Bonne Annee! The New Year's Disney Dash

[Gr8WideSomewher]

Hi guys,

I wasn't going to write a trip report for our most recent trip to DLP because I was a bit unwell before we left and, what with it being Christmas etc. I didn’t really have time to think about it. I hadn’t brought a notebook with me or anything so I’d pretty much decided against it, but as we were sitting at CDG waiting for the Magical Express to take us to Disney Village Bex asked me if I was planning to write one. I said I wasn't, but she reminded me that it had been quite hard to find info about going to DLP at New Year’s and it might be useful if I could knock something together - so here we go.

I am relying only on the (admittedly Rainmanish ) memory of my older sister for this, so it may not be super accurate, and I probably don’t have all the wait times exact, but at least you’ll get the general gist. Also, since I wasn’t sure if I was writing the trippie or not I don’t have pictures of everything, sorry if this report seems a bit thin, but hopefully you’ll enjoy reading it anyway.

I won’t go on about the journey there and back - it was fairly standard. We flew from Birmingham, dropping the car in a really cheap little place called Airparks. The flight was delayed by about 2 hours (boo) but we made it in the end (yey!) and caught the Magical Express from CDG to Disney Village, as we were planning to have tea there before going back to our hotel.

I must say they need to do something to Disneyfy that Magical Express a bit. Just calling something ‘Magical Express’ doesn't make it in the least bit magical. Even the cartoon images they put up telling you to do up your seatbelts etc. don’t look Disney. Still, it had wi-fi.

We rocked up at Disney Village at about 20:00, very much ready for our tea. We’d had a biggish meal at Giraffe in Birmingham Airport, so we thought a sandwich at Earl of Sandwich would do nicely for tea. We wandered over, promising each other to look at this thing or that thing in shop windows after we’d had something to eat.

We both had the Earl’s meal, Becky her beloved tuna melt and me the Full Montagu, which is sliced beef and turkey and cheese and other good things. The meal comes with a drink and either crisps or a pudding-related thing. We both had crisps.

We both enjoyed our food very much, but agreed we’d keep an eye out for something puddingy as we hadn’t quite filled up all the corners.

We ventured out into the Village now, where it was really very cold, and looked in some shops. We were planning to come back in the morning on New Year’s Day to actually buy things, so this was a reconnaissance mission. Neither of us really had any money (we went to Iceland before Christmas and we’re saving for the big Florida trip in May as well, so we’re super broke), but I wanted a t-shirt and Bex was thinking of getting a hoodie or something like that.

We looked in Disney Fashion, where as usual I was in love with everything in the shop. In particular I saw a lovely bolero/cardigan thing with Tinkerbell on it which I was determined to have (definitely one for the credit card as it was 55 euros! ) and a really pretty lanyard.

We looked in the art shop and as usual just sighed over all the things we definitely couldn’t afford. I saw these really cool figures of characters holding masks that sort of revealed their secret identity, for example there was Maleficent holding a dragon mask and Adam holding a Beast mask. There was also some Star Wars art which we just freaked out over, it was sooooo beautiful. There was a big one of AT-ATs which Bex loved, and I just went crazy for some tie fighters. Ah well, when we win the lottery, eh?

We looked in the toy shops too and were impressed with the Moana merch - Moana is called Vaiana in French for some reason - which the kids seemed to be loving. We also saw lots of cuddlies of characters you don’t see very often, such as Tod from Fox and the Hound and Lumiere and Cogsworth from Beauty and the Beast, as well as the inevitable acre of Stitches. Still no Robin Hoods though. Robin Hood is one of my absolute fave Disney movies and I never see any merch from it. You never see any of the characters in the parks either, although when I was very little, on my first ever trip to DLP, I got a cuddle from Friar Tuck.

Just before heading back to the hotel (because it was really very cold and we were still carrying our heavy rucksacks) we stopped at one of the stalls of the miniature Christmas market. This one was selling things that were hot and sugary, so it seemed like just the job. We got three massive churros to share along with some Nutella to dip them in. They were nice, if not exactly churros, being a bit too big and doughy. Nonetheless I got covered in sugar and chocolate sauce, so I was happy.

We caught the train to Torcy, which takes about ten minutes. We were staying in the hotel we stayed in last time, which is about a minute away from the train station. It’s quite cheap and is very handy for the parks. Bex reckons that the beds are very hard, but she sleeps on three mattresses and eleven pillows at home, so judge for yourselves. The pillows at the hotel are certainly a bit thin, so you need something to prop yourself up - on the second night I put all my used clothes into my rucksack and used that. Obviously I didn’t do it on the first night because I was planning to wear all of the clothes.

Even though it was such a short plane journey, as usual we’d ended up spending pretty much the whole day travelling, so we were pretty tired and both fell asleep quickly.

I had a bit of a horrible night because I wasn't quite over being ill yet. I had a fever and sweated horribly in my blankets so eventually I got up to take a shower. I felt a bit better after that and eventually managed to get back to sleep. It was one of those things, though, where you lie awake thinking, ‘if I go to sleep in the next five minutes I’ll have had five hours sleep…if I go to sleep now it’ll be four and a half hours…’

The alarm (Hedwig’s Theme from Harry Potter) was very confusing when it eventually went off. I think I had only been asleep for a short time and was much more deeply asleep than I would normally be just before the alarm goes off. I kept thinking that someone was watching Harry Potter in the room next door and wondering why Becky didn’t tell them to shut up. My sleepy brain is even lazier than my waking one!

We both got up and dressed carefully. We knew it was going to be cold (we didn’t know how cold though!) and were well prepared, having only recently returned from Iceland. In fact we were a tiny bit smug thinking that the cold would be no problem for two such hardy ice-explorers as we. We were wrong about that.

Nonetheless we were as well prepared as we could be, both wearing thermal leggings and tops, jeans, jumpers and a big weatherproof jacket. My hair was just awful (probably because of tossing and turning all night) so I tried to plait the front of it to divert attention a bit. It didn’t work. That, along with the dry skin and big red nose that being ill had left me with, and the less than flattering clothing, meant that I was not looking my absolute best.

I told Becky off for looking so nice when I looked like what I was (a woman recovering from a very nasty cold) but she tossed her long blond hair and said it couldn’t be helped.

She didn’t really.

Outside in the freezing cold we were grateful for our warm coats. We walked quickly to the train station and bought one way tickets to Chessy. Bex had heard (I don’t know where, she just knows things) that train travel was free from midday up until midday the next day, so we didn’t need to buy return tickets.

Arriving at Chessy we both agreed that Disney could do with sprinkling a bit of pixie dust over that station. Even just a nice archway or something - it’s so depressing and grey at the moment. There was the usual mad rush, as if people thought that by pushing in to use the escalator rather than taking the stairs, they would somehow get into the parks more quickly, although it was still about 45 minutes before the main park opened.

We stopped at Relay, as we had last time, to buy some pastries for breakfast. We bought a croissant for Bex and a pain au chocolat for me, and we both got chocolate milks - these were yummy, I’ll definitely get them again. We were too excited to eat them straight away, so we packed them into our rucksacks and went to join the queue.

Talk about walking in a winter wonderland! Disney couldn’t have designed a prettier winter scene. Every leaf on every tree was outlined in silvery ice, and that included the topiary and a lot of the statues. We did wonder if maybe Disney had watered everything so that it would be all pretty and icy like this, but they hadn’t; as we found out the next day the ice was everywhere!



As we walked through to the queuing area we passed a British family; the girl pointed at the Disneyland Hotel as we approached and said, ‘that must be the castle!’ Oh hun, you have so many treats in store for you today!

Now we had heard before we went that both parks were going to be open for Early Magic Hours, so we had debated for a long time about which park to go to first, since we figured both would already be very busy. In the end the decision was made for us, however, since only Disneyland Park was open for Early Magic Hours and was also opening to everyone else an hour before the Studios - definitely worth double-checking the app to find out park opening hours!



So our plan was clear, go to Frontierland for when it opened (it doesn't open for Early Magic Hours) and go on Big Thunder Mountain before the crowds built up. We were incredibly excited about this since Big Thunder was still being renovated when we went over the summer, so we hadn’t been on it in three years! In my opinion this is the best ride in the world, but this probably has quite a lot to do with nostalgia.

When the turnstiles finally opened (after some very cheeky queuing from people who hadn’t bought their tickets in advance) we walked as fast as we could through to Frontierland. Of course Main Street looked gorgeous all decorated for Christmas, but we didn’t have time to stop and appreciate it just then. It was so misty that if you stood at the station end of Main Street the castle was only a vague outline.

When we entered Frontierland we saw that the queue for Big Thunder was snaking out of the queuing area, but we hoped this was because they had only just opened the queue and we joined it anyway. Sure enough, the queue was moving very fast up ahead, so we didn’t have long to wait at all. It was weird to be in the Old West when it was covered in ice and perishingly cold; not quite the atmosphere Disney are going for I think!




My big tip for riding Big Thunder is to try and join the left side queue where it splits. For some reason people seem to think this isn’t part of the queue, or they just come round the corner and join the right side without thinking, so this route is often quite a lot shorter. This was the case every time we rode Big Thunder today, and we rode it a lot!

The wait was very short, maybe five minutes (although the posted time was already 30 minutes) and we were soon on the wildest ride in the wilderness! My goodness I love this ride. Both Bex and I were just giggling like lunatics from beginning to end and I always came out with tears in my eyes (partly because of the cold). It just seems like the perfect combination of fun, a bit scary and creative. On the slow bits there’s things to look at (like the goat eating the laundry - which was covered in ice, poor thing) and the fast bits are totally thrilling, but you never feel unsafe or jerked around in an uncomfortable way.

At this point I will remind readers who did not read my previous trippie of my highly scientific ride rating system, which is as follows:

Level 1-This ride is bad, and that’s good. This ride will never be good and that’s not bad.

Level 2-Ohana means family, and family means everyone will have to go on this ride even though only the youngest will really enjoy it.

Level 3-Adventure is out there, and you will find it on this ride!

Level 4-That was totally AWESOME, dude!

Level 5-This ride scares because it cares.

Big Thunder is of course a level 4, which is my favourite rating for rides - put things like Forbidden Journey, The Mummy and Splash Mountain in this category.

After our first ride we ran round to go again, since we were pretty sure the queue wouldn’t have built up that much. The posted time still said 30 minutes, but we decided to chance it. We were right to do so since, if anything, the wait was even shorter this time. Before riding we quickly grabbed a couple of fastpasses for later that morning.

We took this opportunity to eat our delicious pastries, which of course were gone in about two bites. That’s the problem with croissants - at least half a tub of butter in each one, but they take about two minutes to eat.

The ride was wonderful again and our ride photo was a classic - Bex was pulling a brilliant face and I had my mouth wide open. We got to ride at the back! This was very exciting and we both thought it was our first time riding at the very back. Neither of us felt as if it went much faster at the back, though maybe a little bit on some of the bits where it picks up speed.

By this time the queue had properly started to build up so we decided to try out some other things. We walked round to Phantom Manor, passing by a Jack Skellington meet and greet on the way. For the first time I noticed that he’s half a face character, in that his mouth is visible at the bottom of the mask, so he can talk to people. There was goodish queue for him, and Bex commented that if she’d been little when the movie came out she would have found him quite frightening. She would have, she was a total wuss. And we had the usual debate about whether Nightmare Before Christmas is a Halloween or a Christmas movie.



The Phantom Manor looked wonderful, looming up out of the mist and extra-specially creepy with all the frosty trees and gargoyles. As usual it was a walk on and it was nice to get into some warmth. I think last time I put Phantom Manor at a Level 4, though I suppose you could argue it was a Level 5; it’s certainly creepier than Haunted Mansion, which is more about the laughs. They’re both fantastic of course.




I had a good bit of Cast Member interaction when walking into the lift. He was standing so still that I didn’t really register him and when I did realise he was there and turned to look at him, he was looking at me sideways with a creepy grin. He made me jump!

After this we weren’t really sure what we wanted to do, but felt we were done with Frontierland. We decided to walk through to Adventureland to go on Pirates of the Caribbean. On the way I glanced at the app and spotted that the wait for Indiana Jones et le Temple de Peril was only five minutes and tentatively asked Bex if she’d mind going on it. She’s not a fan of upside down rides, but she’s usually very nice about going on them with me, so long as they don’t have a long wait. She agreed to go on Indiana Jones, but did start to look a bit green about the gills when it became clear that the wait was going to be longer than five minutes.

In the end I think we waited between ten and fifteen minutes. The ride was really fun, but very very short. I think it used to do the route and then do it backwards, so it was twice as long, but these days it takes about two minutes to go round the whole thing. This is a level 5 because it goes upside down and is also fast and jerky.



Next it was on to Pirates, which as usual had a very short wait. It was nice and warm inside too. I do love this ride, I know it’s looking a little threadbare in places, but that’s part of its charm. I think it’s paced really well and tells the story effectively. I love the way you sort of hear and see things from far away at first (like shadows on the wall or people shouting in the distance) and then go into the centre of things. Level 4 for me!




Next we wandered through into Fantasyland. Of course we checked out the wait on Peter Pan, but it was forty minutes already, which is about as high as it gets. I’m not sure what the time was now, but the park was filling up fast. The crowds today were pretty big, but very manageable. If you kept an eye on the app and were fairly strategic you could avoid waiting too long for anything and waiting for shows never felt uncomfortably squashed.

We decided to ride Snow White (me having gotten over my fear of it over the summer, lol) and saw that it was a twenty minute wait. The wait seemed to go by pretty fast though and we were soon on.

The ride was fun as usual, though it’s another one that could do with some love. The animatronics are very jerky now. It does go at quite a pace through the story of Snow White though and, we noticed, focuses on its dark side a lot more than on the happy little forest creatures angle. Quite right too, lol. This is probably a level 2, edging on level 1 because of the bad animatronics.

We checked the app and saw that lots of the less interesting Fantasyland rides had very short waits. We decided on Dumbo, which was showing a five minute wait. Well, the wait was a lot longer than that. I think we probably waited nearly twenty minutes, since the ride takes such a long time to load, but it was fun to watch people going round as well as the elephants and storks all covered in frost.

We rode in a pink elephant.






Again, possibly a level 2, possible level 1, but it’s still definitely worth riding - it’s tradition yo!

Next we walked through the castle to catch the Castle Christmas Stage show, which the Disneyland app informs me is called Royal Christmas Wishes. It was a really lovely show, though the clapping was muted by the fact that everyone was wearing gloves - it was freezing at this point! Bex and I brought out the trusty hand warmers, which had served us so well in Iceland, to keep our fingers from going numb while we were taking pictures.



The show followed the story of a dude who had got a Christmas present for his lady of a globe with all the princes and princesses in it. They did the back and forth thing where one of them spoke English and the other one French, which I think works quite well. Well, it works for me because I can understand a bit of both! Anyway they made a Christmas wish and the princes and princesses all appeared in real life! They did some dancing and lip-synched along to the music, which I can’t remember very well, and we were reminded that anything is possible if you wish on a star etc. etc.





Shut up, I'm not welling up, you’re welling up.

[Gr8WideSomewher]

Continued...

Our Big Thunder Mountain fastpasses had now opened up so we skipped back to Frontierland. I told Bex I was going to really appreciate this ride on Big Thunder, in case it was our last of the day. She told me it definitely wouldn’t be. It was super fun as always and we rode at the front. Front and back on the same day, what were the chances?

We nipped back to Fantasyland with our first plan of the day. We’d been wandering fairly aimlessly up till now, just going on things that didn’t look like they had big waits, but now we had decided: we’d get a fastpass for Peter Pan for later in the day when we returned and then head to the Studios for lunch and more rides!

We picked up the fastpass and then headed out of Fantasyland. Quite by chance we saw people lining up by the paths and realised that the Christmas Parade must be on its way. Since the crowd was so small and we could stand right at the front we decided to stay and watch the parade. We both agreed that the floats were lovely, but the music was not as good as the music is for most Disney parades. There was a syrupy tune about ‘Toy land toy land, dear little girl and boy land’ (yuck) which contained the eminently creepy lyric ‘once you pass its borders you can never return again’. Eek.







We waved goodbye to Santa and then hurried to the exit to spend the afternoon in the Studios.



Confession time: I have almost no pictures from the Studios, sorry.



We decided to get lunch in Studio One, since we felt we were most likely to be able to find somewhere to sit in there. Things were pretty busy by this point, though not the shoulder to shoulder craziness we’d been told to expect. We joined a queue and were at the front in about five minutes - they had all the counters open which was good.

We both decided to have chicken nuggets, since we knew we’d be scoffing burgers later on, and got fries to go with it, since the chicken nuggets wasn't part of a meal. And we had two cokes. We found a table without too much bother, by hovering strategically with our loaded trays and smiling blandly at everybody who looked like they might be nearly finished eating. There was a woman stopping people entering the seating area if they didn’t have a tray, but she seemed to have managed to miss one or two, since the woman we eventually sat down next to was saving a table and had no food.

It was probably nearing 14:00 by this point, so once we sat down we both tucked in gratefully. The food was good, the nuggets especially - it’s years since I had chicken nuggets. I don’t have any pics I’m afraid but, you know, they were chicken nuggets.

After lunch we headed off to Crush. We’d known that it would be a trade-off between Crush and Big Thunder, and we were going to end up queuing for one or the other of them. Since we’d done Crush over the summer we felt it would be OK to ride it only once.

Sure enough, when we got there we saw that the standby queue was seventy minutes and the single rider queue was 60 minutes. We joined the standby queue.

This was the only very slightly unpleasant part of the day. We’re used to queuing for things (though actually it’s a while since we’ve had to queue that long) but this wait was not a fun one. We both got very very cold - I do think they could spring for a couple of outdoor heaters in the outdoor bit - and the wait was every bit as long as predicted, if not longer. We tried to get the Crush smartphone game which they have introduced to work on my phone but it wouldn’t connect to the wifi. We passed the time by reading the signs and, in my case, by being shoved by the small child behind me. Pushing isn’t going to get you to the front any faster, my dear!:angry:

By the time we got inside we were rather hoping the ride might go tech for a few minutes or something, so that we could spend longer indoors and get the feeling back into our fingers! It didn’t however and we were soon grabbing shell for a brilliant level 4 ride that defines awesomeness!

Just as we got onto the ride Bex said, ‘I don’t know whether I should take my hat off or not.’

I replied, ‘Well I kept mine on for Big Thunder and Indiana Jones, I’m sure it’ll be fine.’

Guess which one of us lost her hat as soon as we got into the dark bit? Yep, I am minus one grey woolly bobble hat. Shame. Still we take these risks when we dare to ride the EAC, am I right, dudes? Rock on!

We weren’t sure what to do next, since we were both pretty cold still. We had thought about going to see the Lights, Motor, Action Stunt Show, since we’d heard its days might be limited. We’ve seen it quite a lot of times before but it felt like we ought to, for old times’ sake. We decided just to be brave and go for it.

We had decent seats in the middle section. The show was good as usual, though I think we may have seen it a few too many times now, as the ‘wow’ has slightly gone. The performers did their best to get the crowd excited, but applause was muffled as everyone was wearing gloves, and I suspect there were others who, like me, didn’t want to cheer too loud for fear of aggravating our sore throats again.




I’m sure there used to be a bit at the end of this where a car jumped out of one of the first floor windows, right at the end of the show, but I certainly haven’t seen it in years. Maybe it’s just my imagination.

I also think the bit with Lightning McQueen and Mater feels a little forced and doesn't have a lot to do with the rest of the show.

This all sounds like I didn’t enjoy the show much, but that isn’t true. It’s a fun show and there’s no denying that the stunt people are amazing. And I love the bit where the guy goes on fire. I imagined him and his team having the following conversation (in French of course) before the show started:

Burning man: Come on, guys, just a couple more seconds.

Team: No, you lunatic, you’ll really go on fire.

Burning man: But it’s so cold out there, just let me burn for a few more seconds. It’s so nice and cosy being on fire.

Team: No! What about safety?

Burning man: Safety schmafety, it’s minus 4!

I definitely saw him staggering away from the people who came to put him out!

Catch me if you can, suckers!

Next up was Ratatouille, which we had learned on our last trip was very easy to single rider. This is on account of the ride vehicles being very big. I think the single rider queue this time said ten minutes, which seemed very reasonable to us, so we joined. I’m pretty sure we queued for longer than that (maybe twenty minutes) but it was all indoors so we definitely didn’t mind. In the end we were in two different rats, but of course that was fine.

Ratatouille is a great ride, and that whole area is a really good addition to the park, it looks beautiful. The ride is a solid level 3, with my only quibble being that it is a bit too smooth, so you don’t really feel ‘in danger’ at any point.

One of these days we’ll get to eat at Chez Remy, it looks fantastic! There was no question of that today though since, as with all of the other sit down restaurants, they had a special New Year’s Eve menu, which was ruinously expensive. We were saving our spends for lots of Disney merch that we really definitely needed and didn’t just want.

We wandered back out into the cold - it was getting dark now so was probably after 16:00. We walked through to Toy Story Land to see what the waits were like. The wait for RC Racer was about twenty-five minutes, which really isn’t bad at all. In fact the queues didn’t look long whenever I looked on the app all day, so if RC Racer was your thing, it would have been a good day to be there. I always find the queuing for that ride a little frustrating though, as it’s so slow to load and there’s not much to look at in the queue. Plus it’s a level 5, so not good for wussy riders like me and Bex.

We passed by RC Racer, but saw that the Parachute Drop single rider line was quite short. I think it was fifteen minutes.

We joined the queue and I would say we waited every minute of the fifteen and probably one or two more. It’s another which is really slow to load. It’s a good ride for getting views of the park (although I was facing very much in the wrong direction for that) and is a pretty fun one. Bex and I got on the same ride, but obviously we weren’t on the same bench.

I was riding with a guy and his little girl, who was having a blast. She was very little but seemed to have no fear. The guy kept saying, ‘Wave to mummy!’ and the little girl would wave to her mum, who was sat on the bench just along from us. Mummy never waved back because she was gripping the bar for dear life and looked like she might faint! Hee.

This ride is a tricky one, because I’d probably put it as a level 3, but it’s definitely a bit scarier than the average family ride, if you don’t like the uppy downy sensation. I’ve seen really young kids enjoying it, but also seen them hating it. If you think about it it’s actually quite similar to Tower of Terror (which I would call level 5), except that it’s not quite as high and is open on all sides - so is that more or less scary? Don’t know. You decide.

We had wanted to see Mickey and the Magician again but realised that if we tried to see it now we would miss our Peter Pan fastpasses. Also I think we were a bit put off by another half hour wait outside in the cold. So we decided to finish off our Studios visit with Cinemagique.

Bex is not a huge fan of Cinemagique, but I love it. It’s a real love letter to cinema and I think the mix of films they include is great. It’s also endlessly delightful because of the two lead characters - he is so sweet and she is so pretty, I don’t know I haven’t seen her in anything else, though he is a familiar face. Also Alan Cumming!

The guy who was doing the intro bit (he tells you to turn off your phones and then chases the guy around when he doesn’t turn his off) was a little lacklustre. He was definitely British and didn’t say ‘Cinemagique!’ with the Frenchness that the word requires. It was nice to see a Brit working in Disney though.

It was almost completely dark when we left the Studios. We both felt we’d done everything we wanted to do (probably because the only thing we really wanted to do was Crush, ) and so even though we hadn’t had a very long time we were happy to be heading back to the main park.






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Our first port of call was Peter Pan, where our fastpasses had opened up. When we approached the fastpass line we were surprised to see a very long queue. It turned out this was just a lot of people who’d gotten confused about where they were supposed to be queuing though and they all left. We were on straight away.

Peter Pan was nice as usual, there’s so much Disney magic in that bit when you’re flying over London and then through the stars over Neverland. The animatronics are a little more advanced than the Snow White ones and in general it’s just a lovely looking ride. I generously will put this at a level 3, since I think it’s not to be missed, whether you've got kids or not.

At this point it was after 19:00 and we were starving hungry. I may not have all of these times quite right, by the way, since, as I said, I didn’t take any notes. We knew we were going to try and have tea at Videopolis because we suspected that everywhere would be very full and they have the most seating. We had also seen on the programme that the Jingle Bell Boys were going to be playing at 20:00 and we thought it might be nice to watch them while we ate. We saw the Jingle Bell Boys a few years ago when we were in Disneyland just before Christmas. It’s a nice show. Probably not worth missing a ride for, but nice for a little sit down and some Xmas atmos.

I think somewhere around here we popped by Buzz Lightyear to see if they had any fastpasses left, but they didn’t. One of the few regrets of the day was that we didn’t get to ride it. We also briefly considered Space Mountain, but we didn’t want to queue before tea (as we were starving) and Becky thought that she wouldn’t want to ride after tea, with a massive burger and chips rolling around in her tummy.

As predicted, Videopolis was very very full. We got served very quickly but then had problems finding a table. Our strategic hovering eventually yielded a great spot on one of the balconies, however, with a good view of the stage. To be honest we didn’t really care at this point as we were starving hungry and the cold was really getting to us.

We both ordered Star Wars themed food (best kind), Bex the Jedi burger meal and me the Dark Vador (not sure why it was spelt this way) meal. They were essentially the same thing, but mine was on a black bun. The burger itself was really delicious and came with a spicy cheesy sauce that gave it a great flavour, though the chips were disappointing. They were lukewarm and definitely not as crisp as the ones we’d had earlier at Studio One. Yes, these were our second lot of chips of the day - judge if you like! The black burger bun didn’t taste any different than a regular bun I don’t think.

We also both got cokes and a Yoda cupcake with the meal. I absolutely loved the Yoda cupcake, though I think I was a bit tired to eat, since it didn’t go down quite as easily as it did when we had them over the summer.

We were eating quite slowly, hoping to kill a bit of time before the Jingle Bell Boys came on, but the time the show was supposed to start came and went and there was no sign of it. We sat for another half hour but couldn’t get warm - I don’t think the room was cold or anything, it was just the tiredness and being out in the cold all day getting to us. In the end we started getting our stuff together to leave.

A Scottish guy and his family came over and asked if we were leaving and we said we were. We had a conversation about how frustrating it was that the show hadn’t come on, since the guy and his family had come in specifically to watch it. They had sat for a long time in the auditorium seats and were now having real difficulty finding a table to eat at. The guy said that he’d asked a CM and been told that there was no show that day; when he showed the CM the programme that said quite clearly that there was, the CM had just shrugged. Someone clearly forgot to tell the Jingle Bell Boys they were playing that day!

Next we went back over to Frontierland, having checked the app and noticed that Phantom Manor had a short wait time, as usual. We rode again, and enjoyed how wonderfully creepy the house now was after dark.

We’d been periodically checking Big Thunder and for a while it had been showing as ‘Temporarily disrupted’ on the app, so we suspected it had gone tech. Now I checked and it was open again so we rushed over. We got very lucky at this point because, although the posted wait time was something like twenty minutes, we probably queued for less than five.

Of course we knew that other people would soon be noticing that the ride had reopened so, after riding, we ran round to the front again, hoping that the queue wouldn’t have built up too much. Once again the posted time was much longer than the actual wait (though I think we skipped quite a bit of queue by taking the left route rather than the right) and we were on again in about ten minutes.

At this point I wanted to move on and do something else because I suspected that the queue would have built up properly by this time, but Bex wanted to try our luck one more time. Come on, it’s Big Thunder!

So we rode one more time. This time the posted queue time was correct and we waited about forty minutes. Still, it’s such a fantastic ride that we didn’t mind. Bex apologised for us being third time unlucky, but I actually didn’t mind that much. It was our second longest wait of the day, but totally worth it.

We had decided while waiting for Big Thunder that we would spend the next hour or so going on some of the Fantasyland rides, since Fantasyland would be closing at 22:00 to prepare for Dreams and this would be our last chance.

We started with It’s a Small World, which, let’s face it, is pretty awful, but it’s nice and cosy in there and it’s a longish ride. I’d say level 1, but a sentimental person would probably say level 2.

We spent the ride trying to find creepy It’s a Small World doll versions of political figures - we definitely spotted Trump and there was a possible Angela Merkel. We also pondered the usual questions which the ride evokes, such as ‘Who has the worst job, the skating girl who just goes round and round in a circle (she must be so dizzy at the end of the day), or the can can dancers who must have thighs like steel?’ or ‘Do they ever wonder why, with so many different nationalities and outfits and professions, they all have the exact same face?’

Next up was the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party because it had zero queue. It looked very pretty with all the lanterns lit and we were on as soon as the ride before us was finished. The Teacups is probably a safe level 2 ride.

We suspected that we wouldn’t be able to manage much in the way of spinning with our gloved and numb fingers. At first this seemed to be very true as we were only spinning very slowly, until Bex realised that we had been trying to spin the thing in the wrong direction, by which time the ride was pretty much over. Doh!

Then it was time for our final go on Pirates. I can’t really remember much about this one except that when we on our way there I said to Becky that maybe we should camp out in the Pirates of the Caribbean queue for ten minutes or so (even though the wait was only five) since it was so nice and warm in there. Bex scoffed at me to suggest no one would stoop so low as to do this, but when we got there we found people doing exactly that. Honestly, people have no shame (tee hee ).

Midnight was fast approaching now and we had about half an hour to do some shopping before Dreams (and 2017) got started. I’d spotted a t-shirt I wanted earlier at the Trading Outpost opposite Big Thunder so we went back there to pick it up. Bex was also on the lookout for a Big Thunder Mountain themed t-shirt, but they didn’t have any, which is a real shame I think.

The t-shirt I wanted was Phantom Manor themed - it has grim grinning ghosts on it and glows in the dark!

I couldn’t find the t-shirt at first, because it had been outside the store during the day, but the outside display had been taken in and I couldn’t find the t-shirt anywhere in the shop. I went to ask about it at the checkout counter and the woman asked me to describe it - at which point I realised I couldn’t really remember it. I don’t have a very visual memory. I said it had ghosts on it, or maybe it was skeletons. And it was grey. Or maybe white?

Anyway we got it sorted out in the end and I bought it, I think with my debit card.

There were barely ten minutes to go when we joined the massive crowd in front of the castle, ready for Dreams. We’d left it very late so of course the position we got was no good at all. I was blocked by a tall man and woman in front of me (I’m 5’7ish so they really were quite tall) and also by a tree. I didn’t really mind though as I’ve seen Dreams before. This was the Christmas version of Dreams, which I’ve also seen before, and which I think isn’t as good as regular Dreams anyway.





The crowd at this point really was big, though still not unmanageably huge I would say. The response to reaching the end of the countdown and welcoming in 2017 was somewhat muted, but that may have been down to tiredness and the cold, or maybe it’s just not a big shouty cheery moment in France? There was a British woman nearby us who was shouting about how everyone was boring and we weren’t appreciating New Year’s properly. There were also a few Brits later on making a bit of a show of themselves. I always want to put my head down and pretend not to be British when this happens. We Brits have a bit of a reputation in Europe and I always feel like I have to make up for it by being super polite and trying not to draw attention to myself.

Anyway, I was very happy that it was 2017 at last. 2016 had been an odd year and not a great one in some respects, so being in Disneyland with my bestest big sis at the end of a completely fantastic day felt just about perfect.

The only thing that could have made it any better occurred shortly after Dreams had ended. Bex and I were just too dead on our feet to stay for any more rides (the park was open for another hour) so we made our way back to the entrance with the rest of the massive crowd. Before we’d gone a few steps however, what should begin to play but our favourite parade tune ever! It’s called ‘Dancin’ a catchy rhythm’ and is Disney as hell. We hadn’t heard it in the park for years so it was such a lovely surprise when it came on. It used to be the theme song for the midday ‘Wonderful World of Disney Parade’. It probably would be a little cheesy in another situation, but it fits in perfectly at Disney. We’ve been hearing it for years (I can’t even remember when we first heard it) and know all the words, so when it came on we had a bit of a bop and a singalong.

We wanted to Whatsapp Jeannie (our younger sis) at this point so she could see where we were and, more importantly, hear what was playing! Unfortunately I didn’t get the record button to work in time, so we settled for taking a selfie with the castle and telling Jeannie that we’d just heard Dancin’ a Catchy Rhythm!



This led to us receiving a string of audio messages from Jeannie in London (a little the worse for wear, it was Hogmanay after all!) singing the song to us and failing to remember the words. It was very sweet.

We walked through the shops back to the exit, as this usually helps you to get slightly ahead of the Main Street crowds. We were coming back the next day to do some shopping in Disney Village before our flight, so we went straight to the train station. We were waiting for a train for maybe fifteen minutes, but managed to sit down on the train itself. On the journey back to Torcy we enjoyed watching a tired, but very happy family, since we were a bit too tired to actually talk to each other. The dad was just so attentive to his kids and Becky heard him telling them all the hopes that he had for them for the new year, like ‘you will have good health and your wishes will come true’. So sweet! We made sure to give up our seats to the two beautifully behaved children when we got off the train.

We must have been back around 01:00. We both showered (for warmth) and then Bex stayed up for a bit while I went straight to sleep. I had a much better night than the previous one, which was lucky because we had to be up earlyish again, at 08:00.

What a day!

The next morning we woke up and headed out to Disney Village for breakfast. The train travel was still free so that was a bonus. It was a bit weird joining the crowds who were all heading for the parks - they were all dead set on getting in as soon as possible and we were (for once) in no hurry.

We were a little dismayed, as we walked through the Village, however, to see that none of the shops were open! Oh no, we wouldn’t be able to do our shopping! We had to catch the Magical Express back to CDG at 11:00 and though some of the shops said they were opening at 10:00 many of them didn’t look like they’d be opening at all.

There was nothing for it but to go for breakfast and then see what was open. We had a 20% off voucher for Earl of Sandwich (which came with our tickets) that we hadn’t been able to use the other night because of buying the Earl’s meal, which is already an offer. So we used the voucher to buy two breakfast sandwiches, two coffees and two fruit juices. The sandwiches were really good, though not as good as the lunch/dinner menu sandwiches. The bacon was great, but the egg was a little tasteless. Nonetheless it hit the spot and we were soon ready for some shopping!

Luckily there were quite a few shops open when we emerged from Earl of Sandwich. We went to Disney Fashion first and I made a beeline for the bolero I’d fallen in love with. I think I was the first person in the store to make a purchase that day. I bought it on debit card and it was 55 euros. Bex disappeared for a bit but didn’t find anything she really wanted.

Next we went to World of Disney because Bex had spotted some lanyards that she liked in there the other evening. She picked out a Phantom Manor themed one, which is really cool, and bought a pouch for it too. The lanyard was about 13 euros and the pouch was about 5. I really liked the pouches and wanted to get one with the last of my euros. I hadn’t saved quite enough cash though, because there was a lanyard that I wanted too (flowery with Tinkerbell, I’m such a girl! ), which was 10 euros, which was all I had left. I went through all my coins and in the end I realised I was only 70 cents short, so Bex gave me the 70 cents. Then I went back to Disney Fashion to buy the Tinkerbell lanyard. The lanyards will be very useful for our Florida trip in May - admittedly we’ll probably mostly be using them in Universal so they won't be quite right, but they were just so pretty!

Bex was a bit sad that she would now not have enough money to buy herself a drink in the airport, but we both thought we’d used up pretty much all of our money. I think Bex had 1 euro left. Anyway, it later transpired that I had made a mistake and I did still have 1 euro (in a separate bit of my purse) so Bex would have been able to get herself a drink, if I’d found it. Oops. She has since of course been teasing me about this mercilessly.

We caught the Magical Express without any difficulty - we’d never caught it from Chessy station before and were a bit nervous that we wouldn’t know which bay it went from, but it was fine. The journey took a long time (a good hour) because of going round all the Disney hotels first. They all looked gorgeous all decorated for Christmas. We’ve only ever stayed at Sequoia Lodge and Santa Fe as adults and Davy Crockett when we were very little. I think Newport Bay looks really beautiful.

CDG was busy and disorganised as usual. The wait to get through passport control was insane with people trying to join the queue from about twelve different directions, sigh. That airport is definitely better than it used to be, but it’s going to need to work a bit harder to lose my designation as the worst airport in the world.

The flight home was fine. It was about twenty minutes late leaving but we made the time back and arrived pretty much on time. We then collected the car and headed home. We listened to the Moana soundtrack on the way home to make ourselves feel a bit better about leaving Disneyland, but actually we both just felt very contented. What with our Iceland trip before Christmas, a stay in a yurt with our folks after Christmas and now this New Year’s trip to Disneyland we felt like we’d really made the most of our holidays. We were exhausted, yes, and we were both still a bit unwell, but we’d had the most amazing time.

Thanks for reading!

Live Disney, love Disney

Rosie and Becky

[parisdisneyfan]

Wow what a great report about a whistle stop visit! You really made the most of your time there.

We were there before Christmas and had a great time, it was cold but not as bad as for you, we didn't have ice! I wouldn't worry too much about eating at Chez Remy though. The theming is great but food not so.

Glad you had such a lovely start to the year, thank you for sharing.

[Gr8WideSomewher]

Originally Posted by parisdisneyfan

Wow what a great report about a whistle stop visit! You really made the most of your time there.

We were there before Christmas and had a great time, it was cold but not as bad as for you, we didn't have ice! I wouldn't worry too much about eating at Chez Remy though. The theming is great but food not so.

Glad you had such a lovely start to the year, thank you for sharing.

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Aw thanks! Yeah I think we did pretty well

We went just before Christmas one year and I think it was my favourite visit ever - no one does atmosphere like Disney!

That's a shame about the food at Chez Remy, you'd have thought they 'd get it right, what with it being France!

Thanks for reading

[Hollytigs]

Great report. Your pictures made me feel very cold though! We're off in a couple of weeks and I'm hoping it won't be in the minus figures!

[Gr8WideSomewher]

Originally Posted by Hollytigs

Great report. Your pictures made me feel very cold though! We're off in a couple of weeks and I'm hoping it won't be in the minus figures!

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Wow look at that countdown, less than two weeks to go! So jelly

Ha ha, I'm sure you'll be fine. Wrap up warm and treat yourself to lots of hot chocolates. Have an amazing time!