This summer we booked a last minute three day trip to Disneyland Paris. We haven't been before and in all honesty, I had no intentions of going just yet either, thinking it was best left until the children were a little older and knew more Disney films. At seven and five I thought the big two would love it, but I wasn't as sure about the little two who are two and three. We arrived the night before at a local airbnb though and my inner child stopped being quite so inner straight away.
I don't think anyone is immune from the power of Disney and I was desperate to see the castle from the moment I woke up. We hadn't told the children where we were going as we wanted them to enjoy the week at a holiday parc we had first without waiting for the next thing and we didn't do a big reveal as they don't watch many adverts and we weren't sure they would understand the concept of Disneyland. We told them on the morning as we left the flat that we were going to a Disney theme park though and they were pretty excited!
There is something truly magical as you walk through the main gates. Everything is bright and Disney themed, the staff are happy and helpful and you can't miss the giant princess castle in front of you. We had three days booked in the park and we decided to do two days in the Disneyland Park and one day in Disney Studios.
We didn't really see any characters during our three days as the queues were too long (over 2 hours) and the lineberty app that gives you tickets in the studios sold out within around 3 seconds so even with constantly refreshing, I couldn't get into any. We did go on quite a few rides though and our favourites were Buzz Lightyear, Peter Pan and It's a Small World. As we visited over the August school holidays, even with three days we only got to see about half the parks and there are so many rides and shows I would love to go back and see! Many of the queues were 1.5 hours + all day and that is a long time to queue with four little ones!
The highlights of our trip are probably the shows. We saw Mickey and the Magician in the studios and even Cora sat through the whole show enjoying the music and dancing. The parade was everything I hoped it would be with all the characters we know and love, magic and amazement and I was torn between watching the show come past and watching my children's faces as they lit up.
We were desperate to watch the Illuminations show which is on at 11pm every night although we weren't sure we would manage it as it is so late. On our final day in the park we did it though and it was worth it! It was absolutely captivating and I want to go back just to see it again.
I have definitely caught the bug and I would love to go back again although I think I would probably aim for a quieter week as I think it would have been more enjoyable with shorter queues. The children were all perfect ages as there was so much for Cora to do even as a petite two year old and she loved all the family rides as much as Dylan did at seven. Next time there are definitely a few things I would do differently to try and make the most of our time there but I do think it is nice not to plan too much and just see how the day goes and what you fancy.
I tried to put my camera away for most of the time and just enjoy it but of course there are still plenty of photos that I want to share on here so I can look back and remember them all!
