70 to Freezing in 7 hours. A Nov/Dec 2011 trip report. Updated 4/28

[petals]

So the day before we left I was off work and just spent the day finishing packing and doing little bits and pieces that needed doing. The doggies went off to the kennels at 4 and again my baby dog didn’t want to go, he spent most of the day keening at the door as well. Think he could sense we were getting ready to go on hols. I wasn’t planning on going to bed because we had to leave in the middle of the night but at about 6 I started to get very light-headed so at 9 I went to bed for a few hours. So on with the mini (ish) trip report:

Day 1, part 1:
Tuesday, 6th November 2012

I woke up at 12.30am and put the last few bits in the case and ready to leave:

Angel borrowed Duffy’s hat for the trip! Anyways we left the house at 2.45am. Momma was driving because we were afraid the bus might not get us there in time. While we were sitting in the car once we packed in the cases Momma was doing a double check that she had everything but it was freezing and I went turn on the heat before I turn into a yeti monster. She laughed and said it was an accurate description lol! I have no idea where Yeti monster came from it just came out but from that the trip title/motto was born! We got to the airport at 3.45am and got a little lost trying to get into the car-park but figured it out eventually but then the barrier wouldn’t go up to let us in. It’s meant to read your license plate if you’ve pre-paid and open once you drive up. We figured it was because we were like 5 minutes early so the security guard let us in anyway. We parked up and got the bus to the airport terminal, dropped off our bags and went for breakfast as we wouldn’t get food on the plane. I got a sausage mcmuffin in McDonalds. I didn’t take a pick because I figured it wasn’t exciting enough for a picture. Actually when I went to order though I thought the girl wasn’t going to serve me. I went up and ordered and she just looked at me and did nothing then after about five minutes asked if I wanted a meal or just the muffin, was a little strange.
After breakfast we went in through the security area and Momma wanted to go to duty free. I took pics along the way. The airport were starting to put up their Christmas decorations:

In the duty free I found Disney stuff.

They were the tops of giant smartie tubs! This dude was outside some random sweet shop on the way to the gate:

We made it to the gate with five minutes to spare. I didn’t have enough time to take Angels traditional looking at the planes pic so let's just stick this one in and pretend:

Ok so it wasn't day-light yet and Angel didn't have the Mickey ears on but whatever I did take a pic of the kiddie ride instead of Angel's traditional pic though lol. You can see the end of the tail from our plane in the pic as well:

Everyone was lined up to board when we got to the gate already so we just joined in the queue. As it started moving as we got near the top a guy decided to just join in from the side and woah the dude in front of us went mental at him. Told him to go to the end of the line that he was rude and how dare he attempt to pass out the entire queue and then stood smack bang in front of him. Mr. Pass out man didn’t move so angry man told him he was going to tell the flight attendants that he was attempting to pass out the entire queue. When we got on the plane I made a joke to Momma to get used to that because from what I read online there was going to be a lot of rude people in Paris… little did I know!
The flight to Paris was only an hour and fifteen minutes. I slept for most of it. When we were about to land the pilot told us the temperature was 0 degrees in Paris, oh goodie!!! Once we landed we got our bags no problem and met our transfer driver. It seemed a lot warmer that 0 degrees. It took an hour to get from the airport to our hotel. There was nothing much to see except for a lot of corn fields:

The driver played Shakira on repeat the whole way and just when I was about to punch the CD player I spotted the first sign of Disney… It’s the back of Space Mountain through the trees

We got to our hotel and went to check in. Our room wouldn’t be ready until 3 so we just got freshened up a little and decided to go into Paris for the day. The hotel had a locker room that you could leave your cases in. We took the hotel bus to the train station at the gates of Disney and in the train station we got a five zone train ticket which cost 15.20 for a return. We then picked up a roll and dessert to eat on the train on the way into Paris. The roll had ham and cheese. Nothing to exciting:

The dessert was called a citron tart and it was extremely sweet. I only ate the base because the yellow bit was just too sourly sweet:

Next up: Searching for a little bit of Disney

 

[petals]

Day 1, part 2:

So we had just bought a tickets to get the train into Paris for 15.20 euros return. I had done a little bit of research on the stations and metros to try figure out what sites we wanted to go see so had an idea of what station we needed to be heading to but just kinda went to the first one and was hoping for the best. So first we had to get the RER A to Charles de Gaulle Etoile which from Marne La Vallee Chessy at Disney took about 35 minutes. At Charles de Gaulle Etoile we got off to go see the Arc de Triomphe which was literally right in front of you when you came out of the station:

The details on that thing are amazing when you think of the amount of work that must have gone into it. It just looks so amazing. I zoomed in on the details:

At this point we actually thought we were on the Champ Elysees and we took a stroll down the street to look for the Disney store because there was meant to be a Disney store on the Champ Elysees. I learnt when I came home we weren't on the Champ Elysees at all that we were on Avenue de la Grande Armee and the Champ Elysees was the other side of the Arc. It would explain why we didn't find the Disney store and the fact that half way down the street I saw the sign saying Grande Armee Whatever though the weather was nice, the buildings on the way down the street all looked really pretty as well with their balconies and flowers and what not:

Most of the shops had expensive cars and motor-bikes:

and then lookie it's a real French one of the things in Epcot:
French one:

Epcot one:

We walked down one side of the street and back up the other side to as far as what we thought was supposed to be the address of the Disney store but it wasn't a Disney store it was a BMW shop. A little more research needed next time maybe or if we had of thought quick enough we could have even asked the nice man that stopped to ask us were we ok because we must have looked a little lost. I had just told him we were trying to figure out what station to go to for our next metro. Anyways we went back up to the Charles de Gaulle Etoile station taking some more pictures of the details on the Arc de Triomphe before getting our next train:

Angel wanted in on the action as well:

So next from Charles de Gaulle Etoile station we got the Metro line 6 to Bir Hakeim which led us to our next destination. The metro smelled rotten as if someone had been sick on it but it was only four stops so not to bad. We got off and had a little bit of a walk only like 5 minutes though to our next destination and along the way I actually found the next train/metro station that we would need. I was disappointed we hadn't gotten to the Disney store and then spotted these on a stall; it's a little blurry because the lady on the stall was throwing me dirty looks when I took out the camera to take the pic but it's the mice:

Soon enough we started to see the first signs of our destination:

The Eiffel Tower!

We crossed over the road to try get better pictures of it and you could see where the Seine River Cruises were loading from the bridge:

Random statue:

We sat down in front of the tower for a while to decide what to do next. I wanted to go up the tower. Momma didn't want to because she doesn't like heights but was going to wait at the bottom for me, however the queue was extremely long and we hadn't pre-booked it so I was afraid that it would take to long to queue and we'd miss whatever else we wanted to do. We eventually decided to go to the other things first and then come back and see what the queue was like when we got back to the Tower. I posted this picture to facebook while we were waiting:

Angel's day out in Paris like
While we were sitting in front of the tower Momma spotted a man with a huge Disney store bag and asked him where the Disney Store was but he didn't speak English so wasn't able to explain to us. At that point we gave up on the Disney store search for the day and just concentrated on the sites of Paris.


Next up: A visit to Quasimodo's house

 

[petals]

Day 1, part 3:

So we were on our way to our next destination. At this stage we were both getting tired of walking and asked a little tourist bike how much to take us to Notre Dame he was like 30 euro each. We ran screaming for the hills... ok I lie we didn't run screaming but we didn't take his little bike either. I had seen the metro station we needed on our walk down to the Eiffel tower so back up to the Champ de Mars stop we went and got the RER C to Saint Michel Notre Dame and again funny enough you come out look right and see Notre Dame straight away. You just had to cross a bridge and a little road and there it was:

Again I was amazed at the detail on this thing. (can you spot the kinda hidden Mickey's?) The people that made these buildings were so skilled it must have taken them years to do them. Momma made some comment about why was it necessary because people somewhere lacking money all the time and yet these building have so much work put into them. Either way they're impressive. We got into a short queue to get into the Church and I took pics while we were waiting:

We eventually got inside and inside was equally impressive, especially those Rose windows. I loved the colour in them:

We walked the full circle of the inside, signed the visitors book in memory of our loved ones and sat for a while just taking in everything there was to see. Once we went back outside Angel had to get his next "Angel's day out in Paris" picture:

I spotted this off to the side, hundreds of pigeons:

There was a lady selling bird food as well. Feed the birds, tuppence a bag came to mind but I doubt it was tuppence for her bird food. It reminded me of St. Marks Square in Venice though the way there was so many pigeons and you could feed them and they'd all crowd around you. Venice is probably my second favourite place I've ever been (Florida being my favourite obviously!)
We headed back towards the metro station then and I took pics along the way:

We had a short wait then for the metro/train and I took pics of one as it went by, they had double decker trains:

Next up: Twinkle, twinkle great big tower!

 

[petals]

Day 1, part 4:

So we were heading back towards the Eiffel Tower from Notre Dame. Momma didn't want to go up the tower so she decided to go off and sit on a bench underneath while I went up the tower. She said after she got a chocolate crepe (pancake) and tea while she was waiting and she didn't like the chocolate as there was too much and it was to dark. I went off to queue and enter rudey number two. So we had got back to the tower about 4.30/5 ish and the queue was alot shorter, so I joined the end as you do and I was literally on the very end when this dude came and stood in front of me.. like really is it necessary when it's only one person. His wife saw and told him in French that I was there before him and she went and stood behind me. He on the other hand refused to move! I didn't make an issue out of it because I had seen her try and if he wants to be rude that only reflects badly on him nobody else. The rest of the queuing went fine apart from the fact it was getting colder and a few more people trying to skip ahead near the top. I spotted this near the ticket counters:

I decided only to go to the second floor as I would see everything from there and didn't want to leave Momma waiting to long as it said the wait for the lift to the top was a further 45 minutes. It was only 8.50 euro to go to the second floor which I was surprised about, I was expecting it to be alot more. To go to the top was 14 euro which again I was expecting it to be more. On the second floor you can go outside and walk all around the tower to get pictures from every angle! Which I did:

Two things now although Momma didn't join me, Angel did and decided to get in on the action Second it turns out that the time I went up the tower was probably the best because when I went up it was still daylight but as I wandered around it started to get dark so you could see the sunset and Paris lighting up:

I wandered around for another while then went inside. There was a little shop where you could buy souvenirs of the Eiffel Tower for ridiculous prices that you could buy on nearby stalls for anything from 1 euro to 10 euro. I then made my way over to the lift because I was worried Momma would be freezing on the ground. Rudey number three and family were here. An obvious queue formed for the lift but this dude, his wife and two kids decided they didn't need to queue and just walked past the entire line and straight to the top. Well they tried until people copped what they were at and made themselves bigger so rudey and co. couldn't get by.
On the way down in the lift the tower started to twinkle. It was amazing.
It was still twinkling when I got down so I tried to take pics:

Momma had a huge smile on her face. I dunno whether that was because I made it out alive, the fact the tower was all twinkly or the fact we could now move out of the cold... it might have been a mix of all three. We headed back towards the metro station and got the metro back to Charles de Gaulle Etoile where we attempted to get the RERA back to Marne la Vallee Chessy. I say attempted we got the wrong train first but I copped it fairly quick and we got off at the first stop to change to the correct train. The journey back to Disney was 35 minutes at the wrong time of the day because it was during their rush hour. Momma got a seat but I didn't get a seat until the stop before Disney. By the time we got back we were both ready for bed after being up since 1am and had sore feet but we decided to go for food in the Disney Village first so we went to Earl of Sandwich. I had a kids meal with the kids pizza:

Looks messy but was actually tasty. Four of these mini muffins came with it as well:

They would have been nice if they hadn't been bordering on stale! They were a little hard!
Momma had a barbeque ham and pineapple something or other:

I don't remember her complaining about anything so she must have liked it. After that we headed back towards our hotel bus, but first we had a browse through the Disney store in the Disney Village, would be rude not to:

When we went to the bus stops we had to ask one of the other bus drivers which was the stop for our hotel and he told us the number of the stop in French, lucky I remember my numbers better than the rest of my French We got back to the hotel quickly, got our cases and went to collect our room key. We were in the main building so not far away. The room was fine, they didn't meet our travel agents request for two beds but we didn't mind sharing:

We both pretty much feel asleep the minute we hit the pillow!

Next up: It's Disney time!!!

 

[petals]

Day 2, part 1:

Wednesday, 7th November 2012
Today we got up at about 6.30am, I think I actually woke at 5.30 and put up the facebook status how come on holidays I can wake up at ridiculous o'clock but can't get up before 12 when I'm at home When we were checking in we had to pick a time for breakfast and they gave you a little card to get into breakfast each morning with. We picked 8.20 because the parks weren't open before 10am anyway so we figured we'd have breakfast and get the bus into the park then. So once we were dressed and pictures of the view were taken (the view kind of reminded me of something from Austria or the Sound of Music) and what not we went to breakfast. The building at the back of the picture is where breakfast was served everyday:

Breakfast consisted of rolls, croissants, ham, turkey, cheeses and I think there were yogurts and then juices, tea and coffee to drink. This is pretty much what we had every day:

Then since people all around us were not so secretly bagging croissants and rolls to bring to the park with them we may have taken their example. Anyways during breakfast someone was getting a bit hyper and it wasn't just me... Momma was making jokes and this continued until we had got the bus and were heading into the Disney security area where they have the airport type scan your bag machines, then from here on I took over the hyperness while I went into the I'M IN DISNEY HYPER FLASH FLASH FLASH GOES THE CAMERA mode! We were going to the Disneyland Park today so the before you enter pics:

This next picture was taken with the Mickey flower head behind me... There was a bridge up over this fountain where people stood taking pics like what I've just posted... I may have posed for peoples pictures while I was standing in front of the Mickey head!

In Paris the big building with the cool Mickey clock you see in the pictures is actually the Disneyland hotel which is kinda like the Grand Floridian only smaller. To enter the Disneyland park you had to go under the hotel, where there's alot more to take pictures of:

Eventually we got into the park and of course the picture taking didn't stop for a second:

The tree was up but there was green boards all around it so I took a picture of the top half instead:

Que OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG I SEE THE CASTLE:

I had been multi tasking so by now I had worked out the first Disney's 20th Anniversary Celebration train would be at 11.15 so there wasn't much point in moving far if we wanted to get that out of the way first so what did we do well first we admired all the Christmassy windows:

Before taking this dudes invite to enter the Emporium:

We wandered around for a while admiring the Christmas stock and picking what we might buy. I thought this was cute, I didn't buy it though:

You know the rule always look up in Disney well this is what you saw at one end of the emporium when you looked up:

Wow much?

We wandered from one end of the Emporium to the next came out a side door admired more windows:

Before going to the next shop.

Next up: Our first encounter of "the mob"

 

[petals]

Day 2, part 2:

So we were wandering around the shops waiting for the 20th anniversary train. We were admiring the shop windows and what merchandise we might bring home:

Winnie the Pooh was meeting near Casey's Corner starting at 11 so we went to check out the meet area. It was a proper queue but people had already started queuing and we would have been about 12 families back and the first train was at 11.15 so we decided not to queue but to take a sneaky side pic. While we were waiting for Pooh bear I took those all important castle pics and pics of the cool looking lamps:

Angel wanted in on the action here as well:

Soon enough Pooh bear came along and I got a few pics of him from the side of his queue. He was in a cute little Christmas outfit:

After that we crossed the street to grab a spot to watch the 20th Anniversary train. We hovered around the bin we always figure that's a good spot because nobody can stand in front of you... it worked this time anyway:

So kinda like the Villains Mix and Mingle in Florida, the train comes along stops in front of the castle and all the characters get off and go to separate meet and greet areas and you go attempt to get pictures with whatever characters you want. Once the train passed I ran off across the hub with Momma playing catch up but I got pics of the main mice getting off the train.

So first I thought I'd go for an artsy pic of the train in front of the castle and every time I tried to snap a pic some fool (it is so annoying when they can see you there with the camera like) stood in front of the train and wouldn't let me get the artsy shot I wanted so after about the fifth person that did it to me I gave up and just shot above their head so got this:

It's still a little artsy but not what I was going for! So characters meeting and greeting. Here's a laugh! I'm used to Florida and its organised system that works for guests and characters during meet and greets. I had read about Paris in advance and from all accounts characters meets would be more like a rugby scrum than a calm pretty little meet and greet like Florida. I thought surely they can't be THAT bad when I was reading all this. Well there's nothing like experiencing it for yourself. I had a quick look around and headed for the character with the shortest line or maybe that should be mob. It was just a mob of people circling around the character who was pushed up against a fence with a CM standing beside them. Then the character was picking out people to come and get a photo okay cool so we'll wait and the character will obviously go by who was there first and so on... eh no!!! The character picked all the kids. Then the fun started, teenagers tried to get pics and CM told them to wait and the character would choose who he wanted to go to. So teenagers started to push to the front. Then more people joined the mob and continued to push their kids to the front and it became very clear that it didn't matter if you were first in this case because unless you were under the age of eight you hadn't a hope of the character choosing you. This both annoyed me and disappointed me hugely and then I was even more annoyed by the pushing and shoving of the mob. I gave up on the hope of getting a pic with the character and just tried for a pic of the character. With a little editing I got this:

I also noticed here that Goofy was actually picking small children up and hugging them and dancing with them and stuff. I don't think I've ever seen a character actually physically pick up a child.
So after the joke of a character meet and greet we strolled up by the side of the castle:

and into this little cave:

Where a huge Dragon lived under the castle. The Dragon woke up while we were in there. I blame Momma and not my light up twinkle toes I had on that day that got an awful lot of stares but that's a side point:

We followed a nearby stairs to see where it led and came out in the castle. Looked up and wow again:

While we were in the castle we decided to explore the nearby shops... would be rude not to like. I loved the extra Disney detail in the shops though:

Someone buy me one it was only 15,000 euro:

and I also think I need a fireplace like this:

Next up: Onwards to Fantasyland!

 

[petals]

Day 2, part 3:

So we were wandering around the shops in the castle:

As well as the Castle having a dragon living in its basement you can go upstairs and walk around. Along the walk the story of Sleeping Beauty is told through stained glass windows and tapestries on the walls:

Around here you can also hear snoring:

I loved the detail on the pillars as well:

There were great views of Fantasyland from outside as well:

So once we had wandered around the castle for a while we went back downstairs and decided it was time to explore Fantasyland:

This was nearby the castle:

Topiary near the tea-cups:

Timothy Mouse can only mean one ride Dumbo:

Looking back at the castle I love how the stones look like a hidden mickey kinda:

I spotted another Mob and decided not to even bother trying to get to the front so I just snapped the character from the back of the pushing fan club. It was Captain Hook:

We continued on our little wander taking in the sights of Fantasyland. Cheshire Cat we will come back to him laters:

and this dude was near a little outdoor coffee/sweets place. He went up and down in the tea-pot:

Next up: Time for some rides!

 

[petals]

Day 2, part 4:

So we were roaming around Fantasyland heading for our first ride. If you've followed my trip reports before you'll know that Momma and I are not big thrill seekers so we love all the simple Fantasyland rides so why not head to our favourite Small World first. In Paris they had done Small World up for Christmas as well:

The train passed while we were waiting in line:

So since the outside was done up for Christmas there was decorations added inside as well but not only that the music was changed as well so instead of it being the repetitive It's a Small World after all over and over it went one verse Small World, one verse Jingle Bells, one verse Small World, one verse Jingle Bells over and over. Anyways pictures... and first up was Ireland:

See the decorations on the dancer's hands:

and just before the end if you looked up there was a little Santa Claus doll watching the boats go by:

Small World was where I spotted my second issue with Disneyland Paris. We were floating along enjoying the repetitive music and going look at that one and that one and next thing floating along beside the little doll on the Gondola was two empty drink bottles. I couldn't believe first of all that someone would have that little respect for the park that they would think it was ok to throw their rubbish out of the boat while on a ride and second I wondered how long they would be left floating there.
Anyways after the excitement of Small World we decided to try some new rides that WDW doesn't have. So first up was Le Pays des Contes de Fées or the Storybook boats. It's basically like Small World only outside and scenes from Fairytales. The wait time was 5 minutes but it wasn't really it was a walk on so we did it twice and best thing about the ride we thought besides the cute fairytale scenes was the spinning wheel of death... ok it wasn't called the Spinning wheel of death Momma and I just christened it that but to get on the boats you stepped onto this rotating platform which kept moving while you were trying to get on and off the boat, kind of like the conveyor belt at Peter Pan flight in WDW. If you fell you were a goner lol, although I think they were able to stop the spinning wheel of death if you did fall it was just difficult to stay upright lol. Anyways pictures:
First scene Snow White and Rapunzal's Tower:

If you looked really closely there was Disney characters in the scenes:

I guess this was the Gingerbread house?:

Peter and the Wolf:

Belle's fathers house:

The Little Mermaid (can you spot Eric)

Wizard of Oz

So after our two rides on the Storybook boats we decided to get slightly more adventures.. I say slightly I've never been on Goofy's Barnstormer but from what I read in advance this ride was similar to it. It was Casey Jr - Le Petit Train du Cirque. It was a little train made up of various carriages and animal cages like a circus train.

Again while queuing for this we encounter yet another issue I had with the Paris parks the belief that some people had that they did not have to queue. Momma spotted it first as the two of us stood chatting on her right a little teen was slowly edging her way up the side... Momma then spotted the fact that the rest of teens family were attempting to do the same thing on my left so as any good Irish person might do we made ourselves bigger and held onto the railings at either side making a barrier so they would have to break our grip on the railings to pass out. STAY IN YOUR PLACE!!!
When we did get on Casey Jr.

It was a fun fast little ride and Momma and I kept teasing each other as it went around the corner that we were going to fall out. We made it back safely with neither of us falling out and headed off to our next fun adventure.

Next up: You and your bold words maze!

 

[petals]

Day 2, part 5:
So we had just got off Casey and were headed out to explore the rest of Fantasyland. At this stage we were both getting a little hungry and our feet were starting to hurt but on the way to the restaurants was Alice's Curious Labyrinth so we decided to explore it. In simple terms it's a maze with Alice characters dotted about inside:

We got to about here and Momma went "<bold word> you and your maze. I'm starving, my feet are sore and all we are doing is going around in circles." I being the ever loving daughter that I am just burst out laughing lol.

We kept going and from the top of here:

We got some great views of Disney and Fantasyland:
See the way the cranes look like they are at what looks like Thunder Mountain that is actually the Walt Disney Studios. That is how close the parks are:

We eventually managed to find our way out of Alice's maze and decided to head to Toad Hall for lunch:

Enter the next rudey! The place was very crowded so Momma went to order and I went to find a seat. I saw one family that was getting ready to leave so I obviously stood beside the table waiting for them to leave. A lady came over and first went are you leaving to the family who nodded so she sat at the table even though it was blatantly obvious that I was waiting at that table. At this stage hungry and tired my patience gave up and I just went and pulled Momma out of the queue because if I didn't, I would have screamed at lady who took my table. Momma was still hungry and disappointed that she wasn't going to get what she had chosen off the menu. I asked her if she wanted to go back in and get it and I'd get food elsewhere but she said it was ok. We went to the bathroom in the meantime while deciding where to go next. I don't particularly mention the bathroom because it was a great experience the bathroom was stomach churning stinking and the floor was wet in the toilets so more than a little unpleasant and unfortunately every bathroom we went into in the parks and village was the same. Anyway we eventually decided on Pinocchios Village house for lunch and it was alot quieter than Toad Hall:

I loved the way in Paris the meal boxes had characters on them:

Momma got a burger meal:

I got a kids meal which was a chicken burger:

Both meals came with dessert but it was funny Momma's burger was obviously bigger than mine but then my dessert was about three times the size of hers. The little Magnum thing came with the adults meal and the little tub of ice-cream was with the kids meal:

So with a fuller stomach we left Pinocchio's village house:

It was getting close to parade time but we figured we had time for one more ride before hand so we went on Les Voyages de Pinocchio:

I thought the side of the little cars were cute:

Next up: Parade and more rudeys!

 

[jenseib]

 

[petals]

Day 2, part 6:
We had just taken a trip on Les Voyages de Pinocchio and like any good ride it empty's into a shop. There was a lot of cute little wooden figures and clocks on the wall I guess to stick with the Pinocchio theme:

So after a quick look around the shop we headed through the castle and out towards the hub for the parade. The day parade in Disneyland was at 5pm and called Disney Magic on Parade. I'm not sure whether it's my want to make sure I see everything and get good pictures or something WDW has taught me but I always make sure we arrive at least 30 minutes before the parades start so we can get the spot we want to watch it from at the front of the crowd because I never want to be taking picture above someone's head like. This is exactly what we did. Parade was at 5 we were sitting on the footpath in front of the castle by 4.30. As it got closer to parade time you got the usual rubbish people arriving late and trying to shove themselves and their kids in front. Momma and I let two small children stand in front of us. They were shorter and agreed to stay out of the way of the cameras plus they were politely standing behind us not asking or shoving so we figured we'd be nice... To the left of Momma were two more young adult girls. So music from the parade starts and next thing this lady starts screaming in French from the back of the crowd at the two girls beside, going how dare there be adults standing at the front of the crowd when there are children at the back who can't see and how dare the adults not let the children shove into the front. Screaming lady had arrived just as the parade started and I'm pretty sure ruined her chances of her kids being given a place at the front by her screaming and rudeness... Anyways enough rudey's on with the parade. The parade came from the Tomorrowland area (or Discoveryland as it is in Paris) I don't think I've ever seen a parade come from that side of a Disney park. Anyway less talk more pics:

Loved this set up for Toy story:

Pooh bear is having his own little party there:

Loved this one. It's kinda rare to see Simba like that:

I found Duffy:

After the parade we went back into Fantasyland to do another ride. This time it was Blanche-Neige et Les Sept Nains (Snow White and the seven dwarves.) Again I was admiring the detail on some of the pillars:

Soon our carriage arrived:

It was nice to see Snow White again and also know that this is now a ride that WDW doesn't have anymore:

After that it was starting to get dark and we still hadn't got out of Fantasyland so we headed towards Adventureland where we went to Le Passage Enchante d'Aladdin, which was basically a short walk through area with glass window type displays with scenes from Aladdin:

I guess our last trip to WDW had taught Momma to always read her receipts to the end because of all the 20% vouchers on them. In Pinocchio's village house where we got the food earlier in the day her receipt had a voucher for a free hot drink if used at certain dining places before a certain time. So at this stage she quietly went um it's 5.45 and I have this voucher that has to be used by 6 can we possibly go to one of these places like now if we're near any of them. Stressing that it was ok if we didn't but really wanting to get some hot tea. So we headed back to the Hub to find Momma some hot tea and stopped to take pics of the castle on the way:

(that castle is hard to get a good photo of at night time because it is not lit up as well as the castle in WDW!)
As we were walking along Momma was laughing. I had my light up twinkle toes on (no I'm not 12 but I do act it) and by now it was obviously getting dark so the lights were brighter which meant every child that walked towards me (and some adults) would stare at my feet, look at me, then look at my feet again. I ignored it mostly, I'm used to it people tend to stare when I've dance gear on or disney clothes whatever I'm used to it. Momma found it hilarious especially when people would nearly fall over from staring at my shoes lol!

Next up: Bonfire Night Disney style!

 

[petals]

Thanks

 

[petals]

There's a little light reading for y'all
Happy New Year

 

[petals]

Just some Disney fun from the past month..

Firstly I really shouldn't go to the Disney store but every time I go to Dublin and pass it I can't not go in. It's like there's a huge magnet inside that pulls me in and more often than not I leave with something. At the end of last year Duffy made his way to the Disney store and well this came home with me:

The manager was also asking me that day if I thought that Duffy would be popular over here. I reckon it will if firstly people "get" his story and secondly little girls make the build a bear connection to him

Then Santa came and brought this:

Love him

Then I was in my local supermarket there last week and walking past the dog food section and saw the clear bit at the bottom of this pic and thought lol that looks like a Mickey head on the dog food. Looked at the packet properly and it was Disney dog treats. Needless to say my boys needed them so I brought them home for the boys:

Lastly I've been having a clear out of everything. Childhood toys, clothes, general rubbish and came across this in the attic:

It's a bag from Walt Disney World from I presume 1995 so if you've ever wondered what the bags looked like back then now you know.

 

[amandaw]

Checking in & catching up on the DLP stuff.

Love the parade pics!

 

[momabaarjo]

Love the Dragon! How cool is that cave! Your pictures are always amazing, you never disappoint...even if rude people (I wonder what language they spoke...) get in your artsy shots. As for the size the magnum bar verses your cup of ice cream...I will take the magnum bar YUM-O!

 

[petals]

Checking in & catching up on the DLP stuff.

Love the parade pics!

Thanks. It was a cool parade. I love the different floats like Lion King that WDW doesn't have

Love the Dragon! How cool is that cave!

The Dragon is cool. I think they should do something like that with the castle in WDW so that people can walk around upstairs and not just for the expensive meal!

Your pictures are always amazing, you never disappoint...even if rude people (I wonder what language they spoke...) get in your artsy shots.

I never understand why people do that I mean it's not like they can't see the camera and see you are trying to take a picture either go behind or have the manners to wait like. If it was me I would wait until the person has taken their picture, it doesn't usually take that long.

As for the size the magnum bar verses your cup of ice cream...I will take the magnum bar YUM-O!

Momma loved that magnum and told me to take a picture so she could remember what it was Mine was like the top of a cornetto in a bowl!

 

[afwdwfan]

Wow, when you post updates, you really post some updates!

There was nothing much to see except for a lot of corn fields:

Ok, it might seem weird, but I'm a corn farmer from the Midwest, so I was actually kind of excited to see a picture of a European corn field. Looks about the same as the ones here though.

The driver played Shakira on repeat the whole way and just when I was about to punch the CD player

I'd have been temped to punch the driver.

We got to about here and Momma went "<bold word> you and your maze. I'm starving, my feet are sore and all we are doing is going around in circles." I being the ever loving daughter that I am just burst out laughing lol.

And it is moment's like this that make me glad your momma tagged along on this trip. She seems to add a lot of interesting side stories to your TRs!!


It really looks like a fun trip. I studied French in High School, so I've always been fascinated with Paris. I really want to see it in person sometime, but thanks for sharing the pictures!

 

[lovethattink]

Aww, the Mickey Santa and Duffy are so cute! Love the other pics too.

 

[MEK]

What? I missed a mega-update yesterday and the day before! I'll check back in tonight when I can see pics! Can't wait.