Disneyland Paris - Day 3

Sunday started off a little more chaotic than we had planned.  We got up and we knew we had a voucher for breakfast for 9:15. We took our time getting ready and around 8:45 I took a look at the voucher to see where in the hotel the meal was taking place. Hmmmm… interesting…this voucher actually says the meal is in the park. Shit!!!! Josh still hadn’t showered and it was at least a 15 min walk with the kids thru the hotel, over to Disney Village (we have to walk by another hotel and around the water to get to the Village), thru security and then thru the ticket gate and the meal was being served in FantasyLand, clear across the park. We raced there… poor Aidan was practically in tears and I felt bad, especially when you know that the free meal isn't going to be all that spectacular. Then I find out it’s just counter service and it probably didn’t really matter what time we got there – however, it meant we got to get into the park 45 mins before the rest of the people were allowed in. Hindsight is 20/20 – now I’ll know for the “next” time that we don’t have to rush to get in.

It was nice that the park was relatively empty when we got there for breakfast!

We had planned on hitting the Disney Studios (which is like MGM at home) on Sunday but since we were already in the park, we figured we would go to the Peter Pan ride since it was highly recommended (according to our flyer) and we didn’t make it on there the day before since it was an hour wait and the kids were getting toasty. So we hopped on that and again it wasn’t mind blowing enough for Aidan though he grudgingly admitted he enjoyed it – and Liam loved it. So I’m glad we did that. 

On our way to look for a Goofy hat - we ran thru AdventureLand!  Aidan thought the Swiss Family Robinson tree house was pretty cool!

And while in Disneyland, we just had to get a Goofy and Pluto hat for the boys - Aidan insisted. And he wore it all the rest of that day and the next but of course has yet to wear it since he's been home...shocker I know.

With our newly acquired hats...

For days I've been trying to get Aidan to pose... if only I had known I just needed to buy him a Goofy hat and he'd instantly want to be in pics!

Posing some more with his new hat!  And Pluto aims to shoot!!

Then we went over to the DisneyStudios. I was disappointed to see that the entire section of ToyStory rides was closed for renovations. And given it’s much much smaller than MGM it definitely did not require and entire day to be allotted to checking everything out so it's probably a good thing we went to Disneyland first.

Random shots upon entering the park.

We went to the Animagique show which was a live action play set to the music of a few Disney movies including Dumbo, The Little Mermaid, The Lion King and The Jungle Book. It was well done and the kids really enjoyed it.  However, what Aidan really wanted to go on was the Crush Coaster – with Crush the turtle from Finding Nemo. A 90 minute wait and they did not allow Fast Passes (of course). So we put him off and did some other things til towards the end of the day.

The boys got to meet Sully from Monsters Inc. Liam was psyched til he got up close then he tried to make a break for it. I loved that Aidan asked if we could stand in the line to meet him – in 2008 I had to beg him to stand in a line to meet the characters. Oh how he’s grown!!

From there we went over to the CARS ride – Liam was in HEAVEN!!! OMG, he got to ride near McQueen… so excited. Again, the look on his face said it all. In just 2 days he got to see his favorites up close and personal – Buzz Lightyear, Lightning McQueen, Stitch and Mickey Mouse. Seriously this kid is so happy!! The McQueen ride was like teacups only in little cars. It was very cute and the boys seemed to like it. I being of the Type A personality was concerned that at some point the cars were going to collide. But I made it thru.

One of the rides/shows we were looking forward to was the Stitch Live from Lilo & Stitch. This is supposed to be like Turtle Talk with Crush in DisneyWorld. It was the same thing but just not as good. First of all, Stitch doesn’t really do a whole lot of talking in the movie (nor in the cartoon) and the words he does say tend to not be very clear. So he was kind of a poor choice of character for this “ride”. Aidan was clearly disappointed but again Liam was in 7th heaven. Aidan mentioned that he really liked the Crush one better – good memory!!! And even he said that Stitch just didn’t sound anything like the movie. Ok, if the almost 6 year old is saying it, perhaps it’s true!!

After seeing Stitch we decided the time had come for Aidan & Josh to go the Crush Coaster. I would go walk around with Liam and see what I could find to do with him (this is when I found out the Toy Story area was closed). But first Josh wanted to get coffee so I decided to try to help them out and get in line. But of course Liam is too small for the ride. So I said to the woman at the check point, “my husband is getting a coffee and then I’m getting out of line”. I had to explain it to her at least 2x that I had no intention of taking my 2 year old on a large roller coaster (similar to Space Mountain – it was inside). Once I was in line I got some strange looks from people waiting and then another employee approached me. I have to say, it’s good that they are vigilant about this stuff but seriously did they think I was going to take my 2 year old on a roller coaster??? He looked at me kind of doubtfully when I told him I was just waiting on my husband. Oh well… to each their own. Liam and I made an attempt to ride the Magic Carpets of Agrabah but it started to pour rain so we schmoozed the shops instead. After it cleared we met up with Josh and Aidan to head back to the hotel. Aidan loved the ride (except a scary part with Bruce the Shark) and said it was his favorite of the trip. Josh thinks Thunder Mountain is better. I won’t ride either so my thought is that I'm proud that Aidan has more courage than his mom and that I hope he maintains that for the rest of his life!

The boys at lunch

Liam was soooo excited to meet Buzz!  That's his blaster that Buzz was holding too - notice he doesn't take his eye off it!

Right before we left to meet up with Josh and Aidan we came across a parade - Liam was so excited to see his favorite characters!

After Disney Studios we went back to the hotel for some much needed decompression.  I attempted to get Liam to take a nap with little success while Josh and Aidan went down to the pool.  It was a few short hours of just nothing and it was nice after a few days of go-go-go.  The kids have been amazingly well behaved, especially compared to our trip to Valencia last week.  We've been lucky to have very few meltdowns and the ones we have had have been quickly resolved.  Dinner was in the hotel and sadly the best meal we've had so far where they combined the buffet with a regular meal - buffet for appetizer and dessert and a regular meal choice.  Works for us!  Aidan loved picking his own meal yet again - he's going to be a buffet junkie ;)  Then off to bed - we've got one last short day left before heading home on Monday!!  We're going to try to hit Disneyland one last time for one more Buzz Lightyear ride and then off to the airport!!

Julie