OK, quick summary of day2!
Monday was our first full day in DLP. In the morning we had to and do some food shopping for our villa (self catering...), we would be eating lunch in the parks but dinner would be back in our hotel... There's a little market down the road from the Marriott, so we could avoid going to the huge Auchan in Val d'Europe. After dropping it all back in the room, we made our way towards the parks, and the DV car park (2 euro for a full day with an AP, really worth it!)
And finally, we were back. Of course our first destination was Disneyland Park! First thing you noticed when you arrive is the beautiful decorations on the Main Street USA station. They are gorgeous!! There's a big, Mickey-shapped garland, with sparkling lights all over, and the windows are decorated with pictures of Mickey and pals. And then you walk into Town Square, and a HUGE beautiful Christmas tree is there to welcome you, with a big pile of presents under it... And behind it, Main Street USA with its garlands (again Mickey shaped) all along... Beautiful. Christmas all over
We arrived a few minutes before the Christmas cavalcade was due to start, so we got a place in Main Street to wait for it. The music starts playing, and soon enough, we could see Goofy and his soldiers coming down Main Street, followed by Mickey, Minnie and Donald on top of their brand new float... And it starts to snow!! Goofy and the soldiers were brilliant, one of my favourite bits of the whole thing! They had a lot of energy, and were dancing all together beautifully. Although I confess, I miss the toy soldiers we used to have, and the noise they made walking down the street.... Still, these were very good. Then comes the new float, with Donald playing on his drum, and behind him Mickey and Minnie wearing beautiful, Christmas coats. Behind them on the is a Christmas tree, with Tinkerbell waving from the top, and Pluto sits on the back of the float. Oh, and Winnie and his friends come just behind. My daughter loved it, she was calling at them all and waving and simply being a very happy little girl
Chip, Dale and Clarice dressed up as pastry chefs followed with a couple of gingerbread men and more dancers, wearing very colourful dresses. They were followed by an elf, sitting on a deer between some snowy Christmas trees (I'm not describing it verey well, but you know which one I mean...), with the Incredibles behind him (not sure how they fitted into the whole thing, to be honest, but their vehicles were pretty cool). Buzz, Woody and Jessie followed in their float (though personally I think they Woody and Buzz are slightly too high up to see them as well as you could). The dancers dressed as toy planes, together with some elves, come before the biggest float of them all, the one with Santa and his reindeer. And Donald's nephews are sitting with him!
Overall a great parade. The dancers are very good and they bring a lot of energy to it. And the floats, the music and the snow, make it quite magical. Very Christmassy
Right, time for some rides... And first stop, Buzz Lightyear! As some of you may know, it's one of my husband's favourite rides, and Alicia really enjoys it too (she loves Buzz, but as far as I know she only really knows him from the ride!!). There was very little queue, we had to wait outside a bit but once we were let inside we want straight in and only ended up waiting in the last corridor. I went in with Alicia, and despite the fact that she was having a lot of fun spinning us around, I managed a great score!! (Ok yes maybe stopped in front of a good target for some time....
)
When we came out Alicia saw Orbitron, and she asked to go flying on the planes. I should maybe say, my poor baby is learning 3 languages (Spanish, English and French) so she mixes them up quite a bit, and we have a lot of trouble understanding what she's saying most of the time. But she was pretty clear asking for "plane" and "flying" (wonder what it says about her upbringing that one of the few verbs she uses regularly is "flying".... fortunately it does come in useful in Disneyland
). Now Orbitron was the only ride in the whole resort that I had never done before. No particular reason, if only to be able to say that I hadn't done it all so I had a reason to go back... Well now that reason is gone (the things we do for our children!!!). It had very little queue so we really had no reason not to do it... Because I have long legs and have a tendency for clumsiness I went by myself, while Alicia and her dad were in the ship behind me. And I have to confess, it was a lot of fun!! I don't know if it was because I kept looking back to wave at them and take pictures, or because the thing moves quite fast, but it did feel... well, not scary, but something like that. Do you know what I mean?
We hadn't booked any restaurant for lunch today, and since we were starting to feel a bit hungry we went to the one place I keep saying no one should go: the Hyperion Cafe.... Even though the park was relatively quiet, it was very busy, and very slow in there. I stayed with Alicia so that she could run around a bit while my husband went to queue for the food. It took him about 15 minutes to come and join us... Then we had to find a table, and we ended up quite close to the top. On the plus side, Mickey and the Jingle Boys came on stage just when we were getting our seats, and we could see the show while we ate (Alicia was particularly happy, she loves Mickey and she loves music!!) We went for the Christmas menu and it was nice... The burger was quite tasty I'll admit, with mushrooms. But it would have been nicer it it was a bit warmer...
We came out for lunch in time to see the Christmas cavalcade one last time, this time by the Castle (so no snow, but still a lot of magic there). After that Alicia fell asleep in her pushchair, so we had a little walk in the Disney Village (Starbucks....) and then back to the park to wander around the shops a bit. One problem of not staying on site is that I couldn't really use the shopping service to get the stuff sent to the hotel (you can send it to the WOD store in the Village, but I imagine it can be pretty busy there at the end of the day...) But even if you're not going to buy anything you can still have a look and start planning all the pretty things you want to get....
After Alicia we were discussing what to do and mentioned "Mickey Mouse".... After that there was only one thing she wanted to do! So we went to Fantasyland to meet everyone's favourite mouse. Alicia was so happy!!
We came out just in time to get a spot to watch the parade (as usual we went to the start of the parade route, by Bella Notte and IASW). A lot of fun as usual, and it was great to see the new Frozen/Tangled float! The Frozen part looks great, and the back with all the new lanterns around Rapunzel's swing is beatiful.
It's becoming a tradition to go straight into IASW after the parade, and so we did
Of course now it was the Christmas version, It's a small world Celebration, and I really love it. It's great how it feels like the same ride we love, and a totally different one at the same time. And Alicia loved it too, so much that in fact we had to do it twice in a row (in fact I think that during the whole trip, we never could do it just the one time, it was always twice....)
By now it was getting close to 18:00 and the new tree lighting ceremony, so we headed towards Town Square, grabbing a hot drink and chocolate brownie on the way.
The new ceremony is wonderful. There's a little dialogue between Pinocchio and Jiminy Cricket (in French and English), but it's not very long. Then the music starts playing, and the tree, and the garlands in Main Street, all light up together, it's beautiful. And of course you can see it from anywhere in Main Street, unlike the old ceremony with the characters in the float under the tree, and that's a big plus. At the end we only watched it the one time, and it's one of my regrets from the trip...
After that we went to Central Plaza to grab a spot for the Christmas Dreams show. We got one in front one of the flower beds, which was great. Alicia was sitting in her pushchair watching Lilo and Stich on an iPhone while we waited (I couldn't really ask her to sit around doing nothing for 30 minutes). And even though it was pretty cold, time really flew by! A few minutes before Dreams they light up the Castle, it's not advertised anywhere but they should, because it's beautiful!! They have projections on the Castle, and use the fountains with the lights, before lighting it all up. Beautiful!!
And then, finally, the Christmas Dreams show... It's stunning. Probably the best thing of the whole Christmas season. I had managed to avoid seeing any videos of if, so it was all a surprise for me. It was gorgeous!! The pictures I took were pretty bad (and for half of the show I had Alicia with me so I couldn't really take any), and in any case no pictures (or videos, for that matter) can do it justice. You have to see it for yourselves, live. Disney magic at its best
After that, we joined the sea of people leaving the parks, and were quite soon back in the hotel, exhausted but very happy
As before, here are some pictures I posted in
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