Day 4-Disneyland Paris

Up early and walked to Auber RER Station to board a train to Disneyland Paris.

I had it all figured out. It takes 35 minutes to get there, the park opens at 10am (with 9am Extra Magic Hours for on-site guests). So if we got there at 9:30am (leaving Auber at 8:45am) we would make it in time for Rope Drop. 

Well, the train took an hour. And it was crowded.  And when we got there the park had opened early at 9:30am because of the crowds. So we were already running 40 minutes late and we hadn't even gotten our tickets yet.  We bought our 1 day Park Hopper (which means we could "Hop" from Disneyland Paris to Walt Disney Studios and not buy separate tickets). 


I knew it could be crowded so I studied my Unofficial Guide and the recommended Touring Plan. Space Mountain was out since it goes upside down and Jeff and Kendra were scared. So first, high tail it to Discoveryland (aka Tomorrowland) Star Tours.

Ran past the Castle (yes. pretty. RUN).  Perfect, posted 5 minute wait. Nope, waited inside with a very pushy crowd (who all smelled like cigarette smoke) for about an hour. Oh boy this was not good. Still the old version with Captain Rex, but in French (but I think it was still his first flight).


 Look at Space Mountain. Very Different.

Here's the castle. Oh no, is everything under contruction? Guess we will have to go back again some time when we can see the whole castle. So pretty though.

Touring Plan said to go from Star Tours directly to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (even if it didn't that is where we were headed-Kendra's all time favorite!). The wait was about 50 minutes (it was about 11am at this point) so we secured Fastpasses and picked up lunch across the sidewalk. No line, phew. We chose to share a chicken taco thing, that had 3 wraps with it and unidentifiable vegetables (probably onions and peppers). It tasted alright.


We headed back to the Carousel and the sign said 35 minute wait. We got in line anyway, it could only get worse (it did, later in the day I saw the sign said 45 minute wait). We definately didn't wait 35 minutes. But the crowd pushing and smoking made it really uncomfortable.

Yes, smoking. There are designated smoking areas but I guess it is more of a suggestion than anything that would be enforced. People smoked everywhere. 


The park is so pretty. The decorations are so much more over-the-top than Magic Kingdom or Disneyland (Anaheim).

Finally, following my cousin Becky's advice, we walked to the front of the castle and went underneath in the cave and found this.

Whoa. Cool. It moved around and growled a little, too. And it wasn't terribly crowded in there.


We walked out of the cave through the upper part of the castle. At the back of the castle seemed to be the entrance to Snow White's Adventure (I think they decided to leave out the "scary" part). Wait time: 70 minutes. Pass.


We headed to the back of Fantasyland to see Dumbo and the Alice in Wonderland Maze area. So crowded. Made our way to Pirates of the Carribean, 30 minute wait. And worth every minute  Even though the ride was all in French (well the signs were in english, too). (How do you say "We Wants the Red Head" in French? Didn't matter, we said it anyway.)

Look at the crowds pushing to get in. That is what the crowds were like all over the park. No lines, just crowds.

There is a restaurant in Pirates (similar to at Disneyland) so we checked for any openings for dinner. SCORE. Dinner at 6:45pm. Pretty perfect since Walt Disney Studios closed at 7 anyway.

And it was Fastpass Return time for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. "The Wildest Ride in the Wilderness Woo hoooo".  The ride had been closed and we must have timed it just right as they were reopening. 



It was shocking how many people were arguing with the CastMembers at the queues about their Fastpass Return time. "Sir, it is 2:00, your return time isn't until 2:40, please step aside" we heard them say over and over. They were thrilled that ours was actually valid.   Kendra got her preferred back seat.


Big Thunder Mountain is actually on an island. So the ride starts out going fast, downhill under the water in the dark.  What a great start. What a great ride.  Of course, less than a week after we rode, parts of the ride came crashing down on the back of the mine train and injured some guests.


Next was Phantom Manor (aka Haunted Mansion).

The queue was strangely empty. Just some weeds around a boardwalk.  Not a very long wait to get on. And again, this attraction exceeded Magic Kingdom. The effects were so much better than in Florida or Anaheim. There was a whole room based on an old abandoned mining town. Our favorite part was the invisible poker players. And the ride vehicles weren't called Doom Buggies they just called them "carriages" (but the looked like Doom Buggies).
 
Back to Big Thunder for more Fastpasses and out of the park to visit Walt Disney Studios for a couple of hours.

Walt Disney Studios is a much smaller park than Disneyland Paris, even smaller than Disney Hollywood Studios in Florida.  The big headliner is Tower of Terror. There is also Crush's Coaster (70 minute wait-pass). The lines were really long in this park, too.  The walkways are alot wider than over at Disneyland Paris, so it was easier to avoid being pushed from place to place. We did, though, see people picnicking (and smoking of course) in a fenced in area, under a "stay off the grass" sign. 25 minute wait on Alladins Magic Carpets-let's go! The queue looked like it must have been under construction. It was under a low ceiling and just had greenish blue walls. I think it was meant to look "backstage", but it was just blah for a 25 minute wait. We couldn't even see the ride vehicles from the queue.

This was the slowest loading ride I have ever seen. The CastMember would seat one family at a time, and walk them to their carpet.  Anyway, we love the carpets so we were thrilled to ride.


We walked over and checked out the new ToyStory area.  So cute and colorful. 

How cute is slinky dog!!

Oh, finally, look who we found.

The wait for Mickey was the only actual line we stood in all day. Every other queue was just a mob of pushing people. Even in this line Kendra and I had to hold our ground while the woman behind me tried at least 5 different times to push ahead of me. No chance, lady, we are visiting Mickey and you are not getting in our way!  I wonder if Mickey realizes that the Toon Town house in the picture behind him was torn down back in February.  :-(


Back to Disneyland Paris (right across the way, about as close as the Anaheim parks are to each other).


Uh, oh, Parade time.  So we climbed to the top of the railroad to get a glimpse. We didn't see much, and then the crowd gathered again. Everywhere. No concern for sidewalks or "keep off the grass" signs, and of course smoking all the way.

We boarded the train and headed for Fantasyland and it's a small world. 

Its a small world  is of course it was a boat ride through the villages of creepy dolls singing a song you can't get out of your head, It was just a little different looking. Kendra mentioned while we were waiting in the short queue that they are "learning" the song in music class. She said she was the only kid in her class who didn't need the words. That's my girl!

Dinner Time. Just walked right up and we were seated at Blue Lagoon. Unfortunately we were seated in a dark corner where we couldn't really see the ride, but we enjoyed it.  I had a crab salad and some kind of stuffed fish. (actually I just looked up the menu, apparently I ate blue shark-cool.)Jeff had Ostrich (at a Disney park!!) and Kendra had chicken, of course. I also had creme brulee for dessert, and they lit it on fire. Yes, everything is better with bacon, but even better with FIRE.


Back through the crowds to the "Wildest Ride in the Wilderness" with our Fastpasses. We were the only people on the train yelling "ye haw" the whole ride. Maybe we will start a trend.


The day was coming to an end so we headed over to check out the Indiana Jones Temple of Peril. We couldn't get very close since it was closed down. Castmembers were already sweeping the park (with brooms and ropes).


We headed to what we figured was the furthest point from the front of the park, Discoveryland.  Here is Space Mountain. Pretty cool. See the rocket thing over on the right side. The ride vehicle gets shot from that rocket and into the top of the ride.

A different view of the Space Mountain cannon. And, cool, the Nautilus!

We strolled down Main Street USA because of course we wanted a souvenir of our visit (hat, stuffed animal, shirt, pin). We visited Disney Village (similar setup to Disneyland Downtown Disney, right there with the parks). We were all pretty tired from our day and we headed back to the RER and Paris (after traditional tears of goodbye).


We would definately travel back to Disneyland Paris, but definately not during Europe's vacation week.