Disney Paris! Thanksgiving Break 2012.

 We decided to forgo traditional Thanksgiving dinner and mess this year, and went to Disneyland Paris instead.  I love that we can leave the house early in the morning and be in Paris by lunch time!  These aren't a bad substitute for turkey, either.   A little French food in the car on the way there.  Can't get enough pain au chocolat! 

Guess we did have some turkey, too.  In sandwich form. 

 

We stayed at Disney's Hotel New York, and after hauling our stuff up to our room, we took off to the park for the what was left of the day.  Ella was super excited to wear one of her princess dresses to Disneyland.  Luke couldn't wait to find some big rides.  Here's the entrance to the Disney Paris.

 

 

So excited to get their Disney on!

 

I asked Ella to smile for another picture in front of the castle and she had a breakdown.  "I don't want to take pictures, you said we are going to Disneyland!"  Luckily for her, I didn't take many pics that first day.  Such torture to stop for a pic when the castle is in site!  Jake and Luke rode Thunder Mtn. Railroad a couple of times, we all rode Pirates of the Carribean, and we went on some smaller rides before heading back to the hotel for the night.  Ella refused to wear her coat at first since "princesses don't wear coats."  She eventually caved.     

 

Ella would light up every time we passed the lollipop stands.  She eventually got one.

 

Candy is cute.

Love this castle!  It looked SO cool at night! 

 

Disney knows how to decorate.  Everything was festive for Christmas! 

 

 

 I think that's all the pictures I have from day 1.  We were up early on Friday for another big day at the park.  A nice perk of staying at a Disney hotel (besides having awesome cheap deals right now) is that you can enter the park 2 hours before opening time.  We had the place to ourselves for a bit.  I think the overcast weather scared away the locals who might usually be there.  It helped that school was in session, too.  Saturday and Sunday were totally different though, and the place was packed!  Some pics from day 2:

Loved the Disney snow characters that were all around the castle!  Fake snow.  It wasn't that cold :)

We went back and forth between Disney Studios and Disneyland.  Here's the entrance to the Studios.

 

Right about now on day 2 (Friday) is when I noticed Ella didn't seem to be feeling very good.  She just wanted to stay here with these Dalmatians instead of going on another ride.

We were waiting for Jake and Luke to get off of Crush's Coaster when Ella had an accident.  A bad one.  She was sick.  So, Jake and Luke stayed at the park with our friends, the Ingersolls, and the girls and I went back to the hotel to rest and get cleaned up.  By the way, Crush's Coaster was awesome.  Here's Luke after riding it.  He couldn't stop talking about it.  :)

We cleaned Ella up, and after a long nap she seemed to be feeling well enough to go out again.  It was raining, so I thought we may as well wait in line (inside!) to meet a princess.  Perfect girl activity while the boys were off on big rides.  We saw some cool stuff while waiting to meet our princess.  They don't let you know which one you're waiting to meet.  Fun surprise.  Long wait.  Saw the rose from Beauty and the Beast, the magic flower from Tangled, Cinderella's slipper, Aurora's crown, and the lamp from Aladdin. 



El was SO excited to meet a princess.  She scored because the one she was hoping to meet (Aurora) was the princess we ended up with.  I wasn't prepared for her reaction though!  I guess she expected the princesses to be animated like in the movies.  She told me right off the bat that this Aurora was FAKE.  "Just a lady in princess clothes."  Funny because she said that the animated costume characters in the park were real.  Apparently we saw the real Mickey, Pluto, Daisy, etc.  BUT only FAKE princesses.  I wasn't planning on being in the picture, but Ella was creeped out by this lady so I had to be in it with her. 

Callie was strapped to me, but I got one with her face in it, too :)

Jake left Ella a little surprise in the hotel room since she wasn't feeling very good.  A highlight of her day.  She had her eyes on those big lollipops from the time we first entered the park.  Oh, and he left me a fun surprise, too!  A cute Minnie beanie :)

Luke went on pretty much every ride with Jake on Friday, and some of them more than once while the girls and I had our princess/small world afternoon.  Ella couldn't get enough of the ride, so we went 3 times in a row that afternoon.  And more the next day.  She's scared of just about everything else.  Even the flying dumbo ride that goes around in circles. 

 

Meeting Pascal..

Pics from the "Stars in Cars" parade...



It was raining!

 

more parade characters...

 

Thought this was funny.  You can barely see Luke's face on this coaster.  He loves the big rides and claims the Rock and Roller Coaster was his fav.  :)

It was good Luke was able to fit so much in on Friday, because a few hours after we all went to bed that night, he woke up and puked.  His turn to be sick.  :(  Luckily the room service people were super nice and willing to come and clean up a few times that night.  Nothing like a 2 am "mom!!!" and barf as a wake up call.  The next morning Jake stayed in with Luke and Callie, and I went out again into the park with Ella.  We got in a few small rides, a Christmas parade and more Small World before heading back to the hotel for lunch. 
Saturday and Sunday was Minecon (Minecraft Convention) at our hotel.  Luke was thrilled to look out the window and see creepers and such walking around.  It made sitting in our room sick not so bad.  Later that afternoon we left the hotel and pushed Luke around in the stroller so he could see all the Minecraft stuff going on.
Geek Paradise.

 

 

Luke with an Enderman.  He got more excited about spotting this guy than any Disney character.  haha.

 

Callie was always so cutie and happy once back at the hotel.  So nice to get out of the carrier and shed the layers!  This girl hates to wear hats.

The view from our room.  They had ice skating down there at night, but we never got around to skating.

Did some swimming though! 

After swimming on Saturday night, we went back into the park for the Disney Dreams show.  So cool!  It's a laser show on and around the castle.  Here's Luke, El, and Jake at the park entrance that night.

And the castle right before the show started.  It really was awesome.  Packed with people, too.

We ended up seeing most characters in the mornings before and after breakfast.  They would be hanging out in the hotel lobby.  Kind of fun!

El danced with Mickey one morning :)

As you can tell, Luke was wasn't really thrilled to see this mouse. 

El and I found lots of characters while Jake and Luke were on the big rides.  A couple favorites...

 

Another fav ride of Luke's was this one.

 

 

and this one.

 

 

This little cutie was a great sport this trip.  She was happy most of the time just hanging out in the Ergo.  Since we were strapped together, I didn't get many pics of her in the park, but here's one of Callie and I!

 

 

And the last ride before heading home to England on Sunday afternoon.  Ella's pick. 

 

It was a fun trip!  I liked seeing the similarities and differences between Disney Paris and California.  Could have done without the bug that gave Ella D and made Luke barf (unfortunately I got both on the drive home!...aaaA!) but the kids have been wanting to go back since we left the place.  Guess that means Disney Paris was a success.