Catching a late Christmas in Disneyland January 2018 TR

petals

Irish Princess because Cinderella said so!
Joined
May 18, 2010
I wasn't going to write a trip report for this one but since I'm trip planning again figured I might as well.

For anyone who hasn't read my trip reports before our Disney travelling group consists of me, 30 something year old Disney addict, my Momma, who we won't mention her age and Angel a white bear who is our trip mascot and comes all over the world with us!

We stayed in the New York Hotel, a new one for us from the 6th until the 10th of January

The day before we were going to an event in Dublin Zoo called Wild Lights which was an evening event so since we had an early morning flight out of Dublin the next day we decided to stay at a Premier Inn hotel near the airport. The room was fine no complaints and they had a shuttle bus to the airport so it was all good:

Once we were all checked into the hotel we headed back into Dublin Zoo for Wild Lights. It was basically loads of animal and flower light sculptors and was gorgeous.




This was made of thousands of ceramic plates and cups:

There was also a little craft fair and an acrobats show and this dude. He was doing some trick with the masks that every so often the colour of the mask on his face would change:

Wild lights was a great evening and would definitely recommend it to anyone in Dublin over the Christmas period if they run it again. We were finished there by 9 and headed back to the hotel ready for Disney.
 
Day 1, Part 1
6th January:

Our flight to Charles DeGaulle was bright and early at 6.40am so we were up at 3 and got the shuttle bus from the hotel to the airport. We dropped off our bags, I took pictures of the Christmas trees:

After a quick breakfast we headed through security. The flight took off on time and we landed in Paris at around 9.10:

Once we had our luggage we headed to try find the Magic Shuttle. That was a little confusing. I’d read it was in terminal 2 so since we landed in terminal 1 we needed to get a tram first to terminal 2 which seemed to be miles away. Then we had to find 2E and F because again I’d read the buses were between them. It took us just under an hour to get our luggage and find the buses but eventually we found them:

And an hour later we got the first sighting of Disney:

We seemed to be the last hotel they stopped at but eventually we got to Hotel New York. There was a place outside where you had to scan your luggage and a guard dog. The guard dog didn’t like the look of Momma apparently because she was looking in its direction and it started barking at her :confused3 Anyway check in was fairly quick, we got our park tickets, meal vouchers and photopass voucher and once we collected the photopass from the shop we headed straight out the door to the parks. Christmas tree:

We had to walk through the Disney Village to get to the parks and there was loads of little huts with sweets and drinks for sale. We stopped by one to check out the chocolate apples and macarons but didn’t buy anything yet:


After that we headed in Walt Disney Studios:

Our first stop was the Studios Tram tour since that was going to be closed for the rest of our trip:

It got a little wet:rotfl2::

Love these:

Next we went to see Mickey and the Magician, this was a new show for us and we loved it:



After that we browsed through the shop for a bit and went to Stitch Live before it was time for food. We had booked Restaurant Des Stars, it was a buffet and had all sorts of stuff like chicken, beef, pasta, pizza, sweets, cakes and ice cream.



This is what Momma got:


She didn't like the shrimp so left them there. I got this and I think the beef was my favourite bit:

And for dessert Momma tried:

And mine:

The meal included one drink and was 72 euro but was covered by our meal plan. The food was nice but probably if we didn’t have the meal plan we wouldn’t eat here again as we’d go for something cheaper. When we came out of the restaurant we spotted a photopass photographer taking pictures of Lightening McQueen so we stopped for photos:
 
Day 1, part 2

So after we had pictures with Lightning McQueen we wandered over to the Toy Story and Ratatouille areas to take a few pictures:

I had a quick go on Slinky Dog:

Then we headed went to watch the Sing me a Merry Christmas show. It was very cute with Mickey, Minnie and Goofy in their Christmas gear:


While we waited for the next show we wandered in to Studio 1 and got a chocolate pretzel, a drink and the 25th anniversary cup at The Hep Cat Corner. I don’t normally like pretzels but that chocolate pretzel doesn’t taste like the regular pretzels and it is seriously yummy:

Before the park closed they had a projection show called Goofy’s Incredible Christmas. It was projections onto the Tower of Terror and a little show on the stage in front with Goofy, Minnie and Mickey as well and it was fab:


There was fireworks as well:

Oh and Lasers:

After that we headed out of the park and back to the hotel for an early night. It sounds like a funny thing to say but the lobby in the Hotel New York always smelt gorgeous, later in our trip we did discover you could buy the scent in the gift shop for a mere €54.99 a bottle :eek::faint: needless to say we passed but it did smell fab:

Anyway we got our room key and were in the Gramercy building.

Loved the Empire State Lamp:


We had paid for a lake view room and didn’t get that, instead we were looking out on the Christmas tree and Ice Rink but other than that the room was nice and we fell into bed ready for another Disney day in the morning:
 
Following! Maybe one day I will get to visit France and squeeze in a day or two at Disneyland Paris.


Oh and Lasers:

The light show looks fun!

42340532245_993fb10782_z.jpg

Very pretty!
 


I am just marking my spot. I will come back to read tomorrow.

Corinna
Welcome :flower3:

Following! Maybe one day I will get to visit France and squeeze in a day or two at Disneyland Paris.
Welcome :flower3: We like Paris but it feels very different to WDW, it's hard to describe but WDW for us feels more magical or something but Disneyland Paris is great in it's ok way as well.

The light show looks fun!
It was a great show and something completely different for us in Paris so win win :D

Very pretty!
Yeah I thought the view was good. Momma wasn't happy because she expected to see water, which was blocked by trees but for the amount of time we spent there I wasn't to bothered
 
Once we were all checked into the hotel we headed back into Dublin Zoo for Wild Lights. It was basically loads of animal and flower light sculptors and was gorgeous.

I loved the photos from this. It looked absolutely amazing.

We stopped by one to check out the chocolate apples and macarons but didn’t buy anything yet:

I got macaroons from Disney Village before. They were delicious, but just plain round ones.

Before the park closed they had a projection show called Goofy’s Incredible Christmas. It was projections onto the Tower of Terror and a little show on the stage in front with Goofy, Minnie and Mickey as well and it was fab:

This looks absolutely amazing. I would so love to see this.

Corinna
 


For some reason it did not add everything to the multi quote. I love Mickey and the Magician. I think this is the best daytime show Disney has across all of their parks.

I agree that Disneyland Paris is different, but I actually prefer it to Walt Disney World. For me it is joint second favourite with Hong Kong Disneyland with Shanghai Disneyland being my favourite.

Corinna
 
I loved the photos from this. It looked absolutely amazing.
It was very good, it was the first time they ran it last year so we're hoping they'll do it again this year.

I got macaroons from Disney Village before. They were delicious, but just plain round ones.
Spoiler alert, I tried the blue one, it was yum.

This looks absolutely amazing. I would so love to see this.
Corinna
I think it was new for last years Christmas season it is definitely worth seeing live though

For some reason it did not add everything to the multi quote. I love Mickey and the Magician. I think this is the best daytime show Disney has across all of their parks.
I loved Animagique, this was good as well though and had some of my favourite princesses so win :D

I agree that Disneyland Paris is different, but I actually prefer it to Walt Disney World. For me it is joint second favourite with Hong Kong Disneyland with Shanghai Disneyland being my favourite.

Corinna
WDW is our favourite one, Paris we go to because it's cheaper and closer. Disneyland California was great as well but I found being in the original park kind of emotional
 
Day 2, part 1:
7th January

We got up early this morning to get breakfast in the Manhattan restaurant in our hotel. We’ve stayed in the Cheyenne in Paris before and the restaurant there for breakfast could only be described as chaos but here it was really quiet, there was hardly anyone in the restaurant that morning which was great that you could browse the buffet in peace. They had all sorts of pastries, cold meats and cheeses but then also had sliced potatoes, scrambled eggs, bacon and sausages which the Cheyenne didn’t have when we were there last so we were delighted about breakfast the breakfast selection:

Say I’m easily pleased but one of the things I love about breakfast in Paris is that they have sachets of Nutella like they do with jam and butter:

After breakfast Pluto was in the hotel lobby taking pictures and signing autographs so of course we had to get a picture:

Then we headed for a bathroom break before leaving the hotel. The bathrooms were down this long corridor in the hotel where the walls were done to look like the New York underground train station, complete with musical posters, it was kind of cool looking:

It still wasn’t quite daylight as we wandered through the Disney Village but we stopped along the way to take some pictures of their Christmas decorations:

Then we headed into the Disneyland Park:


Ach I’m back in Disney :lovestruc

There was cute little character snowmen in front of the Christmas trees:


We headed up Main Street towards out first destination taking pictures along the way of course:


Our first stop today was at Phantom Manor as it was closing that day until October and they were supposed to be giving out a free button to mark the closing but when we went first they didn’t have it so we rode it anyway since we were there:


We didn’t want to go to far from Phantom Manor until we found out what was happening with the buttons so we went to queue for Jack Skellington who was meeting nearby. We were first in line for him and had to wait maybe ten minutes before he came out so I just took a few pictures while I was waiting:


Eventually Jack showed up:

We checked back with Phantom Manor about the buttons and they told us to come back later in the day and they would have them then so we headed to Adventureland next where one of the restaurants was done out in Coco theme and they had a big statue of Dante in the centre which was pretty cool:

We also spotted Aladdin out for meet and greets and went up to say hi. He asked us all about Ireland and decided he needed to bring Jasmine there, we told him to bring a raincoat because it’s pretty wet in Ireland:rotfl:

We also went on Pirates of the Caribbean before we left Adventureland. They’ve added Jack Sparrow to the ride since we were there last.
 
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I’m starting out late. Disneyland in the snowy weather looks amazing! The castle bathed in fog is so unique! Great report and fun trip!
 
So beautiful!! I always love looking at pictures of the Paris castle.
It's very pretty with the twinkly lights on it.

Cool Aladdin outfit.
I'd never seen him in that outfit but I guess the street rat look would be to cold in Paris. We had 4 or 5 layers on and were still cold :rotfl:


I’m starting out late. Disneyland in the snowy weather looks amazing! The castle bathed in fog is so unique! Great report and fun trip!
Welcome :flower3:
We missed the snow by about a month but it was foggy a few mornings and dark and wet a few times mostly just really cold though so we were lucky with the weather. It did snow there years ago when we were there with a group of Irish dancers and it's sooo pretty in the snow :lovestruc
 
Day 2, part 2:

So after Pirates we wandered in to Fantasyland where we went on the Storybook boats and Casey Junior as both of these were closing down the next day. For those that don’t know Storybook boats are like small world boats and as they go along there’s different little scenes from Disney movies. They have this ride in Disneyland California as well but I like the Paris one better because they actually have tiny characters in each scene in Paris:


Next we headed out to the Castle Hub to watch the Christmas Parade; the parade was quite fun and my favourite Duffy bear was in it :lovestruc


I loved the way the tower of letters were made up to look like a Christmas tree:



I need boots like these Snowmen:


Everyone else is like yay Santa and I’m like DUFFY :rotfl2:

When the Parade was over we headed back to Phantom Manor to see if they had the buttons yet and they did :cool1: You had to go up to the CM inside the door and say NON OMNIS MORIAR and they gave you a free button:

The coins in that picture btw are like the French version of pressed pennies. They don’t do pressed pennies in the Paris parks but they do have machines that you put 2 euro into and you get a gold coin with some Disney character on them like those instead anyway when we got our buttons we went on Phantom Manor again, got some photos outside it:

Then we headed to the Frozen Sing Along. We loved this show. There was fake snow and we even got ourselves on the big screen at it:


You know she's singing Let it go :rolleyes1

Outside the Frozen Show there was a little photo op area where there was a sleigh with Sven and Olaf behind it, we didn’t queue for photos but I took a quick pic of Sven and Olaf:

There was also a little snack counter with Yummy looking cupcakes and cake pop:

I got a chocolate cake pop covered in coconut:

We decided then to just head for food somewhere so we went to Hakuna Matata Restaurant for some of their infamous Chicken strips and Corn Fries. We just got one meal to share as we had dinner reservations for later so we didn’t want to eat to much during the day but the meal came with a drink and a pineapple-coconut tart. The food was nice but to me it was no different than any other counter service food so didn’t really get the hype over the meal, it was nice and filled us for now:
 
Outside the Frozen Show there was a little photo op area where there was a sleigh with Sven and Olaf behind it, we didn’t queue for photos but I took a quick pic of Sven and Olaf:

What a cute photo op! Extra nice with the snowy weather.
 
What a cute photo op! Extra nice with the snowy weather.
It wasn't actually snowing when we were there, they'd put down fake snow in some places and made the trees look snowy. It was just cold and occasionally wet when we went.
 
I loved Animagique

I never go Animagique. Now, Cinemagique was a different matter and I am so sad it is gone.

WDW is our favourite one, Paris we go to because it's cheaper and closer. Disneyland California was great as well but I found being in the original park kind of emotional

WDW has gone to the last position for me. Shanghai Disneyland is my absolute favourite as they have some really amazing rides there. Paris Disneyland and Hong Kong Disneyland are a draw for me. Hong Kong Disneyland has some very unique rides (Mystic Manor has to be seen to be believed), the best version of It's A Small World and a fantastic set of characters including Duffy and friends. Then comes Disneyland for me as the original park. Tokyo Disney Resort just leapfrogs WDW because of the uniqueness of Tokyo Disney Sea and some really unique and amazing attractions (Journey to the Centre of the Earth, The Enchanted Tiki Room: Stitch Presents "Aloha E Komo Mai!", Pooh's Hunny Hunt and Monsters, Inc. Ride & Go Seek!). They also have the best version of Fantasmic!. Plus they have Duffy and ShellieMay. The more I go to the parks the more I concentrate on the characters and rides that are unique to those parks. In both respects, the international parks are running rings around WDW and they are also a lot cheaper. Having said that, I do treasure the memories that I have made at WDW. It just has kind of run its course for me.

Our first stop today was at Phantom Manor as it was closing that day until October and they were supposed to be giving out a free button to mark the closing but when we went first they didn’t have it so we rode it anyway since we were there:

That was perfectly timed.

We were first in line for him and had to wait maybe ten minutes before he came out

Wow, that is what I call a result.

We checked back with Phantom Manor about the buttons and they told us to come back later in the day and they would have them then

That is strange that they did not have them when the park opened.

We also went on Pirates of the Caribbean before we left Adventureland. They’ve added Jack Sparrow to the ride since we were there last.

I was not at all happy when this addition was announced, but somehow they did a better job with this in Paris than at the other parks that had this addition. They somehow managed to keep the spirit of the original ride.

Next we headed out to the Castle Hub to watch the Christmas Parade; the parade was quite fun and my favourite Duffy bear was in it

I love the Christmas parade, but cannot remember Duffy being in there previously. I love Duffy, but ShellieMay is rapidly becoming one of my favourites. She has kind of taken over my bedroom.

When the Parade was over we headed back to Phantom Manor to see if they had the buttons yet and they did :cool1: You had to go up to the CM inside the door and say NON OMNIS MORIAR and they gave you a free button:

Yay for getting the button. It looks really cool.

We decided then to just head for food somewhere so we went to Hakuna Matata Restaurant for some of their infamous Chicken strips and Corn Fries.

I had this for the first time on my trip earlier this year. I enjoyed it, but agree that this is fairly standard park food. I really enjoy the meatballs with rice there.

Corinna
 
I never go Animagique. Now, Cinemagique was a different matter and I am so sad it is gone.
I think Cinemagique was closed when we were there as well. I loved the music in Animagique though


WDW has gone to the last position for me. Shanghai Disneyland is my absolute favourite as they have some really amazing rides there. Paris Disneyland and Hong Kong Disneyland are a draw for me. Hong Kong Disneyland has some very unique rides (Mystic Manor has to be seen to be believed), the best version of It's A Small World and a fantastic set of characters including Duffy and friends. Then comes Disneyland for me as the original park. Tokyo Disney Resort just leapfrogs WDW because of the uniqueness of Tokyo Disney Sea and some really unique and amazing attractions (Journey to the Centre of the Earth, The Enchanted Tiki Room: Stitch Presents "Aloha E Komo Mai!", Pooh's Hunny Hunt and Monsters, Inc. Ride & Go Seek!). They also have the best version of Fantasmic!. Plus they have Duffy and ShellieMay. The more I go to the parks the more I concentrate on the characters and rides that are unique to those parks. In both respects, the international parks are running rings around WDW and they are also a lot cheaper. Having said that, I do treasure the memories that I have made at WDW. It just has kind of run its course for me.
I'd love to go to then Shanghai, Hong Kong and Tokyo parks they look amazing and I need to add Stella Lou, Gelatoni and Cookie to my collection.

That was perfectly timed.
Yeah we didn't really plan it like that, we were aiming for the Christmas shows and then I knew some rides would probably close as well on the quieter week


Wow, that is what I call a result.
Yeah he hadn't started meeting and we saw his line and the time he was due out and nobody else was there so we just went ahead and waited in the line then other people followed our lead :goodvibes


That is strange that they did not have them when the park opened.
They told us they had them at the front of the park but hadn't sent them over to Phantom Manor but it was Phantom Manor that you were supposed to get them at so I don't why they didn't send them over until after lunch! :confused3


I was not at all happy when this addition was announced, but somehow they did a better job with this in Paris than at the other parks that had this addition. They somehow managed to keep the spirit of the original ride.
I love Jack Sparrow. I think it was last year or the year before I was bored over Christmas and bought myself the boxset of all the DVDs because i'd never seen them and I fell in love with Jack Sparrow :lovestruc:rotfl: That was the first place I wanted to go. Did you see the video of the real Jack Sparrow/Johnny Depp in the ride in California. I would have fell out of the boat in shock I think :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:


I love the Christmas parade, but cannot remember Duffy being in there previously. I love Duffy, but ShellieMay is rapidly becoming one of my favourites. She has kind of taken over my bedroom.
I love ShellieMay as well she's so cute but haven't met her yet. Duffy and her are so cute and I was so excited when I saw him


Yay for getting the button. It looks really cool.
Yeah it's a cool souvenir to have from it and it was free so win win


I had this for the first time on my trip earlier this year. I enjoyed it, but agree that this is fairly standard park food. I really enjoy the meatballs with rice there.
Corinna

If we go back again I'd probably go to Hakuna Matata again but I'd get something else there. The menu did look good I just wanted to try them because everyone talks about how wonderful they are
 
Day 2, Part 3:

Once we finished our lunch it was time to head across the park to Discoveryland for the Merry Stitchmas show. This was a really cute show where all the characters were trying to teach Stitch about Christmas:




Next we went to see Mickey’s Christmas Big band which as the title hits was a big band playing loads of Christmas songs with Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and dancers:



After that we headed back to Frontierland taking pictures along the way. Pretty Main Street:

In Frontierland we went on the boat Molly Brown, this was another one that was going to be closed the next day:



I thought the water shooting up looked cool:

Back on dry land we headed towards Adventureland just taking our time strolling around before our dining reservation. We spotted a band out playing in the Fuertes Del Oro Restaurant so we stayed to watch for a while:

Finally it was time for our meal and today we were dining in Captain Jack’s Restaurant des Pirates. This was really cool you could see the boats from the pirates of the Caribbean ride go by as you ate. They had wanted signs for some of the characters from Pirates of the Caribbean around:

And they even had the treasure chest decorated for Christmas still:

Food wise our meal vouchers covered the Pirate Treasure menu but we didn’t like the choices on that so instead we went with the Seven Seas Pearl Menu and paid an extra 10.99 for the meal and drinks were 5 euro extra as well. They had bread on the table when we arrived and then for starter we had the Spicy Black pudding, roasted plantain with creole style meatballs and cabbage salad. It wasn’t the best starter I ever had and I didn’t eat most of it:

For the main course we got prime beef rib with tamarind glaze. Jalapeno salsa and sweet potato. There was loads of fat on this but the meat I did manage to get off the lump they brought out was tasty as was the potato:


For dessert then I went with the Captain’s Tricorn Pastry filled with guava and coconut cream which wasn’t a pastry at all. The base was like a gooey chocolate thing and the creamy thing was like a mousse it was the nicest bit of the meal.

After the meal we headed back down Main Street and managed to catch the last Christmas tree lighting show, it was all songs and dance and they even had fake snow:

 

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