Halloween at Disneyland Paris

This is a follow on / linked blog post from my previous post all about my trip to Paris. I decided to separate the two to avoid one terrifyingly long post, and also to split up the two parts of the holiday.

So anyway, at the end of October / beginning of November me and my boyfriend had the fantastic idea to spend Halloween at Disneyland Paris. As I stated in my previous post, I actually said this as I joke to my boyfriend at 3am one night because I'd seen that the Halloween Spectacular tickets were only £58 - a lot cheaper than I expected or imagined. We were already planning on organising a trip away together before Christmas, but I didn't actually expect us to actually follow this idea through and end up actually going since it was kind of a spontaneous thing - but I'm so glad we did!

Our first day at Disneyland was the second day of our holiday (you can read about the rest of the holiday here), and we spent our whole day there. Unfortunately there was maintenance on the underground, meaning we had a real struggle with getting to Disneyland in the first place - the language barrier and the fact we had no clue where we were or where we were going didn't really help. 

Because of this we ended up not getting to Disneyland until around 1pm. We ended up on getting on one train, getting off, getting onto another, and then a shuttle bus to the park. When you take into account that the park was open from 10am to most people, it was pretty late. But when you also take into account the park was open until half 10 at night, it wasn't too bad. 

We decided to do Walt Disney Studio Park first as it closed a fair bit earlier than the main park. We went to the Art of Animation Exhibition which was cool and really interesting, and then we went on Aladdin's Flying Carpets. A kids ride. I didn't know it was a kids ride - but at least it was a nice slow start of what was to come later. 

After the slightly embarrassing go on Aladdin's Flying Carpets we had a wander around Toy Story Land, and went on the RC racer. If you go to Disneyland Paris I recommend getting the DLP app because it tells you the waiting times. I think we waited around half an hour, 40 minutes? Which we settled on as some of the rides close by were over an hour long. Luckily the queuing section was inside too, although it wasn't raining at this point thankfully.

We also wanted to redeem ourselves after going on a kids ride to be honest - we are adults, okay! (Hmm, debatable). 

After we went on RC racer, which I will also add, literally lasted about 2 minutes (I forgot how quick some rides went, especially when I haven't been on any in literally years) we had a little mooch about and explored a little, whilst deciding what ride we wanted to go on next, by comparing waiting times.  

 

Taking the opportunity to be tourists - classic. The next ride we went on was the Tower of Terror - sounds frightening doesn't it? I wasn't sure what to expect to be honest but I knew it was a very popular ride. And for some reason at this point in the day there was only a 20 minute wait time? So we took the opportunity and went for it. 

I'm not going to post any spoilers, but it's safe to say this ride was one of our favourites. Liam made a noise I never made before. We both literally jumped (or, should I say were thrown) off our seats. We wanted to try go on this ride again but we didn't get round to it - 10/10 would recommend. It isn't terrifying either so don't be put off by the name, it's just a lot of fun.

After the Tower of Terror, we decided to go on the Aerosmith ride, Rock N' Roller-coaster. 

Being fans of Aerosmith, we couldn't not. But I think we both wish we didn't. Liam had heard that it was intense but we didn't know what to expect as like most rides, you can't actually see what you're letting yourself in for - the ride is all inside. When we finally got inside we were both pretty terrified and started reevaluating our whole life choices as we saw the ride set off for the first time. Never seen a ride set off so fast in my life. The worst part was it disappeared and only the echoes of screams were left behind. What a really nice thing to see, minutes before you hop on the ride yourself. 

Either way it was hilarious. Kept just shouting at Liam the whole way through and laughing at ourselves. We came off the ride wobbly, and a bit shakey - but we also got a bit too big for our boots and it surprisingly didn't stop us from going on any other big rides later. 

Afterwards, it was time to eat as I'd booked a reservation for 5pm. Or so I thought. So I thought. Turns out I'd booked it for the Florida Disneyland, though I have no clue how or why - since it was booked on the Disneyland Paris website. But we won't go into that now. It was tragic. I thought we wouldn't get in anywhere as I heard you had to book in advance to ensure you could get in. But thankfully we ended up eating at Planet Hollywood in the Disney Village. We timed it really well too, as when we were leaving when we had finished there were huge queues - where as we walked straight in. Perfect.

Finally, it was time to go into the main Disneyland Park! This is where we spent the rest of the night, and come to think of it - I don't think we actually saw this park in the daylight. These photos were taken just before we went to eat in the Disney Village, and when we came out it was pretty much dark. 

 It actually looked so pretty and magical in the dark! And there were, of course, lots of Halloween decor which was ace to see. We started off by being touristy and having a wander around the park because there was just so much to see! 

We tried. We really tried, to take some photos in front of the Sleeping Beauty Castle. But naturally, crowds photo-bombed. What can ya do, eh? Once we got a bit closer though I asked some girls to take a photo of us leaning against the wall, which is a good place to take a photo in front of the castle without lots of crowds and such.

After Liam finished tolerating me trying to get all the angles and lighting and god knows what else for photos in front of the castle, we walked through the castle and then checked out the Alice in Wonderland stuff.

Can we just take a moment to appreciate those lights though? I mean, how aesthetically pleasing? We went on the Mad Hatters Tea Cups, and even though Liam didn't want to because it was another kids ride, I insisted because.. it's Mad Hatters Tea Cups, yknow? Liam did actually feel threatened by all the little kids in the queue though. He was scared they'd steal, or hop in to our tea cup when it was our turn to get on the ride. "Get the f*ck out of our teacup" he said. Thankfully no one heard.

For some reason the Alice in Wonderland maze wasn't open which I was a little gutted about. I guess it was probably because it was dark though? And that could probably terrify the little kids. Big huge Cheshire cat smile in the dark? Yeah, probably not appropriate. Though it was Halloween themed after all? 

Anyway we then went into Adventureland and went onto the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. It was so good! Another one of our favourites. It was more of a cruise than a ride, I'd say. It was super long too, and actually worth queuing for - though if I remember correctly, we pretty much walked straight onto the ride with no queues at all which was convenient. There were even some live performance actors, and of course, good ol' Captain Jack Sparrow. We both bought a lil' coin necklace in the shop when we got off the ride because we wanted a little souvenir to remember the ride by. 

We then went up this huge tree house, at least that's how I can describe it. We saw it in the distance and were curious as to what it was, so we ended up climbing right up to the top. For no real good reason really. But hey, when you're at Disneyland, you do these kind of things.

Afterwards we spontaneously went on the Snow White ride on our way back to the centre of the park to decide what we'd do next. We kept checking on the waiting times on the app and this ride had one of the shortest waiting times. Apparently everyone else had the same idea though, and it soon filled up - after we'd arrived though.

The ride was, of course another small kids ride. But hey, it's okay to be big kids (which we evidently are, don't really need to state that). We also took a few more photos of the castle as we were passing again (sorry Liam). Such a basic tourist. But we're cute, so it's alright!

And lastly, we wanted to end our first night at Disneyland on a big 'un. So we went to Discoveryland and went on Hyperspace Mountain. I think we had to queue a pretty long time for this, maybe 40 minutes to an hour? I think a lot of people had the same idea again. It was another ride that you couldn't really see until you literally were on the ride, but we could hear it. And after the whole Aerosmith Rollercoaster experience we were definitely a little nervous. But we just joked about it and thought, if all these tiny little kids aren't scared, then why the hell are we? Mind you, kids are fearless. 

Anyway it was pretty clear that the Hyperspace Mountain was the most intense ride we went on. The beginning was fun as it was all uphill with a big drop, but as you went up the Star Wars theme tune played so I loved it. But think everyone was secretly too busy sh*tting themselves to be laughing at this point. When I doubt, I just closed my eyes and laughed. And of course, we both came off the ride a bit wobbly again - but also pretty proud of ourselves. Two 'adults' going on a big ride? What an achievement.

We ended our night watching the Illuminations, which was amazing! It went on for a lot longer than I thought, but I didn't really know what to expect. Maybe 15/20 minutes? It was magical, and such a lovely end to our first day at Disneyland! 

Day two - Halloween

I have wrote about what we got up to during the day on Halloween on my previous post all about our time in Paris here. In the evening, we went to the Halloween Spectacular at Disneyland.

We underestimated just how look it'd take for us to get ready. I didn't really plan the make up or anything and just winged it, and literally covered half of Liam's face with one single eyeliner. Maybe that's why I took so long. And then I accidentally bombarded myself with red glitter, and struggled to get my false zip stuck down in place. 

A lot of glitter, face paint, and fake blood all over the place later, we were finally ready.

Now I can't quite express to you how funny it was leaving the hotel, and travelling to Disneyland. I remember Liam's face as he opened the door of our hotel room like "Oh ffs, we're going to look right simple". "I don't want to do it. I don't want to, look at the state of us". Absolutely hilarious. We essentially ran out of the hotel, and thankfully no one saw us. But it's fair to say that a lot of people saw us on the way to Disneyland.

We had about a 10/15 minute walk to the underground stop, and then as you can imagine, the underground was also heaving and as we were already tourists, we gave them that extra little reason to stare at us consistently throughout the journey. Not forgetting the couple that turned round while we were crossing the road to take a photo of us. Without asking. So we both pretended to look the other way because it was incredibly awkward. Only us.

Once we'd got off the train and were waiting for the Shuttle to Disneyland, thankfully we saw other people dressed up. What a relief. It took us ages, and ages to get to Disneyland though because the traffic was horrendous.

This meant we didn't actually get there until 8.30pm, but luckily, this was actually when the Halloween event started - so we hadn't really missed anything. 

One thing we had missed the day before, was the Halloween Parade. This time thankfully we got to see it twice. We caught the end of it as we arrived, and got to see it from being at the front after we'd grabbed a quick bite to eat. It was all fun and games though until the actors made us jump a few times. I got some of this on camera which I'll share in my montage video I plan to make at some point.

We got most of our gifts and souvenirs this night (after mooching about all the shops to see what sells what). Turns out, most of them sell the same stuff. 

The first ride we went on was Laser Blast, I'd heard it was a really popular ride so I wanted to give it a go. We queued for about an hour though, one thing about the Halloween spectacular is that all waiting times are longer than average. Little did I know though that the ride was literally another kids ride with laser guns. You live and learn kids. You live and learn. 

Really, really not looking that impressed. To be honest we were just aiming at anything and Liam was trying his very best to constantly spin us round to make the experience more exciting. What a pair.

Next, as far as I remember we went on the Peter Pan ride. Another kids ride, but at this point we kinda guessed it really. We didn't have to queue too long, maybe twenty minutes to half an hour. So we thought, heck, let's just do it. It was actually a really cute ride though to be honest - proper magical and you felt like you were flying. Would recommend.  

We had another wander round as there were some spooky additions to certain attractions, and did the last few things we wanted to get done before we went on Big Thunder Mountain.

Spooky, misty, pirates & skulls.

One thing we didn't do was the Princess Pavilion, which I'll be sure to do if I ever go again, which no doubt I hopefully will one day. But there's a reason why people usually go for 2-5 days - because there's a lot to do! Especially for kids and families. 

So we ended our night on the Big Thunder Mountain. We looked at the waiting time, and it said 90 minutes. But it was the only major ride we hadn't done yet. Baring in mind this was just before 1am when we checked, and the park shut at 2am. Logically it shouldn't have worked out, but we queued anyway. Typically, once we queued everyone else had a similar idea. During our queue time there were two announcements saying that the queue time has been extended by 20 minutes.

Miraculously though, we got on the ride at 1.45. And it was brilliant! Well worth the wait and the best end to our time at Disneyland. Such a good high note to end it on too. It was really fun but not too intense, and it was actually a lengthy ride too that you didn't want to end. We were both buzzing! And our photo came out great (we actually bought this one as a souvenir).

We then had to rush off to the find our coach which was stressful as there were two different pick up points, and a lot of people to walk among. Our coach told us to be there by 2.15. But it didn't actually set off until 3am? What an absolute joke. This meant we didn't get in until gone 4am. But hey ho, we had a blast and I'm glad I got to experience Disneyland for the first time with someone so special to me, even if he does wind me up half the time.

Thanks for reading.

-x.o, B.E.J