Disneyland Paris: Day 5 – Goodbye Minnie & friends!

Final day at Disney and time to check out! I’d done most of the packing in the early hours of last night so off we headed to our Sequoia Lodge final breakfast. One more yummy buffet for us to enjoy! The breakfast at Disneyland Park is always great in my opinion, there’s so much variety and we love the setting at the hotels.

Coming out of breakfast, we had a nosy to see which character it was possible to meet that morning. We’d already met Minnie yesterday. The first day we met Max, but we’d heard that we missed Donald when we ate at the character breakfast. So naturally, I figured there would be a rotation and it would be Max again today. I was right. We’d already met him, so we didn’t bother again.

So it was straight back to our room to grab our cases and check out. We said goodbye to our haven then popped our bags in the free Disney luggage storage for the day.

Our flight was originally booked for midday which would have meant heading straight to the airport. This got cancelled and we were put on the late return at 7.20pm. Initially I went to change this back to an earlier flight until it dawned on me we were gaining a whole extra day at the Disney parks without paying for it! So we took full advantage of this and went to enjoy our final day at the parks.

One final stroll along lake Disney and past all the shops on to Magic Kingdom for the parade that we’d not yet had chance to catch!

We chose a spot on Main Street because there was a tree casting some shade on to one area. It was busier than the rest of the street but in that heat I knew shade was a priority as we’d be stood here for a while.

Hilda watched the parade from my husbands shoulders waving happily at all the characters.

We saw princesses, Nemo, Woody, Simba and all their friends.

After a little while she came down to watch with me and we waved at all her favourites together.

The parade was definitely a highlight from our trip and I think we should have tried to watch it sooner because it was very exciting for Hilda to watch with lots to look at!

Today we had strict timings of where we needed to be in order to make sure we didn’t miss the bus to the airport! So I’d left all the fun playing around extras until today in an attempt to burn some of our toddlers energy throughout the day.

After the parade we headed to the castle to explore underneath and look for the dragon! I’d never actually seen it and throughout this trip every time we walked past the entrance appeared to be closed. This time we were lucky enough to go in and I was impressed with how good it was! I didn’t take any photos – Didn’t want to frighten the beast but our little Sleeping Beauty wasn’t afraid!

We headed to the top of the castle next and enjoyed climbing the steps leading to the pretty mosaics. I don’t remember ever coming up here before so it was great seeing it with our little princess for the first time.

You can even look out from the top of the castle to see everyone beneath and give them a royal wave!

This was our day for final souvenirs so we started with the Christmas Shoppe, also located in the castle. Couldn’t leave without collecting some new additions for our tree!

Next we tried to go to Alice’s Curious Labyrinth too before leaving but annoyingly the queues were huge. We will have to save it for next time!

After our time in Fantasyland we did wander around Frontierland for a while as I was trying to find the pin trading store. I’d read that they had a trading post (Pueblo) but it wasn’t always open and sadly it wasn’t for any of the days we were there. Disneyland Paris isn’t as big on pin trading as Walt Disney World which is a shame. I did manage to add a few to my collection at least.

One last trip to Adventureland led us to Pirate Galleon and Adventure Isle. The playgrounds were closed so our toddler didn’t get a chance to play, but she did admire the pirate ships and play in the sand for a bit.

I wonder if this is where her new obsession with Pirates has come from?

It was a nice relaxing final day in the parks and after doing our shopping we said goodbye to Disneyland Park and headed for Walt Disney Studios.

Of course we couldn’t leave without catching Minnie’s Marching Band one last time on the way out. No wonder our toddler is obsessed with Minnie Mouse!

We needed to go back to Studios one more time to explore the Ratatouille area as we hadn’t been yet. Unfortunately we ran out of time for the ride which is a shame because it’s one of the best rides in the whole park. At least we have something to go back for! We did get to see the rat fountain which was a nice welcome refresh from the heat.

Afterwards, we took the other route through Toy Story’s Playland and admired the painting lining the gates. It makes for some good photo spots!

Walking back we bumped in to the toy soldiers who were wandering around Playland, it was a fun surprise!

We fit in one final ride before heading out and this was Cars Quatre Roues Rallye. It was much faster than I was expecting and a lot of fun with our little one! She must wonder what an earth is going on when we bung her on these rides spinning around mega fast all of a sudden!

When we reached the exit and said goodbye to Studios I felt sad that it was time to go but also slightly relieved. It was so hot when we visited in June and Paris just wasn’t equipped for the heat one bit. I’m surprised Disneyland doesn’t have any air con anywhere – You’d think they’d have the budget for it!

The heat here reminded me of my time in Walt Disney World and the whole time I felt like I was in Florida. It was lovely seeing blue sky’s every day and getting to enjoy the place in summer for once.

We absolutely loved our holiday to Disneyland Paris and i’d head back in a flash if we had the money! I think the main thing that is stopping me though is that we had such an amazing time, I don’t want to rush back too quickly and ruin the memory by trying to recreate it. Next time we head to Disney our toddler won’t be toddling any more and i’m sure our next experience will be a different one again! I can’t wait for our next visit but I think it might be time for a new adventure next time… Did someone say Florida?