Update:  Disneyland!!!

We left Bordeaux bright and early Friday morning for our big drive north. We were away by 8:15 and all a bit sad to leave our lovely spot in the sunshine. The drive was epic, but went fairly smoothly until we got close to Paris and got a bit snarled up in traffic. We checked into the Davey Crockett Ranch at Disneyland just after 3pm, not bad going really, I think we covered around 600kms and had a couple of food and rest breaks.

We checked in and collected our park tickets and were also immediately sucked into forking our for the Mickey Mouse Wild West dinner show, we dumped our things in our little trailer and almost  ran for the park. There were still a couple of hours till closing and the park was relatively quiet.

We headed for the Pirates of the Caribbean (with an encounter with Goofy on the way) and all had a great time – even Bridie who was a bit worried while waiting in the queue. From there we wandered around a bit checking things out and went for a ride on the old-time carousel. The park was closing and it was time to head for the show – which was really great (if you got into the Disney spirit!) it was corny as hell, with everyone wearing cowboy hats, but they fed everyone a Texan BBQ meal while we watched the cowboys do rodeo tricks, texas longhorns, buffalo and loads of Disney characters do their thing in front of us. It was very well done, and Greer and Hannah were awestruck when the  cowboys came galloping out around the arena.

Day two – we had an early pass as we were staying at a Disney hotel, so we were up and at it and in the park by 8:30. Ash, Hannah and I were straight into Space mountain, then we all went on the Buzz Lightyear ride. I lose track after that, but we went all over the place and did loads. We liked the Tea cups, we left the long queue for Dumbo, we loved Space mountain (those of us over the height restriction) and we all loved the Rocky Mountain railroad (except Bridie who was terrified, but put on a very brave face).

We went out to the Disney Village for a lunch break and then checked out the Walt Disney Studio’s park. We didn’t stay long. It was full of rollercoasters, and was much more like Dreamworld or Universal. Not a bad thing, but not what we were there for, especially in the heat and with all the queues. We admitted defeat and headed back to the hotel for a fantastic swim in the enormous pool.

Fully refreshed we headed back to Disneyland for dinner at Pirates of the Caribbean and candy floss for pudding.

Sunday morning, we headed back to the park for repeats of Space Mountain, the mountain railroad, tea-cups and had heaps of fun in the Alice in Wonderland labyrinth. We lunched and really felt like we’d done everything when we headed for Charles de Gaulle to return our car and head for Heathrow.

All the travelling went smoothly, bloody immigration at Heathrow was mental again – nonsense considering our flight came in from the  EU, but I digress…we had plenty of time up our sleeves, so it was just a bore really. We had dinner in the airport and a nice swift flight to HK – arriving Monday afternoon about an hour ahead of schedule.