BadPinkTink
Republic of Ireland is not part of UK
- Joined
- Mar 13, 2015
For Christmas 2013 I took my mum to Disneyland Paris. We arrived December 23 and left December 27. We stayed at Sequoia Lodge. This is my trip report, originally posted on MAGIC FORUM . It might be of use to anyone planning to spend Christmas at Disneyland Paris in the future
Mum and Me Christmas 2013
Day 1 Monday 23 December
Early start, taxi booked for 6.30 am. It takes 30 minutes to get to the airport. Not too many in the check in queue and by 7. 45 am we are through security and heading for breakfast.
The airport is not as busy as we expected, most people are arriving back home to Ireland for Christmas, not going out of Ireland like us.
The flight is at 10am, it’s a full flight. The weather is not too bad, a little turbulence but that’s to be expected. The flight time is about 1 hour 30 minutes so with the time difference we land in Paris just before 1pm.
After getting our cases we make our way to the Magic Shuttle bus which is between Terminal 2E and 2F. We have arrived in Terminal 1 so we follow the signs and take the shuttle train to Terminal 2. We then follow the signs and walk through the terminal to 2E and then follow the signs for Magic Shuttle / Disney. It takes us about 20 minutes and when we eventually get to the Magic Shuttle desk we have just missed a bus. We take a seat and wait for the next one.
We eventually leave CDG around 2.45pm and get to our hotel, Sequoia Lodge just after 3.30pm. At check in we get our room keys, park tickets, hotel easy pass for EMH and for the pool and our Christmas Lunch voucher. We also get our breakfast vouchers. We book for breakfast in the park for Thursday 26 December and we are given a voucher for The Plaza for 8.45am. Before we leave reception we have to confirm our Christmas Lunch reservation at a separate table.
Our room is not in the main building, we are in Sierra Lodge, which is about 5 minutes’ walk from the main building. We follow the path down to the lodges and find our building and then up to our room.
The room is Bambi themed, 2 double beds, a good sized table with 2 chairs and a chest of drawers where the TV is. The bathroom area is divided in 2. The shower and toilet are together. The sink area is outside the door, and there is a safe and suitcase bench. There is a retractable clothes line over the bath / shower.
We take a few minutes to settle ourselves and then its off to the park we go.
We have just about 2 hours as we have booked our evening meal at The Plaza for 6pm. This is mums first time in Disney so we take our time walking from the hotel, down to the village and then into the park. Its great that mums first sight of Disney is in daylight, so she can get her bearings and figure things out.
As we walk into the park, we see everyone gathering for the Christmas Cavalcade. We decide to try to do the train ride to give mum a complete overview of the park. We start queuing but there is a huge queue and by the time the parade starts we are still not at the top. We decide to leave the queue and watch the parade from the train station. We actually have a very good view and it really gets us into the Disney atmosphere.
After the parade we decide to not go on the train and just stroll down Main Street as we don’t have much time before our meal booking.
Just before 6pm we go to the Plaza. It’s not too busy but it was still better to have made a reservation in advance. The Plaza Restaurant in Disneyland Paris is a buffet restaurant, very different type of food to The Plaza in Disneyland California.
We haven’t eaten properly all day so its great to stop and have a proper meal. We stay for about an hour, just enough time to recharge and be ready to do some rides.
The park closes at 10 pm so we have about 2 and a half hours as we want to get a good place for Dreams.
So its off to Frontierland and Phantom Manor. The queue is not too bad, about 20 minutes. Mum has never seen Haunted Mansion film or does not know anything about the story of the ride so I try to explain bits as we queue.
When we reach our doom buggy , the ride seems dark to me. It was hard to read the the TOMB SWEET TOMB sign and if you didn’t know about the door knockers you would have wondered where the noise was coming from. Mum enjoyed it though which is good.
After Phantom Manor we decide to go to Pirates. As its dark we can’t really see much of the themeing in Frontierland. I get kinda lost and disorientated in the dark and take a few wrong turns but we eventually get to Pirates. This time it’s a 10 minute queue time, brilliant . As we walk down I explain about the ride to mum, as again she has never seen any of the films or know anything about the ride. She loves the theming and whole atmosphere. As the ride starts I point out the Blue Lagoon restaurant which I have booked for Thursday 26 December. I have mixed feelings about this Pirates ride. I love it but at the same time I prefer the California version. Mum enjoyed it though.
After a quick look in the shop and at The Blue Lagoon menu its into Fantasyland. We don’t do any rides, just wander through and then around to Discoveryland. My idea is to give mum an overview of the park, let her get her bearings and see what each of the lands are like.
In Discoveryland we try to find the train station but again in the dark I get totally disorientated. The plan was to do a complete circuit of the park but we end up running out of time. By now mum is getting tired, she has foot problems and is not able to long hours of standing and walking. We decide to try to find somewhere to sit as it is around 9.30pm and we can see people gathering for Dreams. As we come out of Discoveryland we see people sitting on the wooden sculpture thingy so we decide to sit too.
We see people standing at the railings and after a while we decide to go there too as it’s a better view of the castle.
At 9.45pm the Castle lighting starts. It’s really beautiful; I really love the icey sparkly roofs on the turrets.
Then at 10pm Dreams start. We have a really good , view of the castle, a bit sideways but its ok. The sound is a bit low though as we are not near any speakers.
Ok, first impressions of Dreams…. It’s good but not spectacular. The fountains and fireworks are great but the animated projections on the castle don’t really work for me. It’s a bit of a mish mash, the Frozen elements, the Christmas elements, trying to do a sing-along in different languages, it just seems they are trying to cram in as much as possible. Yes it’s magical Disney but it’s not classic Disney, if that makes sense to anyone!
It takes ages to leave after Dreams, as we are at Discoveryland entrance. We take our time and make our way with the crowds. By the time we get back to our hotel its nearly 11pm. Its been a long day but I am just so happy to be back in Disney again
Mum and Me Christmas 2013
Day 1 Monday 23 December
Early start, taxi booked for 6.30 am. It takes 30 minutes to get to the airport. Not too many in the check in queue and by 7. 45 am we are through security and heading for breakfast.
The airport is not as busy as we expected, most people are arriving back home to Ireland for Christmas, not going out of Ireland like us.
The flight is at 10am, it’s a full flight. The weather is not too bad, a little turbulence but that’s to be expected. The flight time is about 1 hour 30 minutes so with the time difference we land in Paris just before 1pm.
After getting our cases we make our way to the Magic Shuttle bus which is between Terminal 2E and 2F. We have arrived in Terminal 1 so we follow the signs and take the shuttle train to Terminal 2. We then follow the signs and walk through the terminal to 2E and then follow the signs for Magic Shuttle / Disney. It takes us about 20 minutes and when we eventually get to the Magic Shuttle desk we have just missed a bus. We take a seat and wait for the next one.
We eventually leave CDG around 2.45pm and get to our hotel, Sequoia Lodge just after 3.30pm. At check in we get our room keys, park tickets, hotel easy pass for EMH and for the pool and our Christmas Lunch voucher. We also get our breakfast vouchers. We book for breakfast in the park for Thursday 26 December and we are given a voucher for The Plaza for 8.45am. Before we leave reception we have to confirm our Christmas Lunch reservation at a separate table.
Our room is not in the main building, we are in Sierra Lodge, which is about 5 minutes’ walk from the main building. We follow the path down to the lodges and find our building and then up to our room.
The room is Bambi themed, 2 double beds, a good sized table with 2 chairs and a chest of drawers where the TV is. The bathroom area is divided in 2. The shower and toilet are together. The sink area is outside the door, and there is a safe and suitcase bench. There is a retractable clothes line over the bath / shower.
We take a few minutes to settle ourselves and then its off to the park we go.
We have just about 2 hours as we have booked our evening meal at The Plaza for 6pm. This is mums first time in Disney so we take our time walking from the hotel, down to the village and then into the park. Its great that mums first sight of Disney is in daylight, so she can get her bearings and figure things out.
As we walk into the park, we see everyone gathering for the Christmas Cavalcade. We decide to try to do the train ride to give mum a complete overview of the park. We start queuing but there is a huge queue and by the time the parade starts we are still not at the top. We decide to leave the queue and watch the parade from the train station. We actually have a very good view and it really gets us into the Disney atmosphere.
After the parade we decide to not go on the train and just stroll down Main Street as we don’t have much time before our meal booking.
Just before 6pm we go to the Plaza. It’s not too busy but it was still better to have made a reservation in advance. The Plaza Restaurant in Disneyland Paris is a buffet restaurant, very different type of food to The Plaza in Disneyland California.
We haven’t eaten properly all day so its great to stop and have a proper meal. We stay for about an hour, just enough time to recharge and be ready to do some rides.
The park closes at 10 pm so we have about 2 and a half hours as we want to get a good place for Dreams.
So its off to Frontierland and Phantom Manor. The queue is not too bad, about 20 minutes. Mum has never seen Haunted Mansion film or does not know anything about the story of the ride so I try to explain bits as we queue.
When we reach our doom buggy , the ride seems dark to me. It was hard to read the the TOMB SWEET TOMB sign and if you didn’t know about the door knockers you would have wondered where the noise was coming from. Mum enjoyed it though which is good.
After Phantom Manor we decide to go to Pirates. As its dark we can’t really see much of the themeing in Frontierland. I get kinda lost and disorientated in the dark and take a few wrong turns but we eventually get to Pirates. This time it’s a 10 minute queue time, brilliant . As we walk down I explain about the ride to mum, as again she has never seen any of the films or know anything about the ride. She loves the theming and whole atmosphere. As the ride starts I point out the Blue Lagoon restaurant which I have booked for Thursday 26 December. I have mixed feelings about this Pirates ride. I love it but at the same time I prefer the California version. Mum enjoyed it though.
After a quick look in the shop and at The Blue Lagoon menu its into Fantasyland. We don’t do any rides, just wander through and then around to Discoveryland. My idea is to give mum an overview of the park, let her get her bearings and see what each of the lands are like.
In Discoveryland we try to find the train station but again in the dark I get totally disorientated. The plan was to do a complete circuit of the park but we end up running out of time. By now mum is getting tired, she has foot problems and is not able to long hours of standing and walking. We decide to try to find somewhere to sit as it is around 9.30pm and we can see people gathering for Dreams. As we come out of Discoveryland we see people sitting on the wooden sculpture thingy so we decide to sit too.
We see people standing at the railings and after a while we decide to go there too as it’s a better view of the castle.
At 9.45pm the Castle lighting starts. It’s really beautiful; I really love the icey sparkly roofs on the turrets.
Then at 10pm Dreams start. We have a really good , view of the castle, a bit sideways but its ok. The sound is a bit low though as we are not near any speakers.
Ok, first impressions of Dreams…. It’s good but not spectacular. The fountains and fireworks are great but the animated projections on the castle don’t really work for me. It’s a bit of a mish mash, the Frozen elements, the Christmas elements, trying to do a sing-along in different languages, it just seems they are trying to cram in as much as possible. Yes it’s magical Disney but it’s not classic Disney, if that makes sense to anyone!
It takes ages to leave after Dreams, as we are at Discoveryland entrance. We take our time and make our way with the crowds. By the time we get back to our hotel its nearly 11pm. Its been a long day but I am just so happy to be back in Disney again
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