Gift an experience: A trip to Disneyland Paris

Note to self: When you draft a post in word, don’t forget to put it on the blog 🙂

It’s been again a while since I posted. I promise I will try to do better next year. But let me revive this blog with this new post.

With Christmas around the corner, you may already have purchased and maybe wrapped all your presents as well. However, if you are like me, you may not have a clue what to buy your brother-in-law, or nieces and nephews.

Therefore let me share an idea of a gift I gave my nephew last year and how that experience was.

My nephew is also my godson, hence the gift is a bit bigger than for the others in the family. However the budget is not endless, so this gift was one for 3 occasions combining Christmas, his Birthday, and his alternative first communion.

During the gift exchange, he received a brochure with information about Disneyland Paris with the promise we would go there in 2022.

We picked the weekend of Ascension Day from Wednesday after school till Saturday evening. As it turns out we could have left on Wednesday morning as there was no school for him that day either. Looking back I would have chosen a weekend without a particular holiday and checked with my sister if she was willing to let him miss a day of school or when there was a day off due to a school conference because waiting times of 70 to 80 minutes were no fun.

I made him a little notebook where he could write what we did and keep some photographs which we printed on my HP Sprocket (search for Canon Zoemini if you want to know what I’m talking about as the HP Sprocket isn’t produced anymore from what I understood). My second grader, at the time, liked the idea but was quick to point out that he didn’t like writing. So instead of keeping my journal, I wrote in his on the train or before he woke up. Therefore I don’t remember exactly the order we did the attractions.

On Wednesday my parents dropped my nephew off at our local train station where we started our adventure. We had to change trains in Brussels at the Brussels-Midi station. Because I’m an anxious traveler I left a lot of time to do this transfer. For an excited 8-year-old, the time was a bit long, but first making our way to the wrong platform, I was quite glad about the extra time.

We had our train snacks that were supposed to serve as our dinner this first night, but it didn’t turn out that way. After arriving at the Disneyland Paris train station we walked to our hotel. It was a 15 to 20 minutes walk to hotel Cheyenne. This is one of the most affordable on-site and coincidently also the hotel where I did my tourism and hospitality internship a long time ago. The cast members had other uniforms and a Starbucks was added. But not much had otherwise changed.

It was a pity that “It’s a small world” was closed for maintenance as I love that ride. However since I last was at Disney “Buzz Lightyear Lazer Blast” opened, and this is so much fun as well. On Wednesday evening there was almost no line. We also did the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. Which wasn’t a hit with my nephew due to the dark parts in it. I wanted to head back to the room early, planning an equally early start the next morning. He on the other end had other plans, he wanted to keep watching the light show on/above the castle. Even more than 2 hours before the start there were already a lot of people finding their spots, so we took our spots and waited. Thanks to electronic devices, aka my phone, he quite enjoyed the wait.  Because I had to pick him up during the show to see better, there are no photo’s from this spectacle. Unfortunately, there was a technical issue, which meant that it ended a couple of minutes earlier than planned. Munchkin had the munchies and didn’t want to finish our train snacks. He fancied fries, so we ended up at Mcdonald’s. On Thursday we started in the Walt Disney Studios Park and ended the day in Disneyland Park, the next day it was the reverse. In the Walt Disney Studios Park, the Avenger Campus wasn’t open yet. We did the Cars road trip, crush’s coaster, and Ratatouille L’aventure. Let’s say that Crush’s coaster left me a bit more crushed than anticipated, so only did that once. Also, the 3D glasses from Ratatouille left me a bit dizzy as well. Thursday I had pancake for lunch and munchkin a tub of cotton candy. Friday I wanted to try Casey’s Corner, but because of the big waiting time, we ended up at Mcdonald’s again. In the park itself, we saw the “It’s time to Shine! parade twice. We also watched the end tail of the “Disney Stars on Parade” coming out of Adventureland. I think that the haunted house is still my favorite attraction, but too dark for the taste of my little companion. In the past, I also loved “Big thunder mountain”. However, getting older seems to have lowered my tolerance for these types of attractions. I had the most fun in Fantasyland.

While a sighting of Mickey Mouse garnered a lot of enthusiasm and waiving to the character, we didn’t do any meet and greets or photo’s with them. I asked if he wanted to, but he declined the opportunity.

On Saturday munchkin had another tub of cotton candy for lunch, and I had sandwiches I made extra during breakfast. For dinner, we had a reservation for the buffet at the Santa Fé hotel on Thursday and hotel Cheyenne on Friday. We were at the hotel very early but I loved soaking up the sun while he plaid on his own and did a little experiment with apple juice, ketchup, and Fritessaus. At both buffets, I found some nice things to eat. The nephew is a picky eater, so on Thursday he just had some bread rolls and butter, and Friday he had dessert for dinner. I didn’t want to spoil our experience by arguing over food or obligating him to eat this or that. He was well aware of the food freedom I gave him and did show his gratitude for this.

Saturday I was planning to grab something from Earl of Sandwich to eat on the train, but I wasn’t really hungry so I ate some cornflakes that were still in my bag.  I wasn’t really hungry due to the very nice, even hot, weather for the time of year and all the standing in line.

We were lucky to have my parents come to pick us up at a train station a bit further away. Otherwise, we had another rushed change of trains to do. By the time we got home I had a small bowl of leftover spaghetti while little Mr. tried to build his Minecraft Lego he purchased as a souvenir. We both slept over at my parent’s. Sunday my sister picked up her son at my parents and my dad drove me home after that.

Even on Monday, I could barely walk from blisters on my feet and all the muscle soreness from walking and standing in line.

We had a great time. However as I said above, next time I would probably not go during a public holiday and I would have purchased a meal plan with only breakfast instead of the half board + I paid for now.

What are your favorite attractions or things to do at Disneyland Paris? Or do you have suggestions for Christmas gifts?