DisneyLand Paris Day 3

Today was Friday - our last day in Disney. Again we made the push for an early start in the park. Alarm at 6:30AM and this time we were out the door by 7:15AM with our luggage as we would have to check out and store our luggage for the day. Everything went smoothly and we were at the park before 8AM this time. We had short wait at security (for it to open) but otherwise we walked straight in. We decided to skip the stroller for today as yesterday it seemed to cause more trouble than help. Ethan wanted to push it, etc.... It was nice going into the park so early because it wasn't crowded. Ethan had a little pep in his step as you can see in the video.

We had decided to start with Tomorrowland again and do the Buzz Lightyear ride and the Orbitron again since the kids liked those. We went on several times and there were no lines. I even went on Space Mountain and so now I can say that I went on one roller coaster. It was fun, but I found it a bit jarring as you were whipped around in the dark. Sorry, I'm not sure why this photo is sideways it just is. The other reason to start in Tomorrow land was to check on the "driving ride" but again it was not slated to open until later in the day so we gave up on it and headed to Fantasyland.

We were able to do several rides here with no waiting: teacups, Dumbo (the photo), the carousel, and Peter Pans's ride again. We were done with all of things and it was about 9:30AM. We then decided to head for Adventureland and Frontierland - the 2 parts of the park that we hadn't seen yet. We quickly found out that you couldn't get to that side until the park opened at 10AM. So we found that a bit frustrating and wandered around a bit more in Fantasyland. We happened to stumble upon the place that we had made a reservation for lunch where you eat with the princesses. We were shocked to discover the price - about 240 US dollars for lunch for the 4 of us. So Nic and I quickly decided that we wouldn't be doing that! The kids seemed to take it all in stride too.

The kids did a little goofing around while we were waiting for the other side of the park to open. Around this time is when Nic witnessed a guy holding up his daughter (maybe 2 or 3 years old) to pee into a drain (we assume) that was next to the Dumbo ride! I couldn't believe it. Believe me, there are plenty of bathrooms in Disney, you do not need to pee into a drain.

Next we positioned ourselves near the entry of Adventureland that was closest to the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. We maybe waited 10 minutes (with a bunch of other people) and as soon as they let the rope down everyone ran over to the ride only to be told the ride wasn't opening until 10:30AM. Nic got a little "hot" at this point but there was nothing we could do so we walked on. We walked through this pirate area and almost through the Tree House (but that was closed for renovation). We found a play are that entertained the kids for a while (but did I really need to go to Disney for that?). Ethan really enjoyed this rope bridge. Gwyneth was getting hungry and a little grumpy around now, but as it was so early not many lunch places were open. Nic found some popcorn which kept her happy for a bit. We decided to try the Pirates of the Caribbean ride again and the wait wasn't too long so we went it. Afterwards, we likened it to "It's a Small World" but darker and for adults. You go around in a boat and look at dioramas of things. In a few places the boat goes down a slope for a small thrill. So it was entertaining, but again not one of Gwyneth's favorites. She tolerated it but didn't need to do it again.

After this it was close to 11AM and Nic and decided that there really wasn't too many other rides that were going to be good for Gwyneth. So we decided to go over and spend the rest of our day at Walt Disney Studios and see some shows and do the Cars ride again. While we were deciding all of this Gwyneth's mood really seemed to go down and we thought that she could be getting sick. She asked if she could go back to the room. But since we were leaving today there really was no place for us to go. We managed to get her over to Walt Disney Studios and we had lunch right away and she went to bathroom. Right away her mood improved and things were looking up so that was a relief! She was fine for the rest of the day.

One of the first things we did after lunch was grab a front row seat for this High School Musical production that was done outside. We thought it was excellent. Then we repeated all of the other shows that we enjoyed - Playhouse Disney, Stick Live, and Animagique. We had a couple of ride on the Cars ride too for good measure. By 4:30 or 5:00PM we were all tired and looking for a rest. So we left the park and went to Starbucks in the Disney Village. On the way out, we let Ethan pick out a souvenir and he picked a Buzz Lightyear play set, much to his parent's delight since he had been insisting that he wanted exactly what Gwynnie had gotten the night before. So we all had our Starbucks - Lattes for the adults and Frappachinos for the kids. The kids were able to play with Ethan's toy as there was a nice kid size table there. Once we got recharged we decided that we could muster the strength for one last hurrah in the park to go see the "Stars in Cars" show at 6:30PM. After that we would head to the train station for our train at about 8:50PM.

We got a second row seat for the show behind a family and almost had an international incident when they decided to stand up for the show. The people behind us told them to sit down but they weren't having it. I found it all a bit rude, but by now I wasn't surprised. It turned out that everyone was standing when it started anyway.

We were off to the side and so we didn't see the show from the front, but we got to see all the characters. Again in true DisneyLand Paris fashion there were times when the characters came around for autographs and the kids had to compete with each other to get one. Luckily Gwyneth got an autograph from Ariel, but that was it. Anyway, I found the whole thing a bit cheesy ... why does giving autographs have be a part of the show? Otherwise, it was nice ending to our little vacation (if you could call it that) and around 7PM we headed out of the park.

Not without one last family photo. Here is Ethan with his happy face again. I took the kids to the train station (maybe a 10 minute walk) and Nic walked over to the hotel to get our single suitcase. We managed to get some good tasting paninis in the train station for dinner and then off we went back to Amiens. Our train was right on time. (Some other trains were delayed by 2 hours or more and so we were a little worried that something was going on, but it didn't affect us at all). We were back in Amiens around 10:30PM and after the short taxi ride home we all collapsed into bed.