Well, it has been a while since I spoke to you on here. Like, well over a month! I am a terrible blogger! The thing is that my heart just has not been in it. For some reason, the passion for this little corner of the internet has just fizzled out. I have no idea why. I have tried to write things down on here, however, every time I start, I stop reread what I have written and then delete it all as I feel like its rubbish. So, I guess we can say that the self-esteem on the blog is at a bit of a low. I really want to try and get back into it. I used to love writing on here, I could post two times a week easily! Now, not so much.
Anyway, enough about that. I have spent the last couple of days coming up with some ideas and putting them in a list and planning when to upload them. Now, I just need to write them and take pictures and then publish the post. Come on motivation, HIT ME PLEASE!
I also need to do the same with my YouTube channel. However, I’ve only neglected that for a couple of weeks instead of over a month. So, it’s not as bad!
So where have I been?
Well, to be honest, not much has changed since the last time I did one of these update posts. Well, apart from the fact that my student finance has been confirmed! YAY!
I have just been working away since then. Lots of over time has come about again which is great for the bank balance, not so great for the social life! But, since my last post I have been back to Disney. It was an amazing solo trip, however, it wasn’t all that great, but I will get onto that. I’ve also had a weeks holiday to Spain with the entire family. I was pretty much off of social media for the whole time, which was really lovely. Sometimes its nice to have a break!
I have had a blog re-design though. It looks very similar to my last one, as I really liked it. However, I changed it because of that whole fiasco with that really popular blog theme company. So, I thought it would be probably better if I change it, to avoid a similar fiasco again!
Anyway. What happened in Disney?
So, back on Saturday 23rd March, it was the day after the Pirate and Princess Annual Pass party. I had had a great day in the park. I watched Illuminations from the Infinity VIP viewing area (which if you have the Infinity Annual Pass, it is well worth booking!). Then, I headed out of the park and went to do a little bit of shopping in the Disney Village before getting some food. I headed into Earl of Sandwich (EoS) as I wasn’t all that hungry and I wanted something fairly cheap! The queue for EoS was pretty long, so long that it was out the door. I was only in the queue for a couple of minutes, before people started shouting, screaming and running.
Unfortunately, my french is pretty limited, so I could not understand what was going on. I was being pushed into EoS. I turned around and saw a Mother carrying a child in her arms. At first, I believed that the child was seriously ill and needed somewhere to put him down. I let her pass, but then everyone kept pushing me, I turned and saw everyone duck down under tables. This was when I started to panic. I had no idea what was going on.
Behind the bar where I was ducking, there was another Englishman who like me could not speak French and asked me what was going on. I had to see if I could find out what was happening. There was a guy behind the counter (who I assumed worked there, he did not!) and was helping people over the counter into the kitchen for cover. I went to ask him what was going on, however he just said get over here and pulled me over the counter.
We hid in the chiller for about three minutes. During this time, I managed to get hold of my Mum and was crying on the phone to her, and telling that I love her.
Eventually, someone said something in French (I’m assuming that it was a false alarm or something like that) as everyone started to leave the chiller. I sat down on one of the tables in EoS (still talking to my Mum and still crying my eyes out). Mum was looking on social media and local news to see if she could see what was going on as no one was telling me. It was tough. I asked so many people what was going on and no one could tell me.
Mum told me over the phone, that apparently someone had been seen with a gun and that there had been an explosion in the near RER station. Again, panic set in.
At some point, shortly after, an English family came in, saying that someone was walking round with a laser. He then later went onto say to the manager that it was the French police and not some random guy walking around. Thinking about it, it was only about 2/3 minutes after we had come out of the chiller till this guy came in. That means that the Police and other authorities got to the parks super quickly, which I will be forever grateful to them!
The manager of EoS ran to the front door and locked them, so that no one could get in. We were officially on lock down. There was about 50 of us in EoS at this point. Most people had ran to the hotels for protection.
Eventually, I went over to the manager who seemed to be on the phone talking to people a lot. He told me that a light in McDonalds had exploded, and that for security reasons they had to check the park and we had to be locked in for safety.
I was on the phone to Mum this whole time as I was on my own and it was blooming terrifying. I will be forever grateful to her for keeping her cool, in what must have been one of the most frightening things to hear on the phone. About 30 minutes after this, my Mum told me that a lot of people were saying that it was a false alarm and that it was a faulty escalator in the train station. There was no man with a gun, and no explosion. To be honest, I didn’t believe her. We were still stuck in EoS with no official explanation.
At around midnight (I’d been in EoS since 9pm) I actually saw people start to move outside. Eventually a fire marshall came over to the building. The manager and fire marshal filled out a form, the manager counted how many people were in the building. After what felt like an age, the manager came back in and told us, that it was an escalator in the train station. He also told us that we were one of the smallest groups of people on site and that it won’t be long till we get out of there!
About 30 minutes later, I see police outside the restaurant next to us. I can’t remember what this restaurant is called, but I could see people through the window lining up by the door. The police got into formation. They formed a pathway for people to leave. I could see all these people leaving the restaurant with their arms up in the air and parading through these lines of Police.
It took them around 10-15 minutes to get everyone out of next door. Then, they formed around us. We were told to walk out in twos, with our arms up in the air as if we were surrendering. Also, jackets needed to be unzipped and hoods down so that searching would be easier.
So, 12:40, we left Earl of Sandwich.
I started to panic again, the police were dressed head to toe in armour, they had HUGE guns and I was supposed to walk right through them. WHAT?! Well, I did it! At the end of the line, we were told to wait as we were then going to be searched. They looked through my bags and patted me down, then we were told to walk under the arch of the Disney Village next to the shops. More police were parading around on the other side and watching us all closely.
Near Annettes diner, we had to join a queue to get out of the park. This queue was long as bags had to be checked going through a security scanner and we had to go through metal detectors. There was only one metal detector and one scanner. So you can imagine the line. Everyone had to go out through here, staff, public, you name it, they went through this little scanner.
At around 1:30am I was finally out of Disney. I walked back to my hotel (Hi-Park).
It took around half hour/40 minutes as I had to walk the long way around as we weren’t allowed out of any other exit. It was a very lonely walk. Thankfully Mum was on the phone to me, talking me through how to get back to the hotel. One slightly cool thing was that I did get to see the army helicopters on the round about near Disney. They had come to secure the area too. There were two great big helicopters. Eventually, I got in to my hotel. I cried again out of sheer relief that I was back.
Throughout the whole time that I was there, the staff at Earl of Sandwich were amazing. They offered us free food and drinks and all in all were really great at keeping us all as calm as we could be. They were so very friendly and I am so grateful to them. All the authorities got there so quickly. It was incredible. Thank you to all of them for securing the park so quickly and getting us all out as quickly as possible.
I know it was a false alarm.
Yes, it was a false alarm. Yes, I probably am being very dramatic about all of this. But, you probably weren’t there. The panic on everyone’s faces was real. I will never fully be able to describe the emotions that happened. It was a lot. In fact, I’m still not over it. The amount of tears that I have shed over writing this post, the amount of time it has taken me, the many sentences that have been written, deleted, re-written again is insane.
Heading back to the parks the next day was incredibly difficult. I nearly gave up. The fear and anxiety was strong. I’m not an overly anxious person any more, but this broke me. However, I did head back to the parks. I did have an amazing couple of days, but boy was I grateful to go home and hug my Mum!
I’m actually heading back to the parks tomorrow!
My anxiety about heading back to Disney tomorrow is pretty high. I’m really excited about going, especially with my best friend! But, the anxiety about heading back is pretty intense. I’m going to try and push this anxiety away. It seems silly, especially as it was a false alarm. But the panic was real.
Please don’t get me wrong. I am super excited about heading back. Disneyland Paris is my favourite place on earth. Plus, it’s my best friends birthday and I can’t let her down, plus I’m staying in the Newport Bay, which is incredible and I could not miss out on that! I also need to see the Marvel Season of Superheros again, as it is SOOOOO good! Also, I don’t want to make Disneyland Paris a place that I am scared of going.
What’s happening now?
Sadly, nothing. I’m actually just going to be spending the next few months getting in as much over time at work as I can. This is so I can head to Disney again, and also save some money for a new car and other things that I may want. I mean, the real big thing (which is uni) won’t be starting until September. I am kind of waiting around for that to happen at the moment. It’s only a few more months, and I can’t wait!
I am planning to upload some more blog posts when I get back from Disney. There won’t be any whilst I am away (I’m only going for a night!) as I don’t have much time to write as I need to pack and do a couple of other jobs before I go away.
Sorry for the real ramble of this post. I’ve been wanting to write this for about a month, but its been hard. I know this post is long and the SEO is not going to be great, but I don’t care! I needed to get this off my chest, so here we go! Hope you enjoyed! LOL!
