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[Sulley's Arms]

Having bought our Dream APs in October, the point was to be able to experience the different themes throughout the year - Halloween, Christmas, "normal" (i.e. Mickey's Magical Celebration) & the 20th Anniversary celebrations.

Although the Halloween trip was only 6 weeks ago, this December trip felt as if we hadn't been for years - for instance, on the drive down through France on the Friday morning, I found myself randomly grinning broadly at the prospect of what was in store for this weekend (the rides, of course, the Christmas-themed characters, the Christmas shows & parades, etc.).

Day1:

Now, the first priority for this trip was to satisfy our longing to ride Big Thunder Mountain - it was closed during our Halloween trip and, partly because it's just awesome, and partly because it's the only ride to have ever made my wife actually cry  :thumbs:, this was definitely our first port of call for Day 1.

We arrived at the car park at around 10:30-ish, got togged up in our hats, gloves, etc. and made the walk round to the gates (travelator still out of service!).  Through the turnstiles we skipped, opting to walk along Main Street USA rather than cut-through the Liberty Arcade to get our fix of BTM a bit quicker - after all, we've never been during the Christmas season before, so our first glimpse of the decor along the street was essential.  The first thing we noticed was the different ambient music playing along Main Street - it has always been the same on previous trips (in a very good way!) but to hear seasonal music floating through the air was just brilliant.

Anyway, time to focus.  BTM is waiting!  10 minute queue - awesome   .  It was more like 5 minutes, and felt incredible to be back.  "Can we go on again?  Please??" asked the kids as the train re-emerged from the return tunnel.  "Oh, ok then, if we must"  .

After BTM we walked around to Santa's Christmas Village, to see whether we could meet the jolly old elf (I'd heard that the real  Santa is sometimes at Disneyland, if you're lucky [-o< ).  The queue was rather large though, so we agreed to put this treat off until tomorrow morning and instead just wandered around the Village to see the Festive decoration.  We loved the reindeers' barn, with a saddle & picture for each of the magical creatures!  Also, the whole area being covered in snow, with snowmen looking like they'd taken over this part of the park, was lovely, when accompanied by all the Christmas trees (this area looks great from the train, as you go past on the way around to Fantasyland Station).

Next stop - Indiana Jones.  Another big tick in the box for that one.  Then it was time to throw some normality into our trip by going on Buzz Lightyear's Laser Blast.  This ride was closed for our entire trip a few years ago (despite not even being on the closure schedule when we booked only a month before!) and that made us realise just how important this ride is to us!!  Since then it's always the first ride we go on during EMH   .

The plan for this day was simply "Rides" (rather than shows, or characters).  As such we spent the entire day moving from one to another (queues of less than 10 minutes certainly help a plan like this!).  Fantasyland was the area of choice after Buzz, mixed in with lunch over at Colonel Hathi's Pizza Outpost and, after we'd been on so many rides that we were happy to 'downgrade' our Plan to only go on rides, we decided to go to see Mickey's Winter Wonderland!!  We saw this Christmas show back in February so knew what to expect but loved the idea of watching it whilst it actually was Christmas!

From here we had just enough time to scoot over to Main Street USA in time for the Once Upon A Dream Parade.  It was far busier than we'd expected, although we grown-ups could see ok and just held the camcorder above everyone's heads!  The boys are used to finding gaps where none exist, so were soon at the edge of the curb with a decent view!  I don't know why but I had expected Toy Soldiers in the subsequent Christmas Parade (I forget the exact name of it but it was probably something to do with Dreams!) so was a little disappointed to see 'normal people' doing a dance ahead of Sants'a sleigh.  Of course, it wasn't really Santa's sleigh - this Santa looked about 20 years old with an obviously fake beard!  Plus, of course, the real Santa was probably meeting people in the Christmas Village, so he had to have a stand-in for the Parade, right?? Makes sense.

After this, the evening past with us watching the various shows / events that took place after dark.  The first up was the Tree Lighting Ceremony on Main Street / Town Square.  Amazing tree, although we wondered what was actually going to happen since the tree lights had been on all day!  Well, we soon found out !!  The way the lights 'magiced' their way up the tree as far as the star was great, and this is oh so effective when the lights on Main Street all go out.  Then of course the obligatory moving music kicks-in ("Chante, C'est Noel"), snow starts to fall and DW had a tear in her eye :cry: .  Just how are Disney so good at this??

We milled about for a while after this, soaking in even more atmos, and then went shopping before it was time for the next Christmas treat - Princess Aurora's Christmas Wish.  I assume this must happen every year, presumably with a different theme each year (?) but, although the actual show itself didn't exactly contain much of a narrative or story as such, since the aim is to create a scenario from which the castle becomes illuminated, it was just fantastic.  To be able to stand at the top of Main Street USA with the frost-blue walls & icicle-white turrets, all framed by the piercing search lights meeting above the castle peak, was quite breath-taking.  The photos are amazing .

By this time, having travelled from England that morning and spent the day in the damp cold, we decided shortly after this to leave for the evening and check-in to our hotel, get warm & dry and have some warm food!

[Sulley's Arms]

Day 2:

Up early again on Saturday - we had our meeting with the Big Guy planned, so couldn't delay matters with sleep! In the Disneyland car park dead on 8, after the (not very brisk) walk round we were in the Parc at 8:15. In the Town Square there was literally nobody else around. The Christmas scenery (plus that Main Street ambience) made for an amazing experience, simply standing there; the kids climbed aboard Goofy's sleigh for a photo opportunity and in the early dawn light we turned to see the one & only Mickey Mouse strolling towards us. We're used to seeing queues during the day to meet Mickey so to have our own private audience was just superb. We took lots of photos before saying our goodbyes and heading slowly up Main Street (by now there were actually a few other people around - probably still only 2 or 3 families though).

The usual package of EMH rides was summarily undertaken for the next hour or so, before waiting for Parc Opening, to allow us to go meet Santa. A jog through the parc at 10:00 took us into the Santa Claus Village, even before Santa had made his way across to his workshop! What a lovely setting, with Santa in his chair by the fireplace, and workbenches across from him, with wooden toys in the process of being made . This is why we're doing our Dream Year...
Well, after a few photos and a chat with the man himself (that's right - THE Santa), we hopped across to the Studios Parc in the hope of some festive movie mayhem (or similar, if mayhem isn't available ).

By 10:30 we were in and heading for Tower of Terror, Rock n Rollercoaster, Cars Race Rally, etc. (just not all at the same time!). as we criss-crossed the Parc at 11:00 we stumbled across a selection of characters in Toon Studio; we met Mrs Incredible and also Stitch, who stole our DS's Santa hat (don't worry - he gave it back!).

Following an afternoon spent enjoying Stitch Live, AniMagique & Cinemagique, we assumed the necessary positions to get a decent view, ready for Stars & Cars (featuring Christmas music soundtrack) which, since they dropped the show element at the end, felt more like a proper parade, rather than just the trip down to the stage, if that makes sense. After that and a spot of (window) shopping we made to leave the Parc to get a spot for the Once Upon a Dream Parade in the Disneyland Parc. On the way out, we saw that 'gold Christmas costume' Mickey was about to come out for photos in front of his Limo, so we hung back for a few minutes to queue to meet him (even though we'd hung out together earlier that morning (LOL)!

So, back into DLP for the Parade, followed by Pirates of the Caribbean, Mad Hatter's Tea Cups, Small World & Pinocchio (plus something to eat, of course ). By 6:45 it was time for Aurora's castle lighting show / ceremony (I'm pretty sure that Disney gave it a more catchy name, but I can't remember whilst I'm writing this ). Disney clearly excel at an awful lot of things but moments like this really stop you in your tracks and cause you to just gaze & smile; how you can you effectively make an entire castle just change colours in quick succession, as the 3 fairies argue about how things should be, is quite beyond me (or at least it used to be, but more on that in my June trip report ).

As the Parc wasn't as busy as I'd expected it might be just two weeks before Christmas, the queue times weren't too bad which meant we were able to take in a few extra rides before our first experience of Fantillusion. I'd heard about it, but had made sure not to stumble across any videos of it on You Tube! We grabbed a spot on Central Plaza and waited (and waited!) for the Parade to pass, and pass it certainly did; the floats are amazing and it's all very effective with the musical backdrop. We did however choose the wrong spot to watch, as it turned out to be right in between two sets of speakers, that were each playing different elements of the soundtrack (i.e. one for the float that just passed, plus one for the float that was on it's way). This in itself wasn't too much of a problem but when the parade stopped for the "floor show" element, where the walking cast members turn on their light-trailer-units and perform dances, we could see any of the action, as they were either too far in front or too far behind! Oh well... Still enjoyed it!

A couple more rides and then back to the Adagio hotel for the rest of the evening. They play the Disney Hotel TV "Top 10 Things to Know Before You Go" video loop in the rooms that you get if you stay "on site" (or the first half of it anyway, as after number 5 it cut to the French version!). This video, featuring 'Sophie', has become such a key part of our Disneyland trips!! We know we should hate it but we can't get enough of it, LOL.

[Sulley's Arms]

Day 3:

After a rather chilly night (outside I mean, not in our hotel room!), it was down to me to re-pack the boot of the car and scrape / defrost the windows. Brrrr... The sky was clear and the Eastern horizon just starting to show signs of the new day. We jumped in the car just before 8:00 and drove 'round to the car park.

By 8:20 we were walking up Main Street looking at the Castle, which was catching the full glare of the now rising Sun on it's front face. The Moon was also just to the side of the Castle, which made for some beautiful photos. Quite breathtaking.

However, even moments like this can't delay the impending certainty of extreme family competitiveness that is Buzz Lightyear's Laser Blast!! It's simply not possible to get bored with an attraction like this (especially if you get a new high score ). As it was our last day we made sure we had one last ride on all of our favourites (you can't beat being at Disneyland when there are no queues).

By 11 o'clock we head back down Main Street to queue to meet Santa Goofy; it looked to be about a 30 minute wait so we all ordered hot chocolates & cookies (i.e. asked Mum to go and get them for us!) and joined the queue. When it was our turn, Goofy was certainly on good form, playing with the toy drum on his sleigh, making jokes with us, having a dance with DW ?, etc. We got some great photos here, and I think a couple of them might just make it into frames at home next Christmas!

Well, this trip certainly lived up to it's potential as a really different experience in an increasingly familiar location for us. This weekend put a big tick in the box for those different Disneyland experiences that we wanted, that were the whole reason behind wanting to buy Dream Annual Passports.

So, after another successful chapter, an unbelievable amount of laughs during the trip, and some truly unique moments, we left Disneyland to start our journey home, sad to be leaving but happy to be loving our Dream Year.

Can't wait until February... /