Disneyland Paris

Today was one of the happiest days of my life, because Justine and I were heading to the happiest place on Earth; Disneyland Paris and Walt Disney Studios. We woke up early with our attack plan and headed off on the Paris Metro system. We got stuck at the next station trying to buy RER tickets, which had to be bought outside the station. But we were already in. Regardless, we got ourselves onto the RER line and to Disneyland Paris!

 

Now, apparently, I was a little bit psychotic when we arrived, bouncing around like a little child and walking around with a dumbfounded grin on my face. I will not deny this. Disneyland is amazing. It is just so beautiful (and Americanized) and I could have spent an entire week there. However, we only had 8 hours of the park opening so we headed to Big Thunder Mountain to ride on my first roller coaster since I was about 9. Then it was off to Phantom Manor, a haunted house type ride which was very well executed. Thus we had explored Frontierland.

Next up was Adventureland and the Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril rollercoaster. This was when we realized that every ride with height restrictions was going to be awesome. We walked through to the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, which we were both looking forward to. Unfortunately, this isn’t so much a ride as it is a ride-through exhibition. So while well done, it was a bit disappointing.

No worries because then we were into Fantasyland, where Sleeping Beauty’s giant castle stands. First up we rode on Peter Pan’s flight, which was a beautifully constructed flying-ride over the roofs of London. It was surprisingly sweet. Next up were the Mad Hatter’s Tea Cups, which didn’t spin as fast as they could as the spinner in the middle was rather cold and frozen in place. We hopped onto Blanche-Niege et les Sept Nains (Snow White and the Seven Dwarves) which was another ride through exhibition of the story.

We wandered into Discoveryland next where we rode Buzz Lightyear’s Laser Blast and got to shoot Emperor Zurg’s evil aliens. Then it was onto Space Mountain: Mission 2, which, according to Justine’s scream in the middle of the coaster, is the “BEST RIDE EVER!!!” We then hopped onto the Star Tours simulator, which took us through some Star Wars, before heading towards Main Street USA and some lunch. But not before I bought myself Minnie ears!

While there we got to see the performance of the New Generation Festival occurring at the moment, which featured newer films such as The Princess and the Frog, Ratatouille, The Incredibles, Monsters Inc and Lilo and Stich, plus regular characters like Mickey, Minnie, Chip and Dale. We ate lunch in an American diner-style restaurant before peering in some of the amazing merchandise shops. There are so many Euro I could have spent here.

Next up we headed to the Walt Disney Studio theme park, hitting the Rock n Roller Coaster featuring Aerosmith. Another amazing rollercoaster, we were spun through the darkness to a rock soundtrack. Awesome. Sticking to the Aerosmith theme we went to the Armageddon: Special Effects showcase. This took a lot longer than expected and threw our timing out a little bit with the pre-special effect gathering, but once inside the ‘Russian Space Station’ the effects were quite interesting and cool to be around.

We then headed up to The Twilight Zone: Tower of Terror which had Justine and I screaming as we were vaulted up and down an elevator shaft. It probably didn’t help that our hotel elevator reminded us of it. We walked down to the Toy Story play land, designed to make you feel like a toy, going on the RC Racer before watching some real racing and stunts in the amazing Moteurs…Action! Stunt Show Spectacular. We rode the Rock n Roller coaster again before heading back to Disneyland Paris.

We arrived just in time to see the Once Upon A Dream Parade, and seeing as the day felt like a dream to me, I very much enjoyed it. It was such a surreal experience to be standing against the road as so many loved and admired characters over the Disney generations drove past me. I LOVE THEM! We headed into the shops to buy some of the said characters, meeting Kate and Jen from the Contiki tour. They too, it seemed, loved Disneyland. The day was nearly over so we raced back to Space Mountain for one last ride, before spending an hour wandering back up Main Street USA delaying our exit from the park. Justine seems to think they would have noticed if I’d taken up residence in the castle.

Luckily, our day wasn’t finished there as we walked to Disney Village to find dinner in one of the many restaurants. We settled on Café Mickey, where we found Disney characters walking around as people at their dinner! It was amazing to be sitting there eating and be hugged and fussed over by people in large animal suits. As we were leaving, they even started to dance, with Tigger leaping up and down on one of the empty chairs. Even the staff had choreographed moves, it was exhilarating.

But after 11 hours, it was time to leave. So we wandered out of Disney Village, onto the boring train, to our boring hotel where we were met by Dean and Daniel, and had a boring evening.