DLRP Magic! – Disneyland Resort Paris Newspaper Reviews

3rd August 2003

Don’t Rain On My Princess Parade

Jeannette Hyde was immune to the magic of
Disneyland, but that all changed when she went there with her daughter.

Let’s get one thing straight. You won’t find
me fully dressed at 4am panting at the hotel door to start my day out at a
Disney resort like in the ads. I am not a fan.

Having visited the Disney
theme parks in Paris, Florida and California numerous times on work trips,
I can’t stand the fact that they serve Nescaf� throughout the complexes
and the only ice cream you can buy is from Nestl� too. I hate being
funnelled through a shop every time I get off a ride. The saccharine piped
music at check-in, breakfast and tea drives me mad. And as for those sad
parades of Disney characters on floats waving at little children each
afternoon, please! Being a less than patient queuer also happens to be a
severe handicap.

Imagine my dismay when my daughter recently asked when I would be
taking her to Disneyland to meet ‘the real Snow White’ and ‘the real
Sleeping Beauty’.

I’d love my daughter to express an interest in the Science Museum
instead. Or ask for vegetables (as opposed to McDonald’s Happy Meals), or
play with wooden toys rather than multi-coloured plastic ones. But the sad
truth is that what I think is good for her is a far cry from what makes
her happy.

So we’re on the Disney Eurostar train. This is the one that leaves
London Waterloo at 09.27 and shoots straight into Disneyland Paris in
three hours. No changing at Lille or negotiating the RER from Paris en
famille. We’ve brought two pushchairs – one for Hanna (three years and 10
months) for ‘when her knees hurt’ (i.e. she can’t be bothered to walk any
more), the other for Max (five months) and for hanging our substantial
luggage on.

Hanna is in good humour despite almost being crushed to death on the
commuter train to Waterloo. The promise of a Princess Parade at 4pm does
wonders for her mood. We have a wobbly moment in the French hotel lobby
when a huge furry donkey bounds up and Hanna starts shrieking. ‘I’m
scared, Mummy. Aaarrhhh!’ The bloke in the Eeyore outfit gets the message
and greets some name-badged conference guests instead.

Our room at the Hotel New York stinks of cigarette smoke masked by air
freshener, so we ask for another. It’s an American-style double double
(one double bed for parents, another for the kids) and the pillows are
scattered with gold-covered chocolate coins which Hanna takes great
delight in gathering and gobbling up.

After negotiating some pretty time-consuming, pointless security (long
queues, blokes glancing but not rummaging in bags) we are in the Magic
Kingdom. And it’s then that it strikes me what a Great Time we are going
to have. Because unlike the sunny Magic Kingdoms of Florida and
California, where evil alcohol is banned, the rainy-skied European one
serves plenty of it.

‘Shall we have a beer?’ I suggest. And my husband Markus and I sit down
in Main Street with a couple of cold beers admiring the mock Wild West
street with its olde worlde shops. The stresses of negotiating two
pushchairs/kids/luggage through a south London rush hour wash away and we
wait eagerly, positively for the Princess Parade.

This is where I should digress slightly. When I’d unpacked Hanna’s pink
wheelie suitcase in our room, I found she’d packed not one but three
Disney princess costumes. ‘I need to wear them in case I meet any
princesses,’ Hanna argued.

Trudging through the puddles it seemed that dozens of other under-fives
had also put on their Snow White outfits for the day… I tried to imagine
all these little girls getting up on Friday morning and saying: ‘I must
put on my Snow White outfit in case I meet Snow White today.’ Strange
logic, but a universal brain pattern in small girls heading Disney way.

Anyhow, the floats floated by. And then the big moment came. We saw the
Snow White, arm-in-arm with her handsome prince, waving at the crowds;
Cinderella (who’d caked on the make-up, I have to say); the Little Mermaid
with quite a nifty little wagging tail; and the real Sleeping Beauty.
Hanna was in heaven. Waving and smiling at the princesses going by in
their golden carriages, their courtiers bowing and dancing behind. ‘Where
have they all gone, Mummy?’ ‘Probably back to their castle,’ I said,
pointing at the pink and gold turrets on the skyline.

At the hotel we down a couple of killer cocktails and suddenly the
sight of Hanna pouring half a bottle of ketchup over her nuggets and chips
is no problem.

Throughout the next two days our mood only improves – this despite
torrential rain, cups of Nescaf� and Nestl� baby food (funnily they didn’t
sell any other kind) and constant background music. A weekend at Disney
and you feel as if you can hum every song backwards – ‘Some Day My Prince
Will Come’, ‘When You Wish Upon A Star’… As for the shops, well they are
a jolly place to shelter from the rain, marvelling at the merchandise you
never realised you needed, from a mobile phone stand with Mickey ears to
mountains of Minnies and piles of Plutos.

I found myself doing all sorts of things I normally wouldn’t tolerate,
such as queuing in the rain for 45 minutes to have Hanna’s face painted.
Once in the face-painting cave, the procedure took all of two minutes, but
the pleasure on her little cheeks having acquired a few glittery blue
streaks was almost tear-jerking.

Queuing for rides was less grim than expected, especially now that the
park runs a Fastpass system. You get a ticket for the ride like at a
supermarket deli counter and come back at the appointed hour, giving you
plenty of time for a leisurely lunch in a themed restaurant where they
bring your kids’ food first (not rocket science but, boy, does it mean you
can eat in peace) and you can glug down another bottle of wine before
dealing with nappies, heating bottles and solids and recovering before the
next ride.

Of all the attractions, my daughter was particularly impressed with the
Flying Carpets in the Walt Disney Studio Park, the Snow White and the
Seven Dwarfs ride (of course) and the Pirates of the Caribbean, both in
Fantasyland.

Travelling with a baby too means you’d normally miss out on the
white-knuckle stuff, but being Disney they’ve even thought of that. While
the rest of the family goes off on the ride, the remaining parent is
allowed to wait at the front of the queue to hand over the baby before
getting their turn.

The only aspect of the holiday that didn’t quite work out for Hanna was
the character breakfast, where the evil wolf Sheriff from Robin Hood sent
her screaming under the table. Thankfully, a friendly Goofy offered her a
reassuring hug.

We find ourselves at 7.30pm at the Fuente Del Oro – a Mexican fast-food
joint in Frontierland. Surrounded by fake earthenware pots, we gnaw on
spiced chicken wings, two beers for company. Our children are slumped in
their buggies – Hanna in her pink Sleeping Beauty costume, the long satin
arms smeared with face paint and glitter smudged by rain all over her
face. Max is fiercely sucking his dummy Maggie Simpson-style,
country-and-western music blaring all around us.

If you’d asked me four years ago to picture this scene I couldn’t.
Seeing my children so blissfully happy still won’t send me queuing at the
gates at 4am, but I’ve definitely got into the spirit of things. We might
as well make the most of it. It’s a very short time in a child’s life when
they believe in princesses and fairy tales with happy endings.

What’s new in the world of Disney

Disneyland Paris: This summer sees the arrival from Tokyo
Disneyland of the spectacular ‘Disney’s Fantillusion’. Nightly until 31
August, guests will have the opportunity to experience Disney tales and
characters brought to life by vast quantities of light bulbs, batteries
and liquid nitrogen in a shimmering shower of light and special effects. A
procession of floats lit by 400,000 light bulbs glides along Main Street,
USA, featuring Disney’s most famous characters in three acts: Mickey’s
Magical Garden, the Disney Villains and the Happy Ending.

Disneyland, California: ‘Aladdin – A Musical Spectacular’ is a
new show based on the animated film and performed several times a day. The
single-act show brings the story of Aladdin, Jasmine, the evil Jafar, and
the witty wish-granting Genie to life. There is a new ride called ‘The
Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh’. Hop aboard ‘hunny bee-hives’ and
venture into the Hundred-Acre Wood to join Pooh and his friends, Tigger,
Eeyore and Piglet for a fun-filled adventure. Based on the animated
version of A.A. Milne’s classic children’s stories, guests follow Pooh on
his endless pursuit of honey through a stormy day, an exciting dream and a
cheerful birthday party. Also kids can dance with their favourite
television buddies in person at the new show ‘Playhouse Disney – Live on
Stage!’ – combining the excitement of live performance with the magic of
puppetry to bring children’s TV characters such as Bear in the Big Blue
House, Rolie Polie Olie, Stanley and many more to life.

Walt Disney World, Florida: Unmissable attractions at the Epcot
centre this summer include ‘The Living Seas’ (the world’s largest man-made
ocean environment), ‘Honey, I Shrunk the Audience’ (a 3-D show where you
become part of the famous film) – and the nightly firework, laser and
flame display ‘IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth’ set to music in the
centre of World Showcase Lagoon. Then at the Animal Kingdom Theme Park you
should go early in the day to the Kilimanjaro Safaris in Africa – as the
animals are out when it’s cooler – and be prepared to get very wet at the
Kali River Rapids in Asia, before watching the Festival of the Lion King,
a musical extravaganza featuring amazing performers and Lion King
characters staged several times a day.

Factfile

August prices start at �295 per adult and �143 per child for a
two-night/three-day Classic Package staying at Disney’s Hotel Santa Fe.
Price is based on two adults and two children (aged 3-11 inclusive)
sharing a family room and includes two nights’ accommodation with
continental breakfast, travel on the direct Eurostar service from Waterloo
and unlimited entry to the Disneyland Park and Walt Disney Studios.

The same package staying at Disney’s Hotel New York starts at �374 per
adult and �143 per child. Phone 08705 030303.

During the month of August, there is a special offer with four nights
for the price of three. Prices at the Disney Hotel Cheyenne start at �390
per adult, and �158 per child.

This article was written by Jeannette Hyde
and published by The Observer.

This text was taken from the online version
of this article which can be found
here.
The views expressed and any mistakes in this review are those of the
writer and not of DLRP Magic!

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