Halloween

Halloween at Disneyland Paris

We have been lucky enough to visit Disneyland Paris twice before, once for Hubby’s 30th birthday back in 2003 and again for Isaac’s 5th birthday in 2013.

Both times were in spring / summer and we have been hoping to return to see the park transformed for either Halloween or Christmas.

During October half term, we spent the week with Al Fresco Holidays at their fabulous park La Croix du Vieux Pont, which is the perfect base for day trips to Paris and Disneyland.

We spent the first couple of days relaxing on the site and exploring Paris and made sure a trip to Disneyland wasn’t on the kids radar before, despite buying tickets before we left the UK. We told them we were off to visit a castle and made the 90 journey without any suspicions.

Disneyland

It was Sebby that spotted the Disney Castle first and the excitement in the car was electric as we headed inside the gates to park.

We have previously stayed at Disney hotels on previous visits, so mistakenly parked at the back of the carpark on the first day of our visit – definitely try to get closer to the entrance as it’s a good 15 minute walk from the car park, although the kids loved riding the travelators.

Carpark

We purchased 2 day tickets to Disneyland Paris, which allowed us to spend a day in each park and the Magic Kingdom was our first stop.

Disney Halloween

Disney go all out on Halloween, with decorations throughout the square and along Main Street.

Disneyland Halloween

The kids adored being able to pose with various displays, as well as seeing witches hat lights and pumpkin decorations.

Disneyland Paris Halloween

In fact, you saw something new every time you walked along it.

Mummy Disney

Isaac and Eliza were keen to introduce Sebastian to the magic of Disneyland, starting with the castle and its resident dragon.

Magic Kingdom

We were delighted that some of the infamous Disney villains had decided to pay a visit to the park for the Halloween celebrations too.

Maleficent

The cheeky villains couldn’t resist a chance to perform a spectral spectacular in a spooky show at the royal Castle Stage.

Villains

I think Donald stole the show though!

Donald Duck

The Halloween Cavalcade was also not to be missed with Disney Characters parading along the streets of Disneyland in their eye-popping Halloween attire.

Disney Halloween Parade

As well as the Halloween parade there was also the 25th Anniversary Parade which is filled to bursting point with characters from all your favourite Disney films.

Olaf

Some of the characters danced along the street, greeting their adoring fans, whilst others sat and waved from huge, impressive floats.

Disney Parade

Maleficent’s dragon even breathed fire!

Dragon

Ride wise, nothing has really changed since our last visit with the exception of the rebranding of space mountain to Star Wars: Hyperspace Mountain.

Space Mountain

The rides the kids loved the most were ‘It’s a Small World’, ‘Star Tours: The Adventure Continues’ and ‘Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast’ and we managed to fit in a good number, despite queues of around 40 minutes each.

Buzz Lightyear

We arrived at the park at 10am for opening and stayed right until the firework finale which started at 10pm, so it was a long day, especially for the kids.

Castle Disney

It was gone 11pm by the time we made it back to the car, but the kids were still buzzing from everything they had seen.

Fireworks

We did enjoy a very quiet journey back to the campsite as they all slept well on the way back.

We purchased 2-day tickets to Disneyland Paris through Picniq as they had the best deal at the time, plus we earned 5.25% through Top Cashback, which allowed us to spend a day in each park and the Magic Kingdom was our first stop, but it is worth shopping around as these deals change all the time.

Keep your eyes on the blog for our experience at Hollywood Studios soon……..

Have you been to Disneyland Paris?

 

Omaha beach

Days Out in Review – January to June 2016

For some 2016 has been shocking and they have been very vocal about it and how they are looking forward to 2017.

For us however, 2016 has been one of our best years yet, full of fun and adventures and here are some of our favourites.

January 2016

We love to get out and about and bad weather never stops us from having fun. In January we journeyed to Hampshire where we climbed the Spinakker Tower, explored the Historic Dockyard in Portsmouth and then headed to Rock Up in Whiteley for some climbing fun.

Staying a little closer to home we enjoyed playing in the sand dunes at Sandbanks beach, explored a new beach for us, Ringstead Bay near Weymouth and took part in the Stickman Trail at Moors Valley.

I also attended my first ever Toy Fair at Olympia, London where I was introduced to some of the fantastic toys that arrived into the shops in late 2016.

Spinnaker Tower

February 2016

For her birthday in January, Eliza got her first bike so we headed out to Potterne Park to get some riding practice and headed out to Farmer Palmers for some animal fun.

The highlight of the month had to be our holiday to France where we stayed at Eco Gites of Lenault and visited all the historic D-Day beaches, Pegasus Bridge and Le Mont St Michel, saw the Bayeux Tapestry and even had some snow.

We also had an unexpected stop in Jersey after a rather traumatic ferry crossing and a disappointing stay in Guernsey where we learned that EVERYTHING closes in winter.

Snowman

March 2016

March was a busy month for us with a visit to Thomas Land at Drayton Manor, a fabulous preview day at Thorpe Park where we barely queued for any rides and still on the adrenalin theme we tried out some new flumes at Splashdown Poole and released our inner apes, swinging through the trees at Go Ape, Moors Valley.

We did do some calmer activities as well, with strolls around Christchurch Harbour, Whitecliff Park and Lulworth Castle.

Lulworth Castle

April 2016

April saw us heading back to Farmer Palmers to feed the deer, get down and dirty with some Owl Forensic investigations at Avon Heath Country Park

We headed to Lighthouse Poole to watch Gruffalo’s Child Live and Genting Arena in Birmingham for some WWE action.

Owl Forensics

May 2016

May is one of my favourite months in Dorset as there is a plethora of activities for families to enjoy. This year was no different and we visited the Dorset Knob Throwing Festival, Lyme Regis Fossil Festival and Donkey Derby in Kinson. We also headed across to Weymouth to see its new exhibit in the Sea Life Centre and enjoy a spin on the Jurassic Tower.

We are frequent visitors to Paultons Park and could not wait to go to the opening of its new Lost Kingdom section of the park.

Lost Kingdom

June 2016

It was back to the Sea Life Centre in June for a very special occasion – we got to have a personal tour of the centre, meet some of its famous residents and feed the Seals.

June is a big birthday month for us and we had a great time at Hollywood Bowl to celebrate but the highlight of the month had to be meeting Ashley Banjo and learning to dance with the Diversity crew on a Diversity break at Butlins.

Diversity

It was also the month that Kian finished his GCSE exams so we celebrated with a rather damp Forest Segway experience with Go Ape.

Segway

So that is the first half of the year, second half coming soon………..