So back in August myself, my mum and my niece all set off to Disneyland Paris. Yeah I know, a bit late writing this now, eh? Okay excuse my lateness but it's better late than never right? Well anyway, I feel like this is a kind of post that requires more pictures than words but I have a bit to say regardless.
We travelled by Eurostar from St Pancras to Disneyland directly. My niece bless her, she's only 4 and she was so well behaved the entire journey. The Eurostar staff were brilliant from the moment we checked in down to the service on the train itself. They were friendly and informative and interacted with my niece which was lovely. We arrived into Disneyland about an hour and a half later than expected because of delays but we were okay with this as the staff were attentive and refilled our refreshments. I couldn't believe Sophie was so quiet the whole time!
We stayed at the main hotel in the resort called Disneyland Hotel. Although it was a bit pricey, I don't regret a single bit of it. The inside of the hotel is spotless, absolute pristine with an old world theme to it. Almost every staff member in the hotel is dressed from an old world and it's a mixture of bizarre and kinda cool. We checked in here on Friday afternoon and the staff on hand to help with the luggage were so helpful and kind.
After checking in we checked out the park and got a few rides done! Sophie did really well as I know she must have been absolutely exhausted.
Included in the package with the hotel, we got two free vouchers for a dinner or lunch. We could exchange these for dinners in the restaurants with the characters so obviously we went for that. We opted for a dinner with Mickey and Friends on the first evening and then had dinner in the park the next day with the Princesses. The food shown above was in the buffet restaurant on the first night and as you can see it was superb. The quality of the food, right down to the meat and fish, was out of this world. Normally I'm a bit funny about buffets but the food was presented so beautifully and everything was so clean, even I was impressed.
I'm not sure who was more excited to meet the characters; me or Sophie! We met quite a few but so I don't make this post the longest there ever has been, I'll just leave a selection. I was most excited to meet Mickey and Minnie. When you sit down to dinner, they arrive in the dining area and then they make their way round all the tables so you get a chance to have autographs and photos taken. Minnie was my favourite because she admired my dress and that's always a plus. It always amazes me how much these characters can do without even saying anything. Sophie was just in hysterics and loved every single moment so that was amazing to see.
The hotel has a very cute piano bar so after a very long day of travelling and as the weather was so beautiful, we sat down on the balcony of the hotel bar and enjoyed a cocktail. I went for my signature Mojito, you just can't beat them. Our waitress was so friendly and helpful, offering us complimentary snacks and some colouring for sophie and even offered to take our photos for us.
To finish off the long day, we went and saw the Frozen stage show. Bearing in mind I'm not particularly a fan of Frozen, it was magical and just the most emotional and atmospheric show I've watched in such a long long time. In fact, I've not seen anything like it before; for a free show in a theme park, everything was magnificent. The characters and the acting felt so real! I wish I took more photos to show you but then this post would never end.
Sadly, Sophie loathes fireworks and they really frighten her so we didn't catch much of the light at the end of the night so we walked off to bed. After such a long day, we were so grateful we only had a minute's walk back to our hotel from the park.
Day 2
On the saturday, we got much more of the rides done. Since we booked into a Disney hotel, this meant we got to enter the park at 8am instead of 10am with the rest of the public. This makes SUCH a difference; we got a total of 5 rides out of the way in this time which meant we could relax and take things easy the rest of the day.
We went on all of the younger orientated rides and admittedly, Sophie didn't like them so much. From the Peter Pan ride and the Buzz Lightyear laser ride to the Snow White ride, she was frightened of them all. Perhaps because they were too dark and loud for her. Once we got back outside and queued for the outside boats, she loved that. Then there was the mini frozen parade which she adored as she's obsessed with Frozen; insert screams of "There's Elsa! look look look!" and it was cute.
Time to mention my outfits briefly because you know this isn't all about my 4 year old niece...ha. So I purposefully made an effort to dress pinup the entire weekend because I wanted to make the most of the experience. What I wasn't really expecting was the kind of attention it would bring. By now, I'm so immersed in the pinup world that dressing this way isn't shocking to me or anything like that. That does tend to mean I automatically think everyone else in the entire universe won't really make much of it. On the other hand, what actually happened and I know this sounds big headed, was I got a lot positive attention. I wore both a Pinup Girl Clothing dress and a Lindy Bop one and both dresses received favourable attention from random park-goers to even characters. I was a little drawn back whenever something nice was said to me because I'm so not used to it!
Forever Amber blogged about this recently in regards to her trip to America, dressing a certain way sometimes brings attention you're not otherwise used to but it wasn't bad in anyway, in fact it was self-esteem boosting. I did find this strange as I was always under the impression that the French, much like us Brits, can be quite reserved when it comes to paying people compliments. Instead, I was asked for a selfie and during the Magic Parade, loads of characters came over to me to interact thus resulting in the entire Mad Hatter's Tea Party pretending I was Alice in the above dress. Honestly? it just felt magical. It made the experience at Disneyland an incredible one for me. People aren't used to seeing people dressed from the 50s and that really is easy to forget when you're surrounded by beautiful pinup women on your social media.
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| This is the moment the Queen of Hearts came over to kiss me on my cheeks! Eeek |
Needless to say, the parade actually made me cry. It was so emotional and it really does transport you to another magical universe for half an hour.
We ended the evening with a dinner with the princesses. This restaurant is located in the park rather than the hotel and is actually a 3 course 'luxury' dining experience rather than a buffet. However, me and my mum both agreed that the buffet restaurant was far better as the food selection was more expansive. With this meal, you got given a set meal and to be honest, it was trying too hard to be posh. Sophie didn't touch any of her food but whether that was down to the underwhelming food or she was just too excited to meet Snow White is a mystery.
We went back to the hotel after this because having a 4 year old with you means a tired, grumpy little munchkin at the end of a fun filled day.
The Sunday was spent getting an early train back into Paris to have a little stroll!
This is just a small-ish summery of what Disneyland Paris was like. It's long as it is! Thank you if you made it through all the photos but I promise you, I had about 50 more I had to refrain from adding into this post as it is.
Have you been to Disneyland Paris or any of the other ones? What did you think? Let me know in the comments
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