Day 3 was our main studios day, which meant we had a bit of a sleep in at the hotel, which was certainly welcome after staying up for dreams the night before! As we had already done a few bits in the studios, we decided to pop over to the main Disneyland park first to try and tick a few more meet and greets off our list. This meant getting to the entrance of Frontier land (or what's currently left of it!) in time for rope drop! Now for anyone who's thinking of doing Frontier land as an early morning stop on their trip, I would highly reccomend getting there for rope drop, as if you're lucky you make get to meet a very special cast member. Manuel is a cast memeber who works on the Phantom Manor ride in Frontier Land, he is known for being incredibly passionate about his job, and the place he works and in particular has a passion to see a smoke free Disneyland Park! His morning routine includes a reading of the rules from the programme and some hilarious observations, its deffinately an experience you won't get at the rope drops for the other lands!
Once we got into Frontier Land our first stop was the Tiana and friends meet, Sprog is a big Frog Princess fan, and the meet opens at 10:15 and is very close to the rope drop location so it was easy to get a good spot at the front of the queue to minimise wait time. Tiana came out shortly after we joined the queue, and luckily was joined by her frog prince, Naveen. They were both really good with sprog and their costumes were incredible. The meet is currently located in the queue system for the Thunder Mesa River Boat landing, which is a great way to use it while the lake has been drained for the refurbishment of the Big Thunder Mountain ride, it is under cover which means queueing in the rain isnt an issue, and i really like the backdrop at the meet location. When Tiana and Naveen arrived they were also accompanied by a PhotoPass photographer, which means we got some really good quality pictures.
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After our meet and greet we headed over to the studios park, where our first stop was toon town to meet Buzz Lightyear, now Pixar is my preffered Disney genre, and toy story is one of my favourite film series, so meeting Buzz was probably more for me than for sprog! For the occasion i had worn my Buzz Lightyear hoodie, and of course, duffy wanted to get in on the action too and was dressed as Buzz. The interaction I got from this was amazing, and that was from the Cast members and Buzz! This was one of the longer queues for meet and greets over the week but we were very luckily with our timing as a few people joined the queue after us and then it was closed for the day. Again there was a PhotoPass photographer with Buzz, so we were able to get some great pictures.
After Buzz we took a trip to Toy Story Playland, one of my favourite themed area across the two parks, I love the bright colours, and the imagination thats gone into the design of the land to make you feel as if you have been shrunk down to the size of a toy. Our first ride was Sarge's army drop which gives you some great views across the studios park, after that we rode slinky dog's zig zag spin, which I'm sure was one of Sprog's favourite rides of the week, the queue for it is always quite short and the queue system is designed fantastically so it was one I was happy to ride multiple times in one trip.
After Toy Story play land there was just enough time to ride Ratatouille again before our lunch reservation, we also noticed there were still some fast pass tickets left despite it being nearly 1 in the afternoon so decided to get a ticket each for later in the day. I am a huge fan of the Ratatouille ride, i love the idea, love the technology, and best of all I love the little rat cars that take you round the ride, the only thing im not so keen on is the queue times, so try to ride single rider whenever possible.
After riding Ratatouille it was time for our lunch reservation, this was one of the restaurants I was most excited to visit as I had wanted to eat there on a previous trip but couldnt due to finances. Our reservation was at Bistrot Chez Remy which is next to the Ratatouille ride, in a similar way to the style of Toy Story Play land, the restaurant is designed to make you feel the size of a Rat, and the theming does not dissapoint. It is a table service restaurant with a set menu, there 2 different tiers of meal to chose from, and within each is 3/4 main meal options, and the choice of 2 or 3 courses. For annual pass holders, you also get a free non alcoholic coctail with your order. The service was great and the food was delicious, sprog had the pasta with tomato sauce and I had the Cod with mash and Ratatouille.
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After Lunch we headed back to Toon town to see who was at the meet and greet locations, and in the toy story meet it was Woody! It was raining at this point so the queue was quite short and as I was wearing my woody dress under my Buzz hoodie, I wasnt missing this opportunity, there was no PhotoPass photographer with Woody, im not sure if this was in part due to the rain, but the Cast member with woody was more than happy to take some pics for us, and woody loved my dress so another successful meet.
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After meeting woody it was time to get back round to Ratatouille to use our fast passes, and this was a great way to get out of the rain for a while, after ratatouille we rode flying carpets over agrabah and then headed over to Stich live! which is one of my favourite expereinces in the Studios park as it is so unique, I was really hoping stitch would pick me out to talk to but unfortunatley not this time, after Stitch live sprog decided she liked stitch and his alien friends so much she wanted a plush Angel to take home, so we popped into the tower of terror store to grab one.
There wasn't much else we wanted to check out in the studios that day so we headed back over to the main Disneyland Park and took a ride on the Disneyland Railroad. unfortunately due to the extensive refurbishment programme, FantasyLand was the only station open during our stay, so the only option was to do a full lap of the Park, which wasn't an issue, but meant you couldnt use it to get from one side of the park to the other quickly, which is a great benefit when all 4 stations are open.
Then it was time to see Magic on Parade again, before heading over to the castle stage to watch the welcome to spring show which features Mary Poppins, as this was my first time visiting the Park during the "Swing into Spring" season since it was introduced in 2014 i had not seen this show before, however Mary Poppins is probably my favourite live action Disney film, so this was something I had wanted to see for a while, and it did not dissapoint, the music was great and so was the dancing, the show had so much energy and was a great use of the castle stage which all too often gets left out.
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After the shows there was time for a few last rides and dinner in the Lucky Nugget Saloon which is based in Frontier Land before heading back to the hotel for an early night. The Lucky Nugget saloon is a cross between a counter service and a table service restaurant. The food is fast food style burger and chips type meals, you place your order on entry and then you are shown to a table and your food is brought to you, this is nice as it makes it feel less hectic and you know you're going to have somewhere to sit and eat your meal. Since my trip a new set of puppet shows has been added to the restaurant and these are on during the day time on the stage in the seating area which I think is a great addition that I will certainly go back to see on my next trip.
Thats all from Day 3, check back shortly for day 4's report, and as always, if you have any questions or comments please leave them below!
Sounds like a great day! I always love having lunch at Ratatouille, the food is amazing! :)
ReplyDeleteIf you want to read about my May trip to Disneyland, here's the link https://realwonderlandblog.wordpress.com/
xoxo Larissa