It was rather difficult to be gung-ho for our last morning and afternoon at Disneyland Paris after the long and treacherous day of walking that we had experienced the day before. Nevertheless, troopers that we were, The Wileys, David, and I all got up early and traipsed over for the morning breakfast buffet bright and early on Tuesday, July 15, 2008. This time it was located in a different banquet area than the previous morning. The food was the same though – and just as delicious.
The original plan was that this would be our big day at Disney, but since we were like kids in a candy store, spending every single possible minute at the park the two previous days, this day was more like a nice post script to our exploration of the park. The elder Wileys were understandably slowing down from all of the walking and Big Jimmy’s feet were really hurting. I myself was developing my traditional Disney feet blisters. So Big Jimmy and Kris decided to stay back at the room for a bit, while David, Jimmy, and I headed over to Disneyland for the early-bird 9am admission.
On this day, the land that was open was Discoveryland (the Paris version of Tomorrowland). The first ride we hit was the encore of Space Mountain: Mission 2, which was a complete and total walk-on. I have never in my life seen Space Mountain a walk-on to this degree…where you literally walk-on without pausing for a second! After the ride, obviously still tired, we slowly mosied around for a bit taking in the park, spouting off our many quotes of the week (like chewing gum on line, eleven, I DO!, deluxe accomodations, save the clock tower!, burrrrg eltz, and probably several other infantile phrases that I have thankfully forgotten).
Back to Space Mountain
David weaves through the long lines. Sarcasm there.
Ready for more space thrills in Paris
Not a bad capture of the image on the monitor that they attempt to sell you when you get off the ride. I’m too smart for them!
When it came time for all of the other lands at Disney to open at 10am, we headed into Frontierland and rode the Big Thunder Mountain rollercoaster. This was very similar to the identical ride at the other parks. I spent a good portion of the ride trying to snap some good photos – like the one at the top of the posting of Dave and me screaming for our lives.
Big Thunder Mountain
Notice how I’m playing with my camera as we ride the out-of-control rails
Since we were in the area, we got back in line for Phantom Manor. This ride apparently was in fact cursed, as while we were waiting it closed down again. But luckily, just as we were exiting, the front doors opened and we were able to get back in the queue for another great frightfest. After our final experience among the goblins, as we headed to the castle, I found another cannon in which to insert my face.
Entering through the front door as they let us back on the ride. The Phantom Manor bears more than a strong resemlance to the Psycho house.
More scenes unique to the Paris version of the ride
Losing his head
Nearly losing his head
The castle at Paris Disneyland differs from the other parks as there is actually an attraction of sorts inside. On our first day in the park, we had looked around the upstairs area which were Sleeping Beauty’s quarters. This time the dungeon was opened for us to see in La Tanière du Dragon (The Den of the Dragon). Inside was a frightening-looking dragon who resided here, growling and moving back and forth, scaring the young children and me. It is interesting to see how the Europeans are inclined to enjoy the more realistic and scary monsters (ie. Phantom Manor as well).
David, Jimmy, and I spent a significant amount of time just enjoying the unique landscaping and architecture of the Paris Sleeping Beauty castle
Note the characters on the castle spires
The ghoulish dragon in the dungeon of the castle
Then it was back to Adventureland for another ride-thru of the Pirates of the Caribbean. This time I managed to catch the obligatory photo of the three jailed pirates, who in Europe, look nothing like my friend Carl Lichtenburg. By this time, it was getting close to noon, so we headed to the entrance of the park to meet up with Big Jimmy and Kris.
The sword-fighting Pirates are unique to Paris
The dirty-footed Pirate isn’t so dirty in Paris
The obligatory shot of the jailed pirates – who look markedly different from their American counterparts
After we scooped up the parents, we all had lunch at the Blue Lagoon restaurant. Like it’s counterpart The Blue Bayou at Disneyland, this eatery is also located next to the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. As you enjoy your meal, you can see the passing boats of the ride peacefully float by. However, where the food at The Blue Bayou is mostly New Orleans/Cajun cuisine, the food here is more Caribbean – but both are pretty expensive.
Our seats were right on the edge of the waterway so we had a great view of the passing boats. I had the Tahitian-style shrimp cocktail with curry and lime as the appetizer, the Caribbean Chicken Colombo as the main course, and creme brulee for dessert. A calypso version of Yo-Ho playing throughout the meal enhanced the dining experience. Good stuff for just 29 Euros.
Lunch at the Blue Lagoon
After lunch, we spent our final two hours in the Disneyland park hitting a few of the lesser rides – concentrating on those which were unique to to the Paris park. First off was Alice’s Curious Labyrinth located in Fantasyland. This was a rather long and complex hedge maze with quite a few nice touches along the way. It culminated at the base of the castle of the Queen of Hearts which can be climbed, offering a nice aeriel view of Fantasyland.
Cool scenery in the hedge maze
The payoff – a view from the top
Next up was Le Pays des Contes de Fées (Storybook Land Canal Boats). Although similar to Storybookland at Disneyland, this quiet boat rides featured several scenes of story book characters of yore which were different then those seen in California. Although most of the featured stories had Disney films based on them, the characterizations and miniature scenery differs greatly from that depicted in the films.
Aladdin’s land of Agrabah in Storybook Land
Other than the French writing to accompany the English signage, La Cabane Des Robinsons (The Swiss Family Treehouse) is virtually the same as it is at Orlando’s Disney World. We hit this briefly as we passed through Adventureland back to Discoveryland. Our final attraction at this park was the disappointing Les Mystères du Nautilus (The Mysteries of the Nautilus), which was merely a walk-through of the Nautilus from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea – and similar to an attraction at Disneyland in the 1950’s.
Ready to enter the French Treehouse
The Nautilus outside of Space Mountain
With that, we left Parc Disneyland at about 3:30 and headed back over to The Walt Disney Studios Park for one final ride. As we crossed between parks, we encountered a woman going crazy because her child had been separated from her. We had just seen this child and I attempted to tell her but she could not understand me. She just continued to scream and cry. I’m not sure what language she was speaking but seemingly no one could communicate with her. Finally, someone got through to her and the pair were reunited…but I will never forget that look of sheer panic and can sympathize with past scares what it is like to have ‘misplaced’ your kid.
So the ride with which we chose to end our Disney Paris trip was the Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster which had been closed the day before. Although the Aerosmith music and track layout was the same, the scenery provided a drastically different ride, with lots of lasers instead of the neon road signs found at The Hollywood Studios in Florida.
Another attempt at the Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster
Rockin’ thrills aplenty
The only regret of our Paris Disneyland visit was that we didn’t get to ride the unique Crush’s Coaster ride at the Disney Studios. This ride can only be found here and employs some unique technologies not found in other rides. But I guess that it just gives us a reason to go back right? The wait was 90 minutes and there was no way that we could swing it when we had to catch the train out of there at 6:10pm. It was a bit after 4:00 when we left the park. David walked us part of the way back to our room and we said our goodbyes to him. Incidentally, he stayed on in Paris for the rest of the week and said that Crush’s Coaster was great. Poop.
Farewell to Disneyland. My final view of the park
Our group was now whittled down to just four. The Wileys and I went back to David’s room where we had stored our luggage after checking out and within an hour, we were back at the train station adjacent to the Disney property, ready to continue our European adventures. The Marne Le Vallee train to Lyon was about a two hour trip. When we arrived in Lyon, we stayed in the Campanile Lyon Center – or as I referred to it, an old French hotel.
So long, Newport Bay Club
Jimmy and I were a little concerned about finding our hotel, not knowing exactly where it was in relationship to the train station. We nearly blew off Big Jimmy when he spotted a building that began ‘with the letter C.’ Turns out, that was our place. Our room was very tiny but comfortable – and had wireless internet access, so I could keep up with Jackie. I hadn’t had any internet usage since I had been in Amsterdam and it had began to bother her that she couldn’t communicate with me from home. As it was after 8:30pm when we checked in, there wasn’t any place around where we could eat dinner. We settled on some snacks that Kris had amassed: Bolletje breads and Konjers stroopwafels. What a meal…but it got us through until the next day, when we would head out for Switzerland.
Tiny room, light bed. Or the stroopwafels made me super strong maybe…
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