Disneyland Paris 2017 // Disney Stars on Parade pt.1

I'm not usually a big fan of change. I think there are a lot of fellow Disney fans who feel the same. However, it's not the new I fear but losing the old and this was a huge deal for me when saying goodbye to Disney Magic on Parade in preparation for the new and improved 25th Anniversary parade. Little did I know December 2016 would be the last time I'd have the chance to see MoP in person and I didn't get the time to. Absolutely gutted, to say the least, but was ever so thankful for its very last route ever to be live-streamed so I could cry until my heart was content from the comfort of my own home.
Anyways, this is about its predecessor! Originally Mam and I had said we were going to visit in May/June of 2017 also, but after our December '16 trip expenses and travel hiccups, we sadly decided to wait until 2018. In January I realized I couldn't do that. I needed (yes, needed) to visit as close to my favourite place on Earth's actual anniversary as possible while knowing I am not well off, an annual pass holder nor Southerner with closer/cheaper travel connections. Spur of the moment I asked my good friend Laura and we booked a coach trip to Disneyland Paris for the first days of May.
I'll talk more about that later (19 hours on a coach is an interesting experience) but what I am trying to say is I worked so hard to get myself there so I could experience the amazing celebrations, including Disney Stars on Parade!
I avoided as much as I could online so didn't know what to expect at all - well minus the Dragon - and I'm so incredibly glad I did it that way because...

...it was seriously, surprisingly, one of the most emotional experiences I've ever had at DLP. I properly sobbed my heart out from the moment I laid eyes on the first float until well after it was all over. That's one reason my photos are so awful and so few - I could barely see for tears! It did mean that people around me were whispering to each other, one saying ''I think she's hurt herself!'' hahaha but it also meant I got some fab interaction from the characters.
I wish, wish, wish someone had been there to catch it on camera because after that 2nd photo with Aladdin and Genie in, the one and only Mary Poppins ran over to me and pulled me into the biggest hug ever telling me to 'Have a Jolly Holiday'. Ahhh, I almost fainted and obviously sobbed harder, bringing Pinocchio over who blew me a kiss.
I've only included half of the photos here, as despite not taking as many as I'd have liked to, I still took quite a few haha. I hope you enjoy my view of things and can't wait to show you the rest in a couple of weeks, along with my full opinions.


Catch my other Disneyland Paris 2017 posts:
Character Meet and Greets

Disneyland Paris 2017 // Character Meet and Greets

I couldn't wait any longer! It's already been almost 10 weeks since I went on my whirlwind May trip to Disneyland Paris and 2 weeks since I completed posting my December 2016 trip series, so it was more than time to get these May 2017 posts underway. 
As I've had so much on lately, I thought the best photos to kick off with would be our character meet and greets. Oh, I should also probably say I went on this trip with my good friend Laura via coach (so much more on that later!), we arrived the evening of May 1st, slept the night and had the days of the 2nd and 3rd in the parks before leaving the night of the 3rd. Here is who we met in that short time.

As you can see, the very first meet of the trip was Minnie Mouse and I had an actual emotional breakdown. The photos are not in order of occurrence and a particularly gruesome cry-face photo from the photo pass has been left out because, man..I seriously broke down. I've never been that bad with a character before but as I ran over for my hug and said, 'I am SO happy to see you Minnie!!' I just couldn't hold back the tears. I think it was a combination of being back home and the fact I was so overwhelmed to have been so lucky to be there so soon again after my previous trip. Minnie handled the awkwardness really well though haha and at least she looks good in those photos ;)

Next, we headed straight over to Chip and Dale after composing myself in the queue and had such a fun meet. I've never gotten character photos in this spot before (correction - I have, but it was at Christmas and the tree was behind us!) and having the castle in the background was just a dream. I don't totally hate how I look in those photos either which makes and change.

Before commencing with the rest of our day we then jumped into Pluto and Goofy's line, that I was pretty confused to see was super small. We had another fun meet - it usually is a good one with Pluto and Goofy - especially when one of the guys knocked off Laura's ears, that was pretty funny. I love getting to watch and photograph my friend/family during meets <3

The last meet of our first day was an 'accidental' one when we hopped on over to the Walt Disney Studios Park. I have like a Character-dar (like a radar thing haha) and spied Tigger and Eyore right away! It was pretty exciting as I haven't had a hug from those two since back in 2010 :O

Like our previous meet, there was no photo pass and Laura can't work my camera so I only got one photo with them...thankfully I didn't blink eh ;)

Moving on to day 2, we decided we had to go back to Minnie for 3 reasons. 1. so I had photos with her, not crying. 2. As the day before Laura thought she'd 'give me my moment' (her words, not mine haha) with Minnie and we didn't get a photo together. And 3. To show her my bow that matched her dress! We went at the same time in the morning and it was an even better meet than the previous. She loved my bow and my blue glitter eyeliner and we had fun taking cute photos together. Then as we were leaving she ran after me going crazy as she'd spotted my Vans Minnie backpack and kept doing hearts with her hands. I told her that's nothing...you're all over my house haha.

The next meet happened to be my most underwhelming of the trip. It wasn't bad or anything, it just wasn't as special as the rest and I usually have a pretty good time with Donald. No matter. I was just happy to see him, especially in that extra smashing suit!

Lastly, and most importantly we went to Meet Mickey Mouse. Is it weird to say he's my best friend? Well, he is, or at least after Baker and my parents he is and so I bet you can guess what happened! :P
Once we were in the room and behind the wall, next in line to go through I had a mini panic attack, fighting off tears. The attendant was the sweetest, most amazing girl around my age (or probably younger) from the UK too and when it was our turn she shouted to Mickey that I was such a huge fan and loved him so much. We had such a lovely interaction and he was extra kind to me that I'm tearing up just thinking about it. I'd said goodbye and went to leave, the photo pass photographer scanning our card for us to go when Mickey pulled me back motioning to the photographer he wanted a photo of me kissing his nose. I am so beyond glad he did this for me as it's my favourite photo from the whole trip!!

And they were our meet and greets! I had originally hoped for more, but for the amount of other stuff we crammed into those two short days (my shortest ever visit to DLP and nowhere near long enough if you ask me) I have to be extremely grateful to have managed so many meets too. I loved every minute of them. See you real soon my Disney pals <3