Back in April, for Spring Break, we took an adventure to Disneyland Paris!!! We're all pretty big fans of Disneyland and we were excited to enjoy the excitement in Europe. France is notorious for it's road tolls, I think at one point we paid 30-some euro on one toll. Craziness.
We were pretty excited as we got closer and closer. We had stopped in Ramstein (an Air Base here in Germany) the night before so we really only had a 4 hour drive Saturday morning. The anticipation was killer ...
FINALLY ... we saw a small glimmer of hope that we were getting closer.
Those last 10km were killer ;)
Then, we saw the glorious sight we had been waiting for, for months!!
We parked the car, and headed off! This hotel was amazing. I'm pretty sure if we were rich, we would have stayed here. Gorgeous! You head under the hotel for the ticket office and park entrance...
Seriously...we were so excited to be there. I don't think there was any amount of sadness in our family for the next 3 days. Disneyland does that to people! We ended up getting 3-day park hopper passes which ended up being plenty of time to see and do everything!
Since we went in April, everything in the park was decorated for Spring. The theme was "Swing into Spring" ... I loved these dancing bushes. They had a Mary Poppin's theme going on for the front gazebo. We happened to walk into the park right as they were starting a performance. So fun!
We headed down Main Street towards Discoveryland (their version of Tomorrowland) ... and oh the Castle! I only took my phone into the park so some of the pictures aren't the greatest but, you can still imagine what it would be like to live in a Disney castle...
The first ride we rode was the Buzz Lightyear ride. Next up, was Autopia. Kason was my chauffeur. Then I went over and stood in line for Space Mountain. This Space Mountain was pretty intense! There was a loop inside and it shoots you up pretty fast, right at the start. After I rode, we did the parent swap and Brad got to ride it. He doesn't love roller coasters, so he didn't enjoy it quite as much as I did.
(that's Space Mountain...that tube off to the side is where it shoots you into the coaster, you start outside and end up in the dark. pretty amazing if I do say so myself...)
In Frontierland, we wanted to do the Haunted Mansion but, it was closed so we headed over to Big Thunder Mountain. This roller coaster was also a LOT more intense than the one in California. Kason...did NOT enjoy it. Tears were had (oops, one sad moment...) but, I was proud of him for going on it. He's a trooper. And also, seriously fun to go to Disneyland with an "older" kid who finds enjoyment out of the rides...makes the experience so much fun!
(sweet Kason trying to smile after a not-so-fun ride for him...)
Disneyland Paris put an Arabian spin on their Adventureland. We headed over there and road Pirates of the Caribbean. Sadly, Indiana Jones was closed and there wasn't much else in Adventureland. You could explore a pirate ship and Tarzan's treehouse. Aladdin left his lamp laying around, too.
On our way out of the park, we stopped in Fantasyland to try and pull out the sword, then we followed Mickey out of the park so we could go check into our hotel and get some dinner.
We stayed next to the park in the Kyriad Disneyland Hotel. They had a free shuttle (that was often packed full...especially at night) and free parking, so it worked out well for us! Kason was mostly just excited for the bunk beds.
After we got settled, we took the shuttle back to Disneyland. Before we went back into the park we wandered Disney Village to try and find some dinner. We stumbled upon this AH-MAZ-ING sandwich shop, Earl of Sandwich. Oh goodness, it was delicious. (I'm starting to think we have eaten our way through Europe...so many of our trips have delicious food attached to it...Hmm.)
Then we headed back into Disneyland to ride a few more rides (Haunted Mansion being one of them...it was open again!) and waited for the firework show. The show ended up being cancelled because of technical difficulties so we vowed to come back another night to enjoy the spectacle. And that was the end of our first amazing day in Disneyland Paris!!
