Christmas Holiday!

 

Having just got back from the most magical week away of my entire life (definitely not an over-statement either)... I've decided to document it in a blog post so that I can look back on it forever. Also, I hope this will give anyone who's planning a trip to Disneyland Paris anytime soon, some good tips and some reasons to get excited!!

 

Me and my boyfriend Matthew had been saving up for years to go... but had only made it half way as we're pretty bad savers haha. We kept a little brochure in my wardrobe which we'd circled all the little details about our dream holiday including a Christmas themed room, first week of December, Buffalo Bill's Wild West show etc. Little did I know, that my mum and Matthew had been planning the trip as a surprise for my 18th birthday! Mum took the brochure to the travel agents (who almost cried at how thoughtful the whole idea was haha) and presented me with this little box the night before my birthday...

Inside, were two tickets for me and Matthew to go to Disneyland Paris with every single detail we'd dreamed of! After crying way too many happy tears I somehow tried to thank my mum and dad for giving me not only a fantastic birthday present, but a memory that I knew I'd take with me for my whole life. I'm not sure I'll ever be able to find the words to tell them how grateful I am, but I hope they already know!

 

We began our trip by staying at the Ibis hotel outside Birmingham airport the night before we flew out just to make things easier. As far as basic hotels go, we were really impressed with this one. It was around £40 per night so it suited us really well. On the 2nd of December, we flew out to Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport and the flight only took us about an hour... so that was great! We flew with flybe and both of us commented on how great a flight it was. It was only a small plane, but there was more room than usual (my dad insists on booking with Ryanair to save money usually haha) and it was a really nice landing as far as landings go! So, once we arrived, we already had a transfer bus booked which took about half an hour to get to the Disneyland Hotel resort. The airport in Paris was HUGE... and very complicated but as long as you're organised and aren't afraid to ask directions it's definitely do-able :)

 

We'd always wanted to stay at Disney's New York Hotel as it seemed perfect for us. It's the closest one to Disney village, it has an ice rink outside and it offers a real Christmasy feel. When the bus pulled up at our hotel I literally couldn't believe how perfect it looked! It was all decorated outside and in, with pretty lights, trees and baubles everywhere.

 

 

One of the little details we'd always dreamt of, was to stay in a Christmas themed hotel room. Some people might find this a little bit of a waste of money I guess, but for us it just made the trip feel extra special and memorable. After all, a Christmas break in Disneyland deserves to be magical! The photo below is how we seen the room just as we walked in! Honestly, I wish I could have packed the whole room in my suitcase and took it home... it was perfect.

In the room, the staff left us a box of chocolates in a beautiful Disney Christmas tin, a Mickey Mouse mug, lots of sweets and chocolate coins everywhere! Whilst I mention the staff... I must say that every single one of them that we came across on our trip treated us so well! They were so friendly and helpful, which definitely made us feel even more happy with our stay.

 

 

Outside on the door to our room (on the 7th floor!) was a cute little holly which I thought was also really nice!

 

 

After we arrived, we rushed out to Disney Village to get some food... and when we returned we found this! It said "Happy Birthday Laura" which we thought was a lovely touch! Not that I needed reminding of what an amazing birthday gift this whole thing was! It was literally a dream come true for us (yup, big children haha!)

 

 

 

On our first night, we ate at the rainforest café. Now, we weren't particularly impressed with this one. They have changed their menu, so now we found it to be quite limited... but we were hungry so we went for it! I think it was more of a case of I ordered the wrong food for me (ribs) as Matthew enjoyed his steak but both of us agreed that it didn't quite live up to the price (around £60 for 2 main courses and 2 drinks). However, the atmosphere was nice and the décor was up to Disney's usual magical standard with elephants and birds surrounding us!

 

 

 

After cuddling just about every teddy in Disney Village, we got back to our room and stayed up way too late just talking, laughing about silly things and taking in the fact that... we were here!!

 

Now for day 1 of the parks!! We had our breakfast included in our stay (thanks again Mumsy!) so after filling up, we made our way to Disney's main park...

JUMPER : TOPSHOP      BAG : TOPSHOP  

For any beauty readers, I thought I'd better include a bit of make up low-down. So, here I was wearing Maxfactor's whipped crème foundation (really good at lasting which is essential for fun packed days), Rimmel's stay matte powder, Gerlain light bronzer in 05, Chanel eyebrow pencil in 40, Rimmel black eye liner, eylure false lashes, Maxfactor's false lash effect mascara, Chanel's crème blush and a mixture of kate moss lipstick 101 and topshop's brighton rock. Phew... that was a lot to list! But yeah, that was the make up I wore for the day :)

Just to illustrate the size of the tree... there's a tiny little me! 

 

For anyone like me who's not a roller-coaster lover... Disneyland's little rides like Dumbo, the tea cups and Peter Pan's Flight aren't just for children! haha... they were really good fun and make you feel part of the atmosphere without being a thrill-seeker haha... not sure poor Matthew would have chosen them over space mountain... but nevertheless he enjoyed them!

BOOTS: NEXT

 

One of the magical things for me about Disneyland, is the characters! They take me right back to when I was a little girl singing along to Disney movies and make me feel really happy! Queuing for them can be a little bit of a nightmare, so be sure to pick up a programme at the entrance to each park to find out where they'll be, at what times to avoid being last! I was a little disappointed as there weren't very many characters lurking around in Disneyland's main park... but Walt Disney Studios more than made up for it! So, if it's characters you're after, find them at Studios!

 

Unfortunately, I didn't manage to get many photographs of the parade as I decided to video the whole thing instead! But I must include it in this blog post as it was 100% one of our highlights. The Christmas parade they put on was soooo magical, and the song was definitely top of my list to download when I got home haha!

 

"Magic everywhereeeeeeeee...
Celebrating 20 years of joy and laughter,

Memories you'll keep long after....."

 

 

Disneyland definitely comes alive (even more so) at night! The lights are absolutely spectacular!!

Now for another highlight of our week! Buffalo Bill's Wild West show was pre-booked before we went as part of the package. We had platinum seats (definitely worth it) and we went for the 9:30pm showing as opposed to 6:30pm. The show was absolutely 11/10... it was brilliant! For people who don't know what it is, it's a huge arena surrounded by tiered seats with little bench-like tables infront of each row as you get served your dinner while you watch the show! You're given cowboy hats to wear while you watch some fantastic horse riding, rodeo games and stories which are played out and joined by the Disney characters! The music, the food, the show, the atmosphere... everything was 100% brilliant!!

 

 

Getting into the cowboy (and girl!) spirit!

 

 DRESS: URBAN OUTFITTERS (ONE OF MY FAVOURITES :) ) AND FOR ANY BOY READERS? MATTEW'S SHIRT IS FROM NEXT :)

 

 REMY AND EMILE... MATTHEW'S FAVOURITE DISNEY CHARACTERS :)

 

Day Two!! We spent our second day at Disney Studios Park. For us, we actually enjoyed this park better (although smaller) there were more things we enjoyed doing :) We found tones of characters and all of them were really nice to us! There's pretty much always queues around them, so lots of people push in... but most of them actually pointed us out to come and have our photos so that everyone got their turn... which I thought was really fair and nice :) After all, nothing beats a cuddle from a giant rat haha!

 

Being space rangers!

 

The maps, guides and programmes came in really handy for us as Matthew's really good at planning our day so that we get everything done that we want to! You receive the guide when you check in if you stay at a Disney Hotel, otherwise they're free anyway and there's TONES of them in most languages at the entrance to each park.

 

Another highlight of ours, was the Motor Action show at Disney Studio's park. The showing we went to was at 2:30 but just by chance... we walked past to find most people queuing at 1:45! They did let us in much earlier than 2:30... so I'm guessing the show actually begins at this time... so to ensure a good seat... get there earlier :) The showing times were in our programme. Once inside, there were SOOO many people all sitting on rows of seats facing the scene in the photo above (imagine a straight football stadium as opposed to a round one haha). There were stunt cars, car chases and lightening McQueen from cars actually came out onto the set so I'm sure all the children loved it too! And a man gets set on fire after a motor bike chase... so for boys it can't get cooler than that can it? haha

 

Cinemagique (Studios Park) was absolutely brilliant too! It was like a 4D cinema experience :) Also, animagique... another show of slightly similar nature was fantastic... but I only have videos of that one I'm afraid!

Disney's art of animation is a tour that last around 20 minutes about the key events in the making of Disney's movies. It's pretty interesting and there's loads of cool stuff to look at so this is worth checking out if you have a bit of a geek within you too haha. At the end, Matthew insisted that I go and draw Mickey at the drawing lesson which was actually quite enjoyable haha! The picture also makes a nice keepsake :)

 

Every morning, the room would be cleaned and fresh towels would be left. Then, each night... the bed would be turned down and chocolates would be left for us :) This was even more brownie points for the hotel!

For our third night's meal... we made a reservation at café Mickey (it fills up all the time so it's best to pre-book before you go i'd say!). This was my favourite meal we'd had yet... not only because of the amazing food but for the atmosphere! I'd say that if you go to Disneyland Paris and it's atmosphere you want... you must go here! There's characters walking around from table to table for photographs and cuddles! and a lot of their food is shaped in Mickey Mouse ears! So, it'd be great for children.

 

 

The food was amazing!!!

 

 

This one was taken specially for my little brother Andrew... whose favourite character is tigger! :D

 

Aww... my favourite boys! haha

Amazing Mickey cupcake to share :)

 

Ordering room service breakfast by filling this out and hanging it on the door

Our little display going on haha :D

 

 

Breakfast in bed! All this was only around £15 which I thought was great for room service. I had pancakes with maple syrup, followed by coco pops and Matthew had a fry up (when he woke up haha) :)

 

I'm sure many will agree that going on holiday as a couple often means that you aren't able to get photographs of the two of you without asking others. To solve this, we brought our tripod (1.3kg) which came in really handy :)

This was our last full day :( so we decided to go somewhere special for our lunch! I can't actually remember the proper name for this place as we referred to it as "ratatouille's restaurant" instead haha... but it was an all you can eat buffet and it was DELICIOUS! It was pretty pricey... but most places are in Disneyland so we just tried to enjoy ourselves as much as we could within our budget. It was £25 per person, including a drink each so it wasn't outrageous... and it was definitely more than worth it! Inside, the food was amazing, I think we had about a 7 course lunch haha... and then a waitor brought out a little moving ratatouille which he told me to have a special photo with :) .....

 

 

This became a really memorable part of the trip for us!

On the way back to the hotel, we picked up some Salted Caramel Hot Chocolates from Starbucks which were so Christmasy and delicious! Somehow, it felt really romantic walking along together feeling all warm inside :)

 

 

 

Yet another highlight (I think it's safe to say pretty much the entire trip was a highlight haha) of ours was definitely the Disney Dreams of Christmas Show! Disney Dreams was set up to celebrate the 20th anniversary which was extended throughout 2013 so we JUST made it in time to see it! And what's more... this was the Christmas edition! Stories of the characters were projected over the Disney Castle along with heart-warming music and amazing fireworks. The whole experience was so special that I cried the whole way through haha. Especially with that certain person in the photo above by my side... I just felt like the luckiest girl in the world... I still do :)

 

For our last meal, Matthew took me to the Steakhouse in Disney Village which he also pre-booked a reservation for. The place was perfect for our last night as it was a lot more sophisticated than café mickey (haha!) and it had a really nice, calm atmosphere which allowed us to sit and talk to reflect on our holiday!

 

Make up wise I used my usual... plus a black eye shadow from the naked basics (urban decay) palette, but any would do, with a Maxfactor shadow pot (purple glittery one) over the top... followed by Cheryl Cole's false eye lashes and topshop's lipstick in Brighton Rock. My dress is from urban outfitters which I feel really comfortable in :) I also made an effort to curl my hair!! go Laura haha... using Remington curlers (only cheap ones I think they're about £20).

 

 

The dinner was perfect... we ate every last bite!

 

Outside our hotel on the day we checked out (yay for the tripod! haha)

 

 

 

I think this photo sums up how I felt during the whole trip. I'd never been happier in my whole life... I felt so lucky to have the family I have... and to have that person siting beside me :) Together, we made the whole experience so perfect and magical... it's definitely something both of us will take with us forever! It's amazing how one place, and one person can make you feel so happy! The whole week I felt confident in myself, I felt so relaxed and absolutely beaming with smiles the whole time! So it was an absolute winner for us... best first holiday we could have imagined... and a birthday gift that I'll never be able to forget :)

 

 

 

 I hope you enjoyed this post and it brought you some inspiration to do things that make you feel amazing!

 

Love,

 

A very happy Laura! :)