Disneyland Paris

---

Day 6 --March 6 -- Thursday

So today we were on our way to visit EuroDisney, or Disneyland Paris, as its now known. We had to take the suburban train known as the RER outside the city to reach Disney. Disneyland is located in an area called Marne-La-Valle and not actually IN Paris, its actually 20 miles away from the city, and we kept seeing signs that said "Parc Chessy." I have no idea what that means, but I joked with Jay and told him, "It probably says that cause Disney is cheesy!" and I got one of his Looks, but really, what else would it mean? Anyway, Disney was the very last stop on the train, we waited through 15 stops total and luckily, no subway singers. That is annoying. We also passed through a lot of ugly residential areas. And I mean ugly, no wonderful Louvre, or Eiffel Tower, or cute cafes here, I told Jay, "it looks like we are in Eastern Europe." LOL.

I have always thought Paris is an odd city to put a Disney park. When you think Paris you think stunning views, beautiful monuments, wonderful pastries, not theme parks. So for that reason alone, I think Paris is strange for a Disney park. I think a smaller lesser known city in Europe may have worked better. There is already so much to do and see in Paris, without having to make a side trip to a theme park.

But alas, the park was still bursting at the seams with people. The castle was amazing to see. I feel that the pictures didn't do it justice, but still amazing. I did notice, however, that main street USA, wasn't as crowded like it is in the FL park. We rode Space Mountain first. Awesome, it goes upside down and it is better than Florida's Space Mountain. (In my opinion) We walked the entire park, rode Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion, and Indiana Jones roller coaster, and several other rides. ALL different in comparison to the Florida theme parks. People kept asking us, "were the rides all the same?" No they were not. We ate lunch at a cantina which served amazing fajitas. It was kind of funny, eating Mexican food in the middle of France, but to each his own.

Afterwards we decided to walk on over to the Walt Disney Studios park, aka "MGM."
Up until our trip, I had no idea there was a second Disney park in Paris. I just thought there was the one park, but Jay filled me in on that. I do have to say, I thought the Walt Disney Studios was A LOT different than MGM in Orlando. The entrance is nicely done, you actually enter the park going INSIDE, then it leads outside. (Its kind of hard to describe, but we did take some photos) The first thing we did was wait 45 minuets for "Crushes coaster" which was an amazing ride. Epcots "Finding Nemo" ride has nothing on Crushes Coaster. You're in a cute little turtle shell and the ride goes sideways and it is themed like you are inside the East Australian current. It was kind of funny though, Crushes voice would say something in English, then another character would answer back in French. I would have liked to ride it again, but we didn't want to wait again.

The highlight of the day for me, was right after we got off that ride, to the right of it, we saw a character meet and greet........with.....REMY!!! From Ratatouille, Pixar's June 2007 release. The whole time prior to going to Disney I kept saying to Jay, "I hope we get to see something regarding Ratatouille" I LOVE that movie. When I saw him I was like, "we have to get pictures!" and stupid Jay says, "you wanted to see Remy and there he is, see, I produced." Dork. So I was the ONLY adult standing in line to take a picture with Remy, but whatever. He's cute.

We also rode the "Tram Ride" or the Backlot tour, but I just call it Tram Ride. That was actually lame. Orlando's is much better. We also saw a show starring Martin Short titled
"Cinamajic," which was a tribute to movies and I wish we had a version of that in the states. That was also half in English and half in French. After that show we wanted to walk around "The Villages" aka, Downtown Disney. They had a lot of dinner shows and shops and basically similar to Downtown Disney in Florida. We also walked to the nearby hotels, which are really nicely themed. There was one themed like Cheyenne, Wyoming and Santa Fe, NM. And one themed like New York, and the other I think it was themed like the Beach Club Hotel in FL.

I do have to say, I probably liked Disney Paris better, but that could be because it was all "new" to me. I've done the Orlando parks a thousand times so Paris' park was really neat to see. But I will say this, when it comes to service and being "magical" the cast members in Orlando have Paris beat. While we didn't experience any rudeness, we didn't experience any pleasure-able people either. We went to grab a park map off a table in the park entrance of the Walt Disney Studios, and, I counted, 5 cast members standing there gabbing, and not one said hi! I know its not a big deal, but after being a former cast member of Walt Disney World, myself, it's nailed in your brain to have a permanent smile on your face!!

---

Photos

Castle
It was so increadibly cold....I look stupid here, but whatever....freezing!

Castle
Jay not smiling....

Jay, castle
Jay, after I made him smile this time

Space mountain!!
Yay

Space Mountain
I am starting to think that Jay is just not photogenic

"Discovery land"
and not Tomorrow land, that us Orlando-ans are used to

me and Discoveryland
yet again...freezing

Side view
side view of castle

Stained glass
Stained glass window inside the castle

Comments

[Family Travel Girl]

Where's the Customer Service Magic?
My family also visited Disneyland Paris in April 2008. Although we had a great time . . . enjoyed the rides, I agree that the park personnel were not as friendly as the employees at WDW Orlando (or California for that matter). They don't seem to get the total concept of the "magic" of Disney. . .

[shannon]

class
I was in disney land last week and it was the most funniest funsist hoilday ever it was the BEST!!!!!!!!!