Holiday: Day 5 - Disneyland

They say Disneyland is the happiest place on earth, and to be honest I’d probably agree with whoever said that, there is just something about the place that makes you have fun, and even a cranky pants like me found myself enjoying the place; it must have something to do with the water or the music they subtly play in the background. But anyhow Disneyland marked our third and final day in Paris, and it almost didn’t happen..

Family fun at Paris Disneyland

In the morning we did our usual getting ready, but we had a stumbling block… we couldn’t find the tickets. Actually I should probably correct that, “I” couldn’t find the tickets. After a fair amount of panic, checking our bank statements and email inboxes (I’m a master of inbox management), it appeared that “I” had not booked tickets to go to Disneyland despite our entire time in Paris being centred around it, but the good news was that we were able to book some last minute and our holiday was saved, still not sure how I would have gotten away with this mistake if we couldn’t have booked them.

As was tradition now we made our way down to our local Metro stop to make the trip out to Disneyland which would take two metros and a train to get there, and roughly an hour.

On the way we did the usual stop off for supplies at the supermarket and I did the coffee run at Starbucks. Now I don’t really think I have an accent, at least not one that’s difficult to understand, but apparently I do because for some strange reason, both in Europe and Hawaii whenever I order a coffee at Starbucks they put it under the name Marco, I must need to learn to pronounce the “I” and the “L” a little more in my name.

So we arrived at Disneyland and made our way out of the station, through the bag check, took the obligatory “I’ve made it to Disneyland I need a photo” photo and then scanned our way through the entrance, despite the volume of people it was actually quite seamless, Disneyland really does have their act together (no pun intended).

We decided to head straight to the rides that we wanted to do, however we got slightly lost and ended up in the Phantom Manor instead of Thunder Mountain. I think that was a good outcome anyway because it kind of got us into the whole experience. I didn’t mind the Phantom Manor but it wasn’t really a ride, more like a tour, but still it was high quality.

Then we eventually made it to Thunder Mountain, where the indicator showed that there was roughly a 40 minute wait time. I think the indicator was largely correct as we waited about this long, what I didn’t mind about the wait was that it was constantly moving and that it weaved around other structures so not just a big back and forwards queue, the time passed quite quickly. As for the ride itself its probably one of the more enjoyable rides I’ve been on, weaving in and around the mountains, into and out of darkness, I wouldn’t say its scary but it definitely catches you off guard with where it is going, this was definitely there family favourite ride for the day.

After this we wandered around a few other rides, Mum selected Pirates of the Caribbean which is another of those tour type rides but in a little boat, and then onto Indiana Jones, which is a full blown roller coaster where you go upside down. I enjoyed this, though it didn’t last very long and the wait was even longer than we waited for Thunder Mountain, but the boy got over his fear of going upside down so it was a win. Now it was time for lunch.

Food is normally where these places cash in and that was definitely no different here. We opted for a place called Caseys which served hotdogs, which is different compared to the food we have been eating lately. Despite what we paid I liked the hotdog, I even made sure I loaded up on sauce which seemed like the right thing to do.

Fed, we were ready to continue on with exploring through the afternoon where we started off with the steam train ride around the park. Steam train was great, what it highlighted to me was that the park isn’t that big because you get all the way around the outside pretty quick, it’s also largely uneventful as I think its more of a way to get around the park rather than a train ride. Anyhow it got us back to the start and gave our food a chance to go down.

The Buzz Lightyear ride, my second favourite :)

The highlight of the afternoon was going through the Buzz Lightyear ride, which isn’t really a ride but you get put into a little two person cart and go around on a conveyor belt, where you are given a laser gun and have to shoot targets to accumulate points. My years of Fortnite experience must have paid off as I got the victory royale amongst the family narrowly beating the boy who continues to be reminded of this on a daily basis. Despite the simplicity of this ride it was actually my second favourite for the day because its quite engaging.

That pretty much wrapped up the day for us, though on the way out we saw that the street parade was about the begin as the streets were lined about 5 deep all the way around. I wasn’t expecting much but it was actually one of the highlights, they really put on a good show with all the music going and the characters dancing around their little floats. When you see the parade and all the characters one after the other it reminds you of just how many Disney movies you have seen throughout your life, whether that be Aladdin, The Lion King or even Toy Story, in some way we have all been touched by the magic of Disney.

And so that was it for our Disney experience, I’m not sure whether its the park itself or the memories from throughout your life that Disney has created, but we all had a great time :)

Michael