Hope you're enjoying this series so far, if you want more or less detail on each day, or if you feel like you want to know more about anything in particular, please drop me a comment. If not, make sure you're caught up on day 1 and day 2 and then we're ready to get back to it!
Day 3 was our first full day with Sophie, which meant it was going to be a team pirates, or team Neverland as we like to think of it, kind of day. We got up early and finally managed to make EMT, yay!
We started the day with a stroll up Main street to get some castle photos, and then a visit to the dragon under the castle, this is a fantastic animatronic, one of the largest in Disney imagineering to date, and is so easy to miss! We love going to see it, and it's a great way to get out of the sun too. After visiting the dragon we headed straight for Fantasyland to see what the queue was like for Peter Pan's flight. This is a ride all 3 of us really enjoy, and I know for Sophie it is typically her first ride of every trip. It can get quite busy as the day goes on as it is both popular, and slow loading, so queues can often reach upwards of 50 mins at peak times. Because of this, we find EMT is the best time to ride, or you can grab a fast pass to come back later. As we approached the ride one of the CMs spotted Lilo, she was dressed as Tinkerbell for the day, so we were invited to fast pass the ride, even though we didn't have a pass! This was a lovely gesture and meant we were on the ride really quickly, we're so appreciative of little things like this.
Next, we watched the first pirates and princess show of the day from Main street which meant we would get to see Peter and the rest of team pirates at the dance stop. We already adored this parade, but seeing the way all the characters interacted with Lilo while she was dressed as Tink just made it so much better! We got loads of attention from pretty much all of the characters, and I'm sure this is something she will remember for such a long time. Real Disney magic! We found the best place to wait if you're watching on Main street is the gap between the Emporium and Walt's or opposite that between Main Street Motors and the Market House Deli. This will put you exactly where the main float stops and where the characters are for the majority of the dance break!
After the show, we were in full team Pirate mode, which meant it was time to visit Peter and Wendy. We took a slow stroll through to Adventure land so that we could get into the queue before they arrived. Peter and Wendy currently meet opposite Skull rock, and this makes an awesome back drop for the photos. They are very popular, and the queue for them can be quite long, because of this we always try to get there a little earlier than their meet starts, so that we aren't waiting too long. This had to be one of my favourite ever meets with Peter and Wendy, they were so great and so interactive, and having a very cheeky Tinker fairy with us definitely helped, sorry Wendy! I've written before about my tips for getting the most out of character meets, but honestly, the better you know the film and the characters and the more you let yourself get involved, the more you will get out of your meet and this was no exception. I love our photos so much and they're such a lovely reminder of what a great time we had in Neverland.
Apparently being a pirate is hungry work, so our next stop was lunch. We decided to try Au Chalet de la Marionette, the Pinocchio themed restaurant in Fantasyland, which you can read more about here. We had hotdogs and chips which were really nice and quite fairly priced, we always find the portions to be very generous which means we get by without having to pay out for lots of extra snacks on top throughout the day.
We then took some time to enjoy the Fantasyland attractions and get photos with the special 25th anniversary cup outside the Mad Hatter's teacups, this is something I've been meaning to do for about a year, so I'm glad I finally did it! We rode small world for what felt like the hundredth time and then decided we'd take a relaxing ride on the Disneyland railroad. There was a bit of a wait for a train with space, but the queuing area is under shade, and honestly, it was nice to be out of the sun for a while so we didn't really mind. The railroad goes around the edge of Disneyland Park and has stations in Fantasyland, Discoveryland, Main Street and Frontierland. We got on at the Fantasyland station, which is just beside Alice's curious labyrinth and behind the meet Mickey building. When it was finally our turn to get on, we managed to get seated in the first carriage of the train, which meant we got to see the steam engine up close! I really enjoyed this, but maybe I'm a train nerd, as Lilo didn't seem that bothered! Here we met a lovely CM, Pedro, who took a great photo with Duffy for us! Thanks again!
We planned to get off the train at the Frontierland station and then head over to Adventureland for an Ice cream, however the station was shut due to the construction work going on in that area and I believe a refurbishment of the station too, so in the end we stayed on the train and did a full loop of the park, getting off again at Fantasyland station. I love riding the train and getting to see the park from another perspective, and with the weather being so hot and humid, it was a really nice break!
After the train, we walked over to Adventureland to get a Pineapple whip each. If you haven't had one before they are a soft serve ice cream with Pineapple juice, and are similar to the Dole whip, which is famous in the US parks. We love them and find them very refreshing and a great treat when the parks are shut. They are available from a snack stand in Adventureland, opposite the curious Giraffe shop, and are €5.99 each. Once we got ours we walked down the paths at the back of Adventureland and down the Liberty arcade ready to watch the parade.
We got a good spot for Stars on Parade in town square, right opposite city hall. We really enjoyed the parade, and for me, the highlight was when Wendy spotted us from our meet earlier in the day and stuck her tongue out at Lilo, just like Lilo had done to her earlier in the day. Little touches like this from the CMs make such a difference despite being so simple. After the parade we decided to head back to the hotel, Katie H would be arriving soon to join us for the rest of the week, and we decided to take the opportunity to go swimming at the Sequoia Lodge.
This was the first time I've been swimming while staying in a Disney hotel, and I must say I was really impressed with the facilities! The pool at Sequoia Lodge is a good size, it has both an indoor and outdoor section, though the outdoor part was closed when we were there. The pool has good sized changing areas with lockers that are free to use and showers etc for after. We were given good sized towels to use when we arrived, we were just asked to show our hotel easy pass so that they could mark down how many towels were given out. In the pool area, there were loungers to sit on if you weren't going into the pool or just wanted a break, there was also a large basket full of armbands for smaller, or less confident swimmers. The pool had a slide and there was also a hot tub, for me personally the only downside was that there was no shallow area, the pool was around 4 foot 7 inches deep the whole way around. I'm not sure how long we spent swimming, we didn't feel rushed and the pool wasn't packed, it was really nice to have a break and even better to escape the heat!
By the time we finished swimming, showered and changed it was quite late, so we took a stroll over to the Disney village for dinner. We decided on a mix of McDonalds and Earl of Sandwich, which was perfect as something quick and easy, we did a little bit of shopping in the village before heading back to the hotel for the evening. It was a slower paced day than usual, but with the heat, it was actually really enjoyable to be able to take things a little slower.
So that's all for day 3, I'll be back soon with days 4 and 5 to finish off the trip, but as always if you have any questions about anything we did or mentioned in the post, please drop me a comment!
Hoodsie xx
[…] you’re not up to date, you might have a bit of reading to do, but here’s day 1, day 2, day 3 and day 4. Now that we’ve covered that, it’s time to jump right […]
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