It was Monday morning and we were enjoying a lovely lie in after a late night the day before. It wasn’t just any old Monday morning though, it was our first day waking up in our comfy hotel room at Disneyland!

We knew we were in for a busy day of magic so we made sure to catch up on sleep to get us through! After the usual dithering around trying to get the whole family ready we headed for our first breakfast at Sequoia Lodge. We love hotel buffet breakfasts; it’s often one of the highlights of our trips. It gets us up in the morning, gets us off to a good start and keeps us going right until midday. We weren’t going to book breakfast originally until our trip to Butlin’s early this year reminded us how much we get out of a great start to the day! So off we went to fuel up.

We were met with a massive selection of food including Mickey shaped bread and cake! The most delicious croissants and pan au chocolat pastries as well as crepes on demand. There was no denying we were in France!

After breakfast we headed upstairs to walk back to our lodge. At the top of the stairs we saw our first Disney character! It was Max – Goofy’s son and the queue was very little. We joined the queue and watched our daughter get excited about the fact he was a dog (her favourite animal). She remained giddy and even met him without fear. We were hopeful that this was a great sign of things to come. We bought a photopass+ so that we could keep all our professional photos throughout our stay instead of spending a fortune on prints like we normally end up doing.

After saying goodbye to Max we got Hilda dressed up in her first costume of the week. Today she would be princess Snow White as we would be heading to Disneyland Park for the first time. From all the commotion Hilda fell asleep almost instantly once we popped her in the pram for the walk. Walking through Disney Village again we headed to the entrance ready to show Hilda Disneyland. Of course her first visit to the park and she’s asleep!

Not to worry. She’d have plenty more time to see those exciting welcome gates throughout the week.

As we entered the park I was filled with excitement and a homely feeling as Disney is one of my favourite places to visit in the world. No matter which Disney park you are at, the entrance is always similar and as you enter Main Street you are surrounded by the excitement that comes with the music and magic! We happened to walk in at the same time Mary Poppins was dancing with Burt and her musicians on the band stand. Live music gives such a great atmosphere and it was nice hearing all the familiar songs!

We continued to walk down Main Street with no real plan for the day. Of course we had a list of attractions that would be best to do with our daughter for the week but no set plan because I wanted it to be as fun and easy going as it could be. I was trying to use the Disneyland App to navigate through the park but being the dinosaur I am, I was struggling to follow it.

We’d already discussed previously that we would head for the big rides every time Hilda was napping, so on to Adventureland to try out the Indiana Jones ride we went. Of course our luck meant that the moment I joined the queue, the ride broke down and our daughter woke up! Oops.

I knew it was time for Hilda to get out of her pram and start to run around but the only playground I knew of in Frontierland was closed for maintenance all summer. So we headed for La Cabane des Robinson. This is a treehouse you can explore and walk all the way to the top and back down again. It normally has a short wait time but unfortunately for us it was about 15 minutes in the sweaty heat! We couldn’t wait to get out of the sun.

Snow White and her little legs climbed the stairs and our princess learnt how to pick up her dress as she walked. It was very cute watching her tackle the treehouse and look out across to the top of Sleeping Beauty’s Castle in the distance too.

The Treehouse passed some time but it was a little busier than when I’ve done it in the past. I think due to a lot of closures within the past it meant that the simple attractions like this had more guests than usual. We still managed to make the most of it even if we did have to let a lot of guests pass us by!

After a hefty bit of walking we decided we fancied a ride. We ventured in to Fantasyland and watched Hilda’s eyes light up as she saw all the eye-catching objects around us. We headed for ‘It’s a small world’ with a 20 minute queue and did our best to keep her occupied as we snaked around the entrance to the boats. It was very exciting for our 2 year old and she pointed to all the little animal figures as we got closer to boarding.

Once on the boat she held on to us tightly as we prepared to set sail. Fear soon changed to excitement as she saw the singing and dancing ‘babies’ – as she called them.

DANCING BABY are the words she said on repeat the whole way round, accompanied with WOW! It was truly the best ride experience a toddler could ever have. Imagine how exciting it must be to see so much going on whilst also sitting on a boat floating around. She loved every minute of it and I watched her face more than the ride scenery!

No trip to Disneyland is complete without going to see the castle. So naturally we had to take some of those all important castle pics!

On our way over here we caught Goofy conducting the water fountains which was a nice surprise. It was all part of the Music Festival happening at Disneyland Paris exclusively and brand new this summer.

Also part of this event is Minnie’s Marching Band which was a fun little show of live music taking place on Main Street similar to the Mary Poppin’s band we saw earlier. We were lucky to catch Minnie’s Marching Band a few times throughout our trip and it’s probably for the best since Hilda has made it very clear to us Minnie’s her favourite!

After wandering around aimlessly all day with no real plan there was only one thing we knew for sure about the day and that was that we’d be eating at Agrabah Cafe Restaurant in Adventureland. We were booked in for a late lunch/early dinner at 3.30pm to coincide with Hilda’s usual meal times but due to her late nap and our massive breakfast we decided to push our booking back to 4.30pm. Luckily the app made this very easy to do!

So off we headed to the restaurant with hungry bellies and desperately craving a cool shaded area to shelter from the heat.

Spoiler alert! Agrabah Cafe was our favourite restaurant throughout the whole week! The setting was ace set out like the streets of Agrabah from the Disney movie Aladdin. It took me a while to work out that we were sat in the Palace and the restaurant had different sections themed to replicate parts of the movie.

The food was different to anywhere else in the park with its variety and it tasted so good. We had such a great time here and the Genie dessert was literally the best dessert I’ve ever tasted. I’m going to have to fly back to France just to come back and get this sweet treat again!

Whilst dining in Agrabah we were seated in a quiet corner with nobody else near us. This was soon to become a regular occurance for us perhaps due to the fact we had a noisy looking toddler!? Either way we were happy with our seats. After a while a Southern British family were seated on the table next to us. There was a man, woman and their son who looked to be about 4. It didn’t take long before Hilda was attracting their attention and moments later we were all chatting. Our daughter and their son were soon comparing sweaty bare feet on the table as toddlers love to do! We had a great time, made better by the fact Hilda was enjoying herself so much. It’s the little things like this that become the big things and the experiences I always remember most.

Agrabah served Moroccon cuisine and it was nice to eat something that wasn’t the usual American junk food. After eating as much food as we could fit in, it was time to head out and brave the heat again. Once more we had no real plan. We ducked in to Le Passage Enchanté d’Aladdin as it was directly opposite the restaurant. This was a little short walk around some Aladdin themed decor. It was cute but nothing spectacular.

Our afternoon consisted of mostly wandering around and seeing where we ended up. We knew we had 4 full days in the parks which is more than most people usually get so we wouldn’t need to strategically plan every second in order to cram everything in. I was hoping we could get away with going with the flow for as much of the trip as possible but i’d later learn that wasn’t the case!

Our evening ended with us heading back to Fantasyland to do some more rides. We did Le Pays des Contes de Fées which is another boat trip but Hilda didn’t seem fussed for this. She actually enjoyed waving at the passengers on Le Petit Train next door more than this ride itself!

Of course no trip to Disneyland is complete without a ride on the Teacups! This was fun and we spun pretty fast. Looking at our daughters face you wouldn’t even realise we were moving she was that unphased by it all!

My favourite ride has always been Pirates of the Caribbean. It’s the perfect combination of chill and thrill. No matter how many times I ride this and think I can sit back, relax and enjoy the scenery.. I always forget how big the drops feel! It catches me by surprise every time.

As we sat in the boat making our way around slowly but holding on to our kid for dear life we started questioning why she was on this ride with us and more importantly – Why we were sitting at the front! We gripped her tight as we picked up speed in the darkness but we didn’t need to… She loved it! We asked her if she liked it and she said yes. The majority of the boat trip she was pointing out all the dogs she could see. She was so excited as always. After we got off and viewed the ride photo, I think it will forever be one of my favourites.

This does not look like the face of a toddler who wasn’t terrified. I hope she forgives me when she’s older for finding this hilarious.

Next we headed for Discoveryland as we knew that’s where we’d be watching the fireworks from. We wandered around the area exploring for a while before noticing a submarine peeking out of the water. This led us to Les Mysteres du Nautilus; A short simple attraction that gave the illusion you were heading on to the submarine. If i’m honest, it was just nice to get a break from the humidity. Despite it being so late in the evening it was still warm!

Nearly 10pm and nearly time for the fireworks to begin at 10.40pm we jumped on the Buzz Lightyear Lazer Blast. This was a little mistake at this time as our daughter started to feel super tired and for the whole ride she was burying her little head in my shoulder as we went around. She was obviously very sleepy as it was way past her bedtime but i’ll always remember how adorable this felt.

When we planned to visit Disneyland we knew Hilda’s bedtime was normally 7pm. We never intended to keep her up for anything like the fireworks or shows. We figured, if she was asleep that’s fine. We very much wanted to go with the flow and follow her lead with it all.

So I was surprised to see her up so late throughout the week and coping so well with it all.

At the end of our first full day we decided we’d watch the fireworks show. We grabbed our spot by the Discoveryland sign and waited for the show to begin. I was looking forward to seeing a new display as the music festival meant it had changed from the usual one.

Hilda had seen the fireworks in the sky the previous day only this time she would get the music and a much clearer view. She nestled into my arms for the display and after less than 10 minutes she was snoring away living her best life at Disneyland.

This is the first time I’ve watched the show where most of the fireworks have been replaced by drones! It’s really impressive what they’ve managed to create. So clever.

Fancy sleeping through one of the greatest shows there is! This was the cherry on top of a beautiful first day at Disney.

I got to cuddle my little Disney princess whilst enjoying the magic with my husband. What’s more, I got to end the day with Mickey cake! But even better, I knew the next few days we’d get to do it over and over again..

~Visited Disneyland Paris in June 2025~