Our Disneyland Resort Paris Holiday

We are just back from a lovely week in Disneyland Paris. It was our very first holiday with Eden and I’m pleased to say it mostly went without a hitch!

We stayed in the Premier Inn St Pancras before our 0540am Eurostar to Paris the next morning. Nice hotel, lovely dinner although they ran out of high chairs in the hotel restaurant so I got to eat with a wriggly baby on my lap – hooray! We tried to go to bed early but a certain small human wasn’t having any of it. Needless to say, she wasn’t so happy with her 4am wake up call either!

Eurostar check in in the morning was super easy and the staff were really helpful. Little lady didn’t even have to get out of her pushchair. We found our seats easily and after a bottle, Eden slept the whole way. Thankfully the football fans weren’t too much of an issue either.

Changing at Gare Du Nord was relatively simple on the way there. The RER was fine but we couldn’t get to any seats as they were all up or down stairs so we had to hang out in the gangway with the buggy. Time passed pretty quickly and I was impressed by how well signposted everything was.

We got to the Santa Fe Hotel at Disneyland at about 11am and our room was ready. They offered us breakfast in the park the next morning so we took that. Went to the room and dropped everything off and freshened up. We then dropped into Earl of Sandwich. LOVE those sandwiches!

 

Yes, she had hold of Aurora’s hair. Not our finest moment…

We headed into the park and bought a photo pass for €59.99  before going on It’s A Small World. We then went to Princess Pavilion which was at a 60 min wait. We met Aurora, who was lovely. After that, we got a spot for the Anna and Elsa’s Royal Welcome, which was nice enough. Wait time to meet Mickey Mouse was advertised at 30 mins but was more like 45 mins in the world’s hottest queue area. We ate at McDonald’s and then went back to the hotel for the night.

The next day we had breakfast in the Pinnochio restaurant. On the way into the park we met Chip and Dale and Donald Duck. Eden was dressed as Jessie from Toy Story but was sick all down her outfit so that didn’t last long! We headed to the studios and Eden and I went for a wander while Amy rode Tower of Terror with a 15
minute wait. Eden had a nap so Amy went in to meet Spider-Man with a 20 min wait. We then had a little walk through Toy Story land and through the Ratatouille bit before Eden woke up so we caught the Disney Junior show. Didn’t really enjoy this. It’s not very up to date and the amount of adults pushing and acting like Neanderthals was amazing. We saw Rapunzel and Flynn but they’d already cut their line off! Eden got a Belle dress. We went back to the main park, queued up in the Princess Pavilion again (45 mins) and met Snow White.

We got a spot for the parade near Small World and watched that go by. I really enjoyed the parade and where we were wasn’t so crowded. We managed to get a spot only about 15

I’m a princess!

mins before it started right by the ropes. And that was obviously without pushing anyone out of the way..I don’t know why people go on about having to fight for a spot as we saw none of that. Low season, I guess. .

After the parade we walked to the theatre and caught the last Frozen singalong of the day. I loved this! And it helped that the theatre was so lovely and cool. Eden slept for the first bit but awoke in time to squeal along to “Let It Go.” I’ve been playing her Idina Menzel since she was born and her voice is always an easy way to get a smile out of her. I bought an Olaf slushie.

After that we had McDonald’s (yup – again!) and headed back to the hotel for the evening. Eden wasn’t very well that night and was running a little temperature, so we stayed in with calpol and cuddles. Only now do we know that the temperature and overall grumpiness was down to her cutting her first tooth!

Wednesday we had breakfast at Cafe Mickey. We had called that morning and tried to

Rabbit snuck up on Eden…

cancel, but they told us that if we cancelled they would charge the €17 each to our room. Even though we had only had about two hours sleep thanks to poorly baby, we headed out. I have to be honest and say I hated cafe Mickey. The food was cold (even the food that was supposed to be hot) the staff were rude and the whole place was just so outdated. The character interaction was pretty good – we saw Mickey, Pluto, Goofy, Tigger and Rabbit. I would say you get better interaction in the park, though. I personally wouldn’t pay for it again.

After breakfast we went back to the hotel for a couple of hours nap. Eden still wasn’t feeling well, so we wanted to take it easy on her. We all napped for about two hours and she woke up in a much better mood and seemed to be feeling better, which was good. We headed into the

This is her “I just woke up” face.

park and watched Jedi training whilst having lunch. I had the Jedi burger and Amy had the Darth Vador burger. Both were yummy. We went to the pavilion (60 mins wait) and Eden
napped in her carrier in the queue before we met Rapunzel. We then walked round to “Le Pays De Contes Fees” which Eden loved. Although the people behind us made me laugh as despite there being signs on the ride telling you which fairytales each scene represented, they were suggesting their own. Some of the suggestions were amusing to say the least. We then had a wander through Adventureland and met the Genie. I had a Pineapple Whip which was super yummy – even if Eden did keep trying to steal it! We headed back to the hotel with the plan of coming out again for Dreams, but little girl still wasn’t feeling amazing so we decided to stay in.

Thursday we had breakfast in the hotel. Nice and quiet at 7am. We then headed straight

Minnie! Look! It’s your best friend Daisy!

into the park with Eden dressed as Daisy Duck. We had so much fun meeting and greeting with Mickey and Minnie and got some absolutely gorgeous photo pass pics from this. We then met Donald, Pluto and Goofy before going on Snow White’s Scary Adventure. We had a wander around the park while Eden had her nap and once she woke up we had planned to go on Haunted Mansion, which is listed as no height requirement. Unfortunately the cast member at the gate felt Eden was too little, so we stopped at the nearby restaurant for chicken nuggets and chips instead. On the way back to civilisation we saw Balloo and King Louie.

“You Look Like Daisy Duck”

We saw Jafar and Genie but weren’t too bothered about meeting them as we thought Eden might be scared of Jafar… Or maybe I was scared. We also saw Smee, Hook and Wendy. We headed through to Fantasyland and met Alice and the Red Queen, followed by Winnie the Pooh. We then queued for about 45 minutes to meet Tiana and Naveen. Naveen was amazing and so funny, but Tiana seemed to be a bit flat and clearly was not a baby person. We headed back to the hotel for naps as we were determined to make Dreams tonight! Thankfully an uninterrupted nap did Eden well and we made it out for Dreams. We were back in the park by about 930pm and got a great spot behind the disabled area. Dreams was gorgeous and we walked back to the hotel and pretty much face planted in bed!

Friday was our last day and we had every intention of early breakfast and extra magic hours before checking out, but it just did not happen! We got all our bags packed up and raced out of the room at about 1030, dropping our bags into the baggage room on the way out. We headed into the park (via earl of sandwich) and Eden napped while Amy went on Space Mountain (5 min wait). We then went on Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin, which was about a ten minute wait. We went back to the Pavilion and queued for about 40 minutes and met Belle. Eden was wearing a froofy Minnie dress so we hunted down Minnie Mouse and had a great meet and greet with her.

We then walked over to the studios and rode the tram tour between ever increasing bouts of rain and thunder. Most of the main park’s outside rides were closed at this point because of lightening warnings. We queued ten minutes for the tram tour and DAMN is that ride outdated?! Dull! I mean the effects in catastrophe canyon is great but the rest is a bit of a snore fest.

We had McDonald’s in the village, went back to the hotel and realised that I had left a backpack in McDonald’s! I called them and they told me it was still there and they would hold it for me, so we went back straight away (with all our other stuff now too!) and Amy and Eden waited by the station while I ran to McDonald’s in the pouring rain. I got the backpack and we got back on the train to Gare Du Nord. This was easy enough on the way out there but the way back was a pain in the butt. There is just NO signage between the metro and the Eurostar. And dragging one pram, three cases, two backpacks and a baby up a flight of stairs is not good.

Anyway we made the train and Eden played the whole way before falling to sleep about ten minutes before we arrived in London.

We had an awesome holiday with only a couple of lows. I wouldn’t ever do Cafe Mickey again and I did have €10 stolen from our room, which we did report to the manager and I will be following up with guest services. But that’s about making them aware so that they can do something about it.

I totally underestimated how much food would cost. We spent the vast majority of our money on food and didn’t have any table service meals. I think next time we go we might get half board maybe. The quick service stuff is good quality and big enough portions, but with a bottle of Coke costing €4 or so in the park it’s a bit of a shocker.

The best thing we did was buy photo pass. Apparently it’s cheaper in advance but we paid €59.99 in the park and got 130 photos! Worth every single penny! Some of the photographers are absolutely fantastic and we have some great pics.

I loved that the park was so baby friendly and all the cast members made a massive fuss of Eden. She had a wonderful time and it was all because of the people there. The baby care centre in the main park is AMAZING! Loved it. The studios one was just ok.

With regard to queues, everything except princess pavilion was short. What I learnt about the pavilion is that if you want to meet a princess, you have to queue. But the queue is air conditioned and does move fairly fast. It’s just a case of occupying yourself and any kids. Those were some of my favourite meet and greets though.

Smokers in the park wasn’t as big a problem as I thought. I can imagine in high season it’s probably a lot worse. The night we waited for dreams was probably the worst for it. It seemed everyone was smoking and no one cared about who was around them. It’s a shame people can’t be more compassionate. We also didn’t come across much pushing and shoving and what we did some across seemed to be British people unfortunately which made me very sad. A woman in the Tiana queue was absolutely disgusting to a cast member with regards to those with disability passes being allowed to go first. She really made me ashamed to be human.

Also we took our lillebaby carrier as well as the pushchair and it was SO useful for queues and for Dreams. Next time I think I would do more Lillebaby and less pushchair.

People said going with a six month old was a total waste of time, but it definitely wasn’t. The way her little face lit up when she met the characters or when people made a fuss of her, and the way she looked around and took everything in was awesome. No, she won’t remember it, but we have some pretty awesome photos and memories of our first holiday with our baby girl.

Can’t wait for our next trip. Not sure when, but I know we’ll be back. I feel like Paris is not as awesome as Orlando would be. We’re thinking Orlando 2018, just before her third birthday. But that’s riding on a fair bit happening before then.

 

You can see more of our photos from our trip on Instagram!