Early to rise, and early to bed ……. LOL

The alarm went off at 6am and we quickly discarded the idea of getting up in favour of another 30 minutes of sleep.

At 6.30 we finally got up, took showers and fixed a quick breakfast. At 7.45 we were out the door and heading over to Disneyland Park for Extra Magic Hours. We arrived at the park at 8.15 and there were already long lines for bag check and people were going inside the park for breakfast and Extra Magic Hours.Inside the park there were still fairly few people and we enjoyed an empty Main Square and a leisurely stroll up Main Street. It was nice to see the castle without a lot of people in front of it and we after having a peek into Fantasyland we decided that instead of going for the rides we had been on, on previous trips we were going for photos.

First we checked out the new instalments around the castle that were put in place for the DREAMS show. Then we walked inside the castle and up the stairs to the Sleeping Beauty glass windows.

Once we had taken in all the pictures we walked onto the balcony outside and there you could see all the preparations for the fireworks and have a good view of Fantasyland. We slowly walked down the stairs and through Fantasyland, taking a peek into SnowWhite’s ride. The line for Dumbo was long, but Peter Pan had only a 10 minute wait and it was more a walk on than that. After that we strolled towards Alice’s Curious Labyrinth and Mickey was holding his meet and greet next to it. Again we thought about It’s a Small World, but it wasn’t open yet, so we just walked to the other side of the castle, walked along the stage to the side of the castle and finally into Discoveryland.

Since the stores were fairly empty we decided to walk in and take some photos there too. We bought one or two items, had a good look at the 20th anniversary merchandise and then strolled over to the Buzz Lightyear Ride, but it already had a 25 minute wait, so we passed. Café Hyperion was close by and because the doors were open we decided to peek in if maybe they were open and we could get a coffee. No, they were still closed, but the movie theatre was up and running and we sat down and watched a few cartoons. After that it was time for a bodily break, before we left again through the door towards the Star Wars ride. The ride wasn’t open yet, but the store next to it was, so we walked through and around Space Mountain.

When we got back to the hub the crowds had picked up and they were ready for rope drop, so we decided it was time for us to head out of the park and walk over to the Walt Disney Studios to try the new rides. We were happy to be inside the bag check area walking from park to park as the lines looked pretty long. We headed over to the turnstiles and funnily enough on Day 2 my annual pass decided not to work already. So, after a little delay we were in and walked through the store in front of the main building before heading into the Studios. First stop were the Tower of Terror fastpass machines. Then we headed over to the new toy story part of the park.

Last time we had been there, the crowds had been huge and we had passed by the rides, but this time they were on my to do list. Having read that the Parachute drop was the slowest loading ride, this is where we headed first. We got in line and were very lucky as the line was pretty short and we only had to wait for two sets of people going through. Now, the line area is cute, but could do with a little more distraction. Before we got onto our parachutes we had to put our bags onto little crates, then we hopped on, closed the belts and lowered the safety bar and then we were off. The ride pulls you up and drops you a few times, nothing too exciting, but still a nice ride that gives you a great view over the area.

Once we were back to the ground we hit the RC racers as they looked like they had no line at all. Well, this line was fun, it goes backwards and forwards and looks like the tracks of a racing car setup. And it winds, and winds and winds for quite a while until you end up close to the loading area, where the line just snakes back and forth. We had walked up there all the way without hitting a line, but I would not like to queue up there for an hour or more. Once we hit the building we were amazed to see that there was another line area within the building. So they are prepared to deal with large crowds. Once we got close to the loading area they were looking for a party of two and we volunteered and were rewarded with a front row seat.

Now, that ride was super fun. You sit in a race car that runs up and down, backwards and forwards in a U-shaped track. It gets pretty fast and is really fun. Again, the ride was short and over far too quickly and we had to get out. There was one more ride we wanted to do, the Slinky Dog ride. Now, this is really a carnival ride, but since we hadn’t done it, we at least wanted to give it a try, and to be able to say we had done all the new rides. The line was the longest of them all, and the line area was pretty boring too, but we had fun watching the kids in line and the 20 minutes until our group was allowed on went by quickly. We found a compartment for the two of us, got in, lowered the bar and off we went round and round and round. It was fun and reminded me of Slinky Dog.

Once we had done those three rides we slowly walked towards Cars land, but lines had considerably picked up by now and the line for Crush’s Coaster was already 90 minutes long. We peeked into the Animation building, but our time for the Tower of Terror fastpass was already open and we headed that way. There was a long standby line and the fastpass lane was clogged by people waiting for their window to open, so we squeezed through and were in line quickly. It took about two minutes to make our way to the library. Unfortunately the spiel is in French and loses a lot of  its fun in translation. A few minutes later we walked into the boiler room and had a fun bellhop, who hopped between languages perfectly. The ride is different from the one in Walt Disney World but it was fun none the less. We walked out through the gift shop and had a look around, but there was nothing new, so we headed outside. By then it was around midday and we were getting hungry. There are no restaurants that we like in the Walt Disney Studios park, so we decided to head outside and have a look if any of the village restaurant had availability. When we walked into the Village we knew where we wanted to eat, Annette’s Diner. The line was out the door, but it usually moves quickly and that day was no exception. We were quickly seated in one of their booths and handed a menu. .

There was no problem ordering drinks, two Diet Cokes as always. Tom ordered a burger, the Rock'n'Roll Burger - Bacon, cheese and Annette's sauce, with a side of French Fries. I had found something else that I wanted to try. So I ordered two starters, a Caesar Salad with freshly shaved Parmesan cheese and the Fried Camembert with Annette’s Sauce for dipping. We both enjoyed our lunch very much, but we were ready to order dessert. Tom went for the Cookies and Cream milk shake, while I ordered the The Cheesiest Choice of Cheesecake, Cheesecake with Philadelphia cheese and speculoos, pan-fried apples with caramel, vanilla ice cream, toasted almonds, cinnamon, Annette's caramel sauce and whipped cream. Yum!

After we had settled the bill we walked through the Disney Village again, before we decided to head over to Auchan to do a little more shopping. We had learned that our bakery would not be open the next morning, so we had to get some fresh baguette for dinner and breakfast the next morning. While at the Val d’Europe shopping centre we did some window shopping, then went back to Auchan and picked up some more yummies for dinner, as we had no intention of eating out a second time that day. We got back to our villa at around 3.30 and checked the internet and just sat and rested for a while.

At around 5 pm we got dinner ready, meaning we took out mostly everything that was in the fridge and had another nice picknick in front of the TV. We both were tired and when I mentioned to Tom that I was not keen on driving back to the parks he was more than willing to stay in the villa and make it an early night. So once we had cleared the table again we quickly packed up our stuff, then rested on the couch in front of the TV with a box of yummy French pastries. At around 9pm I went to check what the noise was that we could hear and when I opened the shutters I knew that we had make a wise decision staying home. It was raining cats and dogs and no way would they have had a parade and the Disney Dreams show. We headed to bed at around 10pm and were out like a light.