Home

[Mrsya]

Day two - a much needed lie in!


After a quick Davy Crockett style breakfast i.e. croissants, bread and spreads, we head off to the park for 10ish, with the pushchair looking more like a pack-horse! Not very busy at all and after marching along the travellators, we absorb a little more of our surroundings, including the beautiful and oh-so-close-to-the-park Disneyland Hotel! The spring flowers and decorations are wonderful and my ds loves picking which character's arch to walk under before entering Main Street. A quick look in a couple of shops and its straight up to the castle for my son to make his first of a dozen visits to the 'dragon who lives under the castle'. He tries to wake it by clapping and is beyond excited when it works. A fab walk-through attraction, although taking a good pic in there is impossible with a bog standard camera. Believe me, we tried!


From here we decide to explore some of the paths to other lands on the left of the park. This side would come to be mine and the hubster's favourite side of the park - the one with the best theming and most character in our opinion.


We walk through adventure land, rub Aladdin's lamp, cross into Adventure Isle and find the huge pirate ship (which I never got bored of photographing) and happen upon Pirates of the Caribbean. Now, I decided not to watch any YouTube vids of the park or rides before we went and so it felt like a real 'find'. We didn't think ds would be tall enough but the cast member was so friendly and encouraged him to try. He grew another 3" with pride when he realised he was a 'big enough boy' to go on. He queued with Daddy while I went down to my soon-to-be regular baby switch waiting spot at the exit. What a brilliant ride, my favourite by far! We spent a lot of time on here as we were blessed with short/no queues every day.


Lunch at Cafe Mickey at 12 (thank goodness for our reservation as they were turning away walkups). A shared pizza, 7 characters, some gorgeous choc mousse, €45 and 90 mins later we were a very happy family indeed! In hindsight it was a good job we decided on a character meal as we only saw two others walking around the park all week. Off to look in the shops in the village - sent Sven and Olaf back to the ranch using the free shopping delivery service. Erm, how fab is that by the way?! A bit dangerous on the budget though...


An afternoon of exploring adventure land again as my ds wanted to go aboard the pirate ship, into the caves etc. Pause Gaumand at 3ish, ice creams and cold drinks at Hakuna Matata. We walk out of adventure land and Disney Time has struck again!! It's parade time - yes, until this point we'd forgotten about the parade. Really! We stand on a nearby bench and have a fab view of the whole parade. What timing! The infectious Magic on Parade song gets stuck in my head, and three weeks later still is!


Off to Discoveryland and rides on BLLB (Amazing as always), Autopia (not worth the wait imo), Orbitron (ds giggled with excitement all the way through) and then walked over to Star Tours. This was when one of those special Only-at-disneyland type of events occurs when the most wonderful cast member spots my ds with his buzz lightyear gun and pretends to battle with him with his light sabre. Well. My ds thought this was the best thing that had ever happened to him and was hiding behind walls and bins. As he was going onto the ride the cast member called after him 'Until we meet again my Padowan!'. Big grins all round! On the ride the cast member inside heard my ds shout 'bonjour!' louder than any other rider so picked him out to be the captain and everyone had to salute him. Needless to say this ride was a big hit with him before it had even begun!


Another late ish night, off to bed as soon as we get in as determined to make emh in the morning!


Day three - a bit of pixie dust!


As organised and quick as we tried to be, the earliest we made it to the park was today at 9:10am. I don't know how families with babies manage to get there any earlier! Tips welcome! At the main entrance the lady notices our roof box on our car and gives us a code for Winnie car park. We got the first space next to the travellators on the right hand side. A good start and this put the hubster in a good mood too!


We walk down an already very busy Main Street and up to the red rope feeling very VIPish. I took great pride in giving my easy pass to the cast member here and walking up and through the castle a whopping.... 15 minutes earlier than the general public! Fantasy land was packed. Every ride had huge queues and Dumbo was shut for refurb so a bit pointless really. Emh with the whole park to explore would be fabulous but all of the disney guests squeezed into half a dozen queues meant that queue lengths were around 30 mins where we'd been able to just walk on in previous days. We have a go on Peter Pan (think the lights must be broken as the first half of the ride is in darkness) and are a bit underwhelmed if I'm honest. My ds couldn't see much of the animatronics and didn't even ask to go on again even though daddy was waiting to do baby switch. My dh went on to see what all the fuss is about and agreed that it must be broken.


It's a small world was the only ride my dd was allowed on and she loved it so we went around again. Casey Junior had 5 minute wait so gave that a whirl - 30 mins later the hubster and one grumpy boy come through the exit. The sign had lied!


As my ds is a huge Toy Story fan we had decided to ignore the reviews and go to Pizza Planet for lunch. Sooooo glad we did as it was fab. I can see why it's not to everyone's tastes and its by no means lean cuisine, but there is a much needed play area inside. after 3 days of 'stay in site', 'stand here with the pushchair', 'don't go too far' etc, my little boy enjoyed the freedom to run around and play while I picked him some pizza slices, pasta and cakes from the buffet. We had our fill, the food was all hot and fresh, refillable drinks, the place wasn't too packed and it had clean highchairs and baby changing on site. What more can a mummy want?


After lunch, we walk outside to find we've missed a torrential downpour and, feeling very smug at our great timing, stroll over to Frontierland, finally! My son declares that he'll be brave and wants to go on Phantom Manor. We walk up to be greeted by a very normal-looking cast member to whom my 4 year old shouts in a very loud voice 'whoa, you're scary!!'. In he goes. The heavens open and a once-smug mummy gets very wet trying to put the raincover on the cheap holiday pushchair. Smug mummies who've bought their regular pushchair walk past and smile.


Frontierland's theming is even cooler in the rain (i think this is my fav land) and after trying their hand at the shooting gallery and buying an arsenal of weapons we nip down to pick up a fast pass for BTM. My ds couldn't believe he was tall enough for this one too! We have a walk around the areas beyond BTM and find it all strangely empty. All adds to the atmosphere of the evening anyway. Back to BTM and my son is hooked. We now spend the rest of the holiday land-hopping from buzz to POTC to BTM. Fast pass plus baby switch is the most awesome combo for a family with a baby and makes our lives so much easier. I last feel guilty when walking past the queue. Almost.


The rain comes again and so we nip into The Lucky Nugget for tea tonight. They tell us our vouchers (standard) are for more expensive restaurants (honest) but they have tables, we can get dry and the deal-breaker, they have high chairs! The best pulled pork I've ever had and the fastest food ever served to our table. Would definitely recommend for a quick lunch or tea in very nice surroundings. Time for two last foes on buzz then home. We are determined to make it to the park earlier tomorrow.


Day four - a Wednesday in Walt Disney Studios.


Yay. We get up earlier, make it to the park fairly early, get down the travellators and what's that ahead...? The queue for baggage check and lots of children wearing matching hats. Aww, a class trip to disneyland! How cool. Through bag check and what's that at the ticket entries, some more class trips. Cute. Onto Main Street. Lots of children on class trips today... What is this National come to Disneyland Day? Apparently, something like that. Wednesdays are either school excursion days in France or a day off for the children. Ok. Noted. We mill around for half an hour then head up to the Studios Park. A completely different vibe in this park but I have a plan and so head straight to the far bottom left corner of the map in my head. I see a queue with only 6 people in it. We've made it to the promised land - for 4 year old boys at least, and 34 year old daddies too. Spider-Man waiting time from this point is well, 45 mins as he doesn't arrive until 10:45 but we're 7th so it'll be real quick, right. Wrong. Spider-Man likes to chat.


90 mins later we have a very happy boy though and some fantastic photos and memories. He's only there till July so it had to be done! Or so I'm told! Off to the Disney Junior Live show.  Both children love it and we come out with a bag full of foil leaves - as memories of course. A quick lunch at Cafe de Cascadeurs. Don't think the waitress got the memo about smiling. Greasy floor, greasy food but it did the job. See a woman in there that I know from home but can't remember how. We smile knowingly at each other. Still don't know who she was. Answers on a postcard please.


Next it's the stunt show featuring Lightning McQueen. This was great and my son was (and still is) role playing the stunts. We were warned that the man on fire might be too scary for him but this was apparently his favourite part!
[size=78%]Pause Gaumand in one of the counter service places in the arcade that you walk through to get in and out of the studios park. Cute little twin pack of Mickey cakes and a hot drink. [/size]


Over to Toy Story Playland. We go on Slinky Dog twice and the Cars ride twice. My ds is too small for the other three rides and Aladdin's carpets is shut for refurb so we head back to the main park. The queue for Crush is around the park - is it really THAT good...?


A circuit around the regulars and up to POTC where we queue once, do baby switch, then get offered a third go round. Does that ever happen!? My ds thought it was amazing. We check out the Blue Lagoon menu and wish it had fish and chips on it, or even maybe a posh sounding goujon of cod... Nope, even if I look at it 20 times, it will still be too fancy for my family's tastes. Grrr. Love the theming, just not the menu. Off to adventure land to find somewhere for tea. Mr Frederickson and Russell guide us to Colonel Hathis Pizza Outpost. Simple pizza or pasta menu meals with a drink, salad and ice cream. A visit to the dragon and back to the cabin. Tomorrow's our last full day at Disneyland.

[Aurora1]

Enjoyed reading your report! I`m glad you had a great time!

PS: you have a great way of writing!

[EmmaH]

A really lovely report thank you. Your enthusiasm made me smile it's contagious this Disney feeling.


A tip for getting out the door early (speaking as mum of three - 8,5 and 3) is get clothes layer out and buggy packed up evening before and to breakfast for 7.15 the latest. We stay at Cheyanne in Jan so not busy and shuttle bus gets to the park nice and quick xx

[BlackPearl]

Thank you for sharing your lovely report