The Disneyland Parade

At the end of Day 2 in Disneyland we positioned ourselves in prime spot to get a spectacular view of the parade. The boys pretty much got to see just about every Disney character imaginable and the floats were absolutely stunning

The Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy and Pluto float.

The Alice in Wonderland float.

The boys favourite, of course Woody and Buzz.

Captain Hooks scary ship float.

Aladdin with the evil Jafar, the giant snake and of course the blue genie on the back.

The boys have only watched Lion King once - and they really don't like Scar. They think he should be locked up in prison.



Sinba standing proud on the Lion King float.



The Jungle Book had to be one of the tallest of the floats.

The beautiful colours of the underwater world of the Little Mermaid.

How about this adorable picture of Brandon. We decided to take a break from the sun and sat in a nice little Disney Cafe for a cooling pot of ice cream. Brandon was being a bit protective of his chocolate ice cream - touch if you dare.

Tina tried but got a fist in the mouth for her efforts.

To end this amazing day we went for a nice dinner in the Rainforest Restaurant along the Disney Village. The food was great but as with everything in Paris/Disney - expensive. Brandon was actually a little scared in the restaurant itself. He was fine with all the fake animals but he didn't like it when they simulated a thunder storm with flashing lights and sounds effects.

Dinner for four in the Rainforest Restaurant.

So much excitement on day 2 and despite being completely knackered the boys still dragged me down to the swimming pool until about 9:30pm!!! Anyway Day 2 over, Day 3 and 4 to follow.

Disneyland Paris - Day 2 continued

After our breakfast with Mickey and friends we headed back into Disneyland Park. It seems every time you walk down the Main Street towards the Princess Castle you notice something different. The attention to detail is incredible and even the street lamps have ornate pictures of Disney Characters.

The Main Street early in the morning - if only the park stayed this quiet!

Goofy lamp post.

A Donald lamp post with the castle in the background - nice picture.

It became impossible to walk down the Main Street without the boys dashing off and playing in some of the old cars. The only way to tempt them away from the vehicles was to remind them of the rides. 

The two boys trying to figure out the vehicle controls.

This old bus transports people up and down the Main Street. We were fortunate enough to be in the right place at the right time to get a ride on this (and upstairs for the best view).

At the boys request the first ride of the day was back to the Buzz Lightyear blast ride.



Tina and the boys with a life size Buzz Lightyear chatting away in the background.

The guns fired a red laser beam to hit various targets as you go through the ride. The boys ended up using their spending money from Nanny to buy a replica of these guns to play with at home. 

Joshua in action zapping some of the aliens and robots.

One of the many robots to shoot at. Brandon was a little afraid until we explained they were not real.

Me and Brandon. I did the shooting and Brandon was controlling our space ship.

The end of the ride were Buzz defeats the evil Zorg.

When you look at this picture I guess you can kind of understand why Brandon was a little scared.

After spending the morning in Discovery Land we finally bit the bullet and joined the line for the 10am opening of Autopia. Fortunately we only had about a 30 min wait, but it was worth every minute as these cars were a real blast and the boys got to do the driving.



Waiting patiently in the line - not long now.

Brandon really wanted the yellow car. Unfortunately this ride was a case of take what is given to you and not be too picky.

There are plenty of cars on the track so the waiting line keeps moving at a steady rate.

Finally Joshua gets behind the wheel and is ready to race.

Me and Brandon rode the car in front of Tina and Josh. We ended up with a pretty pink car with yellow stripes!

In the picture below I had stopped our car to take an action shot of Joshua driving (assuming Tina would make him brake before crashing into me and Brandon). I was wrong - bloody women drivers! Its no wonder poor Brandon didn't end up with whip lash. Claims Direct he we come.....

Tina and Josh got the sleek black car.

Driving along in my automobile......

Joshua is quite tall for his age and as a result can pretty much ride on about 80% of the attractions as long as an adult is with him. He was fortunate enough to be able to go on the Star Wars simulator which was really cool. Brandon was not so fortunate - we need to stretch the little guy a bit more!

Joshua posing for a picture with a X-wing fighter.

After all the excitement of the morning we took a relaxing trip on the Disneyland Railroad around to Frontierland. I had promised Joshua a ride on Thunder Mountain as he loves roller coasters, unfortunately it was shut for refurbishment. So we decided to have a picnic here before moving on to Adventureland.

Brandon sitting nicely at the bench. Although I think he fed the ducks more of his roll than what he ate himself. On holiday Brandon found out that he really like hot cross buns though and scoffed a few of those.

In Adventureland we had a good explore in "La Cabane des Robinson" which is basically the mother of all tree houses. This thing must go at least 50ft up in the air.

Joshua at the top of Robinson's tree house at the helm.

Just check out the size of the tree trunk for this tree house.

Joshua taking aim at the Captain Hook's pirate ship.

Boys will be boys and will climb anything and everything.

This is the very impressive Captain Hook's pirate ship.

In adventure isle there is a network of caves and suspension bridges to explore. Within the secret hide-out caves we found the Skull Rock. 

Skull Rock carved into the secret hidden caves.

The boys trying to balance as the cross one of the suspension bridges in adventure isle.

Like I said earlier, the boys will climb anywhere and everywhere.

Towards the end of the day we ended up back in Fantasy Land and back on the circus train and the fairy tale cruise. On part of the fairy tale cruise you go through the mouth of a dragon cave which once again scared little Brandon a bit. We tried to explain to him that it was just a cave but he was not fooled and told us it was a scary dinosaur mouth.



The scary dinosaur mouth.

At the very end of the day we was once again in the right place at the right time and managed to catch a ride back down Main Street on a horse and carriage. The boys were amazed with the strength of the horse to pull along the big carriage fully loaded with passengers.

Me and two tired boys taking a ride on the horse and carriage.

A view looking forward in the fully loaded carriage at the powerhouse horse pulling us along.

The boys saying thank you to the horse for the rise and giving him a nice stroke.

Day 2 was not quite finished yet. We still had the parade to watch, an evening meal in the Rainforest Restaurant and then as if that wasn't enough the boys wanted to go late night swimming. But all that can wait until the next blog update.