Instead of my usual in-depth report I'm going to just sum up certain aspects of my trip with Patrick and throw loads of photos at you. I hope you enjoy.
Travel
We travelled by Eurostar which cost us quite a bit but it was a very last minute trip. The journey was quite pleasant and on the way back we were in Standard Premier (ooo, very posh) which was nice. We got served some food which was nice, even if I wasn't that keen on most of it (I ate it all anyway). The cake was uber nom though.
Hotel
We stayed at the Residhome Val d'Europe. We've stayed here before, in fact it was on our previous trip (Halloween 2012) that we first stayed here. It's a really nice spacious room and is quite cheap for a 4* hotel that's a 40 min walk/5 min train journey from the parks. It is definitely high on my 'hotels near DLP that I recommend' list.
Christmas in the parks
This was my first visit to any Disney park during their Christmas celebrations. Paris has just started their decorations from scratch though so although what they had was nice it felt quite minimal and not really spread across the whole parks very well. This is something that they will grow on quite a bit over the next few years though.
Main Street USA was nicely decorated with lots of festive items hanging everywhere. Inside the Emporium shop dome they had really gone to town with the decorations, was pretty spectacular.
I'm sure there's a funny joke in there somewhere
The tree
The Christmas tree was new for this year and it was humongous. The lighting ceremony (which is twice a night) was actually pretty fun and the lighting was extremely well timed with the music. There's also snow machines to make it snow on Main Street which also happens throughout the day.
Central Plaza
Up on the grass areas of Central Plaza they had snowman versions of Mickey and friends.
Santa's village
Santa had set up shop in the old ranch area. It was all nicely done up but the long waits put us off investigating further than the gates lol.
Sandy claws
For the first time ever in a Disney park Jack Skellington had donned his Sandy Claws outfit. It was a little terrifying but also cool. They had added lots of new props to his photo location outside Phantom Manor too which was really cool.
Jack showing me the lovely gingerbread decoration him and Sally had made
Christmas carollers
We happened to stumble upon several performances by several British choir groups over the weekend. They were absolutely amazing and really added a festive feel to the event.
It's a Small World Celebration
Every year they transform it's a small world to show off how the different nationalities around the world celebrate during the Winter season. They do change a lot and they change the music to an unusual mix with Jingle bells. It's all so festive.
Changes to Magic on Parade
Not only have they added some seasonal peeps and Santa on his sleigh to the beginning of the park's parade they have also taken away Ariel and added the two characters from Frozen (didn't get a pic of, man with silly hat </3). Pretty bold seeing as no one knows who they are yet.
Hats
It was bloomin' freezing so we both invested in some hats which caused some proper hat hair issues. Patrick went for a Christmas Mickey ear hat as modelled here in the Nautilus corridor.
I went for a boring black Disneyland Paris hat. It kept me warm so all was good.
I also went for some Light Ears which went on sale earlier on in the year. We don't think they were programmed with the new version of Dreams very well but it was fun wearing them and seeing the little kids mesmerized by them.
Ratatouille
Yep, it's well under construction with an opening slated for next June/July. I'm so excited for this, trackless dark ride in Paris <3 The exteriors are also starting to look beautiful.
Food
Food tends to be heavily criticised at Paris and I never agree or disagree, I find the quality and experience varies every time. However on this trip food was overall pretty good. Earl of Sandwich is still amazing and the buffet restaurant in the Cheyenne hotel is still awesome (with a fantastic variety to choose from). We also ate at the Lucky Nugget due to it's fantastic atmosphere. We had timed it pretty well so we got to eat our food while the band were playing.
The Lucky Nugget is definitely my favourite fast food restaurant in the resort. Tasty food, lovely interior and live music. We also tried out the Christmas menu at the Pinnochio themed restaurant in Fantasyland. It consisted of a Christmas burger, waffle fries and a Christmas tree cake.
We also had to make sure we visited our overall favourite restaurant in the resort, Walts. Hidden above some of the shops on Main Street most people don't even know it exists. Yet this very expensive restaurant with each room themed to a land in the park (full of concept art etc) is genuienly the most lovely place to go. We spent around 2 hours just sitting, relaxing, eating fantastic food and enjoying the atmosphere of the Frontierland room. Also due to our annual passes we got free fruit cocktails!
Oh hi tinker bell lol
Winter Dreams
I'll end this report with my thoughts on the new Winter Dreams evening show and a tonne of photos. While not as good as the original Dreams show it is still enjoyable despite being a massive advert for Frozen. A film that hasn't been released yet, so I found it very hard to gel with the show in several segments because you're automatically meant to know some of their songs, love the characters and yeah, would be better without all that. Maybe I'd feel different if I'd seen the film first but that was kinda impossible. Oh and couple that with us witnessing a LOT of people walking away from the show during the main song from Frozen. The Toy Story segment was odd, it really didn't work being projected onto the castle and the only bit that really worked and put a smile on everyone's face was the bit with Rex and the green aliens. The scene with Buzz and Jessie was also really out of place and unnecessary. I loved the karaoke Jingle Bells which they also did in like 5 or 6 other languages, that worked really well and lots of people were very upbeat about it and singing along. I felt like there were more fireworks in this version but that might be due to the missing fire effects </3
To say this projection was poorly thought out would be an understatement
Such a mess <///3
Well thanks for reading my somewhat different style of trip report.
Travel
We travelled by Eurostar which cost us quite a bit but it was a very last minute trip. The journey was quite pleasant and on the way back we were in Standard Premier (ooo, very posh) which was nice. We got served some food which was nice, even if I wasn't that keen on most of it (I ate it all anyway). The cake was uber nom though.
Hotel
We stayed at the Residhome Val d'Europe. We've stayed here before, in fact it was on our previous trip (Halloween 2012) that we first stayed here. It's a really nice spacious room and is quite cheap for a 4* hotel that's a 40 min walk/5 min train journey from the parks. It is definitely high on my 'hotels near DLP that I recommend' list.
Christmas in the parks
This was my first visit to any Disney park during their Christmas celebrations. Paris has just started their decorations from scratch though so although what they had was nice it felt quite minimal and not really spread across the whole parks very well. This is something that they will grow on quite a bit over the next few years though.
Main Street USA was nicely decorated with lots of festive items hanging everywhere. Inside the Emporium shop dome they had really gone to town with the decorations, was pretty spectacular.
I'm sure there's a funny joke in there somewhere
The tree
The Christmas tree was new for this year and it was humongous. The lighting ceremony (which is twice a night) was actually pretty fun and the lighting was extremely well timed with the music. There's also snow machines to make it snow on Main Street which also happens throughout the day.
Central Plaza
Up on the grass areas of Central Plaza they had snowman versions of Mickey and friends.
Santa's village
Santa had set up shop in the old ranch area. It was all nicely done up but the long waits put us off investigating further than the gates lol.
Sandy claws
For the first time ever in a Disney park Jack Skellington had donned his Sandy Claws outfit. It was a little terrifying but also cool. They had added lots of new props to his photo location outside Phantom Manor too which was really cool.
Jack showing me the lovely gingerbread decoration him and Sally had made
Christmas carollers
We happened to stumble upon several performances by several British choir groups over the weekend. They were absolutely amazing and really added a festive feel to the event.
It's a Small World Celebration
Every year they transform it's a small world to show off how the different nationalities around the world celebrate during the Winter season. They do change a lot and they change the music to an unusual mix with Jingle bells. It's all so festive.
Changes to Magic on Parade
Not only have they added some seasonal peeps and Santa on his sleigh to the beginning of the park's parade they have also taken away Ariel and added the two characters from Frozen (didn't get a pic of, man with silly hat </3). Pretty bold seeing as no one knows who they are yet.
Hats
It was bloomin' freezing so we both invested in some hats which caused some proper hat hair issues. Patrick went for a Christmas Mickey ear hat as modelled here in the Nautilus corridor.
I went for a boring black Disneyland Paris hat. It kept me warm so all was good.
I also went for some Light Ears which went on sale earlier on in the year. We don't think they were programmed with the new version of Dreams very well but it was fun wearing them and seeing the little kids mesmerized by them.
Ratatouille
Yep, it's well under construction with an opening slated for next June/July. I'm so excited for this, trackless dark ride in Paris <3 The exteriors are also starting to look beautiful.
Food
Food tends to be heavily criticised at Paris and I never agree or disagree, I find the quality and experience varies every time. However on this trip food was overall pretty good. Earl of Sandwich is still amazing and the buffet restaurant in the Cheyenne hotel is still awesome (with a fantastic variety to choose from). We also ate at the Lucky Nugget due to it's fantastic atmosphere. We had timed it pretty well so we got to eat our food while the band were playing.
The Lucky Nugget is definitely my favourite fast food restaurant in the resort. Tasty food, lovely interior and live music. We also tried out the Christmas menu at the Pinnochio themed restaurant in Fantasyland. It consisted of a Christmas burger, waffle fries and a Christmas tree cake.
We also had to make sure we visited our overall favourite restaurant in the resort, Walts. Hidden above some of the shops on Main Street most people don't even know it exists. Yet this very expensive restaurant with each room themed to a land in the park (full of concept art etc) is genuienly the most lovely place to go. We spent around 2 hours just sitting, relaxing, eating fantastic food and enjoying the atmosphere of the Frontierland room. Also due to our annual passes we got free fruit cocktails!
Oh hi tinker bell lol
Winter Dreams
I'll end this report with my thoughts on the new Winter Dreams evening show and a tonne of photos. While not as good as the original Dreams show it is still enjoyable despite being a massive advert for Frozen. A film that hasn't been released yet, so I found it very hard to gel with the show in several segments because you're automatically meant to know some of their songs, love the characters and yeah, would be better without all that. Maybe I'd feel different if I'd seen the film first but that was kinda impossible. Oh and couple that with us witnessing a LOT of people walking away from the show during the main song from Frozen. The Toy Story segment was odd, it really didn't work being projected onto the castle and the only bit that really worked and put a smile on everyone's face was the bit with Rex and the green aliens. The scene with Buzz and Jessie was also really out of place and unnecessary. I loved the karaoke Jingle Bells which they also did in like 5 or 6 other languages, that worked really well and lots of people were very upbeat about it and singing along. I felt like there were more fireworks in this version but that might be due to the missing fire effects </3
To say this projection was poorly thought out would be an understatement
Such a mess <///3
Well thanks for reading my somewhat different style of trip report.
