Disney Village Fans: Disneyland Paris - October 2015 - Trip Report

Giving Mr Mouse a hug!

It wouldn't be a holiday to Disneyland Paris without meeting any characters, and this year definitely didn't disappoint! When we went last year, it was my first time in recent years meeting characters. Other than queueing to meet Anna and Elsa and the Princess Pavilion, we didn't go out of our way to meet characters. This year though, we decided to meet more characters and try to find them, as some of the best characters are in random spots on different days. It wasn't until I got home to print off my photos that I realised how many characters we had actually met!

The following photos show all the characters we met and how we met them.

Me and Woody from Toy Story.

We expected our first meet and greet would probably be in Disneyland Park, but it was actually in Walt Disney Studios. After arriving at Marne La Vallee train station, we entered the Disneyland Park first to go on some rides. Next, we went to Walt Disney Studios and the first thing we did was have a photo with Woody from Toy Story. He was the only character we met on the day we arrived, but we saw all the characters later on in the Magic on Parade.

Laura with Pluto and Goofy.

We met a majority of the main Disney characters on our first full day. As we stayed on site at the Hotel Santa Fe, we were able to take advantage of the Extra Magic Hours, and could enter the parks at 8am instead of the normal 10am. We took advantage of this and as it was quiet, we queued up for all of the characters. Pluto and Goofy were the first characters we met that day. Goofy was hilarious. I was slightly annoyed though because as it was my turn to have a photo, my camera decided to play up, so I had to rely on a nice photo from one of Disney's Photo Pass photographers. Luckily, they took some very nice photos which we brought later in the day.

Laura and me with Mickey and Minnie.

Many people would say that Mickey and Minnie Mouse are two of the most popular, if not the most popular, Disney characters of all time, so we made sure we had a photo with them. After official park opening, we would probably have had to wait for well over an hour for a photo with them, but with the Extra Magic Hours, we waited for less than 10 minutes! We had some great interaction with them. Minnie pointed out Laura's ears and Mickey copied some of the poses of himself on Laura's t-shirt. I think this photo of the two of us with Mickey and Minnie is probably one of the best photos taken on the holiday.

Laura and me with Chip and Dale, or Tic and Tac as they're known in France.

Chip and Dale were next on our list. There was absolutely no one queuing for these two, so again, we took advantage of that and got some great photos with them. These two always make me laugh for some reason. They're quite mischievous and always on the move!

Laura and me with Donald Duck, one of my favourite Disney characters.

Donald Duck was the only other character for us to meet in the Extra Magic Hours, and surprise surprise, there was hardly anyone queuing again! We couldn't quite believe our luck with how easy it was to get photos with all the main Disney characters. Donald was great and we had some very lovely photos with him. In under 30 minutes, we had queued and had photos with 7 Disney characters, unbelievable!

Me with Sleeping Beauty herself, Princess Aurora.

Meeting the princesses was a little bit different to last year when we queued for Anna and Elsa at the Princess Pavilion. This year, the pavilion was closed for the first three days of our trip, and princess meet and greets were scheduled opposite the Mad Hatter's Tea Cups and outside the entrance of Plaza Gardens. We decided to queue for the princess meet and greet not long after meeting all of the Disney characters earlier in the morning. We queued for about 45 minutes, but as it was quiet, I got out of the queue to get on some of the rides while Laura happily waited in line. Princess Aurora was very lovely and talkative and we had quite a few photos with her. We even got some Photo Pass photos developed later in the day as a treat for ourselves.

Me with Cinderella's Mice, Suzy and Perla.

This meet and greet happened purely by coincidence. We were queuing to meet the princesses again on our second day. I needed the toilet so left Laura in the queue. As I was walking towards the toilets near the Bella Notte restaurant, I spotted Suzy and Perla coming out of a backstage area. As they had only just come out, I was very lucky and a cast member happily took a photo of me with them both. After going to the toilet, I ran back to Laura in the line and told her what happened, so she ran off with my camera and had a photo with the two of them as well. Suzy and Perla were very sweet and even blew me kisses. Cinderella was one of my favourite Disney cartoons as a child so there was some nostalgia having photos with these two. These were also the first characters we saw that were just randomly placed in the park.

Laura and me with Snow White.

We were very happy after waiting a second time for the princesses that it wasn't Princess Aurora again but Snow White this time. She was very lovely and talkative to us and spent a good amount of time talking to the both of us.

Me with Cinderella's Ugly Stepsister, Anastasia and Drizella.

As it was the Disneyland Paris Halloween Season, there was a new meet and greet show called 'It's Good to Be Bad with the Disney Villains'. Okay, it wasn't really much of a show, just one song and dance, but the best bit of all, the characters walk off the stage and all do meet and greets with the guests. The first time we saw it we really wanted a photo with Cinderella's Ugly Stepsisters, but we couldn't get anywhere near them with all the crowds. The next day we watched the show, we were in the right place at the right time, and we were the second people to have photos with the two sisters, who were absolutely hilarious. I have to say, this really is one of my favourite photos from the whole trip. This is also the first photo with the characters featuring me with my new trilby hat!

Me with Rabbit and Eeyore.

Before we even got to Paris, I kept saying that I was desperate to meet Eeyore, but after a couple of days it was looking highly unlikely we wouldn't meet him. I was wrong of course as the photo above suggests! We were getting ready to leave Walt Disney Studios when we walked through the Front Lot, and we saw Rabbit and Eeyore! I can't tell you how happy I was to have the chance to meet Eeyore! When we got to the front of the queue, I gave him a massive hug as well as Rabbit. As you can see in the photo, Rabbit thought it would be hilarious to take my hat and put it on one of his ears! It was a very funny moment and I couldn't stop smiling! It was a really great character interaction, and was so over the moon to meet my favourite Disney character, Eeyore!

Having a laugh with Smee and Peter Pan.

After the excitement of meeting Eeyore, we decided to head to the Disneyland Park to explore once again. We spotted Peter Pan and Smee near a backstage area in Adventureland, but they were coming towards a break in their meet and greet spot. The cast member with them told us that Peter Pan and Smee would be turning in about half an hour. We decided to go off for a wonder around Adventureland then waited for a couple of minutes and were right at the front to meet Peter Pan and Smee! I had quite a fun chat with Peter Pan, Smee looked upset when Peter Pan said the pirates on Pirates of the Caribbean were scary. After having our photos taken, it was dawning on me how lucky we were to meet so many iconic Disney characters.

Look everyone, it's King Louie!

After another visit to Walt Disney Studios in the same day, we came back to the Disneyland Park. We found ourselves in Adventureland again, and to our surprise, King Louie from The Jungle Book was doing a meet and greet, with a very short line of people. Unsurprisingly, he was hilarious! King Louie proved to be the last character we met.

Even as I'm writing this, I still can't believe the amount of characters we met, especially in such a short amount of time. The first day was quite unbelievable meeting so many iconic characters. Meeting characters wasn't something I originally intended to do, but after this trip, we'll definitely be doing it again!

I mentioned earlier about all the parades we watched so here are some of my favourite photos from all the parades. Enjoy!