Friday 8 January

We arrived at Hong Kong airport at 8-ish-am Paris time, but it was after 3pm here. So we have lost most of today! 😬

Unfortunately Zac was sick again on the plane (but fortunately for me he was sitting with Ross this time haha). So now I’ve decided he was NOT ill on the way to Rome. Instead, I have diagnosed him with anxiety! He did tell us he was worried about getting home safely. So now we are looking forward to the next flight being over soon, but not looking forward to travelling with Zac!

I took my aunt’s advice and booked lounge access for all of us while we are here in transit for the four hours. All the boys have enjoyed the complimentary food (Tim has tried several dishes, and finished with pancakes with maple syrup and kiwi fruit syrup!), and Abi and I enjoyed showers! 

We all only achieved two to four hours sleep each on the last flight, so we are hoping for more, or at least getting home safely and quickly and back to our own beds 😴

I was going to use this time to write about everyone’s highlights, but I am so tired I am slurring my words! So I will save that for another day. I can easily list what I am grateful for though: 

• safe travels, 
• safety and security (and no fear of their absence) anywhere and everywhere we have travelled,
• Good health for everyone (although I now need to deal with Zac’s anxiety issues…)
• Great experiences and the people we’ve met – I’ve never stopped to have so many social gatherings and meals with people while away, but our times with other friends and families just added another lovely element to the trip.

Once we had wifi here, the kids were asking if they could go to birthday parties and accept invitations that are waiting for them – aargh! I need my wall calendar already! I guess it’s time to return to reality 👍😉

Thursday 7 January

Our last day!! 😭 We set the alarm for 8am to give us time to repack and enjoy a leisurely breakfast again before check out time of 11am. Belle isn’t sure how she will cope having to leave here, Abi is stealing – I mean – helping herself to as many Mickey soaps and shampoos as possible, and I want to know who is going to turn down my sheets each night and leave a chocolate on my pillow! 😉

We ventured back in to Disneyland Park for a final turn on all our favourite rides, like Pirates of the Caribbean, Phantom Manor, Peter Pan’s flight, It’s a Small World (yes, that’s right Luke!), and others we had missed the day before. We made the most of the three hours we had there, and then sat at a cafe on Main Street for a late lunch of sandwiches and wraps before returning to the hotel to pick up our luggage.

   
   
I had booked airport transfers with the “magical shuttle bus”, which picked us up from outside the hotel at 3pm. My cunning plan had been to spend the day tiring everyone out so they would sleep on the plane, but the coach ride to the airport was over an hour long, so everyone except Abi and Sam napped on the way there! 😬

We are now sitting at Charles de Gaule airport waiting to board our flight to Hong Kong. We have felt absolutely safe here and everywhere we have been, but have not seen any news for a month. Jarrod is now telling me a man was shot at a Paris police station today. Being the anniversary of the Charlie Hebdo attacks, I did pick up a copy of Charlie Hebdo at the newsagent, but won’t advertise the fact I have it!, understanding the controversy. Our seats while waiting are next to a red piano which is free for use. Jarrod played one song to the applause of a man in Starbuck’s but can’t cope because the pedal isn’t working. Sam and Belle have also regaled us with a tune each, but the other three say they can’t remember their pieces!! It’s obviously time to head home and get out of holiday mode! 

  
Below, just for Uncle Luke, are photos of everyone enjoying his favourite ride: It’s a Small World 😂

Wednesday 6 January

A rest day of sorts today – well, we slept in, enjoyed a leisurely breakfast, and wandered downstairs to Disneyland just after 10am. First order of the day was to line up to meet Mickey – only a 35 minute wait, which thrilled Ross and the older boys. But a meet and greet with Mickey is an essential part of a trip to Disneyland 😊

We caught a stage show full of princesses which actually DID thrill Belle, especially when the storybook Princess Belle blew our princess Belle a kiss and waved to her! 

We also rode on the carousel, which the older three were sooooo excited to do. I reminded them to enjoy it through the eyes of the younger ones, but I know they were secretly enjoying it themselves 😉

   
   
Then we explored Sleeping Beauty’s castle and “sortied” (exited) the park to revisit Walt Disney Studios next door. One popular ride we had not yet tried (because of the 35-50 minute wait time) was Crush’s Coaster, a roller coaster that was an adventure with Crush from Finding Nemo along the EAC. Four children were very excited about it, and two were very anxious about it – I will not name names! Anyway, I happily left Ross plus four to enjoy the coaster, while I took the other two to a show called Cinemagique and a couple of milder rides.

At 2.15pm we then met up again to watch an action/stunt show that was advertised as including Lightning McQueen. The show description didn’t lie, but wasn’t great. Well…car-mad Zac loved it, but Ross and I want the 45 minutes of our life back that was spent sitting there! I wish we had stopped to grab lunch before it began so at least it was lunchtime entertainment, but because of the later and large breakfast we had had, no one was hungry until mid-afternoon. We left there and grabbed a late lunch before returning to the Ratatouille ride to use today’s fast pass, well worth it.

   
 After choosing a last couple of rides to do in that park, we returned to the hotel for a swim and spa, and headed back to Disney Village for dinner before the other park closed at 7pm and we were joined by hordes more. The cheapest restaurant on the strip (apart from McDonalds!) was one called New York Sandwiches, where we found pizza and paninis (for the last time!). We then visited the Lego and Disney stores, and Abi and I sent the others to turn in for the night while we finished our souvenir shopping 😉

Tuesday 5 January

We set an alarm for 8am this morning, and boy was it hard to wake up! 😬 The hotel includes a continental breakfast so we shuffled down to a “Disney suite” for cereal, bacon and eggs, pancakes, pastries and even donuts (!) which gave everyone a much needed boost.

Our first stop was Walt Disney Studios again to use today’s free fast pass on the Ratatouille ride. It was a very clever 3D ride, and we can understand why the receptionist told us it was one of the most popular!  We then changed over to Disneyland park because Belle was desperate to see a princess and Sam really wanted to do Pirates of the Carribean! There seemed to be less people at that park – we made it through a few rides in the morning with no queues (which Ross is especially loving!), including Pirates, Phantom Manor (ie. Haunted Mansion) and others. 

  
 Jarrod kept a list through the day of the rides and order we went on them (!)…..and tonight he could even tell us our scores on the Buzz Lightyear ride today compared to California in 2013 haha!!   
 We just kept going all day, stopping only for a quick lunch in one of the park restaurants (where the kids’ meals were pizza, cherry tomatoes, drink and fruit or ice cream, but best of all, the pizza was in the shape of Mickey!!). 

  
The only sad part of the day was when Sam discovered he wasn’t tall enough for the Indiana Jones roller coaster. I was relieved to have an excuse to not go on it, but Sam cried the whole time we waited for the others, and could not even be consoled by Belle telling him “good things come in small packages”. This park closes at 7pm, so as well as the rides we enjoyed a couple of parades and the fireworks at closing time, but were by then weary and ready for the finale! 

  
I had trouble printing our airport transfers yesterday so went to reception for assistance before dinner. They sent me to a guest computer, but the keyboard is not Qwerty! It’s bizarre! I should take a photo of it before we leave. I was too confused to think of that at the time. And you have to use the control key to access the numbers on the keyboard, which makes NO sense to someone who uses the numbers a lot!! Anyway, to no avail, their printer didn’t print and the computer wouldn’t save files in PDF format. So at this stage, we ain’t getting to the airport! Which Belle has decided is ok, because she doesn’t want to come home anymore now we are here 😉

So at 8pm I gave up and we returned to Disney Village to grab some dinner. Some children were getting a bit short with each other by then, and Abi tells me she needs people to stop talking and she needs some silence, at which point I laughed and said we could return to our two adjoining rooms where 8 people are sharing four beds and see if that was better for her? But remembering her meltdown in the RV, I took my cue from them all and we went back to our room where Ross and I are enforcing no-swim/straight-to-bed/no-reading-time-just-sleep. Of course, to return to a room where chocolates are left on the pillow, Disney channels are on tv, soap and sugar are in the shape of Mickey etc. they now all have a second wind and are too excited to sleep! My master plan was to tire everyone out enough in the last few days so we would sleep on the plane – methinks we are on track for that! 

Monday 4 January

We were sad to leave London this morning 😢 we have had a lovely time here, and could spend so much more time exploring! (And Alex, Abi said to tell Lauren she is definitely interested in coming back here after uni!). This is my morning view of Green Park I have to leave behind…

  
We grabbed two taxis at 9.30am to take us to St Pancras International station. In our efforts to find where to go and when, we found we had made it through security and two border controls for the UK and France in about 15 minutes! Which was fine, but we had intended to return our Oyster cards for a deposit refund (£5 pounds each for five of us), but we had missed our opportunity. The older three are happy because they wanted to keep their cards as a souvenir, but I am planning to ask the next person I know going to London to cash them in for us! 😉 (that’s $50 AUD right there!)

   
 We boarded the Eurostar for Lille, France. I had heard great things about travelling on this train, but we spent the first half an hour trying to “pop” our ears. The trip was smooth after that and over in two hours – we were actually in a different country in two hours! Most of the time was spent travelling at 288km/h. We then had to change trains to go to Marne la Valle Chessy (Disneyland!) which was the only stressful part of the journey. There are only four platforms at Lille, but they don’t announce which platform trains will be departing from until five minutes before! 😬 And our coach, number 8, was at the front of the train, so we had to break into a run to get onto the platform and down that end to board the coach in time! 

  
Belle, who is hard to get moving most days because she is tired and trying to keep up with the pace of this trip, suddenly had a new lease on life and was packed and dressed ready to get off the train half an hour before we reached our final destination. Everyone else was playing Abi’s new Trivial Pursuit (Harry Potter version) game or reading, but Belle was count down the minutes to arrival.

  
Arriving at Disneyland Hotel was as magical as one would expect. Everyone was very excited to be here. We explored the hotel briefly but soon dumped everything in our room to grab the last couple of hours of the day at the park. We picked Walt Disney Studios because the lady at reception told us three of the most popular rides requiring fast passes are there. She wasn’t wrong – even using our complimentary hotel fast pass, the line for Crush Coasters was 55 minutes long and the Ratatouille ride about the same! So we explored the park (it didn’t take long to check out the whole park) and went on a couple of rides with less in lines – Aladdin’s flying carpets, an Armaggedon special effects show, and Cars ride (not like California – spinning cars like teacups). 

   
   
The park closes at 6pm (Disneyland next door closes at 7pm), so we left at closing time and explored Disney Village, and chose a less expensive (of many expensive!) restaurants for dinner – Planet Hollywood. The hotel indoor pool and spa doesn’t close until 10pm, so we went back for a late night swim. I had taken up the option of a day trip to Paris thinking there would not be enough to do here for three days, but everyone has voted me down and wants to either enjoy the park or rest at the hotel. Rest?? Again?!?! We already had a rest day on 22 December!!!!!!

Sunday 3 January

It was Abi’s turn to activate her Christmas present today, and boy was she in her element! We left the apartment at 9am and caught the tube one stop to Victoria Station, where we boarded a double decker bus to the Warner Bros Studio Tour.

  
The location is almost two hours out of London, so the first Harry Potter movie was shown on the way there. That was great for the little kids who haven’t seen the movies or read the books. We had almost four hours to explore before we had to board the bus for the return journey, which was ample time. Although I had to keep checking on Absi who kept falling behind the rest of us because she was so engrossed in absolutely every little detail. I guess that is the culmination of reading all seven books in the series three times in one year!!

   
    
 There were many highlights, but two on everyone’s lists were visiting the Great Hall where scenes from the movie were filmed, and seeing the model of Hogwarts that was used for some scale shots. Abi took so many photos her phone battery died, so she then took another hundred on my phone. Once we sort through them all, she will organise them into a flipagram or movie or some kind of presentation.

   
 After spending almost half an hour in the souvenir shop with Abi, we boarded the bus and returned to Victoria by 5pm. We took our last tube ride to Piccadilly Circus to buy Jarrod a replacement Man U shirt (the one he bought two days ago was signed by man of the match, so Ross convinced him to frame it rather than keep wearing it), and stopped in at TGI Fridays for our last dinner in London (kids meals were £4.49). 

Aside: Belle has spent some quality time with Jarrod today, which made me realise how little time they spend together at home during term – Jarrod is always doing something extracurricular or studying, so while this forced break did make me worry about the length of time he would be away from his schoolwork, there are other priceless benefits as a result.

  Our research has taught us that Caffe Concerto diagonally opposite the Ritz does the best hot chocolates, so we grabbed one on the way home and spent the next couple of hours repackaged our bags and trying to fit souvenirs in! And now everyone is asleep while I wait for my last load of washing to finish 😊

Saturday 2 January

Ross, Jarrod and Tim set off at 7.30am this morning to enjoy their Christmas present of attending a Manchester United game at Old Trafford. It is a 3pm game, but it is so far away from here! When we first compared transport options, the train to Manchester was £111 one way, a flight was £99, and a hire car was £48 for a day. So we booked a small car to get them there…or so we thought…😬

Jarrod face-timed me from Euston Station at 8.23am to say they had arrived to pick up the car but there was no record of a booking! (We did wonder why we received no reference or booking number when we booked online). So they quickly moved to Plan B and bought train tickets (which were thankfully much less than we expected at £153 for the three of them return). The train was a much less stressful way for them to travel too, considering they didn’t know where they were going, and quicker than by car.

We didn’t leave the apartment until 11am, when we walked down to Buckingham Palace to watch the Changing of the Guard ceremony. There were sooooooo many people, and areas had already been blocked off near the gates, so the kids stood on a wall for a little while, but while we enjoyed the sounds of the pomp and ceremony, we couldn’t see a lot, so decided to get a head start on the crowds and wander up the mall.

   
   
We walked through St James Park and the Horse Cavalry Museum where we caught the end of the guard changeover there, and walked on to Westminster. My plan was to try and visit the Abbey again, but the crowds were no better than the other day, so instead we went toTesco Express for more £3 meals like R & J found before our river cruise on Wednesday. We took our bargain sandwich/fruit/drink combo and walked across Westminster Bridge and sat at a bus stop opposite the Marriott hotel and ate our lunch. 

   
 We then boarded a double decker bus to Piccadilly Circus (really just so we could say we sat upstairs on a red double decker bus!), and alighted there to do some souvenir shopping. 

  
A store called Cool Britannia had an underground level that had a store exit which connected to Piccadilly Circus tube station, so we took that exit and boarded a train to Knightsbridge to visit Harrods. Now this is a place I need to explore some other time with a girlfriend rather than with four children in tow! It was BEDLAM! I am especially thankful for two things today: one, that I did not lose any child throughout the whole day of exploring or in the throng of people at Harrods, and two, that I went to Harrods without Ross and Tim who would not have coped with the crowds!! Even Abi, the seasoned shopper that she is, was glad to leave there.

  
We caught the tube back to Green Park and went to Starbucks for coffee and milkshakes to reward ourselves (well, me…) for surviving the day, and then went grocery shopping and home with Pret A Manger sandwiches and salads for dinner. This chain of stores has a major focus on helping the homeless, so the kids were very keen to patronise there.

Postscript: the boys arrived home safely from their day at 8.30pm, full of excitement and details at what they had experienced. They were able to meet former players and the man of the match, who also signed Jarrod’s shirt, and Man U (on the back of ten losses or draws in a row) won the game 2-1!  They got to ride first class on the train on the way home, and also brought home souvenirs for the little boys. It was such a great day! (And now there is such excitement no one will go to sleep…😐)

Friday 1 January

It was entertaining to wake up this morning and read local news articles about how London’s fireworks were better than Sydney’s because they were better value for money 😉 – apparently Sydney’s cost $7 million for a 20 minute show, and London’s cost £1.8 million for a 15 minute show. We watched Sydney’s on a laptop and London’s on TV in our apartment. We enjoyed both, but there’s nowhere like home! Locals were also setting off fireworks around us, so we were able to watch some in Green Park from the balcony of our apartment.

  
Our big plan for today was to be up in time for lunch! Actually there is a New Years Parade in London that has been going for 30 years, and the starting point was at the end of our street outside the Ritz hotel, so I dragged everybody out in time to see the parade start. I didn’t count on having four out of eight travellers comPLAIN about waiting for it to start and about crowds 😕. All we had time to see was one band, bagpipers, a couple of horses and one float, until I was over the company I was in! 

  
We ducked down the nearest stairs to the underground, and caught the tube one stop to Piccadilly Circus. We met there a family from our Europe tour just after 12.30pm, and the twelve of us went out for lunch. We were discussing where we should go, when I realised a Jamie Oliver restaurant was around the corner. Amazingly they took the 12 of us without a booking!! Our catch up with the family from Brisbane was a lovely time, and the food was reasonably priced and delicious. 

   
   
After saying our goodbyes, I took everyone to Hamley’s toy store, the oldest toy store in the world, over seven floors. It was like FAO Schwarz in New York, and even had its own Build A Bear workshop on one of the floors. Which is where of course Belle decided to stop and spend some of her spending money. Zac, Sam and Abi all walked out with souvenirs as well, so from there we walked around to Lillywhite’s, a discount sports retailer so Jarrod and Tim could shop. Ross noticed the other day the store had a lot of EPL merchandise, so we convinced the boys to buy up there rather than wait until they visit Old Trafford which may cost more.

   
 Our next stop was M&M World, where we could barely MOVE due to the crowds! The Jones boys (all of them) didn’t enjoy it, so left it to the girls to get a souvenir there. We visited M&M World in New York as well and there were similar crowds and a similar buzz there. The marketing of these stores is so good, it would make a great case study. Remind me to do this when I get home…after I have translated the children’s books I bought in Rome and Paris…😊

   
 We grabbed dinner and were back at our apartment by 6.30pm. Ross, Jarrod and Abi went to bed early because they have a big day tomorrow (they leave for their Manchester United game at 7.30am). I watched the movie Tangled with the others, and now only Abi and I are awake. There isn’t a lot on TV we are interested in, and I have finished the books I brought, so – don’t judge, but – we are watching the finale of The US Bachelor, and I am going to do some adult colouring in!