Day 21 Disneyland Paris

Another long fun filled day.  My day started before the boys even got up for school.  Up at 7 to eat a liht breakfast and then off to to the metro. To get to the park was pretty easy but did take a while.  I hopped on the above ground tram, T2, and transferred to the RER A.  I started pretty much at the beginning of the A line and took it all the way to the end at Disneyland Paris which all and all took about 1 hour 15 minutes.  
I got there there before the park opened. I thought the park opened at 9 am but it really opened at 10 but like Disneyland they opened the gate to everyone at 9:30 to enjoy Main Street.  

I walked to the castle and took a seat around the hub until he park opened in honest for all the guests in the park.  I headed straight to Peter Pan hoping to get a fast pass but he machines were down.  I only ended up waiting 10 minutes in line anyways so I can't complain.  The ride was very similar to the one in Disneyland but everything was too close to the boat.  Similar problem to WDW.  From there I went over to Big Thunder mountain railroad.  Again the line was not too bad so I waited only another 10 minutes after grabbing a fastpass for later.  Big Thunder is one of the most popular attractions in the entire park.  The track is about the same as the two in the States.   The big difference is that is passes underneath the rivers of America to get to the island where the majority of the roller coaster (type ride) is.  Very cool addition to it.  So much so that I went on it twice.  

Just around the river sits Phantom Manor.  It is their version of he Haunted Manson   Supposedly theirs has a story line with the bride that is more than the US parks but that certainly did not make it better.  The graveyard scene is nonexistent replaced with practically going to hell.  Like a really awful corpse bride in a western saloon town.  Just awful!  And he portraits are different but not necessarily in a bad way.   I guess it just lost the humorous and went full for a scare which did not work for me.  I was so disgusted by the change of the attraction that I just couldn't go on it again.  Yuck!

I walked back up to Thunder, went on it for a second time and walked up towards Pirates.  Before I made to Pirates I went towards Indy.  Indiana Jones in Paris is a mouse coaster.  I always describe a mouse coaster as a roller coaster that has very sharp corners and the track is stacked right on top of each other.  The unique thing about this coaster is that it actually goes upside down.  The que winds it's way through a campsite where if you look closely you can find Indy's hat and whip.  The coaster was fun but was an ear banger so once was enough.  This Indiana Jones cannot compare to the one in Disneyland for sure!  

So I was back on my way to Pirates but again I got sidetracked again.  In one friends honor I walked through the Swiss Family Robinson tree house.  This one in Paris is almost a carbon copy from the one in Florida.  Its always nice to walk them because you usually get a good view of the park from the top.  Plus it would have not been a real day in Europe if I didn't climb some more stairs.  And its usually clear of strollers, ok, always clear of strollers.  But there really weren't too many strollers out and about which was refreshing   More adults in the park during the daytime.  Alright, tangent over. Once I was back down from the tree I finally went to Pirates of the Caribbean.

The Pirates que is very similar to the one in Florida.  It is far too dark.  So dark that a couple in front of me was walking at a snails pace because the woman of the couple could not even see her feet in front of her.  And also like Florida the load and unload are separate   Once your board your boat you go down a falls or two and enter into the pirate battle scene.  No skeletons here, just pirates including Carlos's wife in the window talking in French.  Awesome.  All the scenes follow the same pattern as Disneyland.  Once you pass the dog with the keys usually the ride is over, but not so in Paris.  Then you move into the skeleton scenes that are in California.  So living pirates before skeletons  I guess that makes sense but it sets the scene backwards.  And you end with the talking pirate, so weird!

After exploring what I would consider the west side of the park I went back into Fantasyland.  Is it really west, I don't know!  I passed Peter Pan on my way to check out Mr. Toad's Wild restaurant.  Too bad it's not a ride, but the inside had great themeing.  I would have eaten lunch in there but they served English food and I had just had that, in actual England!  So I moved on to the Mickey Mouse meet and greet.  After not waiting on anything more than about 7 minutes I decided 25 minutes was too long for Mickey.  Also I had done some research and the inside looks exactly like the new Mickey meet and greet in Florida.  Onward I went again to something completely new.

There is no Alice in Wonderland ride but there is Alice's Curious Labyrinth.  Its a garden/maze through Alice's story.  There are dead ends and wrong turns and creatures from throughout the movie to guide you along.  There are also playing cards yelling at you in French.  What they are saying, I don't know, but I assume something like off with your head.  I really enjoyed wondering around and finding new things around every corner.

After escaping the Queen Castle with my head I found Alice!  She was in the cutest photo spot that had the Mad Hatter's Table covered in teacups!  I was about 5 people away from the front when Alice booked it out of there.  Noooo!!  She was replaced by Tweedle Dee and Dum but they don't have photopass in Paris and they had no character host with them.  Being alone in line for characters in Paris is apparently a bad idea.

From my sadness about Alice I had to bring up my spirits by going on Paris's version of Storybookland Canal Boats.  Instead of having storytellers on each boat all the boats are tethered together.  You get pulled along boat after boat next to miniature scene depicting both Disney films and fairytales.  They added Tangled right next to Hansel and Gretel.  Another big difference was the characters from the stories actually featured.  Belle is sitting on the fountain in the city center reading her book to the sheep around her.  It ends with the Emerald City  from the Wizard of Oz.  I wonder when they put that in because next year they are making an Oz movie.  Coincidence, I don't think so.

I had a loose plan for the day to make sure to see all the parades, cavalcades and shows related to the 20th anniversary.  20th anniversary train filled with characters was one I had to hit.  I had a a little bit of time before it came out so I went back through the castle.  I'd always heard great things about the Paris Castle.  And I didn't get to see it!  The castle was under refurbishment so I didn't get to see the dragon under the castle.  Super sadness!

So again it was time to distract myself from my sadness!  I went to Main Street to check out this Anniversary Train.  The train came down Main Street to the hub, which did not have Walt and Mickey!  The train stopped at the hub and the characters on board spread out around all the entrances to the lands.  I followed Daisy, since she is still rare in my eyes.  Only to find that it is nearly impossible to get photos with characters in Paris.  Even if they do have a character host it is still difficult because they make no line and barely a perimeter for the characters.  Plus being there solo and not speaking the native language meant it was hard to pass off my camera to someone else.  So after not getting anywhere close to my picture with the character I gave up after about 5 minutes.  Personal space doesn't really exist in France I found out.

Since Daisy was closest to Discoveryland, Paris's version of Tomorrowland, I went inside for the first time.  My first stop was Buzz Lightyear.  It was exactly the same as Diusneyland's except some of the words of instruction in French.  From there I went over to Space Mountain 2.  I'm not sure when they changed it from version 1 but for sure it was version 2.  The que was inside and the load area outside.  The idea of the attraction was a cannon company, Baltimore to be exact, would shoot you into space.  And into space you go  turning upside down, twisting and all in darkness.  I enjoyed it but it was an ear banger.

By that time it was about 2:30 and I had nothing to eat outside of snacks from my bag.  So I went back onto Main Street Lunch at the Gibson Girl.  And yes, the Gibson Girl is the ice cream parlor.  Apparently waffles are a big snack item in France so I tried one.  With ice cream.  And Nutella.  Yes that was my lunch, a waffle with ice cream and nutella.  I could have gotten a doughnut from the counter across the way but I declined.  Why they had a whole case full of doughnuts I don't know.  French delicacy?  And they gave me a coupon for a free hot drink in the afternoon.  Why, again I'm not sure, but I can't complain about that.
The second half coming up next.