When You're the Best of Friends - Glowtini Girls do DLP Jan 2019 - Day 3

[Beaker7929]

I slept for 10 hours straight, waking up just before my alarm was due to go off at 7.30am! I clearly needed it!

I messaged Mel to let her know I was awake we arranged to have a slow morning and meet for breakfast at 9am.

It was very strange to be waking up in a Disney hotel on my own, not something I’ve done before, but I do travel a lot for work so gave myself a talking to, this was just another hotel room (albeit a lovely Sequoia Lodge Golden Forest one ) so I put some music on and got myself into the shower.

Once out of the shower I opened the curtains to find this stunning sunrise over the front of the hotel.

Before this trip, I’d been on a bit of a clothing spending spree and had stocked up on plenty of Disney sweatshirts, something my wardrobe seriously lacked! Today I would be sporting this little number…

9am soon arrived and Mel and I met at the lifts to head down to breakfast, I will always love the Sequoia Lodge Golden Forest breakfast!

On leaving breakfast Mel and I spotted that Mickey was meeting, clearly (in my new sweatshirt) it was meant to be!

While we had queued for Mickey (less than 5 mins!) Mel remembered that to meet any characters in Studios you need to use the Lineberty app. She popped onto the app and we saw that Spiderman was meeting today, Mel selected the meet, changed the number of people meeting him to 2 and we were booked in! Our time slot was due to be in about 1hr 45mins time which worked for us.

We popped back up to our rooms to grab coats and bags and left the hotel heading to Studios around 10.30am….the latest I have ever left a Disney hotel heading for the park! Already I was sensing the rest of this trip would be quite different to my previous laminated, precision planned experiences

On entering Studio One I suggested to Mel that we pop into the Pandora shop. After Anna had left yesterday I wasn’t sure how I would feel about buying a charm as on our last trip the three of us bought our charms together, a really special moment and memory, but the day we arrived Mel had sent us a photo of a gorgeous Dumbo charm which I had decided I had to have.

Mel and I went into the shop and soon enough spotted the Dumbo charm, it was absolutely adorable, Dumbo is one of my favourite films and Baby of Mine one of my favourite Disney songs. We decided there and then that we would both buy the charm and I’m so pleased we did. The Cast Member serving us was superb, he asked us if this was our first trip…..ha! We quickly informed him that between us we’ve visited over 30 times with Mel’s first trip being back in the 90’s….he was doing well up to this point when he told us that he was 3 when Mel first visited the park….man we felt old

Here is the charm...too cute!

Pandora purchases safely stowed in our bags we carried on through Studio One (I popped to the loo as I’d heard they’d been refurbed, and they had, yay!)

First stop was to ride Ratatouille!

Because the single rider queue was a walk on, we did it as single riders. It’s very strange riding rides with people you don’t know! Especially when they’re not necessarily English so don’t react when you try chatting with them

As we came out of Ratatouille we popped over to Chez Remy to take a photo of the menu as I’m thinking that Chloe and I may eat here when we come in the Summer. It was at this point that Mel spotted Remy meeting just by the entrance to the tunnel that takes you into Toy Story Playland.

The queue didn’t look that long so we joined the end of it. But at that moment our Lineberty ticket for Spiderman came up. With Lineberty it is worth keeping an eye on your time as it can go up and down, especially if you’re thinking of leaving the Studios park to head elsewhere. Once your slot becomes available you then have 30 mins to head over and have your meet.

Checking the Remy queue we didn’t think we were going to have enough time to do both so left the queue and headed in the direction of where we had met with Spiderman last year, opposite the exit of Rock n Roller Coaster…..only to find the building locked!

Ok, where was Spiderman now!?! We checked the Lineberty app, nope that doesn’t tell you, we checked the park map on the app, nope no sign of him on there….ok, time to ask a Cast Member….or 3! It took 3 Cast Members before we discovered that he is now based in what used to be Disney Junior Live, next door to Stitch Live. The only indication that Spiderman was in this building was an A4 piece of paper, with the smallest writing on at the entrance to the queue line. Not great!

That said, the meet and greet was brilliant, I do love Spiderman! He was really chatty and took his time with us doing loads of poses for the photos.

It was only on looking back at the pictures later in the day that I noticed that Spidey, Mickey and I are all doing the same pose

Just as we left Spiderman Mel got a message from our mystery guest saying that he had arrived and was just going to drop his bags at the hotel then would head into the park to meet us.

Knowing that he would be a little while Mel and I popped into Studio One and grabbed a hot drink (and a cheeky cookie for me ) and then proceeded to sit and have a natter.

Drinks and snacks consumed we meandered over to the Disneyland Park, to wait at the bandstand, while waiting I took an arty shot of the castle and a selfie

Not long after, our mystery guest arrived……say helllllllooooooo to Grant from The Dibbcast!

So I was feeling all the emotions at this point! We had hugs all round, got Grant up to speed with what had happened the day before and decided to…..go for a coffee! Ok, I was totally out of my comfort zone at this point, what do you mean we’re not going on any rides!?!

Remembering how good the hot chocolates were yesterday we headed for Victoria’s, Grant ordered a Nutella Mickey Waffle which I very graciously offered to share with him

My first ever Mickey Waffle experience did not disappoint, it was divine! Apologies for there being no picture, but it looked like Mickey Mouse, was covered in Nutella and sprinkled with nuts…oh and was as big as my face

We had a really good catch up over drinks and waffle, but I couldn’t stop thinking that I should be out in the parks, doing rides and stuff! I had a little internal word with myself to chill out and relaxed….a little bit

Once we were suitably full of waffle I suggested that we go and do a ride! Mel and I hadn’t yet used out hotel fast pass and with Anna departing the day before I also had her hotel fast pass, 3 fast passes, 3 people, let’s go to Big Thunder Mountain!

When we were told which gate numbers to stand by it looked as though I was going to be sat on my own, but just as the train pulled in the Cast Member sent another group our way and I ended up sitting next to a stranger. When Anna left the day before one of the things that had popped into my head was what it would be like doing thrill rides as usually we sit together and are in fits of giggles. As good as the ride was, and I love BTM, it just felt a little odd, this was clearly something that would take some adjusting too. When we got off the ride Mel made a point of saying that we would make sure I was sat with one of them in future, which I really appreciated

On exiting BTM I mentioned that Phantom Mickey was meeting over by Phantom Manor (still closed for refurb after more than a year!) I was desperate to meet him having seen a photo on Twitter the week before. So that was where we headed next, now because Phantom Manor is closed, and they still have a massive fence up you would have no idea that Phantom Mickey was meeting as you can’t actually see him! If I hadn’t seen it on Twitter, I would have been none the wiser, but that said, it meant the queue was short!

This was a fantastic meet! Mickey loved swishing his cape around, and looked very handsome

Once we said goodbye to Mickey I checked the app and saw that Pirates was a walk on, result! Off we went….me marching ahead….then realising I’d nearly lost Mel and Grant ….another little word with myself, slow down Rachel, there’s no rush!

After Pirates we strolled into Fantasyland and noticed that, once again, Dumbo had a really short wait time of just 10 minutes (what was going on!?!) obviously Mel and I had to drag Grant on

We then thought we’d left it long enough before making Grant go on It’s a Small World so headed in that direction, but it was closed! We carried on walking past and were just going down past the gates that the parade comes out of when I saw a handful of Cast Members coming through the little door in their red fleeces….then Grant said, ‘isn’t that, erm…Garcon?’ Mel and I looked at each other and said ‘Garcon?’ then looked back and realised he’d meant Gaston!

You’ve never seen Mel and I move so fast we shrieked GASTON and hurtled over to the poor guy, all the while Grant stood back looking slightly bewildered, until I shouted at him ‘well don’t just stand there, take photo’s’

That totally made our day, Gaston is a pretty rare meet at DLP, and usually only out at Halloween so Mel and I were absolutely buzzing to have met him, and without queuing!

At this point Grant said he was going to head back to the hotel to check in and get settled in his room so Mel and I arranged to meet him in Café Fantasia in about an hour or so.

We left the park together with Mel and I splitting off to go into the Disneyland Hotel, while waiting for the lift to the first floor I actually paid attention to the surroundings and for the first time noticed the Mickey hand on the lift dial and also the characters in the wallpaper.

Once seated in Café Fantasia we perused the cocktail menu, obviously! Now because Anna wasn’t with us it didn’t feel right to have our traditional blue Glowtini, so instead as a nod to her we had a Rouge et Noir, one of her favourites. It was delicious as always :

We spent a good hour nattering and drinking, deciding to order a coffee while we continue to wait for Grant to join us, look at the cute chocolate dust Tinkerbell!

Grant then joined us and as he was having a beer Mel and I decided to treat ourselves to a second cocktail, well why not! Mel said that I should try one that she’d had last time she was there which was called a Concerto, it looked nice, and I trust Mel’s opinion on cocktails (more than I trust my own ) so the waiter came over and Mel said, ‘we’ll have 2 Crescendo’s please’ (this is important….) after a little while our drinks came over, looking very pretty…

While drinking them I said to Mel ‘ohh it’s got a little kick hasn’t it, I wonder what ingredient that is’ so matching up our drink to the picture in the menu I saw that it contained wasabi, mmm yummy, I love wasabi….it was at this point that Mel realised she’d ordered the wrong cocktail

Not only that but she hadn’t even realised that there was one called Crescendo, what were the chances!

Now, you’ll remember that a few times today I’ve had to have a little word with myself about chiiiiiiiling out….well you would have been proud of me, we were in Café Fantasia for over 2 hours, just hanging out, catching up and sipping yummy cocktails….which meant we’d missed Illuminations! I promise you the thought of drinking up and legging it out to watch the show only popped into my head twice, and at no point did I voice it, because we were having such a lovely time and I didn’t want to disturb it all for the sake of sticking to a ‘plan’, yay me, progress!

We did of course finally settle up the bill (ouch!) and headed out of the hotel, Mel and Grant took the lift, I however pretended to be a Princess and took the stairs

The plan was (yay, plan! ) to have dinner at Rainforest Café, because the garlic bread there is to die for. It was quite a long wait in the queue before being seated but the time past and around 8.30pm we were at a table. I was due to speak to home at 9pm (8pm there time) so already knew that that was when our food would arrive….yep, I was right

However I did manage to snaffle some of the garlic bread before making the call, it was good…..but they’ve changed the bread they use so sadly it wasn’t as good as last year.

The mains however (when I did finally get to eat mine) were really good, I had the veggie burger which was yummy. I still highly recommend Rainforest Café (despite the change to the garlic bread ) as the food is great, the portions are large and the bill was small, around 30 euros each

We left Rainforest Café around 10pm taking a leisurely stroll around the lake back to Sequoia Lodge. Mel and Grant headed for the Golden Forest Lounge and I went back to my room for a little down time. As we’d got back to the hotel quite late Mel and Grant didn’t spend long in the lounge (it closes at 10.30pm) and after a little while there was a knock at my door asking for the bottle of Prosecco I had stashed in the fridge!

I handed it over to Mel with a promise that I’d meet them at her room in a few minutes. So in my Disney PJ’s and fluffy socks that is what I did, Grant’s face was a picture, well a girl likes to be comfortable!
We drank prosecco and nattered for a while longer, with Grant calling it a night around 11.45pm. Mel and I forgot he’d been up since the early hours travelling, oops!

We all said our goodnights, Grant headed off to the Santa Fe where he was staying and I headed back to my room and was in bed just after midnight, what a truly wonderful day with wonderful friends!

[Melanie R]

Lovely write up Rachel - brings back all the memories!
You did so well on your first day “solo” and I know only too well how hard it can be 😘
I never did get to have a Concerto - we need to plan a return visit 😂

[Beaker7929]

Originally Posted by Melanie R

Lovely write up Rachel - brings back all the memories!
You did so well on your first day “solo” and I know only too well how hard it can be 😘
I never did get to have a Concerto - we need to plan a return visit 😂

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Any excuse 😂

[mrsdjh]

I love your sweatshirt!

The breakfast there looks great - I think I am definitely going to price up staying there for our mum and daughter trip next year.

Although you had a different type of day to your usual without Anna, it sounds like you still had a good day - especially meeting Gaston and having cocktails and its always nice to have some time on holiday to relax and chill x

[Beaker7929]

Originally Posted by mrsdjh

I love your sweatshirt!

The breakfast there looks great - I think I am definitely going to price up staying there for our mum and daughter trip next year.

Although you had a different type of day to your usual without Anna, it sounds like you still had a good day - especially meeting Gaston and having cocktails and its always nice to have some time on holiday to relax and chill x

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I can highly recommend SLGF, especially the breakfast 😋 I can't wait to go back 😊

And you're absolutely right, relaxing should totally be part of the holiday, I've already told DD that we may relax the pace slightly in summer, however shes her mothers daughter and likes a plan so isn't so sure 😂

[firsttimemouse]

Love that charm, I have the same one which I also got on my last dlp trip.

Fantasia cocktails look great, ill have to try there on my trip in the summer.

[Animagus]

I really must have a drink in cafe Fantasia when we visit. I do like a cocktail myself! It looks such a beautiful setting too.

I wasn’t even aware of Victoria’s until it started popping up in trippies. I hope it’s open in the Spring.

Sounds like a fab day, despite the strangeness. We travel as a family of 3 so either dh or I sits alone on rides. Not as much fun but I just cheer, scream, whoop or whatever now and don’t care!

Thanks for sharing.

[suziwong_96]

Great day! Getting me excited for our return to SLGF in 4 weeks! Can I ask,. Did lineberty work from hotel? I thought I'd need be in park x

[Beaker7929]

Originally Posted by suziwong_96

Great day! Getting me excited for our return to SLGF in 4 weeks! Can I ask,. Did lineberty work from hotel? I thought I'd need be in park x

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Eek, 4 weeks! I'm excited for you 😁 Yes Lineberty worked perfectly from the hotel

[HappyPanda]

I take my hat off to you for allowing yourself to relax and go off-plan... I wish I could be a bit more like that at DLP. We are literally on the go all day every day whilst we are there and it's not until I get home that I think how nice it would have been to just sit and soak in the atmosphere once in a while!