PIGLET!!
Ellie wants to go on a water ride so we troop off, probably via a restroom, to check out the line for Splash Mountain. It says a 30 minute wait so we’re going to get Fast Passes but Ellie wants to ride now and it’s her birthday and all. Nanny Lesley said she didn’t mind waiting with Steven (still sleeping) and Harry (too short to ride) so we find her a nice shady spot to wait and join the line. It was every one of those 30 minutes before we got on board our log, but we ended up in a log of our own and floated merrily on our way. Lisa saw fit to scream hysterically everytime there was even a hint of a drop, which was quite amusing. Eventually though, we hit the big drop and fly down into the briar patch. As we are the only ones on our log and are all in the front half, the log is front heavy, which makes for more water on us. Oh well, Ellie is happy, and it’s a nice sunny day. We do a lightening check on our photo – all you can see of Ellie is her hands in the air, the rest of her has ducked down in the seat – and we dash back to relieve Nanny Lesley of baby-sitting duties.
Big Thunder Mountain has to wait for another day as it’s only fair now that we do some things that we can all do together so that Nanny Lesley doesn’t get left holding the babies too much. She was quite happy to do this but we spaced the big rides out between stuff that we could all do so she wasn’t left sitting around for too long. We head back into Fantasyland. It is absolutely packed. Dumbo has a 30-minute wait so we pass on that one. There’s only a short line for the carousel so Ellie, Harry, Lisa, and Nanny Lesley have a quick spin on that one – “not gairy” – while the rest of us watch from a shady bench.
Time was getting on but we had time for another ride and at least one more restroom stop before dinner so we chose Snow White. I explained about the witch but everyone was happy to ride. Just a few minutes wait before we were loaded into two cars and off we went. A few minutes later we all emerge safely at the other end and Harry rated the ride, “not too gairy.”
We needed to check our photos out before dinner so we exited Fantasyland and headed down the side of the castle, past Cinderella’s well or fountain, I forget which, and on to Main St. Then I spot them. Balloons! Whole bundles of balloons. Mickey and Minnie balloons. I must, I mean Steven must have one. Of course that means Ellie and Harry must have them too. Nanny Lesley decides to treat the grand-children and 3 balloons tied to various parts of buggies later we are heading into the photo looking-at location.
The line is quite confusing in this area, in fact I would rate it, “a bit gairy,” :shocked025: and we needed the help of a couple of CMs before we got to a viewing station. I had the tickets for the groups shots that we had done in front of the castle at the beginning of the day that I forgot to mention previously. We found the best one, even though the sun is shining straight into our eyes, and we get 3 copies so each household gets one to take home. Big Steve and Lisa buy the photo of the whole family with Mickey Mouse. While we were waiting for the photos to be printed Steven set about charming one of the female CMs in there; this turned out to be something he would do on a frequent basis wherever we went.
Next stop – well restroom of course. :rolleyes008: Then I check us all in at The Crystal Palace. Our PS is for 5.30pm and we check-in around 10 minutes before that and take a seat on the benches outside. Ellie starts getting excited as we spot Pooh and Tigger patrolling the tables inside. No sign of the elusive Piglet though. I reassure Ellie that if Piglet doesn’t turn up for dinner tonight there will be other places that we can find him. We have a bit of a wait as the place is heaving and are called in at about 5.50pm. As we walk in and turn right I spot a giant pink thing in the middle of the restaurant. Everyone screams simultaneously, “PIGLET!” and I thought Ellie would explode with excitement. We are seated on the right side of the restaurant at two adjoining tables which works out just great for us as we effectively get twice the character time of what having one big table would have.
Huh? All the characters have disappeared. We know they’re here somewhere, we’ve seen Pooh, Tigger Piglet, and Eeyore. Never mind, they’ll be back. In the meantime let’s check out the buffet. I went and got Steven some bits of cucumber and bread to keep him occupied while Adrian and myself ate something. The buffet was pretty good as they go. You’re never going to get gourmet cuisine at a buffet but we certainly found plenty here to make us happy. A special shout goes to the garlic mashed potato. Steven enjoyed the garlic mash too. Then I thought I’d try him on some mac and cheese and a piece of pizza. The pizza was ok to play with; he wasn’t too impressed with the stretchy cheese though. However, he ate a ton of mac and cheese and really enjoyed it. I would pay the price the next day for allowing this stuff to enter his digestive system but we were blissfully unaware of the fallout to come at that time.
