Mickey who?

So the plan was hatched and Disneyland it was to be. Believe me it wasn't long ago I NEVER thought I'd see the day I voluntarily chose to go to Disneyland. In fact Malc and I had had a number of conversations about whether Bella was too young to go. I thought she was too young, Malc thought not. Anyway being the sort of person I am I did the research amongst the English mummy club of Paris, and it became apparent that with a suitable game plan, we could go and have an enjoyable day. So we booked a nearby hotel for two nights and lunch at Mickey's cafe. We weren't entirely sure until the last minute whether we would actually go in to the park or whether lunch at Mickey's would be enough. Well we got swept along with the excitement at the hotel (I think Bella was a bit disappointed when she discovered it wasn't actually our new house). Who can resist those Mickey ears and princess dresses (???) so we decided to go to the park. It was a beautiful sunny day, we were there as the gates opened, and rushed off to Fantasyland. We went straight to Alice's teacups. It took Bella a while to adjust herself to the craziness, but by the end of the first ride she was smiling. The joy (I think) of going with a pre-schooler is actually they don't want to go on the big and popular rides so you don't spend all day queuing. We had a couple of family goes around a Small Small World. Malc and Bella had a ride on somebody's train (Casey Jones maybe).

It was then time for lunch at Mickey's. This is where you get to see the A-list crowd (Mickey, Goofy, Pluto etc.). By this time we had the obligatory autograph book and pen. It was going well until Prince John, a rather large lion and from Robin Hood and Mickey visited our table at the same time. Now we all know Bella and lions don't have the best of relationships. So we had some tears. She recovered enough to give Mickey a kiss, but spent the rest of the lunch behind the safe protection of daddy, with her back to the wall. Daddy did a good job of collecting the autogaphs.

After lunch back in to the park, where we went to see the other bits. Sebastian woke up and met Gideon. I only know he's called Gideon 'cos that's the name he signed in the book. Not sure what he does when he's not signing autographs. We saw Cinderella but the queue for her autograph was about 500 little girls long, so we skipped that one. We did meet the mice who made her dress though. I took Bella up Robinson Crusoe's treehouse. I have to say there was a heck of a lot of steps and not much up there, and I'm sure he lived on the beach. By the time we got to Adventureland Bella fell asleep. We stayed for the parade, mainly to see Minnie, before getting the shuttle back to the hotel for another peaceful night's sleep in a family room for four...