A whole new world: Experiencing Disneyland Paris with friends

Disneyland Paris is a magical place. I’m sure I am not surprising anybody reading this article with this information. But it is at its most special when you have new and exciting experiences. This Halloween I visited Disneyland Paris not on my own, nor with family, but with friends instead. The difference was remarkable and going alone will never quite be the same again.

Going solo

I am fortunate that I am able to visit Disneyland Paris a lot. I go by myself and so I am not tied down by dates that friends can make or staying where they want to stay and my focus can be purely on keeping the cost down. Going solo is something that many people feel scared about or approach with some scepticism, but trust me when I say that you shouldn’t. You can still have the most amazing time on your own and I wouldn’t hesitate booking again solo. Perhaps my feeling of it being OK to go solo comes from living around 10km from the resort in the past and so I’d pop over to the parks for an afternoon or evening.

Geoff with Belle and Beast
I met characters on my solo trips too! Promise!

I have no dependencies, no attachments and this means I can do as I want and when I want to do it. Disneyland Paris trips fit my schedule and that was that.

Visiting with friends

I had always wanted to try a Halloween Soirée. It has been on the bucket list for a few years now and I had decided that the first opportunity to go, I would take it. Here we are in 2016 and the opportunity arrived. I booked it. Luckily, many of my friends had the same idea and the plan was born. The excitement counting down was immense. Arriving in St Pancras, I headed through passport control and met up with my friends Steve (Dedicated to DLP) and Jane and from that point on I was barely alone the entire trip.

Group castle photo
Just some of the amazing people I got to hang out with on this trip. From left to right: Steve, Jane, me, Ellie, Martin

Obviously I have been in the park with friends before now, but not with Disney friends who are as crazy about the place as I am. The list of things we wanted to get done was actually quite short, there was no pressure we could just enjoy the trip and have a lovely time. The people make Disneyland Paris what it was, and the people I was with this time made it the best trip ever!

The plan is… to have no plan

I didn’t go to Disneyland Paris with any master plan. I did not have a list of things I needed to do, I simply wanted to go and have a bit of fun. Before this trip I was focused on rides and shows. In July I tried to sneak in more characters (I always did enjoy meeting characters, but never really made it a big part of my trip). This time was different, throughout the whole trip I managed to do 7 rides.

Group photo on Main Street
Even more of the amazing people I spent time with at Disneyland Paris – and this still isn’t everybody. In this photo: Dave, Jane, Stephie, Ellie, me, Martin, Steve, Gaëtane, Mark, Alyssa and Sébastien

And you know, I felt better for it. The time I spent was a mix of relaxing and doing fun things in groups with friends. I came away much happier with my trip. We managed to cram a lot into the 5 days of fun, but also managed to be chilled about it and have plenty of laughs and giggles along the way. I came away with more memories than I possibly hoped for.

Would I go solo again?

Heck yeah I would. And in fact I am very shortly going to be having a solo weekend in the magic. However, I’m already chatting to people about coordinating our next trip and having another magical time.

I doubt anything will top this trip for quite some time. But I’m so pleased that it happened and I will never forget it.

Share:

Facebook
Twitter

Related