SV Laurin: Day 40 & 41: 22nd & 23rd July 2017 Disneyland and Recovery

We went to Disneyland Paris last year. We went for 5 days/4 nights. We had a great time with extended family and it was supposed to be a once in a lifetime event for the kids. Then we realised we'd be passing only a few kilometres away on our trip! The kids really wanted to go again so we used it as a bribe. We needed to get rid of some of their toys so we said we'd use the proceeds to pay for Disney, not knowing exactly how we would get there and back from the river. I was also concerned that it might be a bit of a damp squid... how could one day (without extra magic hours) possibly compare or compete with our amazing 5 day stay?

In the end it wasn't too bad. The town of Langy has a lovely free pontoon which you can stay on for 48 hours and a regular bus service to Disneyland (2 euro's each way per person). Unfortunately though the bus times tied in with train times not Disney closing times! Disney closes at 11pm and then there are the illuminations which I think are amazing and didn't want to miss. The last 2 buses were 11pm and 12:40am, so we were left with a choice of missing the illuminations, waiting an hour for a bus with 2 very tired kids, or paying goodness knows how much for a taxi.

We packed lots of snacks and headed to the bus stop for 9:30 and were at Disneyland for when it opened at 10am. We had a plan. The kids knew that space mountain had been rebranded as Hyperspace mountain and given a star wars theme. Despite neither of them liking rollercoasters both wanted to go on it so we got a fast pass straight away and then went to Autopia where they can drive cars round a track. There is no fast pass for this ride and the queue's can be really long so we wanted to do this first. Lovely ride then back to Space Mountain. Both kids bottled it at the final stage so Patrick and I took turns to go on individually.

Many rides later and we decided it was time for a late lunch, so out we went to Planet Hollywood as we thought it might be better value than inside the park. It was, marginally but still not a "nice" meal which kind of stung as it was our first meal out of the trip and certainly ate into our food budget for this month. Over lunch Esmé told me she really did want to go on Space Mountain!

Back into the park and Esmé had chance to catch up with Donald before we found our places for the parade. Completely by luck we had an amazing spot and seeing some fellow Brits behind us with kids on shoulders we invited their kids to the front with ours. Despite AJ not really being that enthusiastic about the parade both kids really enjoyed it.

On to Peter Pan, a ride which wasn't open when we were there last year..... great ride flying through Neverland! Then plenty more rides before we returned to Discoveryland for Esmé to have another try at Space Mountain. A lovely lady who was still there from the morning remembered her and was saying how brave she was and that it was ok to scream! She walked straight on and loved it. After this we stopped for some snacks and to hide from the rain. By this time it was 8:50pm so we decided (me very reluctantly) on one more ride before heading for the 10pm bus. After going on Star Tours again AJ announced he would also like to go on Space Mountain so we all went on together. Can't believe my nervous, anxious boy went on an upside down rollercoaster!

We were now looking at the 11pm bus when the kids saw Utopia open again. Pleading eyes saw Patrick reluctantly agree as the rain had now stopped. Straight from Autopia to the illuminations which were beautiful.

Both kids were really great and even better when we refused the taxi as it was going to cost 40 Euros. I gave my coat to the kids to put over their legs, got ipods out, and fed them sweets to make the hour wait for the number 23 bus a little less painful.

Finally arrived back at the boat at 1:15am.

Sunday!

We finally all woke at about 10am and I cooked us a big breakfast.

I took the kids back to the park while Patrick tidied up and then we were on our way to Meaux, a short distance away but looked like it might have a crane to lift us out.

Through a couple of quite turbulent locks with a tunnel between them, and lots of peaceful riverbanks.

We finally arrived at Meaux and chose the free halt a little way away from the boatyard. As we passed the boatyard we thought we could see a swimming area cordoned off so once alongside we grabbed the kids swim stuff and off we went.

As we walked past the boatyard the crane looked far too small for us so I guess we'll be lifting out at H2O boatyard further on.

We walked past the boatyard towards the swimming to find a whole area of free activities for kids. First they had a swim then they tried the other activities. AJ had a go on a surf simulator while Esmé went on a bouncy castle. Both had a go on the climbing wall and then Esmé and Patrick played golf while AJ played football, eventually joined by Esmé.