It’s a small world after all! We went on our first Disneyland trip! Nobody here in Belgium understands how we lived in California and never went to Disneyland (besides Will when he was a kid of course). We surprised the kids at Christmas that we were going for four days to Disneyland Paris and they were over the moon excited.
Do I even need to say we missed our train to Brussels where we were going to catch the bullet train to Paris, and instead we now had to drive to Brussels and pay 100 bucks in parking? Naaah, that's boring stuff.
So, once on the bullet train we relaxed and enjoyed the 2 hour train ride. It would have taken us four and a half hours by car, so this was way more pleasant for all of us. The train dropped us off right smack in the middle of the Disney Village. We were staying at one of the Disney hotels called The Cheyenne. It was a western theme hotel located in a small cowboy village with a real saloon and everything. It was a perfect location with a shuttle every five minutes to the Disneyland Park which was not even a five minute drive.
It truly is a magical place! It was so amazing to me that every little detail is taken care of, it all looked so beautiful.
Since we had four days there we had the luxury to do things our own pace. People told us that we could see both parks in about two days if we spent the whole day there (Disneyland Paris is smaller then Disneyland LA). You know we like to relax on vacation, so rushing to get to the park early (even though we had the early bird passes) was not on our agenda. This is why we decided to go for four days, see; there is reasoning behind our madness. Each day we got to sleep in, have a relaxing buffet breakfast, get a coffee at Starbucks at the Disney Village and get to the Park around noon :-) We were pretty lucky that is was not a holiday or no school vacation (oops, why were our kids there instead of school?? Speak to my lawyer). We never had to wait in line longer then fifteen minutes. We would grab snacks all day (hello 7 Euro hot dogs) so that we could stay in the park until it closed because after about 6pm it seemed that everybody went to go eat so we could literally catch any ride without even a minute wait. We even got to watch some shows were there were maybe ten people in the audience, totally fun!
The park closed at 8pm, so by now the line in the restaurants were pretty good too, since all the little princes and princesses were too tired from getting up so early. Perfect for us! The restaurants in the Disney Village were pretty good, but of course expensive. It felt as if we were in America for a while with Planet Hollywood and Rainforest Café and Starbucks.
I am glad we waited until now to go to Disneyland because Lainey got to go on almost any ride. There were only three where she didn’t reach the height requirement. Chloe only had to pass on one ride! This made it so much more fun for us all, especially since my crazy children are not afraid of anything!!! I really thought I was going to die some rides, but not them. All we kept hearing all day was again, again, again!
We loved all the rides, but the favorites were:
Chloe-Space Mountain, Lainey-Rocker roller coaster (Aero Smith Style), Lesley-It’s a small world after all (so darn beautiful), and Will-the Ben and Jerry’s stand, haha, just kidding, he liked the Train roller coaster.
They really do know what they are doing those Disney people. I have been to many amusement parks but there truly is something magical in the air when you see Minnie walking by and music playing in the gorgeous streets while watching the Disney parade and eating an ice cream from the old fashioned ice cream parlors from the old fashioned movies. Like they say, I did feel like a kid again!
We had a really great time and we still did not want to leave after four days. For sure a trip worth repeating!
Little child of mine say what?
Just something that makes every parent teary eyed:
We are standing on a bridge ready to throw a flower into the water while making a wish when Chloe says; I don't know what to wish for, I already have everything I want?
The kids wanted yet another thing from a gift store to which I replied that we had no more money to spend. Lainey's eyes got watery and she asked in a sad voice: "oh no mom, are we poor?"
Until the next time,
Lesley
