Wednesday 22 January 2020

Disneyland Paris at Christmas






How lucky was I that I had the opportunity to go to Disneyland Paris at Christmas. As soon as we got back from our first ever trip in February we literally booked this trip a few weeks later. We had the disney blues bad. We thought what could be better than going and combining both disney and Christmas.

As my sister is a teacher and I am a nurse trying to find a weekend in December where we could go was proving impossible. We managed to find some dates and booked to go from the 21st- 23rd. With our previous two trips we have always got on the first flight available out and then come home on a late night flight. This time we got a flight from Manchester to Paris at 06.10 and the flight took 55 minutes. We then got our luggage and got on the magic bus which took around an hour. We then arrived at the hotel which was the Hotel Cheyenne (post here). We checked in, and dropped our luggage off as we couldn't get into our room until 3pm. After this, we headed straight into the park and we were in there for about 09.30 which I think is pretty good going. It is such a short flight you can still have your entire first day.

We had made a bit of a schedule as to what we wanted to do each day. This day was dedicated to meet and greets in the main park. We were really excited about the meet and greets, but as always the queues can be big. We queued for Thumper and it was definitely took way over an hour. The most exciting thing on the first day was the parade. My sister had seen sneak peeks of the parade, but I wanted to save it to see it for myself. It was such a fabulous parade and they definitely went on all out with theming. Everything was as you would expect Christmas themed, but it was really magical. There were lots of new characters on the parade who I hadn't seen previously, which is always exciting. It completely got me into the spirit and I watched it twice on the first day.

Before we went this time we had fully prepared ourselves that it was going to be sooooo busy especially as it was the weekend before Christmas. To our surprise it was the same kind of busyness as at Halloween. The queues for the rides were big, but a few of the bigger rides were down due to the heavy spouts of rain. As always we took advantage of the fast passes and used the disneyland app to keep up with the waiting times of each ride.

There was no denying that they have decorated Main Street amazingly as they had a huge Christmas tree at the start of the street. It looked incredible and as soon as you walked through the gates, and it put an instance smile on my face. My sister and I did however find that some areas had no decorations at all and it didn't give me the same excitement the entire way round the parks. It was slightly disappointing and I think there was actually more decorations when we visited at Halloween (post).

My sister and I decided to treat ourselves to breakfast with the characters at Plaza Gardens. It was a lovely experience. We met lots of characters including Eeyore, Piglet, Winnie, Minnie Mouse and Donald and Daisy duck. The experience did however feel a little bit rushed as it was a very quick picture and they move on. With some of the characters if you were not ready and waiting, you literally missed your opportunity and there was no going back. Overall though, we had a fabulous time and I would definitely book and treat myself to a character breakfast again on another visit.

We booked onto a full board meal plan for this trip. If you book through the disneyland website itself you can build your holiday and adapt it to what you want. I think I would always opt for some kind of meal plan whether it is half board or full board. There is no denying that the food is expensive, and even if you eat at the counter service rather than the restaurants you will easily spend 50 Euros each on food a day. The meal plans are normally less than this for and you can eat in the restaurants and fill your boots.

On the last day we decided to treat ourselves and eat at one of the Disneyland Hotel's restaurants called Inventions. It was another character meal and it was such a special end to the holiday. The food was incredible at this restaurant, it is part of  the premium meal plan and you could tell. On the standard meal plan which is what we opted for each meal has a worth of 35 Euros. You can exchange this worth in and pay the difference. I think we had to pay an additional 35 Euros which is a lot and I would never have paid 70 Euros. However, with the meal already being half paid for it was one last treat to us.

In 2019, I was lucky enough to visit Disneyland Paris three times. We went for the first time in February and were instantly hooked. If you have read my recent travel plan post, you will know that my sister and I have booked to go to Walt Disney World Florida at the end of May and I couldn't be more excited.

Lucy
xoxo

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