Let the fun begin! - Part 2

We both love this enjoyable little ride, but once we got off we had another place to get to, Belle’s castle.

I had been super lucky and was able to push the reservation we had made weeks in advance one day forward.

I had done the online ordering and it was a super easy process checking in, paying for our food and then off to find a table. The main dining room was pretty full, so we walked over to the well-lit Rose Gallery.

Tom went to fetch some drinks and came back with small cups and soda with no ice. It was not what we had wanted, so I went in search of other options. Turns out the ice machines didn’t work but in the main dining room they were handing out cups filled with ice. So I picked up two of them and our drinks were set. And it did not take long until our food arrived.

We had been to the restaurant before and the food had been really good, especially given that this was a counter service restaurant. So we were really looking forward to a wonderful first lunch at Walt Disney World. We had decided to share a French Onion Soup, which was not the way I remembered it.

The actual soup was watery because there was just not enough onion cooked down and the cheesy crouton on top was so thick and chewy that it was hard to get spoonfuls off of it. It was like chewing gum.

Well, maybe the

Braised Pork (Coq Au Vin Style) - Eight Hour Slow-cooked Pork with Mushrooms, Onions, Carrots and Bacon served with Mashed Potatoes and Green Bean Jardiniere would be a just like we remembered.

Well, it was not.

It was very much like boiled stringy pork in a lukewarm sauce, served with very yummy mash and squeaky green beans. It was a huge portion, way more than the two of us cared to eat. We had also ordered an

Éclair à l’Orange - Custard Filling with zested Orange and finished with Chocolate Ganache. Now, before I go into detail I have to admit that when we go to Disneyland Paris we stay near a little bakery and patisserie which makes the most heavenly Eclairs and every other éclair has to stand up to theirs. So, while this particular éclair had an awesome citrusy taste, the actual pastry was far too thick for my liking.

But it was by far the best item we had had at Be Our Guest.

When we left the skies had gotten dark grey and it looked like it was going to rain soon. We had a Fastpass for the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, but it was down already because of the incoming lightning, so we decided to just head back to our resort.

We made our way to the exit and hotfooted it over to Bay Lake Tower and made it just about in time, with only being hit by a few drops.

Once in our room we had to take a short nap, as the short night was catching up with us.

Around half past two we were ready to go out again.

This time we were ready to do some grocery shopping. So we drove to the Publix near Celebration, did some shopping and exploring of the shop and returned back to the resort at around 5pm. We stowed our groceries in the fridge, chilled for a while and then had a leftovers and salads “dinner” made up of the leftover breakfast sandwiches, salads we had purchased at Publix and some chips.

We spent some time just resting and enjoying the resort before it was time to head out for Extra Magic Hours and the evening’s booked event, the Star Wars: A Galactic Spectacular Dessert Party at Disney's Hollywood Studios. Well, that was one of the reservations I had had to change, thanks to Lufthansa’s flight cancellation.

I actually had it planned on a day where we would stay at the Boardwalk and would not need a car to get there, but now we needed to rely on Disney Transport, as there are alcoholic drinks at the party. So once we had changed into park gear, we headed over to the Contemporary bus-stop to take a bus to the Studios. There were already quite a few people waiting and a few buses came and went and finally there was one that went to the Studios. We were lucky enough to find seats and off we went.

It was getting dark when we arrived and we joined the crowd of people that walked toward bag check and turnstiles. The park was packed.

We were kind of shell-shocked to see so many people, but thought that the crowds might subside once the Extra Magic Hours began. So, we went to the Starwars Launch Bay where check in was supposed to be. They had already put up a check in desk, but weren't allowing guests in just now and we were

told to come back in about half an hour, when they opened to party guests.

We had not made any Fastpasses, so we checked the app and there was nothing before the party, so we just started to walk around and check out the stores. We were back a few minutes before the opening time and they were already letting people in. It was a bit different to what we had experienced before.

There had been high tables and you used to stand while enjoying your food and drink. Now, you were assigned a table and we had tablemates. Not really what we wanted, but there was no way around it. We found our table and were offered our first drinks on the way there.

Since we were there with the early crowd our first thought was to take photos of the buffet and check out what all they had to offer.

Photos done, we picked up plates and returned to our table and the tablemates that had arrived by now.