Well, this is it, day 5 and the end of another Disney trip, it's worrying how quickly they seem to fly by right? If 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 in.
Our final morning in Sequoia Lodge meant it was time to pack up the last of our bags and make 100% nothing was left behind, once that was out the way it was time to take the short walk through the village and across to the main park. Again because we had our cases we decided to make use of our annual pass benefits and drop off our bags at the concierge desk to the right-hand side of the park entrance, we got there relatively early so there wasn't too much of a wait which meant we could get straight into the park and on to our leaving day surprise.
When I took Lilo for her first trip in 2016, I didn't know when or if she would get to return, holidays with kids are extra expensive, and not everyone can afford Disney, though my sister enjoys Disney films, the parks really aren't her thing and she has no interest in going. I wanted Lilo to get the experience so in 2016 I paid for her to come with me, and because I wanted her to have the full experience, we did most of the more expensive dining options, I didn't want to have any regrets about missing things. Well fast forward 2 years and after a tough 6 months Lilo was back visiting the parks, this time paid for by my sister! Now it's just not practical to do all the dining experiences every time, so we hadn't done any character dining this trip, and as far as Lilo was concerned, that's just how it was.
So the last day of the trip seemed like the perfect time for a little treat, and that meant a second attempt at Plaza Gardens breakfast! We were booked for the second sitting for the two of us and I'm still not the biggest fan of this as a dining experience, but Lilo wanted Pooh characters, so this was the best option to get the characters we wanted. We got there a little early so had to wait outside for a few mins before the sitting opened, once it did the wait was really short and we were seated in no time, which is good news when you have hungry children in tow! We had a small table right near the buffet, this ended up being both a blessing and a curse. It was nice to be seated close enough to the buffet that I could keep an eye on the table and wasn't worried about leaving Lilo at the table while I went up to sort food, and also meant I wasn't constantly worried about missing characters while I was up getting food and drink.
Sadly our table was in a bit of a corner and wasn't the most visible to all the characters, luckily some of the other guests quickly cottoned on to what was happening and made sure none of the characters missed our table! In particular, one Scottish family were very helpful in redirecting characters who hadn't seen us, so thank you so much to you guys! The characters start to arrive maybe 10 mins into the sitting, which gives everyone a chance to get some food and get sat down, we ended up having 5 out of the usual 6 characters, with just Scrooge McDuck missing. I won't go into too much detail here, but I have written a full review for you to check out from when it first opened!
Once we had breakfast out the way it was time to make the most of our last day in the parks, for us that simply meant meet as many characters as we could, whilst getting in a few rides too! We headed over to Adventureland where we had a lovely meet with Mr Smee and then joined back up with Katie P, Katie H and Sophie. Next we met Genie and Aladdin who were both a lot of fun, Aladdin is Katie H's favourite film, so I'm really glad we got to do those meets with her and it was actually my first time meeting Prince Ali. Thinking back, I forgot to get his autograph which is going to really annoy me, there's always next time though!
We met Woody in Frontierland and had lunch in cowboy cookout, this is a really nice quick service restaurant and the portions are always really generous, which is great if you want a filling meal while on a budget. We managed to fit in a few last day rides, including Star Tours which we finally got in English! We also found a whole bunch of Disney friends hanging out at the back of Space Mountain which was a lovely surprise, we met Rafiki and Suzy and Perla, but the Tweedles, King Louie and Balloo and a few other friends were also there!
We managed to do a bit of last day shopping, as I've ended up taking a few short trips all close together, I will probably end up doing one big collective haul post of everything combined, but here's an idea of what Lilo picked for herself over the 5 days, can anyone else spot an emerging theme!
Our last day ended up being quite a short one, but we did have time to watch the Princess promenade before having to leave, this has Elena of Avalor and Sofia the first dancing around the hub on central plaza. It was a cute adition to the festival, and it was nice to see some of the other princesses who aren't normally around included, but for me it was nothing more than that, it was cute and a bit short, I enjoyed watching it, but wouldn't have gone out of my way to wait ages to get a space for it or anything.
So with that it was time to collect our stuff and get on the direct Eurostar back to London. We had such a lovely trip and I'm so glad we got to spend parts of it with so many of our Disney friends! Pirates and Princesses was a lovely season, full of so much colour, happiness and enthusiasm, and I'm so glad I got to experience it first hand! I'd love to see the festival return for 2019, but would perhaps like to see the entertainment extended or at least some meet and greets with characters like Jake, Sofia and Elena.
Thank you so much for following this trip series, I hope you've enjoyed sharing our adventure, if there's anything I haven't covered that you want to know more about please feel free to comment and I'll get back to you!
Hoodsie xx
Looks like you had a blast. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks! It really was a great trip!
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