Poor Flyn and Rapunzel. Always underappreciated. They get an inadequate float in Paris and a restroom in Orlando.
Ouch... decades old? Did we have to go there? Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella... those are decades old. The Lion King came out when I was in 6th grade. It is only 23 years old! It isn't decades old!
That is awesome that you were able to find a curb spot! Definitely not something that would happen at WDW so soon before a parade.
I love parades myself so it's nice seeing photos of a different one! Poor Evie, she just wanted to be left alone!
I'm glad the skies cleared up so you were able to take more photos! I'm definitely not sick of seeing the castle
Poor Evie with the parade.
I love all the castle photos
Crazy guest experience in DLP?! Never We've been to three different Disney parks now and the rudest craziest guests are always in Paris
What a fun parade, but poor Evie! Darn Rafiki!
I think the castle is beautiful! <3
And What?! I can't believe those people just went IN the carriage! Guess there were no CMs around!
That parade looks really cool. Although the Rafiki thing is weird. Sometimes the characters don't get a good read on the kids who are not super interested in interacting and it can get kinda awkward.
I love all the castle pics! It's a nice castle. It may not be Cinderella Castle, but I'd call it an acceptable substitute.
What is up with the people climbing into the carriage? Seriously? I don't understand people's behavior sometimes.
That was a fun couple of chapters! the parade floats aren't nearly as elaborate or detailed as others I've seen by a long shot, but it looks like you still had fun. Except Creepy Rafiki. Ew.
I dunno, maybe putting Tink at the end makes sense. A little pixie dust and they all fly away.
Yes, cute carriage spot. But...
Hello, are they morons?
I love that castle and I've never even seen it. I'd like to someday, but it could be a long, long while...
I was suffering from caffeine deprivation, too.
However, down in Town Square there were still plenty of open spots right on the curb – something downright impossible to find at WDW.
My family sat down and let the kids play around in the street.
My Disney veteran son knew what we were waiting around for:
Evie wasn’t sure what was going on.
And 90% guilty for putting my poor daughter through that kind of torture. Because she screamed and buried her head in Alex’s arms and refused to turn around for the rest of the parade.
Sleeping Beauty’s Castle was stunning in the evening light.
Evie was feeling a tad restless from the parade and wanted to practice her walking skills. She was only taking a few steps here and there at that point, but with Alex’s assistance she was strolling around the hub like a Disney champ.
It was a cute little carriage (although showing its age, a little bit) and made for a nice photo spot for the girls in the group.
Right after we took this picture a family walked up and climbed over the chains and INTO the carriage.
But just like in the Magic Kingdom, there was still a wishing well located behind the castle.
That Landon had to throw a coin into:
Anything to make the grandkids happy…
Lucky for us, Evie was awake this time and took in all the sights and sounds of the ride.
But we really underestimated the level of craziness during Paris’s fireworks show.
The rest of the show had lost a bit of its shimmer and shine for us.
I wish all major Disney fans could see this castle in DLP. It's gorgeous and more intimate than the WDW one; both have their own unique qualities that makes them worth a visit.
Anything to make the grandkids happy…
As you can see from the empty boat in front of us, we practically had the place to ourselves.
It was better that way…less people to hear Landon and me belting out the famous lines to the song.
We had no shame in our Small World game.
Dreams - the fireworks that are no longer there – was narrated by Peter Pan and Wendy with Peter speaking in English and Wendy in French. I thought that was a brilliant move on Disney’s part, because so long as guests were fluent in one of the languages it was easy to follow the story.
The best thing about Dreams was its attempt at combining every unique feature from the states’ shows. Keep in mind, our trip took place in 2016 before Happily Ever After was even announced, so for us this was our first experience seeing lasers incorporated into a nighttime castle show. Dreams had the water features like World of Color, lasers, projections, and fireworks in its show.
My Disney World friends, this chaos made the worst Wishes night seem tame. I will never, ever, EVER again be shocked by people watching Happily Ever After. Because nothing could be crazier than that night in Disneyland Paris.
Well, I applaud the effort anyway!Right as we were walking through the ride queue, the Disneyland train approached; its track passing right in front of the Small World building. I tried my hardest to grab a photo of it, because it looked so quintessentially Disney, but there was a lady trying to do that same exact thing and I just ended up with a bunch of photos with her as the focal point.
It was better that way…less people to hear Landon and me belting out the famous lines to the song.
We had no shame in our Small World game.
That certainly says a lot about it!This is how good the attraction was: This past spring, Alex and I toyed around with the idea of taking a quick overnight trip to the parks. It wouldn’t have been that big a challenge, but when I told Alex that Pirates was under refurb his comment was, “Oh, let’s just wait ‘til I get back then.”
That's pretty much standard at a Disney meal anywhere.(Of course, the downside to that would be he would be too distracted to eat any of his dinner. Kid has the worst time focusing when it comes to eating…)
Yeah, well apparently, nobody else got the memo that a fenced off patch of grass tends to imply one should not go there. A dozen girls and guys began climbing over the railing halfway into the show and standing right on top of all the flowers.
And if that wasn’t shocking enough, a handful of them came up and sat on the rails. Right on top of where mine and Alex’s hands were.
Sounds like HEA...But it was no Wishes.
It wasn’t even a runner up to Wishes, in my book.
The great thing about Wishes was that you could be virtually anywhere and still enjoy the show. All you needed was the soundtrack piped in and your eyes to the sky and you got to be a part of the magic.
Hmmm... wonder what this might be.(And for another show I have seen recently, but we’ll get to that in my next report…)
So you're going to be greasing the hand rails, right?Fortunately, there’s a new show at Disneyland Paris now – Illuminations – and Alex and I will go into that experience armed to the teeth and prepared for all sorts of different displays of humanity.
I'm loving all your updates and photos. Funny how time and distance makes our memories fade-I'd forgotten how people at Disneyland Paris tend to blatantly ignore rules, little things like roped off areas and railings, and then the not so little things like small children needing to see too!!
Part of the reason we've never been back is because we felt there was such a lack of good old human decency and good manners especially when we compared it with WDW. A part of me would like to go again just to see all that's changed and, let's be honest, to get my disney fix. Maybe one of these days I'll persuade the others in my family
Your photos really show how empty the park was! Must have been cool having a semi private ride on Small World!
I am so sorry your Dreams experience was tainted by those rude guests, and that you weren't too impressed with the show as it was. Hopefully Illuminations will be way better!
I've suffered from this before.
I can't even imagine. We normally have to stake out our spot an hour before.
Like all good parents would.
He has been trained well.
She does look perplexed.
I would have done the same thing. I hope she gets over her fear before your next trip.
Yes it is.
She looks like she had a great time trying out her walking. It still amazes me how not crowded the park was.
Shocking! If you were in WDW a cm would have corrected this.
You got a really great perspective on this picture.
Danielle went through a faze where she had to do this at every fountain. It was really cute.
Someday... someday....
I really love this rendition with all the color! The white and gold one at DLR is really striking, but this one is really gorgeous in its own right.
And perfect for having no shame in taking flash photos.
Ok, that IS a cool way to do it. Genius!
I think I'd really enjoy all those elements combined in one show! ROL comes close, but not enough fireworks.
What a horrific bummer. Sounds like they need WAY more security and enforce the sort of Disney decorum expected to make a nice experience for everyone.
Wow, that Dreams situation is pretty horrific. I understand that there are some significant cultural differences between customs & behaviors in the US and in France, but ... how do people think it's okay to hang out in a fenced-off area? That can't possibly be something normal there. And how were there no CMs there controlling the crowd. What??
These DLP guests are really aggravating me. And I wasn't even there. I can't imagine how you guys felt.
Well, I applaud the effort anyway!
That certainly says a lot about it!
That's pretty much standard at a Disney meal anywhere.
Sounds like HEA...
Hmmm... wonder what this might be.
So you're going to be greasing the hand rails, right?
Sorry, I haven't been on the boards very much lately, so just getting back to this: we ARE booked now, DLP will be June 14th-18th, 2018 (the first and last are travel days, so mostly those middle three days). Let me know how things look as your schedule comes together.Plane tickets bought! That's exciting! My friend and I are in early talks about doing an Ireland trip with our families in November, which would mean we would need to push our DLP trip back. June sounds like a good time to do that! Once I'm back home I'll look at my schedule more closely and let you know if June will be feasible for us. For what it's worth, I'd love to visit/meet you all at DLP! I think the kids would get along well.
Sorry you had those challenges during your long-awaited WDW trip. Glad you still enjoyed it, but that's gotta be hard.Well, I kind of failed at checking in here during the rest of my Disney trip. It was harder than I expected it to be, going to Disney with the two kids at peak summer season. That's not to say we didn't have fun; we made a lot of memories and came away with some good stories.
But to be honest, the trip kind of bummed me out. Every spouse has one point in their loved one's deployment where they hit a rut and just want their normal lives back. Well, being at Disney reminded me how much I missed Alex, and everything reminded me of past trips with him. It wasn't the same without my Disney partner. Evie kept asking for Daddy, and Landon constantly wanted to take pictures to send to him. The trip was supposed to distract us from Alex's absence but I'm afraid it had the opposite effect.
Haha, definitely not!Free reign to move the stroller around? Plenty of time to check out the shirts? No line at the checkout counters?
Yep, we were definitely not in Walt Disney World.
Yes, you need to get there! Certainly one of my favorite things - so easy to just walk between parks, hotel, Downtown Disney, etc.Park hopping is a huge part of Alex’s and I’s normal touring style, but with little kids it’s so difficult to do without taking a long break in between locations. Toddlers don’t have the patience to wait for a bus and then go through a second bag check and ticket line; that’s too much time spent doing nothing.
So with Disneyland Paris, being able to plop them in the stroller and make it to the front of the second park before their little brains could even process what was happening was amazing.
Alex, my mom, and I were instant fans.
And now we REALLY want to check out Disneyland in California to see their setup.
Good to know - I didn't have much info about this ride.Overall, it was a cute attraction and a nice interpretation of the Slinky Dog toy, but no way would I ever wait in a line longer than 10-15 minutes for it. Barnstormer has more “thrill” than Zigzag Spin, and we all know how short THAT ride is.
We can't all be perfect all the time.We were a lovely bunch for a little awhile. Me, waiting for the medicine to kick in and the lightning between my eyes to diminish. My mom, just about Disney’d out. Alex, energetic but alone in his enthusiasm. And the kids, wondering what the heck they were going to do next.
Well, if we do meet up, just let her hang around Izzy a bit - maybe Evie will rub off on Izzy and tone her down a bit. (I have no idea how I ended up with such a gimme-the-spotlight kid!)The ladies were having a blast trying different poses and looking back on this picture, I hope Evie took in their carefree attitude. My daughter is as shy as they come; it wouldn’t hurt her to see more people embracing their happiness and living a “hakuna matata” life.
Haha, love it!It was better that way…less people to hear Landon and me belting out the famous lines to the song.
We had no shame in our Small World game.
Um, you're scaring me. I've heard it's different there - smoking, general behavior, respect, etc. I do hope maybe things will improve by the time we get there, but not getting my hopes up. If people break the rules, though, I guarantee Izzy will loudly state that they shouldn't be doing that. My little rule-enforcer.I could not, hard as I tried, get over the blatant disregard for other people’s space and for destruction of property. I love me some Disney shows, but never in a million years would I go to those lengths to watch one.
What really shocked my mom was the fact that there were no Cast Members around serving as crowd control. In fact, we didn’t see another CM the rest of the night. If there were any on Main Street at the start of Dreams, they were hidden to us. The members obviously could’ve cared less that guests were literally standing on fences and shoving their phones in front of strangers’ faces.
My Disney World friends, this chaos made the worst Wishes night seem tame. I will never, ever, EVER again be shocked by people watching Happily Ever After. Because nothing could be crazier than that night in Disneyland Paris.
Poor Landon was crying because he couldn’t see anything and the magic of the show was completely gone for my mom who was so put off by the rudeness. Alex had tried to be polite and not block anyone’s way, but he reached a boiling point and said, forget it, and he picked Landon up and held him up.
The rest of the show had lost a bit of its shimmer and shine for us.
Sorry, I haven't been on the boards very much lately, so just getting back to this: we ARE booked now, DLP will be June 14th-18th, 2018 (the first and last are travel days, so mostly those middle three days). Let me know how things look as your schedule comes together.
Well, if we do meet up, just let her hang around Izzy a bit - maybe Evie will rub off on Izzy and tone her down a bit. (I have no idea how I ended up with such a gimme-the-spotlight kid!)
Um, you're scaring me. I've heard it's different there - smoking, general behavior, respect, etc. I do hope maybe things will improve by the time we get there, but not getting my hopes up. If people break the rules, though, I guarantee Izzy will loudly state that they shouldn't be doing that. My little rule-enforcer.
Glad to be back and caught up once again! I can NOT believe the guest behaviour you experienced here!! That would absolutely detract from my experience. I just can't imagine what goes through people's heads sometimes...