Disneyland Paris 23 Years Ago (1994)

It’s almost time for Disneyland’s 25th anniversary. From the 26th March Disneyland Paris is celebrating 25 years. Right now they have a great offer on. Up to 30% off if you travel between March and the end of October. It also comes with free half board which I do like. I am not the kind of person who wants to cook  on a holiday or go out all the time. To mark the celebration I wanted to go back in time a bit.

I used to be a huge fan of Disney as a child, I mean which child wasn’t right? I watched all the Disney movies, wore Disney themed clothes nearly every day. The other day I got lost a bit in memory lane and looked at old photos. I started watching old Disney movies with Matthew every weekend now. So far we watched Aladdin and Lady and the Tramp. Two of my favourite Disney movies. I haven’t watched those in so many years.  He has seen all the newer stuff but personally I think the best Disney movies were the old ones. Did you know that Lady and the Tramp was released in 1955? The intro of the old Disney movies is what make them so special.

My mum and I have been to Disneyland once. I was only seven, in 1994. When I heard that Disneyland is going to be 25 years old this year, I started digging out the photo album to see what year we had been. To my surprise it was almost 23 years ago. I couldn’t believe it. Disneyland has only been around two years back then. I can’t even imagine what it would be like now and how many things have been added since. I am hoping to convince hubby to take the kids to Disneyland in the next year.

When I was looking at deals online the other day,I wasn’t too sure what hotel to book., So I looked at the photo album my mum had made to see where we stayed.It was the Newport Bay Club hotel which has four star and is a 15 minutes walk to the parks. A free shuttle bus seems to be available too. I honestly can’t remember how we made our way to the park everyday. We stayed five days in July 1994.

Some bits and pieces I vaguely remember actually when I look at the photos. I was only seven after all. Check out the map they had back then. I checked it pretty quickly on the website and it’s still the same.

We have made so many memories there. I would love to recap these with my own children. We had our photo taken in front of the castle, done as many rides as possible. My favourite one had to be “A Small World”. Love the song and going through it on a boat and see all the different little figures seems like it was only yesterday. As I was only seven, I do remember that I couldn’t do certain rides but I can remember going to Captain Nemo’s ship for example. I think there was some sort of ghost ship as well. Alice in Wonderland gardens was a good one too.

The highlight of our visit was to get a photo with all the different characters and their autograph. We have all the autographs on a piece of paper added into the photo album. I think these days you can get an actual autograph album. How things have changed. I don’t really know if I ever had a favourite characters but I did like Bambi and Minnie Mouse. I had my picture taken with Minnie Mouse and it was hanging in my room for years and years.

You can’t really leave Disneyland until you have been to the parade. We have experienced this too but looking at the photos, we had a few rainy days during this period, despite it being warm because it was during the summer. We traveled by an overnight train back in  the day. This was the time, I needed a break from flying because I couldn’t deal with the pressure in my ears.

I cannot wait to book for the four of us. I don’t want to rush the whole experience so I’d say we probably have to stay at least four nights. There are always many offers available online throughout the year so I am pretty sure we will pick up a good deal. The holidays will soon be scheduled around Matthew’s school holidays as he is going to start school in September. That is going to be some change.