“The very things that held you down are gonna carry you up and up and up.”

Recently, I have been re-thinking my relationship with Disney and the Disney parks. I have no interest in Orlando (outside of Animal Kingdom) because everything at the Florida parks looks cheap and ugly, and even though the Disneyland in Anaheim is the original and the home of my heart, it's changing in ways that my heart cannot take.

I haven't shared this outside of telling a couple of friends in person (and trigger warning here for misconduct/SA/ harassment), but on my birthday trip last year, I got groped on Haunted Mansion by a strange young man. It was ON my actual birthday. The young man was in the stalled Doom Buggy next to us and he reached over into ours (that of mine and my friend) and grabbed my boob. He was sitting next a Plaid, who said nothing. When I made a complaint to guest services, the response was a "sorry you were offended." Increasingly, guest behaviour at the Anaheim Disneyland (and I am sure like other places, too, because I keep reading about how people in live theatre spaces also cannot behave to save their mortal souls) is atrocious. (This was also, sadly, not the first time I was groped at Disneyland!) Whether it was that or the young men (I am sensing a theme here) screaming obscenities and racial slurs on other attractions--again, which cast members did nothing about, to how dirty the parks are, to how expensive it is and everything broken down, I think that my last trip was a good final Disneyland trip for me. I fear that I would let it be ruined forever--more than it already has. So I can let the Disneyland I once loved live forever in my memory.

I was hesitant to share being groped because I didn't want it to blow up and I didn't want attention (of any kind) for relaying that story, but for someone who saw Disneyland as a safe place for them, it's honestly devastating. 

On my 2019 trip, there was another instance. It was also, unfortunately, on my birthday. There was a man screaming (and I mean screaming) at his wife, who was also named Melody, stupid (among other things), and calling their son (who, by the looks of it, was used to his father being abusive and screaming) other horrible names. The grandparents looked appalled, but also looked like they were used to this. In this instance, cast members had stepped in. But the damage was already done. I was disassociated, shaking, and crying. I am glad in this instance that there was some intervention. I actually still freeze up (even if briefly) when I am in that section of the park.

I have been doing some breaking up with Disney, period, over the last couple of years, and even though the magic of Disneyland  in Anaheim is spoiled for me, I want to.... I want to maybe find comfort in some of the other parks.

One of my dearest friends, Sadie, has been to Disneyland Paris many, many times, and has always taken such beautiful photos. She (and many others) have insisted that Disneyland Paris is the most beautiful of all of the Disneylands.

These photos were taken from the official Disneyland Paris Facebook, hee hee.

My mom and sister went in 2016, and whilst they enjoyed it, a lot of the park was closed for refurbishments.

I got my passport for the first time in 2019, with intentions to go to Tokyo Disneyland for Easter of 2020 (and we all know how that panned out, hahaha haaaaaa). But now I have this passport and the world has finally gotten to a place where it has opened up, and I think I am ready to use it.

I was looking at the prices for Disneyland Paris, and I was shocked (but also, not really) to find out that it's actually cheaper and easier to go to one of the foreign Disney Parks now than it is to go to any of the US parks. 

Holy. Shit. 

Plus, Disneyland Paris has payment plan options, and all of the tickets are automatically park hopper passes (for now, at least).

So, um, am I going to be THAT American who goes ALL the way to a foreign country to go to a fucking Disneyland?

Yes.

Yes, I am.

Listen, I have NEVER been ANYWHERE outside of the US. EVER. Why not go somewhere safe and familiar-ish?

I am going to be *perfectly honest* there are not a whole lot of things about Paris/ France itself that is of much interest to me, outside of maybe going to the places where Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain was filmed or maybe some of the places where Barricade Boys died (apparently the real life location for the ABC Café is a McDoanld's with a playplace, which is outrageously hilarious to me). Apparently, Paris also has great junk markets, and I wouldn't mind seeing the catacombs or thrifting. My grandpa saw the Eifel tower when he was stationed in Paris during the Second World War, and said it was one of the most unimpressive things he had ever seen. Oh, and I guess the Pere Lachaise Cemetery and the natural history museum/ zoo.

I am always being told that I can't do things--I let people regularly talk me out of things, and I often wonder how much father I would have been able to go if people weren't  constantly telling me I was stupid or couldn't do it. IDK maybe it's time to fall in love with another park, a less commercial park, and take an adventure on my own.