A rare shot of the castle and Partners statue, with few people
Our ADRs were for 8:15am, so we were able to get into the park early, and it is a bit surreal. There are very few people in the park, mainly people who also have early ADRs. But you can take pictures along the way, and there are plenty of Photopass photographers to take your picture in front of the castle.
A rare shot of the castle and Partners statue, with few people
Cinderella's Royal Table (CRT) has changed a little bit since we went in 2003. Back then, the Fairy Godmother greeted you downstairs, and Cinderella was among the princesses who worked the room upstairs. Now, Cinderella greets you downstairs, with a full Photopass setup where you get the picture package while you are dining (the basic package is included with the price of the meal). Upstairs, we were visited by Aurora, Snow White, Belle and Jasmine (note that the characters may vary on occasion).
Also new is that the children receive "wishing stars" (small light blue translucent plastic stars) and either wands (for the princesses) or swords (for the princes) which they get to keep. At times they will ask them to wave their wands/swords and say some magic words while they make a wish.
The food was decent, but perhaps nothing special. It is a buffet, but it is brought to you. You initially get a plate with a bit of everything, and then you can ask for more. The fruit cups were good. Most of the rest was acceptable, with nothing standing out either way.
This was our second CRT, which we wanted to do special for both daughters and their grandparents. More likely in the future we will be looking at other princess meal options, perhaps the Storybook meals at Akershus in Epcot, or something over at the Grand Floridian.
One odd thing I noticed when we came out, and were waiting for some who had stopped in the (quite nice) restrooms, is that the exit door and stroller parking is right in one of the "smoking zones" where people are allowed to smoke. I think there could be a better location than right where everyone exits and will be loading their young children into their strollers.Look around, you might find some mice at CRT
One thing we did that we had never done before is ride on the Liberty Square Riverboat. Now we can cross it off the list. It was OK, but nothing terribly special. It slowly goes around Tom Sawyer Island, and it takes a while.
We did take the in-laws on the Jungle Cruise for their first time. Our skipper was not quite as funny as last time - sometimes I think they just do it for so long it becomes too routine and the delivery suffers. Last time, the skipper even used the fact that he had 5 more hours to go as part of his routine.
We also got to see the new and improved Haunted Mansion. I was very impressed with some of the new effects - the Escher staircases with footsteps appearing, the floating Madame Leota, and whatever the ghost bride room is called. They did very well with this update without really changing the character of the ride itself.
We stopped at Cosmic Rays for lunch for a bit, did a few more rides, and by mid afternoon we were ready to head out. While we were waiting to regroup with my in-laws we waited upstairs in the train station overlooking Main Street. To our surprise, as the Family Fun Day Parade (a small parade that families can voluntarily take part in and simply march the parade route and then dance around the town square), Snow White invited both daughters to stand with her and Dopey and watch the parade take place.
After that we headed back to our villa.
After a bit of rest we spent some more time at the Downtown Disney Marketplace. Myself and my father-in-law split off and went back to Raglan Road for some beers and some Bread and Butter Pudding, and everyone called it a night.
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