Friday, October 20, 2006

Disneyland Paris


When Puan Mama Sarah and yours truly were planning our trip to Paris, we had not decided whether to bring the children to Disneyland, or not. Having arrived in Paris, and having visited most of the important sights we wanted to, we decided to complete our visit by also going to Disneyland. Furthermore, it'd be a huge treat for the kids.


We woke up early for the trip and thank goodness getting to Disneyland from Gare du Nord was not that difficult at all. It involved only a single change, and the rest of the trip was a breeze. Disneyland is literally infront of the last station.

Now, this is not my first time to Paris, or Disneyland, but it is the rest of the family's. The last time I went, it was definitely a blast and I wished to share that feeling with everyone else too.

Seriously, I didn't know who was more excited - the children, or the so called grown-ups. Decide for yourself by comparing Amar's and PMS' expression in the picture above. It was slightly unfortunately, however, that the weather was bland and it even rained - so I was too scared to use my camera ... much. Having said so, I still managed to capture around 500 photos - and looking at the photos just now, I wish I had taken much more!

Going to Disneyland in any other month is special enough, but going in October this year is even MORE special, due to a Haloween festivities special. The whole of Disneyland was re-decorated with a Haloween theme, and it looked beautiful and fun.

At certain scheduled intervals throughout the day, there would be events - singing, dancing and performances - such as pictured in the photo above. At that time, a big haloween pumpkin was being towed around, and many people dressed in pumpkin heads, witches and fairies were singing "It's Haloween" which added even more excitement to the already euphoric atmosphere. Predictably though, Sarah was scared stiff of the monstrosities and didn't want to get any closer than 100 metres to any of the performances.

Disneyland is divided into 5 zones - Fantasy land, Frontier land, Space Land, Adventure Land, and the Town Centre. Above is a picture of Frontier Land, specially modified for Haloween. The theme was of these pumpkin heads seeming to invade the Land causing all kinds of havoc. Statues of the pumpkin heads could be seen literally everywhere, as if in the middle of painting the Land orange for haloween.

Even the structures look slightly scary, so you could forgive that Sarah was completely scared! Imagine Sarah frozen in fear as a tall pumpkin head on stilts was passing by us.

Some of the children were dressed as in a haloween party. There were even staff all around for face-painting and hair-styling as you could see. Many children were dressed as witches and fairies.

This is the obligatory shot of the family in front of Cinderella's Castle (also the entrance to Fantasy Land). It was such a pity that I didn't have my tripod yet at that time as I was unable to include a picture of myself. Seriously, if I did have a tripod there would be many pictures of us as a family as well as lots of nightshots all around Paris.

It is a merchandise-shopping heaven in Disneyland. The streets are absolutely littered with shops and tiny stalls that sell everything Disney. We couldn't help but indulge...

At regular intervals, famous characters from Disney's classic fables appear on the streets to meet the children, very much to Sarah's delight of seeing characters she loves so much from her DVDs.

What was excellent was these characters happily posed for us taking photos, and gladly entertained the kids and signed autographs. Sarah managed to meet the witches from Snow white and Sleeping Beauty, tiger, mickey mouse, pluto and various others I don't care to name. To put it mildly, she was supremely thrilled.

Admission to Disneyland is around 45 Euros for each adults and our underage kids were admitted completely free of charge *big smile*. 95% of the rides inside of Disneyland is then free for all. The only thing is, there are always long queues for these rides ranging from 10 minutes to an hour. (Imagine waiting in queue with an impatient child for an hour!)

The one ride Sarah arguably enjoyed the most was the flying Dumbo. God darn it, I was scared stiff while Sarah was letting out squeals of excitement as our Dumbo was flying to the apex of the ride.

For Amar there was a relatively gentler ride - the Mad hatter's Tea Cup Ride :) In this ride we rode in over-sized teacups and the cups would gently spin round and round the track. The speed of the spin depended on how fast we could spin a metal plate that Sarah is seen holding in the picture above.

I sabotaged the ride by spinning the wheel as fast as I could, thank goodness Amar did not vomit! I took the opportunity to take panning and motion shots, hahaha. Hopefully it'd give viewers a sense of speed.





*ehem* sorry for the overdose of the Cup pictures. Now let's move on ...

Another ride that I enjoyed with Sarah was this boat ride around a large-ish lake around Frontier Land. Remember, most of the rides were free, including this one.

Sarah was treated with icecream ...

... after icecream ...

... after icecream ... and look at the expression of her finishing her treat! I've never seen her that enthusiastic, and that was after finishing a portion of chips. (We decided to let her, for the first time, drink coke - so that she'd have energy to last till the end of the day).

... while Amar settled on just Mickey Mouse shaped lollipops.

Now this is my absolute favourite of the whole series of an expert glass blower making a glass rose, as in the movie Beauty and the Beast. It was absolutely fascinating watching him delicately shaping the hot molten glass into beautiful shapes - ultimately forming the glass rose you could see on the left. The orange and blue fire also looks good in photos I opine.

We ended our visit at 6p.m. that day and Sarah and Amar seemed to have spent every ounce of their energy. They were sleeping soundly most of the train-journey back. Sarah was exulted from the all the rides, and not to mention all her new toys.

We had a great time.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

fast tip, in difficult situation, go for manual focussing if need the sharpness. some photographers just prefer manual focussing. if your vision is not that good, get a magnified viewfinder acessory.

harga lens tu tak de di canon malaysia page.

number of shots? depends on days of outing when you just got the baby. as for my 12 days in pakistan last year it was close to 3000 shots.

my wild guss will be close to 2000.

a mixture of family style composition and creative compositions.

good luck and selamat hari raya.

Anonymous said...

haha, my blog counter has reached 20000, and i think the who's the 20000th reader is you, ifos (i think). if you think it is you, i was planning to send a present to the 20000th reader. send me your address at mynn.zero@gmail.com and i'll post you the present as soon as i have time.

however, if you dont think it's you ifos, care to suggest who? (the tracker says volgograd).

ikelah
selamat hari raya to you too, and as usual, always appreciate your tips. infact i always try and remember your tips & tricks in my day-to-day shooting.

re: the lens, my friend says it's the same - around 700 pounds. i think i'll spend a year saving for that money and if i'm good, i'll get it next year for my birthday.

and also - you're almost right about the number of shots, it was close to 3000.

Anonymous said...

ps ikelah
i completely forgot my glasses when i went to paris. my eyes are not that bad, only 0.5 diopters off, and thank goodness i could still see during the day.

the camera has a diopter correction thing right but like you imply, it's difficult to use the viewfinder with glasses on.

pps
ikelah, do you use a flashgun?

Anonymous said...

Waaayyyyy cooooolllll!!!

dith said...

Hey dont I get anything? :p

Yes you are right. I think from your exuberant writing and Nisak's elated face,the adults enjoyed the disney trip more than the kids. Just look at poor Amar! Poor kid, he was only given a mickey lollipop!

Didnt you try any of the killer roller coaster??

Anonymous said...

mynn,
1) *dgn nada jeles* eleeeh.. the dumbo & teacup ride kat expo penang pun adalah...
2) gosh, luasnya saghah nganga!
3) erk! that pic of the witch reminds me of your 'nyang' entry!!!

Ann always said...

hey i was there in sept. but daddy tak ambik byk gambar sebab hujan.....

Anonymous said...

Bestnye pergi mase tgh halloween. Plan ke tak? Ye the mama and the babah yang enjoy ye hehehe tidak mengapa, dimaafkan :) The witch tu spooky la and her nose buruk tahap dewa.

Sarah syioknya makan aiskrim, hai ni nampak dek aunty wan ni habis la hahaha

I tergelak la tgk gambar dumbo tu. Teringat mase I pergi, I insist sgt2 nak jugak naik dumbo (I was 21 then). I paksa jugak my friend beratur dgn I, tapi malunya lah sebab semuanya budak2 (separuh tinggi i je) yang tgh beratur. But I tak kisah. I had to thicken my skin la, otherwise tak dapat naik dumbo! So yeah, after almost half an hour waiting, we finally dapat naik si dumbo the elephant! My friend bengang je mase naik tu hahaha.

Anonymous said...

Lupe pulak tujuan utama nak tinggal comment ni, nak wish you and kak nisak selamat hari raya aidilfitri, maaf zahir dan batin. Halalkan makan minum, belanja (u all selalu belanja i ngan wan kan? syiok! :D )Enjoy raya and enjoy makan cadbury's celebration after eid prayer. Eid mubarak.

Anonymous said...

erm..tak penah sampai sini pon lagi! duh eh tak sejuk ker?

Anonymous said...

feels like a second disneyland trip is coming up! hehe..

p/s: point taken - tripod needed!

Anonymous said...

assalammualaikum all, sorry for this late reply but as of this point, i am still tired from the travels & currently sleeping at odd hours:T

anyway...

dyanna
hehehe. pernah pegi disneyland? second trip tak lah se-interesting the first trip. however, that's probably because i didnt queue up for the most adventurous rides. ps: I'm dead scared of roller coasters.

dith
if anyone deserves a present for visiting & commenting on my blog DITH, you're that one person. i think you're the most frequent visitor & commenter! so, if you want to claim your present, email me your address at: mynn.zero@gmail.com. it may take me a while to post it, but i'll alert you when i've sent it. postage normally takes 5-10 days from the UK to reach msia.

naja
tergelak baca you naik dumbo! i at least ada alasan naik dengan sarah (although she's not seen in the picture). also naja, our trip was very carefully planned. Like pycno & nnydd, we read one of those Paris Travel Guide (made by AA - EXCELLENT guide, fully recommended) and before we reached paris, we already know which places we wanted to visit:)

and .. selamat hari raya and maaf zahir dan batin to you too Naja, pity we couldnt visit you this year!:(

lana alesha
hey welcome to the blog:) wow, from switzerland. i love reading blogs of (malaysian) people in different countries especially as it would give me insights to what living in those countries would be like.

anne
1. regarding the dumbo ride ada kat penang, you are absolutely right. one does not have to waste money travelling that far just for a dumbo ride!

2. that picture of sarah nganga is one of my favourites:)

3. you're absolutely right about the nyang picture. i didnt realise until you mentioned it.
ps. sarah still talks about her "nyang" occasionally.

Arep
:) i think for you, i recommend going to disneyland - you have a fun group of friends & i bet you guys would enjoy it. and ... tak sejuk, not as sejuk as here in coventry.

don't miss the dumbo ride (joking.:p)

rosli
see why i need a tripod? takde pun my picture in the series :(:(:( i counted how many pictures of me in the almost 3000 pictures we took and there were only around 5 pictures with me in them :(

Anonymous said...

Takde picture sendiri?? apa lagi..sendiri amik la..letak kat 'P' sbb takleh nak judge kot view finder, use the widest angle of your lens, depakan tangan sejauh mungkin, halakan kamera ke muka sendiri, then focus using back focus, snap and review just histogram hehehe pastu jadik la gamba syok sendiri hahahaha

mynn said...

rosli
hahaha, ooo ambik gambar sendiri macam "ada orang tu" buat kat penarth hari tu lah ye?

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