The kids have been granted a double inset day giving us a four day weekend so in true team SM style we're in the moho to make the most of it and have chosen to visit DisneyLand Paris. We've been either too close for comfort or missed our ferry from Dover on some previous trips so Tuesday / Wednesday we made sure the moho was fully packed, illegal milk and meat chilling in the fridge such that when the kids finished school at 3.15 all they had to do was get out of their school clothes and into their seats where a picnic tea awaited them.

Google maps gave a 3hr estimate so I allowed 4hrs and we managed to leave right on schedule. Before we hit the motorway then turned on the sat nav however horror struck, 5hrs estimated arrival time. Noooo, wait a moment, it's recalculating, 9hrs!! What the heck has happened on the roads 😭 Dread has set in, all my best laid plans are crumbling in front of my eyes, just as we're pulling onto the motorway another calibration 3.5hrs!! Finally we might make it after all. For once the trip is stress free, the further we get the earlier the arrival time. Our favourite travel app borrowbox (online library for audio books) is being utilised with some fairy tale horror story keeping the kiddies entertained. Liliya even manages to squeeze in a 20 min power nap. With an hour to go of course the cries of is there anything else to eat are heard, don't worry I've got you covered as I pull out a tray of sushi from the fridge, they really weren't expecting that. With about 15 mins to go the portable speaker power runs out and unfortunately we forgot to pack the cable, no worries kids, we'll play it through the ipad once we're on the docks given we've got around 90 mins wait.

Firstly we breeze through passport control, you can tell Liliya is a seasoned traveller as she's ready to get out of her seat and show her face but the French didn't bother to check, I'm thinking ok maybe the brits will want to check who's leaving, nope, they didn't even want to see our passports and they just waved us through. With that smooth entrance to the port it was time to check in to the ferry, these days off course its all online, no printed tickets so I just instruct Al to head for the DFDS gate. The lady at the desk asks for our passports then after a short while asks for the booking reference, no worries it's all in the app I downloaded, hmm except it's not and the only booking she can find is one for us in 3 weeks time. A quick search through my email and yes that's right we're travelling with P&O today, oops. Now we're infront of a locked barrier with another car behind us. We're instructed to turn on our hazard lights, given the paper of shame and directed to a double barrier lane likely invented just for screw ups like us.

Thank goodness we're so early and also there's no one here, we bypass passport control and try again. This time P&O have our booking and we're away. Now back to the entertainment for the kids, we try keep things as tech free as possible on our trips but no one really wants to sit for 90 mins doing nothing, myself included, so we agree they can watch a movie, only problem it appears no one picked up the ipad (so that's audiobook back up plans screwed as well). Liliya then mentions the fact the moho has a TV and they could watch a DVD, great idea but looks like the couple of emergency ones we'd packed for a previous trip had been unpacked. But wait, when we'd arrived and stretched our legs around the tiny whsmiths I recalled they had a charity stall outside filled with books and DVDs! There was a voluntary donation box to pay for an item but who carries physical coins these days, luckily we've at least got a few euros so I pop some in and return with entertainment.

TV turned on and the DVD won't go in because guess what there's already one in! By the time we've faffed about there's only about 20 mins left and then the kids start telling us the picture is stuck (it did have a few scratches on it which I probably should have checked before walking back), we're saved by the fact we then get called to board the boat.

Once on board it's practically empty, if only this is a sign for how quite it might be in Disney itself. Again as seasoned travellers the kids ask where the play area is and we're only too happy to leave them whilst they entertain themselves for most of the crossing.

Of course I need to make the most of the duty free alcohol, which Al would of course say I don't need, but I can't resist a bargain and come back with some passionfruit vodka. On returning Al let's me know he's had a notification to his phone saying the ipad was last seen in Dover. We must have packed it after all and the next 3 hrs of driving, whilst we're going to be encouraging sleep, means we can at least keep them quite with more stories 😂.

Ipad recovered winnie the pooh on and kids put into their comfy sleeping position we turn on the sat nav and it's another 4hrs on regular roads or 3hrs with tolls, we resign ourselves to the fact it's already late and we're just going to have to take the hit, last year in France with us being over 3m high we were classed as a bus so it was really expensive! Sure enough that extra 10cm really does count and I reluctantly take the ticket for a class 3 vehicle. 10 mins into the journey and the kids are actually asleep so I can use this travel time to be planning our stops for when we return in a few weeks! Al needs fuel so we pull in to the motorway services, probably massively overpaying again and whilst waiting a chap starts to approach my window but then spots Al and seems to be asking him a question. He's got an English number plate so I assume maybe he's just struggling with how to use the self service pump or similar. Turns out not, Al said he asked him if he knew the way to Paris! I can't quite get my head around why he's on the peage which was signposted to Paris (so he's made it this far) but then isn't sure where to go next and also what was he expecting Al to reply with, take this road for another 200km then second exit at the roundabout and voila! Mind blown. We eventually come off the peage and are landed with a 54€ charge, grrr, mind you that's probably going to seem cheap when we end up paying 20€ per ice cream once in the park 🙄 Our stop for the night is at the local supermarket car park which at least is free and just a 15 min drive from the park so hopefully we can have a relatively early start but Robert has been awake the last hour of the drive so there won't be a rush given we want to have a late night staying to watch the fireworks tomorrow.