Cork mum: 'There are people who go to Disneyland with spreadsheets...I admire them'

There are people who go to Disneyland Paris with spreadsheets.

Actual spreadsheets. Colour-coded, carefully timed, probably shared in advance so everyone knows exactly where they’re meant to be at 11.20am on Day 2.

I admire those people.

I am also, in many ways, one of those people.

I like a plan. I like organisation. I like the calm certainty of knowing what’s happening next and when.

So, naturally, we are approaching this trip to Disneyland Paris in a very sensible way.

Flights are booked. Accommodation is sorted. Rough plan is in place. What could possibly go wrong?

The journey planning (where optimism meets reality)

All four of us are flying out together from Cork - myself, my husband, and the kids - which already feels like a small organisational victory.

We did try to do it properly. The original plan was to fly into Charles de Gaulle Airport and take the direct train to Disneyland Paris. Clean, simple, efficient. The kind of plan that suggests we have our lives under control.

Flights, however, have other ideas.

Nothing is quite lining up with our dates, so it looks like Beauvais Airport it will be, which immediately adds a slightly more ‘this might involve extra logistics and possibly snacks’ layer to the whole thing.

Still, we are telling ourselves it’s all part of the adventure.

Day 1: Straight into Paris (because rest is for later)

The plan is to arrive, check in, and take things gently.

That plan exists for about five minutes.

Because then we decide we should head straight into Paris.

The goal is very simple: one photo by the Eiffel Tower.

That’s it. Not a full sightseeing schedule. Not a cultural deep dive. Just one photo where everyone is:

present

smiling (ideally)

and not asking when food is next

If we manage that, I will consider Day 1 a success.

Everything else is optional.

Day 2: Disneyland begins properly (in theory)

Day two is meant to be our first full day in the parks once we arrive at Disneyland Paris.

The plan is straightforward: arrive early, go on rides, eat when needed, repeat.

In theory.

In reality, I am travelling with a teen and a pre-teen, which is its own category of experience. They are not small children wide-eyed with magic. They are not adults leaning into nostalgia. They are somewhere in between:

“This is actually good”

“I’m not admitting it’s good”

“How far is everything?”

“Can we eat again?”

And yet, I am told that every so often, something cuts through. A ride. A drop. A moment of laughter they didn’t quite expect to have.

That is what I am hoping for.

The rhythm I am told will happen Everyone says these trips fall into a rhythm. I am choosing to believe them.

Walk. Queue. Ride. Eat. Sit. Repeat.

In theory, that sounds manageable.

In reality, I suspect it will feel like a full-time job involving snacks, walking negotiations, and frequent updates on when the next meal is happening.

Still, there is something appealing about everyone being in the same place, doing the same thing, at the same time. Even if that place is a queue.

The slightly complicated bit I am not overthinking yet. At some point during all of this, I will be heading home slightly earlier than the rest of the family due to work.That is currently filed under ‘future logistics problem’.

It will involve an early start, a long journey back via Dublin, and a level of organisation I am not emotionally ready to think about yet.

So I am not thinking about it.

At all.

Right now, we are in the best phase of any trip: The planning phase. Nothing has gone wrong yet. No one is tired yet. No one has asked “how far is it?” repeatedly yet.

We are still a very functional, organised family with excellent intentions.

I know this will change. But I am enjoying this version of reality while it lasts.

Final thoughts before we go?

I still believe in planning. I still think it matters. But I also know that even the best plans have a way of loosening slightly once real life gets involved.

Flights shift. Timings change. People get hungry at inconvenient moments. And that is fine. Because the point of the trip is not perfection. It is:

time together

the experience

and hopefully a few good stories at the end of it

And, ideally, one photo by the Eiffel Tower where everyone is looking in the same direction at the same time.

That would be a bonus.

Even if someone is blinking.

Read Marie O’Regan’s post-trip account of her visit to Disneyland Paris next Monday.