It's been a long time since I've blogged and I've got a few things to apologise for. The first is that I didn't finish 'blogtober' but I was preparing to go to Disney so I think I can be forgiven for that. The second is that I haven't blogged in a very long time; when we came back from Disney I had so many Uni deadlines and I couldn't fit any time for my blog in, I've really missed it though. And finally the third is how many photos, emotional rants and Disney magic you're going to get in this blog post. Actually, scrap that, I'm not apologising for that at all.
If you hadn't guessed already, I'm going to be writing all about my recent trip to Disney. If you didn't know, in these past two weeks I've been on a Halloween trip to Disneyland Paris. I was there from the 29th October to the 2nd November and I had the most magical time; definitely the best trip I've had to date. I've been planning these blog posts for a while now, but bringing myself to write them was hard; how do you put a trip that was so magical and amazing into words? I don't know, but I sure am going to try. I've decided to split my blog posts into days because so much went on and I figured that one blog post would probably just turn into a novel.
A disclaimer before I start: I am in no way bragging or trying to show off about my trip. As you know already, I share pretty much everything on here and I thought it would be really nice to be able to share all my experiences, memories and photos with you.
Disney Day 1
Chloe and I were like two small children on the night before we went to Disney. We just kept talking, checking our clocks and waiting for the alarm to go off so we knew that it was an acceptable time to get up and start getting ready. We had never actually met before, which some people may find strange. Sure, we'd spoken online for ages and we'd skyped but there's something about meeting in person that is so different. However, we didn't have to worry, we hit it off straight away and I have literally found a friend for life. I love Chloe to pieces, she's the loveliest angel.
We jumped on the 7am train from Banbury to London, got an uber from Marylebone to St Pancras and then made our way to check in. We travelled to Disney by Eurostar and as this was my first time, I was extremely apprehensive. Looking back, I don't know why I got so worried because the whole thing was so easy and now I don't think I'd travel to Paris any other way. As we were early to arrive at the station, we printed off our tickets, went to get some breakfast and then headed through security and passport checks. That was probably the most stressful part of the whole process; lifting a full suitcase onto the machine when you're as weak and small as I am was not a fun experience.
Due to us getting there so early, and getting through security as quickly as we did, we had two hours until our train departed. But the two hours absolutely flew by; we were joined by our friends Eleanor, Beth and Jade who are all so lovely. The thing I find so crazy about this whole trip is that none of us had ever actually met before, but it felt like I'd known everyone forever. We spent our time walking around the station, eating lots of food and planning all the stuff we wanted to do whilst we were in the most magical place on earth.
Soon enough our train was called, by the main mouse himself, so cases in hands and ears on heads, we plodded up the escalator and boarded our Eurostar. It was very quiet, much quieter than I expected but that completely worked in our favour as we were all able to sit together. I didn't know the train had started moving and when I realised that it was actually us moving and not the train next to us, I freaked out a little bit. As I'd never been on the Eurostar before, I didn't know what the tunnel was like or how long it was going to take. We'd been moving for about five minutes when we hit our first tunnel. We were going through and it was a good 10 to 15 minutes of darkness, the next thing we were at this really modern train station. The only downside was that it didn't look very French. I made the point of asking my new found friends 'Are we in France yet?' to which they all started to laugh. After that I asked the same question after every tunnel we went through; but ended up missing the entrance and exit from the actual Eurostar Tunnel; what a loon.
Apart from my excitement to go in the tunnel, the journey to Paris was very quick. Chloe and I did our make up on the way and we passed the rest of the time with a hilarious game of Cards Against Humanity. I also had Steve asking me what country we were in after every tunnel that we passed; I'm still not convinced that we were in France.
The next thing we knew, we'd arrived. Chloe and I said goodbye to the others and hopped on the shuttle bus to go and check into our hotel. We stayed in the Magic Circus hotel which is one of Disney's partner hotels. As you can probably tell by the name, the whole hotel was circus themed; even the rooms! The lobby was absolutely stunning; we even had a spa and a swimming pool. The check in was really simple, and we were given our key pretty much straight away. As the hotel was so big, finding our room was a bit of a struggle but we found it eventually. I'm really sad I didn't manage to take any proper photos of our room but it was massive, we had one bunk bed, a queen sized bed and the biggest bathroom I've ever seen in a Disney hotel. I will definitely be staying there again.
After dumping our bags down in the hotel room and freshening ourselves up a little bit, we headed back into the park to get straight into the Disney Magic. But before we were allowed into the actual park we had to do something we'd been waiting for for months; we had to go and get our annual passes. The lovely Jade sponsored Chloe and I which enabled us to get two 'Dream' annual passes with a 10% discount which means as many Disney trips as we want for a whole year! The process of getting an annual pass was very simple. We went to the ticket desk at the side of the Disney Hotel where we paid for our passes and were given a temporary ticket to get us into the parks. Once into the park, we could go over to the annual passport office at any time to change our ticket for the actual pass.
Once we'd paid, we met up with Eleanor, Laura and Beth to walk into the park together. Your first time going into the park, on any trip, is just an experience that can't be put into words. I always like to describe Disneyland as a bubble; it's a bubble that takes away your worries and replaces them with a little sprinkle of pixie dust. The atmosphere just wraps you up in it's happiness and you find yourself skipping down Main Street, singing along. There isn't a feeling like it, for me it's the closest thing to pure joy I can describe. As we walked towards the Castle, I shed a little tear. I really didn't think I'd be there for Halloween and just being surrounded by so much joy and love really overwhelmed me. The Castle looks more beautiful every time I see it and I always have about 600 photos of it from every angle in the park. I don't care what people say, it is definitely the most beautiful castle.
After having a couple of photos taken in front of the Castle, we made our way over to the annual passport office to sign all the forms and become official annual pass holders. This was probably the most complicated part of the process as everything was in French and we couldn't really understand what they wanted us to do (thank goodness for Laura and her French speaking skills). Around two hours later, we all came out with our shiny new annual passes ready for discounts, fast passes and a whole load of Disney trips in the future.
We timed things really well because as soon as we left the annual passport office, the parade was about to begin. We really didn't think we'd be able to catch parade on the first day so this was an extra bonus. We stood at the pillars next to the castle, singing and dancing along to 'Magic Everywhere'. Parade is one of my favourite things to watch in Disneyland Paris as it always fills me with so much joy and brings back so many memories from when I was younger. We had a lovely conversation with Ariel and Eric as well as Aladdin and Jasmine, I had the best interactions with Baloo and Peter Pan and we danced along with Eeyore. The thing I remember the most about that first parade is when I blew a kiss to Chip and Dale and they started to pull me in via an imaginary rope. I'll be sending out the wedding invites soon.
After watching the Parade (and dancing and singing along like there was no tomorrow) it was safe to say that we were in need of a sit down and some serious refreshments. We headed over to the cafe near Star Wars and I had the most delicious chicken burger. It was the first time we got to use our annual passes for discount which felt absolutely amazing; I felt so special. During our food break, we were able to watch the last Jedi training of the day which I really wanted to take part in but was sadly too old. Note to Disney, why don't they do a Jedi training for adults, huh?
We also used this time to catch up and get to know each other a little bit more. I'm going to say this a lot throughout these blog post but it really does baffle me that none of us had actually met before, we all hit it off straight away and I have literally made friends for life. I know so many people complain about the internet and that we rely on it too much, but it really does provide us with some amazing opportunities and the chance to meet some wonderful people.
Once we'd paid, we met up with Eleanor, Laura and Beth to walk into the park together. Your first time going into the park, on any trip, is just an experience that can't be put into words. I always like to describe Disneyland as a bubble; it's a bubble that takes away your worries and replaces them with a little sprinkle of pixie dust. The atmosphere just wraps you up in it's happiness and you find yourself skipping down Main Street, singing along. There isn't a feeling like it, for me it's the closest thing to pure joy I can describe. As we walked towards the Castle, I shed a little tear. I really didn't think I'd be there for Halloween and just being surrounded by so much joy and love really overwhelmed me. The Castle looks more beautiful every time I see it and I always have about 600 photos of it from every angle in the park. I don't care what people say, it is definitely the most beautiful castle.
After having a couple of photos taken in front of the Castle, we made our way over to the annual passport office to sign all the forms and become official annual pass holders. This was probably the most complicated part of the process as everything was in French and we couldn't really understand what they wanted us to do (thank goodness for Laura and her French speaking skills). Around two hours later, we all came out with our shiny new annual passes ready for discounts, fast passes and a whole load of Disney trips in the future.
We also used this time to catch up and get to know each other a little bit more. I'm going to say this a lot throughout these blog post but it really does baffle me that none of us had actually met before, we all hit it off straight away and I have literally made friends for life. I know so many people complain about the internet and that we rely on it too much, but it really does provide us with some amazing opportunities and the chance to meet some wonderful people.
One of my favourite meets of the whole trip was definitely meeting the Evil Queen. I loved how it was up to the characters who they chose to meet and at first we didn't think she was going to pick us but she soon did. When we went up to her, we started to have a conversation about how beautiful she looked and she happened to point out that it was disgusting that Snow White was on my pen. Suddenly, out of the blue, this little girl and her father came from nowhere, the little girl running up to the Queen and giving her a hug. The father just stood there and laughed. The Queen looked alarmed and asked us if they were a part of our group, when we told her that they weren't with us she turned her sassiness up a notch and stepped out, right into the fathers face and said 'If you are not with this group of girls then I suggest you move back straight away. Did I call you up? No I did not. Get out of my face and go and wait your turn.'. I know she's a Disney Villain, but I actually love her after that.
When we got off Phantom, we bumped into Ellie, Steve and crew who were heading over to Pirates and asked if we'd like to join them. As we were heading over there ourselves anyway, we took the opportunity for a huge group photo on the ride, another one of the things that was on my Disney Bucket List. As we went round, we were singing, chanting and probably being an annoyance to the rest of the people in our boat. We chanted 'PIRATES! PIRATES! PIRATES!' all the way round, sang a beautiful rendition of 'Yo! Ho! Yo! Ho! A Pirates Life for Me' and started a fabulous Mexican Wave which entertained everyone as we waited to get off the ride. We were either the people you loved, or the people you loathed; there was no in-between. Our photo was also super cute!
When Chloe and I got back to the Hotel, we sat in the Lobby for two hours using the WiFi to upload photos and keep our families up to date on our Disney adventures.
I can't wait to share all our Day 2 adventures with you in my next blog post!
Lots of Love,
Meg
xox
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