Celebrating my 30th Disney style Day 3

shellbatross
Apr 1, 2019
7 min read

And then there were 7...

After our long day yesterday I really wanted an early start to make the most of Extra Magic Hours. DH and I got up and showered and were waiting for Luke to get up then he told us to go to breakfast without him (turns out he thought he’d told us to go ahead without him a long time before haha)

We headed down and had some croissants and coffee and this was the day we decided to borrow some mugs from the breakfast hall for coffee in the room. (don’t worry we did leave them in the room when we left)

Once we had eaten we headed back to the room and as soon as Luke was ready we headed on in. I am working from memory here but I am pretty sure we were there around 08:30 and it was lovely and quiet!

We hadn’t been to Discoveryland yet so that is where we headed and walked straight onto Buzz…

Look at those tired concentrating faces!

We then walked straight onto Start tours.

Once that was done we had an important meeting to make as we had agreed to meet our friends outside Disney Studios at 09:45.

Before we left the park we grab a snack (I know I know DH and I had already had breakfast but we couldn’t resist when Luke was buying his!) The boys had some kind of nutty pain au chocolat and a coffee and I had a Nutella Brioche and coffee. The boys enjoyed theirs but I was a little underwhelmed by the Brioche as it was very dry!

We entered Studios at opening and whilst the others stopped for a restroom break I joined the rat race and hot footed it over to Ratatouille.

Being a good Disney fan I had done my research and knew this was a popular ride and FPs go quickly! I was in the queue about 09:50 and getting the passes around 10:15 and I think our return time was around 11:30 so only an hour to kill

We headed around to RC racer which I always really enjoy then we went to try Rock ‘n’ Rollercoaster but it was either closed or down so we headed around to ToT (Tower of Terror) which had a 25 min wait.

This is where we had one of our best interactions with a CM (cast member) – Pierre on ToT noticed mine and Carls Castaway Cay lanyards and started chatting to us a lot about Disney and cruising, he subsequently followed us right through from front of house to elevator to chat to us and it was really lovely.

DH looks bored but I promise this and Splash Mountain are his 2 most favourite rides!!

Once we were off ToT and sorted out our photo we headed back to Ratatouille. Unfortunately as we got there it went down but we were assured our FPs would be good all day. With that it was almost getting to our midday meeting time with mum and dad (they decided to have a leisurely start and lie in after yesterday) We were supposed to be meeting at ToT but we decided we fancied a lunch time beer so I gave them a call, they were still in the village so we went out to meet them.

We had a look around a couple of the shops

What do you think?

Then we headed over to a spot that was popular with us – the sports bar for some drinks it was so hot and sunny we couldn’t help but chill out here for a while and had a couple drinks. Next time you go definitely try a Grimbergen (if you like beer) it is a very nice Belgian in both the Blonde and Blanche.

This is a good time to introduce to FriendG (from here on will be referred to as G) with Carl. And FriendS (from here on will be referred to as S) with me

After our chill out lunch period we headed back into Studios

Where we all went on ToT

And everyone apart from Dad went on Rock n Rollercoaster

We then split again as we had our Rataouille FPs so we arranged to meet at 6pm mum and dad went to do the backlot tour and we headed onto Rataouille.

The verdict – it was good and it is GREAT for kids but there is no way it is worth the 2 hour wait a lot of people are queuing for. I would do it again but never wait longer than 45mins max. This is just my opinion though.

We then went to do the Backlot tour and it broke down – running theme! With that we decided it was time to head over to Disneyland for what is probably (STILL 4 years later) the best night I have ever had at Disney!

Once we arrived in Disneyland we decided to go on the railroad.

Mum and Dad just missed our train so we arranged to meet later and off we went. IMHO (and it’s only my opinion) This is a ride where DLP let’s itself down. The Railroad in Florida (and to my recollection CA but it’s been a while) has much more to see whilst you are onboard. It goes through different areas and pretty landscape. A lot of the railroad in DLP was just going through empty land and passed empty buildings or what appears to be cast member areas as there are a lot standing around talking. It takes away from the magic of the park. One positive is you can see how much space they have for different rides and expansion. Again, just my opinion though. I am sure there are plenty of people who enjoy it just to be on the train.

After this we were all starting to get a little tired so decided to grab a coffee just off main street to perk up before our dinner reservation which is where mum and dad found us.

Tonights dinner was at the Silver Spur Steakhouse. Our reservation was for 19:30 but I always like to arrive a little early so we got there at 19:15 and it was packed! We were seated at 19:40 and it took a very long time for our server to come to us to take our drinks orders. We suspect that one of the servers had called in sick or something as he seemed to be covering a Lot of tables (more than the other servers) so it was all off to a very slow start and we were a little disappointed but let me tell you once it started to get a little quieter Arthur did a fantastic job of winning us all around and the food was sublime!

We all ordered off the Sherriff (€29.99 for 3 courses) or Cowboy Menu (€35.99 for 3 courses) this just made sense as some of the mains alone were over €30.00. For some reason I don’t have a picture of the Cowboy Menu (will have to trust my memory) but here is one of the childrens menu for anyone interested

So onto the food I have pictures of –

Starters

Beef Carpaccio from the Cowboy Menu

This was melt in the mouth amazing! I kind of want to go back to DLP just to eat this meal again.

Goats Cheese Tart from the Cowboy Menu

S enjoyed this very much

Sweetcorn Soup from the Sherriff menu

Carl really loved this, I have to find a recipe to make it at home, and my dad enjoyed it too.

The only starters I didn’t pictures of were my Brothers Caesar and my mums Prawn Cocktail as they looked like you would expect. They both really enjoyed them!

For main we nearly all had steak this pic is mine from the Cowboy menu

It’s not a cut I think I have had before and it was just delicious, cooked to absolute perfection! We all found our meals delicious!

The only one who didn’t have steak was mum who had Salmon (sorry no pic) and she really really enjoyed it!

Now desserts Chocolate Sundae/cheesecake/crème flambee

We also decided to order 3 bottles of wine to share at €24.99 a bottle. I can’t remember the exact total as some had more drinks but for DH and I for 2 3 course meals and a bottle of wine it came to €90.97 we paid €100 as Arthur worked hard and deserved a tip and the food was amazing. These are Disney prices but £75 for 2 meals that were that good was worth it in our opinion – we were all very very happy.

Completely full and content we left the restaurant and headed out into the night air.

As there was no queue for Phantom Manor we went straight on. We then thought we’d try BTMRR. They were just closing the line as we got there and they let us on (dad sat this out)

It was Magical – it’s the only word I can use. It was the same time Dreams was on and every time we came around to face the castle fireworks went off! You have to try and ride at this time.

As we pulled back into the station they asked if we wanted to ride again!!

Just look how happy we are! The fireworks were still going off and it was so wonderful.

We got back around to the station and got off then they asked if we wanted one more…

Excuse silly faces, we were having so much fun!! We got off and Dreams was still going on so we made a swift move toward the exit via the Arcades before the masses were headed that way.