HANNAH SHARES

A few days before Michael’s 4-day weekend in January, we hadn’t planned a trip, but got an itch to go somewhere for the weekend. Michael sort of jokingly brought up going to Disneyland Paris, so I started looking into it. We found very reasonable flights, and an awesome deal on hotel and park tickets by booking their discounted military rates. We booked the trip four days before we travelled and we were so excited to take Lucy on a trip she would especially enjoy!

We flew from Venice to Paris Thursday night, which we later realized is the best time to travel since both the Venice airport and our flight were very empty. There are several options for transportation to the Disneyland area, but because we got in later we booked a private car to get there. There are great options on the train and direct shuttle busses, but they don’t run later in the evenings. We stayed at Disney’s Hotel Cheyenne, a western-style hotel within walking distance to both parks.

On Friday morning we headed first to Walt Disney Studios Park. There are two parks right next to each other (Walt Disney Studios and Disneyland Paris). The Studios park is newer and smaller, but had a few rides we wanted to get on before heading over to the main park. The weather was a bit chilly and windy this day, but mostly pretty decent. We knew the weather in Paris this time of year could be really rainy, so we dressed accordingly. We did the Avengers Flight Force ride, Ratatouille (our favorite!), and walked around the World of Pixar which features lots of Toy Story rides and characters.

We spent the rest of the first day at Disneyland, with a nap break back at the hotel mid-day. We were able to get on every ride we wanted to this day – our favorites were Pirates of the Caribbean, Peter Pan’s Flight, Phantom Manor (same as Haunted Mansion at WDW), and Hyperspace Mountain. We didn’t do many rides that Lucy couldn’t go on, but it is nice that they offer rider swap for parents with young kids, so Michael or I could wait with Lucy while one of us got on a ride and then the second person can jump the line to ride when they get off. One of the highlights of the day was the character parade they do at noon. We waited at the front of the park before heading out for Lucy’s nap to catch the beginning of the parade and Lucy loved it!

On Saturday morning we knew we weren’t going to be as lucky with the weather. It was pretty windy and rainy as we were heading to the park and was like that most of the day. We were still able to do lots of things indoors, and most of the lines to get on rides are covered areas, so it wasn’t too bad, but we were glad we made the most of the first day, so anything on the second day was just a bonus.

We didn’t plan too much ahead for our meals, which maybe we would have had better luck if we had, but the food wasn’t great. But it’s still pretty expensive, which is typical at Disney. We did have a really fun meal at the Ratatouille restaurant on the second night, but I would say the other meals we had weren’t worth noting.

Sunday morning we planned to take the shuttle bus back to the airport for our flight. While we were waiting for the bus I went inside the lobby area with Lucy since it was another cold and windy day. Woody happened to be in the lobby taking photos with the kids. I waited for a few minutes with Lucy and she ended up getting to meet him quickly before we jumped on the bus. She was so excited watching him in line the whole time, but once it was her turn, she was super nervous and shy! She did get a good picture with him, but she wasn’t about to go up to him without me right there. Despite the weather, we had a really good time and were happy we ended up booking the last minute trip!