Happy Birthday Disneyland Paris – Our DLP Story

Today is Disneyland Paris’ birthday! Twenty four years ago today the park opened it’s gates for the first time. Back then it was a single park and went by the name of Euro Disney, to this day my dad still calls it this haha. Despite this park being closest to England, I have never felt it to be my “home” park, but with each visit I feel like I’m falling in love with it a little bit more. In celebration of it’s birthday today I’m sharing our Disneyland Paris story.

As I mentioned above, Disneyland Paris has never felt like my “home” park, for me that will always be Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World as it was the first park I visited and as a child I visited WDW three times, taking up a total of 6 weeks of my childhood. DLP on the other hand I only visited once, with the school for one day and two nights. I have no photos from that trip but I do remember feeling very underwhelmed with it in comparison to WDW.. add that to the fact I was 12 and entering those years where it was “uncool” to like Disney (although I did, but it was very much confined to home life). There was only one park at the time and no one wanted to ride the rides in Fantasyland or meet the characters. I did get to be in the parade though as that was back when the parades used to stop and you could join in with them. I came away with very little desire to go back and always thought the smart idea was to save every penny and go to Florida instead. That was until I became a parent.

From the moment I became a mum I wanted Disney to be an even bigger part of my child’s life than it was of mine. Luckily with very little encouragement Little Miss was naturally drawn to everything Disney, so the Christmas before she turned two, when I was still lucky to have both my Grandfathers alive and well to gift us with some money, I booked to take her to Disneyland Paris in May 2014. My mum decided she wanted to come too so we booked flights and a stay in Hotel Cheyenne, as that had been one of my favourite parts of the visit when I was a kid and I knew the rooms had a set of bunks and a double bed. Our trip came around and it was everything and more than I expected. Now the resort had two parks in it, and although Disney Studios doesn’t have that much to offer, it was enough to convince me that Disney trips needed to become a huge part of our lives. I’m so thankful every day that I took Little Miss to Disneyland Paris when she was two. Her excitement as she watched the parade, the first time she met Mickey Mouse, the first time she met a princess.. these are memories that will always be associated with DLP and it helped me fall in love with the place, something that hadn’t happened to me as a child. I wrote a series of posts about our trip, as well as one about doing Disneyland Paris with a small child.

We returned again in October 2015, having had two drips to Walt Disney World in between but aside from the fact Little Miss couldn’t meet Peter Pan due to the season (which caused some slight heartbreak) my love for the place continued to grow. Little Miss enjoyed riding the Phantom Manor and became besotted with Jack Skellington. I started to notice that there were a lot more opportunities to meet characters. I LOVED the seasonal parade and the fact that Halloween was embraced all day every day rather than just at the parties like in WDW. Although it was cold, wet and the place shut down early, it was growing rapidly on me as I made more memories with Little Miss. We did two of the three character dining options, and it was our first time eating at Auberge de Cendrillon. Going with a child and seeing that the magic is still there no matter which park you’re at was what I needed. I watched Woody and Buzz make a huge fuss over her Woody dress and Merida spent a good 5 minutes speaking to her even though she had a decent sized queue. As a mother those things are what make a Disney holiday truly magical and it proved that the magic is transferable to anywhere. After this trip I started to feel myself want to go back, to make even more memories at the park closest to us.

Although I did want to visit this year at some point, I wasn’t anticipating heading out in February for a few days. We were invited over to join one of our friends from Florida and we stayed in the beautiful Newport Bay. It was a game changer, Little Miss finally met Peter Pan, as well as Alice and the Hatter, some of her favourite characters. The new show The Forest of Enchantment had just started as well as some of the Swing into Spring celebrations. I don’t know if it was the company we were sharing it with, or the fact I was now so familiar with the park that I no longer needed a map. I knew times, places, character spots that I was now finding little gems rather than trying to cram everything in like we have done in past trips. We got to eat lunch and watch the Jedi Academy, something we both enjoyed but had never done before. We also had a drink in Cafe Fantasia (well I had a few haha). It wasn’t about doing as much as possible or buying stuff, it was about enjoying the park and doing what Little Miss loved much like how we spend out time in WDW. I think this is why I have the urge to go back, to enjoy the parks like I do in Florida. To make more magical memories with Little Miss.

So the future? I’m stopping by for a day in June, then I’m hoping for a weekend trip the last weekend in August to do the Wonderland Inventions lunch. There are talks of a Halloween trip in the Disney Bloggers community too for the soiree and I’d love a quick trip at Christmas. I’m considering buying an annual pass so we can really enjoy the 25th anniversary celebrations next year! I hear there is a new parade in the works and the characters out and about are increasing all the time! Although it’ll never take the place of Walt Disney World for me, the memories we’re making at DLP are just as precious to me as the ones we have from Florida.