Disneyland Paris 2012- Day Three

[josh.p.]

This morning we didn't need to be up too early as we were having breakfast in our own hotel. BIG. MISTAKE.

I would genuinely tell anyone staying B&B in a Disney Hotel to book their breakfast in the park every. single. day. It was an absolute nightmare and the first time I was disappointed by Disney during this holiday. It was basically a free-for-all, no queues, no politeness (and no nice food!) One lady came over and took a chair from us without asking if it was being used (it WAS about to be used, too.) It was literally full to the brim of people, and full of stodgy food too No bother, though. We grab a croissant each, sit and have a coffee (Niamh had a yoghurt drink, which was labelled 'Gervais' which amused us) and get on our way to the parks

Before we can go to the parks, however we are accosted by a rather bouncy yellow dog.
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Once we get to the parks (which are surprisingly empty, thank g*d for EMH) we have a little look around Main St. There are quite a few differences to the WDW Main St- one of my favourite things was the horse and cart that rode around. We didn't get on it but enjoyed looking at it and took a few pictures.
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We decide the plan of action today is firstly to complete Niamh's most important mission and go and meet a princess! There is a new Princess Pavilion at DLRP and we're excited to try it. I assumed it would be like the current Princess meet and greet at WDW, in which you get to meet all four princesses at once, but it was actually quite different.
Niamh spots the teacups on our way, so she rides that with Jade & Joe. I can go on any roller coasters or thrill rides but somehow the tea cups always make me feel sick so I gave this one a miss.
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Once they are done, we go off to meet the princesses. Niamh is really excited to meet Cinderella, and although we try to tell her we can't promise it will be Cinderella she still has her heart set on meeting her as to be honest she is her favourite of all the princesses.
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The princess pavilion doesn't open properly until 10:30 but they let you queue from around 10:00am. We joined the queue, and although the timer said an hour and a half wait, in total we only really waited about half an hour to 45 minutes. This is a really nice area of the park- I have more photos of it from another day that I'll post in the next part of the TR. We spoke to a really nice family and I let their daughter play Angry Birds on my phone. It was the little girl's birthday and they had booked for her to go to the Cowboy Cookout tea party which was a character meet & greet.
She really wants to meet Sleeping Beauty but like us, aren't sure how it works. When we finally get to the end of the queue, we speak to the CM who says you get guided to one of two rooms- so it's a bit of a lucky dip which princess you get I like the idea of Niamh getting to meet the princess in her own room without everyone watching as she can be a bit shy in those situations. We tell the CM we're really hoping for Cinderella as it's Niamh's favourite.

We're guided into the room with Sleeping Beauty. I think Princess Aurora can see Niamh's disappointment as she tried to get her excited a little bit. Niamh was a *bit* excited but we could tell that she'd been getting herself worked up to meet Cinderella.

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Upon our exit, there is a nice photopass area where you can buy the photopass photos and they're all displayed on LED screens that are framed to look like oil paintings A very well themed area... however the look of disappointment on Niamh's face when she saw the photos and realised that the girl in the other room got to meet Cinderella.

As well themed as the area is, it really needs re-thinking. Expecting children to queue for that long with no idea/choice of which princess they want to meet is a bit ridiculous. I really don't think it would add that much time to the queues if they had two princesses in one room so you could meet the two that were available. Such a shame as other than that it was a fantastic area

After meeting Sleeping Beauty, we rode It's a Small World.... twice in a row Niamh spotted a cart that had a baby Nala & Simba plushy on, so we bought them for her. We went for lunch at a counter service place. I think it was the Mexican Cantina but can't quite remember the name, it was in the Wild West themed land. I had fries and a salad (odd combo, but Paris doesn't cater to vegetarians very well,) whilst Jade & Joe had Fajitas. Niamh fell asleep so we just got her a bottle of juice and a bag of apple slices in case she woke up soon.
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We headed back over to The Studios at this point to see a bit more of it, and to see which characters we could spot, too. On our way there though, we stopped at City Hall to see if there was any space left at the Cowboy Cookout Tea Party. There was so we booked it for in a few hours time.

At the studios we explored it a bit more and shopped for some souvenirs whilst Niamh slept. We had the obligatory photo with the Singing in the Rain statue and then stopped for a coffee.

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The weather on this day was quite nice- the first day of the holiday I hadn't needed a coat. Niamh woke up at some point between coffee and getting to the Toon Town area. She decided that she wanted another picture with Mickey, but he wasn't allowed to kiss her again! She didn't succeed and Mickey gave her another kiss, much to her amusement and protest!

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We rode the Slinky ride again, and slowly made our way back to the Disneyland Park for our reservations Niamh had no idea that her favourite characters might be there, Woody & Jessie, but we didn't tell her just in case they didn't show up.
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Much to her delight we did manage to meet Woody but she was a bit confused as to why Jessie wasn't there.

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The Tea Party was really good fun. A nice place to eat if you've only had a snack throughout the day, but don't go there expecting 'real' food as it is all cakes and candy. They have hot drinks available as well as squash and bottles of water. Our table was awkwardly placed for character interaction, and the server totally ignored our table when it came to getting our drinks, however we still had a great time The cakes were delicious and because you're not so bothered about sitting and eating like you are at a standard dinner time setting, you get a lot more character interaction, too Every time they bought someone a Birthday cake, all the characters would do the Conga, which was fun.

After this, Niamh wanted to do the Buzz Lightyear ride again, so we headed off in that direction.

One of my favourite parts of the Disneyland Park is the little shopping arcades that are either side of main street. You can pass through them to avoid the rain and it's less crowded than walking up main st. Didn't get the best picture but you get the idea here;
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I remember really loosing track of time on this day, as before we knew it, it was quite dark so we visited Disney village to grab a sandwich from Earl of Sandwich, but we decided to eat them back at our hotel room before calling it a night and going to sleep
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[Britchick]

I'm loving your reports Josh!

[josh.p.]

Woops! Can someone change the name of this to Day Three? I'm on tapatalk so can't!


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[Deafjeff]

Fab trip report :yea: I know what you
Mean re arcade at the side it fab to keep warm too


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[Wendy]

Woops! Can someone change the name of this to Day Three? I'm on tapatalk so can't!


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I am here: http://tapatalk.com/map.php?wosj5r

All done

[Esmeralda]

Do you know I really didn't fancy DLP but this has made me have a rethink.

[Slowhand]

Another great report Josh...keep `em coming.

[Beccaberry]

Oh, excellent...so I didn't read ahead...PHEW!!!

Love this report, Josh. The Tea Party sounds fantastic! A lot like the Ice Cream Social they used to have at WDW. I was so sad when they did away with that, it was a great way to see the characters without having a full "meal."

Sounds like you guys are having a blast....can't wait for the next!

[josh.p.]

All done

Thanks Wendy


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[josh.p.]

Do you know I really didn't fancy DLP but this has made me have a rethink.

I've never been too excited about the idea until we booked, but it is fantastic and a different enough experience to feel as though you're not at some sort poor replacement for WDW!