DisneyLand Paris Day 1

We spent three days (Wednesday to Friday) at DisneyLand Paris. We awoke at 6:30AM on Wednesday to begin our journey. I had spent a few anxious moments the night before as Ethan fell asleep very early and Nic casually says, "I hope he isn't getting sick." I needn't have worried. He was up and raring to go. We left a little after 7AM to walk to the Amiens train station for our 8:15AM train (actually a bus) that would take us to the TGV Haute Picardie station. The TGV (Train Grande Vitesse) trains are the "high speed" trains. The train to Disneyland did not go at top speed because it was a short distance, but it did go faster than the trains we were taking to Paris. We had an assigned car and assigned seating on the TGV train and we successfully navigated ourselves into the right spots. (You had to find the right place to stand on the platform to get into the right car). We arrived at the Disneyland station by 10:30AM. As you can see from the photo Gwyneth was happy! The station is literally at the entrance to the parks (Disneyland and Walt Disney Studios). We took the shuttle to our hotel (The Sequoia Lodge) and the kids were treated to their first Disney character - Pluto. That was exciting for them. We were all checked in by 11:30AM and we stored our luggage (since we could not access the room until 3PM) and we were on our way to Walt Disney Studios. It was a 10-15 minute walk from the hotel but we took the shuttle again this time.


We had decided to start with Walk Disney Studios since it was the smaller of the 2 parks and we were getting a late start. Right at the entrance we were treated to some more Disney Characters - Lilo, Stitch, Chip, and Dale - I think. And we were treated to the French Way of doing things. There were no lines to get a picture or an autograph. It was basically a free for all with kids and adults pushing a little bit. The first time Gwyneth sort of stood back patiently waiting but she quickly got the idea that she had to be pushy if she wanted to get an autograph. (Later there would be other places where there was a civilized line to get an autograph or photo, but many times we just saw the free for all method.).


I think we started with some lunch of the fast food variety and it was decent if not expensive. I can't remember the price, but I think close to 30 euros. We were not able to sit on the upper level as we wanted (which disappointed a few people in our party). Ethan's pizza came in the shape of Mickey Mouse which he enjoyed. After lunch we hit the park. I think the first ride we went on was a Disney Cars tilt-a-whirl type thing and it quickly became one of our favorites. It would turn out that there were only a few rides that kids liked in this park. There were some thrill rides that Gwyneth was not interested in and Ethan was too small for. There was a flying carpet ride that looked good but that was closed unfortunately. We found the characters "Buzz Lightyear" and "Remy" from Ratatouille in this section of the park. They actually had "lines" and were quite civilized so we stopped their for some photos and autographs. I think we had obtained an autograph book for Gwyneth by then (which she shared with Ethan). She had planned to use her Mona Lisa pad of paper for autographs, but it didn't seem to working out so well so we spent the 5 euros for the autograph book.


We hit a spot of good luck with the "Behind the Scenes" Tram ride. I think we had stood in line earlier but Ethan was acting up or we were hungry or something like that so we bailed. This time around we showed up and it looked like the ride had been closed and they were just about to open it. So we hardly had any wait at all. You got on a bus like thing and the drove you around something that looked like the back lot of a Hollywood studio. The "highlight" was when the blew up some truck and then some water came rushing over the Tram. Gwyneth didn't like the ride at all (too scary) and Ethan didn't like the fire. I kinda thought it was dumb. So I was glad we didn't wait in line too long.


Here we are at the Disney Cars ride again. This was later in the day while Ethan and I were waiting for Gwyneth & Nic who had decided to try Crush's Roller Coaster. It was also on this ride that I was introduced to the French way of "queueing". Basically you get in line, but then get really close to the person in front of you and/or try to pass them in the line. Earlier in the day I had this woman practically up my butt .... Nic couldn't believe it. Where the ?$!@ do you think you are going????? Anyway, back to the present, and it could probably have been predicted but Gwyneth wouldn't like the roller coaster. She doesn't like steep fast drops as she told us many times. So that right there may ended her trying any more thrill rides at Disney.


Throughout the day we saw several shows that were very good. "Animagique" was a theatrical production that starred Donald and Mickey and took you through some Disney movies. On Friday, it would turn out that we would see the show again, as it was one of Gwyneth's favorites. We would sit closer and it became more impressive because we could "see" how they did some of the production tricks. We saw a Playhouse Disney show that included a human host and then puppet accompaniment. This one was a bit crowded and everyone sat on the floor which made it difficult for the kids to see as the puppets were smallish we thought. Again, we would see this show one more time on Friday and we were savvy as how to get the kids a spot up front. In any case, the kids really liked it, especially Ethan. Bubbles dropped out of the ceiling and confetti in the shape of leaves fell out of the sky which made for some fun. The last show we saw was an animated/interactive show with Stitch. Stitch was in the form of a cartoon, but he interacts with the audience by asking questions and responding to the answers. It was quite clever and well done. Nic thought it was funny. Gwyneth and I had seen something similar involving Nemo in Disney in FL.


Around 6:30PM Ethan and I caught the "Stars in Cars" parade while still waiting for Nic and Gwyneth. We had a front row seat as this was right at the beginning and they were all heading down to do a show at the other end. Here is Mulan and Mushu .... Ethan really likes Mushu. Soon after this we left the park as it closed at 7PM and we had a 7:15PM dinner reservation at Cafe Mickey that was on the walk back to our hotel.





We discovered the benefits of the "Character Meal". The characters were plentiful and you didn't have to run over another child to get to one. Two or three characters were out at one time and they came to every table for pictures and/or autographs. We liked it so much we went back the next day around lunch time. We saw Mickey Mouse, Donald, Pluto, Tigger, Eeyore, Gepetto, Friar Tuck, Sheriff of Nottingham, Goofy, Snee, and more ..... The meal was actually very good. The kids got "kids meals" that came with the all you can eat dessert buffet. I had a shrimp salad - I think I am still suffering vegetable withdrawal and got the "complete meal" with a very good mushroom and garlic bread appetizer, lasagna, and hazelnut creme brulee. Nic is so nice he changed his dessert order after I poo-pooed his choice of the ice cream dessert. (Tomorrow he would get a second chance at the ice cream though when we came back.) I think we rolled out of the restaurant around 9PM and a good time was had by all. Nic and I were amazed that Ethan actually sat down for that long and we knew that the characters and the TV's that were showing cartoons may have had something to do with it. In any case, we were happy to have a very nice sit down meal for a change! Oh yeah, and it "only" cost us 90 euros.

We took the short walk back to the hotel - maybe 10 minutes from here. And everyone plopped into bed. We had already decided that we were getting an early start the next day as we wanted to be at the park by 8AM when it opened only to those people staying in Disney Hotels. For everyone else the park opened at 10AM.