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!