This morning began the final leg of our great journey before we head home. As lifelong Disney fans, we've long dreamed of visiting an overseas park (with France being the closest by a long shot, we'd figured it would be our first). And the fact that it is Father's Day today just makes it all that more special.
We checked out of our hotel in Paris, Le Derby Alma, which we just loved. It's small and cozy, and the location is perfect: just around the corner from the Eiffel Tower and right by an RER station. Whenever we make it back to Paris, we'll definitely stay there again.
We had to change trains twice to get to the RER A, which goes to Disneyland. Madison and I both studied the metro map and there was no easier way. We even tried backtracking and walking to a further station, but every path equalled three trains. The problem is that the A line basically runs parallel to the C, so we were stuck taking a third train in between (the B line). Essentially, we just did the reverse route from when we arrived.
My suitcase got caught trying to lift it up on the high step of the first train, which wasn't exactly a great start. The doors closed on me and someone very kindly tried to help. Everyone has been so helpful here. I had to jump back off to free my suitcase and get back onboard. Fortunately, getting on the other two trains went much smoother. Only the first one had such a high step. The other two were more even with the platform.
Once we got on our final train, we were finally able to relax and enjoy the ride all the way to the end of the line. Like Versailles, there was no worry about getting off at the right stop. It was a pretty long ride of about 45 minutes out into the French countryside all the way to Disneyland Paris.
We saw a lot of neighborhoods and graffiti along the way. But most of it was just open farmland, this time a bit different from the farms we'd seen on the Eurostar.
We reached the Marne Valley station and took the elevator up (thankfully), which put us right in Disney Village at the entrance to both parks. We had no idea where to go next, so I popped into the well-placed information booth. They directed us to take the bus to our hotel. Actually, we could have easily walked, but by this point the bus was a welcome sight.
When we reached the hotel, Newport Bay, we were surprised by two things: first was the temporary security tent outside where they ran our bags through an X-Ray. We carried the bags inside, only to find out we had to go right back out and drop our bags off at luggage check, since our room wasn't ready.
The second was that there are construction walls and scaffolding up everywhere. There was nothing on the website about this, though they mentioned "a little renovation" that would probably be finished by the time we arrived. But this looks like the entire hotel. They should have given us a discount, or at least a hard hat. Some of it looks kind of junky and even dangerous to walk around. Had I known it was this extensive, we'd have booked the Sequoia instead.
After we checked in (minus our room keys), we were ready to get something to eat and hit the parks, so we hit the trail. It was a very short walk to Disney Village (their smaller version of Downtown Disney) and spotted Earl of Sandwich. That's all we needed to see. We grabbed a quick bite and I called my Dad for Father's Day.
Walt Disney Studios Park (like our Disney's Hollywood Studios) was the closest and we really wanted to do the new Ratatouille attraction and Crush's Coaster, so we went there first. Plus, that park closed early, just in time for our dinner reservations.
I really loved the main entrance arcade, which is decorated in an Art Deco tribute to 1940s Hollywood. As soon as we saw it, Marsha and Madison knew I was in heaven. The individual shops and restaurants are actually a series of facades covering a food court and some souvenir shops, but the design and attention to detail are spot on.
I just wanted to take in all the details and take pictures. And dream of building one in my basement.
For the first time in years, we needed a guide map for a Disney park. Madison successfully navigated us to the new Ratatouille section, which is just beautiful. Since we'd just come from Paris, we were really able to appreciate the attention to detail.
The line was fairly long for the new Ratatouille ride, so we just did single rider, which worked out pretty well. Marsha and I actually ended up in the same car (which look like mice). It's a little similar to Spider-Man and Harry Potter in that it uses a combination of live scenes and giant 3-D screens. The characters spoke everything in English and French, which really worked for Ratatouille, since it takes place in Paris. But the best part is the trackless ride system which sends the cars off on multiple paths.
When you get off the ride, you also get a glimpse of Bistro Chez Remy, where we'll be having lunch on Tuesday. Again, the Imagineers really hit it out of the park. I'm hoping that the rumors prove true and we get one of these in Epcot.
Next we got in line for Crush's Coaster, but we didn't want to be separated again, so we skipped single rider. It was an hour long wait, but kept moving. They don't have interactive queues there yet, but they do have a game you can play on your phone via the free wifi, except the wifi wasn't working. The only real downside to the wait was that people can smoke in line (there was a lot of smoking in Paris, too). They have smoking areas in the parks, but no one uses them. They can smoke pretty much anywhere outdoors, just not indoors, thankfully.
Crush's Coaster was a lot of fun (again, I hope the rumors of WDW getting one prove true). The first part is basically a dark ride and a lot like Nemo & Friends, but then it turns into kind of an indoor mad mouse coaster. Think Space Mountain with your car spinning in every possible direction.
Madison and I rode Tower of Terror (Marsha chickened out), which was also great. As expected, it's a lot like the California version, with no hotel grounds and no Fifth Dimension. The Rod Serling intro video was dubbed into French with English subtitles, which was interesting. The bellhops were really into sneaking up and scaring people, which they'd never do in the U.S.
Finally, we went to Animagique, which is fun and a little like Philharmagic (same basic plot), but done as a live stage show in black light with scenes from Dumbo ("Pink Elephants"), The Jungle Book, and the Lion King. It was mostly music with a lot of the songs in English.
I'd read that Walt Disney Studios park was kind of built on the cheap and that's clearly true. Some sections are really great, like the entry arcade, the buildings that you first see when you enter, and especially the new Ratatouille area.
But the park as a whole is really small and crammed together. As Madison commented, it looks more like an amusement park with Disney theming. There are many off-the-shelf rides like you'd see at the State Fair. Even Crush's Coaster, which is a lot of fun, lacks theming on the outside. I'd read that they'd made some effort to fix this, which shows (especially Ratatouille), but I think the central problem is with the basic layout and just putting things much too close together. Not really sure how they can fix that.
Since it was getting close to our dinner reservations, we headed next door to Disneyland Park (aka the Magic Kingdom). We were really glad we did this park last. It's huge and, on the surface, probably the most beautiful Disney park I've ever seen. The front entrance is bordered by the Disneyland Hotel, which is clearly why that hotel is so expensive.
We walked down Main Street (right down the middle) for a view of the castle, which we'd long seen in scale model form in One Man's Dream at WDW. It was awesome finally seeing the real thing. Since castles aren't as special in Europe, the Imagineers designed a castle that was more fantasy-themed.
We wanted to see the dragon (yes, they have a dragon) in the dungeon underneath, but we were getting short on time and it was closed for the moment. That would be our top priority after we ate.
We had our Father's Day dinner at Walt's, which is right on Main Street. It's on the second floor and all the rooms are decorated to match the various lands in the park. Since it was my special day, I went all out and got Walt's Burger, which had foie gras (my first time eating it). Can't say I'm a huge fan, but the burger was delicious (though I'm not sure Walt, a man who loved canned chili) would have loved foie gras, either.
Afterwards, the dragon was back open, so we made a beeline there. There are a couple of trails that lead under the castle where a full-size animatronic dragon sleeps. Every few minutes, he wakes up, moves his head around, flaps his wings, taps his claws, and spews smoke. It is truly amazing!
We were anxious to ride Pirates of the Caribbean, so we headed off to Adventureland, which has swapped locations with Frontierland in the U.S. We were surprised to find the Adventureland gate is Agrabah themed, and also closed off for refurbishment. Though there were no detour signs, we easily found a path around it (which turned out to be the exit to the Aladdin attraction, also closed for refurb) and made our way in.
Adventureland is really big and spread out, with winding paths and lots of trees and rocks. It's the complete opposite of the Studios park in just about every way. Everything seems to wind around the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse and Ben Gunn's Caves (from Treasure Island), which was odd for us, but very intriguing.
Even odder was that Pirates is tucked all the way in the back. It's much harder to find than in the U.S., which was part of the fun. We actually had to go through Ben Gunn's Cave to get there, which is huge and has lots of tunnels to explore.
Shockingly, there was only a five minute wait. Since the additions of Johnny Depp and FastPass+, our Pirates usually has a 50 minute wait. It was also very different and completely awesome, possibly the best Pirates ride of all. The story is a little more cohesive and told mostly in reverse, with the caves at the end. I just loved the flooded castle at the beginning, the sword fighting animatronics, and even more shocking (especially for France), the completely non-PC Pirates chasing women. I can't wait to ride it again (and again). It's almost a completely different ride.
Afterwards, Madison and I rode the Indiana Jones Coaster. I didn't have high hopes and it met my expectations. It's basically an outdoor metal coaster with the Indy name stuck on it. It's kind of rough and beats you up a bit. They could easily slap another name on it and it wouldn't make any difference. Definitely a
missed opportunity.
With Pirates checked off the list, it was time to head to Frontierland to ride Haunted Mansion, I mean Phantom Manor, a western-themed version. Haunted Mansion is the only attraction that's in a different land in every Disney park. The amount of space devoted to this attraction is amazing. You get a great feeling of dread and anticipation as you walk up and through the grounds. It looks a lot like the Bates house.
We were even more surprised to see people on the front porch! You actually enter from the front door, then are led into the Stretching Room. Like CA, this is an actual elevator, so the Maids and Butlers take a more active role in moving you to the "dead center" of the room. This also helps with the multi-language situation. And they're more into scaring you, like at ToT.
The ride itself was awesome and also very different. Again, no FastPass or interactive queue, so the wait was very short. While many of the scenes were the same, the story was very different. It actually has a cohesive story with the Bride as the main character (her haunting singing really sticks with you) and a villain, the Phantom. We missed some of it because the Ghost Host is only in French (sadly, they don't use the English version with Vincent Price anymore), but were intrigued enough for Madison to look it up back at the room.
The ending is so completely different (and dark) that I was actually surprised to hear a bit of "Grim Grinning Ghosts." My only quibble was the Madame Leota face effect looked more like a Conan O'Brien skit than the Haunted Mansion. They did a better job back in the 60s. I can't wait to ride it again, though. I'd actually love to see this attraction turned into a movie.
The strangest thing here is how popular Frontierland is. It's one of the biggest lands in the park with Big Thunder Mountain and Phantom Manor as the key attractions, two of the hotels are Western themed, and there are several Western themed restaurants (steak, of course). There's even a live Wild West show (like in Dollywood) in Disney Village.
By this time, it was getting late and we were getting tired, so we thought we'd do one more ride before heading back to the hotel. We still needed to get our room keys and our bags.
Went over to Discoveryland (aka Tomorrowland), about which I was very excited. Since the future is always changing, they took more of a Jules Verne, steampunk approach, which I just love. Sadly, most of it (including Space Mountain, which really disappointed Madison) was closed off behind construction walls. There were really only two attractions open: BuzzLightyear Laser Blasters (that one seems to have a different name in every park) and Star Tours (the original version).
On our last trip to WDW, I finally got a perfect score on Buzz Lightyear and became a Galactic Hero. Fortunately, I had no preconceptions that I would do remotely well this time. Madison was excited because, like the Disneyland version, the gun has a cord instead of being mounted to the car.
As expected, I did terrible. My experience with the WDW version actually worked against me. My first mistake was holding the trigger down, which didn't work at all.
I'm also used to the gun being mounted to the car, so free-aim was more difficult. However, I really like how some of the targets (though not all) flash when you hit them. That's a great plus.
We wanted to check out Fantasyland and maybe ride something there, but it closed before the rest of the park for some reason. We also thought about riding Star Tours, but it was getting late and we were tired and still needed to get our room keys and suitcases. So it was back to hotel and the construction zone.
Fortunately, our room is very nice and really feels like Disney. They even had a welcome message playing on the TV when we arrived.
Best Father's Day ever.
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