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[gemma2806]

We got up and headed to the second seating for breakfast at Cafe Mickey which was at half nine. I was quite nervous given the previous nights experience at Cafe Mickey but I needn't have been.

We got there slightly early and were seated quickly downstairs. The breakfast was wonderful and was the same as at the hotel except with the added extras of sausage, bacon, eggs etc as well as a larger selection of pastries. The characters were there straight away and we saw Mickey, Chip and Dale, Goofy, Pluto and much to my delight, Eeyore! I have waited forever to have my photo taken with Eeyore and today it finally happened!! We stayed till the very end of breakfast as the plan was to catch the free shuttle from the bus station to Val d'Europe and the Sealife centre.

We headed out to the bus stop and waited an hour along with other families before I started getting impatient and asked another bus driver what the problem was. They said there was none that they were aware of and that I should check the timetable on the bus stop which I duly did and promptly discovered the problem. The shuttles run a Sunday service and with it being a Sunday this is what it was running to. I spoke to the other families,  who happened to be English so I had no problems trying to translate! , and it turned out we were all staying at the same hotel and all of us had been misinformed by the concierge desk that the buses ran every day at roughly 20 min intervals. There was another bus in 40 mins but I didn't want to waste anymore time and we only wanted to be gone for the morning and the return bus wasn't until after 3pm. We therefore decided to give up on this idea and leave it till the following weekend (fortunately we had the luxury of time and so could put this off till then whereas other families weren't staying as long as us so it would have impacted on their time).

We then had to decide what to do as the plan was to stay away from the busy parks. I decided that it was the perfect time to go and check out World of Disney and soothe my annoyance with a spot of retail therapy!! This store was amazing and so pretty inside. One thing I noticed though was outside the Mickey and Minnie statues were originally surrounded by a small floral/ shrub display but as people kept climbing on them and trampling the flowers DLP put up fencing to try and keep people off, this was still ignored and by the end of our holiday they had taken away this pretty area and had instead covered it all in a concrete coloured surrounding that couldn't be stood upon, what a shame as the original idea was far prettier.

Anyway retail therapy completed we decided to brave the Disneyland Park as it was midday and we walked through Liberty Arcade to Caseys Corner for lunch. We then stayed in Liberty Arcade and after taking photos we visited every shop along this side of Main Street USA. I took photos of the shops interiors as these are lovely and if you take the time to stop and look you can see some amazing details. We then saw that the 20th Anniversary Celebration Train was passing so stopped outside to watch this pass. Jack enjoyed waving to the characters and it was slightly quieter at this time so not many people were watching.

I then found Dapper Dans Haircuts which has always eluded me till now and I took some pictures of the interior. We then thought about catching the Disneyland Railroad for a trip round the park and so we joined the queue. We took photos down Main Street from the train station viewing platform but after a while we realised that the queue was so huge that we had no chance of getting on within 45 mins so after a deflating morning we decided to head back to the hotel. I was really hoping to go in the swimming pool but Jack fell asleep as we got back so we just sat in the sun on our balcony trying to rearrange our plan for the remainder of the holiday.

We then got ready for dinner early and decided to head out to the Studios to see what the queues were like here. Due to the time of day it wasn't too busy and so we managed to ride Flying Carpets 3 times back to back and then went to Toy Story Playland where we rode Slinky Dog Zig Zag Spin 3 times back to back! I took some photos of the Toy Soldiers Parachute Drop but I couldn't get Jack to get on this again. We left the Studios and went to Disneyland Park as we had reservations at Walts for 6pm.

The restaurant was just as beautiful as ever and really quiet (apart from Jack which was quite embarrassing!) I had a beautiful Roast Chicken dinner and a trio of puddings, Daniel had the cod which he thoroughly enjoyed and Jack was in a silly mood and refused to eat anything apart from dessert. The waitress was from Ireland and told us all about how she came to be working there and she was very good with Jack, keeping him entertained. This however was the most embarrassing meal for me during the stay as Jack took it upon himself to come back from the toilet with his dad and announce that he had just had the biggest poo he had ever seen! Not something you really want to hear announced full volume in an upmarket restaurant, apologies again to the other diners!!

We then had time to kill before Disney Dreams! and so we decided to show Jack round Adventureland but shortly after arriving they closed the land for the show and so we headed to Frontierland for a walkabout. I took some lovely pictures at dusk especially of Big Thunder Mountain and then we wandered around Cottonwood Creek which was deserted, so that was amazing. We then left Frontierland through the main entrance and found a good spot to watch the show, standing next to the reserved section for diners who had paid for the Disney Dreams! Dinner package. Personally I wouldn't have paid the extra for this as the reserved spot view was blocked by other people and sets of speakers.

The lights went down, the music started and what happened next can only be described as an emotional roller coaster in surround sound with visuals that were simply breathtaking! It was the best nighttime show I have ever seen in a Disney park, I loved it. Daniel said it was amazing ( this was the first Disney nighttime show he has experienced) and Jack was a picture to watch. The oohs and aahs and the wows that came from him actually brought tears to my eyes. This was an amazing end to a muddled and unplanned day.

We left through the Liberty Arcade and went back to the hotel for a drink before bed. I couldn't believe what an amazing thing we had just experienced to finish our day.

[jeakat24]

Glad to see some more days up  

It's a shame your plans kept going wrong but as you said you had the time to have a rethink. I'd hate it for you to have only been there for a few days

[gemma2806]

I must admit that's why I didn't complain. Things do have a habit of going wrong for me so I just roll with the punches and keep going. I was determined for Jacks sake to have a brilliant tie regardless!