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 😉