Home

[Martin B]

Day 1 - Part 1

''Shake those bones around the tombstones''

Well. My girlfriend and I have just returned from an abolutely halloweeny mind-blowingly magical 4 day trip to Disneyland Paris. This is my 4th visit. I went twice when I was about 11 and I've now been twice with Amy, including last Christmas. I always love reading everybody elses trip reports, so this time I've decided it is only fair if I compile one myself.

We flew from Luton Airport with easyjet who were great value for money. We arrived at CDG for 08:30 am. We were hoping we could still make it into the park for EMH, and decided to take our first ever journey on the TGV. The journey itself took only 9 minutes, but there was an initial hour delay. So by the time we checked in at hotel Cheyenne, dropped off the luggage and headed for the park it was approaching 11am.  

So, to the parks...



I thought this was a much nicer welcome sign than the previous ' New Generation' version. The New Generation welcome sign was very pixary and taccy, but this was very nice and a lovely traditional picture of sorcerer mickey too.

Amy immediately fell in love with the Mickey pumpkins. I was really doubtful about the prospects for Halloween this year after hearing some rather negative reviews, but as soon as you enter the park see the orange flowers, halloween garlands, mickey shaped pumpkins aswell as Mickey in his Halloween outfit you really are plunged straight in to the atmosphere! It was fanastic.





We hadn't met many characters on our Christmas visit, so when we saw Pooh at his meet and greet at the top of main street, there was only one thing we were doing first...





I loved Pooh's outfit this year, it was great. A much more wacky costume compared to his normal bumble bee suit, which I remember from when I visited at Halloween as a child.

After meeting Winnie, we headed for our first ride of the trip. We went on IASW first and last on our previous trip, so we have decided to make it a tradition. But on the way to the annoying little boat ride, the Disney Dance Express stopped off by the Castle Stage. I had some negative reviews about this Train Parade, but we loved it. The characters looked so funky in their retro neon gear, and the dancing and cast members were so fun.

It was even better for Amy because she got to see her favourite character for the first time this tour...



Despite, having planned everything so well in advance, we had already altered them crazily having fitted in Dance Express and Winnie. So at about 12.30pm we finally reached IASW which was a walk on..



Second ride, and second walk on in succession...



We then decided to have a light walk around Alice's Curious Labryinth. It was closed at Christmas, I think it must have been due to the snow and ice as it wasn't scheduled to be closed in the programme or online. So this was a first for us..



After having a fantasyland doseage, we went through to adventureland for our first journey on Pirates of the Carribean. The wait time said 5 minutes, again it was another walk on. We could not believe it. To be fair, I probably wouldn't queue anymore than 5 minutes for this ride. It is a bit boring on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th time. But it can be a welcome sit down on a busy day.

Next stop was the skull rock..



We were both itching to get on to our favourite ride. BTM. We saw the queue was 20 minues, but we could actually get a fastpass for half an hours time! So we took advantage of this and walked on to Phantom Manor to kill time. The Manor was very halloweeny especially with Jack and Sally patrolling outside the gates. The Jack was brilliant, his voice, actions, everything were great. He really made us laugh when the Cast Member said 'Come on Jack, you need to go and feed Zero now' Obviously wanting him to take a break but Jack replied 'I don't need to feed Zero, he's already dead'. We were in stitches, and he continued to pose for photos and sign autographs for everybody.



So, it was fastpass time for BTM. There was no fastpass queue at all, so we walked on to that too. This was really great so far. Walking on to every ride, we must go on a Thursday again!

However. In good old Thunder Mountain style, it broke down. We were evacuated after about 5 minutes, and had to walk along the track and out of the ride. Thankfully it was in was at the end of the ride, just after you come out of the dark for the last time..





Never mind...

I had to take a good old picture of BTM, it looks amazing all day, every day no matter what the weather is. Thankfully we had boiling hot sun for the majority of all four days of the trip!



After BTM, we decided to go and see what Villains were out and about. There was a good selection, and we knew we would have to keep revisiting to see if anybody different was out.

Firstly we met..



and....



We were running on adrenaline, but despite being up since 3am to catch the flight, we wanted more. We decided to have a mini breather and watch the first of the two halloween shows. Again, we had read some negative reviews about 'Mickey's treat in the street' but the whole thing was fab. The games were really fun, and I imagine that if you had children it would be even better.
The Characters looked stunning in their new halloween outfits..



There were three different games. Goofy hosted the first game which involved the children at the front hula-hooping with the characters and scarecrows..



Secondly, Donald hosted a game called 'Where's the bat'.

Then Chip and Dale played 'Bounce the Ghost' which was really fun when about six, large inflatable ghosts were thrown in to the crowd, and we had to stop them from touching the floor.



We decided, to then get a drink and something to eat at the bakeshop. Amy had a pink glazed donut, and I had a delicious toffee apple. We had never eaten there before, but throughout the holiday we discovered the cakeds and pasteries were all delicious.

So, after a quick snack and refreshing drink, we decided to do a bit more character hunting. Off we went to Adventureland, for the Aladdin meet and greet. We were hoping to meet Jafar or Genie as we do not like the face characters as much. But I have a soft spot for Jafar. We were not dissapointed. First of all we queued for Jafar, and then as soon as we had our photo taken with Jafar out came Genie so we queued again. Great timing...



It was only me who had my photo with Jafar. It was becoming rather recurring that Amy didn't want her picture taken with any of the villains, and only the cute/nice characters. Hence..



We decided to go and see who was at Rythms of the Jungle meet and greet. The odd pairing of Timon and Baloo were out, we queued for 20 minutes to see them, when were next in line. They both left and out came King Louie and Rafiki. I really wanted to meet Rafiki, so again this was great timing..



We had been on a real and proper character hunt during the afternoon, so we had a quick stop off at the shop in fronteirland, where they had these adorable pumpkin figures..



We didn't buy much as we still had a lot of the day left, so didn't want to be carrying it all around. BTM was working again so we got another fastpass for BTM for in 10 minutes time, which was just awesome! We walked straight on despite the 40 minute queue, I did wonder who on earth was queueing when you could get a fastpass and walk on within 15 minutes!

Well, that's part 1 of Day 1 done. Later, I will cover a bit more of the day in the park and our adventures in the village and at Cafe Mickey.

Thanks for reading, feel free to ask questions.

Martin

[norhel]

Nice report :-)
Don't know it is my computer or not, but a couple of the pictures is stretched.

[Martin B]

Thanks Norhel, will  upload more later.

The pictures with Maleficent and QOH, look stretched too. The original pictures aren't stretched but they look stretched on here...

Sorry!!

Have a good day!

Martin

[jackieann]

loving the photos.  i am sure i see you walking around the park.  did you see the car stunt show on saturday??

[ecila_]

Lovely report!
and although I miss the pumpkin men, the park looks great this time of year and i love all the characters outfits!

[Martin B]

Yes, we saw Moteurs Action on Saturday morning!

We probably saw you aswell then!!

Martin :0)

Thanks for nice comments everybody!

[jackieann]

yeah i am sure you were sitting in the row in front of us, looking at my pics i think you are in the back of one.  will upload some to facebook then add the link. i dont know how to upload photos to here.

[littlemermaid83]

Great report!!! Making me miss the place even more.

[SophieD]

A lovely start to your trip report!! Lots of character hunting-my fav!!

[Martin B]

Thanks everybody!

Would love to see the photo Jackieann.

Amy and I were discussing how many photos we were in from other people's snaps without realising. It is interesting to see who is in our photos too!

Martin :0)

[jackieann]

this is one link. let me know if it works?
X


https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... 132&type=1

[jackieann]

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... 132&type=3

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... 132&type=1

[Annet]

Great report so far. I just can't believe you think Pirates is boring, it is one of my favourite rides!
But I'm glad you enjoyed your trip

[Martin B]

Thanks Annet.

I can't view the pics though Jackie :0(

Day 1 Part 2 tomorrow! :0)

[jackieann]

are you on facebook martin??