When we were in France during our Europe trip we decided to go to Disneyland Paris. It was the closest I had ever been to any of the theme parks around the world, so we couldn’t pass it up. It turned out during our subsequent trips to the USA we didn’t make it to Disneyland or Walt Disney World either, so the Paris trip is my only real experience of the magical kingdom so far.

As we were staying near the Arc du Triomphe in central Paris we had to travel out to the park, but this was very easy on the dedicated Disneyland Paris (RER A) trains that go directly to the park.

We had purchased our tickets in advance online, and as they were celebrating the 20th anniversary of the park while we were there we were able to get special discounted price. I remember it being fairly quick to get into the park, and we decided to start with the Walt Disney Studios Park portion first.

Toy Story was one of my favourite movies growing up so it was so cool to see the huge statues and displays. There was also a Monsters Inc display when we visited which is another fave, but I think now it is replaced with other cartoons.

After we finished looking around the Walt Disney Studios section we headed into the Disneyland Park. First stop of course was Main Street where we looked through all the gift shops and got an idea of what we wanted to come back later for.

We then headed into Frontier Land, before going to the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. I actually really dislike roller-coaster style rides, especially ones with drops but my husband told me this one wasn’t bad at all so I decided I’d brave it and give it a go. It of course does have a big drop near the end which re-affirmed my distaste for bumpy rides!

From there was the Alice in Wonderland section, followed by the tea cup ride and ‘Its a Small World’ ride which were much more my style.

We were then onto Discovery Land before heading back to Frontier Land to go on the steamboat ride. I didn’t think the views from the steamboat were particularly amazing, but it was nice to just relax and watch what was going on around the park. After the steamboat we went back to Main Street where we got a sandwich for a late lunch at the Cable Car shop and then spent a little too long in the gift shop spending up a storm.

It was then time to get a good spot for the parade which I think was the highlight of my day, I loved seeing all the characters dressed up and dancing along to the music.

Once the parade was over we went to the Plaza Gardens Restaurant which is an all you can eat buffet. I don’t think the food was anything special, but the novelty of having all you can eat at Disneyland does seem like the epitome of a dream come true!

After dinner was the light show and by that point everyone that was in the park was in Main Street so it was looking a lot more crowded. I was absolutely stunned by the show, especially the projections onto Sleeping Beauty’s Castle. You can tell that a lot of time and effort goes into making the park come alive and seem magical for everyone attending.

To get home, we decided not to try and figure our our train connections late at night and instead opted to hire a taxi home thinking that would be safer. While this sounds reasonable at first, I would definitely recommend just taking the train. Our driver was driving like a maniac. I am not sure if it was one of those roads that has no speed limit, but in any case if felt like he was going way too fast. Then when we got to our hotel he charged us nearly 150 Euros which at the time was close to $300 AUD – more than the entry tickets themselves! While I am pretty sure we were scammed for being obvious tourists, from what I have read a taxi ride from Disneyland to the centre of Paris can be around 100 Euros so keep that in mind.

Have you been to Disneyland?