This is actually a line from Shrek: The Musical, which I saw on Broadway last summer. It was great.
We needed some waiting humor today, since we spent the day at Disneyland Paris. We all had a wonderful time (you can read some initial reflections about DLRP from our original blog), and the kids behaved beautifully for 98% of the day.
I will be the first to admit that I didn't plan our day extremely well, but I did a couple of things right.
The Parks were scheduled to open at 10 and I got us there by 9:15 -- we were in Disney Studios by 9:45, freshly purchased Annual Passes in hand. Took a whirl on Aladdin's Flying Carpets (which turned out to be a great decision because Dumbo is undergoing serious refurbishment), and called in a lunch reservation at the Café des Stars.
Then, the waiting began. The sign said 60 minutes for Crush's Coaster; do we dare? The kids were motivated. We waiting *only* 45 minutes for a 4-minute (?) ride. Great theming, great coaster. Both of them loved it (though Thayer finds Bruce the Shark scary). Then, a potty break and one of my favorite attractions, Cinémagique, a tribute to the history of the movies featuring Martin Short and Julie Delpy, lots of classic film clips, and some great special effects. We were hungry afterwards, and it was time for lunch.
Café des Stars is not a great venue; it was supposed to be modeled on the Hollywood backlot cafeteria, but there's not a lot to it, physically speaking. In the past couple of years, it was re-themed for Ratatouille, a great idea for a restaurant that happens to be in France (there is a shocking dearth of local culture; Disneyland is a little American outpost, really!). The kids got to meet Remy, the hero of the film, who is the size of a small rat and circulates around the restaurant on a platter; he interacts with you table-side, along with a human escort who pushes him around on a dining cart. Just like in the movie, Remy cannot speak to humans, but he can communicate with them. I have no earthly idea how this effect was pulled off, but we all loved meeting him! Plus, the food was great -- a huge variety of salads and cold entrées (paté, grilled veggies, dolmades, carottes rapées), main courses (tiny drumsticks, roasted chicken, short ribs, zucchini gratinée, boeuf bourgignon, plus pizza, penne, meatballs and sauce for the highly unadventuresome), and desserts (fresh fruit, yogurt, pudding, fruit tarts, brownies, tiramisu, passion fruit cheesecake, baba au rhum, crêpes...). My 2 glasses of wine were less than 6 euros. And coffee came with.
The kids were most excited about the vegetable soup and the ratatouille, since both dishes figure into the movie's plot. They both loved the soup; Thayer didn't care for the ratatouille, which is not a surprise given his normal reaction to tomatoes in forms other than sauce or ketchup. But he tried it.
We finished up lunch in time to catch Stitch Live in French. This is an amazing motion-capture attraction; animated Stitch interacts with the audience to everyon's delight. I had forgotten how well-executed it was. Really entertaining.
We then left the Studios (around 2 pm, now) in favor of the Disneyland Park proper (what we Americans would think of as the Magic Kingdom). Picked up FastPasses for Peter Pan, which provided us with a window of time for later in the day when we could essentially jump the line, hen headed over for nearly an hour of waiting for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. That was the worst wait of the day, I'd say. Meredith really wanted to ride, and the FastPass time was coming up as during the parade, which posed a problem. Anyway, we did it, puting in about an hour of wait time. It is a great roller coaster, actually. Headed from there to the Phantom Manor (that's French for Haunted Mansion), and then, before staking out our seats for the parade, we rode the Storybook Boat. The kids love this; to me, it's completely missable. However, there is never any line to speak of, so it was easy to fit in. I got us some cold drinks and we sat in a shady spot to wait (about 40 minutes) for the parade to start.
Disney does some great parades! This Once Upon A Dream Parade has been in place for a while, but now includes Tiana, from The Princess and the Frog, who has her own little float and who did her dance routine (with her prince) right in front of us. We had great character luck today, actually. Got to say hi, hug, and get photos with Mickey, Minny, Remy, and Stitch at various times during the morning without much hassle at all. I also had a brief exchange with The Mad Hatter as he worked the ropes during the parade. That was all good.
Post-parade, we zipped over to Casey Jr., which is one of my favorite rides but has seriously slow loading and seats very few people at once. We waited about 20 minutes for that, then rode It's a Small World before our FastPass time for Peter Pan. That was great -- we had virtually no wait at all for the Park's single most popular ride. Then we rode Pinocchio (20 minutes more in line) and Buzz Lightyear's Star Command (another 20 minutes, but the theming during the wait is wonderful and therefore less enervating).
Could it be 8 already? We stopped for a hot dog to eat on the way home. And to pick up a jigsaw puzzle that will keep us entertained at home for a while. Thayer fell sound asleep on the train back into the city (about 40 minutes) while Meredith and I dozed a bit. They are already coming up with a list of things to do next time! I was proud of my babes today: They did not clamor for purchases, or complain of fatigue, the whole day long. This time. Still, I'll take it!
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