A day at the happiest place on Earth - Disneyland Paris

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Since we had four full days in Paris and figured we might be museum-ed out after three, we bought tickets to Disneyland Paris (formerly Eurodisney) a few days prior to getting to Paris. From all reports we had read online it was worthwhile in order to save about €20 each as well as saving time by removing the need to stand in the ticket purchase queue.

Getting out there was fairly straightforward with a train that goes all the way there and back to Paris central until late. It's about 30-odd kilometers out of the city, and, like California, there are two different theme parks: Disneyland Park and Walt Disney Studios. The original park opened in 1992, although looking at some of the restaurants there you would think they were more the 1980s... Clearly they haven't been updated since the park opened either way though.

As with Disneyland California, we had done some research before going out so were aware that several of the rides were closed for renovation. We also knew what area we should head to when we got there to make the most of the fast passes and get on some of the good rides early. Well... so we thought. Turned out we didn't really need to use fast passes at all!

The layout and attractions are similar to the California Park and, as you would expect, is dedicated to fairy tales and Disney characters.

When walking in you're greeted by Main Street - a raft of shops selling Disney merchandise as well as food and other things.

This is also normally where the Disneyland Railroad picks people up to ferry them about the park, just one of the things closed for renovation. Not a big loss for us though to be honest!

Coming down through Main Street I was excited to see the Disney Castle. It being closed for renovation in California was probably the biggest disappointment so I was a bit like a kid in a candy store when I saw that the one in Paris was real, that you could walk through it, under it and in it.

The Paris castle is modeled off a different castle than the Anaheim one though. Anaheim is modeled off a castle in Bavaria, Germany, whereas the Paris one is represented by Le Chateau de la Belle at Bois Dormant, a replica of the fairy tale castle seen in the 1959 film Sleeping Beauty.

There is a dungeon area in the base of the castle which has an animated dragon which wakes up and puffs smokes occasionally and above there is a concrete balcony with a walk through area with Sleeping Beauty stained glass windows and tapestries.

I should preface here that the weather wasn't forecast to be ideal for our Disney day so we had come prepared with wet weather gear and a change of socks and pants in case we got drenched. At that point a backpack is a backpack regardless of how much goes in it. Plus we were already carrying water and jackets anyway. And it did rain on and off all day. Not that it stopped us doing anything, in fact it probably helped minimize some of the queues. And it gave us wet bums on the Dumbo ride.

Being not ideal weather and outside of peak period the park was a lot quieter than we had expected based on our previous experience so while we kept getting fast passes we didn't really end up using them like we thought we might.

The longest wait time we had all day was 15 minutes; which was equal to the amount of time we were willing to stand in line to get a photo with Mickey Mouse.

That line, and the Princess Pavilion, were quite high all day. The only time the Mickey line dropped below about half an hour was during the parade. The parade that Mickey was in... #illusionshattered

We did get our photos taken with Mickey and even bought the one of the two of us to download when we get home. Got to watch some old Mickey cartoons while waiting and before being ushered into a small room to get photos done, while people behind us seemed to go into a different room... or three other different rooms.

In Frontierland, most things were closed, including Big Thunder Mountain. So the only thing we did there was Phantom Manor, otherwise known as the Haunted House. As always, fairly lame but one of those 'must do' attractions.

Adventureland saw us walk through Aladdin's Enchanted Passage (the zero minute wait time convinced us that this was worthwhile) which was just a passage with figurines telling the Aladdin story. We also went on Pirates of the Caribbean which is a boat ride through water telling the story of the movie, which I still haven't seen.

Adventureland was also where we rode the Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril ride about four or five times. Its a mini roller coaster with one inverted loop. Also a little too short, by the time you got used to the way the carts moved you were pulling back into the station.

The other minor problem with this ride is my size, namely my height. My shoulders had a gap above them between me and the barriers, which meant the first time I rode it I got thrown around a fair bit. The ride is also 'designed' to be rough and rickety so it wasn't a pleasant ride. The barrier was also quite high (coming up to the top of my head) so I had to be careful that my head didn't move too much for fear of knocking myself out. By the second (third) ride I had the hang of it and had worked out how to position and hold myself so that I didn't render myself unconscious.

Moving on to Fantasyland, we ended up doing more rides there than initially expected. The highlight of Fantasyland is difficult to pinpoint.

It is really a toss up between the castle (naturally) and the Dumbo ride. Intended for kids, you jump in an elephant and 'fly' around in a circle. You also have an up and down control to control what height you fly at. We did that one twice, namely due to the five minute line both times and, by the end of the day waiting for the 10:30pm evening show, trying to kill some time.

We also spent way too much time wandering through Alice's Curious Labyrinth. Again, intended for kids, you pick paths as you go. We did take a few wrong turns but it was pretty straight forward, just WAY longer than you would expect! Along the way you see statues of characters from Alice in Wonderland, included the Cheshire Cat. At the end of the labyrinth was the tea party.

Come to think of it, Fantasyland was quite fun. I even managed to convince Stuart into riding the Mad Hatter's Tea Cups. Again, the five minute wait was very attractive, we essentially walked straight into a tea cup to get to spin around and round for a few minutes.

There was also a boat ride where you went around seeing scenes from various fairytales.

We also went on It's a Small World too which was pretty weird. You sit on a boat and travel the world. The characters are pretty vividly colored and very stereotypical. We did managed to spot a Crocodile Dundee type and a koala so Australia was represented! But all the while listening to the song in all different languages but in a very high pitch. One ride I didn't want to ride a second time even with a short wait.

And of course in Fantasyland there was our meet Mickey Mouse experience. Overall though, the character experience more broadly in the park was a little disappointing. We saw Scrooge McDuck, the chipmunks, a rabbit (thumper maybe???), a dwarf and maybe a few other characters that I didn't really recognise. The closest we got to 'mainstream' Disney characters (excluding Mickey) was when we went out to the Disney Village and there was a Disney Restaurant outside that park. Through the full restaurant we could see Minnie, Goofy and Pluto. None of whom we saw walking around the park. Perhaps they are moonlighting as waiters to earn some extra cash?

Over in Discoveryland we battled each other several times on the Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast, basically you're in a moving carriage shooting lasers at targets. I lost all four times.

We also drove a car through Autopia. You sit in a car on tracks and get to steer and use an accelerator. The cars DO NOT go fast. We had a bright pink one though.

The highlight in that land though was by far Space Mountain, the 'in the dark' roller coaster. Think we ended up riding that about five times too. Each time the line claimed to be five or ten minutes long. Realistically the line was maybe two minutes long but the walk to get from the ride entrance to the ride itself was a good five minute walk. By our fifth and final ride we were feeling like experts though! Mind you, that didn't stop the slight dizziness when you stepped off from all the inverted loops.

In Main Street we of course did some shopping, although it was predominantly browsing. We found a bakery that did a yummy carrot cake for morning tea. They love their 'menus' in France, our equivalent to a 'meal' if you were eating at McDonalds, where you get a dessert, main and/or drink with you main. So ended up with fish and chips for lunch and pizza for dinner. Plus some fairy floss and popcorn along the way. But the 36 000 steps and 13 hours inside the park itself made up for that.

The night show was also good to see. Because it doesn't get dark until quite late it didn't kick off until 10:30pm and ran for about 20 minutes. It is basically centered around the castle and shows characters projected up onto the screen - Peter Pan and Tinkerbell, Lion King and others (think some of the Frozen characters and sings). Funnily enough no Mickey though. I guess he did feature in the parade down Main Street earlier in the day alongside Minnie, Goofy and Pluto which we caught the end of earlier in the day.

All in all - another successful and fun day at the happiest place on earth! Oh - just one minor hiccup of the day. A lot of the displays and commentary were in French. So no idea what the story behind the Haunted House was... A few of the attractions were similar but Disney is Disney so it mostly made sense. But while Disney Paris was good, it didn't quite compare to Anaheim (except for the castle and lack of queues).

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