Christmas in Disneyland Paris

 

Bert had suggested he take me to Disneyland Paris for a day over his Christmas break. Out of the blue, without me having to prompt him. 
I wasn’t about to say no to a Disney trip, so on Thursday the 27th, we got up at stupid o’ clock (I have not been missing that!) to be in the car by 4am to get on our way! 



Normally, it’s about a 4 hour trip, depending on how long we stop on the way, but this time it quite quickly turned into the trip from hell. Quite a while from the border there was ONE (yes, ONE) road sign in the French part of Belgium (it wasn’t so much a road sign as one of those notification LED signage message things) that of course went by too fast to read in it’s entirety. I did get most of it, and it turned out that a border passage was closed and we’d have to go via Lille. However, there’s a few border passages around, and we weren’t sure which one exactly was shut down. 
What the sign didn’t alert us to, was that most of the Walloon highway was shut down. Completely. 
Roads aren’t also as well listed in the French part as they are in Flanders (the Flemish part, which we are from) so we got lost fairly quickly. 
Thankfully, there was a gas station we could stop at, and Bert tried to get our satnav to go to Disney via another route and I went inside to go to the loo and asked the kind shopkeeper if he knew how to best go there. Because it’s a stop that a lot of truckers use, and they are very well informed amongst themselves, I found out that, apparently (allegedly) yellow vest protesters had set a truck on fire during the night, and the police had responded by shutting down most of the Walloon roads and pretty much every border passing. 
Luckily, they knew of small country roads we could follow if we used the right exit, AND they wrote down how to do it. 
Seriously, I am SO grateful to this kind gentleman and his colleague, because if it hadn’t been for them, we would have been stuck in a massive traffic jam on the ONE road open that was under strict police checks. We did end up doing a massive detour, in the dark, on barely lit roads, worrying that we might run over suddenly crossing wildlife or end up dead in a ditch, but phew, we got onto a French highway after a while, and from there on, it was THANKFULLY a smooth drive into Marne-la-Vallée.

 

Road sign photo from our last trip, because F no was I turning down the window to shoot one this time round. Not in sub zero temperatures! 

Because OF COURSE, our idiot satnav (never again are we getting another Tom Tom Go!) sent us THROUGH the town. Which is slower than the highway, but not just that. 
On the highway the signage to Disneyland Paris and the Disney Parks parking is done really well. Through town, however, you’re pretty much on your own and signage SUCKS. 
So we lost another half an hour trying to even FIND the parking lot (seriously Disney, SORT THIS OUT). 
Then we were stuck in a massive traffic jam to even get onto the parking! Which is now €30 (THIRTY!) euros to park for ONE day. This isn’t just getting ridiculous, it’s become RIDICULOUS!

 

But at least we were finally there. And we walked to the parks. There was a MASSIVE queue at bag check, and there was no way I could take out my collapsible seat because there wasn’t room for it, but there was also no way I could stand that long. So I explained the situation to a kind security guard, who took us over to his equally kind colleague, who let us go through in the priority lane. That was SUPER sweet of them, they were both awesome and I totally appreciate them helping me out!

 

We walked to the Disneyland Park, which was only a very short walk, and there things got a little strange. 
The Donald Desk had opened 3 out of 4 windows. 
At two they were not only sorting out carer tickets (if you have a government issued disability card and a valid entry ticket, you can present that at the Donald Desk and they will provide you with a complimentary carer ticket), but also fast passes, the paid kind (don’t ask me how they work, I have no idea). 
Meaning the queues were total chaos. 
There was also no room to sit, even though a lot of people with disabilities have issues with standing. 
Luckily there was enough space for me to use my collapsible seat, so that’s what I did. The other issue was that the queues are positioned in a way that a lot of people pass through them to get to somewhere else, meaning that you get jostled because let’s be frank: a lot of people are rude and have zero manners and will bump into you for no reason other than you not jumping out of their way fast enough. But yeah 2 out of 3 desks they were doing carer tickets and fast passes. Because this was the 2nd time we got a carer ticket, we knew what to have ready and getting Bert's tickets once it was our turn, we got that sorted out super quickly. 

The CM helping us out was also super friendly, and she seemed very pleased that someone knew how things worked. She told us it would be best to go to City Hall to sort out my green disability pass, because it would go faster. Which brings us to desk 3. 
At this desk they were giving out the orange (for people with a doctor’s note) and green (for people with a government issued card) disability passes to use inside the park. Whilst I think it’s great they have opened a second desk to take some of the pressure off City Hall, again, it was not very well organised.
The CMs at City Hall are much better equipped to help people with things like this, they can get a CM that speaks another language if necessary, and the waiting comfort on Main Street is much better, because there are a bunch of long benches right outside the building as well as inside, which is much, much better for people that can’t really stand very long. 

 

I’m also pretty sure that whilst the line for City Hall was longer, it moved a LOT faster. 
The CM that sorted out my green pass was an absolute DARLING! She was super, super sweet and caring and so, so nice. To be honest, it would have been so much easier for everyone, and much more organised to just give out green disability cards when you pick up your carer ticket. 
It will only add a few extra minutes per person, and it will take a ton of pressure off City Hall and the desk giving out these things when they only have to write out orange ones. And the occasional green one for someone that shows up with friends that all have their own ticket. So much easier! (FIY, it’s not that I don’t want to be in two queues, I just feel that it could be done better to save everyone involved the hassle, especially overworked CMs on a busy day!).





 

Some pictures I took whilst Bert kept our spot in the queue, because City Hall is on Town Square. But yeah, we should have been inside the park at 9.30am, instead, due to all the traffic horror, etc, it ended up being 11.30am. But we got there! 

 

Our first stop was to see Sandy Claws in Frontierland. We went through Libery Arcade, because we knew it would be quicker than going through Main Street proper. Bert took a quick selfie to throw on social media,

 

and then we went into Frontierland.

 

Where we saw Miss Peach was out, so we stopped there first.

 

In case anyone is interested in swapping a Peach #surpriseMickey button for another Disney button or a pin, leave a comment! I will also leave a photo of my traders at the end of this post, in case someone feels like trading :).

 

And then it was time for Sandy Claws. The meet and greet slot was drawing to a close, but they were still letting the last few people in, and the kind CM wrote us down for direct meet on disability. I have to say that up to that point, everyone we encountered in person, staff wise, was absolutely amazing, and that was great!

 

Mr Skellington was, as he always is, awesome to interact with. And he took his time meeting with us, probably because we were happy to banter along with him. His attended and the photo pass photographer were both laughing so, so hard, as were several other people in the queue, at the nonsense we were spewing, and it was fun to see that other people were having a good laugh at our madness, too :).







 

Afterwards we wandered into Discoveryland to see if Caramel, the steampunk cupcake girl, was out. 



 

But she wasn’t, so we Bert took my outfit shot at the Nautilus. 
People were really considerate about others taking photos with décor. I think it might have been because EVERYONE was doing it, so they were a bit more mindful of others. Whatever the reason was, it was very nice! 

Even though it was peak season, there weren’t that many people actually outside. Mostly because a lot of people were in the Studios Park to see the Christmas shows there, but also because it was hella cold, and a lot of people were shopping or in restaurants having a drink to stay warm. That did mean that we had ample opportunity to take photos, which was good. Sadly, it was just too cold to take a lot of photos. 

  

 

We had just stopped taking photos at Nautilus when we saw Caramel had just come out, so of course we had to go and say hi! Sadly we did miss the Christmas parade, so we planned to go see the next showing instead.

 

Because Bert was cold, we decided to go and meet Darth Vader, because that’s also mostly indoors. And we didn’t have to wait long at all, which was nice. I asked the kind CM at the photo station if I could also see the pictures of the Jack Skellington meet and greet, and she tried, but couldn’t as they hadn’t been uploaded at the right station yet. She did make sure to put all my photos on one card, and advised not to buy any ‘till I was done with all my meet and greets because the more photos you purchase in one go, the cheaper they are. Which was also super sweet of her. 

 

Afterwards, Bert was not only cold, but also starving, so we went on the look for food. 
Hyperion was PACKED (and is known to be super slow), so we figured we’d go to Toad Hall in Fantasyland. 
On the way we noticed that the queue for Au Châlet de la Marionette was so long people were queuing outside. 
They were also eating outside, in the freezing (literally) cold, because there just wasn’t enough room. It was so bad we saw some people take their food over to the outside seating area of Toad Hall, because there was at least space. 
And there only was space because guess what, Toad Hall, one of the larger restaurants, was CLOSED. 
On one of the busiest days of the year… WTF Disney! 
We saw people eating outside, out of sheer misery, in several places throughout the park, and it could be so easily solved by covering outside seating areas. We see it in Belgium all the time, where a café or restaurant will set up a sort of tent around their outdoors area and will then put mobile heaters inside. I’m sure Disney is perfectly capable of doing just that, and if they don’t want boring white tents, I’m sure they can sort them to look on theme, too! It would also be a solution for rainy days, because everyone knows we have plenty of those!

 

I forgot to take photos there, so here’s an old one of the cute sign instead. The entire restaurant is Lion King themed, and the food is a little more African inspired and nothing like your average burger offerings. So that’s nice. But if you don’t like spicy foods and things like kebab and such, this is not the place for you. 

The next restaurant we tried was Hakuna Matata, and whilst that was also hella crowded, we realised that things were probably not going to get better. So we queued there. 
Because I was feeling feint standing, I wanted to go sit down whilst Bert queued. There was a CM that was only letting people through that had food, and no matter how much I explained that my husband was in the queue and that I couldn’t stand due to a medical condition and just wanted to sit at a two person table, she would NOT have it. She was pretty rude about it too, even though I was everything but rude. She was all “oh I’ll get you a chair” and it was clear she was saying it because she didn’t want to be faulted if I did feint or whatever, BUT there was ZERO room to put a chair in the queue and she knew that full well (as she was facing the queue). 
So in the end, I used my own collapsible seat in the queue, out of sheer misery, and there was no room for that either. I basically sat for 2 minutes, had to get up to let people pass, etc etc etc. That was super unpleasant. I feel bad for people in a wheelchair, because there was no room for them at all! 

I love that Disney tries to make life easier for people with disabilities, and they’ve NAILED it when it comes to rides, parade and show viewings (when it’s the Castle Stage shows at least), which I 100%+ appreciate (love them for it!), but when it comes to ticket desks, restaurants, Illuminations and from what I gather, hard ticket events also, there’s a lot of room for improvement. 
But at least there is a start! 
I just feel bad for people that really can NOT queue (for whatever reason), because getting around in DLP around this time must be utter hell (as you have to queue for everything, even going to the toilet). 
If you want to be sure to have food when you are hungry, pack your own lunch. Or if you’re staying on site, make sure to bring along food and go back to your room to have a meal. You’ll be able to eat in the warmth in peace and quiet and you probably won’t lose more time than you would going to a restaurant in the park! 

Of course, the queue to get food (it took us half an hour, no joke, to be able to order) was so long that we missed the second (and last) showing of the Christmas parade as well. 
Which was sad, but c’est la vie! 
At least the food was we had was very good (I really enjoyed my meal of chicken strips and sweet fries/chips), so there was that! 

For those wondering, whilst the US parks have announced they are virtue signalling cutting back plastic by banning lids and straws: in Disneyland Paris the plastic still rules supreme. Not only are lids and straws still a thing, they also still use plastic cutlery. Plastic cutlery that comes in a little plastic bag together with one napkin… that’s right. 
And whilst I’m ranting, another thing. Disney claims to care about the environment, but if they really do, then why are they still partnering up with companies like Nestlé and Nutella, who are big players when it comes to deforestation for palm oil. Food for thought! 

\rant à back to our frosty (from the weather!) day trip!



 

After food, Bert asked if we could try to stay indoors for the most part, because he was so cold. We walked to Frontierland to see if Pueblo Trading was open, but sadly it wasn’t. 
We did see that Cowboy Cook-Out was, and curious about prices we wandered over to have a look. Turns out that it is no longer a buffet! That made us sad, because we could have eaten there instead! 
Nothing to be done about it at that point though! 
So we walked to the Trading Post instead, the largest store in Frontierland. Where I picked up Tangled pins for Craig, a Dumbo pin for Sayaka and I got Bert a Rapunzel pin as well. I debated getting a knitted Disney Christmas bobble hat, but in the end I decided against it.











 

I took some photos around Central Plaza, because the Christmas decorations were all so pretty, 

 

and then we went down Discovery Arcade



 

to go have a look in Flora’s at the meet and greet photos. And by now you all know which ones I got :).

 

I was telling Bert about the key hole ears I wanted to get, and he found them in the midst of a pile of other ears on display. So I got those along with two photos. 

 

Scrooge McDuck and Marie were out for meet and greets, and Bert did ask if I wanted to have my photo taken with them, but he was freezing and I felt that getting him inside in the warmth was more important. So we crossed the street to Emporium instead, where we looked at things but didn’t buy anything.





 

Of course I took some more photos on Main Street USA, because it looked very pretty for Christmas! 

 

Because it was nearly time for A Merry Stitchmas, we walked to the Castle Stage, and the CM there let us in the disability zone. I didn’t see all of it because because we were quite close to the first row and I had to sit down several times (I opted to sit on my own stool because it wasn’t as cold as the stone benches, there was enough space to sit in the area!) but what I saw was pretty cool! 
It was also a little random but that’s ok! 
Bert did take a ton of photos though (they’re on his flickr page, here) and they sure are better than mine! 
(Give him a follow on insta whilst at it, he deserves more followers than he currently has!)

 

Standing around for a show in the freezing cold of course doesn’t help keeping anyone warm, so we went to Star Tours after Stitchmas. Because we knew that the queue for people with disability starts inside and we’d be warm. This time we weren’t lucky enough to see the Star Tours adventure in English, but we enjoyed it nevertheless. And we got some sequences we didn’t see before, and that was cool too! Bert and I both love Star Tours, so if we got to do one ride, we wanted it to be that.

 

My favourite in the Disneyland Park is actually Les Mystères du Nautilus, but it’s a walk-through and it gets very crowded on busy days. As I get very claustrophic in a crowd like that, I tend to not go in on busy days. I do always take a photo of the outside though! 











 

Bert decided he didn’t want to see the other two showings of A Merry Stitchmas to take photos, so we went for a walk instead. 
Walking in the freezing cold and taking photos is one thing, standing still is another, especially because Bert was miserable because he was so cold. And sadly pretty much all queues were outside. We could have gone on Pirates, but it’s always a risk of getting wet, and you do NOT want to be wet when it literally freezes outside! 
So we walked through Fantasyland 

 

and Adventureland instead, which was pleasant enough!

 

Bert said he’d go on Small World if it meant he’d be warm, and anyone that knows Bert knows how much he HATES Small World. That right there should tell you just how COLD he was!



Because I still wanted the Christmas hat, we decided I should just go get it. Which I did. 

 

When we came out of the shop, we saw that Peach was out again, so we walked to Main Street Station to see if her Victorian sister was out and about, but sadly she wasn’t. The Marie meet and greet wasn’t taking disabled visitors anymore, and whilst the queue wasn’t long at all, and I could have done it, they were closing that up too, so sadly I couldn’t meet Marie. But that was ok, there’s worse things! 

 

Bert offered to take my photo with the blue Christmas trees on Town Square instead, because he really liked those trees.

 

Got this up for trade too, because I have two. 

I suddenly remembered that you could get a free Christmas button at City Hall, and because there was hardly a queue and we could just queue sitting on the benches, we did that. Sadly, they were out of buttons, but they did tell use we could ask in the hotels, as they might still have them.







 

Yeah I took a ton of photos in the Disneyland Hotel, I’m sure no one is surprised. 
We were going to check out the Disneyland Hotel gift shop anyway, so I asked at the concierge desk there because the other desks were very busy. 
The CM there told me they were out too, so we went to Bar Fantasia and the store instead. 
The store didn’t have the Disneyland Hotel pin I wanted, so we didn’t buy anything, and Bar Fantasia was totally full. 
We did flop down in a sofa that was on a side bit next to where there was some kind of Princess photo shoot thingamajig where I left Bert whilst I went to the toilet. 
There was still a queue for the loo, but at least it was only a very short one, rather than the long ones in the park. 
When I was ready to join Bert again I noticed there was no one queuing at the regular desks in the lobby, so I decided to ask about Christmas buttons one last time. And lo and behold, the kind CM was happy to give me two!





 

Because Bert quite wanted a hot drink, we decided to go to Disney Village instead. 
After some photo taking and looking around in a few stores, we went to Starbucks. It was busy, but there was still some space to sit, so that was ace. I grabbed a Gingerbread frappuccino, whilst I still could, as Christmas drinks season is nearly over, and I got Bert a Christmas blend coffee. Because he said he wanted coffee, but he usually hates Starbucks coffee. He did have the Christmas blend at my friend Marie’s house, and he didn’t hate that, so I figured that he should at least get a drink he didn’t hate with a fiery vengeance :).

 

Whilst World of Disney is definitely the big Disneyland Paris flagship store, we still like the old Disney Store best. I ended up getting the Peter Pan booster pin pack, because I REALLY wanted to get the Tick Tock Croc pin, and I had spent the entire day trying to trade for it, but no one had it on their lanyard. No one had any pins I wanted full stop, so that was that. I’ll just have to trade off Tink, and Hook (I've already managed to trade off Smee). 

 

Our very last stop was the Christmas stall that sold bretzels. I’m a sucker for bretzels, but to be honest, I would have been better off getting food to eat on the way home at Earl of Sandwich instead. Because this bretzel was terribly dry and not nearly salty enough. But I still ate it! 

Despite all the traffic doom and queuing, and the missing out on the Christmas parade, I really enjoyed myself :). I just wish it had been a little less cold, so Bert hadn't been so miserably chilled to the bone all day! But at least it didn't rain, snow or get super slippery with frost on the ground!

 

Mandatory haul picture :) 

All my photos are here. 
And you can find my other Disneyland Paris (trip) posts via this link :) 

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