Disneyland Paris trip report - April 2018 Day 4

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Hey guys, welcome back, or if you're here for the first time, welcome! This is a continuation of my April trip report series, so if you're not up to date, don't forget to catch up on Day 1, Day 2 and Day 3! If you're all caught up already, let's go!

Day 4 was our first day with both Sophie and Katie H, and with Katie P due to arrive in the afternoon it was shaping up to be a really good day! We woke up feeling pretty refreshed after swimming the previous night so decided it would be our Studios day.

Now I do enjoy the studios, but still often find it a struggle to find enough to do to make it a full day park, recently the Walt Disney Company announced the studio's park will be getting a €2 billion investment, creating a Marvel area, Star Wars area and a Frozen area. This is going to be such a huge boost to the studios and has been such a long time coming, personally, I cannot wait for this to start taking shape! For now, it was a case of getting all of our favourite things done and then seeing what else we could do with our day.



Our first stop was La Place de Remy to grab a fast pass for Ratatouille. This is a ride I really enjoy but often find that the queues are 30 mins plus, so I always try to get a fast pass return time when I can. This is really simple to do, to the right of the ride are a few fast pass machines, above is a sign displaying the current return time. Simply scan the barcode on your park ticket at one of the machines, and out pops a paper ticket with a 30 min return time slot, when it gets to the time indicated on your fast pass ticket, you return to the ride and show it to the CMs and you'll be able to join the shorter fast pass queue for the ride.

After grabbing our fast passes for Ratatouille, Katie H and Sophie rode Rock 'n Rollercoaster while Lilo and I waited for Meet Spiderman to open. This worked out to be pretty much perfect timing and the girls came off the ride just as we were going to the inside portion of the queue, they spoke nicely to the CMs at the entrance who let them come and join us. I love meeting Spidey, his meet is in the backlot area and because there isn't a huge amount to do near here the wait is often quite short. Not only that but Spidey is probably one of the most interactive character meets I've experienced, he's always really chatty and funny, and the meet isn't rushed at all. This is one of the locations with a full-time photo pass photographer, so you're almost guaranteed to get a professional photo unless there's a staff shortage or other technical issue, the photos are always a really good quality and Spidey has a really cool backdrop which looks like a newspaper front page, it's a lovely keepsake!



After Spidey we noticed the area near the stunt show was quite busy, we went over to have a look and in a case of the best luck ever, stumbled across two really rare character meets. Due, I suspect, to the upcoming Fan Daze event, some extra special characters were out in the studios park doing meets that weren't in the schedule. There was a photo pass photographer, but they weren't doing any autographs and I believe this was probably a test to see how well they could manage the queues and how many people they could get through in a set time. the queue was split into two separate queues which snaked around each other. If you queued to one side, you could meet Hiro, from Big Hero 6. If you took the other side you could meet Nick and Judy from Zootropolis when their set started. By the time we arrived, the queue for Hiro was pretty much empty and we walked around the queue and almost straight up to him, he was wearing his flight suit, and I believe he doesn't currently meet in any of the parks like this so it was a real treat. After we were allowed to jump straight back into the other queue so that when they switched over we could meet Nick and Judy.



Now I have met Judy before, she and Nick were taking it in turns to meet in Discoveryland during the 2017 run Disney half, but this was my first chance to see both of them together. And for Lilo, Katie H and Sophie, this was their first time meeting either of them. Like Hiro, they looked great and the queue moved quickly but the interaction didn't feel rushed. We got some lovely photos from the two meets and I feel so lucky that we happened to be in the right place at the right time to meet them!



Once our impromptu character meets were done, it was time for our Ratatouille fast passes, so we headed back towards Toon Studio and La Place de Remy. Sadly when we got there the ride was experiencing technical difficulties, so was temporarily closed, if this ever happens when you have a fast pass, don't panic you'll be able to re-use your pass at any time during that same day when the ride has re-opened. We walked back around to Toon Studio where Mrs Incredible was meeting, here queue was quite short and Lilo hadn't met her yet so we jumped in to meet her. Sadly this wasn't to be either as we timed it just wrong and before we got to the front she switched places with Mr Incredible, who we had met earlier in the week, so we decided not to continue queueing. We got an ice cream each from the stand next to the character meets and sat outside the cars meet while we decided what to do next.



It seemed our streak of luck when it came to meeting characters wasn't over for the day yet, as when we finished our ice creams we decided to try and see Mickey and the Magician, and who should be opposite the theatre but the main Mouse himself, and not only was he out doing meets, but he was out in an outfit I'd never seen before. We decided to join the queue, the rules here were a bit more strict and again appeared to be part of the testing for character meets. Mickey wasn't signing and it was 2 photo pass and 2 personal photos per person, because of this the queue moved quite quickly and it wasn't long at all before it was our turn. The interaction with Mickey was great and didn't feel rushed, again there was a photo pass photographer and we got a lovely group photo on top of our individual one. Of course, all these meets weren't in the schedule and so it was just chance that we were in the right place at the right time, but what a fantastic surprise, I'd love to see more of these meets pop up in the future!



We rounded off our trip to the studios by watching the ever fabulous Mickey and the Magician, this is a free show in the Animagique theatre and is on multiple times a day, it features a whole bunch of popular Disney characters alongside Mickey, and is probably around 20 mins long, though it is very popular so you'll want to arrive early to queue before the theatre doors open. Again the queue for this is undercover and shady, so great for hot days and rainy days. I love this show and it never fails to amaze me, I would highly recommend making time to see it when you're next in the studio's park.



Once we were all wrapped up with the studio's park we headed over to the main Disneyland Park where Katie P had not long arrived, not only this but we also got to see our CM friend Kelly briefly which was lovely! Our first stop in the main park was Main street again for our daily dose of pirate power at the make your choice dance stop! I cannot even begin to explain just how much I love this show and I so hope it is back next spring if it is I'll be making at least one trip to see it! We stopped by Fantasyland and rode the Snow White dark ride, and also went shopping for Lilo to buy a Rapunzel doll with her spending money! It was another lovely hot day so it was time for another Pineapple Whip stop in Adventureland, before getting back to Main street for the final make your choice show of the day to support team princess this time.

By the time the Pirate show was finished it was pretty much parade time, so we got a spot by the Fantasyland towers for this, once again we all had a brilliant time watching the parade and the characters were all fantastic! We then popped over to Discoveryland where we rode star tours twice in a row thanks to a short wait time and a fast pass! We were really lucky and on the 2nd occasion the lovely CM we asked managed to put the ride in English for us, this is something I've never had before at DLP and it made such a difference to understand everything being said! We took a walk through Nautilus as a few of the girls hadn't done it before, and we then split up, Katie P, Katie H and Sophie rode Hyperspace mountain while Lilo and I took a ride around Autopia. Finally, we met up with our CM friend Sophie and did a group ride of Buzz Lightyear Lazer Blast, there seemed to be a Katies vs Sophies thing going on, and I'm reliably informed the Katies were the winners!



That was it for park time for the day as we headed over to the village for dinner at Annette's diner, I had never eaten here before but the girls all recommended it. The diner is so big inside and is 50s themed, some of the waitresses are even on rollerskates which Lilo loved. The menu had a lot of choices and I think most of us opted for burgers which were really nice and really filling. I thought it was good value for money and I really enjoyed the experience, it is definitely somewhere I would consider eating again, but be warned it can get really busy in the evenings and you may have to queue for a while to be seated at peak times!

After dinner, we headed back to the hotel to get a good rest before Sophie, Lilo and I had our last day in the parks! Thanks for sticking with me this far, if there's anything you'd like to know more about, drop me a comment below, if not check back soon for our final day!

Hoodsie xx

2 comments:

  1. The character meets on that day were amazing! When I saw on Twitter I couldn't believe it but I was so happy for everyone there, I hope they continue to do lots of rare impromptu meets in the future I think it's a great way to be able to meet new characters! We ate in Annette's on our last trip and really enjoyed the food, the portions are huge though we had the set menu from the dining plan thing and we couldn't eat half of it!

    Jess // foundationsandfairytales.wordpress.com
    xx

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  2. […] not up to date, you might have a bit of reading to do, but here’s day 1, day 2, day 3 and day 4. Now that we’ve covered that, it’s time to jump right […]

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