So I know I went to Disneyland Paris in March, but when some more friends asked if I would go with them for Mother's Day I couldn't say no. My friend Jenni has an annual pass which meant we got her "friend" parkhopper tickets for $40, a discount at the Sequoia Lodge Hotel, & discounts on everything we bought. It was super exciting.
Trek was gone so Lorien offered to hold down the fort for the day & a half I'd be gone. Best Mother's Day gift ever. I was SO tired of my empty house, tired of not having Trek there to help me balance life, & just plain sick & tired of that super hard bed we're sleeping on right now. I needed to get away, even if only for a day.
After church we rushed home to get ready to go, then my friend Grace picked me up. We grabbed Amy & Laura, then made our way to the base to meet the other 3 ladies.
We all met at the base chapel & piled into Jenni's van since there were 7 of us, & headed to Disneyland. It was only a 3 1/2 hour drive so we got there just before 9pm. We checked into the Disney Sequoia Lodge which was fun & log cabin themed. It wasn't as nice as the Marvel Hotel, but it was still fun. Each room was decorated in Bambi things which was cute.
We split up into 2 rooms, 3 in one room & 4 in the other & our rooms were connected by a door so we felt like it was a 2 room hotel room which was fun. We could go into either room whenever we felt like it.
We were starving so we walked over to Earl of Sandwich & got some sandwiches for dinner at 10pm & then laughed as we walked back to our hotel & went to bed. We had an early wake up call in the morning so we didn't miss magic hour in the parks. We were SO excited. I love girls' trips.
There were 7 of us: Me, Amy Andrews, Jenni Goodman, Grace Crowther, Karen Bourne, Cami Poll, & Laura Fulton. We woke up early (I couldn’t sleep past 5:30 so I got up & got ready 2 hours before everyone else did) & left at 8am to go get our cheap tickets at the ticket office. Jenni has an annual pass so she got us in to the parks for $40 which is incredible. We got our tickets & got in line at Hollywood Studios just as the doors were opening for magic hour at 8:30. Seriously perfect timing.
We walked straight into the park & ran over to Crush’s Coaster. I’m SO glad we did because the line filled up SUPER fast & was a 2 hour line within minutes of opening. We got on in less than 20 minutes & everyone LOVED it. I had a blast taking people who had never been to Paris Disney before. They had so much fun. After Crush we rode Ratatouille & we soon realized that we aren’t spring chickens anymore. The majority of us got super sick from the 3D effects. I had to laugh. I get carsick, but I can ride rides & roller coasters all day long without getting sick at all. I felt bad for them all.
Next we rode RC Racer & I dragged Jenni on it. She has ridden every other ride in the park EXCEPT that one because she was scared. The line was less than 10 minutes long & she wound up loving it. A few of the ladies sat that one out because they were still feeling sick from Ratatouille. After that we hit Tower of Terror which was a favorite for everyone except Amy & Karen who almost threw up. They both loved the ride, but their stomachs absolutely did not.
Then to make stomach matters even worse, we rode the Avengers Flight Force immediately after that. Spiderman was doing a show on the roof when we came out so we watched that & saw the warriors from Black Panther visit with guests.
Then we made our way to Spiderman Web Slingers. The line was almost 2 hours long, but the single rider line was only 20 minutes. I’ve never done the single rider line, but it was GLORIOUS. I honestly didn’t care if I rode with them or not, I just wanted to beat my highest score (276,000). We were on the ride in less than 15 minutes. They got lucky & 3 of them got to ride together on one car & 3 got to ride together on the other. I was the odd man out & ended up getting on with 3 huge football player looking black guys. They had huge coats & gold jewelry on & looked like they could beat up anyone who tried to mess with them. I looked like a midget next to them. But they were so sweet to me. We started the ride & did the first little section & I was doing really well. I had a high score & the all looked at me like “What in the world?” Then we did the 2nd area & my scored skyrocketed even more. The biggest guy turned to me & said “What are you doing? How do I do that?” By the 3rd & 4th sections of the ride, I completely slaughtered their scores. I set a new record at 306,000 points. As we were getting off the ride one of the guys turned to me & said “Respect” & nodded to me. It made me laugh so hard.
We saw Antman as we left Hollywood Studios & headed over to Disneyland.
As we made our way inside, we caught the 30th anniversary parade which was fun & then found a cute little diner with yummy sandwiches for lunch.
We took some pictures at the castle & visited the dragon & the beautiful Sleeping Beauty stained glass windows on the 2nd floor of the castle.
Then we made our way over to It’s A Small World which re-opened on Monday after being refurbished for 2 years. It was BEAUTIFUL. Everything had new colors & was so fresh & pretty looking. The last room with everyone in white was just beautiful & reminded me of what it will be like in heaven. I loved that all nationalities, cultures, races, & people were equals together in white. Gorgeous.
We ran into Pinocchio & Gepetto on our way out then we stopped at the March hare for some yummy ice cream & brownies.
Next we rode Casey Jr & then the rain started. Not just a little rain, a POURDOWN, soak you to the bone rain. (I swear I bring rain with me wherever I go.). Because of the rain, a lot of people left so we hopped on Space Mountain, Buzz Lightyear, & Pirates really really fast with no lines.
We shopped a little bit whenever we found a new store, but nothing ever really enticed me too much. . . until we found a store dedicated to villains & Halloween. (It was the store after Pirates) There was a cute lounge fly backpack that was classic Disney characters (Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, Goofy, Pluto, Chip & Dale) & it was black with black Mickey ears on top which made it adorable. I loved it just for that, but then I realized it was covered in pumpkins, ghosts, eyeballs, potions, & everything Halloween. The characters were all wearing Halloween costumes. I had never seen a more perfect backpack/purse for me before in my life. I grabbed it to buy it & got super excited, then I noticed the hefty price tag. It just about killed me to put it back on the shelf. With the van breaking down, the move, house payments, Lorien’s college, & more to pay for, I just couldn’t justify a frivolous purchase at that cost. I was sad to leave it, but knew that I needed to. Adulting stinks sometimes.
Then we hopped on Thunder Mountain Railroad which was a good idea until the rain was pelting us in the face as we rode at super fast speeds. Ha ha ha. It was SO fun. For real though. It was fun in the rain.
We decided to go back over to Hollywood Studios & rode Crush, Tower of Terror, & Spiderman one more time, but this time waited in the longer line so we could ride together to get the HIGH SCORE & we did. We got 3rd place for the day. It was great.
We said one final goodbye to Hollywood Studios & rode Thunder Mountain one last time, then shopped for the remaining hour the park was open. We all bought Disney macarons & then our tired feet were done for the day.
We made our way out of the park & walked to Downtown Disney to get some 5 Guys at 11pm. At this point we were all exhausted, our legs & feet hurt, & we were ready for bed.
We walked back to our hotel & got ready for bed. As I was climbing into bed, all the ladies came into our room & they pulled out the Halloween Mickey backpack & handed it to me. While I wasn’t paying attention, they had put their money together & bought it for me. I started bawling & we all had a huge cry fest about how much I’m going to miss them all. I truly am. I’m surrounded by the best people in the world here. I’m going to miss my Germany family SO much.
Tuesday we woke up & packed up our things to head home. I woke up at 5:30 again & got to talk to Cadence while everyone else slept in. We left around 9, but did get a cute pictures with Goofy before we left the hotel.
We drove to Cora to go French grocery shopping & I bought some yogurt, mousse, tarts, macarons, applesauce smoothie squeezes, & Oasis drinks. It was a smaller grocery day for me because we just don’t have a lot of time left before we leave. Then we drove home & got back just in time to get our kiddos off the bus. It was perfect. It was great to see the kiddos & it felt good to be home. My legs & feet ached, but it was totally worth it.
It was such a fun trip. After we got home, Jenni sent us all our "magic photos." Since she's an annual pass holder, she gets all the ride & character photos for free. It was so fun seeing them all. They turned out great.
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