DISNEYLAND: MICKY MOUSE'S MAGIC LAND

ABOVE: Disneyland and Mickey Mouse make a perfect Christmas holiday

ABOVE: MAGICAL: Disneyland Paris

21st November 2009

By James Cabooter

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ALREADY dreading the usual stress and quarrels of Christmas?

Then forget about the 25th for a while and soak up the festivities at Mickey and Minnie’s humble home.

Disney and Christmas go together like Chip & Dale, and this season the European Disneyland Paris resort has pulled
out all the stops to deliver its most spectacular holiday experience yet.

You’ll come over all Disney-fied the moment you board the Eurostar at Lon- don’s St Pancras station to the sound of
When You Wish Upon A Star.

Just two-and-half hours later, you’ll arrive at the sprawling Disney resort, with its seven hotels, a golf course and, most importantly, two magical theme parks – Disneyland and the adjacent movie-themed Disney Studios.

We stayed at Disney’s New York Hotel, offering grand American-style comfort surrounded by all kinds of Big Apple city and sports memorabilia.

Enjoy New York-style luminous cocktails at the hotel bar or fall flat on your face at the hotel’s outdoor ice rink, which stays open well into the night.

Then it’s time to embrace the pure escapism the parks provide and enter a world of thrilling rides, costumed characters, picturesque taverns and snow-covered stalls.

Before any cynical mum or dad has time to mutter “Bah Humbug,” Mickey guides you through to a 15ft Christmas tree in the beautiful town square.

Here, you’ll be greeted by a Goofy Santa resplendent on his sleigh and armed with giant presents.

Her indoors – Minnie Mouse – whizzes down the park’s famous Main Street USA several times a day with her musical party train.

Not to be outdone, Mickey later pulls on his ice skates for his own Winter Wonderland spectacular. That mouse can really move like Torvill & Dean!

However, skidding Donald Duck is the show’s real star, providing slapstick laughs and snowball antics.

There’s always a wonderfully sugar sweet fragrance in the air that encourages regular visits to the many popcorn and candyfloss stalls.

But it’s not all sweets, pizzas and fast food. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of tucker on offer at the resort.

There are gargantuan buffets offering an endless choice of healthy French cuisine and salads, plus half a dozen waiter service restaurants cooking up high quality meals inspired by the rides or zones they are situated in.

During the first day, we ate at Adventureland’s Blue Lagoon restaurant, which offers exotic seafood and fine Caribbean food.

In the evening, we tucked into roast meats, quality pastas, cheese and fine wines at Mickey’s Christmas buffet in Fantasyland’s exquisite Auberge de Cendrillon.

Naturally, most meals are accompanied by intermittent visits from characters like Pluto to keep both young and old entertained throughout.

Thrill-seekers are also spoilt rotten across Disneyland’s fi ve themed lands.

Indiana Jones & The Temple of Peril ride offers the biggest head rush on speeding mine cars looping the loop in Adventure-land.

Meanwhile, Discovery-land’s Space Mountain: Mission 2 rattles your brain and boggles your senses as asteroids come hurtling towards you through the darkness.

Smaller folk will love exploring colourful Fantasyland with Alice In Wonderland’s endearingly confusing garden maze.

The gentle and cutesy It’s A Small World or Peter Pan’s Sky Ride are other big hits for little people.

But the most essential Disney ride has to be Pirates Of The Caribbean, a swash-buckling trip where your boat is besieged by all-singing Animatronic treasure-seeking pirates.

Over in the movie-themed Disney Studios, you get a behind-the-scenes peek at the film-making business.

You’ll enter the Twilight Zone at the Tower Of Terror Hotel where a spooky elevator plummets hundreds of feet leaving your stomach in your mouth for some hours afterwards.

Elsewhere veteran rockers Aerosmith accelerate you from 0 to 60mph in 2.8 seconds on their Rock ’n’ Rollercoaster.

A trip to Disneyland would not be complete without the legendary street parades.

As the sun sets, the Once Upon a Christmas Dream Parade rolls through the park with giant floats depicting scenes from the Disney classics.

Highlights include the combined singing animal talents of the Jungle Book and The Lion King, plus Santa Claus appearing at the end to wish everyone a Merry Christmas.

Even more impressive is the nightly Fantillusion Parade of illuminated floats featuring a carpet flying Aladdin and fluorecent-costumed performers waltzing through the streets like giant fireflies.

This being Disney, they can even guarantee snow every night on Main Street USA with hidden snow machines pumping flakes into the sky for that extra gooey, festive feeling.

Just when you thought your retinas couldn’t take any more colour, Disney heroes (and the most enthusiastic team of all singing and dancing bilingual performers this side of High School Musical), take the new 360° Central Plaza stage for Mickey’s Magical Party show in the evening.

The highlight of this spectacular is the switching-on of the 40,000 lights on the park’s Sleeping Beauty Castle.

Of course you can take or leave as much of the show entertainment on offer as you want.

But even the grumpiest dwarf will find it hard not to fall into the magical spirit of Disney.