Stayed at: Sequoia Lodge
Hi all! Here is my trip report for last weekend (the 16th thru 18th December 2006) at Disneyland Resort Paris.
We stayed in the Sequoia Lodge.
When we arrived from the train, we walked with our luggage thru Disney Village to the hotel. The weather was a bit drissely but it was ok. Just outside the Village in between the parks and the IMAX they had their Christmas Markets set up, and despite advertising saying it was from the 22nd December, it had actually opened today (16th) which I was pleased about.
Throughout Disney Village they had Christmas decorations and lights.
When we reached the hotel outside one of the large trees had Christmas lights on it, and the front of the hotel had lights over it.
We went inside made our way upstairs to the check-in desk. The hotel inside was decorated out for Christmas and looked lovely. Round the fireplace in the Redwood Bar and Lounge they had two big trees and garlands, and the Northwest Passage gift shop had a lovely Christmas window display too.
At check-in I got two nice surprises. One was that we had been given a free room upgrade to a Montana Room in the main building! And two that it was available there and then to dump all our stuff (usually you have to leave your luggage at reception til after 3 o’clock). So I was very pleased about that.
Our room was literally just two floors above the bar, on the fourth floor. Our room number was 4241. The view from the room was pretty good. We could see over to Lake Disney and just beyond the trees Disney Village.
So we left our stuff in our room and went off to Disneyland Park.
It was very busy on Saturday, in fact it’s probably the busiest I’ve ever seen it.
The tree and the decorations around the park looked lovely. The new lights they have this year that replaced the Lights of Winter are like big poles with Disney Princess on them. They are ok, but I prefer the good ole Lights of Winter!
The weather was still rainy but it was ok.
Despite the crowds we managed to do the following attractions today:
Le Passage Enchante d’Aladdin
La Cabane des Robinson
Adventure Isle
Big Thunder Mountain (I used some of my free Fast Passes from buying the AP Dream)
Discovery Arcade
Liberty Arcade
Star Tours
Les Mysteres du Nautilus
Space Mountain (I used some of my free Fast Passes from buying the AP Dream)
Sleeping Beauty Castle inc. the Dragon’s Lair and the upstairs walk-thru
Alice’s Curious Labyrinth
We ate in Toad Hall Restaurant in the afternoon.
On Main Street we saw the Christmas Carollers.
Then that evening we managed to see the Christmas Parade, The Enchanted Fairytale Ceremony and Disney’s Fantillusion.
The Christmas Parade was lovely. I even bought the CD with the soundtrack on it!
The floats in the Parade were (in this order):
Mickey and Friends Christmas Float (Chip, Dale, Mickey, Minnie, Pluto and Goofy)
Cinderella and Prince
Beauty and the Beast
Sleeping Beauty and Philip
Aladdin and Jasmine
Mary Poppins
Santa in his Sleigh pulled by real reindeer
The Toy Soldiers
The Enchanted Fairytale Ceremony was nice. Mickey and all his friends, including loads of different Princes and Princesses attended the stage in the Central Plaza and did a little act thing to light up the Christmas Lights. Then Tinkerbell appeared at the highest Castle balcony and did a little thing where she waved her wand and in time with the music the Castle lit up bit by bit.
Disney’s Fantillusion was cool. Of all the times I’ve been to Disneyland Paris this was the first time I’d seen Fantillusion! I’ve seen the Electrical Parade at California Adventure and SpectroMagic at Magic Kingdom, so I kind of knew what to expect.
The floats in this parade were, in order:
Mickey Mouse
Disney Friends (Goofy, Pluto and Chip)
Flora, Fauna and Merryweather
Big Butterfly on a Flower
Ursula
Jafar
Wicked Queen from Sleeping Beauty
Snow White and Prince
Ariel and Eric (I loved this one – the float was beautiful)
Beauty and the Beast
Aladdin and Jasmine (this float was pretty cool too)
Castle/Fireworks/Minnie Mouse as a Princess
That evening we ate in one of the restaurants in our hotel, the Beaver Creek Tavern.
It was lovely. The food was good, reasonable price for table service in out hotel. Though, the service was a little slow, but that wasn’t really an issue.
The following morning (17th December) we had breakfast in the Park booked for 9.15 at Au Chalet de la Marionnette.
The park was a lot quieter than yesterday and we managed to get on more attractions:
Pirates of the Caribbean
Legends of the Wild West
Phantom Manor
Disneyland Railroad (boarded at Frontierland Depot)
The Chaparral Theatre (Mickey’s Winter Wonderland – definitely worth seeing. Characters in the show: Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald, Pluto, the Country Bears, Chip and Dale. They did ice skating, sung carols and at the end went of in a horse drawn sleigh! It was really cool)
Main Street Vehicles (Paddy Wagon – we had our picture taken on it – I was in the handcuffs and Ben was driving me off to prison!)
Discovery and Liberty Arcades
Sleeping Beauty Castle
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Pinocchio’s Adventure
Fantasy Festival Stage (Winnie the Pooh and Friends, too Christmas show. It was very nicely done. All the main characters were in it and also Christopher Robin and Gopher)
We also paid a visit to Belle’s Christmas Village in Fantasyland.
We made a stop in Hakuna Matata, which was also decorated for Christmas.
That evening we ate in Annette’s Diner in Disney Village. We didn’t have to wait like you normally do either.
We wandered back to the hotel and decided to sit in the Redwood Bar and have a drink.
The last day, Monday 18th, we got up and had breakfast in out hotel in the Hunter’s Grill.
I loved this restaurant. It’s even better than the Beaver Creek. The theme and décor work is just so amazing. They really have a gem with this hotel in my opinion!!
Breakfast was nice, so it was off to Walt Disney Studios.
We arrived before the official opening time.
When we got through the gates Minnie and Pluto were waiting to greet guests. I got my picture and autograph with them both.
We then looked around the shops in the Frontlot and Studio One until opening. At 10am they turned out all the light in Studio One and did their countdown, lights camera, action thing and the park was officially open then.
The park was totally dead today! I mean there was no-one there except us virtually!
Attractions we managed to see:
Armageddon
CineMagique
Studio Tram Tour
Animagique
Flying Carpets Over Agrabah
We also met Mickey – he was just standing by his caravan with no-one even queuing for him! So I got a picture and his autograph.
The Stitch came wandering out. He started running around and being his usual naughty self! We chased his for his autograph and eventually he stopped kicking paper round the floor (like I said it was really dead there today!) and we got his picture and he signed my book.
We also managed to meet Bob aka Mr. Incredible. I got my picture with him, but he doesn’t sign autographs unfortunately.
We saw the Cinema Parade. Floats in the parade in order:
Donald and Goofy
Minnie
Tinkerbell
Pinocchio inc. Gepetto
The Lion King
101 Dalmatians
Mary Poppins
Toy Story
Mickey and Pluto
We also ate in Restaurant en Coulisse.
Then it was back over to Disneyland Park before we set off home.
Attractions we saw:
La Cabane des Robinson
Adventure Isle
Big Thunder Mountain (I went alone lol)
Main Street Vehicles (we rode the Paddy Wagon from Town Square to the Castle. The CM driving was quite in the spirit of it and periodically stopped the car, beeped the horn and called out ‘police!’ and indicated she has prisoners and was taking them to her dungeon under the Castle…)
Liberty Arcade
Le Carrousel de Lancelot
“it’s a small world”
and finally, we even had time for a hot chocolate in Au Chalet de la Marionnette before we set back to the hotel (where on the way we also stopped at McDonald’s in Disney Village)
On top of all that, I even managed to have time to take over 210 pictures and about 25 video clips. As well as going in every shop and boutique in Disneyland Park and Disney Village, and 3 of the 5 shops in WDS.
We had an amazing time.
Dan.