Queen Ursula

Are you a Princess? Are you a Pirate?

Be prepared to make that choice a lot during the Spring season at Disneyland Paris this year!

Festival of Pirates and Princesses runs from 31st March until the 31st May 2018. I was lucky enough to experience the opening weekend of this lively new season so thought I’d give you all a run down of my thoughts!

Let’s run through a day in the Pirate and Princess schedule …

So, What’s new?

• The Pirates vs Princess Parade/Show “Disney Pirate or Princess – Make your choice” which runs 4 times per day.
• The Princess Promenade with Elena of Avalor and Sophia the First which runs 4 times per day.
• Hoist the flag Mateys with Captain Jack Sparrow which runs 6 times per day.

The not so new …

• Mickey presents – Happy Anniversary Disneyland Paris which runs twice a day
• Meet and Greets with characters throughout the Park and various locations
• Disney Stars on Parade which runs daily at 5pm and
• Disney Illuminations Which is at park closing daily.

Positives

• The Spring Season is back with gusto at Disneyland Paris!! A fully interactive day packed full of fun, colour, music and entertainment is what you can expect from this season if you are attending . The atmosphere throughout the park when so many shows are happening during the day is electric, with the entire parade route being used as well as the castle stage and the hub – there is always something to see.
• ‘Disney Pirate or Princess – Make your choice’ – WHAT A SHOW! This parade has everything you could want from a Disney show; Beautiful colourful floats, Princesses, Pirates, Mermaid Ariel 💜, dance routines, live singing, acrobatics, audience interaction, amazing costumes, Prince Mickey, Pirate Minnie … it is AMAZING. There are three key places to watch this parade. Each team stop and perform a brief show on the way into the Hub, the team heading down from Small World stop at the castle stage and the team heading up from Town Square stop on Main Street. The team in each location alternates each show. The floats then head into the hub where the teams then do dance routines on the stages. Please be aware, whilst the centre of the hub is an amazing viewpoint for all the stages, you cannot get out of the hub until the parade has moved on. This show/parade was by far my highlight of the season, I could easily watch all 4 shows every day and see something different each time.
• The Princess Promenade is cute, it confuses me slightly why they are not included in the parade as Jake the pirate has been incorporated into the pirates section of the show, but their dance through the park is well received and the younger children seemed to really enjoy seeing them out as they are rarer characters that are aimed at the younger audience.
• I personally loved that despite having so many shows throughout the day in the theme of the season, they have still kept 2 showings of the Happy Anniversary show. I love this show on the castle stage and even though I’ve seen it many time I still watched it this trip because I love it!
• Seasonal treats have been released, one of my friends sampled the Princess cupcake and said it was delicious, there is also a Pirates version. Other seasonal releases include the Cinderella carriage popcorn bucket, a Princess candy apple and Princess vs Pirate ice cream cones! I do love themed treats!

Negatives

• Hoist the flags mateys … well, I’m not sure if it was opening weekend teething issues but what a shambles. There is limited access for viewing each show and frankly what you do see isn’t worth the bun fight to get a spot in my opinion. However, this was my only disappointment of the season.

In summary …

I went into this season expecting to hate it because it was replacing my beloved Swing into Spring, but was pleasantly surprised how much I actually loved it.

For me, Pirates and Princesses is taking Spring back to where it was a few years ago in DLP, a vibrant engaging season which keeps you entertained throughout the park all day long.

Bravo to the wonderful entertainment team who make these shows so high energy and engaging. It’s impossible to cast compliment the entire show/parade crew and performers but they are the guys that provide the magic of bringing the season to life.

Keep up the good work DLP, if the Marvel Summer Of Super Heroes is a patch on this season then we have lots of magic to look forward to!

Much Love

Alyssa xx