Disneyland Paris Trip 2019

I’m walking right down the middle of Main Street U.S.A

It’s time for another Disneyland Paris blog, and it’s a summer one! We went during a different time of year and I won’t lie, I was questioning whether it would feel like Disneyland to me seeing as I have only witnessed it in the shivering temperatures that November has to offer, and of course, decorated for Christmas! Obviously, I was not disappointed, and I thought I’d tell you about our trip and what I found different going in summer/autumn.

First of all, I was walking around in a jacket. No bubble coat, no beanie, no scarf, it was strange but so nice! I could jump on and off rides without wondering where I put my gloves or if my beanie had flown off of my head on Space Mountain. The weather was lovely and warm, and the sun was shining so much! I was however expecting crazy queue times for rides, with the weather being nice and warm, more people would want to come and visit. Personally, I felt as if the park was just as busy as I’ve Seen it in the winter, and the most we waited for a ride was over an hour for Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast and that is a bad queue only because the first 40 minutes of it, is outside and although it was warm, the rain still poured. This little snap was taken just before James beat me on Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast, he's a professional Space-Ranger, that's the only explanation, well, that or I have really bad aim and can't hit the targets with the biggest points. 

I don’t think we queued the longest for an actual ride during our stay. The longest we queued for was either the wait for Motors Action Stunt Show or waiting for Rhythm of The Pride Lands. Motors Action was amazing, I have seen this show in Disney World, and it was just as good in Disneyland! Rhythms of The Pride Lands was the most amazing show I have sat and watched. It is due to come back I believe next year, and I think it is still showing in other parks, so I won’t spoil it but, if you get the chance to watch it during a trip, do, it’s so good! You will have to queue for a while though as we sat outside an hour before the show was due to start to make sure we would get into the theater, take water and snacks and you’ll be good, not that bad of a wait haha. We watched this in the Frontierland Theater which considering the size of it, is a bit of a hidden gem.

Speaking of shows, we also watched, Jungle Book Jive which was a new show for the summer taking place in front of the castle, featuring characters from Jungle Book and Mickey and Friends, then there was Timones Mata Dance in Adventure Land featuring Timone and Pumba. We actually knew these were happening but both of the smaller shows we stumbled across on our way to different rides, so we stopped to watch, and they were so good! Disney know how it’s done.

I did notice in the summer time that the park stays open for longer. When we have visited in the past, we have left Studios at around 6pm and left the main park at around 8pm, but we always happened to visit when it was winter, so the parks do close earlier. This year we were still in the park I believe at 10:00pm, one night we actually went for a drink in ‘Café Fantasia’ this was the most incredible setting and it was mesmerizing, and of course I didn’t take a photo of the inside as I was to nervous, yep, nervous to take a photo of a ceiling. When I tell you it was beautiful, I’m not joking. I didn’t notice anything different about show times or parade times, obviously there were different parades and shows on as I was there for The Lion King and Jungle Festival, but I would say the shows and parades were just as consistent as they are in the Winter season and all of the festive shows are on.

We are all awaiting on Avengers, Star Wars and Frozen to pop up in the studios, and whilst we were there, we tried having a sneaky look, unfortunately, we couldn’t see anything, but I got this handsome chap impersonating Hulk. What a dream he is, James I mean, not Hulk, sorry.

Something we did in studios that we haven’t done before together, is watch Motors Action! I really enjoyed it, and as there are a lot of changes coming to Studios lately, I would say expect there to be a lot less to do, as some rides are still being closed for general maintenance, even though it leaves only a few rides open. All of the food places are still open, shops are still open and of course the shows are still on. We managed to ride, Tower Of Terror, Crush’s Coaster and Ratatouille Adventure, as we weren’t too bothered about the Toy Story rides. Don’t get me wrong though, Slinky Dog Zig Zag Spin is a great ride, definitely not only for children, but I mean I grew up with Toy Story, why would I not want to go on a Slinky ride haha. The queue is always too long to even attempt the Parachute Drop, and James really wants to do RC Racer but, I think I’m best staying off the ride and taking photos of him haha.

During our first two visits, we were both vegetarian, and we found it pretty easy to eat there. Bella Note is a favourite for some pasta, Colonel Haiti’s is another for the most amazing pizza, and our go to, Sports Bar. We also eat a lot of vegan meals and we didn’t expect to see any in Paris, and we were excited to find the ‘Vegan Kitchen’ cart was back that we spotted the previous year, near Chez Remy, and in Frontierland, in Last Chance Saloon we found some new Vegan Chili. This was delicious.

We still followed more of a vegetarian diet, as it’s not the best for a variety of vegan meals but seeing these new additions is making me believe that more are on their way.

We managed to do meet and greets again. This year we met, Max outside of Hollywood Studios, and we met Pooh Bear, and I’m not even going to lie when I say that was the best meet and greet of my life. He’s one of my favourite characters and like I said in the last post, they interact with adults just like the do with children and it made our last day better than it already was. When it comes to meet and greets, there are some we would love to have a picture with, because it’s not Disney without all the characters, obviously. However, we don’t plan the day around a meet and greet, unless there is a character on Lineberty that we want to meet, and we have a scheduled slot to go to. If we see a character stood there we just go and queue for them if it’s not crazy long. You do meet more characters when doing breakfast, lunch or dinner with them, they are hosted in all different restaurants throughout the parks and village but having a meal with them comes with an extra price and in my experience, it is worth it! Check out my last Disney blog and I go into more detail there about the meets we had at a character breakfast!

Let’s talk about hotels. This year we stayed in the hotel that used to be The Kyriad, and it now known as Hotel Campanile. We booked for three nights, the room was lovely, had a lot of space to move around in, a comfortable bed, a good-sized bathroom and a super pretty view of the path to the restaurant. We had these big windows that full opened and just looked stunning with the trees that align the path and the sun shining through the hotel sections. The hotel itself was rather small in size, there was a reception area, a Disney shop, a small section of arcade games, and the biggest part of the lobby was a section for the bar area, and of course the bar. The restaurant was in a separate building towards the back of the hotel. We did grab a quick breakfast on our last morning from the bar in the main lobby, we went for a hot drink to go and a croissant, which I am positive taste better on the go. I can’t comment on the food in the restaurant as we never ate in here, I was sure when I booked that I picked breakfast but then again, I probably didn’t, so we had breakfast once in Annette’s, a really yummy breakfast, and once in Starbucks, a super quick tea and muffin for me and a coffee and toastie for James to snack on whilst we waited in the queue for Rhythm of The Pride lands.

I thought I would quickly bring up the transport that we choose to do. We have always flown to Disneyland Paris, Charles De Gaulle. This year we used the Magic Shuttle bus to get from the airport to our hotel and then we used the train right outside of Disneyland to get back to the airport. I know other travel options are there, but this is what we find works best for us. If you have any questions on how we travel please pop them down below, I’d love to help out if you’re unsure on what to do.

Thank you guys for reading along! I'll leave with this photo of James and I in Annette's ready for breakfast on day 2, and these crazy Lego life-size Buzz, Woody, and Sorcerer Mickey, if you fancy a little look at these they are in the Lego Shop in the Disney Village!

Lots of Love,

Shan x

Pictures are all my own.