Once again I am very behind on updating our blog! At the end of June, after Ryan had traveled quite a bit for the 24 hour race in Le Mans, we took a trip to Disney for some family fun. Of course, nothing goes as smoothly as planned and Ryan was feeling really sick the morning we were supposed to leave…but he was a trooper and made it through the weekend.
We took advantage of a promotion and stayed at a Disney hotel, Hotel New York, which turned out to work in our favor especially since we could enter the park at 8am versus 10am. One morning we got to the park early and went on several rides before the park officially opened, which saved us a lot of time later in the day and was definitely helpful with 2 young kids! It was also really nice that they have a “baby switch” option for families with babies where one parent can go on the ride with the older child and when the ride stops the child stays on and gets to go again with the other parent. Thankfully we didn’t have to wait for too long on most of the rides, but it was really nice that Makenna was able to go on the rides two times in a row! The other morning we entered the park early to have breakfast with the Disney characters. We thought it would be a good way for Makenna to see her favorite characters and get their autographs without having to wait in long lines in the park. Although there were 5 characters there, only 2 of them were the main characters and the other 3 were from Winnie the Pooh. Makenna enjoyed seeing them too, but for the amount of money we spent we were expecting to see Donald, Goofy, Minnie etc. Ryan doesn’t usually complain, but he said something to the restaurant manager and we received passes to meet the characters that were outside and skip the line.
What made our trip even more special was that our Brazilian neighbors/friends joined us and Makenna was able to have fun with her best friend Elis. The girls wore matching outfits with personalized shirts that I ordered from the US (Reese even had a matching onesie) with their names, an Eiffel Tower and Minnie face. It was kind of funny because at the Disney parks in the US a lot of people wear personalized shirts, but I think we were the only ones wearing them at Disney Paris! The girls had a great time going on the rides and playing together. When we went to the Princess Pavillion to meet Princess Aurora, the girls changed into their “costumes” and Elis dressed as Anna from Frozen and Makenna dressed as Tinkerbell. It was so cute!
While Makenna enjoyed most things about Disney, I don’t think she’ll ever forget our dinner at Rainforest Cafe. I think the large moving elephant and the fake storm that occurred while we were eating were a bit much for a 3 year old! She constantly talks about how she was scared of the elephant, and that she saw a (fake) crocodile outside.
I haven’t been to Disney World in Florida since I was really young so I don’t remember it, but I read that Disney Paris is small compared to the parks in the US. I was happy with the size of the park here, because with 2 small children Disney can be very tiring! I didn’t feel like our Disney trip here was too tiring and we got to go on a good amount of the rides, see a show and the parade, and of course stop to enjoy some ice cream and do some shopping.
We had a great few days at Disney and the best part was seeing how happy Makenna was. She did not want to leave! I’m so glad we got to experience our first Disney trip together at Disney Paris and hopefully we will make another trip to Disney in the US when Reese is old enough. Until then, Makenna will be talking about her trip (quite often she will randomly bring up Disney memories!) and we’ll be doing the hot dog dance with the Mickey on tv.
The Pawlowski's Go To France 