Day Eight: 4/30
Today we went to Disney Paris (EuroDisney). Big
surprise, it rained again! It has
rained every day so far. We took the RER A train to
the park. It is the train’s very last stop.
It’s very convenient to get there via the train. But then again,
everything in Europe has good transportation.
It would be a good idea for the states to try and figure out a way to
travel from point A to point B without having to take a car. BTW, gas in Europe is almost $4.00US a
gallon.
Upon entering the park, the
first thing you notice is that Sleeping
Beauty's Castle (Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant) is pink rather
than white. This reminds me of the time they had the castle made up to look
like a birthday cake in Anaheim. It was neat to see a lot of similar things,
but still different.
Getting to the park early was wonderful. There were no lines this early in the morning and with the rain, so we ate breakfast and rode space mountain (Space Mountain– From the Earth to the Moon), the Jules Verne time travel circle vision (Le Visionarium) and Casey Jr Circus Train (Casey Jr – le Petit Train due Cirque) in the first hour we got there.
The highlights of the park are:
Space Mountain: This ride has some very cool music, and two loops. One is a corkscrew, yes I said corkscrew!
Indiana
Jones and the Temple of Peril:
Backwards!: backwards ride in mine cars. It’s like a backward roller
coaster. Too bumpy and hurt our necks
and backs. No computer animation.
People with bad backs should avoid. We also only had to wait 1 minute in the
line. Thank you fastpass!
Pirates
of the Caribbean: This ride has a much cooler layout than the one in
California. The ride has all of the same scenes for the most part. There are a
few scenes that are new with new dialogue (in French of course). This is by far
one of the most enjoyable rides, even though some of the scenes are “not” quite
for children. But Disney found a way to
make it enjoyable. Steve thinks he spotted a Hidden Mickey: On the Pirates ride, to
the side of skull rock. There are three holes to the top right of the skull.
This is towards the end of the ride.
Big
Thunder Mountain: There is a big drop right away and then it goes
underwater. It exits through a tunnel to an island where most of the ride takes
place, then back under water to return you to the exit. The ride seems faster
then the California version. We waited 90 minutes for this ride. Not bad
considering the crowds started to pick up when we got in line.
Haunted Mansion (Phantom Manor): There are some fresh scenes with a common person in all of the scenes. This person is most likely the woman of the manor. There is a scene where two men duel. They all die. The graveyard has tomb of mother and two lovers killed the same year. It was cool that the ride had a small story line to it rather then the US version that just seems to be a jumble of scenes.
We did not ride Peter Pan because there was a 200+ minutes wait. This ride is as popular in France as in the U.S. Angie laments that she will never get to ride Peter Pan again since we never get a fast pass for it.
Disney
Railroad: We waited 60 minutes and 3 trains for the railroad (What is
up with that!?!?) This is not a popular
ride at Disneyland, but everyone in France seems to love it. Well, don’t try to
understand it, just accept it. Some things just boggle the mind.
After a very busy and tiring day, we rode the train back to Paris and caught the Metro back to our Hotel. As soon as we got into the room we promptly crashed.