera by this morning so was just relying on my IPhone 7+ for convenience.

We took a stroll down Main Street with the crowds and a meander back to the hotel before finishing up with a couple of drinks in the compass club lounge.

It had been a really long day but superb. We were all out like a light tonight. Especially Sally!