Looking at the Pirate Ship

We decided to celebrate Hamish’s first birthday by taking a trip to Disneyland Paris. We took the car and headed off on Sunday 17th around 10.30. It was nice to be going somewhere without having to catch a plane or a boat or anything; I took it nice and easy and had a good run. It took about four hours in all with a stop for an hour or so. The main problem we had was that I could not find the charger cable for the portable DVD player before we left and the battery died about an hour into the trip. We did get a 12v car adapter when we stopped for lunch, but it didn’t work for some reason.

We were staying in the Cheyenne hotel, so second one up on the 5-step hotel expensiveness ladder. It wasn’t too bad really, but I was disappointed that there was no DVD player. The TV channels were rubbish, too. There was also very little space for Hamish to crawl around in, particularly after we’d wedged the drawers open to stop him getting his fingers stuck in the drawers (which he did a couple of times before we wedged them open). Then he would bang his head on the bed or on the drawers. Ouch! The bed wasn’t particularly comfy either.

The weather forecast was rain for the duration of our stay, so we headed out to the park equipped with our rain coats each day. And each day was 30ºC in sunshine. Wouldn’t you know it? Perfect weather for most people.

We were using our Bush Baby backpack to carry Hamish. We got it a while back to use for Freya, but this was the first time we’d really tried it out. It really is quite an amazing bit of kit. Hamish was really comfy in it, which is of course the most important aspect of it. He could look around and see what was going on and sleep in it too. It has a removable backpack, which we removed and used to carry the changing gear. It also had enough space to store the rain coats, but of course that added to the weight quite a bit. And comfortable though the straps may be, it still got sore carrying all that weight around around all day long.

Hamish in the Busy Baby

Lorraine carried him for most of the time and didn’t complain once!On the first day we went on the carousel, me on a horse and the kids and mummy in a chariot. And the next day we went back on again, this time with mummy and Freya on a horse and me and Hamish in a chariot. Freya was upset because she wanted the green horse.

One of the best rides we went on was It’s a Small World. I was filming that so didn’t get it on the still camera. Freya really enjoyed that one. Oh, and she also had a lot of fun on the spinning teacups in Fantasy Land. Thankfully we got a pink one!

In the Pink Teacup in Adventure Land

She enjoyed meeting the characters, although she was very wary of them at first. The first meeting was with Pluto on the night of our arrival. He came into the dining hall and was going round meeting the kids. Freya wanted to go up to meet him but then was afraid when she got there and hid behind my legs. When we went back to meet him the next time, Pluto had gone out through the kitchen and one of the kitchen staff went running behind to ask him to come back out and meet Freya. He was most accommodating and managed to put Freya at her ease. Thereafter Pluto was her clear favourite of all the characters!

Freya and Pluto

Hamish’s birthday was on the 19th and we stumped up an extra 50 euros to have a special birthday breakfast at Mickey’s Café (and because the breakfast at the Cheyenne dining hall was like a cattle market and not a great experience at all really). So Hamish and Freya got to meet the chipmunks, Gepetto and Pluto again.

We booked Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show for the birthday evening and it was a lot of fun. Freya did get a bit frightened during some of it and hid under the table, but for the most part she enjoyed it. It was a really good show actually; well planned out, well acted and well enacted.

So, all in all it was a fun trip, if a little on the expensive side and besides the fact that it was too hot for mum and dad. Freya enjoyed it a great deal, Hamish was just happy being with his family, and mum and dad got to spend some time in each other’s company.

Oh, and Freya got to meet Sully too. He may even have surpassed Pluto in her list of favourites since Sully got a big kiss from her too!

Meeting Sully and Mike