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.