ATG in Gay Paree (that would be Paris) - with a day trip to DLP!

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Well?!?!?!?!?!?!................................I'm waiting.

Coming up!

 

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This is not sweat, it's DEW - 'cause it's so early!

We woke up, wolfed down breakfast, and headed off for our adventure in Disneyland! As we were leaving, the staff gave me a little bundle of flowers to celebrate May Day (May 1st). It's BIG holiday in Paris - lots of stuff is closed on that day - the State museums, shops, etc. My guide book said the city was pretty much shut down. What a perfect excuse to get out of town and go to Disneyland! First up was a Metro trip to the RER to catch a train to DLP! Thank goodness our hotel gave us flowers, it kept the flower vendors that were at every corner (and Metro) from hammering at us! Whew!

It's like we're on a movie set and we haven't even left Paris!

My flowers were right at home in the park!

It struck us as odd that there were no real signs for the park - the notice on the Train signage was a sticker - A STICKER?! We also thought that Disney was missing out on an opportunity, as you couldn't buy tickets for the park at the train station. You know if you were in the states, you'd be able to buy one as soon as you selected the train stop near the DLP station! A window would pop up all perky "Did you want tickets to Disneyland!" and when you said 'no' it's prompt you again "Are you SURE?" and as you finished the transaction you'd get one more "Were you planning on visiting Disneyland? Buy your tickets here!"

Some kid's heart is likely broken but, Pooh's heart is happy to taste FREEDOM!!

Sure, we'll take pictures of you zany Americans. Can you smile bigger? More teeth? PERFECT!

It was strange not to see the gates to enter right away, to realize they were UNDER the hotel! Crazy!

Lines? What lines?

Almost through the gates and into the promise land! I'm a little giddy!

All this and we're not even INSIDE yet!

First Stop: Lunch!

 

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We stopped in City Hall as soon as we hit the street - I needed a pass for some of the lines. We rented a chair for the day (curse you back, for giving out on my right before the trip to Paris!) - interesting trivia: Just having a chair doesn't give you an automatic entry into the disabled access for the rides. You need to get a pass for the rides in City Hall.

Here's Walt Disney's Legion of Honor Metal, hanging in City Hall!

Our next stop was to get some grub! I was starving! We spotted "Walt's" right away and ran in to see about the wait. HA! There wasn't one! REALLY?!?! On a National Holiday?!?! I LOVE DLP!! We were given a table immediately, right next to a window over looking Main Street. I took a billion menu pics that I won't bore you with. Actually, the bulk of my pictures are of menus and prices (a mission for a pal).

creamy lobster bisque, I love you!

My lunch: Waffle cut fries, with juicy steak, and tasty sauce

DH's lunc - veggie pasta! He said it was like eating butter and not in a bad way!

From our window we could see the little train as it made it's way up and down the street. It was great! Unlike the US parks, no one was lining the street to wait, they'd just stop as it made its way up and down, no fuss, no muss.

Our view is pretty sweet!

The swanky interior and food really reminded us of Club 33 in Disneyland! It was that good!

An old-timey light bulb inside the swanky elevator. We took the strangest pictures!

Now, bellies full, it's off to the Phantom Manor!

Frontierland was a breeze find but, a challenge to get into. DH and I are spoiled by DL! Every few feet you find a wheel chair access but, not at DLP. You sometimes have to go out of your way and backtrack. Poor DH pushing me around! He was exhausted! Luckily, the crowds were so much thinner, he didn't have to dodge as many people!

Did you shoot this thru vaseline? What's with the soft focus?

At last we were at the Haunted...er...Phantom Manor! The line for this attraction was very, very long. Thankfully, we could cut the line (Merci, City Hall).

We were really looking forward this ride! Unfortunately, we managed to catch all kinds of technical difficulties on this ride! It was like every few feet, the cars all stopped and we had to wait for the 'spooks' to subside. It just made everything really disjointed. The ride itself was interesting enough, with some neat similarities to the DL ride, followed by some CRAZY differences! This mansion was themed to be more horror movie like and scary. I can tell you, safely, that I would have been terrified as a child! Going underground in the cemetery was extra-creepie!

Next stop: ADVENTURE!

 

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We finished up Frontierland with a few quick snaps:

The weather really frustrated us, as it 'blew out' most of our pictures, making everything look like I was shooting it in the 1930's for Greta Garbo or something! Yesh. I do not have the mad photoshop skillz to fiddle with pictures, I either snap a good one, or it's junk. DH likes to fiddle!

The Mark Twain! Nice to see a 'familiar face'.

Heading off next to Adventureland!

Adventureland in DLP reminds me of Morocco at Epcot!

Now, I'm reminded of Animal Kingdom! Did the Safari vehicles come from here?

More restaurants than you could possibly eat at!
As we wandered, we discussed what, if any rides we wanted to attempt. Oddly enough, neither of us wanted to ride a bunch of rides! We were pretty exhausted from our trip and looked at this day as a 'rest' day. So, we just wandered around, snapping random restaurant menus and buying snacks. We people watched, and enjoyed all the space to walk in!

At least, that was the plan! We found ONE other ride that we HAD to try!

Temple of DOOM: The Ride!
DH loathes rollercoasters. Especially ones that turn upside down but, the siren song of Indy coaxed him onto this one! Thanks George & Steven for hitting all the nerd buttons on my DH!

I was not prepared for the turn and hurt my neck. Fun! Still, the ride was really great and really short!

Where's the Chicken of the Sea Sammiches?

Up next, FANTASYLAND!

 

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We couldn't believe that we'd spent so long in the park and hadn't taken a single pic of the castle! We had to remedy that, immediately!

Tinkerbell has some hardcore pixie dust in Paris. That pixie will cut you!

It's a really lovely castle! As we approached it, I told DH that I remembered there was supposed to be a Dragon in this castle but, that I'd heard it was closed. DH almost instantly pointed to a sign that said 'Dragon' with an arrow. We raced to it! A DRAGON! Oh boy!

The dragon awakes!

Sorry these are so dark! I really had a bad picture day during our park stay! We were mesmerized by the Dragon and stayed there for quite some time.

There's a beanstalk! Cool!

This was the prettiest hat shop I've EVER seen! It almost made me want to buy a set of Mickey ears!...almost

the fountain near Sleeping Beauties restaurant.

The teacups! Shady and dry! With a crazy long line!

Fantasyland at DLP felt HUGE! This was the almost the highest concentration of people we'd seen so far but, the land felt so spacious that we never felt pressed. Again, we saw almost as many restaurants as there were attractions. I joked to DH that I was going to fill my card with menu prices and that we'd never get to all the eateries (which was TRUE!).

A snack shack built like a Disney short? I LOVE DLP!

I want to buy this exact figure and take it home! Get on the ball, DL

I'm going to confess to you, gentle readers, that I was very tempted to ride this ride - I just couldn't bring myself to do it. I haven't recovered from the "improvements" of the DL and don't know if I could handle a second heart break.

This is either the Pizza place or the gelato place, I can't remember...and there were a ton of restaurants!

Last shot of the castle from Fantasyland! This is where we realized you could go up on another level and walk around! Dang it, how did we miss that?!

Coming up: Tomorrowland!

 

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By this point of the day, I was pretty beat. Tomorrowland felt really claustrophobic to me and we didn't stay long. Instead, we look a little wander into some shops looking for schwag and opted to find a place to eat before calling it a day. I didn't want to stay until park closing for fear of crowded trains.

DH took pity on my exhausted state, and left me in a shady spot while he ran off to take pictures. He said that when he got back, he found me asleep in my chair. I cannot confirm or deny that.

Oooh, it's a claw!

Buzz Lightyear stands triumphant over his vanquished foes! He is KING of Plush Mountain!

It's the Great Space Mountain, get onboard! On the Great Space Mountain, we'll explore!
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After our jaunt to Tomorrowland, we visited the arcades. Not the video game kind! The REAL kind!

There were two of them and they were great! You could easily access lots of shops and they had little take-away windows for food and drinks. We stopped for Hot Cocoa!

Surprise! I'm all you'll find for cute Ratatouille Schwag. Desole.

Stitch feels like the odd man out in this display.

Lady Liberty can rock a poster, yo!

The two Arcades were themed. My favorite was the Liberty Arcade! It just looked so good! Lots of star and flickering lights (Of course, those didn't come out!). The second one had the good food and was themed for Da Vinci (HA! None of those pics were any good, either!)

My favorite part was that the walls were covered with Posters from World's Fairs! I thought that was a great touch and I tried to snap as many of them as possible.

There was a fair in LA in '96? How did I miss that?!

By now, we're hungry again. DH and I decided to try to eat in the Blue Lagoon restaurant. We made our way back to Adventureland to see if we could grab a table. Our luck continued! We were seated almost immediately!

It was crazy dark in there! My photos are terrible (sorry!). The place wasn't themed like the Blue Bayou. Instead, it was more tropical and felt like a fun pirate hang out. DH ordered and ate Ostrich Flambe (he's my hero). I had a fruity, tropical rice dish (like Jambalaya - but, with coconut). The pics of said food were not very good, so I've opted not to try to post them.

Funny, all my pictures are of darkness!

You couldn't see much of the ride from where we were sitting, so no pics of that either (I am such a failure!). The service was a little pokey so, we just sat back and enjoyed ourselves. By the time we finished eating, the park was closed (so much for my idea of leaving early!). We were escorted out of the restaurant and out of Adventureland (I've never had that happen before at a Disney park in the US. Has anyone else?).

Once on main street, they let us make our own way out of the park.

Bye-Bye Blurry DLP!

We stopped to look at more stuff to buy for friends and were not thrilled with the stuff we found. I was hoping to score a great pin for one of my fellow Pin buff guys. I finally did find a cool pin AND a neato Lanyard for him! I was really looking for some great branded DLP park merchandise but, didn't see anything really stellar. The DLP logo was really 80's-tastic! So, we skipped most of it. Unfortunately, this trip to Paris was not a great schwag buying trip (well, for anyone other than me! ). Still, I managed to find a few trinkets that I hope they'll like (they did, after all, score me some cool stuff from their trip to Tokyo Disney!).

After the shopping, we turned in the chair and wandered back to the RER heading back to Paris. It was a long day but, a really fun day! Disneyland Paris was a great 'rest' day from our busy running around Paris.
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Merlin wishes he could magically transport us to a second day in the Parks. He's cool like that.

Up Next? Our visit to Versailles to see Louie's place!

 

[lurkyloo]

Whohoooo! Bless you for taking all those menu pix for me—they are going to be super-helpful for the PassPorter. And I have my eye on some more from this installment too!

Also, you are the second Disney fan I know who's been disappointed by the merchandise selection at DLRP. I wonder what gives? Also, yay for walking right into two of the most fun restaurants. It was like that in Tokyo too—we didn't even need our reservations!

Anyway, hooray for pictures of DLP!

 

[A-T-G]

Whohoooo! Bless you for taking all those menu pix for me—they are going to be super-helpful for the PassPorter. And I have my eye on some more from this installment too!

Also, you are the second Disney fan I know who's been disappointed by the merchandise selection at DLRP. I wonder what gives? Also, yay for walking right into two of the most fun restaurants. It was like that in Tokyo too—we didn't even need our reservations!

Anyway, hooray for pictures of DLP!

I'm going to send you a CD of pics this week. Let me know if there's anything from this report that you want (if it's not included)!

 

[disney_princess_85]

Yay for DLP! I'm glad you enjoyed it, particularly your meal at Walt's as it's my favourite.

I'm quite surprised at your comments about the merchandise, as I've always found there to be more variety at DLP than WDW. There are lots of little shops that are somewhat hidden away at DLP and they tend to sell products that are exclusive to that particular shop, or products that relate to the land the shop is in. Everything seems more generic at WDW. I think the clothing range at DLP is great too, especially in the Disney Village stores.

 

[tennisfan]

Just read through all this. Amazing photos of Paris & DLRP. I look forward to the rest

 

[A-T-G]

Yay for DLP! I'm glad you enjoyed it, particularly your meal at Walt's as it's my favourite.

I'm quite surprised at your comments about the merchandise, as I've always found there to be more variety at DLP than WDW. There are lots of little shops that are somewhat hidden away at DLP and they tend to sell products that are exclusive to that particular shop, or products that relate to the land the shop is in. Everything seems more generic at WDW. I think the clothing range at DLP is great too, especially in the Disney Village stores.

DH and I feel like the merch at Disney parks in general is getting more and more generic. Because we were so unfamiliar with the park, we really couldn't figure out where all the good shopping was. I may be wrong but, I always thought at Disneyland that the shops were listed on the map as well and the food and attractions. At DLP, all I could find were listings of food and attractions. I thought the shops we did wander in were gorgeous but, we didn't see anything in the fields that we're interested in to wow us. I will grant you that the clothing looked pretty amazing (I almost picked up an exclusive cotton scarf) and I loved that the exclusive stuff was clearly marked! But, I was skeered that the clothing would be slim European sizes and not fit my chubby American body, so we skipped it and focused on Pins n' stuff. I was heartbroken that the shop attached to Walt's didn't have stellar stuff in it. I was really hoping to find something unique in ceramic for my house. Still, fun to browse!

 

[mommy2ash]

thanks for posting i have really enjoyed reading your tr.

 

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Our final full day was spent in Versailles! I've always, always wanted to go to Versailles and to see the palace there.

The next massive update will be full of that stuff - so, if you were just tuning in for the DLRP stuff - you may want to tune out for this stuff!

It'll be up in a day or so...please come back for oodles of pretty, shiny things!

 

[mommy2ash]

oooh i cant wait for the next part

 

[IsobelJackmummy]

I'm enjoying this trip report SO much! Thank you for sharing.

Looking forward to more........

 

[disney_princess_85]

Because we were so unfamiliar with the park, we really couldn't figure out where all the good shopping was. I may be wrong but, I always thought at Disneyland that the shops were listed on the map as well and the food and attractions. At DLP, all I could find were listings of food and attractions.

That's a good point. They should really bring more attention to them!

I will grant you that the clothing looked pretty amazing (I almost picked up an exclusive cotton scarf) and I loved that the exclusive stuff was clearly marked! But, I was skeered that the clothing would be slim European sizes and not fit my chubby American body, so we skipped it and focused on Pins n' stuff.

Yeah, the range of sizes isn't fantastic. Their 'large' is probably equivalent to a US 10, which obviously excludes a lot of people.

 

[Mum to Belle]

Great photos - thanks for sharing!!

We loved Walt's restaurant too and as you say, more places than you can possibly eat in!!

p.s. If you have more food/menu photos - please, please, please post them on the restaurant threads - we love 'em!!

 

[Disneygrl36]

Loved your Eiffel Tower pics......good for you for standing up to the rude person.

DLP looks amazing. Did you go into the Disneyland Hotel? It looks gorgeous. That castle is so cool too & the dragon in the basement. WOW. Thanks for taking the time to take all those pics & share them here.

Can't wait to hear about Versailles.

 

[ExpatDisneyLover]

Great TR - how come I didn't see this before?? Super photos too! So there is more??

 

[zinderella]

Thanks for your great trip report, I have really enjoyed it and am putting Paris on my to do list!