AD – I was gifted tickets to Disneyland Paris Pride as a Brand AmbassadEAR for Fly Mickey Travel. However all opinions are my own and true to my experience at this event.

The Disneyland Paris Pride event was held on Saturday 11th June at Walt Disney Studios Park from 8pm until 2am. Guests were allowed to collect event wristbands in the afternoon and enter Walt Disney Studios if we wanted to go on some rides before the event officially started.

We took advantage of being able to do this, rocked up at 5pm and rode Cars Road Trip, Ratatouille and Slinky Dog Zig Zag Spin. We also got an early peek at some of the event merchandise, but more on that later!

When we arrived, we found out that the lip sync battle due to take place during the party had been cancelled last minute. We still don’t know why, but it wasn’t a priority for us so we didn’t feel like we missed out!

Opening Ceremony

Unfortunately we skipped the official opening ceremony because we chose to prioritise getting front row spots for the parade. Luckily we were able to watch Mickey, Minnie, Edna Mode and Natacha Rafalski open the event on a big screen. I do think there should have been more than one screen though, it was quite difficult to see from where we were waiting.

The Pride Parade

 

The Pride parade was truly something else. I have never seen so many characters in one place, never mind so many rare characters. Every time another one came out I completely lost my mind! I was not expecting a parade of this size and quality at all and I would do anything to see it again!

The parade featured all of the classic Mickey and Friends characters in new Pride themed outfits and then LOADS of characters that rarely/never appear in Paris such as Bolt, Vanellope from Wreck It Ralph, Pleakly from Lilo and Stitch, Kronk and Kuzco from The Emperors New Groove, Carl, Russell and Dug from Up, Marie from the Aristocats, Frozone and Edna from The Incredibles and SO MANY MORE.

The parade also featured loads of amazing Cast Members and Disney VoluntEARS, who were a joy to watch and their smiles were infectious.

I am so glad that we chose to sit out the opening ceremony because being front row for this was totally worth it.

Musical Performances

Becky Hill – We missed the whole of Becky’s set. She was the first performer after the parade, and we opted to go and meet some rare characters instead!

Bilal Hassani – We got to watch some of Bilal’s set while we were waiting in line for the Stitch and Friends meet and greet. I hadn’t listened to their music before the event but it was SUCH good, wholesome Eurovision vibes. I downloaded some of my favourite tracks from the night for the plane home!

MIKA – AMAZING. We missed the first few songs because we were meeting Pleakley (more on that later) but we watched a solid hour of his 1.5 hour set. What a performer! He played a mix of songs from his new album and then, of course, all the bangers like Grace Kelly, Love Today, My Happy Ending, Lollipop and We Are Golden.

Character Meet and Greets

We all know that meeting characters is my favourite thing to do at Disney. I was a bit annoyed when the programme was released as we found out that Mickey and Friends would not be meeting. I still think they should have been, but the character meet roster was still really good with plenty of rares.

In fact, there were so many characters out that we knew we would not get to meet them all so we had to prioritise.

Character #1 – Joy

The first character that we met was Joy from Inside Out! She was meeting over at Worlds of Pixar and my gosh! She was one of my favourite meets of the whole trip, never mind the party! I’ve never met a character so full of well…JOY! We had lots of fun jumping around together and taking 4584069 pictures.

She was meeting for 30 minutes at a time and swapping in and out with Frozone from The Incredibles. We would love to have met him too but we simply did not have time.

Character #2 – Stitch

There was a Stitch & Friends meet and greet located inside the Stitch Live building. Stitch was switching every 30 minutes with Pleakley (who is extremely rare to see, never mind meet!).

We joined the line really hoping to meet Pleakley but by the time we got to the front of the line, Stitch was meeting. I don’t want to say I was disappointed to meet Stitch. It was purely that he is in the Disneyland Park daily, so relative easy to meet on a normal day. However, it was one of the best meets I’ve ever had with him, he really turned it up to 100 for us. Thank you Stitch!

Character #3 – Pleakley

As we were leaving the Stitch meet, we asked the Cast Member at the door if we could possibly meet Pleakley at the end of the night if there was any time left over at the end of his set. We knew this wouldn’t be guaranteed but we thought it was worth a try. We loitered around Stitch Live for a little while to see what would happen. Thanks to faith, trust and pixie dust, we were called in as the last group to meet Pleakley just before Mika started his set!

What an icon he was, I can’t believe we had the chance to meet him. We are all so thankful to the wonderful Cast Member who let us squeeze in for a quick meet. You are the magic!

 

Merchandise

The shops and merchandise carts at Walt Disney Studios had long queues all night and for good reason! There was a really good selection of merchandise available ranging from Pride flags to mugs, t-shirts, jewellery, fans, magnets, spirit jerseys and more.

Myself (and many others) were very disappointed that there wasn’t a single Pride pin in sight. Pins are such a popular collectors item with parks fans, so I think there should have been at least a few options to choose from. Such a missed opportunity for them to make money, as they would certainly have been popular!

I ended up buying a Pride outfit for my Minnie NuiMO and I have no regrets. I got loads of cute photos of her at the party!

Overall

I had mixed expectations going into the event. I know that some other Disneyland Paris events have been a bit disorganised and chaotic in the past so I was expecting more of the same. With that being said, I had one of the best nights ever at Disneyland Paris Pride. The whole event ran super smoothly. There was so much to do and I spent it all with some of my best friends.

There were only a few things that I think could have been improved:

* More screens around the park so we could all watch the music acts and opening ceremony
* Longer character sets and be able to meet the VIP’s in their Pride outfits
* There should have been Pride pins available to buy

I am also so proud of call Disneyland Paris my home park. They are truly leading the way for the company and Parks division in terms of diversity and inclusion.

My personal highlights were the parade and meeting Joy. I will definitely be booking tickets for the 2023 Pride event as soon as they are available.

Were you at the Disneyland Paris Pride event? I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

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