29 August 2013

MY FAVOURITE LOOKS FROM THE VMAs





The VMAs happening a couple of nights ago now and I wanted to share some of my favourite looks award shows red carpet!

Taylor Swift looked amazing in this navy blue Hervé Léger dress. It fitted her perfectly and I loved the jeweled embellishment as I think it really added something to this dress.  
My favourite look of the night was this Brian Atwood dress worn by Ellie Goulding. I really like Ellie Goulding's style and she is probably my favourite artist and I just thought the dress looked just awesome! You can't really tell from the photograph but the whole of the dress was actually covered in hundreds of spikes!
My favourite part about this outfit worn by Shailene Woodley has to be the skirt. The pattern for this skirt, by Emilio Pucci, looks beautiful and it looks so intricate. I think it looks great with such a basic top as well because all the attention is kept on the fantastic skirt.
Finally, Allison Williams wore this amazingly detailed gown by Valentino. I would say it was definitely my second favourite look of the night and I love everything about this dress. I also love the up-do as it shows off the detail of the dress so well. The back is equally as pretty with the design continuing all the way around.

What were your favoruite looks from the awards?

*Photos via The Huffington Post

22 August 2013

WALT DISNEY STUDIOS - DISNEYLAND PARIS







The other park at Disneyland Paris is the Walt Disney Studios which contains rides as well as shows.

In terms of rides this park has it's fair share! There are some really good thrill rides such as; The Tower of Terror, Crush's Coaster and the Rock 'n' Rollercoaster. Adding to this there are also some calmer attractions such as the Slinky Dog Ride and also the Hollywood Backlot Tour. If rides aren't what you were looking for, then I'd recommend going to see the shows that they have. They are a nice break from rides and also a chance to sit down and relax for a bit. There are around 5 shows in this park; CinéMagique, Animagique, Playhouse Disney Live, Sitck Live and Moteurs...Action! Stunt Show Spectacular. The Moteurs...Action! show is around 45 minutes long and is very entertaining! This is the only show outside and it is very well put together. The idea behind it is that they show you how they make an action movie with motor vehicles. It's definitely worth a watch! This park itself is a lot more unstructured compared to the main one, in terms of layout, as the only clear area (such as Fantastyland or Adventuredland) is the Toy Story Playland.

As mentioned in my previous post, (which you can find here) fast passes are also available in this park. Two of the biggest rides in the park offer them, Rock 'N' Rollercoaster and The Hollywood Tower of Terror, as well as Aladdins Flying Carpet Ride. The other big thrill in this park Crush's Coaster, which I would highly recommend going on, actually doesn't have a fast pass. This a brilliant ride and is also extremely popular so the queue for this is quite long, but if you don't mind the queues it is worth a go.

I've got a couple more tips following on from my last post, so I hope they are helpful!
Fast Passes. Like the main park, this ride does have fast passes so I would again highly recommend using them! All attractions with fast passes available are clearly labelled on the map.
Single Riders. Unlike in the main park, two of the rides here actually have a single riders queue as well as the standard queue. The rides that have this are both located in the Toy Story Playland and are the RC Racer and the Parachute Drop. Single riding means you aren't guaranteed to be on the same ride as the person you are with, but it does mean that your waiting time can be significantly reduced. For instance when we went to go on the Parachute Drop the main queue was 70 minutes whilst the singles riders were only 20. So if you don't mind being separated on a ride then it's definitely something to consider doing.
Arriving Early. As I mentioned earlier the Crush Coaster is one of the most popular rides in the park, but but it doesn't actually have a fast pass to it. As a result of this I would really recommend getting to the park before opening and joining the queue for this ride. When we arrived around 9:50 and joined the queue, there was already a 60 minutes wait on the board. If you arrived earlier there is a good chance that the wait will be a lot less! What you can do is if you are with someone then they could go and get a fast pass for another ride such as Tower of Terror so that you don't have to have two longs waits in one day.
Busy times and eating. This really applies for both parks. The busiest times in the restaurants are generally around 12/1pm when people are looking to eat. This is a good time to go and queue for some of the busier rides as there will be increased number of people at lunch. This is also similar for shows so it's worth checking out parade and show times to see when it may be less busy on the rides.

I really hope these posts were useful and that my tips help you if you are planning to visit. I would highly recommend Disneyland Paris (both parks and the village) and I would love to go again soon!!

Thanks for reading!

21 August 2013

A DAY IN PARIS






If you haven't seen it already you can check out my 1st post on my time in Paris/Disneyland here!
On Wednesday we spent the day having a walk around the city and taking in some of the city's more famous sites. We started our day from the station right next to the Disney Village and hopped on a double decker train! We purchased tickets which allowed unlimited travel throughout the zones and was, I think, a reasonable 14euros for the day. Our first stop was to Bir Hakeim - a station very close to the Eiffel Tower. Our original plan was to head up to the very top of the Eiffel Tower but due to delays and major queues, we instead turned our day into seeing how many of the famous sites in Paris we could do! After we had walked around the Eiffel Tower site and explored that area a bit we then headed off in search of the Arc de Triomphe. The map we were using caused us a few problems but we eventually found it and it is seriously impressive and the roundabout was a lot less busy than I thought it would be! We then took a stroll all the way down the Champs-ÉlyséesI actually went into my first Sephora whilst there, but didn't actually buy anything!

When we reached the end, we made our way to the gardens near the Louvre. We had a fresh baguette for lunch before going to see the Louvre itself. The surrounding building of the Louvre was completely unexpected as we both thought that it was all out in the open and neither of us expected the glass triangle to be surrounded on 3 sides. The buildings are amazing and it's definitely a lovely place to look around, especially the gardens. We then looked on the map to find the next place we should visit which was Notre Dame. Along the way we stumbled across the Lover's Bridge, with all the padlocks placed on it, which was something I'd originally wanted to see but didn't have a clue where it was! I was very happy to have seen it in person as it's amazing just the sheer amount of locks that are on it. Once we had reached Notre Dame we sat outside in the sun for a bit before taking a look around inside.

And that was it! We did A LOT of walking that day and I really enjoyed seeing a lot of sites along the way. Paris is a great city to take a walk around and explore. One of the key things we learnt from the day was that you definitely need a couple of days to see Paris properly. We got to the Eiffel Tower only 30 minutes after it had opened and the queue was very long, so I would suggest if you want to do any of the main sites to get there before opening times. So perhaps one day get up early to do the Eiffel Tower and then another early morning start to see the Louvre. I had a lovely day and loved taking in all the sites.

Thanks very much for reading!

20 August 2013

DISNEYLAND PARIS

Last week I visited Disneyland/Paris for the week and wanted to share some of the photos of my time there! I loved Disneyland Paris and I had an amazing time. In comparison to the Florida Disneyland World Resort (which I have been also lucky to visit a couple of times) it is a bit smaller and some of the rides aren't in this park (such as Splash Mountain) but it's just as amazing and I have a serious case of Disney blues now that I'm back. Be warned as this is a bit of a photo heavy post and quite long!









I've only selected a few photos from the time I spent at Disney as I took A LOT whilst I way there. This post is about the Disneyland Park as I have another going up later in the week all about the Walt Disney Studios. I stayed at a Disneyland Hotel - Santa Fe and I would actually really recommend it. I personally thought the room was large enough (it had two double sized beds) and it was a perfect base when you're spending long hours in the park. There are regular shuttles that run to and from the park but as the hotel was only around a 10 minute walk away, along the river and through the Disney Village, we never used them. As well as recommending our hotel I would also recommend the Disney Dreams show at park closing time (a live projection show that projects on the castle). It really is amazing and definitely something to stick around for. I don't know when this will run to however, as it is part of the parks 20th Anniversary celebrations.

Here are the first of some of my tips if you're plan to/are visiting Disneyland Paris:
Early Opening Hours. If you're staying in a Disneyland hotel make the most of the magic opening hours you get, which mean you can enter specific areas of the Disneyland main park 2 hours before the general public are let in. Although only a select few rides are open at 8am some of them are main attractions such as Space Mountain and Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast are opened early. I'd really recommend making the most of these two extra hours especially for the bigger rides like Space Mountain where queues build quickly!
Fast Passes. They are free so use them, they are brilliant! You can only hold one ride fast pass at a time but it means that the time you wait in line is significantly reduced if not cut all together. Fast Passes are only available for some of the more popular attractions but they are all clearly indicated on the map of the parks.
Book a reservation. If you know where you want to eat then book a reservation. Restaurants book up quickly especially around peak times such as around 6pm, an hour before the main parade is set to begin, so to guarantee yourself a table booking a reservation is always a good idea. You can make a reservation to any restaurant from your hotels reception.
Early breakfast. If you can stand getting up early then do it! The first breakfast is at 7am and we always went for this. There aren't a huge number of people in there meaning you have the chance to wake up before heading for a day in the parks and it means you can make a full use of your day.
Half Board. At the time we booked we received free half board meal vouchers, as Disneyland Paris are (at the time this post is published) celebrating their 20th Anniversary. The half board tickets were brilliant and although there were limited to around 10 restaurants across the parks and villages they were great value. We had no problem with any of the food and were amazed at the value the standard meal vouchers had, so half board is definitely something I would consider doing again if I go back.
Plan your route. Tackle the big attractions you want to do first and then head to the smaller rides after. It's often recommended to head in an anti-clockwise direction first (starting in Discoveryland) as Frontierland (first in a clockwise direction) has Big Thunder Mountain which is one of the most popular rides in the park.
Deceptive lengths of queues. Some rides look like they have a large queue but due to the nature of the ride it goes incredibly quickly so it's worth sticking around for and not walking away early. Rides like Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast have a continuous stream of carriages so the queues will go a lot quicker than you expect. 

The second part of my Disney adventures will be going up later in the week and I also have another post coming up about my day in Paris. I hope you enjoyed this post and thanks for reading!