A Weekend at Disneyland Paris

It is not very often we get invited to such an awesome place as Disneyland Paris and to meet Disney Ambassadors Paula Radcliffe MBE and Paralympic winner, Michäel Jérémiasz from France at runDisney France! If you have not seen my earlier posts about the event, do check out my post about it.

The post was a summary of what we did at Disneyland Park and Walt Disney Studios. The last time that my husband and I went was before having children some 12 years ago. We were amazed at how well they have looked after the place. While I was doing my 5 km run, I saw their staff were checking all the barriers to make sure they were not wobbly, cleaning the walls and also the pavement. It is nice to know they do these regular safety checks.

A word of advice though, I do think that you will need at least two days to experience Disneyland fully. There are so many rides, meet the characters, Disney Illuminations, parades, and many more activities to do. Also, not forgetting the inevitable queues. Staying at their hotels will give you the opportunity to visit Disneyland Park from 8am before it is open to the public at 10am. If you prefer to stay away from Disneyland hotels, you can get to Disney very easily by train or taxi. As we were travelling with four people, it was better for us to take a cab rather than the shuttle bus or train.

As I spent most of my time with other influencers for the events, I didn’t get around the parks much, so I thought I would quickly highlight the main rides that really impressed my children.

Disneyland Park

• Autopia (No 44 on the map) – this is a gentle car ride where you drive your own 1950s car. Both of my children love this ride and we went on it twice. The queue was huge but it was worth it. There is a minimum height of 81 cm and for driving a car alone is 1.32 metre. As both of my children were still little, I helped them to press the accelerator and they steered the wheels.
• Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast (No 35 on the map) – on this ride, you get to shoot laser to win points. It is like a laser quest except you are sitting on a conveyor belt.
• It’s a small world (No 32 on the map) – again this is a gentle boat ride, where you sail around the world watching the little moving characters singing “it’s a small world”.
• Peter Pan’s Flight (No 24 on the map) – this is a very impressive ride where you hop onto a pirate ship and fly on an unforgettable journey to Neverland. We loved it so much that we went on twice! It is definitely worth the wait but if you have a VIP pass, you can save a lot of time with the queue.
• Disney Stars on Parade – check the programme and make sure you are right at the front!
• Disney Illuminations – there are mind-blowing special effects that bring the wonder of Disney to life before your very own eyes. There are fireworks that fizz through the night’s sky, showering their clusters of colours over Sleeping Beauty Castle with flames and water! I think the show lasts at least 30 minutes. Watch part of the show here: https://youtu.be/YqLEqdErY1Q

Both my young children are not very adventurous hence they didn’t go on the thrill rides. Of course, there are so many other rides and play areas that will appeal to all ages. They did went on the La Cabane des Robinson (No 13 on the map) to explore the house perched high in the tree. It was not very exciting for them as they just simply walked through it more than enjoying the scenery. They also went through Alice’s Curious Labyrinth (No 28 on the map) and came up against a lot of dead ends!

Walt Disney Studios

• Moteurs…Action! Stunt Show Spectacular featuring Lighting McQueen (No 10 on the map) – the action begins as soon as the show starts and there was plenty of skidding, swerving, jumping and even flying through fire! The stuntmen demonstrated how they evade some menacing pursuers armed with lightning-quick reflexes! It was a fantastically choreographed show and it had plenty of danger too! Look out for the show times for this unmissable show. Watch the video to check it out. https://youtu.be/Zawsw_hJlOg
• Ratatouille: L’Aventure Totalement Toquee de Remy (No 15 on the map) – This is a 4D ride where guests are shrunk to rat-size, duck, dive and dodge your way past dozens of obstacles. It’s an interesting ride that uses great visual effects that will impress you. This ride allows you to use FastPass tickets and single rider. You can queue for a long time if using the normal queue. We used our VIP and still had to wait for a long time. It was crazy busy but worth to go.
• The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror (No 13 on the map) – This is definitely not for young children or pregnant ladies. My son didn’t want to go and was taken to the exit area to wait for us. Take a trip to the 4^th dimension aboard an elevator that travels faster than the speed of gravity. It was thrilling and great fun.

These are some of our highlights and I hope I have inspired you to check them out! We had such an awesome time. We need to plan our next trip soon!

Disclosure: We were provided travel for the purposes of experiencing runDisney, however all thoughts and opinions remain our own. Images used with permission, copyright ©Disney.