Summer 2026 Graduation Celebration: Edinburgh, London, Disneyland Paris, Paris - Day 9 Disneyland Paris

We woke up extra early to take advantage of the extra hour before park opening that hotel guests get. We figured this was our best opportunity to ride Crush’s Coaster without a long line (or paying for a fast pass or whatever they call it). I will say that while it was great to ride without the crowds, the breakfast situation at DLP is really less than ideal if you’re doing this. There isn’t any quick service at the hotel we were staying at (not sure about others) and all the counter service stuff at Disney Village doesn’t open until 8 AM, at which point you already need to be in line for the early entry at 8:30, so I’m not sure what you’re supposed to do. We snacked on some snacks/bread/dry cereal we had brought along from home and from London and that Dru had brought, which wasn’t really much. 

Crush’s Coaster was great and we hit some other rides before watching the parade at Disneyland, which was sort of a sister to Festival of Fantasy at Magic Kingdom park at Walt Disney World. It even had the fire breathing steampunk Maleficent Dragon. 

We went back to the village and had some quick serve “breakfast” at Earl of Sandwich before going back to the hotel to rest and also do laundry. I showered and washed my hair and then we were ready to head back out later that afternoon for more fun. We hit rides at both parks and dinner at Disneyland (the Agrabah (sp?) buffet, which was just okay (the buffet at our hotel the night before was better). We did a bunch more rides including Hyperspace Mountain with only a 20 minute wait! We happened to be in Discovery Land (Tomorrowland equivalent) when we noticed people getting on it despite the app still saying it was closed for refurbishment. (It should have reopened the following day, but they seemed to soft-open it a day early.) It was absolutely amazing and I think we all agreed our favorite ride of both parks (though we all loved the Avengers Coaster and Crush’s Coaster, too). 

We were going to do more rides before finding a spot for the nighttime show at Disneyland but we noticed that people were already finding their places two hours prior and our feet were dead so we just went ahead and did so as well. We hung out and played some Heads Up while we waited. 

The nighttime show was great, but honestly, I liked the one at Adventure World a little better (though tops for me is “Happily Ever After” at Magic Kingdom). I think one issue was that this one didn’t seem to really have a through line. It probably also didn’t help that the lady behind me had zero concept of personal space. It was actually really making me super uncomfortable how close she was pressing into me. When the show started everyone really squished and shifted forward, but I left a little buffer between me and the person ahead of me (though I did have to defend it somewhat from people trying to squeeze into it). I feel like a lot of people really squished and jumped in last minute which felt frustrating after having been there for almost two hours.

We hobbled back to the hotel with the huge mass of humanity exiting and collapsed into bed, setting the alarm for early, once again, to take advantage of the early morning extra hours. I really wish they had them in the evening after the fireworks because I would have preferred to do that and sleep in.