Within the theme park community there are many types of fan. Some enthusiasts care solely about the rides, some just soak up the atmosphere and then there are those that just live for everything from food to fireworks. I fall very firmly in to the last category, but I've always had an extra affinity for entertainment. Outside of theme parks, my main love in life is theatre so I leap at any opportunity to combine the two!
When I was finally able to return to Disneyland Paris in September, being back in my second home was magical, but you could really feel the absence of the park's entertainment. They tried to fill the void with individual parade floats appearing spontaneously throughout the day and many characters available for socially-distanced selfies, but it definitely wasn't the same. Happily, as social-distancing rules have relaxed the resort has been able to restate it's entertainment - and boy is it back with a bang!
Mickey's Dazzling Christmas Parade
I can't begin to talk about the entertainment currently available at Disneyland Paris without starting with the brand new Mickey's Dazzling Christmas Parade! DLP has a parade again - and it's a night parade! Whispers about this show have been floating around in the DLP fan community for years and finally 2021 is the year to experience it!
So, setting the hype aside, I'm just going to go straight in and say something extremely controversial: I didn't like this parade that much during daytime. There. I said it.
Whilst I was never a huge fan of the floats used in Disney's Christmas Parade (those neon colours were just too much IMO) bandleader Goofy and the incredible 'Christmas is Here' song meant it still had a huge place in my heart. In daytime, I didn't quite feel the same for MDCP. The floats are nothing short of incredible; colourful, festive and character-laden, they're everything you could want them to be. However I didn't find myself enjoying the song as much - hopefully it'll grow on me - and with the dancers wearing only two different costumes I also missed each float having it's own themed section of the parade. However, the show does get all of the points for utilizing the Central Plaza stages. Standing in the centre of the plaza surrounded by dancing characters will never not be super fun!
HOWEVER, at night Mickey's Dazzling Christmas becomes something else entirely. A truly dazzling, magical spectacle so beautiful it made me cry three times throughout the performance (I know, I know). The use of light on every float is magnificent! I also loved the addition of a projector on Santa's float, briefly bringing Main Street to life with snowflakes!
Even the lack of variety in costumes made so much more sense when they light up like this!
The show features two different show stops (Central Plaza and Town Square) and with only one opportunity to catch the night-time performance we chose to get a spot near the Christmas tree in Town Square. From here we got to see the truly gorgeous moment that Santa lights the tree, in sync with all the Main Street garlands! I highly recommend getting a spot early if you wanted a good view for this however. We were 40 minutes early for the start of the parade, meaning by the time the parade arrived in Town Square we'd been waiting around an hour - and we still didn't get a clear view of the tree!
You can just about see some of the projections cast from Santa's float here.
At night, Mickey's Dazzling Christmas Parade was that special sort of magic that separates Disney from the competition. Whilst the Walt Disney Company as a whole don't even try to hide their cost cutting anymore, it's reassuring to see that occasionally the 'Disney Difference' is still alive and well.
Rhythms of the Pride Lands
Speaking of the 'Disney Difference', I'm going to begin talking about Rhythms of the Pride Lands by dropping a few mad facts taken from the announcement of the show's 2021 return:
Frontierland Theatre is the 4th theatre in the world to be equipped with a 360-degree audio system, equivalent to three times the audio system of an Imax theatre
The show is performed on the largest stage ever built at Disneyland Paris (40m wide)
The show is performed by a cast of 30 singers, dancers, acrobats and percussionists
Safe to say, I've never seen anything even close to this scale at a theme park before. The cast's talent never fails to leave me in awe, with live performances of some of the best songs in the Disney canon alongside ridiculous acrobatics. The show also gets all of the bonus points for including (some of my absolute favourite songs) Shadowland and He Lives in You. After over a year of the creative sector in the UK being told that their skills 'aren't viable', I just found this show incredibly moving and a testament to the value of the arts. I know this is yet another extremely controversial statement, but I actually prefer this to the West End show. Don't @ me.
With the show's return, Disneyland Paris launched a paid option allowing you to pay around £13-14 to guarantee admission in to your chosen performance. With queues of up to 2 hours after the show's initial launch in summer 2019, I fully expected us to have to - unwillingly - utilize this on our visit. Thankfully due to the vast theatre, we were able to join the queue just 25 minutes before the show and get a seat. As you can see from the photo above, it wasn't a perfect spot but we were still able to see everything with no issue. The staff do have a 'Show Full' sign they will hold up when the queue is full, so if you don't see that when you arrive then you're guaranteed to get in to the next showing! The show also offers Mastercard reserved seats which offer a fantastic view, but these do go extremely quickly. If you want to take advantage of these, you need to be waiting outside of the gates of Disneyland Park before they open at 08:00 for Extra Magic Time. Then, head immediately to City Hall armed with both your Mastercard and some photo ID. If you don't have access to Extra Magic Time, I'm afraid these just won't be an option.
Disney Junior: Dream Factory
I'm sure it won't be too much of a surprise to anyone that Dream Factory was my first-ever experience of a 'Disney Junior Live' show. Prior to this, Vampirina, Fancy Nancy and The Lion Guard were nothing more than sections of ShopDisney to be quickly scrolled past as far as I was concerned. However, when the park first announced this show with some ridiculously cool concept art I knew I'd have to watch.
Somehow, the Imagineers actually managed to make the real thing even more magical than the concept art! On walking in to the theatre, I gasped on seeing the beautifully lit, steam-punk style stage and was very happy spending the time before the show examining all the details - and looking for hidden Mickeys!
One thing I wasn't expecting however, was just how much I'd enjoy the show itself. The cast, without exception, were fantastic and the story worked surprisingly well. Each Disney Junior cameo came with it's own fun musical number, Vampirina even got smoke bubbles!
Again, this was another show at Disneyland Paris where the production values were sky-high and I left really wanting to return for another performance, something I definitely never expected from a Disney Junior show!
Animation Celebration - Frozen: A Musical Invitation
Oh Frozen. A Musical Invitation was another show launched back in 2019. However, unlike Rhythms of the Pride Lands, I'd not seen this before my November trip. The reason for this being the consistently long queue for every single performance. With a much smaller theatre size than most other shows, and one of the most popular IPs Disney has ever produced, you need to be prepared to wait. I arrived 50 minutes before the performance (on a Monday!) and once I passed through the admission turnstile, there were only 10 spots remaining. However, if you do persevere the show itself is utterly charming.
The show is split between two rooms, one being Kristoff's home complete with a fantastic Sven (puppet? I think?) who is undoubtedly the star of the show! The second theatre is, of course, Elsa's ice palace. Both are really high quality stages and fully deserving of the Frozen brand. Of course, we are treated to performances of all of the most popular songs from Frozen as well as getting to learn some of the dance moves!
The only issue I experienced with A Musical Invitation was guest flow. Understandably, after waiting a long time in the freezing cold, people were keen to make sure they and their children had a prime spot. This led to a lot of pushing and jostling when moving in to each room. I also wish there were a way to still access the animation museum without having to wait for the show! Even trying to look at the exhibits prior to the show, I was reprimanded and told move away. It just feels so wasteful to have such wonderful things - including the multi-plane camera - on display but allow no one to enjoy them.
In the past few years, the Disneyland Paris entertainment team have been moving from strength to strength and it's fantastic to see that even through the pandemic, yet more fantastic shows have been in production. Whilst the resort falls short in some respects (looking at you food and beverage), entertainment just keeps on knocking it out of the park.
Speak again soon!
Claire
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