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[Disneyland Paris Treasures]

We were at DLRP for the last week of the Christmas season, 2.-8.1.2011 and I finally found the time to finish write writing down some of the stuff I found worth mentioning:

In the beginning we had 2 nights in the hotel Santa Fe, so we could check out their Cars "overhaul". Aside from the bedsheets (and the billboard of course) we didn't notice any differences. The flat screen TV was a great improvement, but then it has nothing to do with the Cars overhaul. Fun fact: the flat-screen TV in Disneyland Paris's "most affordable" hotel Santa Fe is noticeably bigger than the flat-screen TV in the resort's most expensive hotel, the Disneyland Hotel, because the DLH one has to fit into a cabinet :-)





When we strolled through Hotel New York on the first evening on our way to the village I checked the fireplace to see if it was lit (it never was lit in the past when I checked) and was very surprised to actually find it "lit", but it was an artificial fire "effect"! This is certainly new, isn't it? Surely this originally was a real fire, thinking how classy and stylish the Hotel New York was originally envisioned:




The outside pond had no water in it, so the base of the huge Christmas tree was visible, looked strange:



There was some Christmas entertainment in the village, which was nice:



I don't know why but seeing this very stylish but old and unused sign somehow makes me sad:



I think it will be gone soon. Anyone knows when it was actually used the last time?

First morning in the park I immediately noticed this beauty:



What a great idea!!

I know it is back for quite some time now, but this is the first time I could actually check it out: the newly refurbished Main Street Station organ, which looks fabulous and plays now again, each time a train arrives at the station:



Interesting to see they actually changed some elements during the refurb. Compare how it looked before the refurb:



The phone at Town Square Photography is still badly broken:



I made sure I took tons of pictures (and a video: here) of the soon-to-be-removed organ centerpiece at the Disney & Co. boutique:



We had lunch at the Silver Spur Steakhouse and I was pleasently surprised to be entertained by a really great band:



Made it feel very classy to dine there!

On Big Thunder Mountain I was surprised to see these three smoke effects all working together at the same time:





The rocks were working too, but sadly still no smoke during the explosion scene (been a while since we had that effect)

In the graveyard scene of Phantom Manor there was A LOT of fog, never seen that much there before. It was so much there was still fog visible at the end of Phantom Canyon:



Sadly there still is no fog behind the skeletal bride pointing you to the exit. I don't understand why they can't fix that effect as the scene is really eery with the smoke and really boring without the smoke. In fact it has been off now for such along time (or I just have really bad luck not seeing it working?) that I think it must be disabled for a reason. Maybe the smoke is makeing the exit walkway slippery?

Sadly for the whole week Belle's Village was closed, although it was still four days of the Christmas season. I was especially disappointed as this also ment that the storybook land was closed the whole week and even on the weekend! I really wanted to check out the new Rapunzel tower :-(



Meeting Chewbacca and Darth Vader at Star Tours was really cool. I remember telling my kids some years ago that in 1992 I met Chewbacce while I was waiting in a ~2 hours line for Star Tours and they were really jealous, and now they could meet him and even Darth Vader too!!




I already read about the Wall-E & Eve "statues" at Discoveryland, but noone mentioned that they actually have light effects at night. Eve's eye glow blue (like in the movie) and Wall-E's energy display is lit and changes its' status to reflect his energy capacity (or something like that):



I was surprised to see that you could now buy Hooter and Fuzzball of Captain Eo as plushs, as they were not there to buy in august:




On Thursday, 6th of January, the last day of the Christmas season we were surprised to find Santa Clause wave Goodbye to us when Disneyland Park closed (made a video of him too: here):



After two days we switched to our "main" hotel for this vacation, the Disneyland Hotel. In winter we prefer it because the close proximity to the park is very, very convenient when it is cold outside and this is also the only season where we can afford it. This is what room service looks like at the Disneyland Hotel:



After some trouble with the room (again! Already had trouble one year ago) and a loooooong discussion with a manager we were kindly upgraded to the Castle Club, which was an amazing experience. Believe it or not but the Cast Members there are much, much friendlier than in the rest of the hotel.

Being in the Castle Club allowed me to check out the "Founder's Club" which I only read about and was very curios to see:




Hmm, what else. I noticed RC Racer has now has an official single rider line (which means it it has signs now, which most people didn't see, which made it possible to ride it again and again as often as you want. I only rode it three times in a row but my 10 yo. son went crazy and ran each time from the exit back to the Single Rider line and rode it 6 or 7 times in ~30 minutes, I think!



last but not least this time we did something I wanted to do for a long time now but never managed to do somehow (it is so hard to do it, considering how early WDS always closes): Check out Walt Disney Studios Park by night!!! I think it looks amazing:






Did you know the controls and the spotlights of the Armageddon buggy are actually lit by night:





Sadly we rode the Tower of Terror once too much, which meant we were too late and they wouldn't let us into the Toon Studio area any more. I was really disappointed by that, because I wanted to check out TSPL by night and also the water effect on the Crush's Coaster building, of which I had only read about. When my son noticed how disappointed I was he took our camera and sneaked in for me and actually managed to make a few pictures:






Ok, that's about all I noticed and find worth mentioning. Let me close with a few panorama photos that I made with an iPhone app called "Panorama", I think - although not perfect - it is a really cool effect:






30.01.2011, Small update:

Uh, I almost forgot one thing, which I actually find very much "worth mentioning":

I think we all love how the Disneyland Hotel smells and some fans have even searched for fragrances that smell the same (e.g. here) to bring back home a bit of the magic... So, you can imagine how surprised I was to find that the "official" fragrance of the Disneyland Hotel is now available for purchase, directly at the hotel:




Interestingly it is only sold at the main reception and the Castle Club reception, not in the boutique (!)

I bought two and plan to take at least two more on our next trip. It smells beautiful, just like the real thing! I hope it becomes a success and maybe Hotel New York will follow?

[strawjaw]

Your photo's look great - did you use a tripod for the night shots?
I'm hoping to get alot of night shots myself this time, as I only got a couple last time, and I wasn't too impressed with them.

Wow, I'm so pleased the Wall-E and Eve statues are lit up at night - they look superb, I can't wait for my little girl to see them. She'll be so excited.

I love the Captain EO soft toys - something tells me one of the fuzzball's will be making its way back to my house in my suitcase when I go...

I'm looking forward to seeing the new covers in Santa Fe - I like them much more than the previous ones, although I will miss Clint. It won't seem the same somehow.
Are there any decent Disney channels on the TV?
Last time we went, we only had one channel, and in one volume- LOUD!!! Ha ha.

Looks like you had a great time. Looking forward to my trip!!!!!  /

[traveller]

Great photos.   Thanks Nicolai for sharing and also notice some wonderful details for us.
I love the one with Santa.

[never2old]

I love your pictures!!! Thank you for sharing your trip with us!!

[littlemermaid83]

Fanastic photos!

[LittleMonster]

Nice!
I can't wait for the next update!

[Disneyland Paris Treasures]

Uh, I almost forgot one thing, which I actually find very much "worth mentioning":

I think we all love how the Disneyland Hotel smells and some fans have even searched for fragrances that smell the same (e.g. here) to bring back home a bit of the magic... So, you can imagine how surprised I was to find that the "official" fragrance of the Disneyland Hotel is now available for purchase, directly at the hotel:




Interestingly it is only sold at the main reception and the Castle Club reception, not in the boutique (!)

I bought two and plan to take at least two more on our next trip. It smells beautiful, just like the real thing! I hope it becomes a success and maybe Hotel New York will follow?

[Disneyland Paris Treasures]

Your photo's look great - did you use a tripod for the night shots?
I'm hoping to get alot of night shots myself this time, as I only got a couple last time, and I wasn't too impressed with them.

Yes, for the night shots without flash I usually use a very small tripod which allows me to just hold the camera against a wall, lantern post, trash can etc. Together with a 1 sec automatic release it produces nice realistic colors.

Are there any decent Disney channels on the TV?
Last time we went, we only had one channel, and in one volume- LOUD!!! Ha ha.

They have the English Disney Channel for sure and I also think English Disney XD. and of course the English Disneyland Paris Room TV (SORTED. )

[strawjaw]

Your photo's look great - did you use a tripod for the night shots?
I'm hoping to get alot of night shots myself this time, as I only got a couple last time, and I wasn't too impressed with them.

Yes, for the night shots without flash I usually use a very small tripod which allows me to just hold the camera against a wall, lantern post, trash can etc. Together with a 1 sec automatic release it produces nice realistic colors.

Are there any decent Disney channels on the TV?
Last time we went, we only had one channel, and in one volume- LOUD!!! Ha ha.

They have the English Disney Channel for sure and I also think English Disney XD. and of course the English Disneyland Paris Room TV (SORTED. )

Thank you, I have just bought a gorilla pod for my compact camera, so hoping to take some great shots with that. My SLR will be too bulky to take on my next trip, as I will be alone with my daughter. I will be experimenting though - so thanks for the tip.  :thumbs:

Yes, the Disneyland paris room TV channel was the only one we had last time - and it was in french, so will be so glad to see something different, actually, it'll be quite nice to see it in English, ha ha.

Looks like you had a great time - and those Disneyland hotel fragrances are an amazing idea, I think I will  be going and checking them out. =)