Disneyland Paris

I set out to blog about this trip with the best intentions! I wanted to write down every day and what we did, in the right order, but ultimately I just never found the time. I'd remember to document the day's activities over dinner, and by the time I got back to our hotel it was long forgotten in a haze of well-fed exhaustion. We had five days in the park, generous for Disneyland Paris, really, but filled every one of them with a lot of walking, rides and laughter. I won't be able to do an accurate, day-by-day recap like I'd initially wanted, but I'll hopefully remember enough to capture the holiday perfectly!

We went from Bristol via Easyjet, thanks to my very patient dad who gave us a lift at 7am up to the airport! Because it's really out of season, Disney were doing a special deal where you get two nights and days free if you book two nights, so Moose and I had booked Sunday-Thursday at the Sequoia Lodge hotel. I'd never stayed in a proper Disneyland hotel before because they're always so expensive, but this deal made the whole trip, including breakfast and park tickets, just over £500 for the two of us. Considering park tickets alone are 80€, I'd say it was a heck of a bargain! However, because the only flight we could take Sunday would get us in far too late to enjoy the park, we booked a Saturday morning flight and planned to stay in Val D'Europe, just down the road from Disneyland Paris, and right outside a big mall. The plan was to check out the mall, grab some essentials and dinner on Saturday, and then enjoy a full day of Disney on Sunday.

We stayed at the Séjours & Affaires Apparthotel after reading some reviews. It was super cheap (around 40€ for the night) and basic, but perfectly adequate for what we needed. It was easy to get there from the airport (TVG train down to Disney, and then RER back up one stop - it was hard leaving Disney behind even though we knew we'd be back tomorrow!)

We rested up and then had a long look around the mall (turns out, malls everywhere are busy as heck on a Saturday!) and grabbed dinner in Del Arte, an Italian restaurant we'd visited before on my birthday trip a few years ago. I had fond memories of the meal we had there before, but my meal this trip wasn't very great. I don't know if I just chose badly, but it was very boring and kind of canteen-y. Moose had a yummy looking pizza though, so I think it was probably just a bad choice on my part.

On Sunday we grabbed a McDonalds before heading towards the park. My suitcase wheel melted as we were heading towards the mall, so we decided to get the free Disney shuttle bus. We went straight to Sequoia Lodge and oh my gosh! It was just the most beautiful place! The second the bus turned into the forest I was in love. The hotel was wooden and brick and birdsong played in the lobby and around the bar. The staff all wore National Park uniforms! It was adorable and cozy and lovely. We had opted for a Golden Forest Club upgrade, which offers free drinks and snacks during the day, so we took advantage of that before we jetted off into the parks.

The first park we hit was Walt Disney Studios Park, because it closes earlier than the main park and because the best rides are there!

We did Armageddon, which was a sort of behind the scenes of the special effects walk through, and then queued up for the Aerosmith Rock 'n' Roller Coaster, which I'd never done before! Don't I look like I enjoyed it? Though honestly the lady in front doesn't look much happier!

I know we rode the Tower of Terror next, but honestly the rest of the holiday is a complete blur to me, so, here's a collection of some of my favourite pictures! We did pretty much everything open in both parks apart from the Disney Junior show, and the Motor Stunt Show.

This is our 'We're On A Small World' face

I love Disneyland Paris! Sure, it's not the American parks, but it doesn't try to be. I've been to Disneyland in California and Disney World in Florida and the first time I went I was so worried I'd compare it unfavourably to those, but really it has a charm of its own. Here's a mini summary of the five days we spent in the parks.

• We rode the Rock n' Roller Coaster four times, Tower of Terror three times and Buzz Lightyear five times.
• Ate at Hunter's Grill buffet (at our hotel Sequoia Lodge), King Ludvig's Castle, Blue Lagoon (for our anniversary), La Grange Tex Mex/ BBQ buffet, the Earl of Sandwich and Annette's Diner. My favourite was probably the La Grange Tex Mex for the food (those chicken fajitas!), but definitely the Blue Lagoon for atmosphere - it's in the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, so it's wonderful!
• Watched the parade in the rain, where Peter Pan shouted out from his float that he liked my hair and wished he had hair like it. :3
• Enjoyed Stitch, Live! twice, because it was just so danged funny! I had no idea it'd be an interactive experience when we first did it and I thought Stitch was absolutely hilarious. 
• Watched Animagique, a black light stage show featuring puppetry and characters singing famous Disney numbers.
  
• Enjoyed Cinemagique, which was a sort of 'history of cinema' but... well, I won't spoil it for you but it's genuinely really very clever and so much fun.
• Endured Captain EO - haha really! Our last thing we did in the park was watch Captain EO, and wow that has not aged well. We both silently stood up and just left the cinema when it was over, hahaha.
• I got chatted up by this one ticket kiosk guy every time we went into the Studios park, and it was super awkward since he was French and I didn't understand a word he said.
• I bought my first ever Disney pin lanyard, and Moose surprised me by sneakily buying me a Stitch & Angel love pin :) I bought myself a Sequoia Lodge pin as a memento, too. I doubt I'll trade any pins, but they're lovely souvenirs.
  
• We spent more time in the Studios than the Magic Kingdom, oddly enough. Everyone says it's a smaller park and not as nice as the main one, and they're right really, but all the best rides are there! Crush's Coaster, Rock n' Roller Coaster, Tower of Terror, Ratatouille. 
• The last time we rode the Rock n' Roller Coaster, there was no music! It was such a boring ride without the sound :(
• The first time we rode Crush's Coaster, there were no lights and the whole thing was pitch black. Boring. The second time, there were some lights but it wasn't as disco-ball trippy as I remembered. Disappointing, because we all remembered it being so much fun.
• Extra Magic Hours (where Disney hotel guests can enter the park before the general public) were a joke! We left super early on the second day there, with the intention of rushing to Ratatouille and Crush since they're so busy, but the Studios park doesn't 'do' Extra Magic Hours. So, we rushed over to the Magic Kingdom to get on Buzz and Thunder Mountain, and they weren't even open yet! So we took some nice photos of the castle and went back to the Studios to wait for opening. And when it opened, Crush and Ratatouille weren't even operational yet! There was a queue a mile long for Ratatouille, but we managed to get to Crush in time for it to open and have a relatively short queue. Still, what?
• Sequoia Lodge was gorgeous. The nicest hotel you could ask for, and we'd definitely stay there again if we had a chance. I told them it was our anniversary and they left a little "happy wedding anniversary" letter in the room. Uh... thanks! 
• My favourite are in the main park is definitely Adventureland. We ended up walking around it at night numerous times and it was just so danged beautiful, all lit with lanterns and sparkly torches.
• Disney Dreams, the big firework extravaganza that happens at the end of the park, is so, so spectacular. It's seriously such a beautiful show, I urge anyone who hasn't seen it yet to check out this Youtube video of it. I ended up crying like a dummy on the last night we watched it. :(
  

And I'm sure tons of other wonderful stuff I've forgotten about! And then it was home time! As we were about to take off, a snow flurry hit the plane and we had to wait around hours to get de-iced before we could take off, which meant we got home super late. I've never been inside a plane as they de-iced it before, but it was rather like being in a car wash. We didn't back home until 1am, by which time we were absolutely shattered and pretty much fell asleep where we dropped.

Absolutely can't wait to go back to Disney though. I can't wait to 'do' Florida with Moose, since I haven't been in years and he hasn't been since he was a kiddo. Hopefully in the next couple of years! If Disneyland Paris keep their cheapy deals on though I might just have to sneak back to France in the meantime!