**** WARNING – PHOTO HEAVY POST****

A few months ago the blogger bestie, Boo invited me to Disneyland Paris for Halloween. Now whilst I am not too fussed about the whole event, Boo LOVES Halloween and desperately wanted to go to the special one night only Halloween Soiree which takes place on the 31st.

The soiree opens at 5 o’clock  when you are issued with a bright pink wristband. It continues thorough until after 1 o’clock in the morning and has special parades and activities.

Boo was even more eager to go in costume as this is the only day anyone over the age of 12 can dress up as a Disney Character. Whilst this sounds a little mean, Disney do not allow it at any other time so as not to confuse small children and ruin the magic of Disney.

So several months before, we started planning our costumes. Being a little rotund, Boo immediately suggested Tweedledum and Tweedledee, to which I said No!

She came back with Mr and Mrs Potato Head which got a resounding Hell No, before we started looking at sensible options. We both finally settled on our costumes and waited for the day to arrive.

We arranged to meet at St Pancras at 0730, and I arrived to find Boo already there with tickets in hand. Security and Passport control was a doddle and we then sat in the lounge area waiting to board our Eurostar to France.

Eurostar Selfie

The train went all the way through to Lille where changed onto a RER train to Marne Le Vallee and Disneyland Paris!

DisneyLand at Halloween

Arriving at around 1315 local time we walked out of the train station lugging our suitcases behind us. We headed straight to the Disney Village where we had agreed to try and get a table at the amazing 50’s diner, Annette’s.

Annette’s

Thankfully we only had around a 10 minute wait before we were ushered inside to see servers on roller skates delivering plates of food – Fabulous!

Rollerskates!

We put in our orders for burgers and about 15 minutes later were given a fresh, hot, juicy burger and fries; absolutely delicious.

Burger and Fries

After eating we went along to our base, the Hotel B&B. Having been there before we knew what we were doing and were soon checked in.

Hotel B&B

It was around 3 o’clock so we started getting ready for the soiree. Boo needed a little help with her hair which I was able to do and we sorted out our costumes and proceeded to do our makeup; Boo had glittery eye shadow and bright pink lips, where mine was a little plainer with mascara and a purple/brown lipstick.

Getting Ready

Then it was time for the clothes and wigs.

Layering Up

Now bearing in mind it was going to be a late night in October and we weren’t going to be wearing coats, we knew we needed to layer up and had our long sleeve t-shirts and leggings on underneath.

On it Goes

My dress was emerald green velour and I had a long curly wig. My Character?

Merida from “Brave”

Merida

Wish this was my real hair!!

Boo was also ready as Elsa from “Frozen”

Elsa

We walked through the hotel and got an awful lot of funny looks which had us both in stitches. Getting on the Disney bus we were soon at the park, queuing for our wristbands.

Off we go!

Not sure quite what was going on here….

I was just amazed at the amount of people milling about and some of the costumes were EPIC.

There was a group of French visitors who had outdone themselves as all the characters from Alice in Wonderland. My favourite however was three characters from the US TV series, “Once upon a time” Regina as the evil queen, Mr Gold as Rumplestiltskin and Lacey as Belle.  Rumplestiltskin even had glittery green/gold skin like he does in the programme. Amazing!

Sadly the only shot I managed to get

We started off in Frontierland where the haunted mansion is located. We got onto the paddleboat steamer, the Molly Brown and got some great photographs.

My Favourite picture of the Holiday. No flash, no filters, no photoshop

The lighting was just right!

Meeting up with “Snow White” who we had previously chatted to on the Eurostar, we went and queued for the recently revamped “Pirates of the Caribbean” ride. I was really looking forward to it. Then I realised that it was a water ride and I had on a vintage fur wrap.

Boo and Snow found it hilarious and Boo shouting out “Not the vintage fur” became the quote of the holiday. Especially when I replied with “but it’s over 80 years old!!”

Halloween in Frontierland

Mexican Ghosts

Gorgeous Decorations

Mexican Style

“That would make a great skirt”

Anyway, off the ride went and I would love to say it was amazing. But I just didn’t think it was particular good (sorry Disney) and wondered what it had been like before the revamp!

Pirates of the Caribbean

After the ride we said goodbye to Snow and then headed to Main Street to get a good spot for the first Halloween Parade.

And what a Parade it was!

Starting off with the Tricycle Gang, featuring villains and “pretend” villains such as Donald Duck dressed as Maleficent. Huge floats featuring all the bad guys and evil characters, dancing pumpkins, floating ghosts and much more.

Donald as Maleficent

The Hyenas (I think Shenzi and Banzai)

I stood capturing them all on my camera.

The Ugly Stepsisters

Maleficent….

…and her dancers

Spooky Gliding Witches

Voodoo Dolls

I just loved these!

Frollo and Jafar

Dancing Pumpkins

Queen of Hearts

Cruella De Ville

And then it happened….

One of the bad guys came right up into my camera lens, screaming “argh” at me. I literally nearly had a heart attack, jumping right out of my skin. Boo and all the people nearby thought it was  hysterical.

I nearly had Kittens!!

I wish I could say he was the only one to do it, but there were several more including one ugly creature who twerked his lizard like tail in my face!

Monsters

A real Fire Breathing Dragon

This one was about 8 foot tall!

The Parade was absolutely out of this world. The finale with Ursula the Sea-Witch blowing out bubbles was literally the crowning glory.

Flotsam and Jetsam

After the parade was a villains show on the Royal Castle Stage. I would like to say it was fantastic, however sadly due to some selfish people who decided to stand on a bench in front, when they were already at least 6 feet tall meant I couldn’t see a darn thing.

As much as I could see 🙁

We had a bit of a walk around the shops and then went back to the main area to get a seat for the illuminations show. This was the same one we had seen in June, but as I stupidly lost all my photographs of it, it was a good chance to try and get some replacements.

The Illuminations Start

Spectacular

All singing and dancing

Explosive!

So fantastic

My Favourite photograph of the Illuminations

Again, even though I knew what was coming, it was out of this world. Fountains, flames, fireworks, music and animation all perfectly done and simply magical.

Sparkles!

Fountains, Fire, Fireworks and more…

Whoooosh!

Finale

Once the illuminations were over there was a smaller version featuring the Halloween Song from The Nightmare before Christmas with lots of evil characters displayed over the castle. The song was so catchy I found myself still singing it several hours later.

Halloween Illuminations

We went on a couple of rides before getting a good spot for the second parade, which although the same as the first, we sat on the opposite side so we could see the other half of the floats.

Gideon and Kronk

Governor Ratcliffe

Happy Hyena

A Cornucopia

Voodoo Dolly

Evil personified

Jafar

Gaston

The night was getting colder and both of us were flagging a little. But the parade certainly got us warm as we danced on the spot to the catchy music.

Marching Band and Stilt Men

Pumpkins!

Evil Witch

Spooktacular

Dragon Disney Style

Another one who jumped out at me!

Hades

Scar

Ursula

Flotsam… or maybe Jetsam

Bubbletastic

We decided to head over to check out Dr Facilier’s Voodoo Party in Frontierland.

Well, we were totally surprised by what we saw! A fully fledged rave style outdoors disco, with a huge soundstage, lights, lasers and all the latest music. There was even a couple of bars where alcohol could be purchased. It was very surreal to see zombies, princesses. Cheshire cats, witches and more getting their groove on!

Boo and I looked at each other and hastily made our retreat. Too old, too cold and totally not our scene at all.

We had a wander into a few shops so I could look for Trading Pins and then made our way to the area where you could queue for photographs with the stars of Disney. Sadly it was too cold and we were starting to feel it. We did get some sneaky photos though!

Jack – The Nightmare Before Christmas

Stitch

Mickey Mouse!

Chip and Dale

By now it was past midnight and we were really shattered. Our final act of the night was to head to Discoveryland where we were led to believe we could purchase the coolest container; a poisoned apple filled with popcorn. Alas, we walked around for thirty minutes or so and everywhere we went, they were sold out. Gutted!

We made the decision to head back to the bus for the 10 minute ride home, after all Paris beckoned later that day……