More magic

Today was a pretty light day yet somehow we still walked over 11 miles. We started off with early entry, this time to the Disney Studios park. This park is tiny. Like really tiny. I know they are doing some additions to it right now (which is why Rock n Rollercoaster is down 🙁) but there are really just a few things we wanted to do here and extra magic hours is our opportunity to do those with no wait. Plus it gave us a chance to see DLP’s version of the Partners statue, since it lives in the studios as opposed to Disneyland/Magic Kingdom in the states.

The first stop was an entirely new-to-us ride, Ratatouille. This is currently being added to EPCOT’s France pavilion at Disney World but it’s not open yet. The interesting thing about this ride is that it’s trackless. This means your ratmobile can scurry and scram with a really natural feel. What I didn’t love was the big 3D screens. Those really ignite my motion sickness but I did ok by closing my eyes a few times. All in all, it was a pretty cute ride.

Up next was the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. It was interesting to ride this when it’s partially in French. The little girl who pops up and speaks to you spoke in French a lot so you were left wondering if it was over or continuing. It was fun!

We were now done at the studios. Yep, that’s it for us. They have a Toy Story Land but it’s kid carnival rides repurposed for the land. Crushes Coaster looks fun and unique but it also looks like it might be high on the puke-factor, since it’s a coaster where the shell you ride in also spins. So we passed out of self-preservation. Other than that just a few shows, one of which we will come back and see later, but it didn’t play for hours so we headed back to Disneyland.

It was still extra magic hours so we walked right on Hyperspace Mountain, this time getting the front seats. It’s quite a different ride from up there!

I had reached my quota of thrilling rides for a while so opted for something much tamer - Le Carrousel de Lancelot (The Lancelot Carousel). Brian is still not a fan of spinning rides so sat this out.

Even though it was closed for refurbishment, I had to walk over and take pictures of DLP’s tea cups ride. It has the most beautiful pavilion! 

We wanted to walk over to Skull Island and check out what was over there, but it was a lot of random passages with nothing much to see. Plus it was really wet and slippery! 

We ended up exiting by the gorgeous entry way to Adventureland. This is probably the most exquisite entryway from the hub that I’ve seen. So pretty!

We had lunch next at Plaza Gardens. It was a buffet and we had some good food there. My favorite part, of course, was the desserts. You can see what we chose in the picture. The Minnie was a raspberry filled shortcake shell with a chocolate minnie, the long one was a blueberry filled shortcake with white chocolate on top, Brian had the chocolate cake which had a rich chocolate filling and a chocolate Mickey piece and last was the macaron. I love French macarons and this one was mint flavored, so a little weird flavor for me but it was chewy and delicious.

After lunch we did some shopping as we had several souvenirs still to buy for friends and family. Then we headed back over to the studios to see the show there -Mickey and the Magician. It was fabulous! Such great singing and dancing and a fun storyline. It did make me aware of how challenging it must be for those who come to US parks and who don’t speak English. Mickey only speaks French so it was challenging to figure out the concept. Despite that, it was great. A fun show unlike anything I’ve seen in the states and, as a bonus, we got a little taste of home with puppets from our hometown puppeteer, Michael Curry.

Now it was time to head back for a midday rest. We had walked over 24 miles the last two days (and who knows how many more the last few weeks - I will have a total at the end) and our feet were tired! Brian went to the hot tub again and I took a nice hot shower. It was great to relax a bit.

For dinner we visited the Earl of Sandwich once more so I could get a last Hawaiian BBQ sandwich fix. Then we headed into the parks. We were looking for a specific size in a shirt and spent time looking with no luck. But along the way we found a great spot for the fireworks. It was right up at the rope so no one would stand in front of us. It was to the right side of the hub so not a straight on view but just perfect for us. Then we just enjoyed the fireworks together, our traditional way to end a Disney trip. 

We are ready to move on, as tomorrow we take the train to London and enjoy a last few days in Europe together.