After a spontaneous first night at Disney that didn’t quite go to plan but turned out fun all the same, it was time for a day with a bit more structure!

When I go to Disney parks I don’t actually plan out my days. It might sound like I do but I prefer to have a little more wiggle room and the ability to go with the flow. The only thing I plan is the restaurant reservations and this determines which park we will visit that day. These are the kind of things that really need planning because restaurants get booked up anywhere up to 12 months in advance! (Here’s looking at you Downtown). I’m not going to go in to detail about the Dining Plan again but you can read all about dining at Disneyland Paris in my previous post here:

So for our first full day of this trip, the only solid plans we had were a breakfast at our hotel, Sequoia Lodge and dinner at PYM Kitchen. This meant today we would be heading to the brand new Disney Adventure World!

It was around 6am when our 2 year old, Hilda, woke me up ready for the day. Despite the 12am bedtime, the excitement was too much for a lie in. Of course I didn’t mind this because I was just as excited as she was! With daddy still fast asleep we ventured in to the hotel room closet (much bigger than it sounds) and started getting ready for the day. Outfit planning is something I do months in advance. It makes the whole trip so much easier knowing exactly what we are wearing for the day and it means I don’t have to do any thinking for myself and toddler at 6am after very little sleep. So I put on our casual breakfast Disney gear and went for my best attempt at an ‘Elsa plait’ on my toddlers hair. I knew today would be our attempt to meet the Frozen characters and getting ready whilst Hilda was in the mood was definitely a bonus.

This morning I knew we were heading for our favourite hotel buffet breakfast at Sequoia Lodge. We love this with all it’s Disney themed food. Hilda’s favourite in particular being the Mickey cake! So after a good 90 minutes of dithering about, getting ready and finally waking daddy up from his slumber, Hilda and I headed downstairs. When we came out of the lift we were right next to the character meet and who should we see but none other than… Minnie Mouse! Hilda’s favourite classic character. What a treat.

We joined the queue and I text my husband to tell him to come down, at this point he was gathering some last bits and getting ready to meet us at breakfast. I felt it was criminal not to meet Minnie Mouse on our first morning with a queue so little. Hilda hadn’t seen or met a character for a whole year and of course she was now a whole year older! No longer the recently turned 2 year old but now a very chatty nearly 3 year old. She was very aware of who Minnie Mouse was and was weary but curious to meet her.

To my surprise she walked over to Minnie and gave her a hug. They say that going to Disney with children – You never take the same child twice. This is because your kids grow up so quickly and change so fast, it’s like taking a different version of them with you every time. Well I was definitely experiencing this first hand! A whole year ago she was very cautious and actually quite scared of the big characters. She said only a few words. Now I was about to see what it was like to watch my own child experience Disney magic!

After her cuddle with Minnie, she got a few photographs and her book signed. She wasn’t quite ready to let her guard down yet especially as it was only her first character meet. So we jumped in the photos and off we went to breakfast. Afterwards she had only one word to say… Again. (This is going to become a recurring theme in this blog).

Breakfast was our usual pleasant experience of being greeted by a friendly cast member and then enjoying all you can eat Mickey waffles, Mickey cake, hot chocolate and anything you can think of that belongs on a breakfast plate! Maybe even some things that don’t? I love the addition of freshly made pancakes here too, always spoilt for choice and plenty to feed the kiddos.

Tummy’s full, we headed back to our room – A perk of a preffered location room was it was only upstairs! One hop in the lift and we were able to pop our park day outfits on. I don’t like to get dressed for the day before breakfast – Toddlers are messy and I can’t think of anything worse than having to spend the day soaked in bean juice and covering up a chocolate sauce stain!

Today’s pretty dress was Elsa! With us visiting The World of Frozen for the first time, I joined in and wore my Elsa t-shirt. Yes i’m one of those mums that fully embraces dressing up and Disneybounding and I love matching with my daughter. What can I say? I’m a Disney adult!

Ready to leave the hotel we headed out the same way as yesterday and through Disney Village.

We walked past Hotel New York like we have done multiple times before but I had an urge to go in and have a nosy this time! So we went inside and found a photospot to have a little fun in. Overall, the hotel did not give me Disney vibes. I know Marvel is technically Disney but to me it will always belong in Universal Studios. I don’t think we will ever stay in this hotel but it was fun to see it for the first time.

So onwards we went and this time we were entering Disney Adventure World late morning so there were no queues at the gates. We’d planned to walk all the parts we’d never seen before including the new expansion and I knew I wanted to try squeeze in some shows for a change!

Looking at the show times, we seemed to enter right before Mickey and the Magician at Animagique Theater. So we joined the queue for the show to make sure we’d get a seat! Last year it was too full for us to get in and we never got to see this so I was happy we’d get to watch this for the first time.

The show was great! I’ve heard people rave about Mickey and the Magician before and it didn’t disappoint. Definitely a top show when visiting Disneyland Paris. Hilda loved seeing Beauty and the Beast for the first time – She was so excited she was practically shouting over the music! I loved seeing the Genie sing one of the greatest Aladdin songs (I’ll let you take a guess which one) and overall, whilst Mickey only spoke in French, it was still easy to follow. The addition of Elsa really set the tone for the day and had us excited for the rest of the day.

A great start to the day but it was about to get better. As we headed through Toy Story Playland again we noticed Woody and the queue looked relatively short. As one of Hilda’s favourite characters and movies we thought now would be the time to get in line!

Hilda was talking about meeting Woody the whole wait. When it was finally her turn she gave him a wave, a cuddle and stood there shy for a good amount of time. Woody tried his best to get her out of her shell – He even tried to do some dancing with her but she stood still hiding behind her little hands. It was an adorable moment but we jumped in and got some pictures as a family. She was really excited to have him sign her book and I knew that collecting autographs would soon be one of our favourite things to collect on this trip.

Toy Story Playland and all of this area is easily one of my favourite parts of any of the Disney parks. I love Pixar movies and whilst they do a great job of showcasing Cars and a hint of Finding Nemo here, there is scope for so much more. Up! Is my favourite and I know they are planning an attraction for that in the near future. Toy Story plays a big part of Disneyland Paris and so does Ratatouille. Last year we even met The Incredibles here. For me personally, I’d love to see some Monsters Inc. and i’m sure Hilda would too. I look forward to seeing what Disneyland Paris add over the years.

After our stint around the Pixar movies it was time to head to the new parts of Adventure World and see some princesses!

We started with a walk along Adventure Way and a stop at the Gazebo Garden for A Musical Moment with Rapunzel and Flynn. This was 10 minutes of Rapunzel and Flynn dancing around to some beautiful live renditions of the music from Tangled. It was a really nice little show that was definitely appreciated by me as a big Tangled fan. It was simple but a great way for children to see a princess up close and personal. We got there early and were able to sit near the front but annoyingly some adults still felt the need to stand in front of children so unfortunately our view didn’t stay good for very long. Hilda did get to wave to Rapunzel on the way out at least.

Sometimes Disney moments are about being in the right place at the right time and we couldn’t believe our luck when we noticed Alice and the Mad Hatter walking down Adventure Way. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen characters wandering and it’s a new feature of the brand new park to have lots of shows and character interactions all over.

We didn’t follow Alice and the Mad Hatter because as we turned around we noticed Peter Pan and Wendy too! Or should I say they noticed us..

Hilda began to wave at them and they just had to stop to meet her. With her blue Elsa dress on she matched with Wendy and they stopped for a good chat. She played the shy card but with a mouth full of the crackers she’d started munching on it made for an amusing meeting. I love these spontaneous character meets, you just can’t beat them!

After our surprise greeting we headed for Raiponce Tangled Spin. I knew this would be similar to the teacup rides but I was quite surprised at the beauty of this ride.

A little biased with Tangled being one of my favourite Disney Princess movies. I love the music, the characters and the colours all look so pretty.

You enter your boat just like in the Tangled movie then float around beneath the lanterns.

We were all so happy on this ride and it’s definitely obvious by the expressions in the photographs. Some of my favourite pics of my daughter were taken on Raiponce Spin.

It was nearing 4pm and we’d already done so much, met so many characters but still not even gotten close to the World of Frozen. I’d imagined that would be the first place we’d head but we definitely got distracted! With our 5pm dinner reservation looming it was time to finally visit the Ice Queens palace we could see in the distance… To be continued…

Stay tuned for our visit to The World of Frozen, PYM Kitchen review and even more character meets!

~ Visited Disneyland Paris, June 2026 ~