Why you are never too old for Disneyland.

Before arriving in Paris, I had no intention of setting foot in Disneyland. All my carefully thought out plans (and I’d done a lot of it because I get a bit carried away with these things) centered around exploring the city…and the food.

I mean, I’d done the whole Disneyland thing the last time I came to Paris… when I was like 12.  But now that I was a proper grown-up- 21 is officially an adult right?- I had wanted to pretend be a classy lady, basking in the sophistication of the Parisen life-style. You know, like visiting the Louvre and drinking wine and stuff…

However, I am never one to turn down a good deal.

It turns out in winter, Disneyland offer cheaper tickets because some of the rides are shut for maintenance, so they worked out around £35- a pretty good bargain if you ask me, considering they normally cost double that plus the price of actually getting to Paris!

And so that is how we spontaneously ended up at Disneyland, buying the tickets that night and the very next day standing outside that iconic pink castle, watching Minnie Mouse wander around as if it was the most normal thing in the world!

And you know what, it was still just as every bit as exciting as all those years ago.

Even just stepping off the train transported me back to a giddy kind of excitement I haven’t felt since I was about 8 years old.

Then you see the sign and the excitement goes off the scale.

^ can ya see the excitement in my face?

^ much excitement here also.

Walking down the famous Main Street you can hardly believe you are actually here, the 1950’s America creating a strange dream-like feeling in it’s re-creation of a world that no longer exists.

^the amount of people (adults) wearing these was crazy!

And then- as if it could- it got better as we realized the park was empty, aside from little kids – who of course, didn’t want to go on Space Mountain or Indiana Jones which meant we didn’t have to queue for a thing! We managed every ride, some more than once and in BOTH parks.

^ This had to be done of course.

Literally every ride...

^ never too old for the carousel 

And being the cheapskates  thrifty students we are, succeeded in not splurging money on the over-priced food by bringing our own packed lunches. 

Whilst that worryingly felt like I was turning into my parents, it did mean we could treat ourselves to a hot chocolate as an end-of-day pick me up before heading back to the train. And aren’t we glad we did because if we hadn’t, we wouldn’t have caught this:

A totally unexpected, spectacular light show featuring all your favorite Disney characters and songs (albeit mainly in French but in my opinion that made it sound extra beautiful) topped off with a firework display to rival Bonfire night.

I had forgotten what this kind of happiness felt like, the unashamed rare joy that makes you grin from ear to ear, on top of the world.

It followed me all the way back into the real world, back to our hotel and as I closed my eyes to sleep I was pretty sure I just had one of the best days of my adult life.

So, really I guess what I want to say, is you are never too old for Disneyland and you should always embrace spontaneity because you never know...it might just lead to a magical day.