Have you had a child who has been through, or is currently in, the ‘Elsa phase’? If so, all of this will sound familiar: the need for a ice-white blonde Elsa plait, the vital importance of wearing an Elsa dress pretty much at all times (even in bed), and the cloaks and blue gloves that will litter your home. Let It Go will ring in your ears for months, if not years. You’ll watch Frozen, then Frozen 2, then Frozen Fever, then Olaf’s Adventure, on repeat. Every shop you enter is a risk to your bank balance: there will be eyewateringly expensive Frozen magazines at every turn, or an Elsa waterbottle, or rucksack, or doll. We now have four in our house, one of whom is referred to as ‘old Elsa’ for her hair is beyond saving and her dress is like a dishcloth (I know how she feels).
My son first discovered Frozen just before his second birthday. It had snowed and we had gone outside to build a snowman. When we came in, my husband Ollie put the film on tentatively, hoping it might entertain him for a moment. He is one of the most energetic children on the planet, and had never watched a whole film before. Little did we know that this moment would change the course of all of our lives.
George didn’t just sit and watch Frozen once. It became a part of the fabric of our every day in some way, whether it was singing along to the songs on our Alexa speaker, watching it, printing out pictures of Elsa to put on the walls or dressing up as her. His little face would light up just at the mention of Let It Go, and he would perform the song with huge gusto despite not really being able to speak an awful lot. He would adorn himself with a cape made from a tea towel and a peg, flicking it to the ground at the precise moment it flies off during the song in the film.
There is something so special about Frozen that its particular alchemy has drawn in millions upon millions of children over the past 13 years. Everywhere you go, you see another family which is part of the club: a pair of Elsa wellies stomps by on a walk, or a blue sparkly dress peeks out under a coat on the swings next to you. It is officially one of Disney’s biggest hits: at the time of its release, the original Frozen, released in 2013, overtook Toy Story 3 to become the top-grossing animated movie of all time and still holds the number three spot to this day, just behind Frozen II, and The Lion King CGI remake which both came out in 2019. Frozen and Frozen II made a collective $2.7billion in the box office, and still regularly enter Disney+’s top ten movies. Most of those streams are probably from our household.
There's something so special about Frozen that its particular alchemy has drawn in millions upon millions of children over the past 13 years.
And so, when news of a World of Frozen at Disneyland Paris reached us, we knew we had to be there. The new development arrived as part of the massive transformation of Walt Disney Studios Park into Disney Adventure World, and it opened in March this year. Within Disney Adventure World, there is a recreation of the Kingdom of Arendelle, home to Elsa and Anna. There is a 118-foot North Mountain topped with Elsa’s sparkling ice palace, as well as a detailed Nordic fishing village, a pub, and fountain topped with an enormous, glistening snowflake. It is also home to a rather peppy animatronic Olaf, and, most importantly, Frozen Ever After, the boat ride.
Ironically, we arrived during one of the most spectacularly stifling heatwaves to ever hit the park. Temperatures were hovering around the 36 degree mark, something I had worried about prior to arrival. It wasn’t so much of an issue and I had made it, however, and though we were sweating and red-faced in our photos, it didn’t really affect our trip. We aimed to get into the park at 9am when it opened and was cooler (if you are staying in one of the on-site hotels you can use the Magic Hour, from 8am). We would do as much as we could in the first three or four hours of the day, and then take a big nap in our air conditioned hotel in the afternoon, before returning later for rides once the sun had become less fierce. One of the nighttime highlights was the drone and water show over Adventure Bay, the Disney Cascade of Lights. The other was the Champagne Pierre Mignon served in an official Frozen souvenir flute (I had to have four just to make a set to take home).
Having grown up with holidays to both Walt Disney World in Florida, and regular trips to Disneyland Paris, even attending the opening ceremony in 1992, introducing my children to the parks has been something I had always desperately wanted to do. The fact that George had fully immersed himself in not just Frozen, but Snow White, Tangled, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella and Moana for the two years prior to our trip made it feel all the more poignant. As we arrived at the Kingdom of Arendelle, Elsa and Anna were making their daily appearance on the lagoon (officially known as A Celebration in Arendelle), along with Olaf, and Let It Go was belting out across the water. The joy on George’s face as he spotted Elsa caused me to burst into immediate sobs which were so racking they came as something as a surprise. It was as if I were experiencing a present nostalgia for his childhood, while we were living it.
Riding Frozen Ever After? More tears, I am not ashamed to report - in fact, if you are as easily emotionally triggered as I clearly am, you will need to bring some tissues. On the ride, George had what appeared to be an out of body experience as he realised he was actually inside the film we had watched, by this point, approximately 867 times. He sang along, he waved at the - incredibly realistic - animatronic Elsa, Anna, Kristoff, Sven and Olaf, and oohed and aahed at the drops as our boat left the ice palace. He was left in a sort of stunned silence, the likes of which I wish we had bottled as we’ve never seen it before or after.
As a family, and as parents, we had lived and breathed Frozen for two years, and now we were part of something bigger: everyone around us had been doing the songs, the plaits, and the dresses too. Of course the gift shop caused some issues: could we really justify buying a crystal-embellished gold Elsa crown? We could not. Some postcards? More in our price range. We somehow managed to get out of there without affecting our credit score.
The good thing about the parks, both Adventure World and Disneyland Park, is there is always a distraction to try and move past any tantrum or upset. Having failed to move quickly enough to book the Elsa and Anna meet and greet, we moved from Arendelle to the Kingdom of Corona just around the lake, where the Tangled ride (a spinning tea cup affair) awaited. This was the particular favourite of my two-year-old, Gracie - and the breeze as we whizzed in circles was welcome to us all.
The Princess Calvalcade, one of the parades in Disneyland Park, provided a hysterical sort of release for George who saw every character he had obsessed over in the same float waving directly at him. He even got a fist bump from a roaming Kristoff, while his other hand waved a Mickey Mouse ice cream sandwich happily in the sky. It was as if he had found utopia: and there was an ice cream cart, a fairytale castle and Disney characters on roller skates in the same view.
After three days in the parks, it was time for us to leave. I worried that the experience may leave him with a bit of a princess comedown, but it did nothing but expand his imagination even more - and left us all with some of the happiest memories of our lives. I was sorely aware that once George started school this month, his Elsa obsession may start to wane. Disney Princesses may be deemed ‘too babyish’ once he approached five and discovered something new. If that’s the case, I’ll always be so glad we got to live his dream with him before his Elsa dolls start to gather dust. And Let It Go will probably always make me cry.
_Enjoy a February Half-Term family holiday, price example £138 per person, per night. Disney Hotel Cheyenne & Ticket package for 2 adults & 2 kids (4 nights/5 days). Selected arrivals. Price for this configuration subject to availability & may vary depending on time of booking. £2,202.52 package price. Conditions apply.
_
To book visit www.disneylandparis.com