Ooh la la our trip to Disneyland Paris *Finished!* About This Page:

[DouglasE]

Your birthday dinner at Disneyland Paris sounded incredible! That's the kind of celebration that I enjoy. A dinner for two with delicious food, good wine, and a yummy dessert is just what I would want for my birthday. Now if I could just find that special someone to spring for it all!

[BritDisFan]

Aww Douglas, I'm sure you'll find that special someone soon.

Karen

[BritDisFan]

Day 2 part 1



22nd April



I had set the alarm for 6.30am as our breakfast was booked by the hotel for the ungodly holiday hour of 7.00am . The alarm went off we lay in bed for a while, Allan said he would go down to Hunters Grill resturant grab some breakfast things and bring them up to the room so we could have breakfast in bed. I thought this was a marvellous idea and settled back in bed for a relax. About 10 minutes later I heard a thump on the door, it was Allan with a huge tray of goodies he was knocking on the door with his foot as his hands were full! A delicious continental breakfast of fruit salad, all kinds of pastries, cereal, yogurt, rolls, cold meats and cheeses, is included in the room rate at DLP. If you want a hot breakfast you can pay extra but the included breakfast is very yummy indeed and sets you up for the day so we never felt the need for hot items.



Allan had piled the tray high with all the above and with coffee and orange juice as well. We both tucked in, I ate fruit salad, a pain au chocolat and a roll with ham. Allan ate everything else on the tray – including garlicky sausage slices :yuck: – and was very full indeed. We relaxed for a while and then realised it was 8.00am so we needed to get a move on as we wanted to be at the park when it opened at 9.00am. By the time we had showered and dressed it was already five to nine!



I looked outside and decided the weather was fine so we wouldn't need our jackets, this turned out to be rather a mistake! We set off to the park, walking through Disney Village, it is quite a bit smaller than DTD with loud music piped throught the area but it has a very good atmosphere. We arrived at the park gates just after 9.00am and went through the turnstiles. We paused and looked down Main Street for a few moments just soaking up the atmosphere. I absolutely love the feeling when you walk through the turnstiles into a Disney Park, it is amazing . We gazed along Main Street to the castle. As much as I love the castle at WDW, the castle at DLP is so beautiful, it is smaller but it takes your breath away it is so very very pretty. It based upon Sleeping Beauty's castle known in French as Chateau de la Belle au Bois Dormant.



On town square there were some Easter decorations, including a huge plastic egg filled with hundreds and hundreds of stuffed Thumpers!





Easter DLP style.



As we walked down Main Street we decided that our first port of call would be Space Mountain, either to get a fast pass or by joining the queue if it wasn't too long. We turned right and headed for Discoveryland.



Discoveryland is DLP's version of Tommorrowland. The theming is a little complex, the area is not really set in the future of today but in the future as seen from yesteryear so that it never gets dated – Disney Imagineers felt that parts of EPCOT for example had rapidly become dated. It is themed around European literature including stories written by Jules Verne and the inventions of Leonardo da Vinci. The exterior of Space Mountain is based on Jules Verne's 19th century images of the future from “Journey From the Earth To The Moon”. The queue for SM was 5 minutes (Woo hoo) so we joined the,very short,queue – actually it was more of a jog through the queue system to the boarding area. We haven't been on this ride for some years and the reports I have read recently had advised me that it has got a little rough and the carriages are going to be replaced shortly with new ones were not wrong, the seats in the cars had definately been patched up often. We boarded the ride and rounded the corner into the upward slope of the “Columbiad cannon”, this is the “gun”designed to fire your capsule to the moon. When we first rode it about eight years ago we thought it was the best roller coaster that we had ever ridden. After what seems an age in the barrel of the cannon seconds we were off up the steep slope at great speed – we were on our way to the moon! The ride was still really good and you do go upside down in this SM but I always find I am just the right height for my ears to receive a beating against the restraints and normally come off with sore ears. One thing was missing from the ride as well, the wonderful music was not turned on and it simply isn't the same without it. We found out later that this space mountain was the first Disney ride where the music was actually built into the ride cars as is common place now. We exited the ride my hair was a mess and my ears hurt more than usual, I touched my ear and had realised that the stem of my earing was now firmly implanted in the flesh behind my ear (yuck), I yanked it out and it really hurt, Allan had a look and said it was bleeding. WARNING !!!! If you are five foot four and wear earrings please remove them if you are going on SM!



We headed towards Star Tours, I don't normally go on this in WDW as simulators make me feel very queasy but after successfully riding Mission Space at Epcot I thought maybe I was over that phase. As we walked to the entrance it started to rain, not very heavily at this point. The queue for Star Tours was a whole 0 minutes so we walked straight on.





Queues,queues,queues.



We sat at the front of the ride and as soon as the doors closed it felt very warm in there. Halfway through the ride I started to feel queasy . I tried to keep a huge grin on my face and kept trying use mind over matter to convince my body that I felt fine. I was really really pleased when the ride had ended, when I got off I had a little sit down on a bench in the corridor. I have now decided that most simulators are no good for me, please don't let me put anyone off Mission Space which is a completely different kettle of fish, MS is so smooth it doesn't feel like a simulator it is not jerky at all. Allan thinks I must just be very sensitive to slight mismatches between motion and what I see on the screen.



When we walked out of Star Tours it was raining really heavily so we sought refuge in a shop. I made a few purchases (of course). I bought an autograph book, a pen and two beanies from Tarzan; Tantar and Turk who I had delivered to the hotel. We went to Central Plaza in front of the castle where we saw Pluto, I got his autograph and had my picture taken with him. They don't really queue for characters over here, very French, you just have to jump in quick in between people, it really takes some getting used to I stood there for quite a while before I had the nerve to jump in for a picture.





I meet Pluto, Yay!



We were still geeting rained upon quite heavily so decided to go and buy a couple of ponchos, I had a really soggy cardie and Allan's jumper was wet too. We walked to Adventureland and to keep out of the rain cut through Le Passage Enchante d'Aladdin, this is a little indoor walkthrough exhibit of some scenes from the Aladdin film, it is pretty cute. We headed to the shop and bought two ponchos and put them on. The hood from the poncho kept covering my eyes and I was whinging that I couldn't see. After putting up with me getting increasingly whiney for 10 minutes Allan folded the top back on the hood and I could see, hurrah! In spite of having the ponchos we had decided to go on an indoor attraction as the weather was so nasty, so had headed for POTC. I really really love this ride, the queue was only five minutes long so we got into a boat in no time. There is a bigger drop on this ride than WDW and they take a picture of you on the drop. We looked at the picture after the ride, it was really awful so that's one less pic to upload.





A pirate pic for Marcie.



We walked through to Fantasyland and an old favourite IASW.



Its a Small World DLP style.

There was no queue again and we just walked on (well, Allan was actually dragged on!!!)





Allan said this was supposed to be a look of dread...don't call us, we'll call you.



After IASW Allan was insistant of taking a picture of me outside, in my poncho he said, he was very specific of where I had to stand. He did finally admit to an ulterior motive, you can see the results below, HUMMPPHH!!!





No Comment!



We needed something warm to eat as it was rainy and chilly so we headed for Auberge du Cendrillon in Fantasyland. This is a table service restaurant, very pretty inside. Allan ordered a three course meal which cost about 24 Euros, he had pumpkin soup to start, asparagus rissotto and chose the chocolate slipper dessert for us to share. The slipper dessert had been on my to do list – was nicely presented and delicious . I ordered a main course of scallops with vegetables and pasta, it was all very tasty especially Allan's dessert.





Yum!



Cinderella came round the restaurant to talk to everybody whilst we were eating our lunch, she was very very pretty and spoke both English and French. We had our photo taken with her she was a really nice lady and played her part well, especailly with the children.





Cinder's



Our waitress was really nice too, she was very attentive, not too intrusive and was always smiling. When we left she gave me a Minnie Mouse pen and Allan a Donald Duck pen.



It was not raining as we left the resturant, just outside Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty were greeting children. All the little girls were in their element, it was so lovely to watch, we stood and watched their happy little faces for a while. I turned round and saw Winnie the Pooh on a bridge under the castle so we headed over there to go and meet him. Again there was no queuing system, so again I stood for quite a while until I plucked up the courage to go for it. I was so happy to have my picture taken with him. I have got the biggest grin on my face in the photo.





Pooh!



After seeing Pooh we headed to the dungeon under the castle (La Taniere du Dragon). This is fabulous, we took a photo but it really does not do it justice. He is a marvellous animatronic dragon who is trying to sleep, when he is woken up he gets really angry, literally fuming and breathes lots of smoke, some small children are a more than a little nervous of him.



Having had a damp morning we decided to head over to the Walt Disney Studios as we had read that a lot of the attractions are inside. We walked through the arcade behind Main Street on our way to the entrance and browsed through the shops. I saw a little plush Eeyore that you could wind up and he would walk along, he was so cute. I thought of Cheryl when I saw him. I was going to buy him then and there but I thought she has so many Eeyore toys she may already have this one, so I decided to text her and ask if she had one. We still had lots more days here so I could wait until I had heard from her and pop back to get it for her.



Just before the exit we stood and watched the dancers in the Town Square for a while. Then we droppred into city hall and booked an escorted tour of the Disneyland park for the next afternoon. After setting a time for the tour we walked to the exit, got a handstamp and took a five minute walk to the gates of Walt Disney Studios.





Next Walt Disney Studios

[Colexis Mom]

Great update Karen Sorry it's raining, but glad to hear it's not dampening your spirits Looking forward to hearing about the studios

[Wendyismyname]

Karen,

Loving this trip report so far!! Keep up the great work!

[GoofyMom]

Great report so far, Karen! Ouch about your earring! And a big giggle over your antlers in the photo Allan took of you!



Can't wait for the afternoon report!

[Tara O'Hara]

Well, Karen, it doesn't seem like the rain has dampened your sprits at all!! You guys look so cute and like you are haveing a great time!! That dessert looks wonderful, too!!

[Jennifer2003]

Karen
(i'm going to try to talk like you)
I simply adore your trip reports. Thank you so much for posting so quickly again!
(Was that too Mary Poppins-ish? LOL)

THANKS AGAIN!
Jennifer

[BritDisFan]

Hi Jennifer ,



No I don't think you were Mary Poppins-ish at all . I may have an English tone but I am definately not as well spoken as Mary Poppins, although I think a carpet bag that I could miracle things out of or an umbrella that helps me fly would be pretty handy .



Karen

[NancyW2]

Karen, is that an edible flower next to the "slipper" dessert? Sounds like you two are having an incredible time! The pictures really add to your story!

[statelady01]

You have a wonderful writing style Karen, and the photos are great- love the one of Allan and the 0 wait time sign- those kinds of photos really add alot of fun to a photo album, scrapbook, etc.

Well done- looking forward to more!

[mac]

I love your pics Karen!! It looks and sounds like you were having fun. I'm a little shorter than you (just over 5ft.), and I have the same problem with "ear abuse" on coasters !

[Annabel]

Hi Karen, great update - the pics are fab! Can't wait to read more.

Annabel

[BritDisFan]

[ QUOTE ]
Karen, is that an edible flower next to the "slipper" dessert?

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes its a Physalis sp? I really don't like them but Allan loves them so he ate it.

Karen

[loobyoxlip]

Karen, oh my gosh, my head still hurts from thinking about your earring getting stuck in your skin. OUCH!! That picture of you with the moose (?) ear is very cute! Allan is a little jokester, huh?!? Too funny. And that slipper dessert looks to die for yummy!

They don't really have lines for the characters at Disneyland, either. Parents just basically push their kids up there. They very seldom has a character handler with them, and even if they do, they usually just stand to the side and don't do or say anything. It is a little frustrating, esp. knowing how well the line system works at WDW.

Can't wait to read more!