More Mickey

When we traveled to Disneyland Paris the first time, in May, we purchased annual passes.  The park is only three hours away, so we hoped to return a few more times during the year because the children enjoy it so much.  With winter, and freezing temps approaching quickly, we decided to book a long weekend in mid-November to spend a little more time with the beloved Mickey.

We spent Saturday through Monday at the Parks. We arrived around lunch time on Saturday and the kids were so excited to enter the Magic Kingdom.  We had hoped the cold temps and rain would keep the crowds down, but apparently half of Europe thought the same thing because it was packed!

We were greated with beautiful decorations on Main Street U.S.A, around the castle and even Small World was decorated as well. 

Did I mention the crowds?  It was a sea of people watching the parade on Saturday afternoon.

The kids had a blast riding their favorite rides again.  The tea cups...

and here we are preparing for the Buzz Lightyear ride!

Because we had already visited the park this year, we took a slower pace and enjoyed a few breaks.  We were enjoying our pain au chocolat.

And our littlest one!  He was a trooper riding in the stroller much better than he did in May.  It could have been the near freezing temps, and the warmth of his blanket that helped a bit!

He is hilarious with his hat.

We also discovered a new ride which was closed in May.  It is Le Pays des Conte de Fee - The Country of Fairy Tales.  It was a boat ride, similar to Small World.  However, it was outdoors and all along the ride were miniture replicas of scenes from fairy tales and Disney stories. 

They had a miniture Sleep Beauty Castle, which is the castle in Disneyland Paris.

They even included The Wizard of Oz, which the kids were especially excited about because they recently finished reading the story with Jason.

Finally, one of our favorite parts of this trip was enjoying the beautiful Christmas decorations light up in the evening. 

 A grand view of Main Street U.S.A.

And Sleeping Beauty's Castle. 

Our final night we watched the evening parade, which was filled with sparkling floats.  Jenna was thrilled everytime she thought a princess was waving at her!

One final look down Mainstreet with all of its holiday cheer!

And the reason I was happy to get back to Paris...

Starbucks.  Jason and I treated ourselves to the largest to-go cup they offered for the ride back to Brussels!  Now, there are quite a few coffee shops that I prefer over Starbucks in the States, but it was a treat to have a decent sized cup of take-away coffee.  Such a thing appears not to exist in Belgium, where even the largest cup of coffee you can order - even at McDonalds - is about 6 ounces!