Disney with a french accent, Day 2, Disney Studios and that Rat!

[BevS97]

We had intended to get up early and go to rope drop, but we just didn’t wake up. So, a new plan was devised, one that started with a lie-in. Once we were all up, we went over to the hotel buffet for breakfast.
After breakfast, we thought we’d get the bus to the parks, so we walked upto the bus stop. We waited for quite a while, but no bus turned up, so we decided to just walk instead. We had hoped to be at the park when it opened at 10, but it was 10.40 by the time we arrived. Quite late for us, but sometimes you need to sleep and eat.
( I liked this little statue)

We walked straight around to the new Ratatouille area, and I was pleased to see we could still get Fastpasses, so we picked some up for 3.45. Molly spotted that the single rider line was only 5 minutes, so we decided to do that. Just as we entered the line, it jumped up to 20 minutes, but it really wasn’t too bad a wait. The cars seat 6, in 2 rows of 3, so they seemed to be taking a lot of single riders, and we were all able to ride quite quickly after each other (although all in 1’s)

This ride was really fun. It’s quite hard to describe it, but you shrink down to Rat sized, and go on an adventure in the kitchen. It’s quite fast and fun but it’s definitely not a scary ride, it’s one everyone can enjoy.

(this guy was not moving for my photo. As soon as I took it, he turned and walked away…)

After the ride, I popped into Chez Remy to find out what our vouchers were worth (28 Euro), as noone actually seemed to be able to give me an answer to that. Then we walked through the new Toy Story area, the queues were all pretty long, so we didnt ride anything, but it looked really good.

We didnt really have a plan (well the plan was get there early, and we’d failed on that), so we were being a bit aimless, but we decided to do Mickey and the Magician, as shows are typically pretty good for getting in when the park is busy. The queue was enormous, but we joined the end, and when we were literally 4 people away from the entrance they announced the show was full. Well, things weren’t really going to plan….
Aladdin’s flying carpets were right next door, and the queue was showing at 15 minutes, so we went there instead, and managed to ride pretty quickly.

After the ride, I was thirsty, so we bought a couple of drinks and then Cruella appeared just in front of us.


This was one of their less organised character meets but the girls did manage to get a photo. I wish they would just use a line, rather than random crowds, but they do seem to like their random meet and greets.
After meeting with Cruella, we noticed that people were starting to line up for Mickey and the Magician again. Having missed out once, we didn’t want to miss it again, so we got in line. We were quite early, so we had to wait for quite a while, and it was chaos in the waiting area. I don’t know why they didn’t have the usual snaked lines, but it was just a large room and everyone was really tightly crowded together. There was a family in front of us with 2 small children, and they were having to carry them as the kids would have been trampled if they had been put down.
Anyway, we were eventually allowed into the theatre, and considering we were one of the first people to start waiting we were just about last into the theatre, it was just really disorganised. We did get seats though, and we could see fine, so it was all ok.
The show is brilliant, with some bits of ‘real’ magic mixed in with the Disney magic. Loads of different Disney characters and films intermixed too. It was very entertaining, and worth the wait.



We came out of the show at 1.30, and we had lunch booked for 2, so we weren’t too sure what to do.


As we walked past Tower of Terror, we saw that it was only a 15 minute queue, so Phil and Molly decided to ride that, while Katie and I walked around and took some photos.



It was a little after 2 when they emerged, so we raced around to the restaurant, but it was not a problem and we were seated quite quickly. We had a table right in the corner, and I was a little disappointed with the spot, but there was no need, as we had a superb meal, and a hilarious waiter, who kept telling me off. I didn’t finish my salad, so he told me off, I said I was saving room for my fish, so then when I left the skin from my fish he refused to take my plate and said I was having no dessert. I tried to hide the skin under my knife and fork, and the other waitress working our table said to me ‘good luck with that!’, it was all in good fun, and the food was absolutely delicious.


Molly took this – she was very pleased with the lights in the background.


Katie had steak, and the rest of us had cod with potatoes and a berre blanc sauce, everyone had ratatouille, which I didn’t think I would like, but it was actually really nice.
For dessert Molly and I had this lemon meringue in a choux bun, and Phil and Katie had apple tart.

After our meal, we had fastpasses for another ride on Ratatouille so we went straight on, it was 4.15, so we’d been in Chez Remy for almost 2 hours, but it hadn’t felt like a slow meal at all.
We had a shorter wait this time, as we had the fastpass, and again we all enjoyed the ride.
We came off the ride, and had a little look around the shop and then walked back through the Toy Story area. This time the Slinky ride was only a 15 minute wait so we decided to ride. It’s really a kids ride but it was good fun, it’ quite a fast little ride.


We didn’t ride the RC Racers but we had a good view of it while we queued for slinky


i love the details that disney include, such as the plug at the end of the string of lights.


we walked out through the cars area, but I couldn’t really get far enough away to take any good photos with my new lens on. This little ride is cute though,


Crushes coaster was still a 75 minute wait, so we will have to go back another day at opening time to try and ride that.
It was 5.45 by now, and we have these ‘tea time snack’ vouchers that we can only use between 3 and 6. No one wanted a snack, so we decided to go and collect some snacks for later. We all got a bottle of water and a donut and put them away for later. It’s nice to get a free snack voucher, but I really don’t understand why they have to be time limited, other than for the obvious reason that they hope people forget to use them.
We thought we’d have a go on the studio tram tour, and there was not much of a queue so it seemed a good plan. We got in line, and a few trams set off, and then a couple of trams came in, and left empty. A few people left the queue and we ended up quite near the front, so we could see there were lots of staff standing around, and someone in a Fire Rescue top. They made an announcement about a technical problem causing a delay, and eventually we decided to give it up as a bad job.

We had a bit of a debate about what to try next, and noticed that the Cinemagique started soon, so we did that. We had a short wait outside but nothing like the earlier wait. We had some of the saved donuts while we waited.


I spotted these Mickey shaped trees from the queue.


I think this film has been at DLP for a long time but I hadn’t seen it before. It was a good mix of lots of different classic films, and I enjoyed identifying them all (I’m wasn’t particularly good at that).
After the film, we decided to head home, and we thought we’d take the bus to save our feet.
We walked over to the bus station, but there were people waving everyone over to the left. It was all pretty calm where we were, but we could see a lot of people and buses at the far end of the station. I actually thought there had been a bus crash, but it appears that was a suspicious package. We really didn’t know though, and it certainly wasn’t alarming in anyway.
We are able to walk back to our hotel, so we decided to do that instead. We were quite cold by this point as we hadn’t worn jackets, and it had turned chilly, so we thought we’d so back to the hotel and get fleeces and then maybe walk back to the Disney Village for some tea later on.
Instead, when we got to the hotel and warmed up, Molly and I decided to go to reception in search of some Wifi, and we found that the hotel bar served food, pizza, hot dogs and sandwiches. We didn’t really fancy the walk back to the Village, so we settled into the bar, and had some pizza and hot dogs while we watched some of the Olympics on the tv, gymnastics and then GB won a gold in the diving.
Just before we left a country band came on and started to play some songs and were trying to get everyone to clap along. I think most people were happy just watching the Olympics, but it was nice to have the band as well.
All in all, a bit of a mixed success in terms of getting on rides, but I still really enjoyed it and particularly liked seeing the areas for Toy Story, Cars and Ratatouille, they all looked great. I will try and take some better photos when we go back.

[Gill H]

Good day overall. Make sure you do Stitch Live, it is hilarious. Don't rush to do Tram Tour, it's pretty rubbish these days apart from Catastrophe Canyon and the Reign of Fire London scene.

[Infinity Red]

Good idea to go on single rider at the Ratatouille ride, think we will do this too. The Bistro looked good also, I bet it was nicely themed.
I can't wait to see Mickey and the Magician, heard nothing but good about it. Handy to know about the bar having quick items to eat too, making lots of notes lol
Another great day despite " winging " it 😁

[BevS97]

The bistro was amazing, all themed as if you are rat sized. You sit at tables made of jam jar lids, it was my highlight of the trip.

[Infinity Red]

Sounds great, will definitely try and book the bistros thanks.

[BriarRose]

Its been years since we were at DLP and all the rides/attractions you went on seem to be new. They all looked really good and you seem to have had a great day.

[MrsBC]

Remy was my favourite meal last year, and Ratatouille my new favourite ride - the theming of the whole area is amazing too.

[kadypants]

Ooh I will have to try and convince DH to try the Bistro - he wasn't keen on the menu when I showed him.

Cannot wait to see Mickey and the Magician!

[BevS97]

Originally Posted by kadypants

Ooh I will have to try and convince DH to try the Bistro - he wasn't keen on the menu when I showed him.

Cannot wait to see Mickey and the Magician!

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I wasn't sure when I read the menu, but it was very nice. We all chose from the cheaper menu, and 3 of us had fish with a white sauce, mashed potato and ratatouille, and Katie had steak and chips with ratatouille. We all really enjoyed it. I wasn't sure I would like ratatouille but I ate the lot.

[miss_bell]

We have HB vouchers when we go in a few weeks, thank you for the update on face value, the bistro also looks great.

We're also staying at the Cheyenne, the band in the bar sounds like it would be a good evening.