Disneyland Paris
Europeans may be on their own time schedules for things, but one thing I gotta say we loved was the efficiency at airports! We flew to Paris from the Malaga airport and it was so easy to get through security. So quick, relatively nice security people and we didn't have to take our shoes off! We had a pretty short, uneventful flight to Paris and then got to check into our hotel a little early which was great. We were right by a mall filled with lots of restaurants so we had a great lunch and then were able to pick up a few groceries for breakfasts and snacks over the next couple of days. We had an early night because we were already behind on sleep and we were gearing up for a full day at Disneyland Paris the next day.
We got up and stopped at the bakery right by us (this is seriously my favourite thing about France) and grabbed some croissants and pastries for breakfast before heading to the park.We set our expectations pretty low and I think that's the key to a successful Disneyland Paris trip. Prior to coming I did a ton of research on all aspects of our trip and a common theme for Disneyland Paris was that it just wasn't that great. One blog I found said if you set your expectations for French cast members, AKA cast members that are less accommodating than American ones, and for the food to not be that great, it can be a good time, especially if you start your day out by checking out the dragon under the castle! So we followed her advice, expected the park to be very French run but with typical American park food, and started our day hitting the castle and seeing the dragon under it. Unfortunately the dragon didn't photograph well because it was really dark down there, but it was magical and totally unique so we loved it! The castle was also really cool!
The big bummer of this day was that we were really looking forward to riding Phantom Manor which is like Haunted Mansion but Phantom of the Opera themed but it was closed! Pirates of the Caribbean was really good though, we think our favourite version of the ride! We rode rides for a little and then stopped at Toad Hall for lunch. I'm not sure why, but Mr. Toad's Wild Ride is one of my favourite rides at Disneyland so I loved this restaurant theme! They only serve fish and chips and like one other thing I think haha but it was great!
Then we did some shopping to try and find a onesie or something for the baby. It was again confirmed to us that finding gender neutral clothes in Europe was extremely difficult. We found some cute little PJs but they only had a bigger size and since we're having a winter baby, they would have been too warm by the time the baby could fit them. But we finally found something and grabbed a couple of pictures before heading to the other park.
We went over to the other park and this is where we were glad we kept our expectations low. There weren't that many rides in the first place, but not doing any roller coasters or bigger rides cut down on that even more. In fact looking back now I think we only did 2 rides in the other park... But that could be time messing with me. The big attraction over here was the Ratatouille ride! It was really cool and different but it made me a little sick so we went back over to Disneyland, got some gelato and rested for a while.
Then we rode a few more rides and went through Alice's Labyrinth where we got a great view of the whole park from the top
And then we decided to call it a day. This was a new experience for us because we're used to spending a minimum of 12 hours in Disney parks but pregnancy was already zapping my energy so we checked all the rides again to make sure we hadn't missed anything we wanted to do and then went back to our hotel. We had a chill night recovering (well I was recovering), and talked out our frustrations about French strikes. We had bought our train tickets from Disneyland Paris to Lyon weeks before and had just found out our train was cancelled due to a strike and we wouldn't be getting a refund or credit for a different train. If we submitted a request we could get a credit to be used at a later date, but that doesn't do 2 Americans any good. Fortunately there was a train leaving not that much later than the one we planned for, we just had to pay for it again. Aside from that frustration though, we had a great day in the park and couldn't believe our trip was half over!
We got up and stopped at the bakery right by us (this is seriously my favourite thing about France) and grabbed some croissants and pastries for breakfast before heading to the park.We set our expectations pretty low and I think that's the key to a successful Disneyland Paris trip. Prior to coming I did a ton of research on all aspects of our trip and a common theme for Disneyland Paris was that it just wasn't that great. One blog I found said if you set your expectations for French cast members, AKA cast members that are less accommodating than American ones, and for the food to not be that great, it can be a good time, especially if you start your day out by checking out the dragon under the castle! So we followed her advice, expected the park to be very French run but with typical American park food, and started our day hitting the castle and seeing the dragon under it. Unfortunately the dragon didn't photograph well because it was really dark down there, but it was magical and totally unique so we loved it! The castle was also really cool!
The big bummer of this day was that we were really looking forward to riding Phantom Manor which is like Haunted Mansion but Phantom of the Opera themed but it was closed! Pirates of the Caribbean was really good though, we think our favourite version of the ride! We rode rides for a little and then stopped at Toad Hall for lunch. I'm not sure why, but Mr. Toad's Wild Ride is one of my favourite rides at Disneyland so I loved this restaurant theme! They only serve fish and chips and like one other thing I think haha but it was great!
Then we did some shopping to try and find a onesie or something for the baby. It was again confirmed to us that finding gender neutral clothes in Europe was extremely difficult. We found some cute little PJs but they only had a bigger size and since we're having a winter baby, they would have been too warm by the time the baby could fit them. But we finally found something and grabbed a couple of pictures before heading to the other park.
We went over to the other park and this is where we were glad we kept our expectations low. There weren't that many rides in the first place, but not doing any roller coasters or bigger rides cut down on that even more. In fact looking back now I think we only did 2 rides in the other park... But that could be time messing with me. The big attraction over here was the Ratatouille ride! It was really cool and different but it made me a little sick so we went back over to Disneyland, got some gelato and rested for a while.
Then we rode a few more rides and went through Alice's Labyrinth where we got a great view of the whole park from the top
And then we decided to call it a day. This was a new experience for us because we're used to spending a minimum of 12 hours in Disney parks but pregnancy was already zapping my energy so we checked all the rides again to make sure we hadn't missed anything we wanted to do and then went back to our hotel. We had a chill night recovering (well I was recovering), and talked out our frustrations about French strikes. We had bought our train tickets from Disneyland Paris to Lyon weeks before and had just found out our train was cancelled due to a strike and we wouldn't be getting a refund or credit for a different train. If we submitted a request we could get a credit to be used at a later date, but that doesn't do 2 Americans any good. Fortunately there was a train leaving not that much later than the one we planned for, we just had to pay for it again. Aside from that frustration though, we had a great day in the park and couldn't believe our trip was half over!
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