Trip Report 10th trip to The Magic - fireworks, Christmas and fun

[DLPdaft]

Saturday 5th November to Wednesday 9th November.

The Cast - me, DLPdaft, still loving The Magic
DD, age 10, still collecting DLP plushes every trip

I'm not going to do a chronological trip report this time, as there would be a lot of repetition (POTC followed by BTM, over to Buzz, off to the Studios etc etc ). Instead, I'd like to ramble a bit about our trip and our experiences, and post some photos .

We arrived CDG from Luton on Saturday morning at 9.45am, and by 10.30 RS transports had dropped us off at the train station at DLP (we paid RS transports in advance, shared shuttle price, but didn't have to share with anyone). A lovely attendant in the luggage locker room at the train station assured us our 2 hand-luggage size cases and both winter coats would fit fine in one of the smallest lockers - and he was right ! 4 euros for the whole day - bargain!

We needed to buy new APs, luckily Bureau Donald was open and there was no-one in there at all apart from CMs. Within 5 minutes we had paid for, and got, our permanent laminated new Fantasy Annual Passes. The CM asked us if we wanted new photos taken for our APs, but she was happy to leave them as they had been on our old ones (expired over a year ago).

Our first views of the main park, Saturday mid-morning -

I must admit to being a bit taken with Duffy for our first couple of days - he's everywhere !

DD bought her plush -

I was very surprised at how quiet it was on both Saturday and Sunday. This weekend was Press Event, the parks closed to the general public at 7pm on Saturday and 8pm on Sunday - maybe local guests didn't bother attending because the parks closed early?

We saw lots of characters out and about in the main park on both weekend days, and because it was quiet, there were no real scrums, for any of the characters really. DD only wanted to meet those characters she hadn't seen before, or those in a different costume to what she'd seen before (and I'm including Pascal because he's cute ) -

We found that when Casey Jnr and the Storyboats were open for business, there quite often were groups of characters around that area, near the entrance to the Casey Jnr ride. We saw Goofy, Hook, Smee, TweedleDum and TweedleDee, Gepetto, Eeyore, Friar Tuck, and Sherriff of Nottingham there. During the Wonderful World of Alice and the Mad Hatter character meet time, we saw Hatter, Queen of Hearts and Dum and Dee all out around the teacups area at the same time. The following day we found Alice there too. Near the carousel we saw Mary Poppins and Bert, and near his ride we saw Pinocchio. On Monday evening in Fantasyland we also saw Snow White and her Prince, and Ariel, on opposite sides of the Carousel (this was at around 6.15pm, Cinderella was doing a meet n greet on the little outside Princess booth near IASW at the same time). In Adventureland we found Aladdin, Jasmine, Genie and Friar Tuck, all around Aladdin's Magic Lamp area. And in Rythms of the Jungle near Hakuna Matata we often saw Rafiki, King Louie and Baloo.

 

[DLPdaft]

On our last trip in March, the whole castle was out of commission, so we made the most of the new sparkly castle -

outside -

and I had a little drool over the crystal castle in the shop -

and of course, in Christmas season, when the tree is lit in the dark, it takes my breath away -

 

[wmoon]

Sounds like you had a great time.

Love how all the characters are dressed for Christmas.

Wendy x

 

[wmoon]

Love the castle pictures as well, we have never been inside to look at all the stuff, DS likes sleeping beauty. The castle lighting stuff looks fab.

 

[DLPdaft]

Love the castle pictures as well, we have never been inside to look at all the stuff, DS likes sleeping beauty. The castle lighting stuff looks fab.

you'll see it all yourself soon won't you !

 

[Ware Bears]

Ooh, you're doing your trip report already, I am impressed.

Lovely photos, hasn't your DD grown up! Are those new Christmas lights on the Castle? I'm sure the twinkling lights used to be all over it.

 

[Mum to Belle]

What great photos!!!

I am loving the idea of breakfast at the DLH - was going to get room service but I think this is a much better idea!!!!

 

[DLPdaft]

Ooh, you're doing your trip report already, I am impressed.

Lovely photos, hasn't your DD grown up! Are those new Christmas lights on the Castle? I'm sure the twinkling lights used to be all over it.

yes, DD is growing at a rate of knots - but she's still happy to waltz with me up Main St . Here she is on our first trip to DLP over 4 years ago -

I think there are only nets of twinkly lights on the turrets of the Castle this year, but its lovely, and when the fairies change the colours on the Castle every evening - sends shivers up my spine .

 

[DLPdaft]

What great photos!!!

I am loving the idea of breakfast at the DLH - was going to get room service but I think this is a much better idea!!!!

oh wow look at your ticker - no time at all and you'll be there !

 

[DLPdaft]

we saw some of the parades/street shows during our trip. We didn't watch any Mickey Magical party shows, nor the tree lighting ceremonies (wasn't fussed one way or the other for the first one, and had seen the tree lighting in previous years).

We watched the Dance Express train all the way through once - I think I must be losing the plot a bit these days, because I quite enjoyed it, even though its very cheesy -

I do remember thinking to myself as we watched the end of another one the next morning "how cool would it be to have a job where you get to Conga down Main St USA ".

We also watched OUAD on Saturday, catching bits I'd not seen before - the bees with the Winnie the Pooh float -

Pearly King and Queen with Mary Poppins -

these guys with the Lion King float -

the Pirate Ship with all lights working and visible (often its not dark enough for us to see these properly) -

and of course the Christmas additions -

all accompanied by "Chante c'est Noel" .

The Castle lighting ceremony every night was lovely to see, we watched the whole show one night, then concentrated on the castle itself the next night. I have enjoyed every variation of this I've seen, over 3 different Christmas seasons at DLP .

I was very disappointed with Stars n Cars in the Studios - we went over to watch this on Wednesday. Every other time we've seen it (which has been lots and lots of times ) the cars have all been there, they have all stopped, the stage show has gone ahead, and the characters have interacted with the crowd all the way through. Not the case on Wednesday - no Aladdin car, no Wicked Queen in the Villains car, no stage show, no stopping at all. What on earth was the point of parading at all? There didn't appear to be anything offered in place of the show either, later in the day (or earlier).
When we last were in the Studios in March this year, lots of the Stars n Cars characters could be seen dotted around the place, for autographs and photos. Apart from a couple of hours when 5 characters and a van came out around the area near Cinemagique every 30 minutes or so in the afternoons, we didn't seen any characters wandering around the main part of the Studios (although there were some in the front lot of course).

 

[DLPdaft]

Mickeys Winter Wonderland show was great as always. We watched it twice, and probably would have watched it more, but it was not shown at all on Monday and Tuesday (even though it was advertised on the park programme as a 4x daily show, every day from Monday, the first official day of Christmas season). Not so good, DLP .

Follow the leader with Peter Pan is a cute 30-minute show, full of fun songs and audience participation (loved Smee in this ) -

I must say, as Adventureland is one of my favourite areas of DLP to wander through, I love that its being used so much this season , the Rythms of the Jungle, the photospot and character meet n greet there next to Hakuna Matata, the Peter Pan show, the Magic Lamp photospot and character meet n greet etc etc. Even the Pirate Ship refurb doesn't look entirely out of place because of the themed tarp covering it.

 

[DLPdaft]

We watched Fantillusion on 2 evenings this week. I do love this parade, and try to watch it as often as I can. My camera is rubbish (or maybe its my lack of photography talent ) so I don't have a lot of good photos of this -

Tinkerbell's wings -

There was no Maleficent float on either evening we watched this, which was a shame as I would have liked to see her "change". The floats started in Fantasyland, and we stood outside Walts to see Jafar change (best spot was where Harringtons canopy is). Also, because there was at least one float missing, there was a large gap in the middle of the parade. The floats stopped twice as usual, but if you were watching it from the area between Caseys and the hub stage, you didn't see anything at all, as there was no float in front of you at either stop .

What else did we see? Ah yes, the Green Army playtime in the Studios. This was fun, we watched this for a little while one afternoon -

the soldiers marched all over Toy Story Playland, then stopped near the domino wall opposite the Slinky Dog ride. They played games with the children, drilled them and marched them around. They were more than happy to pose for photos and autographs too

 

[DLPdaft]

We had the last bonfire fireworks over the lake on our trip, on Monday 7th November. Having only seen St Patricks Day fireworks over the Castle at DLP before, I was really impressed with this - 30 minutes of musically-accompanied continuous fireworks, flames on the lake, and projections onto the side of the Panoramagique balloon. Mickey in his light-up suit in a dinghy at the start, to be honest, was a bit lost on me, but for families with little children I'm sure he would have been a hit. I don't have any pictures of this, we were too busy enjoying it . We got there just after 8pm for an 8.30pm start, and it was already very busy. My feet were killing me too, so we sat on the terraced walls between the HNY and the Village, then when the fireworks started we moved to the hedges overlooking the lake, so we had an uninterrupted view of the lake and the fireworks.

Although the main park was where the most impressive Christmas decorations were, there were lots of others to be seen elsewhere too. These were in the DLH -

and these were in the front lot/Studio One in the Studios -

the little stage in the Village was also decorated for Christmas -

and there were mulled wine, roast chestnut, and candy stalls already set up in the Village too -

 

[DLPdaft]

Even on Saturday and Sunday on our trip, the rides really weren't that busy (I think the only queue we started to go in on Saturday and then came out of again was POTC, it said 20 minutes and I didn't believe it - but it was - the line was all the way back to almost the covered entrance to the ride ). We rode IASW, Casey Jnr and the Storyboats several times on our first couple of days, as they were closing midweek. They were all walk-ons. Our last ride of Saturday evening at 7pm was BTM . We made good use of fastpass all through our trip, mostly using them on BTM, Buzz, and Peter Pans flight. BTM fastpass worked really well, fastpass was freely available all through the day except for Saturday late afternoon, and usually the timeslot was only about half an hour after we got them . Its so cool walking through that fastpass line and not stopping until you are right in front of a CM in the station .

On Monday morning we went straight to the Studios, arrived there at just before 10am, and walked straight onto the Parachute Drop ride for 3 goes in a row -

By 10.15am that morning we'd done Parachute Drop 3 times and Cars once .

I also got to ride my favourites in the dark, Dumbo and the teacups, they are so pretty in the dark and you get a great view across the park on Dumbo.

I do think the parks were just as quiet as our last November trip, 2 years ago. I still haven't got my DD to agree to come back on Phantom Manor with me, but I'm working on it . But we did BTM and POTC countless times, Buzz, Peter Pan, Parachute Drop and Cars at least half a dozen times, Casey Jnr, Dumbo, teacups, Slinky and Flying Carpets a few times too.

We made time for our favourite shows as well, Animagique, Cinemagique (I think 3 times - have I mentioned befoe that I went to school with the Wizard in Cinemagique??), Mickeys Winter Wonderland, and for the first ever time, Buffalo Bills Wild West show.

As an AP holder, this being my birthday month, I got a free ticket, and a reduced ticket for DD, to the total cost for us was 35 euros. Fabulous show, we both really enjoyed it - but the food is pretty awful. If we go again, I'll take DD to get some counter service food first , because she ate practically nothing at the show. We both loved whooping and hollering and waving our hats about though !

We had a few new dining experiences this trip - I've reviewed our breakfasts at the Dream Castle hotel, our Disneyland Hotel breakfast at Inventions, lunch at the Blue Lagoon, and our fabulous dinner at the Parkside Diner at the HNY . We also had lunch at the Restaurant des Stars, usually a firm favourite of ours, but the choice of mains wasn't as good as it has been in the past, it seemed to be mostly BBQ stuff this time, no dauphinoise potatoes, or cheesy zucchini to be seen (I love both of those dishes). But the soup was lovely, the desserts were yummy, and I do like that there is a soft drink included in children's price, and as many hot drinks as you like included in the adult price -

DD's dessert selection -

we also ate at Caseys (never my first choice but often after about 5.30pm it was one of the few places open in the main park), Last Chance cafe (which was never really busy and has tasty chicken strips meals), and En Coulisse in the Studios (as long as its not mobbed I don't mind the burgers here, and at least they were hot and filling). We got a takeaway pizza after the fireworks from the Sports Bar, which smelled lovely but didn't taste particularly nice unfortunately.

We visited Salon Mickey every morning except Sunday I think, it was always quiet and it gave me a chance to have a decent cup of coffee, and DD to have her favourite cookie .

 

[tinkertaylor05]

This looks like a great trip, I would love to see fierworks at dlp someday. Glad you enjoyed BBWWS we had a great time on our first trip and what a bargain!

 

[DLPdaft]

We watched Stitch Live 2 or 3 times - and had 2 very very different experiences. The first time, the CM really struggled to get the audience participating, there was one little kid running up and down the aisle, one little boy kept running up to the main screen and trying to touch Stitch, and none of their parents seemed that bothered about trying to control them (despite being asked by the CMs). A lot of the audience didn't speak English as their first language, and the worst thing (never seen this before) the first guy picked to be "crazy whoever from space prison" point blank refused to interact with either the CM or Stitch .

Our last experience was much better though - Rolli the CM was fantastic, he was so enthusiastic and really got all the audience participating, even though, again, a lot of the audience didn't speak English as their first language. Stitch Live with Rolli was the last thing we had time for on our final day, before heading for the train station, and it put a smile on my face even though we had to leave our happy place.

a few random photos -

we really did appreciate the quietness of the parks, and the mild weather for the time of year (we went from coats and a hat on Monday lunchtime, to t-shirts and blinding sunshine on Wednesday ). There were a lot of Turkish tours and families at DLP on our trip midweek, it was Eid on Sunday 6th and DLP is obviously a very popular holiday destination from there too . I'm sure on Tuesday I heard more Turkish voices than either English or French, so I'd imagine it would be even quieter midweek once the Eid holidays are over.

These were the last photos we took -

some of them were a bit bird-poop covered - I felt like popping off for a cloth and a duster, it would only have taken a little while to clean them up .

So we're done with another trip to The Magic - and now I have 2 APs burning a hole in my purse. Planning for June 2012 next, to see the 20th anniversary celebrations. Can't come soon enough .

 

[DLPdaft]

This looks like a great trip, I would love to see fierworks at dlp someday. Glad you enjoyed BBWWS we had a great time on our first trip and what a bargain!

it really was a great trip - a bit of everything really .

 

[CRITCHK]

I loved reading about your trip and seeing your photos of all the new stuff. I think the castle changing colour looks fantastic. Can't wait now only 5 weeks to go.

 

[karenmoloney]

I haven't been on this forum for ages, but came on tonight to see if there were any trip reports to get me in the mood for my trip next weekend (only booked it a few days ago!) and yours did the trick. I love all your photos. Only hope we get the low crowd levels & mild weather you did. Thanks for sharing.

 

[loladelorean]

Great photos, made me really wistful as I was there the same time last year and could really use a Disney Xmas fix right now! Looks like a fantastic time, and I like the way you've themed your report
Thanks as ever for sharing!