The magic of Disneyland!

#travel #inspiration #experience #challenge #disneylandparis

Happiness is the richest thing we will ever own.

Donald Duck (Ducktales the Movie) Tweet

A super warm end of October. Paris. Disneyland. Halloween spirit. My kind of birthday! The child in me was experiencing an unbelievable level of excitement. Little to say that I’ve waited for over 20 years to take the Magical cup ride! But greater yet the atmosphere and unprecedented impression of walking through some of my favorite movies, especially cartoons. This was it, I was truly in a Disney-Land! A magical place, tailored to wake up the deepest and strongest childish (and grown-up) inspiration in us all. A feeling of true and utter happiness.

A couple of years back, I spoke to a friend – making a metaphor of my life being an open book. My notion was: “The tome final is coming up this June”. I cannot remember if it was back in 2020, or 2021, but either way, Disneyland was the time and place that I figured my statement was completely inaccurate. The end of the tome was not as expected, but my 32^nd birthday – visits to Sacre Coeur, Montmartre, Champs-Elysees, Louvre and Notre Dame. The visit to Disneyland was the beginning of the next tome!

A great idea just occurred. If enough assets are raised in the following months I will be happy to write my autobiography and make it public, divided into tomes as actual chapters of my life.

What completely shocked me was the fact that there were no tickets left to buy at the entrance. For goodness’ sake, it was a Monday morning! Luckily, we were smart enough to buy our tickets online ahead of time. In fact, prior to coming to Paris, multiple people have told me to skip Disneyland and go to the Asterix and Obelix Theme Park, claiming it was more adventurous, as well as less costly. However, I did not choose Disneyland for the adventure, or the money – just like I mentioned several posts back, some experiences are worth more than meets the eye – reiterating back to the Donald Duck quote. Yet, this other park will be on my to-do-list for the next visit.

While choosing the tickets, we decided only to go to Disneyland Park, not also Walt Disney Studios – as these two share the same entrance. And thank all the supernatural forces we chose to do this, as 9 hours of constant walking and riding were only enough for us to see about 1/3 of Disneyland. Everything is always going to be packed, and the theme park is so spacious, that only moving to check in at each point could provide enough time to “see” everything in one entry. But this would be a complete waste of time and money, as no resource in this universe can buy such childlike happiness and excitement, of experiencing the magic of Disney.

The rides, in all honesty, are absolutely nothing spectacular. I understood what the people meant when speaking of other theme parks. In fact, the moment my Magic Cup ride was over, I went out and exclaimed “I can’t believe this is what I waited over 20 years for!” – but that does not diminish the magic, even a bit. The contentment of being on the same ground as some of the heroes of my childhood is immeasurable. Whether we go into the Sleeping Beauty castle, the garden from Alice in Wonderland, the Indiana Jones or Pirates of the Caribbean rides, the magic boat or train rides, the Cave of Wonders, the Haunted Mansion, or literally any other part of the park, we’re bound to have the most memorable time.

In fact, I believe visiting Disneyland only for multiple days should be an acceptable option, even though Paris offers some of the most amazing and unique sites on Earth. I cannot say I am sorry about anything, because I am still exhilarated months later, sitting down to collect all the major impressions. However, I am not satisfied with the fact I merely got to scratch the surface of this magic. So many activities can be had in the scope of Disney parks and resorts. To begin with, the Disney Hotel will certainly be my preferred place of stay, and I can only imagine (or see on Youtube) what kind of animation (pun not intended) I would discover there. The Walt Disney Studios are definitely a great way to spend quality time, framing myself into some of the best shots of some of my favorite movies. But I would not come again without the very least of three days in Disneyland Park solely (cut-the-line passes included, naturally).

I would not be myself, if I would not write about food. Sometimes I believe I should be making a food vlog – however, I’ll rather leave it to a dear friend from halfway across the world (stay tuned, and follow My Projects page). Popcorn was popcorn, and I would lie by saying it was any better than the one coming from a street vendor – let’s be real, how hard is it to pop the corn. However, pizza shaped as Mickey’s head, with garlic bread (I know, right!), salad, a large drink and some ice cream… I’ll just leave the picture to hang around.

Any special thoughts? Yes, everything! But anything more special, to point out? Hmm… I don’t know any grand pop-cultural songs about Disneyland. If anyone knows Michael Bublé in person, please ask him to react and correct this outage!

I wonder what it would be like to visit Disneyland as a child. It’s understandable that most children would not know about quite a number of characters or their lairs. But would it be helpful for them to see their parents head over heels about an old cartoon persona, and would it cause them to wish to find out everything possible about this movie or series? I would presume so. It makes me think about being a parent. So, if you’re not sure whether to start a family, I guess I found a good location for your next travel. You’re welcome.

I was also impressed with bunches of themes the park was covering – I had no idea what all Disney had bought rights to. Indiana Jones rollercoaster ride – I was astonished to see it there at all, yet it was really good! And now I’m about to see all the movies with this character. The Haunted House intrigued me, as well. In all honesty, the movie was nothing particular, but the ride was absolutely awesome!

Paying Mickey a visit made me forget for a day about a major issue in my life – lack of inspiration. His homeland provided more than enough of it! This span of 9 hours gave me an important new life goal – to visit, stay at and completely explore all the Disney resorts and parks on Earth, in my existence. Now I can’t believe I haven’t been to the Shanghainese one, in a year of living there. Or the one in Hong Kong – I should have stayed for longer than a total of 3 days, I guess. Anyway, this recently developed goal gave me an amazing reason to travel to these wonderful cities again!

For the end, I’d like to share a few lessons learnt about Disneyland Paris. I assume at least some can be applied to all the other ones, as well. Feel free not to take my advice, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Book tickets ahead of time. Do not hope to find them at the entrance.
Buy cut-the-line tickets. You don’t want to wait 90 minutes to see Disney princesses. This is a more expensive option, but it’s not like you’re getting into the park for 10 EUR/USD so you’ll be sorry to spend another 30. Time here is much richer than money!
Organize a trip to Disneyland Paris, per se. And this means stay at their resort. This is like a country of its own, with unique culture and customs. It will be worth your while.
If you only have one day, DO NOT, under any circumstances, buy tickets for both the Park and the Studios. Pick just one. A whole day won’t even be enough for the one you chose. Rather invest more money into cutting the lines.
Be careful around other people, the environment is known for a pickpocketing site. Especially the train station right next to the entrance. We had a small incident of this nature, but luckily with no harm done to us, whatsoever.
Don’t shy away from spending a whole day (or whole days) here. As I said, it’s as a country for itself, with its own culture and customs. Paris is simply the city surrounding it. (And what a city!)
Don’t expect a crazy adrenaline rush from the rides. They are made to be in touch with the source theme, not to raise your adrenaline levels through the roof.
Don’t hope to avoid the crowd. This is simply not possible.
Enjoy and cherish every moment here! It’s lifelong memories and experience you’re making.
Don’t feel bad about the things you miss to do, but rather happy about the ones you experienced.

And an extra piece of advice, for hardcore Aladdin fans (like myself). And this is the only thing I truly am sorry for! Visit Agrabah ASAP, as it closes the first – usually between noon and 2PM. Nobody told us this (shame on them!) and I really wanted to meet Aladdin. Alas, the good out of this situation – I’m invited to come back.

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