LaMagique's Magical Easter in DLP *lots of pictures* updated 4-24, pg 2 #17!

[lamagique]

So, I recently wrote a trip report about my visit to Disneyland Paris in March. Well, I don't know how I did it, but I convinced my mother to take me to DLP AGAIN... and only two weeks after I had been there the first time.

We ended up going on Easter Sunday, which meant that the parks were packed. I was really excited about going back this time because I was able to go to the Disney Studios Park this time in addition to Magic Kingdom. Also, the weather was a lot better than last time, so I was able to take many more pictures.

Okay, so let's get started:

Once we finally got through the massive line to get into the park (and that's not including the line to buy tickets--which we purchased beforehand at our hotel), I set out to get us fastpasses while my mom stayed and got something to eat on Main Street.

Main Street USA... in FRANCE

The first one that I wanted fastpasses to was Big Thunder Mountain. It's my favorite ride at DLP and it's my mom's favorite ride at the other resorts. This was a priority. However, the stand-by line was at 100 minutes!!! and the fastpass line took me about fifteen minutes. But I did have luck: someone left about 7 extra fastpasses on the machine. No one looked like they were missing them (they had been on top of the machine for a while), so I took them. I figured it was a nice little Easter gift.

Well, I made my way over to Space Mountain to try to get another fastpass. As I walked, I snapped some pictures:

This is a pirate ship in front of Pirates of the Carribean (in that fortress in the background).

A quick pic as I passed by the castle.

When I got to the Space Mountain: Mission 2 fastpass line, I found out that I could only get one fastpass at a time. I guess because my friends were Cast Members the last time, they were able to get more than one at a time. Well, I gave that up and hurried over to where they were distributing the tickets for "The Legend of the Lion King" show. I did not get to do it the last time, so I was excited to see it.

The way that this show works at Disney is that you must get tickets before the show. There is a huge long line for them:

(This picture is only part of the line for the tickets)

At 11:00, you have to get tickets for the 12pm, 1:30, or 2:30 shows. At 3pm, you can get tickets for the 5pm or 6pm shows. I kind of didn't like this because I like being able to go to shows spontaneously, but I brushed that off and got in line. Also, not all of the shows are in English. Some are in French, too, so the time also depends on that.

Well, I got in line, but this lady behind me kept trying to cut me. I honestly had to keep blocking her from coming in front of me. I finally made it to the front of the line and I thought I was going to finally beat her, but then all of a sudden, she whipped out ahead of me and asked this guy about the shows in French. I was annoyed, but it wasn't a big deal because I got our two seats for the show at 1:30pm (in French).

At this point, I headed back to Main Street USA to rejoin my mom. I got this castle picture on the way:

So, rejoined her and as we exited Casey's Hot Dog place, we saw a little mini-parade going on:

I think it was with the Disney letters and little kids had to put the letters in the right order. We didn't stay to watch. Instead, we headed towards the Haunted Mansion.

***
Next Installment: Haunted Manor & Lots of Big Thunder - Page 1, Post #11

 

[kevankiki]

Wow, so lucky to go back so soon!

Have you considered purchasing Annual Passes

 

[lamagique]

Wow, so lucky to go back so soon!

Have you considered purchasing Annual Passes

I did toy around with the idea... but the first time I got in for free and this time... well, I think it's my last time for this year. But I definitely thought about it! I think if I lived in Paris, there wouldn't be a question. But since I live so far (about 2.5 hours) and it's so expensive just in transportation alone, I'm not going to get one.

 

[kevankiki]

I didn't realise you lived in France, sorry!

Would the Francilien passport not have worked out cheaper for you, or were the exclusion days in the wrong place?

 

[lamagique]

I didn't realise you lived in France, sorry!

Would the Francilien passport not have worked out cheaper for you, or were the exclusion days in the wrong place?

Yes, when I was looking into days I found that the days that I was considering going to DLP were the days that were blocked out...

I'm only living in France for the semester, anyway. As a student.

 

[Cyrano]

Great photos and report.
How lucky you to be visiting again so quickly

 

[tennisfan]

Great photos, thanks for sharing them

 

[marcus.ka]

Great pictures! DLRP looks so much more beautiful with a blue sky!

And by the way: They changed the Fastpass system on 1.April!

 

[CriminyCrafft]

Argh I love this! Need more, now! DLP looks so beautiful. I can't wait to read more!

 

[Ware Bears]

What lovely photos ~ how lucky to be going back so soon. I shall have to read your first trippie now.

 

[lamagique]

Before we headed to the Haunted Manor, I wanted to grab a few pictures of Main Street and the castle.

This banner says: Where Dreams Become Reality

Lumiere pretty much is running the 15 Year Celebration.

Here's a picture of Goofy standing on a hill. I wrote about how the characters are crazy at DLP in my last trip report. I am happy to say that the characters did not disappoint this time. Goofy basically was walking on hedges, jogging around (how appropriate--since he had a jogging suit on) and just going all over Main Street. It was cute.

Anyway, we walked through the castle and through Fantasyland to get to the Haunted Manor. I, of course, took some more pictures.

The Beautiful Castle

Dumbo!

This stand is selling crepes. Yup, must be Disneyland Paris!

The Mad-Hatter's Tea Party

This is a maze and I have never seen this attraction at DLR or WDW. I didn't get to go inside, but the hedges aren't that high because I saw a lot of people's heads peeking up at parts.

The Mark Twain: I was wondering if it was going to have a different name, but it didn't.

We finally reached the queue for the Haunted Manor. There was a bit of a wait, but we didn't mind too much since we were just waiting for our fastpass time for BTM to come. We stood in line for about 20 minutes.

This is part of the HM queue.

I love how Disney makes even the plants match the theme of the attraction.

View of BTM from HM queue

When we got into the first holding room, I was happy to see the Disney CM playing the role of the scary housekeeper, as opposed to the smiling guy from before. Also, we were put into a different elevator--this time it was to the left instead of the right--and I was not expecting that.

We went through the detailed hallway and were met with a staircase, something that is quite different from the other Haunted Mansion rides that I have been on.

We got on the ride and... it was similar to the other Haunted Mansions, but I felt like it lacked something. I think it wasn't as spooky or magic because there would be long portions of time when there was nothing to look at. Just black space. And a corner. I feel like at WDW or DLR, they at least put spiderwebs or something at those parts. My mom agreed with me--she thought it was a little disapointing. It also didn't help that the ride kept stopping.

After HM, it was time for Big Thunder Mountain! We were so excited. We jumped into the fastpass line and got in the queue. It was maybe a 5-10 minute wait--much better than 100 minutes! I asked the line lady if we could sit in the back and she let us. We got on it and... again, I was not let down!

To me, BTM at DLP is everything that a Disney ride should be! It has great themeing, it puts on a show, it gives you little thrills but it's not scary, AND it gave me more than I expected. Also, I love the duration of this ride. At DLR and WDW, I feel like it is really short. At DLP, I got off the ride feeling very satisfied. My mom loved it as well. It's her favorite ride at both of the other resorts, so she absolutely loved it at DLP.

"That was worth us coming here," she said, laughing as she got off the train. We speedily worked our way through the crowd and used Round 2 of our fastpass tickets.

The first time that we rode it, we saw this guy in maybe the middle of the train turning around and taking pictures. It was so funny! But I thought it was a good idea and so I took a few pictures during the ride as well.

Mom and I ended up riding it one last time after the time I took pictures. This BTM also takes a picture during the ride, but we didn't purchase it.

After BTM, we hussled over to the other side of the park, Discoveryland (Tomorrowland) to watch "The Legend of the Lion King."

Next Installment: The Legend of the Lion King & The Mini-Parade (Choo Choo)!

 

[Ware Bears]

Wonderful photos BTM is my family's favourite ride too

 

[Cyrano]

Thanks for sharing

 

[tennisfan]

Fantastic pics

BTM is even better ridden at night

 

[Ware Bears]

BTM is even better ridden at night

Definitely!!!

 

[marcus.ka]

I love your pics! Especially the ones from BTM. I have never seen the two donkeys from this perspective!

 

[lamagique]

Thanks for all of your comments. Argh... I just spent all this time writing the next installment and it got deleted. So, I will write it again... Boo.

***

After BTM, we booked it over to Discoveryland to see The Legend of the Lion King. The show was scheduled to start in a few minutes and we were treated to an opening act of four men playing drums:

They were pretty entertaining as they attempted to get the crowd fired up. They left after a few minutes and I got excited as the show was about to begin. I knew that this show would be different from the one in WDW just because the stage set-up was completely different. Also, we were attending the French performance. Well, the "French" performance ended up being a few lines of dialogue in French and English songs. The show, to me, was similar to "Beauty and the Beast" in the Disney-MGM Studios at WDW in the sense that it took the most popular scenes and songs from the movie and skipped parts (with reason), rather than the whole... festival atmosphere at Animal Kingdom. Nonetheless, it was entertaining.

The Cheetah was my favorite one out of all of them. The rest of the dancers were... good, but they didn't have the extra Disney oomph that this girl did. It made me smile and I really enjoyed watching her.

After leaving Discoveryland when the show was over, I snapped this picture:

My mom and I were on our way out of the park to get lunch when we heard a little song playing in the background. I turned toward the castle and saw a train! It was a mini-parade! It was very cute and the song was so catchy that my mom and I were singing along to it as we left the park.

Next Installment: Lunch at the Disney Village and Welcome to the Walt Disney Studios

 

[lainey]

thanks for sharing, like Marcus, I also love the photo with the Donkeys on BTM....great report....and the sky looks so blue.
Elaine

 

[tennisfan]

Great photos

 

[lamagique]

We left the Magic Kingdom park and headed into the Disney Village.

This was by my mom’s request. I, of course, wanted to go conquer the Studios before it closed in a few hours, but my mom was hungry. I reluctantly followed her, but got in a better mood once I realized that I was hungry, too.

We stopped by a map and ended up deciding on Planet Hollywood, because they had Chicken Caesar Salad, which my mom absolutely adores. We went inside and saw the most awkward Sylvestor Stallone wax figure before being seated:

Lunch was good. Our waitress was okay—she forgot to bring us water—but it was fun speaking to her in French. I ordered sliders, three little mini-burgers and they were delicious.

After lunch, we headed over to the Studios! This was what I was the most excited about for this trip back to DLP. I worked the summer of 2006 as a “Showkeeper” (Custodial Hostess) at Disney-MGM Studios in FL. I was so excited to see what THESE studios looked like! We entered and… well, it looked like an actual studio. I decided to take a picture by a trashcan, for old time’s sake.

Now, the way that this park is set up is different than any other Disney park I had been to. We walked in and were greeted with some fountains in front of a giant building. We looked at our maps, trying to figure out how to get to Rockin’ Rollercoaster. We finally figured out that we had to go through the giant studio-esque building in order to access any of the other attractions in the park.

This is blurry, but this is the building we went through:

It had shops and food places. We passed through quickly, eager to see what was on the other side… we ended up seeing this:

WALT AND MICKEY! I had to get a picture with it.

Next Installment: We conquer the Studios!