So we went to check out what the Happiest Place in France had up its sleeve for the Holiday Season, and – long story short - we were not disappointed!
Long story: Decided not to get up super early, as the park doesn’t even open until 10 on the week days. We were able to check out a lot of the activities in advance on the Disneyland website, and tried to organize our day accordingly. Fortunately, the weather was clear and sunny and not too cold during the daylight hours.
Soon after we arrived, Meredith and I rode Peter Pan’s flight while Bill picked up FastPasses to the popular rides and then got in line to meet Santa. Turns out, it was the line to meet Pooh Bear (in a scarf) AND Santa. Most of the families didn’t really care about meeting Santa at all, they just wanted to meet Winnie L’Ourson.
Santa, or Papa Noël, as he’s known in France, is not a rotund fellow. In fact, he’s quite slim. He does wear the requisite red suit trimmed in fur and sports a bushy white beard and moustache, but he’s not especially jolly. No ho-ho-ho-ing emerged from within. Friendly enough, and happy to pose for some photos with us, but the man has work to do: visiting every child on earth in a single night could cause one to lose a sense of humor.
Two visits accomplished, we headed over to Belle’s Christmas Village, which was set up in a corner of the Park we hadn’t visited before. Miniaturized cottages were festooned with garlands and fake snow, and vendors were selling Christmasy goodies (including roasted potatoes covered in melted cheese – the name for which escapes me now). Unfortunately, the only tree ornaments with 2003 on them were for Baby’s First Christmas – not exactly appropriate for us… We realized a little late that we needed to line up along a fenced-in area to see Belle’s live show, but we were able to jockey for a decent viewing location (and Meredith perched on Bill’s shoulders for a good part of it). Belle and Gaston strolled right by us, but Meredith didn’t want to say hi.
The 15-minute musical show was darling, and featured French versions of a couple of Beauty and the Beast numbers (Belle’s opening song, the Gaston song, and “Be our guest”), plus some songs that I figure are from the follow-up video, “Belle’s Magical Christmas” (or something along those lines). The 8-10 lip-synching dancers were perfectly well rehearsed and the choreography tight and clever. Disney really has this stuff down, I gotta say.
After the show, we watched a bit of a not-so-great marionette act, and rode on Casey Jr., the Circus Train. It was our first time on this ride and we all enjoyed it. Too bad it’s such a short trip – the little train really chugs along nicely and the views are adorable.
You do get more mileage out of “It’s a Small World,” and there was no line AT ALL! The staff has Christmas-ied up the joint, putting special holiday touches all along the route (wreaths, santa lucia candles, a menorah in the Israel section, a big dragon in China, santa hats on the Rockettes in the NYC section, etc.). Always fun.
Bill and I each rode on “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril – Backwards!” which, as the name indicates, goes backwards. The last time we rode this ride, in 1998, it was forwards, I swear. Kinda takes the fun out of loop-the-loops when you can’t see them coming! Anyway, we didn’t have to wait at all for that, either.
Rode Big Thunder Mountain Railroad – still a favorite – and tried to get Meredith back into Phantom Manor, but it was temporarily closed. Did do Dumbo (very short wait) and the Orbitron (much too long a wait) and had lunch in Gepetto’s Cottage (or La Chaumière de Gepetto). Have to say, the roasted chicken was pretty tasty!
We rode Peter Pan again, and Pinocchio (twice) and for the first time, Snow White.
The Peter Pan lines are always terrible! Fortunately, we had FastPass for this second time through. Also rode the Carrousel de Lancelot, and got settled for the late afternoon activities: the Christmas Parade, the Tree Lighting, some dinner, the Fantillusion Parade, and the Fireworks.
The Christmas Parade was decent – great costumes of course, and a lovely song in both French and English (“Chantez! C’est Noël! Time to sing a song of Christmas…”). The Princesses’ costumes featured lots of fur – capes and muffs, etc. – and the regular floats (Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella’s coach, etc.) were decorated with greenery and shiny baubles. Santa was in the parade, too, pulled in a sleigh by 6 live reindeer, who didn’t seem very chipper.
We made our way down Main Street afterward to partake of the Tree Lighting, and it did snow on us a bit (it snowed during the Belle musical show, as well) – Ivory Snow that is! Yes folks, the good people at Disney spew soap flakes into the air to imitate snow. It’s a wonderful effect, especially in a place that rarely sees real snow, but catching the flakes on your tongue is not recommended.
Can’t say we followed the tree-lighting narrative very well, but the lights on the very tall, very evenly proportioned, artificial tree did flash and blink and eventually completely light up. There was some kind of dialogue between Santa and Mickey, I think, but we couldn’t locate them on a stage anywhere, so it seemed more like they were disembodied voices. We moved from there to have a bite to eat at one of the sandwich shops on Main Street, which was edible, if not remarkable.
Then it was time for the Fantillusion Parade, and we were glad we had brought a blanket to stake out enough space for us to enjoy it, as the ground was pretty cold by then. This parade is truly spectacular and I really want to see it again from a different vantage point. There are dozens of floats, divided into three “acts,” and depending on your spot along the parade route, you are treated to the impressive lighting effects of whatever is in front of you. Fortunately, they’re doing it through the end of March, I think, and we’ll be back before then…
The fireworks after the parade were a bit of a come-down, actually. A small display around the palace. Nothing along the lines of the parade, which did I mention was truly spectacular? Meredith was practically asleep by then (8:30, I think), and we had all gotten a bit chilly, so we booked right back to the RER train to get home and to bed.
Looking forward to the next special event at the Park – Carnival with the Lion King!
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