A Trip To Disneyland!
Our Health and Social Care group visited Disneyland, Paris to attend lectures and, while they were there, meet a few famous characters:
On the 27th to 29th of January, Students from Health and Social Care, Child Development and Children’s Care, Learning and Development got the chance to go to Disney Land Paris, as part of a study experience. The experience included three lectures which were held by study experience staff and cast members from the park and a two day pass to enable us full access to both parks.
We were picked up by coach from the school at 5:30am before making their way to the port of Dover. The ferry left port at 7:45am. While on the ferry we were able to look around the on board shops and brace the choppy sea air on the upper decks. The crossing took roughly 2 hours. Once Calais was reached, 5 hours of travel was required before reaching the Disney Resort. This gave us the chance to catch up on some much needed sleep. The coach reached the Cheyenne hotel in the late afternoon, allowing time to unpack and change before setting off on the Disney Resort bus to have the first look in the park before attending our first of three lectures. Running frantically we used the most of the half an hour we had on the first day to go on as many rides as possible!
The first lecture informed us about how the park catered for visitors who had disabilities. The lecture was given by a member of staff from the study experience team and the several cast members from the park. We were informed about how rides were made to enable disabled people to access them. We were also told about how the park deals with injuries. The lecture gave us a really insight into how the park worked and how it was able to cater for a variety of different clients.
The second lecture was held on our second day. This lecture was on malnutrition, and the effects it had not only on 3rd world countries but also the UK. We were given information on how the park was able to provide a wide range of food to enable that all needs were catered for. We were shown an example of menus where we could see that vegetarians were catered for as well as people with food intolerances. The lecture was held by a nutritionist. She also stressed the need of a healthy diet and showed us possible outcomes if this was not met.
The third lecture was held by a cast member. He was situated on one of the parks many customer services. He told us how they were spread among the park to offer help assistance when needed by park visitors. He explained that this was also something that enable tourist like ourselves to receive the most from the park.
Between the second and third lecture, an opportunity to visit the park was given. Carefully we made our way to the park entrance, trying not to show too much enthusiasm as after all we were adults now. This was going well until two familiar faces raced past. Double taking on these people we soon realised that it was our two teachers. Relieved that we weren’t the only ones excited about the time we got within the park we soon all broke out into a sprint pushing our way through the crowds till the entrance was in sight. Once the barriers were reached the race to the rides and characters was on. With our goals in sight we were able to make the most of our time within the park. Riding all the rides from it’s a small world to space mountain: mission two, meeting the characters from Mickey to Minnie, Donald to Daisy. The ups and the downs, the stress of restless nights and early mornings. The trip was a complete success, with every hope that one day we will be given the opportunity again.
On behalf of all the students that went, I would like to say a massive thank you to Miss David and Mrs Zarzycki. They put up with us when we were tried and cranky, when we wanted nothing less than to stay up all night and when we disappeared and came back with brand new sayings that we wouldn’t stop saying for hours!
