Top 5 things I've never done

Disneyland Paris fans, we've done the entire resort multiple times right? Wrong. It's quite possible that a few things are missing off on our checklist. Perhaps it is important to have these gaping holes? It gives us reason to return, it gives us 'targets' to work towards beyond the hypothetical 'Wouldn't it be cool if...'. We each have our own personal lists, here is mine.

5: Character Dining
We start off with character dining, and a confession. I have done this before. But I was very young, and to be quite honest I do not remember it. Therefore I'm including it on the list; I am a fan of characters and meet and greets but the (relative) high cost of a character meal and often a long wait to get into them just hasn't managed to grab me at this moment. But perhaps another time, I really like the Café Mickey menu and that of Inventions. Regrettably it won't be happening on this trip, however maybe next time?

4: Walt's: An American Restaurant
Often cited by Disneyland Paris fans as Disneyland Paris's flagship and most beautiful restaurant, Walt's features rooms based on each land featured in Disneyland Park with beautiful artwork, and aerial views of Main Street U.S.A.. I once tried to go to this restaurant, but, unfortunately, it was booked weeks in advance and so I missed out. It has a menu that just sounds wonderful mixing the best of French and American cuisine. I really hope eventually I get into this fantastic restaurant.

3: PanoraMagique
This one is a totally unique experience in Disneyland Paris, the ability to fly above the resort and experience a new dimension to Disneyland Paris. Being outside the parks and at the back end of the Village means this attraction can be easily missed. The walk from the park on day trips (which is what I often do) is just too far for me to justify. However, the current Annual Passport discount means there is a very high chance I finally take flight very soon!

  2: Disneyland Hotel
I imagine that this appears on a the list of more than just me. I, like many, have roamed through the corridors of this hotel, enjoyed the 'Descente sur les marches' and sipped a cocktail in Café Fantasia, but being that close to Disneyland Park, in that magical atmosphere in beautiful rooms. That really is a dream. I'd love to enjoy a night in the Castle Club, but any room here would be one of my Disney dreams come true. 

  1: Space Mountain, Rock 'n' Rollercoaster & Indiana Jones et le temple du péril
What do these three attractions have in common? Loops. I'm quite simply petrified of them and despite the fact that they are seen as the major attractions in the parks, I've still never wanted to ride them. It took me until November 2012 to ride the Tower of Terror (an attraction which I now love). I still remember when riding Pirates of the Caribbean scared the life out of me as we went up that lift (but I obviously overcame that fear as now, this is my ultimate favourite attraction which I will ride multiple times a day). What makes this even more confusing is that my favourite film series is Indiana Jones and the idea of riding a mine cart fills me with all sorts of excitement, much like my Star Wars fan side loves the idea of going to Endor. One day I'll conquer this fear, just like the fear of the Tower of Terror. Until then, there will always be attractions on my list in the two Disney parks I'll never be able to tick off.

What about you? Do you have things you have never done at Disneyland Paris? Perhaps you are local to another Disney Parks resort and haven't done things in your local park(s)? Whatever it is, I'd love to hear from you either as a comment below, or on twitter @dlptownsquare

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DLRP Rewind: Gare de Marne-la-Vallée - Chessy

Every year millions of people pass through the doors of the Gare SNCF de Marne-la-Vallée - Chessy, the majority end up in the Disneyland Paris parks or hotels, others will just be passing through on their way to other destinations across Europe; this is the life of the number one inter-connection station in France. The station and Disneyland Paris are so intrinsically linked that it is almost difficult to imagine the resort without the station that brings the magic so close that 37 million Europeans are now just one train change away!

When the Walt Disney Company and the French State signed their agreement (La convention pour la création et l'exploitation d'Euro Disneyland en France) on the 24th March 1987, the agreement mentioned the creation of a station for the LGV Interconexion Est which is a high speed line connecting the existing North and South East line, this interconnection opened in May 1994. At the time, the Chief architect of the French Railways described the new station as 'helping tilting the balance of the Ile-de-France back towards the east', from an already wealthy west.  When reading the 1987 agreement, Article 11 named 'Extension R.E.R. - T.G.V.' outlines an extension of the exisiting RER A line (previously terminating at Torcy), and the new terminal station which should be able to handle 10,500 passengers per hour. The exterior of the station was to be designed by the winner of an architecture competition run by the RATP (Régie Autonome des Transports Parisiens) with Euro Disney S.C.A. being allowed to take an observer role. If Disneyland Park is known for it's castle with its impressive spires, its clear that some inspiration has come from the castled world to this station with its spired front, or according the the architects Arep (JM Duthileul, E Tricaud and F Bonnefille) 'Our task was to express a real station in an artificial world', the glass walls of the station are designed in order to show the impressive TGV trains to an audience who may not take the train, this is achieved as when we leave the yellow Disney busses from our hotels, we must pass the stations glass wall in which we are able to see all the way down to the platform, in this respect the station is very much like that of Roissy Charles-de-Gaulle and Lille-Europe. What really is interesting about the link between Euro Disney S.C.A. and the construction of this station is the amount of constraints put onto the building, for example the agreement states that the station exit and the entry to Disneyland Park could not be more than 150 meters (the final distance is in fact 125 meters) and that Euro Disney S.C.A. should do their best to ensure a direct access to the park from the station (something that new security checks prohibit). The RER station and TGV station are technically different stations, one half is managed by the RATP (RER) and the TGV half is manged by the SNCF, however the two share the same style of architecture and one can easily traverse between the two stations.

RATP, the quickest way to Disneyland Paris.
Photo: Johansdreamworlds.wordpress.com

The 1987 agreement also set how Euro Disneyland would market this new rail link that had been built in order to service the resort (after all, this new line extension and station will have cost the RATP a lot of money, it is only natural they wanted a return on their investment), Euro Disney S.C.A. were not permitted to include parking charges in their park admission ticket (in order to discourage car usage). They were also forced to encourage guests to take the RER from Central Paris to the resort in their advertising in the form of using the approximate time taken from Nation station to the resort. The new extended RER opened on April 1st 1992, 12 days before the opening of the resort, now guests could easily reach Disneyland Paris, and local residents could take the new rail link and arrive in central Paris much quicker than ever before. It would be a further two years before the high speed rail link would open in 1994.

In 1992, the capital city of Paris became that little bit closer to the magic, on the 29th May 1994 the rest of mainland Europe got a little bit closer with the opening of the new TGV high speed link, which linked Disneyland Paris with major French cities such as Lille, Lyon and Bordeaux. This was celebrated by a paper train containing 500 people stretching from Disney Village to Fantasyland, such was the enormity of this train that when the front of the train was in the park, the rear was still in the esplanade.

Photo: www.disneylandparis-generations.com

In November 1994, a new passenger high speed service linked London Waterloo and Paris Gare du Nord for the first time, in January 1996 the Kent station 'Ashford International' opened, a few short months later a Eurostar train pulled into the station of Marne-la-Vallée Chessy for the first time.

Photo: www.disneylandparis-generations.com

On board this first arrival was Sir Richard Branson, who was met Mr. Philippe Bourguignon (who at the time was president of Euro Disney S.C.A.) at the Gare du Marne-la-Vallée Chessy. To celebrate a float was created representing the classic Eurostar train front with two Mickey ears with a 'platform' on either side of the train acting as a place for the two gentlemen to stand, this was accompaigned by Grenadier guards. Just one year later, the Thalys international high speed link (linking France to Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany) arrvied in Marne-la-Vallée. Visiting Disneyland Paris by rail was becoming increasingly easy, with over 70 trains arriving each day and Marne-la-Vallée Chessy becomes the number one station for inter-connections in France.

In fact, getting to Disneyland Paris by rail has never been cheaper as in 2013 the low-cost TGV 'OuiGo' was launched at the Marne-la-Vallée Chessy station linking Marne-la-Vallée to Lyon, Marseille and Montpellier for as low as €15 for a single journey.

The future of this vibrant, busy suburban Paris station looks bright as even more services get added, as even more of us sit back, relax and let the train do the work.

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Halloween Festival starts to become unveiled.

Over at Disney Central Plaza forum, they've been discussing Halloween festival for a while now, today a press release has been posted that originates from ameworld.net. Here is the exciting news we've been waiting for, some details on Halloween 2013 at Disneyland Paris!

Hewie, Dewey and Louie will be arriving at Disneyland Paris from October 5th to celebrate Halloween, and their Uncle Scrooge will be joining them! The amazing Halloween decorations from last year will return as Main Street is transformed into a place where you can meet those friendly ghosts.

A new three float Halloween cavalcade will be presented by Mickey and Friends called 'Mickey's Halloween Celebration' featuring Disneyland Paris's newest arrivals (Hewie, Dewie, Louie and Uncle Scrooge as well as Clarabelle!).

Goofy will return with his sweet machine on Main Street USA, and we can, for the first time, visit Minnie's studio where she will be creating some Halloween fashion creations.
Other returning features are the villains in the Castle Courtyard and Jack and Sally will return to their photo location outside Phantom Manor.
Characters will be present in Halloween dress (probably making up for the confirmed cancellation of Mickey's Trick or Treat in the Street show)

Disney Dreams returns for the season where we can get 'haunted' by our favourite Disney Villains, Doctor Facilier, Ursula and Captain Hook.

Don't forget Disneyland Park's Halloween Soirée from 20:30 - 01:00 on the 31st October, and tickets are on sale now!

Below is the first visual from the Season, credit goes to Ameworld

Big thanks to Ameworld for posting this exciting press release. We think the 2013 Halloween season will be exciting, and we really cannot wait to see that Halloween cavalcade.

Will any of our readers be visiting the Halloween season? We'd love to know what you think of these proposed plans, comment below or tweet us @dlptownsquare

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Coup de Cœur #1 - Front Lot

You're standing in the resort hub in the inevitable queue for the security control, and in the distance you hear the Star Trek theme, it's ironic that that is the theme to a film from a rival studio that lets you know that you have arrived at Disneyland Paris.
At Disneyland Paris we are lucky to have two Disney parks with beautiful entrances, the grand Victorian entrance to Disneyland Park is unique in the world and is, in my opinion, the most beautiful theme park entrance in the entire world. The second represents a Hollywood film studio, we are invited in with the words "Welcome behind the scenes" as we delve into the world of film making and tributes to the seventh art form (Cinema). As we walk to the park entrances we are greeted by the lot entrance gates featuring the Studio emblem of Mickey Mouse
operating a camera, as we veer off to the sides we are greeted by Hollywood 'porters', with a polite 'Bonjour' they take our ticket place it in the turnstile and give it back to us. 'Bon Journée'. The sights and sounds of the Studio surround us, in front of us the impressive Studio 1 building, the 'gateway' to the park, and for us an opportunity to see a Hollywood sound stage set up with its props and reading for a day of filming. In the centre a fountain with our studio emblem once again returning, Sorcerer Mickey from the 1943 Disney Classic 'Fantasia' representing one of the most iconic pieces of Disney animation ever created, Mickey controlling the brooms filling up with water. This provides us with one of the early photo opportunities of the park as we pose with the broom on the pavement. To our left, the Walt Disney Studios store designed with beautiful studio theming, the walls adorned with photos from the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California, all of which featuring the man himself, Walt Disney. The store almost feels like a studio set itself with it's dark ceiling and lighting rigs and a dangling lighting fitting. We truly have entered the wonderful world of the silver screen, this is no functional film studio, this is the glamor of what we have dreamed it to be, this is the showcase section of the Walt Disney Studios Park.

 As we move back into the Place des frères lumières, so named as the Lumière brothers were the french inventors of the art of film making, just across the square is located Studio Services and our studio lot clock tower (Well, we need to know what time we have to be on set!), underneath the clock tower we can visit the Studio Photo store, which essentially is a slightly smaller version of Town Square photography in Disneyland Park, nevertheless the theming is once again that much more magical and links perfectly to the park's theme of the movies with it's old film cameras from an earlier era of cinema, the walls feature film reels and clap boards, and this is when we realise, we've made it on the studio lot! As we turn our backs on the photography store and head towards Disney Studio 1, we enjoy the sight of the 'Earful tower', of course it's not a functional water tower but it's almost a staple of a film studio such as the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, our water tower in this studio has been given a pair of Mickey ears, again to pay homage to the biggest star the studio has produced, who knows? Maybe we might just bump into him today, I've heard he likes to take photos with the extras! We continue towards Studio 1, walking with the excitement of what awaits us. We are living the magic of the studio. What's that? PLACES EVERYONE! That's our cue, to the set!


Coup de Cœur is a regular feature in which we take a look at a particular attraction of Disneyland Paris in detail and enjoy what makes Disney parks so beautiful be it a ride, a walk through experience, a shop, a restaurant or an entire land.

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Disneyland Paris after dark

Ever wondered what happens once you've left the park? Just how does Disneyland Paris look so beautiful day in, day out. It's all thanks to the night team of over 200 people every day making the parks look beautiful, who, once the friendly 'Au revoirs' end and those park gates are locked closed, come out for a long nights work until opening time the next morning.

Well, last week DLRP Welcome and Disney Central Plaza (French Disneyland Paris communities) went behind the scenes once the park gates closed for an entire night of insight just so that we could find out what goes on overnight so that we can keep coming back and seeing the great looking attractions and scenery that we love. Today, they have released a video featuring all the amazing work that goes on, and some of the strange sights (such as vans driving down Main Street). Interviews are in French with English subtitles. So, sit back, relax and enjoy the work that happens whilst we sleep.

I'd like to say a huge Thank You to these cast members, your work may go unappreciated by the masses, but without you, our park wouldn't look so beautiful each and every day, and if you weren't there, we would all notice.  So THANK YOU!

And if you enjoyed the video, why not go pay the websites that created it? DLRP Welcome and Disney Central Plaza

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