Let the battle commence!

We woke and dressed early, or what we regarded as early, only to find the queue to get into breakfast a mile long well before 8am. It was buffet-all-you-can-eat stuff like sugary cereal, croissants, pain au chocolats, toast etc so the kids were happy. There was plenty of food but people are just, well, greedy and taking ridiculous amounts and pushing and shoving to get a table. Hubby had to battle to get a cup of tea and coffee as people were pushing in the line. As we sat drinking our morning beverages, listening to the loud announcements counting down the opening of the park, and observing everyone, Hubby reflected "Humanity at its worst."

I'm sure everyone is normally really nice in their normal life but the race to get to the rides just seems to bring out the ugly competitiveness and rudeness in people. I do include myself in that statement and there were a few times that speed walking actually turned into a trot just to try and get ahead. The shame.

So we had made a plan the night before and that failed miserably almost straight away as we hadn't realised that Disney studios didn't open until 10am so we headed to Discoveryland in Disneyland only to find that few rides were actually open (if you stay in a Disney hotel you get access to the park for two hours in the morning, before the main gates open at 10am) so this seemed like a bit of a con. Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast was closed due to technical issues, Space Mountain was closed for our entire stay, and lots of other rides weren't opening until 10am! Star Tours was open and the queue was relatively short so we headed onto that. Olivia loved it but Dex hated it and clung to me crying. The ride didn't have a warning to say that it may frighten younger guests which was bit strange considering some of the rides that have the warning sign.


Not a great start but we decided to head to Disney Studios after this to see if we could 'start again.' This time things went according to plan and we began to really enjoy ourselves.
We did the following rides:
* Flying carpets over Agrabah.
* Cars Quatre Roues Rallye - the kids absolutely loved this one as they sat in a Lightening McQueen car.
* Animagique - this was a back light show featuring scenes from the Disney classics which was great.
* Moteurs...Action! This was a stunt show spectacular and one which we all loved, especially me. The icing on the cake though was when a life size McQueen car drove out of the back of a lorry - Dex's face lit up, it was magic!
* Toy Story Playland - the kids had no interest in the parachute drop for some reason so we went on the Slinky Dog Zigzag Spin which was fun. 

We had an explore of this area and then headed to Ratatouille which was closed due to technical problems so Neil and Olivia queued up for The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror which looked terrifying and myself and Dex managed to be in the right place at the right time to catch a parade where the Disney characters were signing autographs and Dex managed to get three and have his photograph taken with them. We waited ages for Neil and Olivia as apparently when they were close to the front of the line the ride closed due to, you guessed it...technical problems! Myself and Dex had a wander and he tried out the Monsters inc. Scream-o-meters. We finally met up with the other two had were on a high after the ride as they said it was so scary but brilliant. I'll take their word for it.
We had one more ride on the Cars Quatre Roues Rallye before heading back to the hotel for a tactical nap for everyone.

Refreshed, we headed back into the park at 6pm where we had a lovely meal at Billy Bob's restaurant and then we went back into Disneyland for more rides. The queues were really quite short at this time as we only had to wait a few minutes. We did Peter Pan's flight and then we headed to Adventureland to do Pirates of the Carribean where we got a little bit wet but it was fun.

Then it was time for the Disney Spectacular light show at 9.30pm. We had a fairly good place but both kids needed to be picked up as some very annoying adults came and stood right in front of them just before the show started. I'd been fiddling with my camera trying to get the best setting for the fireworks but I wasn't banking on carrying a seven year old as well so my firework photos weren't as good as I hoped as I only had the use of one hand! However the show really was spectacular and well worth the wait. It really was incredibly well done and the music was infectious. 

We were all very tired on our walk back to the hotel but it had been a fun packed day. Looking forward to tomorrow!

Olivia insisted on wearing her Jessie from Toy Story outfit today which I loved her for. There were so many little girls wearing Princess dresses but she just didn't seem bothered, and she really stood out as we didn't see another Jessie. I did bring her Elsa dress though just incase!