Disneyland Paris

As if being Santa and one of his elves wasn’t enough to get us into the holiday spirit, we decided to continue our early celebration of Christmas by visiting Disneyland Paris this past weekend.  Disney definitely hooked us with their Enchanted Christmas TV advertisements.  Well played, Disney.  Well played.

After work on Friday, we took the Eurostar to France and checked into the Disneyland Hotel, just steps from the park’s entrance.  As we were only going to be in town for a couple of days, we wanted to make sure we didn’t need to worry about shuttles so we stayed close.  Disneyland Paris is much more compact than the other Disney properties, so we were able to walk from our hotel to the Magic Kingdom, Disney Studios, and the Village.

Our hotel / entrance to Disneyland Park

That evening we kept warm by buying some festive Mickey and Minnie ears at the Wonderful World of Disney.  Then we had a late dinner at Annette’s, an American 1950’s style diner where the waitresses serve up burgers, hot dogs, and milk shakes on their roller-skates.  David had the cheese dog and I had a hot fudge sundae.  I know that we’re going back to the states in three days for Thanksgiving and we can get all of that there, but we couldn’t resist.

Saturday morning we woke up early to take advantage of extended park hours for Disney hotel guests.  We had the Magic Kingdom to ourselves from 8-10, and rode Space Mountain four times before trying out Buzz Lightyear’s Lazer Blast, the Orbitron, and then moving into Fantasyland.  There, we rode Casey Jr. (or Carl’s Junior as David called him) through the fairy-tale countryside, spun around on the tea cups, and flew on Dumbo.  (We definitely felt a little awkward just the two of us on the kiddo rides, but it’s Disney – perfect for all ages.  Right, right??) 

So empty at 8:00 in the morning!

At 10:00 when the Studio opened, we rushed over and got in line for Tower of Terror.  After dropping into the Twilight Zone, we visited the Armageddon lot to take part in the special effects show.  David loves Armageddon and has probably seen the movie 100 times.  He was quoting all of the lines while in line waiting for the show to begin.

Everything was in French, with English sometimes thrown in.  Good thing David is more fluent than me!

David with the Armadillo

Later, we swam through the EAC with Crush, met Aerosmith on the Rockin’ Rollercoaster, and rode Andy’s favourite toy car, RC Racer, in Toy Story Playland.  

Then we headed back to the Magic Kingdom to tour Sleeping Beauty’s Castle, defeat the Death Star on Star Tours, discover ancient ruins on Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril, and meet some spooks at the Haunted Mansion.

And of course we rode Thunder Mountain, too!

And in between all of the rides, we found time to hang out with some old friends.

Pooh in his plaid holiday outfit

Our hotel hosts a character breakfast every morning, but we missed breakfast on Saturday because we were taking advantage of the park’s extended hours.  So on Sunday, we made time to eat with Geppetto and Pluto.

Disney is known for its wide variety of food options, so of course, we ate a lot.  We had lunch of soup and spaetzle on Saturday at King Ludwig’s Castle, and later that night, we had dinner at the California Grill overlooking Main Street USA.  On Sunday, we had lunch at the Blue Lagoon inside the Pirates of the Caribbean ride.  It turned out to be lunch with a show because the ride broke down shortly after we were seated.  After about 15 minutes, one of the pirate operators had to climb into the water and start pushing the boats along the broken track.  That ride has had a lot of bad luck lately.  Just a couple of weeks before our visit, a little boy fell into the water and had to be hospitalized when he was trapped by an oncoming boat.  This time, they ended up lowering a ramp into the water from the Blue Lagoon and the people on the boats had to disembark into the restaurant! 

Enjoying some creme brulee after the action was over.

We caught some real shows at the park as well.  There were a couple of parades, one featuring Santa and snow that I thought was real, until we headed to Frontierland and I realized it wasn’t snowing there…  tricky Santa!  The newest thing for winter is the Disney Dreams of Christmas water and light show at the castle.  It featured the characters and songs from Frozen, Disney’s newest animated film. 

David and I felt like little kids again running around Disneyland Paris.  Disney really is the happiest place on earth!  To see all of the pictures from our trip, click here.