Disneyland Paris

Where else? With 5/7 Disney parks under our belts this year, what better place to visit for three older Bunnies looking for some fun? It had always been Mrs Bunnies intention to visit Disneyland Paris making 6/7 Disney Parks before the year was out, so why not now, before the dust of travel settles.

Daddy Bunny didn`t require too much persuading, not that I actually gave him choice, and together the three of us set off in mid September, hoping that all the schools had gone back (grr, they hadn`t) for a little bit of Disney magic.

I chose the Explorers Hotel as a base as from a previous visit I remembered it had a very good and reliable bus to park service. What I wouldn`t know from our previous visit back in 2019, was just how much building work had been undertaken in our absence. wow. Sorry, not referring to the parks just at this moment, I`m referring to the hotels! So many more places to stay, quite incredible really. More hotels mean more people. A fact that was going to be plainly obvious.

Lets talk Breakfast first, and breakfast fashion. For the majority of families, breakfast was a time of eating the first meal of the day together, wearing some great appropriate clothing choices that varied from full on Disney outfits, to cute little t shirts depicting favourite characters, and then there were the Pyjama Families. These were the trashy women who clearly thought Bedroom attire was perfectly acceptable in a public hotel restaurant. Parading around in slippers, satin pjs, hair in rollers, and full make up...(really did not get the pjs and make up bit) Their children tended to be in fluffy onesies, unkempt bed hair, and clearly at ease with their mums walking around in public in pjs. I make no apologies for my opinion of these kind of people. Tramps and Trollops. If its not bad enough I spot this type of trashy behaviour at school time, even walking round supermarkets, but in a hotel???

Disneyland Paris has two parks, Disneyland, and Disney Studios. We chose to visit Disneyland first.

Disneyland.

Daddy Bunny understanding the importance of early breakfast and rope drop, was happy to leave the tramps (sorry but they were quite repulsive) of the breakfast hall behind, and head with us to the bus for the short ride to Park number one Disneyland. Despite the large crowds, we quickly entered the park and soaked in the wonderful scents of Disney. No matter how many Disney parks I visit, I never fail to grin like the Cheshire Cat when we first enter the parks. I think Daddy Bunny was happy as well, as he too enjoyed this wonderful atmosphere.

We walked up Main Street and decided to head left towards Haunted Mansion and Big Thunder Mountain. We love both these rides, but DB had a bit of a hairy moment when his slightly too large glasses very nearly became part of the ride on Big Thunder, he would learn to ride glasses less on the other faster rides. Indiana was just this kind of ride. A super quick, backwards, forwards upside down nifty little rollercoaster that is just so much fun. Once again we bypassed the silly parrots, and headed on towards the area of Fantasyland. So many small rides here, all aimed for the smaller kidlets, but who says big kidlets cant have some fun? Snow White, Its a Small World, Pinocchio, Mad Hatters Tea Cups, Peter Pan and our all time favourite Mickeys Philharmagic. Dumbo had to be ridden, you simply cannot visit Disney and not fly with the worlds 8th wonder of the world, Dumbo! We took a drive around the Autopia, but to be truthful, for a slow ride, this was quite painfully slow. Other Disney Autopia rides are equally of the slower end of rides, but Paris? just a tad too slow. We were also lucky to grab a ride on Casey Le Petite train, as it broke down just as our train arrived back into the station. It was a real pity that Buzz Lightyear was having a refurb, as I would love to have seen my two favourite male bunnies having one of their super competitive shootouts.

We had lunch from one of the small stalls that were set up around the area of Its a Small World. The food looked good from afar, but alas was a little too pricy and not the quality you would hope to expect at Disney. We each had a chicken gyros, and all thought that the meat was definitely from parts of the chicken that shouldn`t really be included as a food option. Our evening meal at the La Bella Noche Italian was quite excellent and more than made up for the not so great lunch. We saw lots of Characters wandering around which was fun. I am also happy to report that the appalling crowding of the characters that I experienced and witnessed many years ago whilst here in Paris, has been replaced with a carefully controlled and managed queuing system. Big Bunny and Mrs Bunny still had plenty of Disney left in us and stayed to watch the parade, whereas Daddy B faded fast after his evening meal and headed back to the bunny burrow for a much needed rest and a lot of sleep.

Disneyland is deceptive, you look at a map and think, there isn`t much here, but yet somehow the hours fly by and you find yourself wondering where the heck did time go?

Disney Studios Day 2

This park has changed so much since our visit that right from the offset I felt lost. The initial walkthrough area with its numerous eateries has become so much smarter and would be our choice of eatery later on in the day. We planned to make the Hollywood Tower our first ride, but a less than helpful cast member pointed us very much in the wrong direction. We found the ride exit, and we found the bathrooms, but not the ride entrance. There is a lot of building work going on at the moment, so a lot of pathways are blocked or re routed. Eventually we found the entrance, and sailed through the first ride of the day albeit with a longer wait time than we should have had, had we not been sent on a wild goose chase first. The park was to fill up quickly and ride times were a little long in places. Whilst we like the Toy Story area of the park, a couple of the rides are just a little too scary for us. RC Racer goes backwards, a non starter for Mrs B, especially first thing in a morning. The Parachute drop looks so easy, but as discovered at another Disney Park, those heights can be quite deceptive. With a degree of vertigo, this ride just lends itself for someone to feel like they can lean forward and fall out. You can`t, but it feels like it. We did ride SlinkyDog, but it really is very tame ride, most suited for toddlers. Further around the park we found Crush`s Coaster, but as a spinning coaster with very very long wait times, it would be a ride that we chose to miss. We did however have great fun riding the little cars. A whole new part of the park that was new since 2019 was the Ratatouille ride. Daddy B and Mr B looked so cute as they partook in this little VR ride as a pair of rats running around the kitchen of a Parisian restaurant. Mrs Bunny was happy to miss this ride, as is the case in Florida as well. VR and Mrs Bunny do not see eye to eye. Somehow we managed to miss a whole area of the park dedicated to Avengers, there was a rollercoaster which I suspect was akin to Rock N Rollercoaster, and probably the same ride reimagined. The huge amount of building work that was ongoing, we later found out was the addition of the new Frozen Land. Opening later this year, I bet this will be a really `cool` area to visit, hum te tum. Daddy B wasn`t quite as enamoured by the Studios Park, and we all agreed that the other park, was much more colourful and fun.

We did spend our third day at the main Disney Park, and spent a lot of the time enjoying the shops and revisiting some of the rides that we had done before. For a short visit, we did have a magical time. We purchased two Chipmunk shoulder riders, Chip n Dale both wearing Christmas hats, and reminded ourselves that next time we see something we like, buy it there and then!! I`d seen these in a shop on day one, but could I find that shop again? It took patience and a lot of legwork to eventually track them down, finding them in the huge Disney Store in the Village area. Disney Village. Another large part of the park, not actually in the park itself. Lots of shops and eateries are found here, many more than the two we found back in 2019. A huge improvement, and a nod to just how busy and popular these parks are.

With the Train Station right next door to the park entrance, and a bus route available into the City, Disneyland Paris is a super easy destination for any Disney Fan.

Would we go again? Of course !!!

A serious note. Whilst our trip to Disneyland was amazing, it was there where both Daddy Bunny and Mr Bunny had a serious wake up call to the forces at work on one particular ride. Space Mountain. It just so happened this was our very last day, and last ride before leaving for home. As per every ride, from Dumbo upwards, warnings are in place about the nature of each ride. Motion sickness, Spinning, Not suitable for Pregnant women, Back Problems, Surgery. Every Base is covered, and it is up to your own judgement whether you choose to ride or not. More often than not, most rides are fine for the majority of people. Daddy B is usually very good on fast rides, with little or no adverse effects, but he turned more than just a little nauseous on this wild ride, however it was the warning for `Not suitable for people with Back problems` that could/should have been taken more seriously. Oh for hindsight. With a ride that jolts violently, whizzes around and even has an inversion all of which in total darkness, Mr Bunny suffered immeasurable trauma in his spine, leaving him in visible pain, the results of which, as I write this a few weeks after our return, are still an ongoing problem with vast amounts of money being spent on Chiropractors, Physiotherapy and a multitude of pain relief tablets. Mr Bunny does have a known spinal problem, but no other ride across the world has caused any problems, until now. A painful end to a perfect trip

(to clarify. Own decision to ride . No, we are not seeking compensation)