It was a family holiday with my mum, dad and sister where we travelled straight into Marne-la-Valle on the Eurostar and stayed in the western themed Hotel Cheyenne. Back at the beginning 2000 I would have been 9 years old and really, looking back I feel I was even younger than that.

I do have a few memories of my own but loved hearing some forgotten ones from my mum and dad and looking through the photos. There are a few things that stood out on the holiday. I was like a kid in a candy shop in all of the stores there and left with a full lanyard of pin badges. I remember that it was fairly cold and it was definitely coat weather. I remember this because my chosen coast was a purple number with fluffy sleeves and collar. I remember this because I managed to get ‘plastic’, runny cheese stuck in the sleeves and somehow later threw up the contents of a jacket potato with cheese. Let’s just say the experience put me off melted cheese for a looong time. Now if I ever saw someone ladling runny cheese onto a potato I’m outta there.

I was tall enough and old enough to go on the rollercoasters on our first visit. The Indiana Jones Temple of Doom as I remember it was a great ride. It was also my first experience on ‘It’s A Small World’ and my mum must have been on it more than a handful of times with my sister being around 4 years old at the time. As much as I enjoyed the rides I think my slightly scared moment was on Rock ‘n’ Rollercoaster as I had never been on anything that started that fast before.

We recently watched The Imagineneering Story on Disney+ and I was surprised to see the content about Disneyland Paris. Our first family holiday covered the time when the second park, Hollywood Studios had just opened and I can honestly say that through my young eyes it was nothing but a great experience. Even going years later it was still a wonderfully fun place with the Tower of Terror and my favourite ride in Paris, Crush’s Coaster. I loved this ride so much I was gutted when I went with my now husband and it was closed for renovation.

What memories do you have of your first ever Disney holiday?