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Old 29 Dec 18, 10:29 PM  
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DevonPumpkin
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Finally going back...19 years later! Day 2 - A Very Christmassy Day

Trip report index here!

The alarm went off bright and early at 6am, there's no such thing as a lie in at Disney! After our very late night and how comfy the beds at Newport Bay were it was a struggle to get up, but we managed it and headed down to breakfast at 7:15. We weren't completely sure where to go but found our way and ended up in the Yacht Club restaurant instead of the larger Cape Cod, and at this time I've morning it was super quiet. We were given a window seat looking out over the lake, although we didn't have much of a view when we arrived as it was still pitch black outside!

The choices for breakfast were great and once again I was glad that we'd bought the meal plan and would get a nice hotel breakfast every morning.I had a hot chocolate with my breakfast which was so good. Why is hot chocolate always so much better in France? I stuck mainly with the savoury choices that morning, and especially loved the cheese with the black rind. I've been looking for it in supermarkets since I got home but no luck so far!




The restaurant was starting to get busy at this point and when we left there was a queue to get in, so I think we picked a good time to have breakfast! We went back to the room to get get out bags and coats and ears and it was time to go to the park just before 9am. After the drama of the night before there was no way we were attempting the shuttle bus so we followed the crowds and walked along the lake to the park, stopping for a few photos on the way. It was cloudy but we could see the sun was trying to break through, and no rain this morning!





Even with our photo stops, Mum's bad knee and going through security, it only took us 7 minutes to get from the hotel to Disney Village. We decided to start the day in Disneyland Park again, but planned to go to Studios later on that day.

There wasn't any queues to get in to the park and we saw that Marie was out who I was very excited to meet. This was our first character meet and we weren't sure how to use Mum's green pass so we joined the main queue. We waited about 40 minutes but Marie was spending a really good amount of time with everyone so we knew we'd get a good meet at the end of it. When we got to the front of the queue we saw where the disabled queue was signposted but we didn't mind too much as the sun had come out by now and it was turning into a nice day.

Finally it was our turn so I gave the character attendant my phone to take pictures on. Marie was amazing, she played with my ears (Minnie ears, not my actual ears!) gave me kisses on my hands and was showing off her bows. It was so cute. The character attendant took so many photos on my phone (24 in total from this meet) which we found with all our character meets during the trip, and we didn't really miss not having a photo pass.





Mum wanted to have a look in the shop just behind Marie's meeting area which I think was called the Emporium because she wanted to get the black sequin Minnie ears. We also ended up doing some Christmas shopping in here and Mum bought me the Christopher Robin Winnie the Pooh soft toy which was 40 euros down to 16! I got mum a Lady and the Tramp with spaghetti soft toy for 29.99. We had our shopping sent back the hotel apart from Mum's new ears which she put on straight away.

By now it was 10:30 and the sun was completely out so we stopped to get some more photos of the castle.





My Hannah Marie Magic ears


As we were by the castle we decided to go and see the dragon. I don't know if this was here on our first trip but if it was we never saw it, and we were really impressed at how realistic it was.



By this time we were ready to do some rides so we made our way over to Small World. The disabled entrance was really hard to find and we accidentally went to the disabled queue for the Princess Pavilion first. We found the right way in the end and were given a seat at the front of the boat.





Small World was a nice bit of nostalgia and I like the Christmas overlay. I don't find it that annoying but Mum is less keen

It was almost time for the Christmas parade and we found a spot right at the rope near the gates where it comes out. There was a couple issues with the music and right after the parade started the speakers cut out all together. The dancers did really well to carry on like nothing had happened and the music came back on fairly quickly. I don't have any photos of the parade from this time round because I was filming it instead.

When the parade finished we followed it all the way to Discoveryland. The song is so catchy and everyone was dancing along behind the floats, it was one of those really magical Disney moments!

Caramel the cupcake girl was out when we got to Discoveryland and she had no one waiting to see her so I went to get a picture and a badge. She was really nice and the costume was amazing!



Finally it was time to brave Hyperspace Mountain! Me and Mum had never ridden this before because I was too short to go on during our first trip in 1999. I had to get a picture with the height limit sign, which did get me a bit of a funny look from the cast member



Hyperspace Mountain was so worth the 19 year wait and I screamed the whole way round, but loved it! Even Mum really liked it which I wasn't sure if she would. We'd gotten on the ride so quickly that we barely got time to take our ears off, so I was hanging on to all my things for dear life on the way round

Next we went on Star Tours. This is a really great idea for a ride and something a bit different to everything else in Disneyland Paris, but I felt very sea sick after so don't think I'll be going on again! We had a little sit down outside Cafe Hyperion to let the nausea pass and work out a plan for the rest of the day. It was about half an hour until the first Merry Stitchmas show of the day so we made our way back to the castle.

The area was still roped off for the parade so we went into the glass blowing shop inside the castle where we watched a cast member making the glass stoppers for the wands. We were a bit hypnotised by this so by the time we went back to the castle stage we didn't get the best spot and were further off to the side than we would have liked, but we could see fine!

Merry Stitchmas was amazing and really Christmassy! It was great to see so many characters in one place and Stitch is mine and Mum's favourite so we loved being able to see him in person Again I don't really have any photos of this because I was mainly filming it!

Breakfast was a pretty distant memory at this point so we decided to leave the park and go to Earl of Sandwich in the Disney Village for lunch. We both got a meal deal - Mum had the Hawaiian BBQ and I had the Frenchy and we shared some wedges.

After lunch it was time to finally go to the Studios park for the first time ever! It hadn't even been built on our last trip so this was totally new for both of us. I loved the Fantasia statue by the entrance so we stopped for a few photos.




There wasn't long until the last Mickey's Christmas Big Band show of the day so we decided to queue straight away. We were probably waiting about half an hour and the sun from early had disappeared and been replaced with drizzle again, but the queue was under cover so it didn't matter, although we did get quite cold! If you're wondering it was about 6 degrees that day.

When we were let into the theatre it was a bit of a mad dash for seats, but we showed a cast member Mum's green pass and were shown into a reserved area and couldn't have had better seats. We were directly in the middle, and raised up with no one in the seats in front of us.



I'd been really looking forward to the show anyway but it was even better than I expected and was really one of the highlights of my trip. It felt like a West End show with the quality of the costumes and dancing, as well as the excellent singers and orchestra. I shed a few tears during Mickey and Minnie's slow dance




It was almost dark when we left so we decided to have a look around the park and went over to Toy Story Land. RC racer was running and the screams coming from it were insane! We didn't brave it this time and went on Slinky Dog instead. There was a tiny little boy riding completely on his own in the front and absolutely loving it! I don't think he was much older than 5. Me and Mum kept sliding into each other and couldn't stop laughing. It was surprisingly fun for a "kids" ride!



We then went to the Ratatouille area of the park which was looking so pretty in the dark with all the Christmas decorations. We decided not to go on the Ratatouille ride yet because we wanted to save it for the next day, when we had reservations for Bistrot Chez Remy. Instead we went into the shop and I bought the giant black Ratatouille mug and also a metal wall plaque for Mum who collects them and has a display on her kitchen wall.

There wasn't long left until Goofy's Incredible Christmas so we went to find a place, and eventually settled on a spot right at the back where it was less crowded and we could get a good view of all of Tower of Terror.



The show was really good and very Christmassy! The projections are so clever and you completely forget you're looking at Tower of Terror. We left the park and went into a shop that's in between Studio 1 and the gates, but I can't remember what it's called. It was a good shop though and we found quite a few things we hadn't seen anywhere else. I bought a Christmas Stitch and a Christmas Mickey and Minnie pin.

We stopped in Disney Fashion in the village on the way back to the hotel. They had some really lovely things but everything was so expensive so we didn't buy anything.

There was no way we were going to try the shuttle bus again so we walked back to Newport Bay and it was really easy. There was a bit of time to relax before we had to go back out again for our dinner reservation so we got changed and caught up with people back home. Our dinner reservation was at Hunter's Grill in Sequoia Lodge so it was an easy walk over, but absolutely torrential rain so we got totally soaked!

Hunter's Grill was busy but because we had a reservation we were seated very quickly and had our drinks order taken. There was lots of choice of food and fresh stuff being brought out all the time. We were really impressed. I started with a plate of the salad bits and even tried smoked salmon for the first time! The potato salad was especially nice.



Next we tried the main courses and I had the turkey stuffed with Mushrooms, vegetable lasagne, roast potatoes and a mushroom filled pasta. The vegetable lasagne was amazing and I could have had a plate of just that to be honest



There was a raclette station which from what I can gather is only there during the winter season so that's what I decided to get next on a baked potato. We were sat quite near it and the chef kept trying to get Mum to come up and get some as well and they had a bit of a joke back and forth but she decided against it in the end, but then felt bad and had to sneak past him on the way out



We didn't get any desserts because we were quite full and most of the choices had run low so there wasn't much there.

Sequioa Lodge was where we stayed on our first trip and we had initially planned to stay there again this time, but were worried it might bring back too many memories. When we were there it actually didn't feel that familiar, perhaps because it has been refurbished quite drastically since we stayed there.We stopped in the shop on the way out because I wanted the hotel pin, but it was sold out and the cast member said they wouldn't be getting anymore until December at least.

We went back to Newport Bay and picked up our shopping in the Bay Boutique before going back to the room and having a shower. We got a slightly earlier night and went to bed about 11:30pm.

Overall it was a great first full day in the parks and we loved all the Christmas offerings! I see a lot of people on the Dibb say 3 days is enough for a Disneyland Paris trip but I don't think this applies during the Christmas season! There's so much extra stuff going on we found it hard to fit everything in even though we had five days in the park.


All the items I bought that day



Just a few steps
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Old 30 Dec 18, 12:49 AM  
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DizzyDisneyMum
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Wow, what a lot of walking! Sounds like a great day. X
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Old 30 Dec 18, 02:03 AM  
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Animagus
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How cute is that Lady and the Tramp plush? It’s adorable.
I really hope Marie is there next spring when we go, my dad loves her. It’s goid to hear the CMs are happy to take photos on phones; we aren’t planning on buying a photo pass for DLP.
Hunters Grill food looks yummy. We don’t have a meal plan but I might make a reservation there.
Another busy day - you really made the most of your time there. I’m enjoying your trippie
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Old 30 Dec 18, 12:22 PM  
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HappyPanda
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Originally Posted by DevonPumpkin View Post
I see a lot of people on the Dibb say 3 days is enough for a Disneyland Paris trip but I don't think this applies during the Christmas season! There's so much extra stuff going on we found it hard to fit everything in even though we had five days in the park.
I completely agree, we were there for 5 days too and didn't see everything we wanted to!
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Old 30 Dec 18, 01:01 PM  
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DevonPumpkin
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Originally Posted by DizzyDisneyMum View Post
Wow, what a lot of walking! Sounds like a great day. X
We did even more steps on the Wednesday!

Originally Posted by Animagus View Post
How cute is that Lady and the Tramp plush? It’s adorable.
I really hope Marie is there next spring when we go, my dad loves her. It’s goid to hear the CMs are happy to take photos on phones; we aren’t planning on buying a photo pass for DLP.
Hunters Grill food looks yummy. We don’t have a meal plan but I might make a reservation there.
Another busy day - you really made the most of your time there. I’m enjoying your trippie
It's so cute and really soft! Mum was very excited when she got it back on Christmas Day last week.
All the meets we did we got lots of photos from, the only time we missed the photopass was for the ride photos, but you can take pictures of the screens for most of them which is what we did.
We were really happy with Hunter's Grill. Buffets can be hit or miss but all the food was hot and fresh tasting, and the raclette station was a nice surprise!

Originally Posted by HappyPanda View Post
I completely agree, we were there for 5 days too and didn't see everything we wanted to!
There was lots more we would have liked to have done but just couldn't squeeze it in, and that was with Mum's green pass meaning we didn't queue for rides! I guess on our next trip we would have a better idea of what we could skip but because it was our first trip for such a long time we just wanted to do everything
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Old 21 Jan 19, 11:22 PM  
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kadypants
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It sounds wonderful! I would love to go when it's all Christmassy.

I love love love your Christmassy ears. They're gorgeous!
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Old 22 Jan 19, 06:40 PM  
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DevonPumpkin
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Originally Posted by kadypants View Post
It sounds wonderful! I would love to go when it's all Christmassy.

I love love love your Christmassy ears. They're gorgeous!
Thank you, they were so comfy too! I got them off Hannah Marie Magic, she does some lovely ears

I did have one woman point at them and say something to her friend in French, hopefully she was saying something nice!
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