Trip Report The Lurkyloos Do Disneyland Paris in the Snow! UPDATED 10/18 - How to Get to Paris from Disneyland!

[lurkyloo]

Ok, I can imagine if it's your big trip, you're really disappointed by the snow, but it looks soooooo gorgeous!

BTW, the fouie grass stand, that's just another souvenir stand

Dang! Well then it SHOULD be a foie gras stand!!!

 

[Lesley Wake]

It’s not a feeling you get to experience very often. Can you even remember your first visit to Disneyland or Magic Kingdom? Well, I didn’t need to remember this visit because Patrick was shooting E V E R Y T H I N G—especially Main Street—so thoroughly that Google could create a street view just from his photos.

You weren't kidding! Though I'll probably be taking just as many photos in a couple weeks!

Forget the snow hat—now Tink’s got a whole snow cape!

Adorable!

Uh, yeah, we can still see you back there, Yellow Safety Cone…

All of those comments were hilarious! Love it!

This hill is pure genius! It makes what is already arguably the most photogenic Disney castle in the world even MORE photogenic.

And square trees, I mean come on! Definitely a way to get you into the fantasy!

This section is particularly magical in the snow because it’s something you might actually have seen in the past of real life.

Very very true!

I love the way the Frontierland sign looks in the snow!

That is so cool!

If I’ve said it before in past trip reports, forgive me—I want to be sure it’s down on virtual paper: Why doesn’t Disney just make Tomorrowland the land of the Future That Never Was, circa 1955? Yes, OK, Discoveryland is supposed to be that, but it’s a steampunk fantasy based on 19th Century visions of science fiction and fact. But Disneyland’s Tomorrowland could be an homage to all the bright, streamlined wacky visions of the future generated in the 20th Century. It would be a nod to Disneyland’s origins, to Walt Disney’s futurism and to the current mania for Mid-Century Modern everything. Oh yeah… they can’t do it because there’s no branded franchise they can apply to it. If only Brad Bird’s Tomorrowland had been a massive hit!

That would be so nice to see! But yeah, no IP, no luck!

Unfortunately, due to the weather, they ran a modified version of the show with just the castle projections, no fireworks. So we were actually in pretty much the worst place to see the show!

Argh, that sucks!

There’s also a Premium Menu for people on one of Disney’s pre-paid meal plans. I did the math six ways to Sunday and could not figure out how any of these would be a good deal for us, so I skipped them. However, when I mentioned I’d pass on the dessert course with the Tinker Bell Menu (cuz… fruit!), they said I could have the chocolate dessert on the Premium Menu. So you may be able to order other stuff off this one if you’re paying out of pocket.

I tried too and also decided not to get the meal plan. I figured if I ate at signature places for every meal, and ordered the most expensive stuff, maybe. But that looses flexibility and what if I really don't like the food-I've already prepaid it all! Anyways, once I booked a Golden Forest Room which came with breakfast, it was a no brainer!

They aren’t kidding when they say the French like a leisurely meal. We nearly fell asleep while waiting for the bill and didn’t get outta there till after 11pm!

Oooh, I'll have to remember that! Now I'm worried I may have not picked good dinner times, but of course, since I can't check my reservations, I don't remember for sure what time I booked! At least I think most of my ADRs were for lunch (Chez Remy, Captain Jack, Walt's), with just one definite dinner (Inventions), and 2 back-up dinners (Plaza Gardens and Hunters Grill).

 

[Karin1984]

Yay for the next installment!

- Love all the snow pictures. I hate cold and snow, so I’m glad I wasn’t there, but I love looking at your pictures Especially the Tinkerbell ones. But, yeah, I would feel the same: It looks great, but this snow is also very inconvenient.

- I have been to DLP 2-3 dozen times and I come home with at least 5 photos of the castle each time (A)

- Peter Pan seemes open, there are people...

- How clean are the facilities – They are new, last year they weren’t there.

- Toad Hall is nowadays my favourite place, if it’s open, I make sure I am there at opening to make sure the fish is fresh (I also went at closing and got a double plate instead of a single as I was the last customer, and it was not as good…) It's the downside of low season, lots of restaurants and shops are closed, especially during the week.

- No comments about the butter being from the area the name ‘Disney’ originates from?

 

[lurkyloo]

Oooh, I'll have to remember that! Now I'm worried I may have not picked good dinner times, but of course, since I can't check my reservations, I don't remember for sure what time I booked! At least I think most of my ADRs were for lunch (Chez Remy, Captain Jack, Walt's), with just one definite dinner (Inventions), and 2 back-up dinners (Plaza Gardens and Hunters Grill).

I had this SAME problem! I could barely remember what I'd asked for when I called to make reservations cuz I'd been freaking out about getting them after my travel agent dropped the ball. And there's no place online you can go to check them. You don't even get an email confirmation! Although maybe it's better you can't check the times so you can't worry about whether they're good or not. I'll bet they're good!

- How clean are the facilities – They are new, last year they weren’t there.

That is fascinating! I wonder if they're helping.... Thanks for the info!

- Toad Hall is nowadays my favourite place, if it’s open, I make sure I am there at opening to make sure the fish is fresh (I also went at closing and got a double plate instead of a single as I was the last customer, and it was not as good…)

Oh that is another great tip about the fish!

No comments about the butter being from the area the name ‘Disney’ originates from?

I didn't even NOTICE!!! I'm going to have my Disney Fan License revoked!!!! Thanks for pointing it out

 

[Lesley Wake]

I had this SAME problem! I could barely remember what I'd asked for when I called to make reservations cuz I'd been freaking out about getting them after my travel agent dropped the ball. And there's no place online you can go to check them. You don't even get an email confirmation! Although maybe it's better you can't check the times so you can't worry about whether they're good or not. I'll bet they're good!

Did you get anything when you checked into your hotel? I remember they asked where I was staying when I called in to reserve, but they didn't get my reservation number...
Based on my notes of what to request (and I know I got all the ones I requested), I think I have:
Day 1: Inventions 8pm

Day 2: Chez Remy 12pm,

Plaza Gardens 7pm​

Day 3: Captain jack 12pm (?) - not in my notes but I know Walts was closed this day so I switched days.

Hunter's Grill 8pm?​

Day 4: Walts 12pm

I now sort of want to switch Walts to later so I could request a window table and see the parade from above. So I'll see when I check in if there is any availability. Otherwise, I'll just deal with what I have. Hunters Grill will depend on if I want to stay in the park later that evening or call it early!

 

[lurkyloo]

Did you get anything when you checked into your hotel? I remember they asked where I was staying when I called in to reserve, but they didn't get my reservation number...

I now sort of want to switch Walts to later so I could request a window table and see the parade from above. So I'll see when I check in if there is any availability. Otherwise, I'll just deal with what I have. Hunters Grill will depend on if I want to stay in the park later that evening or call it early!

That is a great idea to watch the parade from Walt's—wish I'd thought of that!!!

They did not give us any kind of an itinerary of our dining reservations when we checked in, but that might be again due to the whole "if you book through a travel agent we won't talk to you" thing. Very frustrating!

 

[janiebubble]

That small green building at the end of Main Street? It’s the control booth for the fireworks/illuminations show!

 

[lurkyloo]

@janiebubble A-ha! Thanks so much for solving the mystery for me!

 

[lurkyloo]

A Snowy Morning in Fantasyland
For our first full day inside Disneyland Paris, we woke up bright and early so we could take advantage of free Castle Club breakfast before Extra Magic Time. A good night’s sleep had done wonders for my attitude, and I sprang out of bed full of optimisim and enthusiasm despite the blanket of snow that still covered everything.


Good morning, Big Pink Wall o’ Doom!

Breakfast at the Castle Club Lounge is the real deal, with a wider variety and more extensive menu than anything I’ve seen at Walt Disney World’s club lounges (though, sadly, without the egg salad I loved so much at the Ambassador Hotel Club Lounge at Tokyo Disney!). In addition to pancakes, waffles, crepes, bacon, sausage, potatoes and eggs, there was a custom omelette station, oatmeal/porridge, fruit, cereal, tons of pastries, English breakfast items like tomatoes and baked beans, and super-swanky charcuterie/cold cuts that even I wouldn’t turn my nose up at! Also, if you go at the right time, they have characters visiting each table, making it basically a small, relaxed and exclusive character breakfast. So if you’re trying to make the cost calculations come out ahead, you can throw that in the balance.






Carmen Miranda called… She wants her hat back!



We settled into our favorite table by the window and enjoyed a view into the park that I forgot to photograph for you (“Can’t shoot… Eating!”)



Things were looking rosy when we stopped back by the room to pick up our 86 bazillion pieces of paper for admission and access around the parks and resort.








Disneyland Paris’ Extra Magic Time is available to all Disney hotel guests every morning, in both parks simultaneously. The hours are a bit funny: They tell you that Extra Magic Time lasts from 8:30am to 9:30am, but the park opens at 10am. Nobody kicks you out during that last half hour or anything, but why not just say it lasts from 8:30am to 10am?

Right at 8:30 we took the special Club Level elevator to the park entrance, and then hoofed it all the way back to Fantasyland, which is the only part of the park open for Extra Magic Time. It was pretty icy out that morning, but there wasn’t a cloud in the sky, and the sunrise made for some fabulous photos.


Salting the sidewalk or feeding the birds?



Pretty friggin’ magical!!!













Not many other hardy souls made it out to the park that early!

 

[lurkyloo]

This upper gallery was closed for refurbishment during our visit. Maybe it’s a good thing, cuz I’m betting Patrick woulda been compelled to take a million photos of all that amazing stained glass!







Boy, if you thought Fantasyland was cute already, wait til you see it in the snow!



Our arch-enemy, Yellow Safety Cone!!!



Yes, those are real live icicles! Could it be any more perfect?!







Frozen water! I totally threw a snowball in there.









This beanstalk is nuts! Why can’t we have crazy stuff like this in the US parks? Oh yeah… Because it would have to have a security fence around it and 15 lawyer-approved warnings about not climbing….







Enjoy this path before it turns to mud-slush.



Look at the quilting on the roof of the Mad Tea Party! It is literally a blanket of snow!





Foie gras/souvenir stand….



I dunno why we thought Alice’s Curious Labyrinth would be open, but we got our hopes up again. I’ll bet it looked amazing inside in the snow.



I can’t decide which is cooler: Seeing incongruous places like Adventureland in the snow, or seeing places that actually would have snow, like Toad Hall…



Peter Pan’s flight really came through for us that morning. We rode it four times in a row, much to the cast members’ delight.



My eyes automatically go to this load-area rooftop on whichever version of Peter Pan we ride, because Disneyland’s has had a broken finial for at least 10 years now…


So THAT’s what it’s supposed to look like!



And then Patrick had another acid trip!













I really gotta find out where that guy is getting all this acid!

 

[lurkyloo]

I loved all the light effects in Disneyland Paris’ Peter Pan! Disneyland’s effects have never worked this well… It was our first taste of what would become a running theme on most of the rides we did manage to experience: Disneyland Paris has the very best version!





#ThrewaRockInIt!





The perfect Christmas tree….



Next we rode Pinnochio twice (which is about as much as I can handle of children being turned into donkeys and shipped off to the salt mines).




“I’ve got (s)no(w) strings on me!”



The murals in these Fantasyland rides are just fantastic. Prepare yourself for many more mural shots….



Ah…. a cheerful fire to warm our hands on a snowy day in Disneyland!



Translation: “Don’t let the door hit you on the way out!”



Another fabulous mural…







I love the blue sky and colorful teacups in this shot Patrick took. Plus, icicles!!!



Unless those cups have actual steaming-hot tea in ’em, I’m not interested!

















I stole Patrick’s shot….





It’s not everyone’s cup of tea (ba-da-bump!), but when there are only five rides open in the whole park, you kinda gotta do the Mad Tea Cups!



Patrick had fun playing with the camera settings on this ride.

 

[lurkyloo]

This is what *I* see when Patrick has an acid trip….



We spilled outta the teacups and into the snow, then headed for it’s a small world.



















Our boat got stuck on the way into Small World, so we got to see the full clock show while we waited. I love all the figures!








A tiny peek at what the landscaping looks like under all that snow…



Neither of us had been that impressed with photos of Disneyland Paris’ Small World. It seemed like an extended version of the reviled “America” addition they gave ours at Disneyland a few years ago. But in person…. it is GORGEOUS!!! When the whole ride is done in that newer style, it looks amazing. We were so knocked out, we rode it three times in a row.

And now I am going to show you 1 bazillion photos of a ride that looks better in person than in photos…



Apologies in advance for the shots that are out of focus. I thought you might still like to see the color-splosion!

 

[lurkyloo]

The only place we raised an eyebrow was at the reductive depiction of the US as nothing more than New York, San Francisco and Hollywood, but I’m sure denizens of other countries have been doing the same at their representation for years. (“Le sniff! France is more than can-can girls and the Eiffel Tower. We also have wine!”)



I do love that the Hollywood Bowl made it into the Imagineers’ narrow requirements for depictions of America….

 

[lurkyloo]

Où est la Goose Girl?



Apparently the fourth Can-Can Girl is playing hooky with the Goose Girl.



Check out the cray-mazing icicles dripping down the left side of the canopy!



Even the country that gave us Daft Punk prohibits disco dancing aboard it’s a small world!



On our final trip through the ride, Patrick focused on closeups and got some pretty great ones!



Uh…. one of these things is not like the others… Is this some kind of Grumpy Cat tie-in?





Why is this hat not available in the gift shop? I demand that this hat be available in the gift shop!!!



I adore the happy cactus! (Also, “The Happy Cactus” would be a great name for a Tex-Mex restaurant!)

 

[lurkyloo]

So… much… GLITTER!!!







At this point, the park was finally open, so after getting our fill of the Happiest Cruise That Ever Sailed, we headed off to Adventure Isle for the Sloppiest Cruise That Ever Sailed: Pirates of the Caribbean!









Ahoy! Ye be headed fer the Widowmaker Steps!







I love these costumes! I feel like we’ll never see anything this elaborate again at Disneyland since they started cutting costs by having cast members launder their own costumes. Either Disneyland Paris still cleans all its costumes in-house, or they just trust French cast members to know what to do with them!



No drink for you!





On the way into Pirates, we spotted the craziest icicles yet!







We didn’t take photos this time around, but I’m pretty sure we have some later in the trip. Pirates of the Caribbean at Disneyland Paris is AWESOME! Until I see the one in Shanghai, I have to declare this one the best version anywhere in the world. It has everything you love about the original, with some fun twists. (The caves come last! A high flume takes you right over the loading area!) And everything is bright and fresh and in good working order. We both loved it!

Back we went to Fantasyland, stopping in at Au Chalet de la Marionnette for a drink of water that wasn’t frozen.



It feels a lot like the Village Haus in Disneyland, minus the Beauty & the Beast makeover.



Back out into the cold to admire Skull Rock from afar (since it didn’t open til our last day).

 

[lurkyloo]

Another off-limits gem: La Cabane des Robinson/Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse. Patrick was particularly bummed about that one….



Back to Fantasyland for a spin or two on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs!



This one had another appealing mural, so here are too many shots of that…



Whoa, something did NOT translate to 3-D! Snow White looks like she’s snapping her fingers for the waiter…


“Garçon!”

Still, it’s better than Disneyland’s grim Evil Queen death followed by an abrupt “And they lived happily ever after” mural!







Happy looks a little too happy here… Maybe he got into whatever Patrick’s been doing!



On our way back to Main Street for our lunch reservation at Walt’s, we stopped at the lavishly themed gift shops inside the castle, which would look SO much nicer without all the merchandise!



Putting this mantel on the list of features for my imaginary Disneyland mansion where every room is themed to a different land or ride….



BUN-BUN!!!! What happened to your HEAD?!!!!



This shop has a back exit that leads to the dragon’s lair underneath the castle (La Tanière du Dragon), but it was closed.



Sorry this one’s out of focus, but I wanted you to see this amazing display inside the shop—an almost-full-size Dwarfs’ Cottage with a fabulous little pond vignette.





I love that this is here for no reason other than whimsy. The Imagineers would never get away with something like that now….



I have to warn you: It took us a while to figure out how best to shoot inside the Dragon’s Lair, so these first photos aren’t great. But we have a TON more coming down the pike….

 

[lurkyloo]

Annnnnd…. CASTLE!



Teams of cast members were out in full force to shovel snow. I often wondered what their regular jobs were that they could drop everything and do this. Maybe running the rides that were closed?



OK, I can’t end on that unglamorous photo. How about a sneak peek at my favorite room inside Walt’s Restaurant?



Up Next: Lunch at Walt’s—An American Restaurant!

 

[afan]

Love all the pictures! I'm seeing things we didn't see in our trip a couple weeks ago, like Pinocchio on the outside of his attraction. I also agree that most of the rides that are also in WDW are better in Paris. Though I prefer WDW's Space Mountain. I haven't been to DLR in over 15 years so I can't compare to there.

 

[lurkyloo]

@afan Yeah, I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that some of the attractions are even better than their Disneyland counterparts! Pirates, even!

Although I've always found WDW's Space Mountain to be just too jerky and physically punishing—kind of like the Matterhorn. I can't handle either of them anymore!

 

[afan]

Although I've always found WDW's Space Mountain to be just too jerky and physically punishing—kind of like the Matterhorn. I can't handle either of them anymore!

It is but I can't do the upside down that much any more whereas in the right car I still enjoy SM. DLP's Rock n Rollercoaster was awful though. I hit my head on the restraints so many times. But their BTM is the best!