Stephen's Story

I've mentioned previously that I love social media - it definitely has it's dark side but for me personally it's been a way of keeping in touch with family and friends world wide, I've made a whole host of new friends (some of whom are now my closest confidantes), I've been able to source large amounts of information regarding my disability and connect to people in similar situations, I've been a part of movements to raise huge amounts of awareness / money for charities at the click of a button and I can follow some 'celebrities' that I admire / like without leaving the sofa.

One of those celebrities is Jason Manford.  For those of you that don't know who he is, Jason is a British comedian and comes across as a generally nice bloke who adores his children. My husband and I went to see one of his shows last year and it was fantastic - like going out for a night with your friends, having a drink & chat with loads of laughs thrown in! I've admired him from afar for some time for the way that he uses his fame / celebrity status - he is constantly promoting charities, causes and sharing stories via his Facebook and Twitter pages to raise awareness and to get things in the public eye that might not otherwise be seen.  

Yesterday afternoon I logged into my Facebook account and was having a look through my newsfeed when I came across a post from Jason Manford talking about a young man he met a while ago, Stephen, who has terminal cancer. He's just 19 years old. Sadly, Stephen has taken a turn for the worse in the last few days and is unlikely to survive for very much longer but when he was first diagnosed three years ago he devised a 'bucket list' of things he'd like to do.  One of the items on his list was to raise money for the Teenage Cancer Trust.  His original target was £10,000 but when he smashed that, instead of crossing it off the list and going onto the next item, he decided to push himself further and see how far he could go with £1,000,000 being his ultimate goal. Yesterday afternoon, when Jason bought his cause to the attention of his followers, Stephen had raised approximately £560,000 with the help of his friends and family; an amazing achievement.  Jason was determined that he would help Stephen reach his target before he passed away and has spent the last 24 hours actively promoting / encouraging / supporting as many people as possible to donate or at least spread the word about Stephen and his cause. He donated £10,000 of his own money and has agreed to donate all of his profits from his comedy business for the next month.  

This afternoon, the £1,000,000 target was finally smashed and the donations continue to come in for an incredibly worthwhile charity.  Stephen has managed to hold on this long and is aware that he has done it.  What an accomplishment!!

From reading the posts on Stephens page (Facebook - Stephen's Story. Twitter - @_StephensStory) he seems like an incredibly brave, humble young man that has truly lived his life to the full and made the most of every single minute.  In a final update from him yesterday he wrote on his Facebook page 'I will continue fighting for as long as I can, and whatever happens next I want you all to know I am currently in a good place mentally and at ease with the situation' - my heart was fit to burst at such a show of strength from this young man who has been dealt such a harsh hand in life.  I'm so happy that he hit his target and can leave behind a wonderful legacy.  His family must be so unbelievably proud of him.

Social media can been a mean and horrible place but it can also be one of the most powerful tools available to all of us and it's free!  I wouldn't have known about Stephen and his cause without it and I will always be grateful that I was able to make a teeny tiny difference to someone's life because of it.  You can help make a difference too - text Stephen to 70500 to donate £5 or go to Stephens Just Giving page and donate as much or as little as you can there - https://www.justgiving.com/Stephen-Sutton-TCT

Huge respect young man and I hope with all my heart that you can rest in peace knowing that you've made such a big contribution to so many lives.  And to Jason Manford - you are an awesome human being, keep making a difference.

AFUK x

Retinitis Pigmentosa - update!

So as usual, I'm running behind with my updates - I'm not sure how I ever thought I'd be able to keep up with blogging but as I love social media and talking (a lot), even if it's just to my computer screen via my fingertips, I'll carry on regardless!!

You might recall that in January I'd been back to Moorfields Eye Hospital in London for more electrodiagnostic tests - I was diagnosed with Sector Retinitis Pigmentosa 13 years ago but after a recent referral back to the eye clinic, the suspicions were that I don't have the 'sector' part, just the bog standard disease so we were going back to basics with the tests.

So last month I had a follow up appointment with my new consultant at our local hospital to get the test results. I really liked her and she was very good at putting me at ease - I'm used to hospital appointments and tests so they don't really bother me any more but I imagine a lot of people would find them very intimidating and quite nerve-wracking. Bizarrely, in a weird quirk of fate we discovered that she had actually been working with my original consultant at Moorfields when I was diagnosed all those years ago - small world! Anyway, the tests confirmed their suspicions and I do have the 'regular' form of the disease and not the 'sector' variation that was first thought.

Moorfields still have my original electrodiagostic test results from 2001 so were able to compare them and conclude that I've had quite a significant deterioration in my peripheral vision - I didn't have a clue! My central vision is perfect (thank goodness!!) and as the peripheral loss is so gradual I haven't noticed any decline at all. I still don't have any real typical symptoms (I can see in the dark / see the stars etc) but I can trip over thin air so I guess I should have been paying more attention to that! She confirmed that my degrees of vision are still way above the legal limit for driving so she is happy for me to carry on for now although ultimately that is down to the DVLA - my licence is due for renewal next month so we will see what they say. I still feel ok to drive but obviously everybody's safety is my top priority so if there's even a hint of being borderline I will stop, I'll hate it but imagine how much more I'd hate myself if I caused an accident!

My consultant also agreed to refer me for genetic counselling and genetic testing to see if we're able to narrow down my faulty genes - that way we can test little man and my nephews to see if it's likely to be passed onto them. As there are over 100 known genes that can cause RP (and many more that are unknown) it's a bit like finding a needle in a haystack but it'll help long term research too so I'm all for it.  I received my referral letter to Professor Webster at Moorfields this week so now I just have to wait for an appointment - fingers crossed it won't take too long! 

In the meantime, I'm going to carry on trying to make the most out of every day and using the vision I have now to create long term memories.  I read a lovely article this week (you can read it HERE) about a little girl who has RP making a type of 'bucket list' for her and her family to do before she loses her sight - think I might do the same :)

Hope you all have a lovely day!

AFUK x

Disneyland Paris Trip report - last day!

Friday 14th February - last day :(

We all got up showered, dressed etc and struggled out of our room with all of our cases at about 9.30ish - there was no EMH so there was no rush and we wanted to do the Studios this morning anyway. We left all of the luggage at the hotel storage room ready to be transported to the train station later and then started our wander towards the village, waving goodbye to the Hotels Santa Fe and Cheyenne as we went (literally - I'm sure other people must have thought we were loons waving and shouting goodbye to everything on the way!!).

The main aim of being in the studios this morning was to meet Mushu - E had not stopped talking about him since we missed him earlier in the week so it was today's 'must do' item and I was busily crossing everything I could that he would actually appear!! We were a bit early for the characters in Production Courtyard so we went over to one of the shows, Animagique, to see if we could watch that instead; sadly it had just started so we couldn't go in and the next show wasn't for another 45 minutes so we left that and headed past Crush's Coaster (only a 30 min queue - I need a trip on my own to do the rides!!) and went to see which characters were are out for Meet & Greets. It was Mickey Mouse on his own so E waited 5 minutes to see him again and we took a few snaps. Buzz wasn't out yet so we decided to wait as there was no queue at the time - there was just one English family in front of us on their first ever trip so we spent the next 20 minutes chatting to them about our trips and what they had done, whilst their son and mine compared autographs. I love how you can just chat to complete strangers as if you've known them all your life and it not be weird at Disney!!

Buzz came out to great fanfare and high five'd our boys on his way past as they were at the front of the queue and the Cast Member kindly stamped their autograph books because Buzz can't sign personally (big hands!!). E had a great time meeting Buzz again, he really loved the interaction and trying to copy his poses!

That done we wandered back to Production Courtyard to wait for the characters to come out. It was really damp, windy and overcast today & that horrible cold that seems to sink right down into your bones. We waited for five minutes and there was no sign of any characters yet so E got in the buggy and I wrapped him up in the little blanket I keep in it and I headed over to the little snack stop next to the Tower of Terror ride to buy hot chocolate & coffee for L and I. We spent some time looking at all the giant posters and E was talking a lot about Maleficent, pointing out all her pictures everywhere - as I mentioned he's scared of lots of things but for some reason he's really taken with her, even though we've never seen the film and to me, she looks quite terrifying!

After about another 10 minutes we saw some movement behind the gates and out came Ariel - our first princess :) E was happy because we met her when we queued at the Princess Pavillion last year (he refused to do it again this trip - 'it hurts my feet waiting that long for a princess Mummy') so he thought that she must remember him! She was lovely and really spent time chatting to him whilst she drew bubbles in his autograph book. Just as we were leaving Ariel, Mushu arrived - thank goodness for that!!! We rushed over and were right near the front of his queue line - E was over the moon and couldn't stop grinning. He kep telling L that Mushu isn't much bigger than him so he must be four too haha. Mulan was there too but E said he didn't want to meet her but L really wanted to see Mary Poppins and Bert so we queued for them and they were really talkative with E, spending quite a bit of time with him and asked if he lives near London as that's where they're from etc (good job he doesn't understand accents yet, they were decidedly un-English lol).

We spotted Aladdin and Jasmine over near Tower of Terror so we rushed over but the Cast Member said that he had closed their queue line but that they'd be back in 20 minutes time. By now E was absolutely freezing - whilst waiting for Buzz earlier on he had been running his hands up and down the railings in the rain water so his woollen gloves were soaked and by now his hands were blotchy and red they were so cold. A couple of days previously he'd spotted some giant Mickey hands for sale inone of the shops but I'd said he couldn't have them (meany Mummy strikes again), so L said that as he was so cold we'd go to the shop and she'd buy him some to warm him up so we headed into Studio 1 for some retail therapy. Two pairs of fleece gloves (one for E and one for L who realised she'd packed her gloves in her case), one pair of giant Mickey hands, a huge fleece blanket, a Peter Pan toy set, a long life Mickey bag and some sweets later we finally left the shop laden down with bags!! Sadly cuddly Sven and Kristoff were not to be on this trip, much to our disappointment but it did mean that we could buy some other stuff instead so there's always a silver lining.

We headed back outside and E was showing off his giant hands to anybody that happened to walk past, much to their amusement! The characters were all having a break for now so we went to test out the scream machines at the Monsters Inc set and E gave Mike his traditional cuddle plus an extra one for a friends little boy back home . We wandered down to show E the Moteurs, Action, Stunt show area to see if he would give it a try later on (well, you never know!!) but of course it was a no! I was excited to finally find the raining umbrella though (a prop outside one of the shops that actually rains!) but it's not raining, presumably because it's winter and there was enough of it falling out of the sky already! Back we went to see which characters were out and as we walked back we saw Gaston from Beauty and the Beast striding across the courtyard to Aladdin and Jasmine's spot, right by us. We've never seen him before so we waited and were second in the queue; E was a little bit nervous - Gaston was huge and of course talks in this big, booming voice. When It was our turn, Gaston shouted to E 'come here boy, what are those ludicrous hands - are you a mutant?!' at him, E and I were in fits of giggles (not sure what L thought at this point haha) as he ran over and got his book signed. Gaston was AMAZING!! He is my favourite face character by far now, he was so so in character and the cast member playing him obviously loves his job. He got E to pose with his giant hands in the air to show everyone and then as we were getting ready to leave he said to E 'who is that ridiculous woman with you, shoo, go on, take her away' - I haven't seen E laugh like that in ages and I had a huge lump in my throat, close to tears it was so so special. Since we got back he keeps telling all of his friends about Gaston telling mummy she was ridiculous and needed to shoo lol.

As we were putting the autograph book away Aladdin and Jasmine wandered over with their Cast Member who had a little tiff with the cast member with Gaston as he'd 'stolen' their space - Aladdin and Jasmine didn't seem to care and wandered off underneath the portico (the bit with the chairs and tables) to find their own space and their cast member ended up chasing after them! They found a great spot in front of the arches, looking back into the courtyard - I think they should just leave it to them to find a suitable spot next time haha. When it was our turn Aladdin chatted to E whilst Jasmine signed his book and then they swapped - but disaster, the pen runs out! Argh, clearly had too much use this week lol. Aladdin asked the cast member if he could have another pen and he wouldn't let E leave until it was signed, which I really appreciated. They then showed him how princes and princesses pose in Agrabah so he could copy them.

We'd had an amazing morning in the studios but we took E's pen running out as a sign to leave and headed back to the main park to find somewhere warm for lunch. Lots of goodbye waves to everything again as we leave!

It was about 1pm by this point and we were all a bit cold and damp so we decided we needed somewhere nice to sit and enjoy lunch. We settled on Plaza Gardens, which is a buffet restaurant at the end of Main Street - for some reason it's never really appealed to me before but I am so glad we tried it, it was lovely! We queued for about ten minutes and then paid the cashier, before being shown to a table by the waiter who took our drinks order to get. We had a fabulous lunch at the buffet, there was so much to choose from and E loved watching a man carving pictures into watermelons in the central section. I wasn't sure if refillable drinks were included in the price but L and I both asked for another drink expecting to pay for it but we weren't charged for them so presumably they were.

We spent just over an hour in there and would definitely go back again, shame we didn't try it before really! We then had a final wander round the lands (to wave goodbye obviously!!) and did some last minute shopping in Main Street before saying a sad farewell to the park. We went to the village to grab some drinks and snacks (brownies) for the train ride home from Earl of Sandwich and had a last look round the shops, trying on fabulous ears / hats in the Disney Fashion store and then that was it, time to head to the train station to collect luggage and board the train home :(

So, it had it's ups and downs but despite the illnesses we still had a fabulous week - it didn't stop us too much and looking back, it was nice to come home a little rested instead of completely exhausted for a change!! There were lots of things that I wanted to do that we didn't manage (Dreams & Stars and Cars to name just two - trying not to be too gutted about that!!) but, we have never ever seen so many characters out and about and had such fantastic interaction with them all so really, really can't complain.

Now to plan the next trip ;)

AFUK x

Day 5 - Disneyland Paris Trip Report

Good grief, where on earth has the last month gone?!! So sorry for the unintentional sabbatical, I'll carry on with the trip report now and try not to be gone so long this time!!

Thursday 13th February - Day 5

Sadly another terrible nights sleep for me - my ear was so so painful I couldn't get comfortable at all. I had some of those little hand warmers that you get from £1 shops and kept putting them on my ear as it was helping a little - I had to sneak the kettle into the bathroom so I could use it to reset them without waking anyone else up, would have been hilarious to watch I'm sure!! I gave up trying to sleep at 4am and started reading a book - had finished the whole thing by 8am when the others woke up lol. At this point I suddenly remembered that I'd popped some anti inflammatory tablets in the bag at the last minute but they were in a different pocket to the 'medicine bag' so took some of those and within an hour my ear started to feel better - couldn't believe it!!

Anyway, a quick look out of the window showed that it was absolutely pouring with rain - literally, throwing it down in bucket loads so we decided not to rush and have a lazy morning. When the cleaners arrived we were all still in pyjamas reading books, playing games and slowly starting our packing - they must have thought we were complete nutters being at Disneyland and vegging about in our pj's!!

We got washed & dressed and made our way to the parks at abut 11ish and the rain had all gone. We saw Goofy in his usual M&G spot and E wanted to see him again so we wandered over and hiding behind him was Donald Duck - yay, so so happy! Great photo ops here as Donald is so mischievous and was dancing with E. We then saw Goofy straight away - he is just brilliant, he pretended he was leaning on E's head but when E moved away he stayed in that position pretending not to notice he'd gone and then 'fell over' when he realised, just magical!!

We decided to take L over to Discoveryland next as we hadn't been there yet - the Autopia ride was shut (as usual, never seems to be open on my trips!!) and E is scared of the Buzz's Laser Blast ride so we hadn't really made much effort to visit up until that point. We had a good look round and then did a little shopping at one of the shops. We received a text from one friend to say that they were in the park too so we arranged to meet them at the Hakuna Matata restaurant in Adventureland in 20 minutes time.  We wandered via central plaza in front of Sleeping Beauty's castle and I asked a cast member if there was anything special happening for Valentine's Day tomorrow - sadly not he said, which was a shame. It started to rain again at that point so when we met our friends we had to huddle under a doorway to avoid a drenching! Was so nice seeing them - had a quick chat with them about what we had all been up to and E told them all about his character meets! Was such a shame that we'd had to change most of our dinner plans due to illness and couldn't spend more time with them this time.

We left them as they headed off to Walts Restaurant and we were going to go to the Toad Hall counter service restaurant, via the Aladdin photo op, to share some fish and chips as it had been open the day before - when we get there though it was shut, boo :( They have little signs up now though that show which counter service restaurants are open instead and really the only one near us was Chalet au Marionette, which I've never been to before. We locked up the buggy and headed indoors - it was raining a lot so it was packed inside but we queued up and were served fairly quickly. There weren't many seats so we ended up sharing a large bench seat / table with another English family. I was very pleasantly surprised by the food - L and I both had the half chicken and chips meal deal and E had a children's meal, the food was nice, hot and plentiful and we all enjoyed it. I think it cost approx 40 euros. When we left it was still pouring with rain and there was hardly anybody about - was a bit eery actually seeing it so quiet! The Flying Dumbo's were closed, presumably because of the weather so we headed to the Mickey Mouse M&G - it's indoors so thought it would be a good place to keep warm and dry for a bit.

The wait was 30 minutes (I think everyone had the same idea lol) but it flew by as there is a huge cinema style screen with fantastic traditional cartoons shown on it - E was belly laughing watching them and has kept asking about them since we returned home. We had a lovely time meeting Mickey and when we left it had stopped raining and the sun had come out with a beautiful rainbow stretched over Fantasyland - it looked so special and like it had been put there especially for the magical effects :)

Time for another ride on IASW, where I managed to hang onto all of my possessions this time haha. Time was getting on a bit now and we wanted to see Descent of the Stairs in the Disneyland Hotel (sort of a mini character procession down the main staircase) as we had missed it on our arrival day due to the late train. It wasn't too busy when we first arrived but the crowd soon built with everyone waiting patiently at the bottom of the staircase - for some reason though the characters didn't come down it and there was no music like usual, they just wandered out of a door next to the lifts instead. Bit of a shame but still lovely. Today's characters were Tweedle Dee & Dum, Mickey, Tigger, Eeyore, Goofy and Gideon (from Pinocchio) - we've met all of them on this trip except Gideon so we rushed over for a photo and autograph and then decided to leave as it was busy and we wanted to get a space for the parade. A friend of mine booked the same deal as us for the same dates but because of all the illnesses (her and her children were poorly too!) we hadn't managed to meet up yet - I text her to let her know where we were and realised that she was in the hotel meeting characters, we had literally just missed each other, so frustrating!!

We waited about 45 minutes for the parade - it had stopped raining and the sun was coming out but was now freezing cold with a biting wind. It doesn't matter how many times you see the parades at Disney, they are still just as magical and L said she thought it was better than the one she saw in Florida a few years ago.

 It was our last evening so I was desperate to stay and see Dreams, the night time show, but L and E were cold & all of our feet were hurting at this point so we agreed to head to the hotel for an hour to warm up and return later. We stopped at City Hall to see if we could bring our Cafe Mickey booking forward so we could eat instead of going to the hotel but they were fully booked until 10pm. Once back at the hotel, everybody was tired and wanted to rest before dinner. I was the only one who wanted to go back and wait for Dreams (E is still scared and doesn't want to watch - L is worn out!) so we didn't go back to the park and I STILL haven't seen it - more than gutted.

We walked back to the village for our 8pm reservation at Cafe Mickey and there was a huge queue however a lot of people hadn't reserved a table and were turned away - such a shame but really shows you need to book dining reservations before you go! We were seated upstairs, which is a first for us but it was really lovely, our table felt like it had more space round it and there was a great atmosphere. The usual characters were present - Mickey, Minnie, Tigger, Eeyore, Goofy & Pluto - who were all brilliant and really interacted with E, coming back to our table several times; he was bouncing off the walls with excitement. Pluto was also very happy to have a 'selfie' photo taken with us, which seemed to amuse everyone!! L and I didn't want the set menu but E had the children's one. We ordered a garlic pizza bread to share as a starter between the three of us (E wasn't fussed on the soup or salad option on the kids menu), L and I both had the fish and chips, E had pizza and we all had drinks - it was really very tasty and we couldn't eat all of our main course, probably shouldn't have had a big meal at lunchtime too! Total cost was 78 euros, which I was very pleased with as it can be very expensive to eat at Disneyland.

We took a slow walk back to the Hotel Santa Fe at 9.45pm (still big queues to get into Cafe Mickey at that point!!) - all completely shattered but we finished our packing and headed to bed sad that it was our last night :(

AFUK x

Day 4 - Disneyland Paris Trip Report

Day 4 at Disneyland Paris - Wednesday 12th February 2014

Not a good start, I had a terrible nights sleep - I had a horrible earache and sore throat and was up for about 4 hours in the night trying to find something in my huge 'medicine bag' that would stop it all hurting. L laughed at me when I first unpacked my stash of medicine (there's no pharmacy / dr at DLP) but I was extremely grateful for it all during this week!

I must have dozed off at some point because the next thing I knew it was 9am! We missed breakfast and got ready to head into the park - I was in a bit of a dazed stupor from the lack of sleep and medicines but we made it into the main park just after 10am and queued to meet Winnie the Pooh at his usual spot near Casey's Corner counter service restaurant. Whilst we were waiting we saw Tigger and Eeyore outside the Plaza Gardens restaurant on the opposite side of Main Street doing a M&G so we headed over there straight after meeting Winnie - this was a fabulous spot! It was a stunningly beautiful morning and the characters stood so that the castle was in the background of photo's - the Cast Member's very kindly took a photo of the three of us with both characters and it's one that I will treasure forever; just really sums up Disney and our trip to me in that shot!

We took L to Sleeping Beauty's and went upstairs to view the stained glass windows - we've never been outside on the balcony before as it's always been closed on our trips so it was a novelty and we had a lovely view out over Fantasyland. We then decided to have a look round Mickey's shop in Fantasyland (by the carousel - I can never remember what it's called!) but still there were no Frozen cuddly toys . As we left the shop we saw Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum opposite the entrance to Alice's Curious Labyrinth so ran over for more photo's and autographs. E thought they were absolutely hilarious because they pretended to pick their noses and flick bogies at him - boys are revolting, even at this age!!!

It was then time for another ride on IASW as E was having withdrawal symptoms hehe, we saw Rabbit and Piglet doing a M&G but their queue line was closed so the Cast Member told us to come back at 12:15, which was only about 20 minutes away. We had a lovely ride round IASW in a quiet boat but I realised when we got off that I must have dropped my hat in the boat - it's a good job that it wasn't too cold that day! We waited for about ten minutes for Piglet and Rabbit but there was no sign of them so we gave up and wandered back the way we'd come - Dee & Dum had gone but Alice was there instead - yay! We queued and got her autograph, she was really lovely chatting with E and thought it amusing that their names were very similar - I got some great photo's of them together. As we were so close to the maze, E insisted that we had another go round and we had a fantastic view from the balcony as it was such a beautiful day.

We wanted to try and see if Peter and Wendy were out again today so headed towards Adventureland but stopped at the loos for L - whilst we waited for her Hook and Smee walked past and Smee rubbed E on the top of his head to say hello, I had one  very very happy boy even though they were obviously the last ones out at the photo location because there was no Peter and Wendy sadly. E was desperate for more Baloo cuddles (I think we have a new favourite in this family now haha) so back round we went and he was there - yippee!

By this point I was really flagging - everything was catching up with me so we just wandered around taking in the atmosphere and did some 'people watching' for a bit. After an hour or so we walked back to the Hotel Santa Fe and rested for a while. We had a sandwich in the bar at the hotel before heading back to our room.

Very frustrating day as I so wanted to do more, especially on a glorious winters day but it just wasn't meant to be - very early night instead!

AFUK x

Day 3 - Disneyland Paris trip report

Day 3 of our Disneyland Paris trip report - Tuesday 11th February 2014 

E woke up at 6am - very, very unlike him on one of our DLP trips as usually we all sleep later from all the excitement and walking about; it's one of the things I love lol. On this trip there was only Extra Magic Hours (EMH) on two of our five mornings and this was one of them but typically, not expecting to be up and ready, we had booked to have a character breakfast at the restaurant Cafe Mickey (CM) in the Disney Village. We decided that it would be too much of a rush to do an hour in the park and then back to CM in time for breakfast so instead we had a relaxing couple of hours having showers, getting ready etc and left the hotel just before 9am to walk to the village.

We arrived early but they let us in and before we'd even taken our coats off and sat down Gepetto from Pinocchio came over to give E a cuddle. L was very impressed with breakfast and we all enjoyed the hot buffet.  We filled up on the pastries and fruit (no croissants though, they'd run out unfortunately) to prepare us for the day ahead. Before our trip E had said that he wanted to find Chip & Dale because we couldn't find them on our Christmas visit so he was absolutely over the moon when they were at breakfast - he couldn't stop cuddling them and was saying 'look Mummy, they remember me from when I saw them on my first holiday'; he was only 2 on his first visit so I was amazed he remembered so much about it! He also saw Mickey, Goofy and Pluto before we left at 10.20ish and walked to the Studios park.

It seemed really busy in the Studios that morning but I think it was probably because Crush's Coaster, one of the most popular 'thrill' rides, wasn't open yet (technical issue I think) so there was a huge queue snaking across the central section of the park between two of the theatres that took some negotiating!

We had a wander round past a little area where Buzz Lightyear & Mickey Mouse were doing M&G's (big queues, we decided to leave it for another day) and headed to Toy Story Playland - this is a fairly recent addition to the Disney Studios and, as is fairly self explanatory, is themed around the Toy Story movies! E wanted to see the giant Rex the dinosaur but he still didn't want to go on any rides so we just showed L around and E had fun pretending to drive the RC Racer remote control car in his 'car wash', which is basically just another little area to take copious amounts of photo's! 

We walked over to watch one of the theatre shows, Cinemagique, but I hadn't read the programme properly and hadn't realised that it actually closed today for the DLP AGM but all was not lost as just as we arrived Remy, the rat from the Ratatouille film, came out for a M&G. We rushed over and were second in the queue - yippee! We had quick cuddles and he signed E's autograph book, which he was very happy about. As we were having our photo taken more characters - Mushu (the dragon from Milan), Lilo & Stitch, Daisy Duck and Woody from Toy Story - came out from behind the scenes.

Remy from Ratatouille

We had great fun queueing to meet them all except Mushu who we missed as by the time we'd seen the others his queue line was closed. E loved meeting Woody - he was totally in awe and completely dwarfed by him as he was so, so tall. 

I always feel a little bit lost in the Disney Studios Park as it doesn't have the same magic for me as the main park so when E said that he'd had enough and wanted to leave we popped to the shop by the entrance for a look around. L bought E a lovely china plate and little cup for home which we arranged to have sent back to the hotel to collect later on in the day and we then left the studios (with high fives to the funny cast member at the gate lol) and walked over to the main park instead.

When we got into the park we walked past Goofy, Minnie & Duffy and decided that we'd start by purchasing the soft toys that E wanted. When we visited in November we bought him the soft toy versions of Anna and Olaf (characters from the Disney Frozen movie) and, in addition to that, he got the Elsa one for Christmas so I'd promised that we could get Sven & Kistoff on this trip to almost complete the set - he'd seen them in the shops on Main Street in November but being the mean mummy that I am I'd said that he couldn't have them all so he chose Anna & Olaf. An hour into our search we've scoured all the shops along Main Street and I have that horrible sinking feeling in my tummy when none of them have a single Frozen soft toy for sale. Plenty of other merchandise (although the clothing is all for girls - very frustrating!) but not the ones we wanted. Uh oh! I distracted E by telling him we'd try some other shops later on and we headed to Frontierland to have a look round. The queue times for rides were very short most for most of this week as it's a quiet time of year to go - this morning it was only a ten minute wait for Big Thunder Mountain, which is another popular thrill ride. As it was only me that wanted to ride anything we didn't stop - one day soon I'm just going to go and do all the rides by myself haha!

We enjoyed showing L the lake around the ride and where the paddle boats normally are (they were being refurbished so weren't running, which is a shame) and showed her the Pochohantas Play Village for younger children, which was also closed (apparently due to the weather although it was a beautiful sunny day!) and then headed across towards Adventureland. As we went past the Hakuna Matata restaurant on our left we saw King Louis from the Jungle Book doing a M&G on the right - he gave great cuddles but E was a little disappointed that he couldn't sign his book lol. Usually at the Cast Members are able to stamp the autograph books for characters that can't hold a pen or are unable to sign but there wasn't one for King Louis unfortunately.

E wanted to see if Peter Pan and Wendy were out again today so we headed over to their M&G and saw Captain Hook - he makes E very nervous so he was not sure about him but the Cast Member explained that he was just closing the queue for Hook but if we wanted to join it and wait a few minutes Peter & Wendy would be along, so we waited. We chatted to some people in the queue whilst we were waiting who were also character hunting today - we had good fun comparing who we'd all met and then Peter & Wendy arrived! All of a sudden E was very shy - so far, none of the characters he'd met had been 'face' characters so hadn't spoken & he was thrown a bit that Peter & Wendy wanted to chat!! They were absolutely fantastic with him, really brought him out of his shell by asking where he lives and if it was near Neverland etc They signed his book and had photos taken with him and then they said that Tinkerbell had been to sprinkle fairy dust on him and 'flew' him down the steps back to me - it was just magical and since we got home he's not stopped telling people that Wendy & Peter taught him how to fly up in the sky, brings a lump to my throat every time!

E decided that he could actually go on a ride now and wanted to go on the 'big dragon horse' on the carousel so off we went and I lifted him onto this giant horse on the outside of the carousel - for a child who is scared of everything I have no idea how he was happy sitting that high up!! We had fun going round and waving to Nanny each time we saw her. After that he said he wanted to do IASW again but L needs the loo so we headed there first - whilst we wait for her (couldn't possibly go in, what with all those flushing toilets lol) E said he was really cold and wanted to get in the buggy so he sat down and I wrapped him up in the blanket that I keep underneath it - he was asleep within seconds! Bearing in mind he hasn't used a buggy at home for about two years it felt very odd having him nap in it. 

We decided that as he was asleep we'd have a nosey around the shops that we had missed out earlier - Tigger & Eeyore were doing a M&G outside the Plaza Gardens restaurant but we didn't want to do it without E so we walked past. We went down Discovery Arcade (covered walkways down each side of Main Street) and headed straight for Harringtons - I love this shop so much, it sells beautiful glassware, crystal and other trinkets but I don't ever dare take E in it when he's awake as he would want to touch and pick everything up! L bought a glass for my niece and we watched whilst her name was engraved on it. She also bought her a beautiful tiara in there and it was only 15 euros - she's 10 years old so maybe a little bit old for a tiara generally but she's an Irish Dancer and has to wear one when she's in competitions so should be perfect for her.

We left the park and wandered round World of Disney megastore before heading back to our room for a rest. It turned out to be an extended rest as E slept for 3.5 hours!! Unheard of! I think the few days of being poorly and the early start had finally caught up with him.

When he finally woke up we decided to go back to the park to watch Dreams, which is a light and laser show projected onto Sleeping Beauty's castle, and then go to our reservation at Cape Cod in the Newport Bay hotel but as we walked out of our room it was absolutely pouring with rain! We started to walk along the river but we hadn't taken the buggy and L was really struggling against the weather so we diverted into the Sequoia Lodge hotel instead of going to the park and decided on an early dinner in Hunters Grill restaurant instead as I love this buffet.

It was lovely and quiet and the food was brilliant as always - the only down side was that I wasn't paying proper attention when I was using the food tongs and lifted my hand a bit too high, burning it on the heat lamps that kept the food hot. I took an ice cube out of my drink and wrapped it in a napkin but it was very quickly apparent that I needed something more substantial on it so I asked the waiter for some more ice and he brought me a large cup full with a stack of napkins - very embarrassing!! I had to sit through the whole meal with it wrapped up, repeatedly changing it as the heat from the burn kept melting the ice! We had a really enjoyable meal other than that and when we were finished we popped upstairs to look round the hotel boutique (still no Frozen soft toys - eek) and sat by the fire in the bar. More and more people were coming back to the hotel soaked from the rain that didn't seem to be letting up so we decided that we should head back to the Hotel Santa Fe, we needed to collect L's shopping from earlier in the day and E wanted to FaceTime Daddy again so we went to the bar via the shop.

Another day was over already, time flies when you're having fun!!

AFUK x

Day 2 - Disneyland Paris trip report

So, onto Day 2 of our Disneyland Paris adventure - Monday 10th February 2014

We all have a good nights sleep and woke up at about 08.30 - if you stay in a Disney hotel you are entitled to use Extra Magic Hours (EMH), which basically means you get an extra two hours in the parks first thing in the morning before they open the gates to the general public, however this wasn't in use today so no need for us to rush thankfully. We got ready and headed to breakfast at 09.45ish - we've stayed at the Hotel Santa Fe before but have always avoided breakfast as I hate crowds and it is a bit of a scrum but I was very pleasantly surprised this morning; there was no queue and although it was busy it was very civilised. We had to hunt for bowls & plates but the food was fresh and it was a very easy, simple service.

Tummies full, we collected the buggy from our room and then take a leisurely stroll along the Rio Grande river towards the Disney Village - very happy to say that we didn't get on one of the free shuttle buses (think sardine tins) at all this trip!  Little man is four and a half now so hasn't used a buggy at home for a couple of years but there is so much walking and, usually, long days here so a buggy comes in very handy and gets more use that you'd think!!  It was a lovely morning and the wind had died right down so was a lot more pleasant today. We arrived at the park and saw Goofy outside one of the boutiques - E was ecstatic to see him and I was equally pleased to see organised queue lines; being a good old Brit, the thing that annoys me the most is the lack of queuing in Europe! Quick pose with Goofy and we then crossed over to see Minnie & Duffy who were doing a joint Meet & Greet. There's a bit of a queue here but it was lovely watching all the little children interact with both characters at once - it's the first time I've seen them both together here and it made it seem that little bit more special.

First few autographs in the book and we were off to a great start. Off next to show Nanny (L) the castle and try to pull the sword out of the stone - another first as E has never noticed it before so we had a couple of minutes of fun giving it a go before heading to Alice's Curious Labyrinth. It's one of the only thing's that E was insistent we did this trip as he remembers it really well from November. We spent a good half an hour wandering round and having fun trying to find the castle in the middle again before leaving. As we left we saw the Mad Hatter doing a meet & greet at the photo location just outside but E thought he looked a bit scary so we didn't stop and instead walked round towards IASW (It's a Small World ride). As we got nearer we saw that Pinocchio and Gepetto were outside one of the restaurants so we queued to meet them (love a good queue!!) and whilst we were waiting Cinderella walked past and said hello.

No wait at all on IASW so a lovely quick ride round and as we came out Belle was just walking into the Princess Pavillion (where you can queue - for hours sometimes - to meet one of the princesses) and said 'Bonjour' - we felt like we were surrounded by characters at this point and E was in his absolute element! Whilst chatting excitedly about Belle we spied Tigger - yippee, more meet and greets (M&G's)! He was right opposite the teacup ride so we left the buggy locked up and wandered over - there was no queue line here but he was going from left to right of the crowd and the Cast Member (that's what they call the staff here) repeatedly told everyone so there was no pushing or shoving. E found Tigger hilarious, especially when he leant on his head to sign his autograph book lol.

We collected the buggy (another tip - always lock it up, they go missing!) and decided to head to Adventureland where we spotted Peter Pan & Wendy but their queue line had just closed so we decided that we'd try and catch them later in the week. Lots of explaining to L what all the theming is and she loved the pirate ship on Adventure Isle. We carried on walking around and saw Baloo with hardly any queue at all so ran over for cuddles and autographs - I have never seen so many random M&G's before and felt like we had a very productive few hours. As we've been poorly we decided not to push ourselves and headed out for a late lunch and planned to take it easy for the rest of the afternoon. When we walked back out onto Central Plaza in front of Sleeping Beauty's castle there were lots of Cast Member's in the middle who were playing with skipping ropes with some children and they also had some hoops & balls etc to interact with guests - it really, really appealed to me and although it was something really small it felt like it made a big difference to the magic and enjoyment of everyone around.

We ate in Annette's Diner in the Disney Village, it's like a proper American diner so a novelty for us and we all, L especially, loved it - she was really taken with the decor and the waiters on roller skates. The food was really nice, very hot and tasty and great service so felt like we got good value for money at 56 euros for the three of us - it's not cheap to eat at Disneyland but it doesn't have to be as expensive as lots of people make out. It's no different from most theme parks in fairness.

It's about 4pm now and we take a slow walk back along the Rio Grande river to the hotel. We rest for a bit and then go to the petrol station just outside the hotel to pick up some snacks & drinks before heading to the Rio Bar for a well earned cup of tea (yup, there's that English thing again!!) and connect to the hotels free wifi for FaceTime with Daddy at home. We head back to our room at 7.30ish via the concierge to book a character breakfast at Cafe Mickey for the next morning.

Early nights all round and more to come soon :)

AFUK x