Hayden and Célia's Web Site

Just over a month after returning from florida, Célia had a team build that was taking place at the Holiday Inn at Disneyland Paris, So as I (Hayden) had spare leave that needed to be used up, I decided to accompany her and spend a day or two in the theme parks.

The view down Main Street USA. Apart from the Cold and the colour of Cinderella's Castle, it looks almost identical to Florida, just with less people.

Having managed to get up early (and due to the parks only opening at 10am) I finally managed to get to the rope drop. This was the view into Tomorrowland (sorry Discoveryland) with Space Mountain 2 dominating. But the park is also being redeveloped with a new Buzz Lightyear ride due to arrive early in 2006.

A close up of the Jules Verne style cannon that shoots the space ship (Train) into the darkness and spirals of the ride. This is significantly better than the equivalent ride at WDW.

This shows a Pirate ship in Adventureland, just outside the Pirates of the Caribean ride.

The front of the ship with what looks like Ariel (The Little Mermaid) as the ships mascot.

One of the Audio-Animatronics rides to come to the Paris parks that is also in WDW and this is one of the classic rides from Disneyland in California. The Main changes is that the speech was in French and the main song "Ho Ho Ho its a Pirates Life for me" is missing from the WDW version.

Like the Pirate's ride this is almost identical to the one in Florida, but again it's in French.

Toad Hall. This is a restaurant setup as Toad hall, which looks like a classic British Manor house.

The entrance to Alice's Curious Labyrinth, based on Alice in Wonderland, Now which way is out???

After continuing to explore the maze, I found this fellow. As you can see one of the main changes from florida is a more liberal attitude to smoking.

The Revenge, without Célia, who had been too traumatised in Florida I was able to see It's a Small World French style. And I can honestly say that its just bigger than the one in florida, which seems tucked away whilst this one is a corner stone of the park.

A Routemaster bus, although they may no longer run on the London roads, hopefully they will live on in Disney's World.

The main problem with IASW is not the loading (nice and quick) or the ride itself (which is a bit twee but bearable), but its the unload, which goes on and on being stuck in the boat with the song repeating in your head until you can never forget it. On finally being able to get out of the boat here you can see stylised landmarks from round the world, and in each is a small TV set showing a child talking (either on a phone or via computer) to another child elsewhere on the planet.

Outside Star Tours here is a X-Wing fighter.

Inside C3-P0 is overseeing the maintenance of one of the star tours vehicles.

And R2-D2 is performing the maintenance, though as the ride is so bumpy you would wish he was controlling the vehicle you ride on.

Due to the cold, even Pooh bear needs to wear a coat as he waits for children (and Big children) on his bed in his little house.

I had to get a picture of me and Pooh waving to Célia to show that we were thinking of her whilst she was working away back at the Hotel.

The first show of the day, A On-Ice special with singing and dancing.

Donald setting up to go fishing.

Chip and Dale with Pluto join the fun and games. Dale is on the left, Chip has the brown nose (as in a Chocolate Chip)

Dale and Goofy come to the fore.

Mickey and Minnie slide down to join the gang.

Minnie, Donald and Mickey dancing.

The gang show their skating abilities.

The Country bears (from Country bears jamboree in Florida) come onto the stage to provide musical accompaniment.

Mickey leads on Minnie to have a romantic dance.

The whole gang head off at the end of the show on a Horse drawn carriage.

The story of Pinocchio, as told in French using the same style as the Peter Pan, Snow White type rides.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and I got to ride on the car called Dopey, which is one of Célia's favourite characters.

Below the castle is a Dragon, that normally sleeps but does stir occasionally.

Mickey and Pals lead out the Christmas parade. This was running slightly late and due to the cold and the only seating being a concrete bench, my bum was totally numb by the time this started, but as with most parades it was worth the wait.

And completing the parade is Father Christmas on a sleigh pulled by real reindeer

After the parade finished I had to sprint, to Videopolis for the Legend of the Lion King show, which is a simple version of the Lion King stage show. But it was inside and warm and was a nice place to warm up after the half hour or so waiting for the parade.

Tigger being put to use as a clerk in one of the shops.

During the drizzle of the early evening, the characters come out to turn on the Christmas lights. Here are the 2 girls Daisy and Minnie waiting for Mickey to come out to control the turn on.

The Tree is lit.

The gang say goodbye and goodnight.

The view up Main street USA at Night after the lights have come on. The lights on the castle were turned on by Tinkerbell.

Paris's version of MGM-Disney Studios (recently renamed Disney Studios) in Florida. This was my 2nd Day and 2nd park. After gaining entry and moving to the entrance hall I waited with strangers for the 10am offical opening, which was greated with fanfares. The park is very small and rather concrete, with few attractions.

After the opening I route marched to the Rock n Roller coaster, and for the 2nd day I was the 1st person allowed on the coaster. This was a resonable version of the ride from Orlando, but had had the Neon signs removed so it was just a dark roller coaster (with Aerosmith pre-show) than the US version which has the back story of trying to get to a concert on the other side of LA.

The start of a short parade strangly early in the morning which seems to be just a way of getting the characters out into the park.

Daisy Duck who was totally missing in Florida, is one of stars of the parade.

Woody.

This was to be a picture of Jessie, to show that the European version does have a neck, however she turned round at that moment, So all I have is a good shot of her arse. which was not the best on view at the studios, as this award went to Mrs Incredible, unfortunately I was unable to get a photo of her.

Minnie waving at me from her car.

Goofy as Santa bringing up the rear of the parade. The car had just had to stop which almost resulted in Goofy falling over the bonnet.

Close up of Goofy as Santa.

After the parade Célia called to ask me to join her back in Disneyland, and on leaving I bumped into Sully from Monsters Inc. or Kitty as I normally call him.

During our time back in Disneyland, we pottered arround, and saw Tigger signing autographs, but it was a bit of a scrum so we were unable to get into the photo with him. We then had a nice lunch at Walt's made up of a starter for Célia and a entrée for me.

We then returned to Walt Disney Studios, and rode the Backstage tour, which was quite wierd as it tried to show that movies and TV shows (in this case Dinosaur) are shot in Paris, when you could see that there is just this one set.

A mythical Hayne Street EC1 in a London street scenes section of the Backstage Tour.

At least you can still find a Routemaster bus.

Now all those views of London are a setup for the destruction shown after the dragons have attacked in Reign of Fire. This section also has flames shooting out of the set, which was nice and warming on such a cold cold day.

Célia with Nemo and Bruce in a staged photo location.

Hayden and Mickey as we say goodbye to the strange Disney world that is Disneyland Paris....

This is the view from the Sacre Coeur. After 2 Days out in the hinterland of Disney, we moved into the heart of Paris. A days shopping was followed by some sightseeing , so we climbed up the hill's of Montmarte.

Whilst we were at the Cathedral we saw this cute little train which brings vistors up and down the hill.

From the Cathedral on the hill to the one of the island.

And so ended our long weekend in Paris.