Cast Members
Me, Sarah Croote: organiser, driver, lover of all things Disney.
DH, Paul Not Disney again!?! Croote.
DD, Hannah aged 3, a proper princess or should that be madam?!
Our holiday buddies, the Fairhursts!
My friend, Katy, 5 months pregnant with number 3!!!
Katys DH, Pete aka Pirate Pete.
DD1, Eloise, aged 3, loves princesses, Mickey and Minnie.
DD2, Emily, aged 18 months, aka Millie Mouse! Loves Dumbo!
Day Three, September 21st 2006
This morning really did dawn bright and sunny yippee, it was gonna be a warm one! With Hannah suitably attired in her favourite pink dress, we left the house at 8.50 am and stormed into the park with only one thing on our minds princesses! The girls were desperate to meet more so we were on a mission.
We arrived at the rope which lead down to the stage at around 9.40am and took our places at the front. Meanwhile, Paul went to queue over by Space Mountain so that he could obtain Fastpasses for us all. The air was spiked with tension as everyone steeled themselves for that moment when the rope would drop and we would all race like thoroughbreds in the Derby! Well, maybe not quite like that. Anyway, I picked up Hannah as I knew what was to come from my experiences with the Splash Mountain Dash in Florida. This was just as funny.
As they dropped the rope (literally) we all surged forwards: Katy dragging Ellie and Millie, Pete pushing the pushchair and me, well I tripped over the rope!!! Luckily, I escaped the full humiliation of going A over T and got away with a few fairly dignified stumbles. Phew! I dashed under the ropes and achieved a place pretty damn close to the front of the line mission accomplished! Nevertheless, there were still some damn pushy, elbow-wielding people and it was a bit of a struggle to maintain our place the cattle prod did help though!
We were on the stage in around 10 mins and Hannah was truly thrilled to see that it was Belle and Cinderella. Belle is her favourite and I have a feeling that she may have been a favourite with a few of the men as well!
A rest stop was required at this point and we headed for the toilets in Fantasyland. As we came out we spotted a few characters and managed to get some quality time with Donald Duck who wed never seen before!
Unfortunately, by the time we got to Winnie-the-Pooh the hoards had descended and it took another battle to get an autograph and photo.
We then decided to head for Space Mountain as they were not yet distributing Fastpasses and we wanted to get there before any significant queue had builded up. Leaving the children with Katy, who is a big wimp where serious rides are concerned, we made our way through the extremely dark passageways to the launch area. We boarded, got shot out of a cannon, yelled a lot, had our heads banged around several times in the dark, enjoyed the pretty lights and got off. It was great to get a coaster fix but I had no compulsion to ride again.
The troops had decided that Orbitron or The Rockets as Hannah calls them, were next on the list and I stayed behind as chief photographer and keeper of the pushchairs. This is basically because I am rather on the short side and cannot reach the lever not even with my feet!
The Crootes and the Fairhursts then parted ways as we were due for our lunch at Café Mickey and Katy and co. were off for a quiet lunch which didnt involve a bunch of big, furry characters! It actually felt quite liberating to be heading in the wrong direction out of the park. On the way to Disney Village Hannah fell asleep and as we were slightly ahead of schedule we wandered around the shops until it was time for our 12.00 reservation.
It was blissfully quiet in the restaurant, with only us and one other family in there. We had just enough time to order food before Mickey and Minnie appeared. Hannah was still asleep but with Mickeys help we woke her up. She was so surprised and Mickey then sat her on his lap and cuddled her soooo cute!
This really was a great meal: good food and excellent character interaction as there were so few people there, particularly at the start of the meal. I would thoroughly recommend it. We met Minnie, Mickey, Prince John and Friar Tuck (Robin Hood), Pluto, Goofy and Chip and Dale.
We left at around 1.40pm and headed back to Disneyland Park to meet up with our holiday buddies again. A few Fantasyland rides later we decided it was time to stake out a shady spot for the parade. It was pretty hot by now and shade was an absolute necessity if we were to sit through a 45 min wait plus the parade. We grabbed one of the last places available and took time to have some drinks and snacks.
The parade was as fantastic as ever and lots of kisses were blown the girls way, which they loved. The blokes particularly liked the ones from Belle!
With the parade over we headed back to our favourite haunt, Fantasyland. Paul and Pete took the girls on Its a Small World for the umpteenth time while Katy and I went into Adventureland to ride POTC. What a great ride! For some reason I havent been on this since we went to Florida five years ago and it was good to YoHo away to our hearts content again! In fact we YoHoed away for the rest of the day, to the extent that after a while Hannah and Eloise were joining in too!
Back into Fantasyland AGAIN as we had decided on Toad Hall for tea! I had heard some not-so-good reports on this but we had visited back in November and liked the chunky chips so we thought it would be as good. We were right in that the food was fine but the service was shocking! There was no queue but we had to wait 15 mins for our food as they kept forgetting parts of our order! It was just bizarre!
Nevertheless, the food filled a gap and we then set off to ride all the girls favourites: Le Pays des Conte de Fees, Casey Jr train, Peter Pan, the Carousel, Teacups and Dumbo.
After all this the girls were flagging as it was around 6.30pm so we decided to head for a dress shop so that the girls would have one to wear for their last day in the parks. Needless to say they took about half an hour to decide! Clutching my AP, determined to get my 10% off I headed for the till with 3 dresses: Sleeping Beauty for Hannah; Mulan for Eloise and Minnie Mouse for Emily. The total was around 135 Euros for the 3 with my discount. Ouch!
We were all set for tomorrow so we headed for home via City Hall to make a booking for our last meal together. We had wanted to go to The Auberge de Cendrillon but for some reason it was closed, so opted for the Silver Spur Steakhouse instead.
Tomorrow: Plaza Gardens brekkie, Studios, Steakhouse and more dresses!
Me, Sarah Croote: organiser, driver, lover of all things Disney.
DH, Paul Not Disney again!?! Croote.
DD, Hannah aged 3, a proper princess or should that be madam?!
Our holiday buddies, the Fairhursts!
My friend, Katy, 5 months pregnant with number 3!!!
Katys DH, Pete aka Pirate Pete.
DD1, Eloise, aged 3, loves princesses, Mickey and Minnie.
DD2, Emily, aged 18 months, aka Millie Mouse! Loves Dumbo!
Day Three, September 21st 2006
This morning really did dawn bright and sunny yippee, it was gonna be a warm one! With Hannah suitably attired in her favourite pink dress, we left the house at 8.50 am and stormed into the park with only one thing on our minds princesses! The girls were desperate to meet more so we were on a mission.
We arrived at the rope which lead down to the stage at around 9.40am and took our places at the front. Meanwhile, Paul went to queue over by Space Mountain so that he could obtain Fastpasses for us all. The air was spiked with tension as everyone steeled themselves for that moment when the rope would drop and we would all race like thoroughbreds in the Derby! Well, maybe not quite like that. Anyway, I picked up Hannah as I knew what was to come from my experiences with the Splash Mountain Dash in Florida. This was just as funny.
As they dropped the rope (literally) we all surged forwards: Katy dragging Ellie and Millie, Pete pushing the pushchair and me, well I tripped over the rope!!! Luckily, I escaped the full humiliation of going A over T and got away with a few fairly dignified stumbles. Phew! I dashed under the ropes and achieved a place pretty damn close to the front of the line mission accomplished! Nevertheless, there were still some damn pushy, elbow-wielding people and it was a bit of a struggle to maintain our place the cattle prod did help though!
We were on the stage in around 10 mins and Hannah was truly thrilled to see that it was Belle and Cinderella. Belle is her favourite and I have a feeling that she may have been a favourite with a few of the men as well!
A rest stop was required at this point and we headed for the toilets in Fantasyland. As we came out we spotted a few characters and managed to get some quality time with Donald Duck who wed never seen before!
Unfortunately, by the time we got to Winnie-the-Pooh the hoards had descended and it took another battle to get an autograph and photo.
We then decided to head for Space Mountain as they were not yet distributing Fastpasses and we wanted to get there before any significant queue had builded up. Leaving the children with Katy, who is a big wimp where serious rides are concerned, we made our way through the extremely dark passageways to the launch area. We boarded, got shot out of a cannon, yelled a lot, had our heads banged around several times in the dark, enjoyed the pretty lights and got off. It was great to get a coaster fix but I had no compulsion to ride again.
The troops had decided that Orbitron or The Rockets as Hannah calls them, were next on the list and I stayed behind as chief photographer and keeper of the pushchairs. This is basically because I am rather on the short side and cannot reach the lever not even with my feet!
The Crootes and the Fairhursts then parted ways as we were due for our lunch at Café Mickey and Katy and co. were off for a quiet lunch which didnt involve a bunch of big, furry characters! It actually felt quite liberating to be heading in the wrong direction out of the park. On the way to Disney Village Hannah fell asleep and as we were slightly ahead of schedule we wandered around the shops until it was time for our 12.00 reservation.
It was blissfully quiet in the restaurant, with only us and one other family in there. We had just enough time to order food before Mickey and Minnie appeared. Hannah was still asleep but with Mickeys help we woke her up. She was so surprised and Mickey then sat her on his lap and cuddled her soooo cute!
This really was a great meal: good food and excellent character interaction as there were so few people there, particularly at the start of the meal. I would thoroughly recommend it. We met Minnie, Mickey, Prince John and Friar Tuck (Robin Hood), Pluto, Goofy and Chip and Dale.
We left at around 1.40pm and headed back to Disneyland Park to meet up with our holiday buddies again. A few Fantasyland rides later we decided it was time to stake out a shady spot for the parade. It was pretty hot by now and shade was an absolute necessity if we were to sit through a 45 min wait plus the parade. We grabbed one of the last places available and took time to have some drinks and snacks.
The parade was as fantastic as ever and lots of kisses were blown the girls way, which they loved. The blokes particularly liked the ones from Belle!
With the parade over we headed back to our favourite haunt, Fantasyland. Paul and Pete took the girls on Its a Small World for the umpteenth time while Katy and I went into Adventureland to ride POTC. What a great ride! For some reason I havent been on this since we went to Florida five years ago and it was good to YoHo away to our hearts content again! In fact we YoHoed away for the rest of the day, to the extent that after a while Hannah and Eloise were joining in too!
Back into Fantasyland AGAIN as we had decided on Toad Hall for tea! I had heard some not-so-good reports on this but we had visited back in November and liked the chunky chips so we thought it would be as good. We were right in that the food was fine but the service was shocking! There was no queue but we had to wait 15 mins for our food as they kept forgetting parts of our order! It was just bizarre!
Nevertheless, the food filled a gap and we then set off to ride all the girls favourites: Le Pays des Conte de Fees, Casey Jr train, Peter Pan, the Carousel, Teacups and Dumbo.
After all this the girls were flagging as it was around 6.30pm so we decided to head for a dress shop so that the girls would have one to wear for their last day in the parks. Needless to say they took about half an hour to decide! Clutching my AP, determined to get my 10% off I headed for the till with 3 dresses: Sleeping Beauty for Hannah; Mulan for Eloise and Minnie Mouse for Emily. The total was around 135 Euros for the 3 with my discount. Ouch!
We were all set for tomorrow so we headed for home via City Hall to make a booking for our last meal together. We had wanted to go to The Auberge de Cendrillon but for some reason it was closed, so opted for the Silver Spur Steakhouse instead.
Tomorrow: Plaza Gardens brekkie, Studios, Steakhouse and more dresses!
Looking forward to your next part. 
