I've always been a huge fan of Disney and have been lucky enough to go the Parks in Paris, Orlando, Anaheim, and Tokyo - I'd love to visit them in Hong Kong and Shanghai too some day just to say I've been to all of them, but I guess we'll see how that pans out! I wasn't lucky enough to grow up with them, and my first trip was to Walt Disney World in Orlando when I was 7 as my dad had died and so it was supposed to be a distraction, but I hardly remember it. My next visit was to Disneyland Paris on a school trip to France and mostly involved riding Space Mountain over and over, which I'm actually really grateful for as it was the only time I got to see it as Space Mountain: De la Terre à la Lune with it's incredible steampunk Jules Verne theming. My next trip wasn't until I was 17 when I managed to rope some friends into going, and it was my first real experience of the magic and I was hooked! It took me a few years to realize I could just go by myself which was completely liberating, and I now prefer going solo as I can take everything at my own pace and don't have to worry about whether other people are having a good time. I got an annual pass and began going regularly, and after inheriting some money went to Anaheim and Tokyo which actually only reinforced how much I love the often overlooked Disneyland Paris. Maybe I'm biased, but I think Disneyland Paris is by far the prettiest park and feels much less artificial, as lets face it most of the Disney Classics are set in Europe anyway so everything feels much more at home!
I'd been only twice over the past 5 years and I hadn't really enjoyed those trips as much due to my anxiety, but I realized that if I wanted to overcome it then I'd just have to force myself and as I knew I'd be leaving Europe in 2020 I decided to make one last trip. I was there Monday to Friday which is my favorite time as it's quietest (I literally waited no more than 15 minutes for all rides) and I'd hoped that by going in the first week of November I'd hit that sweet spot of it being between the Halloween and Christmas overlays so that I could experience it more as Disney and less as a holiday.
I didn’t really meet characters on my last trip, and I think it’s why I didn’t have the best time as I’d kind of taken what makes Disney holidays unique and instead treated it like it was just a theme park. My anxiety was really high though and it felt easier to stay in my own bubble. I really wanted to push myself out of that though, so when I made my booking I added a Photopass as I knew I'd feel guilty at the cost if I didn't use it and it made the absolute world of difference to my trip! I'm also completely sold on the Photopass concept as it makes it so easy when you’re at Disney on your own.
I think I enjoy meeting the fur characters the most as I love how they communicate and it adds to the fun. Donald ended up being the first character I met, and he was just so sweet and made a fuss of me. Alice and Hatter got hysterical over my Hans coat and were worried it meant I was friends with the Queen of Hearts! I was super excited to see Olaf near the castle but realized he was just doing some promotional video and not actually meetable which was a shame as I'd of liked to have given him a warm hug as I was fully decked out in my Frozen gear.
It was my first time seeing Stars on Parade which I really loved! It had lots of neat features to the parade floats, like on the Toy Story float there were dancers/acrobats dressed as the aliens and spinning around in cages, Peter Pan and a few of the Lost Boys were swinging back and forth in a giant ship, and there were rarer characters included like Mowgli who I don't think I've ever seen before at any park.
I really loved the Sleeping Beauty section the most! Usually the princess movies all get shoved together onto one single float, so I liked that at least one of them wasn't treated as purely existing within the monolithic Disney Princess franchise. And the fact that Prince Phillip was center stage as the main character was even better as the Princes are never more than props and I loved seeing him have his moment. He was sword fighting dancers dressed as Maleficent's minions, while the float was a fire breathing dragon Maleficent that was kind of steampunk-ish in design and being operated by the spinning wheel. I just loved absolutely everything about it!! I don't understand why the Princes aren't given more of a starring role in general, surely it's a missed marketing opportunity? They could be positive role models for little boys to identify with if they were seen more as characters in their own right. Even princes that are fleshed out in their respective movies such as Aladdin and Naveen are never not seen without their princess and it's a shame.
The only hint of Return to Oz throughout the whole park! I'll always be sad that Disney never did more with Oz while they had the rights, especially as the made the single best movie.
The arcade down Main Street USA has a mini museum for the Stature of Liberty, which I normally barely glance at but as I'd looked over Manhattan from Lady Liberty's crown just 3 months earlier it brought back all the feels. Because France built the statue it's a nice link between the theming of Main Street and Paris.
