Taken DC 2 + 4 to Disneyland Paris and they’re being nightmares

[Cheepcheepcheep]

Probably should have NC but sod it.

For Christmas we booked for DH, me, and DC 2 + 4 to go to Disneyland Paris. We don’t have stacks of spare cash and really prioritised this as they’re both in love with all things Disney. They’ve been talking about it all of Jan.

It’s been a bit of a disaster of a trip…

Arrived on the ferry lunchtime Monday, the kids were so good and loved the ferry. A smooth drive to an Airbnb near the park. Due to a few logistical issues with getting into the Airbnb they were late to bed (by an hour, adjusting for the time changes) but god. They were up for a further 2 hours, awful but put it down to holiday and over excitement.

Today, wake up, super excited for Disney. We get to the park and within 10m 2yo has a meltdown. Not unusual, I’ve had some concerns about ND but he was inconsolable. Then 4yo has one too. Very unusual for her. Screaming, crying, corpsing “I want to go home I don’t want to be here”. No amount of lovely chatting about Disney castle and meeting Mickey and Minnie could help. So we admitted defeat after all of 30m and went back to the Airbnb, have been here all day bar a quick trip to the supermarket for dinner (had planned to eat at the park).

They’re now “in bed” (8pm here) with a view to them sleeping nicely ready for an attempt to go back to the park tomorrow but up and down and shouting. They have their moments (which 4yo and 2yo don’t, potential ND issues aside) but I feel so defeated that we didn’t even manage to do anything, we literally walked two screaming kids up to the castle and back again. No rides, shows or even a meet with characters.

For the record I’m not a Disney adult, far from it. Frankly if they told me they wanted to go do a cultural city break I’d be delighted. I’m just gutted we’ve spent the best part of £1k (when costs are very tight) on something I know they’d love but tantrums and screaming have me on the RER in tears. DH and I being snappy with each other (albeit with appropriate apologies when it’s calmer) because we’re just so deflated and yelled out by the two kids.

4yo was apologetic about tantrum and appears to be trying to be better. 2yo doesn’t have a huge amount of language but accepts he needed to be kinder today.

Am I over optimistic? I’ve never bought into instagram parenting and accept there may be lows but god, I’d like to be one of the parents we saw today with kids of the same age who weren’t screaming so hard they had to leave.

Hiding in the Airbnb bedroom drinking a glass of wine while DH tries to settle them…

Sorry you feel like you wasted your money OP. Put it down to experience and try again tomorrow. Or in 6 years!

Fwiw, Mine are 2 and 4 and I'd be very slow spend big money on a holiday for them. But rather a relaxed and cheap holiday (off season eurocamp) that we can all enjoy, and it wont matter if they are tantruming

Disney is fantastic but kids are too little but understandable you want to get as much in before school my advice save for Florida and when youngest is no younger than 6 and even then still take a buggy!
we are a Disney family but did cheap sunshine pool/butlins type places till they were older
hope tomorrow goes better and you will probably laugh at this in years to come

We took ours at similar ages with friends. Honestly all the kids wanted to do was splash in puddles. They couldn’t have cared less about the rides, one little boy (not mine) was interested in the characters. They did enjoy the fireworks which we did on the last night once they were in the holiday routine… I think we might’ve taken them for a nap that afternoon. So anyway as others have said, just find whatever little bits and pieces they enjoy, whether that’s a play park or a puddle. I hope it all gets better tomorrow.

PS DD now 11 has always been a dream to travel with but I will never forget carrying her age 2, tantrumming, out of the Boston museum of childhood and walking about 20 blocks back to our air bnb with her screaming in my arms the whole way. We never had anything like it before or after. DH and I both had a large cocktail that evening!

Thank you everyone for the lovely suggestions and help. It’s making me feel miles better after a day of screaming!

We really didn’t give up easy taking them back after 30m in the park, I promise. They were totally losing it.

I can’t work out whether I was over optimistic and ducked out too easy, or had my bar too low and should have persevered against what the kids were saying. It’s too hard this parenting shit. I’d be doing the museums in Paris tomorrow if up to me!

(FWIW and anyone who doubts, I adore my kids and I promise I did this and save for it and put myself through it because I thought it would make them happy. Because that’s my motivator every minute, hour and day).

Thank you!

Try to avoid leaving the park to-morrow if it hapoens again. Because once you've done that it's game over with no way of salvaging the day. There will be something in that park that will calm, pacify or distract at least as well as a return to the hotel room and you can ride it out with the rest of the day ahead of you. Maybe seperate, take one DC each for an hour and tailor to that child's needs. So for one it might be an ice cream in a quiet spot, while the other might rally when they got on a ride.

Ahh this is oh so familiar!

We did Disney last year with my almost 6 year old and my 2.5 year old drama llama child

After 12 hours in the car it’s safe to say they were bouncing off the walls when we arrived, made worse by drama llama falling asleep for 2 hours before we arrived

Got to the park the next day and drama llama had the biggest meltdown because my mum hired a pram and he didn’t want to go in it

No real advice but I took a ton of snacks with us and also priorised what the kids wanted to do and tried to find out what rides they’d want to go on had the shortest wait time. I also took the drama llama on my own for a bit and we went and got snacks and he watched some things on my phone while his older brother went on bigger rides. Let him walk for as much as we could so it tired him out a bit too!

We went with family and we sort of stuck to our kids routine a bit with regards to meal times and letting the drama llama have some time out too!

Hope tomorrow is better for you!

Honestly it could be totally different tomorrow.
Get some sleep. Breakfast. Try again.

And this is why I don't spend vast amounts of money on 'experiences' for very young children. Most likely, they won't be grateful and won't remember it. Lesson learned, if this is very important to you wait a few years so you can actually enjoy it.

Sometimes little and often is the way forward. Shortburst of the park then chill where you are staying for a bit. Then head back out later. And as others have said snacks. I know for my nd child busy situations were overwhelming. Better now older but not easy op I hear you! Can you do a now and next idea with them before you head out. Maybe show them on the website what you are going to do so they have an idea of what to expect.

Oh no OP. We took our 2, 5 and 20 months to Florida in October and honestly my husband is still traumatised. 5 year old was fine but youngest way too young. It was overstimulating and too busy for him. We did find some rides he loved but then he screamed when we got off. I found he was better when out of the pushchair and allowed a little more freedom - if you can use reins or something to keep him close. Try to find interactive areas for him to play with. Finally all the snacks to keep him busy if he needed to be in the pushchair.

I'm sure tomorrow will be better.

When ours were young we went self catering uk holidays with playgrounds on site or nearby, animals, beach. Tried to mske it nice for us as well with snacks, drinks, Netflix. Lower expectations!

Oh no OP I’m sorry it’s been so stressful.
Yes some people make it look easy holidaying with young kids, but all kids are different, some are chilled. I think most would be overwhelmed by Disney, I was when we just went last year and I was 39! We waited until our kids were 6 and 8 as I thought it would be too much before that. Somewhere like Paultons (Peppa Pig land) is much easier to ease into theme parks. We only did UK holidays until recently as it was just easier.
I hope tomorrow goes better for you, maybe show them some pics of rides or characters so they choose what you do?

Bless you OP. Holidays with littles are hard work. You won’t be alone in Disneyland in the tantrums and tears.

Had a similar experience with DS when he was 4. Made the mistake of doing a day in Paris the day before so he was knackered by the time we did Disney the next day (they were two days at the end of a longer French holiday rather than a specific Paris trip) and just grumbled and cried for most of it. We ended up leaving the park late afternoon as we’d all had enough (parents were with us).

We’re off to DL Paris next weekend and the experience has obviously scarred DH as he said this morning, let’s take it easy in Paris the day before, we don’t want a repeat of last time. DS is now 10 and has done Disneyworld with no problems so I’m not worried, though glad to be on site this time to go back for a break if we need it. That’s one thing we learned from Florida was to chill and not try and pack too much in, though it does irk me when DS just wants to go to the resort pool when we’ve paid fortune for park tickets.

Here’s to a better day tomorrow and like others have said, you’ll look back and chuckle one day.

Thank you so much everyone for the advice. Off to sleep and hoping for better tomorrow. Times like these I really love this nest of vipers (showing my MN age!)

You expecting too much at their age. Tbh they won't remember euro Disney in a month or so. I'd go for simple and manageable now .. keep routines, meals, bedtime etc. Don't force too much. Do one or two things and rest alot between. Go with the flow. Just enjoy the air b&b and break from home.

Exactly this. The 2 year old doesn't know where they are. Wait till they're older.

Not sure if this would help but we went recently with 18 month old and 6 year old.

6 year old had an amazing time on all the rides etc, the faster the better (not such a fan of queuing). 18 month old we discovered was scared of the dark bits of the rides. Found Mickey show and Peter Pan dark at times. Strongly disliked Pirates and Pinnochio, had to be taken out of Haunted Mansion. What he absolutely loved was Small World. And he loved just being in the sling, people watching, seeing characters walk by. We gave up on bringing him into rides after a while. I'd recommend Small World first if there's not a big queue.

But don't give yourself too hard a time. We struggled at times despite 6 year old loving rides, fireworks, no issues really walking...but nighttimes in one room on-site were really difficult. Everyone kept waking the others up, coughing, wriggling etc. We also struggled to find food we all liked and to eat regular meals. I think your airbnb sounds sensible! Good luck for tomorrow.

This..its just one of those things. They are young and your expectations are so high..stand your ground tomorow and go for the day. Bring many snacks..

I wouldn't have left bc they had a tantrum personally. I'd have sat it out or distracted them with chocolate!

They're probably just tired and a bit overwhelmed and the younger one set the 4yo off. But you guys are the adults and in charge - remember that tomorrow.

Please don't feel too bad they're not enjoying it. Mine would lose their minds at Disneyland, and not in a good way. They'd lose their shit. They'd behave how yours are behaving tbh and they're a little older. The walking alone is exhausting, these places are huge.

None of this helps when you're SO disappointed after such high expectations of a treat trip and just want them to enjoy it.

If I were you, I would give them a lie in, give yourself a moment to chill out and understand they're so little.
The memories will be made from how they feel, not what they see/do. Take a breath and let them feel special. Even if it's in the queue for the 9th wee of the morning.

Sorry this has been your experience. Just as a counter to those saying it’s too young, not necessarily. We took DD at 2 and had an absolute blast. We were exhausted, snipped at each other a bit, got soaked in the rain, DD ate mainly chips and bread I’m sure did tantrum a bit, we lost a bag at one point, but I have to really think to remember these things, the look on her face at certain moments like meeting the princesses or Mickey or seeing the parades was priceless, and we had a lot of fun in the rides. I did have to lower my expectations a bit but actually we still got a lot done. Of course we have one child which is I imagine much easier and we stayed on site and went back for a rest each day which was needed.

If you have buggies then I’d just strap the kids in for any tantrums and push them in the buggies somewhere quiet and give it time, you and DH can take turns to stay with them whilst the other walks away for a breather, most likely they will calm down eventually. Then as PP said, find a play park, somewhere to stretch legs, and offer snacks any time they seem a little hangry. You can’t have buggies on the rides so look for short queues- should be quite a few mid week in February outside of school holiday times- and you can have buggies in character queues so that’s a good option for a rest, alongside watching parades and shows. Best of luck!

Not read the whole thread but I would stay on site even if they meltdown . Take books/snacks/ipads. Do some rides then take a break, then back to rides. Make sure there's stuff to entertain them in the queues. Go for something to eat ti change scene.

2 and 4 are far too young for Disney. Not at all age appropriate even without thr ND issue making them even less capable of dealing with crowds, noise, sensory overload and the stress of being over tired.

Really, this is on you. Should have waiting until the youngest is 6.

Also Disney Paris in winter when it’s cold and miserable doesn’t sound fun at all, not for any age.