Everyone appears to have had a decent sleep and following a quick trip into the supermarket for missing cables and more milk we're up, fed, picnic made, 1000+ snacks and entertainment packed and we're in the park for 10.30. We decided to head straight to Magic Kingdom and our first ride to get us going is Phantom manor.

The kids enjoy it, especially the spooky grave scenes. This trip there is the Disney music festival so they have extra shows and parades but before that it's the classic Disney stars parade. We didn't manage to get there early enough for a front row but a lovely French family scoop up our kids and put them in front with theirs. Liliya's favourites were the fire breathing dragon, under the sea and Elsa. Robert's were also the dragon and Olaf.

Next we head back to frontier land and it's perfectly timed for us to have an early lunch whilst queuing up for the lion king show. Once in the air conditioning is a welcomed relief from the heat and I asked the kids to give me their best happy face, not sure Liliya really understood the task 😂

Earlier in the day, we'd joined the virtual queue to meet darth vader and our time slot had just opened up. We made our way over and he agreed Liliya was definitely on the dark side, especially as she's refusing to eat the cheese sandwich she requested for lunch, apparently it tastes of peanut butter (despite the fact there's none in the moho) so we end up trading and she has my beef sandwich which of course was gross until she actually tried it 🙄

Next up is star tours, whilst in the queue I realise we'll hit 2pm and the virtual queue will open to meet the Disney princesses.

Prior to having the virtual queue system there was always a 3 hour wait which no way was worth it, and especially in this heat. Luckily the WiFi inside the building worked and at exactly 2pm my fast fingers were there to reserve tickets! Success we can now enjoy the next 3hrs around the park and hopefully not be in another long queue when we get called up.

I'm feeling lucky managing to reserve our Disney princess spot so decide to see if there's any availability for the meet and greet meal today. I had got a place Saturday at 9.30pm as a way to guarantee the kids would meet some characters as it was all that was available a few weeks ago. Boom there's now a slot tonight at 6.45, way more reasonable 😊

We decide to try one of the new music shows and go watch the Disney music hits concert with Chip n Dale, it was a mix of classic songs from the movies in both French and English. Liliya took a cheeky nap part way through then woke up with a jolt whilst we were clapping and joined straight in. At the end the kids got free sweets and streamers so of course they are happy.

Before coming on the trip we weren't sure how tall Liliya was and whether she'd finally pass the 120cm mark, turns out our luck is still with us, she is so next we're off to ride Hyper space mountain. Everyone is feeling pumped, the kids know what to expect, the dark, speed, upside down etc. As we get off Liliya is crying and Robert is hurt from the safety bar being too tight, it wasn't a pretty sight!

A few sweets seemed to fix the tears, within 2 minutes Liliya had said maybe when she's older she'll try again, then 90 seconds after that it became let's try again tomorrow 😂 oh good clearly not scarred for life. Perfect timing as well when we got out the call for the princess meet up was now in 30 mins so a quick look around the nautilus and we made our way to fantasy land. With 10 mins to spare we had a quick rest in the shade and even Al took a moment for a very quick power nap whilst the kids did some colouring.

The virtual queue for the princesses definitely wasn't as smooth as to see Darth Vader, there's clearly something to be said for the dark side. After waiting twenty minutes in the queue with nothing seeming to happen we went up and asked what was going on to be told that it was closed for the day, like ok things happen but how long were they going to let us stand there for. Robert and I had seen some princesses leave the building as we went to the bathrooms earlier so I suspect that was them leaving! Apparently if we go to city hall we'll be given a pass for tomorrow, I'll believe it when I see it, at least the kids should get to see some characters at the meal later but that's an hour wasted 😕 Kids aren't so happy but only 45 mins until food so there's just time to go on the fairytale boat ride before we head over. There's a bit of time to kill after the ride so we pop to city hall to try sort out the princess debacle, more of a wait but at least this time it's in an air conditioned building with comfy seats. While we're waiting at least there's time to ask for a birthday badge for Al, I can't help but think if we were in the States this would have been handled so much better but hey ho after another wait we've been given a pass for tomorrow morning.

Everyone is hot and hungry so it's off to the meet and greet all you can eat. We've told the kids to stuff their faces and make the most of it. Robert definitely took that to heart, Liliya did that with the desserts and wow her brand new dress is covered in tomato and chocolate, guess that's ruined 😭.

Although it cost a small fortune it was definitely worth it we got to see Mr Smee, Captain Hook, Eyeore, Tigger, Geppetto and Pinocchio. Tigger was definitely our favourite with all his bouncy energy. With stuffed tummies it's time for some more rides and now is the perfect time as people are already starting to queue for the fireworks. There's no queue for It's a small world, a short 10 min wait for Casey junior's train ride then we quickly follow that up with the Mad Hatter's Tea cups.

There's still a 30 min wait for Peter pan but we figure we're too late to get a 'good' space for the fireworks given that people were already waiting when we left the restaurant so might as well just turn up 10 mins beforehand and hope for the best (worse case we try again tomorrow).

Given we're walking past the Swiss family Robinson tree house and never been in we figured we'd give it a go. It was basically a way to get ones stairs goal climbing up but not much else going for it.

We had almost made it through the day with only half the group having taken a cheeky nap and we secured ourselves a space in the middle of the floor to sit down for 20 minutes before the show. I think wherever you end up there is going to be someone with a kid on their shoulders blocking the view for the little ones so we had to join in. Oh my, not sure that was really fun for anyone, with Liliya on my shoulders I could barely move so my view was limited to watching parts through someones phone but I'm thinking how great a mum I am for giving Liliya a perfect view, turns out not so much she's complaining when it's over that her legs and bum hurt and now everyone is broken with a packed sweaty walk back to the van.

Still lots of happy memories with everyone else in bed and asleep I'm scrubbing 2 in 1 shampoo and conditioner into the chocolate and tomato stained dress in a lame attempt to save it. One day down two to go.