Disneyland Paris September 2017 Day One: Fantasyland!
Hey everyone! I’m sorry there’s been a small delay in getting my Disneyland Paris blog posts up. Since getting home, I honestly haven’t stopped! But I’ve found some free time to sit down and write about David and I’s first, amazing holiday together.
We travelled to Disneyland Paris on the 25th September on the RER A train from central Paris. It took about half an hour to get to Marne-la-Vallée – Chessy (The train station on Disney property).
When we arrived we dropped our suitcases off at the Disney Luggage Express so we could head straight into the park. This was super quick and easy to do. The cast members were so lovely and very friendly. Before we knew it, we had our park tickets and were standing in front of the beautiful castle!
The first part of the park we went to was Fantasyland! David had never been to Disneyland Paris before so I thought it was probably the most traditional of the Disney lands for him to experience on his first day. Unfortunately the Sleeping Beauty gallery was closed on our first day so we went straight onto the dark rides, including Snow White and Pinnochio. Peter Pan was closed for renovation on our visit…but it meant we had a reason to come back another time!
If you read my blog post about what I packed for DLP, I decided to wear an Alice in Wonderland themed outfit on our first day. So it couldn’t be more perfect when the first character we met was the White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland! He adored my outfit and was very excited to see himself on my Alice-themed bracelet.
We then decided to get lunch at the Bella Notte food spot, but just as we were going in, we spotted Pinnochio and Gepetto!
While meeting them we also had the wonderful surprise of all the Disney princesses walking by!
For lunch we both had the trois fromages pizza, and quite honestly was one of the best pizzas I’ve eaten! It was cheesey and tomatoey and doughy and herby, mm it was great! It also came with a side salad and pot of fruit and a drink all for €14.99 which was pretty good!
After we filled up on pizza, we decided to go on It’s A Small World! One of the Walt classics, I love how you travel through all the different countries and the beautiful colours and animatronics is incredible. I was curious as to how David would find this ride, as some people love it and others hate it. But he was a lover!
Next up was the teacups! We had a great laugh trying to spin as fast as we could, felt a bit dizzy after too!
Dumbo is of course one of the classics of Fantasyland. At first our elephant wouldn’t go higher but we figured it out in the end!
We then took a wander over to Wonderland and tried out the Curious Labyrinth. It was fun wandering around trying to find the centre. When we did we came across the Queen of Hearts’ castle!
Once we managed to escape out of the labyrinth, we had a fun pic taken at the Mad Hatter’s tea party.
Le Pays des Contes de Fées and Casey Junior are considered the ‘baby rides’ of the park but these had such beautiful theming and I loved seeing all the miniatures of the Disney castles and music.
We finished our day in Fantasyland riding on Sir Lancelot’s Carousel which was great fun.
In the late afternoon/evening, we decided to sit and wait in front of the castle for the Disneyland Stars on Parade. David also treated me to one of the scrummy 25th Anniversary donuts, which also had chocolate inside!
We were probably waiting for about an hour for the parade to start, but it meant we had a great view from a bench. We were also able to stand up on it to film the floats as they went past.
After the parade we caught the shuttle bus back to the Hotel Santa Fe, as we needed to check into our room and also collect our suitcases. We had dinner in the hotel restaurant, La Cantina, it was a Tex Mex buffet. The food wasn’t too bad and the desserts were great…but I probably wouldn’t eat there again or recommend dining there. The restaurant was quite noisy, crowded and the lighting was too bright, which made it feel more like a school canteen than a hotel restaurant. It just didn’t quite capture that Disney je ne se quoi for us.
Despite the slight let down of the evening restaurant, we had an incredible first day at Disneyland Paris and were ready to fall asleep when we got back to our hotel room!
Thanks so much for reading and I hope you will come back for more on Sunday for Day 2 of our adventures! In the meantime, I’d love it if you left a comment down below of what your favourite Fantasyland rides are! Mine are Pinocchio, Storyland or Casey Jr!
Au revoir!
We travelled to Disneyland Paris on the 25th September on the RER A train from central Paris. It took about half an hour to get to Marne-la-Vallée – Chessy (The train station on Disney property).
When we arrived we dropped our suitcases off at the Disney Luggage Express so we could head straight into the park. This was super quick and easy to do. The cast members were so lovely and very friendly. Before we knew it, we had our park tickets and were standing in front of the beautiful castle!
The first part of the park we went to was Fantasyland! David had never been to Disneyland Paris before so I thought it was probably the most traditional of the Disney lands for him to experience on his first day. Unfortunately the Sleeping Beauty gallery was closed on our first day so we went straight onto the dark rides, including Snow White and Pinnochio. Peter Pan was closed for renovation on our visit…but it meant we had a reason to come back another time!
If you read my blog post about what I packed for DLP, I decided to wear an Alice in Wonderland themed outfit on our first day. So it couldn’t be more perfect when the first character we met was the White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland! He adored my outfit and was very excited to see himself on my Alice-themed bracelet.
We then decided to get lunch at the Bella Notte food spot, but just as we were going in, we spotted Pinnochio and Gepetto!
While meeting them we also had the wonderful surprise of all the Disney princesses walking by!
For lunch we both had the trois fromages pizza, and quite honestly was one of the best pizzas I’ve eaten! It was cheesey and tomatoey and doughy and herby, mm it was great! It also came with a side salad and pot of fruit and a drink all for €14.99 which was pretty good!
After we filled up on pizza, we decided to go on It’s A Small World! One of the Walt classics, I love how you travel through all the different countries and the beautiful colours and animatronics is incredible. I was curious as to how David would find this ride, as some people love it and others hate it. But he was a lover!
Next up was the teacups! We had a great laugh trying to spin as fast as we could, felt a bit dizzy after too!
Dumbo is of course one of the classics of Fantasyland. At first our elephant wouldn’t go higher but we figured it out in the end!
We then took a wander over to Wonderland and tried out the Curious Labyrinth. It was fun wandering around trying to find the centre. When we did we came across the Queen of Hearts’ castle!
Once we managed to escape out of the labyrinth, we had a fun pic taken at the Mad Hatter’s tea party.
Le Pays des Contes de Fées and Casey Junior are considered the ‘baby rides’ of the park but these had such beautiful theming and I loved seeing all the miniatures of the Disney castles and music.
We finished our day in Fantasyland riding on Sir Lancelot’s Carousel which was great fun.
In the late afternoon/evening, we decided to sit and wait in front of the castle for the Disneyland Stars on Parade. David also treated me to one of the scrummy 25th Anniversary donuts, which also had chocolate inside!
We were probably waiting for about an hour for the parade to start, but it meant we had a great view from a bench. We were also able to stand up on it to film the floats as they went past.
After the parade we caught the shuttle bus back to the Hotel Santa Fe, as we needed to check into our room and also collect our suitcases. We had dinner in the hotel restaurant, La Cantina, it was a Tex Mex buffet. The food wasn’t too bad and the desserts were great…but I probably wouldn’t eat there again or recommend dining there. The restaurant was quite noisy, crowded and the lighting was too bright, which made it feel more like a school canteen than a hotel restaurant. It just didn’t quite capture that Disney je ne se quoi for us.
Despite the slight let down of the evening restaurant, we had an incredible first day at Disneyland Paris and were ready to fall asleep when we got back to our hotel room!
Thanks so much for reading and I hope you will come back for more on Sunday for Day 2 of our adventures! In the meantime, I’d love it if you left a comment down below of what your favourite Fantasyland rides are! Mine are Pinocchio, Storyland or Casey Jr!
Au revoir!
Great post and photos !! It looks like you both had a very busy day! I love Fantasyland :-) Your outfit was just so cute! I'm jealous you met the White Rabbit though! haha. Looking forward to reading Day 2 ! xxx
ReplyDeleteThanks, Caroline! We managed to fit a lot in that day but was still very relaxed! The White Rabbit was lovely! There was a little girl in front of us who started crying because she didn't want to leave him, so cute!
Delete