3 Days in Disney Paris - Day 2

Day two in the Disney Paris parks and we once again decided to take advantage of extra magic hours.  This time we didn't have a particular plan on which attraction we wanted to ride, unlike day one where we knew we wanted to ride Peter Pan's flight.  We had a few ideas about the rides that were extremely popular, but we figured we could just wing it.  Our lack of plan turned out to be a bad idea.

Our second day of extra magic hours started out great, in fact one of the highlights of the trip happened on in the first few minutes of our second day.  We started our day venturing up Main Street USA in Disneyland.  Our plan was to head towards Fantasy Land and figure out where we wanted to go from there.  On our way up Main Street we noticed something going on in a tucked away corner, there were a few people that appeared to be hanging out.  We stopped for a second to see what they were up to, and as it turns out they were there to see Goofy.  There was almost no line at all, and within minutes we were hanging out with our favorite character.

After hanging out with Goofy our morning slowed down considerably.  We had a reservation to have breakfast in Fantasy Land.  We were pretty excited about this since our hotel breakfasts were OK but nothing spectacular. We figured a breakfast in the park must be awesome, but we couldn't have been more wrong.  There was nothing additional to our breakfast in Fantasy Land, No characters to greet us, no fun new foods to try, nothing new at all.  In fact the breakfast selection was actually less than what the hotel provided.  The only thing this breakfast provided was incentive to get out of bed early, but after eating there that morning, the incentive was gone.

We had grand plans of checking out all of the lands and all of the hard to get on rides during our Extra Magic Hours, but unfortunately the only land that was open was Fantasy Land, and many of the rides in Fantasy Land were closed.  So other than a few dark rides everything stayed closed during the Extra Magic hours, a complete waste of time. We decided to take this time to just wander around around and explore what we could.  As soon as the gates to the closed areas opened we were off to enjoy our day of adventure.

We did all of the classic rides including Pirates of the Caribbean, It's a Small World, and Alice's Curious Labyrinth.  We also spent a great deal of time exploring Adventure Island where we found all kinds of fun bridges and caves to explore.  Allison rode on the Indiana Jones roller coaster, and was fairly disappointed.

Our lunch was both extremely disappointing and wonderful all at the same time.  We went to Casey's Corner where they sell giant hot dogs with insane toppings.  The quality of these hot dogs was kind of questionable, but the craziness and quantity of toppings was superb.  We went with a foot long hot dog covered in cheese and crunchy onions.  It was wonderfully insane.

We enjoyed a few more attractions during the afternoon, and then we headed to the Disney village for a meal at what would turn out to be the culinary highlight of our trip.  This time it was an all you can eat Tex-Mex buffet at La Grange at Billy Bob's.  I'm sure many people wouldn't be impressed by simple Tex-Mex, but since Allison and I haven't been living in a western country for a while, it was just what we needed.  The food was nice and fresh, the variety was insane, and best of all they have a section for adults.  It was a little crazy in the rest of the restaurant, but in the adult section it was a little nicer.  After filling our stomachs, we headed back to Disneyland to enjoy a bit of the nightlife.

The evening in the park was probably our favorite time.  We spent most of the evening exploring Frontierland.  When we first arrived it looked as though many of the attractions were closed due to lack of people around, but we couldn't be more wrong.  We started out with a ride on Thunder Mountain, which we had to wait for a little while, but it was great themeing all throughout the lineup.  After Thunder Mountain we wandered towards the Haunted Manor.

This was the part of Frontierland we thought was completely closed because no one was in sight at all.  There was no one in line for the Haunted Manor, so we were convinced it was closed.  We decided that we would check out the area around the Haunted Manor to check out the graveyards and creepy grounds surrounding the mansion. The grounds around the Haunted Manor were completely empty, and this added such a creepy feel.  It was dark and scary, and I had many a shiver down my spine.  As we walked back up towards the exit of the graveyard we noticed a few cast members hanging out around the entrance to the Haunted Manor.  We asked them if it was in fact open, and they said yes.  We made our way up the path to the attraction completely on our own.  Eventually a few other people showed up, but there was no more than 10 people on the ride the same time as us.  It was magical.

After our creepy adventure we decided that this would be the end of our day, and while watching the fireworks over the castle we headed back to the hotel.

A Few Restaurants We Want To Try

Cape May Café - The one and only reason we're going to the cape may cafe is to experience a character breakfast.  I've read that this is the least busy character breakfast featuring Goofy.

Spirit of Aloha and Hoop-dee-doo Revue - Every single tour book says that the two shows you can't miss are the Hoop-dee-doo musical review and the Spirit of Aloha shows.  Both are said to have cheesy, yet fun, shows, and both are said to have some fine chow.

Biergarten - Over the last 10 years I've discovered that German food is one of my favourite cuisines.  Most people don't realize how tasty German food is, and I'm hoping that the Biergarten will give me some tasty nibbles.

House of Blues Gospel Brunch - Many of the big restaurants at Downtown Disney get a lot of slack for being disappointing.  The Earl of Sandwich and Raglan Road are two places that do fairly well, but I've been reading that a gospel brunch at the House of Blues is a must see event.

Flame Tree - I can't tell you how many times I've read that the best BBQ in Disney is found at the Flame Tree restaurant.  Since Allison is a BBQ fanatic, we pretty much can't avoid eating here.  I've also heard that Animal Kingdom doesn't have too many other tasty food options, so we may have to eat there more than once.

Boma - I can't say I've ever really experienced that much African food.  I've sampled a few things, but Boma looks like a great opportunity to sample even more.  I also think that they have a buffet, which will give me plenty of opportunity to sample new things that I may not have had the nerve to order.

Sweet Treats I Want To Try

There are several specific treats I want to sample on this epic Disney trip.  As you might imagine, if you're familiar with my other website candycritic.org, many of the must have foods I want to try are sweet. There are a few savoury snacks I'd like to sample as well, but I'll talk about those later on.

The first treat I want to try is the legendary Dole Whip.  Having said that I'm not even really sure what a Dole Whip is.  All I know about the Dole Whip is it's some kind of pineapple based ice cream dessert/drink.  If you research the Dole Whip online, you'll quickly realise that many people are obsessed with them.  In fact you may have a hard time finding any negative reviews for them at all.

The next treat worth mentioning is something called Skool Bread.  Similar to the Dole Whip it's very popular amongst Disney fans, and also similarly I have no idea what it really is.  I know that it's a popular Danish dessert, but that's obvious because the only place it's available is at the Danish pavilion at EPCOT.  It seems to be some kind of cream filled pastry, and that can't be bad.

Mickey Mouse ice cream sandwiches are another treat I don't want to miss.  Other than the shape there doesn't seem to be anything special about these, but I give high marks for treat themes.

Other than these specific treats there are a few general treat categories I plan to explore.  I hear that Disney makes some pretty tasty cupcakes all over the parks, so I'm sure I'll sample at least one of those.  I'm also interested in trying a few of the many ice cream snacks available, in particular I'd be interested in the Kitchen Sink sundae.

I think I have little to worry about when it comes to finding sweet treats at Disney World; I do have to worry about how I'm going to manage to sample them all.

The Trip Plans Update

Since we started this blog, we've been constantly changing our minds as to which hotel we want to stay at.  Every time we do a little research we figure there's someplace better and we change our minds.  Over the last few months we've been constantly changing from Port Orleans French Quarter to the Disney Yacht and Beach Club.  At this point right now we're leaning heavily towards the Yacht and Beach Club.  The primary reason for this choice is location, it's close to two parks, plenty of restaurants (including the Disney Boardwalk), and it has an awesome pool too.  We're approaching day 500, when we can make our first reservation, and it looks like the Yacht and Beach Club is going to be our pick.

We've also made a small change in our travel plans.  Originally we had planned to make a fairly long stop in Washington DC to check out all of the cool monuments and stuff, but I think we're going to skip that.  If we want to visit both Philadelphia and Washington it's going to make our day very rushed.  So we decided that we don't really have time to visit both... sort of.  We can either visit Washington and skip Philadelphia all together, or visit Philly with only a quick (dinner) stop in Washington.  We've decided to spend the time in Philadelphia with only a quick dinner in Washington.  The choice is for two reasons, first of all there is so much to see in Washington that it makes more sense to make that a trip on it's own at a later date.  Secondly we really don't want to miss the Liberty Bell because of its close association with Disney World.  We will be stopping in Washington, but only for a quick dinner with friends who live there.

Other than that our plans are still pretty much good to go.  Many of our travel plans are still pretty tentative, and may remains so until we leave.  I can tell you that we are looking for a good BBQ place either on the way there or back, but other than that it's fairly open.

Animal Kingdom - Allison's View

OK, so, let me get this straight.  This is a Disney theme park, and it has real animals too?  This is waaay too good to be true!  Chris is the biggest zoo nerd I know (he's the most fun animal enyclopaedia you'll ever encounter) - add that to how much we both love Disney parks, plus Disney's ability to do things right, and this just might add up to the best Disney day ever.

We are definitely going to take one of the special tours here. I was torn between the "Sunrise Safari" and "Wild Africa Trek".  Early morning is the best time to see animals in action, but the behind-the-scenes look you get on the "Trek" seems really cool.  I mean, who wouldn't want to cross a rope bridge over a wild animal enclosure!  I know I'm totally game for that!  However, Disney has made the decision for us, since the Sunrise Safari is only available to Kilimanjaro Club Level guests.  We're having a hard enough time hemming and hawing over Port Orleans vs. Yacht Club - we don't need that in the mix!

And then, if I may turn to one of my favourite subjects - meat.  I have seen pictures of the pulled pork and the BBQed chicken and ribs at Flame Tree, and I'm wondering just how much I can eat, since I totally want to try all three!  Ever since my sister lived in Alabama, I have been addicted to southern BBQ.  My mouth is watering already... Chris can have his Zebra Cupcake at Kusafiri Bakery; I'll be at Flame Tree gnawing on a rib!