Last Day at Disneyland Paris

We got up at our usual time to eat breakfast, then we packed and checked out. It took us a long time to pack, but daylight’s saving time was on our side! We arrived at Disneyland a little bit after the park had opened, and we took Katherine shopping for a princess dress along main street. All week long, we had tried to get her to choose a costume for Halloween, but she hadn’t seemed the least bit interested. This was our last day, so Papa and I were really pushing the dress-up clothes. The shops aren’t very busy in the morning, so it was a nice time to shop. Katherine really got interested when we took her to the dressing room. She immediately fell in love with the Snow White dress. She wouldn’t try on anything else, and it took us a very long time to convince her that she had to take it back off for Papa to buy it. (Papa wanted to buy it while she was wearing it, but it had a little theft device on it, and I convinced him it would be difficult to hold Katherine above the counter at exactly the right angle for the cashier to remove it.) We kept telling Katherine that she could put the dress back on as soon as Papa paid for it, but it was still difficult to get her out of it. (David picked out a Snow White headband to complete the look which was really sweet.)
Now, I don’t know what the man in front of David in the check-out line was doing, but he was the only other person in the store and he was taking FOREVER. Katherine was very impatient in the dressing room, and she kept darting into the store wearing nothing but her diaper, urgently asking, “Where my Papa? Where my Papa?”
After he was finally able to check out, we dressed Katherine and headed to Frontierland. The lines were huge; even the lines to get fastpasses were huge. We never rode Thunder Mountain Railroad or the Indiana Jones roller coaster, but that’s okay. I guess the lines were long due to Mickey’s Halloween Parties (one on the 30th and one on the 31st). Every other day that we’d been there the lines had been manageable, but today there was a 45-minute wait for the railroad that circles the park and does nothing.
Since we had an adorable little princess with us, we decided to head to the castle, and we stood in line to meet a princess. Sleeping Beauty was on duty posing for pictures and signing autographs. There was a long line to meet her, but we knew Katherine would love it. While we were waiting in line I told David that at 10:45 I would head over to the Lion King show ticket line. (We saw the show from dining tables high above a couple days ago, but Katherine loved it so much, I wanted to try and get the better seats.) A British man in line behind us told me that I better go over there now because, “People over here are mad about the lion king show.” He was right, people at euro-disney are mad about the show. I got there at 10:30 and spent 30 minutes in a motionless line before the ticket office opened, then I waited another 20 minutes in a moving line. The show itself is very, very good, but probably not worth all the fuss (unless of course you’re a toddler.) It’s really cheesy, and it’s short. The effects aren’t that spectacular, but the live singing is very good. At the end it’s a little bit gospel-style. Maybe that’s what drives the Europeans wild…southern-style gospel music.
After getting tickets (for 12:00, yea!) I met up with David and Katherine again. To my delight, I found out that Sleeping Beauty had gone on break right before Katherine’s turn and Katherine got to meet Cinderella instead! Yippee, no more endless “Where Cinderella?” inquiries. Perfect.
David and Katherine had also had time to ride It’s a Small World again. David was starving, so I took Katherine to the 12:00 show, while he sat above us in the dining section, eating. Katherine loved the show, and tried to talk to the Animatronic Simba, but he didn’t seem to notice her. Go figure. After the show Katherine was very hungry and very tired. David had an extra fish sandwich for us, but it wasn’t enough so Katherine started eating that, and he journeyed down to buy more food. By the time he returned Katherine was asleep in my arms. David held food for me while I ate (still holding Katherine) and we were there long enough to see the next version of the lion king show… the French version, which is mostly in English.
When Katherine woke up, she immediately needed a diaper change. Women’s restrooms almost always have a line in them, but I’ve been able to use that to my advantage, telling my husband that he has to change Katherine, because my restroom is packed.
We finally left Videopolis (the lion king theatre) and went to Nautilus. Nautilus is not a ride, so don’t wait in line for it.* It’s just an underground walk culminating in a lame squid attack.
Every other day that we’ve been here Alice’s Curious Labyrinth has been closed, but today it was open, so we went in it. Very fun, especially for Katherine. She loves dead-ends.
Since all the attractions seemed to have long lines, we decided to watch the parade again, and Katherine loved it… again. Then we enjoyed a hotdog dinner…again?
After dinner we decided to try riding Pirates of the Caribbean again, but that was a bad idea, the line was very long. We got out of that ride about 30 minutes before the park was scheduled to close, and decided to ride it’s a small world again. That was a good idea! “Again! again!“ They had a very, very small line. When our ride ended there was no line, so we got to ride again without queuing up. Then the park closed and we walked back to our hotel to get our car. We stopped by the restrooms and got Katherine out of her Snow White costume. (The giant dress wouldn’t have fit in her car-seat for the 4-hour drive home.) Of course, she threw a hysterical fit, but we were planning on it, and we tried to bribe her with a little lollipop we had bought hours in advance. No deal. She wanted her dress, not the candy, so she continued to be hysterical (“NO! PRETTY DRESS”…wild slapping, hysterical kicking …“PRETTY DRESS!”) for a while. When we got in the car, she got a Minnie Mouse doll David had bought for her earlier, but hidden. The doll coupled with the sweet lollipop eventually calmed her down.
We left the resort at 9:04 p.m. and arrived home at 1:19 a.m. The fog in Germany was very, very bad. Staring into the fog was driving me mad. I was losing my focus, and seeing crazy things. David was more alert than me, and he drove the entire time.
* Unless you love lame squid attacks

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