Attraction Review: Disneyland Paris Christmas, Part One

Just got back in and put my feet up after yet another fantastic weekend away visiting my best friend and taking in the sights and sounds of Disneyland Paris - only this time the place was fully decked out in its Christmassy best!


We managed to nab ourselves an absolute bargain on the Eurostar so we hopped on the train at St. Pancras International and were wandering around Paris in less time door to door than it takes us to drive to Alton Towers. How can you say no to that?







We did two full days on park over the weekend, starting with Disneyland Parc on a foggy Saturday morning. On first approach I was a bit gutted about all the fog because I thought it'd ruin my pics, but actually I think it gives them an air of whimsy and an extra dash of magic!

We approached the security gates to be met with HEAVING crowds. It's honestly the busiest I've ever seen the park but the great thing about visiting at this time of year for me is that the crowds are family heavy, meaning that whilst the park is busy it's mostly full of those wanting a pic with Mickey and Minnie rather than whizzing around on Space Mountain, so the queues actually we no longer than usual.






We started our day with a brisk and chilly voyage to the moon on Space Mountain: Mission 2 before queuing ages for a snack. Yh, annoyingly the food stalls get hit pretty bad with the crowds and those manning them just don't seem at all bothered that they have a queue 20 deep gagging for a hot drink. It's one of those cultural differences, you can see all the English people shaking their heads and tutting whilst the Europeans just shrug and wait.






Making our way through to Fantasyland we timed things just right to catch the Christmas parade. Same music as when Conor and I visited way back in 2013, but a few more floats PLUS genuinely nightmare inducing snowman characters. AND, much to my approval, Clarabelle Cow makes an appearance. She's a vintage Disney character from the Silly Symphony days, and she's fab. There's also something really sinister about the Christmas parade music in that there's a line about once you cross into Toyland you can never return again? I think they were going for whimsy but it just comes off as bloody petrifying!







After spending AGES again trying to track down some snacks (seriously Disneyland Paris, sort your snack situation out, it's shit!) we bit the bullet and joined the first unacceptably long queue of the day for It's A Small World. It's a Disneyland staple, so not riding was just not an option but at 45 minutes I wasn't exactly happy about it. Luckily it's an absolute throughput machine so if we did wait the full 45 it certainly didn't feel like it!








Since it was Christmas, we'd decided to treat ourselves to a sit down meal in one of the higher end Disneyland Paris restaurants. Although we'd all agreed that Blue Lagoon is somewhere we'd love to relax in none of us are that big on seafood so instead we found ourselves pulling up a chair at the Silver Spur Steakhouse. We'd called earlier to make a reservation and the lady on the phone made it sound as if she'd just managed to squeeze us in, but in reality the place was mostly empty, meaning the atmosphere wasn't great. They also annoyingly got my order wrong, so had to wait longer than everyone else to chomp down on my steak.








Honestly, I wouldn't recommend this one. I've always said one of my biggest bugbears about Disneyland Paris is how poor the food offerings are, and I kind of thought that going higher end would improve this somewhat. Not the case. The food was nice enough and the steak was tasty when it finally came out, but it's obscenely expensive for what you get and the portions are incredibly stingy. You're honestly better off heading to Casey's hotdogs on Main Street.


I'll leave you there for Part One, check out Part Two and Part Three where I'll show you what we got up to in the evening of day one and the Walt Disney Studios. But for now I need a nap, I'm absolutely shattered.