If you've known me for a while, you'll know I'm not really into my own birthday. I'd much rather flee abroad (which is often possible on 30 July), and let the day pass just like any other. Except this calendar year, 2022, I turned 30. To make sure nobody organised a terrible party for me, or that I ended up crying at home because my youth was/is over, I thought it was a great plan to celebrate my birthday at Disneyland Paris. Disneyland Paris was also celebrating its own thirtieth birthday, how fun is that! So we went to Disneyland Paris from Friday 29 July through Monday 1 August. Want to know where we stayed? I described that in detail here.

Friday 29 July

What a long day. We set off around 6 AM already, and apparently we'd never left that early before. By the end of the day, we both understood why.... The journey went smoothly anyway. Of course there were busy stretches, but luckily we weren't stuck in traffic for too long.
When we arrived at 12 o'clock, the heat hit us hard, but a pleasant surprise was waiting for us. We could already check in AND go up to the room! When we got to the room, a less pleasant surprise was waiting for us. We knew they were in the process of renovating Sequoia Lodge, we just hadn't expected our windows to be covered with window film with a scaffolding and green netting in front of them. So we couldn't, uh, look outside...
After having a drink and getting changed, we first went to the outlet in Marne la Vallée. We both scored well at Sandro, but left fairly quickly because of the heat and hunger.
Past the first shops, we walked to our first restaurant, Agrabah. This is a buffet restaurant with a Middle Eastern touch. The last time we ate here, we were really enthusiastic, but this time there was a lot less for us among the options. But maybe that was also because by that point we'd already been up for over 12 hours...
After dinner it stayed light out wonderfully long, and we even went on, for us, a new attraction! Namely Autopia. There you sit in a car and genuinely have to accelerate, brake and steer yourself. We'd always thought it was a kids' attraction...

Okay, we got so lucky, after dinner we went to the Studios area, for the new Marvel zone. To get into that area, there were huge queues during the day, but we could just walk straight through. First we went on Iron Man (formerly Rock 'n' Roller Coaster), and we were genuinely impressed by the revamped storyline. They'd also changed the effects during the ride. Now you get sent off to stop rockets.

After that we went to the new Spider-Man attraction, the web shooter. So much fun! Genuinely so much fun! You sit with four people on a bench and move from screen to screen in your 'booth'. That screen is interactive, because what can you do? By moving your arms correctly, you shoot webs and destroy evil robots! I was seriously really sceptical about whether it would even work, but it genuinely works and I laughed so hard. Just like with Buzz, they also use a points system. The attraction is genuinely a fantastic addition.

With some reluctance on my part, we stayed in the park until 11 PM to see the fireworks show. They'd added a section with drones, for their birthday. It was genuinely gorgeous!
A first long, but really lovely day.

Saturday 30 July, my birthday at Disneyland

What a fantastic day, genuinely. For me it was the perfect way to turn 30. The weather was perfect, I was super happy with my outfit, and I could legally wear glitter on my face. There was even a moment where we bought a way too expensive glass of champagne to drink while walking through the park, and took way too many selfies. On top of that, I hit a new milestone on my thirtieth by going on the Tower of Terror. I'd refused that for years, and after that first time, I'll keep refusing it again too. I get why people love this attraction, but for me it's genuinely that intense. Those free falls are genuinely not normal xD But hey, I did experience something new again on my thirtieth!

By the way, we'd already bought a Photopass on the first day. We usually never treat ourselves to that, but this time, for my birthday weekend, we did. Because of that we have quite a lot of digital photos of us on Disneyland Paris attractions! Genuinely really nice. I think you really get the most value out of it when you go with multiple couples, even with two couples I think already.

Sunday 31 July

A day where we took it easy. We did still go into the park early, because of the crowds and the heat. Except this day we also decided to seek out the coolness of the room in the afternoon and get some rest. We'd noticed that after dinner was actually the nicest time in the parks, in terms of both temperature and crowds. We also wanted to try to see the evening show again, but from a better spot this time.
I'm not really a rollercoaster fan, but this weekend I did a few more than usual, to push my own limits a bit. A lot of attractions had also been renovated, like Hyperspace Mountain, which I hadn't experienced yet in the Star Wars format. During the ride we were a bit tense at one point, because it suddenly came to a stop after building up a huge amount of speed, and we were sitting right at the front too. We also stayed stopped for quite a while, and at first thought it was a malfunction, until we heard the other snake-shaped cars still moving. But apparently that's just part of it. After this ride I really needed a moment to recover!
In the evening we ate at Chez Remy. Genuinely a recommendation if you want to eat a bit better and also want to take your time over dinner. We did stay again for the evening show, and had a much better view this time!

Our departure from Disneyland

Because our days at Disneyland Paris had gone so smoothly, we decided to already start driving home before noon. We'd already done the big attractions multiple times, and we didn't want to do Pirates a fourth time. Still, with a heavy heart, we said goodbye to the parks again, and took in the atmosphere one more time.
Our plan? We'll go back once a new area opens, so we don't get tired of Disneyland. Rumour has it the Frozen area will open in 2024, and we'll definitely be there for that. So we'll skip 2023 😉