Katie, Gina, and I got up pretty early to make sure we could get to the park for its opening at 10. We had to take the metro and an RER train to get all the way out there, and that all went pretty smoothly. Some guy tried to scam us when we were buying our RER tickets, but I knew better and ignored him.
When we got to Euro Disney, we were a little confused about where we needed to go to buy tickets. You see, my Disney trips are normally planned for me. However, we figured it out easy enough.
Disneyland Paris is set up kind of a lot like Disneyland in Anaheim; there are two parks right next to each other, and a Downtown Disney-esque area right outside them (I think here it's called Disney Village). There are also resorts connected to the Disney Village, and even one inside the main park.
So there's the main park, which is just like the main park in California as well as the Magic Kingdom in Florida, and then there's Disney Studios, which is just like MGM/Hollywood Studios in Florida. Even though both parks have a ton of attractions, they feel sort of small, but in a good way. They're easy to navigate and not super overwhelming. It might've also helped that neither park was really all that crowded (it was freezing cold and, for obvious reasons, there aren't a lot of tourists in Paris right now).
A 2-park ticket costs 90€, which seemed pretty standard to us. However, as I went to buy the ticket, the lady asked me if I was a student. It turns out that they offer a student discount! I only had to pay 71€ to get into both parks. That was definitely a pleasant surprise!
We started at the Studios, so that Katie could ride the Rock 'n' Roller Coaster ("avec Aerosmith") and the Tower of Terror before they got too crowded. As you probably know, I'm just a baby when it comes to rides, and Gina apparently passes out on most roller coasters. We just acted like moms and waited for Katie while she rode her "crazy" rides. We got to meet Spiderman (but never went and looked at our pictures), we got hot chocolate and muffins, and we made a game plan for the rest of the day.
After Katie had ridden both of those rides, we headed over to Aladdin's Carpets and Crush's Coaster. Crush's Coaster wasn't operating, so the three of us rode the carpets.
Crush's Coaster opened up while we were on the carpets, but by the time we got off, the wait time was already something like 110 minutes. We said "no thanks" and headed to the unbelievably adorable Ratatouille area.
Little Chef!
So I knew there was a Ratatouille area, but I had not heard that there was a Ratatouille ride!! It was pretty much just like the Spiderman and Transformers rides at Universal, but sooooooooo cute. You wear 3D glasses and sit in a little rat-mobile. The ride is half in English, half in French (as were pretty much all of the rides. It was confusing, but also hilarious).
2 cool 4 3D
We decided it was probably time to head over to the other park, but made sure to pass through the ADORABLE Toy Story area on the way out. They have a few little rides, one of which is like a Slinky Dog kiddie coaster. So cute!
This Buzz was switched to his French setting, not his Spanish one!
There was also a little Monsters, Inc. area that we saw on our way out, where you can pose with Boo's door and test the strength of your scream.
As we were about to exit Disney Studios, we saw Mickey and Minnie out in beautiful Christmas outfits. Obviously I wasn't about to wait in line to get pics with them, so I did what I usually do when I'm pressed for time and took a picture of them with other people.
So then we went to the main park (which is just called Disneyland Park). It was so pretty and Christmas-y!
We did get to do "Phantom Manor," though, which is basically identical to the Haunted Mansion, but with some story about a bride throughout. The majority of it was in French, though, so I could not tell you one thing about that bride. In the stretching room in the beginning, I brought my friends underneath the painting of the lady with the umbrella because I knew that in Orlando, that's where the entrance is. Luckily, that was where the entrance was here, too, so we were the first ones out of that room. This was especially great because there were about 500 small children in there behind us, and I wanted to be as far away from their terrified cries as possible.
Look who was hanging out outside of Phantom Manor: Jack Skellington in his Santa suit!
We opted to have a nice, warm lunch at this little "Mexican" restaurant in Frontierland since it was about 2 pm. We each got this meal that came with vegetable taquitos, Mexican rice, salad, onion rings, and a drink. The food wasn't bad, and all that really mattered was that it was nice and warm.
Next, we headed to Adventureland, where we immediately stumbled upon the Indiana Jones roller coaster. It looked almost identical to Primeval Whirl in Disney World (one of my favorite rides), and the wait was only 25 minutes, so Katie and I got in line. I had noticed on the entrance sign that it said something about a 360 degree turn or something, but I didn't think anything of it. Then, as we approached the loading area, I saw another sign and read it more carefully. It said that the ride had a 360 degree loop. I was confused, though, because normally upside-down loops are very visible on a roller coaster. Sure enough, though, in about five steps I saw the hidden loop and immediately freaked out. As you might guess, I ended up not going on the ride, and Katie rode alone. She still enjoyed herself, of course, and I was very happy that I didn't go on the ride unaware of what was going to happen.
So I found Gina near the exit, and then Katie found us after going on the ride. It was high time to ride Pirates of the Caribbean.
We waited about as long as usual for Pirates, and at least the last part of the waiting area was indoors and toasty. The ride itself was cold, but still fun as always. This Pirates actually has two "drops," and on the second one your picture is taken. I thought that was pretty cool, and I think our picture is hilarious.
That's us in the second row...I especially stand out amongst the dark coats
Oh, before I forget...look what else they have in Adventureland--the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse! (This is all for Mom, of course). There's also a little Agrabah area (from Aladdin).
Our next stop was Fantasyland. We got to walk through the Sleeping Beauty castle, which actually has a cool little upstairs viewpoint reached from inside of it. Also up there are some scenes from the movie. It's really cool!
Our first ride in Fantasyland was Snow White, or rather, Blanche-Neige. It was just as "scary" as always, but this time very confusing because it was totally in French. Still a classic, though.
Next, we did the teacups, and were super into it. Pretty much no one else was trying to spin their cup, but we were very intense with our spinning.
We made our way to "Discoveryland" (for some reason Tomorrowland isn't a good enough name for Paris I guess) which is actually even cooler-looking than Tomorrowland in Disney World.
After Buzz, we went to check out the wait time for Space Mountain. It was 5 minutes!! Katie and I quickly set a meeting location with Gina and then ran into the line. Before going in, though, I made sure to check the sign JUST IN CASE it said anything about a 360 degree loop. Katie thought I was crazy for doing so, but sure enough, it said that it has a loop! So I left to find Gina, and Katie rode Space Mountain. She said it was actually more intense than the Rock 'n' Roller Coaster, with a loop and a few corkscrews. Thank God I checked! Although, if I had gone in and seen people getting on the ride and putting the overhead protector things on, I would've known it wasn't for me.
Adorable statues of WALL-E and EVE
Next, we rode Star Tours, which has definitely not been updated like the one in Florida was. It was still stupid and fun, though. I was laughing at myself for remembering the exact lines, and therefore being able to understand what was being said even though it was in French.
Katie then went to go ride Space Mountain one more time while Gina and I looked around in the Star Wars gift shop. They had this really neat "build your own lightsaber" station. I was saying that I bet after kids participate in the Jedi Training Academy (which is right around the corner from the ride), they're told to come build their own lightsaber (because that's the last step to becoming a real Jedi). Gina did not seem particularly impressed with this piece of insight.
We returned to Fantasyland to ride Peter Pan and the carousel. Both were very classic and very fun.
We tried to leave, but the train station was all blocked off, and no one knew why. It was pretty stressful. We went inside a movie theater and I texted Aubrey asking her to see if anything had happened. She said everything seemed fine and normal. In the end, we think some "suspicious package" must've been found on one of the RER trains, so they closed the stations as a precautionary measure. We waited for about 30-45 minutes and then were able to get on our train for free.
We got off on a different stop so that we could take the metro more and walk less. Finally, a little after 11 or so, we were home and sufficiently exhausted.
It was a long, cold, tiring day, but MAN was it worth it. I am so, so, so, so happy I got to go to Disney. It was almost as good as being in Orlando with my family right now would be!
Love that I got several shoutouts!
ReplyDeleteYour rationale for not riding rides with loops is ridiculous
ReplyDeleteWish we had been there with you!
ReplyDelete