Disney Day 4
After an eventful, late night at Soiree, Chloe and I decided that it was best that we didn't attend Extra Magic Hours because lets face it, we'd probably have been asleep by 4pm. Instead, we had a really easy morning and got into the park just before it opened at 10am. We started off our morning by going to meet Jade, Cara, Vivi and Anna who had saved us a place in the queue for Maleficent. The queue to meet the Mistress of Evil was always so long, so the girls kindly got a place early so that we had a chance to meet her before the Halloween season ended. During our time waiting, a lovely Cast Member got all the guests in the queue and around Maleficent's meet and greet area to sing 'Happy Birthday' to Cara; it was the sweetest thing ever!
Meeting Maleficent was a dream come true for me, as she's always been my favourite Villain. I remember being young and my Mum telling me that if I looked in the mirror too long, she'd come out and get me. I'd sometimes stay and stare at the mirror with hope that she'd come and say hello. I walked up to her, gave her a hug and handed her my autograph book for her signature. Although, she nearly didn't sign because Aurora was on my pen, but after I told her that I thought she was far more fabulous than the Princess, she took a like to me. I absolutely loved getting the chance to meet her, she truly is the Mistress of all Evil.
We then met up with the lovely Nikki and stood in the sunshine to watch the Cavalcade. When I said that I watched this parade every single day, I really wasn't lying. We had great interactions from Eeyore and Piglet, as well as Minnie and Mickey which made the parade one of the best we'd seen. But it was what happened afterwards that made it so special for me. Once the parade had finished, the music had stopped and the crowds had dispersed, Laura came to join us and we had some lovely group photos taken by the Small World gates. Then, Belle appeared and ran straight over to Anna. They held hands and skipped through Fantasyland together, being able to see one of the strongest, loveliest most amazing girl live her dream with her favourite Princess made everyone burst into tears. It was one of the cutest things I have ever seen.
Everyone split off to do their own thing after the Cavalcade, and planned to meet up later on in the day for Magic on Parade. Chloe, Laura and I walked over to the Storybook Boat Ride which was only a five minute queue and hopped straight on. This is another one of the rides that is extremely close to my heart, I remember going on this on my first trip to Disneyland Paris, and I make it my mission to go on it on every trip I have. My favourite part is the Little Mermaid section where you get to go past Ariel's castle and the soundtrack to the film is playing in the background. It almost brings me to tears.
When we came off the ride, we noticed that Cheshire Cat was doing an impromptu meet and greet just outside the exit. We knew he was meeting throughout the day, and Laura was so desperate to meet him, but the queue was always three hours long. Our friends had been queuing for two and a half hours to meet him earlier that day. However when we saw him there was no queue, so we jumped straight in.
Cheshire Cat was one of those characters I could never picture myself meeting but honestly he was the cutest. It was a quick meet and greet, so I didn't have time to give him my autograph book, but we had lots of cuddles and I even got to kiss him on the nose. Thanks to Laura's amazing photography skills, these are some of my favourite photos of the trip!
Once we'd met Chesh, we were on a complete high, and the fact we'd only had to queue for two minutes made it even better. To celebrate, we went on Casey Junior's Train which was probably the most thrilling ride we went on on the whole trip. I recommend to sit at the very back so you can't see where you're going, you go twice as fast and because you can't see where you're going it makes the ride just a little more thrilling. The video's Laura and Chloe took of me on that train are absolutely hilarious, I'm screaming louder than the five year old sat in front of us.
We had yet to venture over to the Studios, so we decided to spend our last afternoon in the park exploring Walt Disney Studios. Our main aim was to watch the new show Mickey and the Magician and attempt to get on Ratatouille. When we got into the park, we had some photos taken with Mickey Mouse and Walt, because have you really been to Disney if you haven't sat by the fountain and taken a photo? Then we went to the Blockbuster cafe for some food. I wasn't really impressed with the food, but it stopped me from being hungry for a little while so it was worth it.
Wandering around the Studios, we took in the atmosphere, listened to the screams of guests on Tower of Terror and did a slow motion run to Chariots of Fire down the pathway. I got drenched by the raining umbrella and then we went to explore Toy Story Land. I think this land is definitely one of my favourites, I actually feel like I'm part of Toy Story because everything is just so big. Sadly, we didn't get the chance to go on Ratatouille as the queue was absolutely mental, but we did get the chance to go and see Mickey and the Magician, and I think I'm in love.
We were extremely lucky to get seats together, and although we were sat near the back, it really didn't ruin the experience. Disney took us on a journey with Mickey Mouse, trying to find the magic secret. During this time, we were adventured to see Cinderella, Belle, the Lion King and Elsa. I don't want to go into a lot of detail about the show because I don't want to ruin the magic for anyone, but my personal favourite moment was when Belle danced to 'Beauty and the Beast' with the Beast. My heart broke into a thousand emotional pieces and it was just a dream come true, it's the last thing you expect to see in a Disney park. If you are planning on going to Disneyland Paris and haven't seen the show yet, then just take an hour out of your day to go and see it, I promise you won't regret it!.
Now for a very sad part of the trip; our last Magic on Parade. Jade had been saving us a space for the past half hour and after me not being able to see Seany waving at me for ten minutes, we finally found them and sat our bums down waiting for some more magical memories. Yet again, Magic on Parade was absolutely amazing. We all danced and sang along, I had amazing interactions with Jasmine and Aladdin and Baloo remembered me from the previous day. At this moment, our squad was formed and I honestly love every single person; I'm really missing them.
After the Parade, we danced until the music was turned off and then walked over to Pirates of the Caribbean as it had a very short queue and we wanted a cute group photo. We sang along to 'Yo! Ho! Yo! Ho! A Pirates Life For Me' whilst queuing until we eventually got onto our boat and headed of into the weird and wonderful world of Pirates. The ride was going really well, I was annoying Seany and Mike in the back of the boat whilst Jade and Chloe sat next to me singing. Then, all of a sudden the boat stopped just at the start of the ramp. At first we thought they'd just had a back log of boats and were waiting for people to get on and off. This is a common occurrence in Disneyland Paris so we didn't really think much of it. 20 minutes later, we were still sat on the boat at the exact same spot; maybe it wasn't people getting on the boats after all.
The communication between Cast Members and Guests was very poor. We had no clue what was going on, all whilst trying to reassure Mitch that everything was going to be okay. No one knew this, but he's extremely scared of water so being stranded on a water ride in the dark really wasn't the ideal situation. Eventually, a voice came over the ride and announced that we would start moving again and sure enough, we did. It was such an experience, and as we like to say, the squad that gets stuck on Pirates together, stays together.
Here comes the part where I'm going to share lots of photos and tell you about lots of characters. We thought it would be really fun to go and meet some Villains after the show. There were so many that we wanted to meet, and as it was our last night, we wanted to make sure that we met them all. First on our list was the Tremaines. They were absolutely fabulous, I don't think I've ever laughed so much at a meet in my entire life. We introduced them to Seany and Mike, and apparently they're going to come to Manchester to visit their Castle's and get married. When they were signing our autographs, they started arguing because Drizella was just too slow, so we calmed the situation by talking to them about Cinderella. Apparently, she hasn't been to clean their shoes for an hour, it's absolutely shocking!
The next meet on our agenda was Gaston. He was so amazing the first time we met him, and because we had plenty of time, we thought it'd only be right to go and meet him again. He was absolutely hilarious, even better than when we met him for the first time, if that was even possible. He commented that I looked like Belle again, and when I told him that I'd seen her walking around, we had a very long conversation about how beautiful she was. Then, I gave him the biggest cuddle and we bid him goodbye. Gaston is the new love of my life.
Then we went over to meet Cruella, another one of the characters that I really didn't expect to be meeting on this trip. But like all Disney female villains, she was as sassy as ever and even offered to make me a coat like hers. When we had our photo taken, she made me pretend to be one of her puppies and said I was the cutest puppy she'd seen all day which I took as a compliment. If a Disney Villain compliments you then you must be doing something right. As we stood talking to her, her song began to play so we started to sing to her until she told us to be quiet because her song said she was a bad person when she was only a 'darling'. I absolutely love her!
And now to tell you about one of my favourite meets from the trip, it's the meet and greet that will remain in my memory forever. Good ol' Dr Facillier. We went to meet him before we met Gaston, and he came up to us and knew our names which we thought was bizarre but we played along until he had to go. We loved meeting him so much that we went over to meet him again, but this time actually wanted to get proper photos together. He came straight over to us, threw my Minnie Ears away for the second time because he doesn't like mice and then we had the cutest photos taken. Just look at the love and admiration for him in my eyes. He's definitely my favourite Villain, he was absolutely hilarious, I was doubled over laughing at him. He really made my trip a special one.
After we met him, we went to watch the Villain's show one last time, without cameras or filming, we just wanted to sit, watch and take in the atmosphere. It was really calm and quiet until Dr Facillier jumped out on me on his way back up to the stage and yep, you guessed it, threw my Minnie ears away again. I'm smiling just writing about this, he really is my favourite!
And now for another moment that I will forever hold close to my heart. We went for a Casey's hotdog (of course!) and then made our way to the front of the Castle for a front row spot for Dreams. I have never watched dreams so close before and it was a truly magical experience. It makes me really sad that there's going to be no more Dreams after March. I know that they have to change things for the 25th anniversary but I'm just really going to miss it, it's the first Disney show I've seen that has moved me. And the fact it revolved around Peter Pan made it even more amazing.
After singing along to the Lion King with the whole of Main Street and crying with Jade at the lantern scene projected on the Castle, the fireworks ended and we were all in a big ball of happiness. I don't think any of us wanted to leave that moment, everyone loved each other, everyone wanted to be together and it was the last Dreams we would share as a whole group. I hadn't felt so much love in one environment and it warms my heart just writing about it. We let the crowds disperse and then had some cute group photos taken in front of the Castle. By the time we had finished, there was no one left on Main Street, so we casually strolled down, taking in the sparkling lights and the magical atmosphere. It's something I've always wanted to do; see Main Street at night, with no one around. It's a truly magical experience.
We then went over to the Disney Village and had a couple of drinks to celebrate Anna's 18th Birthday. It was all going well and we stayed drinking, singing and chatting until 2am. However it was at this point that we realised that there were no more shuttle buses, Mike's uber app wasn't working and we were probably going to be stranded until the early house of the morning. However, luckily for us, a taxi pulled up and we jumped in straight away.
I know this was a really long post but there was just so much to tell you, again if you want to see more of what the day was like then I'd recommend to watch Laura's vlog!
After we met him, we went to watch the Villain's show one last time, without cameras or filming, we just wanted to sit, watch and take in the atmosphere. It was really calm and quiet until Dr Facillier jumped out on me on his way back up to the stage and yep, you guessed it, threw my Minnie ears away again. I'm smiling just writing about this, he really is my favourite!
After singing along to the Lion King with the whole of Main Street and crying with Jade at the lantern scene projected on the Castle, the fireworks ended and we were all in a big ball of happiness. I don't think any of us wanted to leave that moment, everyone loved each other, everyone wanted to be together and it was the last Dreams we would share as a whole group. I hadn't felt so much love in one environment and it warms my heart just writing about it. We let the crowds disperse and then had some cute group photos taken in front of the Castle. By the time we had finished, there was no one left on Main Street, so we casually strolled down, taking in the sparkling lights and the magical atmosphere. It's something I've always wanted to do; see Main Street at night, with no one around. It's a truly magical experience.
We then went over to the Disney Village and had a couple of drinks to celebrate Anna's 18th Birthday. It was all going well and we stayed drinking, singing and chatting until 2am. However it was at this point that we realised that there were no more shuttle buses, Mike's uber app wasn't working and we were probably going to be stranded until the early house of the morning. However, luckily for us, a taxi pulled up and we jumped in straight away.
I know this was a really long post but there was just so much to tell you, again if you want to see more of what the day was like then I'd recommend to watch Laura's vlog!
Lots of Love,
Meg
xox
