Summer at NPB - Day 2

Ms Poppins

I'm sure I'm very affected by all this Disney talk
Joined
Mar 14, 2009
The Cast
Me – Julie – 44
DH – John – 48
DD - Abbey - 22
DS – Lewis – 14

Pre-trippie
Day 1

Day 2

Monday 5 August

We hadn’t slept particularly well – that’s normal for me when we’re away, but usually everyone else sleeps ok. I noticed that the curtains weren’t fully blackout and was awake early. The curtains didn't seem wide enough for the space, no matter how hard I tried to make them fit.

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After a long day travelling and a late night last night we’d agreed before going to sleep that we weren’t going to do EMH. Instead we had a leisurely morning and made our way around the lake at about 10:30ish.

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It was another lovely warm morning, some clouds around but still nice.

One of the reasons I insist on walking to the parks.......look at the queue of people waiting to get through security from the bus/train station in front of World of Disney!

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Salon Mickey was our first stop. The crowds outside made me think at first that lots of other people had the same idea, but they were queuing to get into the park, not Salon Mickey. The CM was very nice and originally was confused by our Annual Passes as they have a block-out day. Once I gave her the hotel easy passes she was able to validate them easily and we enjoyed our breakfast with only 2 other people in the room.

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Full up it was almost 11am now, and we went into the park. The plan today was to try and see the Lion King show in Frontierland theatre. There was a showing at 12:30 so we had some time to wait.

First up was Discoveryland to do Buzz, lots of fun on here as usual.

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Our first castle photo of the trip.

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We made our way to Frontierland and could already see long queues for the show. I’d already seen the popcorn buckets on Twitter so made sure we got one as we headed for the show.

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Not sure how the priority pass worked (or if it worked at all) Abbey went to the front of the queue and spoke to a CM who said we could queue in a separate area. We joined this, but in hindsight we could have waited until about 20-25 minutes before. There was also a queue beside us that was for the people who had purchased the Lion King Signature Experience.

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Before too long we were inside the theatre. I like what they’ve done in here, with the exception of the seating benches. Same as before, but anything without a back on the seat really hurts my back after a while.

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The show was great, very good performances from the performers in here with some amazing voices and acrobats. I’m not sure what I expected, but I thought there might be some speaking involved instead of just songs. Having seen it, I don’t think I’d rush back or queue for an hour again, but I’m glad to have seen it.

We left here a bit hungry and tried to go to Hakuna Matata. There was a roped off queue outside, I think this may have been to accommodate the meal that was part of the Lion King experience. We passed by Casey’s and the queue was out the door so kept walking and found ourselves in the Studios where we just ate inside Studio one – sharing some chicken nuggets and fries. Feeling a bit tired and hot we agreed to go back to the hotel for a rest/swim and headed back to the Newport Bay Club.

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John and I had a lovely time in the outside section of the pool at the hotel. I was surprised however that the pool was so warm. I thought it might cool us down but was actually cooler outside the water. I really like this whole area, the sun loungers and the pool in general. We didn’t swim inside but it looked nice too.

After an hour or so we headed back to the room to shower and change. The kids had had a nap and caught up with some Youtube stuff they’d wanted to watch.

We left the hotel around 5:30pm and made our way to the Studios.

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Lots being refurbished here for the better – always need our traditional photo of Lewis beside Guido and Luigi…….

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We headed to our favourite place, Place de la Remy. The food stalls around are a nice addition.

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Abbey and I went off to do Crush whilst the boys went towards Bistro Chez Remy and enjoyed some drinks and a wee game of cards outside. I screamed my head off on Crush…..I think I’m getting too old for this, lol.
 
We met up with the boys and Lewis and Abbey went off to do RC Racer whilst John and I enjoyed our sit in the sun (and I beat him at cards...) with our drinks. I absolutely love this area of the park.

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New tables here too

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We had a stroll through Toy Story Playland

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Next up we all did Parachutes together. It’s been a few years since we did this and I love the view.

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It was around 6:45 now and we left the park and made our way through the Village to the Steakhouse for our reservation. It wasn’t very busy at all when we arrived and were seated immediately.

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John, Lewis and I had a variation of one of the set menus and asked for the starter to be switched to the chicken salad which was lovely. We had the Angus Sirloin steak which was delicious too, followed by ice cream for John and a sundae for Lewis and I. Abbey didn’t eat from the set menu and instead just had a main course of steak.

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The food was lovely, as it always is, but the service wasn’t great tonight. Slow server, forgot the bread at the start, then forgot the butter. Then brought the meals out at slightly different times and left us for ages after dessert to the point we had to ask someone else for the bill. It won’t put us off going back though as we’ve always had good food which is the main thing.

It was around 9pm now and we were soon back in Disneyland Park.

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Lovely hanging baskets

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Main St and the hub area was already busy with people getting a spot for Illuminations. I really don’t recall people doing this so early for Dreams which was a much better show…..Anyway, no issue with folks wanting to do this if they want, however it made it really difficult to get from one side of the hub to the other. Usually there are CM’s there ensuring there was a clear pathway but there didn’t seem to be tonight.

We said we’d like to try and do some rides in Fantasyland tonight, so off we went.

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Peter Pan was up first. I don't think I'll ever tire of this ride....

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Next up was Dumbos. This really looks absolutely beautiful with the recent refurb. Even more so at night, fully lit up.

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Abbey said she hadn’t been on the Carousel for years so we did this next.

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By now Fantasyland was closing so we walked the back way into Discoveryland and the kids did Space Mountain. John and waited for them and enjoyed the view around the park.

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After this we negotiated the hub and managed to get into Frontierland for a night time run on BTM – loved it! It is without doubt the best time to ride!

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After this we spent some time in the shop in Frontierland, still looking for the ears Abbey wanted and still didn’t find them, lol.

We picked up some lovely Coco glasses and a couple more of the Ratatoullie glasses we had bought last time. We popped into Lilly's Boutique on the way through Liberty Arcade and Abbey and I both got new thermal cups. Illuminations had started by now. It's the best time to shop, so quiet!

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We left the park before the crowds and enjoyed our stroll through the Village and shops.

Back to the hotel we settled down with some drinks. John and Lewis went off to get some ice from the machine on our floor but ended up going to the bar because the machine wasn't working great.

We'd had a fantastic day and managed to do so much. Both Abbey and Lewis said they wanted to do EMH tomorrow despite it being around 1am before we were settled. Night, night :)
 
The earliest I have taken my seat for Disney Dreams was 1,5 hours in winter to get a front row seat. And yes, that was definitely the better show :P

Where is that picture of Peter Pan taken? I have done that ride so many times, but honestly... I do not remember that sign!
 


The earliest I have taken my seat for Disney Dreams was 1,5 hours in winter to get a front row seat. And yes, that was definitely the better show :P

Where is that picture of Peter Pan taken? I have done that ride so many times, but honestly... I do not remember that sign!

Ha, ha, we'd never seen it before either, that's why we took it. Because we were using Abbey's priority pass, we entered via a small queue at the end of the ride :)
 

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