Well just returned from four days in Disney with the kids. Quite exhausting. Cold and tired....here's how it went:
Tuesday:
up at 4am to get to Liverpool airport. A freezing, dark morning but no hiccups on the 1hr flight to Paris Charles de Gaulle. Took the shuttle bus to the resort and checked into our rooms at the
Santa Fe hotel. Uncle Stevie was there to greet us, fresh in from Dubai, and we dumped our bags and headed into the parc on the shuttle.
It was pretty cold and after a bit to eat we queued for some rides and attractions including Dumbo the flying elephant, Sleeping Beauty's castle and the carousel...then the rain started and nanna decided her shoes were no good for walking and went for a rest.
We watched the parade at 5pm and then went in to warm up and have a buffet dinner at the rather over- priced
Plaza Gardens. Then a few more rides after dinner then it was back to the hotel to crash out.
Wednesday:
Another cold wet and windy day but we were up and at em with the kids raring to go meet the carrots (as Tom called the Disney characters). After the buffet breakie we jumped on the 5 min shuttle bus into the park and started the day with a ride on what turned out to be the kids favourite - its a small world. It was the first of about 5 rides on the boat through all the countries in the world and left mark singing the song over and over in his head for days. Other rides today included Peter Pan, Buzz Lightyear and Orbitron. Nana went off on the train in search of comfy shoes and we wised up to Disney prices and purchased baguettes for lunch from outside the park.
Another favourite ride was the teacups although as you can see here Ela wasn't too amused at the fact that it was so heavy with all us adults in it that she couldn't swing it round. The kids didn't much like Pirates of the Carribean as the queue was too long and it was too scarry - great idea dad and uncle stevie!
We picnic'd at Woody's showground and jumped on the train for a circuit of the park. Today we also discovered the FastPass option where you can get tickets for a set time and therefore avoid the massive queues of over an hour for the popular rides. It was getting colder and the rain paid a visit but the kids soldiered on - I think it was us adults who complained the most.
We watched the parade again at 5pm, then tried a different restaurant, the
Silver Spur Steakhouse which was much better food and value for money and then rounded off the day with the evening fantillusion parade. Mark and I were going to stay out and try some of the bigger rides but the freezing rain was starting to pour so we changed our minds and headed back with the rest of the gang. Got to the hotel around 10ish with Tom asleep in the pram, Ela begging us to stay up 'late' to play with all her new Disney purchases, and Steve went off to meet Alyssa.
Thursday:
Today Mark, Steve, Alyssa and I headed off to Paris to see the sights (see previous post)and left Nanna and Grandad in charge of the kids. By all accounts it was freezing and after a day of meeting the carrots and more queing and dinner at a pizzaria they were all glad to get home early without watching the parades.
Friday:
We bid farewell to Steve and headed back to the park to meet up with the others around midday. We found Tom in tears as he was cold and miserable and poor Nanna couldn't understand what he wanted (just cuddles from mum as it turned out!) but Ela was bouncing off the walls, excited as anything watching the snow white show with Grandad. We did a final 'its a small world' ride and then went on pinnochio and snow white rides. Ela was told that she neededn't queue up for that one because she was wearing a snow white costume. She was pleased as punch!
Grandad went back to the hotel early and we spent the afternoon in Disney Studio, Tom having his nap and we watched a few shows, did one last ride, the alibabas majic carpet ride and rounded off the day with Animagique show. We raced back to the hotel and jumped on the coach back to the airport where we landed back in Liverpool very tired and very weary around 11pm that night. Thanks so much (again) to Nana and Grandad who made the whole trip possible and to uncle Stevie who make a huge effort - he was definitely the kids favourite Disney character - the trip will be remembered, for many reasons, for a long time to come.
I wonder why Primary school is called 'big school'? Surely it should be 'little school'? Anyway I digress, Ela's first day at Mortlake Primary was smooth sailing thanks I suppose to four years of long day care and a year of pre-school.
Proud parents, we packed her little and big lunch into her enormous bag and took Ela along with the other 60 kindergarden students to meet their new teachers. Ela was really lucky because she got to go with two of her pre-school friends (Belle and Bo) in the same class, Miss Briganti's.
We left them happily drawing pictures all smiles and waves. It was probably more emotional for me, there goes my little girl into the big wide world.
So at the other end of the day, we picked her up and took a very excited child for a gelato where we had to prise out details of the day. Sounds like she enjoyed it - especially recess and lunchtime as she got to play with the neighbour's kids who are all at the same school.
