After a fun two days filled with traveling and tours, we were given a free day with no set plans to do whatever we please. I had a few ideas on how I wanted to spend this free day, but ultimately woke up with no set plans and found myself wasting a beautiful day. I planned to just hop on the metro and see where I would end up. I happened to end up at the front gates of Disneyland Paris. Disneyland, being one of the most iconic theme parks to me and many kids growing up, was somewhere I always wanted to go, but unfortunately, I was never able to go as a kid. So, as you can assume, this was a big deal for the kid in me. As I made my way towards the gates, I was informed the entry ticket would be $115. Yes, that should be a euro sign; I just don’t know how to insert it. This price I honestly was not mad at, as it is more expensive at Disneyland in Florida, but I was told by the clerk that the third-party ticket on Trip Advisor can be trusted, so I went with that route.

After I went through security and scanned my entry ticket, I was wide-eyed as I was greeted with the Sleeping Beauty Castle, something I always saw pictures of online, right in front of my face. Even with me just recently graduating from college and being an adult, the kid in me was still excited to finally come to such a desired destination, but even better in Paris. Though I was surrounded by many kids and families, I still knew it was going to be an enjoyable experience. For reference, I am not the biggest fan of roller coasters, but I will go on them for the experience. Quickly, I noticed that because this was created more for children, the rides, which I would say are not roller coasters, were very mellow and tame, not including any big drops that would make your stomach turn. This was not a problem for me and probably got me to try out a lot of rides I would have been skeptical about if I wasn’t able to see the track route before getting in line. Even with arriving around 11 a.m, I was still able to get on every single “roller coaster” that was listed as “cannot miss” on their website, incentivizing that these were some of the best and most popular rides you must get on within your time at Disneyland.

For some of the rides, I did have to wait in line, but that was not a problem for me as the longest I had to wait was 30 minutes for Big Thunder Mountain, which was one of my favorite rides as there was a point in the ride where you would get splashed with water. It would have been the Tower of Terror, but unfortunately, I did not want to pay extra to go to the second park, as it only included a few more rides that weren’t all that interesting to me. After going on a few rides, I was stopped in my tracks as a live show included every Disney character imaginable.

This was not something I was expecting, as they basically stopped everything going on to do this performance. It was very enjoyable seeing all of the younger kids get excited to see some of their favorite movie characters wave to them and put on a show singing some of their favorite songs. After the show ended, I decided that it was becoming late. I decided to pick up a souvenir, as this was a big memory for me. I decided to go with a crew neck, as it’s something I would actually wear and not a souvenir that would sit on a desk collecting dust. To end the night, I decided to pop into the movie theater they have right outside of Disney World and see if there were any movies playing in English, as one in French would be very hard to keep up with even if they had subtitles. There was only one showing of Planet of the Apes, and I decided to go with that. This being an English showing in a predominantly French-speaking place caused there to only be 10 seats reserved in an IMAX theater with over 250 seats.

After the movie finished, I had to rush back to the train stop as it was the last one going in the direction I needed, causing it to be extremely packed throughout the whole ride. This gave me a lot of time to reflect and be grateful for the opportunities I’ve been given at Umass Lowell, especially with their study abroad program. To all of my Paris Session 1 and 2 classmates, I encourage you to also go to DisneyLand Paris even if you’ve been back home as it is a great experience and something you can do alone if necessary.