Ok, so this weekend was really fun. I didn’t think me, a 20 year old, would have fun at Disneyland, but I did. Really. Where to start? We left the house Saturday morning and spent the hour roadtrip jamming to Christophe Mae in the car. It was really fun. I got to have an hour long conversation with Geraldine, and I think that’s our first really long chat we’ve had. It was nice. When we arrived we went straight to the resort. We stayed at “Davy Crockett Ranch” which was super cool. We had log cabins in the woods. Since the whole family came for the weekend, we had two log cabins next to each other. They weren’t anything too special, just log cabins, but the grounds that they were on also had a pool (a huge one), a petting zoo, a park, running and bike paths, a couple Disney stores, a “saloon”, a restaurant, etc. After dropping off bags we headed to the park to meet up with the others. By now it was lunch time, so the sandwiches we had packed we devoured somewhere inside the park itself. Disneyland was really cool. Though I didn’t care to get any of the character’s autographs like all the kids, it was still fun to watch the kids get as excited as they did about each Disney character.
Riding the rides was also fun. It felt really good to be needed. Needed in a sense where the parents didn’t want to do all the rides, so the kids would beg me to come along. And needed in a sense also because when they’d get scared or scream they’d cling to me. I love that feeling. Though I don’t really like to think of myself growing up and getting older, I did like being one of the adults this weekend. After hours at the park we headed back to the hotel. We decided to go to the “piscine” (pool) and that was great. All the kids loved it because it was equipped with a waterfall, slide, huge bridge, whirpool, numerous hottubs, and more. You could tell it was new. The only thing that bugged me was that there were a lot of English speakers. Not Americans, but a lot of British and Irish people. I guess this is the place for Europeans to come to since the only other Disneyland/world are in the US.
When we finished at the pools we took showers there and got dressed to head to dinner. Dinner was included in our resort package, so we ate both nights at the Saloon. It was fun. It was a buffet and you could get as much as you wanted as many times as you wanted. The food was good, and after eating (outside) there was a magic show for the kids. By now it was close to 10pm. The magacian was really good and he called up a ton of kids from the audience. Also, next door to the Saloon was autograph signings and each hour a new Disney character would come and do autographs and pictures. I did get sucked into getting my picture taken once with the kids and Pluto. I think it was Pluto, I can’t remember.
When we got home from everything it was probably after 11. The kids, having been on the go since very early, and deprived of naps, were exhausted. I was too. I was so happy when Geraldine said “don’t set an alarm. When we get up, we get up. No big deal.” I loved hearing those words. The kids didn’t wake up till 9 on Sunday and that was great. I got dressed an found breakfast on our doorstep. Apparently we had already paid for breakfast ahead of time, like with our dinners, so it awaited us both morning on our doorsteps. Our neighbors were super loud though each morning. My family got into a lot of fights with them about the noise level. P.S. Our neighbors were the other half of Geraldine’s family (that was a joke). But we could hear everything going on in the cabins on both sides of us. But each morning they got up before us and started breakfast outside on the deck and that woke me up. But no big deal.
After breakfast we headed back to the park for day two. We spent the morning in line after line for ride after ride, however, on some rides we got to skip the lines because of Paul Hugo having a broken leg. He had this special “handicap pass” that Disney gave him and he was allowed to have up to 4-5 people accompany him. So, often times a bunch of us got to skip the lines. It was great. Plus, Disney gave him a wheelchair so he didn’t have to use his crutches all day and that was great because he’s only 8 and didn’t use up the full adult size wheel chair, so it ended up serving as an extra stroller where we could throw another kid on his lap. So, with the two other strollers we brought and the wheelchair, we had a total of 5 kids sitting and the 2 big ones walking. It wasn’t always like this, but when the kids got tired, it was great having all that extra room.
After our morning of rides, more autographs, and pictures with characters, we watched two or three parades. The funny this is, they sang the songs in English. The Disney songs exist in French because all my kids new the songs, but at Disneyland, the characters sang them in English. My kids were amazed I knew the words, and even Geraldine said “wow, you’ve got a good memory from when you were a kid”. Of course, I didn’t know all the songs, but the choruses I could at least sing along with. For lunch Sunday we went to “Infinity and Beyond”. It was the Buzz Lightyear Restaurant and it was really cool. It was super dark to give it an outter space feel. We had burgers and fries and I had to help David order everything because the person behind the counter was English (British). (…I think Disneyland Paris would be a fun place to work because they need people of every nationality (speaking all different langages) working there because people from all over the world come to visit it. Plus, it’s be great for me because I’d still get to use my French everyday, as well as stick to English some. Just an idea that popped into my head for next summer!)
Ok, I’m going to stop here “pour l’instant” (for the moment) so I can go to bed. But I’ll finish this in the morning since I’m not working till the afternoon.
