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[never2old]

Hello!

My brother is back home from university in Boston (he's studying film scoring, he's going to be the next Michael Giacchino  :wink: ) and with him being a big Disney fan, and not having been to DLP in over a year, and the wonderful 40% discount offers, well we simply had to book a trip...

Then my mother got jealous, and she convinced my father to join us for one day in the parks, and one day of shopping in the Val d'Europe outlet!

Friday night, after work, we left towards Paris. We had booked a couple of nights in the Marriott Village (didnt particularly want to share a room with my parents and my brother, a two-bedroom villa seemed perfect!) We got there around 10:00 Friday night, ate some dinner, and watched Enchanted (to get in the right mood  :wink: ).

Of course, it was all covered in snow...


And the next morning:


We had a breakfast pack, which meant we got a baguette, some croissants, coffee, milk, juice, ham, cheese... A huge, delicious breakfast, and a great way to start the day.

My parents:


And my brother Miguel with my mother:


After breakfast, it was shopping time. The sales were on, which I think made the outlet even busier than usual, but we got there early enough to get most things done before the big crowds got there...



After a rather exhausting shopping spree (not the best idea to take my mother there, she could have spent there a few days  :roll: ), we went for lunch to the Disney Village (where else!!) The Steakhouse was booked for a private function    so we went to Ludwig's Castle, it was nice and quiet and of course delicious!!





By now it was close to 4pm, and after a bit of shopping in the DV (I got a really nice Mickey DT, I'll post a picture later) we headed to Paris.

Pictures of Paris by night coming next!

[never2old]

Paris still had lots of Christmas decorations around, which by night, looked beautiful!

We headed to Champs Elysées, had a walk around, before driving back to the Marriott in the evening. It was really nice!







Disney Store  


















We didn't see Quasimodo though


Sunday in Disneyland next!

[WillN]

VERY nice night pics! We're going to Paris in March right after our visit to DLP, so these are very appreciated.  =D>

By the way, the picture with the giant snail is the Val d'Europe outlet? We'll have to go there one afternoon, my fiancée says she won't marry me if we don't...  :? (Actually, I'll probably enjoy the shopping time, as usual, but I like teasing her...  :wink:)

Looking forward to the next set of pictures and, of course, I'm eager to listen to the next "Space Mountain: Mission 3" composed by your brother...!!!  

[never2old]

VERY nice night pics! We're going to Paris in March right after our visit to DLP, so these are very appreciated.  =D>

By the way, the picture with the giant snail is the Val d'Europe outlet? We'll have to go there one afternoon, my fiancée says she won't marry me if we don't...  :? (Actually, I'll probably enjoy the shopping time, as usual, but I like teasing her...  :wink:))

Thanks Willn!

Yes, the giant snail is in the Val d'Europe outlet. If you get there early morning or on a weekday (when it's quieter), it's really pleasant!! And if you get tired of shopping, they have a nice little Starbucks... Or you can go to the big shopping centre next to the outlet. You can easily spend a few hours in there!

Looking forward to the next set of pictures and, of course, I'm eager to listen to the next "Space Mountain: Mission 3" composed by your brother...!!!

I'll tell him that!  

[dagobert]

Great trip report so far.
How often a year do you go to DLRP, I'm very jealous.

By the way your pics are great as always.

[Annet]

Nice report so far, I love your pictures of Paris!

It's been too long since I went there, I'm going there in august again when my firends and I will be taking a road trip through France. Ofcourse DLP will also be paid a visit

[never2old]

How often a year do you go to DLRP, I'm very jealous

Not as often as I'd like, you know... But I try to go at least a couple of times a year, if more opportunities come up I never turn them down!  :wink:  ILast year I managed to go 8 times....

And thank you all for your comments  

Next chapter:

Sunday morning, after getting everyone up early (who wants to waste time in bed when you could be in the parks  :wink: ) we went to the New York Hotel. It's definitely my favourite hotel (after the Disneyland Hotel, that is), and I hope I can stay there many times to come. As soon as we walked in, we were welcome by the lovely, warm smell, and some of the Christmas decorations. Someone took our bags, and in no time we had our park tickets. There was a bit of a queue for the checkout, but otherwise the hotel was really quiet. Lovely.

Outside, it was all covered in snow... Beautiful! And yes, it was also very cold (but we were dressed for it, so not too much of a problem)

The Christmas tree outside the NYH was still up:


Lake Disney was looking quite solid...


Seagulls meeting point... The whole resort was full of them, I don't think I've ever seen so many!


And the ducks don't mix with the seagulls


By now it was 10:00, so we headed to the Studios. My dad hadn't  seen them yet, so we couldn't go to Disneyland without a visit to the Studios...

The area around the fountain was closed off (too slippery with the ice and snow), but you could walk aroudn easily. Overall it was OK to walk everywhere, there wasn't much snow (nor ice) on the ground, except in some areas. Which was great, because I'm rather clumsy, and even though I was wearing snow boots, I didn't want to end up with a twisted ankle or anything!





Inside Studio 1, most of the Christmas decorations were still up:





My mom and I:


And my brother with my parents:


I thought we could do the Studio Tram Tour (my parents didn't particularly fancy trying out the Tower of Terror...) but it was closed down, I guess because of the weather. So instead we went to Armaggedon. It was fairly quiet so we were not too crowded, which was a nice change from other times... Neither my parents nor my brother had done it before, and they all enjoyed it. I also liked it, the CM at the pre-show was really good. He was also giving some directions when we were inside, so it was a lot of fun.

Miguel and I got some fastpasses for the Tower (for 12:00). We had a bit of time before Animagique (at 11:00) so we had a little walk around the Studios.







Animagique was beautiful was always, and we followed it with Cinemagique. Such a beautiful movie, I cannot recommend it enough.

After Cinemagique, we were just on time for our TOT fastpasses. Despite the cold there was still a fair amount of people around, so we ended up waiting a bit in the machine room, it took us about 40 minutes to come out. My parents were waiting for us in the shops, and together we all went to Disneyland.

Next part coming up!

[dagobert]

Disneyland looks really good with all the snow!!

[laura87]

Wow! Those pictures of Paris at night are absolutely stunning. I also love the wee picture of the ducks! Great report so far, can't wait to hear about Disneyland Parc.

[-breeno-]

Great trip report so far N20, DLP really does look lovely in the snow.

I'll look forward to reading the rest of your report

[The Butlin Boy]

Thanks for sharing your report N2O, your photos are amazing, especially the Paris ones which just look so beautiful

I look forward to the rest

[howtodeal]

Fantastic Report  
The lake looks really different. I've never seen it in winter before, It looks like a completely different place.  :shock:
oh, and the breakfast looks yummy btw  :mrgreen:

[never2old]

Thank you all!

It looked really different with all the snow and frozen lakes, yes. It was really beautiful. If we'd had some blue skies, it would have been incredibly stunning. It was really special!

Here's part 2:

After the Studios, we made our way accross the very wintery Fantasia Gardens to Disneyland Park. Everything was frozen, it was really beautiful.



Miguel protecting himself from the cold.... Slightly overdoing for the picture of course. Teenagers  :roll:  :wink:


Main Street was looking beautiful. The Christmas tree and all the decorations in Town Square were of course now completely gone, and so was the Christmas music. For me, walking into the parc and hearing that wonderful Main Street music, really makes me feel like I'm coming home...

Our first destination was It's a Small World. The Christmas overlay is still there, and it's really beautiful. And the different soundtrack really makes the ride feel very different. And to top it all there was no queue at all, so no one had any reason not to go in! (my dad and my brother didn't seem to happy about doing it, they're not big fans of the IASW song, they say it goes on and on and on and on  :roll: )





Ducks have chosen IASW as their territory. There were plenty of them outside, but for some reason none of them go into the ride... Maybe they don't like the music either  :lol:




















Really beautiful ride... Even my dad enjoyed it!

We had booked lunch at 2pm at Walt's (since my parents had agreed to come, I had to take them to a nice place for lunch!!), and by now it was after 1:30, we had time for one more ride. It was between Peter Pan and Pirates, and my father chose POTC. So we made our way accross a gorgeous Fantasyland, towards Adventureland and POTC.







Part 3 coming soon!

[norhel]

Love the pics!

[never2old]

Thanks norhel  

I'm uploading the next set of pictures (somehow I missed a bunch of them), I'll post the next part as soon as they're ready!