just another morning here

This is the one photo that *I* took this week!

Caveat lector: this post will be unashamedly long and detailed, not to mention updated at random moments when I remember extra stuff.

Generally, we had a fab time, the children loved it, the weather was great, and we’re glad we did it. Photos are on Steve’s photostream, and more detail below for anyone who wants to read it

Monday
Started very early in the Travelodge at Ashford, which we left rapidly. I hate Travelodges, it must have been the worst night’s sleep ever. Anyway. Tunnel crossing was uncomplicated as ever, much as I hate Travelodges (and Little Chefs) I love the Channel Tunnel. We had time for a quick coffee in the terminal and we ate breakfast on the train So we were in France by 9am, and just drove straight to Eurodisney, stopping once for fuel, but that was it. Got there by 12.30pm, found the hotel, and dumped the car with the valet parking person, and the bags with the luggage person. Cool!

First of the long queues was at the hotel reception, but we got there in the end, and got the park passes so went straight in! Kids were wildly excited by this point but I don’t think they really had a clue what to expect! First thing we did was lunch, which was a Mickey Mouse shaped pizza for the kids and a Croque Monsieur for Steve & I, from one of the food places on Main Street.

From there we headed out to Fantasyland at Joe’s request. Bought an autograph book on the way as we spotted a couple of the characters, and Abbie picked up Esmerelda’s autograph in the pink castle. (Disney Princesses have got to be the worst of the dressed up characters as their faces are all wrong, don’t know why they bother, but there we go – queues to have photos taken with them were a mile long so clearly it doesn’t matter!).

Rode on the Dumbo elephant ride, the Mad Hatter’s tea cups, and spent time in the Curious Maze (which I loved, it was excellent – especially the *two* Queen of Hearts that made you think you were lost when you weren’t ). Oh, and went on the ‘It’s a Small World’ boat ride which I have fond memories of from my childhood

Around 3.45pm we decided to head back to the hotel as we could get in to our room by then. So, at 4pm I was still standing in the queue at the hotel reception when suddenly a load of music started and a bunch of Disney characters came down the stairs! We didn’t know it was going to happen, and neither did the kids, obviously, and this remains one of the great moments of the week for me – Joe’s face when he saw them all – just wide-eyed with astonishment and amazement, it was wonderful.

So anyway, yes, while I was checking in/getting keys etc., Steve took the ubiquitous Mickey Mouse photos

Abbie was the one out of our three who loved the characters the most, and would go up to them and hug them if she ever saw them passing. The whole character thing is really weird though, honestly – more on that later …

Found the room, then decided to go exploring the hotel and get a swim in before tea. Pool was great, not too big but not too small either. Even Steve came with us for a swim (and enjoyed it!) which was pretty amazing!

That night we had an early dinner in the hotel restaurant, Inventions, where there were characters wandering around the restaurant too, and the children loved it – think we saw Chip & Dale, Pinnochio, Eeyore, Mickey and Pluto that first night – can’t remember though, one of them will put me right if I’ve got it wrong

Early night for all of us after that – the room was great, too – two double beds and a single sofabed type thing, so the kids played musical beds a bit, fighting over the single one!

Tuesday
Started with buffet breakfast in the hotel, then into the park for 10am.
I think we spent most of the morning in Discoveryland, although I really can’t remember! Somewhere I have a list that I made as we went along, because I knew I wouldn’t be able to remember it when it came to blogging!

Erm, so, yeah – we did some stuff, must have included the Buzz Lightyear ride which was utterly cool, Star Tours which Joe proclaimed to be his favourite of the week, Space Mountain for Anna and Steve. We queued for ages to get tickets for the Lion King show, I was chuffed at one point as a couple of people mistook me for a French person – my French veered between good enough to be mistaken for French and utterly terrible, this week – anyway.

Went over to Adventureland to find the pirate ship which was disappointing as the cafe inside it was closed – but we did the Pirates of the Caribbean ride anyway, and Joe bought a sword with his money, no changes there

Lunch was the crappiest junk food we have ever tasted, the biggest waste of money out there, but there we go – loved this photo of Abbie anyway.

Walked through Frontierland after lunch, and did Phantom Manor which everyone liked although apparently it wasn’t scary enough for Anna. Not a lot else took our fancy in that corner of the park to be honest, Big Thunder Mountain was closed, and the height limit for the Indiana Jones ride was 140cm which meant Anna was too short for it!

Went to the Lion King show afterwards which was okay, after you’ve seen the musical in London this was never going to be quite as good, but hey, we got to sit down for an hour!

After that, because the queue was short, I took Anna on Space Mountain again, and Steve took Abbie and Joe on Autopia, a car driving ride thing – where he took a series of funny photos from inside the car with them but only one of them has made it onto flickr!

Kids were all tired and whingey by this point (yeah, the magic faded ) as it was hot and they’re crap at queueing … so we went back to the hotel for a break before the evening.

We’d booked seats at Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show for dinner that night, it’s a rodeo type show thing where you sit at tables and get to eat wild west food at the same time … great fun. Abbie threw a massive tantrum about not wanting to wear the cowboy hat we’d all been given, and nearly got taken back to the hotel, but pulled it together in the nick of time. Just. Anyway, we really enjoyed it eventually, and got to keep the cowboy hats (just what I always wanted, lol!) and even Abbie wanted to keep hers in the end, perverse child that she is!

Apparently I was rather chuffed about the beer, which kept getting refilled!

Back to the hotel and bed for the kids, Steve and I spun them a yarn about cctv in the room, and then went off to have a late night drink in the hotel bar together – had to eke out some child-free time somehow!

Wednesday
It was a blisteringly hot day … after breakfast we headed out to the Disney Studios Park for the first time.

Did a couple of things including the Rocking Rollercoaster with Anna, and a car stunt show, but the kids faded faster than ever today and by early afternoon we’d had enough – it was really hot and everyone was just tired, I think.

So at Steve’s suggestion we went back to the hotel for a rest and a swim, then later on when the heat and the crowds had died down a bit we went back into the main park (which stayed open a couple of hours later than the Studios park) for a couple of other rides (and a cheesy photo opportunity!).

Think this is one of my favourite photos of the week …

In the evening we went out to Disney Village and ate at the Rainforest Cafe

Back to the hotel for bed – Steve and I went out for a late drink again but even we were exhausted and couldn’t string two words together to talk to one another!

Thursday
Our last whole day, so we were up early to make the most of it. Cue some piccies of the hotel/park that we hadn’t got around to taking any time beforehand!

The kids had forgotten to take their pins out with them the day before so made sure they remembered them today as they wanted to do a bit more trading before going home. They do this pin trading thing where you wear your pins on a lanyard round your neck, and you can trade with anyone else wearing one, or any cast member (staff member) wearing one, too. Big collectors business but obviously we were just doing it for a bit of fun.

Turned out that pin trading was the best thing ever that morning. We’d decided to do the same as yesterday, visit the studios park early, go back to the hotel for a break, and then do a little more in the main park later on … however our plans changed at the first pin trade of the day!

We spotted a cast member wearing pins and approached her to ask to trade. She did a trade with Joe, and then with Abbie, giving her an exclusive ‘cast members only’ Stitch pin. And THEN, she turned to us and said ‘would you like to be our Stars for the Day?’

She was obviously just on her way out to the entrance of the park to find suitable candidates for this thing they do where they give you a special badge giving you reserved seats at shows, meaning you can skip queues and walk right onto rides, discounts in the stores and restaurants, and you get to be actually on the cinema parade through the park! So, er, we couldn’t turn that down, could we?!! So we went along with her and she explained it all, we had a special (free!) souvenir photo taken, and then basically got VIP treatment all day. How chuffed were we?!!!!

We got to go into the park before anyone else that morning, Joe and Anna also traded pins with another cast member who gave them both exclusive pins, and had the chance to take a rare photo of the park opening, after a few photos with Sulley from Monsters Inc! They told us to stand out of the way at that point, apparently the day beforehand Sulley had had to run away as he got mobbed by the crowd when they came through the doors!

It was a great day, not as hot as the two days before, and we just mooched around doing all the bits of the Studios park that we’d not done the day before.

Loved this arty interlude where they showed you how to draw Disney characters, that was great.

After lunch we got to stand in a VIP spot to watch the parade (which Steve doesn’t seem to have taken many photos of, but never mind), and then we sat on the last carriage with Mickey Mouse and were supposed to wave at people but that felt a bit stupid really so we just grinned a lot! Still it was great fun and a huge treat, not your average Disney parade experience!

Got to watch the stunt show again from fabulous seats, and Joe got to sit in the stunt car at the end which he was well chuffed about.

Back to the hotel for a swim again, and then our last evening meal in the hotel restaurant again at the children’s request. And then, again at their request, we stuck them into the hotel babysitting service, Club Minnie, where they coloured pictures and did jigsaws etc for half an hour while we had the last of our late night drinks in the bar

Friday
Got up early, packed our bags, had breakfast, finished packing and walked out of the room leaving the bags to be collected by the luggage people, then went and had a last few hours in the main park.

We started off in Discoveryland where we were the first people on Star Tours, walked straight on to Buzz Lightyear, and then I took Anna for a final ride on Space Mountain. Joe wanted to go to Pizza Planet for lunch but it was closed … so we took him to try and pull the Sword from the Stone instead – something he’d wanted to do all week but it was always busy!

Did a couple of little rides that we’d missed in Fantasyland, the Casey Jr mini-train-rollercoaster, and a fairytale boat ride, both very short queues.

Before those Abbie had contemplated queueing up to get Winnie the Pooh’s autograph and we’d steered her away as the line was really long – but we’d met a lady in the line who said that if she was still there when we came back she’d let Abbie queue with her. Lo and behold, half an hour later this lady was *still* in the line, and only half way through the queue, so Abbie went and joined her and they still waited another half an hour! To meet a dressed up Winnie the Pooh, I ask you! There were *grown adults* waiting in this queue to have their photos taken with him, honestly, it was beyond belief. Anyway, the lady’s husband and daughter turned up as well so I chatted with them for a while, it was nice to have met someone friendly in a queue as usually it had been the opposite!

Anyway, we did a last minute bit of pin trading on the way out, then that was it – retrieved the luggage and car from the hotel, and drove home via the tunnel.

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