First-timers in Disneyland - Our Disneyland Paris Trip Highlights

Oh my goodness - where to start!? Disneyland Paris was SUCH an adventure. The thing with Disney (and what it makes it such a magical holiday in my opinion) is that it's non-stop fun. You can literally bounce between rides, shows, character meets, experiences, all the amazing things to look at, shopping, dining, exploring and more all morning, all day and all night. And before you know it that's exactly what you're doing and it's only when you get back to your hotel room at night for sleep that you realize how much your legs/back/feet hurt from the all day long non-stop excitment. I found Disneyland Paris (and Walt Disney World in Florida) to be the perfect escape from everyday routine and responsibilites.
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Picking out our trip highlights is hard - there simply are so many! And putting them in some sort of order is difficult too, time and the days of the week sort of became a blur whilst we were there, but I guess that's when you know you've had a truly magical time and you're money has been well spent. If you are subscribed to me over on YouTube then you might have spotted my Disneyland Paris Family Travel vlogs go up recently. I'm going to embed them down below too, so if you're going soon or thinking of going then I hope you enjoy them. Following on from this post and my vlogs, you will see some posts/videos go up soon with some helpful and practical advice around helping you to plan your own trip if you are planning on going yourself soon. But for now here are (quite a few of) our family's favorite photographs from our trip and some of our Disneyland Paris highlights!
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Waking up at Disneyland in our hotel room with Mickey Mouse Pj's on ready for day one!
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Watching the 25th anniversary show. There's something completely magical about watching the characters perfrom in the shows. It's almost like everything else fades away for just a moment.
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When in Disney I'm sure it's law to eat a lollipop as big as your head!
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Just outside Agrabah Cafe for late lunch/dinner, I loved the Aladdin theming!
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The Disney castle just never gets old! Also, you can never take enough photos of it!
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The parade at 5pm down Main Street was one of our absolute favorite moments. We'd been waiting the in cold for a while for it to start so that we could get a good position and as soon as the parade started it was almost like we forgot about the cold weather. It was pure magic!
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Meeting Mickey Mouse! We got really lucky - we spotted him in our hotel as we walked past and the queue was so much shorter than it would have been in the parks. Watching the boys hug Mickey Mouse was such an emotional moment. :)
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Walking through Walt Disney Studios was just as magical for me as it was walking through the Disneyland Park and seeing the castle. I absolutely loved Walt Disney Studios - there's something about it. I can't really put my finger on what it is exactly but you feel it when you're there.
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One of my favorite rides was Ratatouille, it's such a unique ride. I haven't been on anything like it before and I just thought it had been designed so well.
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For my biggest boy he was made up to find some of the characters from the Aristocrats on display in the Disneyland Park. He was desperate to see Marie walking around the park, but I think she's only around at Christmas time.
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Meeting Darth Vader. My Husband and Ethan had really been looking forward to meeting him and he didn't disappoint. Ethan loved that he was dressed for the occasion too!
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We were there in mid-March so the Season Of The Force was on which is one of the reasons we booked it for when we did as my Husband and Ethan love all things Star Wars. If you have a Star Wars fan in your family, I'd definitely recommend visiting when the Season Of The Force is on. It was brilliant!
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We ate at Planet Hollywood one evening and we had such a great time! It wasn't part of our Dining plan, but we'd been invited along and it really was such a great experience. There was even a disco in the toilet!
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Of course my Husband had to 'taste-test' the biggest ice-cream on the menu! ;)
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Posing outside the Disneyland Hotel, which is SO pretty!
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There are so many pretty spots around the parks and outside of them too where you can grab a rest or that make a good spot for a photo opportunity.
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I'm going to write a separate post and film a video about what to take if you're visiting Disneyland Paris with kids, but this buggy board was a life saver for us. Our boys don't use a pushchair at home anymore but we took the pushchair and a buggy board (which we got from cheekyrascals.co.uk) with us because I'd read about how much walking you do at Disneyland Paris and I knew that the boys would get tired (which they did!). So I would totally recommend something like this if you're going with under-5's.
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Exploring the caves around the Pirates of the Caribbean ride before dinner at Captain Jacks was a lot of fun.
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The Disney castle illuminations are an absolute must! There's nothing quite like them! Get there a bit earlier to ensure you get a good spot.
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Meeting Pluto, again in our hotel. We didn't plan on meeting many characters, we decided to focus more on the rides, but Pluto had such a short queue in our hotel lobby one morning so we managed to see him.
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The car/motorbike stunt show is so worth a watch, it's so good. The stunts are exciting and daring and it was something a bit different. Plus a welcome rest for a while too!
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Another of our favorite rides was Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast. This was actually the first ride we went on. We used our Early Magic Hours to do so as it's generally got quite a long queue as it's so popular.
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And another of our favourites was The Pirates of the Caribbean ride which we went on three times.
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Another fun thing for the boys to do was visit the LEGO shop in the Disney Village. There they could play with the LEGO and do a bit of shopping for a couple of souvenirs.
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My boys loved the Disney Junior show too. If you've got little ones it's so worth going to see it. The kids got so excited when bubbles and confetti started to fall from the ceiling and it was a great way for them to see their favorite Disney characters.
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The Season Of The Force Star Wars night time show was incredible! So much thought, time and money had been put in to making it so spectacular!
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We all really liked the Toy Story section in Walt Disney Studios. Here are the boys and their Daddy on the Parachute Drop ride.
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There's a dragon hidden under the castle in Disneyland Park - he's really cool and worth a visit!
First-timers in Disneyland - Our Disneyland Paris Trip Highlights

First-timers in Disneyland - Our Disneyland Paris Trip Highlights

We also had lots of fun just generally exploring the parks and finding quiet spots like the caves near the Pirates of the Caribbean ride and this children's park not too far from it. We also went up the tree house (again in the same area), or the boys and Daddy did.. I'm too afraid of heights! ;)
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Our hotel, Newport Bay Club Hotel was seriously stunning, I'm so glad we stayed in a Disney hotel for our trip as it just added to the overall magic. We had everything we needed at the hotel and we even managed to catch a glimpse of the fireworks from our hotel room at night.
Our trip to Disneyland Paris was truly magical. Sure the boys had the odd tantrum and it got really cold at times but there's nothing like a bit of Disney magic to lift your spirits. Asides from everything I have shared here, there were even more amazing moments that I didn't manage to capture too, like all of our dining experiences (full blog post on this coming soon) and lots of the other rides that we went on. If you're thinking about going to Disneyland with your little ones I totally recommened it!