Disneyland...the happiest place on earth? With one last travel hurrah as a family of four, we decided to introduce the girls to the magical world of Disney at the end of August. Part of the trip was a birthday present to Olivia and the other part was just to take the girls while they are still young enough to look around in awe and amazement. While certain parts of our our two days at Disneyland Paris were really, really hard, seeing their eyes grow big and watching the bewildered expressions on their face take everything in were definitely worth it.
Our first day there is summarized in one word: Wet.
It rained all day long. From the time we arrived in the morning until the time we left around dinner, it never stopped. While it was never a heavy pouring down rain, it was certainly a steady enough rain that required jacket hoods up and umbrellas and left us in a perpetual state of wetness.
Their favorite ride: the flying elephants. They would have been content to ride this all day long
Wanting to go on it again and again
Frozen sing-a-long was a hit
That's the face of nervous excitement; ready to meet Mickey Mouse on the other side of the curtain
The other part of wetness involved Ashton deciding Disneyland would be an excellent place to regress in her potty training. She was newly trained as of early July but had been pretty much accident free for the weeks leading up to our trip, so we thought she would handle it fine. We were wrong.
Very wrong.
All the toilets at the park were the kind with the automatic motion sensor flush. The first time she sat down, it loudly flushed underneath her, scaring her from wanting to sit there and go. From there, it was all down hill.
She would tell us when she needed to go and we would rush her to the nearest bathroom, but she would then refuse to get on the toilet no matter the coaxing or bribing. Eventually we would give up - we didn't pay the price of admission tickets to spend it in the bathroom - which would then ensure she would have an accident all over herself shortly after we left the bathroom. She was having accidents in restaurants, on public transportation, on us while we held her...everywhere. And while we're seasoned enough parents to know we need to bring some spare clothes in an anticipation of the occasional accident, we weren't prepared for the onslaught of them. By the end of the day, we had nothing left for her to wear other than her wet panties and clothes. So gross and so exhausting.
Day 2 didn't go exactly as we had planned either. Geoff and I both commented how we wish we could of hit rewind and done the day all over again. Thanks to the bag snatching incident that occured earlier in the day, our plans to get back to Disneyland by the early afternoon for more fun got delayed by four hours and we didn't get there until 5:30. At least the day was dry this time.
After snapping a few photos and sneaking in one ride, we headed to our dinner reservations at Auberge de Cendrillon, a character restaurant in the park where princesses stop by your table and say hello. After a very long day, we were looking forward to a good and relaxing meal. It was not to be. The meal involved a very disappointing quality of food for the price we were paying and more bathroom issues for Ashton. Constant trips to the bathroom throughout the meal trying to get her to go were only followed by an accident back at our table shorting after returning. Far from relaxed and enjoyable.
The only positive were the princesses. The girls absolutely loved seeing and talking to them. They are still talking about all the princesses we saw there.
On the lookout for Cinderella
She was in Heaven!
Love this little girl so much despite her potty issues
More flying elephants
The one good unexpected surprise was how great it is to be at Disney when you're pregnant! I was able able to get a pregnancy pass which meant our whole family got to go to the front of all the lines. Chang-ching! There were a few rides I couldn't go on, the roller coaster-type rides, but we wouldn't have been going on those anyways with the girls so nothing was lost. In addition to the Dumbo ride, the girls loved the Pirates of the Caribbean and Haunted House rides despite their darkness and the amount of skeletons spotted.
Since we arrived there so late in the day, we stayed at the park until close (11:00 pm) which meant we got to see the fabulous fireworks, laser and music show. I'm always amazed at how Disney knows how to get it right. Everything they do is so well done and this show did not disappoint. While I don't know if our visit there fell under the "happiest place" criteria, we certainly made fun memories!
They might have been a bit tired on the 45 minute journey back to our hotel
