Before we left Germany, we took two and a half year old Layla and seven month old Joey to Disneyland Paris for a last trip with our good friends, the Perry family (who have two boys, ages three and a half and two). *Tip* We LOVED traveling with our friends, and I really feel like our time was made more fun and full because of being together. If you have a family you know you travel well with (this was I think our 4th family vacation together), consider inviting them along. HOWEVER, if you don't yet know if your travel styles mix well with another family, this is not the place to find that out!
We went in early April which turned out to really be a fabulous time to go. It wasn't particularly cold or hot; we were comfortable in jeans and short sleeves during the day and sweatshirts at night. It was also far from crowded, as it was between school breaks for Europeans schools and DoD schools.
The French train drops off no kidding at the front gate of Disney, but we elected to stay on Disney property for a number of reasons. First of all, since we knew we would need to take at least one break for naps in the middle of the day, we didn't want to worry about getting our group of 8 with two large double strollers on a train multiple times a day. Also, since we were driving down from different German bases, it was ideal to have close, gated parking where I didn't have to worry about if our American sized van would fit. Finally, price-wise it made the most sense. The price of the hotel included the rooms of course(American style hotel rooms with 2 big beds, room for a pack and play AND a tub for bathing kids is a huge luxury in Europe), tickets to the park for the day you arrive at the hotel, any days you stay in the hotel, as well as the day you leave, parking, and breakfast in the dining room every day. Having a good breakfast before taking on the parks is too important to pass up! Overall, the whole Disney hotel experience (friendly, English speaking staff, Disney themed rooms, and the ability to walk from our room to the gate of Magic Kingdom in less than 10 minutes) was great! *Tip* if you are trying to book a room at Disneyland Paris, be sure to check the Disney.uk site, Disney.us and Disney.fr site. Usually, the US site is most expensive, followed by the UK, and the French site offers the best prices and offers. You can use Google Chrome to translate, and while it's slightly annoying because all communications will come in French (all staff WILL speak English so don't worry about that) the hassle was worth the price savings.
Now, on to DISNEYLAND! It's important to note, if you plan to visit, and you've visited other Disney parks before- this is NOT the real Disneyland in California, nor Disney World in Florida. It's smaller, almost like a Disney Express. It has the big time characters, the big time rides, and the big time attractions, but if you are a fanatic or expecting it to have all the bells and whistles like the US parks, you will be disappointed. Be realistic. For our group with small children, the smaller park actually made it more manageable in my opinion! *TIP* before arriving, amp up the Disney magic with some movies! I really didn't do enough of this, and wish I had. Use the time in the car to play some Disney shows that are maybe outside of your kids favorites- I wish I had put on Toy Story, Peter Pan, and maybe Beauty and the Beast. We don't normally watch a ton of movies, but it would have helped to have a little more for Layla to connect with than Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, which is just a show and not featured at all on rides. We arrived to the the Disney New York Hotel in the late afternoon, and after quickly checking in, we walked down Main Street Disney into the Magic Kingdom, just in time for the evening parade. All kids were EXHAUSTED from missed naps and long car rides, but the parade was the very best chance to see all of the princesses and characters so we pushed those extra wide double B.O.B.s right up to the curb and cheered as Elsa, Rapunzel, and Mickey (along with probably 30 other characters) paraded by. The floats were awesome, the music was fun, the characters were all smiling and engaging. As the parade wrapped up, we all decided it was dinner time so we headed back out to Main Street to pick a restaurant. I don't remember all the choices, I know there was a McD's which we book marked for later (judge away, but after being all over Europe, we have learned that sometimes you need a reliable meal for a reasonable price. Boring? Maybe, but so necessary) but we ate at the Earl of Sandwich before wandering back to the hotel for a 10 minute splash in the pool, baths and bed so that we were ready for a L.O.N.G. Disney day the next day. We started out by grabbing breakfast in the 50's style diner downstairs- eat up kids, this food is included!- and then made our way into the Magic Kingdom. One of the perks of staying at the hotel is that you have access parks before everyone else. It was super cool to be one of the very few people walking around, and because of it we were able to take pictures in front of the castle without dodging 100,000 tourists!
We made a quick beeline to one of the big rides- Space Mountain- only to find that it was closed for renovations (boo) and then regrouped and headed to rides that we thought the kids would get the biggest kick out of. It's Disney, after all, they're known for lines, so we wanted to make sure the kids were able to get on a ride so they got the idea of why they would have to wait later on in the day. The teacups were such fun for the kids (so I hear because I was sidelined with Joey), then It's a Small World which we all got to ride on together.
We did a variety of other rides after that, grabbed lunch somewhere in the park, saw Minnie's Parade, and then rode some more! I think the highlights for rides were Pirates of the Caribbean- all the kids did AWESOME (Joey included!) and it was so fun to go on a ride that I loved as a kid- and the Circus Train, which we didn't know was a roller coaster until we were all- yes, including my seven month old- going down a big hill. It wasn't exactly the way that I imagined my kids taking their first roller coaster, but it ended up being a heck of a memory and we all laughed like crazy when it was done.
Every night at Disney there is a big fireworks and laser display on the castle front once the sun goes down. We knew it was going to take a lot of work to get all the kids there, so we walked back to the hotel mid afternoon for naps. They didn't go quite as planned, sometimes in Europe even if you have a "Do Not Disturb" sign on your door, housekeeping will call your room before they leave for the day just to make sure that you don't need anything. Of course this happened about 10 minutes after the kids fell asleep, so after a complaint at the front desk, I scored free balloons at the park, and we made our peace for running on fumes for the rest of the day. We had a few restaurants in the park in mind for dinner, but unfortunately we found out once arriving that they were all already closed for the day (seriously, I think it was 6 pm so be sure to check this out if you plan to eat at a park restaurant) so we found a less-than-delicious hot dog before riding a few more rides.
It was interesting to be ushered out of areas as they closed, it happened as Layla (who has just finished potty training) HAD to go potty and we were sprinting from closed area to closed area trying to find any toilet still open. After successfully taking care of business, we made our way to the already crowded area in front of the castle to get ready for the show.
*TIP* They sell all sorts of glow in the dark toys and necklaces, but I brought our own along so the kids had fun light up gear, but we didn't have to drop a dime there. The show was scheduled for 10, but I think it was really around 11 pm before the show started. It really was an impeccably coordinated show, piecing together clips of so many Disney movies with voices in both English and French. After a stunning grand finale, we walked the 10 minutes back to our hotel (this is another time staying on property really paid off) and collapsed into bed. We knew our last Disney day would be shorter since we needed to get on the road for the 5 (or what turned into 8) hour drive back to Germany, so we again grabbed breakfast as soon as we could get in to the diner, loaded the cars so we could check out of our rooms, and walked over to the park gates. Since we had already visited the Magic Kingdom, we decided to check out Disney Studios. Truthfully, this area was geared toward either adults or at least kids that were older than ours, so we rode only a few things, the dads rode Tower of Terror (they offered to return the favor, ummm PASS) and then started walking back out Main Street. Here we are pictured in our full Disney glory- Four adults clad in shoes appropriate for chasing down run away monsters, 4 children aged 3 and under, 3 big-ass Disney balloon, 2 double jogging strollers, and a parrrrtridge in a pear tree!!!! I love this family!
Both families planned to buy a few souvenirs, so we stopped into the main store there. I was surprised that their prices weren't higher (don't get me wrong, it wasn't the dollar store, but I thought they could have been much steeper) so we picked up a Mickey Mouse and Mike Wazowski (the green one eyed monster from Monsters Inc). I actually purchased Layla's Minnie Mouse before we started the trip, and surprised her with it sitting in her car seat the morning we left- she loved it, took it with her through the whole park, and still sleeps with it! I think we really would have been fine not getting any plush toys at the park, but it made a nice cuddly reminder for Joey. If you want to get something to take home, I think they Perry family made a better purchase by getting Toy Story's Woody and marking the bottom of his foot like Andy does in the movie! Anyway, we had a final meal together at McD's and then walked back to our hotel for the last time. This vacation left us all with such happy memories, the park was fun, accommodations were comfortable and easy, and, of course, the company just could not be beat.
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