Mummy says, “It’s your Big Birthday this year. What would you like to do? Shall we go away somewhere?”
“Oh, yes,” says Daddy. “I’ve had my eye on Sicily for a while. Imagine having a private villa with a pool. Imagine playing all day on the beach, even this late in the year, and then going home and drinking locally-produced Nero. We could go and visit Commissario Montalbano’s house by the sea, and the Temple of Hera, and all the castles and cathedrals. That’s what I’d like to do.”
… And that’s how we ended up booking a holiday to Disneyland Paris for Daddy’s Big Birthday.
Why would you take a toddler to Disneyland at all? Surely he’s too young to go on most of the rides? Surely he doesn’t recognise most of the characters? Surely he’ll get tired and have a tantrum? And surely he’ll never remember the experience, so why bother?
The selfish reason, of course, is that we go for the benefit of the adults in the party. But I’m not only certain that A did thoroughly enjoy it, but that he even remembers parts of it (when prompted by photos).
Disneyland goes well out of its way to be engaging for the whole family. For the older ones, it has an attention to detail – in its theming, ride design and overall visit experience – that far exceeds any UK attraction I’ve visited. Yet it is surprisingly inclusive for younger visitors. The vast majority of rides are suitable for a two-year-old. There is genuinely plenty to keep us all absorbed for days, and we didn’t feel that we were missing out by ignoring the very fastest, scariest rides.
It helped massively that we visited off-season. Waiting times for rides were rarely more than a few minutes, especially first thing. Our timing was dictated by the Big Birthday but it happily coincided with the changeover from Halloween to Christmas theming. Again, the attention to detail is superb, with individual rides adopting seasonal themes, as well as changes to the parks’ decor and parades. We were also lucky enough to experience A’s first fireworks display, which he loved. (At the end, he asked for more; it’s surprisingly difficult to explain the concept that the show is now over. But, at home, he now sometimes asks to look out of the window to see if there are any fireworks happening.)
It is true that A did get very tired, and found it difficult to get to sleep from all the excitement and disruption (and possibly food). And I don’t think he understood the point of some of the attractions. But it’s also overwhelmingly true that he was as excited about the whole thing as we were.
Every visitor to Disneyland will enjoy exploring and building their own list of favourites; so, unlike some other reviews, I am not going to attempt to dictate what you “should” and “should not” do with a toddler. But I can tell you a few of our personal highlights and things we learned from.
We liked our transfer from the airport, via the so-called Magic Shuttle coach service. It took about an hour; we dropped off our bags at the hotel and went straight into the Park in time for the lunchtime parade.
We all liked the first ride we went on, Autopia, in which guests even as young as A can “drive” vintage sports cars around a track. We could tell immediately from his reaction that A was going to have a good time. We went straight from there to “flying” a rocket on the Orbitron.
A loved It’s A Small World, which we went on several times – perched on the edge of his seat, excitedly pointing out details. He loved the Mad Hatter’s Tea Cups, the Casey Jr. Circus Train, and many more. And he adored seeing Lightning McQueen and Mater in person, even though the live motor stunt show left him a bit cold.
There were a couple of rides in which A showed a little trepidation. On the Pirates Of The Caribbean ride, which opens with a stretch of darkness and growing sense of dread, he clung close to us at first; but he was soon asking to go on it again. And there is a Toy Story themed vertical drop ride in which he looked a little concerned as he ascended high above the Park; but as soon as he saw that we were enjoying it, it was enough to have him chortling with delight.
Some rides just bemused him. The Ratatouille ride is a technical marvel – best described as a trackless rollercoaster with huge cinema screens (for which, I have just learned from Wikipedia, the correct terminology is a Local Positioning System Trackless Dark Ride) – but he wouldn’t keep his 3D glasses on. And although he enjoyed steering the pods in Buzz Lightyear’s Laser Blast and shouting at the evil Emperor Zurg, he didn’t really understand the point of the actual lasers.
Yet he was also remarkably patient and brave when it came to some attractions. He sat attentively at the front on his own during the interactive Stitch Live! show, and even remained engaged through most of the Buffalo Bill dinner show, despite its long duration and despite being way past bedtime.
We liked our hotel – the Newport Bay Club. It’s smart, reasonably quiet (despite being huge), and has good facilities, including an indoor swimming pool that wasn’t too busy. It was a little stroll away from the Park entrances, but not too far; the pleasant lakeside walk was good for building excitement / calming down.
We didn’t like that our meal plan required us to have breakfast in the Park, rather than at our hotel – even though this meant an additional incentive for getting into the Park early. The organisation at the Videopolis venue was terrible, with long queues developing over the course of the morning, and the food options were very limited. But we did like having the meal plan overall, as it allowed us to try decent, themed restaurants in the Parks as well as dinner at our hotel. We learned that it’s really important to book in advance for any of the themed restaurants, but the reward is being able to step out of the crowds and into a swanky-looking art deco bistro, or a colourful Arabian-inspired café.
Overall, we hugely enjoyed watching A’s reaction to new experiences and sensations, as well as seeing his confidence grow significantly over the course of a few days. He embraced certain rides and characters; was unfailingly polite to waiting staff and others (a two-year-old saying “merci beaucoup” unprompted is simply adorable); and was patient during queues and travel. We are looking forward to doing it all again one day soon.