We were up bright and early again to make use of our extra magic hour, which allowed us to enter Disneyland Paris an hour before the masses. Today’s first goal, meeting the kids approval, was Star Wars Hyperspace Mountain.
But first we had to make it through the park, whose gorgeous gardens, buildings, and statuary invited you to stop and take photos about every meter or two. We did eventually make it over there, and I don’t remember there really being much of a wait at all before we were hurtling through the darkness of space. I enjoyed it well enough, but it was maybe a little too dark. I feel like they could have done more with the Star Wars theming to enhance the notion that you were in space in the middle of a laser battle.
We next went to Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast. Not unlike the Spiderman ride yesterday, you were in a little ride vehicle and each person was shooting. This time, my spamming technique failed me. I am not super duper sure what my gun was pointing at, but apparently it wasn’t the targets. Oh well, cute ride anyway.
Like Disneyland in California, you can go in the castle here as well. In Disneyland Paris though, the castle is larger and to be honest, much prettier. This is Sleeping Beauty’s castle (Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant), and with its picturesque turrets, interesting landscaping, and waterfall action, it’s a princess-castle-kid’s dream.
We went inside to see Aurora’s gallery (La Galerie de la Belle au Bois Dormant). In this pleasant little walk-through, we got to see the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale re-told. There were wall hangings, stained glass, suits of armor, and book-pages depicting the story.
Next, we went down to the dungeons to find what was lurking there. The Dragon’s Lair (La Taniere du Dragon) is dark and dreary and at one point, as your old eyes are working to see where you’re walking, you come across a huge animatronic dragon snoozing in the gloom. But he doesn’t snooze for long. Whether its irritation over being trapped down there or over the hordes of people coming to ogle him, he gets a little huffy if you give him a moment. He legit terrified some of the littler kids too – be warned.
We had gotten a lot of good stuff done before the crowds got too thick, so since we hadn’t had breakfast yet, we opted to go get some pastries (and Mom a coffee) before we hit our next attraction. The line was slooooow and our magic hour was over before we made our way through it.
But even so, the wait wasn’t too long to visit Pirates of the Caribbean, which is really too bad because it was so damn dark in the queue that rushing through it (because there really was no big line) was an exercise in faith. The ride itself was loads of fun. There were good drops and fun theming, and as always I love the Captain Jack Sparrow animatronic.
After this, we went to ride the Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril roller coaster. I love Indiana Jones, and I really wanted to love this ride. It was fun enough to look at, but the ride was maybe a little dull. And to make up for its dullness, it chose to beat me up a little with its turning and bouncing.
Finally, we lined up for Phantom Manor, Disneyland Paris’s version of Haunted Mansion. We were told this one was scarier than the ones in Orlando and Anaheim, and I suppose it was. Sean’s thought was that it wasn’t necessarily scarier, but it was definitely less silly. Maya and Ian are older now. Or rather, they’re too old to feel genuine little-kid nervousness and too young to squelch the eye-rolling, ditch the cynicism, and let the feeling sweep you away anyway. For my part, I enjoyed the ride well enough. The mansion grounds, like the rest of the park, are very pretty.
We had been enjoying pleasantly mild weather through our vacation thus far. That officially ended today. On this day, it got hot, sweaty-hot, sorry-we-brought-the-Texas-heat-to-France hot. (And poor France, I hear it got even hotter after we went back home!)
After wandering through an Aladdin-themed walk-through attraction (Le Passage Enchanté d’Aladdin) wherein we saw marvelous sets depicting scenes from the movie, we got ourselves situated for the 11:30a parade (Disney Stars on Parade). We were near the castle, in full-sun, and in a crush of people, sweating buckets. And still, the parade was amazing. I’ve said it before: Disney doesn’t do anything halfway. The floats and the costumed characters were all-in. I can’t imagine how hot some of those cast members must have been in their outfits. Each passing float was more amazing than the last, with the most amazing (to me) being the animatronic fire-breathing dragon. Not that we needed more heat, but it was impressive to behold nonetheless.
The Woodses needed to cool down a little, so we went inside to wait in line to ride what in my notes is “the seven dwarfs ride” but in the park is Blanche-Neige et les Sept Nains. This is a standard dark ride, presenting you with scenes from the story. Nothing particularly thrilling, but definitely nostalgic. Plus it gave us a little break from being on our feet!
We popped into Toad Hall after this. It’s technically a restaurant, and we did buy the kids some Mickey bars there, but Sean has an extreme soft spot for Mr Toad’s Wild Ride, and the decor in this place was amazing, right down to Mr Toad’s suit of armor.
This kids were sufficiently sugared up, but Mom and Dad needed some calories to carry us through the afternoon. We had noticed the day before that the smart folks fetched food and *then* went and got themselves into a line to watch a show. We stopped by Main Street Deli to fetch the grownups some quick croque monsieurs (decadent French ham and cheese sandwiches) and then lined up for The Lion King: Rhythms of the Pride Lands.
The sandwiches were very filling (and messy), but we managed to get them eaten before being seated for the show. It was nice and cool in the theater, and everyone, kids included, seemed to enjoy the singing, dancing, acrobatic spectacle of it all. Maya did mention that it had been so long since she’d seen The Lion King, that she’d forgotten the story, a situation we rectified upon returning to Texas.
After our nice, cool rest, we stood in a very hot and slow moving line to attend a “Mysterious Meeting” with Mickey dressed in his lovely Phantom Manor outfit. The nice cast member controlling the line did his level best to hit us with his little electric fan, but there’s no denying the wait was a bit sticky. Mickey was twenty minutes on and ten minutes off, and I believe they may have changed out the cast member donning the Mickey costume each time. We watched as the charming and attentive Mickey interacted with would-be genuine delight as he met his legions of fans. We were next in line, and he had to have a break (understandable, in that heat). The Mickey who came back, while beautifully outfitted, seemed like he was kinda going through the motions a little bit. Oh well, win some, lose some.
We needed cold drinks and the kids needed cookies after this (are you noticing that Maya and Ian basically lived on sugar this day?), and after securing those, we got in line for It’s a Small World. This is the longish boat ride through all the little costumed animatronic dolls singing “It’s a Small World” in their native languages. While I don’t think the facade can compare to the one in Anaheim, the front of this building is eye-catching, to be sure. [Sean: While technically the there are a couple of dolls representing the United States in the American parks, it was interesting to see a full US section in the Paris park. Apparently we are either farmers, football players or Hollywood stars.]
Next, we wound up picking up pretzels and crepes for the kids to snack on (for my part, I was still full from my sandwich earlier). Then we zipped over to snag our 3D “opera glasses” and be seated essentially just in time for the next Mickey’s PhilharMagic show to start. It’s a short and pleasant little show during which Donald gets a hold of Mickey’s conductor baton and misadventures ensue. [Sean: I said it for the Walt Disney World post and I will say it here. RIP, Magic Journeys.]
After the show, we took a quick ride in Star Tours: The Adventures Continue. I know this one is tame, but for some reason I really like this ride. Possibly it’s because the C-3PO animatronic hits all kinds of nostalgia buttons for me. I don’t know. This is a motion simulator ride, zinging you through the Star Wars universe, and it’s just … fun!
We headed to Alice’s Curious Labyrinth to wander for a bit and see what we could find. The hedge maze is well-maintained, and Alice and her friends (and foes) are tucked into every dead and corner. There’s a really excellent garden arranged to look like the Chesire Cat. You ultimately wind up in the Queen of Hearts’s castle, which provides a nice lookout over the land.
After the labyrinth, I sat and rested while Sean and the kids hit Star Wars Hyperspace Mountain again. Then we all rode Pirates of the Caribbean again. We watched them running empty cars for Big Thunder Mountain. Sean was very disappointed that this ride was not open for us to ride. Apparently the one in Disneyland Paris is one of the best versions. The ride re-opened on June 21st.
Sean also had been wanting to check out the Paris version of the boat ride through Storybook Land (Le Pays des Contes de Fees), but every time we went by, it was closed, with its reopening time uncertain. We even sent cute, extroverted Ian over to ask, but they wouldn’t tell him either.
Sean had booked us an 8:00 dinner reservation at Walt’s – an American Restaurant. Why go to an American restaurant in Paris? Well, for one, this is a theme park and maybe not my go-to for any kind of authentic experience. But also, the restaurant is interesting in that it showcases art and items from Walt Disney’s life. Sean tells me that some of the menu items were favorites of his. Maya had more pea soup on this visit (as did Sean and I). [Sean: Walt’s Chili, albeit a deconstructed version, was a winner.]
We thought we would kill time shopping for souvenirs between our dinner and the evening fireworks show, but we noticed that people were already lining up to get good spots for that show, so we followed suit. The wait was long for the “Disney Tales of Magic,” but the kids did pretty well, and the show was amazing. The backdrop was, of course, the castle. Digital projections, fireworks, jets of water, and plumes of fire punctuated the musical score. The drone show was the big scene-stealer though. I don’t think we’ve ever watched a drone show before, and the coordination and choreography were amazing.
It was very, very late when we walked back to our hotel, and we had a full morning planned. This is, I think, where we started to refactor our day the next day. I had (sanely, I thought, at planning time), booked a late lunch reservation at a “bistronomique” restaurant. The notion was that it would push our kids’ a little palate-wise, but it wasn’t all frou-frou like I figured a Michelin-starred restaurant would be. In examining our very tired kids, knowing that we had Disney things to do in the morning, and knowing I had the Louvre booked for that evening, we ultimately canceled our fancy lunch reservation.
We woke the next morning, got completely packed, dropped our backpacks off with luggage services, and headed into Disneyland Paris again for our character breakfast at the Plaza Gardens Restaurant. Maya didn’t have a lot of requests on this trip, but she had told Sean she’d like to go to a character meal while she was there. She is a big kid, but she’ll tell you that sometimes she still enjoys “little kid things.”
It was a huge buffet breakfast, and I wish I had been hungrier, because there were many lovely breakfast options. There were standard breakfast things, pastries, bacon, etc, but there were also lovely spreads of cured meats, sausages, and cheeses. Plenty of fresh fruit was offered as well. As you ate, characters came through the building and you could get up to say hello to them and have your photo taken with them. Sean wanted to meet Tigger and Eeyore. The kids didn’t have any particular demands, but they seemed happy to meet whoever came by.
Eeyore was a tough one though. We had to clear out for the next seating of guests, but they hauled Eeyore out before he got to us saying, “he’ll be back soon.” We figured that meant for the next seating. Then he came out, but across the building. We went over to see him and were told to go back to our seats. He did eventually make it over to us, but it was kind of confusing in the meantime. I will say though, these cast-members seemed to occupy their costumes with intention, spending time in-character with delighted guests, young and old. {Sean: Thanks for noticin’ me Eeyore.]
We thought we’d finally get to visit Storybook Land, but alas, it didn’t open till 11, and even that we had learned not to trust. So instead, we lined up to ride Les Voyages de Pinocchio, since we hadn’t the day before. After that, we shopped for our ears and any pins and things people wanted, not really knowing where we’d ultimately store them in our backpacks.
And just like that, our time at Disney was over. We walked back to our hotel, picked up our backpacks from luggage storage, and boarded the bus to the train station. Our train ride back into Paris was uneventful. Plus, since our train car was full of boisterous Italian tourists, for a change, we didn’t even bother urging the kids to keep their voices low (as the French folks do).
