After six years I finally found myself at the entrance of the happiest place on earth – Disneyland. Music played throughout, unconsciously leaving a huge grin on my face. Stephen and I (both in our twenties) arrived in Paris on the 4th of March for a three-night trip. Needless to say, he was initially reluctant to go, having the perception that Disneyland was only for children – that was entirely not the case.
Travel
We had booked the trip through “Love Holidays” – which I couldn’t recommend enough. The trip was broken down into 5 monthly instalments of €32 each, very appropriate on a student budget. When we arrived in Paris I was immediately intimidated at the sheer size of the airport. We had planned to get a train from T2 direct to Disneyland – to put the size of the airport into perspective we had to get a train from T1 to T2. This plan fell apart when we realised that the train wouldn’t be departing for another 2 hours – we were exhausted. A lovely lady working in the airport told us about the “Magic Bus” for €40 return each this bus would drop us to the door of our hotel and pick us up from the door the day of departure and to more to our pleasure it would be departing every 15 minutes.
Hotel
We stayed in a partnered hotel – Campanile Val de France, located ten minutes from the park. A free shuttle picks up from the hotel every 20 minutes to go to the park. The hotel was very clean, comfortable and had great amenities for all the family. I would highly recommend it as a cheaper alternative to the Disney hotels. There was a burger hut, restaurant, bar, arcade and free petting farm all on site. We availed of breakfast every morning when booking, it was buffet style consisting of continental and fry options – delicious!
Food
With both of us being picky eaters, him more so than me, we found it difficult to find food that we liked. I’d like to point out that eating within the parks was very expensive. We bounced between the Sports Bar in the Disney village and Five Guys (located behind Disney Village). Both were reasonable priced. The Sports Bar was filled with memorabilia and the cocktails were amazing. There was a large seating area outside, every table had a heater and faced a huge screen showing live sports. The Sports Bar was always buzzing with a fun atmosphere.
Favourite Attractions/ Characters
I must be honest the two of us are chickens when it comes to rides, but kudos to us we were unusually brave. By far our favourite rides/shows were:
Illuminations
Thunder Mountain
Ratatouille
Stitch Live (Show)
Haunted Mansion
Pirates of the Caribbean
Motor Show
We only got photos with three characters – Goofy, Pluto and Olaf. Unknows to us you needed to book a time slot using an app “Lineberty” to get a picture with a character. Though this was only required with the more popular characters, others you simply just got in the que. I did have my frustrations with the app, but that didn’t take away from the magic!
We are already planning our next visit.
On to the next adventure,
Kelsey.
ONE TIME IN EUROPE 