TRAVEL: Disney's mostly ghostly

GLOWING eyes stare out from an abandoned manor, chilling howls echo across the dusty track and if you look carefully you'll see a ghostly shadow flit by.

Walk around the lake and you may see a witch hovering on a balcony too.

This isn't a horror filmset, but Disney. The very wizards of fantasy themselves, have turned their Paris theme park into a spooky Halloween wonderland for the entire month.

And when Disney do something it's never in half measures.

Merlin the magician is on hand to teach children magic tricks at daily shows and face-painters turn your little treasures into spooks.

A host of evil-looking Disney villains, like Cruella and Frollo, try and take over the park from Minnie and Mickey.

Two of its four "lands", Frontierland and Fantasyland, have been turned into Halloweenland with pumpkins, scarecrows, and witches perched on ledges and rooftops.

A spooky phantom manor has been swathed in bandages and transformed into a "Mummy", with glowing eyes peering out from the windows.

The wonderful seductive charm of Disney is that it persuades you to forget you're adult and, for a few days, re-see the world through the eyes of a child.

As soon as you walk up its Main Street, past the toy-town perfect rows of shops, restaurants and horse-drawn trams, it starts to cast its spell over you.

You either go with it or fight it but the four adults there to "accompany" the two children in our party were soon hooked.

Walk through the pink-turreted Sleeping Beauty castle, past its square trees and the fairytale begins. First was the Snow White ride where we "oohed and aahed" at Dopey, Grumpy and Co as we were trammed through the forest.

Most magical of all is It's A Small World, where a railway weaves through the world where dozens of "little people" from around the globe dance and sing the theme tune.

Fight it as you might I bet you'll be singing or humming: It's A Small Small World, by the time you get off... and still will be on Eurostar's Disney direct train back to London.

Fantasyland is packed with colourful rides for children, but if you're a thrill junkie, head for Space Mountain in Discoveryland next door.

There you're strapped in and "fired" into the dark for a stomach- churning ride.

If that isn't bad enough, over in the jungle in Adventureland you can ride Indiana Jones: Backwards - basically a rollercoaster which hauls you round a deserted archaeological site in reverse so you can't see which way you're going to be twisted next until you find your already upside down.

Our firm favourite was Big Thunder Mountain in the Wild West's Frontier- land where the runaway train whizzes round a great sandstone mountain, through tunnels into a gold mine and eventually out under small waterfall.

As always with Disney there are great special effects shows too like Honey, I Shrank The Audience, where the audience is reduced to just a few inches high.

I won't spoil it by telling you how- but watch out for the snake which leaps out at you.

Last March Walt Disney Studios Park opened alongside the original Disney park.

There the Rock and Rollercoaster - the fastest at any Disney park - reaches 100km an hour in just 2.8 seconds. Definitely one to go on before the icecream. Disco lights flash and a specially recorded Aerosmith song - Love on A Roller Coaster - blasts out.

Another on the not-to-be-missed list, is the spectacular Studio Tram Tour where you witness a massive explosion using the latest special effects.

Your tram judders to a halt, a van on set catches fire causing a huge fireball to explode besides you before a dam high above appears to burst flooding tons of water - 265,000 litres to be precise we're told - on to the set amid gasps from the audience.

It's all great fun and if you're not exhausted by nightfall there are plenty of bars and shows in Disney Village.

When Disney opened just outside Paris there were plenty of critics, people were sure the concept couldn't cross the Atlantic.

But 10 years on it's thriving. It's a slick operation right down to the very last detail.

The food's much cheaper than it was, and there are plenty of package deals to one of the seven hotels.

Even 80 per cent of rides are now under cover to cater for the North European weather.

And Eurostar's new direct daily service means your train pulls up at the gates of the park - just three hours after leaving Waterloo.

It's not just a summer holiday event - Christmas at Disney is now a major attraction.

From the second week of November the whole park become a winter wonderland...even a white Christmas comes with a Disney guarantee.

Snow falls five times a day over the park for the entire two months!

FACT FILE-

DISNEY Classic Package starts from pounds 255 per adult, and pounds 125 a child which includes two nights bed and breakfast at the Santa Fe Hotel, three-day passes to both Disneyland park and Walt Disney studios, and travel on the direct Eurostar. The price is based on two adults and two children (aged 3-11) sharing a family room. For more information call 08705 030303 or visit www.disneylandparis.com

-EUROSTAR have recently started a direct daily service to Disneyland Resort, Paris, which pulls up right outside the park and is being extended through winter. It takes three hours from Waterloo, or two hours from Ashford, Kent. For more information call 08705 180186.

Copyright 2002 MGN LTD
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