I went to Disney with my three friends Charlotte, Kathryn and Mollie. On Sunday 28th June, bright and early at 6am, we pulled up at the airport, cases in our hands and went to check in for our flight. This was probably the worst part of the holiday for me as I suffer with bad travel anxiety. Due to this, I made myself unwell on Sunday morning but nothing was going to stop me from going to see Mickey Mouse.
At 8:45, we departed Manchester airport and an hour later, we descended into Charles De Gaulle. The weather was beautiful. The heat hit us straight away and we knew from that moment, it was going to be the best holiday ever. We flew with Air France, who need to be credited on their amazing service and flight. We caught our Transfer to the hotel and then we were ready for our Disney holiday to begin!
We stayed in the Sequoia Lodge Hotel, just a 15 minute walk away from the Disney Parks. It was such a picturesque hotel, Bambi themed and all of the Cast Members dressed as rangers. I can't begin to compliment them enough, always a smile on their face and always so willing to help. We stayed in a Montana Room with a lakeside view, so every morning when we woke up at 6am, we were greeted by the breath-taking views of the Disney Lake and in the distance, the creepy shadow of the Hollywood Tower Hotel.
Day 1
Once we were checked in, we unpacked our suitcases, got changed and went for a little walk around the park. As Mollie had never been to Disney before, it was extra special for her because she was able to see the beauty of Aurora's castle for the first time. As we skipped down Main Street and sang along to the classic Disney songs playing around the park, I can't even begin to describe how magical it felt.
We went into the Hakuna Matata restaurant for lunch and the girls thought it would be fun to try out some French. I am hopeless when it comes to speaking other languages, so I thought it would be best to just stick to English.
The girls ordered fries and chicken goujons, which they all got perfectly. Then it came to my turn. I walked up to the till and asked politely "Fries and a Sprite please", to which the woman nodded. I collected my food and sat down to tuck into what I thought would have been fries. Instead, however, I was given rice.
Yep, you read that right, plain rice.
They must have thought that I said rice instead of fries (this is what you get for having a northern accent) but it was one of the funniest things ever.
After getting lost in Alice in Wonderland's Labyrinth, we decided to go back to the hotel to go for a swim to cool off because it was absolutely boiling. On the night, we headed over to Annette's Diner in the Disney Village. It's the coolest American Diner, the music was brilliant and we were served on rollerskates...ROLLERSKATES!
We then went into the park and had a ride around Small World which is personally one of my favourite rides. As you can tell by the photo above, the girls didn't really agree. We then went to purchase our Mickey and Minnie Mouse ears and settled down to watch Disney Dreams.
It was the most spectacular thing I have ever seen.
I'd promised myself that the first time I would see Disney Dreams would be in person and it was beyond my wildest dreams. The castle becomes a canvas for Peter Pan to take you on a journey around Disney, following the different characters such as the Genie, Rapunzel and Belle as he tries to catch his shadow and restore the magic into the second star to the right. I have never been surrounded by so many people singing Disney songs, dancing and being so happy. The show moved me so much that it made me cry.
Day 2
This was our first full day in the park and we had an absolute blast! It was even hotter today but that didn't stop us as we headed into the park early for extra magic hours. We met Chip and Dale, the two cutest little chipmunks in the world. They were so lovely and I definitely fell a little bit in love with Chip, we waltzed around and he gave me a kiss on the cheek; the little cutie! We also went on Peter Pan's flight in the morning, which is my favourite ride!
I also began my search to try and meet him today. I'll tell you how that went a little later on.
After we met Chip and Dale, we started to queue for the Princess Pavilion. This was one of the most stressful parts of the holiday. The Princess Pavilion is a little area of the park where different Princess go at different times of the day. In order to meet a Princess, you must queue up for a reservation ticket and then return to the Pavilion at the time assigned.
However, you don't find out which Princess you're going to meet and don't bother asking because they won't tell you. We tried that. It's a silly system when you think about it. Nevertheless, we queued and then returned later on in the afternoon to meet a Princess. Today, we met Princess Aurora who was so so lovely. We talked to her for such a long time and she remembered our names, as well as taking some very lovely photos with us all.
Then we went to watch the parade.
We sat by Character Gate and watched as Anna and Elsa paraded down Main Street in a beautiful carriage. Then the music to 'Magic Everywhere' began and the good fairies began to fly around. Then came the Princesses, one of which was Aurora who we had met previously in the day. The girls and I shouted her and waved, to which she smiled and waved back, tapping Prince Phillip on the shoulder and pointing to us, telling him that she had met us today. We then got another little wave and a kiss blown at us. Then Peter Pan came past on his pirate ship and I shouted up and waved. He looked down and waved back at me, pulling a funny face to which I returned the gesture.
I was happy for the rest of the day, I swear!
After the parade, we wandered over to Adventureland to take a ride on Pirates of the Caribbean which was so much fun! We had some hilarious photos taken. We then went back to the hotel, got changed and headed back into the park for some food.
Tonight we ate at Planet Hollywood which was our favourite restaurant. We loved it there. Heading back into the park, we chose not to go and see Disney Dreams tonight and instead go and get some rides done. We went on Phantom Manor various times, with the scary guy who put the barriers down. He growled at us every single time.
We then headed over to my 2nd favourite ride in the park which is Big Thunder Mountain or as we liked to call it 'BTM'. We went on in the dark because the queue was only 5 minutes long. This is the best ride ever, we just screamed the whole way around. We even got a free ride at the end of the night because they needed more people to fill up the train. Watching Disney Dreams from the top of Thunder Mountain was a truly magical experience and after tonight, it became a nightly tradition.
Day 3
Day 3 in the Disney Park was personally the best day ever for me.
We woke up early again for extra magic hours, meeting Pluto and Goofy who were so adorable. Pluto is my favourite character from the Mickey Mouse squad so I was so happy to meet him and get a cuddle; he gives amazing cuddles. We then headed into the studios where we tried out the new Ratatouille ride, which was sooooo good, and did a few more little rides. We also did a thing called 'Stars in their Cars' which is the perfect opportunity to meet and greet characters. It was here that we met Jessie, Ariel, Minnie and Gepetto. They were all so lovely and sweet!
Now here comes the best bit of the day.
We headed to Adventureland where we saw Captain Hook, whom we immediately ran too. We began to queue up to meet him, and I was so excited because I love how sassy he is. All of a sudden, we saw a spec of green and Mollie screamed "MEG! PETER PAN!" to which I darted out of the queue and ran over to Peter and Wendy. Captain Hook wasn't too happy about this, and chased me over to Peter, oops!
We then waited in the queue and I couldn't contain my excitement. Then came my turn to meet my idol. I walked over to him and said hello, telling him that he was my favourite character and that I absolutely adored him. I have a little necklace that has his signature feather on it and says 'Never Grow Up' which I had on. I showed him the necklace and he was amazed saying "Wow Wendy! Her necklace says Never Grow Up!". We then had a discussion about how bad it is to be a grown up and then about how to defeat Pirates.
We had a group photo taken and he was all I dreamed he would be and more. I'm still shaking whilst writing this. It was the most magical moment of my life.
It gets even cuter though. The girls had their photos taken and I gave him one last hug before I left. I was about to walk away to let the next people meet him but he grabbed my hand and I turned to face him. He said to me "Be brave Meg, and never ever grow up, promise?" I smiled and I said "I Promise". We pulled a silly face at each other and then left. My life is now complete.
We had another fun day going on rides, especially the teacups which we completely nailed. I was just the happiest girl in the world to be in Disney, words cannot describe how content that place makes me feel.
The weather got even warmer today, so we headed back to the hotel, which we found out had a power cut, and soaked our feet in freezing cold water. The joys of being British and not being able to cope with heat.
Heading back into the park for an early tea, we ate at Pizza Planet and then headed over to the Buzz Lightyear ride which I lost to Charlotte's amazing inter-galactic shooting skills. I was not a happy bunny. We also went on Orberton and Star Tours which was awesome, the rockets gave us the perfect view of the park. As we went for an early tea, at about sixish the park became a lot quieter which meant that rides were so easy to access. We went on Snow White, Pinocchio, Small World (again), Pirates, Phantom Manor, and of course our nightly ride on Big Thunder Mountain!
Day 4
Once again, we woke up early to go and take advantage of our extra magic hours in the Disney park. We went downstairs for our classic Disney breakfast and the waiter drew us some really cute cartoons on our table. We then walked over to the Disney park to go on Peter Pan and queue up for the Princess Pavilion again.
We got a really early ticket for the Princess Pavilion today, so as soon as we got the reservation pass, we were straight inside to meet a Princess. Today we met the beautiful mermaid herself; Ariel. She was so lovely and her dress was absolutely stunning. I couldn't get over how beautiful and pretty she looked. We spoke about how cool it must be to be a mermaid and she said that I could be a mermaid with her too someday. We had some really cute photos taken with her too which was lovely.
The group then split up for the day. Charlotte and Kathryn headed off to the Studios to do some of the bigger rides whilst Mollie and I stayed in the Disney Park to do some rides and meet lots of characters, we met so many people it was unbelievable.
First, we met Captain Hook and Smee who kept coming stroking my hair with his hook. Then we got cuddles from Winnie the Pooh, and also met a very hyper Tigger who wanted to bounce around and dance. We also met the Mad Hatter and Alice who were both so funny, as well as seeing Peter again running around the park like the kid that he is. Finally we saw Pinocchio and Gepetto who were both really lovely, especially pinocchio who held my water for my whilst I had my photo taken, the adorable little thing.
We then met back up with the girls and decided to watch the Disney Parade for the final time. Once again, I was at the front ready to wave at all the characters. I love the way they all interact with you, every single character either waved or blew a kiss, especially Donald Duck who was such a little love. Peter also remembered me and pointed at my necklace to which I smiled and pulled another funny face. It really made my day that the different characters actually remember seeing you that day, it's so lovely.
We then headed back to the hotel to begin our final night in the Disney parks. We went to Planet Hollywood again for some food, which was gorgeous as always and then headed back into the park to do our favourite rides one last time.
We went on Pirates, as usual and sang along throughout the ride. We started to sing 'Let It Go' and the whole boat joined in which was fun. We then went on Phantom Manor which was the funniest out of them all. We walked into the lift at the start of the ride and the really cool guy, who has been in there every single time we went in, was listing the health and safety and acting really creepy. I, however, found this hilarious for some reason and because of this, he kept jumping up at me and taping me on the shoulder to scare me. He was the coolest guy ever.
Then it came to the creepy guy who puts the barriers down at the start of the ride. Charlotte and I were in our little pod and he growled at us as always, so this time we did the thing that I'm doing with Peter Pan and Wendy on my photo, blowing a raspberry. As we went past, we found it hilarious. But we didn't expect for the guy to jump out in-front of us halfway through the ride and scare the living daylights out of us. It was the funniest thing ever.
We then went outside where the guy in the lift was waiting and and welcoming people in, so we asked him for a selfie because he was that awesome. We then went on our final ride of BTM, making it count, and then settled down to watch Disney Dreams for the final time. I cried again, and it was even more magical than before.
Day 5
Sadly, it was home time. Everyone was very down. We departed our room and went to do some shopping around the park, which will be on my blog in a few weeks because I'm going to do a little bit of a haul to show you what I purchased.
We left Disneyland, reached Charles De Gaulle, got on the plane and soon enough we were back in Manchester. The Disney bubble had officially popped. As we came out of the arrivals gate the cutest thing happend. I saw my parents and I ran straight for them, only for my friends Charlotte, Riss and Liv to be stood there with flowers, a card and a balloon to welcome me home. I can't even begin to tell you how shocked I was to see them. I'd missed them so much and to see them there was just incredible. I'll link the video of it here.
Overall, I had the best 5 days I could have ever asked for. I'll be doing some blog posts over the next few weeks to offer our tips on the different things going on in the parks. I've had the time of my life and I will never ever forget it. Hopefully, I'll be going back for the 25th Anniversary in two years time and I'm already buzzing with excitement.
All you need is Faith, Trust and a little bit of Pixie Dust.
Lots of Love
Meg x
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