Disneyland Paris Trip Report May 2016 - Day One

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Hello folks!

Apologies for the lack of content over the last few weeks, for those of you that follow me on twitter, you will know I've recently got back from a 5 day stay in Disneyland Paris! The good news is this means I have plenty to tell you all about, and this will be the first in a short series of trip reports to let you know what I've been getting up to, so without further rambling lets jump in!

My adventure started on Monday May 9th with an early start to travel to Birmingham International Airport to catch my flight to Paris Charles de Gaule, from the airport we grabbed the VEA Magic shuttle straight to our hotel for check in. Can't fault any of the travel on our trip, both airports were quick easy and hassle free and we managed to jump almost straight on to a shuttle once we grabbed our bags!

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First stop once we reached Disney property was our hotel so that we could check in and collect Sprog's park ticket, of course we stayed at my favourite hotel the Santa Fe! Anyone who's been following my previous posts will know that Cars is my favourite Pixar film, and probably up there as on of my favourite Disney and even all time films! I love the Cars theme in the Santa Fe, each section of hotel blocks is named after a different cars character, the rooms have cars themed borders, curtains, carpet, bedding and even some really cute accessories, so it's really like a dream come true for me! Check in was quick and easy and all the cast members I spoke to at the hotel we're super friendly, one even gave sprog some sweets while I was sorting out check in! We arrived at about 1:45 local time, and our room was ready straight away so we were able to drop off the bags before we headed into the park.

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We caught the free hotel shuttle into the park once we got settled into the hotel and arrived in the park just as Minnie's little spring train was about to start and luckily the area opposite Flora's boutique was really quiet so we got a great spot to catch the train!

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Next on the list was a trip to the emporium on main street to get sprog her first DLP autograph book, of course she chose the princess one. Once we had this we joined the queue to meet Marie who was outside Minnie's house, the queue was relatively short and there was a photopass photographer at this meet which i was happy about as we got some really great photos. I had decided to get the annual version of the photopass plus which is exclusive to annual pass holders, I bought this on my 1 day march trip before the price increase so got it for 39.99 Euros which i think is a fantastic buy, however like many other guests I would like to see an increase in the amount of photopass photographers that are at the advertised meet and greets in the parks! Either way Marie was fantastic and a great start to our trip.

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Once we'd seen Marie it was time to show sprog the big pink castle that she'd been waiting for and get on some rides before our first meal reservation. Small world was the main ride highlight of the first day for sprog, and is one of my guilty pleasures in the main Disneyland park, it has been recently refurbished and is looking totally fabulous right now, the puppets are all working and the new fresh colours really pop! It really is a feast for the eye and is not to be missed! We also rode Buzz Lightyear's lazer blast in discovery land, then back to fantasy land for tea cups and Dumbo's flying elephants, on our way back from discovery land we even stopped for a quick photo with Scrooge McDuck, which was a character I was really excited to meet, especially since I've started reading the Scrooge comic series. Sadly the photo pass photographer finished just before our turn with Scrooge, but the lovely CM Luke who was with scrooge got some great pics for us, thanks again Luke!

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After watching Magic on parade from the corner by main street transport we headed for our first reserved meal of the trip which was at Inventions. For those of you who aren't familiar, Inventions is one of a selection of character dining experiences on offer at DLP (I am planning on writing a brief guide separate to this for character dining) it is based on the second floor of the Disneyland hotel, but you can eat there even if you are not an onsite hotel guest. We met 6 characters in total at inventions,  and spent nearly 2 hours in the restaurant, this was a great way to kick start our autograph collection, we saw Mickey, Goofy, Pluto, Tigger, Eeyore and Pinocchio. The food in inventions is buffet style so does have a lot of choice and should have something to suit most diets, however i did find it to be rather sea-food heavy which is not to my personal taste.

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After inventions we popped back into the parks to take a trip to Phantom Manor, by now it was getting dark and had started to rain, so this was the perfect setting for Sprog's first Phantom Manor experience, sadly i didn't catch the names of the two cast members at the start of Phantom Manor on Monday night but they were honestly so brilliant and 100% in character which made the experience so authentic, the lightning in the lift scared sprog a little bit, but she loved the rest of the ride.

After a long day of travelling and exploring it was time to get back to the hotel to rest up for a very busy day 2, so that's the end of today's trip report. Hope you enjoyed it, if you have any questions about anything we did on day one drop me a comment, if not I hope you join us again for day 2!

4 comments:

  1. Great read! I can't wait for Day 2 now. Oh and the pictures are brilliant xx

    www.hollywoodandlime.wordpress.com

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  2. What a wonderful first day you both had! Such a lovely trip report, I'm a little jealous you both got to meet Scrooge, he's awesome! And the character selection in Inventions looked absolutely brill. I look forward to reading Day 2! 😊✨

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  3. […] back! Following on from my Day One trip report its now time to update you on our day 2 adventures, this was our first full day in the […]

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  4. […] Festival of Pirates and Princesses is a new season being introduced this year to Disneyland Paris as part of the extended 25th anniversary celebrations. Described by Disney as “a spectacular celebration of Disney royalty and rapscallions” it is set to take over the Spring slot previously home to Swing into Spring, which last ran in 2016 during our May trip. […]

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