Catching a late Christmas in Disneyland January 2018 TR

Day 2, part 4:
After the Christmas tree lighting we headed back up Main Street to get a spot in front of the Castle for Illuminations. This is a projection/fireworks show and it was great they even had a pirates section which was great and I got loads of pictures, so yeah prepare for Castle picture overload!
Twinkly castle:lovestruc

Oh Hi Mickey :wave:

*Sings* It’s the circle of life:

It’s Jack Sparrow :lovestruc


Adventure is out there Castle:

*Sings* Let it go, let it go:



And for the big finish add in a few lasers because the fireworks, water fountains and projections weren’t enough!

Oh and fire it needed fire:

And done:

It was a great show, not as good as Wishes but still good. After the show we took our time heading back down Main Street in the crowds towards the exit of course taking pictures along the way:

Mickey Mouse was out at the train station saying good night to everyone and saying he had the best fun ever with everyone that day in the park:

Once we got back to the hotel we pretty much fell into bed after a long day in the park.
 
Day 3, part 1:
8th January

This was the first day of supposed quiet time in the parks. The Christmas stuff was over, loads of rides were closed down and there was supposed to be less crowds… I wasn’t convinced on the crowds but anyway. We got up early this morning as always (there’s no sleeping at Disney right?) and after breakfast the main Mouse was in the hotel lobby so of course I had to go say hi:

I had a t-shirt on with the fab 5 and Minnie Mouse hair bows:

Mickey Mouse loved them. He kept pointing to himself and Minnie on the t-shirt and patting the hair bows, it was funny. After that we headed out through the Disney Village taking pictures along the way. The Christmas tree was still up outside our hotel:

We popped in to the Disneyland Hotel to get a look at their Gingerbread House:

I love how they had the clock from the front of the hotel on the gingerbread house as well:

The Christmas tree was still up here as well:

After that we headed into the Disneyland Park. We took our time wandering up Main Street and stopped at the castle hub to take pictures of the character statues there:

Next we headed in to Fantasyland where we went on Peter Pan's ride first before the line got crazy long. Then we headed to Snow White's Scary Adventures:

Next we stopped at March Hare Refreshments because Momma wanted some tea. I got a chocolate crepe, which was yummy:

Then we headed for my favourite ride (I’m not joking) Small World:



They still had some Christmas scenes in it as well:



Next we headed over towards Adventureland in search of some characters but stopped to take pictures of Dumbo along the way:

Momma wanted to sit for a while so when she found a nearby bench I went off to explore Adventure Isle:


I wandered up through the Swiss family Robinson’s tree house and spied the Castle:

I also spotted Carl and Russell, I was not expecting that one:

When I went back to Momma we spotted Jafar wandering around but we didn’t wait to see him instead I took a quick pic and we went in search of other characters:
 
Then we headed for my favourite ride (I’m not joking) Small World:

I like Small World too. It is so cute and fun and I like the message.

43364406392_117fff2803_z.jpg

I love this.


Meeting Jafar would be a lot of fun! I wish we saw villains more at WDW.
 


I like Small World too. It is so cute and fun and I like the message.
I love spotting the Irish section every time



I love this.
Yeah I didn't know that was there so was pretty excited when I saw it.


Meeting Jafar would be a lot of fun! I wish we saw villains more at WDW.
I'd met him the last year we went to Disneyland Paris and was after some others that we hadn't met hence not stopped. He was cool to meet though and kept trying to hypnotise us with his staff :eek: :goodvibes Paris tends to have a few rarer characters that WDW doesn't often have out though which is cool.
 
Jafar is hilarious! I wanted his autograph once and he'd only sign if I bowed for him, so I did and I got up again and he stopped signing until I got on my knees again. I had to stay that way until he was done. My husband made pictures and you just see me grinning the entire time

I love that!
 


Jafar is hilarious! I wanted his autograph once and he'd only sign if I bowed for him, so I did and I got up again and he stopped signing until I got on my knees again. I had to stay that way until he was done. My husband made pictures and you just see me grinning the entire time
Welcome :flower3:

Sounds like a fun character meet. Some are better than others I think
 
Day 3, part 2:

So we were looking for characters and soon enough we spotted a meet and greet forming for Baloo and King Louie so we hopped in line. They were very funny, I had mouse ears on and King Louie kept trying to knock them off my head. Maybe he wanted them for himself? :confused3


Next we spotted Chip and Dale heading out for a meet and greet:

Before we went to meet them I ran into a nearby shop to get me some new mouse ears I had been eyeing up. They were to celebrate Disneyland’s 25th anniversary and had Chip and Dale on the top of them so of course I needed to get them before I met Chip and Dale:

The meet and greet with Chip and Dale was really funny. Their handler was being really sarcastic with them and whenever they posed she’d go oh how original or oh you guys are totally in sync so Dale started pulling leaves off a tree and throwing them at her which was very funny to watch:

After that we went to see Woody. He stole my autograph book and put it on his hat and wouldn’t give it back until I found it. I’m a shorty so I couldn’t see it on his hat and I asked was it in his boot and looked around to see where he hid it, then he decided to do a magic trick and my autograph book reappeared. Momma was sat on a bench nearby watching and thought it was all hilarious :rolleyes:

Autograph book back in hand we headed back towards Fantasyland stopping by to see the Dragon under the castle on our way:

As we wandered into Fantasyland we spotted a character we don’t often see Maleficent so decided to hop in line to meet her. Omg one of the best character meets of the trip. Watching her while we were in line she was hilarious. She would look at children and babies with pure disgust it was so funny. When I went up to her I still had the chipmunk ears on so in a disgusted horrified sarcastic tone she was like what have you got on your head and then my coat was pink so she went AND YOU’RE WEARING PINK EUGH! Momma was so amused watching all of this she decided to get in for photos as well and she told Malificent that she was very good and Malificent went no my dear I’m very bad so Momma said well you’re very good at being very bad and Malificent just went I know! We had to wait a bit for her because she went off for a break while we were in line but it was sooooooo worth the wait:


After that fun we headed to Pinocchio’s ride:


We stopped off at Casey’s next for Hot Dogs where I apparently took photos of the box but forgot to take food pics of the actual hot dog :eek: but hey the castle was on the box look:

While Momma sat at Casey’s I went to meet Donald in his 25th anniversary outfit as well:

Next we went to get a spot for the parade and queue rudeness (it wouldn’t be a trip to Disneyland Paris without at least one rude people story.) So Disneyland Paris is a non smoking park now, there’s designated smoking areas and signs up everywhere warning of fines if people smoke but people ignore these rules and smoke when and where they please. I have asthma and find it hard to breathe when people are smoking near me and Momma is also not meant to be in smoky atmospheres. So we were waiting for the parade to start and this family comes and spreads out beside Momma fine next thing one lady and man from this family start smoking, Momma and I started coughing with the smell so the lady and man started laughing about this and next this the lady turned and deliberately blew her smoke into Momma’s face. Well Momma had enough at that point and a CM was patrolling the street nearby trying to keep the parade route clear so Momma quite loudly called him over and said I thought this park was non smoking and people were given fines if caught smoking! The Cm quietly agreed with Momma so Momma went well then WHY are you not doing anything about these people smoking right there in front of you so the now slightly embarrassed CM told the couple that if they wanted to smoke they had to go to the nearest designated smoking area which was literally about 20ft around the corner from where they were standing…. Anyway once that drama was over the parade started and it was awesome:




That's Mowgli sitting on the top:


Love that dragon:


After that we headed out of the park and back to the hotel and along the way I picked up one of those blue Mickey Macaroons. We went back to the hotel and into one of the bars there so Momma could get tea and I got a drink in a light up anniversary cup and had my macaroon. It tasted of Vanilla and was yum:


After that we just headed up to our room to chill out for a while.
 
Autograph book back in hand we headed back towards Fantasyland stopping by to see the Dragon under the castle on our way:

I love this!

As we wandered into Fantasyland we spotted a character we don’t often see Maleficent so decided to hop in line to meet her. Omg one of the best character meets of the trip. Watching her while we were in line she was hilarious. She would look at children and babies with pure disgust it was so funny. When I went up to her I still had the chipmunk ears on so in a disgusted horrified sarcastic tone she was like what have you got on your head and then my coat was pink so she went AND YOU’RE WEARING PINK EUGH! Momma was so amused watching all of this she decided to get in for photos as well and she told Malificent that she was very good and Malificent went no my dear I’m very bad so Momma said well you’re very good at being very bad and Malificent just went I know! We had to wait a bit for her because she went off for a break while we were in line but it was sooooooo worth the wait:

:laughing: What an awesome meet!

Next we went to get a spot for the parade and queue rudeness (it wouldn’t be a trip to Disneyland Paris without at least one rude people story.) So Disneyland Paris is a non smoking park now, there’s designated smoking areas and signs up everywhere warning of fines if people smoke but people ignore these rules and smoke when and where they please. I have asthma and find it hard to breathe when people are smoking near me and Momma is also not meant to be in smoky atmospheres. So we were waiting for the parade to start and this family comes and spreads out beside Momma fine next thing one lady and man from this family start smoking, Momma and I started coughing with the smell so the lady and man started laughing about this and next this the lady turned and deliberately blew her smoke into Momma’s face. Well Momma had enough at that point and a CM was patrolling the street nearby trying to keep the parade route clear so Momma quite loudly called him over and said I thought this park was non smoking and people were given fines if caught smoking! The Cm quietly agreed with Momma so Momma went well then WHY are you not doing anything about these people smoking right there in front of you so the now slightly embarrassed CM told the couple that if they wanted to smoke they had to go to the nearest designated smoking area which was literally about 20ft around the corner from where they were standing….

:furious::furious::furious: That is so infuriating!
 
I love this!
Yeah the dragon is a pretty cool feature of the Paris Castle

:laughing: What an awesome meet!
She was the best. So funny and so amazing at staying in that disgusted character for so long! :goodvibes

:furious::furious::furious: That is so infuriating!
It was pretty annoying. We've been to WDW, California and Paris now and we always find Paris to be the worst with rude people. It's a great park and there can be some very magical moments but some guests are just so rude, if you let it, it could ruin your visit there.
 
Day 3, part 3:

So this evening we headed out to Buffalo Bills Wild West Show (for those that don’t know what that is, it’s a cowboy and Indian dinner show with Mickey Mouse and friends.) With out half board meal vouchers we paid an extra 58 euro top up for two adults. When they were checking us in they asked where we wanted to sit because of my asthma and I said on the end somewhere we could get out quick, we ended up in the middle of the front row on the yellow section :confused3 but yay a new hat colour. :banana:Again for those that don’t know, they have 4 sections or ranches you can be in and you get a straw cowboy hat with a coloured ribbon on it to show what section you’re in and you can keep the hat at the end. We’ve been to this a few times and we already have a red and green hat and it’s my mission now to get all 4 colours (easily amused. :rotfl2:) They had Christmas trees lining the entrance which I thought were cute

The pre-show entertainment was this lady juggling:

Then a band and cowboy Goofy came out:

This was our view. It was good but sometimes when the things were low down it was hard to see over the fence so I think the back is probably a better view for this:

Oh hi Chip, the characters all came out to help introduce the show:

Our starter Chilli came out, I never eat this but they have nachos on the table for everyone to share and I normally dip some of those into the chilli except I kind of had to grab a handful and make do because the family beside me had a small child and basically took the entire bowl of nachos for the child because the children don’t get the chilli, they also for some reason got all their meals before anyone else got anything and they got vegetables that nobody else got so I don't know what was going on there :confused3 Anyway this was the chilli:

And on with the show:

Mr. Buffalo Bill himself:

Mickey and Minnie have arrived:

Our dinner arrived which was ribs, chicken, sausage and potatoes:

And for dessert we had apple crumble and star shaped ice-cream:

Then it was time for some ranch games, where the cowboys and Indians race at different things to and the winner is deemed the winning ranch and wins gold:

These guys helped out with the games as well:

Our ranch won the gold :yay::

But then bandits tried to steal the gold off the stage coach so there was a fight to save the gold:

But in the end all was well and everyone went home with a gold (chocolate coin):
Then it’s time to say goodnight to the Cowboys and Indians and head for home:

We were back at the hotel by 11.30 and fell straight into bed!
 
Day 4, part 1:
9th January


This morning we got up early and headed out of the hotel for breakfast as we had a character breakfast booked in the Plaza Inn. It was still dark when we arrived at the park:

It was really cool to be on an almost empty Main Street as the park hadn’t even officially opened for extra magic hours yet. They were starting to take down the Christmas decorations:

When we arrived at the Plaza we were seated quickly and pointed in the direction of the buffet which was pretty much the same as what was on offer in the hotel. Pastries, cereal, then scrambled eggs, rashers, sausages, potatoes and more:




We grabbed a selection and quickly headed back to the table in case some characters started to visit us. These were my plates:

Pretty soon some characters started to visit. Momma couldn’t work the camera this time for some reason so I went with selfies and taking pictures of the characters themselves. First we saw Piglet, closely followed by Eeyore

Then Tigger


Miss Daisy Duck stopped by next, Daisy and her CM friend were very much in a rush to get out of there though:

The Main mouse stopped by next. He was the funniest. He was checking the picture on the front of my autograph book which was from the Californian Disneyland and he approved. Then in the pictures he pretended he was picking his nose and wiping it in my top :crazy2:

Lastly we saw Scrooge McDuck who was basically the whole reason we booked this breakfast. His CM was trying to rush him along as well but Scrooge was having none of it and took his time with us posing for photos:

It was a fun meeting the characters and the food was fine. Momma was not impressed by the people beside us. Everyone was very close to each other the way the tables were laid out and there was a young couple beside us and Momma felt that they were sniggering at me every time a character came over. Personally I neither noticed or cared because I was to busy with the characters. After breakfast we headed out of the park and I sent Momma over to Walt Disney studios to wait for me and I ran back to the hotel to grab something I’d left in the room. While I was at the hotel I spotted Goofy in the lobby so stopped by to say hello after I got a new autograph book in the shop because breakfast had filled up my old one:

Once I found Momma in the Studios we tried to meet Moana but her queue was over 3 hours long, eh no chance then so we went to a nearby shop where I found a baby Pua plushie I had been looking for :banana::

I spotted Sulley as we came out of the shop and ran over to meet him, he was huge and cuddly:

Then we headed back to Disneyland Park and Momma decided she wanted to go on the train around the park so we waited for that. Look at that view :lovestruc:

We took the train over to Discoveryland and as we got off the train we spotted my favourite Stitch who was being very naughty and running all over the place on his CM and wouldn’t stand in the one spot for people to get pictures of him so you had to kind of case him and try get lucky. We eventually managed it but it took a while and he tried to still my shopping as well:

Next I introduced Momma to the Buzz Lightyear ride, she wouldn’t get on this the last time we were there because she was afraid it would go to fast and make her sick. I tested it and explained to all to her and then when we finished I had beaten her score so she said it was only because she didn’t know what to do :rotfl::

Before we left Discoveryland we popped into the Café Hyperion for some lunch as well. We got chicken burgers, chips, a brookie (which was a weird brownie thing.) The food was bad here, everything was cold and the brownie was hard and not nice at all.

 
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Day 4, part 2:

After our somewhat disappointing lunch we headed in Fantasyland and took a trip around the Small World first. Woo Ireland :shamrock:



Next we went on the Snow White ride again:

We headed to Pirates next:

Then we decided to watch the parade again:



The dragon is definitely one of my favourite floats:


Next we headed back into Fantasyland again for a few more rides taking pictures along the way:

The tea-cups are so pretty lit up at night-time:

We went on Pinocchios ride:

Then we wandered back out towards the castle hub. As it was our last full day in Disneyland we wanted to watch Illuminations again but it started raining so we went into one of the side arcades (for those that don’t know on either side of Main Street in Paris they have arcades which are like covered walk ways and you can sit there as there’s seats outside Casey’s. There’s also entrances to the shops from the arcades.) We waited there to see if Illuminations would go ahead despite the rain and about 15 minutes before it was due to start the rain stopped so we headed out to get a spot to watch the show:



After the show we headed straight to the Disney Village for dinner in Annettes. We both had chicken wings for starters here:

For the main I had a cheese burger:
Momma had the mega burger but she didn’t really like it so didn’t eat much of it. The waiter was messing and told her she wasn’t allowed dessert because she didn’t eat her dinner so she threw him a dirty look and he ran off saying “be pleasant, be pleasant” which was quite funny:rotfl2::

For dessert we both had the cheesiest cheese cake and it was the best dessert of the trip:

I loved the food here and it was all covered by our meal vouchers plus the waiter included our drinks in the price. I think mine was slightly less than the value of the voucher, I’m not sure but I didn’t think he was supposed to include the drinks and he didn’t charge us for them, maybe it was just pixie dust :confused3 After that we wandered down the Disney Village through the shops and back to our hotel to pack and get ready to go home the next day :sad1:

 
Great TR so far! I'm going in November for my first xmas trip in many, many years and this has made me so excited for it!
 
Great TR so far! I'm going in November for my first xmas trip in many, many years and this has made me so excited for it!
Thanks :flower3: I love the parks at Christmas. My favourite thing is the castle with all the lights on it, it's just so pretty:lovestruc
 
Day 5, part 1:
10th January

This morning we got up early and finished our packing before we headed to breakfast and I finally remembered to take food pics of the breakfast buffet in the hotel :yay::





After breakfast Pluto was in the hotel lobby again so we stopped off to say goodbye to him :sad::

Momma went back up to the room for a rest while I left my luggage in the luggage room and headed to Walt Disney Studios for extra magic hours. I was on a mission. I got to the park at 9 and headed straight for the Moana queue and was 5th in line… result! She came out at 10.15, we chatted for a while about how she loves sailing and I love Pua and by 10.25 I was done. My photopass card wouldn’t work here for some reason though so they gave me a temporary card to get the pictures put on my account later in the day:

I met Momma then and we went to the Animation Academy where we learned to draw Winnie the Pooh. I love their seats :lovestruc:

This was what Winnie the Pooh was meant to look like:

This was my attempt:

Next we said goodbye to the Studios and headed for the Disneyland Park. I took pictures of course as I walked. Lookie all the balloons:
The Garlands were gone from across Main Street:

Some of the shops were having sales so we popped in to one of the clothes shops on Main Street for a look before we headed for Frontierland. I wandered around the Legends of the Wild West trail, it was nothing to exciting but at least I can say I looked at it now. Then I headed to wait for Peter Pan and Wendy. While I was waiting in line I spotted Gaston in Fantasyland:

I wanted to go meet him but Peter Pan and Wendy’s line was taking forever and we didn’t have time. Captain Hook passed by as well:

This caused a little incident in the line. There was a lady in front of me with two girls and in front of her was a lady with a small boy. So when Hook went by the boy and lady ran after him to try get a photo of him that’s fine. The Lady in front of me moved up in line as you would naturally do but then the lady with the boy came back and tried to get back in to the line where they had been and the lady in front of me wouldn’t let her back in. So she stood at the side of the line complaining loudly until another family behind me let her in front of them. Then the lady and the boy along with the family behind me started complaining loudly about people passing out and how adults were queuing on their own for to meet characters, that the parks were for children and the characters for children and adults queuing alone was what was causing the lines to be so long for the characters. I was an adult queuing alone, we have no kids with us on our trips and Momma had gone to sit down to wait for me. I bit my tongue and said nothing though. Momma came over to me after a while to see if I was ok because the line was taking so long and I told her what was going on behind me and said equally loudly how Walt Disney himself wanted the parks to be for everyone and that no child would be allowed into the park without an adult in the first place! I actually thought a fight would break out at any second especially when they announced that soon Peter and Wendy would be heading in and would not be back for 45 minutes Luckily I got to Peter and Wendy before they headed in and they chatted a bit. Wendy said my name sounded like a mermaid name but Peter though I should be a fairy.

After that drama we headed to a last trip on Pirates before heading for lunch in Au Chalet de la Marionette. We both had a kids chicken burger meal and the food was cold but ok:

Next we decided to go on a few rides in Fantasyland so first was Peter Pan because it’s Momma’s favourite:

Then we took a final trip around the Small World because it’s my favourite:
 
Day 5, Part 2:

After our trip around the Small World we headed for Discoveryland and went on Buzz Lightyear’s ride again. I won again and Momma decided I was cheating somehow because she couldn’t beat me! :confused3I wasn’t cheating, she just didn’t know how to play the game :rotfl:After that we headed back down Main Street, browsing the shops as we went along:

Goodbye pretty castle :sad1::

We took our time heading through the Disney Village and browsed through the shops to look at the sale stuff although nothing really jumped out that we wanted to buy. We had 15% off vouchers for Earl of Sandwich so popped in to pick up two sandwiches to bring to the airport. We both got the ham and swiss and I took photos of our hotel while I waited for the sandwiches:

Character in flight balloon on the way back to the hotel

Back at the hotel we packed in the stuff we’d bought and I went to the gift shop to try get my Moana pictures but the card the photographer had given me hadn’t picked up my pictures The CM asked what time I was there at and went back through the photos and found them and managed to get them on to my photopass card for me though thankfully! After that I wandered around the hotel taking some pictures:


Soon it was time to get the Magical Depress Shuttle back to the airport :sad2::

Like some strange sort of torture the showed videos of the parks on the way back to the airport! :eek: you know just to show you what you were leaving behind:sad::

Charles De Gaulle is huge so it took us a while to find the correct check-in desk. The lady tried to check in my hand luggage but I wouldn’t let her because there was breakable items in it. Once we dropped our bags off it took us ages to find the gates but eventually we got there. I headed to a nearby shop to grab a drink and some macaroons. They had some cute Paris souvenirs there:


We had our Earl of Sandwich and Macaroons while we waited for the flight:


Then just when we should have been about to board our flight a man sitting across from us told us our flight was going to be delayed, they hadn’t announced anything but he was tracking the flight online and he said it hadn’t even left Dublin yet Sure enough a few minutes later they announced our flight was going to be delayed by two hours :eek::faint: I took my phone charger and went and found a plug to charge it while I waited and read for a while eventually the plane did show up and when we landed in Ireland we were one of the last flights to arrive at the terminal for the night. It was late when we got home but we’d a great trip so we didn’t really mind.

 
I met Momma then and we went to the Animation Academy where we learned to draw Winnie the Pooh. I love their seats :lovestruc:

Glad to see this still exists somewhere! I am so sad it was removed from Hollywood Studios.


Sounds like an uncomfortable situation waiting for Peter Pan and Wendy. I do not understand what is wrong with people and why they have to be so rude.
 
Glad to see this still exists somewhere! I am so sad it was removed from Hollywood Studios.
We love Animation Academy. We always have a laugh at how ours turn out compared to what it should be.

Sounds like an uncomfortable situation waiting for Peter Pan and Wendy. I do not understand what is wrong with people and why they have to be so rude.
You get alot of rudeness in Disneyland Paris, quieter times of the year are better than busy and I think it can be easy to let the rudeness ruin the experience there but we learned to just ignore the rude people and focus on the Disney Magic instead.
 

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