Disney Christmas in Paris (The Fun and The Regrets)
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For some, Disney is the ultimate childhood experience while others might argue that the ultimate childhood experience comes once a year in the form of Christmas. Our six year old son managed to experience them both at the same time. Teaching in a British school in Kuwait, we get all the regular British Holidays along with the Kuwaiti National holidays as well.
We had planned a trip to Germany with Amanda’s parents and later discovered they would actually be arriving a few days later then we would be. At first this was a disappointment but we decided to make the most of it and changed our arrival airport from Berlin-Schönefeld international airport to Paris-Orly International Airport and we arrived in Paris on December 23rd.
We had booked a very modest and very small flat a short walk from the Eiffel Tower for a total of about 45 Euros per night. When I say modest, I mean a single room with a pull out couch, tiny kitchen and bathroom. But it worked for the three of us, was super cheap and within walking distance of everything we had planned to see for the 1 day we were there. We walked the streets of Paris for the day and saw as much as we could. You can read about how we packed some of the best sites into one day.
It was a beautiful day and we can only hope that we can go back to wander these Parisian streets again.
But alas, we had tickets to Disney Paris on Christmas Day to get to and so off we went on the train to Disneyland!
All decked out in the twinkling Christmas decor, the magic of Disneyland was doubled. A special winter themed light and music show, Christmas parade with all your favourite original Disney stars and beautiful strings of greenery, lights and ribbon all over made you excited to be there on Christmas Day.
We booked two days to be able to venture into both parks and stayed in a hotel just off site that had a shuttle to and from Disneyland. It was less expensive than Disney Hotels (but not cheap) and we had a nice comfortable stay. We aren’t experts at how to go to Disneyland for less, but this was a good start.
At the Park:
We couldn’t make it on all the rides since our son was a bit too short, but we got to enjoy some classics like Sleeping Beauty’s castle (apparently missed the dragon though, which was horribly disappointing because it looks super amazing. So make sure to explore more than we did and find that dragon!), Dumbo ride, Swiss Family Robinson tree fort (I would love to live there!), the Star Wars ride (very interactive lineup), Christmas parade with all the classic Disney characters, the Nautilus, Lilo and Stitch video, Animators studio (which was fun to learn how to draw Mickey Mouse), Slinky the Dog ride, Pirates of the Caribbean ship and Ninja’s favourite was the Buzz lightyear ride which we got to enjoy a few times.
To end the night off we, of course, watched the light, fountain, video and music display on the castle. This was by far the best part of the entire day. There was so much going on that you couldn’t do anything but stare unblinking and in total awe. I’ve never experienced something like it and the cost to get into the park would be worth it just to see that.
Our Minimal Regrets/Disappointments:
While there was mostly amazing aspects at Disneyland, Paris, we also experienced one of the worst rides we’ve ever been on. Autopia – an excruciatingly slow and boring car ride, don’t waste time in the line up. The Nautical wasn’t too exciting, but there was no line, so it’s quick and easy to see.
We were surprised at how few costumed characters there were to take pictures with. We only saw Anna and Elsa and the line-ups were crazy long. When I was a child and went to DisneyWorld in Florida and there were characters everywhere, now you need to line up because there are so few characters to see.
With two-day tickets, we enjoyed the two parks for both Christmas Day and Boxing Day. While this seemed like a grand Christmas surprise for Ninja, it ended up not being the wisest days to visit Disneyland. We found out on our way out the gate at the end of Boxing Day that it is the busiest day of the year. Apparently with lots of people having Boxing Day off and Disneyland tickets being a great Christmas gift, they all choose Boxing Day to go.
But, even with crowded lines we still had loads of fun. We hope to visit Disneyland/world/cruise again someday with both our littles.
So two words to the wise:
- Don’t go to Disneyland on Christmas Day/Boxing Day (but if you are going to pick one, then pick Christmas Day)
- Make sure to look into reviews of rides before you go to pick the ones that are most worth the line up.
- (And kind of a side note): Save your photos to the cloud or external hard drive because we lost just about all our photos (still not sure how!). That’s why you don’t see too many here. It was sad because we lost our video of the light show and additionally, many of our Jordan photos as well.
Have you been on vacation during Christmas? Tell us about your experience at Disney? Leave comments below…
