A Very, Merry Disneyland Paris Christmas 2015

Ever since I can remember it has been a dream of mine to visit a Disney park during the holidays and see it all decked out for Christmas, this year I was finally able to go thanks to an extremely good deal we found online. I went for 4 days and 3 nights, which was the perfect amount of time to do everything I wanted to do, even though I would have loved to stay longer, but who wouldn't?

We took advantage of our extra magic hours and our first port of call when we got to the park was to queue to meet Mickey and Minnie, before the trip I knew I wanted to meet them while they are wearing their Christmas outfits. We queued for well over an hour and it was freezing, I couldn't feel my hands and feet by the time it was my turn but it was well worth the wait! I had to buy an extra pair of socks to put on afterwards in hope that my feet would regain some feeling.

 

After meeting Mickey and Minnie, we finally walked down Mainstreet USA to see the castle and all of the Christmas decorations, it looked breathtaking. I love how during each holiday they change up the scenes that are in the flower beds that are situated in the hub outside the castle, I kept thinking it was real snow. I had seen a ton of pictures online of the Christmas Mickey/Minnie ears that they sell and I looked absolutely everywhere for them but I couldn't find them. It's a good job I took my bow from Tokyo with me to wear! The castle had lights on the turrets which were constantly sparkling, it looked incredibly beautiful.

The Nightmare Before Christmas was one of the films responsible for kick starting my love for Disney. I have always wanted to meet Jack but I thought he only did meet and greets during Halloween time and when I found out he was there at Christmas I was so excited. There was barely a queue to meet him as he is situated all the way over by Phantom Manor and the park had just opened, so there wasn't that many people in this corner of the park. He spoke to me for ages and told me my hair bow was "strange and unusual", he then spun me around to get a better look at it. Marie is one of my favourite Disney characters, so meeting her was on the top of my list! The queue wasn't long at all and she was being so cute and mischievous towards the guests, she also had her Christmas bow on. She told me she loved my hair bow because it looks like her pink one, I then told her she's one of my favourite characters and she jumped up and down with excitement. Once I'd met the characters I'd wanted to meet we decided to go on the rides, my favourite attraction at Disneyland Paris is Peter Pan's Flight, unfortunately It's A Small World and Big Thunder Mountain were closed for refurbishment at the time.

 

Next up was the Christmas parade and I had the songs that are played during it stuck in my head for weeks afterwards, it's impossible not to sing along as well. It was so magical and it definitely put in the Christmas spirit; they even had fake snow come down at the end on Mainstreet. There weren’t as many floats as I thought they'd be but I guess they need to get it done quickly as it does cause a lot of crowding down Mainstreet and around the castle. Santa is in the last float which seemed to excite all of the children and myself...

We did head over to the Walt Disney Studio Park but we weren't there for long, I rode Tower of Terror as it's one of my favourite rides but I wanted to spend most of my time at Disneyland Park. 

 After being outside for most of the day, we decided to head over to Cafe Fantasia which is situated inside the Disneyland Hotel, the most expensive and beautiful hotel at Disney. I'd read online that they served the famous Mickey waffles but to my disappointment they'd stopped making these and had been replaced with crepes. I have a weakness for crepes with nutella but I do wish they still made the Mickey waffles. I also had a cocktail, which was amazing but I cannot for the life of me remember what it was called, I tried to find the menu online but had no luck finding it. Once we'd ordered our cocktails the waiter brought us out a trio of snacks which consisted of peanuts, olives and Doritos which was a lovely touch and were devoured in minutes. It is such a beautiful hotel and I would definitely recommend popping in for a cocktail, or just for a look around.

 By the time we had finished in Cafe Fantasia it had gotten dark outside, so we were able to see all of the lights turned on and it looked so magical. We then waited for Mickey and Minnie to come out to turn on the huge Christmas tree lights, which you are to able to see if you are stood on Mainstreet USA. They had a sing-along session and then Father Christmas came out to help turn on the lights and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves.

One of my favourite things to do at Disney is watch the castle show at the end of the day; I was really looking forward to this one because I knew it would have a Christmas touch. However, I was slightly disappointed as the majority of it was just songs from Frozen, don't get me wrong I do like Frozen but it definitely isn't Disney's best movie and I think that there are tons of other Disney musical moments which would have made the show more magical. The castle shows are one of the things I look forward to the most about visiting a Disney park. When watching the castle show my foot randomly started hurting, I still to this day have absolutely no idea what I did to it but I couldn't walk properly for about a week after. I had to hobble around the parks the following day but I pushed the pain aside.

 

The next morning we were booked in for a character breakfast at Cafe Mickey, it's an all you can eat buffet and you sit at your table until the characters make their way round to you. (Unless you just like to push your child in front of the characters, which I recommend you don't.) I was able to meet Chip, Dale, Eeyore, Goofy and Mickey. Chip and Dale were extremely playful among the children and they all seemed to go crazy for Mickey, which you'd expect. If you have a trip planned then I highly recommend booking a table, you can go for breakfast, lunch or dinner.

After breakfast we walked around the park taking it all in and making the most of everything we could, we did some last minute shopping and rode some more rides. Disney will always hold a very special place in my heart and visiting any of the Disney Parks will always be one of my favourite things to do and I feel extremely lucky to have been able to visit three of them. I'll have a post up soon about everything Disney I saw and did while I was in Japan back in July!

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