New Years Day at Disneyland Paris

Continuing on from New Years Eve at Disneyland, of course we spent most of New Years Day there as well. Quite a memorable start to the new year – no hangovers and a day of fun and magic ahead!

We could have taken advantage of Extra Magic Hours, and we fully intended to, but when the time came we were just so exhausted that we didn’t bother. We had a 9.45am breakfast reservation at Au Chalet de la Marionette, a cute Pinocchio themed eatery within the Disneyland Park so made that our first port of call for the day.

After filling up on croissants, pain au chocolat and other French goodies, we decided to make the most of the relative calm of the park and get a few rides under our belts. Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast and Space Mountain – both are must-dos in my opinion although I recommend doing the Buzz Lightyear ride first if you have a full stomach!

On the Buzz Lightyear ride you get to sit in a car and shoot lasers at targets, all in the name of defeating the evil emperor Zurg! This is a great ride, perfect for the whole family. Space Mountain is slightly more hardcore and is a supercharged, superfast rollercoaster ride in the dark.

After that, we made a beeline across the park for Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril – one of the few outdoor rollercoasters at Disneyland Paris. This is a great fun rickety rail style coaster but I must admit, going on it on such a cold day did make my face hurt!

As we were rushing to our next ride we saw a great photo opportunity with one of the characters – Jack Skellington from The Nightmare Before Christmas, so of course I wanted to tick ‘meet a character’ off of my list. Despite that scary appearance he was very sweet!

Next stop – Pirates of the Caribbean! I did keep my eyes peeled for Johnny Depp but sadly I didn’t see him.

After all the swashbuckling and adventure, we had worked up an appetite and massive craving for pizza. We stopped at Colonel Hathi’s Pizza Outpost not too far from the Indiana Jones/Pirates of the Caribbean rides. That four cheese pizza was delicious!

By the time we had left the pizza place, we were right on schedule for the next parades – the Frozen parade followed shortly by the Christmas parade. To be honest, the Frozen parade was a little bit disappointing, I was expecting something a little more spectacular than just Anna and Elsa briefly riding past in a horse-drawn carriage, but that’s just me, all the little kids seemed to love it.

The Christmas Parade was a big hit with me though and probably the highlight of my New Years Day! It was the usual Disney affair but with a festive theme and a cute medley of Christmas songs. This one was definitely worth the wait.

santa-claus-at-disneyland

After the parade, we headed straight for the World of Disney shop situated in Disney Village. All four of us bought something there, it was difficult to resist as there were so many cool and cute things for sale. You can see what I bought in my Disney Haul post.

After our mini shopping spree, we headed over to the studios park for another last-ditch attempt at getting on Crush’s Coaster (it’s a good job the parks are so close with the amount of to-ing and fro-ing we did!). Sadly, the queue was yet again too long and there is no fast pass option for this ride, so it just wasn’t meant to be. On the bright side, I did get to go on Crush’s Coaster when I went to DLP in October so I don’t feel completely cheated, its just a shame we didn’t get to ride that wave again.

Still, we had a little time to spare before departing for the train station, so our final entertainment for the day was Animagique and Cinemagique, both of which are indoor shows, so it was really enjoyable for us to sit down in the warm after a tiring two days walking around in the cold!

Animagique is definitely the one for the younger crowd and features some of the best loved animal characters singing and dancing on stage to classics from films such as The Jungle Book and The Little Mermaid.

Cinemagique is more suitable for an older audience and is a clever tribute to cinema history. I won’t give too much away but it’s well worth watching.

And after all that magic and excitement, it was time to head home. Our minds were well and truly Disneyfied. On the train home my husband said to his sister “your car’s gonna be frozen when we get back”. She admitted that it took her a minute to understand what he was saying as all she could think about was Cars and Frozen!

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3 Comments

  1. my kids loved the buzz lightyear ride it was their favourite

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