The most important advice we can give.

Alright, to this point there has been a lot of do’s and don’t (or at least suggestions of those) for our time in the Parks. And, like we’ve been saying throughout, you will need to find what works for you. But, before we leave this circle, there is one more suggestion we have:

Have fun.

Which, ok, seems like the goal all along, I know. But sometimes with all of the challenges the world presents to those of us who are neurodivergent, we spend so much time planning, prepping, and worrying that we forget to have fun. Which… isn’t really the point, is it?

Its ok to be silly.

When we’re in the Parks (or on the bus or train to the Parks), and are walking around worrying about what we need to do next in order to have fun, don’t forget to have fun along the way.

One of the best memories I have of our time in the Parks comes from when one of the Expansion Packs (I honestly can’t remember which one) was having a harder time. Instead of it spiralling into a hard time for all of us, we made a choice to pivot, and did something completely different. For whatever reason, we decided that while we were walking to wherever it was we were going (and again, I have no memory of what it was or if it was fun), we decided we could only step on the red cobblestones.

This led to the three boys (again, no memory of where my wife was – though we clearly found her again later) taking crazy routes through the plazas and arcades. It probably took us five times as long to get to wherever we were going, but that stopped being the point long before. Instead, we were making huge leaps to try and reach the next red patch, and backtracking long distances whenever we reached a dead end. Though we did make sure that we were careful to avoid other guests when we were doing this.

The point of this was to just enjoy ourselves. And if hopping like madmen from red cobble to red cobble was how we ended up doing that, rather than going on an extra ride? Then it was time well spent. I encourage all of you to have the same sort of fun where you can.

Tell a story while you’re making memories.

One of the other mainstays of our family journeys is telling stories.

And I feel this one is particularly fitting when at Disneyland Paris, as Disney is all about telling stories. Do our stories always make sense? Nope. Do we always finish them? Nope? Do we sometimes spend so long setting up the background of the story that we forget what the story was supposed to be about? Yep. And that is ok. The fun is in the making of the stories and in the imagination we can share. Telling stories works well for us when one of us is nervous or when we are feeling anxious about getting somewhere on time. It both distracts us from what is bothering us and engages our brains in a way that the Parks, for all the fun things that are in them, don’t.

So, I encourage you to find what works for you. Don’t be afraid to experiment and to do things differently from what we may expect our time in the Parks to be. We are all different after all.